Tennessee Row Crop Producer Survey on Willingness to Adopt Best Management Practices

This thesis presents two separate studies focusing on best management practice (BMP) adoption by row crop producers in Middle and West Tennessee. The objective of the first study is to summarize results the survey. Survey topics included producer perceptions regarding the benefits and costs from using no-tillage planting (no-till), cover crops, and irrigation water management (IWM); respondent responsiveness to BMP cost-share payments; and producer demographic information such as household income and age. The majority of survey respondents (87%) were already planting using no-till, but only 28% knew they could receive a cost-share payment for adopting no-till. Adoption of cover crops was about 29%, and no respondent indicated they have adopted IWM.Roughly half of producers were aware of United States Department of Agriculture cost-share programs for cover crop adoption, and no producers knew cost-share payments for adopting IWM are available. Producers were responsive to increases in cost-share payments encouraging cover crop adoption; however, producer adoption of no-till and IWM was not responsive to increases in cost-share payments. Data gathered from this survey indicates Tennessee producers’ adoption and barriers to adoption of these BMPs, which could assist in designing effective conservation policies.The objective of the second study is to determine the effect of producer risk preference and other factors such as cost-share payments on willingness to adopt cover crops and no-till using a risk preference elicitation method. The same survey data was used. The results show that producers are responsive to cost-share payments for cover crop adoption, but the likelihood a producer would adopt no-till did not increase with higher cost-share payments. More risk averse producers were less likely to adopt cover crops and no-till, as were those who did not believe the survey would influence future farm programs. Younger, college educated producers were more risk tolerant than older producers without a 4-year degree. The results provide a better understanding of producer risk preferences and will guide future studies in measuring and assessing risk preferences of agricultural producers

Key Points in Preparation for Oregon Legislative Session (2024): Examining the Multifaceted Impacts of Drug Decriminalization on Public Safety, Law Enforcement, and Prosecutorial Discretion

These findings are part of a 3-year study to examine the impacts of possession of PCS law changes on: (1) law enforcement discretion, (2) prosecutorial decision-making, (3) courts/sentencing, and (4) public safety. The key findings, unless noted, represent statewide trends and impacts. Prior to M110, other statewide changes in policy, law, and historical events such as the COVID-19 lockdown/court backlog and public defense crisis also had important impacts on enforcement, prosecution/sentencing, and public safety outcomes. As such, data collected during the early implementation of M110 is not likely a reliable predictor of its ultimate impact. The data reported on below is through 1 – 2 years post-M110. Although it sheds light on important questions, it is too early to draw any definitive conclusions about long-term impacts of M110. Link to Year One Report: https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/4011

DIET INDUCED OBESITY IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED INTRAMUSCULAR FAT IN THE RECTUS FEMORIS OF RATS

INTRODUCTION A certain amount of fat is necessary for good health [1]. Excess fat is stored in fat cells that can become too large and die, causing a cascade of damaging catabolic inflammatory events [2]. Fat stored in muscle tissue due to disease, injury, age, inactivity, and obesity has been linked to metabolic dysfunction, muscle dysfunction, and mobility dysfunction [3]. Intramuscular fat is commonly quantified using a histological approach where paraffin sections are stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). During this process fat is typically dissolved during a clearing step. Empty white vacuoles are presumed to be fat cells. Oil Red O (ORO) is considered the gold standard for fat staining. ORO is a fat soluble dye used on frozen sections where fat is typically preserved. The purpose of this project was to compare the ORO frozen fat quantification protocol to the H&E frozen fat approximation, and to examine the effects of a high fat/high sucrose diet and resultant obesity on intramuscular fat in the rectus femoris muscle of Sprague Dawley rats. We hypothesized that the H&E frozen approximation protocol would give similar fat percentages to those of the ORO frozen fat quantification, and that there would be an increase of intramuscular fat in the rectus femoris muscle of obese compared to lean rats. METHODS Twenty one rectus femoris muscles were harvested from 10 month old male Sprague Dawley rats. Some (n=12) of these rats were randomized to a high fat/high sucrose diet induced obesity group and received this diet for 6 months. The rest of the animals (n=9) were fed standard chow. The tissue was fixed in 10% formalin. A section from the mid belly of the tissue was cut, mounted in OCT compound, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80 degrees. 10µm sections were cut using a cryostat at -20 degrees, and dried on slides at room temperature. Alternate slides were then stained with ORO stock solution (2.5g ORO and 400mL 99% isopropanol, heated and stirred for 2 hours, sit overnight), and ORO working solution (3 ORO stock: 2 distilled water, refrigerated at 4 degrees for 10 minutes). Sections were rinsed in distilled water for 3x5 minutes each, quickly rinsed in 60% isopropanol, stained for 20 minutes in the ORO working solution, then quickly rinsed in 60% isopropanol, followed by distilled water. Sections were counterstained for 1 minute in Harris hematoxylin, rinsed in tap water, and coverslipped with glycerol gelatin. The rest of the slides were stained with a standard H&E protocol. ORO sections were then imaged at 5x magnification and images were analyzed using a custom MatLab program. Statistical comparisons of the obese and lean rat’s ORO identified fat percentages were made using Kruskal-Wallis tests with α=0.05. RESULTS Visually the H&E frozen fat approximation protocol did not reveal similar fat identification to that of the ORO frozen fat quantification. ORO also highlighted more profiles that appeared to be associated with blood vessels and some localization of lipids within small muscle fibers that was not obvious in the H&E stained sections. Based on the ORO identified fat percentages the intramuscular fat content in the obese rats was statistically greater than the intramuscular fat in the lean rats (p<0.05). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS From these results the ORO frozen fat quantification is an improved method when compared to the H&E frozen fat approximation. From the ORO pilot results, it also seems that there is an increase of intramuscular fat in the rectus femoris muscle of the obese rats compared to the lean rats

Impacts of Successive Drug Legislation Shifts: Qualitative Observations from Oregon Law Enforcement [Interim Report: Year One]

This report provides the initial findings of Year 1 of a multi year project to understand the effects of successive drug policy efforts in Oregon, with special focus given to Ballot Measure 110 (M110)

The Right to the Sustainable Smart City

Environmental concerns have driven an interest in sustainable smart cities, through the monitoring and optimisation of networked infrastructures. At the same time, there are concerns about who these interventions and services are for, and who benefits. HCI researchers and designers interested in civic life have started to call for the democratisation of urban space through resistance and political action to challenge state and corporate claims. This paper contributes to an emerging body of work that seeks to involve citizens in the design of sustainable smart cities, particularly in the context of marginalised and culturally diverse urban communities. We present a study involving co- designing Internet of Things with urban agricultural communities and discuss three ways in which design can participate in the right to the sustainable smart city through designing for the commons, care, and biocultural diversity

Species differences in egocentric navigation : the effect of burrowing ecology on a spatial cognitive trait in mice

This study was funded by start-up funds from Oklahoma State University to P.C.Efficient navigation is a critical component of fitness for most animals. While most species use a combination of allocentric (external) and egocentric (internal) cues to navigate through their environment, subterranean environments present a unique challenge in that visually mediated allocentric cues are unavailable. The relationship between egocentric spatial cognition and species differences in ecology is surprisingly understudied. We used a maze-learning task to test for differences in egocentric navigation between two closely related species of mice, the eastern house mouse, Mus musculus musculus, and the mound-building mouse, Mus spicilegus. The two species are sympatric in Eastern Europe and overlap in summer habitat use but differ dramatically in winter space use: whereas house mice occupy anthropogenic structures, mound-building mice survive the winter underground in intricate burrow systems. Given species differences in burrowing ecology, we predicted that M. spicilegus would learn the maze significantly faster than M. m. musculus when tested in complete darkness, a condition that eliminated allocentric spatial information and served as a proxy for the subterranean environment. We found strong support for this prediction. In contrast, the two species performed equally well when different mice were tested in the same maze with lights on. This context-specific species difference in spatial cognition suggests that enhanced egocentric navigation in M. spicilegus is an adaptation to the burrow systems on which the overwinter survival of young mound-building mice depends. The results of this study highlight the importance of ecological adaptations to the evolution of cognitive traits.PostprintPeer reviewe

Herbicide Options to Control Naturalised Infestations of Cereus uruguayanus in Rangeland Environments of Australia

While there are many high profile Opuntioid cactus species invading rangeland environments in Australia, Cereus uruguayanus Ritt. ex Kiesl. has also naturalised and formed large and dense infestations at several locations. With no herbicides registered for control of C. uruguayanus in Australia, the primary aim of this study was to identify effective herbicides to control it using a range of techniques. This involved a large screening trial of twelve herbicides and four techniques, followed by a rate refinement trial for cut stump applications and another to test residual herbicides. Despite most treatments (except monosodium methylarsonate (MSMA)) taking a long time to kill plants, at least one effective herbicide was identified for basal bark (triclopyr/picloram), cut stump (aminopyralid/metsulfuron-methyl, glyphosate, metsulfuron-methyl, triclopyr/picloram, triclopyr/picloram/aminopyralid), stem injection (glyphosate, MSMA, triclopyr/picloram/aminopyralid) and foliar applications (aminopyralid/metsulfuron-methyl, MSMA, triclopyr, triclopyr/picloram/aminopyralid) due to their ability to kill both small and large plants. Ground application of residual herbicides was less conclusive with neither hexazinone nor tebuthiuron causing adequate mortality at the rates applied. This study has identified effective herbicides for the control of C. uruguayanus using several techniques, but further research is needed to refine herbicide rates and develop integrated management strategies for a range of situations and infestation sizes and densities