Digital Commons Network^™

Testosterone Administration In Premenopausal Women, Kaeli Nichol Shockley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Testosterone administration is a relatively uncommon practice in the United States. Women are at risk of having health issues that could be remedied by low-dose testosterone administration via transdermal patch or topical cream. This paper explores the potential health and wellness benefits of administering low-dose testosterone to premenopausal women. Low-dose Testosterone may improve depression scores as well as upregulate markers of bone formation in women with anorexia nervosa. Higher testosterone was associated with increased muscle mass and muscular strength in collegiate female athletes. Testosterone given at lower doses increases muscle mass and exercise performance in college-age women. Overall, testosterone supplementation …

Quantifying Structural Vegetation Change On Arctic Tundra: A Multi-Decadal Study Integrating Remotely Sensed Imagery And Traditional Field Measurements, Anna M. Moser

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Arctic regions have experienced an amplified rate of climate warming in recent decades, contributing to well-documented increases in tundra vegetation productivity. Satellite remote sensing has historically played a crucial role in detecting and quantifying trends at regional and biome scales; however, coarse resolution imagery has proven insufficient for capturing fine-scale variability in vegetation response. Considering the spatial heterogeneity of tundra vegetation, high resolution, plot-scale remote sensing observations are necessary. This study couples traditional field measurements with high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery and plane-based aerial photos to quantify changes in vegetation on the North Slope of Alaska over a 28-year …

Exchange Rate Pass-Through To Inflation For Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis, Saila Sarmin Rapti

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Assessing the impact of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) on inflation is a crucial concern for policymakers in both developed and developing economies. The study evaluates both short- and long-term pass-through effects, shedding light on the relationships between the exchange rate movements and inflation rates in Bangladesh. In this regard, this paper applies an Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and Engle and Granger cointegration test with Error Correction Modeling (ECM) to estimate ERPT in Bangladesh based on monthly data spanning 2010 to 2023 to provide a more robust and rigorous investigation of the long-run and short-run pass-through of exchange rates. …

Influence Of Cross-Country Skiing & Off-Leash Dogs On Wildlife Habitat Use In Lubrecht Experimental Forest, Sophie Ann Morris

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Outdoor recreation activities are seen as a type of anthropogenic stressor that can significantly impact wildlife. Despite winter recreational activities having a more negative effect on wildlife compared to summer or aquatic recreation, they are the least studied in terms of impact (Larson et al., 2016). Wildlife species can be influenced both temporally and spatially by the development of winter recreation trails and snow-based recreation (Braunisch et al., 2011; Olsen et al., 2018). This research combines natural and social science methods to assess how cross-country skiers affect wildlife activity patterns, guiding decisions about managing recreation. During two winter data collections, …

Assessing Algebra Readiness: A Three-Year Study Of The Orleans-Hanna Prognosis Test And Middle School Math Placements, Tabitha Nicole Ringler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study investigates the viability of the Orleans-Hanna Algebra Prognosis Test (Hanna and Orleans, 1982) as a modern predictor of algebra readiness among eighth grade students. At over 40 years old, the Orleans-Hanna Algebra Prognosis Test (1982) is still commonly utilized by schools as the main source of mathematical ability grouping. The guiding question for this research is whether the test is outdated and should be retired, or is it still a valid predictor of algebra readiness.

Utilizing a longitudinal study spanning three years, the research examines the performance of math students placed in an advanced class versus students who …

Three Stories On Urban Wildlife, Kevin J. Moriarty

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

To Revise Or Not To Revise: How Feedback Type, Interpersonal Liking, And Messenger Credibility Influence Revision, Rachel Jane Jensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Revisions inevitably occur during project creation and curation; many of which are influenced by received feedback. Previous research has highlighted the role goals, perceptions of self, and task complexity play in revision, but little research has examined how feedback type and an individual’s feelings toward their feedback giver influence revision. A quasi-experimental design examined how feedback type (additive, subtractive, or none), interpersonal liking for a feedback-giver, and perceived credibility of a feedback-giver affected students’ (n = 155) willingness to revise, self-reports of revision, and calculated actual revision score. Results indicated that participants in a feedback-receiving condition reported higher levels of …

