Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mapping California Rice Using Optical And Sar Data Fusion With Phenological Features In Google Earth Engine, Li Wenzhao, Hesham El-Askary, Daniele C. Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

California, known for its diverse agriculture, is also a major producer of rice, especially in its northern regions in Sacramento River Valley. Traditional methods, predominantly reliant on optical-based satellite imagery, encounter limitations due to atmospheric interference and sensor resolution. The ability of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to penetrate atmospheric distortions and exhibit high sensitivity to vegetation structure presents a distinct advantage over optical-based methods. Utilizing Optical and SAR data fusion, this study advances the enhanced pixel-based phenological feature composite (Eppf) method using SVM classification algorithm, which can track phenological changes and patterns, providing valuable insights for agricultural planning and management. …

Utilizing Nebraska Case Farms To Analyze Farm-Level Income And Policy Changes, Tatum R. Brunkow, Bradley D. Lubben, Glennis Mcmclure

Cornhusker Economics

Agricultural producers, professionals, and policymakers often look to long-run projections for the agricultural industry as they make business and policy decisions. They can look to three different baseline projections that are produced by the United States Department of Agriculture, the Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). These baselines provide a 10-year outlook for the agricultural industry from prices and inventories for crops and livestock to international markets and income and expenditures. While this information provides insight into what direction agriculture may move, it can be hard to see the impact at the state …

Depaul Discoveries Volume 12 Cover Art, Katherine Petralia

DePaul Discoveries

No abstract provided.

Development Of A 16s Reference Library For Edna Metabarcoding The Freshwater Fishes Of Western Ecuador., Hannah M. Willis, Olivia G. Schweikart, Windsor E. Aguirre

DePaul Discoveries

This project examines the use of the 16S locus to amplify neotropical freshwater fishes native to Western Ecuador in a newly created 16S reference library for DNA barcoding and eDNA metabarcoding applications. Among the orders Characiformes, Siluriformes, Cichliformes, Gobiiformes, Cryprinodontiformes, Gymnotiformes, and Perciformes, a compendium of 105 specimens were sequenced, with 43 representing new 16S sequences previously unavailable on Genbank.

Unraveling The Neural Basis Of Emotions: Advancing Understanding With Ecologically Valid Paradigms And High-Resolution Intracranial Eeg, Tiankang Xie

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Background

Emotion arises from integrating information about the external world with memories of past experiences, current homeostatic states, and future goals. They play a vital role in regulating our thoughts, feelings and behaviors, significantly impacting our mental health. Thus, it is important to understand the neurobiological mechanisms that give rise to emotions. While there has been considerable work investigating the neural basis of emotions, progress has been hampered by several methodological limitations. For example, prior work has relied on relatively simple and isolated stimuli, which often fail to effectively capture the dynamic and multifaceted nature of emotional experiences in real-life …

Environmental Monitoring Of Heavy Metals Status In Semiarid Lands Of Northeastern Algeria, Rania Gacem, Hana Souahi, Chemseddine Fehdi, Abderrezzeq Chebout

Journal of Bioresource Management

With the rapid development of industry, heavy metal contamination is becoming among the most important environmental problems causing worldwide concern. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of soil heavy metal pollution in the semi-arid areas of Northeast Algeria. To evaluate the ecological state of soils, we investigated fifteen sites. The level of heavy metals (HMs) toxicity and soil characteristics likr pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter, calcium carbonate, calcium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium were assessed during this study. The results showed that the mean values of heavy metals were as follows in ppm: Zn (41.197 …

Measuring The Emotional Impact Of Climate Change Images On Tourists: A Neuromarketing Study., Carmen Kraaijkamp, Patricia Picazo Peral, Sergio Moreno Gil

ITSA 2022 Gran Canaria - 9th Biennial Conference: Corporate Entrepreneurship and Global Tourism Strategies After Covid 19

No abstract provided.

