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The authors discuss the article "Uncertainty of the Assumptions Required for Estimating the Regulatory Flood: Red River of the North" by Paul E. Todhunter published in the September 2012 issue of the journal. They commend the author for providing an excellent discussion of uncertainties involved with the development of flood frequency curves in the Red River of the North at Grand Forks, North Dakota. They point out the significance of a feasibility study for flood damage reduction in the river.

Drawing upon Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as theoretical framework and methodological tool, the present paper critically examines the legislation that has established English as official language in 30 states. This study captures the motivation and rationale of the policies, their stated outcomes and educational implications. The analysis situates the discourse embedded in official language policies within its socio-historical context and the conceptualization of race and language in the US. The results indicate that official English legislation responds to a conservative raciolinguistic ideology that seeks to reaffirm the hegemony of English as a mechanism of internal colonization. Official English attempts to establish monolingual educational and governmental practices that serve as an instrument to protect the status quo and, thus, perpetuate the privilege of whiteness and the subordination of immigrants, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

Local governments pressured by fiscal stress have long privatized public service provision to decrease costs or maintain service levels (Greene, 1999). While considerable research has considered contracting behaviors of 'mature,' urban and suburban communities for services which they already are, or are capable of, providing (e.g. Brown and Potoski, 2003), what happens in small communities faced with a rapid influx of population and resources? Do factors shaping contracting in larger, resource-constrained locations apply to expanding cities under conditions of opportunity? Are growing cities' service options limited by a lack of existing capacity, or expanded by additional resources to allow innovative delivery arrangements? Western North Dakota is currently experiencing an oil boom, doubling local populations in half a decade and dramatically impacting demand for public services. Using original data from over 100 North Dakota cities and counties in 2014, this paper models the impact of service and market-specific transaction costs, changes in resources and service demand, and other community factors on public officials' choices among delivery arrangement modes when contracting out for local services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Free-roaming dogs, also referred to as reservation dogs or rez dogs, hold important and unique roles in Indigenous communities. The purpose of this study is to document the cultural significance of rez dogs, challenges related to rez dogs, and community-specific solutions to rez dog issues affecting community health and safety from the perspective of 14 members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, also referred to as the Three Affiliated Tribes (TAT), who live on the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota, U.S.A. The primary intervention areas described by the participants included: culturally relevant information sharing, improved animal control policies and practices, and improved access to veterinary care and other animal services. The research on the relationships between free-roaming dogs, also referred to as reservation dogs or rez dogs, and Indigenous communities is extremely limited. This study aimed to document the cultural significance of rez dogs, challenges related to rez dogs, and community-specific solutions for rez dog issues affecting community health and safety from members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, also referred to as the Three Affiliated Tribes (TAT), who live on the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota, U.S.A. One hour semi-structured interviews with 14 community members of the MHA Nation were conducted in 2016. The interviews were analyzed via systematic and inductive coding using Gadamer's hermeneutical phenomenology. The primary intervention areas described by the participants included: culturally relevant information sharing, improved animal control policies and practices, and improved access to veterinary care and other animal services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: With the growing US aging population, need for a health care workforce able to provide dementia care will increase. OBJECTIVE: To develop, deliver, and assess interactive live workshops for licensed North Dakota pharmacists in dementia care. METHODS: Prospective interventional study of impact of free-of-charge, interactive, five-hour workshops for pharmacists providing advanced training in Alzheimer's disease, vascular and Parkinson's disease dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and common reversible causes of cognitive impairment. The workshop was offered three times across two different locations in ND: Fargo and Bismarck. Online pre- and postworkshop questionnaires were administered to collect demographics, attendance rationale, perceived ability to provide dementia care, and workshop quality/satisfaction. A 16-item assessment instrument/test (1 point/item) was developed to assess pre- and postworkshop competency in dementia-related care (ie, knowledge, comprehension, application, and analysis). Descriptive statistics and paired t-test were performed using Stata 10.1. RESULTS: Sixty-nine pharmacists were trained and completed the competency test assessments; 95.7% ND pharmacists completed pre-and postworkshop questionnaires. The overall competency test scores improved from 5.7 ± 2.2 to 13.0 ± 2.8 (P < 0.001) and individual scores for each disease/problem also improved significantly (P < 0.001). Increases corresponded with increased self-reported perceived ability to provide dementia care; 95.4 to 100% of participants agreed/strongly agreed learning needs were met, teaching was effective, were satisfied with content and educational material usefulness, and would recommend workshop. CONCLUSION: Workshop had measurable, immediate benefit on knowledge and ability to apply learned information. Structured, interactive workshops are valuable for improving pharmacists' competency in dementia care [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premise of research. From a purely palynological perspective, lowest Danian fern-dominated assemblages of the Williston Basin (North Dakota and southwestern Saskatchewan) and the Raton Basin (northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado) appear indistinguishable, although this perspective has yet to be corroborated by macrofloral studies across this same region. No ferns have been collected from the lowest Danian barren series of the Raton Formation in more than a century, and this section remains sparsely sampled. Methodology. New collections of fossil ferns from the basal portion of the barren series or informal middle member of the Raton Formation, which directly overlies the K/Pg boundary, are compared with contemporaneous assemblages in other North American depositional basins. Pivotal results. Dennastra sorimarginata McIver and Basinger (Dennstaedtiaceae Lotsy) and Woodwardia arctica (Heer) Brown (Blechnaceae Newman) that produce Cyathidites diaphana (Wilson and Webster) Nichols and JL Brown and Laevigatosporites haardtii (Potonié and Venitz) Thomson and Pflug, respectively, are recognized as characteristic ferns in the basal portion of the barren series, in addition to Osmunda macrophylla Penhallow. Conclusions. In accordance with palynological perspectives, lowest Danian fern macrofossil assemblages from the Raton Basin support the concept of a geographically widespread "postdisaster" pteridophyte flora represented predominantly by Dennstaedtiaceae and Blechnaceae, with other minor components of more northern assemblages. The enigmatic hypothesis of a landscape dominated by anemiaceous or schizaeaceous ferns is rejected on the basis of this new evidence, which suggests that Cyathidites diaphana –producing dennstaedtiaceous ferns were the K/Pg boundary "disaster taxon" and among those that flourished in the Raton Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, geologists and petroleum engineers have struggled to clearly identify the mechanisms that drive productivity in horizontal, hydraulically-fractured oil wells producing from the middle member of the Bakken Formation. This paper fills a gap in the literature by showing how this play's heterogeneity affects factors that drive well productivity. It is important because understanding the relative strength of productivity drivers and how predictors vary spatially facilitates best-practices for well site selection and well completion design. The paper describes an application of the Random Forest (RF) machine learning technique to identify these mechanisms and to evaluate their importance across nine subareas of the North Dakota portion of the Bakken play. The study examined productivity of 7311 wells initiating production from 2010 through 2017. Well productivity varied considerably across the nine subareas within the play, so it was not surprising that the dominant predictors, the initial 180-day water cut and the 30-day initial gas production, vary spatially to mirror local conditions that strongly affect well productivity. The relative importance of well completion predictor variables, that is, the number of fracture stages per well, volume of injected proppant per stage, volume of injected fluids per stage, and lateral length, varied considerably across the subareas. Statistical permutation tests are presented that generally confirm the importance rankings. Subarea Random Forest models explained from 50 percent to 82 percent of the variation in productivity test samples, while the play-wide model explained 73 percent of the test sample well productivity. Weakness in the