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Nebraska Green Scene 2012

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Monthly Newsletters

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Letters from the Head and Associate Head

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Faculty News

Effects Of Crop Residue Removal On Soil Water Content And Yield Of Deficit-Irrigated Soybean, Simon Van Donk, Timothy M. Shaver, James L. Petersen, Don Davison

West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte

Reduced tillage, with more crop residue remaining on the soil surface, is believed to conserve water, especially in arid and semi-arid climates. However, the magnitude of water conservation is not clear. An experiment was conducted to study the effect of crop residue removal on soil water content, soil quality, and crop yield at North Platte, Nebraska. The same field plots were planted to soybean (Glycine max) in 2009 and 2010. There were two treatments: residue-covered soil and bare soil. Residue (mostly corn residue in 2009 and mostly soybean residue in 2010) was removed every spring from the same …

Using Single-Case Participatory Action Research As A Methodology To Explore Appalachian Summer Camp Communities, Barry A. Garst, Nancy K. Franz, Brian Peters, Chris Smith, Sarah Baughman

Publications

Community educators have long known the value of direct experience in the learning process. Participatory action research extends this philosophy to the realm of research. This article examines the value of involving front line camp staff, members of the camp community in Appalachia as practitioner researchers with university scientists in studying the type and conditions of transformative learning in young adult camp staff. A young adult who was a camp community member assisted the researchers with methodology, data analysis, data interpretation, and dissemination of findings. This resulted in a more accurate, richer, and thicker description of the camp community member’s …

Elevated Serum C-Reactive Protein And Markers Of Sleep Disordered Breathing, R Constance Wiener

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background. Previous studies indicated sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Systemic inflammation is recognized as a risk factor for CVD. Studies examining SDB and inflammation are limited. Methods. We studied sleep duration, snoring, snorting, and daytime sleepiness, and an additive SDB score. The main outcome was a C-reactive protein (CRP) of >1 mg/dL. Results. Snoring, snorting, daytime sleepiness, and sleeping >7 or <7 hours, and the additive score were significantly associated with high CRP. The additive score was not associated in men but moderately associated in women in a multivariable model adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, hypertension, alcohol intake, physical activity, body mass index, depression, diabetes, hypertension, and total cholesterol (P-interaction ). For race/ethnicity, the association was strongest in Mexican Americans/others, modest in Non-Hispanic whites, and absent in Non-Hispanic blacks (P-interaction ). Conclusions. The association between SDB and high CRP was present mainly in women and Mexican Americans, implying SDB has a residual, independent association with inflammation after controlling for lifestyle and metabolic risk factors like BMI, physical activity, depression, diabetes, and cholesterol.

Association Between Serum Uric Acid Levels And Sleep Variables: Results From The National Health And Nutrition Survey 2005–2008, R Constance Wiener

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Sleep disordered breathing as well as high serum uric acid levels are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, studies evaluating the relationship between sleep-disordered breathing and hyperuricemia are limited. We examined the 2005–2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination survey's sleep variables and high serum uric acid among 6491 participants aged ≥ 2 0 years. The sleep variables included sleep duration, snoring, snorting, and daytime sleepiness. The main outcome was high serum uric acid level, defined as levels of serum uric acid > 6 . 8 mg/dL in males and > 6 . 0 mg/dL in females. We found that snoring more …

New Portable Tool To Screen Vestibular And Visual Function—National Institutes Of Health Toolbox Initiative, Rose Marie Rine, Dale Roberts, Bree A. Corbin, Roberta Mckean-Cowdin, Rohit Varma, Jennifer Beaumont, Jerry Slotkin, Michael C. Schubert

Physical Therapy Faculty Research

As part of the National Institutes of Health Toolbox initiative, we developed a low-cost, easy-to-administer, and time-efficient test of vestibular and visual function. A computerized test of dynamic visual acuity (cDVA) was used to measure the difference in visual acuity between head still and moving in yaw. Participants included 318 individuals, aged 3 to 85 years (301 without and 17 with vestibular pathology). Adults used Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) optotypes; children used ETDRS, Lea, and HOTV optotypes. Bithermal calorics, rotational chair, and light box testing were used to validate the cDVA. Analysis revealed that the cDVA test …

