Digital Commons Network^™

A Molecular Genetic Investigation Of The Regulation Of Outer Surface Protein C In Borrelia Burgdorferi: Identification And Characterization Of The Novel Regulatory Protein Bbd18, Beth Hayes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most prevalent arthropod-borne disease in the U.S. In nature, B. burgdorferi is maintained in an enzootic cycle between Ixodes ticks and mammalian hosts. In order to cause infection in mammals, B. burgdorferi spirochetes within a feeding tick sense environmental changes and subsequently alter their gene expression and protein profiles. As part of this adaptation, spirochetes within the tick midgut downregulate outer surface protein (Osp) A and upregulate OspC. Although OspC is an essential B. burgdorferi virulence factor needed for early mammalian infection, it is also a target for the mammalian acquired immune …

Modeling Connectivity In Landscape Genetics: Applications, Optimization And Assessing Uncertainty, Brian Kevin Hand

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Connectivity modeling and corridor identification are an essential part of landscape genetics and important tools for the future of conservation biology. The previous decade has shown a steadily increasing interest and rise in publications in landscape genetics. This enthusiasm has led to advances in the methods and theoretical background of the field; however, there remain important, yet unresolved, challenges. Many of these are related to validation and uncertainty testing for resistance surfaces (hypotheses of connectivity). These fundamental issues need to be addressed before landscape genetics can gain the full recognition of a scientific discipline such as population genetics or landscape …

A Chicken In Every Lot: The 2007 Chicken Ordinance In Missoula, Montana, Kate Margaret Sheridan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2007, the City Council of Missoula, Montana passed an ordinance allowing six chickens per urban lot. Missoula followed the lead of many other cities seeking to expand urban agriculture and food security opportunities through microlivestock. This paper gives context to the implementation of a specific ordinance, investigates the benefits and challenges experienced by twenty households in Missoula, and connects it back to the food system as a whole.

Acceptance Of Wildlife Crossing Structures On Us Highway 93 Missoula, Montana, Jeremiah P. Purdum

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildlife and humans have always interacted on the landscape. However, growing transportation infrastructure and its associated use are causing a large increase in direct and indirect effects on wildlife populations. Humans can also directly be affected, for example, through wildlife-vehicle collisions that impact human safety and lead to economic costs for individuals and society. In some cases transportation and wildlife agencies have implemented substantial mitigation measures along roadways in an attempt to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and to provide for safe crossing opportunities for wildlife. Wildlife-specific crossing structures are now increasingly considered in road construction. Reconstruction projects and a range of …

Climate As Assemblage: Imagining An Ecological Metaphysic, Andrea Rae Gammon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human interventions have resulted in striking changes to the global climate. I work from the understanding of anthropogenic climate change as the product of 250 years of emissions brought about through industrialization and continued by our fossil fuel economies and lifestyles. The instrumentalism of such activities can be traced back to our modern metaphysic, where inanimate matter becomes object and falls away from ‘man,’ the knowing, active subject. In this thesis, I specifically address how this division of passive object from active subject pervades our understanding of climate and conditions the ethics of our human responses to climate change. I …

Nearing The End: Reef Building Corals And Bivalves In The Late Triassic And Comparing Corals And Bivalves Before And After The End-Triassic Mass Extinction Using A Taxonomic Database, Hannah Morgan Elliott Shepherd

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

One of the most important tenants in geology is that the present is the key to the past, but it can also be said that the past is the key to the present. The five great extinction events are some of the key events that can help us to understand how changes in climate and sea chemistry can cause great changes in the ecology of our planet. Today the increase in atmospheric CO2 is causing ocean acidification, which has also been proposed as part of the system that caused the end-Triassic mass extinction. Ocean acidification can be greatly detrimental to …

Pristine Places And Passive People? Responses To Neoliberal Development And Maoist Conflict In Nepal's Northwest Himalayas, Catherine Lee Sanders

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Humla District, Nepal, agro-pastoralists' confrontations with forces of change in the last generation have altered villagers' abilities to gain access to scarce resources. Development efforts and Nepal's recent armed conflict, in particular, introduced novel technologies and ideologies that affected Humli vulnerabilities. This dissertation is based on field research comparing two Hindu villages in northwest Nepal during 2009 and 2010. One village had more extensive ties to development than the other, and these villagers and other change agents co-created transitional contexts of vulnerability in the post-conflict setting of rural Nepal. An armed conflict dominated the political landscape in Nepal for …

The Damage Done, Kelly Beth Conde

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conde, Kelly, M.A., Spring 2013 Journalism The Damage Done Chairperson: Dennis Swibold The water that ran from Helen Ricker’s faucet stank of rotten eggs and of chemicals. It ran orange and greasy. It stained her clothes and clung to her skin. Ricker lives on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, three miles north of Poplar, Mont. From Ricker’s home, the oil wells from the East Poplar oilfields can be seen in the distance. Her water started to change in the early 1970’s, twenty years after the first oil well was drilled. It took about that long for the contamination from poorly …

