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A Context-Aware Computer Vision-Based Approach for Post-Earthquake Damage Assessment of Bridge Inventories
No full textPost-earthquake damage assessment is crucial to evaluate the safety and serviceability of bridges after an earthquake. Conventional screening methods rely on manual inspection, which is costly, time-consuming, and poses safety risks to inspectors. To address these challenges, this study presents a context-aware vision transformer framework for integrating structural element details into multi-defect identification through a late-fusion approach. The model is trained on a post-earthquake image dataset collected from three major earthquakes in Italy, consisting of 356 images. Five structural elements of reinforced concrete bridges are selected, where concrete spalling and reinforcement corrosion were chosen as target defects. The framework achieved F1-scores exceeding 80% and 75% for bridge structural elements and defects, respectively. In addition, through its late-fusion process, the model localized the defects to specific elements of bridges, providing accurate inference on unseen test images and suggesting the framework\u27s generalizability
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes February 17, 2026
No full textCall to Order Provost Search University Business Faculty Senate Business Reports Faculty Development and Educational Leadership Parking and Transportation Information Old Business New Business Adjourn: 4:50 P
Comparative Assessment of UAV-Based TSEB and Field-Calibrated AquaCrop for Evapotranspiration on the Arid Coast of Peru
No full textPrecise estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for sustainable water management in arid agroecosystems, particularly for high-water-demand crops such as rice. This study integrated very-high-resolution UAV thermal–multispectral imagery with a Two-Source Energy Balance model (UAV–TSEB) and a field-calibrated AquaCrop model to quantify daily ET and its components under continuous flooding on the arid Peruvian coast during the 2024–2025 season. A network of 24 drainage lysimeters provided an independent observational benchmark (ETlys); to represent the treatment-level response, lysimeter observations were aggregated as the mean across the 24 units for each UAV campaign. Thirteen UAV surveys supplied radiometric surface temperature and biophysical inputs (e.g., NDVI and fractional cover) to derive spatially explicit ET, while AquaCrop provided continuous daily simulations between flight dates. Direct lysimeter-based validation indicated high agreement for AquaCrop (R2 = 0.85; RMSE = 0.26 mm d−1; MBE = 0.01 mm d−1) and moderate agreement for UAV–TSEB (R2 = 0.66; RMSE = 0.81 mm d−1; MBE = 1.01 mm d−1). Model intercomparison further showed consistent temporal dynamics of ET (R2 = 0.70; RMSE = 1.35 mm d−1) and robust partitioning of crop transpiration (R2 = 0.79; RMSE = 0.99 mm d−1) and soil evaporation (R2 = 0.76; RMSE = 1.03 mm d−1) while revealing a systematic divergence under near-complete canopy cover: AquaCrop tended to suppress evaporation, whereas UAV–TSEB detected residual evaporation from the flooded surface. Overall, the results highlight the complementarity of both approaches—UAV–TSEB as a spatial diagnostic tool and AquaCrop as a temporally continuous simulator—providing a robust framework for ET monitoring, flux partitioning, and water-use-efficiency assessment in water-scarce rice systems
Western Conifer Seed Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis)
No full textThis fact sheet provides information on the western conifer seed bug, including native range, life cycle, plant hosts, symptoms and damage, and management options
Nitrogen Dynamics and Use Efficiency in Pasture-Based Grazing Systems: A Synthesis of Ecological and Ruminant Nutrition Perspectives
No full textPasture-based ruminant systems link nitrogen (N) nutrition with ecosystem N cycling. Grazing ruminants convert fibrous forages into milk and meat but excrete 65 to 80% of ingested N, creating excreta hotspots that drive ammonia volatilization, nitrate leaching, and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. This review synthesizes ecological and ruminant nutrition evidence on N flows, emphasizing microbial processes, biological N2 fixation, plant diversity, and urine patch biogeochemistry, and evaluates strategies to improve N use efficiency (NUE). We examine rumen N metabolism in relation to microbial protein synthesis, urea recycling, and dietary factors including crude protein concentration, energy supply, forage composition, and plant secondary compounds that modulate protein degradability and microbial N capture, thereby influencing N partitioning among animal products, urine, and feces, as reflected in milk and blood urea N. We also examine how grazing patterns and excreta distribution, assessed with sensor technologies, modify N flows. Evidence indicates that integrated management combining dietary manipulation, forage diversity, targeted grazing, and decision tools can increase farm-gate NUE from 20–25% to over 30% while sustaining performance. Framing these processes within the global N cycle positions pasture-based ruminant systems as critical leverage points for aligning ruminant production with environmental and climate sustainability goals
