Digital Commons Network^™

Utilizing Suicide Death Certificates To Evaluate Suicide Prevention Programs: A Descriptive And Ecological Study, Nathan A. Munn

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Objective: Suicide rates continue to increase despite various suicide prevention efforts. This study’s objective is to examine suicides in the State of Montana to ascertain suicide decedents’ demographics and the effectiveness of interventions to guide future prevention programs.

Method: Data from 1,665 suicide decedents’ death certificates were analyzed for age, ethnicity, veteran status, gender, education level, and means of suicide. Four types of suicide prevention strategies were examined for association with regional suicide rates: psychotherapist concentration, gatekeeper training, presence of county public health suicide prevention programs, and pre- post-implementation of statewide public service announcements.

Results: Compared with the general Montana …

Applied Methodologies Demonstrated Through Three Independent Studies For Assessing The Effects Of Socioeconomic, Environmental Chemical Exposure, And Therapeutic Factors On Oncological Diseases And Covid-19, Bayarmagnai Maggie Munkhjargal

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

When trying to understand risk factors for a disease, even before we know the causal agents, it is necessary to create a surveillance data set that answers the questions of who, when, and where, and includes any potential covariates which may either promote or prevent the disease. There are a wide variety of surveillance data. For example, hospital discharge data, such as the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) data, encompass all hospitalized cases in the state, while clinical datasets cover a specially constructed population in pursuit of research of a certain disease type. Analysis of surveillance …

Long-Term Changes In Juvenile Green Turtle Abundance And Foraging Ecology In The Indian River Lagoon, Florida, Christopher Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Marine turtles are distributed in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical waters and beaches worldwide, often in areas heavily impacted by humans. Although there are many threats to marine turtle populations, the growing threats of nutrient pollution and harmful algal blooms are relatively understudied despite their widespread impacts on coastal marine ecosystems that marine turtles depend on. By studying juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida, where nutrient pollution and HABs are a widespread and longstanding issue, I aimed to conduct a case study of how these threats may affect this federally Threatened species. In Chapter 2, I …

Detachment And Antagonism As Moderators Of Effects Of Psychosocial Stressors On Emotional Distress In Daily Life, Christina My Quach

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Psychological distress encompasses transdiagnostic symptoms of anxiety, depression, and anger, which all feature of emotional dysregulation and are often associated with interpersonal stressors. To understand these forms of distress as they occur in daily life, examination of both personality vulnerabilities and social situational context is needed. Interpersonal circumplex research and theory suggests human needs for agency and communion, and therefore others’ cold-dominant behavior is highly aversive and likely to cause psychosocial distress, but degree and type of distress (e.g., anxiety versus anger) may depend upon personality. Detachment and antagonism are the most interpersonal of the pathological personality traits (Southard et …

Phenotypic Plasticity In Acropora Pulchra Under Varied Environmental Conditions, Dennis A. Conetta

Open Access Master's Theses

The extent to which coral reefs have declined globally has triggered major scientific investment in coral restoration research. However, much of the predictions for reef futures do not include the capacity for coral acclimatization, or phenotypic plasticity, and how this plasticity varies across seasons. In light of this, we outlplanted clonal replicates of distinct genotypes of the reef building coral Acropora pulchra from an existing coral nursery common garden site to three sites on the North Shore of Mo’orea, French Polynesia. After transplantation (October 2019), the outplanted colonies were sampled at all three sites in January and November of 2020, …

Spatial Modeling Of Common Raven Density And Occurrence Helps Guide Landscape Management Within Great Basin Sagebrush Ecosystems, Sarah C. Webster, Shawn T. O'Neil, Brianne E. Brussee, Peter S. Coates, Pat J. Jackson, John C. Tull, David J. Delehanty

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Common ravens (Corvus corax; ravens) are a behaviorally flexible nest predator of several avian species, including species of conservation concern. Movement patterns based on life history phases, particularly territoriality of breeding birds and transiency of nonbreeding birds, are thought to influence the frequency and efficacy of nest predation. As such, predicting where on the landscape territorial resident and non-territorial transient birds may be found in relation to the distribution of sensitive prey is of increasing importance to managers and conservationists. From 2007 to 2019, we conducted raven point count surveys between mid-March and mid-September across 43 different field …

Co-Inoculation And Sulfur Fertilization In Soybeans, L. H. Moro Rosso, A. F. De Borja Reis, S. L. Naeve, I. A. Ciampitti

