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Spatiotemporal Variability In Winter Severity: Consequences For White-Tailed Deer Populations And Habitat Sustainability, Grace Parikh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Winter in the northern Great Lakes presents a suite of challenging conditions for animals, in terms of limited food availability and increased energetic cost of locomotion and thermoregulation. Variable winter severity is liable to cause interannual fluctuations in habitat viability and use by animals, in addition to modulating physiological responses in animals to conserve energy. For example, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) congregate at high densities under eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) or northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis) stands, which provide forage, thermal cover, reduced snow depth, and enhanced vigilance. However, a suite of climatic, edaphic, and …

The Archaeology Of The Postindustrial: Spatial Data Infrastructures For Studying The Past In The Present, Daniel Trepal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Postindustrial urban landscapes are large-scale, complex manifestations of the past in the present in the form of industrial ruins and archaeological sites, decaying infrastructure, and adaptive reuse; ongoing processes of postindustrial redevelopment often conspire to conceal the toxic consequences of long-term industrial activity. Understanding these phenomena is an essential step in building a sustainable future; despite this, the study of the postindustrial is still new, and requires interdisciplinary connections that remain either unexplored or underexplored. Archaeologists have begun to turn their attention to the modern industrial era and beyond. This focus carries the potential to deliver new understandings of the …

Hydrologic Impacts And Trade-Offs Associated With Forest-Based Bioenergy Development Across The Americas, Azad Heidari

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A simulation-based framework for studying hydrologic impacts and associated tradeoffs for existing and proposed biofuel projects in the US (poplar), Argentina (eucalyptus) and Mexico (oil palm) is developed. For each case study, a representative watershed is selected and a SWAT model is set up and calibrated for an improved simulation of hydrologic processes and plant growth cycles. Potential bioenergy scenarios are developed that represent various planting densities, harvest cycles, fertilization and irrigation rates, land cover types being converted, slope, and locations across the watershed.

Simulations indicate that growth and biomass production are significantly dependent on nitrogen availability, making fertilization a …

Using Short-Term Professional Development To Increase Science Teacher Confidence For Integrating The Ngss Engineering Standards, Janet Lalonde

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Teacher professional development has long been acknowledged as a useful tool to improve instructional methods and to increase the likelihood of successful implementation of new standards. The duration of the training is often identified as a factor that determines how successful professional development experiences can be, with the best options taking place over several days and for more than 40 hours. However, with serious limitations in time, funding, and substitute teachers, districts must often consider offering short-term professional development instead.

This case study followed a professional development experience of seven high school science teachers as they spent a day learning …

Harvest Intensity And Delineation Of Outwash Soils In Wisconsin, Robert Richard

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The whole-tree harvest of an oak forest showed significant decreases to total nitrogen and potassium pools, and the calcium pool showed weaker evidence for significant declines in comparison to the stem-only harvest. Simulated whole-tree harvests in aspen decreased the total number of rotations by a full rotation on nutrient-poor outwash soils (Entic Haplorthods and Typic Udipsamments) by depleting the potassium, calcium, and magnesium pools in 180 years from whole-tree harvest in comparison to 225 years in the stem-only harvest. Nitrogen and phosphorus harvest removals did not compose a large percentage of ecosystem pools. Since harvest removals for some elements exceed …

3d Printing In Low Resource Healthcare Settings: Analysis Of Potential Implementations, Alenna Beroza

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

3D printing has gained significant momentum in the past ten years, and its unique advantages make it especially ideal for use in low resource healthcare settings, where many designs have already been successfully implemented. Yet, little has been studied on how 3D printing can be sustainably and functionally implemented in low resource healthcare systems as a manufacturing practice. In this report, three business models are proposed for this implementation: In-House Operator, Independent Operator, and Print Farm. These models were then tested over four months in Kisumu county, Kenya, at two workshops and seven public hospitals. I worked with local medical …

Gendered Recreational Fisheries Management And North American Natural Resource Policy, Erin Burkett

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation applies feminist theory to investigate women’s participation in wildlife-based recreation and how natural resource management organizations conduct stakeholder engagement in a North American context. Gendered social processes, including norms and expectations, as well as gendered cultures, can constrain women’s participation in recreation through social sanctions and disenfranchisement. Gender and leisure scholars have studied these dynamics in sport and leisure contexts, but how individuals negotiate these constraints is understudied in a wildlife-based recreation context. Social constructions of gender also contribute to imbalances of power within formal natural resource management organizations and influence how stakeholder engagement policies and programs are …

