Digital Commons Network^™

Facing The Climate Crisis: The Plaintiffs Of Held V. Montana Find Agency And Voice, Richard H. Forbes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

16 young people, in a lawsuit titled Held v. Montana, are suing the state of Montana on the grounds that its state energy policy contributes to climate change, harming them physically and psychologically and violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment. This project explores the plaintiffs’ perspectives on the lawsuit, describes how their involvement is changing their relationships to their own climate-related mental health and explains how their psychological concerns reflect larger societal issues related to climate change.

Extension And Missionary Adult Educator Commitment Calling, Experiences, And Attitudes And Their Influence On Career Commitment Of Extension Agents And Protestant Missionaries, Steven Dale Siegelin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This qualitative case study focused on career commitment in two types of professional adult educators, extension agents and missionaries. Past research studying extension agents and missionaries had documented decades of early career attrition. Research documented the issues, explored causes, and proposed solutions. Yet, the problem persists. Much of the research has been quantitative.

This comparative case study maximized the differences between participants within and across the two professions; conducted in depth semi-structured interviews with participants; and had participants create a drawing of their career commitment attitudes and experiences and describe the drawing during the interview. Extension agents and missionaries were …

Sodium Hyaluronate Based Drug Delivery To The Outer And Inner Ear, Emma Barrett-Catton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We have developed two projects using sodium hyaluronate (HA)-based systems for drug delivery to the ear. First, we investigated an HA-based hydrogel for use as a single use antibiotic treatment for otitis externa. Otitis externa, also known as outer ear infection, is a frequent affliction in both humans and animals. The most prevalent treatment for otitis externa is ear drops, but it is difficult to adhere properly to this treatment, causing poor patient compliance and the potential for complications. As a result, we have developed an HA-based hydrogel for use as a single application treatment for otitis externa to increase …

Vibes: A Workflow For Annotating And Visualizing Viral Sequences Integrated Into Bacterial Genomes, Conner J. Copeland

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Many bacteriophages integrate their genomes into the bacterial chromosome and become prophages. Prophages may substantially burden or benefit host bacteria fitness, acting in some cases as parasites and in others as mutualists, and have been demonstrated to increase host virulence. The increasing ease of bacterial genome se- quencing provides an opportunity to deeply explore prophage prevalence and insertion sites. Here we present VIBES, a workflow intended to automate prophage annotation in complete bacterial genome sequences. VIBES provides additional context to prophage annotations by annotating bac- terial genes and viral proteins in user-provided bacterial and …

All Under One Roof: An Ethnographic Commons In The Missoula Public Library, Caitlin Ervin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2021 the Missoula Public Library opened in a new state-of-the-art building to include a science museum, a research facility, a family resource center, and a media resource center in addition to the library facilities, all providing free and low-cost programs to the public. This establishment, internally dubbed All Under One Roof (AUOR), offers a window into the culture of Missoula and provides the community myriad resources in one, co-located model that has never been seen in the United States. Using ethnographic methods, this study provides insight into AUOR and the significance of its culture house model as the future …

Insights From The Environment: Unveiling Methodological Biases And The Impacts Of Beavermediated Environmental Variation On Amphibian-Parasite Dynamics, Leah Marie Fischer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Environmental variation plays an important role in shaping patterns of parasite and pathogen infections within ecosystems and populations. Effective management of wildlife diseases hinges on the detection of parasites and pathogens, followed by the identification of trends in infections that can be used for predicting their spread and implementing control measures. Beavers are ecosystem engineers and keystone species that serve as important sources of environmental variation. In North America, beavers are promoted for the conservation of imperiled taxa like amphibians which are facing declines driven by habitat loss, parasites, and pathogens. Beavers create diverse habitats that attract amphibians, but these …

Vision 2023

Vision

No abstract provided.

2023-2024 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.

