Digital Commons Network^™

Cjus 488.01: Forensic Science, The Crime Lab, And Beyond, Randall R. Skelton

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Chmy 121n.00: Introduction To General Chemisty, Victoria Gifford

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Molecular Composition And Photochemical Lifetimes Of Brown Carbon Chromophores In Biomass Burning Organic Aerosol, Lauren T. Fleming, Peng Lin, James M. Roberts, Vanessa Selimovic, Robert Yokelson, Julia Laskin, Alexander Laskin, Sergey A. Nizkorodov

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

To better understand the effects of wildfires on air quality and climate, it is important to assess the occurrence of chromophoric compounds in smoke and characterize their optical properties. This study explores the molecular composition of light-absorbing organic aerosol, or brown carbon (BrC), sampled at the Missoula Fire Sciences laboratory as a part of the FIREX Fall 2016 lab intensive. A total of 12 biomass fuels from different plant types were tested, including gymnosperm (coniferous) and angiosperm (flowering) plants and different ecosystem components such as duff, litter, and canopy. Emitted biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) particles were collected onto Teflon …

Montana Kaimin, January 15, 2020, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Progressive Portfolios: A Yearlong Process Of Research, Reflection, And Revision, Dana Haring, Tom Kelner

The Montana English Journal

An English teacher and a Social Studies teacher collaborated to create a year long progressive process of research, writing, reflection and revision at the middle school level. After their own reflection and substantial planning, they implemented this plan at the beginning of a school year. In these joint, cumulative research projects, students were engaged in the acts of questioning history, practicing methodology, and developing essential literacy skills as required by the Common Core State Standards. Throughout the process, digital tools were employed for presentation, research, writing, reflection, revision, and portfolio management.

Vision 2020

Vision

No abstract provided.

Knowledge States In The Learning Of “Time”: Comparison Of Primary Six Pupils’ From Different Types Of Schools In Penang, Carolyn Sia, Chap Sam Lim

The Mathematics Enthusiast

The findings in this paper were a part of a bigger study which aimed to develop a cognitive diagnostic assessment [CDA] for primary mathematics learning of “Time”. This paper aimed to discuss and compare the knowledge state of primary pupils from different types of schools in Penang. Knowledge state represented a pupil’s mastery level on a defined set of attributes. These attributes were assessed by using a set of items and the responses were observed to find out a pupil’s knowledge state. Two hundred and sixty-nine Primary Six pupils from 11 primary schools in Penang involved in the study. A …

Exploring Secondary Students' Modelling Competencies, Kwan Eu Leong, Jun You Tan

The Mathematics Enthusiast

Mathematical modelling is a very important component in the teaching and learning of mathematics. In Malaysia, educators require more exposure to mathematical modelling it is still a new pedagogical method in classrooms. Modelling tasks that require students to construct a mathematical model would be a good start in developing modelling competencies. In this study, the authors investigate three mathematical modelling competencies of secondary students in the state of Selangor through a qualitative analysis of 20 students (divided into four groups) responses based on one modelling task developed by the researchers. The three modelling competencies we focus in this study are …

Gender-Related Differential Item Functioning Of Mathematics Computation Items Among Non-Native Speakers Of English, S. Kanageswari Suppiah Shanmugam

The Mathematics Enthusiast

This study aimed at determining the presence of gender Differential Item Functioning (DIF) for mathematics computation items among non-native speakers of English, and thus examining the relationship between gender DIF and characteristics of mathematics computation items. The research design is a comparative study, where the boys form the reference group and the girls form the focal group. The software WINSTEPS, which is based on the Rasch model was used. DIF analyses were conducted by using the Mantel-Haenszel chi-square method with boys forming the reference group and girls forming the focal group. A total of 988 boys and 1381 girls in …

Knowing And Grasping Of Two University Students: The Case Of Complex Numbers, Kin Eng Chin, Fui Fong Jiew

The Mathematics Enthusiast

This paper aims to introduce the notions of knowing and grasping of a mathematics concept. We choose the concept of complex numbers to illustrate how these notions can be used to describe the understanding of students for this particular topic. As students develop their knowledge, supportive conceptions and problematic conceptions may occur in different ways. A student may know how to perform an algorithm or how to use a particular concept, without ‘grasping’ the meaning of the idea in a manner which enables him to comprehend more sophisticated ideas in an extended context. Grasping a concept means the ability to …

