Digital Commons Network^™

When To Prepare: "Water" You Thinking About Drought?, O. G. Campbell, C. Schwartz, Deborah J. Bathke

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Polycentric Governance In Nebraska, U.S., For Ground And Surface Water, Theresa Jedd, Anthony B. Schutz, Mark Burbach

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This chapter describes the locally driven, but centrally coordinated, water governance model in Nebraska, U.S. It offers a snapshot of water resources and the importance of agriculture, then moves to the relevant political institutions in the state, and federal controls related to water quantity. The focus of the chapter is on the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources’ (NeDNR) and Natural Resources Districts’ (NRDs) management of surface and groundwater, which has some distinct and some overlapping authority. The main area of overlap is in addressing the connection between ground and surface water, particularly in situations when either or both are over …

A Virtual Physics Laboratory For Remote/Online Learning, Themistoklis Chronis

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

“Change And Become Like Children”: Eschatological Childhood As Critique And Intention Of Ecclesiological Life, Joel Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Learn To Play: Capturing Motion And Creating Ar Graphics, Vinny Argentina

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

Integration Of Multiple Datasets To Evaluate Red Fox Distribution, Laura S. Whipple, Diana Jr Lafferty

Celebration of Student Scholarship

To address declining global biodiversity, large-scale and long-term standardized wildlife surveys allow biologists to directly compare data across time and space to identify drivers of species declines. However, standardized surveys are resource-intensive, often leading to significant data gaps. One source of abundant and inexpensive data are wildlife observations from the public (e.g., community/citizen science). When combined, community observations can provide wildlife data from areas that lack high-quality survey data, while standardized surveys can account for the opportunistic nature that makes community observations difficult to use in wildlife studies. Therefore, integrating high-quality survey data with abundant community observations may produce more …

Passing Through Beringia: Enhanced Sampling Resolves The History Of Intercontinental Dispersal, Annika Desai

Celebration of Student Scholarship

Terrestrial communities in North America were assembled through a history of climate-driven colonization across the Bering Land Bridge, which periodically connected Asia to North America during the Pleistocene. Taxa moving across the bridge carried their parasites, and studying these parasites can inform our understanding of the host’s intercontinental dispersal. For instance, the pika, a small lagomorph, carries a wide diversity of parasites that have recently indicated two different aspects of pika biogeographic history. Phylogenetic studies of Schizorchis, a genus of tapeworms that resides in pikas, demonstrated two episodes of North American colonization from Asia roughly 10 million and 4 …

Dna Barcoding For Molecular Prospecting Of Platyhelminthes, Logan Elkin, Will Butak

Student Presentations

DNA barcoding (Folmer et al. 1994), is an efficient method to distinguish species by short specific DNA sequences from a common region of their genome, such as the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene. The early primers of Folmer et al. (1994) were not as universal as desired (Elias et al. 2007). Platyhelminthes (flatworms), being the fourth most speciose animal phylum, is a taxonomic group where universal barcoding primers are not very effective (Vanhove, et al. 2013). Recently, Van Steenkiste et al. (2014) and Elbrecht and Leese (2017) developed primers for parasitic and free-living flatworms that show promise as …

Interspecies Tissue Transplants In Planarians, Maddie Thorstad

Student Presentations

Planarian flatworms have many stem cells called neoblasts which makes them adept at regenerating tissue after injury. This project aims to determine if neoblasts from two different species of planarians—Schmidtea mediterranea and Dugesia japonica—can integrate into the regenerated tissue of the other species. This is done by transplantation of a donor tissue plug from one species into a host planarian of the opposite species. After the host planarian is injured, neoblasts travel to the site of injury and begin regeneration of tissue. We have worked to optimize the transplantation procedure to visually obtain a 75% success rate. Simultaneously, we have …

Chemical Ablation Of Stem Cells, Renata Foerstel

Student Presentations

Planarians are an amazing model system for studying regeneration due to their large population of stem cells. A critical technique in studying stem cell dynamics is to eliminate stem cells through exposure to gamma or X-ray radiation. These techniques require expensive equipment. The goal of this project was to develop a cheap alternative to kill stem cells by using the cell cycle inhibitor hydroxyurea.

