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Water Use by Irrigated Turfgrass and Connections to Climate and Biophysical Processes
Get PDFUrbanization and limited water supply and storage result in imbalanced urban water budgets. Quantification of water use becomes important in urban landscapes because urban turfgrass requires a significant amount of water and competes with other urban requirements. Evapotranspiration (ET) plays a crucial role in determining irrigation needs. Credible measurements and spatial estimates of urban turfgrass ET are needed for urban water management. However, these have not been addressed in urban landscapes in arid and semiarid regions. Despite estimating spatial urban turfgrass ET, turfgrass quality linked to ET has not been widely evaluated. Due to different environmental conditions, the driving forces for ET responses are unclear. The objective of this research is to estimate high-resolution spatial urban turfgrass ET and turfgrass quality and quantify the connections between atmospheric and biophysical factors that govern urban turfgrass ET. To accomplish this, EC measurements of hourly and daily actual ET over irrigated turfgrass were used to validate the remote-sensing ET model. Ground truth turfgrass quality was used to evaluate the remote sensing TQ model. EC and weather data were used to examine the ET response to variations in climate and physiological factors. Results showed significant variabilities of ETa related to atmospheric conditions and soil water availability. The average daily turfgrass ETa for the peak summer season was 5.9, 5.0, and 5.1 mm day-1 in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The TSEB-PT model and TQ – RF using sUAS imagery showed the ability to estimate the spatial variation of daily ETa and TQ for a large urban turfgrass surface, which is useful for landscape precision irrigation management for acceptable turfgrass under drought conditions. In addition, ET (latent heat flux) spatial maps of urban turfgrass may be useful in determining large-scale energy balances in urban environments. ET responds to atmospheric and biophysical factors under various climate and soil water conditions, which is critical to developing more accurate models for the ET of irrigated turfgrass
Enhancing Clinical Training through Community Engagement
Get PDFPractice courses in the field of social work use a student only approach to roleplaying. This traditional approach to developing clinical skills fails to incorporate feedback from seasoned professionals in the field. Utah State University is a land-grant institution educating social workers across the state. In two generalist practice classes, faculty incorporated twenty-four licensed clinical therapists to observe and provide real feedback on various therapeutic modalities to MSW students. Students reported an appreciation for the feedback provided and more confidence in their clinical skills. Community partners felt a sense of contribution to knowledge in developing the clinical social workers of tomorrow. Further research is needed to explore the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating licensed practitioners in practice classes
Creating Sustainable School and Home Gardens: Using Drones to Enhance Garden Projects
Get PDFThis fact sheet explores using drones to enhance garden projects at home and in schools. It covers the benefits of drones, such as monitoring garden health, planning layouts, and assessing plant conditions through advanced imaging technologies. Additionally, it outlines essential factors to consider when selecting a drone, including cost, battery life, camera quality, and local regulations. Tips for safe operation and effective usage are also provided, as well as fun facts about drones
Recognizing Individual Variability in Misophonia: Identifying Symptom-Based Subgroups With Gaussian Mixture Modeling
No full textMisophonia is characterized by intense emotional and physiological reactions to everyday sounds such as chewing and tapping. While previous researchers have focused on defining and characterizing the disorder, limited attention has been given to the variability in symptom presentations across individuals. In this study, we sought to identify distinct subgroups of individuals with misophonia by applying a Gaussian finite mixture model to explore the heterogeneity of symptom profiles. Sixty treatment-seeking participants completed the Duke Misophonia Interview, which assessed the presence and severity of various behavioral, affective, and cognitive symptoms. Items from this measure served as model indicators. Two clusters were found: anticipatory and reactive. The anticipatory group reported heightened awareness of potential triggers, preemptive anticipatory distress, and increased avoidance behaviors, while the reactive group primarily displayed emotional and physiological responses during the occurrence of sounds. Notably, both groups reported similar frequencies of misophonic triggers, but the anticipatory group demonstrated greater internalizing symptoms, such as intrusive thoughts or rumination about misophonic sounds and social isolation. Our findings support the need for tailored interventions that address subgroup-specific symptom patterns. Future researchers should aim to include larger sample sizes and develop more comprehensive models to capture the full spectrum of misophonia symptoms, including externalizing behaviors
