Digital Commons Network^™

A Taxonomy Of Rules: Authority, Dangers, And Possibilities, Muriel Rebecca Friedman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rules, originally a means toward group solidarity, are the alternative to the need for ongoing physical dominance. Seemingly omnipresent in modern life, rules can be overt or subtle, explicit or tacit, rigidly enforced or overlooked. They may clash with our autonomy. This thesis names and explores different functional types of rules: safety, personal, socio-cultural, legal-religious, and technical. Rules in general are discussed from social and ethical theoretical viewpoints and using ideal type methodology. Understanding that there are different types of rules and the authority behind them makes it easier to determine one’s obligations to follow them, especially with the notion …

Beyond Wilderness: Wildness As A Guiding Ideal, Christopher James Dunn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is largely a response to William Cronon’s essay “The Trouble with Wilderness or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” found in The Great New Wilderness Debate. Cronon is himself responding to many things, in large part to Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature and also to the wilderness vision typified by Dave Foreman; thus this thesis is also a response to McKibben and in many respects a defense of Foreman-like thought. Besides Cronon, I consider a wide variety of sources, taking from them in order to build a case for, and to explicate, wildness as a guiding ideal. …

Biogenesis, Assembly And Intracellular Trafficking Of Junin Arenavirus Envelope Glycoprotein Complex, Sudhakar Srinivasarao Agnihothram

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An unusual feature in the arenavirus envelope glycoprotein complex (GP-C) is the presence of a myristoylated stable signal peptide (SSP) in addition to the receptor binding subunit G1 and the transmembrane fusion subunit G2. Genetic studies were employed to understand the structure-function of the GP-C complex, with emphasis on elucidating the role of SSP in arenavirus life cycle. We present genetic evidence that support the inclusion of G2 as a member of Class I viral fusion protein, where membrane fusion is mediated by six-helix bundle structure as in HIV and Influenza viruses. Furthermore, we have identified crucial roles for SSP …

An Investigation Of Spatial And Temporal Variability In Several Of Montana's Reference Streams: Working Toward A More Holistic Management Strategy, Kathryn Elizabeth Makarowski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Water temperature is a physical property that fundamentally affects stream ecology and is considered an important water quality parameter from scientific and legal view points. On global, catchment and reach scales, anthropogenic activities have substantially altered natural stream temperature regimes, impairing these systems’ ability to maintain ecological integrity. Thermal degradation often can be attributed to a variety of human activities, and global climate change, which has been accelerated by the demands of an exponentially expanding human population, will play a central role in defining stream temperature regimes in the future. Natural spatial and temporal variability in stream temperatures adds to …

Developing The Whole Child Through Movement In The Music Classroom, Laura Rosenberg Morris

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The early twentieth century brought forth some very strong figures in the world of arts pedagogy. Among them were Carl Orff and Emile Jacque-Dalcroze. Both were composers as well as music educators. Both believed that in order for a musician to perform expressively rather than mechanically, one had to feel music in the body. Orff and Dalcroze followers today uphold these men’s idea that movement is an essential part of the music class. Seeking to feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about movement in teaching K-6 general music classes, I set out to research through books, films, my own movement experiences …

Geotourism In The Crown Of The Continent: Developing And Testing The Geotourism Survey Instrument, Bertram Bynum Boley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Boley, Bertram Bynum, M.S., Spring 2009 Recreation Management Geotourism in the Crown of the Continent: Developing and Testing the Geotourism Survey Instrument (GSI) Co-Chairperson: Norma P. Nickerson Co-Chairperson: Keith Bosak The perceived failures of mass tourism to holistically benefit a destination’s character, has created a global concern for the future of tourism destinations managed under the mass tourism model. This global concern for how tourism can negatively impact a region’s character has manifested itself in the rise of various forms of sustainable tourism such as ecotourism, community-based tourism, integrated rural tourism, and now geotourism. The focus of this study was …

Knowing The Natural World: The Construction Of Knowledge About Evolution In And Out Of The Classroom, Alison Emily Havard Perkins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Evolution is a central underlying concept to a significant number of discourses in civilized society, but the complexity of understanding basic tenets of this important theory is just now coming to light. Knowledge about evolution is constructed from both formal and "free-choice" opportunities, like television. Nature programs are commonly considered "educational" by definition, but research indicates the narratives often promote creationist ideas about this important process in biology. I explored how nature programs influenced knowledge construction about evolutionary theory using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Because misconceptions about evolution are common, I examined how students` conceptual ecologies changed …