The Archaeological Investigation Of Cedar Bark Basket Trees In Western Montana: Background, Methods, And Trial Study Of Culturally Modified Trees, Dean Sonneah Nicolai

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores the potential for archaeological investigations of culturally modified trees (CMTs) in the northern Rocky Mountain region of Western Montana. Culturally modified trees are considered to be living artifacts, representations of traditional culture, and a lasting physical manifestation of long term use by inhabitants. The goal of this thesis is to offer an archaeological perspective for investigation of cultural modifications of the cedar basket tree (Thuja plicata), and to contribute to the development of a method for inquiry and analysis. Two primary research questions were posed: How does the study of behavioral archaeology and the methodological approach presented …

Salmon & Steelhead Hatcheries: Conservation Or Condemnation?, Samuel Hunter Lungren

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wild salmon and steelhead are as fundamental to the Pacific Northwest as evergreen trees and rain. For thousands of years ecosystems and economies have relied on the bountiful marine nutrients annually running inland from the Pacific Ocean in the form of large, silver fish. Even today, the chance to tangle with one of these wild gems is one of the greatest gifts the Northwest has to offer. Early settlers of the West Coast witnessed seemingly infinite salmon abundance. But as time passed and humans increasingly exploited both salmon and their ecosystems, they found out just how finite salmon really were. …

Women’S Water, Women’S Work: Evaluating Decentralized Management Of Deep Borehole Wells For Improved Rural Water Access In Tawa Fall Village, Senegal, Tenly Elizabeth Snow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Throughout the developing world, countries face a number of issues regarding the health and welfare of their populations. One issue that stands out with critical and growing importance is the availability-and accessibility-of water. Across the Sahel, access to potable water for domestic use, as well as contaminant-free water for agricultural and animal husbandry purposes is of growing concern. This study evaluates Government of Senegal efforts at improving rural water access through public-private operation contracts to manage deep groundwater resources. In West Africa, Senegal currently counts itself among the few Sahelian countries having sufficient freshwater supplies to support its population’s growing …

Color/Shape/Form/Space, Brett James Hargesheimer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Color/Shape/Form/Space begins at its title. The show is named with the same directness that I want the work to have: accessible, ready for consumption. Stripped of unnecessary information, the exhibition’s title needed to match the work itself, which expresses minimalistic tendencies, avoiding the superfluous. Everything needed to be consciously put together to operate as a well-designed whole. Simple and clear. It is the age that we live in that prompts me to be so forthright. Our present is defined by attention deficit digital connectivity. Accessibility and information sharing are rampant. With the possibilities being seemingly endless, it is an exciting …

Silent Sentinels: Archaeology, Magic, And The Gendered Control Of Domestic Boundaries In New England, 1620-1725, C. Riley Auge

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following dissertation is an historical archaeological study of the material culture of gendered protective magic used by Anglo-Europeans in seventeenth-century New England as a tactic to construct boundaries that mitigated perceived personal, social, spiritual, and environmental dangers. Such boundary construction was paramount in the seventeenth-century battle between good and evil epitomized by the belief in and struggle against witchcraft. This dissertation sought to answer three interrelated research questions: 1) What constitutes protective magical material culture in seventeenth-century contexts and how is it recognizable in the archaeological record? 2) What signifies gender specific protective magical practices and what can these …

Paying To Play: Supply Management In Montana's Dairy Industry, Laura Ginsburg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana’s dairy industry is unique among US states because of its supply management program, which allocates quota to limit how much fluid milk can be produced and sold within the state. The amount of quota is set and price varies with market conditions; therefore, quota adds to a farm’s production costs. This paper presents findings from in-depth interviews with 17 dairy farmers to learn how quota has affected on-farm decision-making and how they perceive the impacts of quota on the statewide industry. Farmers tend to be spilt between those who think it affected their on-farm decisions and those who felt …

Measuring Visual Literacy Ability In Graduate Level Pre-Service Teachers, Teresa Farrell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Farrell, Teresa, Ed.D., August 2013 Curriculum and Instruction Measuring Visual Literacy Ability in Graduate Level Pre-service Teachers Chairperson: Dr. Marian J. McKenna The field of visual literacy has been active since its inception in 1969 by John Debes and members of various fields of study such as science, mathematics, psychology, education, and the arts forming the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA). Recognizing that modern society is increasingly visual by nature, and with the advances in digital technologies, visual literacy is becoming an area of critical importance in education. Although much work has been done within the field to define it …