2011-2012 - Undergraduate Curriculum Council Annual Report, Undergraduate Curriculum Council, East Tennessee State University

Undergraduate Curriculum Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

Sex Differences In Marital Satisfaction And Happiness: The Contribrution Of Children, Attractiveness, And Financial Status, Lisa Marie Dillon

Wayne State University Dissertations

Though numerous studies in the evolutionary psychology literature have investigated how humans select mates in order to successfully reproduce and raise progeny to reproductive maturity, few have examined if factors involved in mate selection matter in marital satisfaction and individual happiness. Being youthful and attractive are indices of reproductive viability and are traits preferred by men universally while women are most known to prefer a mate of high financial status (Buss, 1989), thus underscoring the importance of a male's ability to offer financial investment to potential mates. In addition, women are more likely to evaluate the parental ability of potential …

Gospel-Centered "Therapist" Or Gospel-Centered "Therapy": Is There A Difference And Does It Matter?, Robert Gleave

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

The foundation of any psychological theory or therapy assumes that we can discover rules that apply to all circumstances. Any attempt to create a Gospel-based therapy–by the very nature of the attempt–is an attempt to articulate a set of principles that apply to all people in all circumstances. The gospel must be dynamic and cannot be reduced to all-encompassing rules; rather it must be a present tense lived experience with the complexity of everyday oppositions in "real time." A gospel theory, therefore, would employ the very system that it intends to overthrow, and every attempt fails. I argue that the …

A Nhanes 2005-2006 Data Analysis Examining Early Childhood Factors, Food Security, Medical Insurance, And Childhood Obesity, Assanatu Iyatunde Savage

Presidential Alumni Research Dissemination Award

The purpose of this study, and primary research question, was to examine the relationships among early childhood factors, food security, and family medical insurance and childhood obesity. There are many factors associated with the overweight and obesity epidemic. Hence, creating solutions must be addressed on various platforms such as early childhood influences, food security/insecurity, and family availability of health insurance. Relevant and aggregate data on factors affecting childhood obesity could potentially lead to age appropriate interventions to prevent childhood obesity and its sequelae. The literature noted the social cognitive theory in addressing the relationship between parents, the environment, and childhood …

A Multiple Case Study Analysis Of The Positive Deviance Approach In Community Health, Piroska Bisits Bullen

Harold L. Hodgkinson Award for Outstanding Dissertation

The positive deviance (PD) approach involves finding individuals who have solved a problem and spreads their unique solutions to others. While there have been calls for PD to become a standard tool in community health, there has been little research on the approach. This study investigated how PD is used in practice and evidence of its effectiveness by analyzing case studies of 40 PD programs and 32 PD inquiries implemented in a range of high, middle, and low income countries by both national and international organizations. Case studies were developed using data from publicly available documents. Qualitative within-case and cross-case …

Effect Of Fires On Soil Organic Carbon Pool And Mineralization In A Northeastern China Wetland, Hongmei Zhao, Daniel Q. Tong, Qianxin Lin, Xianguo Lu, Guoping Wang

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Fire occurs frequently over wetland, but little is known of its impact on soil carbon variations and carbon mineralization, process that are potentially important in global carbon cycle. To investigate this issue, we have designed and implemented a two-year field campaign to quality the effects of fire seasonality and frequency on soil carbon abundance and carbon mineralization in a wetland of the Sanjiang Plain in Northeastern China. A total of 4 burning experiments were conducted over 12 wetland plots from autumn 2007 to spring 2009. Our results show that after burning soil organic carbon (OC) increased in the burned soils …

Urban Governance Of Disease, Rebecca Katz, Sangeeta Mookherji, Morgan Kaminski, Vibhuti Haté, Julie E. Fischer