Shark-Diving Tourism In The Macaronesian Archipelagos: Challenges And Opportunities, Pedro Gonzáles Mantilla

ITSA 2022 Gran Canaria - 9th Biennial Conference: Corporate Entrepreneurship and Global Tourism Strategies After Covid 19

The Macaronesian region is typically heavily exploited by fisheries; however, in recent years, marine wildlife tourism has become popular and a shark-diving industry has emerged, potentially presenting an alternative for the sustainable use of sharks. Combining a literature review with interviews with dive operators conducting shark encounters in the Macaronesian archipelagos, we provide an overview of the challenges and conservation potential of shark-diving tourism for these territories. Owing to the regular presence of important shark species for tourism and the growth of the scuba-diving industry, shark-diving has potential to expand over the region. Yet, the overlap between European industrial fishing …

Students’ Knowledge Of And Attitudes Toward Dairy Production: A Survey Methodology Report, Heather Akin, Babatope Akinyemi, Julia Mcquillan, Tami Brown-Brandl

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

This report presents findings from a pilot survey conducted among undergraduate and graduate students (N = 410) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln about students’ perspectives on technology usage, consumption, and sustainability in dairy production systems. An interdisciplinary research team developed the survey instrument and report. The main purpose of this pilot study was to create and administer survey items to support further research on experiential education and outreach opportunities related to robotics in small-scale dairy production and rural economic development. Descriptive findings indicated that most students had some familiarity with dairy production and the nutritional aspects of dairy products …

Rhaphiolepis Indica Fruit Extracts For Control Fusarium Solani And Rhizoctonia Solani, The Causal Agents Of Bean Root Rot, Ahmed A. Heflish, Said I. Behiry, Abdulaziz A. Al-Askar, Yiming Su, Ahmed Abdelkhalek, Mohamed K. Gaber

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Numerous strategies have been suggested to reduce dependence on synthetic products, such as physical, microbial, and natural methods. Among the natural remedies, plant extracts have emerged as a popular option owing to their eco-friendly character, ease of degradation, and harmless nature to humans. In our study, we used the acetone and hexane extracts of Rhaphiolepis indica fruit to combat two fungal pathogens that were isolated from infected bean plants and showed root rot symptoms. The two pathogens were confirmed to be pathogenic by pathogenicity assays conducted in vivo. The morphological and molecular identification by ITS-region sequencing revealed that the two …

Improving The Land Trust Model’S Impact On Environmental Conservation In Northern California, Peter Talbot

Master's Projects and Capstones

For years, the land trust sector of California and much of the United States has operated with a dollars and acres mentality that has prioritized fundraising as a result of acreage protected. Within California, nearly 5.8 million acres of land have been protected by 132 land trusts throughout the state. To accommodate for the diverse cross-section of land and the many needs of the population, land trusts take on numerous shapes and sizes. A unique aspect of this diversity is the rich agricultural and natural spaces found throughout the state. This mix of land and variety of land uses has …

The History Of Emission Trading Programs And The Future Of Agricultural Sequestration Carbon Offsets, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Agricultural carbon credits based on sequestering (i.e. storing) additional soil carbon are a relatively recent phenomenon in the effort to address global warming. Businesses have purchased ag sequestration carbon credits to help meet their greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction pledges. Ag sequestration carbon credits are difficult and expensive to accurately measure and usually represent only temporary GHG reductions, not permanent ones. A major USDA study is underway to examine the advantages and disadvantages of ag sequestration carbon credits and their use in achieving voluntary business GHG reduction plans. This paper takes a quick look at (1) the development of the acid …

Nutrient Optimization For Vegetable Production Under Decoupled Aquaponics Using Brackish Water, Salma Walid Hany Ahmed Abdelfattah

