At one time the cotton industry in Utah was a flourishing activity. Many pioneer farmers were engaged in the growing of this staple for the purpose of providing much needed cotton for the Territory of Utah before the days of railroads and highways. After the favorable climatic conditions for agriculture in Utah's Dixie were discovered, leaders of the Latter-day Saint Church made plans for the growing of many fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone. Of these, cotton received by far the most attention, as a domestic source of this raw material was at one time vital to the well being of the Territory of Utah. Hundreds of pioneer families were sent to this southerly location below the rim of the Great Basin to swell Utah's production of this commodity.

In the province of Chimborazo, found in the Riobamba canton, a study was done with the purpose of comparing different subtracts for the production of earthworm humus (pig feces, guinea pig feces, rabbit feces, bovine feces, market residues, and vegetable residues from the harvest) and its productive effect in vegetables (radish, onion, beet and cabbage). Twenty-four beds, 1.5 m2 (1.5 x 1) in size, as well as sixteen 3 m2 (1 x 3) parcels were used for the study. A design of complete blocks was applied with a monofactorial in the first test, and a bifactorial in the second test. The experiment lasted forty weeks. In general, the best productive behavior by the earthworm humus was distributed among various subtracts. The vegetable residues had the best final weight with a value of 66.75 Kg/parcel. The treatment with guinea pig feces had the best nitrogen content (0.29%). Bovine feces had the best phosphorus content (1.08%). Rabbit feces produced 10.6% of potassium as well as the highest number of earthworms in the harvest (6,900,00). With regards to the production of vegetables, cabbage responded well to almost all of the variables studied. Cabbage obtained superior values than the rest of the vegetables with a 99.5% capture and a 0.25% mortality. The other variables could not be compared because different types of vegetables were used. In the total economic analysis, it was seen that there was a expenditure of 851,960.00 sucres against an income, from the sale of humus and vegetables, of 1,065,000.00 sucres. The net income was 213,120.00 sucres and the benefit/cost was 1.21. It is recommended that this technique be used for small scale production, because the humus improves the ground's physical and chemical characteristics, thus obtaining representative economic gains.

The objectives of this project were to investigate the effects of dietary lysine restriction on (1) the plasma concentrations of selected metabolites, free AAs, and three growth-related hormones, (2) the gene expression profile in longissimus dorsi muscle growing pigs. Twelve individually penned young barrows (Yorkshire × Landrace; 22.6 ± 2.04 kg) were randomly assigned to two dietary treatments (a lysine-deficient, LDD, and a lysineequate, LAD) diets, respectively. Pigs had ad libitum access to water and their respective diets for 8 weeks, and the ADG, ADFI, and G:F were determined. At the end of the trial, jugular vein blood was collected, and plasma was separated for the analysis of plasma parameters. Also, the longissimus dorsi muscle samples were collected from each pig for gene expression profile analysis. The ADG of LDD pigs was lower than that of LAD pigs, and so was the G:F since there was no difference in the ADFI between the two groups of pigs. The plasma concentrations of lysine, methionine, leucine, and tyrosine were lower, while that of β-alanine was higher, in the LDD pigs. The total plasma protein concentration was lower in the LDD pigs, whereas no differences were observed for the other metabolites, and the plasma concentrations of GF, insulin, and IGF-1 between the two groups. While gene expression profile results showed that sixty-nine genes were found differentially expressed (Benjamin-Hochberg corrected P-value < 0.05) in Diet I vs. Diet II pigs, of which 29 genes were down-regulated (Log₂ fold change (FC) < - 0.58) and 40 genes were up-regulated (Log₂ FC > 0.58). Furthermore, bioinformatic analyses revealed that the upregulation and downregulation of the DEGs may negatively affect the muscle protein turnover, structural development, and lipid metabolism of skeletal muscle. In conclusion, these results indicate that the lack of lysine including other two EAA as protein building block must be the primary reason for the compromised G:F ratio and ADG. The changes in the performance might be associated with some cell signaling and metabolic pathways suggested from the Bioinformatic results; however, may not involve the GH/IGF-1 axis.

The generalization ability of artificial neural networks (ANN) is highly dependent on their architectures and can be critical to solving a given problem. The current best practice uses fixed architectures determined via a trial-and-error approach. This process can be both computationally and temporally cumbersome and does not guarantee that an optimal topology will even be found. Replacing the user’s role in designing topologies with methods that enable a system to manage its own growth can endow systems with adaptable learning. Constructive algorithms offer the possibility of compact architectures as an alternative to the trial-and-error approach. This class of algorithms grows a network’s topology by incrementally adding units during learning to match task complexity. However, the decision of when to add new units in constructive algorithms heavily depends on user-defined a priori hyperparameters, which can be task-specific. Contrary to having a user fine-tune hyperparameters that govern growth, the intrinsic population dynamics of an ANN could be used to self-govern the growing process. Theoretically, an ANN or each layer comprising the network can be viewed as a set of populations. From this perspective, a hidden layer can be considered the environment in which hidden units exist. In this work, we propose a novel, more self-governed growing algorithm inspired by population dynamics for determining near-optimal topologies of feedforward ANNs. This allows the inclusion of a carrying capacity, the maximum population of hidden units that can be sustained in a hidden layer. Including this constraint in combination with population dynamics provides a built-in mechanism for a dynamic growth rate. The proposed approach is used in parallel with direct performance feedback from the network to modulate the growth rate of the hidden layer, allowing the network to converge to smaller topologies based on the task's demands. More self-governed approaches reduce the number of finely-tuned hyperparameters required to decide when to grow and put more control of the network’s structure and representational capacities in the algorithms themselves, facilitating the emergence of inherent intelligent behaviour. Chapter one introduces a dynamic, more self-governed growing algorithm inspired by population dynamics. Results show that compared to using fixed rules for determining hidden layer sizes; dynamic growth leads to smaller topologies than predicted while still being capable of solving the task. In chapter two, we investigate the algorithm's inherent properties to validate the more self-governed aspect. The results depict that the model’s hyperparameters require less fine-tuning by the user and adhere more toward self-governance. Finally, in chapter three, we investigate the effects of growing hidden layers individually in a sequential fashion or simultaneously in a parallel fashion multilayer context. A modified version of the growing algorithm capable of growing parallel is proposed. Growing hidden layers in parallel resulted in comparable or higher performances than sequential approaches. The growing algorithm presented here offers more self-governed growth, which provides an effective general solution automatically tailored to the task.