A New Frontier Of Responsibility: Children's Attributions Of Moral Responsibility To Autonomous And Controlled Robots, Thomas M. Macko

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A prevailing theory in moral psychology, known as the Theory of Dyadic Morality, proposes that we evaluate moral transgressions primarily through weighing the mental states and intentions of both the perpetrator and the victim of a given transgression. Previous research has found adults and children similarly refer to mental states and intentions when making moral evaluations as third-party observers of a moral transgression. How might this framework apply to social robots, who arguably lack the mental states and intentions we can effortlessly identify in humans? The present study sought to examine how children view a social robot as culpable for …

A Replicating Rna Vaccine For Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Protects Via Non-Neutralizing Anti-Nucleoprotein Antibodies And Trim21, Shanna Star Leventhal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV) is a negative-sense, tick-borne bunyavirus endemic to Europe, Asia, and Africa. CCHFV may cause a severe hemorrhagic disease with a case fatality rate of 5-70% and, to date, there are no widely available or highly efficacious vaccines or therapeutics. Because of its widespread distribution and lack of countermeasures, the WHO has listed CCHFV as a high priority pathogen.

Here, we report a self-replicating, alphavirus-based RNA vaccine that expresses the CCHFV nucleoprotein (repNP) and glycoprotein precursor (repGPC). Initial studies showed that repNP induces high titers of non-neutralizing anti-NP antibodies while repGPC stimulates a robust T-cell response. …

The Role Of Face Threats In Understanding Target’S Interpretation Of A Tease, Shawn M. Deegan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Teasing is a common phenomenon used across the lifespan, but what teasing is and what makes it prosocial or antisocial is strongly contested. This study argues that viewing teasing as a communication strategy helps researchers focus on the content of the teasing message. Goffman’s Facework Theory was used to explore negative and positive face threats, redressive signals, and relational closeness to help explain why the tease is seen as prosocial or antisocial. In an experimental study, participants were asked to take turns engaging in a teasing game about elements of the other’s identity. The study found that negative face threat …

Effects Of Mortality Risk And Ecological Conditions On Songbird Movement, Foraging, Parental Care, And Body Mass Management, Timothy Robert Forrester

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Examining why species vary in behavior and life history strategies is a fundamental part of ecology and evolution. Yet, due to the difficulties of quantifying behavior in the field, we know surprisingly little about how species spend their time and energy daily, why interspecific differences occur, and what are the physiological and demographic consequences of these differences. In this dissertation, I use songbirds to examine the influence of ultimate selection pressures (e.g., mortality risk) and proximate ecological conditions (e.g., temperature) on foraging and reproductive behavior. I also examine the influence of reproductive behaviors on fitness correlates (e.g., body mass, reproductive …

Happy Groups: An Evaluation Of A Brief Positive Psychology Intervention With Adolescents, Lillian Cheri Martz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This manuscript style dissertation investigates the impact of a brief positive psychology group intervention on both wellbeing and academic achievement among adolescents. Two experimental research studies were conducted to address this. Participants from a local high school engaged in a brief small group positive psychology intervention in both studies. The first study focused on wellbeing outcomes. Wellbeing was assessed using self-report questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety, stress, hope, school connection, and overall wellbeing. Utilizing a multiple baseline design with each participant serving as their own control group, changes between baseline to intervention were measured. Results indicated significant reductions in anxiety and …

Drought Conditioning Conifer Seedlings For Post-Fire Management And Climate Change Adaptation, Anna C. Ross

