Digital Commons Network^™

Trailing Fire: Working In The Woods And The Future Of Forests In A Chaotic Climate, Claire Kilchrenan Thompson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Our national conversation about wildfire is shifting. As wildland fires become larger, more frequent, more severe, and more expensive—and as climate change and land-use patterns drive the trend toward more fire—we’re scrambling to find a different paradigm for engaging with fire. Scientists now call this age of increasingly extreme burning the Pyrocene, and we’re just beginning to grapple with its impacts on the way we work, play, and live on the land.

As a longtime trail worker for the U.S. Forest Service, I’ve spent hundreds of days clearing trails in burned forests. In Trailing Fire, I draw on these …

Training And Utility Of Mindfulness Among School Psyschologists, Emily Ann Hattouni

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The role of school psychologists (SPs) includes consulting with parents, teachers, and working directly with students. Researchers have demonstrated a high rate of burnout among professionals in this field (e.g., Huebner, 1992; Schilling et al., 2018). Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be useful to address symptoms of burnout among other professionals (e.g., physicians: Luken & Sammons, 2016). Mindfulness has also been theorized as particularly useful for the myriad roles that school psychologists work within (Alahari, 2017). Although research into the utility of mindfulness have found positive effects for students within the schools (e.g., Felver et al., 2016), no research …

The Introduction Of Veteran Service Organizations To The State Of Montana’S Department Of Corrections, Zachary C. Rehm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) exist throughout the United States and serve veterans, service members, dependents, and survivors. Some VSOs provide programming for veterans in their communities, such as job fairs, organizing fundraising events, raising awareness around the issues affecting veterans, assisting in the application process, and assisting in rehabilitation efforts. The American Legion specifically was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a 'patriotic veterans organization'. Since its conception, the Legion stands at nearly 2 million in membership, scattered throughout 13,000 posts worldwide. Most recent studies from the Justice of Bureau Statistics indicate that 8% of all incarcerated inmates are United …

A Novel Pathway For The Production Of Poly-N-Acetylglucosamine By Borreliaceae, Adam Matthew Drobish

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Poly-N-acetylglucosamine (PNAG) is an extracellular polysaccharide consisting of β-1,6 N-acetylglucosamine monomers. PNAG is a key component of biofilms produced by diverse bacteria including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Yersinia pestis, Bacillus subtilis¸and many more. The structure of PNAG is highly conserved across the microbial world. Here, we demonstrate that PNAG is produced by two Borrelia species, Borrelia (Borreliella) burgdorferi and Borrelia hermsii. PNAG production in B. burgdorferi, the Lyme disease spirochete, depends on pngA (bb0620), a gene annotated to express a glycosyl hydrolase family 3 (GH3) enzyme, which is a novel pathway. Surprisingly, in B. burgdorferi, PNAG appears to be intracellular, …

The Effects Humidity & Temperature Has On Dna Contamination During Storage, Samantha Leigh Allison Ramey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies have been conducted on DNA cross-contamination throughout the criminal investigation process in order to evaluation the possibility that DNA from one sample could potentially influence the outcome of another. However, no published studies have examined the potential for contamination during the storage of genetic evidence after samples have been taken from crime scenes or suspects. This study is a continuation of a preliminary project, which examined storage drying time in relation to cross-contamination. The current study tested temperature and humidity for the potential of cross-contamination during storage prior to extraction. Prior to storage, 50 μl of male saliva was …

Linear Programming Analysis And Diet Breadth Modeling At Bridge River, British Columbia, Sean Patrick Boyd

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies in diet breadth modeling and patch choice have been and continue to be a hot topic of interest among practitioners of human behavioral ecology and the set of data available at Bridge River can certainly add to these debates and discussions that have been dominating anthropology in the past few decades. The faunal assemblage of Housepit 54’s 17 anthropogenic floors have provided researchers with a plethora of data that clearly indicates periods of resource depletion and partial to full site abandonment. Using Linear Programming and Diet Breadth Modelling I analyze the most represented species in the record and establish …

Accumulation By Dispossession In Protected Areas, A Literatrue Review And Case Study To Create A More Unified Understanding, Leon Russell Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Pulmonary Response To Exercise, Woodsmoke, And Acute Sleep Deprivation, Aidan Da Mccloy, Joseph A. Sol, John C. Quindry

