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Relay-Sowing Soybean Into Established Winter Annual Cover Crops, Nicholas James Steffl

Plant Sciences

Cover crop acreage continues to increase as soil, grazing, and ecosystem benefits become better known. The profit aspect of sustainability could be improved by producing intersown cover crops with an added commodity value. Objectives of this research were to determine if field pennycress, winter camelina, and winter rye could act as effective, feasible, intersown cover crops in soybean-soybean-corn, and, corn-soybean-corn crop sequences. Three sowing dates of each crop were established the previous fall, and soybean, relay-sown the following spring at Prosper and Casselton, ND. Experimental design was a 10 treatment, four replicate, randomized complete block with a 3×3 factorial arrangement, …

Optimal Seeding Rates For New Hard Red Spring Wheat Cultivars In Diverse Environments, Jordan D. Stanley

Plant Sciences

Seeding rate in hard red spring wheat (HRSW) (Triticum aestivum L.) production impacts input cost and grain yield. Predicting the optimal seeding rate (OSR) for HRSW cultivars can aid growers and eliminate the need for costly seeding rate research. Research was conducted to determine the OSR of newer HRSW cultivars (released in 2013 or later) in diverse environments. Nine cultivars with diverse genetic and phenotypic characteristics were evaluated at four seeding rates in 11 environments throughout the northern Great Plains region in 2017-2018. Results from ANOVA indicated environment and cultivar were more important than seeding rate in determining grain yield. …

Developing A Blackleg Management Package For North Dakota, Sudha G C Upadhaya

Plant Sciences

Blackleg, caused by Leptosphaeria maculans, inflicts greatest canola yield losses when plants are infected before reaching the six-leaf growth stage. Studies were conducted to model pseudothecia maturation and ascospore dispersal to help growers make timely foliar fungicide applications. Pseudothecia maturation occurred mostly during the second half of June or in July in 2017 and 2018 in North Dakota and ascospores concentrations peaked during mid to late June in both years. A logistic regression model developed using temperature and relative humidity predicted the maturation of pseudothecia and ascospore dispersal with approximately 74% and 70% accuracy respectively. In addition, trials to evaluate …

Influence Of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum L.) Seedling Grafting On Plant Growth, Fruit Yield And Quality, And Disease Tolerance, Suman Parajuli

Plant Sciences

Influence of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) seedling grafting on the plant growth, fruit yield and quality, and disease tolerance were investigated using 3 cultivars (Big Beef, Celebrity, Cannonball) as scions and two Solanum species (B-blocking, Maxifort) as a rootstock in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The grafted plants were statistically higher in values for stem diameter, leaf chlorophyll, and fruit carotenoid contents. Similarly, the scion/rootstock combination ‘Big Beef/Maxifort’ and ‘Big Beef/B-blocking’ had prolonged days to maturity and gives a higher yield than the non-grafted ‘Big Beef’. Grafting seedling on ‘Maxifort’ and ‘B-blocking’ rootstocks improves the fruit quality …

Hammer And Roller Milling Of Yellow Split Pea, Amber Christine Kaiser

Plant Sciences

Blending nutrient-rich pulses into cereal-based convenience foods could benefit consumers and the cereal and pulse industries but first requires appropriate milling of raw pulses, for which there is no standardized method. Roller milling is the standard method for wheat flour production, but hammer milling is simpler and more cost-effective. Literature documenting pulse flour quality from either system is limited. The goals of this research were to evaluate (1) the effects of hammer mill setup and seed moisture on quality and flowability and (2) the differences between hammer- and roller-milled quality for yellow split pea. For (1), yellow split pea samples …

The Physical Properties And Cookie-Making Performance Of Oleogel Made With Refined And Crude Oils, Muxin Zhao

Plant Sciences

In this study, oleogels were prepared with crude plant oils using varying oleogelators. The role of oleogel was compared with refined oil oleogels as well as commercial shortening in the cookie making process. The plant oils used in this research include solvent-extracted crude soybean oil, refined soybean oil, expeller-pressed corn germ oil, and refined corn oil. β-sitosterol and/or monoacylglycerides, and rice bran wax were used either individually or in combination as the gelator to form oleogels using different oils. The physical properties of oleogels and corresponding cookies were investigated and compared. Overall, the incorporation of gelators into crude and refined …

