Digital Commons Network^™

Sprint Running In Collegiate Football Players: Biomechanical Characteristics And Transfer Of Training, Andrew Berrier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Strange Creature, Dagny Walton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Strange Creature is an exploration and renovation of the myth of the American West. I extract elements from the known and recognizable myth of the West and create my own rendition, focusing in particular on themes of transformation and violence. Here in this black mirror world, animals speak out loud, cowboys face down a wildland with eyes, and two suns light up the lonely sky. There is no continuous narrative thread, but each piece is a vignette that takes place in a single shared world. This world is at once familiar and completely alien. I intend to surprise the viewer …

A Comparative Study On Critical Thinking Skills Of Isec And Non-Isec Teachers In Institutions Of Higher Education In The North Of China, Liqin Tang

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Critical thinking (CT) has become a main focus in the higher education and is viewed as one of the essential skills for students to succeed in the 21^st century. Many studies focus on Chinese students and their CT skills. There is a scarcity of research targeting teachers’ CT. However, teachers are the key to successful education and they play a crucial role in any education reform. Teachers’ perception, attitude, and experience impact the educational practice. Therefore, it is imperative to examine teachers’ CT.

This study utilized a non-experimental causal-comparative methodology with an explanatory mixed methods research design. The purpose …

Making Mochi!, Shannon 'Owo' Crystal Webb

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Making mochi (rice cakes) is a metaphor for making a way of life for myself through spiritual and cultural practice. I navigate the complexities of cultural mixing and identity as someone who is half Korean and half white. Rather than one or the other, I have always felt mixed, so my path to understanding my place in the world is also mixed. On one level, I am honoring my heritage by referencing Korean customs, folktales, and mythology. On another, I address how my needs are based on my current state, which includes my location, pop culture, and society at large. …

Ancient Migrations In West Mexico: Mtdna Analyses, Patricio Gutiérrez Ruano

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite the mounting evidence that suggests The Aztatlán tradition in West Mexico was a major cosmopolitan region during the Postclassic period (AD 900-1521) with connections to the rest of what is now Mexico, archaeologists have characterized items in West Mexico as culturally distinct from the rest of Mesoamerica. Recently, endogenous, and exogenous material culture has been interpreted as movement and exchange of goods and ideas between subregions and surrounding areas, all of which mention physical contact and trade were involved between Aztatlán and elsewhere. This has included interacting with areas as far as the U.S. Southwest, as well as in …

From The Green Room: Notes On A Saltwater Girlhood In The Borderlands, Izabela Garcia-Arce

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this debut book, Bela García-Arce explores what it means to reconnect with saltwater roots in tiny coastal towns across Baja California through a collection of personal essays. She starts by telling the story of her foundation—about growing up in San Diego and falling in love with the ocean, about what it was like to be a young Mexican girl with a family with no interest in the water. She leans heavily on humor to deliver playful jabs at the toxic masculine beach culture while also revealing how she played a role in combatting it. Between exploration of toxic sludge …

Uncovering The Connection Between Mental Health Service Availability And Violent Crime: A Test Of Macrolevel Theory, Tatianna R. Pugmire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since the decline of mental health service funding and availability, the relationship between untreated (or improperly treated) serious mental illness and violent crime is increasingly critical to examine. Rooted in a social support and institutional anomie theory (IAT) perspective, the purpose of this quantitative study is to analyze the relationship between mental health service availability and violent crime rates across the United States for the year 2016. It was hypothesized that findings would suggest an inverse relationship between mental health service availability and rates of violent crime. Results revealed the opposite, however, indicating that the more psychiatric hospitals in an …

Irrigation In The Western United States: Occurrence, Impacts, And Sustainability, David Granger Ketchum

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Irrigation represents our greatest intervention in the hydrological cycle, accounting for over 80% of extracted freshwater in the Western U.S. Despite its economic and ecological importance, irrigation’s spatial and temporal occurrence, magnitude, impacts on streamflow, and response during water shortages has not been characterized in our region. The major objective of this dissertation was to systematically assess irrigation over the Western US to answer the following questions: 1) Where and when does irrigation occur within the study region? 2) How has the intensity, area, and distribution of irrigation changed over the course of the past 35 years? 3) What impact …

Umfc 140 A Comprehensive Case Report, Daniel D. Warila

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

UMFC 140 Is a teaching specimen from purchased from China assigned To Daniel Warila B.A. for the purpose of a Forensic case study. This case study covers a wide variety of forensic procedures that can be applied to these remains. The forensic procedures used consist of past as well as current procedures were applied to the remains with the resulting findings discussed and analyzed. This case study was focused on finding as many forensic answers as possible on the remains in their current condition.