predictive ability of the Random Forest models are traced to the limited variability in the training data. Implications of the empirical findings regarding the Bakken play for operators and for research and government institutions are discussed in the concluding section. • Random Forests model Bakken well productivity. • Predictors that vary spatially dominate. • Productivity constrained by spatial predictor values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioethanol demands have increased during the last decade due to unexpected events worldwide. It is among the renewable energy sources that are utilized to replace fossil-fuel-based energy. Designing an efficient, Sustainable Bioethanol Supply Chain Network (SBSCN) is a critical task for the government and communities to manage the bioethanol demands appropriately. The contribution of this study is threefold. First, this study project the demand using three popular machine learning methods, including Random Forest (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Ensemble Learning (Adaboost) methods, to find the best one to be utilized as an input to the proposed mathematical to find optimal values for strategic, planning, and tactical decision variables. Second, the unemployment rate is considered an important parameter of the model to maximize the social effects. Third, since the proposed model of this study is NP-hard, to solve the problem, the CPLEX solver is applied for small size and two meta-heuristic algorithms, including Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and Multi-Objective Invasive Weed Optimization (MOIWO) are considered for medium and large size problems to find Pareto optimal solutions. Due to the sensitivity of two meta-heuristics algorithms, the Taguchi method, such as Max Spread (MS) and Mean Ideal Distance (MID), is utilized to control the parameters of those two applied algorithms. Since North Dakota (ND) is among the states with the most potential to produce bioethanol due to its vast land area, including marginal cropland and Conservation Research Program (CRP), the proposed model has been evaluated and validated based on the ND case study. The results show that the MOIWO algorithm outperforms NSGA-II based on the proposed model and the case study of this paper. Also, this algorithm is more reliable in terms of solution quality to tackle the problem. Finally, some research directions are discussed for future studies, and managerial insights are provided. • Bioethanol consumption experienced an increasing due to unexpected worldwide event. • Utilizing machine learning approaches to estimate the bioethanol demand in N.D. • Designing sustainable bioethanol supply chain by two meta-heuristic algorithms. • Optimal locations of biorefinery, pre-processing, distribution, and demand centers. • Gradual replacement of liquid fossil fuels with bioethanol to reduce air pollutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precision agriculture technologies (PATs) hold promise for improving resource usage and agricultural profitability. This paper examines the adoption of automatic section control, Global Positioning Systems and autosteer, satellite imagery, variable rate nitrogen application, and variable rate seeding by farm operators in North Dakota. Survey data are analyzed using a double-hurdle model. The double-hurdle model allows operators' adoption and usage decisions to be examined separately. Results indicate that larger operations are more likely to adopt PATs, suggesting that economies of scale exist among PAT adopters. Several PATs have complementary effects on the adoption of other technologies. These effects are most noticeable for variable rate technologies. Cropping patterns are related to the adoption of PATs, as corn production is positively associated with the adoption of multiple PATs while wheat production is negatively associated with adoption of variable rate technologies. These results have implications for farm managers, precision agriculture dealers and service providers, and policy makers. • Precision agriculture is emerging as a key part of North Dakota's economy. • Precision agriculture technologies exhibit complementary adoption. • Economies of scale exist for precision agriculture technology adopters. • Cropping patterns and practices determine technology adoption and usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Nursing turnover is a leading cause of inefficiency in health care delivery. Few studies have examined turnover among nurses who work in rural areas. Methods: We accessed human resources data that tracked hiring and terminations from a large health system operating in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota between January 2016 and December 2017. Our study sample included 7,634 registered nurses, 1,765 of whom worked in a rural community. Within the health system, there were 27 affiliated hospitals, 17 of which were designated critical access hospitals. We estimated nursing turnover rates overall and stratified turnover rates by available demographic and occupational