Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Influence Of Parent/Guardian Variables On Select Type 2 Diabetes Risk Factors Among 10 To 14 Year Old Northern Plains Indian Youth, Christiana Lea Ricci

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a growing health concern among American Indian populations. Many behavioral risk factors for T2DM are influenced by the family unit. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of certain parent/guardian variables on youth type 2 diabetes risk factors. Methods: The parents/guardians of 10-14 year old Northern Plains American Indian youth (n=37) were surveyed regarding their knowledge for physical activity and nutrition, support behaviors for physical activity and nutrition in their youth, and their individual physical activity and nutrition behaviors. Youth variables including physical activity behavior, dietary behavior, and body mass index …

Barriers To E-Learning Job Training: Government Employee Experiences In An Online Wilderness Management Course, Lisa Ayrdrie Kathleen Eidson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Learning at work as an employee is inherently different from being a student in an academic setting and, as such, is beset with different challenges. As trends in the adoption of e-learning for the delivery of job training increase, new challenges related to distance learning with technology have also emerged. Recognition that continued learning in the workplace, now via technological methods, is required for maintaining proficiency and achieving career goals means that understanding the challenges unique to learning at work is paramount.

This qualitative study explored barriers to successful online job learning. Interviews with thirty federal government employees from the …

American Indian Artist Angel Decora: Aesthetics, Power, And Transcultural Pedagogy In The Progressive Era, Suzanne Alene Shope

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study looks at Angel DeCora, Winnebago artist and teacher (1871-1918) with regard to her visionary influence as an Indian school art teacher. By exploring interactions among DeCora, policy makers, and American Indians, this chronological study addresses: how DeCora's Indian arts curriculum and aesthetics influenced her American Indian students at Carlisle; how DeCora used elements of her Winnebago culture, the Pan-Indian culture, and the Euro-American viewpoints to serve her purposes as an arts educator and activist; and what her aesthetic motivations were as embodied by her art, curriculum design, and students' work. Educated on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska until …

An Assessment Of The Viability Of Landscan Data To Estimate Structure Location In Wildland Fire Management And Planning, Jeffrey Daniel Kaiden

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Research indicates firefighting costs in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are highly correlated with the number of homes threatened by wildfire. Therefore, knowing the location of structures is paramount for planners and fire managers attempting to reduce the threats posed to structures by wildfire, and for the attainment of land management goals and objectives for reducing hazardous fuels surrounding them. Yet, no national-level structure location dataset exists. Previous attempts, such as the SILVIS Lab’s product, to predict structure location and the extent of the WUI have relied on Census block-level data. While urban Census blocks are generally small in area, those …

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 …

Guide To Implementing A Middle School Activity Program, Laura Elizabeth Balis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of the guide is to describe the steps in designing, implementing, and evaluating a cardiovascular health program for middle school students, called CATCH Fridays, and to create a guide for others who wish to replicate the program at their school.

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 …

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 …

Moving Toward Development Of A Chunghwa Postal Office Business Model Of Sustainability, Perng Cheng Shih

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research integrated western and eastern organization theory in order to restructure the Chunghwa Postal Office (CPO). The goal was to create a more efficient and sustainable business model that would serve the future needs of Taiwan. A region of the CPO, the Hsinchu Post Office (HPO), received training in 2008 in order to provide a pilot study regarding the concepts of sustainability and learning organizations.

The research produced a CPO Sustainability Model in which learning organization theory is conceptually woven into the Chinese Tai Ji map. This Model has two core domains, namely vision and evaluation. Using two parallel …

Teacher, Leadership, And Curriculum Factors Predictive Of Student Achievement In Indian Education For All, Erin Robin Lipkind

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examines the teacher, leader, and curriculum variables predictive of student achievement in Indian Education for All (IEFA). IEFA, a Montana educational mandate based on Montana constitutional law, was first funded in 2005, and little research had previously been conducted on the effectiveness of implementation efforts. While compulsory, implementation had been piecemeal and wrought with misunderstanding, differences in opinion, prejudice, and questions about its legitimacy. The challenges inherent in the implementation of an ambiguous educational reform with no state-adopted curriculum or benchmarks for student achievement have become evident. With the dearth of research, it was not known how well …

Teaching Intercultural Communication Competence In The Healthcare Context, Jelena Stojakovic

