Digital Commons Network^™

The Effct Of Low-Level Lead On Serotonin Expression In The Developing Mouse Superior Olivary Complex And Somatosensory Cortex, Sunyoung Park

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Low-level Pb exposure is a risk factor for neurobehavioral and cognitive deficits in both humans and animals. These neurological dysfunctions have been associated with deficits in auditory temporal processing. The developing central nervous system is particularly susceptible to Pb exposure, and Pb decreases the immunoreactivity of serotonin (5-HT) and VMAT2 in the lateral superior olive (LSO). During early developmental, "non-serotonergic" sensory neurons, including LSO neurons and thalamocortical neurons of the somatosensory system, transiently take up 5-HT from the extracellular environment through the transient expression of the serotonin reuptake transporter SERT. Maintenance of appropriate 5-HT levels is important for development of …

Scale And Source Of Geospatial Data For Wildfire Risk Assessments: Comparing National Data With Local Data In The Deschutes National Forest, Julie Marie Gilbertson-Day

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Widespread use of geospatial data in environmental decision-making tools such as wildfire risk models has called attention to questions of availability, quality, and currency of input data layers. As wildfires are modeled with growing confidence and knowledge of how resources respond to fire is increasing, challenges must be addressed before geospatial data are acquired and used to represent resources of high value in wildfire risk assessments. Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center of the USDA Forest Service employ a framework for assessing wildfire risk to a range of human and ecological …

The Development Of An Artist, Lori Jean Wheeler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The goal of my final creative project was to receive instruction in the area of the visual arts, create a body of work that would be displayed in an art gallery or other appropriate setting, and emerge publicly as an artist. This goal was important to me for two reasons. The first reason was that for many years I had suppressed my own need to create and express myself through art for various reasons: lack of instruction and fear of stepping out of the box and expressing myself creatively. My final creative project has led to an awakening of my …

Population Dynamics Of The Columbia Spotted Frog (Rana Luteiventris): Inference From Long-Term Demography, Rebecca Marie Wahl Mccaffery

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Worldwide extinctions of amphibians are at the forefront of the biodiversity crisis, with climate change figuring prominently as a potential driver of continued amphibian decline. Changes in both the mean and variability of climate conditions may affect amphibian populations in complex, unpredictable ways. However, few studies have evaluated effects of climate change on individual vital rates and subsequent population dynamics of amphibians. I investigated the population dynamics of a high elevation population of the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) in relation to climate variation over a ten-year period.

I documented an increase in survival and breeding probability as severity of …

“The Season Of Famine” As A Challenge To Food Security In Northern Rural Togo: Addressing Seasonal Hunger Through Household Coping Strategies, Jennifer Gorsegner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Improved understanding about food security has led researchers to develop increasingly holistic approaches to studying the effects of household food insecurity. This research, based in the remote prefecture of Dankpen in Togo, West Africa, presents insights into the lives of rural subsistence farmers, the role of population pressures, and the effectiveness of both international and national development work. Originally I wanted to identify positive deviants who were food secure living in the Dankpen prefecture. I conducted group interviews in five villages surrounding the prefectural capital, Guérin-Kouka in December 2009 and January 2010. There was combined total of 61 men and …

Chinese Classifier Acquisition: Comparison Of L1 Child And L2 Adult Development, Jiang Song Gong

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The context of this thesis is the long-debated issue of whether or not adult second language (L2) development is basically similar to child first language (L1) development. The thesis approaches the issue through research dealing with L1 acquisition of Chinese classifiers and a pilot study of L2 adult classifier acquisition. First, evidence that children acquire specific classifiers earlier than measure classifiers is discussed and explained in light of existing language learning theories. With the aim of providing comparable data regarding L2 adult classifier acquisition a pilot study was conducted in which nine adult English-speaking learners of Chinese were tested on …

A Comparative Financial Analysis Of Fast Pyrolysis Plants In Southwest Oregon, Colin Brink Sorenson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There are millions of acres of forestland in the Western United States that could benefit from fuel reduction treatments to improve forest health and reduce wildfire fuels. These treatments generate forest residues that are typically piled and burned. However, with increasing concerns about energy security, high oil prices, air quality from pile burning and climate change, there is great interest in examining ways to economically use these residues as a renewable energy source. Pyrolysis of forest biomass is one method that shows promise, though the financial feasibility of doing so has not been previously investigated. This study presents the expected …