characteristics, including whether the nurse worked in a community with an affiliated acute care hospital or critical access hospital. Findings: Overall, 19% of nurses left their position between January 2016 and December 2017. Turnover rates were associated with state, nurse gender and age, and occupational tenure, but were similar in urban and rural areas. Of note, turnover rates were significantly higher in communities without an affiliated acute care hospital or critical access hospital. Conclusion: Between 2016 and 2017, nearly 1 in 5 nurses working in this health system left their position. Turnover rates differed based on nurse demographics and selected occupational characteristics, including tenure. We also found higher turnover rates among nurses who worked in communities without an affiliated hospital, which points to a potential but unexplored benefit of hospitals in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydraulic fracturing (HF) is the prime technology for enhancing production from unconventional reservoirs. Ideally, the hydraulic fracture is expected to communicate the existing natural fracture networks, known as sweet spots in tight formations, to create a continuous path for the flow to the lateral section of the wellbore. However, the interaction of the hydraulic fracture with the natural fracture is complex and may result in different mechanisms (modes) known as crossing, arresting, and opening. In this study, we use the log–log plot of the bottom hole pressure versus time after fracture breakdown and during the fracture propagation stage to investigate the interaction modes. A qualitative indicator interaction pressurization rate index (IPRI) was proposed to predict interaction modes between hydraulic fracture and natural fracture. XSite, a lattice-based simulator, is used to model the interaction mechanism. A number of simulations were performed using the Bakken Shale data in North Dakota with a wide range of input parameters to study the impact of the input parameters on the interaction mode. The results formed a database used to develop a predictive model to determine the interaction mode. Several lab experiments are performed to validate the accuracy of the predictive model. Highlights: A Lattice-based fracturing simulator was executed to simulate a large number of cases based on field data to build a database. A qualitative indicator Interaction pressurization Rate Index extracted from the pressure-time curve was proposed to analyze the hydraulic fracture propagation phase. A Support Vector Machine model was trained to predict interaction modes from the qualitative indicator. The trained model exhibited good performance in predicting the interaction modes of lab-scale experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical mineral commodities, especially the rare earth elements (REE), are increasingly vital components in the manufacturing of modern products, especially those needed for electronics, electrified energy infrastructure components, and advanced defense technologies. There is little or no production of these minerals in the United States, and domestic industries rely on supplies from often adversarial foreign sources. This strategic vulnerability could be mitigated through the development of new and non-traditional mineral resources, and the U.S. has recently made extensive investments to better characterize its critical mineral resources and refine ore processing technologies. One alternative source that has been investigated for its potential to accumulate critical minerals is coal, which can contain relatively high proportions of the heavy REEs (terbium, dysprosium) that are not major components of traditional igneous REE ores. The average total REE concentration of U.S. coal is 66 ppm, much lower than the 182 ppm average concentrations of upper continental crust, but some coals are far more enriched. The North Dakota Geological Survey has previously identified zones of enrichment exceeding 1,000 ppm REE (dry coal basis) in some Paleocene lignites, illustrating that the Williston Basin has potential to host feedstocks exceeding the 300-ppm threshold which the U.S. Department of Energy has proposed could be economic in coal and coal byproducts. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain REE enrichment in world coal, including the introduction of volcanic ash during the peat bog stage or a later influence from hydrothermal or meteoric REE-laden fluids. Infiltrational models have been used to explain the occurrence of uraniferous coals in the Fort Union Group, but extensive sampling efforts by the NDGS since 2015 have shown that high-REE lignites are not well correlated to those enriched in uranium or proximal to its overlying Eocene to Miocene volcaniclastic source beds. Earlier episodes of contemporaneous volcanism also do not appear to have contributed significant REE source beds to the basin, since elevated REE concentrations are largely absent in carbonaceous lithologies adjacent to Paleocene and Cretaceous volcanic tuffs. Lignites exhibiting moderate REE enrichment occur in many