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Our laboratory studied the combined effects of smoke exposure, exercise, and sleep deprivation to better understand the causes of the long-term deleterious health effects of woodsmoke in at risk populations, such as wildland firefighters. The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of our pulmonary function tests (PFT). Ten recreationally active male participants (age = 24±4 yrs.; height = 185.2±3.9 cm; weight = 85.7±9.4 kg; VO2max = 46.8.7±.7 ml∙min¯¹∙kg¯¹; body fat = 12.6±6.7 %) performed two separate 45-minute stationary bicycle workouts (70% VO2max) while exposed to woodsmoke particulate matter <2.5um (PM2.5) at a concentration of 250μg/m3. One trial was performed on 8 hours of sleep and the other on 4 hours of sleep. Duplicate pulmonary data for key dependent measures of PFT (FVC, FEV1%, MVV) taken before and after each workout showed no statistically significant differences between trials or across trials when examined by a two-way ANOVA analysis (FVC time p = 0.949, trial p=0.919, time-trial p=0.837; FEV1 time p=0.684, trial p=0.769, time-trial p=0.857; FEV1% time p=0.540, trial p=0.712, time-trial p=0.986; MVV time p=0.917, trial p=0.633, time-trial p=0.923). These results are consistent with the literature from participants with normal sleep patterns.1 No alterations in acute measures of pulmonary function were observed in apparently healthy individuals exposed to PM2.5 250μg/m3 of woodsmoke during exercise, nor does acute sleep deprivation alter these results.

Different Versions Of Myself, Anya Smith

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This is a research-informed screenplay exploring the relationship between religion and recreational pole dancing. While the popularity of recreational pole dancing has grown over the last two decades, it remains a controversial topic in some circles. This study employed interviews, autoethnography, and a literature review to examine the tensions between pole dancing and religion. Creative Analytic Practice was employed as a method of evaluating and presenting the research, which culminated in a fictional screenplay.

The story is about Louise, a young woman caught between two worlds. She feels pressured to conceal her recreational pole dancing activities in order to retain …

From Zero-Sum To Economic Partners: Reframing State Tax Policies In Indian Country In The Post-Covid Economy, Pippa Browde

Faculty Law Review Articles

The disparate impact COVID-19 has had on Indian Country
reveals problems centuries in the making from the legacy of
colonialism. One of those problems is state encroachment in
Indian Country, including attempts to assert taxing authority
within Indian Country. The issue of the reaches of state taxing
authority in Indian Country has resulted in law that is both
uncertain and highly complex, chilling both outside investment
and economic development for tribes.
As the United States emerges from COVID-19, to focus only on the
toll exacted on tribes and their peoples ignores the tremendous
opportunities for states to right these historical …

Assessing The Accuracy And Deficits Of Popular Drug-Interaction Software Programs In Detecting Interactions Between Cannabis And Pharmaceutical Drugs, Nathan C. Ramsbacher

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

- Purpose – The management of drug interactions in healthcare is a large concern for pharmacists and other healthcare professionals, especially for patients requiring large amounts of medications. Healthcare professionals and patients alike utilize drug-interaction software programs (DISPs) frequently to manage medications and make clinical decisions. There is a large discrepancy between DISPs in terms of detecting clinically significant drug interactions. Notably, cannabis does not flag as an interaction as reliably as pharmaceutical drugs on many DISPs. With rising cannabis use in the United States, patients deserve to make decisions on how to safely use cannabis with their prescription drugs …

Winter Wings: An Introduction To Environmental Education, Samuel G. Mothner

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Roots To Reasons: A Podcast Series - Emotional, Intellectual, & Substantive Environmental Conversations, Abigail Vogt, Damara Stewart, Sarah Griffin, Rowan Ulrigg, Sierra Franklin, Cara Shepard

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

As six students of the Resources and Sustainability Global Theme of the Franke GLI program our capstone project addresses the need for emotional, intellectual and substantive environmental conversations, a lack thereof we all have observed in our studies and daily lives. We conducted research of scholarly sources that found experience, upbringing, biases, and emotions are influencers of a person’s attitude and behavior toward the environment and climate change. Attitude is expressed through a person’s morals that inform behavior. The topics of environment and climate change are largely interpreted and expressed through pathos, which is easily manipulated by social media, marketing, …

The Future Of Food Production At Um: Learning From The Past & Envisioning The Future Of Campus Gardens, Elizabeth Todd

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

From 2010 to 2022, the Lommasson garden was a 3,600 square feet plot of land on the University of Montana’s campus in Missoula, Montana. The space produced mixed vegetables, herbs, native plants, a beehive, and seasonal duck occupants. It was used for educational purposes, internships, and employment, including 2-6 garden interns each year. In spring 2022, the garden was demolished to make room for a new campus dining hall and the start of a new student life center. Having a space centrally located on a college campus is a great way to promote healthy eating, teach students about food system …

Exclusionary Effects Of Campsite Allocation Through Reservations In U.S. National Parks: Evidence From Mobile Device Location Data, William L. Rice, Jaclyn R. Rushing, Jennifer M. Thomsen, Peter Whitney