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

Soybeans [Glycine max(L.) Merr.] rely on large nutrient uptake, especially nitrogen (N), to produce seeds with high nutritional value. Biological N fixation (BNF) supplies most of the plant N demand and enhancement of this process might improve cropping systems’ sustainability. Although seed inoculation withBradyrhizobiumspp. for soybean crop is a well-known management practice, co-inoculation with the freeliving N-fixerAzospirillum brasilensehas not been deeply investigated in the US, to our knowledge. Thus, this research explores the effect of co-inoculation withA. brasilenseon soybean yield and seed nutritional quality (protein, oil, essential and sulfur (S) amino acids …

Thinking Ethically About Hiv Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: Retention In Care And Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing In A Southeastern United States Local Health Department In The Time Of Covid-19, Ellie Purdy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Local Health Departments (LHDs) are critical providers of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention efforts. HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is an evolving public health initiative and practitioners should consider PrEP interventions in context of ethical decision-making and a broad STI prevention strategy as global incidence of bacterial STIs remains high and those at-risk for HIV are generally at-risk for other STIs. An evaluation of the Thinking Ethically framework and LHD PrEP services was performed to fill a gap in the literature and support program decision-making. A retrospective review of PrEP user medical records from a LHD …

Aprendizaje Activo Y Pedagogía Culturalmente Relevante En Stem: Tres Lecciones Aprendidas Dentro Y Fuera Del Aula, Teresa Patricia Feria-Arroyo

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Uno de los mayores desafíos en la ciencia, la tecnología, la ingeniería y la educación matemática (STEM, por sus siglas en inglés) es mejorar el rendimiento y la retención de estudiantes de diversos orígenes. Existen grandes diferencias entre los logros académicos de los estudiantes de minorías subrepresentadas (EMS) con aquellos que no pertenecen a estas minorías. Las diferencias inician desde el kínder y continúan hasta los estudios de posgrado. El aprendizaje activo y la pedagogía culturalmente sensible/relevante han mostrado resultados exitosos minimizando estas diferencias educacionales. Desafortunadamente, el aprendizaje activo y la pedagogía culturalmente relevante no son métodos comunes de enseñanza …

Remnant Assessment And Soil Inoculation To Inform Large-Scale Prairie Restoration At Eastern Washington University, Erik E. Peterson

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The Palouse Prairie of Eastern Washington and Western Idaho, characterized by rolling hills of deep loess soil, is one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, with more than 99% converted to tilled farmland. To mitigate this loss, Eastern Washington University has begun prairie restoration on a tilled wheat field adjacent to campus, in the northern extent of the Palouse Prairie Ecoregion. However, effective restoration requires understanding reference conditions, and there are relatively few studies of remnant prairie plant communities or soils, particularly in the Northern Palouse. From north to south in the Palouse Prairie Ecoregion, there are gradients …

Geocoding Cryptosporidiosis Cases In Ireland (2008–2017)—Development Of A Reliable, Reproducible, Multiphase Geocoding Methodology, Lisa Domegan, Patricia Garvey, Paul Mckeown, Howard Johnson, Paul Hynds, Jean O'Dwyer, Coilín Óhaiseadha

Articles

Background: Geocoding (the process of converting a text address into spatial data) quality may affect geospatial epidemiological study findings. No national standards for best geocoding practice exist in Ireland. Irish postcodes (Eircodes) are not routinely recorded for infectious disease notifications and > 35% of dwellings have non-unique addresses. This may result in incomplete geocoding and introduce systematic errors into studies.

Aims: This study aimed to develop a reliable and reproducible methodology to geocode cryptosporidiosis notifications to fine-resolution spatial units (Census 2016 Small Areas), to enhance data validity and completeness, thus improving geospatial epidemiological studies.

Methods: A protocol was devised to utilise …

Understanding Patterns And Functional Impacts Of An Invasive Tree And Its Biological Control In A Riparian System, Annie L. Henry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species have become an inextricable part of the landscape, particularly in riparian plant communities, and removal is often a key component of restoration programs. Biological control (biocontrol) is a method of removal that is often both efficient and effective. However, the impact of biocontrol on target species and indirect effects from invasive species removal can be hard to predict. While monitoring the impact of invasive species removal usually involves some species-based assessment such as changes in diversity, historically dominant species or native species, these strategies do not typically provide insight into the mechanisms underlying plant community response to removal. …

