This study examines the grower’s decision to invest in precision agriculture technologies especially in-season variable rate nitrogen applications based on NDVI data collected from UAVs. NDVI, yield, soil, and other field data were collected from multiple corn and wheat fields located throughout North Dakota. Each field was divided into management zones to determine profitability of utilizing the technology based on in-season nitrogen applications for the grower’s field practice, high, low, and no applications. Results show that using the NDVI data collected from UAVs can be profitable when the grower decides to make the decision to apply nitrogen in a sidedress application.

Field surveys were conducted in the Red River Valley (RRV) of North Dakota and Minnesota during 2016 and 2017 to determine the incidence, abundance, and distribution of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) on sugarbeet. Seventy-two and 65 % of the fields surveyed were positive for PPNs in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The major genera of PPNs identified from sugarbeet production fields were Heterodera, Helicotylenchus, Tylenchorhynchus, Paratylenchus, Pratylenchus, Paratrichodorus, Hoplolaimus, and Xiphinema. Eight of PPNs were identified at the species level using species-specific PCR assays, and sequencing of the ribosomal rDNA gene. Stubby-root nematode, Paratrichodorus allius, is one of the important nematode pests for sugarbeet production worldwide. An experiment was conducted to determine the host status of sugarbeet and their rotational crops for P. allius under greenhouse conditions. The results from two experiments indicated sugarbeet and most rotational crops support the reproduction of P. allius. / Sugarbeet Research and Education Board (Minn.) / Sugarbeet Research and Education Board (N.D.) / American Crystal Sugar Company

From 1950-1980, women's intercollegiate athletic programs experienced exponential growth, with newspapers rarely detailing the journey until Title IX passed in 1972. This project examined how women's athletics developed at North Dakota State University, the University of North Dakota, and Minnesota State University Moorhead, as well as the correlating press coverage. Articles from two regional newspapers and three student newspapers from 1950-1980 illustrated the coverage women's athletics received, while women integrally involved in the three athletic programs from 1950-1980 supplemented the coverage and further explained the development. This thesis proposes a cohesive narrative of the press coverage associated with the development of three women's intercollegiate athletic programs in the Midwest from 1950-1980. The project also speculates on the reasons why different newspapers covered women's athletics in the area differently and why 1975 emerged as a watershed year for women's athletics at NDSU, UND, and MSUM.

Video summarizing a Ph.D. dissertation for a non-specialist audience. / Emergency Management / Emergency Management / College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

abstract: After the passing of the Homestead Act in 1862, a large wave of immigrants arrived in Dakota Territory, most of them during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Two of the largest immigrant populations in the Dakotas were the Norwegians and Germans who had spent approximately the last hundred years living in isolated rural colonies in Russia, referred to as Germans from Russia or russlanddeutschen. This document examines the role of music in the lives of these ethnic groups from the 1862 to 1930, and includes the discussion of sacred music, especially hymns, secular music such as folk songs and dance music, and music’s place in the rural one-room schools that their children attended. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2018

The Great Plains variety of the sharp-tailed grouse Pediocetes phasianellus jamesi Lincoln was the predominant upland game bird during the exploratory and early settlement period in North Dakota (Coues 1874 and 1878 . Larson 1928, and Williams 1926) . Since then its status has diminished as the prairie grassland gradually was converted to intensively used pastures and cropland. Although the sharptail is still abundant enough in its remaining habitat to provide for liberal annual harvests , further demand on these lands by a growing human population will make it necessary to apply game management measures other than hunting regulations if the sharptail is to be retained as an important game bird in the state.