Welcome To The Farm, Elani Ben-Gabriel Borhegyi

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of this creative scholarship is to examine human relationships to Earth and the implications for a thriving future. This thesis studies the current environmental state of our planet, then looks at sustainability as a model for improving human and planetary health, and ends by visualizing a thriving future beyond sustainability in which we adopt a “caretaker” culture. The key to this trajectory is to untangle and dismantle colonial relationships with the planet and replace them with “caretaker” relationships - relationships rooted in love, honor, and reciprocity with environmental connection, while taking into account past, present, and future generations …

External Analysis Of Avis Car Rental: Impact Of External Factors On Business Operations, John R. Milton

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Pixel Tracking And Utms: A Study Of Nintendo Co., Ltd., Samantha S. Clevenger

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Quantifying The Effects Of Beaver Dams And Stream Restoration On Headwater Salmonid Populations, Andrew Biche Lahr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The importance of freshwater habitats in supporting ecological communities and human civilization is irrefutable, yet they remain amongst the most imperiled systems in the world due to factors like resource extraction, non-native species, and climate change. In the Western United States, efforts to combat stream degradation and drought have sought to increase water storage, aggrade eroded stream beds, and increase base flows by promoting dam building by beavers and through restoration projects using human-made beaver dam analogs (BDAs). Even though beaver-related restoration projects are becoming increasingly popular, documentation of the effects of beaver dams and beaver-related restoration on headwater stream …

Sb11-23/24: Resolution Commending Kbga, Wyatt Balius

Senate Resolutions, 2007-Present

SB11-23/24: Resolution Commending KBGA. This resolution was addressed on the November 8, 2023 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Evaluating The Relative Influence Of Soil Water Potential, Soil Moisture, And Vapor Pressure Deficit On Semi-Arid Vegetation Dynamics, Kayla R. Jamerson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Knowledge of vegetation’s response to soil water availability and atmospheric demand is critical to understanding the impact of climate change on semi-arid ecosystems. However, limited field-based research has been conducted to assess the relative importance of these drivers and previous research has simplified the assessment of soil water availability by relying on soil volumetric water content (VWC) as a primary control on plant growth, which, as opposed to soil water potential (Ψsoil), does not account for the effects of soil texture on plant available water. To address these gaps, we compared remotely sensed indicators of vegetation response to field based …

Navigating The Soviet Experiment: Travels And Writings Of John Dos Passos And Edmund Wilson In Soviet Russia, 1928-1935, Robert Allan Winslow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The travel accounts of Soviet Russia by John Dos Passos (1896-1970) and Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) vividly demonstrate how Western writer-travelers were drawn into Soviet cultural experiments. Only rarely was this process one of literary influence. This thesis focuses on published travel writings by Dos Passos (In All Countries, 1934) and Wilson (Travels In Two Democracies, 1936), as well as journals, letters, and essays, in terms of Soviet cultural developments both writers noted as historically significant in shaping Western views of the Soviet state, and of the methods involved in building socialism and Communism.

In the …

Sagebrush Steppe Songbird Conservation: Inferences Using Remote Sensing Data And A Novel Reproduction Model, Kaitlyn Marie Reintsma

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Anthropogenic land cover change continues to degrade and fragment wildlife habitats, threatening biodiversity at local, regional, and global scales. Songbird populations are sensitive to broad habitat changes and therefore can be used to assess and prioritize habitat for biodiversity. For example, biodiversity losses in the arid grass and sagebrush of western North America (Artemisia spp.; hereafter “sagebrush steppe”) are reflected in the rapid decline of songbird populations. However, the influence of the principal land use, livestock grazing, on songbird populations, and by inference biodiversity, is unclear. In this dissertation, I investigated sagebrush steppe songbird conservation in a grazed landscape by …

