Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Attention In Second Language Development, Amanda Marie Mcginnis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This pilot study investigated the role of attention in language learning. I began by examining the most current research into how attention functions in the brain; then I discussed how attention as a cognitive mechanism is believed to fit into models of data processing and language learning. Once the nature and role of attention in language development was understood, it became possible to discover the practical implications for language teachers and learners. The most recent means to a grammar pedagogy is the Focus on Form approach: a language teaching option which takes into account the research on the role of …

The Role Of L-Carnitine In Preventing Mitochondrial Dysfunction After Neonatal Hypoxia-Ischemia, Thomas Fredrick Rau

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI) represents an intractable clinical condition that lacks an effective treatment and results in blindness, cerebral palsy, and cognitive deficits. A primary mechanism of cell death induced by neonatal HI is mitochondrial dysfunction leading to metabolic crisis and apoptosis. L-carnitine (LCAR) is an endogenous compound that transports fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane for metabolism, buffers endogenous acyl-coA pools and improves the health and efficiency of the mitochondria. In light of the mitochondrial dysfunction observed after HI we hypothesized treatment with LCAR would reduce cell death after HI. Using a novel rat hippocampal slice culture model we observed …

Verb Contraction In The West Saxon Dialect Of Old English: An Optimality Theory Account, Melinda Mix

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The phenomena of verb contraction in the West Saxon dialect of Old English has been described in many grammars of the language. However, most of these use a traditional rule-based analysis of the sound changes which occur. This thesis re-analyzes the data in terms of Optimality Theory (OT), which uses a system of constraint ranking to account for sound changes. The advantage of using OT is that it offers a single ranking to explain sound changes that would require separate rules and ordering in a more traditional analysis. Section 1 introduces the motivation for approaching this data from OT. Section …

Developing Electronic Portfolio Software For Program Assessment, Melissa Elizabeth Holmes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper describes how user-centered design methodologies were employed to create a software prototype used for outcomes assessment of e-portfolios. Designed to be used by faculty, university administrators and accreditation users, the prototype standardizes, aggregates and displays e-portfolio data in novel ways. Results of evaluating the prototype indicate that e-portfolios can be an effective means of outcomes assessment at the program level.

Achieving Environmental Justice For The Community Of Opportunity, Montana: An Assessment Of Superfund Concerns, Kathleen A. Hasenbank

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The community of Opportunity, Montana, is surrounded by an area many consider to be the largest Superfund site in the United States. The nearby Opportunity Ponds is a major consolidation area for mining-related contaminated wastes in the state of Montana, and Opportunity residents have voiced concerns about their well water, windblown dust, and other issues since at least the late 1990s. Furthermore, the community has been subjected to ongoing environmental injustices: they feel they have been left to bear an unfair environmental burden without compensation and feel left out of important decision-making processes that affect them. I have …

Self-Control Choices Using Running Reinforcement, Jennifer Lynn Brinegar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rats were given a choice between two amounts of a run-reward after responding on one of two equidistant levers. Responding on one lever resulted in the delivery of a smaller, immediate access to a running wheel (Impulsive) while responding on the other lever resulted in the delivery of larger but delayed access to a running wheel (Self-control). A variable inter-trial-interval was used to control the session duration regardless of the distribution of choices made by the subject. The results demonstrate that the use of a wheel-running reinforcer results in a significant self-control choice bias. This suggests that the use of …

Musicality, Subjectivity, And The Canterbury Tales, Michael Erik Bigley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is concerned with musicality as an interpretive category in the reading of Middle English literature in both lyric and narrative texts. The anonymous musical lyrics of thirteenth century England emphasize the individual subjectivity of the speaker, a quality which is enhanced by their musical settings. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written at the end of the fourteenth century, uses music in a narrative framework to critique the operation of this subjectivity. Because the lyric poetry of the period was nearly always set to music, the status of the texts as songs has an important impact on the way in which …

Pharmacological Modeling And Regulation Of Excitatory Amino Acid Transporters (Eaats), Shailesh Ramjilal Agarwal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

L-Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian CNS that can mechanistically contribute to either neuronal signaling or neuronal pathology. Consequently, its concentration in the CNS must be carefully regulated, a critical need that is met by the excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs). The presence of at least five isoforms of EAATs raises interesting questions as to potential structural and functional differences among the subtypes. We have investigated possible differences in the ligand binding domains of the EAATs through the development of computationally based pharmacophore models. An EAAT2-specific model was created with four potent and selective ligands that act …

