Impact of Foliar Fungicide on Corn Under Induced Drought Stress

Since 2007, over 20 percent of the corn (Zea mays L.) acres across the Midwest received an in-season foliar fungicide application. Along with protecting plants against fungal pathogens, agrichemical companies claim that fungicides may improve plant tolerance to abiotic stress. The objective of this project was to evaluate the impact of a commercial fungicide (prothioconazole + trifloxystrobin) on corn growth and development in the presence and absence of drought. A greenhouse experiment was conducted from October through December 2015 in Columbus, OH. Pioneer corn hybrid was planted in three gallon, plastic pots, and received one of four fungicide treatments (none, or application at V4, V6 or V4 and V6). Half the plants in each fungicide treatment were exposed to a 15-day drought event beginning at V8. Height, relative chlorophyll content, and leaf stage were measured weekly, and biomass and yield potential was determined at R1 growth stage. Plant biomass was greater in the non-drought plants over the drought plants (109.7 g and 96.6 g, respectively), which may be attributed to a delay in growth caused by the drought event. Fungicide treatment did not influence plant biomass. Yield potential was similar for fungicide treatments, and was greater for plants under drought due to an increased number of kernel rows (prior to V5) rather than a change in kernels per row (determined after V6). The fungicide application did not improve relative chlorophyll content, biomass, or yield potential of plants exposed to the drought event. This study will be repeated in time to validate the observed results.DuPont PioneerBayer CropScienceUndergraduate Research Office at OSUNo embargoAcademic Major: Sustainable Plant System

French Quarter Festivals, Inc.: An Analysis of Festival Operations (Internship Academic Report)

French Quarter Festivals, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that annually produces three festivals in the New Orleans area with the intention of promoting the Vieux Carré and the culture of the city. My internship began near the beginning of preparations for the 2015French Quarter Festival and concluded just after the event had passed. While the organization is very successful and French Quarter Festival has grown to be the largest free music festival in the United States, there remains room for improvement and growth within the organization. The following report serves as a case study of the organization and addresses issues that were revealed during both analysis and personal observations. The conclusion of the report includes recommendations intended to aide in the continual success and growth of the organization

The Bioarchaeology of Instability: Violence and Environmental Stress During the Late Fort Ancient (AD 1425 - 1635) Occupations of Hardin Village

Conflict, poor health, environmental instability, captive taking, and culture change are all potential contributors for the abandonment of the Middle Ohio River Valley at the end of the Protohistoric Period in eastern North America. This project investigated the relationship between these factors among the Fort Ancient community of Hardin Village. The data presented in this study use bioarchaeological analysis to reveal how environmental and cultural instability influenced communities to leave their homeland. Bioarchaeology was well suited for this investigation because it links the most direct evidence of violence and poor health and nutrition (skeletal injuries and evidence of disease) to archaeological reconstructions of past lifeways. A comprehensive assessment of the health, nutritional status, activity levels, and traumatic injury at Hardin Village was completed using the data from a sample of 403 adult and subadult human burials. The findings of this study demonstrated nutritional deficiency and violent conflict that were not documented for this site in previous studies. This project found insufficient diets, violent encounters, and a relatively low age at death for the population. Results indicated that children, especially those of weaning age between one and five years old, and young adults had particular difficulty maintain necessary resources and avoiding violent conflict. Just over 10 percent (11.7%) of the population at Hardin Village lived beyond age 30. The results showed that interpersonal violence was a fact of life for the people living at Hardin Village. Evidence of lethal and non-lethal trauma, including instances of injury recidivism, where individuals were victimized repeatedly, showed that warfare and raiding were endemic to the Fort Ancient region. There was some evidence of captive-taking at the earlier occupied 15th century portion of the site, however no evidence was found of excessive captive-taking from Hardin Village during the late Protohistoric occupation. This did not support ethnohistoric documents which suggest that captive taking by other indigenous groups was a primary motivator for the abandonment of the Middle Ohio River Valley. Instead, resource stress, poor nutrition, and endemic violence are stronger candidates for driving the abandonment of the Middle Ohio River Valley by Fort Ancient communities like Hardin Village