stratigraphic positions throughout the Paleocene record of the Williston basin but are frequently associated with an overlying permeable upland surface and appear to often be the result of long-term, low-intensity weathering and infiltration during the Quaternary. Fort Union clastics, which contain relatively normal amounts of REE-bearing primary and secondary minerals, are subject to leaching by weakly acidic meteoric waters which transport REE and other elements into organic complexes in the underlying lignites. Although much of this enrichment appears recent and topographically controlled, a few stratigraphic intervals contain consistently high REE concentrations where lignites are present. One of these intervals is the Bear Den Member of the Golden Valley Formation, which is a weathering profile formed during the anomalously warm and humid climate of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Intense pedogenesis during this event kaolinized and leached 30 feet (9.1 m) or more of Late Paleocene sediments, transporting REE into lower portions of the profile. Mudstones and claystones in lower portions of the weathering profile are commonly slightly enriched (>364 ppm REE; 2 times UCC) and lignites, where they occur, can be significantly enriched (up to 2,570 ppm REE; over 14 times UCC) on a dry coal basis and several-fold higher on an ash basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined the impact of a dichotomous versus scaled response format on prevalence rates of sexual violence perpetration and victimization, thus conceptually replicating Hamby et al., 2006 and extending those findings to the context of sexual violence. Methods: Two samples were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were randomly assigned to either a dichotomous or scaled response format of the same questionnaire. Sample 1 was used to examine perpetration and received a perpetration specific version of the Post-Refusal Sexual Persistence Scale (PRSPS). Sample 2 was used to examine victimization and received a victimization specific version of the PRSPS. Results: Men and women who received the scaled response format reported significantly more incidents of sexual perpetration, and for each type of tactic studied, on the order of 1.7-9x more frequently. The association between response format condition and prevalence rates of sexual violence victimization was significant only for men (23.0 vs 39.4%) and for the tactic of verbal coercion (30.1 vs 41.5%), with the scaled response format producing greater responding. Conclusions: The response format of sexual violence items can significantly alter prevalence rates of sexual violence perpetration, with scaled response formats producing greater endorsements than dichotomous formats. Response format also appears to impact prevalence rates of sexual violence victimization, particularly for men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, agricultural land use in the northern Great Plains has negatively affected soil health and associated ecosystem services through grassland conversion to cropland and a transition away from small‐grain cropping systems to warm‐season crops. Mitigating these effects requires adoption of conservation practices, but information about how conservation practices influence on soil condition and function are needed. This study sought to quantify near‐surface soil responses to crop diversity and intensity, cover crops, and livestock integration under controlled experimental conditions, and land use (dryland cropping vs. perennial agroecosystems) on working farms and ranches, all on a common Haplustoll soil in southcentral North Dakota, USA. Among dryland cropping practices, diverse, continuous cropping led to improvements in soil structure, nutrient supply potential, and biological habitat, but increased soil acidification and soil NO3–N accumulation. Cover crops had a negligible effect on soil condition and function, while livestock integration on cropland improved nutrient supply potential and biological habitat but impaired water intake into soil. Relative to dryland cropping, soil conditions and functions were consistently improved under perennial agroecosystems. Retention of perennial agroecosystems and adoption of diverse, nutrient‐efficient dryland cropping practices should be prioritized to enhance soil health in the northern Great Plains. Core Ideas: Conservation practices on croplands are needed in the northern Great Plains.Soil assessments were conducted on long‐term experiments and on‐farm research sites.Soil functions under cropland were impaired compared with perennial agroecosystems.Increased crop diversity and intensity improved soil quality indices and grain yield.Cropland conservation practices can create tradeoffs in soil function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borage is planted for medicinal and culinary purposes and is also grown commercially to produce borage seed oil, high in GLA (γ-linolenic acid), which is used as a natural flavouring, food, and nutritional supplement. Borage antioxidants have potential in skin