Digital Commons Network^™

Uncontrolled Burn: The Worker Well-Being Of Wildland Firefighters, Luke Santore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Purpose: The available evidence indicates that wildland firefighters (WLFFs) are experiencing a well-being crisis. This study aims to assess predictors of both worker well-being and social and emotional loneliness among WLFFs.

Methods: An adapted version of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Worker Well-Being Questionnaire, along with the De Jong Gierveld Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale (De Jong Gierveld & Van Tilburg, 2010) was distributed between May and October of 2023. Nine ordinary least square linear regression models were estimated to test the impact of demographic and employment variables on well-being in the sample of 95 …

Big Sky Above, Big Space Below: Montana Is A Frontier For Deep Carbon Storage, Najifa Farhat

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Snowy River Carbon Sequestration Project in southeastern Montana aims to store carbon dioxide emissions from two Wyoming power plants deep underground. This project aligns with new federal pollution regulations emphasizing carbon storage. Previously, carbon capture and storage (CCS) was mainly used to enhance oil production, but it's now transitioning to focus solely on emission reduction due to government incentives. The project represents Montana's first venture into using public lands for carbon storage, a trend expected to grow significantly with future federal mandates. Fossil fuel companies are investing heavily in CCS technology, with an eye on emission reduction rather than …

An Endemic Issue: Malawi's Struggle To Prevent Childhood Malaria, Hailey A. Smalley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Malaria is one of the most prolific diseases in the world, generating hundreds of millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths a year. In 2021, the World Health Organization initiated preliminary trials for the first malaria vaccine in three countries, including Malawi. This project explores the impact of the malaria vaccine on community perspectives and health outcomes related to malaria , describes ongoing challenges that health workers face when disseminating the vaccine, and explains how Malawi’s experience implementing the malaria vaccine reflects larger trends in international aid.

Menopause In The Public Sphere: The Consciousness-Raising Practices Of Technical And Experiential Experts, Emma J. Murdock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Menopause is frequently discussed through a biomedical lens, which stresses technical language and knowledge, yet emerging in popular culture is experiential experts sharing how they feel about menopause. This paper analyses Michelle Obama's podcast episode titled “What Your Mother Never Told You” (2022) featuring Dr. Sharon Malone, a medical doctor and menopause experiential expert. Using consciousness-raising and the spheres of argumentation, I analyze how the experiential and technical experts of the podcast address and speak about menopause. This paper aims to question how consciousness-raising can reconstruct the understanding of menopause through an experiential-centric lens by placing personal testimony and experiences …

No Worries, It’S Fine, Lexie E. Loader

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In my MFA exhibition, no worries, it’s fine, I depict seemingly mundane objects and places in my paintings to explore underlying themes of the bittersweet. They contain both painful memories and sweet moments, and their complexity gives them authenticity. To only explore the one would be dishonest, as the bitter and the sweet are forever intertwined.

Bittersweet is tied to longing…longing for someone you love when they are not present, for better circumstances while accepting where you are. Longing can propel us forward, one step at a time. It gives us the hope that when we experience pain, the pendulum …

Better Understanding The Barred Owl, Adam Lee Potts

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis research presents an analysis of barred owl nest site selection in an understudied region of their expanded range. The barred owl has dramatically expanded its range westwards over the last 150 years, prompting multiple conflicting reinterpretations of their species account. Hypotheses of range expansion are reviewed to provide context for this study’s research. This study gathers empirical data on nest site selection in the mixed conifer forests of Montana’s Seeley-Swan and Mission Valleys. Eight barred owl nests were located following extensive territory surveys. Field measurements of tree height and diameter using USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot …

A Sport Coach's Role In Motivating Athletes, Tarek Farouk

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Athlete motivation, sport psychology, and coaching are intricately connected through the purpose of increasing athletic performance, persistence, and overall success. As mentors, sport coaches play an integral role in affecting an athlete’s motivation by tending to their psychological needs to perform optimally. This paper explores how coaches can leverage visualization, verbal encouragement, mental imagery, and goal setting as ways to enhance athlete motivation and improve performance. By integrating these techniques, coaches can create a supportive and motivating environment that fosters both physical and psychological development in athletes. The paper also examines the principles of sport psychology, emphasizing the importance of …

Perspectives Of Utilizing Pharmacogenomics To Inform Tobacco Cessation: Survey Results From An American Indian Community, Madeline Lousie Davies

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pharmacogenomics research has predominantly focused on populations of European ancestry, limiting the application for diverse populations such as American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Our community-centric study aims to understand perspectives of utilizing pharmacogenomics to guide tobacco cessation in an AIAN community using a survey with qualitative and quantitative components. We assessed participant (n=273) tobacco usage and cessation history, pharmacogenomics knowledge, and perceptions of utilizing pharmacogenomics in the context of tobacco cessation. We found that the majority of participants (92%) were aware of risks associated with tobacco usage and believe it to be a problem within their community (76%). …

