Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating The “What’S Up Down South” Economic Summit: A Platform For Business Leaders To Share Ideas, Paul A. Hill, Amanda D. Ali

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The What’s Up Down South economic summit is southern Utah’s largest business gathering. The event provides the business community with economic insights to assist them in making informed decisions. USU Extension evaluated the 27^th annual What's Up Down South economic summit. Results showed the event was an effective platform for disseminating information and advancing knowledge on economic and business topics. Participants felt the summit provided a valuable experience to the business community. These findings support the continuation of the summit's information dissemination activities in the future.

The 2022 Intertribal Opioid Wellness Summit: Promoting The Integration Of Harm Reduction And Holistic Whole-Person Wellness Efforts, Lily Ward, Valentine Sireech, Suzi Prevedel, Cris Meier

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Substance Use Disorder, including Opioid Use Disorder, is a persistent problem within tribal and rural communities across Utah. In response, the Tribal and Rural Opioid Initiative Resource Center delivered an annual summit that brought together community members and local service providers impacted by substance misuse to improve awareness and use of harm reduction resources and reduce social stigma. This article describes the results of the 2022 Intertribal Opioid Wellness Summit.

Disentangling Trait And State Psychological Inflexibility: A Longitudinal Multilevel Approach, Korena S. Klimczak, Sarah E. Schwartz, Marissa L. Donahue, Leila K. Capel, Janice L. Snow, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

An individual's trait-like thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are characteristic patterns that occur across time, whereas state-like iterations of these variables are isolated to specific moments in time. Although highly correlated, variables at the trait and state levels measure different phenomena and should be examined separately. In this longitudinal study, we examine the disaggregation of trait and state-level psychological inflexibility among college students. Specifically, we investigated which psychological inflexibility subprocess would significantly predict positive affect, negative affect, and meaningful activity, both at the trait and state-levels. In addition to pre- and post-assessments, participants (n = 168) completed ecological momentary assessment …

Comparative Genome-Wide Analysis Of Micrornas And Their Target Genes In Roots Of Contrasting Indica Rice Cultivars Under Reproductive-Stage Drought, Simardeep Kaur, Karishma Seem, Suresh Kumar, Rakesh Kaundal, Trilochan Mohapatra

Plants, Soils and Climate Student Research

Recurrent occurrence of drought stress in varying intensity has become a common phenomenon in the present era of global climate change, which not only causes severe yield losses but also challenges the cultivation of rice. This raises serious concerns for sustainable food production and global food security. The root of a plant is primarily responsible to perceive drought stress and acquire sufficient water for the survival/optimal growth of the plant under extreme climatic conditions. Earlier studies reported the involvement/important roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in plants’ responses to environmental/abiotic stresses. A number (738) of miRNAs is known to be expressed in …

Assessing The Needs Of Utah Dairy Farmers To Inform Extension Programming, Bruce F. Richards, Lendel Narine, Justin Clawson, Kalen Taylor, Jacob Hadfield, Jody Gale

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

A needs assessment was conducted by the Utah State University Dairy Extension Team to identify the most urgent issues faced by Utah dairy farmers. The assessment found that the top five priority needs were implementing new technology, improving public perception of water use, managing risk, succession planning, and reducing feed costs. The results will guide dairy Extension programming in Utah. Several workshops and events have already been planned to address these needs. Overall, the assessment will help USU Extension provide research-based educational programs to meet the needs of the dairy industry in Utah.

Engaging Utah Educators To Teach 21st-Century Skills Using Drones, Denise Stewardson, Cory Ortiz, Lendel K. Narine, Joseph Furse

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a unique opportunity to teach complex STEM skills and promote agricultural literacy in the classroom. However, many teachers lack knowledge of UAVs and agricultural contexts for teaching with UAVs. This program delivered professional training to 56 teachers to develop their skills in using UAVs in the classroom to promote agricultural literacy.

