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Mechanisms Of Engineered Nano-Material Induced Membrane Disruption And Lysosomal Membrane Permeability, Matthew Josiah Sydor

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Engineered nano-materials (ENM), which have at least one dimension less than 100 nm are an emerging group of materials that are widely used in everyday products and workplaces. Because of the wide variety of ENM and their use in today’s society, there is a concern for the impacts of ENM on human health following exposure. While humans could be exposed to ENM through various routes, there is significant concern for inhalation of ENM due to their size and ease of aerosolization. Studies have reported that ENM can deposit into the lungs, particularly in the alveoli, where resident macrophages can encounter …

Fxr Agonists Induce Distinct H-12 Structural States, Vikash Kumar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The nuclear receptor ligand-binding domain (LBD) is a highly dynamic entity. The FXR LBD shows multiple low-energy conformational states of the activation function-2 (AF-2) coregulator binding surface upon ligand binding, indicating the complexity of FXR activation. However, it is unknown how ligand binding leads to different conformational states within the AF-2 region centered on helix 12 (H-12) of the LBD. Here we observe the conformation of the coregulator binding surface (H-12 specifically) of FXR upon ligand binding in solution using fluorine-19 (19F) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and simulations of this surface using molecular dynamics. Fluorescence anisotropy of fluorescein-labeled coregulator peptides …

Service Learning, Sustainable Development, And The Tourism Sector In Conflict-Affected Bamyan, Afghanistan, Kelly Elizabeth Franklin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Widespread consensus among the tourism and development studies literature suggests that higher education plays a key role in the achievement of sustainable tourism development. However, discussions on approaches to teaching sustainability in tourism at the higher education level are underdeveloped, especially in conflict-affected contexts. To address this gap, this study combines an examination of tourism stakeholders’ perceptions of inclusive and sustainable tourism development for a small tourism sector in Bamyan, Afghanistan, with an innovative approach to teaching sustainability in a tourism higher education program. Using mixed qualitative methods, this dissertation first examines tourism stakeholders’ perceptions of inclusive and sustainable tourism …

Fun Ctional Implications Of Dual Transmitting Neurons On Aggression, Lewis Michael Sherer Ii

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Characterization Of Nucleocapsid-Rna Interactions In Rift Valley Fever Virus Infection, Miyuki Hayashi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne virus that infects humans and livestock and exhibits potential for global spread. No vaccine or treatment is currently available for human use. The nucleocapsid protein (N) in RVFV is a multifunctional RNA-binding protein that is necessary for viral replication and dissemination. Because of its essential roles, N is a promising candidate to be targeted for anti-RVFV therapy. The goal of this dissertation is to characterize N-RNA interactions in RVFV infected cells. To achieve this goal, two methods, strand-specific reverse transcription and quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) as well as multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry …

Generation, Characterization, And C-H Bond Activation Reactivity By Mononuclear High-Valent Cobalt(Iv) And Nickel(Iv) Non-Oxo Complexes, Yubin Maria Kwon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The study of terminal high-valent transition metal-oxo complexes has increased significantly over the years as it is believed that they are key reactive intermediates for a wide range of biological and industrial catalytic processes. These complexes are powerful oxidants for the activation of strong C-H bonds. The chemical and physical properties of these complexes remain elusive. It is therefore desirable to study the properties and function of these complexes through synthetic models. There have been many efforts and reports of synthetic high-valent metal-oxo complexes of early and middle transition metals (up to group 8 on the Periodic Table of Elements), …

Species Selection And Plantation Management In Enrichment Planting With Native Timber Species In The Panama Canal Watershed, Abigail A. Marshall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Large areas of the Panama Canal Watershed have been converted to monocultures of teak (Tectonia grandis), a non-native timber species that is generally not providing hoped-for economic and ecological benefits of Forest Landscape Restoration. Enrichment planting offers a potential strategy for revitalizing these underperforming plantations through the addition of high-value, native species to the understory, but more information is needed to guide implementation and management in this region and other tropical areas. I assessed the performance of six promising native species (B. crassifolia, D. retusa, D. oleifera, H. alchorneoides, P. pinnatum, T. amazonia) as an enrichment …

