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Genetic And Physiological Relationships Between Oat Grain Quality Components, Ronald Dorcinvil

Plant Sciences

The use of oats for human consumption is increasing every day due to the health benefits of oat products. With the objective to study relationships among factors affecting oat grain quality, two Recombinant Inbred Lines (RIL) mapping populations (`ND030299' x `ND991151' and `ND030299' x `Souris') have been used in this study. The two populations with their parents and three check cultivars were evaluated in a square lattice design in 2008 and 2009 at two North Dakota locations. Data were recorded on the following agronomic traits: grain yield, test weight, 1000 kernel weight, thin kernels, heading date, and plant height. Chemical …

Weed Control With Cover Crops In Potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.), Grant Harry Mehring

Plant Sciences

Field experiments were conducted near Oakes and Fargo, North Dakota from 2009-2010, and repeated near Carrington, North Dakota from 2010-2011, to evaluate weed control in both irrigated and non-irrigated potato production as influenced by cover crops and cover crop termination methods. Cover crop treatments at Oakes and Fargo were no cover crop, triticale, rye, turnip/radish, and rye/canola. Cover crop treatments at Carrington were no cover crop, triticale, rye, hairy vetch, and rye/hairy vetch. Termination treatments for the cover crops were roller-crimp, disk-till, roto-till, and herbicide. Cover crop residue was mostly sufficient for weed control at all locations. However, after two …

Utilizing Pruning And Leaf Removal To Ripen Grapes And Encourage Cold Tolerance In North Dakota, Andrew David Aipperspach

Plant Sciences

Experiments were conducted at North Dakota vineyards in 2011 and 2012. Pruning limited vines to a specific number of primary buds while leaf removal exposed ripening grape clusters to increased sunlight. Variables included length of growth prior to dormant pruning, weight of growth, rate of ripening, total weight of harvested grapes, weight per grape cluster, berry weight, number of clusters per vine, soluble solid concentration (°Brix), titratable acidity (TA), and pH. Data were analyzed as a CRD with a factorial arrangement. Analysis showed varied significance with pruning and shade leaf removal interacting with specific cultivar traits to influence growth, grape …

Development Of New Antibody Based Theranostic Agents Targeting The Receptor For Advanced Glycation End-Product (Rage), Faidat Jyoti

Pharmacy

The Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products (RAGE) interacts with several classes of structurally unrelated ligands. The activation of RAGE by its ligands results in the cellular activation of several kinases and transcription factors including mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) resulting in sustained inflammation, which is involved in pathologies such as diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and other diseases associated with chronic inflammation. Current mouse models of human disease have shown that RAGE activity can be efficiently suppressed using either soluble RAGE (sRAGE) or anti-RAGE antibodies as inhibitors. Our goal …

Developing Management Tools For Sunflower Rust (Puccinia Helianthi), Andrew John Friskop

Plant Pathology

Sunflower rust, caused by Puccinia helianthi (Schwein), is an economically important disease in North Dakota. Since 2008, sunflower rust incidence and severity have increased. Therefore, a four year study was initiated to examine the management strategies for the disease. A total of 19 fungicide efficacy and timing trials were conducted from 2008-2011. Results indicated that DMI and QoI chemistries can be used effectively to manage the disease. Timing trials indicated that disease control was highest when fungicide applications were made at R5.0-R5.8. Results indicate a fungicide application is warranted when rust severities at approximately 1% are found on the upper-four …

Characteristics And Host Range Of A Novel Fusarium Species Causing Yellowing Decline Of Sugarbeet, Johanna Patricia Villamizar-Ruiz

Plant Pathology

In 2008, a novel and distinct Fusarium species was reported in west central Minnesota causing early-season yellowing and severe decline of sugarbeet. This study was conducted to (i) establish optimum conditions for fungal growth and (ii) determine the host range of the novel Fusarium. The optimum temperature for fungal growth is 24°C and root injury is not needed to penetrate, infect, and cause disease of sugarbeet plants. Of the fifteen common crops and weeds tested for susceptibility to the new Fusarium sp. in field and greenhouse trials, disease symptoms were only observed in sugarbeet. Host range plants were tested for …

Laboratory And Greenhouse Evaluation Of Feeddha Fertilizers Of Differing Quality, Sarah Lovas

Soil Science

Commercial iron ethylene diamine di(hydroxyl phenyl acetic acid) (FeEDDHA) fertilizers containing the same Fe percent and applied at the same FeEDDHA rate control Fe deficiency chlorosis (IDC) differently due to differing ortho, ortho FeEDDHA (o,o-FeEDDHA) concentrations. This study: 1) determined the effect of o,o-FeEDDHA concentration on controlling IDC in soybeans (Glycine max L. Merr.); and 2) developed a soil-stability test using a simple colorimetric analysis method to determine the relative quality of soil-applied FeEDDHA fertilizers. A greenhouse experiment was conducted where nine FeEDDHA fertilizers were applied at two FeEDDHA rates. The soil-stability test compared these fertilizers with two incubation methods …