Society and Conservation Faculty Publications

Campsites represent highly-sought-after recreational amenities in the national parks of the United States. Equitable allocation of scarce recreational resources has long been a key management issue in U.S. national parks, but has become increasingly difficult in an era of increasing demand. At present, a growing number of national park campsites are allocated through an online reservation system well-in-advance of a camper’s arrival at a park. Compounding the challenge of allocating these campsites is a long history of exclusivity within national park camping—institutionalized through campground design and predicated on a legacy of the leisure class’s affinity for camping in national parks. …

Small Area Estimation Of Postfire Tree Density In The Western United States Using An Annualized Forest Inventory, George Chilton Gaines Iii

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildfire activity in the western United States is expanding and concern for the declining extent of postfire tree cover in many western forests is mounting. Accurate estimates of postfire seedling, sapling, and large tree density following wildfire are critical for postfire forest management planning and monitoring forest dynamics. National forest inventory programs, such as the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, can provide vegetation data for direct spatiotemporal domain estimation of postfire tree density, but sample observations within domains of administrative utility are often few to none. This research investigates indirect domain estimators, which borrow sample data …

Facilitating Aquatic Invasive Species Management Using Satellite Remote Sensing And Machine Learning Frameworks, Sean C. Carter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The urgent decision-making needs of invasive species managers can be better met by the integration of biodiversity big data with large-domain models and environmental data products in the form of new workflows and tools that facilitate data utilization across platforms. Timely risk assessments allow for the spatial prioritization of monitoring that could streamline invasive species management paradigms and invasive species’ ability to prevent irreversible damage, such that decision makers can focus surveillance and intervention efforts where they are likely to be most effective under budgetary and resource constraints. I present a workflow that generates rapid spatial risk assessments on aquatic …

Saving A Species: A Look Into Novel Techniques Being Used To Conserve Wildlife, Sierra R. Cistone

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildlife is held in public trust, and the public plays an important role in management and conservation as voters, advocates and beneficiaries of the many services and enjoyment that wildlife provides. But understanding wildlife issues, conservation and management decisions can be challenging given the often complex science around wildlife ecology and diverse public perspectives. That is why careful and accurate reporting around wildlife and environmental topics is imperative and a requirement of a well-informed electorate. This master’s portfolio is a collection of extensively reported stories around wildlife issues that are designed to be accessible to general readers to fulfill that …

Randomly Perturbed Graphs And Rainbow Connectivity, John Arthur Finlay

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this work we explore randomly perturbed graphs; that is, for an arbitrarily dense graph H we add a set R consisting of m edges randomly to create a graph G. We then randomly color the edges of G with r colors. We prove, for r ≥ 5 and m a large enough constant, that between any two vertices in G there exists a rainbow path and thus G is rainbow connected. This result confirms a conjecture of Anastos and Frieze [How many randomly colored edges make a randomly colored dense graph rainbow Hamiltonian or rainbow connected?, J. Graph Theory …

He, She, They, Other: An Examination Of Gender Associations With The Chatelaine In The Anglo-Saxon Culture, Dane A. Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this paper is to study the chatelaine as a marker of gender attribution and overall usage within the Anglo-Saxon culture. Chatelaines are artifacts used to suspend multiple items to be employed for such purposes as grooming, tools, or keys and have been used widely from the Roman occupation of England during which it was used by all genders, to the Ninth Century when it was primarily used by women. As such, it is asserted that a single artifact should not to be solely relied upon to assign a gender identity to a burial, that these should be …

Make No Mistake: The Benefits Of An Errorless Learning Procedure In A Depressed Population, Bethany G. Gorter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite evidence of verbal memory deficits in people with depression (Goodall et al., 2018), there are currently minimal studies examining the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation techniques in this population, and no studies examining the effectiveness of errorless learning procedures (EL). Errorless learning eliminates errors during encoding which contrasts with traditional trial-and-error, effortful learning (EF). This paper argues that because the memory deficits in depression are largely due to dysexecutive functioning (Snyder 2013) errorless learning procedures could be beneficial to this population because it helps reduce the burden on executive functioning during encoding and retrieval. Moreover, a newer modification of errorless …

Conservation In Ecuador's Sangay-Podocarpus Connectivity Corridor: A Study Of Coproductive Capacities, Gabriel Isaac Oppler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Connectivity conservation, a growing topic across science, policy, and management, is considered an important supplement to protected areas. A diversity of ecological corridors is emerging to restore fragmented landscapes, preserve intact habitats, protect biodiversity, and improve resilience to climate change. Despite increasing expertise and resources for planning corridors, many initiatives face challenges mobilizing science and governance to implement corridors on the ground. In many cases, biophysical science is supplemented with social science to better understand the human elements of connectivity. Similarly, collaboration and partnership are heralded as essential for effective governance of corridors. However, less is known about how these …

An Integrative Investigation Of The Synechococcus A/B Clade During Adaptive Radiation At The Upper Thermal Limit Of Phototrophy, Christopher L. Pierpont