Characterising The Pedagogical Practices In Mathematics Lessons Among Selected Malaysian Primary Schools, Hui Min Chia, Chap Sam Lim

The Mathematics Enthusiast

This study aims to characterise the pedagogical practices of 45 observed primary mathematics lessons taught by 24 mathematics teachers in six national primary schools (SK) and six Chinese vernacular primary schools (SJKC). The data were collected using two video cameras, one focused on the teacher while the other camera focused on the pupils’ activities. The qualitative data were analysed based on two main activities in the classroom, which are teacher’s activities and pupils’ activities. The findings show that mathematics lessons conducted by SK teachers tended to engage the pupils in individual seatwork so as to assess pupils’ understanding. Conversely, SJKC …

Supportive And Problematic Conceptions In Making Sense Of Multiplication: A Case Study, Fui Fong Jiew, Kin Eng Chin

The Mathematics Enthusiast

This study aims to exemplify a framework based on an empirical study and the empirical study is to explore how a mathematics expert teacher makes sense of multiplication. The study was conducted through interviewing a secondary school mathematics expert teacher with over 30 years of mathematics teaching experience. The theoretical framework used in this paper is proposed by Chin and Tall (2012) and further developed by Chin (2013) and Chin (2014). The collected data are anaylsed qualitatively using this framework in order to find out what are the supportive and problematic conceptions involved in making sense of multiplication and consequently …

Loss For Words: An Investigation Of The English Nature Vocabulary, Margaret C. Luthin

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This research assesses the state of English nature vocabulary in Montana, defined here as words and terms relating to local species, weather, and topography. Studies have shown declining nature knowledge among English speakers as well as a marked decrease in the usage of nature words in English popular culture throughout the 20th century, and while research across disciplines points to a growing disconnect between humans and their environment, researchers have yet to investigate the role of vocabulary and language attrition in humans’ changing experience of nature. This study develops a new survey instrument to gather vocabulary data from Montanans, aiming …

Sediment Dynamics In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia: Implications For Understanding Tropical River Processes And Hydropower Development, Luke H. Fisher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Magdalena River Basin of Colombia has a globally relevant sediment flux, however, studies of the sediment regime in the basin are limited in scope. This knowledge gap limits application of understanding of sediment dynamics to hydropower decision making. To close this gap, we implemented a sediment budget framework to quantify the impacts of hydropower development in a 118,000 km² portion of the Magdalena River basin. We informed this framework with analysis of background erosion rates derived from ¹⁰Be cosmogenic nuclides and modern sediment fluxes derived from monitoring and optical remote sensing. We standardized these data to spatially …

Complicity And Climate Change, Shalomita Kristanugraha

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As individuals, how should we understand our personal complicity in climate change related harms? In this thesis, I argue that the predominant way we think of complicity within the Western moral paradigm—that is, as a distribution problem—is inadequate in helping us understand the nature of our complicity in climate change related harms. This inadequacy, in turn, psychologically hampers individual citizens residing in high-emitting nations of the Global North from effective and sustainable social and political engagement with climate change. To address the inadequacy and obstructions that result from it, I follow the discussion between Christopher Kutz and Iris Marion Young …

Teacher Support: A Study About Teacher Emotional Support And Engagement Among Middle School Boys, Melissa Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Engagement in school has been recognized as important for achievement in multiple ways, and yet adolescent boys have been observed to be less engaged in school than their female peers. Boys are less motivated than girls, spend less time on homework, and have lower expectations of themselves (Barber, 1996). Boys experience the following school and personal events at rates higher than girls: discipline referrals, suspensions, failing and near-failing grades, and also suicide. This study examined the differential responses between boys and girls in terms of perceived teacher support and student engagement.