Dusky Grouse Seasonal Resource Selection in the Great Basin Isolated Mountain Ranges of Nevada, USA
No full textDusky grouse Dendragapus obscurus are a montane forest grouse species with a paucity of information regarding their temporal and spatial resource use during critical times of high mortality and reproductive output. This lack of vital data may leave dusky grouse at risk of sub-optimal management in many areas of their distribution, especially in the isolated ‘sky island’ mountain ranges of the Great Basin, where high elevation habitats are surrounded by sagebrush and salt desert shrub land flats. Many of these high elevation habitats are being altered and lost rapidly from increasing disturbance events and effects of climate change. Our objective was to evaluate dusky grouse resource selection in the Schell Creek, Duck Creek, and Egan ranges of White PineCounty, Nevada, USA, during breeding, nesting, brood-rearing, and over winter to identify habitats of importance for concentrating conservation actions. We found that breeding male dusky grouse selected for aspen stands, nearness to water, and nearnessto forest edges, while breeding female dusky grouse selected for mountain mahogany, aspen, and mountain shrub communities (i.e. sagebrush), and areas with high predicted probability of males. Nesting female dusky grouse selected for mountain shrub communities, intermediate elevation, low ruggedness, and high percent shrub cover.Brooding female dusky grouse selected for aspen and mountain shrub communities, nearness to water, high percent shrub cover, and intermediate elevation and ruggedness. Finally, wintering female dusky grouse selected for spruce–fir and pine conifer types, high elevation and ruggedness, and farther distances from forest edges, while selecting against high percent tree canopy cover. Our results suggest that dusky grouse presence may indicate aspen and conifer community health in the Great Basin mountain ranges. Conservation priority could be placed on these limited vegetation communities, especially given the slow regeneration and growth in the region due to the arid climate and xeric soils
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes December 15, 2025
No full textCall to Order University Business Faculty Senate Business Information Reports Council on Teacher Education Scholarship Annual Report University Studies Report Old Business New Business Adjourn 4:3
4. OER as Assessment: Open Pedagogy in a Theatre History Course
No full textThe following chapter serves as an example for how to combine assessment and Open Educational Practices (OEP), alongside evidence that doing so can improve both learning and teaching experiences. When I made the decision to utilize Open Educational Resources (OER) in my theatre history course (THEA 230), I also created a new culminating assessment. The products of this assessment became openly accessible materials that were added to the OER for THEA 230. This chapter includes a brief description of the course context and the impetus for the adoption of OER. I provide an overview of how I developed this new assignment, which has its foundations in research about Open Pedagogy and the principles of authentic and transparent assessment. Details of the assessment as well as examples of student work are also included
12. Teaching Excellence Plus: The Teaching Philosophy Statement as Creative Platform for Strategic Self-Promotion
No full textTheoretically, the teaching philosophy statement (TPS) is a self-reflective document that articulates your core beliefs as an instructor about teaching and learning and explains your values, goals, and strategies for fostering student success. But let’s face it: the TPS can feel like the most awkward and performative of professional documents—an uncomfortable hurdle to jump with every application, annual review, and promotion, which makes many instructors, regardless of rank, dread writing (and rewriting) it. At its best, the TPS captures your authentic voice and professional identity, and it paints a clear picture of how you approach the classroom. Yet, in practice, the TPS too often devolves into a painful bureaucratic exercise—more of a perfunctory, institutionally-driven performance than a genuinely self-reflective expression of praxis rooted in creative agency. Further, while there is a whole field of literature insisting on the importance of this central document for promotion, the TPS is rarely positioned as a strategic, rhetorical space for recursively self-fashioning and self- advocating your professional instructional identity
17. Our Teaching Excellence: Effective Teaching as an Inherently Collective Endeavor to Enhance Student Learning
No full textHigher education has long pursued excellence in its core pillars: research, service, and teaching. Yet, public trust in higher education is at an all-time low. In 2024, nearly 1 in 3 Americans reported little to no confidence in higher education (Nietzel, 2024). Another survey revealed that 1 in 2 Americans think a college degree is less important now for getting a well-paying job compared to 20 years ago (Pew Research Center, 2024). Individual faculty continue to secure tenure through demonstrated teaching excellence, yet higher education struggles to convince the American public of its effectiveness. Why does this discrepancy exist