Evaluation Of Barley And Malt Quality In The Eastern Spring Barley Nursery, Yingya Li

Plant Sciences

In the northeastern United States, craft beer is on the rise. With local brewing increasing, the supply of local raw materials becoming an urgent problem in some northeastern states, like Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The overall goal of the project is to determine which cultivars are best adapted to specific regions in the northeastern United States, and to detect the impact of different environment factors on the barley genotypes. In general, cultivars from Europe had better resistance to pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) and lower beta-glucan levels than two-rowed cultivars developed in North America. The varieties, Explorer, LCS Genie, …

Fusarium Head Blight Resistance In F1 Hybrid Hard Red Spring Wheat, Justin James Leier

Plant Sciences

Due to scientific advancement, hybrid wheat may be the future of wheat breeding, but many questions about the hybrid system remain. How hybrids will perform in terms of Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance is one of the most important. It is unknown if a hybrid produced from a resistant by susceptible cross will express acceptable levels. This experiment tested hybrids produced from four resistant parents crossed with a common susceptible parent. Genotype was a significant effect for all traits measured. Hybrids were usually different than one or both parents. Resistance levels showed numerical increase with additional resistance genes. All hybrids …

Screening For Forage Sorghum Genotypes With Chilling Tolerance, Swarup Podder

Plant Sciences

Forage sorghum (FS) [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a warm-season biomass crop with the potential to become a bioenergy feedstock. The objective of this study was to screen potential FS genotypes for increased chilling tolerance and biomass productivity. The experiments were conducted in Fargo and Hickson, ND, in 2017 and 2018. Seventy-two genotypes of FS were tested at 24, 12, and 10℃. The genotypes were ranked from high to low vigor index and 12 genotypes were planted on two seeding dates: early (10 May) and late (27 May). Field emergence index values were greater for the late-seeding compared with the …

Molecular Characterization Of Root-Lesion Nematode Species From Corn Fields In North Dakota And Evaluation Of Resistance In Corn Hybrids, Nasima Akhter

Plant Sciences

The molecular characterization of Pratylenchus species determined from D2-D3 of 28S rDNA, ITS of rDNA, and COI of mtDNA regions revealed four Pratylenchus species from North Dakota, P. scribneri, P. neglectus, Pratylenchus sp. (ND-2016 isolate HG51), and Pratylenchus sp. (ND-2017). They were clustered in four separate clades in the phylogenetic trees indicating the divergence among species. P. scribneri and Pratylenchus sp. (ND-2016 isolate HG51) were closely associated and Pratylenchus sp. (DH-2017) was closely related to Pratylenchus sp. (ND-2016 isolate HG51). However, P. neglectus was not closely associated with the other three species. Moreover, resistance evaluation of ten corn hybrids to …

Using Mid-Season Ndvi Data From Drones To Produce Variable Rate Fertilizer Maps In Wheat, Bethany Mariah Christensen

Plant Sciences

Variable rate prescription maps can improve nitrogen use efficiency within a field by directing N applications where it is needed. If NDVI collected with a drone could be used to predict yield, it also could be used to develop N rate prescription maps. Experiments on wheat were carried out in farmer fields and in small plots. Small plot experiments consisted of six rates of nitrogen and NDVI was collected from sensors on a drone and was correlated to yield and protein after harvest. NDVI measurements were also collected from farmer fields that had a nitrogen rich strip applied to the …

Pre-Harvest Glyphosate Effects On Properties Of Beta-Glucan From Oat Groats, Abdulrahman Alahmed

Plant Sciences

Pre-harvest glyphosate is applied to cereal grains to remove weeds. However, it has been claimed that oat compositions are affected by pre-harvest glyphosate. Research was conducted to evaluate differences in properties of β-glucan in the treated versus untreated oat groats. Two oat cultivars (Rockford and Souris) were grown at Minot and Prosper, North Dakota in 2015, and glyphosate was sprayed during the soft dough stage, physiological maturity stage, or not applied. β-Glucan viscosity was not significantly (p > 0:05) affected by treatment at soft dough or physiological maturity stages. Use of glyphosate at the soft dough stage significantly (p < 0:05) reduced the percentages of β-glucan content and solubility versus untreated samples. Treatment at soft dough and physiological maturity stages significantly (p < 0:05) increased β-glucan molecular weights compared to untreated controls. Therefore, glyphosate can be applied at the physiologically mature stage of grain development because β glucan properties from the groats were not negatively affected.