Ecophysiological Responses Of Tropical Woody Species To Ambient And Elevated Temperatures, Kelsey R. Carter

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Tropical forests cycle one third of Earth’s carbon, yet we are still unsure how tropical vegetation will respond to climate warming. Tropical biomes experience a smaller temperature margin compared to other systems, possibly making them less capable of thermal adjustments. In addition, thermal responses of vegetation have been identified as one of the areas of greatest uncertainty for global carbon models. This dissertation works to quantify tropical forest photosynthetic responses to temperature as well as assessing physiological thermal acclimation of four tropical species. In Chapter, 2 we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate global tropical photosynthetic responses to temperature. We presented …

Mining The Evidence: Public Comments, Evidence-Based Policymaking, And A Controversial Mine, Sun V. Nguyen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In policymaking, evidence-based policymaking is an essential method for influencing policies and decisions by telling decision-makers “what works” (Head, 2008). Western sciences typically make up most of the evidence decision-makers use, but because people are boundedly rational in understanding and incorporating it—politics, values, and beliefs impact thought processes— scholars and policymakers also include other types of knowledge to make decisions. One way for decision-makers to incorporate other types of knowledge into policies is through public comments. Although public comments may provide different types of knowledge to improve policy decisions, decision-makers face challenges with valuing different types of knowledge as evidence. …

Degradable Zinc Material Characteristics And Its Influence On Biocompatibility In An In-Vivo Murine Model, Roger J. Guillory Ii

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Biodegradable stents based on zinc have been under development since their introduction in 2013. While metallic zinc is highly ductile, it unfortunately lacks the mechanical strength required for arterial stents. This has led to the development of an abundance of novel zinc-based materials, with the aim of improving the mechanical strength without sacrificing too much ductility. Although these materials are intended to function and slowly degrade within an artery, most zinc-based materials have been developed without deep consideration for their biological effects.

The present work explores the biological effects elicited by zinc-based materials implanted within the arterial system. The biological …

Ecotourism And Women's Empowerment: A Case Study In Quintana Roo Mexico, Mayra Sanchez Morgan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Globally, women make up a relatively large proportion of the tourism workforce; however, they usually do menial jobs and earn lower wages than men doing the same job. Traditional gender expectations and unequal power relations between women and men persist, limiting women’s opportunities. Ecotourism could be a tool for sustainable development and might be expected to empower women, given its explicit attention to social justice, grassroots development, and empowering local people. However, it may primarily empower groups that already have power, and not those who already are in disadvantaged positions, including women. Without explicitly considering gender and power complexities, ecotourism …

Plant Community Response To Novel Silvicultural Treatments In Great Lakes Northern Hardwoods, Stefan F. Hupperts

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The objective of this dissertation is to assess plant community response across a range of silvicultural disturbances and test ecological hypotheses to better inform ecologists and forest managers. To provide context for the utility of revising silvicultural systems, I review natural disturbance regimes and historical practices that have shaped contemporary Great Lakes northern hardwood forests (Chapter 2). Further, I identify important ways to expand the silvicultural toolbox and better emulate natural disturbance regimes. Building on this theoretical underpinning, I investigate the initial regeneration and plant community response to two novel silvicultural experiments: the Northern Hardwood Experiment for Enhancing Diversity (NHSEED) …

Assessing Benthic Recovery In The Torch Lake Aoc, Anya Clare Leach

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Torch Lake, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was a site of copper ore processing from the 1860s through the 1960s. During this time, various mining by-products were deposited into the lake and along its shoreline, including mine tailings and associated heavy metals contaminants (e.g., copper). It was anticipated that natural sediment deposition would cover and attenuate toxic sediments over time, but a comprehensive assessment of the benthos has not been performed since a baseline survey conducted in 1999 and 2000. This study was conducted in 2018 to evaluate the current benthic community status as well as sediment composition and metal …

Germination Rates Of Carex Spp. Seed After Long-Term Storage, Jonathan N. Nzombo, Kate Sinnott, Laura E. Fischer Walter