Noninvasive Genetic Sampling Revelas Black Bear Population Dynamics Driven By Changes In Food Productivity, Barbara Mccall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I conducted research on the demography of a harvested north Idaho black bear (Ursus americanus) population to determine the underlying dynamics of changes in population abundance, to determine how much these dynamics were driven by variation in food productivity, and to evaluate how these processes could influence inferences based on mark-recapture analysis. In cooperation with Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the USDA Forest Service, I used barb-wire corrals to collect black bear DNA during 2003-2006 in the Purcell Mountains of Idaho. We analyzed these DNA samples to determine the number of uniquely identified individuals in each year, Nu. …

Charting A Sustainable Development Path: Prospects For Socially And Environmentally Beneficial Tourism In Caleta Tortel, Chile, Laura Becerra

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Caleta Tortel is a small rural town in Patagonia, Chile. Caleta Tortel is at a crossroads in economic development. The main goals of this thesis were to analyze Tortel's past and future development, evaluate the possibility of a socially and environmentally beneficial path for its future, and assess the community’s ability to shape this future path. I focused on Tortel's budding tourism development and evaluated its ability to follow and support a socially and environmentally beneficial development path.

I developed an analytic framework of two contrasting development paths: 1) extractive and exploitative, and 2) socially and environmentally beneficial (sustain able). …

Landscape And The Feminine Voice: Reclaiming Identity In The Works Of Maryse Conde, Simone Schwarz-Bart And Andre Schwarz Bart, Kathleen Marie Ruth

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines Caribbean literature and its value in establishing identity for Caribbean peoples. The discourse of Caribbean literature as a tool for re-establishing or reclaiming identity is examined, as well as the domination of the male voice throughout Caribbean literature and theory. Through examination of the intimate connection between the feminine and the landscape of the Caribbean, the presence and significance of the female voice is established in the works of Andre Schwarz-Bart, Simone Schwarz-Bart, and Maryse Conde. The recognition of particularity of women’s struggles and the consequent contribution of female authors to Caribbean literature replenish a historiography which …

The Removal And Recovery Of Oxo-Anions From Aqueous Systems Using Nano-Porous Silica Polyamine Composites, Varadharajan Kailasam

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Environmental contamination due to anthropogenic wastewater discharges containing high concentrations of toxic metals is omnipresent in the environment. Heavy metal ions from manufacturing sources can compromise the integrity of various ecological cycles as well as negatively impacting the health of humans through drinking water and the food chain. Increased levels of well known poisonous metals such as arsenic, selenium, lead and mercury are frequently detected in aqueous wastes. Arsenic and selenium are highly toxic elements to human health and the environment. The Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for both these toxic metals continue to become more and more stringent. Although there …

Animal Vegetable Mineral, Eva Lys Champagne

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There is a radical unity supporting the vast diversity of appearances in nature that makes distinct categorizations like “animal, vegetable or mineral” superficial at best. The unifying element has been called energy, or, as Emerson put it, “thought is the common origin.” This guiding principle, a life spent by the sea, and an enduring fascination with nature’s forms, has resulted in my current body of work. By combining formal references to animals, vegetables and minerals I create intentionally ambiguous ceramic sculptures that seem to exist in the fluid margin between categories. My aim is toward something composite that challenges the …

Educational Travel And Adolescent Development, Ann Saitow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Educational travel forms the basis for novel learning experiences that enhance adolescent development by enabling students to make choices about their own survival in an unfamiliar setting. This biological adaptation is driven by stimulation of the midbrain which produces high levels of dopamine, the chemical associated with learning. The elements of educational travel that promote sustained adolescent learning are: clear communication, commitment and action, communal trust and respect, maturity developed through assigned responsibilities and exposure to varied life circumstances, flexibility, and transition back to traditional school environments.

"The Last Of The True:" The Kid's Place In Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian, William Dean Clement

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this study I examine the relationship of “the kid” and “the judge” in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian Or The Evening Redness in the West (1985), specifically, how and why the kid resists Judge Holden’s overbearing existential philosophy. In my introduction I set the stage for Judge Holden’s imperial philosophy and practice through a brief explanation of his character, both historical and fictional, and the novel’s success because of his tyrannical grandeur. I then juxtapose the recalcitrant character of the kid against this megalomaniac to set up the rest of the examination of their relationship. In my chapter on Judge …

“The Sort . . . Of People To Which I Belong”: Elizabeth Gaskell And The Middle Class, Allison Masters

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis, I examine Elizabeth Gaskell’s development as a middle-class author, which is a position that most scholars take for granted. Moving away from traditional Marxist readings and drawing on revisionist class studies, I reconsider Gaskell as the typical bourgeois woman of her era by looking at her relationship with the middle class and its ideals over the course of her career. Overall, her large body of work reveals an increasing awareness of, and willingness to engage with the divisions within the middle class. In turn, as Gaskell explores such tensions and negotiates middle-class boundaries and values in her …

Get Back To Where You Once Belonged: Essays On Purpose And Perpetuity And To A Lesser Extent Gospel Music, Recycling, Bikes, Life, Death And Things Found In Alleys, Brian Lukas Kevin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Shooting The Wall, Caitie Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Comparisons In The Cranial Form Of The Blackfeet Indians: A Reassessment Of Boas' Native American Data, Jenee Caprice Gesler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Franz Boas proposed almost one hundred yeas ago that cranial plasticity explained the differences in cranial form between European-born immigrants and their American-born children. Plasticity refers to the idea that the body responds to environmental forces during growth and development. If the environment does affect cranial growth and development, than differences should be seen in populations living under different ecological conditions. In this study anthropometric measurements will be used to test for differences in head and face measurements of members of the Blackfeet Nation using multivariate statistics. The tests are designed to detect differences between the three tribes of the …

The Edge Effect: Lateral Habitat Ecology Of An Alluvial River Flood Plain, Michelle Louise Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We describe the ecology of off-channel or "lateral" habitats as key attributes of the Shifting Habitat Mosaic (SHM) of a river flood plain at the Nyack Research Natural Area in northwestern Montana. Our working hypothesis was that lateral habitats are important to the cycling of energy and materials within the SHM and contribute greatly to the productivity and biodiversity of the floodplain ecosystem. We produce a quantitative description of temperature variation across aquatic and terrestrial habitats at Nyack. Thermal patterns across lateral habitats indicate vast differences exist between lateral habitats in habitat suitability for aquatic organisms over an annual cycle. …

El Milagro De Almeria, Espana: A Political Ecology Of Landscape Change And Greenhouse Agriculture, Robert Tyrell Wolosin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate changes in the landscape of Almería in southeastern Spain, particularly in relation to the emergence of the 80,000-acre greenhouse sector. This thesis questions why the province of Almería has the highest concentration of greenhouses in the world and determines what processes led to this industry. The research focuses on local-global scale interactions and environmental history analysis within a political ecology framework. The methods for data collection included literature review of secondary sources and four months living in Almería conducting interviews and field observations. Located in Europe’s driest desert, the greenhouses of Almería …

Sage-Grouse And Energy Development: Integrating Science With Conservation Planning To Reduce Impacts, Kevin Eric Doherty

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Effective conservation planning in the face of rapid land use change requires knowledge of which habitats are selected at landscape scales, where those habitats are located, and how species ultimately respond to anthropogenic disturbance. I assessed sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) large scale habitat ecology and response to energy development in the winter and nesting seasons using radio-marked individuals in the Powder River Basin, Montana and Wyoming, USA. Landscape scale percent sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) cover at 4-km2 was the strongest predictor of use by sage-grouse in winter. After controlling for vegetation and topography, the addition the density of coal-bed natural gas wells …

Spatial Population Dynamics Of Western Painted Turtles In A Wetland Ecosystem In Northwestern Montana, Kathleen Ann Griffin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Population dynamics are driven by the interplay between the positive forces of births and immigration and the negative forces of deaths and emigration. Understanding dynamics at the local and metapopulation level is key in wildlife conservation. Although data on turtle survival and movement rates are available, few studies use rigorous statistical analyses and none include examination of stage-specific seasonal survival simultaneous with movement estimates. I used capture-mark-recapture methods to estimate apparent survival rates and movement probabilities of adult and juvenile western painted turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii) across space and time in a wetland ecosystem in northwestern Montana. All wetlands within …

Material And Social Relations In Friedrich Von Hardenberg's Heinrich Von Afterdingen, Robert Earl Mottram