health products as UV absorbing components. The borage essential oil extracted by hydrodistillation contains important amounts of the valuable aroma compound 2.6 nonadienal (NDAL). Borage is grown mainly in Europe (England, the Netherlands) and in the United States (mostly in North Dakota) and Canada for commercial seed production. Seven varieties of borage were evaluated in the experiment. The average plant height ranged from 701 to 765 mm (locality Piešt’any). The leaves of borage are characterised by a ground rosette at the base, the lower leaves with petioles 20-80 mm long are mostly elliptic, entire edged. The leaf characteristics were described: leaf length 115,6-166,0 mm, leaf width 69,9-99,4 mm, leaf circumference 311,4-450,5 mm and leaf area 5403-11426 mm2. Borage flowers - predominantly large, long-stalked, 15-30 mm in diameter, mostly blue in colour, except for genotype 7/17 which had white flowers. 1000-seed weight varied 13.6- 15.2 g. The evaluation of yield-forming elements, the average weight of fresh biomass per plant was quantified at 520 g (locality Piešt’any) and 243-295 g (locality Plavnica), the average weight of biomass of dry plant was 115 g with a drying ratio of 4.52:1. The concentration of NDAL obtained from borage biomass ranged from 8.24-10.97 mg NDAL/kg for flower and 3.83-8.55 mg NDAL/kg for leaves, depending on the phenophase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted at three sites in North Dakota to strengthen understanding of the usefulness of different proximal geophysical data types in agricultural contexts of varying pedology. This study hypothesizes that electromagnetic induction (EMI), gamma‐ray sensor (GRS), cosmic‐ray neutron sensor (CRNS), and elevation data layers are all useful in multiple linear regression (MLR) predictions of soil properties that meet expert criteria at three agricultural sites. In addition to geophysical data collection with vehicle‐mounted sensors, 15 soil samples were collected at each site and analyzed for nine soil properties of interest. A set of model training data was compiled by pairing the sampled soil property measurements with the nearest geophysical data. Eleven models passed expert‐defined uncertainty criteria at Site 1, 16 passed at Site 2, and 14 passed at Site 3. Electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM), available water holding capacity, silt, and clay were predicted at Site 1 with an R‐squared of prediction (Rpred2)$(R_{pred}^2)$ >.50 and acceptable root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP). Bulk density (BD), OM, available water capacity, silt, and clay were predicted with Rpred2$R_{pred}^2$ >.50 and acceptable RMSEP at Site 2. At Site 3, no soil properties were predicted with acceptable RMSEP and an Rpred2$R_{pred}^2$ >.50. These results confirm feasibility of our method, and the authors recommend the prioritization of EMI data collection if geophysical data collection is limited to a single mapping effort and calibration soil samples are few. Core Ideas: Framework given to assess relationships between proximal sensing and soil properties.Correlations between sensing data and soil properties varied among three study sites.Electromagnetic induction was most consistently useful in soil property prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands are vital components of landscapes that sustain a range of important ecosystem services. Understanding how wetland‐rich landscapes—or wetlandscapes—will evolve under a changing climate and increasing anthropogenic encroachment is urgent. Wetlandscapes are highly heterogeneous, and scaling local modelling insights from individual instrumented wetlands to characterize landscape‐scale dynamics has been a pervasive challenge. We investigate the potential to use water extent information from satellite imagery to calibrate landscape‐scale process‐based hydrological models. Applications to wetlandscapes in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) in North Dakota and the Texas Playa Lakes (TPL) shed light on two important trade‐offs. First, in‐situ monitoring provides accurate water extent information on an arbitrary subset of wetlands, whereas satellite imagery captures landscape‐scale hydrological dynamics but suffers persistent water‐detection challenges. Satellite imagery is a superior source of data for model calibration in sparsely monitored and spatially heterogeneous landscapes like the PPR, where the sampling uncertainty of monitored wetlands exceeds the water detection uncertainty of remote sensing. The two data sources are equivalent for more homogeneous landscapes like the TPL. The second tradeoff concerns the spatial resolution and temporal coverage of satellite imagery. In that regard, the 20 years of bi‐weekly images captured by Landsat 7 provides unprecedented insights into the dynamic nature of the ecohydrological characteristics of wetlandscapes, such as seasonal and inter‐annual changes of their metapopulation capacity. In the PPR, the amplitude of these dynamics far exceeds the bias introduced by Landsat's inability to capture