Genetics Of Wheat Domestication And Septoria Nodorum Blotch Susceptibility In Wheat, Sapna Sharma

Plant Sciences

T. aestivum ssp. spelta Iranian type has long been thought to potentially be the direct non-free threshing hexaploid progenitor. I evaluated a RIL population derived from a cross between CS and Iranian spelta accession P503 to identify loci suppressing free-threshabilty in P503. Identification of QTL associated with threshability in region known to harbor the Tg2A gene, and an inactive tg2D allele supported the hypothesis of Iranian spelta being derived from a more recent hybridization between free-threshing hexaploid and emmer wheat. Parastagonospora nodorum is an important fungal pathogen and secretes necrotrophic effectors that evoke cell death. In this research, a DH …

Flavor Modification Of Pea Flour Using Ethanol-Based Deodorization, Madison Taylor Gohl

Plant Sciences

Peas are rich in protein and dietary fiber and can be used to create specialty products; however, flavor issues are one of the primary concerns regarding utilization. Sensory evaluations indicated the optimal treatment utilized aqueous ethanol at a concentration of 47.5%, extraction time of 63 min, and no pressure. Decreased (P<0.05) moisture and ash content, with no loss of protein or starch, were observed after treatment. Foaming properties were poor, indicating protein modification. Increased water absorption impacted WAI, WSI, setback, and peak time observations. Remaining pasting profile values were unchanged (P<0.05). While some volatiles were released via changes in protein and starch structure, total ppm decreased. Treated pea flour products had significantly (P<0.05) higher flavor acceptance scores. Texture results suggested treated flour imparted softness of baked items. Shelf-life measurements were improved for both cookies and crackers using treated pea flour.

Mother And Daughter Chipping Potato Cultivar Responses To Sublethal Rates Of Glyphosate And Dicamba, Matthew James Brooke

Plant Sciences

The effects of sublethal drift rates and carryover of glyphosate and dicamba into the next generation of seed potato cultivars Atlantic and Dakota Pearl are unknown. The objective of this research is to determine the impact of sublethal glyphosate and dicamba rates on mother and daughter chipping potato plants. Field studies were conducted in 2018 and 2019 in Oakes, ND. Herbicides were sprayed at the tuber initiation stage and consisted of dicamba (0, 20, and 99 g ae ha-1) and glyphosate (0, 40, and 197% g ae ha-1). During the year of application (2018), the combination of glyphosate at 197 …

Drug Delivery Systems For Treatment Of Diabetes Mellitus, Divya Sharma

Pharmacy

Daily injections for basal insulin therapy are far from ideal resulting in hypo/hyperglycemic episodes associated with fatal complications in type-1 diabetes patients. The purpose of this study was to develop a thermosensitive copolymer-based in situ depot forming delivery system to provide controlled release of insulin for extended duration following a single subcutaneous injection, closely mimicking physiological basal insulin requirement. Size and nature of the incorporated therapeutic were observed to affect the release profile of insulin. Modification with zinc and chitosan preserved thermal, conformational, and chemical stability of insulin during the entire duration of storage (up to 9 months at 4 …

Evaluation Of Smart Polymers For Controlled Release Delivery Systems, Lindsey Lipp

Pharmacy

Our goal was to develop a smart polymer, controlled release delivery system and evaluate its capabilities for use with salmon calcitonin and rivastigmine. Thermosensitive and phase sensitive smart polymers were evaluated for their potential as controlled release delivery systems. Thermosensitive triblock copolymers were synthesized with increasing lactide to glycolide ratios of 3.5:1, 4.5:1, and 5:1. Characterization was via analytical techniques including proton nuclear magnetic resonance, gel permeation chromatography, critical micellar concentration, sol-gel transition test tube inversion, and cellular biocompatibility assay. Only the 5:1 lactide to glycolide copolymer transitioned into gel at body temperature. Release duration in vitro was 70 days …

Superabsorbent Polymer Effects On Soil Physical Properties And Use As A Compaction Alleviation Amendment In Surface Coal Mine Reclamation, Megan Sue Ostrand

