Digital Commons Network^™

Herders And Wetland Degradation In Northern Cameroon, E. Tedonkeng Pamo, F. Tendonkeng, J. R. Kana

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Livestock rearing in Northern Cameroon is carried out under two majors systems: the nomadic and the transhumance production systems (Pamo & Pamo, 1991). Nomadism is the practice of wandering from place to place, while transhumance involves seasonal displacement of flocks from one area to another by herders. These production systems involved large grazing areas, which may encompass different ecosystems. The Yaére, the only wetland of the northern Cameroon, is the major dry season grazing lands for livestock and wildlife. The main characteristic of this wetland is that the whole area is excluded from grazing during the growing season as a …

March 2023 Academic Affairs Minutes, University Of Nebraska At Kearney Academic Affairs Committee

Academic Affairs Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Vol.50 N.35 March 23rd 2023, Voice Media Ventures

Black Voice News

No abstract provided.

The Bison, March 23, 2023

The Bison Newspapers

No abstract provided.

New Far-Infrared Laser Frequencies Generated By Ch3cn, Cd3cn, 13ch3i, Cd3i, And 13cd3i, Michael Jackson

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Heterodyne techniques have been used to experimentally determine, for the first time, the frequencies for nineteen laser emissions ranging from 264 to 984 GHz. These laser emissions were generated by optically pumping either CH₃CN, CD₃CN, ¹³CH₃, CD₃I, or ¹³CD₃I with a CO₂ laser. This includes the newly discovered 566.325-μ m laser emission from optically pumped ¹³CD₃I. The fractional uncertainties with which these frequencies were experimentally determined, up to ± 5 × 10^− 7, were of sufficient accuracy to confirm or revise …

2023 March 23 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

Numerical Modeling Of Caldera Formation Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (Sph), Benjamin Mullet, Paul Segall, Alomir Favero

Faculty Journal Articles

Calderas are kilometer-scale basins formed when magma is rapidly removed from shallow magma storage zones. Despite extensive previous research, many questions remain about how host rock material properties influence the development of caldera structures. We employ a mesh-free, continuum numerical method, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) to study caldera formation, with a focus on the role of host rock material properties. SPH provides several advantages over previous numerical approaches (finite element or discrete element methods), naturally accommodating strain localization and large deformations while employing well-known constitutive models. A continuum elastoplastic constitutive model with a simple Drucker–Prager yield condition can explain many …

Partnering To Advance Equity In Coastal Resilience: Lessons Learned For Research And Practice Collaborations For On-The-Ground Projects, Marina Saitgalina, Jennifer Whytlaw, Nicole Hutton, Tom Allen, Joshua Behr, Wie Yusuf

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

No abstract provided.

Docking And Selectivity Studies Of Covalently Bound Janus Kinase 3 Inhibitors, Haizhen Zhong, Suliman Almahmoud

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The Janus kinases (JAKs) are a family of non-receptor cytosolic protein kinases critical for immune signaling. Many covalently bound ligands of JAK3 inhibitors have been reported. To help design selective JAK inhibitors, in this paper, we used five model proteins to study the subtype selectivity of and the mutational effects on inhibitor binding. We also compared the Covalent Dock programs from the Schrodinger software suite and the MOE software suite to determine which method to use for the drug design of covalent inhibitors. Our results showed that the docking affinity from 4Z16 (JAK3 wild-type model), 4E4N (JAK1), 4D1S (JAK2), and …

Complex Modeling With Detailed Temporal Predictors Does Not Improve Health Records-Based Suicide Risk Prediction, Susan M. Shortreed, Rod L. Walker, Eric Johnson, Robert Wellman, Maricela Cruz, Rebecca Ziebell, R. Yates Coley, Zimri S. Yaseen, Sai Dharmarajan, Robert B. Penfold, Brian K. Ahmedani, Rebecca C. Rossom, Arne Beck, Jennifer M. Boggs, Greg E. Simon

Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research Articles

Suicide risk prediction models can identify individuals for targeted intervention. Discussions of transparency, explainability, and transportability in machine learning presume complex prediction models with many variables outperform simpler models. We compared random forest, artificial neural network, and ensemble models with 1500 temporally defined predictors to logistic regression models. Data from 25,800,888 mental health visits made by 3,081,420 individuals in 7 health systems were used to train and evaluate suicidal behavior prediction models. Model performance was compared across several measures. All models performed well (area under the receiver operating curve [AUC]: 0.794-0.858). Ensemble models performed best, but improvements over a regression …