Preparedness, Planning, And Advances In Operational Response, David G. Westerholm, Cameron H. Ainsworth, Christopher H. Barker, Peter G. Brewer, John W. Farrington, Dubravko Justic, Vassiliki H. Kourafalou, Steven A. Murawsk, Helena M. Solo-Gabriele

Marine Science Faculty Publications

During the last 50 years, the numbers and sizes of oil spills have been significantly reduced through prevention. But spills still occur, and it is critical to prepare for these events through planning and exercises. Operational decisions are designed to expedite cleanup and minimize overall impacts, yet they often involve complex trade-offs between a multitude of competing interests. It is imperative to apply the best technology and science when events occur. However, while planning and response tactics have evolved over time, determining what may be most at risk is often confounded by sparse background data, modeling limitations, scalability, or research …

Mapping Heat Vulnerability Index Based On Different Urbanization Levels In Nebraska, Usa, Babak Jalalzadeh Fard, Rezaul Mahmood, Michael Hayes, Clinton Rowe, Azar M. Abadi, Martha Shulski, Sharon J. Medcalf, Rachel Lookadoo, Jesse E. Bell

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Heatwaves cause excess mortality and physiological impacts on humans throughout the world, and climate change will intensify and increase the frequency of heat events. Many adaptation and mitigation studies use spatial distribution of highly vulnerable local populations to inform heat reduction and response plans. However, most available heat vulnerability studies focus on urban areas with high heat intensification by Urban Heat Islands (UHIs). Rural areas encompass different environmental and socioeconomic issues that require alternate analyses of vulnerability. We categorized Nebraska census tracts into four urbanization levels, then conducted factor analyses on each group and captured different patterns of socioeconomic vulnerabilities …

The Relationship Between Social Vulnerability And Covid-19 Incidence Among Louisiana Census Tracts, Erin N. Biggs, Patrick M. Maloney, Ariane L. Rung, Edward S. Peters, William T. Robinson

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Objective: To examine the association between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and COVID-19 incidence among Louisiana census tracts. Methods: An ecological study comparing the CDC SVI and census tract-level COVID-19 case counts was conducted. Choropleth maps were used to identify census tracts with high levels of both social vulnerability and COVID-19 incidence. Negative binomial regression with random intercepts was used to compare the relationship between overall CDC SVI percentile and its four sub-themes and COVID-19 incidence, adjusting for population density. Results: In a crude stratified analysis, all four CDC SVI sub-themes were significantly …

Applications Of Machine Learning In Microbial Forensics, Ryan B. Ghannam

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Microbial ecosystems are complex, with hundreds of members interacting with each other and the environment. The intricate and hidden behaviors underlying these interactions make research questions challenging – but can be better understood through machine learning. However, most machine learning that is used in microbiome work is a black box form of investigation, where accurate predictions can be made, but the inner logic behind what is driving prediction is hidden behind nontransparent layers of complexity.

Accordingly, the goal of this dissertation is to provide an interpretable and in-depth machine learning approach to investigate microbial biogeography and to use micro-organisms as …

Quantifying The Effects Of Early Competition On Niche Specialization: A Natural Experiment In A Restored System, Christy Nicole Wails

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Islands support the greatest numbers of endemic species but are highly vulnerable to human activities. In particular, the introduction of invasive, predatory mammals (e.g., rodents) has resulted in sharp declines of island fauna due to a lack of evolved behavioral capacities to avoid depredation. Because of this, invasive species are considered to be one of the most detrimental impacts to biodiversity. To combat this biodiversity loss, the eradication of invasive mammals is now a primary conservation tool, with > 700 attempts globally. However, mammal eradications are predicated on the assumption that islands will naturally return to their pre-invaded condition. Yet many …

Creating A Comprehensive Western American/Canadian Fire Dataset, 1880-2018, Katherine Welch

WWU Graduate School Collection

The currently available fire-history data of Western North America (US/Canada) available for geographic and other analyses is largely piecemeal and difficult to find. Data from before the 1980s is scattered among many sources and held by a plethora of different agencies. The aim of this project was to change that daunting reality and provide a single dataset that would fill that data gap and make doing research on and mapping of fires in the late 19th and early 20th centuries more accessible.

