Data for Services for Children of All Abilities in Libraries (SCALE) project

The University of Kentucky, in collaboration with the University of Missouri and Emporia State University, and in partnership with the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives, the State Library of Kansas, the State Library of Missouri, the Kansas State Department of Education, the Kentucky Department of Education, and the Kentucky Governor’s Office of Early Childhood, engaged in a four-year exploratory stage, multi-state, Research in Service to Practice project investigating the effectiveness of library services, practices, and behaviors effective for serving children with disabilities and/or developmental delays who span ages birth to 5-years. Aligned with the IMLS agency-level Promote Lifelong Learning goal and the continuous learning for families and individuals with diverse backgrounds and needs objective, this project was designed to gather evidence to support the value of libraries as community resources for individuals with disabilities and also to provide information to help librarians better tailor services and programs to meet the needs of young children with disabilities and/or developmental delays as well as the families, educators, and interventionists who care for those children. Project data included in this data set are as follows: 129 caregiver survey responses and the following transcripts: 10 caregiver interviews, 21 child interviews, 8 library director interviews, 8 focus group interviews with a total of 14 Early Intervention Service Coordinators, 20 children’s librarian interviews, 12 think-aloud (video elicitation) interviews of librarians describing planned and in-the-moment decision-making in programs for children, 1 interview of an administrator at a site where a library provides outreach programming, and 1 interview with a school district director of special education. Additional data collected but not shared include audio files of all interviews, video files and field notes from 27 program observations

More Than Fiber: Forage Carbohydrates Affecting Animal Performance

Forages are well known as an important source of fiber in livestock diets. However, their carbohydrate contribution is more than fiber. Forage grasses and legumes supply sugars, fructans, and other water-soluble carbohydrates as well as soluble fiber that behave very differently than starch in the rumen. With a focus on ruminants, we will explore the forage supply, and ruminal and animal impacts

Cytological and Agronomic Evaluation of Interspecific Hybrids Between \u3cem\u3eTrifolium repens\u3c/em\u3e L and \u3cem\u3eT. Occidentale\u3cem\u3e coombe

Trifolium occidentale is a diploid wild relative of T. repens with adaptation to dry, saline coastal habitats. Transfer of drought and salt-tolerant adaptive traits from this potential source of germplasm to T. repens could be valuable if interspecific hybridization can be achieved efficiently. To achieve hybridisation, 4x plants of T. occidentale were generated through colchicine chromosome doubling. Interspecific 4x F1 plants were achieved without embryo rescue. F2 populations and backcross (BC) hybrids to white clover were also efficiently achieved. Although male and female fertility in primary F1 and F2 hybrids were lower than in white clover, they were adequate to produce large amounts of seed from small numbers of inflorescences. Thus, early generation pre-breeding interspecific hybrid populations can be readily developed, opening the way for transfer of traits from T. occidentale to white clover. For effective introgression (backcross) breeding, it is also essential that interspecific chromosome pairing and recombination occur. In this study, it was apparent that chromosome pairing was occurring not only between T. occidentale and T. repens subgenomes, but also between the ancestral subgenomes of T. repens. Thus, interspecific hybridization has the potential for major genome recombination and opens the way for introgression of traits from T. occidentale into white clover. Eighty hybrid families, comprising backcross one (BC1), backcross two (BC2) and their inter-crosses, were evaluated in the field and compared with eight commercial T. repens cultivars and nine T. repens x T. uniflorum backcrosses under three natural summer droughts. Some hybrid families performed as well as, or better than, elite cultivars and had superior recovery after drought periods. Selected plants were inter-crossed to further reshuffle the inter-specific chromosomes for introgression

History of Endophytic Toxicosis and Novel Variety Solutions

Associations of Epichloe endophytes with tall fescue [Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb). Darbush.] and perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) form the basis for the known science and ecology of mutualistic, fungal endophytes, and especially their impact on livestock. In the USA, millions of acres are endophyte infected today due mainly to planting ‘Kentucky 31’ to reduce soil erosion. Health problems emerged later among animals grazing the grass. These toxicity symptoms were listed under the general term ‘Fescue Toxicosis’. Research demonstrated that ergot alkaloids produced by the mutualism were mainly responsible. Developing endophyte-free versions of major varieties reduced host grass persistence and performance. Farmers seemed stuck with a classic dilemma: animal health or pasture persistence? However, research found that naturally occurring, nontoxic endophyte strains (e.g., “novel”) could be isolated and reinfected into elite grass varieties. Novel varieties restored persistence with none of the toxic alkaloids. The development and commercialization of the first novel endophyte tall fescue variety, Jesup MaxQ, is reported here. Other varieties were developed, and the seed trade now recognizes 3 variety types: toxic, endophyte-free, or novel. However, seed sales of novels are still comparatively low, and The Alliance for Grassland Renewal was formed to advance their use

Effects of Incorporation of Sainfoin (\u3ci\u3eOnobrychis viciafolia\u3c/i\u3e Scop.) with Cool Season Grasses on \u3ci\u3ein vitro\u3c/i\u3e Digestibility and CH4 Emission

Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciafolia Scop.) is an important non-bloating perennial leguminous forage. The tannins in sainfoin alter protein metabolism in the rumen and have been implicated in altering both nitrous oxide and methane emissions. However, the effect of sainfoin when mixed with cool-season forages is unknown. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the in-vitro fermentation of sainfoin hay mixed with two other perennial cool-season forages, meadow bromegrass and orchardgrass at five ratios (0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:50, and 100:0). Data on dry matter disappearance (DMD), neutral detergent fiber disappearance (NDFD), gas production (GP) methane (CH4) emissions, and ammonia production were collected 48 h post incubation. Ruminal fluid was sourced from three heifers fed with forage hay. Incubations were conducted with and without PEG (polyethylene glycol) as PEG negates the biological activity of tannins. Sainfoin had a higher nutritive value than the other two grass species as evidenced by the higher proportion of total nitrogen and lower proportion of ADF and NDF. The change in DMD, ammonia-N, NDFD, GP, and CH4 emissions between sainfoin and grass only hay were 3.1, 9.2, -36.8, -1.76, and -1.2% respectively with the intermediate results for the mixture. The inclusion of sainfoin with cool-season grasses has positive effects on ruminal fermentation and lowered in vitro methane emissions as compared to grass alon