Equine Polyclonal Antibodies Prevent Acute Chikungunya Virus Infection In Mice, Douglas Barker, Xiaobing Han, Eryu Wang, Ashley Dagley, Deborah M. Anderson, Aruni Jha, Scott C. Weaver, Justin Julander, Cory Nykiforuk, Shantha Kodihalli

Office of Research Faculty and Staff Publications

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted pathogen that causes chikungunya disease (CHIK); the disease is characterized by fever, muscle ache, rash, and arthralgia. This arthralgia can be debilitating and long-lasting, seriously impacting quality of life for years. Currently, there is no specific therapy available for CHIKV infection. We have developed a despeciated equine polyclonal antibody (CHIKV-EIG) treatment against CHIKV and evaluated its protective efficacy in mouse models of CHIKV infection. In immunocompromised (IFNAR^−/−) mice infected with CHIKV, daily treatment for five consecutive days with CHIKV-EIG administered at 100 mg/kg starting on the day of infection prevented mortality, reduced …

Religion/Spirituality, Stress, And Resilience Among Sexual And Gender Minorities: The Religious/Spiritual Stress And Resilience Model, G. Tyler Lefevor, Chana Etengoff, Edward B. Davis, Samuel J. Skidmore, Eric M. Rodriguez, James S. Mcgraw, Sharon S. Rostosky

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although many sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) consider themselves religious or spiritual, the impact of this religiousness or spirituality (RS) on their health is poorly understood. We introduce the religious/spiritual stress and resilience model (RSSR) to provide a robust framework for understanding the variegated ways that RS influences the health of SGMs. The RSSR bridges existing theorizing on minority stress, structural stigma, and RS-health pathways to articulate the circumstances under which SGMs likely experience RS as health promoting or health damaging. The RSSR makes five key propositions: (a) Minority stress and resilience processes influence health; (b) RS influences general resilience …

Engineering Start-Up Packages: Mixed Methods Analysis Of Composition And Implications For Early-Career Professional Formation, Monica L. Castaneda-Kessel

Office of Research Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper is an evidence-based practice paper. In competitive research environments, many universities and engineering colleges utilize start-up or recruitment packages to attract potential candidates. These costs are distributed across multiple cost centers within the university ecosystem. Potential engineering faculty candidates may sign a probationary contract and are provided with role statements during onboarding processes. Within the role statement, research has been the primary area that is catalyzed with start-up funding. Typically, start-up funding has prescribed purposes by category. According to the 2019 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Engineering Research Council (ERC) Startup Package Survey, "77.6% of the start-up …

Comparing Visitor Perceptions, Characteristics, And Support For Management Actions Before And During A Pilot Timed Entry System At Arches National Park, Zachary D. Miller, Amy Tendick, Caleb Meyer, David Pettebone, Bret Meldrum, Steve Lawson

Environment and Society Student Research

Over the past decade, many national park units in the United States broke visitation records. Arches National Park (UT, USA) is no exception. Between 2011 and 2021, visitation increased 74%. As part of considering management options to address the issues from sustained and concentrated visitation, Arches implemented a pilot timed entry system from 3 April to 3 October 2022. This article compares visitor perceptions, characteristics, and support for management actions before and during the pilot timed entry system using data from visitor intercept surveys. Findings suggest visitors experience quality improved across the park and on hiking trails during the pilot …

Assessing Downstream Aquatic Habitat Availability Relative To Headwater Reservoir Management In The Henrys Fork Snake River, Christina N. Morrisett, Robert W. Van Kirk, Sarah E. Null

Watershed Sciences Student Research

Reservoirs are sometimes managed to meet agricultural and other water demands, while also maintaining streamflow for aquatic species and ecosystems. In the Henrys Fork Snake River, Idaho (USA), irrigation-season management of a headwater reservoir is informed by a flow target in a management reach ~95 km downstream. The target is in place to meet irrigation demand and maintain aquatic habitat within the 11.4 km management reach and has undergone four flow target assignments from 1978 to 2021. Recent changes to irrigation-season management to maximize reservoir carryover warranted investigation into the flow target assignment. Thus, we created a streamflow-habitat model using …

Community Perceptions Of Procedural And Distributive Justice In Engineered Systems: A Case Study Of Community-Engaged Vehicular Electrification, Polly Parkinson, Fawn Groves, Emma Mecham, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Ivonne Santiago, Jennifer Ramos-Chavez