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Thermophilic microorganisms have been scientifically observed since the early nineteenth century and have spurred many questions about the limits of life and the capacity of organisms to survive extreme conditions. Decades of research on thermophile proteins and genomes have yielded several proposed correlates of temperature that may contribute to adaptation of bacteria and archaea to high temperature. However, many of the generalizations reported are drawn from analyses of deeply divergent taxa or from individual case studies in isolation from mesophilic relatives. Members of the Synechococcus A/B (SynAB) group are the only cyanobacteria with members able to grow above 65 °C …

The Effect Of Attentional Manipulation On Cough Reflex Sensitivity In Patients With Cough Hypersensitivity Syndrome, Jane Elizabeth Reynolds

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The cough reflex is complex and requires integration of sensorimotor information from the central and peripheral nervous system. Cough motor output can be volitionally modified even when a strong urge-to-cough (UTC) is felt which reinforces the idea of cortical involvement in cough and opens the door to consider how manipulating attention or changing cognitive load may impact cough reflex sensitivity. Two prior studies have shown healthy individuals have reduced cough reflex sensitivity to inhaled tussigenic stimulants when completing a distracting task, presumably due to influence from increased cognitive load. In this prospective case series study, 13 patients with cough hypersensitivity …

Adaptation In Rangeland Social-Ecological Systems: A Mixed-Methods, Cross-Scale Examination Of Factors Influencing Ranchers’ Adaptation To Drought And Climate Change, Ada Parkhurst Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rangeland social-ecological systems (SESs), which make up vast tracts of land on Earth, are critical for safeguarding ecosystem services, producing food and fiber, protecting open space, contributing to local and regional economies, and maintaining cultures and knowledges. Sustaining rangelands, the ranching livelihoods that depend on them, and the suite of ecosystem goods and services they provide hinges on a greater understanding of the social processes that influence ranchers' ability to adapt within these changing systems. In this study, I used a mixed-methods approach to examine factors influencing ranchers’ adaptation to drought and climate change across scales.

In Chapter 3, I …

Development Of Nanodisc Affinity Capillary Electrophoresis To Study The Interaction Of Giα Protein With Cell Membranes, Bethany R. Emeigh

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Guanine nucleotide-binding proteins, or G-proteins, are crucial to cell signaling by acting as molecular switches through interactions with membrane-bound receptors. G-proteins have become of greater interest due to the possibility of novel drug targets. The G-protein alpha subunit, Gα, binds GTP before localizing to the membrane to interact with other G-protein subunits and G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Gi lacks a hydrophobic region to promote localization to the membrane, but a co-translational lipidation of the N-terminal residue stabilizes this interaction.

Protein interactions with biological membranes are challenging to study due to the complex structure of membranes and the often-limited quantities of the …

A Renaissance: The Absurd Retelling Of Mostly True Events, Erica R. Hitzman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Throughout the following you will be taken on a fantastical retelling of the exhibition A Renaissance, and some of what lead up to it. Through the eyes of various shifting perspectives you will explore the relationships between the artist, her art, and the viewer in the hopes of unveiling how the work plays into feminist theory, its place in the Zeitgeist, and the motivations behind it. Each perspective is formatted differently, to visually mirror the shift in perspective. Presented in the first person and aligned to the right, the account of the artist discusses the process, emotion, and inspiration behind …

A Tribute In Honor Of Ubiratan D’Ambrósio’S Life And Legacy, Jonei Cerqueira Barbosa

The Mathematics Enthusiast

No abstract provided.

Teacher Education For Integrating Resources In Mathematics Teaching: Contributions From Instrumental Meta-Orchestration, Rosilângela Lucena, Verônica Gitirana, Luc Trouche

The Mathematics Enthusiast

This paper introduces the model of instrumental meta-orchestration (IMO), as an extension of the model of instrumental orchestration. This IMO model is defined as a systematic and intentional monitoring, by a teacher educator, of artefacts and teachers (or pre-service teachers) for facing a Meta-situation, defined as a composition of situations of different natures and difficulty levels. An IMO, in itself, is a composition of instrumental orchestrations (sequenced or interwoven). This paper presents and discusses an instrumental meta-orchestration experienced in a class of undergraduate mathematics teachers. The development of the initial model results in: new concepts, such as ad hoc …

Didactic Engineering (De) And Professional Didactics (Pd): A Proposal For Historical Eesearch In Brazil On Recurring Number Sequences, Francisco Regis Vieira Alves

The Mathematics Enthusiast

The present work presents some examples of data originated from a set of investigations developed in Brazil, at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of the State of Ceará - IFCE, in the context of teacher education, and the consideration of elements of a historical, mathematical, and evolutionary nature. Thus, from a perspective of theoretical complementarity involving the research elements derived from the notion of the didactic engineering for development and some assumptions of the French aspect of the professional didactics, two sets of data are discussed. The first set involved research carried out between 2017 and 2020. …