Evaluating Population Estimates Of Mountain Goats Based On Citizen Science, Jami J. Belt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Citizen science programs that use trained volunteers may be a cost-effective method for monitoring wildlife at large spatial and temporal scales. However, few studies have compared inferences made from data collected by volunteers to professionally collected data. In Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana, I assessed whether citizen science is a useful method to monitor mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) populations. I compared estimates of mountain goat abundance by volunteers at 32 sites throughout GNP to estimates by biologists and raw counts from aerial surveys at a subset of 25 and 11 sites, respectively. I used multiple observer surveys to calibrate the …

Factors That Influence Ponderosa Pine Duff Mound Consumption, Emily Claire Garlough

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

When applying prescribed fire to long-unburned but fire-dependent ecosystems managers require better decision-support models to determine appropriate conditions for achieving desired effects. Prolonged combustion in duff accumulations at the base of large conifers can lead to fine root mortality, cambial injury, enhanced susceptibility to bark beetle attack, and possibly tree death. Pre-burn sampling to predict duff mound consumption from measurable attributes is vital in order to limit the deleterious effects of prolonged smoldering combustion. The objective of this study was to determine the conditions that influence duff consumption and analyze the variability of these factors in the field. Duff moisture …

Marine Applications Of An Autonomous Indicator-Based Ph Sensor, Sarah E. Cullison

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Currently, the lack of accurate in situ pH measurements limits our understanding of natural pH variability. In order to predict future pH changes in the oceans, quality high temporal resolution pH data are needed. This work used the newly developed Submersible Autonomous Moored Instrument for pH (SAMI-pH), a fully autonomous, in situ spectrophotometric pH sensor, to study oceanic pH variability. The three main goals of this research were to: determine the field performance of the new SAMI-pH, establish the utility of combining SAMI-pH data with in situ pCO2 data to characterize the entire inorganic carbon cycle and establish pH variability, …

Masculine Domesticity In The Mining West: An Archaeological Investigation At Coloma Ghost Town, Margaret Anne Thurlo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The recovery of a scorifier, or roasting dish, at Feature 131 in Coloma, Montana led to the theory that the feature represented an assayer’s household. Historical documentation, in the form of a personal diary, revealed that the assayer at Coloma, Chester Pray, shared a cabin with another man. This revelation led to a particular question: what would the material record of an all-male household look like? The majority of previous engendered investigations into 19th century households focused on the role of women. Gender is often equated with women in historical and archaeological studies, and it became necessary to integrate literature …

The Last Standing Bear: A Documentary Film On The Life And Work Of Charles Jonkel, Shannon Kelly Donahue

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Last Standing Bear: The life and work of Charles Jonkel is a documentary film about Dr. Charles Jonkel, a pioneer of polar bear biology, and his contributions to science, conservation and community. Jonkel was among the first scientists to capture and handle black bears and polar bears, was instrumental in developing international conservation and management strategies for polar bears, and has influenced generations of biologists, conservationists, activists, and students through his scientific research, teaching, advocacy, and character. The Last Standing Bear attempts to interpret Jonkel’s contribution to science, conservation, and community. Using direct cinema, the film examines Jonkel’s life …

The Use Of Natural Product Substrates For The Synthesis Of Libraries Of Biologically Active, New Chemical Entities, Joshua Bryant Phillips

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since Alexander Fleming first noted the killing of a bacterial culture by a mold, antibiotics have revolutionized medicine, being able to treat, and often cure life-threatening illnesses and making surgical procedures possible by eliminating the possibility of opportunistic infection. However, during the past 30 years many of the infections that were once easily cured by the proper antibiotic are no longer so due to a precipitous rise in multi-drug resistant organisms. This rise in multi-drug resistant organisms poses a grave threat to the medical advances that have been made in the past century and underscores the need for new antibiotics. …

