Digital Commons Network^™

The Trouble With Cover Crops: Farmers’ Experiences With Overcoming Barriers To Adoption, Gabrielle E. Roesch-Mcnally, Andrea D. Basche, J. G. Arbuckle, John C. Tyndall, Fernando E. Miguez, Troy Bowman, Rebecca Clay

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cover crops are known to promote many aspects of soil and water quality, yet estimates find that in 2012 only 2.3% of the total agricultural lands in the Midwestern USA were using cover crops. Focus groups were conducted across the Corn Belt state of Iowa to better understand how farmers confront barriers to cover crop adoption in highly intensive agricultural production systems. Although much prior research has focused on analyzing factors that help predict cover crop use on farms, there is limited research on how farmers navigate and overcome field-level (e.g. proper planting of a cover crop) and structural barriers …

Genetic Diversity Of Danthonia Spicata (L.) Beauv. Based On Genomic Simple Sequence Repeat Markers, Chandra S. Thammina, Keenan Amundsen, Shaun B. Bushman, Matthew H. Kramer, Scott E. Warnke

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Danthonia spicata (L.) Beauv., commonly known as poverty oatgrass, is a perennial bunch-type grass native to North America. D. spicata is often found in low input turfgrass areas on the East Coast of the United States and has potential for development as a new native low input turfgrass species. Roche 454 sequenced randomly sheared genomic DNA reads of D. spicata were mined for SSR markers using the MIcroSAtellite identification tool. A total of 66,553 singlet sequences (approximately 37.5 Mbp) were examined, and 3454 SSR markers were identified. Trinucleotide motifs with greater than six repeats and possessing unique PCR priming sites …

Molecular And Phenotypic Characterization Of Transgenic Wheat And Sorghum Events Expressing The Barley Alanine Aminotransferase, Pamela A. Peña, Truyen Quach, Shirley Sato, Zhengxiang Ge, Natalya Nersesian, Ismail M. Dweikat, Madhavan Soundararajan, Tom Clemente

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Main conclusion — The expression of a barley alanine aminotransferase gene impacts agronomic outcomes in a C3 crop, wheat.

The use of nitrogen-based fertilizers has become one of the major agronomic inputs in crop production systems. Strategies to enhance nitrogen assimilation and flux in planta are being pursued through the introduction of novel genetic alleles. Here an Agrobacterium-mediated approach was employed to introduce the alanine aminotransferase from barley (Hordeum vulgare), HvAlaAT, into wheat (Triticum aestivum) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), regulated by either constitutive or root preferred promoter elements. Plants harboring the transgenic …

Metabolism Of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid Contributes To Resistance In A Common Waterhemp (Amaranthus Tuberculatus) Population, Marcelo R. A. Figueiredo, Lacy J. Leibhart, Zachary J. Reicher, Patrick J. Tranel, Scott J. Nissen, Philip Westra, Mark L. Bernards, Greg R. Kruger, Todd A. Gaines, Mithila Jugulam

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Synthetic auxins such as 2,4-D have been widely used for selective control of broadleaf weeds since the mid-1940s. In 2009, an Amaranthus tuberculatus (common waterhemp) population with 10-fold resistance to 2,4-D was found in Nebraska, USA. The 2,4-D resistance mechanism was examined by conducting [¹⁴C] 2,4-D absorption, translocation and metabolism experiments.

RESULTS: No differences were found in 2,4-D absorption or translocation between the resistant and susceptible A. tuberculatus. Resistant plants metabolized [¹⁴C] 2,4-D more rapidly than did susceptible plants. The half-life of [¹⁴C] 2,4-D in susceptible plants was 105 h, compared to …

Multisite Evaluation Of Apex For Water Quality: Ii. Regional Parameterization, Nathan O. Nelson, Claire Baffaut, John A. Lory, G.M.M.M. Anomaa Senaviratne, Ammar B. Bhandari, Ranjith P. Udawatta, Daniel W. Sweeney, Matt J. Helmers, Mike W. Van Liew, Antonio P. Mallarino, Charles S. Wortmann

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Phosphorus (P) Index assessment requires independent estimates of long-term average annual P loss from fields, representing multiple climatic scenarios, management practices, and landscape positions. Because currently available measured data are insufficient to evaluate P Index performance, calibrated and validated process-based models have been proposed as tools to generate the required data. The objectives of this research were to develop a regional parameterization for the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model to estimate edgeof- field runoff, sediment, and P losses in restricted-layer soils of Missouri and Kansas and to assess the performance of this parameterization using monitoring data from multiple sites …