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this project was to design a training program focused on intercultural communication competence in the health care industry. While international students make an important link between different cultures, serve as great resource in the exchange of cultures and ideas, and make large contributions to the U.S. economy; international students also pose new challenges for higher education. One of the challenges that came up as a result of the diversification of U.S. campuses has to do with intercultural competence, which is an important quality for anyone who wishes to competently and effectively navigate intercultural interactions. Along these lines, …

The Effects Of Intimate Relationship Education On Relationship Optimism And Attitudes Toward Marriage, Veronica Ida Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study evaluated the effects of relationship education on undergraduate students' optimism about relationships and attitudes toward marriage. Participants included undergraduate students enrolled in an Intimate and Family Relations class and students enrolled in a comparison class at the University of Montana. Students were assessed during the first week of the fall semester, 2008, and again at the conclusion of fall semester, 2008. Students' attitudes and optimism towards marriage and intimate relationships were assessed using the Optimism about Relationships scale (Carnelly & Janoff-Bulman, 1992), the Family-of-Origin scale (Hovestadt, Anderson, Piercy, Cochran, & Fine, 1985), and the Marital Attitude Scale (Braaten …

The Experience Of The Female Volunteer Student Advocate: A Phenomenological Study Of University Of Montana Student Assault Resource Center Advocates, Kerry S. Maier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This qualitative research explores how volunteering as an advocate at the Student Assault Resource Center (SARC) at The University of Montana, impacts the lives of the student advocates. Unstructured interviews with six SARC advocates were analyzed through the process of phenomenological reduction providing essential descriptions of the experience in the participants' natural language.

Analysis indicated the importance of adequate training, formation of trust among the advocates, and the need for playfulness in the midst of challenging and difficult work. Results further revealed that the participants experience self-care as an important and necessary part of advocate training and of their daily …

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.

Prior Pidginization And Creolization In Moroccan Arabic, Kennetta Kathleen Aune

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis makes a claim about the processes of prior pidginization and creolization, and a process of current decreolization in Moroccan Arabic (a colloquial dialect of Arabic spoken in Morocco). The claim of this thesis is based on the theory of pidginization and creolization in Arabic as posited by Versteegh (1984). A case-study is built for the aforementioned processes having occurred in Moroccan Arabic through fulfillment of Southworth’s (1971) two principles for determining the credibility of a pidginization and/or creolization claim: (1) That the required socio-linguistic frameworks are in place, and (2) that the linguistic effects of such processes are …

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. …

The Experience Of Attrition: A Phenomenological Study Of Freshmen In Academic Good Standing At The University Of Montana, Cheryl L. Minnick

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain clear, precise systematic descriptions of the experienced meaning of voluntary non-continuation of academic studies, attrition, after the first-year. Based on interviews with six college freshman in academic good standing, with phenomenology as a research method, the study documented ways in which college freshman perceived, experienced and defined their decision and experience of dropping out of college.

Data were collected via one-on-one, open-ended, unstructured interviews conducted to gain an uncensored account of the experience of attrition reflected by the query, "Please share with me your experience of deciding not to continue …

The Methane Range: Coalbed Methane Development, Sage-Grouse Protection, And The Ranching Way Of Life, Jonathan George Hayes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Coalbed methane development has proliferated across much of the western United States. Campbell County, Wyoming, in the Powder River Basin is one area that has seem some of the highest amounts of this development, most of it occurring on land where the surface use is livestock grazing, resulting in conflicts over resource use. This thesis takes a grounded theory approach to understanding the meaning that the ranchers that operate on this land have attached to this development. In doing so, this paper argues that these ranchers form opinions and attitudes based on how CBM has affected “the ranching way of …

Regularization Methods For Ill-Posed Poisson Imaging, N'Djekornom Dara Laobeul

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The noise contained in images collected by a charge coupled device (CCD) camera is predominantly of Poisson type. This motivates the use of the negative logarithm of the Poisson likelihood in place of the ubiquitous least squares t-to-data. However, if the underlying mathematical model is assumed to have the form z = Au, where A is a linear, compact operator, the problem of minimizing the negative log-Poisson likelihood function is ill-posed, and hence some form of regularization is required. In this work, it involves solving a variational problem of the form u def = arg min u0 `(Au; z) + …

Maternal Depression And Child Maladjustment: The Role Of Parental Style, Mallory Casey Mcbride

