Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of The Secondary Conditions Among Adolescents With Disabilities (Scaad) Instrument: An Exploratory Study, Marie Middleton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of secondary conditions, explore the reliability and validity of the measure, and explore the relationship between secondary conditions and participation among adolescents with disabilities. This research collected ratings of limitation due to secondary conditions, and ratings of participation for 24 adolescents with Intellectual/Developmental Disability. Data show that the participants experience an average of 11 secondary conditions during a three-month period as reported by families. The inter-rater agreement between parents and Family Support Specialists was .73 on a point-by-point comparison, and .85 when comparing whether or not limitation was a concern. …

Agricultural Certifications And Beekeeping: Lessons From An Apicultural Cooperative In Northeastern El Salvador, Central America, Jason Andrew Seagle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Beekeeping, and especially the production and sale of honey, is an on-farm diversification strategy that has significance to rural livelihoods in some of the most economically and environmentally marginalized regions of the world. Beekeeping also supports sustainable agriculture since it requires that vegetation and forest cover remain intact. However, the limited resources of beekeepers, including marketing constraints, make it difficult for them to realize the full value of their beekeeping enterprises. This professional paper focuses on the Eco-Morazán Cooperative in El Salvador as a case study to examine the costs, benefits and market potential of three types of certification schemes: …

Acute Cellular Uptake Of Abnormal Prion Protein Is Cell Type And Scrapie Strain Independent, Christopher Scott Greil

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are fatal neurodegenerative diseases that include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and sheep scrapie. TSE disease pathology and mechanisms within the central nervous system (CNS) of an infected host largely remains unclear. At the cellular level, the uptake of protease resistant prion protein (PrP-res), which strongly correlates with infectivity and is a valid marker for TSE infection, is one of the earliest events that must occur during TSE infection. Given the difficulty of clearly distinguishing input PrP-res from either PrP-res or protease-sensitive PrP (PrP-sen) made by the cell, the uptake of PrP-res from an infectious inoculum …

Cottonwood Establishment In A Gravel-Bed River, Claudio Ivan Meier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I investigated the processes of establishment of the cottonwood Populus trichocarpa T.&G. along the pristine, 5th order, wandering floodplain of the gravel-bed Flathead River, Montana, USA. The focus of my research was to determine the mechanisms explaining successful recruitment on recently formed, unvegetated bars, covering a range of spatial scales from within-bar (~ 1 to 10 m) to across-reach (~ 1 to 10 km). Results are based on field observations and measurements over three growth seasons (2005 through 2007), as well as outdoor and laboratory experiments.

At the within-bar scale, I used a paired-plot sampling design to compare closely-located sites …

Demography And Ecology Of A Declining Endemic: The Olympic Marmot, Suzanne Cox Griffin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Protected areas serve to conserve species, habitats, and ecological processes. However, biological systems within even large parks are increasingly affected by outside perturbations. The Olympic marmots (Marmota olympus) are ground-dwelling squirrel that inhabit high-elevation meadows almost exclusively within Olympic National Park Despite this protection, anecdotal reports in the 1990's of disappearances from historically occupied locations suggested that the species was in decline. I used demographic monitoring, habitat surveys, and non-invasive genetic sampling to evaluate population status of the species and consider the effects of several possible stressors. Olympic marmots disappeared from ~50% of well-studied colonies, and abandoned burrow complexes were …

Pre- And Post-Copulatory Sexual Selection In The Tortoise Beetle Acromis Sparsa (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Paula Alejandra Trillo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Females in nearly all sexually reproducing taxa mate with multiple males. In these species, male fitness is dependent on traits used during both the pre-copulatory processes influencing mate acquisition, as well as the post-copulatory processes influencing fertilization. However, few studies have simultaneously examined pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection within a particular species, and we therefore have little understanding of how these processes interact to determine male reproductive success.