Food Ingredients That Inhibit Cholesterol Absorption, Elliot D Jesch, Timothy P. Carr

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Cholesterol is a vital component of the human body. It stabilizes cell membranes and is the precursor of bile acids, vitamin D and steroid hormones. However, cholesterol accumulation in the bloodstream (hypercholesterolemia) can cause atherosclerotic plaques within artery walls, leading to heart attacks and strokes. The efficiency of cholesterol absorption in the small intestine is of great interest because human and animal studies have linked cholesterol absorption with plasma concentration of total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol. Cholesterol absorption is highly regulated and influenced by particular compounds in the food supply. Therefore, it is desirable to learn more about natural …

Environmental Justice And Extractive Industries: The Lummi Nation And Amazonian Indigenous, Gabriel D. Moe-Lobeda

MA IDS Thesis Projects

The negative impacts created by the operations of extractive industries are disproportionately felt by indigenous peoples around the world. Frequently, environmental justice organizations led by non-indigenous individuals or groups make efforts to support the work of these indigenous communities who are fighting to protect their peoples, cultures, and environments from mining, drilling, or other extractive operations. However, oftentimes environmental justice actors, no matter how well-intentioned, do not act in ways that are beneficial to indigenous efforts or respectful of indigenous peoples. This research study looks to examine how indigenous peoples who are fighting against extractive industries on their lands view …

Extinction Breeds Innovation: A History Of The Oregon Zoo, Anna Doty

CUP Undergraduate Research

This thesis is a study of the history of the Oregon Zoo, hereafter, Zoo, from the early 1800s to today. It places a particular emphasis on questions related to animal welfare and historical trends in human/animal relationships. Two research questions emerged in the study. First, how did this zoo go from a collection of living oddities to a standard to which other facilities are compared? And secondly, while the Zoo is exemplary, what challenges still linger regarding animal welfare? This thesis attempts to address these questions. It does so by exploring the general history of human/animal relationships. Then it delves …

Invertebrate Neurophysiology: Testing The Efficacy Of Natural Insecticides, Anastasiya S. Ananenka, Wayne Tschetter

CUP Undergraduate Research

Insecticides are widely used in agriculture. While there are several classes of synthetic insecticides that are highly effective against insects, there is data suggesting that these compounds are also toxic to non-target species. However, compounds like caffeine have been shown to act as natural insecticides. Here we investigate the effects of a wellknown class of insecticides, pyrethroids, as well as natural compounds such as caffeine. Since insecticides work at the level of the nervous system we propose to measure neural activity in crickets (Acheta Domestica) after exposure to synthetic and naturally occurring insecticides. Here we show our approach and preliminary …

The Well Being Of Physician Assistant Students: A Preliminary Look At Quality Of Life, Qwynton Johnson, Sarah Drummond Hays

CUP Undergraduate Research

Medical students are adversely affected by the rigorous curriculum and high demands of medical school causing them to experience symptoms like burnout.1 Burnout is defined as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of low personal accomplishment that leads to decreased effectiveness at work.2

What about Physician Assistants (PAs)? There has been minimal research on students going through PA programs. PAs are required to learn a vast amount of knowledge in a compressed 2 year program. Hernandez and his team (2010) examined the different levels of stress, depression and medical symptoms between nursing students, medical students and physician …

Distinct Transcriptome Profiles Of Gag-Specific Cd8+ T Cells Temporally Correlated With The Protection Elicited By Sivδnef Live Attenuated Vaccine, Wuxun Lu, Yanmin Wu, Fangrui Ma, R. Paul Johnson, Qingsheng Li

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The live attenuated vaccine (LAV) SIVmac239Δnef (SIVΔnef) confers the best protection among all the vaccine modalities tested in rhesus macaque model of HIV-1 infection. This vaccine has a unique feature of time-dependent protection: macaques are not protected at 3±5 weeks post vaccination (WPV), whereas immune protection emerges between 15 and 20 WPV. Although the exact mechanisms of the time-dependent protection remain incompletely understood, studies suggested that both cellular and humoral immunities contribute to this time-dependent protection. To further elucidate the mechanisms of protection induced by SIVΔnef, we longitudinally compared the global gene expression profiles of SIV Gag-CM9+ CD8+ (Gag-specific CD8+) …

Chloroviruses Have A Sweet Tooth, James L. Van Etten, Irina V. Agarkova, David D. Dunigan, Michela Tonetti, Cristina De Castro, Garry A. Duncan

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Chloroviruses are large double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses that infect certain isolates of chlorella-like green algae. They contain up to approximately 400 protein-encoding genes and 16 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. This review summarizes the unexpected finding that many of the chlorovirus genes encode proteins involved in manipulating carbohydrates. These include enzymes involved in making extracellular polysaccharides, such as hyaluronan and chitin, enzymes that make nucleotide sugars, such as GDP-L-fucose and GDP-D-rhamnose and enzymes involved in the synthesis of glycans attached to the virus major capsid proteins. This latter process differs from that of all other glycoprotein containing viruses that traditionally use …

Tryptophan 375 Stabilizes The Outer-Domain Core Of Gp120 For Hiv Vaccine Immunogen Design, Duoyi Hu, Dane Bowder, Wenzhong Wei, Jesse Thompson, Mark A. Wilson, Shi-Hua Xiang

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The outer-domain core of gp120 may serve as a better HIV vaccine immunogen than the full-length gp120 because of its greater stability and immunogenicity. In our previous report, we introduced two disulfide bonds to the outer-domain core of gp120 to fix its conformation into a CD4-bound state, which resulted in a significant increase in its immunogenicity when compared to the wild-type outer-domain core. In this report, to further improve the immunogenicity of the outer-domain core based immunogen, we have introduced a Tryptophan residue at gp120 amino acid sequence position 375 (375S/W). Our data from immunized guinea pigs indeed shows a …

Faculty Tenure Report, Fall 2017, University Of Northern Iowa. Office Of Institutional Research And Effectiveness.

Institutional Effectiveness & Planning Documents

Statistical report showing the number of faculty that are tenured, on the tenure track, or not on the tenure track, broken down by college, department, gender, minority status, and if full or part time.

Cpaf In Focus Vol. 4 College Of Public Affair And Development At The Helm Of Public Service, Myra E. David, Ruth A. Ortega-Dela Cruz, Francisca O. Tan, Chrislyn Joanna P. Faulmino, Francis John F. Faderogao, Samantha Geraldine G. De Los Santos, Hadji C. Jalotjot, Stoix Nebin S. Pascua, Vella A. Atienza, Eileen Lorena M. Mamino, Elvie P. Serrano, Stella Concepcion R. Britanico, Therese R. Olviga

IN FOCUS: Development & Governance

In this issue:

• Educational Public Service: A Thrust of CPAf, 2
• CPAf CPAf Academic Programs, 4
• Enhancing ARBOs’ Capacity in Organizational and Entrepreneurial Management, 7
• Bicol Agri-water Project: Building Resilient Farming Communities through Science, Technology, and Governance, 9
• Bridging Research and Policy: How Researchers and Boundary Partners Work Together, 13
• Saving the Philippines’ Most Popular Fish, 15
• CPAf Churns Out a Record Number of Publications, 17
• Congressman Gabriel H. Bordado, Jr.: A Portrait of a CPAf Alumnus as Politician, 19
• Mayor Rommel A. Gecolea: The Face of Transformational Leadership, 22
• Dr. Ruel V. Maningas: CPAf Distinguished Alumnus for Education and …

Gender Differences And The Effect Of Financial Parenting On Financial Self-Efficacy, R. Lea Hollowell

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much research has been completed regarding the need for financial literacy over the past two decades. Teaching financial knowledge alone is not enough to improve financial outcomes due to the psychological factors that may result in bad financial decisions despite individuals being aware of financial best practices. Financial self-efficacy, the belief that one is capable of making good financial decisions without being overwhelmed, has been proposed as the conduit between financial knowledge and financial outcomes. Past research has found that males tend to outscore females in financial literacy assessments as well as a variety of types of self-efficacy; however, very …

The Perspective Of Education From Black-White-Biracial Students In Middle And High School, Eric Deville Jackson Ii