The study began with an initial survey distributed to …

Change Is The Only Constant: A Snowpack Retention Analysis And Climate Vulnerability Road Map For The Skalkaho Creek Sub-Basin, Zachary Freeman Goodwin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is impacting the whole of North America, although the impacts differ depending on regional geography. In the Intermountain West, climate change is contributing to lower overall snowpack totals and diminished late season streamflows. These changes will likely contribute to vulnerabilities in how much water is available to irrigators, municipalities, and fisheries dependent upon a consistent yearly flow of meltwater. This paper explores how snowpack retention has changed via the NASA dataset Daymet, which provides gridded estimates of weather parameters including Snow Water Equivalent in the Bitterroot River Basin of western Montana. This analysis showed that snowpack retention from …

The Nmda Receptor Coagonists L-Glutamate And D-Serine, Denis Mikhailovich Shchepakin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Glutamate is the predominant excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system. Glutamate release and reuptake control both tonic activation of glutamate receptors and phasic signaling during synaptic transmission. Here we study different aspects of the system. The first three chapters focus on the most abundant glutamate transporters found in the brain, excitatory amino acid transporters 1-3 (EAAT1- 3/SLC1A3,2,1). The last chapter is devoted to a paralogous neutral amino acid transporter (ASCT1/SLC1A4) and its role in transport of D-serine, a coagonist of the N-methyl-Daspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor.

In the first chapter, we discuss the existing discrepancy in estimates of EAAT1-3 …

Developing Tools To Understand Stress And Nest Abandonment In Birds, Hannah Elena Beyl

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

A Deep Learning Approach To Mapping Irrigation: U-Net Irrmapper, Thomas Henry Colligan Iv

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Accurate maps of irrigation are essential for understanding and managing water resources in light of a warming climate. We present a new method for mapping irrigation and apply it to the state of Montana over the years 2000-2019. The method is based on an ensemble of convolutional neural networks that only rely on raw Landsat surface reflectance data. The ensemble of networks method learns to mask clouds and ignore Landsat 7 scan-line failures without supervision, reducing the need for preprocessing data or feature engineering. Unlike other approaches to mapping irrigation, the method doesn't use other mapping products like the Cropland …

Modeling Twitter Sentiment As A Function Of Particulate Matter 2.5 For Communities Impacted By Wildfire Across Montana And Idaho, Matthew Kelly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a known pollutant with clinically detrimental physiological and behavioral effects. We consider Twitter sentiment as a potential indicator for well-being in communities impacted by wildfire-associated PM2.5 across Montana and Idaho spanning 5 years (2014-2018). From these geospatial air quality data and geo-tagged tweets, we trained county level models to examine the power of Twitter sentiment as a function of PM2.5. For all 24 counties sampled, we found between 1 and 8 affective dimensions where a positive �� 2 was detected with a significant F-statistic (�� < 0.05). Specifically, we show that sentiment for anticipation in the wildfire-prone county of Missoula, MT yielded respective training/test set �� 2 of 0.0958 and 0.0686 with a p-value for the F-statistic of 3.09E-07. These analyses support social media sentiment as a potential public health metric by showing one of the first observations of a relationship between PM2.5 and Twitter sentiment.

Attribution Of Soil Surface Temperature Sensitivity To Hydro-Climatic Drivers, Sarah Khalid, Marco Maneta

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Greenhouse gas emissions caused by human economic activity are altering the global hydrologic cycle and the energy exchanges at the land surface. In large portions of the western US there is evidence of reduced summertime precipitation and increased air temperatures and longwave irradiation. At local scales, these changes can translate into more frequent and intense extreme land surface temperature events during the summer, with potential impacts on wildfire activity, forest health, soil biochemical cycles, and thermal comfort for human populations. However, because increases in radiation and sensible heat (air temperature) inputs to the land surface are confounded with changes in …

Remote Sensing Approaches To Predict Forest Characteristics In Northwest Montana, Ryan P. Rock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Remote sensing can be utilized by land management organizations to save money and time. Mapping vegetation using either aerial photographs or satellite imagery and the applications for forest management are of particular interest to the Montana Department of Natural Resources. In 2018, the organization began a pilot program to test the incorporation of raster analysis of remotely sensed data into their inventory program and had limited success. This analysis identified two areas of improvement: the selection method of inventory plots and the imagery used for classification and metrics. This study found that selecting inventory plots using a generalized random tessellation …

A Natural Rank Problem For Homogeneous Polynomials And Connections With The Theory Of Functions Of Several Complex Variables, Kevin A. Palencia Infante