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Parental practices are perhaps the most important aspect of a child’s development. Diana Baumrind was one of the first to attempt to conceptualize parenting and she identified four distinct categories of parental style. Building upon Baumrind’s work, Ellen Skinner has further refined the concept of parenting and identified six dimensions of parenting: warmth, structure, autonomy support, rejection, chaos, and coercion. Prior research supports a link between undesirable parental practices and maternal depression and both of these constructs have been shown to contribute to child maladjustment. The present study sought to further examine the relationship between maternal depression, parental style, and …

Adolescent Mothers: The Space Between What They Know And What They Do, Nicole Catherine Mccray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Although the current rate of teen pregnancy in the United States is at a historic low (Martin et al., 2007), there are a number of risk factors associated with early parenthood. Adolescent parenthood is often embedded in a larger context of risk such as poverty, single parenthood, low educational attainment, a history of physical and emotional abuse, and engagement in risky behavior (Hans & Wakschlag, 2000). As parents, adolescent mothers tend to be less knowledgeable about child development, less stimulating in interactions with infants, less tolerant, and more punitive with punishment (Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1986). The children of adolescent mothers …

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 …

Why Take The Risk?: Women's Interpretive Repertoires For Choosing Home Birth, Laura Ann St. Clair

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this project was to use a social constructivist approach to understand the perception of risk by mothers making the choice to give birth at home in Missoula, Montana. Social constructivism assumes that knowledge about risk is filtered through “social and cultural frameworks of understanding” (Lupton and Tulloch 2002, 321). The information gained from participants in this study was interpreted as a representation of the individual’s culture, including their beliefs, values and upbringing, as well as the influences of the individual’s social network which can include family members, spouses, friends, and community members. Various phenomena, elements or constructs …

“Redox Pumping” In The Near Surface Missoula Aquifer On The Floodplain Of The Clark Fork River: Surface Water And Groundwaterinteractions And Arsenic Related Chemistry At A Compost Facilitynear A Wastewater Treatment Plant, Donna Lee Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Arsenic transport in groundwater is evaluated at Eko Compost, a site with measurable levels of arsenic, organic carbon and nutrients in the ground water. The compost facility is located adjacent to the Missoula wastewater treatment plant on a contaminated floodplain of the Clark Fork River in the Missoula Valley, Montana, USA. This site was evaluated over two years for hydrological and chemical characteristics. A series of potentiometric surface maps was created over time and hydraulic conductivity and ground water movement were characterized. Water samples were also collected monthly and results from chemical analyses of the waters were contoured over the …

Building The Case For Delivery Of Health Promotion Services Within The Vocational Rehabilitation, Catherine Adele Ipsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The majority of wellness programs are offered at the worksite to full-time employees. Research about these programs indicates that participating employees experience improved health and work-related outcomes, and that outcomes are exaggerated for workers with multiple health risk factors.

People who are not employed or are underemployed cannot access health promotion services at the worksite. This is a significant barrier for people with physical disability because they experience lower rates of employment and higher rates of secondary health conditions than the general population.

Compromised health reduces the probability of full-time employment. Secondary health issues such as pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, …

Perceived Discrimination And Depressive Symptomatology Among Native American Older Adults, Rita Haidle Billow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recent studies have recognized discrimination as a stressor that is linked to psychological distress for those who experience such discrimination. The present study investigated the role of cultural identification as a moderator of the relationship between a global measure of perceived discrimination and depressive affect for a sample of older Native American adults, a group that has essentially been ignored in the empirical literature. The data were collected through surveys mailed to tribally-enrolled Native American adults aged 50 and older residing on a reservation in the Northwest. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test the moderating role of cultural identification. …

A Descriptive Study Of Native Americans Participation In Hiv Testing In Montana, Carrie Strike

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since reporting first began in Montana in 1985 there have been few, if any, significant changes in regard to HIV/AIDS case rates as well as the demographic characteristics and risk behaviors of Native Americans infected with HIV/AIDS. The fact HIV/AIDS does not appear to have had a disproportionate impact on Montana’s American Indian population at the present time is somewhat surprising given other markers of potential HIV risk, such as the increase in both teen pregnancies and other sexually transmitted disease rates like Hepatitis C, suggest an increased level of risk among American Indians when compared to non-Indian populations. Epidemiologic …