NORTH DAKOTA HOUSEHOLDS' ATTITUDES TOWARD WETLAND PRESERVATION

Over one-half (57%) of the 1,757 respondents to a random survey of North Dakota households agree that all remaining natural wetlands in the state should be preserved. Nearly two- thirds (63%) of the respondents support compensating landowners for preserving wetlands. However, the amount most respondents were willing to pay landowners was $10 or less per year. Over one-third (38%) of the respondents used wetlands for outdoor recreation. Responses were somewhat related to socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, income, education, and place of residence.household attitudes, prairie potholes, wetland, North Dakota, Land Economics/Use,

THE IMPACT OF KNAPWEED ON MONTANA'S ECONOMY

The economic impact of three invasive, exotic weeds--diffuse, spotted, and Russian knapweed (Centaurea diffusa, C. maculosa, and Acroptilon repens)--on Montana's economy was estimated using a procedure developed for another invasive weed species. Published data and that from a survey of county weed boards were used to estimate direct negative impacts of over $14 million annually due to infestation of over 2 million acres of rangeland and wildland. This amounts to about$10.63 on each infested grazing land acre and $3.95 on each infested wildland acre. Direct plus secondary economic impacts, estimated using an input-output model, are about$42 million annually, which could support over 500 jobs in the state's economy. This first approximation suggests the knapweed infestation problem in Montana deserves attention, although more work could be done to refine these estimates and to allow estimation of the impacts at sub-state levels.knapweed (Centaurea diffusa, C. maculosa, and Acroptilon repens), Montana, economic impact, invasive weeds, rangeland, wildland, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Swirling to Graduation: Student Reflections on their Educational Journey

Many students who wish to receive a post-secondary undergraduate degree do not take a linear path. Instead, they opt for a multiple educational institution pathway (swirling) to accomplish an undergraduate degree. Unfortunately, swirling has its complexities and challenges, and many students will drop out of college and not return to obtain a degree. While there is research on this growing population, there is little specifically from the viewpoint of the student, thus lacking the complete story from the swirling students themselves. This study adds to the literature on swirling students and to understanding the cognitive, social, and institutional challenges and supports they encountered along the way. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry study was to investigate the experiences of students who attended multiple educational institutions (swirling) and successfully transitioned into a four-year public urban university and completed an undergraduate degree. Six participants, in their last semester before graduation, volunteered to participate in this study. This study will reveal each participant’s swirling journey, including the education interruptions and re-entries they experienced. Emerging themes will be revealed that include high school preparation, individual persistence, family influences, and institutional barriers and supports. The participant journey themes provide a glimpse into the individual struggles with racial inequity, English as a second language, and uncertainty of a career focus and expose institutional lack of communication and instructional care. The study will offer advice for students and provide practical suggestions for educational institution instruction, student services, and policy that may assist swirling students in their persistence to degree completion

The development and statistical evaluation of an audio-visual dental health education programme

The widespread incidence of chronic dental disease throughout the world indicates the need for the institution of effective denta1 health education programmes. This research report describes the preparation and evaluation of a tape-s1ide sequence designed to educate and motivate a population of pregnant women to improve their daily tooth cleaning proficiency. A total of 180 subjects were randomly allocated into four statistically equal experimental groups, incorporating two experimental and two control groups. Two examiners, who were calibrated before commencement of the survey, measured gingival and plaque indices of each subject and a questionnaire was used to assess the educatíona1 potential of the tape-slide sequence. The time between first and second examinations was 28 days. There was a 100 per cent incidence of gingivitis in the study population. Those women who saw the tape-slide programme in addition to being dentally examined achieved the most reduction in their gingival index, observed clinically as decreased gingival oedema and exposure of subgingival calculus. These subjects had also learned and retained the most information during the survey period. The tape-slide sequence was considered to be a valuable adjunct to patient education by the dentist but it was not capable of initiating a satisfactory degree of behavioural change on its own.Thesis (M.D.S.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Dental Health, 197

3-PG Productivity Modeling of Regenerating Amazon Forests: Climate Sensitivity and Comparison with MODIS-Derived NPP

Potential forest growth predicted by the Physiological Principles in Predicting Growth (3-PG) model was compared for forest and deforested areas in the Legal Amazon to assess potential differing regeneration associated with climate. Historical deforestation and regeneration have occurred in environmentally marginal areas that influence regional carbon sequestration estimates. Effects of El Niño–induced drought further reduce simulated production by decreasing soil water availability in areas with shallow soils and high transpiration potential. The model was calibrated through comparison of literature biomass and with satellite-based estimates. Net primary productivity (NPP) for mature Amazonian forests from the 3-PG model was positively correlated (r 2 = 0.77) with a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived algorithm, though with some bias. Annual total NPP for the study area using a 1961–90 average climatology was 4.6 Pg C yr−1, which decreased to 4.2 Pg C yr−1 when simulated with climate from the severe 1997/98 El Niño event. From a regional analysis, results showed that biomass accumulation is almost entirely controlled by the availability of soil water. Also, areas currently forested in the eastern Amazon are more sensitive to extreme El Niño–induced drought than southern areas with the greatest deforestation extent

River chloride trends in snow-affected urban watersheds: increasing concentrations outpace urban growth rate and are common among all seasons

AbstractChloride concentrations in northern U.S. included in this study have increased substantially over time with average concentrations approximately doubling from 1990 to 2011, outpacing the rate of urbanization in the northern U.S. Historical data were examined for 30 monitoring sites on 19 streams that had chloride concentration and flow records of 18 to 49years. Chloride concentrations in most studied streams increased in all seasons (13 of 19 in all seasons; 16 of 19 during winter); maximum concentrations occurred during winter. Increasing concentrations during non-deicing periods suggest that chloride was stored in hydrologic reservoirs, such as the shallow groundwater system, during the winter and slowly released in baseflow throughout the year. Streamflow dependency was also observed with chloride concentrations increasing as streamflow decreased, a result of dilution during rainfall- and snowmelt-induced high-flow periods. The influence of chloride on aquatic life increased with time; 29% of sites studied exceeded the concentration for the USEPA chronic water quality criteria of 230mg/L by an average of more than 100 individual days per year during 2006–2011. The rapid rate of chloride concentration increase in these streams is likely due to a combination of possible increased road salt application rates, increased baseline concentrations, and greater snowfall in the Midwestern U.S. during the latter portion of the study period

Density Matrix Approach to Local Hilbert Space Reduction

We present a density matrix approach for treating systems with a large or infinite number of degrees of freedom per site with exact diagonalization or the density matrix renormalization group. The method is demonstrated on the 1D Holstein model of electrons coupled to Einstein phonons. In this system, two or three optimized phonon modes per site give results as accurate as with 10-100 bare phonon levels per site.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure