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The Effects Of Compost And Polyacrylamide Hydrogel On The Re-Vegetation Of Eroded Southern Aspects In The Western Rangeland, Allison R. Klocke, David A. Stein

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

MPG Ranch is a conservation-oriented organization in Montana’s Bitterroot valley. Since 2010, MPG has annually planted between 5,000 and 10,000 shrubs and trees with the goal of restoring native plant communities, beautifying the landscape, and providing habitat and forage for wildlife. Plant survival has been lowest on degraded south facing slopes, likely due to a combination of erosion and high solar radiation, which have left the soil with low nutrient content, soil moisture, and high soil temperatures. To resolve these issues, we partnered with MPG to test whether soil amendments can be used to increase plant establishment on degraded hillslopes. …

Montana K-8 Teacher Preparation In Stem, Jeanette Murnane

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The goal of this thesis is to find out how K-8 teacher education programs in Montana can

be improved to better prepare teachers to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts. While research has been done on what types of courses best prepare teachers for the classroom, my study focuses on how well Montana colleges and universities prepare K-8 certified teachers to teach STEM concepts. A survey was sent out to K-8 certified teachers across Montana to determine how well new teachers can utilize the technology available in their classrooms and what concepts within Common Core Math and Next …

Src Family Kinases Mediate Individual Cell Responses To Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling In Neuroblastoma Cells, Juan Enrique Palacios Moreno

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTKs) are involved in proliferation, differentiation, cellular metabolism, and homeostasis. More than half of the RTKs in the human genome are expressed in neuroblastoma cell lines. RKTs activate downstream signaling pathways including the canonical pathways of ERK, AKT, PLCγ, and SRC Family Kinases (SFKs). Phosphoproteomic data showed high expression and phosphorylation levels of SFK scaffold PAG1, and SFKs FYN and LYN in neuroblastoma cell lines and endosomes. We hypothesized that FYN and LYN distinguish between proliferation- and differentiation-inducing signals from different RTKs in neuroblastoma cells.

To test this hypothesis, we measured changes in FYN and LYN’s intracellular …

Practices And Perceptions Of Social Media Among Leaders In Higher Education: A Quantitative Study, Melissa Elizabeth Holmes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This quantitative dissertation study explored the social media practices and perceptions of 452 leaders of 142 public and private non-profit four-year degree granting institutions in the western United States. Descriptive statistics were calculated for gender, position title, age, social media use, and attitudes regarding themes revealed in a review of current literature. Then, a Spearman Rho analysis was used to measure the strength of correlation between hours using social media and rank scores of social media attitudes. The study revealed that about 85% of leaders use social media for an average of 4.54 hours per week (SD=5.59, N=452). Social media …

Hyperconnected School Leadership: Shared Experiences, Elizabeth Sue Wargo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Leaders remain perpetually connected to their work because of the rapid advancement of information technology. This research, using a qualitative approach, explored how increased connective technology is affecting school leaders with the central question: How is hyperconnectivity experienced by school leaders? Using personal interviews, the lived experiences of fifteen international middle and high school principals with one-to-one student-to-device programs were collected. Raw transcriptions of their experiences were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological approach as outlined by Giorgi (2009). This approach allowed for the data to be reduced into a single narrative description shared by all participants indicating the essences of …

Experiences Of American Indians In Natural Resource Degree Programs, Ruth Ann Swaney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

American Indians are a demographic who has been historically excluded from higher education and are still underrepresented, especially in the field of natural resources. The purpose of this research is to examine the educational experiences of American Indians in such programs. With respect to factors that may influence educational experiences, special attention was focused on the effect of traditional culture on their learning and the impact of the educational frameworks in their degree programs. The research design was guided by two research paradigms: indigenous research methodologies and hermeneutics. Thirty individuals stories and experiences were explored through the use of in-depth …

Advanced Measurements Of Undersampled Globally Significant Biomass Burning Sources, Chelsea Elizabeth Stockwell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

