Digital Commons Network^™

Seasonal Nutrient Dynamics In A Small-Scale Constructed Wetland Treating Primary Effluent With Applications Of Effluent Reuse In Biomass Production, Paul Thomas Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Constructed wetlands have been investigated for use in the treatment of municipal wastewater. Species of nitrogen and phosphorus are the nutrients of focus and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS) and fecal coliform are the pollutants. Prior work has focused on design concepts, plant effects on nutrient and pollutant treatment, and annualized treatment performance characteristics. This work builds upon published design concepts and wetland plant community and its function and investigates seasonal treatment performance and the kinetics of treatment performance for certain nutrients and pollutants during each season. Previous engineering based work has broadly suggested that first order …

Sex-Specific Investment In Incubation And The Reproductive Biology Of Two Tropical Antbird Species, Brian A. Schwartz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Paternal care has been neglected in behavioral studies because it is rare among most animals. Birds express wide variation in male care across a broad life-history gradient, but such variation among species remains poorly explored. At the same time, contributions of male assistance with incubation have been largely overlooked with the assumption that incubation is a time of low parental energy expenditure. We compared male versus female biparental incubation effort between two tropical antbird species in the northern Andes of Venezuela. We found that males and females apportion reproductive effort differently between these two species, but that male contributions of …

Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta Splendens) Show Self-Control For Access To A Mirror, Christopher Matthew Collins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Self control is defined as choosing a larger, delayed reinforcer over a smaller, more immediate reinforcer with the opposite defined as impulsivity. In general, results from self-control research involving avian and non-primate mammalian subjects have shown a strong to moderate impulsive choice bias whereas studies using adult humans and non-human primates have shown a strong self-control bias. While the non-human self-control literature is rich with studies using select avian and mammalian species, there is very little self-control literature on the choice behaviors of fish or social reward. The present experiment assessed preference in male Betta splendens using an immediate/2 sec …

Kings And Courtesans: A Study Of The Pictorial Representation Of French Royal Mistresses, Shandy April Lemperle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores the development in the pictorial representation of four important French royal mistresses. It looks at works depicting Agnès Sorel, mistress to Charles VII; Diane de Poitiers, mistress to Henri II; Gabrielle d’Estrées, mistress to Henri IV; and Madame de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV. By placing the portrayals of these women within a historical context, it becomes apparent that there are links between the strength of the crown and the depictions of the mistresses. This thesis traces the development of the imagery associated with these women and demonstrates that as the crown became more and more powerful, …

Wildlife Decomposition In West Central Montana: A Preliminary Study Conducted To Provide Field Investigation Material And Training For Wildlife Officers, F. Carleen Gonder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An issue with many poaching investigations is the discovery of carcasses in advanced stages of decomposition with little information to indicate time of death (TOD). To address TOD issues of carcasses found in a state of decomposition, and to provide training materials and field tools for investigating officers, this project was initiated to identify decomposition stages and to monitor decomposition rates for those stages in the west central area of Montana. A total of 15 carcasses were placed in electrified exclosures during various times of the year which provided seasonal variation and include: a pair of gray wolves (8 total) …

Design, Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of A Family Of Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 3 (Eaat3) Preferring Inhibitors, Terri Lynn Mavencamp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This work describes the synthesis and initial characterization of the biological activity of a family of EAAT3 preferring inhibitors, L-β-benzyl aspartate (L-β-BA) and L-β-BA derivatives. L-β-BA and derivatives were initially synthesized in an approximate 2:1 ratio of diasteromers (threo:erythro), using base promoted enolate addition. Kinetic analysis of 3H-D-aspartate uptake into C17.2 cells expressing the hEAATs demonstrated that L-threo-β-BA is the more potent diastereomer (Ki values of 9 µM for EAAT1, 10.0 µM for EAAT2 and 0.8 µM for EAAT3), acts competitively, and exhibits a 10-fold preference for EAAT3 compared to EAAT1 and EAAT2. Electrophysiological recordings of EAAT-mediated currents in Xenopus …

Causes And Consequences Of The Postfire Increase In Deer Mouse (Peromyscus Maniculatus) Abundance, Rafal Pawel Zwolak

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildfire triggers an increase in deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) abundance. Here, I describe this phenomenon, investigate its causes, and explore the consequences of the postfire increase in mice for conifer recruitment in burned forest. I documented a shift in small mammal communities away from more specialized species such as red-backed voles (Myodes gapperi) and shrews (Sorex spp.) and towards greater abundance of generalist deer mice after a wildfire in montane forest. I conducted a meta-analysis of published studies on the abundance of small mammals in disturbed versus undisturbed forests and established that the pattern of increased deer mouse abundance holds …

Changes In Osteoarthritis Of The Elbow And Shoulder Joints In Women When Trasitioning From Hunting And Gathering To An Agricultural Subsistence, Kirsten Anne Green

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Changes in bone morphology have always been a concern of physical anthropologists who are trying to explain a culture's everyday activity. These types of changes, including arthritic and musculoskeletal, are based on subjective observation of the researcher and therefore subject to observer error. I used three samples; the Indian Knoll sample, the Nutwood and Rosedale Mound sample, and a control sample from the Terry collection I was able to employ a scoring method based on Hawkey (1988). This current research uses the scoring method for arthritic changes in women to test for changes in patterns of distribution and/or severity when …

Geodatabase Design For Resource And Land Management Gis: Missoula Field Office Blm Case Study, Mark English

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is in the process of improving their geographic information system (GIS). The main intention is to upgrade their data and present their employees with the geospatial means necessary to accomplish their resource and land management responsibilities. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI„µ) designed the geodatabase model, which provides multiple advantages in organization, management, and maintenance of geographic data. The geodatabase model implements advanced relationships between geospatial features and database tables, creates platforms available in organization and editing, and instills GIS functionality to ensure data integrity. The main goal of this work is to investigate the …

Greater Sage-Grouse Response To Coal-Bed Natural Gas Development And West Nile Virus In The Powder River Basin, Montana And Wyoming, Usa, Brett Lincoln Walker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding how population dynamics respond to landscape-scale disturbance and disease are crucial for effective wildlife management and conservation. Two new potential stressors on greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming are coal-bed natural gas (CBNG) development and West Nile virus (WNv). I first examined how CBNG development, habitat, and other landscape features influenced trends in the abundance of displaying males and the status of sage-grouse leks. Second, I used rates of WNv-induced mortality and seroprevalence from radio-marked birds to estimate rates of WNv infection. Third, I studied the influence of female characteristics, season, …

Mobile Genetic Elements In Coxiella Burnetii: Friends, Foes Or Just Indifferent?, Rahul Raghavan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The genome of the obligate intracellular pathogen Coxiella burnetii contains a large number of mobile genetic elements including two group I introns and an intervening sequence (IVS) that interrupt the 23S rRNA gene; an intein within dnaB (encoding replicative DNA helicase) and a homing endonuclease. The introns are self-splicing ribozymes and able to inhibit ribosome function and retard bacterial growth through internal guide sequence (IGS)-dependent and -independent mechanisms. The introns were found to be highly conserved in all eight genomic groups of C. burnetii, suggesting a role in C. burnetii's biology. It is not clear whether the introns are being …

Oxidative Stress And The Guanosine Nucleotide Triphosphate Pool: Implications For A Biomarker And Mechanism Of Impaired Cell Function, Celeste Maree Bolin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Oxidation of the guanosine (G) moiety, yielding the oxidized lesion 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (oxo82dG), in DNA has become a hallmark biomarker in assessing cellular outcomes induced by oxidative stress. It is well established that the guanosine nucleotide triphosphate pool is also susceptible to oxidative stress and suggested to be more available for oxidation than DNA due to the lack of protective histones and robust repair mechanisms for reducing the levels of all the products of oxidation. The oxidation of guanosine in the nucleotide triphosphate pool, resulting in oxidized guanosine 5'-triphoshate (oxo8GTP), has been overlooked due to the lack of a reliable method. …

Insurance For Pollution In Montana, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article reviews those Montana State and federal decisions involving insurance for pollution. The article begins by breaking down pollution insurance policies into four types over four periods: 1) "accident" based policies before 1966; 2) "occurrence" based policies post 1966; 3) policies containing "standard" pollution exclusion from 1970 until 1986; and 4) policies containing an absolute pollution exclusion from 1986 to date. The discussion of case decisions relates back to these policies and periods.

