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Machine Learning Shows a Limit to Rain-Snow Partitioning Accuracy When Using Near-Surface Meteorology
No full textPartitioning precipitation into rain and snow with near-surface meteorology is a well-known challenge. However, whether a limit exists to its potential performance remains unknown. Here, we evaluate this possibility by applying a set of benchmark precipitation phase partitioning methods plus three machine learning (ML) models (an artificial neural network, random forest, and XGBoost) to two independent datasets: 38.5 thousand crowdsourced observations and 17.8 million synoptic meteorology reports. The ML methods provide negligible improvements over the best benchmarks, increasing accuracy only by up to 0.6% and reducing rain and snow biases by up to -4.7%. ML methods fail to identify mixed precipitation and sub-freezing rainfall events, while expressing their worst accuracy values from 1.0 °C–2.5 °C. A potential cause of these shortcomings is the air temperature overlap in rain and snow distributions (peaking between 1.0 °C–1.6 °C), which expresses a significant negative relationship (p \u3c 0.0005) with partitioning accuracy. Thus, the meteorological characteristics of rain and snow are similar at air temperatures slightly above freezing with increasing overlap associated with decreasing performance. We suggest researchers switch their focus from marginally improving inherently limited precipitation phase partitioning methods using near-surface meteorology to creating new methods that assimilate novel data sources—e.g., crowdsourced precipitation phase observations
The influence of early detection and intervention providers\u27 actions and communication on parental emotions and early intervention engagement after a child is diagnosed with hearing loss: A scoping review
No full textDespite well-intentioned early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) programs, parents receiving a newborn hearing loss diagnosis often experience distress, uncertainty, and fear, which can impact their readiness to engage in early intervention. The communication and support provided by clinicians in early hearing detection and intervention play a critical role in helping families navigate emotions, overcome barriers, and actively participate in EHDI programs. The purpose of this scoping review is to advance our knowledge of the following: For parents who have a newborn newly diagnosed with hearing loss, how do the actions/behaviors and communication (or lack thereof) of EHDI providers influence parents’ emotional reactions and readiness to engage in early intervention? Guided by PRISMA-ScR guidelines, two electronic databases (Medline and CINAHL) were searched between 2015 and 2024. Fifty studies were included in the review after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. We extracted data from the included articles and collated results using descriptive and qualitative content analysis. The results revealed important actions/behaviors and communication from EHDI providers and the systems of care in which they work that facilitated readiness to engage in intervention. These include systems of care that are accessible, flexible, coordinated, collaborative, and collegial. EHDI providers should facilitate family capacity-building through balanced and unbiased guidance; clear, consistent communication; comprehensive information-sharing; provision of emotional and psychological support; parent empowerment for decision-making; and culturally responsive care. Future research should focus on developing education opportunities for clinicians to acquire knowledge, competencies, and skills to work in family-centered early intervention for families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing
JETE Introduction Fall 2025
No full textAccess the online Pressbooks version of this introduction here.
An introduction to the Spring 2025 issue of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence
Immersive Modeling to Communicate and Manage Risks of Water Shortages
No full textOur project goal is to use immersive online collaborative modeling as a tool for active learning to communicate and manage users conflicting risks of water shortages because decisions now to manage risk effect future risk. State-of-the art river basin forecasting tools provide probabilistic estimates of streamflow at hourly to annual scales. Water resource models quantify tradeoffs and risk across hundreds or thousands of scenarios of inflow and demand forecast out decades. Our project objectives are: 1) Formulate extreme scenarios for reservoir inflows without probabilities one to three years out that pose imminent risk of water shortages. 2) Hold immersive model sessions with the purpose to stabilize and recover reservoir storage under conditions of extreme low inflow and storage. In a session up to 6 basin partners will personify water user roles, articulate their user’s risk(s), and formulate strategy(s) to manage risks. Our partners are from Federal and state agencies—including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—agricultural users, urban users, and others with large, old, settled used and unused water rights. Then, partners will adapt their strategies in response to their available water, others decisions, and the real-time discussion of decisions. 3) Evaluate the effectiveness of immersive modeling to communicate and manage future risk of water shortages. We will use discussions in sessions to elicit insights into why and how partners perceive and include forecasts, uncertainty, values, preferences, physical constraints, legal constraints, and risks to other users in their decisions to manage risk. We will also use discussion to synthesize requests to improve NOAA forecasting products. 