The University of Arizona
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Faculty Sabbatical Leave Results
2006 Summary Report

This report was designed to provide an overview of activities and accomplishments of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) faculty who took sabbatical leave at various times over the last two years. All faculty must submit a two-part report by the end of the second semester following return from leave. Part II is meant to be a short version highlighting accomplishments in language addressed to the general public. This summary was compiled from actual Part II Reports submitted during CY 2006, some of which may have been condensed or edited for purposes of this report. Please contact individual faculty for more information.

Paul Brown, Specialist, Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science
Paul Brown used sabbatical leave from May-October 2005 to study the use of electromagnetic induction in assessing soil salinity on golf courses.

Soil salinity negatively impacts turfgrass performance and can force superintendents to implement costly reclamation practices if not managed correctly. Unfortunately, visual indicators of high soil salinity such as poor turf performance often do not appear until salinity levels are quite high. Development of cost effective procedures to assess soil salinity on golf courses would be beneficial to superintendents and allow them to address salinity problems before they reach severe levels.

The purpose of this sabbatical was to assess the feasibility of using electromagnetic induction (EI) as a non-destructive means of assessing soil salinity on golf courses. The EI device was paired with a global positioning system and towed across 45 golf course fairways in the Tucson and Phoenix areas to generate maps of soil salinity. The majority of the cooperating superintendents indicated the maps were very successful at locating areas where salinity and/or poor turf performance were problems. The EI device performed better on deep soils that once supported agricultural production. The device proved less reliable on rocky soils with no agricultural history and studies are continuing to address this potential weakness. Very high levels of soil salinity were measured on selected golf courses in the Phoenix area which suggests salinity and water management will be important future issues for the golf industry. The results of this initial study were very favorable, and we are presently moving forward with plans to develop EI technology as a non-destructive and affordable means of assessing soil salinity on Arizona golf courses.

Yves Carriere, Professor, Department of Entomology
While on sabbatical leave from January-August 2005, Yves Carriere worked on further development of spatially-explicit methods for the study of insect pests that affect environmental impacts.

Projects conducted during my sabbatical may impact Arizonans in several ways. First, we studied the large-scale impacts of use of transgenic cotton on pesticide use, yield, and biodiversity of non-target insects. We showed that seeding rate, use of broad spectrum insecticides, and use of transgenic cotton are three factors that significantly affect yield. Our data provide useful information to cotton producers about ways to maximize yields and profits. Results from this project will also be used by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess the risks associated with use of transgenic crops. Second, we developed and used spatially-explicit methods to evaluate the maximum distance at which forage and seed alfalfa, weeds, and cotton affect the density of Lygus in cotton fields. Lygus is a key pest of cotton that may trigger many applications of broad-spectrum insecticides during a growing season. Our work has provided precise information on ways to distribute crops in the landscape to reduce use of insecticides for the control of Lygus. We anticipate that this ongoing spatially-explicit research will provide many other innovative pest management tools, which could significantly increase the profitability and reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture in Arizona.

Roger Dahlgran, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Roger Dahlgran took sabbatical leave in Spring 2005. His research focused on sources of price risks facing agricultural commodity processors and strategies for managing them.

The primary pursuit of my sabbatical was research on the use by agricultural processors of futures markets as a risk management tool. One paper developed during my sabbatical analyzes the interplay between transaction frequency and price risk, and the use of futures markets to manage it. This paper was published in a highly regarded journal and will help business firms understand the nature of risks faced and their capabilities for reducing and managing these risks. Other manuscripts were developed during my leave and are currently under review. These papers examine the effect on firms' cash flows of various risk management strategies that utilize futures markets.

While on sabbatical, I also developed and updated several programs that I use in teaching a course entitled "The Economics of Futures Markets". These programs are used in the administration of a futures trading simulator and online homework. The updates incorporated new internet technologies, including a more current relational data base management program. The result was increased flexibility and easier administration of my computer-based instructional materials.

J. Edward deSteiguer, Professor, School of Natural Resources
Edward deSteiguer took a one year sabbatical during FY 2004-05. During this time he undertook a comprehensive study of national forest planning regulations and developed a guide to critiquing economic analyses used in national forest land management planning.

