Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Size Matters: Nanoparticles, Biological Sex, And Lung Disease, Jessica Lynn Ray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The majority of lung diseases occur with a sex-bias is prevalence and/or severity. However, due to the historical disregard for sex as a biological variable in basic and clinical research, there is a fundamental lack of understanding on when and why respiratory inflammation preferentially affects males or females. The inhalation of engineered nanomaterials (ENM; intentionally produced by anthropogenic means and defined as having one dimension as < 100 nm) are of particular concern when considering emerging threats to lung health. Due to their extremely small size, these respirable particles are capable of reaching the functional gas exchange region of the lungs, where they cannot be easily cleared and subsequently lead to persistent inflammation, decreased lung function, and susceptibility to the development of other respiratory diseases. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) are an ENM of interest due to their widespread use in industrial, consumer, and medical applications, making them a potential hazard in both occupational and environmental settings. Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are the resident immune cells within the lungs that are responsible for phagocytosing and clearing inhaled xenobiotics, including ENM. However, typical AM clearance mechanisms are ineffective at removing persistent and pathogenic ENM such as MWCNTs, leading to the production of inflammatory mediators and the recruitment of other inflammatory immune cells. AMs have the ability to adopt a wide spectrum of functional phenotypes dependent upon endogenous and exogenous signals; these phenotypes ensure that the appropriate immune response is initiated in response to a given xenobiotic. However, when dysregulated, these phenotypes are also associated with different disease states. Interestingly, there is emerging data that sex steroid hormones (estrogen, specifically) impact AM phenotype development and inflammatory signaling, which may be, in part, responsible for the reported sex-biases observed in human lung diseases. The present research identifies sex-differences in MWCNT-induced lung inflammation, AM phenotype development, and one mechanism by which sex hormones impact AM function and subsequent inflammation.

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 …

Monitoring The Wetland Landscape: White-Faced Ibis (Plegadis Chihi) Breeding Habitat As A Model Assemblage, Shea P. Coons

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wetlands structure landscape biodiversity by providing critical habitat to numerous fish and wildlife species. However, climate change, growing human populations, and shifting land use practices strain limited water supplies that sustain wetlands in the semi-arid western US. Conserving a wetland network with prominent value to wildlife is paramount to ensure future security of habitat and ecosystem processes. Here, I use white-faced ibis (Plegadis chihi; hereafter ‘ibis’) breeding colonies as a model system to identify and monitor a landscape-scale wetland network across the semi-arid western US. Ibis serve an important role in marking ecologically important wetland networks because they require a …

Building Bridges: How Collaboration Is Addressing Wildlife-Vehicle Conflicts In Montana's Upper Yellowstone Watershed, Daniel Phelps Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In my first semester of graduate studies at the University of Montana – Fall, 2019 – I was given an assignment from one of my professors to research a “landscape-scale” conflict of my choosing and compose a professional memo that could be sent to key influencers or stakeholders tied to the issue. Naturally, I directed my attention to a community I know and love, the Upper Yellowstone, and a conflict that is ubiquitous across the West: Wildlife-Vehicle Conflicts (WVCs).

In the pages that follow I describe how Yellowstone Safe Passages came to be, who is involved, and the steps we …

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 …

Albuquerque, Suzanne Joy Garcia Pino

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This story is about living in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2017 as a mixed-race woman with Hispanic, European, and Indigenous Mexican and Puebloan ancestry. Albuquerque seeks to understand how marginalized cultures become subsumed and ultimately lost by the dominate culture. As a child of mixed heritage, I am interested in the internalization of this cultural disappearance, and all the subtle yet profound choices my ancestors have made: my grandparents refused to teach Spanish to their children so they would fit in better with the whites, my Indian great grandfather fled Mexico, leaving behind his tribe and culture, never to return. …

Polya: A Tool For Adjudicating Competing Annotations Of Biological Sequences, Kaitlin Carey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Annotation of a biological sequence is usually performed by aligning that sequence to a database of known sequence elements. When that database contains elements that are highly similar to each other, the proper annotation may be ambiguous, because several entries in the database produce high-scoring alignments. Typical annotation methods work by assigning a label based on the candidate annotation with the highest alignment score; this can overstate annotation certainty, mislabel boundaries, and fails to identify large scale rearrangements or insertions within the annotated sequence. Here, I present a new software tool, PolyA, that adjudicates between competing alignment-based annotations by computing …

Soda: An Open-Source Library For Visualizing Biological Sequence Annotation, Jack W. Roddy, Travis J. Wheeler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Genome annotation is the process of identifying and labeling known genetic sequences or features within a genome. Across the various subfields within modern molecular biology, there is a common need for the visualization of such annotations. Genomic data is often visualized on web browser platforms, providing users with easy access to visualization tools without the need for installing any software or, in many cases, underlying datasets. While there exists a broad range of web-based visualization tools, there is, to my knowledge, no lightweight, modern library tailored towards the visualization of genomic data. Instead, developers charged with the task of producing …

The Lost Histories Of The Shetayet Of Sokar: Contextualizing The Osiris Shaft At Rosetau (Giza) In Archaeological History, Nicholas Edward Whiting

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Osiris Shaft is one of many archaeological signatures associated with Egypt’s Giza Plateau, the most well-known of which are the Great Pyramids. However, the role(s) the Osiris Shaft feature played in the religious and daily practices of ancient Egyptians remain(s) unknown. This research seeks to contextualize the Osiris Shaft in Egyptian history to learn more about this feature’s story. In order to achieve this goal, this thesis examines funerary deities associated with Memphis theology and explores archaeological investigations related to the Osiris Shaft, including the work of Dr. Zahi Hawass and investigations by the Giza Mapping Project. Thanks to …