During the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME-4) laboratory campaign, we burned historically undersampled and globally significant biomass fuels. The open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectroscopy system provided new emissions data while measuring gases that overlap with fire emissions measured in numerous field campaigns. Based on the lab-field comparisons, we conclude that our lab-measured emission factors (EFs) for some of the fires can be adjusted to better represent typical open burning. In addition we deployed a high-resolution proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS) to characterize biomass burning (BB) emissions for the first time. BB is the second largest global atmospheric …

Political Ecology Of Cordyceps In The Garhwal Himalaya Of Northern India, Laura Bess Caplins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the Garhwal, Indian Himalaya, rural mountain people labor to piece together their livelihoods in an ever changing world. One particular group, the Bhotiya (an ethnically and culturally distinct tribal group) were historically engaged in seasonal migration (i.e. transhumance) to take advantage of scarce mountain resources and trade relations with Tibet. This livelihood practice has all but disappeared; however, today one way the Bhotiya are adapting to these changing circumstances is by engaging in the collection and sale of a valuable alpine medicinal fungus locally known as keera jari, and commonly called the caterpillar fungus or cordyceps (Ophiocordyceps sinensis). The …

Modulating Male Aggression And Courtship: Detecting External Pheromonal And Nutritional Information, Jonathan C. Andrews

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Survival and reproduction in the natural world requires an organism to identify and react to the presence of environmental stimuli in a time and cue dependent manner. Such temporal specificity requires the development and use of specialized sensory organs that receive this external sensory information. Neurons within the specialized sensory organs respond to touch, taste, pheromones, chemicals, and light, and transduce this information to the central brain. In many systems, gustatory and olfactory chemosensation in particular, provides critical information regarding sex and species identification as well as the status of food resources. The output of neurons which receive chemical information …

Close Call With Nonexistence: A Memoir, Jeff Gailus

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fred Eduard Gailus was born on April 26, 1944, in Memelland, a place that no longer exists. It was a tiny sliver of Germandom on the far eastern edge of Hitler’s outsized German Reich. When the Soviet Red Army swept through on their way to Berlin, to end World War Two and the reign of terror perpetrated by the German people, the homeland of my father’s ancestors was wiped off the map forever. Thanks to the courage and tenacity of his mother, Fred survived the largest forced migration in human history to marry young and raise a family of four …

Performance Measures Of Road Crossing Structures From Relative Movement Rates Of Large Mammals, Adam Andis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In recent decades, there has been an increase of engineering projects that seek to mitigate the barrier effect roads impose on wildlife by installing wildlife crossing structures that promote permeability of the road corridor. The 41 fish and wildlife crossing structures installed along a 90km stretch of US Highway 93 on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana, represent one of the most extensive of such projects in North America. As mitigation efforts are increasingly considered and implemented in road construction projects, the need to assess these structures’ effectiveness grows. This study is the first to compare observations of animal …

Between Rivers: Reflections On Home, Obligation, And Otherness From A Confluence Of Conservation And Connectivity, Chandra M. Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Between Rivers is an exploration of the role of the outsider in international watershed conservation. Through extended personal narrative and analysis of current events, ethnographic texts, and sociopolitical history, this thesis considers questions related to responsibility in conservation. The narrative focuses on Ecuador’s Jondachi Fest, a case study in international collaboration and celebration of an ecologically key river system. Grassroots celebrations and river festivals are sprouting up on endangered rivers all across South America. In this thesis, the author examines her own experience as an outsider working to facilitate one such festival – the challenges, shortcomings, relationships, and victories – …

Beautiful, Battered Lands: Making Peace With Place From The Rust Belt To Appalachia, Katherine Leary

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Temporary Work On The Bakken Shale, Peter D. Ore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis, I explore what accounts for worker consent to precarious employment in the context of rapid industrial change in the rural United States. In recent years, domestic oil development has transformed the landscape of western North Dakota and Eastern Montana into a zone of oil production now known as “the Bakken.” The acute demand for labor brought about by this development resulted in vastly inflated wages, which in turn drew workers from around the U.S. and the world. State and private labor market intermediaries, including temporary labor agencies, formed to organize and market this labor force for employers …

