Beside| |Between, Brooke J. Armstrong

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Beauty and the grotesque both induce physical sensations in the body. Pleasure and displeasure are two points on the same line. They are not mutually exclusive. Like the body and the vessel, like the self and the other all things exist in reciprocity. The capability of holding brings agency, breaking down perceptions of of subject-object relationships. The works presented in this paper represent a merging and a transformation of perceived separate entities. Craft history and processes inform the work present in the thesis exhibition, Beside| |Between.

End Of An Animal, Alyx Brittany Chandler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

A Hand-Held Structure From Motion Photogrammetric Approach To Riparian And Stream Asseessment And Monitoring, Joseph M. Dehnert, Joseph Dehnert

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Two of the biggest weaknesses in stream restoration and monitoring are: 1) subjective estimation and subsequent comparison of changes in channel form, vegetative cover, and in-stream habitat; and 2) the high costs in terms of financing, human resources, and time necessary to make these estimates. Remote sensing can be used to remedy these weaknesses and save organizations focused on restoration both money and time. However, implementing traditional remote sensing approaches via autonomous aerial systems or light detection and ranging systems is either prohibitively expensive or impossible along small streams with dense vegetation. Hand-held Structure from Motion Multi-view Stereo (SfM-MVS) photogrammetric …

Fourth Wall An Exploration Of Lyric Possibility, Emma Pfeiffer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Protecting Life And Lung: Protected Areas Affect Fine Particulate Matter And Respiratory Hospitalizations In The Brazilian Amazon Biome., Derek Michael Sheehan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I assessed the impacts of upwind protected area coverage on local respiratory health within the Brazilian Amazon. A hypothesized mechanism is the legal prohibition of human ignited fires within protected areas, reducing particulate matter pollution, impacting respiratory health downwind. The connection between fires and respiratory diseases in the Amazon is well established (Smith et al. 2014; Rangel and Vogl 2019; Rocha and Sant’anna 2020). What is not well understood is the potential that government policies aimed at preventing ecosystem loss may also promote health and wellbeing, combining the UN sustainable development goals 3 and 15. Protected areas currently dominate government …

Investigating Surface Temperature From First Principles: Seedling Survival, Microclimate Buffering, And Implications For Forest Regeneration, Robin Rank

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Forests are extremely important ecosystems with large impacts on global water, energy, and biogeochemical cycling, and they provide numerous ecosystems services to human populations. Even though these systems consist of long-lived vegetation, forests are constantly experiencing changes to their extent and composition through the interacting forces of disturbance dynamics and climate change. In semi-arid landscapes like the western United States, patterns of recurring wildfire and subsequent seedling recruitment and forest regeneration are important in establishing the distribution of forests on the landscape. In this context, climate, hydrology, and existing vegetation all act together to limit the current and potential range …

Modeling Stromatolite Formation With Diffusion-Limited Aggregation, Laura E. Stevens

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Stromatolites, microbialites, and other microbially induced sedimentary structures exist in the rock record as far back as 3.6 billion years ago and continue to form in the present day. Better characterizing these structures and better understanding how they form is crucial in distinguishing these biosignatures from similar, abiotic structures, which can help us to understand the conditions of early Earth and early Mars. To that end, I have modified DLA 3D EXT, an open-source stromatolite modeling program, to more closely reflect the process of microbial trapping-and-binding by filamentous microbes in a calcite-precipitating hot spring system. This modified program includes a …

Effects Of Wolf And Grizzly Bear Recovery On Cougars In A Multi-Use System, Jennifer A. Feltner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Concentration And Composition Of Nanoparticles And Colloidal Particles In A Mine-Waste Contaminated River, Kaitlin Rose Perkins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Metals and metalloids (metal(loid)s) in aquatic ecosystems are often described through measures of their concentrations in whole and filtered waters. The filtered fraction is operationally defined as “dissolved,” and assumed to be primarily composed of free metal(loid) ions or of ions bound by low molecular weight organic matter. This definition ignores that the dissolved fraction also likely contains colloidal particles (1 to 1000 nm) that can pass through commonly used filters. This colloidal fraction can also be preferentially removed from the water column by algae and other aquatic organisms compared to free metal(loid) ions and organic bound metal(loid)s. Though they …

Community-Based Deer Management: A Case Study In Missoula, Mt, Taylor Ingle Mudford

