Digital Commons Network^™

Motivation And Education: Performance, Commitment, And Satisfaction Among Pharmacy Students, Michael Dustin King

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examines the relationship between academic motivation and three different educational outcomes: academic performance, commitment, and satisfaction. This research explores these relationships by focusing on pharmacy students at The University of Montana. Pharmacy students tend to be driven by relatively high levels of external motivations (e.g., motivated by money or prestige), especially when compared to other health profession students. In contrast to previous work that simply describes the motivations of students, I uncover the links between motivation and various educational outcomes. This investigation contributes to a better understanding of motivations and their impact on education, especially among the specific …

A Study Of The Relationship Between High School Principal Leadership Style And The Number Of Bullying Behaviors In Montana Public High Schools, James Edward Fuller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This quantitative study examines the relationship between the leadership style of 19 Montana high school principals and the number of incidents of serious bullying that occurred in their schools during the 2011-2012 school year. Bullying behavior and its many negative ramifications is a problem of paramount importance for educators today. This study shines new light on the topic by testing the effect of the principal’s leadership behavior on one measurement of the bullying problem.

Data on principal leadership style, the independent variable, was gathered via the Multi- Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 360 Form 5X Short). This survey measured each leader’s …

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 …

The Value Of Knowing: Public Lands Monitoring By Non-Agency Groups, Aaron Richard Olsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

It is generally recognized that in order to make informed federal land management decisions, such decisions need to be based on information gathered from monitoring of those lands. While some monitoring is being conducted by federal land management agencies, it is happening too infrequently and is often inadequate for properly informing land management decisions. In an attempt to fill this gap non-agency groups have begun monitoring federal public lands themselves. It appears that through recent congressional authorizations, policy reforms, and agency initiatives monitoring by non-agency groups is being supported at every government level. While theoretically this transfer of responsibility from …

Generational Perspective Of Higher Education Online Student Learning Styles, Chad James Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students associated with a generational group exhibit similar learning styles as identified by the Felder and Soloman Index of Learning Styles instrument. The secondary purpose was to determine to what degree these generational groups rate their satisfaction with online education through the use of the Distance Education Learning Environment Survey (DELES) instrument. The instruments were administered to Montana University System students who were enrolled in one or more fully online courses. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square, and ANOVA. The collected data of 1426 (n) from a total surveyed …

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 …

Whole-Nature: Integrating Science And Eco-Phenomenology, Bartholomew Patrick Walsh

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A review of the literature in environmental philosophy reveals a certain tension between what we might call science-based and experience-based approaches to environmental ethics. The main trend of thought here follows seminal figures like Aldo Leopold and Holmes Rolston III by generally looking to the sciences for disclosing value in nature, particularly ecology and evolutionary biology. However others, such as David Abram and Jack Turner, worry that scientifically disclosed nature is in itself too distancing, objectifying, and abstract to engender any real care for nature and instead emphasize direct, embodied experience with actual wild places, hence the label “eco-phenomenology.” The …

Where I Come From/Where I Am, Dean Ramsey Foster

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This story begins in the Midwest, among the everyman. A story lived by many. Where you go to “work” so that you can go “up north” and to “the lake.” This story is set in the cities of West Michigan, and on the banks of the world’s longest freshwater cost line. A place that is remembered through the souvenirs collected along the way. Where the color of the water, and the smell of the air, can release a flood of memories for those indoctrinated by this story. A place where I spent 26 years, living the story, working, going up …

Archaeology Database Management: A Case Study In The Solution Of Incompatibility Issues Between Different Archaeological Databases, Nathaniel Scherr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Archaeologists tend to use computerized databases to record data recovered from excavations. These databases contain large collections of information that can aid archaeologists in making educated decisions, interpretations, and test hypotheses from the recovered data. As time passed, databases became bigger and varied in the information that can be stored. As a result, more data could be recorded from the field that in turn can be used to ask more complicated questions of archaeological remains. However, the use of computerized archaeological databases does not come without its own problems. For example, since each archaeological project can be governed by different …

Brucellosis Transmission Between Wildlife And Livestock In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Inferences From Dna Genotyping, Michael Patrick O'Brien