Federal natural resource lands, since their establishment by Congress beginning some 100 years ago, have been the subject of agency planning. Furthermore, planning has typically been required and guided by public laws and policies. Early law and policy requirements were typically concise and straightforward. However, since the 1960s, policies for planning on public lands have proliferated and their implementation has become increasingly demanding on the land management agencies, so much so that some have said that the complexity surrounding land planning now contributes to "analysis paralysis." Also of concern is the reality that the planning process and related policies have become increasingly incomprehensible for everyday users of public lands. Understanding of policy and law is important if all parties are to knowledgably participate in the planning process. This research has sought to improve the understanding of the linkage between natural resource policy and planning on public lands, and thereby improve its effectiveness with agencies and the general public.

Mary Ann Eastlick, Associate Professor, Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Division of Retailing and Consumer Sciences
Mary Ann Eastlick was on sabbatical leave during Spring 2005. Her research focused on consumer-related issues facing multi-channel retailers.

Results of the sabbatical project permitted development of a research model and methodological design for two funded projects currently under development on multi-channel retailing issues. Contacts with retail executives made during the sabbatical project will provide assistance with customer sampling and completion of data collection which is expected in late 2007 through mid-2008. Results from these projects will be reported in refereed academic journals and trade publications. Information gained from the comprehensive review of research literature concerning customer relationship strategies will be applied in both of the aforementioned studies. This information has also been used in working with several current RCSC graduate students on their theses and mentorship projects and in class projects for a graduate course taught by me in Spring 2006. In addition, it will be employed by me as a basis for future research.

Robert Innes, Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Robert Innes was on sabbatical leave in Fall 2005. His objective was to study links between population growth, poverty change, nutritional status, and changes in environmental resources, all in the context of the development of India.

Most native and tropical forests reside in developing countries. These forests provide global environmental services, both as carbon sinks and stores of biodiversity. Hence, of paramount interest are the forces at play in determining how these forests are preserved or destroyed in the developing countries that own them. Key among these forces are population growth and poverty, intermediated by property rights. In this project, Haimanti Bhattacharya and I studied empirical links between population growth, poverty, and environmental change using district-level data from India. Among key results from this analysis is evidence for the so-called "vicious cycle" hypothesis, namely, that population growth fuels environmental decline and environmental decline, by increasing the demand for children as resource-gatherers, fuels population growth.

Lynn Joens, Professor, Department of Veterinary Science and Microbiology
Lynn Joens utilized his Fall 2005 sabbatical leave to complete a comprehensive analysis of current research on campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis and design several new grant proposals.

The original objectives included designing an online course in microbiology that could be taught during the summer and winter breaks. A challenge grant was submitted to the USDA for funding to extend the sabbatical period to 12-months which was needed to effectively design the course. Unfortunately, the grant was not funded so new objectives had to be implemented. These objectives are stated below.

Objectives:
1. Conduct a thorough review of the literature for Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella Newport in regards to pathogenic factors.

2.Write at least five proposals for extramural funding.

Our laboratory conducts research on the epidemiology and pathogenesis of campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis. These diseases currently rank first and second as the most reported food-borne infections in the U.S. Numerous papers are published during the year on these diseases, which are very difficult to analyze and assimilate, when other duties such as teaching and service consume most of one’s time. Therefore, I completed an extensive review of campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis in order to determine the status of the research currently being done. Based on this review, eleven grants were submitted to State or Federal Agencies as well as Schering Plough to examine the pathogenic factors of C. jejuni or S. Newport and to examine the risk factors involved in acquiring S. Newport.

Four of the proposals were funded for a total of $1.5 million, six were declined, and one is still pending. This success has benefited the University, the College and the Department as well as my own laboratory and has confirmed the usefulness of my sabbatical leave.

Susan Silverberg Koerner, Associate Professor, Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Division of Family Studies and Human Development
Susan Koerner took sabbatical leave during Fall 2005 to increase knowledge and skills related to a new research focus - well being of caregivers for elderly family members.

