Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Flint, Michigan Drinking Water Crisis, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Briefly covers the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis including providing some background, a timeline of events, and key takeaways from the perspective of public policy.

This article was originally prepared for distribution to students in Aiken's AECN 357 environmental and natural resources law course.

Watering The Desert, Draining The Oasis: Navigating Drought, Development, And Irrigation Politics In The Draa Valley, Morocco, Jamie Fico

Theses - ALL

No abstract provided.

Analysis On Development And Risks Of China’S Food Production During 14th Five-Year Plan Period, Cuihong Yang, Kang Lin, Xiang Gao, Xikang Chen, Shouyang Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Food security is crucial to national security. Thus, it is an urgent task to figure out the potential risks that threaten China's food security during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and how to cope with those risks. This paper provides an outlook for the development of China's food production during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and then points out the potential risks faced by food production. The paper demonstrates that China's food production will achieve a steady development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and the grain output will reach more than 690 Mt by the end of the 14th …

Understanding Across The Senses: Cross-Modal Studies Of Cognition In Cetaceans, Jason N. Bruck, Adam A. Pack

Faculty Publications

Cross-modal approaches to the study of sensory perception, social recognition, cognition, and mental representation have proved fruitful in humans as well as in a variety of other species including toothed whales in revealing equivalencies that suggest that different sensory stimuli associated with objects or individuals may effectively evoke mental representations that are, respectively, object based or individual based. Building on established findings of structural equivalence in the form of spontaneous recognition of complex shapes across the modalities of echolocation and vision and behavior favoring identity echoic–visual cross-modal relationships over associative echoic–visual cross-modal relationships, examinations of transitive inference equivalencies from initially …

Hybrid Incompatibility Between Ldrosophila Virilis And D. Lummei Is Stronger In The Presence Of Transposable Elements, Dean M. Castillo, Leonie C. Moyle

Nebraska Cooperative Extension: Faculty and Staff Publications

Mismatches between parental genomes in selfish elements are frequently hypothesized to underlie hybrid dysfunction and drive speciation. However, because the genetic basis of most hybrid incompatibilities is unknown, testing the contribution of selfish elements to reproductive isolation is difficult. Here, we evaluated the role of transposable elements (TEs) in hybrid incompatibilities between Drosophila virilis and D. lummei by experimentally comparing hybrid incompatibility in a cross where active TEs are present in D. virilis (TE+) and absent in D. lummei, to a cross where these TEs are absent from both D. virilis (TE−) and D. lummei genotypes. Using genomic data, …

Spatio-Temporal Changes In Vegetation In The Last Two Decades (2001–2020) In The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region, Yuan Zou, Wei Chen, Siliang Li, Tiejun Wang, Le Yu, Min Xu, Ramesh P. Singh, Cong-Qiang Liu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

In terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation is sensitive to climate change and human activities. Its spatial-temporal changes also affect the ecological and social environment. In this paper, we considered the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region to study the spatio-temporal vegetation patterns. The detailed analysis of a moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were carried out through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Our results show a slow and tortuous upward trend in the average leaf area index (LAI) in the study region for the periods 2001–2020. Specifically, Beijing had the highest LAI value, with an average of 1.64 over twenty years, followed by Hebei (1.30) and …

Global Food Insecurity And Famine From Reduced Crop, Marine Fishery And Livestock Production Due To Climate Disruption From Nuclear War Soot Injection, Lilia Xia, Alan Robock, Kim J. N. Scherrer, Cheryl S. Harrison, Benjamin Leon Bodirsky, Isabelle Weindl, Jonas Jaegermeyr, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon, Ryan F. Heneghan

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Atmospheric soot loadings from nuclear weapon detonation would cause disruptions to the Earth’s climate, limiting terrestrial and aquatic food production. Here, we use climate, crop and fishery models to estimate the impacts arising from six scenarios of stratospheric soot injection, predicting the total food calories available in each nation post-war after stored food is consumed. In quantifying impacts away from target areas, we demonstrate that soot injections larger than 5 Tg would lead to mass food shortages, and livestock and aquatic food production would be unable to compensate for reduced crop output, in almost all countries. Adaptation measures such as …

Attitudes Toward Transgenic Corn Usage Among Amish & Conservative Mennonite Farmers In Ohio, Scot Long

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Mass adoption and planting of genetically modified corn are part of the larger industrialized agricultural production system in the United States. Amish and conservative Mennonite farmers in the Holmes County settlement region offer an alternative production system often characterized by lower usage of chemical inputs, greater implementation of crop rotation, and significantly higher usage of hybrid versus GMO field corn. Moreover, the rationale among Amish/Mennonite farmers toward adoption of GMO (based on “convenience”) or rejection of GMO (based on “too many unknowns”) stems both from cultural diffusion of neighboring farms as well as variable need for nonfarm income. This article …