Undergraduate Student Work

This study explores the germination rates of Carex spp. seed that has been in storage for five to ten years. The genus Carex is a group of ecologically important grass-like species that constitute up to 25% of the aboveground biomass in tallgrass prairies. In the early 2000s, seed production plots of 18 Carex species were established from remnant prairie seed at the Tallgrass Prairie Center in Cedar Falls, IA. Seed harvested from the Carex plots from 2009 to 2014 was made available for release to the native seed industry for commercial production, with the remainder stored in an onsite …

A Robust Ensemble Feature Selector Based On Rank Aggregation For Developing New Vo\Textsubscript{2}Max Prediction Models Using Support Vector Machines, Fatih Abut, Mehmet Fati̇h Akay, James George

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper proposes a new ensemble feature selector, called the majority voting feature selector (MVFS), for developing new maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) prediction models using a support vector machine (SVM). The approach is based on rank aggregation, which meaningfully utilizes the correlation among the relevance ranks of predictor variables given by three state-of-the-art feature selectors: Relief-F, minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRMR), and maximum likelihood feature selection (MLFS). By applying the SVM combined with MVFS on a self-created dataset containing maximal and submaximal exercise data from 185 college students, several new hybrid (VO2max) prediction models have been created. To compare the …

Plasma-Treated Air And Water—Assessment Of Synergistic Antimicrobial Effects For Sanitation Of Food Processing Surfaces And Environment, Uta Schnabel, Oliver Handorf, Kateryna Yarova, Björn Zessin, Susann Zechlin, Diana Sydow, Elke Zellmer, Jörg Stachowiak, Mathias Andrasch, Harald Below, Jörg Ehlbeck

Articles

The synergistic antimicrobial effects of plasma-processed air (PPA) and plasma-treated water (PTW), which are indirectly generated by a microwave-induced non-atmospheric pressure plasma, were investigated with the aid of proliferation assays. For this purpose, microorganisms (Listeriamonocytogenes, Escherichiacoli, Pectobacteriumcarotovorum, sporulatedBacillusatrophaeus) were cultivated as monocultures on specimens with polymeric surface structures. Both the distinct and synergistic antimicrobial potential of PPA and PTW were governed by the plasma-on time (5–50 s) and the treatment time of the specimens with PPA/PTW (1–5 min). In single PTW treatment of the bacteria, an elevation of the reduction factor with increasing treatment time could be observed (e.g., reduction …

Distilling And Applying Criteria For Best Practice Eia Follow-Up, Elise Pinto, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Alan Bond, Jenny Pope, Francois Retief

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Follow-up is an essential component of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) if the success of EIA in improving the sustainability of a project once implemented is to be determined. This paper aims to establish universally-applicable criteria for EIA follow-up to evaluate project performance once assessed and underway. A suite of 24 criteria is derived from EIA follow-up best practice principles published by the International Association for Impact Assessment. The criteria are categorized according to the five dimensions of EIA follow-up: monitoring, evaluation, management, communication and governance. Posed as questions, the criteria support qualitative assessments of EIA follow-up performance for a project. …

A Note On Science, Legal Research And Artificial Intelligence, Sean Goltz, Giulia Dondoli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper discusses the principles of scientific research and in turn review legal research that was done using Artificial Intelligence arguing that it is the tools (Artificial Intelligence) that take center stage while the meaning (legal research) is left back stage. In turn, this kind of research does not adhere to the fundamentals of scientific research nor comply with scientific and industry ethical codes.

Effect Of Rootstocks On Phytochemical Properties Of Apricot Fruit, Müttali̇p Gündoğdu

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

The phytochemical influence of rootstocks on the Hacıhaliloğlu apricot cultivar was examined in this study. Myrobolan 29-C, Myrobolan GF-31, Marianna 2624, Pixy, and Tokaloğlu rootstocks were used and organic acid, sugars, vitamin C, total antioxidant capacity, and phenolic compounds were identified. The highest phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity were observed in Tokaloğlu rootstock. While Myrobolan GF-31 stood out in terms of organic acids and vitamin C, Pixy stood out in terms of sugar. The highest sugar content (sucrose) was recorded as 24.178 mg 100 g-1 in 'Pixy'. It was determined that Tokaloğlu rootstock had increased organic acid (1030.730 mg 100 …