Water Lake And Other Stories, Allison Rose Levy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This excerpt from the novel Water Lake takes place at an undisclosed time in an undisclosed American location called Water Town. It primarily follows Jason and Holly, who are employees at Water Hardware and lifelong residents of the insular, religious, isolated town. Water Town is in constant industrial and environmental decay and hosts many mysterious natural and social phenomena such as an unusual amount of animal deaths, a gender ratio skewed disproportionately towards men, and a single seal in a local body of water hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean. During an episode of impulsivity induced by neurological trauma, …

Evaluating The Use Of Environmental Tracers To Reduce Conceptual Model Uncertainty Of Hydrogeologic Models, Andrew Nordberg, Jon Graham, W. Payton Gardner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Environmental tracer concentrations for CFC12, SF6, and tritium are used in groundwater simulations to assess the ability of these tracers to reduce conceptual model uncertainty due to uncertainty of a site’s geologic and recharge characterization. The resulting groundwater simulations are characterized by site-specific hydrologic and geologic data, and with coordination from a field team with years of knowledge about the site. First-order (conceptual) uncertainty is directly addressed by using a stochastic modeling approach for spatial variability of the proposed subsurface configurations. Simulations of environmental tracer concentrations and water levels are used to assess six alternate conceptual models that are based …

Asked For Another Mountain, Nichole Lynn Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Beulahland: A Novel, Emily Ann Marie Nelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Beulahland follows Esther and Beulah Baxter, a pair of orphaned sisters traveling across the American west with their evangelist uncle in 1994. Raised on the seedy motivational speaking circuit of small towns and youth groups, Esther is determined to free Beulah from this nomadic way of life under from the neglectful care of their uncle August, a fame-chasing bodybuilder who wants to bring the world to God through his demonstrations of physical strength. This plan is put on hold when Beulah falls ill during a routine performance in the wildfire-wracked town of Orchard, Washington, and almost dies; her near-death experience …

Blood And Oil: How Vampiric Literature Bolsters Big Oil’S Power, Sarah Marie Demond

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines the relationship between blood and oil, that is, the multitude of ways in which the petromodernity industries harvests and threatens vitality. The introduction of this thesis is concerned tracking how petromodernity is a byproduct, offspring, or extension of colonialism. In this way, petromodernity can be thought about as “petro-colonialism.” Ursula K. LeGuin’s “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” informs the argument that the way thay petro-colonialism came to be and also maintains itself is by utilizing the “killer story.” This thesis also employs autorheoretical techniques informed by Lauren Fournier to show how petro-colonialism or “oiliness” sticks to its …

Undammed: A Narrative, Mark Abram Schoenfeld

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Having left behind the religious faith of his youth, the narrator charts out a new belief system rooted in learning the manifold stories that make up a place and its people. More and more, the narrator feels drawn to the river, which forces him to confront the impact his city and the seven reservoirs above it have had on the waterway.

Variation In Body Composition In Deer Mice: The Biogeography And Ecophysiology Of Energy Allocation, Cole Joseph Wolf

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Body composition, the percent of lean and fat mass, is a snapshot of an individual’s energetic state at a moment in time. Wild organisms should allocate energy to optimize fitness, so tracking changes in body composition provides a window into how priorities may shift throughout the year or across environments. While seasonal variation in body composition is wellcharacterized in systems such migrating birds (Scott et al. 1994) and hibernating mammals (Hellgren 1998), much less is known about how this trait varies across species ranges and thus how organisms modify their body composition and to meet local environmental challenges. For my …

An Examination Of The Food System, Foodscape, Dietary Patterns, And Accolated Health Outcomes Of Salish People Within The Confederated Salish And Kootenai Nation, Joshua William Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Often an individualistic, consumerist strategy is promoted as the solution to decrease the growing prevalence of diet-related diseases. Unfortunately, this logic is ahistorical and apolitical while privileging pathological individualism, capitalistic consumerism, and prevalent diets within the United States. This reasoning fails to recognize diet construction across time by ideologies, policies, and practices. Such an outlook misses the reality that many people cannot escape the grip of the modern, pervasive, ultra-processed food system.