4) Discuss opportunities with River Basin Forecasters to add tools to manage risk of water shortages in their products and to add forecast products in immersive models. We will apply our methods in the Colorado River Basin, USA and Mexico as a high-profile basin that supplies water to approximately 40 million people, 15% of all U.S. farmland, and already faces water shortages. Our 1.75-year project will advance the CIROH goal to deliver water resources intelligence to communicate and manage risk. Our project will also advance CIROH goals to be a knowledge mobilizer and community catalyst by promoting collaboration across scientific and practitioner communities in support of the NOAA’s vision for a water-ready nation. Our project will specifically address NOAA’s Research Theme 4, Focus Area 1: How can we effectively communicate risks of water shortages at different scales. Our project will also help implement NOAA priorities to respond to competing demands for increasingly limited and stressed water supply while provide reservoir managers actionable information. In our education and outreach, we will: A) Train 1 post-doctoral and 5 student researchers to guide model sessions, build immersive models at different spatial scales, and synthesize data into quantitatively sound, socially sophisticated summaries of key findings. B) Hold an online immerse-athon to reach approximately 50 students at participating CIROH institutions. C) Develop immersive learning modules with rubrics to assess student ability to integrate engineering, economics, hydrology, law, and other factors into analyses of resource management problems. We see broader impacts to provide fun, low-stakes, and lowtime input places where basin partners can explore novel strategies to manage risk while grow empathy for other users situations. We will share press releases of findings to help inform public discussion of policies that are more adaptive to changing risk. We will post our immersive models and supporting materials to public repositories so that others can develop their own immersive models for forecast centers in other regions and globally
Electron Yields of Lunar Regolith Simulant Layers
No full textThe charging of bulk lunar regolith has been recognized since the Apollo era as an immediate and critical issue facing our return to the moon. Accurate electron yield (EY) measurements of bulk highly insulating granular materials—which largely determine how such particles charge through interactions with space environments—are lacking due to many experimental complexities that have led to a critical knowledge gap. Such knowledge is essential for addressing fundamental science and myriad important lunar applications and simulations related to lunar dust and regolith electrostatic charging. The few prior EY studies of lunar dust were limited due to severe charging effects and showed yields trending toward unity both above and below crossover energies. Novel techniques have recently been developed to prepare bulk granular insulating samples and to conduct accurate EY measurements with minimal charging effects. Results for ranges of dust coverage and comparison to EY of bulk constituent materials confirm that the new methods work well. As a precursor to measurements of actual lunar regolith, secondary and backscattered EY measurements for incident energies from ~20 eV to 5 keV are presented here for standard lunar simulants and closely related very high-yield, highly insulating granular materials, including Al2O3 and SiO2. A “patch” model was applied to accurately predict composite yield curves in terms of the measured yields of bulk Al2O3, SiO2, and graphitic carbon constituents. The EY results for simulants are of immediate use to improve the reliability of current ground-based engineering tests for mitigation strategies of lunar applications and to provide better simulation models of charging dust
Social Physiology of Cherry Tomato and Bell Pepper: Friend or Foe Across Growth Stages and Environments
No full textWe investigated aboveground and belowground plant responses to neighbors with varying degrees of relatedness from the early vegetative to fruiting stages. Cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) were grown individually (C and B, respectively) and paired based on high (CC and BB) and low (CB) degrees of relatedness, in rhizoslides, pots, and a greenhouse. In the CB pairing, cherry tomato consistently exhibited enhanced net CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll content, height, stem diameter, dry weight, and increased root thickening. In bell pepper, these traits were impaired and showed increased fine root proliferation; however, under greenhouse conditions, it allocated more resources to root development, forming thicker roots. Neighbor presence and relatedness significantly impacted fruit quantity and quality: cherry tomato in CB pairing yielded higher total and export-grade fruit (by 32 %), whereas bell pepper produced the lowest yields (by 31 %) but maintained stable sugar content. Root exudate carbon concentrations were highest in CC and BB pairings, and elevated in the CB pairing compared to individuals, indicating recognition of neighbor identity. The effects of neighbor recognition and genetic relatedness were species-specific and consistent throughout growth, offering insights into their ecological roles in plant interactions and highlighting the potential of strategic species pairing in intercropping systems to enhance crop productivity
Better Budgeting - Budget Mastermind Booklet
No full textThis booklet helps you reflect on your finances and improve budgeting decisions. It helps you explore your values and motivators, set financial goals, learn zero-based budgeting, and brainstorm ways to increase your income and reduce expenses. It also helps you learn principles for tracking expenses and increasing savings
Educational Policies Committee Minutes December 4, 2025
No full textApproval of Minutes - November 6, 2025 Subcommittee Reports Curriculum Subcommittee Program Proposals Academic Standards Subcommittee General Education Subcommittee Center for Civic Excellence Other Business Adjourn: 3:25 p
Ecological Restoration and Ecosystem Memory of Wildlife Forage and Understory Diversity in a Young Pine Monoculture Plantation in Central-Interior British Columbia
No full textEcological restoration has recently taken center stage in the rehabilitation of degraded forest ecosystems to improve multifunctionality, biodiversity, and wildlife habitat conservation. The research summarized herein assessed the efficacy of variable stand density thinning (200, 400, and 600 stems/ha) and artificial canopy gaps (0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 ha in size) as potential restoration treatments to enhance wildlife forage and native biodiversity in a young lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm. ex S. Wats.) forest in central-interior British Columbia. Field data collection was conducted from May-August, 2023 to assess the early response (1-3 years post-treatment) of the forest understory plant community to the treatments.