Ensemble Protein Inference Evaluation, Kyle Lee Lucke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Protein inference problem is becoming an increasingly important tool that aids in the characterization of complex proteomes and analysis of complex protein samples. In bottom-up shotgun proteomics experiments the metrics for evaluation (like AUC and calibration error) are based on an often imperfect target-decoy database. These metrics make the inherent assumption that all of the proteins in the target set are present in the sample being analyzed. In general, this is not the case, they are typically a mix of present and absent proteins. To objectively evaluate inference methods, protein standard datasets are used. These datasets are special in …

A Comparison Of Outcomes Of A Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation Program As An Alternative To Traditional Outpatient Phase Ii Cardiac Rehabilitation, Colton M.R. Crismore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Phase II outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is an intervention offered to patients that have been diagnosed with heart disease, undergone various procedures such as stenting or valve replacement, or to those with claudication diseases. Home-based cardiac rehabilitation (HBCR) is an alternative approach to traditional outpatient phase II CR, that is an emergent area of study with preliminary evidence showing in some outcomes that it approximates traditional CR. As there is current interest in the study of HBCR, this paper examines outcomes of mortality, risk factor modification, exercise capacity, and cardiac function to determine the extent to which this intervention may …

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 …

Resilience, Childhood Trauma History, And Foster Care Experience In College Students, Ashlyn M. Kincaid, Ashlyn M. Kincaid

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Spatial Behavior And Habitat Use Of The Matschie’S Tree-Kangaroo (Dendrolagus Matschiei) Using Gps Collars And Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas), Jonathan B. Byers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding the movement patterns and habitat needs of the endangered Matschie’s tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschiei) is important for their conservation and management. Endemic to the montane cloud forests of the Huon Peninsula in northeastern Papua New Guinea, these elusive arboreal marsupials are tremendously challenging to study using traditional observational methods.

This study is an assessment of novel techniques to overcome the significant challenges to in-situ data collection in remote and rugged tropical cloud forests. Animal locations are remotely tracked using purpose built altitude and motion logging GPS collars and habitat structure data is measured using photogrammetry from small Unmanned Aircraft …

Non-Indian Reservations, Joshua Matthew Rosenau

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is a skeptical treatment of the logical distinctions presumed to exist between “Indian” and “non-Indian” people. Despite representing 99 percent of the U.S. population, “non-Indians” represent a legal identity which has no explicit definition. The basis for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions regarding non-Indians and Indians rests not on any objective, empirical or logical criterion or proof, but rather on the “assumption of a ‘guardian-ward’ status. This thesis investigates this assumption, and recommends that we suspend judgment on whether the difference between “Indians” and “non-Indians” can be determined either by logical argument or by legal assumption.

"Its Own Little City": Service Work In Truck Stops, Michelle Elizabeth Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana truck stops act as a meeting place for long-haul truckers, vacationers, local commuters, and the workers simply trying to earn a living. The employees at such truck stops must navigate working-class customer service norms while interacting with a unique and diverse set of customers. The ethnographic and interview data that I collected during the 2020 offers a unique view of how customer service employees fared during political unrest, global health concerns, and financial struggle. Additionally, this study highlights the power dynamics that exist in the service industry by examining how such dynamics manifest in the interactions surrounding face masks, …

Leadership: Supporting Students With Asd And The School Wide Community, Chelsae Joy Larson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Leaders work collaboratively with all stakeholders to help understand what systems and supports need to be put into place to meet individual needs. School leaders must create continuous learning opportunities and reinforcement systems for educators in the areas of evidence-based practices, individualized teaching strategies, and student transition plans. Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) require consistent and structured programming starting in preschool and carrying through to post-secondary education. It is imperative that school leaders provide the appropriate training and supports to educators and specialists in relation to executive functioning skills and evidence-based practices to best support students with ASD. This …

Reading The Bones: A Taphonomic Investigation Of Archaeofaunal Remains Recovered From Site 48pa551, Northwest Wyoming, Morgan H. Thurman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a preliminary taphonomy study of archaeofaunal remains found at site 48PA551, more commonly known as the Dead Indian Creek Site. 48PA551 is a well-known and commonly cited example of a McKean Complex occupation dating to between 3,800 and 4,800 B.P. The University of Montana held a field school at the site conducting small test excavations under the supervision of Dr. Anna Marie Prentiss in 2018. In the course of this testing a highly fragmentary bone bed consisting mostly of mammalian bone, cervids largely, was discovered eroding into the nearby creek. Ten 50 x 50 cm quadrants were excavated …