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Brucellosis transmission between wildlife species and cattle in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem has been difficult to assess because the causative agent Brucella abortus bacteria is extremely difficult to isolate for DNA genotyping. We examined transmission of B. abortus between bison, elk, and cattle using nine variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) markers on DNA from 98 isolates of B. abortus recovered from elk, bison, and cattle. All specimens were from geographically distinct populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. A haplotype network consisting of 54 individual haplogroups was generated from these isolates using Network v4.61. Network assessments of genetic relatedness among Brucella isolates …

Community Resilience Training Project Proposal, Delyla Wilson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Community Resilience Training (CRT) Project Proposal is a design for the creation and implementation of a multi-level, adaptive curriculum designed to improve community resilience to disasters and other major disruption. Grounded in chaos theory and the complexity paradigm of disaster response, the CRT program is designed to provide information at the community level to promote change throughout the disaster preparedness, response, relief, and recovery process. The CRT project incorporates permaculture technology, wilderness medicine protocols, community organizing skills, and transnational advocacy competencies with traditional community knowledge to create a culturally specific training curriculum. Through the research process, community knowledge and …

The Ecology Of Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever In Western North America, Tammi Lynne Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In North America the primary cause of tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is the spirochete Borrelia hermsii that is vectored by the tick Ornithodoros hermsi. Ecological investigations were combined with mathematical modeling and genetics to gain a clearer understanding of the interactions and mechanisms responsible for disease maintenance, distribution, and genetic diversity. The objectives of this research were to: 1) identify mammals associated with B. hermsii and O. hermsi by determining active infection and antibody presence, 2) develop a deterministic model to ascertain ecological and epidemiological parameters essential for disease persistence, 3) resolve the phylogeographic structure of B. hermsii and …

The Effect Of Random And Spatially Explicit Lightning And Human-Caused Ignitions On Simulated Burn Probabilities At Small Scales, James Lowery

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Our overall goal was to assess the difference between annual wildfire burn probability (BP) generated from simulation models using random ignitions versus spatially explicit ignitions for wildland urban interface (WUI) areas and designated wilderness in the Rocky Mountain West, and infer whether one may be more useful than the other at small scales. We collected all available ignition data from logbooks, spreadsheets and the internet for a 1282 km2 study area within a 10 km buffer of the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area (RNRA) and Rattlesnake Wilderness (RW), Montana, which also included WUI. These ignitions were on small private landholdings, as …

Evaluation Of Physical Fitness Tests And The Usefulness Of An Internal Crew Questionnaire To Predict Job Readiness In Hotshots, Benjamin Adams Lovelace

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hotshots are elite wildland firefighters that are used in all capacities from first attack to the most hazardous duties during wildland firefighting. The unpredictable nature of the wildfire creates a dangerous and physically challenging environment for those attempting to stop its advance. Hotshot wildland firefighters must be conditioned to perform the tasks associated with their job and to avoid injury. Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate possible assessment tests in an effort to predict job readiness for interagency hotshot crew members. Methodology: Thirty-six male and female type 1 hotshot crew members completed 4 physical fitness tests …

Measuring And Quantifying Web Application Design, Craig A. Mcninch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The World Wide Web makes it easier for organizations and people to share information across great distances at a minimal cost. In addition, governments and businesses are beginning to offer services on the World Wide Web to their respective populations and customers. Unlike traditional desktop based applications where the programming language used are most likely Object Oriented (OO) based languages such as C++ or Java, most web applications are built upon more lightweight scripting languages. These languages typically don’t support all the OO features that more traditional languages support. In addition, some web applications are dependent on external web services …

Asymmetry Of The Humerus: The Influence Of Handedness On The Deltoid Tuberosity And Possible Implications For Osteometric Sorting, Carrie Brady Legarde

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The identification of individuals from commingled human remains can be a difficult task. Osteometric sorting is often utilized for these purposes since it sorts remains based on size. This research investigates whether asymmetry of the humerus is present, if it is due to an individual’s hand preference, and if this asymmetry can adversely affect the osteometric sorting method. The osteometric sorting formulae for pair-matching was used to classify individuals as asymmetric when elements were considered significantly different in size. Significant asymmetry was seen in multiple measurements and the asymmetry could be due to handedness. This relationship appeared more consistent with …

Aufarbeitung Der Vergangenheit Through The Medium Of Myth In Heinrich Böll's Short Stories Der Mann Mit Den Messern And Nicht Nur Zur Weihnachtszeit, Marcus James Cardarelli