Teacher Education and Leadership Student Research

This study was conducted in the context of a near-port community in which vehicular electrification efforts were occurring. Electric vehicles (EVs) and their associated infrastructures—including charging stations and wirelessly charging roads—may redress environmental injustices near inland ports because they significantly reduce vehicular emissions that harm human health. However, if the sociotechnical infrastructures associated with EVs are not intentionally planned to bring benefits to historically minoritized communities, they run the risk of reproducing interrelated transportation, economic, and environmental injustices. Thus, this study sought to answer the following overarching research question: What factors contribute to, or hinder, procedural and distributive justice relative …

How Co-Designing Computational Modeling Activities Helped Teachers Implement Responsive Teaching Strategies, Hillary Swanson, Luettamae Lawrence, Jared Arnell, Allisia Dawkins, Bonni Jones, Bruce Sherin, Uri Wilensky

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In recent years, science education has shifted focus, from content to practice. This is reflected in the NGSS, which advocate learning science concepts through engagement in science and engineering practices. Theory building is a central activity of science and computational modeling is a key practice through which contemporary scientists construct theory. In this paper, we discuss an 8th grade science teacher's implementation of a computational modeling lesson. The teacher had co-designed the computational modeling microworld and lesson with the research team over the preceding summers. We investigate the teacher's activity during a whole-class discussion near the end of the lesson, …

Understanding Computational Thinking In The Gameplay Of The African Songo Board Game, Rebecca Y. Bayeck

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Computational thinking is a necessary skill for the 21st century. While previously examined in computer-rich settings, researchers are increasingly studying computational thinking in unplugged environments such as board games. Focusing on the African board game Songo, this study shows that computational thinking practices are embedded in Songo board gameplay and interact with the cultural context. The study also reveals a computing practice peculiar to Songo gameplay, songoputation. This paper suggests that researchers can benefit from exploring computational thinking and computing practices beyond board games in western contexts.

Rhaphiolepis Indica Fruit Extracts For Control Fusarium Solani And Rhizoctonia Solani, The Causal Agents Of Bean Root Rot, Ahmed A. Heflish, Said I. Behiry, Abdulaziz A. Al-Askar, Yiming Su, Ahmed Abdelkhalek, Mohamed K. Gaber

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Numerous strategies have been suggested to reduce dependence on synthetic products, such as physical, microbial, and natural methods. Among the natural remedies, plant extracts have emerged as a popular option owing to their eco-friendly character, ease of degradation, and harmless nature to humans. In our study, we used the acetone and hexane extracts of Rhaphiolepis indica fruit to combat two fungal pathogens that were isolated from infected bean plants and showed root rot symptoms. The two pathogens were confirmed to be pathogenic by pathogenicity assays conducted in vivo. The morphological and molecular identification by ITS-region sequencing revealed that the two …

What Grand County Leaders And Residents Can Do To Strengthen The Impact Of Girls And Women In Their Area, Angie Kleven, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

This idea sheet is based on a 2023 gathering of 20 leaders in Grand County. Girls and women face challenges unique to the area in which they live, and the goal of this gathering was to identify those barriers and determine strategies and initiatives that local leaders and residents can implement to address them. This document includes recommendations in the following areas: education, home and family, health and wellbeing, business and economics, and culture and community engagement.

What Emery County Leaders And Residents Can Do To Strengthen The Impact Of Girls And Women In Their Area, Angie Kleven, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

This idea sheet is based on a 2023 gathering of 20 leaders in Emery County. Girls and women face challenges unique to the area in which they live, and the goal of this gathering was to identify those barriers and determine strategies and initiatives that local leaders and residents can implement to address them. This document includes recommendations in the following areas: education, home and family, health and wellbeing, business and economics, and culture and community engagement.