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human development and expansion have led to urban sprawl and fewer, less developed areas suitable for wildlife habitat. Populations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have adapted to urban communities; however, their prevalence can lead to myriad of ecological and social issues, necessitating communities to pursue comprehensive urban deer management strategies. These strategies have increasingly been pursued via community-based deer management (CBDM) and are an example of collaborative natural resource management (CBNRM). Despite the growth in urban white-tail deer populations and the interactions with humans, there are few studies that explore the CBDM and the acceptability of diverse deer …

The Intersection Of Race And Criminal History In Perceptions Of Native Americans And Hiring, Sierra B. Streuli

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies show that race-based discrimination exists in the hiring process. Many minority job candidates experience this phenomenon, especially when a criminal record is present. The intersection of possessing a Native American identity and having a criminal history has yet to be examined. This research compares the experience of Native American job candidates (some with a criminal history and some without) to white job candidates (some with a criminal history and some without) to see how these varying points of identity influence hiring process decisions in a fictitious hiring scenario. Using an online questionnaire based on Foschi and Valenzuela’s (2015) study …

Optimal Construction Of A Layer-Ordered Heap And Its Applications, Jake Pennington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The layer-ordered heap (LOH) is a simple data structure used in algorithms that perform optimal top-$k$ on $X+Y$, algorithms with the best known runtime for top-$k$ on $X_1+X_2+\cdots+X_m$, and the fastest method in practice for computing the most abundant isotopologue peaks in a chemical compound. In the analysis of these algorithms, the rank, $\alpha$, has been treated as a constant and $n$, the size of the array, has been treated as the sole parameter. Here, we explore the algorithmic complexity of LOH construction with $\alpha$ as a parameter, introduce a few algorithms for constructing LOHs, analyze their complexity in both …

The Effect Of Test Difficulty On Perceived Memory Performance, Phoebe S. Bean

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Neuropsychological testing is a critical element of the assessment and treatment of a host of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. Certain non-neurological variables may also affect an individual’s test performance. Such secondary factors may include current psychiatric issues, chronic pain, sleep, and the effort put forth during testing. Little is known, however, about the effect the testing process itself has on people’s actual and perceived cognitive abilities. For example, the process of undergoing memory testing may, through a variety of mechanisms, influence memory performance and impact the person such that their view of their …

Size Matters: Nanoparticles, Biological Sex, And Lung Disease, Jessica Lynn Ray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The majority of lung diseases occur with a sex-bias is prevalence and/or severity. However, due to the historical disregard for sex as a biological variable in basic and clinical research, there is a fundamental lack of understanding on when and why respiratory inflammation preferentially affects males or females. The inhalation of engineered nanomaterials (ENM; intentionally produced by anthropogenic means and defined as having one dimension as < 100 nm) are of particular concern when considering emerging threats to lung health. Due to their extremely small size, these respirable particles are capable of reaching the functional gas exchange region of the lungs, where they cannot be easily cleared and subsequently lead to persistent inflammation, decreased lung function, and susceptibility to the development of other respiratory diseases. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) are an ENM of interest due to their widespread use in industrial, consumer, and medical applications, making them a potential hazard in both occupational and environmental settings. Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are the resident immune cells within the lungs that are responsible for phagocytosing and clearing inhaled xenobiotics, including ENM. However, typical AM clearance mechanisms are ineffective at removing persistent and pathogenic ENM such as MWCNTs, leading to the production of inflammatory mediators and the recruitment of other inflammatory immune cells. AMs have the ability to adopt a wide spectrum of functional phenotypes dependent upon endogenous and exogenous signals; these phenotypes ensure that the appropriate immune response is initiated in response to a given xenobiotic. However, when dysregulated, these phenotypes are also associated with different disease states. Interestingly, there is emerging data that sex steroid hormones (estrogen, specifically) impact AM phenotype development and inflammatory signaling, which may be, in part, responsible for the reported sex-biases observed in human lung diseases. The present research identifies sex-differences in MWCNT-induced lung inflammation, AM phenotype development, and one mechanism by which sex hormones impact AM function and subsequent inflammation.

Estimating Wolf Predation Metrics, Patterns, And Dynamics Across Time And Space In The Multi-Prey System Of Yellowstone National Park, Matthew Caldwell Metz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Predation is a fundamental driver in ecology, structuring ecosystems across the globe. However, understanding the effects of large carnivore predation is limited by both the observation process and the shorter duration of many studies. I used data from 23 years in Yellowstone National Park to disentangle both the importance of wolf predation on prey, and the imperfect observation process of studying predation. I first used field observations to test whether a sexually-selected trait, antlers in male elk, deterred wolf predation. I found that antlers reduced predation risk, emphasizing the selective nature of predation. Next, I used GPS data and ground-based …