Global Health Faculty Publications

Rapid population growth, urbanization, and the growing challenges faced by the urban poor require redefining the paradigm for public health interventions in the 21st century, creating new approaches that take urban determinants of health into consideration. The widening disparity between the urban poor and the urban rich further exacerbates health inequities. Existing tools for global governance of urban health risks fall short, particularly in the lack of formal mechanisms to strengthen collaboration and communication among national and municipal agencies and between their local and international non-governmental partners. There is also a clear disconnect between governance strategies crafted at the international …

Developing Justice-Oriented Teachers: Reciprocal Mentoring In Marginalized Communities, Joan Armon, Elizabeth Grassi

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Community contexts stimulate pre-service teachers’ cultural and environmental awareness of local injustices while building their knowledge and skills as future teachers of diverse students. In Study “Abroad” in the Neighborhood, pre-service teachers visit local families who teach our students the Spanish language and culture. A second initiative is Environmental Regeneration through Permaculture Food Gardens focused on pre-service teachers’ and children’s construction of school gardens linked to curriculum, food cultures, and health. Pre-service teachers who understand why and how to appropriate a justice-orientation to education may become teacher-activists who honor perspectives and assets of diverse people in classrooms, schoolyards, and communities.

Influence Of The Neotyphodium--Tall Fescue Symbiosis On Belowground Processes, D. H. Mcnear Jr., Rebecca L. Mcculley

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Much of the work to date on the relationships between cool season grasses and Neotyphodium fungal endophytes has focused on the physiological, biochemical, and genetic ramifications of the host-fungus relationship and the subsequent influence these effects have on ruminant nutrition, plant adaptation to environmental stresses, and aboveground ecological processes. Relatively little attention has been paid to effects on belowground parameters. In this paper, we review the research evaluating the impact of one endophyte-grass association, the Neotyphodium – tall fescue symbiosis, on underground ecological and biogeochemical processes. We also present some preliminary data showing that the quantity and nature of tall …

The Economic Impact Of The New Insensitive Sorghum Cultivars In The Dairy Market Of Nicaragua, Gabriel Garcia Gomez

INTSORMIL Scientific Publications

This thesis estimates the benefits and returns to consumers, processors, producers and society of the new insensitive sorghum cultivars used for the dairy production in Nicaraguan. Many dairy producers also sell their grain so sorghum production is a multi-product activity.

The breeding project of INTA developed cultivars for simultaneous use in dairy and grain production. Its first release was Pinolero-1 developed during the Nicaraguan civil war. This cultivar was rapidly adopted by farmers after the end of the war in 1990. Subsequently, five more new cultivars have been released. We consider their combined effects.

Through field surveys, we calculated the …

Deposits Grow, Disempowerment Lingers Economic Status And Social Empowerment In A Women's Self- Help Group Microfinance Program In Rajasthan, India, Claire Comiskey

Theses & ETDs

Using a case study from rural Rajasthan, India, this research examines the impact of women's involvement in microfinance self-help groups on their economic status and social empowerment. Microfinance � a financial service, small in size, provided by financial institutions to the poor � has garnered immense popularity as a strategy to empower and lift out of poverty low-income women in developing countries. However, there is disagreement as to whether microfinance programs achieve these dual aims. Although microfinance garners international acclamation, there has been neither widespread proof of its effectiveness nor many studies of its implementation on the ground. Thus, the …

Using Oligonucleotide Probes For In Situ Hybridization In Developing Cml322 Maize Endosperm, Alyssa Sonchaiwanich

Theses & ETDs

This thesis research was a part of a larger research effort funded by the National Science Foundation to study the regulation of early endosperm development in Zea mays L. As part of the larger study, a group of inbred lines generated around the world are being studied to look for variations in development as compared to the standard reference line, B73. A second major goal of the grant is to identify key regulator genes and their patterns of localization. Preliminary visualization of sections of the line CML322 seemed to indicate precocious kernel (including of the endosperm) development. Digital imaging and …