Manual Of Sustainable Urban Practices Towards Long-Term Conservation, Haley Kilmer

Capstone Collection

This paper analyzes how urban living and design can be detrimental to the surrounding ecosystems and how it is directly affecting the biodiversity loss of an area. To answer this question, I first did extensive background research on urbanization, climate change, and biodiversity loss as it relates to urban ecosystems. Then, the public’s perceptions were collected through surveys and interviews in order to make meaningful suggestions in the construction of an interactive, biological corridor map. The results showed that increasing the biodiversity of an urban area can help to mitigate many of the common environmental challenges associated with living in …

Strategies Of Adaptation And Coping To Climate Change Impacts Among Women Farmers In Guinayangan, Quezon, Philippines: A Life History And Comparative Approach, Miranda Salters

Capstone Collection

The unique struggles and needs of marginalized communities must be considered in a local context prior to addressing climate change mitigation on a global scale. The study uses life history interviews and focus group discussions to capture the challenges, diverse adaptation strategies, and coping mechanisms of women farmers from upland and coastal areas of Guinayangan, Quezon, Philippines. These perspectives may initiate advocacy efforts for increased support so that these agricultural livelihoods can continue to feed populations in the future, as climate change persists. Results suggest that both women from upland and coastal areas experience similar climate vulnerabilities, but the way …

Sustainable Avitourism On Curieuse Island In The Seychelles, Chesley Davis

Capstone Collection

In Seychelles, tourism is a vital part of the country’s overall economy. Increasingly, sustainable tourism is essential to conserve environments and wildlife, meet the needs of local communities and the state, and ensure the longevity of high-quality experiences for international visitors to the country. This project assesses sustainability of avitourism on Curieuse Island. The Seychelles has many endemic and pelagic birds that draw tourists from around the world, including the Seychelles Black Parrot, Seychelles Magpie Robin, and Seychelles Flycatcher. This is a mixed methods research project that entails bird biodiversity surveys, examination of birding databases, and personal observations. This study …

An Analysis Of Decolonization Efforts In Urban Agriculture: A Pathway To Indigenous Food Sovereignty And Cultural Revitalization, Sarah Fisher

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

My research focuses on applications of urban agriculture, relationships between Indigenous peoples and community-based agriculture projects, and decolonizing food systems. I provide insight on colonialist tendencies, or ways in which the marginalization of Indigenous peoples is deeply entrenched within government, educational, and other leadership settings, as a way to evaluate and restructure urban agriculture projects to serve, represent and heal Native communities. Conventional urban agriculture has many known benefits, including its capacity for food production; however, the extent to which Indigenous communities participate in and benefit from urban agriculture has not been widely studied. Ongoing exclusion of Indigenous peoples from …

An Evaluation Of Ethograms Measuring Distinct Features Of Enrichment Use By Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Julia L. Greeson, Kara I. Gabriel, John B. Mulcahy, Bonnie King Hendrickson, Susan D. Lonborg, Jay C. Holloway

Student Published Works

Environmental enrichment provides mental stimulation and minimizes abnormal behaviors in captive animals. In captive chimpanzees, individual animals may vary in the ways in which they benefit from enrichment or use enrichment devices, so investigating nuances in enrichment use may improve the welfare of captive chimpanzees. In the current study, three ethograms measuring distinct features of enrichment use (i.e., enrichment object, manipulation behavior, and social context) were evaluated by coding videos of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, WA. A total of 732 min and 58 s of video footage was coded from a larger video …

Scotus Invalidates Obama Clean Power Plan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in the case of West Virginia v. EPA that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not implement the 2016 Obama administration Clean Power Plan (CPP). This article briefly discusses the CPP, the CPP litigation, the Court's opinion in West Virginia v. EPA, and what the decision means for Biden administration climate policy.

Impacts On Fast-Start Performance: How Do Group Size And Habitat Degradation Alter The Escape Behavior Of A Schooling Coral Reef Fish?, Monica D. Bacchus

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Escaping predation is essential for species survival, but prey must effectively match their response to the perceived threat imposed by a predator. Fish evaluate their surroundings using several sensory stimuli, including olfactory, visual, auditory, and mechanical cues. A range of taxa use the fast-start response to evade predators, including fishes, sharks, and larval amphibians. While the fast-start response (rapid bursts of swimming) is extensively studied in solitary fishes, the factors that mediate the collective escape response in schools of fish have historically been investigated far less. To address this knowledge gap, the collective escape behavior and individual escape performance of …

The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Food Security Of Mississippians, Hannah Noel Irwin