Shadows Of Colored Complexes And Cycle Decompositions Of Equipartite Hypergraphs, Genevieve Madden

Theses and Dissertations

Let $K_{n\times m}^h$ be the complete $h$-uniform $n$-partite hypergraph with parts of size $m$. A cycle of length $c$ in a hypergraph is an alternating sequences of distinct vertices, $v_i$, and distinct edges $e_i$ of the form $v_1, e_1, v_2, e_2, \dots , e_c, v_c$ such that $v_i, v_{i+1}\subseteq e_i$ and $v_{c+1}=v_1$. By applying the shadows of colored complexes, we nearly settle the problem of partitioning the edges of $K_{n\times m}^h$ into cycles of length $c$ where $c$ is a multiple of $m$. This is joint work with Amin Bahmanian and Max Ward.

Search For Heavy Neutral Leptons Using Tau Lepton Decays At Babar, J. P. Lees, V. Poireau, V. Tisserand, E. Grauges, A. Palano, G. Eigen, D. N. Brown, Yu. G. Kolomensky, M. Fritsch, H. Koch, R. Cheaib, C. Hearty, T. S. Mattison, J. A. Mckenna, R. Y. So, V. E. Blinov, A. R. Buzykaev, V. P. Druzhinin, E. A. Kravchenko, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

This article presents a model-independent search for an additional, mostly sterile, heavy neutral lepton (HNL), that is capable of mixing with the Standard Model τ neutrino with a mixing strength of |U_τ4| 2, corresponding to the absolute square of the extended Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata matrix element. Data from the BABAR experiment, with a total integrated luminosity of 424 fb⁻¹, are analyzed using a kinematic approach that makes no assumptions on the model behind the origins of the HNL, its lifetime or decay modes. No significant signal is found. Upper limits on |U_τ4|² at the 95% …

Health And Safety Effects Of Airborne Soil Dust In The Americas And Beyond, Daniel Q. Tong, Thomas E. Gill, William A. Sprigg, Robert Scott Van Pelt, Alexander Baklanov, Bridget Marie Barker, Jesse E. Bell, Juan Castillo, Santiago Gassó, Cassandra Gaston, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Risks associated with dust hazards are often underappreciated, a gap between the knowledge pool and public awareness that can be costly for impacted communities. This study reviews the emission sources and chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of airborne soil particles (dust) and their effects on human and environmental health and safety in the Pan-American region. American dust originates from both local sources (western United States, northern Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina) and long-range transport from Africa and Asia. Dust properties, as well as the trends and interactions with criteria air pollutants, are summarized. Human exposure to dust is associated …

Faculty Senate Agenda, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Racial Disparities In The Construction Domain: A Systematic Literature Review Of The U.S. Educational And Workforce Domain, Josiane Isingizwe, Ricardo Eiris, Masoud Gheisari

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Trends in the construction domain, educational enrollment, student graduation, student industry employment, and workforce retention demonstrate that minorities—Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans—are often excluded, segregated, or ignored in this domain. A systematic literature review (N = 68) was conducted to investigate the causes and effects of racial disparities produced by systemic racism in the educational and workforce domains of construction. Particularly, this paper focuses on exploring how racial disparities in construction impact minorities, the current state of the racial divide, the practices that perpetuate racial inequities, and the strategies currently used to prevent, in a sustainable manner, …

Heterogeneous Sensor Data Fusion For Multiscale, Shape Agnostic Flaw Detection In Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing, Benjamin Bevans, Christopher Barrett, Thomas Spears, Aniruddha Gaikwad, Alex Riensche, Harold (Scott) Halliday, Prahalada Rao

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

We developed and applied a novel approach for shape agnostic detection of multiscale flaws in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing using heterogenous in-situ sensor data. Flaws in LPBF range from porosity at the micro-scale (< 100 μm), layer related inconsistencies at the meso-scale (100 μm to 1 mm) and geometry-related flaws at the macroscale (> 1 mm). Existing data-driven models are primarily focused on detecting a specific type of LPBF flaw using signals from one type of sensor. Such approaches, which are trained on data from simple cuboid and cylindrical-shaped coupons, have met limited success when used for detecting multiscale flaws in complex LPBF parts. The objective of this work is to develop a heterogenous sensor data fusion …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session March 23, 2023, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Acceptance of the Agenda

Approval of the Minutes (January 26, 2023 Meeting)