ecologically important connectivity details due to its coarse spatial resolution compared to more recent imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a promising technology that has the potential to recover currently-unmineable coal resources. The technical feasibility and economic success of a UCG project is highly site specific. Any risks associated with UCG, such as subsidence, groundwater contamination, and syngas quality, should be sufficiently evaluated through a feasibility study. This paper presents a four-year UCG feasibility study utilizing lignite seams in North Dakota, United States. Four wells were drilled through the lignite seams at a selected site, and lignite and strata cores were recovered. A geological model of the formation was built, coal and rock properties were analyzed, and field hydrogeological tests and laboratory gasification tests were performed. This work provided valuable insights in rock mechanics, hydrogeology, and coal properties. The study results show that the selected site is suitable for development of a UCG plant because there are minimal induced subsidence risks, there is hydrological isolation from major aquifers and the coal produces desirable syngas quality for liquid fuel production. Methodologies developed in this study will benefit the design, optimization and management of the UCG process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through funding from the National Science Foundation to create a Research Experience for Teachers site at North Dakota State University, the authors provided summer research experiences to current secondary (6th to 12th grade) educators to improve their understanding of the civil engineering field and develop new curriculum modules for their classrooms. Reflection of the first summer program in 2021 highlighted several modifications that could be made to improve the quality of the program and curriculum developed, increase the accessibility to underserved and/or underrepresented populations and to better utilize the limited resources available. This paper summarizes the successes of the RET program and provides several concrete recommendations for future programs. Specifically, recruiting of both teachers and faculty could be more effective when personal communications through known contacts are used. Flexibility in the approach without compromising rigor and expectations allows for a more inclusive program that supports underserved and marginalized populations.

• Simple TOC measurements can be inadequate for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. • Present-day TOC can be ½ the original content if hydrocarbons were generated. • Decrease is greatest for marine organic matter at high maturity. • A technique used in petroleum-systems modeling makes the necessary corrections. • We advise capturing uncertainty due to the assumptions inherent in this method. Methods for reconstructing present-day TOC values to their original values are widely used in petroleum systems analysis. However, the importance of making these corrections appears to be underappreciated when TOC is used for paleoenvironmental interpretation. In this paper we demonstrate how differences between present-day TOC (TOC PD) values (e.g., as measured via LECO and similar methods) and those at the time of deposition (TOC O) can materially affect paleoenvironmental interpretations that use TOC as a variable. The difference between those two values depends on the thermal maturity of the deposits and the original kerogen type. We illustrate the effects of restoring and using TOC O values on samples from the Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Formation of South Texas and the Upper Devonian Lower Bakken Shale of North Dakota. Making this correction requires programmed pyrolysis ("Rock-Eval") data rather than simple TOC measurements. We use plots of molybdenum and sulfur versus TOC PD and TOC O to illustrate the effects of restoring TOC, but any analysis that involves TOC as a variable will be affected. There are uncertainties associated with defining the original organic matter type, and other unknowns that can affect TOC reconstruction. As such we advocate presentation of a range of possible TOC O values, i.e., deliberately capturing uncertainty, rather than a single value. The method used to restore TOC has minimal impact on the interpretations, at least for the two methods employed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers whether the reform of North Dakota's natural gas flaring policy provided large operators a competitive advantage, leading to increased market concentration. North Dakota was the highest gas flaring and venting state in USA until it was taken over by Texas in 2015 coinciding with the implementation of its gas flaring policy in 2014. Two analyses are performed in North Dakota (and Wyoming, as a control) to compare the effect that the flaring policy had on the state's oil sector. The analyses show mixed evidence, larger firms gained an advantage leading to fewer smaller firms operating in the state. The paper concludes with highlighting