Drivers And Fates Of Primary Production In A Dammed, Eutrophic River, Laurel Genzoli

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Algae, cyanobacteria, and aquatic plants are essential components of river ecosystems, providing the basis for aquatic food webs, determining water quality, and controlling carbon and nutrient cycling in rivers. Despite their importance to river ecosystems, growth and accumulation of river photoautotrophs beyond historic levels cause ecological and social harm. The drivers of riverine primary production are poorly understood relative to algae blooms in lakes due to a paucity of studies in rivers, challenges with quantifying periphyton, and interacting and co-varying controls associated with river flows. In my dissertation, I quantified photoautotrophs and aquatic primary productivity in a dammed, eutrophic river …

Seeing, Thinking, Doing – A Multifaceted Model To Embrace Uncertainty In Mine Planning, Christopher James Roos

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation summarizes a multifaceted model for embracing uncertainty within the modern mine planning process. This model – Seeing, Thinking, Doing – aims to introduce technical staff within the mining industry to modern visualization and quantification tools that can aid with understanding and communicating the impact of uncertainty on the optimization of their mine plans.

The dissertation follows the “three-paper” format with the first paper, Modern Visualization to Aid in Communication of Mine Planning Uncertainty, presenting the first aspect of the multifaceted model – seeing. With complex, spatial data, such as the geologic estimate of a mineral deposit, …

Brat Olympics, Caroline Ganci Patterson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

brat olympics is an exploration of feminine disgust, apprehension, and disorientation contextualized through interpersonal relationships and societal shapeshifting. It pays particular attention to gender performance, surburban queerness, and strangerness. The manuscript plays on the history of the bildungsroman, but instead of one consistent singular timeline, it provides three separate attempts at a characterization of a life. These disparate approaches to a singular life’s characterization stress the mundanity of documentation.

This multinarrative approach satirizes the ideal of the singular confessional, and presents a discursive approach to the way we choose to build our worlds. Building off the works of the New …

The National Football League's Problem, Marley R. Merchen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The National Football League has a decades-long problem addressing within its highest coaching levels. has long been negotiated within the sports community through gender and race. This paper provides insights into what equality means in sports by analyzing the use of the ideograph in the NFL's discourse. The author examines the NFL's problem and how it is negotiated within hiring practices. The lack of within the league is seen through three different problems: the “pipeline problem,” the “Black problem,” and the “competency problem.” The NFL and its critics use these problems to address the significant disparity between

Black players and …

Repatriation And A Biological Profile Of Indigenous Remains Of West Texas, Haley P. Rebardi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was created in response to the injustice, mishandling, looting, and trafficking of Native American remains and cultural artifacts. However, even with the latest amendment in December of 2023, there are still gray areas in the context and language. Notably, an issue with NAGPRA is the act only includes institutions and organizations that receive and are supported by Federal funding. Consequently, the act does not cover private collections. The main concern in these contexts is the lack of communication, awareness, and/or permission with and from descendant tribes or potential descendants when it …

Siksikaitsitapi Returning The Gaze On Human & Wildlife Interactions, Celina C. Gray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Niitawahsii–our home territory, the ecoregion of the Siksikaitsitapi–Blackfoot Confederacy, a Traditional Ecological Knowledge Application (TEKA) for socio-ecological research was developed. Aawaaahsskataiks–elders and extant literature identified a need to develop shared understanding regarding strong connections to wildlife niksokowaiks–relatives, through Siksikaitsitapi Traditional Ecological Knowledge (S-TEK). Multistage chain referral sampling, semi-structured interviews and grounded theory coding & analysis from Western science, i.e. Napikowaiks–non-natives’ research methods, were adjusted like to align with kipaitapiwahsinnooni–the Blackfoot paradigm of traditional knowledge; and more generally, Indigenous Research Methods. The result was a rigorous qualitative human-dimension of wildlife research TEKA; for use by Siksikaitsitapi and others interested in …

Weaving The Web: Faculty’S Multilayered Approach To Problems Of Professional Competence (Ppc), Sabina Ramilievna Sabyrkulova

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Counselor Education and Supervision (CES) programs, doctoral students assume five primary professional roles: counseling, teaching, supervision, research, and leadership/advocacy. Counselor educators bear the responsibility of assessing doctoral students’ professional development in these roles, encompassing professional dispositions and competence. This study explores how counselor educators in CES programs experience and address problems of professional competence (PPC) among doctoral students. Given the limited research on this topic, a constructivist grounded theory approach was employed. The study involved eight counselor educators from CACREP-accredited CES doctoral programs. Data collection included semi-structured interviews conducted in two rounds, followed by member checks. Data analysis followed …