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The process of diagnosing the foliar nutrient status of Fraser fir [Abies fraseri (Pursh)Poir.] Christmas trees and prescribing fertilizers is not well understood. Agricultural researchers have established critical yield levels for agronomic crops that are objective measures of crop quality and have associated these yields with nutrient status; however, Christmas tree quality is subjective and not well associated with nutrient status. A nutrient-sensitive tree response factor that reflects tree quality is needed for a proper diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between nutrient balance and indices of tree quality and to evaluate how nutrient balance and tree quality can be manipulated by fertilizer inputs based on the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System. In 1984 a factorial N, P, pH, fertilizer source, and fertilizer frequency trial was installed in northwestern North Carolina. A randomized complete block design with factorial combinations of all five factors was used. After three years, the fertilizer trial was analyzed to study the effects of fertilizer additions on foliar nutrient balance and tree quality. Several tree response factors were measured in the fall after dormancy. Statistical methods such as correlations and multivariate discriminant analysis were used to determine which response factors were correlated with foliar nutrients and which factor most governed tree quality. DRIS indices were calculated for six independent plots of different fertility treatments. Basal diameter (BD) was the strongest discriminator of tree quality and was used as a substitute for yield in the DRIS analyses. The importance of nutrient intensity was demonstrated since significant nutrient / dry matter ratios were calculated for N, P, K, and Mg. Balance was shown to be important since the indices for N, K, and Mg were a function of the four other nutrient ratios other than dry matter, and the P and Ca indices were a function of three nutrient ratios other than dry matter. Nutrient balance was also shown to be important by the significant relationship of BD as a function of the nutrient balance index (NBI). When NBI had a relatively small value, large BD trees were produced; as NBI values increased, BD decreased. Fertilizer additions that created nutrient imbalances also decreased BD, in spite of the high nutrient intensities found in the foliage. These results show that nutrient balance in Fraser fir foliage, as well as nutrient intensity, is important for producing optimal Christmas tree quality. / Master of Science

A study was conducted to develop, demonstrate and assess the Pour-through nutrient extraction procedure for bedding flats and plug trays. The Pour-through technique involves pouring a prescribed volume of water on a recently irrigated medium, then collecting and analyzing the leachate to predict nutrient availability in the medium. The volume of water necessary to collect a Pour-through from a 1204 bedding flat was determined to be 5 ml per cell based on leachate pH and electrical conductivity (EC) at various volumes of water applied. Impatiens wallerana ‘Super Elfin Red’ and Tagetes erecta ‘Apollo’ were grown in 1204 bedding flats at three fertilizer concentrations to assess the overall potential of the Pour-through procedure. Analysis of leachate EC, pH, and macro- and micro-nutrients indicated that the Pour- through method of nutrient extraction was sensitive and effective in extracting available nutrients. Leachate analysis was positively correlated to fertilizer nitrogen concentration, shoot tissue dry weight, and nutrient concentrations of conventional Saturated Media Extract methods. Preliminary studies indicated that evenly applying 200 ml of water per plug tray cells produced adequate leachate (50 ml) for laboratory analysis of EC, pH, and macro- and micro-nutrients. Impatiens wallerana ‘Super Elfin Red’ and Tagetes erecta ‘Apollo’ were grown in plug trays at three fertilizer concentrations to assess the overall potential of the Pour-through procedure. Analysis of leachate EC, pH, and macro- and micro-nutrients indicated that the Pour-through method of nutrient extraction was sensitive and effective in extracting available nutrients. Pour-through leachate analysis was positively correlated to fertilizer nitrogen concentration and to whole shoot tissue. / Master of Science

The accuracy of the growing season used by regulators in hydric soil and wetland hydrology and the validity of ignoring land use in these definitions is questionable. This study compared measured air and soil temperature with various growing season dates and indicators, and determined the relationships between the hydrology, air and soil temperature. Water table depths, air temperature at 1-m height, soil temperature at 15-, 30-, and 50-cm depths, and CO₂ efflux were measured at 12 plots representing three landuse treatments (forest, field, and bare ground) at two restored wet flats in the thermic Great Dismal Swamp ecosystem. The forest was driest treatment. The forest air was the warmest in winter and coldest in summer, opposite of the bare ground. The forest soil at 50 cm was the warmest in winter and coolest in summer, opposite of the bare ground. Land use affected hydrology, air, and soil temperatures through the presence of surface litter and differences in shading, albedo, and ET. The regulatory frost-free period fell in between the measured frost-free period and the measured 5°C soil temperature period. Based on CO₂ efflux and soil temperature at 50 cm, the biological growing season of native plants and microbes should be year-round for forested areas, one week shorter for early-successional fields, and two weeks shorter for active cropland rather than March to November for all land uses. Changing the growing season definition of forested, thermic wet flats to year-round designation must be considered and studied carefully to avoid jeopardizing wetland hydrology qualifications. / Master of Science