Listeria monocytogenes contamination continues to pose challenges for the food industry and there is demand for effective methods of food preservation and protection that can also be considered clean label. A promising source of antilisterial compounds may be sourced from bacteria that produce novel byproducts. Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified...
In this comprehensive thesis, we present a series of experiments and findings that highlight the
critical importance of TDC Voltage Sensors in the hardware security domain. Our research begins
by introducing a novel self-calibrating module, demonstrating its efficiency through preliminary
calibration tests. We then delve into the Peak-to-Peak tests, which...
Food waste (FW), brewery waste (BW), and fats, oils, and greases (FOG), are prevalent waste streams in municipalities across the country, particularly in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Anaerobic digestion (AD), the microbial-mediated transformation of organic waste into methane-rich biogas, offers a sustainable, energy-generating, waste management solution for these wastes. Anaerobic...
Background: Access to and effective utilization of healthcare services during the postpartum period is essential in preventing and managing health risks among women after childbirth, ensuring a smooth transition to motherhood, and promoting long-term health outcomes for women and their families. Low-income Medicaid women and those belonging to minority race/ethnicity...
This paper addresses the high model complexity and overconfident frame labeling of state-of-the-art (SOTA) action segmenters. Their complexity is typically justified by the need to sequentially refine action segmentation through multiple stages of a deep architecture. However, this multistage refinement does not take into account uncertainty of frame labeling predicted...
Variation in cheese quality due to geographic location is important to cheese producers, consumers, and retailers on a global level. Understanding the impacts of geographic location of cheese plants may be useful to businesses for marketing, cost reduction, and quality improvement. Many aspects of variation due to geography have been...
Continental shelf sediments are sinks for dissolved oxygen and sources of many major and minor nutrients required for oceanic surface primary production, resulting in a strong coupling between benthic and pelagic biogeochemical cycling. However, the influence and spatiotemporal variability of benthic remineralization on bottom-water chemistry and the supply of nutrients...
Our study provides a review of theories that were used to study race and racism between 2010 and 2019 in higher education. We conducted a content analysis to identify concepts, statements and models used in higher education studies focused on race and racism in the three most highly read United...
Drones provide a privileged birds’-eye view for collecting high-resolution imagery formorphometric and behavioral sampling of animals. Biologically meaningful measurements extracted from overhead images require an accurate estimate of altitude, but current commercial drones include inaccurate barometer estimates. Recent proposals for coupling altimeter systems to drones have provided customized, open-source solutions,...
Climate change is impacting a wide range of global systems, with polar ecosystems experiencing the most rapid change. While climate impacts affect lower trophic level and short-lived species most directly, it is less clear how long-lived and mobile species will respond to rapid polar warming, as they may have the...
The California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), located on the eastern boundary of the North Pacific Ocean, is highly dynamic, with variable conditions driven by seasonal upwelling, regional oceanography, and broad scale climate patterns. In the last decade, the northeast Pacific Ocean has experienced several marine heatwaves (MHWs), prolonged periods...
Streptococcus pneumoniae and Influenza A Virus both primarily infect the upper respiratory tract, with more severe disease occurring during coinfection than would be caused by either pathogen independently. Until recently, characterization of the interactions between these two pathogens has occurred exclusively in the context of a host or using host-derived...
_____________________________________________________________________
Dean of the Graduate School
I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent
This study examined water scarcity and vulnerability in Quintana Roo, along the northern Caribbean coast of Mexico where rapid growth of tourism in the past 40 years has limited the ability of rural and urban communities to obtain safe, reliable, and equitable access to water services and critical water infrastructure...
Molecular phylogenetic and chemical analyses, and morphological characterization of collections of North American Paraisaria specimens support the description of two new species and two new combinations for known species. P. cascadensis sp. nov. is a pathogen of Cyphoderris (Orthoptera) from the Pacific Northwest USA and P. pseudoheteropoda sp. nov. is...
The present essay discusses themes of dehumanization and reliance on a biomedical model of care within U.S. psychiatric systems in treating individuals diagnosed with psychosis. This model is contrasted with alternative treatment approaches that are person-centered rather than disease-centered. These include Open Dialogue, Soteria, and Hearing Voices Movement. In the...