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In an attempt to widen interpretations, this study first explores the myths associated with Friedrich von Hardenberg, commonly known as Novalis, which have resulted in the neglect of material interpretations of his works. After an introduction to Hardenberg's theory of the Self and Karl Marx's theory of alienation, an analysis of Hardenberg's most widely read work, Heinrich von Afterdingen, demonstrates how Hardenberg was as concerned with the material and the social relations among human beings and their labor as he was with their spiritual endeavors. The self-development of Heinrich, the main character in Afterdingen, is chronicled in this study with …

Zooxanthellae, Christine Bown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Using Noninvasive Genetic Sampling To Assess And Monitor Grizzly Bear Population Status In The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, Jeffrey Brian Stetz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildlife managers need reliable estimates of population size, trend, and distribution to recover at–risk populations, yet obtaining these estimates is costly and often imprecise. The threatened grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population in northwestern Montana has been managed for recovery since 1975, yet no rigorous data were available to evaluate the program’s success. We assessed population status using data from a large noninvasive genetic sampling project and 33–years of physical captures. Our abundance estimate, Nˆ= 765 (CV = 3.8%), was more than double the working estimate. Based on our results, the total known, human–caused mortality rate was 4.6%, slightly above the …

A Phenomenological Study Of Reiki Practitioners And Their Perceptions Of Reiki As It Relates To Their Personal Health, Tannis Mardece Hargrove

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to understand the essence of becoming a Reiki practitioner and Reiki’s relationship to an individual’s personal health. The phenomenological research perspective utilized in this study allowed the data to speak for itself and represented the essence of Reiki and Reiki practitioners in Missoula, Montana. Ten Reiki practitioners were interviewed about their personal experience with Reiki. Interviewees were all volunteers, over the age of 18, who were trained in Reiki II or higher and had more than three years of experience practicing Reiki. Participants had practiced Reiki either on themselves or someone else regularly, which …

Comparison Of Silica Polyamine Composites And Crosslinked Polystyrene Resins, Jessica Lee Wood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The development of silica polyamine composites (SPC) was inspired by the need for more environmentally benign ways of extracting and recovering technologically important and environmentally dangerous metals from waste streams. These solid phase adsorbents are designed to endure the extreme conditions associated with environmental remediation and the metal processing industry. In order for the silica polyamine composites to be viable in industry, their performance must meet or exceed the current methods of metal extraction from aqueous media. A study was undertaken to compare three silica polyamine composites: WP-2, BPAP, and CuWRAM, with their closest crosslinked polystyrene resin analogs. The studies …

Hierarchical Summer Habitat Selection By The North American Porcupine In Western Montana, Katie Ann Mally

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) has continually been a species of low priority for research and conservation efforts in the western United States. While many porcupine populations have been studied in North America, little to no research has been done on porcupines in western Montana or habitats of similar composition. More recently it has been noted that porcupine sightings have become rare in western Montana is areas where sightings were once common. Due to the overall lack of information about western porcupine populations it is imperative to gather basic natural history information in order to make informed management decisions. …

Redeveloping A Montana Food Processing Industry: The Role Of Food Innovation Centers, Jessica Babcock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana produces a staggering amount of food crops, yet the state struggles to enjoy the fruits of this abundance. The majority of Montana crops and livestock are shipped out of state as raw commodities, a practice that retains very little of the added value of the crop. Processing these crops within the state would help retain more of their value; however, Montana’s food processing industry has undergone changes that have resulted in decreased availability of food processing facilities and services to agricultural growers and producers. Over the past 70 years, there has been a simultaneous decline in decentralized food manufacturing …

Studies Of The Dimerization And Packaging Signals In Hiv-2 Rna, Tayyba Tabassum Baig

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The investigation of sequences and structures in the 5' untranslated leader region (5'UTR) of HIV genomic RNA is essential for understanding viral replication because the 5'UTR regulates several essential functions by the alternate presentation and sequestration of signals through conformational changes. Our main focus in this study was to understand those sequences and structures that are involved in dimerization and packaging of HIV-2 RNA. Progressing from previous findings, we studied in detail a 10-nucleotide palindrome sequence (pal; 5'-GGAGUGCUCC-3') of the 5'UTR, located within the major packaging signal, upstream of the dimerization signal (SL1: stem loop-1). Pal has been shown to …