Constantly Varied/Highly Functional An Exploration Of Ethnographic Filmmaking In The Digital Age, Nicholas Manting Brewer

Theses & ETDs

Digital video has the potential to democratize the field of visual anthropology. The digital medium allows filmmakers to create and transmit their work at an substantial rate. I explore and defend visual anthropology as a subfield, looking to previous literature to examine some concerns that have plagued the field. I reflect on fieldwork at CrossFit Sarasota, a local gym in Sarasota, FL, between September and December 2011 that resulted in my short ethnographic film, Constantly Varied/Functional. I separate my method into the three sections of video production: pre-production, production and postproduction. In addition, I describe details that my film was …

Silver And Gold Victorian Masculinities Of The Nineteenth-Century American West, Elizabeth T. Bennett

Theses & ETDs

In addition to precipitating the rapid expansion and early settlement of a large new territory, the California gold rush facilitated an introduction of complex mandates for proper gendered behavior to the American West. Theories of masculinity within the social sciences have only been developed in recent decades. In specific regards to anthropology, a reexamination of the male role slowly began in the 1980s, as a result of feminist scholarship a decade earlier. Within historical archaeology, the affect of "separate spheres" and cults of domesticity upon nineteenth-century women have been well-documented � meanwhile, the comparative freedom of men's public identity has …

United States Public Policy Regarding Genetically Modified Foods, Jennifer A. Zimmerman

Theses & ETDs

Genetically modified foods are produced, sold and consumed in the United States, and are undifferentiated from conventional foods. Policy discrepancies in the US, EU and Japan may stem from public opinion, agricultural system design, and other social and economic factors. The purpose was to investigate the current system for labeling foods derived from genetically modified organisms, and to determine if this was desirable by those affected. Through examination of scientific studies on the safety and potential effects of genetically modified foods, evaluation of public opinion poll and survey results, and comparison of the laws and regulatory bodies governing food labeling …

Vegetarian Shrimp The Effects Of Attractants In Alternative Plant-Based Diets On Growth Rates Of Juvenile Pacific White Shrimp (Litopenaeus Vannamei) (Boone, 1931), Megan White-Domain

Theses & ETDs

Shrimp aquaculture is a growing industry with many related environmental impacts. One such impact is the harvest of wild fish stocks for the production of aquaculture feed ingredients (fish meal and fish oil) to feed shrimp raised in aquaculture systems. Alternative feeds are being developed using alternative plant-based protein and lipid sources. However, despite progress in reducing marine-based resources for the main protein source in alternative feeds, the requirement of attractants in the diets of Pacific white shrimp maintains dependence on wild fish stocks. The current research examines the role of attractants in plant-based diets by conducting growth trials with …

Rewilding Towards A Neo-Shamanic Phenomenological Consciousness, Bradley Bryant

Theses & ETDs

Thesis analyzes the connections between domestication and its consequences in regards to the health of the human species. Rewilding, as I observe, is a neo-shamanic holistic health practice which has been adopted, consciously as well as unconsciously, by anarcho-primitivist intentional communities; more consciously as a strategy geared towards developing individual and communal autonomy via the dissolution of power relations, therefore as a philosophy of political resistance; more unconsciously as the experiential/phenomenal recovery of ancient shamanic preventative/curative healing methods, which are 'holistic' in the sense that treatment is aimed at the "whole" human � mind, body, and spirit, rather than a …

Diel Activity Of The Poison Frog Oophaga Pumilio In Response To Weather Conditions In Bocas Del Toro, Panama, Raluca Cruceanu

Theses & ETDs

Oophaga pumilio is the most polymorphic poison frog. The greenish-black spotted frog with yellow undersides can only be found on Isla Col�n and is entirely specific to the area. A novelty among anurans, female Oophaga pumilio feed the larvae with unfertilized eggs. This species exhibits sophisticated parental care by both males and females. This study is the first in this line of research that has shown a statistically significant difference between hourly time intervals for diel calling activity in the dry season, and a positive correlation between calling activity and light intensity. There was no significant difference between total activity …