_____________________________________________________________________
Toni Doolen, Dean, Oregon State University Honors College
I understand that my project will
Long field-life systems are those for which operational, as opposed to capital, expenditures dominate the life time cost of the system. In established product categories, operational experience and historical maintenance data allows engineers to make informed decisions influencing maintenance during the early design stages when design changes are at their...
Oregon's estuaries are important ecosystems for scientific study. Consequently, knowledge of what research has been conducted helps us identify benchmarks and plan new projects. A comprehensive bibliography of published research, technical reports, local documents, and data sets is one means of recording this knowledge. For these reasons, the Guin Library...
This edition contains research updates and a comprehensive list of publications summarizing research conducted by faculty of the Oregon Wine Research Institute at Oregon State University. Dr. Patty Skinkis, OSU Viticulture Extension Specialist and Professor, opens the newsletter with an article on canopy yield management. Dr. James Osborne, OSU Enology...
Our latest edition of the OWRI Technical Newsletter contains research updates and a comprehensive list of publications summarizing research conducted by faculty of the Oregon Wine Research Institute at Oregon State University. Dr. R. Paul Schreiner, USDA-ARS Research Plant Physiologist, opens the newsletter with a research update on Pinot noir...
Persistent and uncontrolled inflammation is the root cause of various debilitating diseases. Given that interleukin-1 receptor–associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) is a critical modulator of inflammation, inhibition of its activity with selective drug molecules (IRAK4 inhibitors) represents a promising therapeutic strategy for inflammatory disorders. To exploit the full potential of this...
Metabolomics has recently gained momentum in biomolecule research and complements the genomics and proteomics research space. Metabolomics strives to detect, identify, and quantify all metabolites present in biological samples. In particular, biomolecular analysis using ultra-performance liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) has become increasingly important for metabolomic analyses. Similarly,...
There could be a geospatial and socio-ecological intersection between climate change, energy production, and sustainable fisheries management in the United States. Marine renewable energy generation efforts are currently being planned, studied, and initially implemented in the country as a response to climate change. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is...
______________________________________________________________________________
Dean of the Graduate School
I understand that my thesis will become part of the
Grapevine Trunk Diseases (GTDs) are caused by a group of fungal pathogens that attack the xylem tissue of mature grapevines worldwide. In the past 30 years, their incidence has increased, both in emerging grape-producing regions, as well as those with an extended history of viticulture. In the same time span,...
I conducted a field study using gray wolf and mountain lion urine to investigate white-tailed deer and mesopredator behavioral responses to novel predator cues in a natural setting and to see if any changes in wildlife activity correspond to changes in the local biodiversity of a wetland environment. I created...
This dissertation examines college students' reflections on gender-related topics within a social justice course of a teacher preparation program. Using critical and feminist approaches, this study explores how a strategically designed curriculum focused on the study of gender enhances students' understanding of sexism, gender oppression, and masculinity. The curriculum employs...
Natural products have long been an important source of resources for humans. Many of these compounds possess unique chemical structures and potent biological properties. By targeting natural products with specific chemical properties, we can gain a better understanding of the roles these compounds play in the environment and their interactions...
Background:
The number of people diagnosed with chronic physical conditions is increasing in the United States. Chronic mental illnesses are also common in the country. Low-income women and those on Medicaid bear a disproportionate burden of chronic conditions and these conditions significantly contribute to obstetric morbidity. Prioritizing preventive measures and...
To facilitate the design of Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) for flood protection, this thesis expands an existing engineering design methodology to NNBF systems. The existing approach is a Level III reliability method for the performance-based design of traditional coastal engineering systems. The expanded methodology incorporates uncertainties inherent to both...
Sound is a crucial aspect of the underwater environment for fishes – various species use sound to communicate, identify predators, navigate, and many other activities needed for survival in their habitat. Disruptions and disturbances in the natural soundscape can have important impacts on all these activities and are likely to...