Repair And Effects Of The 8-Oxog Lesion In Dna, James Joseph Covino

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Eukaryotic DNA is packaged in a condensed state with histone proteins. The minimal structural unit within packaged eukaryotic DNA is the nucleosome core particle (NCP). The NCP consists of a 146 bp DNA fragment wrapped around an octamer of histone core proteins. Nucleosome core particle formation induces DNA structural changes and reduced DNA accessibility providing a very different setting than that commonly modeled by in vitro studies. In vitro reconstituted NCP provide a controlled environment that more closely models eukaryotic DNA than studies using naked DNA. Reconstituted NCP studies of DNA damage have exhibited a spectrum of effects compared to …

Predicting Northern Goshawk Dynamics Using An Individual-Based Spatial Model, Melanie A. Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) is a US Forest Service Region 2 Sensitive Species, requiring the Black Hills National Forest to manage for its viability. Previous studies have suggested that a model integrating goshawk population demographics, habitat availability, and territoriality would have the ability to predict population dynamics including goshawk locations, population size, and population viability. An individual-based spatial model was created for the Black Hills goshawk population. This project focused on evaluating our current understanding of goshawk dynamics, and making individual- and population-level predictions as appropriate following model validation. The model simulated demographics and behavior of individuals and usage …

Bishopness, Lauren Goodwin Slaughter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The publication of "Edgar Allen Poe & the Juke-Box" modifies Elizabeth Bishop’s established oeuvre in ways that demonstrate the anxiety throughout her work regarding the concealment of sexual difference—a concealment she often takes part in. As the poems reveal, by putting emphasis on particular kinds of clothing, Bishop emphasizes the necessary—but flawed—methods for that concealment. Black stockings, gloves, sailors hats, and other garments of traditional gender representation work as useful metaphors, symbolically engaging the construction of the literary image accepted in the academy which has produced the unified notion of “Bishopness” some critics still wish to uphold. When themes of …

Integrated Modeling Of Long-Term Vegetation And Hydrologic Dynamics In Rocky Mountain Watersheds, Robert Steven Ahl

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Changes in forest structure resulting from natural disturbances, or managed treatments, can have negative and long lasting impacts on water resources. To facilitate integrated management of forest and water resources, a System for Long-Term Integrated Management Modeling (SLIMM) was developed.

By combining two spatially explicit, continuous time models, vegetation patterns can be simulated forward in time based on management criteria. Output from the SIMPPLLE vegetation simulator are converted into landcover maps at every time-step and used to predict hydrologic watershed responses to time-series landcover change with the SWAT model. Long-term watershed responses to vegetation management scenarios can therefore be evaluated …

The Importance Of Individual And Population Variation To Human Stature Estimation, Kelly Jean Shields

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human stature estimation is a central part of forensic anthropological investigation. It is one of several factors used to identify unknown individuals. The statistical relationship between body length and body segment length allows for long bone lengths from an unidentified individual to be used in a linear regression equation to estimate living stature. These linear regression equations are often formulated from a data set of an entirely different population. This research explores the necessity for the unknown individual to be similar on a number of points to the known population that makes up the equation. Populations are highly variable, and …

Fall And Redemption: The Essence Of Country Music, Patrick Jude Campbell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

My initial focus as a final project in the Creative Pulse was to begin to sing again. Singing fulfilled the three requirements of choice in a project: risk, rigor, and the requirement of ‘having to do it’. I had sung as a young man, and stopped as the result of listening to an adult tell me that I could not sing. During the following 23 years, I used percussion and became a dancer in order to express myself. The art forms of percussion and dance I was drawn to like a man is drawn to a woman that he must …

Detrital-Zircon Geochronologic Provenance Analyses That Test And Expand The East Siberia - West Laurentia Rodinia Reconstruction, John Stuart Maclean

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Laurentia's position in the Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia is a topic of continuing debate. Several reconstructions involving Laurentia and Siberia have been proposed, including the east Siberia-west Laurentia connection. The east Siberia-west Laurentia Rodinia reconstruction includes lithostratigraphic correlations of conjugate rift miogeocline sediments located in SE Siberia and SW Laurentia. To constrain provenance relationships and to quantitatively test correlations, we determined detrital-zircon age spectra from samples from the Sette Daban Range of SE Siberia and the Death Valley and White-Inyo regions of SW Laurentia using SHRIMP and LAICPMS. Data indicate that several Siberian samples contain zircons correlative with Laurentian sources, and …

Jeg Gikk Meg Over Sjo Og Land: A Journey For The Future Into The Past, Stephanie Jeane White

