Effects of different weaning management strategies on preconditioning performance, haptoglobin serum levels, feedlot morbidity, and carcass characteristics

Weaning, one of the first major stressors encountered by the calf, has a negative effect on the immune system and increases the likelihood of infection of novel pathogens such as those that cause bovine respiratory disease. Fenceline contact at weaning has been shown to reduce the stress on the calf during the time following maternal separation. Preconditioning programs have been shown to reduce feedlot morbidity and mortality. Combining these two management practices could reduce the length of time calves need to be held in a preconditioning program. A multi-year study was conducted to evaluate if fenceline weaning will allow for a 21-d preconditioning (PRECON) period rather than a 45-d PRECON period. Two-hundred ninety-one cross-bred steer calves from two locations (Central Research Station, Baton Rouge, LA and Hill Farm Research Station, Homer, LA) were used over a two-year period. Both locations were managed independently following the same protocol. Each year, calves were stratified by BW into four treatments: 1. fenceline weaned, PRECON 21 days (FL21); 2. fenceline weaned, PRECON 42 days (FL42); 3. abrupt weaned, PRECON 21 days (S21); and 4. abrupt weaned, PRECON 42 days (S42). Calf was the experimental unit. After the initial 7 d weaning period, all calves were placed on pasture for the assigned PRECON treatment. Calves were fed an 18% CP commercial preconditioning ration at 1.5% of BW during the entire PRECON treatment period. Weight change and ADG were not different (P \u3e 0.05) between all treatments during this period. Steers were transported to and managed by a commercial feedlot in Guymon, OK, until harvest. Morbidity and mortality during the feedlot period were not different (P \u3e 0.05). Entry weight and ADG were not different between treatments, but FL42 and S42 calves were heavier (P = 0.005) and were on feed longer (P \u3c 0.0001) than FL21 and S21 calves. Heavier HCW (P = 0.005) and greater backfat (P = 0.001) were observed in FL42 and S42, but YG, marbling score, and LM area were not different among treatments. These results are indicative that fenceline weaning does not aid in shortening the preconditioning period, and further research is needed to validate these findings

An at Home Cardiorespiratory Monitor in Low Income Countries

ME450 Capstone Design and Manufacturing Experience: Winter 2021This project starts the design process of a device that helps address the issue of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in infants in low income countries. It is a pulse oximeter that is modified to infants small features and constant movement. It also considers the environmental conditions that are associated with most low income countries. The current solution for the problem is a two housing monitor that would be worn the infant's ankle and foot to consistently monitor their blood oxygen levels while they sleep.Prof. Aubree Gordon, Caroline Soyars: Global Health Design Initiativehttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167653/1/Team_10-Cardiorespiratory_Monitor.pd

Target-Free Compound Activity Prediction via Few-Shot Learning

Predicting the activities of compounds against protein-based or phenotypic assays using only a few known compounds and their activities is a common task in target-free drug discovery. Existing few-shot learning approaches are limited to predicting binary labels (active/inactive). However, in real-world drug discovery, degrees of compound activity are highly relevant. We study Few-Shot Compound Activity Prediction (FS-CAP) and design a novel neural architecture to meta-learn continuous compound activities across large bioactivity datasets. Our model aggregates encodings generated from the known compounds and their activities to capture assay information. We also introduce a separate encoder for the unknown compound. We show that FS-CAP surpasses traditional similarity-based techniques as well as other state of the art few-shot learning methods on a variety of target-free drug discovery settings and datasets.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Vision-and-Language Navigation: Interpreting visually-grounded navigation instructions in real environments

A robot that can carry out a natural-language instruction has been a dream since before the Jetsons cartoon series imagined a life of leisure mediated by a fleet of attentive robot helpers. It is a dream that remains stubbornly distant. However, recent advances in vision and language methods have made incredible progress in closely related areas. This is significant because a robot interpreting a natural-language navigation instruction on the basis of what it sees is carrying out a vision and language process that is similar to Visual Question Answering. Both tasks can be interpreted as visually grounded sequence-to-sequence translation problems, and many of the same methods are applicable. To enable and encourage the application of vision and language methods to the problem of interpreting visually-grounded navigation instructions, we present the Matterport3D Simulator -- a large-scale reinforcement learning environment based on real imagery. Using this simulator, which can in future support a range of embodied vision and language tasks, we provide the first benchmark dataset for visually-grounded natural language navigation in real buildings -- the Room-to-Room (R2R) dataset.Comment: CVPR 2018 Spotlight presentatio

Landscaping in the Utah Wildland-Urban Interface

The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is simply where human development mingles with wildland, or in other words, developed land next to undeveloped land. This area is at the highest risk for damage from wildfire. As our communities grow outward, the WUI is only expanding, putting more people at risk from wildfire. Therefore, it is important for homes built there to have fire-protective landscaping. Also, because Utah is a desert state currently in a drought, low-water landscaping is important for all Utah landscapes, including the WUI. This fact sheet addresses these issues and provides guidance on fire-protective and low-water landscaping