possible further areas for research, and methodologies for acquiring more reliable data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air temperature (AT) prediction can play a significant role in studies related to climate change, radiation and heat flux estimation, and weather forecasting. This study applied and compared the outcomes of three advanced fuzzy inference models, i.e., dynamic evolving neural-fuzzy inference system (DENFIS), hybrid neural-fuzzy inference system (HyFIS), and adaptive neurofuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for AT prediction. Modelling was done for three stations in North Dakota (ND), USA, i.e., Robinson, Ada, and Hillsboro. The results reveal that FIS type models are well suited when handling highly variable data, such as AT, which shows a high positive correlation with average daily dew point (DP), total solar radiation (TSR), and negative correlation with average wind speed (WS). At the Robinson station, DENFIS performed the best with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.96 and a modified index of agreement (md) of 0.92, followed by ANFIS with R2 of 0.94 and md of 0.89, and HyFIS with R2 of 0.90 and md of 0.84. A similar result was observed for the other two stations, i.e., Ada and Hillsboro stations where DENFIS performed the best with R2: 0.953/0.960, md: 0.903/0.912, then ANFIS with R2: 0.943/0.942, md: 0.888/0.890, and HyFIS with R2: 0.908/0.905, md: 0.845/0.821, respectively. It can be concluded that all three models are capable of predicting AT with high efficiency by only using DP, TSR, and WS as input variables. This makes the application of these models more reliable for a meteorological variable with the need for the least number of input variables. The study can be valuable for the areas where the climatological and seasonal variations are studied and will allow providing excellent prediction results with the least error margin and without a huge expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospitals acquire and maintain long-term operating assets such as land, buildings, and equipment. In this study, we analyzed hospitals' long-term assets acquisitions data extracted from the Medicare Cost Report, a mandatory annual filing for all Medicare-certified hospitals. The first objective of this study is to examine the time trend of land, buildings, and equipment acquisitions of all general acute care hospitals in the U.S. from 2005 to 2019 to understand the relative magnitude and temporal changes for the operating assets. The second objective is to examine the 15-year accumulated acquisitions of land, buildings, and equipment per capita in each state to understand the variations of potential access to hospital operating resources across states. To understand the longitudinal changes in acquisitions of operating assets for each year from 2005 to 2019, we calculated the total acquisition amounts across all hospitals for land, buildings, and equipment, respectively, and adjusted the amounts to 2019 dollars based on the consumer price index (CPI). For each state (including Washington D.C.) and the whole nation, the 15-year accumulated CPI-adjusted acquisition amounts per capita for land, buildings, and equipment were also calculated, respectively. The nationwide acquisitions of those operating assets grew rapidly from 2005 to 2008 followed by a negative overall growth from 2008 to 2014 and since 2015, started increasing steadily again. In 2019, U.S. general acute care hospitals acquired $3.0 billion of land, $44.6 billion of buildings, and $33.9 billion of equipment. Huge geographical variation in per capita cumulative total asset investment were also found with the first place North Dakota having a per capita investment that is almost four times higher than that in the lowest ranked state of Alabama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) is an invasive tree that has spread throughout much of the western United States. The mode of seed dispersal occurs by hydrochory and possibly by birds. Seed dispersal by frugivorous mammals has not been investigated. Between 15 October and 4 November 2020, we walked through Russian olive windbreaks in western North Dakota, USA, and surveyed for mammal scat, and found 10 coyote (Canis latrans) and 54 porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) scats that contained intact Russian olive seeds. We subsequently evaluated the viability, germination frequency, and time to germination of seeds ingested by coyote and porcupine relative to un‐ingested control seeds harvested from trees at sites where we collected scat. Overall, Russian olive seeds that passed through mammal intestinal tracts had similar viability and equivalent (porcupine) or higher (coyote) germination frequency compared to controls. Additionally, coyote‐ingested seeds germinated earlier (time to germination was low) than controls, but porcupine‐ingested seeds were similar to controls. Thus, our data supports the idea that mammals may be agents of regional Russian olive seed dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]