The Extravaganza Awaits, Kathryn Lorraine Rodriguez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract The Extravaganza Awaits This paper addresses ideas in my thesis work, consisting of a series of paintings which evolved into installation. My ideas concern notions of spectacle, consumption of information, and self-gratifying selection. I lighten these ideas with humor and treat them with a carnivalesque aesthetic, appropriate to the absurdity that I see characteristic of them. Painting places the issues in a narrative context, but the story remains open- ended to allow the viewer to bring personal associations to the work. I specifically selected images of friends and family unfamiliar to the viewer and a lexicon of personal symbols …

President's Report, 2008, University Of Montana (Missoula, Mont.). Office Of The President

University of Montana President’s Report, 1993-2016

The President’s Report of the University of Montana, produced by University Relations on behalf of the President’s Office.

Vision 2008

Vision

No abstract provided.

2008-2009 Course Catalog, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of The Registrar

University of Montana Course Catalogs, 1895-2024

An annual catalog of courses and course descriptions offered at the University of Montana.

A Simple Gis Approach To Predicting Rare Plant Habitat: North Central Rocky Mountains, United States Forest Service, Region One, Erin Elizabeth Nock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding the potential distribution of rare species is a key component in managing and regulating land-use activities. Predictive modeling of plant distributions rests on the assumption that correlations exist between the presence or absence of a species and selected climate, topographic, substrate, and land-cover variables. Using the DOMAIN algorithm along with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, a biophysical envelope model was applied to 21 rare plant species listed on the Region One Regional Forester’s Sensitive Species List. Environmental variables, including annual precipitation, mean May temperature, slope, aspect, elevation, geologic material and dominant vegetation type, were used as predictors. Model output …

Impacts Of A Teacher Geospatial Technologies Professional Development Project On Student Spatial Literacy Skills And Interests In Science And Technology In Grade 5 – 12 Classrooms Across Montana, Jeffrey Willard Crews

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study utilized participants in a teacher geospatial technologies professional development project. Data was collected on the impact this professional development model, and the corresponding classroom implementation of the curriculum, had on student spatial literacy skills and students' interest in science and technology. Twenty teachers from across Montana with demonstrated competency in the use of geospatial technologies were selected for participation in this project. These twenty teachers were broken into two cohorts, cohort one served as the experimental group and cohort two served as the control group. Students within these classrooms ranging in grades 5 - 12, took two assessments, …

The Spirit Of Sport: Recreation On Montana's Reservations, 2008, University Of Montana--Missoula. School Of Journalism. Native News Honors Project

Native News Honors Project, 1992-2026

An annual publication that is reported, photographed, edited, and designed by students in the University of Montana’s School of Journalism.

Acute Cellular Uptake Of Abnormal Prion Protein Is Cell Type And Scrapie Strain Independent, Christopher Scott Greil

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are fatal neurodegenerative diseases that include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and sheep scrapie. TSE disease pathology and mechanisms within the central nervous system (CNS) of an infected host largely remains unclear. At the cellular level, the uptake of protease resistant prion protein (PrP-res), which strongly correlates with infectivity and is a valid marker for TSE infection, is one of the earliest events that must occur during TSE infection. Given the difficulty of clearly distinguishing input PrP-res from either PrP-res or protease-sensitive PrP (PrP-sen) made by the cell, the uptake of PrP-res from an infectious inoculum …

Cottonwood Establishment In A Gravel-Bed River, Claudio Ivan Meier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I investigated the processes of establishment of the cottonwood Populus trichocarpa T.&G. along the pristine, 5th order, wandering floodplain of the gravel-bed Flathead River, Montana, USA. The focus of my research was to determine the mechanisms explaining successful recruitment on recently formed, unvegetated bars, covering a range of spatial scales from within-bar (~ 1 to 10 m) to across-reach (~ 1 to 10 km). Results are based on field observations and measurements over three growth seasons (2005 through 2007), as well as outdoor and laboratory experiments.