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using Scandinavian immigrant culture as a backdrop, this project presents an integrated multiple intelligences approach to teaching Kindergarten and elementary school students about their music, history, and cultural inheritance. The paper describes eight themes that formed the framework of the eight-week music curriculum used in the project. Examples of the children’s artwork and creative writing are included in the work. The author concludes that raising children’s awareness of a single specific culture through their music, dance, art, and food preferences stimulates the children’s curiosity about their own heritage resulting in increased communication with their family members and greater self-knowledge. The …

First-Year Growth And Survival Of Habitat Revegetation Trials On The Lower Colorado River, Mexico, Stephen Dwight Handler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sweeping changes across the Colorado River watershed in the 20th century resulted in near-complete collapse of the natural communities in the Colorado River Delta (CRD) in Mexico. A brief return of freshwater flows in the 1980s and 1990s showed the riparian corridor remains resilient to past damage, and the CRD remains a vital area for habitat conservation and restoration. This project aimed to test conclusions drawn from similar projects in the United States and show that revegetation projects are possible along the lower Colorado River in Mexico. From November 2006 to October 2007, we tested the effects of various treatments …

Ecological Process And The Blister Rust Epidemic: Cone Production, Cone Predation, And Seed Dispersal In Whitebark Pine (Pinus Albicaulis), Shawn Thomas Mckinney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a high elevation foundation species, is experiencing population declines throughout the northern part of its range. The introduced fungal pathogen, Cronartium ribicola (white pine blister rust), infects whitebark pine and kills cone-bearing branches and trees. Blister rust has spread nearly rangewide and damage and mortality are highest in the northwest US and southwest Canada. Mortality caused by mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) population upsurges, and successional replacement and loss of regeneration opportunities from fire suppression, are also impacting some whitebark pine populations. Within this dissertation, I present three manuscripts that address the impact of whitebark pine's …

Glacier, Leah Katz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No Abstract

The Diaspora Of Korean Children: A Cross-Cultural Study Of The Educational Crisis In Contemporary South Korea, Young-Ee Cho

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The diaspora of Korean children first started after the Korean War in the 1950s. Abandoned by their impoverished mothers and shunned by society, many orphan children were sent abroad for adoption, which was the best, if not the only, available solution at the time. Half a century later, South Korea today is no longer a desperately poor country, and yet an increasing number of young children are still being sent abroad. The exodus of children, termed as the diaspora of Korean children in this study, is an out-of-country solution chosen by both students and parents in response to an educational …

Maternal Effects And Sexual Selection In The Heliconia Bug, Leptoscelis Tricolor (Hemiptera: Coreidae), Christine Whitney Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The early environment experienced by organisms can have significant phenotypic effects that persist throughout life. Parents, mothers in particular, commonly determine these early environments. Maternal effects, or the influence of maternal phenotypes on offspring phenotypes, are therefore likely ubiquitous in natural populations. However, the frequency and evolutionary consequences of maternal effects are largely unknown. Here I show that maternal phenotypes can have large effects on offspring morphology, fecundity, and behavior. I theoretically explore the potential for these effects to resolve the long-standing "lek paradox" in the field of sexual selection. I also empirically investigate these effects in the heliconia bug, …

A Venture In Native American Shield Making, Mary Margaret Hinojosa

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hinojosa, Mary, Master of Arts, Summer 2007 Integrated Arts and Education Change in Focus Chairperson: Dr. Randy Bolton Our school district has an exceptionally low rate of parental involvement in the educational process of our students. Establishing a “Parent Corner” in the lobby of our school would aid in the solution of this dilemma. What a perfect undertaking for a final project. The intent of this project would be to make parents feel welcome, comfortable and a part of their child’s educational experience. From the beginning it was apparent things were not going to work out as planned. Some items …

Hiv/Aids And Conservation Agency Capacity In Southern Africa: Perceptions Of Critical Impacts, Barriers, And Intervention Strategies, Jennifer Ann Cash

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The HIV/AIDS pandemic permeates all aspects of southern African civil society including the ability of organizations to practice conservation. The purpose of this research is to understand how management perceives HIV/AIDS influencing southern African conservation agencies workforce capacity to meet their missions. Research goals include: (1) identifying perceptions of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on workforce capacity; (2) elucidating barriers to addressing these impacts; and (3) exploring mitigation strategies. Data collection involved two stages: (1) semi-structured interviews of managers and scientists (n=23) to better understand impacts and barriers; and (2) a panel of key experts (n=30) within southern African conservation agencies …

Self-Report Measures Of Psychopathic And Schizotypal Personality Characteristics: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of Characteristics Of Antisocial Behavior And Hypothetical Psychosis-Proneness In A College Sample, Amber Nicole Bonogofsky