Salt Stress By Nacl Alters The Physiology And Biochemistry Of Tissue Culture-Grownstevia Rebaudiana Bertoni, Rabia Javed, Ekrem Gürel

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

This study reports the response to salinity stress (100 mM, 200 mM, and 300 mM NaCl concentration) exposure of the commercially valuable medicinal plant Stevia rebaudiana during micropropagation for 4 weeks. The significant enhancement of physiological parameters, steviol glycosides (SGs), i.e. rebaudioside A and stevioside, as examined by high-performance liquid chromatography, and nonenzymatic antioxidant activities, i.e. total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total antioxidant capacity, total reducing power, and DPPH-free radical scavenging activity, was observed during the shoot formation process under up to 100 mM NaCl stress. Callus formation produced similar results regarding physiology and antioxidant assays, except that it …

Occurrence And Seasonal Variation Of The Root Lesion Nematode Pratylenchus Neglectuson Cereals In Bolu, Turkey, Abdelfattah Dababat, Şenol Yildiz, Vahdetti̇n Çi̇ftçi̇, Nagi̇han Duman, Mustafa İmren

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

The root lesion nematode Pratylenchus spp. is one of the most important plant-parasitic nematodes causing global cereal yield losses. Effective management of plant-parasitic nematodes depends on reliable management strategies and comprehensive datasets estimating the distribution, abundance, and population change of nematode species. This study reports the occurrence of Pratylenchus neglectus in wheat-growing districts during the 2014/15 and 2015/16 cropping seasons in Bolu, Turkey. Pratylenchus neglectus was identified by both morphological and molecular methods. The nematode was detected in 11.6% of samples collected from five districts. On average, P. neglectus numbered 1556 nematodes/kg soil, while 12% of samples had more than …

Diversity Of Biochemical Content In Fruits Of Some Indigenous Mulberry Genotypes, Aytül Balik, Mustafa Kenan Geçer, Rafet Aslantaş

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

This research was carried out to assess the biochemical diversity of the fruits of mulberry genotypes grown in Muş Province in the eastern Anatolia region and to determine the genotypes available for breeding. Morphological and biochemical characteristics of 13 mulberry fruit genotypes, including 5 white (Morus alba) and 8 black (Morus nigra), were determined. Fruit antioxidant capacity was determined by Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity assay. Fruit weight, pH, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, vitamin C, and antioxidant capacity were 1.38-3.77 g, 4.77-6.79, 14.33%-23.50%, 0.53%-2.20%, 4.47-35.83 mg 100 g-1, and 4.33-13.63 µmol Trolox equivalent g, respectively, indicating enough diversity among genotypes …

Sap Flux And Stem Radius Variations In Mature Cedrus Libani Trees During The Growing Season, Ayli̇n Güney, Rei̇ner Zi̇mmermann, Klaus Haas

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Analysis of continuous sap flux and stem growth measurements can help to elucidate how environmental conditions influence water status and stem growth in trees. Stem radius variations and sap flux densities of the drought-tolerant conifer Cedrus libani were measured using automatic point dendrometers and heat dissipation sensors, respectively. The study was conducted at the Elmalı Cedar Research Forest at 1665 m a.s.l. From April to September 2009, stem radius variation was measured hourly for nine C. libani trees. Concurrently, environmental variables (e.g., air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, soil water content) were monitored within the study site. From the dendrometer records, …

Tree Vigor, Yield, Fruit Quality, And Antioxidant Capacity Of Apple (Malus × Domestica Borkh.) Influenced By Different Fertilization Regimes: Preliminary Results, Tomo Milosevic, Nebojsa Milosevic, Jelena Mladenovic

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Tree growth, productivity, fruit quality attributes, and antioxidant activity were tested in apple cultivar Idared under different fertilization treatments from the 22nd to the 23rd year after planting in a heavy acidic soil under western Serbian conditions. Treatments included the use of aged cattle manure, compound NPK (15:15:15) mineral fertilizer, a multinutrient fertilizer commercially named Italpolina (ITP) (NPK + organic carbon + humic acids), two types of N mineral fertilizers (calcium ammonium nitrate [CAN] and urea), and control (no fertilization). Results showed that Idared trees were more vigorous when fertilized with the two N fertilizers than when treated with another …

