The Effects of Multispecies Grazing on Pasture Management and Utilization

Multispecies grazing research was conducted using meat-type goats (Capra hircus L.) and Jersey heifers (Bos taurus L.) to determine the relationships between multiple grazing treatments and pasture utilization. The study was conducted for 60 days on the Western Kentucky University Farm in Bowling Green, KY. Cattle and goats have shown to differ in grazing preferences and to be economically important to the area. Grazing treatments included goats and cattle grazing simultaneously, sequentially, and goats grazing alone. A typical established Kentucky pasture was utilized with no weed management practices employed. Predominant forage species included tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.), and white clover (Trifolium repens L.). Exclosures were utilized as controls. Data included forage quality, composition, availability, height, visual weed cover and live ground cover, and thistle consumption, collected every 15 days. Results indicated a significant difference in sample dry weights between grazing treatments and ungrazed controls in every treatment except when goats followed cattle. At day 60, grazed areas had significantly lower forage heights than the control when goats grazed with and before cattle. Instances where goats followed cattle resulted in significantly higher NDF compared to the control. All treatments containing goats had significantly lower leaf numbers per thistle plant (Carduus nutans L.) than cattle only treatment. Based on this study, sequential and simultaneous grazing of cattle and goats may be an effective nodding thistle control strategy, but future experimentation is needed for determination of forage utilization and quality relationships

Trauma-Informed Gatherings: What does it mean and what does it take?

As community members continue to experience racial trauma at both individual and community levels, our Extension team responded by adapting an anti-racism leadership training program to be more trauma-informed. Our team designed a tool using Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s trauma-informed principles to support public health practitioners to facilitate trauma-informed meetings. This tool can be a starting point for Extension professionals to create more trauma-informed gathering spaces in all areas of their work

The Association Between Survivors’ Guilt and Gratitude in the Belongingness of First-Generation College Student Refugees

Refugees often experience a lot of stress and trauma before relocating to their host country (Leo, 2021). Additionally, they often continue to experience different challenges while adapting to their new environment (Leo, 2021). Refugees who relocate may experience survivor’s guilt, gratitude to their host country, or may not feel like a member in their new community. On top of new challenges and stressors, refugee students who are the first in their families to attend college feel pressure to excel academically in a way to ‘give back’ to their family and their host country (Turjanmaa & Jasinskaja-Lahti, 2020). Although there has been prior research on refugee individuals, there is limited work focused on first generation refugee college students. The current study aims to test three questions: 1) How does survivors’ guilt impact the feeling of belongingness in first generation college student refugees? 2) Do first generation college student refugees feel obligated to do well in school due to the feeling of indebtedness to their host country and family or the feeling of gratitude? 3) How does gratitude and indebtedness impact the feeling of belongingness in first generation college student refugees? We aim to recruit first generation college refugee students in the United States from multiple colleges to test these research questions. Aims will be tested with questionnaires provided to the students that assesses survivors’ guilt, gratitude, belongingness, obligation, and discrimination. The current abstract will focus on existing literature and the planned study.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1416/thumbnail.jp

THE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION AND HEALTH OUTCOMES AMONG LGBQA COLLEGE STUDENTS: EXAMINING THE MODERATING ROLE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT

Sexual victimization is a prevailing public health concern that differentially impacts sexual minority populations (i.e., people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, or queer) compared with their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts (McCauley et al., 2018). Studies have shown that sexual violence is associated with depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and alcohol use (Aosved et al., 2011; Bedard-Gilligan et al, 2011; Carey et al., 2018) among heterosexual college students. However, we know less about the potential effects of sexual victimization on health outcomes among sexual minority college students. Understanding these relations are especially important because sexual minority college students often experience unique challenges and are at increased risk of sexual victimization in comparison to their counterparts (Cantor et al., 2015; Edwards et al., 2015). Moreover, few studies to date have examined the moderating role of social support in buffering the links between sexual victimization and health outcomes. Guided by the minority stress framework (Meyer, 2003), the current study examined the extent to which sexual victimization influences health outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and alcohol use disorder) among sexual minority college students. Furthermore, we examined whether social support moderated the association between sexual victimization and each health outcome. The current study included 234 students who identified as being part of the Queer community (e.g., Gay, Lesbian, Asexual, and Queer) from a larger university-wide study (i.e., Spit for Science; Dick et al., 2014). The participants in the present study were 18-22 years old (M = 18.46, SD = .412) and majority female (i.e., 74%). Fifty-six percent of the participants self- identified as White, 16% as Black or African American, 13% as Asian, and 15% as American Indian, Latinx, Pacific Islander, or Multiracial. Students provided online self-reports of their sexual victimization experiences (Blake et al., 1990), social support (Hays et al., 1995), depressive symptoms (Derogatis et al., 1973), post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (Weathers et al., 2013) and alcohol use (DSM-V). We used a series of regression models in Mplus v 7.2 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2014) to test our research questions, with multiple imputation to handle missing data. Findings indicated that sexual victimization was positively related to depressive symptoms (b = .21, p = .00), post- traumatic stress disorder symptoms (b = .43, p = .00), and alcohol use disorder (b = .45, p = .00). Furthermore, social support significantly moderated the association between sexual victimization and depressive symptoms, however, in a direction contrary to hypotheses. Specifically, greater sexual victimization was associated with greater depressive symptoms among sexual minority college students with higher levels of social support (b = .29, p = .00), and the association was not significant for sexual minority college students with lower levels of social support (b = .13, p = .26; Figure 1). Discussion will center on the detrimental effects of sexual victimization on health outcomes among sexual minority college students, as well as providing potential explanations and future directions for the nuanced ways social support functions in the lives of sexual minority college students.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1079/thumbnail.jp

Interrogating Systems That Cause Disparities: Testing the Social-Ecological Model in Low- Versus High-Density African American Communities

This study utilized the four-level social-ecological model to provide a better understanding of the disparities in health-related outcomes in high- and low-density African American (AA) communities. The current research sought to understand the relationships between mental and physical health, social-economic factors, and physical environment within this community. The goal of this study was to understand the relationship between these indicators of health, to better inform health-care strategies. The results highlight the significant difference between high- and low-density AA communities and socio-economic factors, physical environment, poor physical days, and poor mental health days. Implications for behavioral health providers are explored

Quantum Chebyshev Transform: Mapping, Embedding, Learning and Sampling Distributions

We develop a paradigm for building quantum models in the orthonormal space of Chebyshev polynomials. We show how to encode data into quantum states with amplitudes being Chebyshev polynomials with degree growing exponentially in the system size. Similar to the quantum Fourier transform which maps computational basis space into the phase (Fourier) basis, we describe the quantum circuit for the mapping between computational and Chebyshev spaces. We propose an embedding circuit for generating the orthonormal Chebyshev basis of exponential capacity, represented by a continuously-parameterized shallow isometry. This enables automatic quantum model differentiation, and opens a route to solving stochastic differential equations. We apply the developed paradigm to generative modeling from physically- and financially-motivated distributions, and use the quantum Chebyshev transform for efficient sampling of these distributions in extended computational basis.Comment: 6 pages (+ references), 3 figure

Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribes in the Colorado River Basin

The coronavirus pandemic has tragically highlighted the vast and long standing inequities facing Tribal communities, including disparities in water access. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are at least 3.5 times more likely than white persons to contract COVID-19. Limited access to running water is one of the main factors contributing to this elevated rate of incidence. This report describes current conditions among Tribes in the Colorado River Basin. It outlines the four main challenges in drinking water access: (1) Native American households are more likely to lack piped water services than any other racial group; (2) Inadequate water quality is pervasive in Indian country; (3) Existing water infrastructure is deteriorating or inadequate; and (4) Operation and maintenance of water systems is a critical component of ensuring long-term water security. The report also examines existing federal assistance programs to provide drinking water access to Tribes. In exchange for the cession of millions of acres of lands, Tribes received certain promises from the federal government. These promises often included the establishment of a reservation as a permanent homeland for Tribes. Based upon an underlying trust responsibility, the federal government has a duty to protect Tribal treaty rights, lands, assets, and resources. Access to a clean, reliable supply of water is basic to human health and clearly a necessary component to providing a habitable and permanent homeland. In at least partial recognition and fulfillment of its treaty and trust responsibility to provide access to clean water for Tribes, various federal agencies have established programs that provide support for water related projects. However, these programs are often underfunded and have other limitations. As a result, obtaining significant progress in providing universal access to clean water for all Americans has remained elusive. Finally, the report concludes with policy recommendations to address Tribal community water needs. Key recommendations include adopting a whole of government approach and fully funding federal programs related to Tribal drinking water projects. A window of opportunity has opened to address water insecurity in Indian country. It is critical that action be taken before that window closes and these issues are ignored for several more generations