4-Isoxazolyl-1,4-Dihydropyrirines Bind The Multidrug-Resistance Transporter, Scott Steiger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The development of multidrug resistance in tumor cells has been recognized as a major obstacle to successful cancer treatment. Tumor cells in vitro and in vivo can develop multidrug resistance (MDR) to the lethal effects of a variety of cytotoxic drugs used to treat cancerous tumor cells. The over expression of multiple drug resistance gene 1 has been correlated with the expression of multi drug resistance protein 1(MDR1, also known as P-glycoprotein or P-gp). MDR1's role in altering uptake, distribution and bioavailability is considered a significant factor when examining drugs for clinical administration, and represents a viable drug target for …

Costs And Benefits Of An Extended Phenotype: Chambers Made By Manduca Sexta Larvae, Jonathan Cooley Sprague

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Extended phenotypes can serve interesting physiological functions and their externality provides ready opportunity to manipulate and examine their functions and costs. One such set of extended phenotypes are below-ground pupation chambers made by a wide range of insects and whose function is unknown and costs unquantified. We use a series of lab and field experiments to examine the cost and benefit of chambers made by the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta (Sphingidae), whose larvae lose up to 60% of their body mass during chamber construction. Our study shows that these chambers provide critically important free space in which individuals transition from larvae …

Exploring Detracting Elements And Coping Mechanisms Reported In Four Trails Along The Going-To-The-Sun Road Corridor In Glacier National Park, Diana Maritza Bedoya

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The results of the ongoing study to monitor visitors use, and the shuttle experience in Glacier National Park demonstrate that use levels in the park have increased considerably. Thus, it was pertinent to evaluate to which extent the conditions on the trails are so undesirable or unexpected for visitors that they would usually employ coping responses to deal with those situations. This research was structured to provide a description of the salient setting attributes and personal factors associated with the identification of the detracting elements of the recreational experiences, and types of coping mechanisms usually used. The study reported here …

Land-Cover Change Within The Peatlands Along The Rocky Mountain Front, Montana: 1937-2009, Joseph Tyler Milbrath

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Aerial photographs of nine peatlands along the Rocky Mountain Front, Montana, were analyzed in a GIS. The boundary of wetland extent was hand-digitized and the area within was classified into land-cover types including: total area, open fen, open water, woody vegetation, and non-wetland/agriculture. Changes in wetland extent and land-cover categories were evaluated from the earliest available imagery in 1937 to the last available imagery in 2009. Images prior to 1995 were orthorectified to correct inherent distortions. Results indicate little change in overall peatland area between 1937 and 2009 despite increasing air temperatures in the region. Open water area and the …

Locomotor Ontogeny And The Evolution Of Avian Flight, Ashley Margaret Heers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding the origins of organismal diversity is one of biology's most enduring quests. Many authors have posited that modularity, or the developmental decoupling of body parts into discrete functional units, facilitates adaptive radiation by allowing body parts to become independently and functionally specialized without compromising one another. This may be particularly true in birds, which have compartmentalized the single locomotor unit of their ancestors into discrete wing and leg locomotor modules, and exploited terrestrial and aerial environments. Specializing one set of limbs for terrestrial locomotion and one set for flight presumably facilitates navigation of aerial environments without compromising terrestrial locomotion, …

Developmental Stress In Birds: Phenotypic And Fitness, Ondi L. Crino

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The environment animals experience during development can have important effects on phenotype, performance, and fitness across multiple life-history stages. Environmental cues experienced during development can provide information to animals about the environment they will soon inhabit and promote phenotypic changes which affect fitness. Increasing evidence suggests that physiological stress may be one such cue that conveys environmental information to developing animals. Here, I explore the short- and long-term consequences of developmental stress in captive and free-living birds. In chapter one, I explore the effects of developmental stress on body size and physiological stress responses across life-history stages in zebra finches …

Age-Associated Changes In The Neuroinflammatory Response To Toll-Like Receptor 4 And 9 Stimulation, Leah Beth Christensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

During the perinatal time period, the mammalian brain is developing rapidly and is particularly sensitive to inflammation. Inflammation during this time period may be linked to later neurological illness in humans. Disease-associated alterations in learning and behavior can be modeled in rodents using perinatal immune stimulation with either infectious agents or Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists. Although the gestational period is a particularly sensitive time for neurodevelopment, it is not known for how long after birth this sensitivity persists. In mice, susceptibility to neurological infection declines dramatically during the first weeks of life. Therefore, we sought to compare the neuroinflammatory responses …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Species Distributions Under Climate Change: Linking Empirical Evidence, Ecological Theory, And Statistical Models, Shawn M. Crimmins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is threatening biota all over the world through dictating changes in species distributions. The ability to predict the effects of climate on species distributions requires an understanding of how climatic and disturbance factors relate to species distributions. I examined the relationship between climate, disturbance, and geographic distributions of vascular plants in the western United States.