Summer Vacation In The Wild: An Historical And Archaeological Study Of Timber Land Fraud In The Tobacco Plains, Montana, Tyler Jay Rounds

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

During the 19th and early 20th century, Congress passed several laws intended to allow average Americans the chance to acquire portions of the public domain for their own benefit. However, contemporary observers and historians alike have noted that several of these laws—especially the Homestead Act and the Timber and Stone Act—were instead used by speculators and lumber companies to amass large landholdings by orchestrating and purchasing fraudulent entries. Local historical tradition suggests that Eureka Lumber Company, Bonners Ferry Lumber Company, and J. Neils Lumber Company employed this tactic within the Kootenai National Forest (KNF), though the veracity of such claims …

Ecotoxicological And Physiological Effects Of Salinity On Amphibians, Brian James Tornabene

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Salinity is a persistent anthropogenic contaminant that negatively effects freshwater species, communities, and ecosystems. High-salinity wastewaters from energy extraction (wastewaters) and road salts are major contributors to increased salinity (NaCl; sodium chloride), but most studies focus on effects of NaCl roads salts. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to contaminants such as increased salinity because of their porous skin, dependence on freshwater, and poor osmoregulatory capacity. We investigated the relative effects of wastewaters and NaCl on three species of larval amphibians with acute toxicity experiments (Chapter 1). Effects of wastewaters on larvae were predominantly due to high concentrations of NaCl and both …

Uncovering Cooperation In Housepit 54, Bridge River, British Columbia, Canada, Megan Denis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There is a significant amount of literature regarding the theory of cooperation, as well as ethnographies and data from modern populations that clearly show cooperation, yet it is difficult to tease that information out of the archaeological record. My thesis will focus on floors IIi to IIc of Bridge River’s Housepit 54 in British Columbia, Canada, which extends from the Bridge River 2 period to the Bridge River 3 period and includes two incidents of resource stress and one of resource plenty. These times of fluctuating resource availability should result in the population utilizing different approaches to social organization. By …

Toward A Child-Friendly Worldview Measure, Shailee Rose Woodard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Worldview is an individual difference construct that is linked to various social, behavioral, and mental health outcomes, such as prejudice (Greenberg & Arndt, 2011), adaptive versus maladaptive behaviors following a natural disaster (Call, 2012), and PTSD symptoms (Jinkerson, 2016). However, very little is known about how worldviews develop. Research on child and adolescent worldviews is greatly impeded by the lack of a child-friendly worldview measure. This dissertation project aims to fill this gap by developing and validating such a measure. This 20-item measure, the Unified Worldview Measure – Child Form (UWM-CF), was adapted from a previously-validated adult measure of worldviews, …

Aquatic Locomotion In Birds – Biomechanics, Morphometrics, And Evolution, Anthony Barrett Lapansky

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The entire diversity of life on earth exists in air or water. Whether an organism lives in air or water provides the most fundamental description of its physical world and establishes an organism’s ecological niche on the most essential level. Because these two fluids are vastly different from one another, they also dictate, via the process of natural selection, the morphology and physiology of the organisms which call them home. By studying how organisms interact with these fluids – to locomote or obtain food, for example – we have the ability to not only link organism form and function, but …

Exploring Indigenous Involvement In The Fur Trade At The Bridge River Pithouse Village, British Columbia, Rebekah Jean Engelland

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Much research has been done on the Fur Trade period occupation of Housepit 54 at the Bridge River site. This thesis investigates the cause of resource intensification seen in the increase in projectile points, faunal remains, hide scrapers, and fire-cracked rock (FCR). In order to determine the impetus of this change, I compare the fracture patterns of FCR, the size of FCR, the densities of FCR, deer NISP, and slate scrapers, and the population estimate from the fur trade floor and roof to the last floor and roof of the previous occupation. This will determine whether the resource intensification was …

Variance Approximation Approaches For The Local Pivotal Method, Theodore Edward Owen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The problem of estimating the variance of the Horvitz-Thompson estimator of the population total when selecting a sample with unequal inclusion probabilities using the local pivotal method is discussed and explored. Samples are selected using unequal inclusion probabilities so that the estimates using the Horvitz-Thompson estimator will have smaller variance than for simple random samples. The local pivotal method is one sampling method which can select samples with unequal inclusion probability without replacement. The local pivotal method also balances on other available auxiliary information so that the variability in estimates can be reduced further.