Testing XRF identification of marine washover sediment beds in a Coastal Lake in Southeastern Texas, USA

This study tests the ability of a novel approach to identifying washover beds in coastal lakes. Combined X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and cluster analysis was used to identify hurricane washover beds in sediment cores from Clam Lake on the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Texas. The lake is known to contain washover beds from recent hurricanes, but the washover sediment has similar microfossil, loss-on-ignition and textural characteristics to non-washover sediment and is not readily distinguishable. Sediment cores taken from marshes surrounding the lake do contain visually-recognizable sandy washover beds of Hurricanes Ike, Rita, Carla and Audrey. XRF analysis of these washover beds, combined with cluster analysis, was used to construct elemental fingerprints with the potential to detect washover beds in the lake. Results are promising: multiple washover beds were detected in the lake and tentatively attributed to recent hurricanes. In some lake cores, washover beds likely to be present were not detected by the XRF/clustering technique; in other lake cores, up to nine washover beds were detected. The variation in the number of washover beds probably resulted from bio-turbation, identification of two or more washover beds in a single washover deposit, and washover beds resulting from smaller storms. Valuable outcomes of this study are; 1) it confirms the presence of washover beds in the lake; 2) it provides greater insight into the number, stratigraphic position and thickness of washover deposits; 3) it identifies periods of heightened and diminished overwash activity, and 4) it provides a means of estimating the contribution of washover deposition to sedimentation in the lake. An additional unexpected finding is that long-term sedimentation rates derived from the lake and marsh cores closely match the rate of local sea-level rise, suggesting that sea-level rise may drive sedimentation in the study area

Detection of Galba truncatula, Fasciola hepatica and Calicophoron daubneyi environmental DNA within water sources on pasture land, a future tool for fluke control?

Abstract Background: Increasing trematode prevalence and disease occurrence in livestock is a major concern. With the global spread of anthelmintic resistant trematodes, future control strategies must incorporate approaches focusing on avoidance of infection. The reliance of trematodes on intermediate snail hosts to successfully complete their life-cycle means livestock infections are linked to the availability of respective snail populations. By identifying intermediate snail host habitats, infection risk models may be strengthened whilst farmers may confidently apply pasture management strategies to disrupt the trematode life-cycle. However, accurately identifying and mapping these risk areas is challenging. Methods: In this study, environmental DNA (eDNA) assays were designed to reveal Galba truncatula, Fasciola hepatica and Calicophoron daubneyi presence within water sources on pasture land. eDNA was captured using a filter-based protocol, with DNA extracted using the DNeasy? PowerSoil? kit and amplified via PCR. In total, 19 potential G. truncatula habitats were analysed on four farms grazed by livestock infected with both F. hepatica and C. daubneyi. Results: Galba truncatula eDNA was identified in 10/10 habitats where the snail was detected by eye. Galba truncatula eDNA was also identified in four further habitats where the snail was not physically detected. Fasciola hepatica and C. daubneyi eDNA was also identified in 5/19 and 8/19 habitats, respectively. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that eDNA assays have the capabilities of detecting G. truncatula, F. hepatica and C. daubneyi DNA in the environment. Further assay development will be required for a field test capable of identifying and quantifying F. hepatica and C. daubneyi infection risk areas, to support future control strategies. An eDNA test would also be a powerful new tool for epidemiological investigations of parasite infections on farms.publishersversionPeer reviewe