Social Norms' Influence On Gendered Behaviors, Elizabeth Ewing Lee

Psychology

Individual variability in engagement in gendered behavior is primarily assumed to be the result of variability in gender roles (i.e., femininity, masculinity; Bem, 1981). However, contextual factors have also been shown to influence behaving in gendered ways (Leszczynski & Strough, 2008; Pickard & Strough, 2003). The current studies sought to explore engagement in gendered behaviors by examining the influence of social norms on gendered behaviors, as well as how those perceptions interact with gender self-concepts (i.e., gendered contingencies of selfworth, self-efficacy for behaving in gendered ways, similarity to others of one's sex) to influence engagement in gendered behaviors. Two studies …

The Psychological Benefits Of Positively-Focused Writing, Kelly Laraine Schaible

Psychology

Writing about potent positive events has been shown to be associated with physical health benefits in a manner similar to the expressive writing paradigm originally espoused by Pennebaker and Beall (1986). Little has been done to date, however, to explore the potential association of positive writing with aspects of psychological well-being. This project attempted to substantiate results of previous studies that have shown positive writing to be linked with not only the promotion of physical health, but indicators of psychological health such as life satisfaction and positive affect. Participants answered questions regarding their affect, life satisfaction, perceived stress, and physical …

Multicultural Strategies For Developing A Church With Intentional References To Diversity, Inclusiveness, And Structure As Modeled By The All Nations Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Berrien Springs, Michigan, 1979-2012, Uatisone A. Afa'ese

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem. The development of a multicultural church is a challenge because it requires a fusion of diverse cultural entities into a single church. When the All Nations Church began in 1979 in Berrien Springs, Michigan, church leaders discouraged its establishment, believing the experiment would be divisive, and encourage dysfunction and misunderstanding. Members of other Seventh-day Adventist churches in the community disapproved of the concept of a multicultural church within its boundaries. To date, no formal evaluation has been done to determine the effectiveness of the multicultural ministry to the community.

Method. This narrative culture-inspired project is the report of a …

National Literatures As Intimate Expression And The Problem Of Teaching World Literatures, Kette Thomas

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

In her article "National Literatures as Intimate Expression and the Problem of Teaching World Literatures" Kette Thomas analyzes the fundamental tension embedded in the discourse on teaching world literatures. Thomas focuses on models which contextualize the problem around the subject of allegiance either to the reader or the author rather than the commonly limited geographical, national, and politically defined complex. Focus on the reader or author is often made at the expense of the "other," but it is the tension and communication between them that offers possibilities for the development of the discipline of comparative literature (against Eurocentrism and the …

Collaboration: Seeking An Organizational Model To Maximize Inter-Congregational Cooperation Within The North American Division Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Paul Campoli

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem. Current organizational structure within the North American Division (NAD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church appears to be relatively inefficient and allow for little or no collaborative efforts among Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) congregations within any given local ministry area. This situation encumbers the ministry effectiveness of local SDA churches. The redundancy present in the current organizational system, with large and often overlapping local conferences, results in substantial waste and inefficiency. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether an alternative organizational model could foster greater levels of cooperation among neighboring SDA churches, and if such a change would correspond …

Development Of A Program For The Empowerment Of Black Single Mother Families In The Church Congregation, Richardson Honore

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem. The most rapid growing family type in the United States is the single parent family. It is the dominant family type in the African-American community. According to the United States Bureau of the Census (2010), 69% of all Black children are born to single mothers. Single mother families are at a dramatically greater risk for drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality (National Center for Health Statistics, 1993). These findings are alarming and present great challenges for African-American single mother families. In an attempt to address this crisis, the church, as an …

The Yellowstone River Waterfowl Hunting Closure In Eastern Montana: Evaluation Of Private Landowner Attitudes, Steven John Atwood

Natural Resources Management

Wildlife managers now hypothesize the limiting factor regarding waterfowl hunting opportunity and goose harvest in the lower Yellowstone River Valley is hunter access rather than waterfowl abundance. This study used a questionnaire to ascertain landowner attitudes towards the Yellowstone River waterfowl hunting closure (YRC) and determine the level of receptiveness towards changes to the waterfowl management policy. Landowners within the closure area indicated they valued and would disagree with a policy change. Landowners located outside of the closure area did not demonstrate an affinity towards the YRC and would be unlikely to disagree with a policy change. Engaging Inside landowners …

