Agricultural Producers\u27 Motivations and Challenges With Improving Soil Health in Utah

The Utah Soil Health Program (USHP) developed a five-year project to increase understanding of how best to implement soil health practices into Utah’s diverse farming systems. Fifteen producers were selected to participate in the USHP On-Farm Soil Health Demonstration Project. During 2022, the trial’s first year, the participating farmers and ranchers were interviewed. We begin by discussing participant demographics and operation characteristics. Next, we turn to challenges the producers faced in implementing soil health practices in the IMW and then turn to motivations for the producers to enroll in the USHP trial. This will help (1) document what is currently known about soil health efforts in the IMW and (2) provide information to other producers interested in pursuing soil health on their agricultural land

Modeling Vulnerability of Juvenile June Sucker to the Piscivore Community in Utah Lake

Freshwater fish have experienced the highest extinction among all North American vertebrates, with interactions with introduced species among the leading factors of freshwater fish declines. In Utah Lake, effective hatchery stocking efforts have allowed the spawning abundance of threatened June sucker (Chasmistes liorus) to increase substantially over the past decade. Yet, recruitment of wild-spawned individuals remains very limited. A recent survivorship study of June sucker found individuals \u3c 300mm experienced exceptionally poor survival, indicating a recruitment bottleneck persists despite significant recovery efforts. Current recovery efforts of Utah Lake have broadly targeted habitat improvement; However, prior studies have shown that large predation pressures by nonnatives have achieved recruitment bottlenecks in closely related species, suggesting predation could be limiting recovery efforts. Therefore, failure to address these pressures, if present, would result in overall recovery failure. Furthermore, predator management has focused on targeting Invasive Northern Pike (Esox Lucius) for potential impacts on June sucker. However, the impacts of more abundant nonnative piscivores remain largely unspecified. Here, we use a simulation approach based on empirical data to examine the relative predation pressure on June sucker of different lengths from individual piscivore species as well as the piscivore community as a whole. We generated a distribution of the lengths of prey consumed by the piscivore community by (1) randomly selecting a piscivore species based on the observed relative abundance in catch data, (2) randomly selecting a piscivore length based on length-at-age from literature-derived estimates and age composition, and (3) randomly selecting prey lengths based on predator-specific quantile regressions of observed fish prey lengths as a function of predator length. We repeated the simulation 10,000 times to achieve a representative model. We found the overall distribution of prey items consumed was unimodal and right-skewed with a median prey length of 74mm (95% simulation interval: 13 – 238 mm) and a maximum prey length of 535mm. The third quartile (120mm) was roughly the same length as that of June Suckers at their first annulus (111mm), suggesting that most predation on June sucker is occurring during their first year. Abundant mesopredators, Channel catfish, White bass, and Black bullhead drove the vast majority of predation pressure, consuming \u3e 98% of prey items consumed, while high trophic level predators accounted for the remaining \u3c 2%. Together, these results suggest substantial predation pressure on age-0 June sucker, particularly from Channel Catfish and White Bass, may explain the limited recruitment of wild June sucker despite the steadily increasing abundance of spawning adults. Thus, predation on juvenile June Suckers presents a significant barrier to the establishment of a self-sustaining June Sucker population in Utah Lake

Digital Audience: The Bystander Effect on Social Media

In the United States, cyberbullying is a massive problem that shows no sign of slowing down. - Cyberbullying effects 46% of teens aged 13-17 (Vogels, 2022) - We are more connected than ever before - Cyberbullying will only increase as we become more connected over social medi

Fast Computation of the Friction Stir Welding Process With Model Order Reduction

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a manufacturing process used to join materials through intense heat and pressure. To better understand and optimize this FSW process, mathematical models incorporating non-Newtonian Navier-stokes equations for large plastic deformation and heat equation for the heat transfer are used to simulate the FSW process. However, solving these coupled and nonlinear equations with high accuracy requires significant computational power and time. This thesis has applied model order reduction, more precisely the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method (DEIM), to efficiently solve the FSW system in low-dimensional space. Slight modifications are made regarding the POD and DEIM treatment: (1) preconditioner matrices are used on the original full model system before applied the POD and DEIM to avoid large condition number for the POD and DEIM low-dimensional coefficient matrices, and (2) indicator matrices are used in the full model system to deal with different regions and used to generate the nonlinear data for the DEIM. The results show that this approach dramatically reduces computation time, e.g., over 250 times smaller for the DEIM compared with full model, while maintaining accuracy. This makes simulations of friction stir welding more accessible and easily combined with other machine learning techniques in future study

Establishing Mixed-Biofilm Systems: To Transform Waste Into Value-Added Products

The bioeconomy, which leverages biological agents such as microbes to convert waste (e.g., agricultural waste, wastewater, etc.) into valuable resources (Fig 1.), offers a sustainable solution to global waste challenges while generating new economic opportunities

Unmasking the Threat: Utilization of Digital Health Communication Techniques in Addressing Smoking and Vaping-Induced Lung Cancer Amongst Youth

The correlation between cigarette sales and lung cancer mortality in the United States is going down. However, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer- related deaths globally, with high mortality rates among both men and women. The research will explore the direct and indirect causes of lung cancer, emphasizing early intervention to prevent the onset of the disease

Simulating Low Gravity Particle Dynamics

Vibrating motors prevent particle arches from forming and clogging nozzle. A metal mesh under the nozzle creates an evenly dispersed stream. Nozzle is static dissipative to ensure particles have consistent path through the charging section

The Effects of Different Types of Fertilizer on the Growth of \u3ci\u3ePseudomonas frederiksbergenis\u3c/i\u3e

Which fertilizers will promote the growth of the isolate of Pseudomonas frederiksbergensis (P. frederiksbergensis)

Student-Made Reels and Real-Time News Drive Engagement up to 5x Higher Than the Norm

Social media plays a crucial role in connecting The Utah Statesman with the Utah State University community, making Instagram a key platform for news and engagement

Development of Bone Cutter

Osteoarthritis affects 3.4% of the general population and is associated with age, obesity, genetics, and female sex. Different techniques exist to treat osteoarthritis, such as autographing, total joint replacement, and joint fusion