This data encompasses 138 years (1880 - 2018), 12 US states, three Canadian provinces and two Canadian territories. …

Environmental Controls On The Spatial Distribution Of Greenfin Darters And Biodiversity In The Blue Ridge Mountains, Dri Tattersfield

CMC Senior Theses

Disproportionate concentrations of biodiversity in mountains worldwide suggest linkages between geologic processes and biodiversity that are not yet well understood. The Tennessee River Basin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the southeastern U.S. is a global hotspot for freshwater fish biodiversity. To investigate drivers of biodiversity in the Tennessee River Basin, and explore links to geologic processes, I study the Greenfin Darter (Nothonotus chlorobranchius), a small fish endemic to the upper Tennessee River Basin. I use generalized linear models (GLMs) to evaluate the influence of topography, lithology, climate and land use on the distribution of the Greenfin Darter, …

Environmental Controls On The Terrestrial Water Cycle In Forested Mountain Ecosystems., Luis Andrés Guillén

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Water is a key resource to natural ecosystems and human societies alike, and the water cycle is fundamentally linked to the climate and the characteristics of catchments. However, the challenges posed by environmental change makes it imperative to understand how the water cycle is affected by biotic and abiotic factors, in particular, in areas that are crucial sources of water like forested headwater catchments. Therefore, this doctoral dissertation aims to advance the knowledge on the dynamics between climate, vegetation and landscape that determine the water balance of forested mountain ecosystems. This document presents five chapters, an introductory chapter, three standalone …

Understanding Visitor Use At Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Melissa Maria Hurtado Alvarez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Effective management and monitoring of visitor recreational use is fundamental in marine protected areas. It is common to hear that tourism and outdoor recreation are often qualified as double-edged activities, making valuable socioeconomic contributions but also causing degradation of the environment. The convergence of social and natural resource research and practices can help managers to create better policies that will maximize human benefits from, and minimize human pressures on, ocean and coastal environments. For this study online surveys were sent via Qualtrics to email addresses obtained from the state of Florida during the summer of 2020. The first paper assessed …

Collaborations In Environmental Initiatives For An Effective Gover- Nance Of Social-Ecological Systems: What The Scientific Literature Suggests., Elena Andriollo, Alberto Caimo, Laura Secco, Elena Pisani

Articles

Moving from the scientific literature on evaluation of environmental projects and programs, this study identifies how and under which conditions collaborations are considered effective for adaptive gover- nance of SES. The method adopted is a systematic literature review based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of 56 articles selected through specific queries on the SCOPUS database and published from 2004 to 2020. Results of the quantitative analysis underline conditions able to make collaborations effective for adaptive governance of SES: the importance of transdisciplinary research tackling both environmental and social sciences, the perceived urgency of stakeholders to tackle environmental challenges and …

Radon Removal Using A Venturi Injector-Based Household Aeration System, Jordan Meaney

Master's Theses and Capstones

Radon-222 is a naturally occurring radioactive noble gas that is colorless, tasteless, and odorless and has been a known carcinogenic since the early 1920’s. Radon in groundwater can lead to inhalation of radon through off gassing caused by water-use processes such as showering, flushing toilets, and washing machines. The objective of this study is to develop a simple ground water aeration system to remove radon at the individual household level. The aeration system studied in this research utilized a venturi injector, which is considered a passive method of aeration unlike the aeration systems currently available in the market. With enough …

Examining Social Vulnerability And The Association With Covid-19 Incidence In Harris County, Texas, Guillermo A Tortolero, Marcia De Oliveira Otto, Ryan Ramphul, Jose-Miguel Yamal, Alison Rector, Michael Brown, Melissa F Peskin, Dania Mofleh, Eric Boerwinkle

Student and Faculty Publications

Studies have investigated the association between social vulnerability and SARS-CoV-2 incidence. However, few studies have examined small geographic units such as census tracts, examined geographic regions with large numbers of Hispanic and Black populations, controlled for testing rates, and incorporated stay-at-home measures into their analyses. Understanding the relationship between social vulnerability and SARS-CoV-2 incidence is critical to understanding the interplay between social determinants and implementing risk mitigation guidelines to curtail the spread of infectious diseases. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between CDC's Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and SARS-CoV-2 incidence while controlling for testing rates and …

Spatial Transferability Of Expert Opinion Models For American Beaver Habitat, Isidro Barela, Leslie M. Burger, Guiming Wang, Kristine O. Evans, Qingmin Meng, Jimmy D. Taylor

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Species distribution models and habitat suitability models (HSMs) have become a popular tool in the conservation of biodiversity. However, the ability to predict species spatial distributions at sites beyond the data source sites (i.e., spatial transferability) is critical for the applications of HSMs in the management and conservation of rare or endangered species. The main objective of our study was to assess the predictive performance and spatial transferability of expert opinion models (EOMs). To build EOMs, we identified through extensive literature reviews 17 key landscape variables to characterize habitat use by American beaver (Castor canadensis). We developed 31 pairwise opinion …