The Worm In Heaven, Daniela Rae Garvue

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Developing The Label Avoidance Measure Of Stigma: A Preliminary Psychometric Review, Julia J. Cameron

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Stigma acts as a barrier to treatment for mental health concerns. Label avoidance, one of several different aspects that compose the overarching concept of stigma, captures the stigma involved when individuals avoid social institutions that might confer a psychiatric diagnostic label and would mark them as an individual with a mental health problem. Label avoidance has been described as a key stigma construct in the literature but has been sparsely studied. Answering a call in the field for new, psychometrically sound stigma measures, we created a new measure of label avoidance and acquired initial validity and reliability evidence supporting its …

Extending Bootstrap Aggregation Of Neural Networks For Prediction With An Application To Covid-19 Forecasting, Mohsen Tabibian

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The aim of this study is to improve the forecasting accuracy of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and construct prediction bands for ANN models. The focus is on forecasting for epidemiological purposes, and in particular, the problem of predicting new case and death counts from seven to h days into the future for spatially contiguous regions. The task poses several challenges: datasets are quite small, and both spatially and temporally correlated. To overcome these, the methods attempt to exploit information induced by spatial and temporal dependencies. More importantly, we have developed a fusion of ANNs and bootstrap methods. Bootstrap aggregation (bagging) …

Sparse Forward-Backward Alignment For Sensitive Database Search With Small Memory And Time Requirements, David H. Rich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sequence annotation is typically performed by aligning an unlabeled sequence to a collection of known sequences, with the aim of identifying non-random similarities. Given the broad diversity of new sequences and the considerable scale of modern sequence databases, there is significant tension between the competing needs for sensitivity and speed, with multiple tools displacing the venerable BLAST software suite on one axis or another. In recent years, alignment based on profile hidden Markov models (pHMMs) and associated probabilistic inference methods have demonstrated increased sensitivity due in part to consideration of the ensemble of all possible alignments between a query and …

Repairing Warranted Public Trust In Science Through Political Reconciliation, Anna Cat Jay Reely

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The ability of science-based policy to promote public welfare is contingent upon the presence of warranted public trust. However, as exposed by the case of COVID-19 vaccination efforts, public trust in the scientific community is not so readily attained. Many communities, particularly those who are systematically marginalized, have suffered severe harm in the name of scientific advancement. As a manifestation of tarnished rapport, individuals within these communities arguably engage in warranted distrust. While many scholars have attempted to articulate the conditions for warranted public trust in science, proposals have failed to account for the non-neutral state of the relationship between …

Nitrogen Dynamics And Transport Along Flowpaths In A Rural Wetland-Stream Complex, Colton Kyro

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human activities have doubled the rate of nitrogen inputs onto the landscape resulting in elevated nitrogen concentrations in our streams. Anthropogenically applied nitrogen is largely transported to stream networks via groundwater movement. Groundwater discharge occurs in distinct points along a stream but whose influences can often persist far beyond that area due to insufficient biogeochemical removal of imported nitrogen potentially causing alterations in community structure and precipitating large algae blooms. To understand the factors governing nitrogen abundance in a historical polluted stream, I used a mass-balance approach to quantify groundwater-surface water interaction and the magnitude of groundwater nitrogen input and …

Investigations On Novel Cyp26a1/B1 Inhibitor, Dx308: Using Atra Response As A Theraputic Target For Traumatic Brain Injury And Parkinson’S Disease, Jacob Morgan Leatherwood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) take a wide spectrum of pathologies and have a tendency to present themselves later in life. Neurodegenerative diseases affect 6 million Americans annually with ~1 million currently living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). One of the greatest contributors to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases is the occurrence of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) during life.