Soil Science

Surface coal mine reclamation is challenged by alterations in soil characteristics, compaction being the most plant-yield reducing. Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) ability to retain large volumes of water gives them the potential to alter soil properties. Laboratory objectives were to determine how SAPs alter water retention, liquid limit (LL), evaporation, saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), and compression across five soil series. Increasing SAP application rates to 0.2% significantly increased plant available water (PAW), stage one evaporation duration, LL, stage two evaporative water loss, and significantly decreased stage one evaporative water loss, Ksat, and compression for various soil series. Field study investigated how …

Relationship Of Vegetation Indices From Drone-Based Passive Optical Sensors With Corn Grain Yield And Sugar Beet Root Yield And Quality, Daniel O. Olson

Soil Science

The main goal of this study was to calibrate small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) based vegetation indices with fertilizer-N application rate and yield for corn and sugar beet. It was hypothesized that canopy reflectance would change with increasing fertilizer-N application rates. The objectives of this study were (i) to determine the crop yield and quality in response to fertilizer application rates at two field sites, (ii) map vegetation indices of the experimental plots using drone-based optical sensors, and (iii) calibration of vegetation indices with crop yield. During 2017 and 2018 growing seasons, field trials were conducted to determine corn and …

Soil Biological Temporal Variability As Functions Of Physiochemical States And Soil Disturbance, Zachary Robert Leitner

Soil Science

Within our ecosystems, soil biota control an array of functions, such as nutrient cycling and decomposition, and have been pursued as a soil quality indicator. Though microbial communities are known to be a reflection of their environment, small scales dynamics within an agricultural system have been overlooked for many years leading to gaps when inferring on relative microbial values. To further asses our current microbial knowledge, two experiments analyzing microbial phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) structures and enzyme activities sought out to determine temporal fluctuations, cycles, and driving force behind simulated daily microbial parameter outputs. Across both studies, temporal effects, cyclical …

Impacts Of Kentucky Bluegrass And Patch-Burn Grazing Management On Soil Properties In The Northern Great Plains, Leslie Marie Gerhard

Soil Science

Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.; hereafter referred to as bluegrass) has rapidly invaded the northern Great Plains over the past three decades, leading to declines in native plant diversity. A knowledge gap exists regarding the below-ground impacts that bluegrass has on soil properties. To address this knowledge gap, we measured soil physical, chemical, and biological conditions associated with bluegrass dominance resulting from idle management. We compared these results to patch-burn grazed areas with greater native plant species expression. Our results indicate that bluegrass influences soil microclimate, promoting cooler and wetter soil conditions. However, this shift does not appear to alter …

Fertilizer Management Strategies Of Soybean (Glycine Max, L. Merrill) In Northcentral And Northwestern North Dakota, Christopher Lee Augustin

Soil Science

Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) is a new cash crop for north central and northwestern North Dakota producers. Soils and climate in these new soybean areas differ from those regions where the current fertilizer recommendations were based. Northcentral and northwestern North Dakota is more undulating, drier, cooler, and has differencing soils than eastern North Dakota and Minnesota. A three-year study to evaluate soybean best management practices was conducted during the 2016 to 2018 growing seasons. Each year, the study consisted of two sites and 12 treatments. By design, one site was on acidic (pH < 6) soil while the other was on alkaline (pH > 7.3) soil. Both site treatments were: …

Evolution Of Object-Oriented Methods From The Reverse Engineering Of Programming Code, Pann Ajjimaporn

Theses and Dissertations

Many software development projects fail because of their inability to deliver the product in a timely and cost-effective manner, i.e. the software crisis. In a commercial airline company, a safety-critical system for preventing a “single-point of failure” needs to be developed and certified. To meet the project deadline an Agile approach was used in developing the first portion of the system. An appropriate software development methodology, i.e. reverse-engineering was then applied to the software system to develop method that would be used in system maintenance and evaluation.