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Increased frequency, severity, and duration of drought and increased wildfire severity are together impacting forests of the western U.S. To encourage forest ecosystem resilience to these changing disturbance regimes, there is a need for novel silvicultural techniques that develop seedlings capable of establishing in hotter and drier climates. We evaluated the morphological and physiological effects of a drought conditioning treatment applied in a greenhouse on second- year ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), western white pine (Pinus monticola), and western larch (Larix occidentalis) seedlings. Treatments included a well-watered control (75% of container capacity) and a water-limited …

Quantifying Coarse Sediment Connectivity In Mountain Watersheds, Jordan Thomas Gilbert

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sediment connectivity is a framework for conceptualizing how sediment moves from source to sink across landscapes. Quantifying connectivity is challenging due to variation in sediment detachment and transport processes and their rates across different process domains. Within the Bitterroot River basin of Western Montana, process domains differ based on glaciation history, and resulting morphological differences; the Bitterroot Mountains were glaciated during the Pleistocene, and the Sapphires/Southern Bitterroots were not. Quantifying longitudinal connectivity requires estimating sediment transport from reach to reach throughout drainage basins. Previously, transport equations suitable for application in mountain rivers have been limited. I present a new transport …

The Relationship Between Perceived Transformational Leadership Of Leaders And Job Satisfaction Among Public University Teachers In Jinzhou, Benfeng Yu

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Teachers’ job satisfaction(JS) is one of the key factors in university development and is regarded as the main variable in evaluating the effectiveness of human resources. Transformational leaders can effectively involve and motivate teachers to generate new visions and teaching practices. However, few studies have been conducted in China to examine the effects of transformational leadership on teachers’ JS. Thus, this paper showcased a quantitative study that explored the relationship between the perceived Chinese transformational leadership(CTL) of leaders and teachers’ JS. The theoretical framework was built on teachers’ JS and CTL theory in the Chinese context.

A non-experimental correlational-comparative methodology …

The Relationship Between Teacher Agency And Occupational Well-Being Among Primary School Teachers, Hongbo Yu

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Primary school teachers’ occupational well-being has been highly discussed in recent years. Improving professional ability, teaching achievement, teaching seminars, teacher-student relations, and colleague relations make teachers busy and unfulfilled. Teachers, reporting decreases in their overall well-being, are experiencing higher burnout rates, increased workloads, higher levels of negative emotions, and negative internalization symptoms.

This study addressed the relationship between agency and occupational well-being among primary school teachers in Hongshan District. Teacher agency, defined as the capacity of teachers to act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional growth and influence their work environment, is increasingly recognized as a critical factor in …

Beyond The Participation Gap: Exploring How Affinity Groups Make Outdoor Recreation More Accessible And Inclusive For Underserved Communities, Jaclyn Fox Rushing

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Outdoor recreation is associated with numerous health and wellness benefits for participants. Yet, there has been a long-term underrepresentation of underserved communities in outdoor recreation (i.e., people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities). This phenomenon has spurred substantial research since the 1970s, which has characterized the problem well and identified many of the underlying reasons. In recent years, there have been widespread efforts to increase relevance, diversity, equity, and inclusion (RDEI) in outdoor recreation and public land management, however participation among underserved communities remain relatively unchanged despite an increasingly diverse American public. This study seeks to move beyond describing …

Green Poems, Lillian I. Emerick Valentine

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

With broad lyric range, the ecopoems in Green center around the ideology and ethics of the American West. The speaker’s position within that as a descendent of settler laborers is interrogated, as well as language itself. Grammar is used as a tool to perform deconstructive work, examining how labor intersects with colonialism and climate change. Melding intellectual analyses of etymology with the physical act of agricultural labor, these poems range from the conversational and playful to lyric explorations of loss.

Interwoven with this is the speaker’s self-examination of femininity and matrilinear inheritance. How do we use the language we’ve been …

Sudden Oak Death, Jeffrey William Guay

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A novel set contemporaneously in rural Montana, Sudden Oak Death follows two protagonists, Wade and his teenage daughter Paige. Each are fighting different addictions, as Wade is in alcoholism recovery, and Paige recently came home from a drug treatment program. In order to succeed, Paige must reintegrate herself into public high school, despite suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia. Wade is raising his family as a single father, and struggles to maintain his emotional stability in the face of his own recovery.

The Impact Of Treatment Dosage On Cognitive-Linguistic Outcomes Of Patients With Aphasia: An Investigation Of Three Service Delivery Models, Adele J. Derendinger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study addresses the gap in literature by directly comparing the effectiveness of Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programs (ICAPs) and modified ICAPs (mICAPs) to usual care service delivery models for people with aphasia. Through a prospective study design, cognitive-linguistic function change scores across different service delivery models were examined. The findings reveal significant within-group improvements in cognitive-linguistic function for participants in ICAPs, with some improvement seen in mICAPs and usual care conditions. Intensive models demonstrated greater improvement compared to non-intensive usual care models, particularly evident in the Western Aphasia Battery – Revised and the Boston Naming Test – Second Edition. …

Sweetbriar: I Wound To Heal, Megan Foster

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This work questions the societal disconnect between the readiness of human emotion and the restraint with which we discuss it. As the well-to-do ladies of the Victorian era would gather flowers to create tussie-mussies and nosegays to adorn themselves and send messages, the pieces of the MFA thesis exhibition Sweetbriar: I Wound to Heal divulge intense realities through the palatability and presentability of a flower’s beauty. The flowers in this work (as with Victorian Flower Language) act as signifiers for greater emotional concepts. Harebells for grief. Peonies for shame. Gorse for anger. Each flower/emotion in this exhibition is connected directly …

Exploring Cross-Cultural Communication Strategies And Solutions Of International Students In Academic Environments With Consideration To Communication Accommodation Theory, Wendy K. Yeboah

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT

Yeboah, Wendy, M.A., Spring 2024 Communication Studies

Exploring Cross-Cultural Communication Strategies and Solutions of International Students in Academic Environments with Consideration to Communication Accommodation

Chairperson: Dr. Greg Larson

This study, exploring the communication challenges of international students within academic spaces may be particularly helpful due to the constant interaction that happens within the academic space. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) was used as a guiding framework to ask eleven international students what their communication challenges are and subsequently what are the communication strategies they use to help alleviate these challenges. Analyses were conducted thematically, and international students' responses on what …

Wildfire-Specific Fine Particulate Matter Exposure Impacts On Influenza Across The Western United States, Ava Shulin Orr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: In recent years, air pollution, particularly fine particulate matter (PM2.5) originating from wildfire smoke, has surged despite declining anthropogenic emissions. This trend has led to concerning adverse health effects across many different morbidity and mortality outcomes. Still, many gaps remain in understanding of how wildfire-specific smoke impacts our health, including how to isolate the contribution of wildfire-originating PM2.5 within the total ambient or background PM2.5, as well as how and when delayed wildfire smoke exposure will impact certain disease outcomes, and relevant to this dissertation, particularly for communicable respiratory infections, such as influenza.

Purpose: The purpose of this research …

Cultivating Access: The Benefits And Challenges Of Using Community Land Trusts To Preserve Farmland And Support Farmers., Meghan Daly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Agricultural land protected by community land trusts (CLTs) is more likely to remain in active production due to the CLT’s ability to enforce land use practices and select tenants committed to farming. While land tenure approaches vary among CLTs, protected agricultural lands typically utilize long-term leases with affordable rents (Ela and Rosenberg, 2020). Such leasing arrangements enable farmers to access land at prices unaffected by escalating land values (Schwartz et al., 2013). The CLT model not only safeguards farmland but also promotes active agricultural production, thereby ensuring local food supply and providing economic opportunities for farmers.