Antimicrobial Efficacy And Hplc Analysis Of Polyphenolic Compounds In A Whole-Plant Extract Of Eryngium Campestre, Abdulaziz A. Al-Askar, Shimaa Bashir, Abdallah E. Mohamed, Omaima A. Sharaf, Rokaia Nabil, Yiming Su, Ahmed Abdelkhalek, Said I. Behiry

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Due to the constant increase in the number of plant diseases and the lack of available treatments, there has been a growing interest in plant extracts over the past few decades. Numerous studies suggest that plant extract molecules possess valuable antimicrobial activities, particularly against fungi and bacteria. This suggests that these biomaterials could potentially serve as attractive therapeutic options for the treatment of phytopathogen infections. In the present study, we investigated and analyzed the methanolic extract of Eryngium campestre L. whole plant extract using HPLC. The analysis revealed the presence of several polyphenolic constituents, with benzoic acid, catechol, quercetin, vanillic …

What San Juan County Leaders And Residents Can Do To Strengthen The Impact Of Girls And Women In Their Area, Angie Kleven, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

This idea sheet is based on a 2023 gathering of 24 leaders in San Juan County. Girls and women face challenges unique to the area in which they live, and the goal of this gathering was to identify those barriers and determine strategies and initiatives that local leaders and residents can implement to address them. This document includes recommendations in the following areas: education, home and family, health and wellbeing, business and economics, and culture and community engagement.

What Weber County Leaders And Residents Can Do To Strengthen The Impact Of Girls And Women In Their Area, Angie Kleven, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

This idea sheet is based on a 2023 gathering of 36 leaders in Weber County. Girls and women face challenges unique to the area in which they live, and the goal of this gathering was to identify those barriers and determine strategies and initiatives that local leaders and residents can implement to address them. This document includes recommendations in the following areas: education, home and family, health and wellbeing, business and economics, and culture and community engagement.

Speeding Snowmelt To Control Snow Mold, Justin Wyatt Clawson, Michael Pace, Eric Galloway, Matt Yost, Earl Creech

All Current Publications

The high level of snowpack in the winter of 2022–2023 created a renewed interest in speed-melting snow to prevent snow mold on winter wheat crops, golf courses, and homeowners’ lawns. Snow molds are diseases caused by fungi growing under snow cover or in cool, wet weather. Winter wheat can be infected by three types of snow molds, while turf grasses can be infected by two kinds of snow molds. Plants will have a bleached color for pink snow mold or a thin layer of white or gray mycelium leaving the plants gray or white after they dry out for gray …

Balsam Woolly Adelgid, Liz Rideout, Kate V. Richardson, Diane G. Alston, Ryan Davis, Darren Mcavoy, Lori R. Spears, Danielle Malesky, Liz Herbertson, Colleen Keyes

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes balsam woolly adelgid, a tiny sucking insect that is a serious pest of true firs in forests, landscapes, and in seed and Christmas tree production. It includes a description of tree injury and symptoms, life history and identification, monitoring, management, and implications to forest health.

Quantification Of Barcode Artifact, Xiangqian Wu, Fangfang Yu, Hui Xu, Bikash Basnet

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

Shortly after launch, vertical stripes were found in the 3.9 μm channel images of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on GOES-18. This has been called “Barcode Artifact” (BA) because it is a non-natural phenomenon similar to the barcode found in supermarkets. While BA was initially discovered and monitored qualitatively and subjectively by human inspection, that is not suitable for examining large number of images to characterize BA’s potential dependence on channel, flight module, background signal intensity, time of the day, season of the year, etc., and in particular to evaluate BA’s response to various mitigation measures. We designed three automated …

Improving The Image Quality Of The Skysat Constellation, Norberto Hernandez Castilla, Colm Lynch, Hannah Bourne

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

The SkySats are Planet’s fleet of 21 high resolution Earth observation satellites. They have sub-meter resolution and are capable of imaging targets at a range of viewing angles. They have been launched into various orbits and have high intra-day revisit rate capabilities and can image regions in areas typically difficult to observe. Recently there have been a series of efforts to improve their image quality. This includes efforts to update their radiometric calibration, non-uniformity correction as well as dark field correction. This work covered everything from designing and testing out new maneuvers for the satellites, creating new processing pipelines to …

Leveraging Intra-Fleet Simultaneous Crossovers For Rapid Commissioning And Monitoring Of Planet Dove Satellites, Alan Collison, Hannah Bourne, Arin Jumpasut