At the within-bar scale, I used a paired-plot sampling design to compare closely-located sites …

Demography And Ecology Of A Declining Endemic: The Olympic Marmot, Suzanne Cox Griffin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Protected areas serve to conserve species, habitats, and ecological processes. However, biological systems within even large parks are increasingly affected by outside perturbations. The Olympic marmots (Marmota olympus) are ground-dwelling squirrel that inhabit high-elevation meadows almost exclusively within Olympic National Park Despite this protection, anecdotal reports in the 1990's of disappearances from historically occupied locations suggested that the species was in decline. I used demographic monitoring, habitat surveys, and non-invasive genetic sampling to evaluate population status of the species and consider the effects of several possible stressors. Olympic marmots disappeared from ~50% of well-studied colonies, and abandoned burrow complexes were …

Pre- And Post-Copulatory Sexual Selection In The Tortoise Beetle Acromis Sparsa (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Paula Alejandra Trillo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Females in nearly all sexually reproducing taxa mate with multiple males. In these species, male fitness is dependent on traits used during both the pre-copulatory processes influencing mate acquisition, as well as the post-copulatory processes influencing fertilization. However, few studies have simultaneously examined pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection within a particular species, and we therefore have little understanding of how these processes interact to determine male reproductive success.

The objective of my study was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of sexually selected traits by examining the interactions between pre- and post-copulatory processes in the tortoise beetle …

Residential Development Patterns In Flathead County, Montana, Louis Anthony Jarvis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Population growth in the Non-Metropolitan West has increased over the last two decades. Many researchers have argued that natural amenity concerns, the quality and diversity of the environment, and the rural nature of the non-metropolitan West are the chief factors influencing individuals’ decisions to settle. This research examines a single high-amenity county in Western Montana, Flathead County, and analyzes the factors affecting land values and the probability of residential development at the parcel level. This research develops spatial variables thought to affect land values in an ArcGIS 9.2 environment and develops a regression model that estimates land values based on …

Dwelling And The Woman Artist In The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Rebecca L. Lupold

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis addresses the Heideggerean notion of dwelling in Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by analyzing the different ways the novel’s protagonist, Helen Huntingdon, adapts to the harsh, sublime landscape of Wildfell Hall and the subsequent relationship that develops between her and Gilbert Markham. Escaping her violent and abusive husband, Helen flees to Wildfell Hall and uses her skills as an artist to support both herself and her son. In the first chapter, late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century aesthetics of the sublime and the picturesque are evaluated in relation to the aesthetic spaces of the novel. Helen enjoys an …

The Book Of Left Turns, Gregory Trent Hill Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Poems.

The Variances, Matthew Devon Kaler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A manuscript of poetry representing the work completed while a graduate student at the University of Montana's Creative Writing Program.

Camas, Winter 2008

Camas

First Person / Tim Gibbins, Bryce Andrews -- How to Hike the Grand Canyon / Greg Peters -- Discourse with a Lion / Michael Lukas -- Fences / Russ J. Van Paepeghem -- Snowpack / Elizabeth Grossman -- Out of Bounds / Kalie Rider -- Gold Leaf on Granite / William Keener -- Trinity / Chris Clarke -- Alkali / Allen Braden -- Lightning Storm on Mt. Edwards / Brenna Moloney -- A Letter to Fire / Katherine Standefer -- Hay Hooks / Allen Braden -- The Route / Scott Alexander Jones -- Front Cover and Bookmark Photo / Kip …

A Non-Indian Entity Is Polluting Indian Waters: "Water" Your Rights To The Waters, And "Water" You Gonna Do About It?, Sean M. Hanlon

Montana Law Review

Indian Water Rights