Developing and Piloting a Design Guide for Outdoor Classrooms in Utah

The outdoor classroom design guide can help applicants successfully apply for the Utah Outdoor Classroom Grant introduced by the Office of Outdoor Recreation (OOR) in 2021. The design guide includes case studies, design resources, and critical information for community involvement from statewide locations and will serve as a free public resource

Archaeological Monitoring of the Olmos Basin Golf Course Tree Planting Project, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

At the request of the City of San Antonio (COSA), Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. (Pape-Dawson) monitored for cultural resources during the planting of new trees within portions of the existing Olmos Basin Golf Course, located west of the intersection of Basse Road and US 281, in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The trees were placed randomly throughout the golf course along with new, connecting irrigation lines. Excavations for the trees averaged 3.6 feet (ft) (1.1 meters2 [m2]) in diameter and 1.6 ft (0.5 m) deep. Irrigation lines were installed approximately 1 ft (0.3 m) below the ground surface and were on average 0.75 ft (0.23 m) in width. As the Olmos Basin Golf Course is a municipal golf course operated by the COSA, compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas (ACT) will be necessary. No federal funding or permitting is anticipated and compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) will not be required. Prior to fieldwork, Pape-Dawson archaeologists coordinated with the COSA archaeologist and the Texas Historical Commission (THC) to determine areas of concern for field investigations. Based on this coordination, archaeologists focused on monitoring during tree planting and irrigation line installations located only within the boundaries of previously recorded sites 41BX1799 and 41BX1800. Within these sites, archaeologists monitored between 50 and 75 percent of the total tree installations. Archaeological monitoring was conducted within the approximately 185-acre project area intermittently between January 22 and April 9, 2019. Pape-Dawson archaeologists monitored the excavation of 208 tree pits, 20 of which were positive for cultural materials. Of these 20 positive pits, nine were located within previously disturbed soil contexts. A total of 2.35 km of irrigation lines were also monitored for cultural resources. Isolated cultural materials from prehistoric, historic, and modern time periods were observed throughout the irrigation line trenches. Sites 41BX1799 and 41BX1800, were revisited during archaeological monitoring. Site 41BX1799 is a multicomponent site, consisting of a prehistoric lithic scatter, a lithic material procurement site, and a historic artifact scatter of indeterminate temporal affiliation. Site 41BX1800 is a low-density prehistoric lithic scatter, dating to the Late to Transitional Archaic time period. Most materials observed were situated within disturbed contexts, however, archaeologists did identify intact deposits of prehistoric and historic materials in 11 of the excavated tree pits. As a result of this monitoring, 41BX1799’s site boundary was extended out an additional 1.11-acres. No cultural materials were observed outside of the current 41BX1800 boundary; thus, it remains unaltered. Due to the lack of intact cultural features, the paucity of diagnostic artifacts, and the extensive disturbances noted throughout both previously recorded sites, 41BX1799 and 41BX1800 are recommended Not Eligible for National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and State Antiquities Landmarks (SAL) designations. If future work within sites 41BX1799 or 41BX1800 reveal additional archaeological deposits, work should temporarily cease, and the City Archaeologist and THC should be immediately notified before recommencing work. All records associated with this project are curated at the University of Texas at San Antonio Center for Archaeological Research (UTSA-CAR)

Electro-Muscle-to-Muscle Transfer

The Electro Muscle to Muscle Transfer (EMMT) system will entail designing, manufacturing, and providing a wearable device that stimulates paralyzed muscles in the hand by sampling and amplifying muscles from the forearm. With further development, the system may be capable of using different muscle inputs other than the forearm muscles along with different stimulated muscle outputs other than the hand. The system functions as a rehabilitative device for spinal cord injuries, irreparable nerve loss and/or damage, and improper neuromuscular function. It is not for total treatment nor for curing of the disabilities listed above but to alleviate the side effects of the disability and help reduce muscular dysfunction

Extension-Based Community Engagement Project Contributions to Landscape Architecture Core Competencies and Professional Values

This study evaluates the contribution of Extension-based community engagement design projects to the development of core technical competencies and professional values in the landscape architecture program at Utah State University. Many university design programs--including landscape architecture--employ community engagement to address local and regional design dilemmas. Programs within traditional agriculture schools often frame these activities as contributory to their institutions\u27 land-grant missions. Engaged scholarship is well enumerated within the literature of landscape architecture. However, little has been published on how Extension facilitates these engagements or its contribution to the development of core competencies and professional values. Utah State University\u27s (USU) landscape architecture program alumni and students were surveyed to determine their perceptions of Extension-based design projects\u27 contribution to the development of core competencies and professional values. Results revealed projects contribute to the development of core technical competencies including software skills, problem-solving, as well as acculturation of professional values and interpersonal skills such as collaboration, empathy, and leadership. As land-grant design programs assess the value of Extension-based community engagement projects, this study illuminates benefits for developing core competencies and professional values in the next generation of design practitioners