Functional Analysis Of Protonephridia Genes Identified By Drop-Seq, Andrew Gaetano

Student Presentations

Schmidtea mediterranea, the freshwater planarian, possesses protonephridia, which are an organized network of branched tubules that function in waste filtration and water regulation. On a cellular and molecular level, these structures show considerable homology to the human kidney making planarians a useful model system for exploring human excretory biology and disease (Scimone, 2011 and Vu, 2015). Additionally, the planarian genome contains many flatworm-specific protonephridia genes essential for survival, making them potential drug targets for parasitic worm infections of humans. We set out to validate the expression of protonephridia genes identified by Drop-seq, a single-cell RNA sequencing technique that identified the …

Analysis Of The Zebra Finch Gut Microbiota, Cole Hanke

Student Presentations

The purpose of this study is to analyze the gut microbiota of the zebra finch. The fecal samples of both male and female birds were collected from two separate populations. The bacteria were then incubated and isolated in order to amplify and sequence their 16s rRNA. The analysis of the 16s rRNA in a bacterial database showed the presence of a variety of species from the bacillus, staphylococcus, and citrobacter genera.

Genetic Characterization And Dna Barcoding Of The Zoonotic Parasite Gnathostoma, Ryan Pogodzinski

Student Presentations

Zoonotic diseases are transmitted to humans from wildlife and often pose serious health risks. One such disease, gnathostomiasis, is caused by parasitic nematodes in the genus Gnathostoma, commonly transmitted by consumption of infected undercooked freshwater fish. Lately, movement of animals over international borders has increased, leading to emerging zoonotic diseases (2018; CDC – One Health Basics). Human gnathostomiasis is just one example.

This project expands on previous research (Cole et al.) which identified Gnathostoma in invasive eels and imported eels from food markets, using morphological features and DNA sequences of the ribosomal RNA gene array’s ITS-2 (intergenic transcribed spacer-2) region. …

Mr. Vane’S Confessions: The Unexpected Play Of Augustine In Lilith’S Bibliographic Vision, Michael Wayne Wilhelm

North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies

No abstract provided.

Brigid Of Kildare: The Saint Who Got A Facelift, Aimee Hunt

Student Research

On the outskirts of Papal authority, early medieval Ireland created its own Christian identity separate from other European nations closer to Rome. Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of the patron saints of Ireland, played important yet problematic roles in that identity. After her death, the church began to alter her history. Being a female bishop, performing the first recorded abortion, and having both men and women within her monastery, Brigid had trodden on the male-dominated system in a way that few women had. Deemed unacceptable but having already been sainted, the Catholic church gave Brigid a holy facelift.

Repressive Interactions Between Transcription Factors Separate Different Embryonic Ectodermal Domains., Steven L. Klein, Andre L P Tavares, Meredith Peterson, Charles H Sullivan, Sally A. Moody

Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications

The embryonic ectoderm is composed of four domains: neural plate, neural crest, pre-placodal region (PPR) and epidermis. Their formation is initiated during early gastrulation by dorsal-ventral and anterior-posterior gradients of signaling factors that first divide the embryonic ectoderm into neural and non-neural domains. Next, the neural crest and PPR domains arise, either

Animated Short Film, Vinny Argentina

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

Developing A Self-Navigating Robot To Map Disaster Regions, Nagavenkat Adurthi

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

Informational Materials: Dual Prevention Pill, Population Council

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

Informational materials being used in a dual prevention pill study in South Africa.

Exploring The Effect Of Online Course Design On Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge Transfer And Retention Through Learning Analytics, Yasemin Gülbahar, Mohamed Ibrahim, Rebecca Callaway

Faculty Publications - Curriculum & Instruction

There is a vast amount of data collected on e-learning platforms that can provide insight and guidance to both learners and educators. However, this data is rarely used for evaluation and understanding the learning process. Hence, to fill this gap in the literature this study explored the effect of online course design on students’ transfer and retention of knowledge through learning analytics. The aim was to reveal study behaviours of participants over a short time while exploring their academic performance. Using a mixed method approach, this research is conducted in two different countries in a limited time. The results showed …

Long-Term Stability Of Baseline Impact Scores In High School Football Players Across Age Groups, Christopher Thomas Burley

Theses and Dissertations

In recent decades, the increased awareness of the prevalence of concussions has resulted in significant advancements in concussion assessment and treatment, including annual or bi-annual pre-season computerized baseline assessments. However, limited research has focused on the differences in stability of baseline neurocognitive performance among different age groups in adolescence. The main purpose of the present study was to explore the long-term stability of ImPACT baseline assessments across one-year intervals in multiple age groups within a sample of high school football players. Subjects who completed two baseline assessments between the ages of 14 and 17 who had completed two baselines one …

A Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory For Nebraska: Livestock And Coal Loom Large, Eric R. Holley, Adam Liska

Adam Liska Papers

Mitigation of climate change requires the systematic identification and cataloging of emissions sources at city, state, and national levels. In this study, an inventory of annual greenhouse gas emissions from the state of Nebraska was created based on industry data, and emissions inventories were completed each year from 1990 to 2016. Nebraska’s net emissions were found to increase from 56.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MMtCO₂e) in 1990 to 87.4 MMtCO₂e in 2016. Agriculture was found to be the sector with the most emissions (36 MMtCO₂e) followed by electricity generation (21 MMtCO …

Invasive Plants Watch List: 2022, Allison Zach

Nebraska Invasive Species Program

The purpose of the weed watch list is to collect data on the distribution of invasive plants found in various Nebraska counties. Counties were divided up into ‘ecoregions’ based on the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission’s Legacy Plan (map of regions below). The plants in the watch list have been identified based on their invasiveness in surrounding states and their increasing range in Nebraska. Data collected on watch list plant species distribution has been used to support the listing or delisting of noxious weeds. Plant species in the weed watch list are categorized based on early detection and rapid response …

Maximizing The Discovery Of Data Sets In The Yale University Library Catalog.”, Rowena Griem, Yukari Sugiyama, Tachtorn Meier

Library Staff Publications

Yale University Library’s Dataset Cataloging Task Force was formed in spring 2019 to address issues raised by the inclusion of data set holdings in the institutional catalog. The paper describes the group’s assessment of existing cataloging practices and the current integrated library system environment; the process of developing cataloging guidelines in the absence of authoritative resources to optimize the discoverability and accessibility of data sets in the online library catalog; and proposed next steps to discuss, establish, and document national guidelines for cataloging data sets so that these increasingly important resources are treated in a consistent manner in institutional, consortial, …

Artists’ Studio Archives Managing Your Studio Practice & Building A Creative Legacy Revised Edition (2022): A Comprehensive Guide For Artists & Their Assistants, Heather Gendron, Neal Ambrose-Smith, Joane E. Beaudoin, Eumie Imm-Stroukoff

Library Staff Publications

This guide is based on real-life scenarios and best practices in managing an art studio archive. It will aid artists in every career stage, from emerging artists to late-career artists; the yet-to- be-discovered and the well-established. Increasing productivity in the studio with good documentation helps artists better prepare to sell work and secure grant funding, as well as manage better the legal and financial aspects of an artistic practice.

Module 09: Introduction To Fusion 360 Part 1, Leendert Craig

ENTC 2170: Computer Aided Design and Drafting

No abstract provided.

Module 09: Introduction To Fusion 360 Part 1, Leendert Craig

ENGR 1110: Engineering Graphics

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Phosphorus Removal And Recovery Methods And Proposed Design Of High Rate Algal Pond For Swine Wastewater, Taylor Fauth

Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Students Plan B Capstone Projects

High phosphorus concentrations in wastewater effluent can have harmful effects to aquatic environments and water quality. An excess of nutrients such as phosphorus in water bodies will cause eutrophication, which depletes the available oxygen within the water and is detrimental to aquatic life. Additionally, phosphorus leaching from wastewater discharge has negative impacts to groundwater quality. The depletion of phosphorus as a natural resource is also of concern as phosphorus is an essential product for agricultural and industrial production. Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource, and natural sources are becoming more difficult and expensive to access. Therefore, the removal and recycle of …

Idaho Rural Industry Clusters Needs Assessment 2021, Mcallister Hall, Benjamin Larsen, Aisha Kayed, Vanessa Fry

Idaho Policy Institute Reports

No abstract provided.

Seventh Annual Idaho Public Policy Survey, Matthew May, Lantz Mcginnis-Brown, Vanessa Fry

Idaho Policy Institute Reports

The Seventh Annual Idaho Public Policy Survey was conducted November 13-21, 2021, and surveyed 1,000 adults who currently live in Idaho. The sample is representative of the state’s population, both geographically and demographically, with a simple random sampling margin of error of +/- 3.1%. The survey covered a wide variety of topics, including growth, housing, transportation, state budgeting, taxes, education, the environment, and COVID-19. GS Strategy Group conducted the survey by cell phone (43%), landline phone (17%), online (30%), and text message (10%).