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study separated the constructs of hypothetical psychopathy and hypothetical psychosis-proneness by performing Confirmatory Factor Analyses on different proposed factor structures of both psychopathic and schizotypic subclinical symptoms using data from a college sample. The study validated and provided evidence for existing structures of each construct. Research showed that the constructs overlap in their factor structures, as do their measures, although psychopathy and schizotypy are most likely distinct constructs. As conceptualized by Dr. Robert Hare, originator of the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R; 2003), psychopathy reflects two interrelated but distinct factors of symptoms. The first symptom factor (Factor 1) reflects the …

Memory For Complex Pictures: Development And Validation Of Digit Test Of Effort, John W. Denboer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The assessment of client effort during neuropsychological evaluation is of high importance. Two experiments were designed to assess the psychometric properties of a new measure of client effort during neuropsychological assessment (entitled Memory for Complex Pictures (MCP). Participants for Experiment 1 were undergraduates without a history of neurological conditions, mental health concerns, or current problems with alcohol or drug use. Two goals were proposed for Experiment 1: (a) to compare the sensitivity, specificity, and face validity of the MCP with the psychometric characteristics of a frequently-used and well-validated symptom validity test (the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) and b) to …

Xp Project Management, Craig William Macholz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Extreme programming project management examines software development theory, the extreme programming process, and the essentials of standard project management as applied to software projects. The goal of this thesis is to integrate standard software project management practices, where possible, into the extreme programming process. Thus creating a management framework for extreme programming project management that gives the extreme programming managers the management activities and tools to utilize the extreme programming process within a wider range of commercial computing organizations, relationships, and development projects. The author speculates that the lack of organizational adoption and mainstream integration of the extreme programming process …

Living To Ride: A Sociological Study Of Freeriders In Missoula, Montana, Marlana Michelle Kosky

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Kosky, Marlana M., M.A., Fall 2007 Sociology Living to Ride: A Sociological Study of Freeriders in Missoula Montana Chairperson: Robert W. Balch This paper is an ethnographic description of The Safety Team, a group of freeriders frequenting the Bike Doctor in Missoula Montana. Information about this faction of freeriding’s social world is revealed using the members’ own words and experiences as data. This study is meant to explore the significance of bike riding to the members of Missoula’s freeride “scene,” including its effect on their beliefs, values, and ethics. Qualitative methods are used including participant-observation structured within the theoretical framework …

Constraints And Opportunities Of Conservation Easements As A Tool For Agricultural Preservation In The Blackfoot Valley, Montana, Megan Huth

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Huth, Megan, M.S., May 2007 Resource Conservation The Constraints and Opportunities of Conservation Easements as a Tool for Agricultural Preservation in the Blackfoot Valley, Montana Chairperson: Jill Belsky Conservation easements have historically been used by land trusts and government agencies to preserve private land from development and subdivision, to preserve unique geological features, and protect fish and wildlife habitat. The national and Montana state conservation easement legislation does not explicitly state agricultural land as a conservation value that they aim to preserve. As such, land trusts and government agencies that are the holders of conservation easements do not typically identify …

Characterization Of Long Pathlength Capillary Waveguides For Evanescent Fluorescence Applications, Eric Paprocki

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The optical properties of a novel fused silica fiber-optic capillary waveguide (FOCap) for fluorescence spectroscopy were evaluated. Evanescent fluorescence from samples in the FOCap was measured by coupling the FOCap to a light source and a fluorescence spectrophotometer. The FOCap has negligible excitation light loss over long lengths (20 m or more) for a range of wavelengths. The evanescent fluorescence was linear up to at least 20 m for a solution in the core and up to at least 15 m for a fluorophore covalently attached to the inner surface. Evanescent fluorescence measurements in 50, 150, and 250 µm inner …

Spatial And Temporal Relationships Of Adult Male Black Bears To Roads In Northwest Montana, 2003-2004, Tonya Chilton-Radandt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chilton-Radandt, Tonya. M.S., Autumn 2006 Spatial and Temporal Relationships of Adult Male Black Bears to Roads in Northwest Montana Chairperson: Dr. Elizabeth Crone Roads have direct and indirect consequences for wildlife. Vehicle collisions are a direct cost of roads on wildlife. Indirectly, roads may increase mortality of game species by increasing hunting pressure along these roads. Adult male black bears (Ursus americanus) are the most desirable age and sex class to many hunters, which may lead to over-harvest of this sex and age class. Road closures (permanently closing or seasonally restricting roads) are used to mitigate impacts of roads on …