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study examined middle and high school Black–White–Biracial (BWB) students perspectives of Education. In order to accomplish this qualitative research study, the research I sought to (a) gain an understanding of how biracial students viewed themselves in secondary public school systems, (b) understand how BWB students identified within the school environment, and (c) learn how their identities affected their learning. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain in-depth understanding of the overall Educational viewpoints of BWB students in select rural, urban, and suburban public schools in Indiana. The design of this research included data collection from one-on-one …

Trends In Naep Scores Among 17-Year-Old Students In The Era Of Accountability, Katherine Kyler

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Education has undergone a sweeping renovation throughout the last several decades as part of the school accountability movement aimed to increase student success. High school graduation rates are the highest they have been in decades. School accountability measures continue to be implemented and modified with a goal of increasing student success and closing the achievement gap (Maleyko & Gawlik, 2011). Accountability measures are in place that require data analysis and reporting of information such as graduation rates and standardized test scores (No Child Left Behind Act [NCLB], 2008). While it is important to hold schools accountable, many of the currently …

“The Heart Of The Community”: History, Conversation, And Identity At Jetson’S Barbershop And Hair Salon, Flannery French

Theses & ETDs

This is an ethnographic study of Jetson’s, a Black barbershop and hair salon. Jetson’s is located on the corner of Osprey Ave. and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way in the historically Black Newtown community in Sarasota, Fl. Jetson’s has been open at the same location for 28 years, and has always been owned by Mr. Jetson Grimes. An understanding of history plays a large role in having the background information to fully appreciate and interpret this ethnographic work. This thesis begins with an overview of the history barbershops and hair salons, and then moves into an overview of the …

Unequal Before The Law: An Analysis Of The Efficacy Of International Humanitarian Law And The Implications Of Recognizing Belligerents, Natalie Murphy

Theses & ETDs

Scholars have spent the past few decades extensively assimilating the law of noninternational armed conflict to that of other pertinent bodies of law, particularly the law of international armed conflict and customary international law. Despite its impressive development in the past two decades, there are definite limits to how far the law of noninternational armed conflict can be assimilated through an approach of analogy to the law of international armed conflict. In an international armed conflict, the states engaged in combat are afforded the same rights and guarantees, as well as given the same legal obligations, under the laws of …

Heroes In The Making: A Multispecies Ethnography On Service Work, Training Processes, And The Human-Canine Bond, Kira Rib

Theses & ETDs

In this thesis I explore the human-canine bond through the specific social relationship of service work. Employing ethnographic methods and theories from prominent multispecies scholars, and consulting comparative psychology, ethology, and animal welfare, I develop a multispecies ethnography. I conceptualize the bonds between humans and service dogs as multidimensional relationships built on a coevolutionary history of cooperation. Informed by ethnographic research performed at Southeastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto, Florida, in this thesis I discuss the development of service dog teams through breeding, rearing, and training practices that build successful working relationships between humans and canines.

Storytelling For Conservation: A Case Study Of The Florida Wildlife Corridor, Gabriella Marie Frankhouser

Theses & ETDs

Increasing public support for conservation is critical to preserving what undeveloped, unpolluted, near pristine land we have left on this planet. These spaces protect biodiversity and ensure our Earth’s supply of natural resources by maintaining healthy waterways and soil nutrients. Research behind various environmental public outreach projects is increasingly valuable as we progress further into a world of globalization and cloud communication. This thesis explores the work of a nonprofit organization called The Florida Wildlife Corridor who uses film and photography to inspire support for the permanent protection of lands within the statewide corridor (which is itself also known as …

Public Restrooms And The Distorting Of Transgender Identity, Terry S. Kogan

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The sex-separated public restroom, a ubiquitous feature of our built environment, has been at the vortex of litigation filed by state officials across the country challenging the Obama administration’s attempt to assure that transgender people have access to safe restrooms. Tracing the ongoing federal litigation in North Carolina surrounding the passage of House Bill 2, this Article argues that this seemingly mundane architectural space has in fact driven the litigation strategies of all parties to these cases. In insisting that access to public restrooms be based on biological sex, state officials rely on an outmoded nineteenth century cultural vision of …

Frontiers In Precision Medicine Ii: Cancer, Big Data And The Public, Emily Coonrod, Jorge L. Contreras, Willard Dere, Jeffrey Botkin, Leslie Francis, Jim Tabery