To achieve my primary sabbatical goal, to develop a firm foundation for a successful research program in an area that is relatively new to me - the study of caregiving for elderly family members from a within-person, daily assessment analytic perspective, I engaged in four major activities.To strengthen my knowledge base of research in family gerontology and in the well-being of caregivers in particular, I completed a good deal of reading in this area, and wrote literature reviews of salient themes. I also attended the annual conference of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA, November 2005) at which I met and spoke with some key scholars known for their research on family caregiver well-being. At GSA, I also presented a research symposium paper as well as a research poster based on results from my preliminary study of caregiver well-being from a daily perspective. Comments and questions from GSA attendees were quite helpful.

Perhaps most notably, during my sabbatical I completed and submitted a grant proposal titled, "Understanding of Caregiver Well-Being from a Daily Perspective", to the National Institutes of Health (a competitive federal funding agency). In this 5-year grant, I proposed to investigate how the day-to-day events in the caregiving experience (e.g., care recipient behavior problems, family conflicts about caregiving) are linked to daily fluctuations in the emotional and physical well-being of adults who are caregivers for an elder dependent family member. Completing this proposal entailed an extensive amount of time and energy devoted at all levels-from the abstract/conceptual level, to the plan of statistical analyses, to the details of a 5-year budget. The statistical analytic strategy that would be needed for the proposed research (multi-level random coefficient analysis, sometimes referred to as hierarchical linear modeling or HLM) is complicated and quite new to me. Therefore, to improve my conceptual understanding of this data analytic technique, I sat in on the HLM section of an advanced statistics course in the Department of Sociology (SOC 570) during my sabbatical. I also sat in on the structural equation modeling section of that course.

Sherry Lotz, Associate Professor, Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Division of Retailing and Consumer Sciences
Sherry Lotz used sabbatical leave from July-December 2005 to upgrade her knowledge and skills related to advanced procedures in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and to enhance her theoretical and practical knowledge of consumers' responses in a multi-channel environment.

To gain knowledge and expertise regarding advanced functions of SEM, Lotz conducted a literature review of academic papers and books related to a wide variety of intermediate-to-advanced SEM topics. The papers and books encompassed both application and theoretical aspects of SEM. Unfortunately, no appropriate formal SEM course was available at the time of sabbatical. However, in Fall 2006, Lotz attended Dr. Card's FSHD 607 Structural Equation Modeling course. Combining the SEM-focused course with the information gleaned from the literature review will aid her in applying the methodology to research projects, reviewing academic articles with respect to SEM methodologies, and mentoring graduate students in and outside of the classroom.

Through both secondary and primary research, Lotz was able to achieve her second objective, i.e., enhance her knowledge of consumers' responses in a multi-channel framework. Specifically, a literature review of academic- and practitioner-oriented articles was conducted across four areas: 1) service failures, 2) service recoveries, 3) multi-channel retailing, and 4) perceived value. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with practitioners including management at Harry and David Corporation (e.g., Bill Michel, Sr. VP and GM, Direct Marketing; Cathy Fultineer, Sr. VP and GM, Stores), Walmart.com (e.g., Sr. Mgr., Store Integration), and PetSmart (e.g., Howard Kaufman, VP, Direct Marketing). Lastly, Lotz attended pertinent sessions at the 2005 American Marketing Association (AMA) Summer Educators' Conference in San Francisco, CA. The knowledge gleaned is being applied to a research study funded by International Business Machines (IBM). The study will ultimately help businesses better understand how consumers respond (and the cognitive processes behind those responses) to offerings in a multi-channel context.

Susan Pater, County Director, Extension Agent 4-H Youth Development, Cochise County Cooperative Extension
Susan Pater completed a two-part sabbatical leave from November 2004 - February 2005 and June - July 2005. Her objective was to assess current water conservation programs in the southwest to identify strategies to evaluate the impact of educational efforts.