Several Native American populations find themselves plagued with high rates of diet-related diseases. Standard mantra shoulders these communities with their plight, often framing the discourse as personal responsibility …

Supervised Cancer Rehabilitation: Applications For Utilizing Existing Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Facilities For Cancer Patients And Survivors, Nancy A. Condit

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Currently, the NIH reports there are approximately 18 million Americans with a history of cancer. Cancer statistics are projected to rise to 22.1 million by 2030. In addition to cancer, cardiovascular diseases are globally the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. The body of research in this area clearly demonstrates that greater amounts of physical activity correspond with a lower risk of cancer recurrence and all-cause mortality, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). Exercise rehabilitation success in cancer patients, both during and after treatment, is limited by several barriers, including the lack of facilities, trained personnel and financial resources. In response to …

Negotiating The Sacred: Understanding Impacts To Iks And Itek From Use Of Remote Sensing And Gis Technologies Within Tribal Landscapes, Renelda R. Freeman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

How we see the world and ourselves in relation to it is largely achieved by the lens we are looking through and associated experiences within this relationship. This is additionally true when considering the acknowledged fact that Indigenous Knowledges are derived from natural and cultural sources and these assist in constituting the cultural identities of those Peoples associated with these sources. Presently there is a hunger for access and use of Indigenous Knowledges (IK) as never before seen in public ways, through a national Call for collaborative means to apply these knowledges to such as the issues we globally face …

Beaver Dam Analogs (Bdas) Alter Carbon Pools, Fluxes, And Concentrations Of Intermountain Headwater Streams, Hilary Schultz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Beaver dam analogs (BDAs) have emerged as a climate adaptation and restoration strategy for water resource management in the drought-prone Western U.S., yet the focus has been on their influence on water quantity, overlooking effects on broader ecological components. By increasing water residence time and facilitating sediment retention, BDAs have the potential to influence carbon pools, fluxes, and concentrations. To examine the influence of BDAs on instream and riparian organic C and trace gases, we studied three intermountain headwater streams restored with BDAs two years after restoration during the summer of 2021. We found that there were subtle differences in …

Electric Momentum: Dynamics Of Transportation Electrification And Stories From The Road, Amelia Liberatore, Amelia R G Liberatore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The climate is undeniably changing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published yet another report this year outlining how extreme weather, brought on by our use of Earth's resources, causes loss of nature and human life around the world. The summer of 2023 broke records for high ocean temperatures and melting polar ice, and abnormally potent floods and fires touched all corners of the Earth. Industrial production of goods, and the personal choices that purchase them, are responsible for massive amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide and methane. GHG emissions thicken the Earth's atmosphere and continue the …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Novel Biomaterials: The Use Of Hyaluronan For Otologic Applications And Silk Fibroin For Sensing Applications, Elizabeth Marie Arrigali

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We have developed four projects using biomaterials including hyaluronan (HA) and silk fibroin (SF) for biomedical applications. First, we investigated an HA-antioxidant conjugate for topical application in sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Drug delivery to the ear is very difficult. Systemic approaches usually result in low concentration to the ear and topical approaches are difficult with the two anatomical membranes of the ear: the tympanic membrane (TM) and the round window membrane (RWM). We have chosen an HA-based drug conjugate as HA has been shown to permeate through anatomical membranes like the skin. Our hypothesis was that an antioxidant like DMethionine …

The Politics Of Abundance: American Philanthropy And The Political Economy Of Food In The Twentieth Century, Elizabeth Berit Barrs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

“The Politics of Abundance: American Philanthropy and the Political Economy of Food in the Twentieth Century” uses food aid as a lens to understand how philanthropy became a significant new force in the twentieth-century political economy, both in the US and in the projection of American power abroad. I argue that US-based international food philanthropy joined with the state and the full breadth of the American food industry to structure the political economy of food in the twentieth century and to export it globally, impacting how much of the world produces and consumes food. Voluntary agencies and foundations provided a …