Addressing Audience Engagement through Creative Performance Techniques

This project explores how utilizing creative performance techniques might affect change in the sociology that occurs within a Western art music performance. Creative performance techniques can include any behaviors or elements not typical to a Western art music performance. In the context of a senior vocal recital, this project aimed to see how audience members might respond to and engage with added creative elements

Interactions Observed with Clomazone plus Pendimethalin when Mixed with Postemergence Rice Herbicides

A study was conducted at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center’s H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station (RRS) in 2017 and 2018 to evaluate whether the pre-packaged mixture of clomazone plus pendimethalin should be applied delayed preemergence (DPRE) or postemergence (POST) within a herbicide residual overlay with saflufenacil, clomazone, or quinclorac. POST applications also included penoxsulam or halosulfuron in combination with the second residual application. No differences were observed with barnyardgrass control at 14 DAT across all treatments with 92 to 98% control. At 42 DAT, barnyardgrass treated with either clomazone plus pendimethalin applied at either timingin combination with either clomazone or quinclorac applied POST controlled barnyardgrass 95 to 96%. However, when saflufenacil was applied PRE regardless of the POST herbicide or when saflufenacil was applied POST with halosulfuron resulted in reduced barnyardgrass control, 78 to 81%, compared with control with all other residual combinations, 95 to 96%. Yellow nutsedge and rice flatsedge increased when treated with halosulfuron compared with penoxsulam across all evaluation dates. A study was conducted at RRS in 2017 and 2018 to evaluate the interaction between various rates of clomazone plus pendimethalin mixed with various rates of propanil. A synergistic response occurred when barnyardgrass was treated with all herbicide mixtures at 56 DAT. Yellow nutsedge control when treated with all herbicide mixtures was neutral except when treated with 1145 g ha-1 of clomazone plus pendimethalin mixed with 4485 g ha-1 of propanil. Rice flatsedge control at 28 DAT produced neutral interactions for all herbicide mixtures. A study was conducted in 2017 and 2018 at RRS to evaluate the activity of quizalofop applied independently or in a mixture with clomazone, pendimethalin, clomazone plus pendimethalin, and a pre-packaged mixture of clomazone plus pendimethalin. Even though antagonism occurred at 7 DAT for all mixtures except when pendimethalin was mixed quizalofop, control of barnyardgrass was 94 to 98% at 14, 28, and 42 DAT with all herbicide mixtures. A neutral interaction occurred for CL-111, CLXL-745, and red rice control when treated with all herbicide mixtures and evaluation dates. Rice yield decreased when not treated with the initial quizalofop application

Measuring Fluctuating Pressure Levels and Vibration Response in a Jet Plume

The characterization of loads due to solid rocket motor plume impingement allows for moreaccurate analyses of components subjected to such an environment. Typically, test verification of predicted loads due to these conditions is widely overlooked or unsuccessful. ATA Engineering, Inc., performed testing during a solid rocket motor firing to obtain acceleration and pressure responses in the hydrodynamic field surrounding the jet plume. The test environment necessitated a robust design to facilitate measurements being made in close proximity to the jet plume. This paper presents the process of designing a test fixture and an instrumentation package that could withstand the solid rocket plume environment and protect the required instrumentation

Setting priorities for development of emerging interventions against childhood pneumonia, meningitis and influenza

WAcute lower respiratory infections, which broadly include pneumonia and bronchiolitis, are still the leading cause of childhood mortality. ALRI contributed to 18% of all deaths in children younger than five years of age in 2008, and the main pathogens responsible for high mortality were Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and respiratory syncytial virus. In addition, meningitis was estimated to contribute up to 200 000 deaths each year, and influenza anywhere between 25 000 and 110 000. It is widely acknowledged that a major portion of this mortality should be avoidable if universal coverage of all known effective interventions could be achieved. However, some evaluations of the implementation of World Health Organization’s (WHO) Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy, which promotes improved access to a trained health provider who can administer “standard case management”, have shown somewhat disappointing results. Only a minority of all children with life-threatening episodes of pneumonia, meningitis and influenza in developing countries have access to trained health providers and receive appropriate treatment. Thus, novel strategies for control of pneumonia that balance investments in scaling up of existing interventions and the development of novel approaches, technologies and ideas are clearly needed