The Reproductive Consequences Of Low Energy Availability In Females, Courtney Couture

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Motown Movie Magic: Respectability, Gender, And Authenticity In Crossover Films, 1972-1989, Nicholas Andrew Ambs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

At the start of the 1970s, Berry Gordy, Jr., moved Motown Industries to Los Angeles to expand into the film and television industries. Just as in the music industry, Gordy utilized respectability politics to navigate a segregated market to appeal to a wider audience. As rhetoric around notions of respectability changed perspectives on the Black experience, Gordy’s business practices represented a traditional tactic for uplift ideology that he sought to demonstrate in his film. In the context of national changes and industrial trends, Gordy balanced building credibility, establishing a profitable studio, and creating a positive image throughout the 70s and …

Re-Curation And Recognition: Addressing The Curation Crisis Through The Garnet Ghost Town, Jocelyn A. Palombo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As universities, federal curation facilities, public museums, and private collections struggle to create space on their shelves curators and archaeologists continuously evaluate what must continue to be stored and what needs to be deaccessioned. Utilizing a collection housed at the University of Montana I explore strategies for combating this issue. The collection originates from the Garnet Ghost Town and has been in the university’s care since its excavation. The objectives of this project are to obtain new information and incorporate innovative techniques to learn more about the collection itself and provide an updated analysis to one of Montana’s most complete …

Faulty Foundations: An Investigation Into Toxic Homes In The Blackfeet Nation, Kathleen Elyse Shannon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2002, a class action lawsuit came out of the Blackfeet Nation. The plaintiffs were residents of a federally-funded housing project called Glacier Homes, and they were suing Blackfeet Housing and the Department of Housing and Urban Development because their homes were making them sick. The case got some local media coverage for a couple years. But it was ultimately forgotten and the plaintiffs never got a remedy.

This long-form audio project revives this story and asks listeners to think about these plaintiffs’ arguments in a modern light. The Glacier Homes offer a lens through which to think about several …

Responses Of Elk To Mangement Actions And Hunter Access In The Northern Sapphire Mountains, Montana, Usa, Peter O. Mumford

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chapter 1

Regulation of rifle hunting of adult female elk is the main tool wildlife managers use to manage the abundance of elk (Cervus canadensis) in the western United States. However, elk are increasingly located in areas where hunting access is restricted during rifle-hunting season, decreasing the ability of managers to reduce elk abundance through hunter harvest. Management actions that restricted hunter access in a 26 km2 area and closed 62 kms of predominantly 2-wheel motorized routes occurred in the northern Sapphire Mountains, Montana, USA. We collected data on elk locations before and two years after the management actions and …

Missed Opportunities To Vaccinate Teens Against Human Papillomavirus: Variation And Mechanisms Between Public And Private Facilities, Patrick E. Boise

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection that causes at least 37,300 new cases of cancer every year in the United States. While effective vaccines to prevent HPV infection have been approved and available since 2006, 23.1% of US adolescents aged 13- 17 continue to miss out on the opportunity for immunization (Pingali 2022). This study examines missed opportunities (MOs) for HPV vaccination among US teens, where the teen receives either Tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) and/or Meningococcal vaccines, but the recommended HPV dose is not administered. This study uses a health economics framework and multinomial logistic …

Using Geometry And Visualization To Demystify Eigen Decomposition In The Classroom: An Analytical And Pedagogical Approach, Briana Marie Young

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite leaving graduate school with a functional understanding of eigen decomposition, many students of the social sciences lack a conceptual or intuitive understanding of what eigen objects are or how to adapt the utility of these objects to new situations and properly interpret them. Conceptual understanding is beneficial and desirable in several ways: It endows users with higher accuracy in how they apply a given method, as well as the means to challenge improper or misguided use of that method. The objective of this dissertation is to lay out the derivation of simple instructional tools that can be incorporated into …

A Dual-Function Filamentous Pf Bacteriophage Protein Modulates Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Virulence Potential, Caleb Michael Schwartzkopf