Remarks by the Chair

Remarks by the President

Updates by the Faculty Senate President

Updates by the Western Student Association President

Celebrating Regional Student Achievement

Public Comments Regarding Action Items

Action Items

• Resolution Celebrating Men's Basketball 25-Year Anniversary 1998 MAC Championship Team
• Purchase of Aircraft, College of Aviation with Investment from WMU Foundation

Consent Items

• Curriculum Proposals
• Personnel Report
• One-Day Liquor License Applications, International Congress on Medieval Studies
• WMU Valley Dining Center, May 11-12, 2023
• Annuity and Life Income Funds Performance Report
• Operating Cash Investment Performance Report

General …

Angela Jurdak Khoury (1915-2011) As The First Woman Diplomat In Lebanon: Feminism And Education During The French Mandate, Angela Kahil

Journal of International Women's Studies

Angela Jurdak Khoury was born in 1915 in Lebanon and died in 2011 in Washington D.C. She was the first woman who studied in the Department of Sociology at the American University of Beirut, and the first to graduate with an M.A degree from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1938. She was also the first woman to teach and be involved in social services at the university. In 1945, Khoury joined diplomatic affairs to become the first woman diplomat in Lebanon, representing her country in the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN between 1946 and …

The Investigation Of Flowering Control In Late/Rare Flowering Lolium Perenne, S. Byrne, I. S. Donnison, L. J. Mur, E. Guiney

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Flowering in Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass) results in reduced digestibility and its inhibition would enhance forage quality. Flowering regulation has been well studied in Arabidopsis thaliana (Simpson and Dean, 2002) and orthologs of Arabidopsis flowering genes underlying heading date Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) have been identified in rice (Yano, M et al., 2000). However it is not clear yet how universally applicable such studies are to Lolium. The project goals are to characterise the gene expression profiles of late/rare flowering L. perenne plants to determine factors affecting flowering and to map the genes involved in the flowering process. Initial …

Eating Biodiversity: Investigating The Links Between Grassland Biodiversity And Quality Food Production, A. Hopkins, H. Buller, C. Morris, J. D. Wood

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Modern food production systems are generally detrimental to biodiversity, and the widespread loss of species-diverse grassland as a consequence of intensive farming methods is well documented. Since the 1980s, a range of policy measures and financial incentives for farmers have been introduced in Europe to halt (and in some cases, reverse) this trend, primarily to meet environmental objectives of species and habitat conservation and landscape protection. Biodiversity, where associated with agricultural production, has largely been regarded as a positive 'externality' to the process of food production; a ‘product’ which benefits wider society without necessarily conferring an agricultural benefit to the …

Do Species And Functional Diversity Indices Reflect Changes In Grazing Regimes And Climatic Conditions In Northeastern Spain?, F. De Bello, J. Leps, M. T. Sebastià

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Understanding the mechanisms that maintain biodiversity in various ecosystems enables the development of management practices that prevent degradation (Canals & Sebastia, 2000). Each diversity index reflects some compositional properties and could be influenced differently by stress and disturbance factors (Magurran, 2004). In this study, we aim to reveal 1) which management practices and environmental factors affect biodiversity in rangelands of northeastern Spain and 2) the relationship between species diversity and functional diversity (SD and FD).

The Biodiversity Value Of ‘Improved’ And ‘Unimproved’ Saline Agricultural Land And Adjacent Remnant Vegetation In South Australia, M. L. Hebart, N. J. Edwards, E. A. Abraham, A. D. Craig

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Since European settlement of the Upper South-east of South Australia, the distribution and abundance of much of the native flora and fauna of the region has been affected by clearing of native vegetation and drainage of wetlands to facilitate agricultural production. Only 8.3% of the original vegetation and less than 7% of the original swamps now remain in the region and much of what is left exists as small isolated remnants (Croft & Carpenter, 1996). Furthermore, as a consequence of the demise of large areas of agriculturally productive lucerne in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the rise of saline …

Soil, Plant And Livestock Interactions In Australian Tropical Savannas, L. P. Hunt, T. Z. Dawes-Gromadzki

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

This paper considers the various soil, plant and livestock interactions occurring in Australia’s wet-dry savanna rangelands. These regions are relatively intact compared to most of the world’s rangelands. However there is increasing pressure for more intensive use of the landscape, especially from pastoralism. This potentially threatens landscape health, function and productivity through reduced soil health and a loss of digestible perennial plants, especially given the low soil fertility and highly variable rainfall characteristic of these regions. There is an obvious need for understanding these impacts to devise sustainable management practices that promote soil health and viable perennial plant communities, and …