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We study a natural extremal problem about the vector space consisting of all homogeneous polynomials of degree $d$ in $n+1$ variables with real coefficients, together with the zero polynomial. We define the {\it rank} of a polynomial to be the number of distinct monomials appearing in the polynomial with non-zero coefficient. We are particularly interested in those homogeneous polynomials whose quotient with the homogeneous polynomial $x_0+x_1+\cdots+x_n$ is a polynomial of degree $d-1$ with maximal rank. For each degree $d$, we seek the minimum rank for an element of this subfamily and we seek to describe those polynomials with minimum rank. …

A Search For Community, Alexander Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I attempt to understand what is meant by community by grounding the analysis in Raymond Williams’ historical definition. From this, I work the criteria of community as described by Williams so to determine their precise meaning and primacy. I attempt to show why community must be small in size while arguing that humans are in a community with nonhumans. Building upon this move, I take up an argument for the role of place in community formation. This preceding inquiry is meant to prime an analysis of both virtue ethics and literature, specifically an application of Martha Nussbaum’s Central Capabilities to …

Learning From Wilderness Fire: Restoring Landscape Scale Patterns And Processes, Julia Kittleson Berkey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wilderness areas, because they are managed to be “untrammeled by man,” often offer the best approximation of intact, undisturbed ecological patterns and processes. In the case of wildland fire, this means that wilderness areas often provide the only landscapes where fire has been managed to play an active, ecosystem role. As a result, these wilderness areas offer unique lessons both in terms of wildland fire management as well as the ecological consequences that result from this management approach. For these reasons, an in-depth history of fire management in the wilderness areas of the Northern Rocky Mountains is provided to highlight …

Development And Application Of A Catchment Scale Sediment Routing Model, Jordan T. Gilbert

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sediment regimes, i.e., the processes that recruit, transport and store sediment, create the physical habitats that underpin river-floodplain ecosystems. Natural and human-induced disturbances that alter sediment regimes can have cascading effects on river and floodplain morphology, ecosystems, and a river’s ability to provide ecosystem services, yet prediction of the response of sediment dynamics to disturbance is challenging. We developed the Sediment Routing and Floodplain Exchange (SeRFE) model, which is a network-based, spatially explicit framework for modeling sediment recruitment to and subsequent transport through drainage networks. SeRFE additionally tracks the spatially and temporally variable balance between sediment supply and transport capacity. …

Developing A Decision-Making Framework For Assisted Migration: Applying This To The American Pika And Whitebark Pine, Mia Kimya Hedayat-Zedah

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT

Hedayat-Zadeh, Mai Kimya, Degree, May 2020 Environmental Studies

Developing a Decision-Making Framework for Assisted Migration: Applying this to the

American Pika and White Bark Pine

This paper analyzes a novel conservation strategy: assisted migration (AM). AM is the practice of moving a highly vulnerable (i.e., endangered) species impacted by climate change and other exacerbating factors (e.g., land use), out of its historic range to a recipient site. Ideally, this site would be one where the species would have migrated, were there no barriers to dispersal or anthropogenic stressors. The paper is concerned with the readiness of the conservation community—particularly …

Drug Policy: The Effect Of Medical Marijuana On Opioid Consumption During The Us Opioid Epidemic, Jonathon David Knudson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The introduction and subsequent over-prescribing of extended-release opioids in the United States resulted in a large rise in both addiction and overdose. Recognition and regulation of these new drugs as addictive did little to control the supply of opioids to Americans while Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Abuse Deterrent reformulations had limited effect to control the problem. Simultaneously, states like Michigan and Rhode Island legalized medical marijuana through voter referenda opening the door for a new approach to pain management. Recent research has found medical marijuana has proven an effective treatment for conditions such as chronic pain and PTSD and …

Addressing Long-Standing Water Contamination Issues In Diné Communities Using Indigenous And Western Scientific Approaches, Ranalda Lynette Tsosie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The intent of this study was multifaceted and based on a research framework that incorporated the Diné worldview and Diné Science. Diné Science describes a holistic approach to conducting scientific research. It encompasses Diné foundational concepts and philosophies and applies them to the scientific method and western scientific approaches. The four major philosophies, Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat’á (Planning), Iiná (Implementing/Living) and Siih Hasin (Reflection/Assurance), were applied to this research process.

The main motivation is first and foremost to improve the quality of life of the Diné people especially those living in close proximity to abandoned mines and who are continuing to …