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

German history of the 20th century was marked with unimaginable horrors and hardship. Both the First and Second World Wars left an indelible mark on the German psyche. Most specifically, the consequences of the Second World War were a turning point in German notions of cultural identity. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the various manners by which Heinrich Böll deals with the emerging cultural crisis in the post-war period of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. I have chosen two of his short stories, Der Mann mit den Messern (1948) and Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit (1951), for …

Core Selection By Wolf Packs In A Human-Dominated Landscape: A Case Study In The Mountains Of Southern Poland, Nathan Alan Owens

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The wolf populations in Europe are mostly divided between the largely undeveloped countries of Eastern Europe, and the more developed Western European nations. Poland holds a special importance as a geographical link joining these populations into one contiguous population. The territories of two wolf packs in southwestern Poland were examined through the collection of scat data. Core areas were then defined using fixed-kernel density estimation techniques and 50% isopleths. Habitat variables were then compared between core plots and non-core plots. Scat marking of both packs resembled the Hot Spots pattern of marking proposed by Zub et al. (2003), rather than …

Michael Flynn 2012, Michael Flynn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

My 2012 thesis exhibition was created to represent my visual perspective as an artist. Each work began with an initial idea or spark of inspiration. However, it is the process leading to the final outcome that shapes each visual composition. All of my works are similar in that they are multifaceted in terms of both meaning and structure, but each is unique in terms of when and where it was created. My form of expression is based on a response to my current position in the world and a reaction to the events and imagery I see in my everyday …

A Year Of Practice And Performance: Improving Piano Skills To Become A Better Choral Director, Ellen Mckenzie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Piano skills are extremely important to a choral teacher’s success, and I always considered my piano playing as a weak point in my teaching. The intent of my project was to dedicate a year of intensive practicing and performing as an accompanist in order to improve my piano technique, gain a wider repertoire of music to use in teaching private lessons and choir, and gain confidence in my abilities as an accompanist. Through one hundred and three hours of documented practice time, eight performance experiences in a variety of settings, and eighteen pieces prepared and performed, my playing has improved …

Evolution And Architecture Of An Incised Valley In The Upper Cretaceous Eagle Formation In South-Central Montana, Neal Auchter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Santonian-Campanian Eagle Formation in south-central Montana is composed of a series of exceptionally well preserved regressive-transgressive cycles deposited on the western margin of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway. This study focuses on the genesis of a regionally correlative basal incision surface and the subsequent fill architecture of the informal middle member of the Eagle Formation. Three stratigraphic surfaces are traced continuously for up to 15 km and include the regressive surface of marine erosion (RSE), sequence boundary (SB), and transgressive surface of tidal-fluvial erosion (TSE). Within this sequence stratigraphic framework, 4 facies association, internal lower-order architectures (i.e. channel forms, lateral …

The Changing Role Of Sámi Women In Reindeer Herding Communities In Northern Norway And The 1970-1980s Women’S Resistance And Redefinition Movement, Marcie Kaye Bremmer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Historically, different nations-states at different times have tried to claim authority over the Sámi in the circumpolar north. After the nation state borders were drawn in the 1700s and 1800s, separating Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Norway introduced a harsh and 1800s separating Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Norway introduced a harsh assimilation policy that lasted over a century. Cultural Darwinist views and national assimilationist legislation and social strategies chipped away at Sámi society and its identity as an indigenous people. Over time Sámi women found their accustomed social, economic, and political autonomy eroded. Post World War II, the emerging …

Multi-Scale Hydrogeomorphic Influences On Bull Trout Spawning Habitat In Snowmelt-Dominated Headwater Streams, Jared Robinson Bean

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I investigated relationships between geomorphology, hydrogeology, and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) redd occurrence and density at multiple spatial scales in gravel-bed, pool-riffle, snowmelt dominated headwater streams of northwestern Montana. Subreach redd occurrence tended to be associated with the finest available textural facies. In subreach streambed sections hosting bull trout redds, redd density was significantly (at α=0.05) positively related to bankfull Shields stress (τ*bf, p=0.04) and bankfull Shields stress adjusted for grain stress only (τ**bf, p=0.02). In stream reaches hosting bull trout redds, reach-average redd density was significantly positively related to reach-average τ**bf (p=0.02) and reach-average streambed grain size (D16, p=0.01; …

The Whale And The World In Melville’S Moby-Dick: Early American Empire And Globalization, Zachary Michael Radford