The Discipline Of Happiness, Courtney Leigh Christopher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A deeply personal Journey, “The Discipline of Happiness” blends fundamental philosophy with the power of visual art. In a 42‐year quest for purpose certain theories have been tried, championed, discredited, and discarded. The distillation of these ideas into my current theory provides, more saliently than the theory itself, a venue for discussion of the creative process. My creativity often manifests itself in visual terms. Through the medium of an extended artist statement I reflect on the virtues of thinking in both a linguistic and spatial manner. Orchestrating the dual modes of inquiry, semantic and visual, into a single narrative highlights …

Small Bird My Heart, Carrie Ojanen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A poetry thesis in lyric and narrative form.

Taming The Wild: On Womanhood, Nation And Nature In Ann-Marie Macdonald's Fall On Your Knees And The Way The Crow Flies, Yvonne Michelle Hammond

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project evaluates the work of Canadian author and playwright Ann-Marie Macdonald in the context of links between ecocritical, feminist and post-colonial perspectives; it seeks to understand how broader definitions for gender provide an alternative to the patriarchal binaries that limit both individual and national identities. Part of the Canadian conscious is an anxiety that questions not only the way difference impacts their culture, but also how these differences speak to a lack of a homogenized national identity. This study focuses on Macdonald�s novels Fall on Your Knees (1996) and The Way the Crow Flies (2003) , in order to …

Sabotage! And Other Stories, Gregory Elliott Luther

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a collection of short stories written from 2008-2010.

Airport Rings: Stone Circle Archaeology In Yellowstone National Park, Michael Livers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This report contains the results of the archaeological investigations performed at the Airport Rings Site in the Montana portion of Yellowstone National Park. During the 2007-2008 Montana Yellowstone Archaeology Project (MYAP) Field school, University of Montana Students excavated three stone circles or tipi rings. The crew uncovered three hearths and collected several hundred lithic artifacts, including stone tools, and faunal remains. The Airport Rings Site was the first stone circle site to be excavated inside Yellowstone National Park.

The Influence Of An Ecosystem Engineer On Nutrient Subsidies And Fish Invasions In Southwestern Montana, Magnus Mccaffery

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Streams and associated riparian zones are among the world's most highly valued yet threatened ecosystems. Interest in using the ecosystem engineering behavior of beaver tomeet watershed conservation goals is becoming more pervasive, owing to substantive work documenting the physical effects of beaver impoundments on freshwater ecosystems. However, it is unclear how beaver modify ecological processes linking abiotic factors to changes in the surrounding biotic community. I investigated how beaver impoundments influence local food web processes, as well as impact native fish species threatened by nonnative invasions.

I showed that beaver impoundments enhanced aquatic resource availability to terrestrial consumers. Beaver impounded …

The Meaning Of Markets: How The Domestic Fair Trade Association Understands Creating Social Change Using Market Initiatives, Emily Elizabeth Thorn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Agriculture in North America has tended toward consolidation and industrialization in the past century. Responding to the narrowing of market advantage for small-scale organic farmers and the plight of farm workers, as well as to both the failures and potentials of international fair trade and organic initiatives, members of the nascent Domestic Fair Trade Association (DFTA) seek to insert social justice into the North American food system using a market-based initiative mediated by independent that conform to stringent criteria. This study examines the meaning of fair trade in a North American context; the challenges facing domestic fair trade initiatives, and …

The Postmortem Interval: A Systematic Study Of Pig Decomposition In West Central Montana, Hillary Renee' Parsons

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The postmortem interval (PMI) is an important piece of information used by forensic and criminal investigators to help investigate crimes and other unattended deaths. Time since death estimations assist law enforcement in providing a reference with which to compare a suspects alibi, identify victims of crime, and solve cases. Studies of decomposition have been conducted at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility in Knoxville, TN; however, decomposition at high altitude climates characterized by colder temperatures and arid conditions is poorly understood. Further, the lack of postmortem interval studies in west central Montana has hindered the investigation and identification of …