In response to the recent delisting of the bald eagle as an endangered species, the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, the University of Arizona, and the National Park Service undertook this collaborative study to identify continuities and discontinuities in eagle knowledge and acquisition and use of eagle parts by members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA), and to document cultural resources associated with eagles in three North Dakota national parks. Interviews with tribal consultants who possess eagle rights were integrated with ethnographic, archaeological, and archival data. This research finds that although there have been major changes in how MHA people acquire eagles for personal and religious use since the early 20`" century, beliefs and practices associated with eagle demonstrate cultural continuity. There remains a strict adherence to protocols regarding the handling of eagles and the possession and transfer of eagle knowledge, and there is a persistent belief in the eagle's ability to animate people, objects, and places. The eagle feather remains an indicator of social status, spiritual power, and identity, and eagle parts continue to be crucial elements in the performance of major religious ceremonies. Several site types associated with eagles and eagle trapping were identified, and all three parks either contain eagle resources, or are associated with parts of the eagle landscape. While trapping pits and trapping lodges are no longer used for taking eagles, they retain significance as sources of supernatural power and spiritual knowledge. These sites are spiritually active, and are important places for conducting fasts, seeking visions, and making religious offerings. Tribal consultants believe that the power imbued in these sites is attributed to their past role in the establishment and perpetuation of relationships between their ancestors and the spiritual world during annual trapping expeditions. Both site types are culturally significant in their familial and clan associations, their reflection of traditional land uses unique to the Missouri River environs, and their role in the transformative religious experiences of ancestors. There is a desire within the tribal community to preserve eagle trapping pit sites and, even more so, trapping lodge sites. In order to maintain the sites' spiritual integrity, consultants prefer that they not be accessible to the general public.

abstract: The Juglandaceae (walnuts, hickories, pecans) has one of the best-documented fossil records in the Northern Hemisphere. The oldest modern genus, Cyclocarya, today restricted to China, first appears in the late Paleocene (57 ma) of North Dakota, USA. Unlike walnuts and pecans that produce edible fruits dispersed by mammals, Cyclocarya fruits are small nutlets surrounded by a prominent circular wing, and are thought to be wind- or water-dispersed. The current study provides the first evidence that fossil fruits were different from modern forms in the number and organization of their attachment to reproductive branches, and in their anatomical structure. Unlike the modern genus that bears separate pistillate and staminate flowers the fossil fruits had attached pollen-bearing structures. Unisexual pollen catkins are also present, suggesting the fossil Cyclocarya may have differed from its modern relative in this feature. Like several other plants from the late Paleocene Almont/Beicegel Creek floras, Cyclocarya shows a mosaic combination of characters not seen in their modern counterparts. Fossils were collected from the field, and examined for specimens exposed on the weathered rock surface. Specimens from Almont were photographed with reflected light, while those from Beicegel Creek cut into slabs and prepared by etching the rock matrix in 49% hydrofluoric and re-embedding the exposed plant material in cellulose acetate and acetone to make "peels". Selected specimens are cut out, mounted on microscope slides, and studied with light microscopy. These fossil fruits were studied because they are the earliest fossil evidence of Cyclocarya. They are exceptionally preserved and thus provide critical structural evidence for changes in that occurred during the evolution of plants within this lineage. Because Cyclocarya fruits are winged, they might be assumed to be wind-dispersed. Their radial symmetry does not have the aerodynamic qualities typical of wind-dispersed fruits, and may have been dispersed by water. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Plant Biology 2010

Many inhabitants of early Fargo sought economic opportunities in the local sex trade, and the intersectionality of class, gender, sexuality, and race was central to their varying degrees of success. Police Magistrate Court dockets, Sanborn maps, and Census records offer valuable datasets for linguistic and spatial analyses of prostitution-related crimes, revealing a hierarchy of sex work that differentiated between brothel, crib, and street prostitution. Gender inequalities also persisted within the hierarchy; male clientele were often charged and fined differently from female sex workers. GIS analyses reveal two distinct red-light districts, and highlight brothel differences and racial segregation within the red-light district known as “The Hollow.” Critical theory and practice theory help conceptualize the red-light district as an institution, while exposing the power dynamics at play. This thesis offers new insights into Fargo’s historical red-light district, but also contributes to larger historical and archaeological discussions of prostitution hierarchies, gender, and race.

Nitrification in water distribution networks has become a growing concern for water supplies in the United States. The use of chloramines as a disinfectant in distribution pipe networks has become increasingly popular to reduce the disinfectant byproducts that are formed with free chlorine. In chloraminated systems there is potential for nitrification to occur because it reduces chloramine residuals. As chloramines decompose in the network, ammonia is released. Nitrifiers oxidize ammonia into nitrites, which react with chloramines resulting in its further reduction. As this cycle continues, chloramines will be consumed faster in the network, causing regrowth of heterotrophic bacteria. A study was conducted to compare the Fargo and Moorhead distribution networks for the occurrence of nitrification and their potential to deteriorate water quality. Each distribution network was analyzed independently for variations in operational conditions and water quality parameters that can serve as indications of nitrification in a distribution network. / Moorhead Water Treatment Plant