Today, communities throughout the desert Southwest are facing challenges of learning how to balance growth with the protection of our precious water resources. An increasing number of communities are implementing water conservation education programs. Numerous documents were found citing the value of including an education component in any effort to reduce water use and to garner public support for policies. However, to attribute a quantity of gallons saved as a direct result of an education-based water conservation program, poses many challenges. These include the challenge of separating the change in water use behaviors that may have been influenced by a particular educational effort from other non-educational influential factors such as weather, travel, interior or exterior fixture/landscaping changes (independent of education from a program); the verification of water use reduction that may have been directly influenced by educational efforts through inspection of water use records since these records are not publicly available; and where access to water use records is available for a period of time, long-term water use may be interrupted due to the transience of homeowners.

Literature searches have not produced applicable methods or results to quantify savings, but most emphasize the value of an educational component. In "Critical Components of Conservation Programs That Get Results: A National Analysis" (Keyes, Schmitt, Hinkle, 2004 American Water Works Association – Water Sources Conference), "broad-based education and outreach" were identified as one of seven components that must be included in an effective conservation program. Although difficult to quantify potential water savings, public education is an important tool in creating a "culture of conservation" as noted by Governor Napolitano at the 85th Town Hall in the fall of 2004.

In summary there were no simple strategies found to evaluate the impact of water conservation education programs. Those that were found to measure conservation savings included multiple components and were normally a part of a utilities overall program with easy access to the data. There are numerous models for implementing water conservation programs. A few key strategies identified to enhance evaluation efforts and to be included in our county program include the following:

• Build evaluation skills and develop personal confidence of staff to use those skills to answer questions about the effectiveness and efficiency of our programs.
• Determine what type of data can and should be collected. Choose appropriate methods for collecting the data.
• Identify evaluation as a responsibility of project staff and reinforce the time to conduct such work.
• Allocate funds specifically for evaluation efforts.

Cryptosporidiosis, caused by the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, is a well recognized diarrheal disease of humans, calves, and other economically important food animals throughout the world. No approved parasite-specific drugs, vaccines, or immunotherapies for the disease are currently available for use in agricultural species. The major objective of Riggs' research program has been to identify parasite antigens which are targeted by protective immune responses, and to use this knowledge in the rational design of effective vaccines and immunotherapies for cryptosporidiosis. Several candidate antigens involved in parasite motility, attachment, and invasion have been identified. These express functional epitopes which have been broadly categorized as either protein-dependent or carbohydrate-dependent. The next major phase in the discovery process will require that the complete molecular structure of these functional moieties be determined...

Part 1 of the sabbatical was completed in the laboratory of Dr. Michael McNeil at Colorado State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology. Riggs' laboratory previously determined that the carbohydrate-dependent moiety of most biologic relevance is expressed on a Cryptosporidium glycoprotein designated CSL. This glycan moiety functions as a parasite ligand for host cells and is targeted by neutralizing antibodies which provide passive protection against infection; therefore it is a rational target for disruption of parasite ligand-host receptor interactions involved in Cryptosporidium infection...

The major tools used for structural characterization of glycans include gas chromatography (GC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and mass spectrometry (MS). Part 1 of the sabbatical was devoted to learning these tools and applying them to dissect the structure of the CSL glycan. The glycosyl composition was determined by GC analysis to identify the predominant monomer residue present in the glycan. MS on the intact molecule was performed in studies aimed at molecular weight determination. NMR was used in efforts to determine the number of residues per repeat unit, the anomeric configuration of the glycosyl groups, and the presence of any non-glycosyl groups. The predominant glycosyl residue comprising the CSL glycan, and its anomeric configuration and ring form were identified in these studies. Finally, methylation analysis and GC were performed in studies aimed at determining the linkages of glycosyl residues. Despite use of two different approaches, linkage analysis results were equivocal. Nevertheless, sufficient information was obtained in these collective studies to synthesize a limited number of candidates to evaluate for the ability to induce a specific immune response.

