Soils perform a number of essential functions affecting management goals. Soil functions were assessed by measuring physical, chemical, and biological properties in a regional assessment of conventional (CON) and alternative (ALT) management practices at eight sites within the Great Plains. The results, reported in accompanying papers, provide excellent data for assessing how management practic...

Sensitivity analysis (SA) has long been recognized as part of best practices to assess if any particular model can be suitable to inform decisions, despite its uncertainties. SA is a commonly used approach for identifying important parameters that dominate model behavior. As such, SA address two elementary questions in the modeling exercise, namely, how sensitive is the model to changes in indi...

In this work, we investigate the dynamical behavior of a fractional-order toxin producing on a phytoplankton–zooplankton (TPPZ) system with nutrient cycling. We propose a mathematical system to model this situation. All the feasible equilibria of the system are obtained and the conditions for the existence of the equilibriums are determined. Local stability analysis of the TPPZ is studied by us...

Incorporation of liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) into commodity polymers remains a challenge in the design of high-performance, low-cost polymeric blends. Blends of a thermoplastic polymer and a nematic LCP are produced here by mechanical alloying. Functionality sensitive X-ray microscopy reveals LCP dispersions as small as 100 nm in diameter. Intimate mixing remains upon subsequent melt pro...

The forest floor is an important component for long-term forest productivity and sustainability because it plays a central role in carbon and nutrient cycling. Raking the recently senesced pine foliage off the forest floor (pinestraw raking) has become a profitable economic activity in the southeastern United States, despite its potential negative effects on long-term soil fertility. We analyze...

By Larry Libby and Elena G. Irwin Introduction Farmland value reflects the economic returns from the various products and services available from that land. Buyers and sellers agree on a price that captures expected income from the relevant outputs. Among the farmland services are certain amenities, some of which the landowner may withhold from non-payers and others for which exclusion costs ar...

In response to a concentration gradient of nutrient, E. coli bacterium modulates the rotational bias of flagellar motors which control its run-and-tumble motion, to migrate towards regions of high nutrient concentration. Presence of stochastic noise in the biochemical pathway of the cell has important consequence on the switching mechanism of motor bias, which in turn affects the runs and tumbl...

whereas public information campaigns have failed to reverse the rising trend in obesity, economists support food taxes as they suggest they can force individuals to change their eating behavior and make the agro-food industry think more about healthy food products. excise taxes based on the unhealthy nutrient content would be more effective since they impact more on unhealthy food products than...

viii CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Thesis Organization 2 CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 3 Corn Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS) 3 Nutrient composition and value of DDGS 7 Wheat Bran 11 Nutrient composition and value of wheat bran 12 Classification of Fiber 15 Nutritional and Biological Effects of Dietary Fiber 16 Chicken Ceca Microbiology 19 Short Chain Fatty Acids in the Chick...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Plant functional traits are assumed to be adaptive. As selection acts on individuals and not on traits, interpreting the adaptive value of a trait not may be straightforward. For example, productive leaves are associated with fertile environments. However, it is not clear if productive leaves confer an advantage in these habitats, or if they are an advantage as part of a sui...