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

Planet currently operates a fleet of over 200 satellites consisting of medium resolution monitoring Dove cubesats and high-resolution tasking Skysats, with future very high resolution and hyperspectral tasking missions in development. The Dove satellites continuously collect images over Earth’s land surface at nadir and have had several design evolutions. The latest design, and the one now comprising the entire fleet of Doves, is the SuperDove. The SuperDove has eight spectral bands, six of which are interoperable with Sentinel-2. This interoperability on a payload level has shaped the approach to radiometric calibration for the SuperDove satellites, allowing us to use nearsimultaneous …

Oco-3 Version 11: Better Data And More Data, Robert Rosenberg, Graziela Keller, Richard Lee, Yuliya Marchetti, Edwin Sarkissian, Gary Spiers, Vivienne Payne, Abhishek Chatterjee

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 payload was installed on the International Space Station (ISS) on May 10, 2019 and completed in-orbit checkout on August 6, 2019. To enable precise retrievals of the column-average carbon dioxide dry air mole fraction, high resolution spectra of reflected sunlight are collected in three infrared channels. Band 1 (“ABO2”) from 757.6 to 772.7 nm is used to measure molecular oxygen and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, and Bands 2 and 3 measure weak and strong carbon dioxide absorption features from 1591.2 to 1622.7 nm (“WCO2”) and 2042.0 to 2082.8 nm (“SCO2”). The three individual grating spectrometers share …

Creating A Model For Faculty Success: Faculty Advancement Initiative For Black, Indigenous, Latinx, And People Of Color At The University At Albany, Carmen A. Serrano, Elizabeth Vasquez, Deedee Bennett Gayle, Jared Enriquez, Jonathan Dirlam, Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan

Journal of Indigenous Research

The Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and People of Color (BILPOC) Faculty Advancement Initiative at UAlbany focuses on mentoring, retention, and promotion of BILPOC Faculty. Our faculty-led association is providing a safe and supportive space for faculty who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx and people of color. This association serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas that is also helping UAlbany BILPOC faculty with professional growth and career advancement. We also see our group as a retention mechanism. Since inception, BILPOC has made a significant contribution to the University and Faculty as evidenced through its growth, programming, community engagement, and research …

End-To-End Simulation Of Cross-Calibration Performance For On-Orbit Reference Calibration Of Earth-Viewing Sensors, Madeline Stedman, Sam Hunt, Pieter De Vis, Nigel Fox

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

Society is becoming increasingly dependent on remotely sensed observations of the Earth to assess its health, help manage resources, monitor food security, and inform on climate change. Comprehensive global monitoring is required to support this, necessitating the use of data from the many different available sources. For datasets to be interoperable in this way, measurement biases between them must be reconciled. This is particularly critical when considering the demanding requirements of climate observation – where long time series from multiple satellites are required.

Typically, this is achieved by on-orbit calibration against common reference sites and/or other satellites, however, there often …

Intercalibration To Facilitate The Generation Of Climate Data At High-Resolution, Sam Hunt, Jon Mittaz, Maddie Stedman, Mattea Goalen, Jacob Fahy, Pieter De Vis, Zhav Loizeau, Peter Harris, Nigel Fox

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

The UK’s Earth Observation Climate Information Service (EOCIS) is a new programme of activity intended to provide policy makers and businesses in the UK with the information they need to respond to climate change. EOCIS brings together UK expertise in Earth Observation to create and make available high quality, trustworthy climate information based on measurements of Earth’s environments from space – ranging from polar ice change to carbon cycling to drought. Typical climate products, aimed at global analyses at decadal time scales, are generated from wide-swath, low-resolution sensor observations to achieve the necessary coverage. To address the needs of a …

Clarreo Pathfinder As A Next-Generation On-Orbit Reference Standard For Reflective Solar Intercalibration, Rajendra Bhatt

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

NASA’s Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder (CPF) mission consists of a high-accuracy reflected solar (RS) spectrometer that will measure the Earth-reflected solar radiation from International Space Station with an SI-traceable radiometric uncertainty of 0.3% (1-sigma). The CPF measurements will serve as an on-orbit reference for intercalibrating other spaceflight RS instruments. The CPF intercalibration team has designed a state-of-the-art approach to calibrate the shortwave channel (300-5000 nm) of the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument and the reflective solar bands (RSB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument, both onboard the NOAA-20 satellite, …