Part 2 of the sabbatical was completed in the laboratory of Dr. Anthony Barbet at the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology. Because protein-dependent functional epitopes, in addition to carbohydrates, are expressed in CSL, the focus was on identification of the protein at the genetic level. One approach involved use of degenerate primers designed from the CSL N-terminal amino acid sequence for PCR from genomic DNA. Emerging technology in Mass Spectrometry to determine protein identity, and MS and bioinformatics to determine sites of post-translational modifications, was the major emphasis in Part 2. This work involved use of amino acid sequences from protease digested CSL to mine the recently published C. parvum and C. hominis genome projects. Peptides were analyzed by tandem MS and the data used to map sequences to the genome and protein databases using MASCOT. Heavy glycosylation of native CSL was the primary challenge to this approach. This led to an opportunity to acquire and apply new knowledge on enzymatic and chemical deglycosylation methods to yield protein samples suitable for proteomics. Hypothetical candidate proteins for CSL were identified using this approach and are the subject of continuing studies. This line of investigation is expected to lead to the rational design of recombinant protein or synthetic peptide based CSL vaccines for cryptosporidiosis.

Knowledge of a variety of other techniques in molecular biology and their application to current problems in parasitology were also acquired during Part 2 of the sabbatical. These included the genetic basis of antigenic variation and evasion of immune responses; novel approaches to immunization and drug discovery using genetic knockout mutants to evaluate putative targets; and development of new molecular diagnostic methods for infectious diseases.

George Ruyle, Specialist, School of Natural Resources
George Ruyle took sabbatical leave from October 2004 to March 2005. His primary objective was to locate and research existing documents related to grazing history and to develop a working outline for a manuscript focused on the history and environmental legacy of livestock grazing in Arizona.

The Works Project Administration (WPA) was established as a national agency on May 6, 1935 by an executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt... Activities of the WPA in any given area of the country were dependent on the needs and skills of the persons on relief in that area, since the main prerequisite for WPA employment was one have certified relief status. A number of archival and literary programs were included in these activities...

One such project ensued when the WPA entered into a cooperative program with the Grazing Service of the Department of Interior (the forerunner of the Bureau of Land Management) to write a History of Grazing in the Western United States... The Federal Writers' Project was to prepare a history of grazing in each of the seventeen western states which were later to be compiled into a national history by a general editor from the Grazing Service. These little known reports shed light on range livestock grazing practices during the first four decades of last century... As envisioned, the History of Grazing project was never completed. By early November of 1941, much of the national book had been received and review begun. The last section, re-titled "New Era on the Range" was compiled and sent to the editor (George F. Willison) on December 6, 1941, the day before the outbreak of WWII, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As with most of The New Deal programs, the WPA Writers Project folded during the subsequent period.

Various state efforts were more or less completed at the time. For example the Texas Writer's Project suggested for publication the title "The Western Range: The Story of the Grasslands" whose working papers were received by the University of Texas, Austin. Other material exists in various archives, most notably in the Department of Special Collections and Archives at Utah State University (USU) but no final manuscripts were published. It appears that approximately 30% of the requested state history from Arizona was completed and submitted to the project editor. These manuscripts, mostly incomplete and unedited, are on file at USU and a copied collection in private ownership was obtained. The majority of the submissions did not conform to the requested outline and are primarily personal accounts and remembrances. An inventory and summary of these documents was prepared and is available. While the majority of the Arizona material can be described as non-project documents there are chapters on the history of grazing in Arizona and discussion of water developments and fencing, called conservation practices. These chapters elucidate questions about range resources, livestock numbers and how potential solutions to the overgrazing problems were addressed.

As a result of this research I have outlined a proposal for a book with a working tile, "The Cultural, Economic and Environmental Legacy of the Range Sheep Industry in Arizona", the purpose of which is to chronicle the range sheep industry in Arizona by describing the current situation and then tracing the history of the existing practices through researching historical documents and oral histories of those with first-hand experience in the process...

The development and practices of the range sheep industry have had a significant impact on the cultural and economic evolution of Arizona. Management practices evolved over time in response to the specific influences of Arizona climate, terrain and economic conditions. Environmental effects of sheep grazing have been mischaracterized and are not well understood. In the future, sheep grazing will be an important tool in rangeland and forest management. The decline of the sheep industry is a story that has not been fully documented and deserves to be told. It is a fabulous and rich legacy from historical, cultural, economic and environmental perspectives.

• Faculty Sabbatical Results Summary Report 2005
• Faculty Sabbatical Results Summary Report 2004
• Faculty Sabbatical Results Summary Report 2003
• Faculty Sabbatical Results Summary Report 2002