Within the mountain ranges of California, woody plants have largely shifted their distributions downhill during the 20th century. These shifts were strongly related to observed changes in climatic water balance, consistent with theoretical predictions. Downhill shifts were most prominent for species occurring at …

The Blackfoot Demonstrative System: Function, Form, And Meaning, Shannon Scott Schupbach

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the Blackfoot demonstrative system. Previous research on Blackfoot (Uhlenbeck 1938, Taylor 1969, Frantz 2009) identifies sixteen morphemes that make up demonstrative words in the language. I propose a demonstrative template that takes into account the fixed morpheme ordering observed in demonstrative forms. Based on the proposed template, I motivate the analysis of the suffix -ka as encoding motion towards the speaker as this accounts for its position together with the suffixes -ya, -ma, and -hka, each of which encode features of motion or visibility. In describing situational functions of each …

The Moral Layers Of Fracking: From Basic Rights And Obligations To Human Flourishing, Angela L. Hotaling

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As it is currently being discussed, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is the unconventional method of drilling and extracting oil and natural gas. Fracking starts at the earth’s surface where the technology is created and the sites are constructed. The process continues downward: drills pierce thousands of feet vertically and then horizontally underground. Then, millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals (referred to as “fracking fluid” or “slick water”) are pumped at high pressure through the pipe so as to fracture shale deposits and release gas or oil. Whether to allow fracking and its associated industrial activity is …

The Sweet Grass Hills And Blackfeet Indians: Sacredness, Land, And Institutional Discrimination, Cassie Sheets

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Sweet Grass Hills of north-central Montana are part of the four Tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy’s traditional territory and play a vital role in perpetuating Blackfeet culture. The Blackfeet Tribe of Montana was forced to sell the Sweet Grass Hills to the federal government in 1888 after the decimation of bison populations. In 1992, the first large-scale corporate mining proposal in the Sweet Grass Hills was proposed by Lehmann and Associates and Manhattan Mineral, Ltd. In response to public outcries, environmental impact statements were issued by the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that manages the area, and Secretary …

Household Organization In The Fur Trade Era: Socioeconomic And Spatial Organizations Of Housepit 54, Alexandra Christine Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Households are fundamental units of society that possess powerful explanatory potential; however, few studies have approached household organization during the critical contact period within the Mid-Fraser Canyon. The 2012 excavation of Bridge River’s Housepit 54 (HP 54) offers a rare opportunity to investigate such socioeconomic relationships and their spatial manifestations. Hypotheses structured with a household archaeology theoretical framework emphasize household socioeconomic strategies. The first hypothesis outlines a network strategy characterized by greater centralization of power, hierarchical complexity, and material-wealth that is reflected in residential units with individual features and disparate accumulations of prestige goods and high utility resources. Such floor …

The Effect Of A Cannabinoid Receptor 2 (Cb2) Agonist On Allergic Airway Inflammation In A Mouse Model Of Asthma, Soram Hong

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Allergic asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects approximately 300 million people worldwide. The health problem is compounded by the fact that the prevalence of the disease is increasing in the Western world. Thus, there is a continued need for new and improved therapies for the disease. Recently, it has become evident that cannabinoids have immunosuppressive properties and can be used as therapeutics for various inflammatory diseases. The main aim of this study was to explore the anti-inflammatory effects of CB2 agonists on allergic airway inflammation using a mouse model of asthma and resolve any mechanisms that underpin the …

Camouflage Mismatch In Seasonal Coat Color Due To Decreased Snow Duration: Will Snowshoe Hares Keep Up With Climate Change?, Marketa Zimova

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As wild species face anthropogenic stressors, they will either adapt, shift their geographic range, or decline, perhaps towards extinction. The relative scope of these responses has not been well studied, especially for climate change where geographic range shifts and population declines have been widely discussed but the potential for adaptation mostly ignored. Adaptation to anthropogenic stressors can occur through phenotypic plasticity and/or evolution. My thesis first establishes, based on field studies of wild snowshoe hares, a novel and high-profile stressor directly linked to climate change. The stressor arises from a decrease in snow duration due to climate change, which causes …

Shifts In Caribou Calving Habitat And Space-Use, Daniella Johanna Dekelaita

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) population in Newfoundland has been declining since the mid-1990s, and will likely continue to decline into the foreseeable future. This decrease in numbers has been accompanied by a large drop in recruitment. Predation is the primary cause of caribou calf mortality in Newfoundland, and since 2003, >80% of radio-collared calves died within the first 6 months of life. Two Newfoundland herds also have shifted their calving grounds over the past 15 to 20 years. Our objective was to investigate why these shifts have occurred. We analyzed female telemetry locations spanning 29 years, to delineate …