Theses and Dissertations

Mississippi leads the United States in food insecurity, with 15.3% of Mississippians experiencing food insecurity in a given year. To determine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food insecurity of Mississippians, a survey containing the USDA Household Food Security Questionnaire was distributed to adult Mississippi residents. By employing the USDA Household Food Security Scale and the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Methodology, this study finds that the food insecurity rate, food insecurity gap, and squared food insecurity gap have worsened in Mississippi since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this study finds that households which were food insecure prior to March …

Valuing Angling On Reservoirs Using Benefit Transfer, Richard T. Melstrom, Mark A. Kaemingk, Nicholas W. Cole, John C. Whitehead, Christopher J. Chizinski, Kevin L. Pope

Biology Faculty Publications

Economic assessments are rarely applied to inland recreational fisheries for management purposes, especially when compared to fish, habitat, and creel assessments, yet economic assessments can provide critical information for management decisions. We provide a brief overview of economic value, key terminology, and existing economic techniques to address these issues. Benefit transfer, a technique used to measure economic value when an original analysis is not practicable, is conducted by drawing on existing estimates of economic value in similar contexts. We describe an application of benefit transfer to measure the economic value of several recreational fisheries in Nebraska, USA. We examine two …

Active Consideration Of Health And Nutritional Quality Of Food Choices, Christopher R. Gustafson

Cornhusker Economics

Everyone can be positively influenced by effective interventions promoting healthier food choices. A handful of recent papers have documented positive impacts on dietary quality resulting from interventions that remind people to consider health through prompt messages or subtle priming in supermarkets and in controlled, online experiments. These studies have focused on the impact of reminders on nutritional quality rather than explaining how reminders work. An exception, Arslain, Gustafson, and Rose (2021), collected data on multiple elements of individuals' choice processes to trace the impact of reminders on decisions, showing that reminder messages led people to consider a healthier set of …

Association Between Social Vulnerability Index And Cardiovascular Disease: A Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Study, Vardhmaan Jain, Mahmoud Al Rifai, Safi U Khan, Ankur Kalra, Fatima Rodriguez, Zainab Samad, Yashashwi Pokharel, Arunima Misra, Laurence S Sperling, Jamal S Rana, Waqas Ullah, Ankit Medhekar, Salim S Virani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background Social and environmental factors play an important role in the rising health care burden of cardiovascular disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) from US census data as a tool for public health officials to identify communities in need of support in the setting of a hazardous event. SVI (ranging from a least vulnerable score of 0 to a most vulnerable score of 1) ranks communities on 15 social factors including unemployment, minoritized groups status, and disability, and groups them under 4 broad themes: socioeconomic status, housing and transportation, minoritized groups, and …

Using Poultry To Enhance Food Security In Stann Creek, Belize, Emily Spatz

Poultry Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Food insecurity is a growing issue in developing and developed countries alike, and in countries like Belize, the prevalence of hunger has soared in recent years. Not having access to diets with sufficient calories and nutrients leads to a host of developmental issues, including stunting and cognitive delays. The purpose of this work was to create an all-encompassing manual for small-scale broiler production, with the intention of another honors student overseeing the implementation of the ideas set forth in the manual, in order to provide nourishment for the students and staff of a school in Belize. After determining that the …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, July & August 2022, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 3, Issue 5

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards & Recognition
Page 3 Resources for Student Success
Page 4 Welcome to New Faculty & Staff
Page 5 Summer Activities in CNS
Page 9 Celebrating the lives of those who touched the College
Page 10 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 12 Open PRAIRIE Data
Page 13 Snaps from he start of the semester
Page 14 Science as Art Competition

The Effects Of Physical Function And Genetics On Cognition And Blood Biomarkers In Individuals At-Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Dementias, Joshua Louis Gills

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) rates are expected to triple by the year 2050. Early detection and specific mitigation efforts are warranted to blunt the alarming rate. Physical function (PF) declines with age, but higher physical function is associated with better cognitive functioning in middle-to- older age individuals. Moreover, greater physical activity (PA) is associated with better global cognition; however, Apoliporotein e4 carriers may not gain the same benefits with exercise. Additionally, plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217) has been identified as a novel diagnostic ADRD biomarker which needs further research to examine associations with risk factors. Therefore, the aims …

Unraveling Dna And Identity: A Humanistic Perspective On Epistemologies And Ethics Of Genetic Ancestry Testing., Eve Carlisle Polley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The advent of DNA ancestry testing motivated a burst of human activities that constitute a scientific-technological-industrial-personal-social movement of immense scale, infused with epistemological and ethical questions of great and important variety. This movement has motivated many discourses in the social sciences, with study subjects ranging from the language usage of geneticists, to moral conundrums faced by test-takers, to potential ramifications in global structures of political power. At the same time, and especially in recent decades, the discourses of the comparative humanities have included with increasing frequency and urgency research and theorization about concepts and consequences of human social identities, alongside …