Integrating Western Science And Indigenous Knowledge For Just Practices In Conservation, Cierra Lea Keith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Genetic And Environmental Factors Shaping Precision Medicine With Rural And Tribal Populations In Montana, Jack William Staples

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Precision medicine aims to optimize healthcare based on individual genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors, offering the potential to reduce health disparities. However, rural and Tribal communities remain underrepresented in precision medicine research, which threatens to exacerbate existing health inequities. My dissertation research aims to reduce health disparities in rural and Tribal communities in Montana through community-based participatory research (CBPR) and genetic studies. We partnered with research participants of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) on the Flathead Reservation and Shodair Children’s Hospital (Shodair) to conduct two primary studies.

In the first study, we investigated genetic and seasonal determinants of …

Cultural Matching And Identity Safety In K-12 Schools: An Indigenous Research Paradigm, Ashton T. Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Native American and Alaska Native (NA/AN) persons are resilient and have learned to overcome the intergenerational effects of colonization and find new ways to be Native American and Alaska Native in this contemporary life. Learning and well-being are integral values for Native American and Alaska Native people, but finding an appropriate way to approach education and learning can be difficult for Native American and Alaska Native people, especially when historically, the colonial-based systems have been created for them to fail. Because cultural matching and identity safety (CM/IS) for Native American and Alaska Native people in other environments (e.g., psychotherapy, child-welfare …

Local Visions For Patagonia: Drivers And Dynamics Of Collaborative Environmental Governance In Aysén, Chile, Zachary J. Hummel

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Collaborative governance (CG) has emerged as a tool for addressing increasingly complex societal problems by engaging a diverse of set of cross-sector actors in a deliberative process with the aim of realizing consensus-driven outcomes. Emerson et al.’s (2011) Integrated Framework for Collaborative Governance (IFCG) attempts to improve understanding of these arrangements by articulating causal connections between collaborative drivers and dynamics across different contexts. Answering researchers’ call for more empirical support for the IFCG in non-US/European contexts, I used the framework to guide 10 interviews with collaborative governance practitioners in the comanaged marine protected area, AMCP-MU Pitipalena Añihue, located in Aysén, …

Motivating Math Students Through Socratic Pedagogy, Leslie Berg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study investigated the impact of implementing the Socratic method in teaching logarithms on the motivation levels of high school Algebra 2 students. Drawing on foundational research by Hirsch and Pfeil (2012), the research involves two classes totaling 28 students, with surveys administered before and after the Socratic lessons to gauge motivation, engagement, and participation levels. The meticulously designed four-day lesson plans employ cooperative dialogue and critical inquiry to foster student understanding of logarithmic concepts. With the teacher serving as a facilitator and students actively participating in the learning process, the study aimed to replicate and build upon previous findings, …

Ending The Doom Cycle: Redefining Historic Preservation And Reclaiming Total Heritage Through Community And Social Justice Advocacy, Nikki Marie Manning

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the wake of a global pandemic and escalating societal challenges, yet another attempt to examine familiar debates about what we preserve and why and the typical arguments for and against historic preservation, seem inconsequential and disconnected from addressing more urgent societal needs such as systemic racism, inequality, police brutality, LGBTQ+ rights, economic and healthy disparities, and environmental justice. The field of historic preservation has the potential, and even obligation, to emphasize and create meaningful impact on larger issues. It should be highlighting and celebrating the diverse stories of people and places that define our community, and the history embodied …

The Relationship Between Global Competence And National Identity Of The Isec Program Students In China, Jing Xu

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global competence (GC) has become a crucial skill for students in higher education and has been prioritized in talent development objectives at colleges and universities in China, especially in the context of globalization. However, concerns have been voiced that the extensive exposure to global culture and values through mass media may lead to an alteration of college students’ national identity (NI) influenced by global culture and foreign values. Consequently, maintaining a delicate equilibrium between the fostering of GC and NI in college students becomes of paramount importance.

The main purpose of this quantitative non experimental causal comparative study was to …

A Study On The Relationship Between College Teachers’ Perception Of Professional Learning Communities And Self-Efficacy, Hongli Jia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to investigate the relationship between college teachers’ perceptions of the professional learning community and teacher self-efficacy. Drawing on quantitative data from a sample of 367 college teachers in Inner Mongolia in China during the 2023-2024 school year, the research investigated the impact of PLC participation on self-efficacy across different career stages and majors.