The research was conducted in the Fundo Almendra, property of the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP). The objective was to analyze the gross forest loss in the period 2001-2021 in Fundo Almendra, the relationship between forest loss and local surface temperature, and the role of local communities’ demographics...
Propose a sampling plan to determine Hg contamination in the Nanay river basin.
The sampling plan is for a feasibility pilot, to investigate whether it is possible to safely collect samples for Hg analyses. Future studies will build on these initial results.
Despite ongoing initiatives and research efforts, the persistent underrepresentation of marginalized groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines in the U.S. has seen little improvement. This study posits that a fundamental change in teacher preparation can lead to more inclusive STEM learning environments. It centers on the development...
The Peruvian cocoa sector has been growing quickly since the beginning of this century due to international demand for this commodity together with concentrated international cooperation, including NGOs and governmental agencies. Similarly, certification among cocoa producers has been growing quickly. Little is known regarding how certification impacts environmental and socioeconomic...
The growing urban development and the inadequate installation of settlements has caused environmental challenges such as landscape destruction, loss of urban tree biodiversity, therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the ecosystem services of urban trees in the 'Monumental Zone' of the city of Iquitos, in the Peruvian...
Heterogeneous catalysis modulates the rate and selectivity of reaction processes by
stabilizing a series of intermediate states on solid surfaces, facilitating the production
of many commodity chemicals modern society relies upon. Conventional, thermal
catalytic processes—conducted at elevated temperatures and pressures—source
thermal, mechanical, and chemical potential energy from carbon-hydrogen bonds—
combustion...
Marine heatwaves (“MHWs”) are discrete periods of anomalously warm ocean conditions that can lead to shifts in the distribution and abundance of marine organisms. Low-trophic level, pelagic forage species are frequently among those affected by MHWs, often resulting in considerable impacts upon their predators. In the North Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic...
Violent deaths are a leading cause of mortality in the United States and research suggests American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are disproportionately impacted compared to all other racial and ethnic groups. Little is known about the true magnitude of the serious threat of violence mortality in AI/AN communities across...
Toxin production by cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) in freshwater systems has lasting ecological and human impacts. Nutrients, light availability, hydrology, and microbial community composition impact the frequency and intensity of toxic cyanoHABs. Climate change will exacerbate toxic cyanoHABs, making real time and predictive monitoring a vital tool for managing...
During the first full school year of the Covid-19 pandemic, two central contexts for adolescent development—home and school—changed utterly. In Oregon, most middle- and high schoolers attended school entirely remotely from the beginning of the pandemic, in March, 2020, through the end of April, 2021, removing both the supports available...
Emerging data showing the presence of atmospheric microplastics (MPs) has recently raised awareness surrounding the potential of human nanoplastics (NPs) exposure. Due to factors such as weathering, UV exposure, and other biodegradation processes, plastic pollution in the environment breaks down over time into micro (<5 micrometers) and nanoscale (<1000nm) particles....
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how the orientations and knowledge of linguistically responsive teaching, as well as personal characteristics of school-based agriculture education (SBAE) teachers, influence the frequency of their implementation of linguistically responsive practices. Grounded in the Linguistically Responsive Teaching framework by Lucas and...
Sensory stimulation from food-related cues elicits a number of rapid physiologic responses that prepare the gastrointestinal tract for efficient nutrient utilization and help minimize perturbations to metabolic homeostasis. Cephalic phase insulin release (CPIR) is one such response that specifically promotes glucose homeostasis by limiting the rise in blood sugar after...
Mental health services are vital during this time where mental health issues in college students have been increasing in prevalence and in severity around the world. However, mental health care is not always accessible to all. This project explores the needs of students at Oregon State University who identify as...
Natural resources are essential to humanity. With the increase in global development in recent decades, people must monitor the state of the environment, whose disturbance has a more significant impact on society than before. However, conventional environmental monitoring is challenged in highly dynamic ecosystems and large areas. As a solution,...
For many young bilingual students in school settings, demands of curricula and standardized assessments take precedence over writing pedagogies that invite and welcome students’ identities and languages into their writing. Pedagogies of voice are a means of providing culturally and linguistically responsive instruction that support bilingual students learning to write...
Vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley are predominately planted to perennial grass cover in the alleyways of vineyards. This grass cover is grown to increase worker and equipment traction, as well as reduce erosion and manage vine vegetative vigor. However, with increasing frequencies of drought and warming temperatures, the use of...
The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) has emerged as a method of understanding how stories and evidence are portrayed within policy arenas to support policy discussions and what end goals these policy narratives aim to meet. This study applies the Narrative Policy framework to policy narratives used to discuss and share...
Persistent reading difficulties are prevalent in U.S. schools and can lead to lower student performance across all subjects as well as distress, anxiety, and depression. In 2022, only 32% of fourth graders in the United States tested as proficient in reading. While there are many factors which affect reading progress...
The dominant narrative of U.S. Muslims in higher education is associated with violent rhetoric, anti-American values, and terrorism. After terrorist attacks took place on September 11th, 2001, this narrative expanded to include a depiction of U.S. Muslims as being oppressed and submissive. Hate crimes, discrimination, and Islamophobic attacks towards Muslims...
A model of the Oregon State TRIGA reactor was developed in Serpent 2 by translating a previously accepted MCNP model. Both models were verified and validated via comparison of each model and data gathered from the core start-up. Reactivity bias in each code was determined. Using the rod drop method,...
In its relatively short existence, open access—the free, online, and immediate availability of scientific outputs in journals and repositories—has contributed to the availability and impact of scientific knowledge across the globe. As a result, the authors hypothesize that researchers and students increasingly prefer that their work appears in open access...
The body of work aims to contribute to the area of Quantitative analysis in Environmental Sciences, and is focused on the microbiome. The underlying theme for the dissertation is methods and workflow. The unique bioinformatics workflow used for the analysis of genomic data was used to answer distinct and pressing...
In the Columbia Basin, pre-plant soil fumigation is commonly used in potato production for pest control, but fumigation can kill non-target organisms within the soil, result in unintended shifts in the microbial community, and disrupt long-term soil health. Cover crops have been shown to strongly influence the numbers and communities...
In recent years, model-free Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) has become an increasingly popular alternative to more traditional model-based or optimization-based control methods in solving robotic legged locomotion. However, deploying RL in the real world can be a significant undertaking. Constructing reward functions which compel controllers to learn the desired behavior...
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) comes in a huge assortment of fresh and dried varieties, including snap beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans. Together, these and other market classes provide a third of the daily dietary protein in some cultures, particularly in Africa, Asia, and developing nations in the Americas....
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Dean of the Graduate School
I understand that my thesis will become part
Based on current trends both pesticide and plastic production are expected to continue to rise in the coming decade. A growing global population coupled with the effects of climate change are the main drivers of increased pesticide use. Throughout this dissertation pesticides refer to herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. Plastic production...
Research overwhelmingly suggests that Black and Brown students face unjust and inequitable environments in K-12 schools in the United States (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Carter et al., 2017; Coles & Powell, 2020). These injustices often occur as a result of systemic racism and are replicated because of embedded racist policies...
Xanthomonas hortorum pv. carotae (Xhc) is an epiphytic, plant pathogenic bacterium that causes the disease bacterial blight of carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus). Infection with Xhc can result in blighting of leaves and umbels and reduce quality and yield of carrot seed crops. Carrot production in the United States approaches...
Understanding how spatial variation in climate correlates with phenotypic variation among individuals may offer insights about local adaptation, population performance, and species’ response to climate change. Desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) in the Mojave Desert of southern California experience a broad range of temperature and aridity, inhabiting mountain ranges...
.
______________________________________________________________________________
Jose Alberto Torres, Author
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wanted to acknowledge Dr. Clinton
Hydraulic conductivity of hemp stems under water-stress conditions was investigated. When plants face with water-stress conditions, embolies (cavitation) are triggered in xylem channels and water transport from the root to the leaves is affected. The relation between percentage loss of water transfer ability within the xylem channels can be described...
With an ever-growing urban population there is a continued interest in urban agriculture as a viable option to improve access to fresh produce and enhance food security in an increasingly urbanized world. As the primary method of urban agriculture in the United States, community gardens also provide a range of...