Continental-Scale Dynamics Of Avian Influenza In U.S. Waterfowl Are Driven By Demography, Migration, And Temperature, Erin E. Gorsich, Colleen T. Webb, Andrew A. Merton, Jennifer A. Hoeting, Ryan S. Miller, Matthew Farnsworth, Seth R. Swafford, Thomas J. Deliberto, Kerri Pedersen, Alan B. Franklin, Robert G. Mclean, Kenneth R. Wilson, Paul Doherty

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Emerging diseases of wildlife origin are increasingly spilling over into humans and domestic animals. Surveillance and risk assessments for transmission between these populations are informed by a mechanistic understanding of the pathogens in wildlife reservoirs. For avian influenza viruses (AIV), much observational and experimental work in wildlife has been conducted at local scales, yet fully understanding their spread and distribution requires assessing the mechanisms acting at both local, (e.g., intrinsic epidemic dynamics), and continental scales, (e.g., long-distance migration). Here, we combined a large, continental-scale data set on low pathogenic, Type A AIV in the United States with a novel network-based …

Anthraquinone Repellent Seed Treatment On Corn Reduces Feeding By Wild Pigs, Nathan P. Snow, Joseph M. Halseth, Scott J. Werner, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are a destructive invasive species that cause extensive damage to agriculture throughout many regions of the world. In particular wild pigs damage corn more than any other crop, and most of that damage occurs immediately after planting when wild pigs excavate and consume planted seeds. We evaluated whether anthraquinone (AQ), a repellent, could be useful for protecting seed corn from consumption by wild pigs. Specifically, we conducted cafeteria-style tests at 16 bait sites for 6 nights using concentrations of: untreated, 0.5, 1.5, and 3.0% AQ by weight sprayed on whole-kernel corn in AL and …

Modeling Mongoose Rabies In The Caribbean: A Model-Guided Fieldwork Approach To Identify Research Priorities, Caroline C. Sauvé, Erin E. Rees, Amy T. Gilbert, Are R. Berentsen, Agathe Allibert, Patrick A. Leighton

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We applied the model-guided fieldwork framework to the Caribbean mongoose rabies system by parametrizing a spatially-explicit, individual-based model, and by performing an uncertainty analysis designed to identify parameters for which additional empirical data are most needed. Our analysis revealed important variation in output variables characterizing rabies dynamics, namely rabies persistence, exposure level, spatiotemporal distribution, and prevalence. Among epidemiological parameters, rabies transmission rate was the most influential, followed by rabies mortality and location, and size of the initial infection. The most influential landscape parameters included habitat-specific carrying capacities, landscape heterogeneity, and the level of resistance to dispersal associated with topography. Movement …

Modelling The Factors Affecting The Probability For Local Rabies Elimination By Strategic Control, Johann L. Kotzé, John Duncan Grewar, Aaron M. Anderson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Dog rabies has been recognized from ancient times and remains widespread across the developing world with an estimated 59,000 people dying annually from the disease. In 2011 a tri-partite alliance consisting of the OIE, the WHO and the FAO committed to globally eliminating dog-mediated human rabies by 2030. Regardless of global support, the responsibility remains with local program managers to implement successful elimination programs. It is well known that vaccination programs have a high probability of successful elimination if they achieve a population-coverage of 70%. It is often quoted that reducing population turnover (typically through sterilizations) raises the probability for …

Evidence On The Effectiveness Of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Suas) As A Survey Tool For North American Terrestrial, Vertebrate Animals: A Systematic Map Protocol, Jared A. Elmore, Michael F. Curran, Kristine O. Evans, Sathishkumar Samiappan, Meilun Zhou, Morgan B. Pfeiffer, Bradley F. Blackwell, Raymond B. Iglay

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background: Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) are replacing or supplementing manned aircraft and groundbased surveys in many animal monitoring situations due to better coverage at finer spatial and temporal resolutions, access, cost, bias, impacts, safety, efficiency, and logistical benefits. Various sUAS models and sensors are available with varying features and usefulness depending on survey goals. However, justification for selection of sUAS and sensors are not typically offered in published literature and existing reviews do not adequately cover past and current sUAS applications for animal monitoring nor their associated sUAS model and sensor technologies, taxonomic and geographic scope, flight conditions and …