A promising variance estimator, bootstrap subsampling, …

Promoting Well-Being Among College Students: The Effects Of A Positive Psychology Course, Daniel Jm Salois

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

College students report high rates of mental distress, including depression, high stress, anxiety, lack of social support, and physical ailments. College campuses use a variety of approaches to address the well-being of students. However, existing interventions have mixed results and do not always reach all students who may need mental health support. Positive psychology courses and positive psychology interventions have shown promise in promoting well-being. In this quantitative, quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest archival study, I examined the effects of a semester-long happiness and positive psychology course (COUN 195) on students’ well-being and mental health. This innovative happiness course included didactic lectures, small …

"A Splendid Investment": Black Colonization And America's Pacific Empire, 1898-1904, Jolie Colette Scribner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Appealingly Unpeeled: The Layered Lemons In Dutch Golden Age And Contemporary Art, Amanda Barr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In seventeenth-century Dutch painting, the lemon holds a prominent visual, economical, socio-cultural, and moral position. This trend would then be repeated in contemporary art, beginning in roughly the 1970s. This thesis, in two parts, will explore the significance of the prevalence of the lemon and their recurrent presence in both Dutch Golden Age art and modern and contemporary artwork. This multivalent approach will look at lemons as not only a visual representation of fruit, but a symbol of larger concepts such as globalization, commercialism, colonialism, sexuality, religion, linguistics, mythology, and pop culture.

Policy And Collaborative Governance: Case Studies Of Three Wildlife Crossings, Nicholas Maya

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last several decades, the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions in North America has significantly increased, driving substantial loss of human life and wildlife and economic costs. The most effective wildlife-vehicle collision mitigation is wildlife crossing structures (undercrossings and overcrossings), with some studies suggesting they can reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by 97% when paired with wildlife exclusion fencing. However, cost, funding, jurisdiction, land ownership, and local support are limiting factors in constructing these crossing structures. This paper presents case studies of three crossing projects in Snoqualmie, Washington, Teton County, Wyoming, and Summit County, Colorado, to illustrate the similarities and differences in …

Wildlife-Friendly Fence Policy On Federal Public Lands Managed By The U.S. Forest Service And Bureau Of Land Management, Joshua D. Elliott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Many wildlife species are negatively impacted by the presence of fences on the landscape. Climate change is only exacerbating the problem as home ranges shift and species face heightened levels of stress. In recent decades, wildlife biologists have studied these impacts and devised ways of constructing fences to increase habitat connectivity and significantly reduce fence-related injury and mortality rates. Conservationists attempting to address this issue on a landscape level face significant challenges resulting from complex land ownership patterns, specifically across the western United States.

The two largest landowners in the U.S. are the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the …

Relating Streamflow Discharge To Surface Elastic Response Under Hydrologic Loading Using Single Gps Vertical Displacement And The Storage-Discharge Relationship At Local Watershed Scales, Noah B. Clayton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Uncertainties associated with climate change and increasing demands for water resources require better methods for estimating water availability at small to intermediate watershed scales (<1500 km²). Temporal changes in watershed storage and transport across various watersheds in the western U.S. were investigated using the hydrologic loading signal from GPS vertical displacements as a proxy for changes in watershed total terrestrial storage. GPS vertical displacement and streamflow discharge relationships were analyzed at daily to monthly temporal resolution. Stream connected storage changes were inferred using discharge using a first-order dynamical system model. Storage inferred from discharge, GPS vertical displacement and storage …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Transgender-Affirmative Care Training On Healthcare Workers’ And Trainees’ Attitudes Toward And Knowledge Of Routine Care And Transition Support For Transgender Individuals, Oakleigh Marshall Reed

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Objectives: Transgender individuals, often highly stigmatized and discriminated against, face challenging barriers regarding seeking routine- and transition-related physical and mental health care (James et al., 2016). What has been consistent throughout time is that contact as an intervention (i.e., personal contact, contact with educational materials, and/or contact with general media outlets) has been found to be associated with improved attitudes toward and knowledge of marginalized communities (Braun et al., 2017; Click et al., 2019; Reed, 2018; Stroumsa et al., 2019). The aim of the current study was to explore the impact contact with a transgender-affirmative care training may have on …

Polya: A Tool For Adjudicating Competing Annotations Of Biological Sequences, Kaitlin Carey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Annotation of a biological sequence is usually performed by aligning that sequence to a database of known sequence elements. When that database contains elements that are highly similar to each other, the proper annotation may be ambiguous, because several entries in the database produce high-scoring alignments. Typical annotation methods work by assigning a label based on the candidate annotation with the highest alignment score; this can overstate annotation certainty, mislabel boundaries, and fails to identify large scale rearrangements or insertions within the annotated sequence. Here, I present a new software tool, PolyA, that adjudicates between competing alignment-based annotations by computing …