Despite the promising potential …

Temporal And Spatial Connectivity And The Impacts Of Hydropower In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, Serena Lynn Butler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tropical regions hold untapped hydropower potential, but dam construction often adversely impacts multiple dimensions of connectivity in river systems, rigorous evaluation of which is often lacking. This study investigates temporal and spatial dimensions of longitudinal and lateral connectivity in the Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, a region with ongoing and planned hydropower projects. Limited in-situ monitoring data is a common challenge in tropical rivers. To address this, we utilized satellite imagery from Landsat (via Google Earth Engine) and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) data. We examined alterations in the flow regime over time and relative to dam construction. We also …

Evaluating Early-Life Characteristics And Responses Of Native Plant Materials For Dryland Restoration, Sophia N. Lasche

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Globally, many drylands are in need of restoration due to anthropogenic land use changes, climate change-related biodiversity loss, and broad scale degradation. Within this degradation framework, many perennial grass species and populations have been lost from drylands. A common method of restoring vital perennial grass populations is through seed-based restoration. Using seed-based restoration, or the act of adding desirable seed to a system to restore plant populations, requires a depth of knowledge on species level responses, as well as seed sources within those species. My research examines three workhorse perennial grass species and associated seed sources for dryland restoration, especially …

From Recreation To Occupation: Exploring Access To The Outdoors, Eleanor R. Hall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Questions of access and allocation are growing more pressing in today’s society as elements such as economic inequality, amenity migration and climate change create resource scarcity and complicate access to the outdoors. Whether it is apportioning the Colorado river, accessing busy National Parks, or owning land in an expensive mountain town, there are ample examples across the American West of the challenges posed when there are not enough resources to meet demand. At a time when natural resources are starting to feel more limited, allocation, ownership and access become increasingly important. For my Master’s Portfolio I reported three stories that …

Puerto Rican Haplogroup Distribution: A Taíno History, Paige Mackenzie Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The extent to which Puerto Rico’s indigenous communities resisted, survived, and were transformed by colonization is unclear despite extensive ethnohistorical research. Historical claims of extinction are attributed to colonial census information but are strongly opposed by islanders who claim Indigenous Taíno ancestry (Nieves-Colón et al. 2019). Ethnic composition of Puerto Ricans is primarily European, African, and Indigenous and these compositions reflect migrations and admixture. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is of vast importance, as it permits tracing of the maternal line through a common female ancestor. In this, investigation of Indigenous haplogroup frequencies and their importance and relevance in Puerto Rican genetic …

The Influence Of Intensive Treatment In A Cohort Model On Psychosocial Well-Being Of Patients With Aphasia: An Investigation Of Patients’ Quality Of Life Across Three Service Delivery Models, Helena Riley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Aphasia, a common communication disorder following a stroke, significantly impacts psychosocial wellbeing and quality of life. Despite advancements in rehabilitation frameworks, traditional impairment-based interventions prevail, leaving gaps in addressing holistic needs. This study aims to compare patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) between intensive comprehensive aphasia programs (ICAP), modified ICAPs (mICAPs) and individual usual care (UC) service delivery models for aphasia intervention. Eighteen participants with aphasia were broadly recruited for this study. Each completed a series of PROMs pre-and post-treatment examining psychosocial wellbeing, communicative participation, and health related quality of life. Results indicate that intensive programs show potential for greater gains in …

Wildfires Are Burning Less Frequently And More Severely Than Historically In The Western Us: A Novel Approach To Calculating Fire-Regime Departures, Jeffrey Ryan Chandler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Changing climate, vegetation, and fire exclusion are altering and homogenizing fire-regime attributes compared to historic conditions. Fire-regime changes are commonly quantified using departure metrics, which are often based on measures of central tendency (i.e. changes in the mean). These metrics can mischaracterize complex changes to the distributional characteristics of fire-regime attributes. Here we develop a fire-regime departure metric that quantifies nonparametric distributional changes to fire-regime attributes over time. We use this metric to compare fire frequency and severity between historical (~1600-1880) and contemporary (1880- 2021) time periods in western US forests. Our analysis revealed that 89% of Western US forests …