Coastal conservation and blue carbon: Willingness to pay for changes to nearshore management in Oregon
No full textThis paper reports results from a discrete choice experiment conducted with Oregon residents regarding possible policy changes in spatial management of nearshore habitat. We evaluate public preferences across several policy scenarios, each characterized by varying levels of marine reserve size (bounded areas where extractive activities are prohibited), coastal jobs generated or lost, and carbon sequestration by seagrass beds, tidal marshes and kelp forests(blue carbon habitat expansion), with models estimated in both utility and willingness to pay (WTP) space. Each of these attributes across all models displays positive, monotonic marginal WTP. Scenario analysis reveals that an “optimistic” policy package (+50 % reserve size, +200 jobs, +100 % blue carbon) commands a mean WTP of $465–704 per year, whereas equivalent contractions generate larger welfare losses, indicating “loss aversion” among citizens. Preference varies by recreational coastal use: non-fishing recreationists exhibit the highest WTP for attribute improvements, while recreational fishers exhibit lower WTP and would otherwise require greater compensation to accept the status quo. These findings indicate broad public support for policies that support and potentially expand blue carbon habitat, and suggest that tiered financing or carbon-credit mechanisms may be viable strategies to secure stable funding while maintaining stakeholder acceptance
A Bovine Cell Line Resistant to Japanese Encephalitis Virus Entry but Permissive to Post-Entry Replication
No full textJapanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic orthoflavivirus that poses a significant global health threat. It causes severe neuroinflammatory disease in humans and reproductive failure in swine. Because of the broad host range and cell tropism of JEV, identifying animal cell lines resistant to infection has been a persistent challenge. In this study, we demonstrate that Madin–Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cells are resistant to JEV infection yet remain fully permissive to viral replication when transfected with viral genomic RNA. Using immunoblotting, immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry, we show that MDBK cells, unlike the highly susceptible baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells used as controls, do not support viral entry but sustain all post-entry stages of the replication cycle. Further investigation confirmed that MDBK cells possess a functional clathrin-mediated endocytic pathway, as evidenced by their susceptibility to bovine viral diarrhea virus, which relies on clathrin-dependent endocytosis for host cell entry. These findings establish MDBK cells as a nonsusceptible cell line for JEV entry despite intact endocytic function, providing a valuable platform for studying virus–host cell interactions and for identifying and validating host cell entry factors, a major challenge in JEV research
Online ACT Guide for Sub-Clinical and Clinical Insomnia Among College Students
No full textCollege students are shown to have more sleep difficulties, specifically insomnia. These sleep difficulties compared to the general public due to the college environment (for example increase screen time, sedentary time, or alcohol use). Students with reported sleep difficulties have ties to lower GPA and lower odds of graduation. That is why this dissertation conducted a comparison between an online version of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (intervention) to a placebo condition among college students with insomnia to help determine if the intervention had better outcomes over time. Each condition (intervention = 39; placebo = 40) completed questionnaires at the start of the study, post-treatment (end of week 4), and then 1 month following post-treatment. Results showed insomnia severity, psychological inflexibility/flexibility, insomnia related worries, and depression had better outcomes in the intervention condition over time compared to the waitlist condition. These results, suggest that universities should offer Acceptance and Commitment Therapy providers at college counseling to help treat insomnia
Thriving Hives, Beekeeping Monthly Calendar
Full text linkThis calendar was created in an effort to simplify and make beekeeping easier to understand and learn for the beginning beekeeper. The calendar offers a broad understanding of what is happening in the hive in addition to guidelines for basic beekeeping tasks on a monthly basis. The calendar also provides users with lists of in-bloom plants to look for in the landscape as the beekeeping season progresses. This can help beekeepers assess resources available for the bees in the landscape. In addition to the monthly tasks, suggested recipes for some of the feeding supplements and treatments mentioned in the calendar are included to aid the beekeeper in implementation of these tasks
SPARC Grade 2 Integrated Coding-Math Lessons
No full textSPARC-Math Grade 2 Integrated Coding-Math Lessons with related Utah Core Standards and lessons for Spatial and Programming Language and Geometry