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Precision medicine is being developed within a complex landscape of public policy, science, economics, law, and regulation. In these and other policy areas, the goal of developing individually-tailored therapies poses novel challenges for health care research, delivery and policy. In this symposium, a range of experts in genetics, medicine, bioinformatics, intellectual property, health economics and bioethics identified and discussed many of the pressing questions raised by the development and practice of precision medicine. These and other issues will need to be taken into account as precision medicine moves ahead and becomes the standard of medical practice and care in the …

Is Surrogacy Ethically Problematic?, Leslie P. Francis

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This chapter takes up less well-trodden questions about whether a surrogacy arrangement in which one person carries a pregnancy for another is ethically problematic in itself—and if so, why. Pregnancy and delivery are quintessential bodily labor. One set of arguments tests whether carrying a pregnancy is the type of bodily labor one person ethically may perform for another, whether or not for pay. These arguments contend that surrogacy cannot be a permissible service, no matter how well intended or structured. Another set of questions probes the value and identity of the child, asking whether surrogacy is inevitably akin to baby …

Effect Of Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid Cross-Linking On Fibrillar Collagen: In Vitro Evaluation Of Fibroblast Adhesion Strength And Migration, Ana Y. Rioja, Maritza Muniz-Maisonet, Thomas J. Koob, Nathan D. Gallant

Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Fixation is required to reinforce reconstituted collagen for orthopedic bioprostheses such as tendon or ligament replacements. Previous studies have demonstrated that collagen fibers cross-linked by the biocompatible dicatechol nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) have mechanical strength comparable to native tendons. This work focuses on investigating fibroblast behavior on fibrillar and NDGA cross-linked type I collagen to determine if NDGA modulates cell adhesion, morphology, and migration. A spinning disk device that applies a range of hydrodynamic forces under uniform chemical conditions was employed to sensitively quantify cell adhesion strength, and a radial barrier removal assay was used to measure cell migration on films …

Towards The Complete Proteinaceous Regulome Of Acinetobacter Baumannii, Leila G. Casella, Andy Weiss, Ernesto Pérez-Rueda, J Antonio Ibarra, Lindsey N. Shaw

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

The emergence of Acinetobacter baumannii strains, with broad multidrug-resistance phenotypes and novel virulence factors unique to hypervirulent strains, presents a major threat to human health worldwide. Although a number of studies have described virulence-affecting entities for this organism, very few have identified regulatory elements controlling their expression. Previously, our group has documented the global identification and curation of regulatory RNAs in A. baumannii. As such, in the present study, we detail an extension of this work, the performance of an extensive bioinformatic analysis to identify regulatory proteins in the recently annotated genome of the highly virulent AB5075 strain. In so …

Suitability Of Laurentian Great Lakes For Invasive Species Based On Global Species Distribution Models And Local Habitat, Andrew M. Kramer, Gust Annis, Marion E. Wittmann, William L. Chadderton, Edward S. Rutherford, David M. Lodge, Lacey Mason, Dmitry Beletsky, Catherine Riseng, John M. Drake

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Efficient management and prevention of species invasions requires accurate prediction of where species of concern can arrive and persist. Species distribution models provide one way to identify potentially suitable habitat by developing the relationship between climate variables and species occurrence data. However, these models when applied to freshwater invasions are complicated by two factors. The first is that the range expansions that typically occur as part of the invasion process violate standard species distribution model assumptions of data stationarity. Second, predicting potential range of freshwater aquatic species is complicated by the reliance on terrestrial climate measurements to develop occurrence relationships …

Accuracy Of Climate-Based Forecasts Of Pathogen Spread, Annakate M. Schatz, Andrew M. Kramer, John M. Drake

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Species distribution models (SDMs) are a tool for predicting the eventual geographical range of an emerging pathogen. Most SDMs, however, rely on an assumption of equilibrium with the environment, which an emerging pathogen, by definition, has not reached. To determine if some SDM approaches work better than others for modelling the spread of emerging, non-equilibrium pathogens, we studied time-sensitive predictive performance of SDMs for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a devastating infectious fungus of amphibians, using multiple methods trained on time-incremented subsets of the available data. We split our data into timeline-based training and testing sets, and evaluated models on each set …

A Rare Case Of Epstein–Barr Virus-Related Plasmacytoma Involving Maxillary Sinus Mucosa, Julie D. Gibbs, Marino E. Leon, Kenia Liu, Johnny Nguyen, Ling Zhang

Pathology and Cell Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.