Identification of Hyperspectral Characteristics of The Main Plants in \u3ci\u3eSeriphidium transiliense\u3c/i\u3e Desert Grassland

Ground hyperspectral images of sericite–Artemisia desert grassland in different seasons were obtained by a soc710 VP imaging spectrometer. Analysis of variance was used to extract the main species Seriphidium transiliense, Ceratocarpus arenarius, and Petrosimonia sibirica and the spectral characteristic parameters and vegetation indices of bare land in different seasons. On this basis, Fisher discriminant analysis was used to divide the samples into a training set and test set according to a ratio of 7:3. The spectral characteristic parameters and vegetation indices were used to identify the three main plants and bare land. Results showed that under Fisher discriminant analysis, whether using the spectral characteristic parameters or vegetation indices, the identification model established by the vegetation indices had the best discrimination accuracy for the test set samples of S. transiliense, C. arenarius, P. sibirica and bare land. Although the total discrimination accuracy of the test set samples exceeded 80% in different seasons, the identification model established by the vegetation indices had the best discrimination, reaching 100.00%, 95.60%, 100.00% and 95.90%, respectively, and a total accuracy of 98.89%

Drought Tolerance Dissection and Molecular Breeding in Alfalfa

Drought stress is one of the leading impediments that limit the productivity of global alfalfa (Medicago sativa). The underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms for drought tolerance in alfalfa remain largely unclear. In order to fully reveal the transcriptional changes of alfalfa in response to abiotic stress, the alfalfa transcriptome database under mannitol (simulated drought stress), NaCl (simulated salt stress), or exogenous ABA application was built via various RNA-seq technologies. Through further screening of the transcriptome database, a number of genes significantly induced by drought stress, such as the Nuclear Transport Factor 2-like (MsNTF2L), Drought-Induced Unknown Protein 1 (MsDIUP1), and MsNST1, were identified. These three genes were transferred into alfalfa by overexpression and RNAi techniques, and their physiological characteristics and transcriptional level response were synthetically studied. Alfalfa MsNTF2L-OE plants have been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture of China to carry out the field test in Gansu Province. Furthermore, we constructed a GWAS population and obtained 50 excellent plants with strong drought tolerance and high hay-yield. These studies provide a theoretical foundation for drought-tolerant molecular breeding of alfalfa

THE NATURE OF ALBANIAN NASAL-STOP SEQUENCES: PHONETIC, PHONOLOGICAL, SOCIOLINGUISTIC & HISTORICAL BEHAVIOR

The Albanian language is relatively unique among the Indo-European languages with its word initial nasal-stop sequences. Despite broad characterizations, the phonetic, phonological, and sociolinguistic properties of these sequences have not been analyzed with the same rigor as languages with similar sequences. I employ phonetic, perceptual dialectological and historical methods to examine not only how these clusters are employed by speakers in today’s Albanian linguistic landscape, but also to the historical mechanisms and timing of the development of these clusters and their variants within Albanian. With a combined spectral and aerodynamic analysis, I have identified that these clusters are phonemically composed of a discrete nasal and stop, but phonetically are highly variable and do not fit neatly into any partially-nasal category outlined by previous research. In folk linguistics, the variants of these sequences are socially but not phonemically contrastive. This suggests a partially-nasal system in transition, but also challenges our categorical framework for partially-nasal sequences, which is currently uncorroborated by perceptual studies

Effects of Intrinsic Tannins on Metabolome During Sainfoin Ensiling

Condensed tannins (CT) from sainfoin have a high capacity to inhibit proteolysis. The objective of the present study was to investigated the effects of CT (following supplementation of deactivated CT with polyethylene glycol [PEG]) on metabolome during sainfoin ensiling. As results, in total, 510 metabolites were identified after 60 d of sainfoin ensiling, with 33 metabolites were annotated in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. Among those metabolites, phospholipids were the most abundant (72.7% of total 33 metabolites). In addition, 10 up-regulated and 23 down-regulated metabolites, respectively, were identified in the PEG treated group when compared with the control group, after 60 d of ensiling (p \u3c 0.05). Pediococcus (correlated with 20 metabolites, R2 \u3e 0.88, p \u3c 0.05) and Lactobacillus (correlated with 16 metabolites, R2 \u3e 0.88, p \u3c 0.05) were the bacteria most correlated with metabolites. The results suggested antagonistic effects between Lactobacillus and Pediococcus during ensiling. The proteolysis decreased partly due to CT inhibiting Pediococcus activity during ensiling, with Pediococcus being significantly and positively correlated with dopamine after 60 d of ensiling (R2=0.8857, p \u3c 0.05)

Tannins in Perennial Legume and Forb Functional Forages

Feed is the greatest input cost for cattle producers. The studies summarized here employed non-bloating, tannin-containing irrigated perennial legume pastures or hay of legumes or a hydrolysable tannin-containing forb that were grown in the Mountain West USA, with non-tannin legume, grass, or feedlot treatments for comparison. Cattle grazing legume pastures or fed legume or forb hays had greater intake, gain and nitrogen retention, and in some cases, reduced enteric methane emissions compared with grass pastures or hay, and methane emissions were not different from feedlot-fed cattle