Theses and Dissertations

As the world moves to more sustainable agriculture methods in the agribusiness industry, decoupled aquaponics is recognized as one of the newest techniques currently being utilized to achieve more local food security. As the topic is still freshly new within the industry, a finite number of publications and studies have been made that address the topic hands-on with its many variables. Subsequently, in this paper, an experiment was conducted to assess the most optimized production conditions of both lacinato kale (Brassica oleracea var.palmifolia) and Swiss chard Bright Light (Beta vulgaris ssp. Cicla var. flavescens) plants through the utilization of a …

Using Ai-Generated Suggestions From Chatgpt To Optimize Clinical Decision Support, Siru Liu, Aileen P Wright, Barron L Patterson, Jonathan P Wanderer, Robert W Turer, Scott D Nelson, Allison B Mccoy, Dean F Sittig, Adam Wright

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: To determine if ChatGPT can generate useful suggestions for improving clinical decision support (CDS) logic and to assess noninferiority compared to human-generated suggestions.

METHODS: We supplied summaries of CDS logic to ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for question answering that uses a large language model, and asked it to generate suggestions. We asked human clinician reviewers to review the AI-generated suggestions as well as human-generated suggestions for improving the same CDS alerts, and rate the suggestions for their usefulness, acceptance, relevance, understanding, workflow, bias, inversion, and redundancy.

RESULTS: Five clinicians analyzed 36 AI-generated suggestions and 29 human-generated suggestions …

Development And Issues Of Biotech Seed Industry In China, Peijuan Chi, Hualing Xie, Ping Zhao, Fang Chen, Ning Wu, Zhixi Tian, Weicai Yang, Yanping Yang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Biotech seed industry is a strategic core industry. Biotechnology combined with digital technology has promoted the seed industry into an intelligent era, and the breeding paradigm has changed from “experimental selection” to “computational selection”. Biotech seed industry has become a research and development intensive industry, and the market is highly concentrated, which is controlled by large multinational enterprises. The scientific and technological output of China and the United States is in the first echelon, and the number of papers and authorized patents ranks among the top two in the world. From the perspective of core competitiveness, the United States is …

Closing Racial Disparity By Dismantling Constructs Of Fear - A Practical Methodology For Learning To Swim, Dane W. Wolfrom, Christine L. Snellgrove, Marisol A. Rivera, Keisha Laguer Vandessppooll, Emily D. Feliciano

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

African American, Black, Hispanic, Latino, and low-socioeconomic communities have lower swimming ability and higher relative drowning rates than White and high-socioeconomic communities, distinguishing the former as high-priority populations to engage with effective learn-to-swim programming. This article demonstrates how prioritizing the reduction of fear-producing brain processes while learning to swim can result in 79.5% of high-priority population non-swimmers being able to jump into deep water, roll onto their backs and either float or tread for 60 seconds, and swim 25 yards after an average of 14 practice sessions. Practical explanations of four key components— water exploration, structured games, emulating coaches, and …

Racist Or Radical? The Strange Case Of Robert Moses And The Building Of New York City's Aquatics Infrastructure, Steven N. Waller Ph.D., James H. Bemiller J.D., Jason L. Scott Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Who was Robert Moses? In this article, we want to cast a bright light on Robert Moses as a visionary urban planner, which included the comprehensive planning of the outdoor and indoor aquatic infrastructure for New York City. Second, we want to highlight some of his administration's significant accomplishments and challenges in providing aquatics opportunities for diverse populations, including people of color. Finally, we aspire to illustrate what happens when officials with power and authority in local government are permitted to operate without scrutiny and are unbeholden to a meaningful series of checks and balances. Robert Moses’ tenure as a …

A Leisure Model: Barriers And Black Womxn Collegiate Swimmers, Tiffany Monique Quash

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

There remains a gap in the literature about the experiences of Black Womxn Collegiate Swimmers (hereafter referred to as BWCS) and the application of the leisure constraints model. Whether research has been conducted with Black Womxn Swimmers enrolled in a swimming course while using an autoethnographic lens (Norwood, 2010) or the representation of one Black Womxn Swimmer from a Predominantly White Institution (Quash, 2018), minimal knowledge is known about this specific demographic representative of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and the barriers they experience. Using a qualitative methodological approach to understand the leisure constraints …