Suppressing Canada Thistle Establishment With Native Seed Mixes And Resulting Cost Analysis, Steven Michael Fasching

Natural Resources Management

Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) on conservation lands is costly and diminishes conservation objectives. This project was designed to control Canada thistle by spiking native seed mixtures. Spiking is where a native seed mixture had 3-5 native forbs that are functionally similar to Canada thistle at 3-10 times the recommended seeding density added to it. The project consisted of small-scale experiments on lands in eastern North Dakota and large-scale experiments on U.S. Fish and Wildlife land in eastern North and South Dakota. The results show that the spiked method reduced the establishment of Canada thistle immediately after seeding. The cost analysis …

Cultural Awareness And Provider Based Care For Refugee Women, Andrea Jean Middlestead

Nursing

This disquisitional aimed to improve the cultural education of nurse practitioner's (NP's) related to female refugee populations. The ultimate goal was to improve health care outcomes and decrease disparities for refugee women by focusing on increasing cultural understanding, enhancing education, and providing a framework which NP's can utilize in daily practice. An online educational module was created and offered on the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Continuing Education website. Traditional cultural health care practices for the top 10 refugee populations in the United States in 2011 were compiled, compared with current cultural competence and awareness of primary care providers and …

Medical Respite Care For Fargo-Moorhead Homeless Population: A Needs Assessment, Alicia Joy Hauff

Nursing

Homelessness continues to increase in the Fargo-Moorhead community, and little is known about the health needs of its chronically homeless population. An informal needs assessment completed in 2010 gathered feedback from several key informants with experience working with the homeless population. Informants cited a variety of unmet health needs and barriers to access of appropriate health care services, and the priority need voiced was for a medical respite program. The purpose of this project was to conduct a formal health needs assessment of the Fargo-Moorhead homeless population to describe and document health needs from consumers' and service providers' perspectives, assess …

Development Of The Jagim Lean Real Time Location Systems Model For Healthcare, Mary Kelly Jagim

Nursing

The critical challenge for healthcare today is to be a high quality/low cost provider. However, healthcare is struggling to meet the challenge in terms of quality, outcomes and cost. Healthcare is in need of a blueprint for transformation, leveraging new knowledge and innovation, while consistently and reliably delivering quality and controlling cost. Integrating the process change methodology of Lean with the enterprise visibility afforded by RTLS offers a wealth of exciting options for transformation, yet there is no existing model or defined body of research regarding the application of RTLS within a Lean methodology. The purpose of this project was …

Screening And Brief Interventions For Alcohol Use In College Students, Angela Ann Dolalie Kelsch

Nursing

College students are recognized as a high-risk group for alcohol problems in the United States. Annually approximately 500,000 college students are unintentionally injured, and more than 1,700 college students die from alcohol-related unintentional injury. In addition, individuals who begin drinking alcohol early in life increase their risk of developing serious alcohol problems later in life. As a result, it is essential that efforts be made to focus on opportunities for alcohol screening and brief intervention where applicable in an attempt to reduce problem drinking behaviors. Alcohol screening and brief interventions for alcohol misuse is an effective way for health care …

Perception Of Nursing Empowerment And Intent To Stay, Joyce Marie Schmaltz

Nursing

Nursing turnover and the evolving nursing shortage has continued to receive much attention from health care organizations. It is predicted that there will be 1.2 million job openings in nursing by 2020. Work empowerment has been associated with organizational commitment and intent to stay in current job. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if there is a relationship between the perception of organizational structural empowerment and intent to stay. The theoretical framework utilized was Kanter's Structural Theory of Organizational Empowerment. The population for the study included 1,159 nurses in a large, nonprofit, Midwest medical center. Data was collected …

The Impact Of Simulation Experiences On Nursing Student’S Satisfaction And Self-Confidence In Learning, Shelly Graening

Nursing

Previous research has shown that high fidelity simulation experiences impact the satisfaction and self-confidence of nursing students. The purpose of the study was to examine the student satisfaction and self-confidence in learning of students in the pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing track and the associate to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) track at North Dakota State University. The data was obtained from two different courses in two different semesters of study. The surveys used in the descriptive, comparative study included a tool to collect demographic data and the Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning Tool. The data revealed that nursing students …

An Enrichment Program Designed To Increase Marital Satisfaction Among Couples Age 18-40 In Highlands County, Florida, Dion Henry

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Couples who are between the ages of 18 and 40 divorce frequently in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventist. In Highlands County, Florida young couples seem to experience marital stress which may affect marital satisfaction. Unique to young marriages are certain stressors that can contribute to a decrease in marital satisfaction which will inevitably lead to a failed relationship. Although, there are several enrichment programs that focus on potential challenges for couples in general, few solely target married couples age 18 -40 with skills to manage these unique stressors.