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that often plagues hospitals. More than half of P. aeruginosa isolates are infected by temperate Pf bacteriophage. Pf virions protect bacteria from antibiotics, promote biofilm formation, and modulate animal immune responses in ways that promote chronic infection. These virions can be produced without lysing P. aeruginosa, but lysis may occur during superinfection. Superinfection is the process whereby virions of the same or similar phage infect an already infected host. Temperate phages typically encode superinfection exclusion mechanisms. Here we elucidate one such mechanism in Pf phage. We observed that superinfection-surviving P. aeruginosa were transiently resistant …

How Aquatic Insects Mitigate Temperature-Oxygen Challenges Via Behavioral, Morphological, And Physiological Plasticity, Jackson H. Birrell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

How do organisms respond to environmental challenges and to environmental change? These questions occupy a central place in ecology and answering them will help us to understand why species live where they do, how organisms are affected by human activities, and, ultimately, how to choose among alternative conservation strategies. These questions are difficult, however, for two reasons. First, environmental challenges often involve multiple, interacting stressors. Second, individual responses can be modified by behavioral, morphological, and physiological plasticity. My dissertation investigates how interactions between temperature and oxygen influence the performance and survival of aquatic insects and how plasticity allows individuals to …

Carbon Leakage: Evidence From French Trade Data, Jared Gibbs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pollution leakage has existed as a concern of both trade theory and domestic policy since questions of the environmental impact of economic activity entered the literature. With the growing threat of climate change and the proliferation of carbon pricing policies around the world, the value of robust estimate of the extent of carbon leakage is particularly acute. Using a pseudo poisson maximum-likelihood (PPML) estimator, I examine French trade volumes to identify potential evidence of carbon leakage. To that end, the net carbon tax between France and its trading partners is regressed on the trade volume in 318 carbon intensive goods. …

Stories From Superfund, Rachel M. Neal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Superfund sites are the most contaminated places in the nation, but they do not exist in isolation. Stories from Superfund examines Superfund sites in three different communities, sharing the stories of people with varying relationships to these sites.

An audio story explores how the largest Superfund complex in the U.S., the Clark Fork River, serves as a living laboratory. Researchers and agency staff explain what we can learn from the nation’s most contaminated places.

A graphic, written piece uses data to understand environmental justice in a community in Southeast Georgia. Environmental inequities are visualized through graphs and maps showing demographic …

The Effect Of Place Attachment And Leisure Identity On Stewardship Participation In The Rattlesnake National Recreation Area And Wilderness, Elena Rene Thomas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As outdoor recreation participation increases in the U.S., and many communities in the American West are experiencing rising amenity migration, park and protected area managers face significant challenges to balance both providing for visitors’ desired experiences and protecting the natural resources on which these experiences depend. Confronted with declining management capacity, agencies are increasingly looking to engage both newer and established recreationists in stewardship behaviors to help maintain these areas and improve human-environment relationships. One barrier to community involvement in stewardship efforts is the need to better understand the connection between recreationists’ antecedent conditions and their motivations to steward. Past …

Understanding Trauma Awareness And Communication Competency In Athletic Training: A Mixed Methods Inquiry, Adrienne Anne Tauses

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There has long been a link between stress and injury in athletes. Even so, athletic injuries are often viewed as primarily performance issues which ignores potential underlying psychological contributors to the injury. Research has shown that while athletic trainers have some training in psychological competencies, they lack awareness of trauma and self-efficacy in engaging in difficult conversations with athletes. Review of the literature will address the gaps in athletic training, and the potential of athletic trainers in supporting physical and mental health outcomes in athletes (Cormier & Zizzi, 2015; Cutler & Dwyer, 2020). Addressing the whole person within a sample …

Promoting Well-Being In Schools: The Effects Of A Happiness Workshop On Educators And Other School Personnel, Robert J. Ryan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Educators throughout the United States report high levels of mental distress, anxiety, depression, and stress and difficulties with physical health. Educational systems have limited ability to address the well-being of faculty and staff in primary and secondary schools. Existing interventions are not always adequate and often do not reach the majority of educators who are facing challenges in the aforementioned areas of wellness. Positive psychology interventions and workshops have demonstrated their efficacy in promoting well-being with different populations. In this quantitative, quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest study, I studied the effects of a brief happiness for educators workshop on participants’ well-being. The happiness …

Municipal Musk Oxen, Gentry Hale

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

You’d be hard-pressed to find a town with more sled dogs and mushers per capita than Nome, the finish line of the 938-mile Iditarod sled dog race.