Third Diversity In Aquatics Special Issue, Angela K. Beale-Tawfeeq, Steven N. Waller Ph.D., Tiffany M. Quash Phd

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Front matter - none available

“Pool: A Social History Of Segregation Exhibition” Exploring Social Justice Through The Lens Of Water Safety Awareness And Art-Based Education, Angela K. Beale-Tawfeeq Ph.D., Mph, Tiffany Monique Quash Ph.D., Knolan Rawlins Ph.D., Victoria Prizzia, Miriam Lynch Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Art exhibitions, with a focus on water safety and drowning prevention, are rarely seen as a medium to address social justice and public health, or water safety awareness and drowning prevention efforts in communities. Globally, data have shown drowning is considered a “neglected public health threat” (World Health Organization, 2021, CDC, 2023). Additionally, reports have shown that across the globe there are demographic groups of people impacted by drowning, historical traumas, and social determinants, also impacting some communities that are at greater risk (WHO 2021, CDC, 2023). Although there are national and international efforts to address the importance of water …

Blue-Mindfulness Training: A Story Of Restorative Justice Decolonizing And Re-Indigenizing Communal Relationships With Water, Thaddeus Gamory, Miriam Lynch Ph.D., A. Udaya Thomas, Angela K. Beale-Tawfeeq Ph.D., Mph

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This article aims to introduce and describe the development of the concept of Blue-Mindfulness Training^TM, which was created and designed by Thaddeus Gamory and supported by research and the experience of other experts in the field. Drawing from the author’s and others' practical experience, the authors present a "Voice from the Field" perspective on creating and developing the Blue-Mindfulness^TM . This Instructional Framework, coined by Mr. Thaddeus Gamory Blue-Mindfulness^TM, addresses the impacts of historical racial discrimination and trauma in BIPOC communities, specifically on marginalized African American communities while promoting a communal and safe relationship with …

Self-Reported Water Competency Skills At A Historically Black College & University And The Potential Impact Of Additional Hbcu-Based Aquatic Programming, Knolan C. Rawlins Ph.D., Shaun M. Anderson Ed.D, Tiffany Monique Quash Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This article provides an analysis of self-reported water competency skills at a Historically Black University (HBCU). A survey was administered to undergraduate students who lived on campus at one HBCU. Of the 254 respondents that reported the ability to swim, only 187 respondents self-reported the ability to swim and the ability to perform water competency skills. The biggest discrepancy occurred within individuals that identified as Black or African American. In this group, 142 out of 250 participants proclaimed the ability to swim. However, the number of Black or African Americans that could swim dropped to 84 when researchers operationally defined …

Preliminary Characterization And Functional Validation Of Pre-Erythrocytic Vaccine Candidates For The Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Vivax, Justin Lee Nicholas Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

RTS,S/AS01, vaccine targeting malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum, used in moderate to high malaria transmission, provides hope for pre-erythrocytic (PE) subunit malaria vaccine development. Despite this vaccine advance, efforts to develop an efficacious vaccine against the neglected parasite Plasmodium vivax have lagged. In addition, there exists a gap in our understanding of PE antigens that can induce broadly-neutralizing antibodies. In this dissertation, we provide the preliminary characterization of vaccine candidates targeting the PE of P. vivax. Through transcriptomic profiling data and a target product profile, we identified critical P. vivax antigens (SSP3, SPECT-1, and M2-MAEBL) that can potentially be targets …

Animal Communication And Sentience, Catia Correia-Caeiro, Katja Liebal

Animal Sentience

Segundo-Ortin & Calvo (S&C) argue for sentience in plants on the basis of several studies of what they describe as "cognitive abilities" in plants. As other commentaries (e.g., Brooks Pribac, 2023; Damasio & Damasio, 2023; ten Cate, 2023) have pointed out, however, there is some misuse of several concepts, and a lack of evidence for sentience. We try to clarify three questions in S&C’s discussion: (1) How is communication defined and conceptualised in animal research? (2) Is plant communication comparable to animal communication? (3) Is communication (or the process we see in plants) a good basis for inferring sentience in …