Giardia and Cryptosporidium protozoans are resilient, zoonotic waterborne pathogens that can bypass water treatment and kill millions of people and animals annually. Giardia and Cryptosporidium cysts and oocysts, respectively, can spread through feces; poor sanitation and poverty can increase the risk for giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis diarrheal diseases. We are currently...
The engineering community is increasingly moving towards the design of seismic force-resisting systems that limit post-earthquake damage and reduce downtime to increase urban resiliency. For example, structural spines can be used to provide an elastic load path to impose a more uniform drift distribution with building height, thereby reducing the...
The proportion of professional staff on higher education campuses has significantly grown in recent decades. Despite this growth, the racial makeup of this employee population still does not reflect the increasing diversity of students in higher education. While higher education institutions pronounce their commitments to developing diversity, equity, and inclusion...
Sea otters act as valuable indicators of ecosystem health and consume prey items that contain anthropogenic microparticles, including microplastics. Microplastic ingestion can exert a wide range of deleterious effects depending on the organism and plastic type. We investigated the ingestion of microparticles by wild sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in Alaska...
LGBTQ+ young people experience oppression daily and these experiences
negatively impact their wellbeing (Hafeez et al., 2017; Kattari et al., 2016; Kulik et al., 2017; Movement Advancement Project, 2020a; Woodford et al., 2014; Young, 2014). How young people respond to oppression can have far-reaching implications for not only their own...
Organically certified Northern Highbush Blueberry (NHB; Vaccinium corymbosum L.) production in the Columbia Basin region of Oregon and Washington is expanding. Soils in the region are typically calcareous and highly alkaline, often requiring pH adjustment to an ideal range of 4.5–5.5 to support the establishment of the acid-loving, ericaceous crop....
In 2019, a multi-cohort population of the typically estuarine burrowing shrimp Neotrypaea sp., was discovered approximately 7 miles offshore of Newport, Oregon. Morphological analysis of the offshore population, microbial sediment sequencing, and species distribution modeling was conducted with this new offshore population. In order to identify Neotrypaea sp. to the...
Daily cyclical changes of light are brought on by the axial rotation of the Earth while seasonal changes in light are caused by Earth’s tilt as it revolves around the sun. Major life history traits, such as development, which are tied to metabolic processes, have a strong link to the...
Flavored milk is a growing category for dairy products; however, it is a perishable product that is subject to microbial spoilage which can lead to a negative consumer experience and lead to lost sales. Flavored milk processors communicated unique spoilage events related to their products, including color loss of strawberry...
The focus of this thesis is to design, characterize, and apply novel computational methods and molecular systems to interrogate heterogeneous human gut microbiome-related phenomena. In Chapter 2, I design, implement, and characterize a method for embedding co-occurrence patterns derived from massive 16s amplicon datasets. I use this method to 1....
Put generally, the work I have conducted in my time at Oregon State University has been to answer two questions. The first of these is “Why do I get this particular product from this particular chemical reaction?” and the second is “How do the reagents in this chemical reaction lead...
Phycocyanin, a photosynthetic pigment-protein complex produced by cyanobacteria, has critical value in the medical field at high purity. Costs associated with the extraction of this pigment are high, emphasizing the importance of optimal growth conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate potential commercial producers of phycocyanin by evaluating...
Today, there are six extant species of sea lion around the world, with the seventh (the Japanese sea lion) already having gone extinct due to a lack of proper conservation management. Because each of the surviving 6 sea lion species differ slightly in their anatomy, behavior, reproduction, and local habitats,...
With growing recognition of adolescence as the time in which suicidal thoughts and behaviors first occur, early identification and intervention systems in schools have become an international
priority. Understanding and incorporating language indicators associated with the core psychological and interpersonal processes of adolescent suicidality could provide promising tools for school...
______________________________________________________________________________
Dean of the Graduate School
I understand that my dissertation will become part of the
North American bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) have experienced significant declines and population extirpations due to novel pathogens such as Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae. This disease continues to limit the population restoration of bighorn sheep. Therefore, understanding the demographic consequences of pathogen presence and the risk of contact between bighorn populations and potential...