It is also home to a growing herd of musk oxen, massive ungulates that Congress reintroduced to the Seward Peninsula in 1970. These icons of the far north have changed little over their 1.8 million years of existence and more closely related to sheep and goats than actual oxen.

While musk oxen pose a risk to dogs and people, they are also a major tourist attraction that helps inject much needed outside cash …

Building Bridges: Supervisors’ Management Of Competency Questioning, Arianna Camille Vokos

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Clinical supervision is an opportunity for supervisors to influence and shape the education of counselors-in-training. Exchanging feedback between supervisees and supervisors can be a challenging aspect of supervision and can have profound impact on the efficacy of supervision, the safety of clients, and the supervision relationship. Understanding the experience and process that supervisors go through when their competence is questioned could be critical to understanding the supervision relationship. Successful management of competency questioning contributes to the efficacy of the supervision relationship, better protection of clients, and positive development of supervisees. Using grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2014), this qualitative study addresses …

Assessing The Impact Of The Yellowstone Tv Series On Montana's Tourism Economy, Patrick Barkey, Melissa Weddell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

The hugely successful and popular dramatic television show Yellowstone, which portrays the fictional Dutton family ranch in Montana, has sparked the interest of a worldwide audience in our state. In addition to its critical and commercial success, the show has emerged as a significant factor in the marketing of Montana, with its more than 10 million viewers treated to storylines, characters and scenery of the mountain west. How has the show’s success affected the arrival and subsequent spending of visitors to the state? A new study jointly produced by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) and the Institute …

Evaluation Of Physiological Responses To Woodsmoke Inhalation During Exercise In Blood Pressure Sensitive/Chronotrope Stratified Individuals, Joseph Alan Sol

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The aim of this dissertation was to evaluate the acute physical reaction to WS exposure and identify potential fingerprints of physiological responses that may better illustrate the process leading to pathology from chronic exposure to particulate matter (PM). Study 1 developed a cost-effective, reproducible methodology for obtaining larger volume and pH-stable exhaled breath condensate (EBC) samples. Notably, the novel EBC device, compared to a commercially-available device, collected a larger sample volume, permitting an expansion in the number of biomarkers that could be examined in future WS exposures. The EBC device was then incorporated in Study 2, along with measuring key …

Tlr4 Adjuvanted Vaccine Against Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Virulence Factor, Pf Bacteriophage, Induces Increased Immunoglobulin Response And Highly Mutated Antigen-Specific B-Cell Receptors, Valery Cristina Roman-Cruz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is listed as a priority 1 pathogen by the World Health Organization. Although this Gram-negative bacterium is ubiquitous and can naturally be found in the environment, it is opportunistic. P. aeruginosa has a wide range of host immune evasion strategies; one such strategy is the establishment of biofilms. Pf bacteriophage, a P. aeruginosa virulence factor, can strengthen the integrity of biofilms and can also misdirect the host immune response from an appropriate anti-bacterial response to an anti-viral response. Previous studies have established that antibodies against Pf bacteriophage can enhance clearance of P. aeruginosa infections. Next generation adjuvants such …

A Biophysical Approach To Modeling Elevational Range Shifts In Colorado Mammal Communities, Ryan T. Mahar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Species geographic ranges are shifting in the face of contemporary climate warming, and documenting range shifts is crucial to our understanding of the underlying drivers mediating movement in geographic range limits. Studies on elevational range shifts with climate change are beginning to accrue within the literature, though observed shifts are idiosyncratic and difficult to predict. Some species may respond to warming temperatures by shifting their range limits upslope, where temperatures are cooler owing to the adiabatic lapse rate. However, species may also respond to warming temperatures in an elevation-dependent manner: if changes in snow depth expose overwintering organisms to colder …

Competition For Personnel: A Barrier To Prescribed Burning In The San Juan National Forest, Trevor Finney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using personnel data from the Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS) this paper analyzes the relationship between personnel and prescribed burn frequency for the San Juan National Forest. Prescribed burning is used as a tool for mitigating wildfire risk by removing hazardous fuels but faces many barriers from policy to systemic disincentives. Personnel unavailability is one of these barriers that consistently challenges managers on National Forests when attempting to conduct prescribed burns. An instrumental variables approach is used to estimate the impact of personnel unavailability on managers decisions to conduct prescribed burns between 2014 and 2022. Estimates do not support …