Method

The purpose of this in-ministry project was to …

The Center For Equality: An Lgbt And Community Resource, Justin Fuhs

Architecture Theses

Architecture can facilitate the creation of a comfortable, welcoming and uniting space for its users. This thesis seeks a solution to the need for LGBT-affirming spaces. These spaces are necessary for a minority community that is vastly underrepresented in many of todays communities. The outcome will be a facility that will provide education, health and community centered spaces for all those within the LGBT community and its allies. Spaces are intended to be used widely in the community as the demand for gathering and community spaces increase. It will also serve the Center for Diversity’s communications and office spaces. The …

Urban Water: Weaving Through The Layers, Ploiphan Saengporm

Architecture Theses

Architecture acts as a tool in creating a healthy environment, a settlement for nourishing culture, whether through the natural or built environment. This thesis is aimed toward an exploration of urban water through architecture. By studying the relationship and the connection that Thai people have with the water within Bangkok, Thailand, the result is a framework of the past that can help identify the community's future. The typography of this thesis is an urban water educational center. The center deals extensively with creating healthy environment, educating the people, especially the waterfront community, and exploring new opportunities through social, economic and …

Steam Baths, Jeremiah Johnson

Architecture Theses

Today, architecture constitutes the greatest range of the built environment; yet our buildings are causing physiological and mental stress to the public. If architecture is designed intuitively by engaging the public’s senses through innate habits, we can reduce the stress caused by ‘counter-intuitive’ design and delight the guests. This Thesis explores ‘intuitive design’ through an ancient typology—the bathhouse—built cliff-side of Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota. By utilizing the concurrent transformative mixed research method, qualitative and quantitative data will present a cohesive analysis to complete the architecture.

Growth Without Expansion: Utilizing Space We Already Have, Paul Flotterud

Architecture Theses

This Thesis will look into the underutilized and often overlooked land resource above built cities. The air space above our structures and roads is a frontier that rarely is tapped into. In an attempt to counter urban sprawl and strain on infrastructure this project will focus on revitalizing downtown as a livable, workable, and enjoyable place to be, while providing it’s population easy access to ammenities and services within the city. This project will feature new residential condominiums within the downtown of Rochester, MN. Targeting empty nesters looking to leave the hassles of home maintenance and enjoy the downtown lifestyle. …

The Activated Medium: Modern Architectural Representation And Transposition, Brad Benke

Architecture Theses

This thesis explores the role of the modern architectural representation and its changing relationship to the act of making. The investigation will seek and test outlets for architectural representations to operate under functional and technical demands while activating a generative environment for the positive transposition from representing to building. These outlets will be demonstrated through the design and documentation of a growing building typology of the 21st century: the data center. The design is sited in Downtown Winnipeg Manitoba and is contrived to test the opportunities of an urban, city owned, public data center.

Heuristics For Dual Coverage In Wireless Sensor Networks, Claudia Sueli Magalhaes Sampaio

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Nowadays there is an increasing interest in wireless sensor networks due to their usage in a diverse range of applications such as telemetry and smart grids. In such networks, a valid concern is the minimization of the total network cost. To achieve this goal, one objective is to minimize the number of base-stations (nodes) to provide coverage for the sensors. In previous works, it has been usually assumed that base-station coverage already exists over the entire area of interest and the focus is to select cluster-heads in ad-hoc networks. Other works select the base-station among candidates given pre-defined constraints for …

Provable Data Possession Using Sigma Protocols, Akshaya Mohan

Electrical and Computer Engineering

A Provable Data Possession (PDP) scheme allows a client which has stored data at an untrusted server to verify that the server possesses the original data that it stored without retrieving the entire file. In this thesis study, a new PDP scheme is built using the concept of sigma protocols. The client pre-processes a file and stores it on the server. At a later time, the client issues a challenge to the server requesting it to compute a Proof of Possession. The client verifies the response using its locally stored metadata. The challenge-response protocol that is derived from the sigma …

Coordination In Disaster Recovery: Implications For Policy And Practice, Sarah Jo Bundy

Emergency Management

Disaster scholarship and recent disaster policy in the United States have suggested that coordination of efforts in the disaster recovery process will allow impacted jurisdictions to maximize positive recovery outcomes. Yet it remains unclear exactly who should be, or is, coordinating disaster recovery at the local level. This study explored the role of county elected officials in disaster recovery in an attempt to understand what role these elected officials currently play in the recovery process—particularly as related to the coordination of recovery efforts. During the initial data collection process, the researcher discovered that the role of county elected officials in …