The Social Benefits Of Wilderness, Michael Joseph Aloi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Modern culture has not yet learned to live in harmony with the rest of the natural world. This is largely because we are afflicted with inadequate institutions and personal habits. These habits and institutions are also responsible for many social ills – sexism, homophobia, etc. In particular, “the imperium” is a way of thinking and acting which encourages us to practice a heavy-handed form of standardization; it encourages us to ignore particularity. These habits and institutions – the imperium – are a result of, and reinforced by, our interpersonal interactions. The standardization of these interactions drains the wildness out of …

Exploring Perspectives On Landscape And Language Among Kaike Speakers In Dolpa, Nepal, Corrie Maya Daurio

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The majority of the world’s languages are in danger of extinction within this century. Of the more than 6000 languages in the world, 4000-5000 are spoken by Indigenous peoples. Accompanying the loss of languages is the loss of the capacity for these peoples to transmit those aspects of their environmental knowledge systems which are embedded and expressed in their languages. The Kaike speakers of Tichurong in Dolpa, Nepal represent one of these endangered language communities, with approximately 800 speakers remaining. The purpose of this research was to engage Kaike speakers in an exploration of the relationships among their language, environment, …

Renewable Energy In Montana: System Applications And Technlogy, Mandi Lee Corr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Energy is a critical topic of debate today, and much interest has turned to renewable energy forms. The negative implications of fossil fuel use are outweighing their benefits, as the twenty-first century has seen environmental, economic, and social consequences unfold. Montana is in a unique position in that it has five forms of renewable energy for heating and electricity generation purposes. Solar, wind, small-scale hydro, biomass, and geothermal energies are available across the state. These energy forms have the potential to provide residences and businesses with heat and electricity year-round, using a seasonally complementary, integrated system. The current installation of …

Leftovers: A Search For The Freegan Ideal, Emily Darrell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract. Abstract optional for professional papers.

Aptamer Selection For Oxidative Dna Lesions, Brandon Lloyd James

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Aptamer science is a growing field of both chemistry and biochemistry. Aptamers bind to specific target molecules, potentially allowing for identification and quantification. The methodologies for selection of aptamers are growing and ever-changing. There is a number of different selection protocols, some specialized and others more general. All have their advantages and limitations. Here I describe a host of these protocols and relate them towards the selection of an aptamer for oxidative DNA lesions, specifically the oxidation products of guanine. Guanine has the lowest reduction potential of the four DNA bases, and as such is the most readily oxidized. The …

Adaptive Variation In Microbes: Insights From Wild And Experimental Populations Of Escherichia Coli, Margaret Ann Kinnersley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Intraspecific differences in genome composition and gene regulation are widespread in both natural and artificial prokaryotic systems. Understanding the molecular basis, population dynamics and fitness consequences of these differences can provide useful insight into many aspects of microbial ecology and evolution. The work presented here is a study of molecular variation in both natural and experimental populations of E. coli, conducted with the ultimate goal of gaining a better understanding of niche adaptation and the nature of molecular variation in microbes. In Chapter 2, the mechanistic basis of adaptation and diversification in a polymorphic experimental population of E. coli that …

In My Element, Alisa Hammond Mclaughlin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper conveys the rich background savored from my family’s ranch and how it still deeply affects me, not only in my art, but how I view the world.

My final Creative Pulse project was to intentionally set aside time to create more personal art. This journey of art exploration quickly exposed a strong sense of place that emanated from the ranch of my childhood upbringing. Thus, my journey became threefold; create art with my students, present our art in a gallery showing and investigate the impact place has on people.

The Chinese brush painting and oil painting adult education …

Nameless Heroines, Kate Elizabeth Murphy Ristow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A collection of five short stories.

Forest Habitat Improvement Planning On The Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area: A Case Study In Multiple Criteria Decision-Analysis, Christine Ann Paulu

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The forests of western Montana were historically characterized by mixed-severity fire regimes, which have been mostly absent due to fire suppression policies of the 20th century. This has changed stand structure and forest composition, resulting in a high risk of wildfire, loss of heterogeneity in forest types, and loss of valuable wildlife habitat. As a result forest stewardship, or holistic forest management, and long-term planning have been used widely by forest managers and landowners to improve forest health, to use resources efficiently, and to satisfy stakeholders. This case study shows how one agency, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP), could …