Improvement Of The In Vitro Regeneration And Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation Of Medicago Sativa L., Farzad Nofouzi, Muhammet Çağri Oğuz, Saber Delpasand Khabbazi, Ali̇ Ergül

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Alfalfa is a fodder crop that accounts for one of the best sources of protein and is widely cultivated around the world. In vitro regeneration of alfalfa has been studied earlier; however, most of the studies were almost intervened with callus formation. In this study, 3 explant sources (cotyledonary node, hypocotyl, and root crown) of two Turkish cultivars (Nimet and Savaş) were excised from young seedlings. Explants were subjected to different concentrations of BAP, BAP-IBA, and TDZ to evaluate the direct in vitro regeneration potential of selected plant parts. Moreover, we transformed the alfalfa plant with pBin19 harboring 35s.GUS-INT_35s.nptII construct …

Design And Development Of A Front Mounted On-The-Go Soil Strength Profile Sensor, Ari̇f Behi̇ç Teki̇n, Harun Yalçin

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Soil compaction is a great problem since it affects crop growth and yield. The causes of soil compaction are the management practices in agricultural production. A common practice is to implement subsoiling at a few centimeters below the hardpan. Management practices, field traffic, and variations of the soil?s physical and chemical properties throughout the field cause variations in the soil compaction degree and depth. Subsoiling at certain depths can cause excessive energy consumption at a high cost. Therefore, agricultural tillage equipment could be improved by varying the tillage depth. Soil strength is the main indicator that depends on several soil …

Individual Tree Measurements In A Planted Woodland With Terrestrial Laser Scanner, Hüseyi̇n Yurtseven, Süleyman Çoban, Mustafa Akgül, Anil Orhan Akay

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Terrestrial light detection and ranging technology provides an accurate measurement of individual tree parameters that are essential for managing forest resources, modeling forest fires, planning forest operations, etc. This study aimed to measure individual tree parameters to model a single tree using terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data. A high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) was generated using point cloud data (2,800,430 points) to obtain the tree parameters. Next, the diameter of breast heights (DBH), tree heights, tree lengths, tree projection areas, and crown parameters were calculated using 3D Forest 0.42 software. In order to evaluate the capabilities of TLS data, estimated …

Effects Of Modified Atmosphere Packaging On The Storage And Shelf Life Of Hicaznarpomegranate Fruits, Eli̇f Çandir, Ahmet Erhan Özdemi̇r, Mehmet Can Aksoy

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

This study compared the postharvest quality of Hicaznar pomegranate fruit unpackaged and packaged with 5-kg or 12-kg bags of two different modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) materials (X5, X12, L5, and L12) during 6 months of storage at 6 °C. The fruits were also evaluated during a simulated shelf life period at 20 °C for 7 days after each cold storage period. The MAP bags significantly reduced the loss of titratable acidity and ascorbic acid content and retarded husk discoloration of the fruit during cold storage and the shelf life period. The incidence of fungal decay was lower in fruit packaged …

Genome-Wide Identification And Molecular Characterization Of Citrus Unshiu Wrkytranscription Factors In Satsuma Mandarin: Clues For Putative Involvement In Cell Growth,Fruit Ripening, And Stress Response, Mariem Ayadi, Rim Mzid, Rayda Ben Ayed, Najla Kharrat, Henda Merchaoui, Ahmed Rebai, Mohsen Hanana

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

WRKY transcription factors, being involved in several biological roles, stimulus signaling, and stress response, could be interesting candidates to prospect, particularly in the Citrus unshiu (Satsuma mandarin) genome. Our approach, mainly based on computational analyses, led to the identification of 51 CiuWRKYs followed by their molecular characterization. Syntenic relationship analysis showed significant bias towards sweet orange and Arabidopsis chromosomes. Analyses of promoter region showed that CiuWRKY1 modulates gene transcription through W-box site targeting. The deduced CiuWRKY1 protein was moderately hydrophobic. A comparative in silico analysis among Arabidopsis thaliana and Citrus sinensis WRKYs allowed us to designate orthologous genes. Lacking available …

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

No abstract provided.