Impacts Of Foraging Behavior Of Initial And Terminal Phase Sparisoma Viride On A Caribbean Coral Reef, Samantha Ortiz

Theses & ETDs

The stoplight parrotfish, Sparisoma viride, is considered a major reef herbivore because the regular consumption of algae by S. viride helps prevent coral-algal phase shifts on reefs. However, recently, S. viride was accused of consuming and destroying live corals, most notably the boulder star coral, Montastraea annularis, and in some cases the finger coral, Porites porites. S. viride live coral consumption behaviors are displayed through acts of "spot" and "focused" biting, both of which are considered territorial and agonistic in nature. Live coral consumption by S. viride sometimes results in reef destruction through partial or full mortality of the corals. …

State Attachment, Anxiety Sensitivity, And Drinking Motives The Effect Of Priming State Attachment On Anxiety Sensitivity And Drinking Motives, Corey Kennedy Costello

Theses & ETDs

Comorbid anxiety and alcohol use disorders are a serious problem with a number of serious negative consequences, but are not totally well understood. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a documented risk factor for Alcohol Use Disorders (Schmidt, Buckner, & Keough, 2007) and an incremental predictor of later anxiety symptoms (Schmidt, Mitchell, & Richey, 2008). Previous findings suggest that coping drinking motives are associated with anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorders (Buckner & Heimberg, 2010). There is little understood of how these risk factors (AS and drinking motives) develop. Both of these risk factors have been shown empirically to relate to attachment …

A Regional Comparison Of The Causes And Consequences Of Differential Educational Outcomes In Rural China, Naushin Jiwani

Theses & ETDs

The purpose of this study is to analyze the possible causes and consequences of differential educational outcomes in rural China. I offer a brief comparative analysis of schooling in the rural eastern region with that of the rural inland regions to show how differences in educational outcomes are reflected in approach and quality among schools situated in rural and underdeveloped localities. Specifically, I seek to explore to what extent geography, socioeconomic status, health indicators, and rural youth's perceived benefit and value of schooling help explain educational attainment rates in rural primary and secondary schools. I address this question by examining …

"Food Is The Best Medicine" Enhancing Post-Surgery Recovery With Diet, Ariel Hart

Theses & ETDs

The trauma of surgery puts patients into a catabolic phase of stress. In order for a body to heal and rebuild, it needs access to the proper substrates, many of which can be provided in a patient's diet, including proteins, vitamins, essential fatty acids, and calories to fuel the necessary bustle of internal activity. In recent years, certain "pharmaconutrients" have been found to improve clinical outcomes as dramatically as treatment with antibiotics or other traditional "drugs". Incorporation of this information into the hospital setting is lagging, however, even when it comes to providing sufficient calorie and protein intakes. Studies have …

Who Speaks For The Wolves? An Exploration Of The Human-Wolf Conflict In The Continental United States, Kaitlyn Bock

Theses & ETDs

Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) conservation in North America is at a crossroads. Pushed to near extinction in the early 1900's, the species was recently reintroduced into the Yellowstone ecosystem after a 70 year absence. However, ranching interests and years of accumulated cultural hatred keep wolf recovery from progressing. This thesis explores the ecological and cultural impetus for gray wolf preservation. The history, conservation, and cultural legacy of Canis lupus are analyzed to investigate the ways human preferences influence wildlife management and to further understand the balance between meeting human needs and conserving biodiversity.

The State's Voice In The National Health Care Debate, Christine Wilson

Theses & ETDs

This thesis sets out to analyze the states' role in implementing health care reform in the United States. Many may believe that the Affordable Care Act is a federal takeover of health care, but the states will actually be implementing most of the provisions and managing reforms. Through the expansion of Medicaid, the creation of a State Exchange, and the reform of the insurance industry, states will play a vital role in the reform process. Various states have resisted the Affordable Care Act by claiming that it is unconstitutional or that it places a monumental financial burden on the states. …