Undergraduate Research Journal Discovery Released by Bumpers College, Division of Agriculture

Photo by Fred Miller. Cover Design by Gail Halleck.

The Discovery 2016 cover features Bumpers student Lauren Cambias with her mentor, Jamie Baum, collecting data in the lab for their research, "Evaluation of protein source at breakfast on energy metabolism, metabolic health, and food intake: a pilot study."

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The 2016 edition of Discovery, the undergraduate student research journal of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, is available in the college's departmental offices.

Or read the online version of the Discovery journal.

Journal articles detail the students' research conducted under the guidance of University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and other research faculty mentors. Students who have received a Bumpers College Undergraduate Research Grant are expected to submit papers based on their projects.

This issue's featured articles include:

• The impact and role of women in the state's agricultural industry over the last 10 years;
• The effect of shade on fruiting blackberries in both a controlled environment and in the field;
• How protein for breakfast impacts energy metabolism, metabolic health and food intake;
• How precision field data can be used for more efficient combine harvesting;
• The results of a comparison growth study on goats fed calcium from different sources;
• An evaluation of harvest and storage temperatures on the firmness and incidence of red drupelet reversion development of blackberries;
• An evaluation of a streambank restoration project at Fayetteville's Botanical Garden of the Ozarks;
• Studies on fertility in beef heifers;
• The use of the nuclease I-SceI in excising selectable marker genes from plant genomes; and
• The status of the northern saw-whet owl in Arkansas.

Lona Robertson, interim dean of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, said, "Completing these projects helps prepare our students for professional careers in the areas of food, agriculture, the environment, and human quality of life."

Mary Savin, professor of crop, soil, and environmental sciences and faculty editor of Discovery, said, "This issue of Discovery continues the long-standing tradition of exceptional articles from students representing programs from across the college. There are 11 papers written by undergraduate student authors representing seven departments and the School of Human Environmental Sciences working with 10 mentors."

"Six University of Arkansas System faculty and 13 other students and professionals were co-authors," Savin said. "These undergraduate students were certainly part of indispensable teams."

Gail Halleck, a publications editor in the Division of Agriculture Communications unit, is the journal's managing editor.

Information about submitting manuscripts for the 2017 edition can be found online at discoverymag.uark.edu.