A Review Of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals, Nadia G. Dresscher-Lambertus

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Why Agriculture Productivity Falls: The Political Economy Of Agrarian Transition In Developing Countries, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir

Purdue University Press Books

Why Agriculture Productivity Falls: The Political Economy of Agrarian Transition in Developing Countries offers a new explanation for the decline in agricultural productivity in developing countries. Transcending the conventional approaches to understanding productivity using agricultural inputs and factors of production, this work brings in the role of formal and informal institutions that govern transactions, property rights, and accumulation. This more robust methodology leads to a comprehensive, well-balanced lens to perceive agrarian transition in developing countries. It argues that the existing process of accumulation has resulted in nonsustainable agriculture because of market failures—the result of asymmetries of power, diseconomies of scale, …

Iconoclasts And Counter Terrorism Against State Organized Terror: A Study Of Perspectives In Nigerian History And Drama, Adebisi Ademakinwa, Saheed Bello

International Review of Humanities Studies

The paper assesses the issue of terrorism as a social reality present in the Nigerian state from its origination and the questions treated by the paper among others include: what dimensions did the occurrences of terrorism take on Nigerian socio-political sphere? What are the counter measures taken by individual and groups in dealing with state organized terrorism? What are the dimensions state organized terrorism take in the modern Nigerian state? Lekan Balogun‟s Ogun Skugga is used primarily while other literary works are used to supplement. The paper argues that the state organized terrorism was a surreptitious method of coercion adopted …

A Remote Sensing Approach To Assess The Historical Invasion Of Phragmites Australis In A Brackish Coastal Marsh, Jason S. Hagani, John Y. Takekawa, Steven C. Chappell, Richelle L. Tanner, Adrienne R. Ernst, Karin M. Kettenring

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction: Coastal estuarine wetlands provide important habitats for a variety of endemic flora and fauna but are particularly vulnerable to biological invasions. Regular monitoring of changes in these vulnerable wetlands has become increasingly important for effective management, especially considering threats from climate change effects and human disturbance. Historical analyzes of plant invasions may guide targeted management strategies to eradicate harmful species. Estimating the distribution of invasive species has never been more accessible with the improved availability of high-resolution data and innovations in remote sensing, estimating the distribution of invasive species has never been more accessible.

Methods: We assessed the spread …

Rural Development Hubs: A Possibility For Nebraska?, Marilyn R. Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

The Aspen Institute, Community Strategies Group conducted an analysis of 43 Rural Development Hubs from across the country to discover their strategies, organizational structures, regional roles, and practices. Their aim was to learn how rural regions can help investors, policymakers and other local and regional decision-makers better serve their regions. The following provides an overview of their findings detailed in the report: Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America’s Rural Innovation Infrastructure. The report provides an opportunity for further discussion on the potential role of Rural Development Hubs in Nebraska. Rural Development Hubs are defined as a “place-rooted organization working hand-in -glove …

Using Neural Signals To Investigate Athlete Burnout, Mathew R. Hammerstrom, Thomas D. Ferguson, Hendrik L. Pepler, Anthony Pluta, Gordon Binsted, Olave Krigolson

Journal for Sports Neuroscience

Objective: In the present study, we examined the relationships between athlete burnout, brain function, and self-assessment of performance, and how these relationships can be quantified using mobile electroencephalography (mEEG). Specifically, we performed this study to determine whether mEEG can be utilized as an objective measure of athlete burnout. In addition, we sought to determine whether there was any relationship between athlete burnout and athlete self-assessment of performance while controlling for our neural results.

Methods: We tested these relationships in a sample of high-performance athletes – whereby we had athletes complete an mEEG assessment and also had the athletes complete a …