The findings revealed a medium positive correlation between college teachers’ perception in PLCs and teacher self-efficacy. The regression model indicated that collective learning and application and shared personal practice significantly influenced the overall teacher self-efficacy, but shared and supportive …

Meeting Students Where They Are: A Full Picture View Of Student Basic Needs In Montana, Kyra D. Merchen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper addresses the increasing challenges faced by colleges and universities in supporting students who are struggling with food insecurity, housing instability, and mental health issues. These basic needs, which are critical to student success, have been exacerbated in recent years, prompting institutions to reassess their role in supporting student well-being beyond academic requirements. Specifically, the paper explores how the Montana University System (MUS), a network of public higher education institutions, is addressing these issues and what further outreach is needed to support students holistically. The study seeks to answer the question: "How are colleges in Montana addressing student basic …

Rangeland Soil Seed Bank Dynamics: Soil Property Relationships, Patterns Across A Degradation Gradient, And Responses To Shrub Management, Ryan Willis Richard Schroeder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rangeland ecosystems are globally important for their ecosystem service delivery, however, they are experiencing several threats pushing systems across ecological states. Thus, creative science-based management is imperative to maintain ecosystem sustainability and improve ecosystem service delivery. Soil seed banks – the living seeds in the soil profile and on the soil surface – and their soil-seed-plant interactions are one area of inquiry that could help guide science-based management efforts when it comes to rangeland community assembly and ecological restoration.

In this dissertation, I investigated rangeland soil-seed-plant interactions in New Mexico, USA. In Chapter 1, I worked with an expert group …

Culture & Contamination On The Fort Hall Indian Reservation, Sidney Upsis Fellows

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The land-based culture of our Shoshone-Bannock Tribes reflects our ability to live a healthy and good life by connecting to the land physically and spiritually in ways of respect, accountability, and other traditions that uphold land-human relations. In consideration of the settler colonialism that has spread across Turtle Island (a.k.a., North America) over the past 500 years, appropriation and contamination of land puts land-based cultures at stake. For the Shoshone-Bannock, two Superfund sites, a result and ongoing issue of settler colonialism, present an issue of environmental justice for the Tribes. This thesis seeks to provide a holistic understanding of our …

Exploring Spatial Climate Analogs For Climate Impact Projection, Adaptation, And Communication, Svetlana Valeryevna Yegorova

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change requires that we adapt to the many impacts that are already unavoidable. To adapt, institutions and managers need to be able to anticipate how ecosystems are likely to respond to the observed and projected changes in climate. This dissertation explores spatial climate analogs for projecting climate change exposure and impacts to ecological systems, and for communicating climate impacts to diverse audiences. Chapter 1 summarizes the current state of knowledge about spatial climate analogs, and identifies areas for further research. Chapter 2 compares the skill and impact projections of analog impact models, to that of two commonly used empirical …

An Examination Of The Relation Between Memory Self-Efficacy And Working Memory Within The Cognitive Reserve Framework, Genna Marie Mashinchi Ma

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dementia has been found to negatively affect multiple aspects of cognitive functioning. Despite an increasing prevalence of cognitive decline, many aging adults do not experience reduced cognitive functioning. The reason as to why some experience cognitive decline and others do not is still unclear. One leading theory thought to explain this phenomenon is the cognitive reserve theory (CR), which proposes that certain lifestyle factors (e.g., educational attainment, occupational attainment, and leisure activity participation) prolong one’s cognitive functioning and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. Memory self-efficacy (MSE), defined as one’s beliefs in their memory ability, was found to be positively …

Investigating Intellectual Diversity: A Critical Examination Of Academic Publishing Practices And Their Effects On Wildlife Conservation, Madeline M. Damon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Academic publishing processes and standards play a fundamental role in communicating, reviewing, and expanding scientific knowledge in wildlife conservation. However, various publishing biases privilege some research perspectives and worldviews while limiting others. These biases directly impact intellectual diversity, or differences in ontology, axiology, and epistemology. This study aims to quantify intellectual diversity in the field of wildlife conservation and identify how publishing biases affect knowledge available to researchers and decision-makers worldwide.

The study employed a sample of 50,000 articles published between 2018 and 2022, collected from the Web of Science database. To analyze the vast amount of article records, natural …

Reterritorialization And Enclavic Tourism Development: A History Of Zoning And Its Impacts In Corbett Tiger Reserve Landscape, India, Rajiv Bhartari

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Zoning has become the sine qua non in protected area management around the world. Yet zoning as an assemblage of policies, practices and especially politics is not well understood, especially through a critical geographical/political ecology lens. In this research, I used the concepts of territorialization, reterritorialization and enclavization as a framework for examining the creation and impacts of zoning in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) landscape over past five decades (1973-2023). The Corbett Tiger Reserve landscape has the largest wild tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) population in any protected area in the world. The framework helped to understand successive …