End Of The Long Year, William Doehring

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Forecasting The Daily Percentage Of Delayed Flights Based On The National Weather Data, Parto Mahmoudi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Flight delays cost airlines and affect passenger’s satisfaction. In this research work, we predicted the daily percentage of delayed flights based on the national weather data using the multiple linear regression and the random forest models. We extracted the passenger flight on-time performance data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the weather dataset from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information for the years from 2015 to 2019. We used the flight dataset for Seattle airport as the origin. We predicted the daily percentage of delayed flights for the Seattle-originated flights based on the features such as weather conditions of …

Mtsun, Llc V. Mont. Dep't Of Pub. Serv. Regulation, Ryan W. Frank

Public Land & Resources Law Review

MTSUN, LLC initiated negotiations for a power purchase agreement with NorthWestern Energy in September of 2015 for a potential solar energy facility in eastern Montana. In December of 2016, at an impasse in contract negotiations with NorthWestern, MTSUN filed a petition with the Montana Public Service Commission requesting that the agency exercise its statutory authority to set the terms of the contract for the proposed project. Following MTSUN’s petition, the PSC issued a series of orders and reconsiderations which ultimately reconfigured the entirety of the agreement, including the terms that the parties had previously agreed upon. After exhausting its administrative …

Rapid Evolution Of Aerosol Particles And Their Optical Properties Downwind Of Wildfires In The Western Us, Lawrence I. Kleinman, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Kouji Adachi, Peter R. Buseck, Sonya Collier, Manvendra K. Dubey, Anna L. Hodshire, Ernie Lewis, Timothy B. Onasch, Jeffery R. Pierce, John Shilling, Stephen R. Springston, Jian Wang, Qi Zhang, Shan Zhou, Robert J. Yokelson

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

During the first phase of the Biomass Burn Operational Project (BBOP) field campaign, conducted in the Pacific Northwest, the DOE G-1 aircraft was used to follow the time evolution of wildfire smoke from near the point of emission to locations 2-3.5 h downwind. In nine flights we made repeated transects of wildfire plumes at varying downwind distances and could thereby follow the plume's time evolution. On average there was little change in dilution-normalized aerosol mass concentration as a function of downwind distance. This consistency hides a dynamic system in which primary aerosol particles are evaporating and secondary ones condensing. Organic …

Montana Kaimin, November 4, 2020, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Novel Small Rnas Expressed By Bartonella Bacilliformis Under Multiple Conditions Reveal Potential Mechanisms For Persistence In The Sand Fly Vector And Human Host, Shaun Wachter, Linda D. Hicks, Rahul Raghavan, Michael F. Minnick

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Bartonella bacilliformis, the etiological agent of Carrión's disease, is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular alphaproteobacterium. Carrión's disease is an emerging but neglected tropical illness endemic to Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador. B. bacilliformis is spread between humans through the bite of female phlebotomine sand flies. As a result, the pathogen encounters significant and repeated environmental shifts during its life cycle, including changes in pH and temperature. In most bacteria, small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) serve as effectors that may post-transcriptionally regulate the stress response to such changes. However, sRNAs have not been characterized in B. bacilliformis, to date. We therefore performed total RNA-sequencing …

November 2020 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Montana Kaimin, October 28, 2020, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Matrices (Re)Loaded: Durability, Viability, And Fermentative Capacity Of Yeast Encapsulated In Beads Of Different Composition During Long-Term Fed-Batch Culture, Jordan Gulli, Peter Yunker, Frank Rosenzweig

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Encapsulated microbes have been used for decades to produce commodities ranging from methyl ketone to beer. Encapsulated cells undergo limited replication, which enables them to more efficiently convert substrate to product than planktonic cells and which contributes to their stress resistance. To determine how encapsulated yeast supports long-term, repeated fed-batch ethanologenic fermentation, and whether different matrices influence that process, fermentation and indicators of matrix durability and cell viability were monitored in high-dextrose, fed-batch culture over 7 weeks. At most timepoints, ethanol yield (g/g) in encapsulated cultures exceeded that in planktonic cultures. And frequently, ethanol yield differed among the four matrices …

Montanan, Fall 2020, University Of Montana--Missoula

Montanan Magazine, 1969-2024

This is the magazine of the University of Montana with news about the University for UM alumni as well as current faculty, students, staff, and administrators. This is volume 37, number 3.

Cutbank 92

CutBank

No abstract provided.

They Came To Montana To Suffer, Maureen Langloss

CutBank

No abstract provided.

The Road To Billings, Joshua Dolezal

CutBank

No abstract provided.

Contributors' Notes, Back Cover

CutBank

No abstract provided.

Special Education, Guardianships, And Procedural Due Process, Ally Seneczko

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

October 2020 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Significant Montana Cases, Hannah Higgins, Katy Lindberg

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Environmental Network And North Coast Rivers Alliance V. President Donald J. Trump, Et Al. And Tc Energy Corporation, Et Al., Kirsten D. Gerbatsch Ms.

Public Land & Resources Law Review

A single cross-border pipeline project has been the epicenter of environmental litigation for the last decade—and it is not over yet. For years, TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, LP and TC Energy have sought to construct and maintain a segment of the Keystone pipeline between the United States and Canada to connect existing pipeline infrastructure and transport crude oil. To do so, the company must first apply and be approved for a permit. Between 2008 and 2012, President Obama twice denied TransCanada Keystone Pipeline and TC Energy’s applications. Then, in 2017 and again in 2019, President Trump unilaterally invited TC Energy’s application …

Montana Kaimin, September 23, 2020, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Dst 128.B01: Engine Service I, James D. Headlee

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.