As the western United States continues to experience prolonged drought that is extending water deficits and threatening ecosystem resilience and socioeconomic systems, it will be vital to understand the relationship between water use and transport for proper water resource management. This is especially important to the agricultural areas of the...
Lactose intolerance is a common food intolerance that occurs because of a post-weaning deficiency of lactase, an enzyme that cleaves the glyosidic bond of lactose. About 75% of the world's population is lactose intolerant. Common symptoms of lactose intolerance are abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea. ~25% of the world’s population...
Riparian zones are ecotones between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Processes in streams are strongly influenced by riparian forest communities, age, stage and structure. Temperate forests across much of North America, including riparian areas, are recovering from historic land clearing with many stands in the stem-exclusion phase of development in which...
A vital aspect of concrete construction is quality assurance and control (QA/QC). Engineered structures must meet pre-determined and agreed-upon strength and durability requirements. Concrete falls into a specific category of infrastructure material because in most cases, these strength and durability requirements cannot be found until the material has at least...
Robotic Bipedal locomotion holds the potential for efficient, robust traversal of difficult terrain. The difficulty lies in the dynamics of locomotion which complicate control and motion planning. Bipedal locomotion dynamics are dimensionally large problems, extremely nonlinear, and operate on the limits of actuator capabilities, which limit the performance of generic...
Aroma is one of the major components that determines the quality of wine and consumer acceptability. Fruitiness is a highly desirable aroma quality in white wines and has been well accepted by consumers across the globe. Tropical fruit aroma has been substantially studied in Sauvignon Blanc wines due to its...
Despite the importance of fire for maintaining the health of many ecosystems, the social and economic costs of wildfires have risen sharply in recent years. Across the western United States, historical land and fire management practices combined with climate change and modern human development pressures, are contributing to increased wildfire...
Grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV) is a single-stranded DNA virus that causes grapevine red blotch disease (GRBD). Symptoms of GRBD include red discoloring of leaf margins and red veins on the underside of the leaves. GRBD affects the plant's metabolism and photosynthetic pathways, and disrupts carbon translocation and chlorophyll concentrations....
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative pathology currently affecting nearly 44 million individuals worldwide, yet there are not currently any effective treatments or preventions for AD despite the rapid development in our understanding of the disease over the last four decades. The medical and sanitary innovations of the last century...
Hop (Humulus lupulus L. var. lupulus) is a diploid, dioecious plant with an extensive history of cultivation and use in brewing, as a textile, and for its therapeutic properties. Hop is prized for its ability to produce a variety of aromatic and flavor compounds, as well as compounds with anti-microbial...
Luteinizing hormone (LH) stimulates the secretion of gonadal steroid hormones (testosterone in males and estrogen/progesterone in females) and is under negative feedback from gonadal hormones. In gonad-intact dogs, LH is secreted in low amplitude pulses of concentrations under 1 ng/mL; except for the day of the LH surge in females...
American first ladies have long used the media to promote their image. Michelle Obama, the first lady of the @FLOTUS Twitter account, used this government controlled platform to communicate, campaign and bring attention to important White House events. Using Chang Wan Woo et al. rhetorical purpose(s), this study conducts a...
______________________________________________________________________________
Dean of the Graduate School
I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent
Understanding residents’ perceptions of and support for tourism is essential for sustainable tourism development and management. Research has shown that perceptions of tourism impacts are related to residents’ support for tourism. It is generally accepted that perceived tourism impacts predict support for tourism, as explained by social exchange theory. However,...
1,4-Dioxane (dioxane) and cis-dichloroethylene (cDCE) are compounds commonly found in industrial cleaning and degreasing agents that are frequently present as groundwater contaminants. In an effort to develop a more effective treatment method for these compounds, hydrogel beads were fabricated with either gellan gum or a combination of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)...
The sustainable use of natural resources, including the goods and services provided by pasturelands and rangelands, is of growing importance due to climatic uncertainty and population growth. Maintaining high productivity in livestock operations is necessary as land availability diminishes and global populations rise. The potential negative impacts to the environment...