Grazing Impacts On Rangeland Condition In Semi-Arid South-Western Africa, A. Rothauge, G. N. Smit, A. L. Abate

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The savannah biome, consisting of a dense herbaceous layer and a relatively open woody layer in competitive balance, constitutes 64% of the land surface of Namibia, an arid country in south-western Africa, and is used mainly for extensive cattle and sheep ranching. About half of the savannah area is affected by dense to moderately dense bush-thickening, resulting in a ten-fold decrease in the rangeland’s grass-based carrying capacity and a concomitant loss in meat production of about US$115 million per year (De Klerk, 2004). Bushencroached areas typically have densities > 2 000 bushes/ha with > 90% belonging to a single species. High grazing …

A Decision Support System For Rangeland Management In Degrading Environments, R. G. Bennett, F. J. Mitchell

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The continued viability and productivity of commercial and emerging agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, depends on the accurate assessment and sustainable utilization of available natural resources. Sustainability implies that growth and development must take place, and be maintained over time, within the limits set by natural ecosystems. Utilizing an extensive GIS database, field surveys and remote sensing technology, a land assessment decision support system (LADSS) has been developed in an attempt to define these limits for the Province. This system has been developed to assess the appropriate use of existing resources as well as the suitability of current land …

Marker-Assisted Selection For Fibre Concentration In Smooth Bromegrass, C. Stendal, M. D. Casler, G. Jung

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The concentration of neutral detergent fibre is the best single laboratory predictor of voluntary intake potential in forage crops. However, the assay of thousands of plant samples for NDF selection in a breeding program requires a large amount of labour and time, potentially increasing cycle time and reducing the rate of progress. A previous study (Diaby and Casler, 2005) identified 16 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers that were strongly associated with NDF concentration in one or more of four smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss) populations. The objective of this study was to validate these associations by implementing marker-assisted …

Modelling The Encroachment Of Farmhouse Culture On Private Village Pastures And Its Environmental Fall-Out In Northern Western Ghats, India, S. B. Nalavade, K. R. Sahasrabuddhe, A. A. Patwardhan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Tropical India harbours numerous pasturelands across small landholdings ranging up to few hectares which are covered with grass that is suitable as fodder. These grazing lands are commonly known as ‘Gairan’ in urbanised northern Western Ghats mountain tract in Western India). Such grasslands comprise about 20% of the total area of a village (Jodha, 1986), support livestock and supplement the agro-economy of the village. These pasturelands are being replaced by fenced ‘farmhouses’ of the urban elite, resulting in land use changes that caused drastic qualitative and quantitative changes in terms of area, fodder species composition and livestock they …

Andean Pastures In The Fourth Region Of Chile: Marginal Lands And Vital Spaces For A Transhumance System, T. S. Koné, R. Osorio, J. -M. Fotsing

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In the fourth region of Chile, the high Andean pastures between Chile and Argentina are the summer destination for transhumant shepherds and sustain a part of the regional livestock. Since 2000, Chile has prohibited the passage of livestock to Argentina for animal health reasons in spite of official registers indicating that 60 to 75% of the summer transhumance livestock had an Argentine destination. Under those conditions it is questionable whether the Andean Chilean grasslands can absorb the increased pastoral demand without suffering damage. The objective is to provide elements of an answer to this question regarding the distribution and availability …

Rangeland As A Common Property Resource: Contrasting Insights From Communal Areas Of Central Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, J. E. Bennett, H. R. Barrett

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In communal areas of South Africa, grazing systems are held under a variety of different common property regimes. However, the social and ecological realities of these communal grazing systems remain poorly understood, particularly with regard to the use of land allocated for crop production. Little is known about how these arable areas are utilised as a common grazing resource but the wide array of tenure arrangements under which they are held suggests that they facilitate some interesting departures from recognised common property systems. A clearer understanding of how common property regimes function at an integrated level in South Africa will …

Australian Pasture Systems: The Perennial Compromise, L. W. Bell, M. A. Ewing

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Dryland salinity, soil acidification and weed herbicide resistance challenge traditional agricultural production systems in south Australia. The pasture component of such systems rely on annuals like Trifolium subterraneum and Medicago spp. Replacing annual with perennial pastures allows some redress of the sustainability challenges, but few well-adapted species are available (Ewing & Dolling 2003). A range of perennial species are under evaluation to supplement current options. Some of these new perennial pastures may need modified production systems that allow full expression of their productive potential, especially when integrated with annual crops including cereals, pulses and oil seeds. Integrated systems rely on …