The objective of my study was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of sexually selected traits by examining the interactions between pre- and post-copulatory processes in the tortoise beetle …

Relationships Between Flood Frequency And Riparian Plant Community Structure In Mountain Streams Of Western Montana, Motoshi Honda

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Flooding is the dominant factor structuring riparian plant communities along large, low elevation streams, but it is less clear what role flooding plays in the structure and composition of riparian plant communities along mountain streams. In the first part of this study, I examined the influence of four environmental variables (flood frequency, microtopography, light availability, and soil texture) and spatial heterogeneity on riparian plant community structure in seven study areas along mountain streams in western Montana, USA. Multivariate and spatial statistics were used to determine the relative strength of each set of factors and their interactions in explaining riparian plant …

Residential Development Patterns In Flathead County, Montana, Louis Anthony Jarvis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Population growth in the Non-Metropolitan West has increased over the last two decades. Many researchers have argued that natural amenity concerns, the quality and diversity of the environment, and the rural nature of the non-metropolitan West are the chief factors influencing individuals’ decisions to settle. This research examines a single high-amenity county in Western Montana, Flathead County, and analyzes the factors affecting land values and the probability of residential development at the parcel level. This research develops spatial variables thought to affect land values in an ArcGIS 9.2 environment and develops a regression model that estimates land values based on …

Response Of A Neil1 Deficient Murine Epithelial Cell Line To Chromate, Laura G. Little

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

DNA is constantly exposed to oxidants which can lead to nucleobase damage. Chromium is of particular interest as a DNA oxidant because of its abundance in the environment and the ease with which it can be taken into a cell. Chromate, Cr(VI), ions are taken up by a cell through relatively non-selective anion channels which normally regulate uptake of phosphate and sulfate ions. Once in the cell, chromate ions are reduced by intracellular reductants such as ascorbate and glutathione to Cr(III). Highly reactive Cr(V) and Cr(IV) species are created during this transition which are able to directly oxidize DNA, particularly …

Conservation And Status Of Markhor (Capra Falconeri) In The Northen Parts Of North West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Sajjad Ali

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pakistan is blessed with a great variety of wild flora and fauna, including a rich diversity of wild Caprinae (sheep and goats) represented by 7 species divided into 12 subspecies. These animals are found in Balochistan and Sindh in the south and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Northern Areas in the north. Markhor is a wild goat which belongs to the family Bovidae and sub family Caprinae. In 1992, it was transferred from Appendix II to Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). The inclusion of markhor in …

The Last Best Fish: Will Conservation And Consensus Save Montana's Arctic Grayling?, Jonathan M. Stumpf

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

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The Rewilding Of New York's North Country: Beavers, Moose, Canines And The Adirondacks, Peter Aagaard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project examines the restoration histories of beavers (Castor canadensis), moose (Alces alces americana), and wild canines (Canis spp.) within the Adirondack Highlands of northern New York. Devastated by the depredations of nineteenth century woodsmen, the populations of these large mammals rebounded during the twentieth century. Numbering fewer than ten in 1895, the Adirondacks’ remnant beaver population recolonized the region’s lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers over the next twenty-five years, assisted by the presence of prime habitat, a state-enforced moratorium on beaver trapping, and timely reinforcements. Hunters shot the last of the Adirondacks’ moose near Raquette Lake in 1861. Moose …

Spatial Variability In Forest Fuels: Simulation Modeling And Effects On Fire Behavior, Russell Andrew Parsons

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Forests in the western United States and elsewhere face a growing crisis arising from global warming, changes in fuel beds and an increasing human population. Fire management policy emphasizes fuel treatments, such as thinning and prescribed burning, to remedy this situation because fuels are the one component of the problem that we can directly affect through management action. At present, however, the tools we have for the evaluation of fuel treatments are inadequate because they do not describe the fuel bed, or effects of modifications to the fuel bed on fire behavior in sufficient detail. The work described here presents …

Structure Activity Relationships For Intracellular Loop 2 Of The 5ht1a Serotonin Receptor, Brian Patrick Hall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hall, Brian, Ph.D., May 2008 Pharmacology/Pharmaceutical Sciences

Structure Activity Relationships for Intracellular Loop 2 of the 5HT1A Serotonin Receptor

Chairperson: Dr. Keith Parker

The human (H) serotonin (5-hydroxytrptamine; 5HT) 1a receptor (R) has been implicated in various physiological processes such as mood regulation, vascular and temperature control, anxiety, depression, and migraine headache. This seven transmembrane domain (7TMD), G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) is negatively coupled to adenylyl cyclase (AC). This work was designed to better understand the coupling and activation requirements of intracellular loop 2 (ic2) with Gi in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. 10 MER peptides that are derived from …