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Reading Moby-Dick; or, the Whale (1851), this study examines literary arguments regarding Melville’s capacity to appear prophetic through his written works in his predictions of the vast empire that America would one day become and the strategies which the country would employ to do so. In my introduction I assert that Melville is not a “Prophet,” but rather, he is a keenly analytical observer of the world around him as he recognized in America patterns of imperialism: structures he charted in his global voyages as a merchant and then a whaler. In his observations, he saw that America was not …

A Needs Assessment Of People Living With Hiv In Montana, Emily Olive Epperson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to assess the HIV testing, prevention, and treatment needs of people living in Montana who are infected with HIV. This study identified the demographic characteristics, the unmet needs, and the barriers to accessing assistance, prevention, and treatment services for people living with HIV in Montana. Qualitative data was collected in the form of focus group and key informant interviews and quantitative data was collected in the form of a questionnaire. The results of this assessment identified successful services that contribute to the improved mental, emotional, and physical health of people living with HIV including …

Developmental Mathematics In Two-Year Community Colleges And Student Success, Brenda Catherine Frame

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Poor success rates of developmental mathematics courses at community colleges have currently received nationwide attention. Efforts to remedy the situation include complete course redesigns and intervention strategies. A recent intervention strategy in use is the implementation of success courses that are aimed at changing the learning perspectives of developmental students. The purpose of this mixed-method comparative study was to closely examine this strategy as it relates specifically to students studying developmental mathematics at the lowest level at one community college. Students taking the lowest level developmental mathematics course at the participating community college were designated into one of two groups: …

Language Change In Spanish Heritage Speakers: The Interaction Between Lexical And Grammatical Aspect, Jackelyn Kelly Van Buren

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis focuses on preterit and imperfect usage in the Spanish of Chilean-American heritage speakers. Spanish heritage speakers in the United States are second generation bilinguals who learn Spanish in the home from Spanish speaking parents and learn English from school and the community (Montrul 2002; Rothman 2007). When societal factors limit heritage language exposure, tense and aspect morphology is susceptible to change (Guijarro-Fuentes & Clibbens 2004). Findings of a study on 11 Chilean-American heritage speakers show that production of the preterit is overextending, resulting in less frequent use of the imperfect. Large-scale studies of US Spanish-English bilinguals’ use of …

Restoring The "Shining Waters": Milltown, Montana And The History Of Superfund Implementation, David James Brooks

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation is a case study of a dam removal and river restoration within the nation's largest Superfund site. In 1981, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency included Milltown Reservoir on its first list of Superfund sites. Superfund law capped two decades of the federal government's most aggressive environmental legislation. While tracking the national story of Superfund law, my story provides a local view of how individuals, organizations, and agencies shaped the Superfund process. After the EPA designated Milltown a national Superfund site, the environment itself, persistent work within the channels of public policy, and federally-mediated compromise helped restore some shine …

Sarah Palin, Conservative Feminism, And The Politics Of Family, Jasmine Rose Zink

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Female politicians are heavily constrained by discourses that prescribe masculine values as natural, yet at times they draw on societal expectations of femininity that allow them to utilize such discourses to their advantage. Motherhood, a feminine yet powerful role, provides such an opportunity. Capitalizing on this acceptable avenue of female power, women have strategically relied on maternal appeals since they first entered public life, often to challenge patriarchal social structures. Utilizing Lakoff‘s (2002) concept of the nation-as-family metaphor and informed by the pervasive myth of the traditional family, this analysis explores the consequences of Sarah Palin‘s use of maternal appeals …

Spectral Identification Of Wild Rice (Zizania Palustris L.) Using Indigenous Knowledge And Landsat Multispectral Data, Michael Wassegijig Price

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Landsat-7 ETM+ (SLC-off) multispectral satellite imagery was tested to identify and delineate natural stands of wild rice (Zizania palustris L.) from other aquatic vegetation growing on area lakes of the Leech Lake Native American reservation in northern Minnesota. Leech Lake is located within the Mississippi River Headwaters drainage ecosystem and contains some of the largest natural stands of wild rice in the country. Local indigenous knowledge; in this case, the knowledge of Ojibwe tribal elders who have traditionally harvested wild rice by canoe for centuries, was utilized to build training data polygons for a supervised classification. By testing several supervised …