South Dakota State University

About: South Dakota State University is a education organization based out in Brookings, South Dakota, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Virus. The organization has 5700 authors who have published 10456 publications receiving 280551 citations. The organization is also known as: SDSU.

Scab of wheat and Barley : A re-emerging disease of devastating impact

Abstract: cab can be a devastating disease affecting all classes of wheat and other small grains. This fungal disease, also called Fusarium head blight (FHB), has the ability to completely destroy a potentially high-yielding crop within a few weeks of harvest. Lush, green fields become blighted seemingly overnight (Figs. 1 and 2). Frequent rainfalls, high humidities, and/or heavy dews that coincide with the flowering and early kernel-fill period of the crop favor infection and development of the disease. Damage from head scab is multifold: reduced yields, discolored, shriveled “tombstone” kernels (Figs. 3 to 5), contamination with mycotoxins, and reduction in seed quality. The disease also reduces test weight and lowers market grade. Difficulties in marketing, exporting, processing, and feeding scabby grain are experienced. In North America, Fusarium graminearum Schwabe (teleomorph Gibberella zeae (Schwein.) Petch; synonym = G. saubinetti) predominates among several Fusarium species that can cause scab (4,5,8,40,48,60). Other species may predominate in cooler climates or where crops other than wheat and corn are dominant (8,40,48,60). F. graminearum also is associated with stalk and ear rot of corn and may cause a root rot of cereals. The fungus persists and multiplies on infected crop residues of small grains and corn. The chaff, light-weight kernels, and other infected head debris of wheat and barley, returned to the soil surface during harvest, serve as important sites of overwintering of the fungus. Continued moist weather during the crop growing season favors development of the fungus, and spores are windblown or water-splashed onto heads of cereal crops. Wheat and barley are susceptible to head infection from the flowering (pollination) period up through the soft dough stage of kernel development. Spores of the causal fungus may land on the exposed anthers of the flower and then grow into the kernels, glumes, or other head parts. Excellent descriptions of the disease cycle and spore stages of the causal fungi have been published (4,8,21,40,48). Mycotoxins are frequently associated with the growth and invasion of cereal grains by scab fungi. The most common toxin associated with F. graminearum– infected grain is vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol). Vomitoxin is known to cause vomiting and feed refusal in nonruminant animals and poses a threat to other animals and humans if exposure levels are high (45). The presence of mycotoxins in infected grain further exacerbates the losses that scab can cause. Recent articles have reviewed the epidemiology, management, and history of scab outbreaks in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America (5,40,45,48). As these papers indicate, numerous research and survey reports have described the worldwide occurrence and epidemic levels of scab during the past century. Yield loss reports have not always been based on replicated research trials, but extensive surveys of producers’ fields have provided assessments of head blighting severity, which were translated into yield loss estimates. In the United States, scab was found in 31 of 40 states surveyed in 1917, with losses estimated at 288,000 metric tons (10.6 million bushels), primarily in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (4). Scab caused an estimated loss of 2.18 million metric tons (80 million bushels) of winter and spring wheat throughout the United States in 1919 (14). Extensive field surveys

The Effect of Twitter on College Student Engagement and Grades

Abstract: Despite the widespread use of social media by students and its increased use by instructors, very little empirical evidence is available concerning the impact of social media use on student learning and engagement. This paper describes our semester-long experimental study to determine if using Twitter – the microblogging and social networking platform most amenable to ongoing, public dialogue – for educationally relevant purposes can impact college student engagement and grades. A total of 125 students taking a first year seminar course for pre-health professional majors participated in this study (70 in the experimental group and 55 in the control group). With the experimental group, Twitter was used for various types of academic and co-curricular discussions. Engagement was quantified by using a 19-item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement. To assess differences in engagement and grades, we used mixed effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) models, with class sections nested within treatment groups. We also conducted content analyses of samples of Twitter exchanges. The ANOVA results showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in engagement than the control group, as well as higher semester grade point averages. Analyses of Twitter communications showed that students and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process in ways that transcended traditional classroom activities. This study provides experimental evidence that Twitter can be used as an educational tool to help engage students and to mobilize faculty into a more active and participatory role.

Reciprocal Rewards Stabilize Cooperation in the Mycorrhizal Symbiosis

Abstract: Plants and their arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal symbionts interact in complex underground networks involving multiple partners. This increases the potential for exploitation and defection by individuals, raising the question of how partners maintain a fair, two-way transfer of resources. We manipulated cooperation in plants and fungal partners to show that plants can detect, discriminate, and reward the best fungal partners with more carbohydrates. In turn, their fungal partners enforce cooperation by increasing nutrient transfer only to those roots providing more carbohydrates. On the basis of these observations we conclude that, unlike many other mutualisms, the symbiont cannot be "enslaved." Rather, the mutualism is evolutionarily stable because control is bidirectional, and partners offering the best rate of exchange are rewarded.