Breathing mode in open-orbit magnetotransport: a magnetic lens with a quantum mechanical focal length

Theoretical Physic

Health worker performance in the management of paediatric fevers following in-service training and exposure to job aids in Kenya

BACKGROUND: Improving the way artemether-lumefantrine (AL) is provided to patients attending clinics is critical to maximize the benefit of this new medicine. In 2007, a new initiative was launched in one part of Kenya to improve malaria case-management through enhanced in-service training and provision of job aids. METHODS: An evaluation of the intervention using pre- and post-intervention cross sectional health facility surveys was conducted in Bondo district. The surveys included: audit of government health facilities, health worker structured interviews and exit interviews with caretakers of sick children below five years of age. The outcome indicators were the proportions of febrile children who had AL prescribed, AL dispensed, and four different dispensing and counseling tasks performed. RESULTS: At baseline 33 government health facilities, 48 health workers and 386 febrile child consultations were evaluated. At follow-up the same health facilities were surveyed and 36 health workers and 390 febrile child consultations evaluated. The findings show: 1) no health facility or health worker was exposed to all components of the intervention; 2) the proportion of health workers who received the enhanced in-service training was 67%; 3) the proportion of febrile children with uncomplicated malaria treated with the first-line anti-malarial drug, artemether-lumefantrine (AL), at health facilities where AL was in stock increased from 76.9% (95%CI: 69.4, 83.1) to 87.6% (95% CI: 82.5, 91.5); 4) there were modest but non-significant improvements in dispensing and counseling practices; and 5) when the analyses were restricted to health workers who received the enhanced in-service training and/or had received new guidelines and job aids, no significant improvements in reported case-management tasks were observed compared to baseline. CONCLUSION: In-service training and provision of job aids alone may not be adequate to improve the prescribing, dispensing and counseling tasks necessary to change malaria case-management practices and the inclusion of supervision and post-training follow-up should be considered in future clinical practice change initiatives

Translation of artemether–lumefantrine treatment policy into paediatric clinical practice: an early experience from Kenya

OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of outpatient paediatric malaria case-management approximately 4-6 months after artemether-lumefantrine (AL) replaced sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) as the nationally recommended first-line therapy in Kenya. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey at all government facilities in four Kenyan districts. Main outcome measures were health facility and health worker readiness to implement AL policy; quality of antimalarial prescribing, counselling and drug dispensing in comparison with national guidelines; and factors influencing AL prescribing for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in under-fives. RESULTS: We evaluated 193 facilities, 227 health workers and 1533 sick-child consultations. Health facility and health worker readiness was variable: 89% of facilities stocked AL, 55% of health workers had access to guidelines, 46% received in-service training on AL and only 1% of facilities had AL wall charts. Of 940 children who needed AL treatment, AL was prescribed for 26%, amodiaquine for 39%, SP for 4%, various other antimalarials for 8% and 23% of children left the facility without any antimalarial prescribed. When AL was prescribed, 92% of children were prescribed correct weight-specific dose. AL dispensing and counselling tasks were variably performed. Higher health worker's cadre, in-service training including AL use, positive malaria test, main complaint of fever and high temperature were associated with better prescribing. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in clinical practices at the point of care might take longer than anticipated. Delivery of successful interventions and their scaling up to increase coverage are important during this process; however, this should be accompanied by rigorous research evaluations, corrective actions on existing interventions and testing cost-effectiveness of novel interventions capable of improving and maintaining health worker performance and health systems to deliver artemisinin-based combination therapy in Africa