Bicycle Mobility In Glacier National Park: Assessing Going-To-The-Sun Road Travelers' Attitudes, Knowledge, And Perceptions Of Bicycling, Brian G. Battaglia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The central aim of this thesis assessed whether Going-to-the-Sun Road (GTSR) travelers have a positive or negative association with roadway bicycling and the degree of public support for GTSR bicycling in Glacier National Park (GNP). Secondarily, this thesis tested a control and treatment group’s knowledge of roadway cycling laws to determine the effectiveness of a “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” sign and brochure, which both reflected Montana’s cycling laws. Finally, an analysis of the necessity of GNP’s partial bicycle restriction on the GTSR was conducted by comparing the characteristics of two road segments using GIS, and by assessing the attitudes, …

Exploring The Potential For Geographic Transportation Modeling To Improve Food Assistance: A Case Study Of The Missoula Food Bank, Mary Buford French

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last ten years, the Missoula Food Bank has seen a greater need for its services leading to funding shortfalls. To meet the needs of an increasing number of clients with a limited budget, the Missoula Food Bank must look for ways to modify its operations while increasing efficiency of its services. As the Food Bank budget is used to acquire food and currently also transport it from warehouse locations to the food pantry in a crowded space, reducing distances and transport cost of hauling food would in turn free up funds to obtain more food. At the same …

Sport Related Concussion Knowledge In Youth Female Soccer Players And Their Parents In Missoula, Seth A. Lindauer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Distributive Justice And Climate Change: The What, How, And Who Of Climate Change Policy, Jason F. Moeller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The goal of this paper is to examine climate change through the lens of distributive justice. In doing so, it will attempt to answer how three important questions of distributive justice apply to climate change policy. These questions, what is the object of distribution, how should this object be distributed, and among whom should this distribution take place, will be the topics of the topics of the first, second, and third sections respectively. Through this examination, it is the hope of this paper that certain policy recommendations and climate change strategies can be developed which adequately take into account both …

Why Saving Hawaii's Taro Means Losing Hawaiian Taro, Breana Milldrum

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

It’S Rooted In The Land: How Managing Natural Resources Leads Native American Tribes To Sovereignty, Nicky Ouellet

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tribal management of land and natural resources within the boundaries of Native American reservations is often superseded by state and federal policy. But control of land and resources is, ultimately, what makes a nation a nation. The three stories in this portfolio depict tribes establishing control of natural resources to various degrees of success. Chapter one is a narrative outlining the stories, my reportage and plans for publication. Chapter two: Members of the Northern Cheyenne seek to establish a medical marijuana program after the federal government relaxed enforcement of cannabis bans. Chapter three: An activist on the Fort Berthold reservation …

Adaptation On A Budget: How Vietnamese Innovators Are Trying To Design Their Way Out Of Climate Change, Shanti R. Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the rapidly developing Mekong Delta of Vietnam, young innovators are facing a challenge far greater than simply trying to catch up with the wealthier world. In a growing trend, the next generation of Vietnamese is acting under a common understanding: climate change is real, it’s here and the time to respond is growing short.

For over a decade, Southern Vietnam has consistently been ranked by international organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as one of the most vulnerable places in the world to the impacts of climate change. That vulnerability is heightened by the fact that the …

Crossing The Line: Navigating A Polluted Transboundary Watershed, Celia T. Tobin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana’s Lake Koocanusa sits at the end of a river system that drains Canada’s most productive coal country. Today, the waters of the massive lake contain a mineral called selenium, a poorly understood byproduct of mine waste. This summer, the U.S. federal government will be in a position to declare that the selenium in the lake puts Canada in violation of its international treaty with the U.S. The Montana government, however, is preparing to argue otherwise through its own water analysis. The disagreement has U.S. ecologists frustrated with the state’s position, saying they won’t practice science that is slave to …

The Sacrificial Ram, Charles Ebbers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Every January and February, Montana and other western states auction tags to hunt big horn sheep, moose, mountain goats, bears and other big game species to the highest bidder, at a series of hunting shows in Nevada. Some states call them “governor’s tags,” while others like Montana call them auction tags.