The goals of this research study were to develop a segment of one …

Conditional Random Field With Lasso And Its Application To The Classification Of Barley Genes Based On Expression Level Affected By Fungal Infection, Xiyuan Liu

Statistics

The classification problem of gene expression level, more specifically, gene expression analysis, is a major research area in statistics. There are several classical methods to solve the classification problem. To apply Logistic Regression Model (LRM) and other classical methods, the observations in the dataset should fit the assumption of independence. That is, the observations in the dataset are independent to each other, and the predictor (independent variable) should be independent. These assumptions are usually violated in gene expression analysis. Although the Classical Hidden Markov Chain Model (HMM) can solve the independence of observation problem, the classical HMM requires the independent …

Rutin Extraction And Content In Buckwheat (Fagopyrum Esculentum) Bran-Fortified Pasta, Amber Christine Kaiser

Statistics

The objectives of this study were to optimize extraction of rutin from buckwheat bran and buckwheat bran-fortified spaghetti and to determine the stability of rutin during spaghetti production and preparation. Aqueous ethanol and ethanol at 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 % were used with Soxhlet or ultrasound-assisted extraction methods and 80 % methanol extraction was evaluated with or without papain treatment. Optimal extraction treatment (80 % methanol using ultrasound-assisted extraction without enzyme treatment) was used to determine rutin content in buckwheat bran-fortified spaghetti dried at low (40 °C) or high (90 °C) temperature. Rutin content was evaluated in raw, …

Empirical Study Of Two Hypothesis Test Methods For Community Structure In Networks, Yehong Nan

Statistics

Many real-world network data can be formulated as graphs, where a binary relation exists between nodes. One of the fundamental problems in network data analysis is community detection, clustering the nodes into different groups. Statistically, this problem can be formulated as hypothesis testing: under the null hypothesis, there is no community structure, while under the alternative hypothesis, community structure exists. One is of the method is to use the largest eigenvalues of the scaled adjacency matrix proposed by Bickel and Sarkar (2016), which works for dense graph. Another one is the subgraph counting method proposed by Gao and Lafferty (2017a), …

A Conditional Random Field (Crf) Based Machine Learning Framework For Product Review Mining, Yue Ming

Statistics

The task of opinion mining from product reviews has been achieved by employing rule-based approaches or generative learning models such as hidden Markov models (HMMs). This paper introduced a discriminative model using linear-chain Conditional Random Fields (CRFs) that can naturally incorporate arbitrary, non-independent features of the input without conditional independence among the features or distributional assumptions of inputs. The framework firstly performs part-of-speech (POS) tagging tasks over each word in sentences of review text. The performance is evaluated based on three criteria: precision, recall and F-score. The result shows that this approach is effective for this type of natural language …

Antennas And Wave Propagation In Wireless Body Area Networks: Design And Evaluation Techniques, Ala Alemaryeen

Theses and Dissertations

Recently, fabrication of miniature electronic devices that can be used for wireless connectivity becomes of great interest in many applications. This has resulted in many small and compact wireless devices that are either implantable or wearable. As these devices are small, the space for the antenna is limited. An antenna is the part of the wireless device that receives and transmits a wireless signal. Implantable and wearable antennas are very susceptible to harmful performance degradation caused by the human body and very difficult to integrate, if not designed properly. A designer need to minimize unwanted radiation absorption by the human …

Bayesian Sparse Factor Analysis Of High Dimensional Gene Expression Data, Jingjun Zhao

Statistics

This work closely studied fundamental techniques of Bayesian sparse Factor Analysis model - constrained Least Square regression, Bayesian Lasso regression, and some popular sparsity-inducing priors. In Appendix A, we introduced each of the fundamental techniques in a coherent manner and provided detailed proof for important formulas and definitions. We consider provided introduction and detailed proof, which are very helpful in learning Bayesian sparse Factor Analysis, as a contribution of this work. We also systematically studied a computationally tractable biclustering approach in identifying co-regulated genes, BicMix, by proving all point estimates of the parameters and by running the method on both …

Type I Error Assessment And Power Comparison Of Anova And Zero-Inflated Methods On Zero-Inflated Data, Lucas Blackmore Young

Statistics

Many tests for the analysis of continuous data have the underlying assumption that the data in question follows a normal distribution (ex. ANOVA, regression, etc.). Within certain research topics, it is common to end up with a dataset that has a disproportionately high number of zero-values but is otherwise relatively normal. These datasets are often referred to as ‘zero-inflated’ and their analysis can be challenging. An example of where these zero-inflated datasets arise is in plant science. We conducted a simulation study to compare the performance of zero-inflated models to a standard ANOVA model on different types of zero-inflated data. …