The effects of the restoration treatments and time since treatment on the cover, richness, diversity, and composition of the shrub and herbaceous layer species were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models and permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Additionally, linear models were used to examine the influence of forest floor characteristics (leaf litter, bare ground, downed woody debris, and duff depth) on understory cover, richness, and diversity as well as the impact of the treatments on presence of wildlife activity (based on presence or absence of feces). Both restoration thinning and canopy gap treatments resulted in an increase in understory herbaceous species cover and richness compared to the untreated controls. Species cover, richness and diversity were generally higher in 3-years post-treatment plots compared to 1-year post-treatment plots. Furthermore, herbaceous species composition varied significantly between the restoration treatments versus the controls, with treated plots dominated by shade-intolerant, disturbance-dependent species. Forest floor characteristics, such as percent cover of leaf litter and bare ground associated with reduced herbaceous species cover and richness. There was evidence of increased wildlife presence in the thinning and canopy gap treatments (as compared with the untreated controls), where certain species of importance to moose, such as aspen (Populus tremuloides) and willow (Salix spp.), were found. Overall, these results suggest that reducing forest stand density through thinning and artificial canopy gaps may be effective for restoring native plant biodiversity and wildlife habitat in dense monoculture plantations.
Soil samples were also collected from the study area for a seedling emergence trial to assess the viability of the soil seed bank. After 6 months of germination under favorable conditions in the greenhouse, predominantly graminoids and ruderals germinated from the seed bank. There was no difference found in the count or identities of the germinants between the restoration treatments, untreated controls, and old-growth reference stands when analyzed using permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Notably, the absence of seeds from target forage species, such as aspen, willow, and birch, from the soil seed bank suggested that we cannot rely solely on the seed bank for passive regeneration of native plant biodiversity in these young pine-dominated forests. Rather, active restoration methods, such as seeding and planting of native forage species, may be needed to rehabilitate and restore understory plant diversity and wildlife habitat in these stands
Summary of Pine Valley Area Groundwater Studies
No full textThe Utah Division of Water Resources contracted with Utah State University to document key scientific and policy information related to the current water conflict between Iron and Beaver Counties over the development of the Pine Valley Water Supply Project (PVWSP). The proposed PVWSP would pump groundwater from Pine Valley in Beaver County and pipe it southeast to the Cedar City region of Iron County served by the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District (CICWCD). Numerous concerns about the project have been raised by Beaver County and other interested parties. A number of these concerns are related to different understandings or scientific uncertainties about the groundwater hydrology of Pine Valley. This Groundwater Studies document summarizes the various scientific studies that explore and explain the hydrogeology of the Pine Valley area. It provides details about the datasets, scope, and methods used for each study, with a focus on groundwater recharge estimates that are critical to understanding water availability. The intent of this document is to describe and explain how and why the various studies arrived at different recharge estimates and hydrologic understanding. To set the stage for understanding the summaries of groundwater studies related to Pine Valley, this Overview section starts by introducing some terminology and presenting a conceptualization of Pine Valley’s water balance and groundwater recharge components. It then provides a timeline and overview of the studies that are reviewed in detail in the subsequent main section of this document