The purpose of the auctions is to raise funds for state conservation programs meant to keep wildlife populations healthy. In Montana, the funds raised are species specific, meaning that the proceeds from a bighorn sheep tag must be used to help bighorn sheep. Yet, the revenue from these tags …

From A Poetry Handbook For Mining Engineers, Jolene M. Brink Mrs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This poetry collection utilizes A.G. Charleton’s Report Book for Mining Engineers (Whitehead, Morris & Co, 1908). The original 200-page report book contains questions and blank entries for the engineer to collect information for mine owners planning to sell or acquire property. The poems in from A Poetry Handbook for Mining Engineers use the artifact of this handbook—and the unanswered questions in the found text—to interrogate historic language surrounding mining and excavation, as well as material accumulation, alchemical practices, and the tradition of mining in northern Minnesota and the Norwegian village of Røros.

The Way Around: Walking Into Revolution, Nicholas T. Triolo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Way Around: Walking into Revolution

Chairperson: Phil Condon

The Way Around investigates revolution through personal accounts of pilgrimage, ecopsychology, and activism. For ten years (2006-2016), I engaged in various forms of circular travel across the world to understand the true shape of revolution—its etymology, its use throughout history, and if revolution might be some universal inertia that drives us all forward.

The journey begins in 2006, where I travel around the world for a year. I weave together discoveries of place and planet with a 500-year historical account of human circumnavigation. Returning to Portland, Oregon, I’m introduced to …

Analysis Of Envelope Glycoprotein Complex Of Arenaviruses, Sundaresh Shankar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Arenaviruses, the causative agents of severe hemorrhagic fevers, are endemic in rodent populations and can be transmitted to humans by contact. Without effective treatment or licensed vaccines, these viruses pose serious public health and biodefense concern. The sole treatment option is the off-label use of the nucleoside analog ribavirin, which is effective only when given at an early stage of infection and shows significant toxicity in humans. Hence, there exists a clear need for developing better therapies. Arenavirus entry into the cell is initiated by the virus envelope glycoprotein complex (GPC), primed to undergo conformational changes triggered by the acidic …

Positive Interactions In Temperate And Tropical Alpine Plant Communities: The Role Of Facilitation In Species-Specific Interactions, Invasion, And Landscape-Scale Distribution, Nicole Hupp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Next Billion: Lessons In Off-Grid Electricity Development From The Global South, Peter Mcdonough

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Today about a third of the world’s population has no access to electricity, and another third has only limited access. Driven by the push for development on one hand and the reality of climate change on the other, a combination of for-profit companies, NGOs, missions, and aid organizations is looking for the silver bullet to sustainable electricity development. In order to understand the challenges facing off-grid electricity projects I used recent literature in the form of peer-reviewed journals, agency reports, news articles, and technical documents; stakeholder interviews; and on-site observations in selected case studies in Nepal, India, and Tanzania. In …

Toward An Ontology Of Exhaustion: On The Affective Structures Of Masculinity In The American Oilfield, John W. Jepsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

What is the significance of the oil encounter in the lives of men living and working in the modern oilfields of the United States? Engaging with both literary examples of the lives of men in the Interior West and the personal experiences and reflections of the author, this essay seeks to examine the connections between ideology and place as it works to shape the identity and affect of men in America's oilfields, ultimately ending in them identifying with the very resources their activities seek to exploit and exhaust. Utilizing Theodore Adorno's Minima Moralia as its moral touchstone, this essay works …

A Spark That Starts The Fire: Climate Change In The American West, Nathaniel Hegyi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is a large, unwieldy, global phenomenon that acts like a spark in a dry field. A slight rise in the global temperature weakens the Gulf Stream and sends the East Coast into a deep freeze. A slight dip in the global temperature, caused by a volcanic eruption, alters weather patterns and dumps record amounts of rain in Southeast Asia. The three stories in this portfolio depict how climate change can alter the landscape and people of the American West. Chapter one is a narrative summarizing these stories, my reporting process, and publication plans. Chapter two is an embedded …