Using Condensed Tannin To Mitigate Tall Fescue Toxicosis, Ally Jo Grote

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Endophyte-infected (Neotyphodium coenophialum) tall fescue, [Schedonorus arundinaceus (Shreb.)] produces ergot alkaloids. Condensed tannins could bind to ergot alkaloids and render them ineffective. The first objective was to improve the health of sheep offered endophyte-infected tall fescue by binding toxins in the rumen with condensed tannins. Non-toxic novel-endophyte infected tall fescue (NE) or toxic endophyte-infected tall fescue forage was harvested, baled at targeted moisture of 55%, wrapped within 8 hours of baling with 2 layers of net wrap and 20 layers of plastic, and ensiled for at least 60 days. Prior to feeding, forages were chopped and packed into plastic trash …

Analyzing Flexibility As A Risk Management Strategy In Agricultural Systems, Jedidiah Hewlett

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Agricultural businesses deal with uncertainty of all kinds. Uncertainty arising from variability in resources, markets, human factors, and regulatory policy can be sources of significant risks. Acquiring or building flexibility in an operation is one of the ways suggested to manage risk and uncertainty—reducing the impact of negative outcomes and increasing the benefit of positive outcomes. Although flexibility has been repeatedly encouraged for businesses, the definition of flexibility and its value remains ambiguous after more than 80 years of research. Flexibility is often described as a multi-dimensional ability to effectively deal with change in the business operating environment. Flexibility can …

What Is The Value Of Ethanol To Nebraska Corn Producers?, Austin Harthoorn

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this thesis, we examine the role of local ethanol plants on net price received by Nebraskan corn growers, with net price comprised of the grain buyer’s bid onsite less the transportation cost incurred through delivery. As each farm operation is uniquely located between different sets of grain buyers, an ethanol plant impacts each grower’s net price to a different degree, depending on location. Exploring this, we use grain bid and transportation cost data based on actual ethanol plants, grain elevators, and sample farm locations in Nebraska, estimating the diversely located corn grower’s net prices received from surrounding grain buyers. …

Cecl For Financial Institutions: An Analysis Of The Scale Method, Jared Stauffer

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Released by the Federal Reserve Bank in June of 2021, the Scaled CECL Allowance for Loss Estimator (SCALE) is meant to assist community banks implementing the new Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) accounting standard. The efficacy of this method is important to community banks and financial institutions considering the use of SCALE to estimate expected future losses. Using quarterly Call Report data, two separate analyses of the SCALE method are conducted. First for qualifying community banks and second for Farm Credit Services of America, an agricultural credit association within the Farm Credit System. For the first quarter of 2022, both …

A Cross-Scale Nexus: Microbial Functional Genes In Tandem With Molecular-Level Nitrogen Fluxes And Implications For Field-Scale Biogeochemical Processes, Srusti Maddala

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen (N) biogeochemical cycling entails close networking between soil nutrients, plant species and resulting microbial communities, and abiotic factors such as temperature, moisture, and pH. To better understand transformations of N in soil microsites, which are known to be rich in N-cycling behavior, the microdialysis technique was employed to generate in situ data on temporal alterations of N during wetting-drying conditions in both the field and laboratory. The objectives were to 1) determine the lifespan of the microdialysis technique in field conditions, 2) evaluate the ability of the method to yield N fluxes that would be differential between the two …

Review Curriculum Evaluation Of Physical Education Specialty Under The Perspective Of Teacher Training Certification, Gailing Han, Chunshan Zhu, Jie Cui

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

The purpose of this study was to summarize the main body, content, method and application effects of physical education curriculum evaluation, to understand the current situation of physical education curriculum evaluation in China, and to construct an evaluation index system based on teacher training professional certification. The Chinese and English databases were searched by systematic evaluation, and the retrieval time was from December 31, 2018. The research literature that met the standard were included, and qualitative analysis was conducted by subject analysis method. A total of 100 studies were included, most of which summarized the concept, content and subject of …

The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Academic Performance Of Students, Haizhi Dai, Shuisheng Xu

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

In China, many teachers and parents concern that physical activities take too much time of students, which would negatively influence students’ academic performance and the inescapable pressure of schools to produce students who meet academic standards. However, decreased physical activity participation due to the scarcity of exercises becomes prevalent in Chinese students. The correlation between students’ physical activity participation and academic achievement has raised increased attention. This study explored the relationship between students’ physical activity participation and academic performance from the perspective of humanities and sociology to explore a way to balance the two aspects for students. We conducted literature …