All-trans-retinoic acid (atRA) is the active metabolite of Vitamin A. The retinoic acid pathway is known to be activated following TBI and is reduced in PD patients. Previous studies found a decrease in inflammation and behavioral deficits following administration of Vitamin …

Devastation And Displacement: The Destruction Of Native Communities As A Result Of Specifically The Garrison Dam On The Missouri River In North Dakota And The Dalles Dams On The Columbia River In Oregon, Farryl Elisa Hunt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT MASTER’S THESIS

Devastation and Displacement: The Destruction of Native Communities as a Result of the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in North Dakota and the Dams on the Columbia River in Oregon

By Farryl Elisa "Lisa" Hunt

This master's thesis in anthropology is a cross-cultural analysis that explores two intersecting yet distinct discourses of destruction and displacement for two groups of Native people in Oregon and North Dakota. The building of The Dalles Dam in Oregon and The Garrison Dam in North Dakota damaged thriving livelihoods due to the loss of irreplaceable flooded areas.

This thesis will utilize …

Management And Conservation Of Westslope Cutthroat Trout In An Impacted, Connected River System, Troy Weant Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Westslope cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi (WCT) is a native species of high conservation value that historically exhibited partially migratory behavior throughout its range. Long-term persistence of WCT is threatened by human habitat modification, fragmentation, introduction of non-native species, and hybridization. As a result of these changes, remnant populations in Montana have shifted toward resident populations in headwater systems and away from migratory populations in larger connected river networks. This is compounded by the historic introduction of rainbow trout O. mykiss (RBT) that hybridize with WCT, especially in larger river habitats. Rock Creek in western Montana, USA was historically managed …

All In Due Time: Multi-Trait Assessment Of Elk Acclimation To Translocation, Ellen Marie Pero

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildlife translocation – the intentional movement of animals – is a crucial conservation tool for restoring species and halting global biodiversity decline. However, this practice is challenging for wildlife, and animals must adjust to their release landscapes for restoration to be successful. The period following release is a vulnerable time for translocated wildlife and determining when and how animals eventually acclimate following releases allows researchers to efficiently tailor post-release management to each species’ needs, thus maximizing the success of translocations while minimizing costs of an already expensive conservation practice. In this dissertation, I investigate changes in the physiological, behavioral, and …

Inference Of Surface Velocities From Oblique Time Lapse Photos And Terrestrial Based Lidar At The Helheim Glacier, Franklyn T. Dunbar Ii

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using time dependent observations derived from terrestrial LiDAR and oblique
time-lapse imagery, we demonstrate that a Bayesian approach to glacial motion es-
timation provides a concise way to incorporate multiple data products into a single
motion estimation procedure effectively producing surface velocity estimates with
an associated uncertainty. This approach brings both improved computational effi-
ciency, and greater scalability across observational time-frames when compared to
existing methods. To gauge efficacy, we apply these methods to a set of observa-
tions from the Helheim Glacier, a critical actor in contemporary mass loss trends
observed in the Greenland Ice Sheet. We find that …

Super-Resolution Imaging Of Remote Sensed Brightness Temperature Using A Convolutional Neural Network, Kellen A. Donahue

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Steady improvements to the instruments used in remote sensing has led to much higher resolution data, often contemporaneous with lower resolution instruments that continue to collect data. There is a clear opportunity to reconcile recent high resolution satellite data with the lower resolution data of the past. Super-resolution (SR) imaging is a technique that increases the spatial resolution of image data by training statistical methods on simultaneously occurring lower and higher resolution data sets. The special sensor microwave/imager (SSMI) and advanced microwave scanning radiometer (AMSR2) brightness temperature data products are well suited to super-resolution imaging, and SR can be used …

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 …

Calcium Signaling And Alg-2 In The Regulation Of Constitutive Secretion, John Robert Sargeant

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The constitutive secretory pathway influences almost every aspect of cellular function: generation and maintenance of subcellular compartments; cell growth and differentiation; and production and deposition of the extracellular matrix. Classically, constitutive trafficking was thought to be continuous and unregulated—in contrast to regulated secretion, wherein vesicles are stored intracellularly until a Ca2+ signal causes synchronous membrane fusion. However, early studies demonstrated a Ca2+ requirement for endosome fusion, ER to Golgi, and intra- Golgi trafficking, demonstrating that Ca2+ is a regulator of constitutive trafficking steps as well. In Chapter 1, I review recent evidence for Ca2+ involvement and the specific Ca2+-related machinery …