Synthesis Of Higher Molecular Weight Poly(D-Glucaramides) And Poly(Aldaramides) As Novel Gel Forming Agents, Tyler Nations Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Poly(alkylene D-glucaramides) with higher molecular weights than previously reported were prepared through a multi-step process beginning with 1:1 alkylenediammonium D-glucarate salts. These salts set a precise stoichiometric equivalence between co-monomers, a necessary requirement for higher molecular weight condensation polymers. The salts were prepared by treating monopotassium D-glucarate with H+ form ion exchange resin to give D-glucaric acid, which was then reacted with a diamine. The glucarate portion of the salt was activated for polymerization through esterification in HCl/methanol. Polymerization was initiated by basification of the resulting mixture. The molecular weights of the polymers showed strong dependence on the base used …

Remember Gay Victims: An Exploration Into The History, Testimony, And Literature Of The Persecution Of Homosexuals By The Third Reich And Their Effect On A Queer Collective Consciousness, Paul D. Vestal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis under National Socialism during the Second World War has historically been ignored and almost completely erased. However, within the past two and a half decades a significant number of historical, academic, sociological, and literary inquiries and works have uncovered this once forgotten past. Because of these investigations, the anti-homosexual actions inflicted upon gay men by the Third Reich have the ability to impact the continual creation of a queer collective memory and consciousness. Unfortunately, many queers do not know the historic connotations and denotation of the pink triangle—a symbol worn by homosexual males …

Role Of Scavenger Receptor Marco In Particle Uptake And Lung Inflammation, Sheetal A. Thakur

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Alveolar macrophages (AM) form the first line of defense against chronic inflammation caused by occupational exposure to environmental particulates such as crystalline silica (CSiO2). The chronic inflammatory process triggered by CSiO2 is known to culminate into a fibrotic response called silicosis in the human lungs. Previous studies have indicated the role of membrane glycoproteins called scavenger receptors in binding of environmental particles. The scavenger receptors are classified into different classes (A-H) based on their structure and function. Class A scavenger receptors are critical in uptake of variety of ligands such as bacteria, acetylated lipoproteins and are typically found on macrophages, …

Capitalization Of Environmental Amenities And Wildfire In Private Home Values Of The Wildland Urban Interface Of Northwest Montana, Usa, Kyle Matthew Stetler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last decade, the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Forest Service) has been increasingly tasked with protecting wildland urban interface (WUI) neighborhoods from wildfire. In addition to fire suppression duties, the Forest Service has attempted to mitigate the wildfire risk posed to the WUI through prescribed burning and other types of fuels reduction projects. But rising suppression costs and diminishing social acceptability of fuel management treatments are putting pressure on the Forest Service to economically justify its wildfire and fuel management decisions. Economic models employed by the Forest Service to support decisions about the allocation of wildfire …

Using 3-D Geometric Morphometric Techniques To Further Understand The Relationship Between Neanderthals And Homo Sapiens, Jolen Anya Minetz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The relationship between hominids in the middle and late Pleistocene has been a heated subject of debate since Neanderthals were first recognized. Neanderthals are either a distinctly separate species from Homo sapiens that were replaced by Homo sapiens without any genetic interaction, which supports the taxonomical title for Neanderthals as Homo neanderthalensis, or there was at least a minimal genetic interaction between contemporaneous Neanderthals and early humans, designating Neanderthals as a subspecies with a taxonomic title of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The purpose of this research was to further explore this issue by conducting a quantitative analysis on several aspects of …

Xylaric Acid, D-Arabinaric Acid (D-Lyxaric Acid), L-Arabinaric Acid (L-Lyxaric Acid), And Ribaric Acid-1,4-Lactone; Synthesis And Isolation - Synthesis Of Polyhydroxypolyamides Therefrom, Michael Raymond Hinton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation describes the nitric acid oxidation of the pentoses D-xylose, L-arabinose, D-arabinose, and D-ribose to produce xylaric acid, L-arabinaric acid (L-lyxaric acid), D-arabinaric acid (D-lyxaric acid), and ribaric acid, respectively, or salts therefrom. Isolation of the aldaric acids from nitric acid has proven difficult in prior reports and an improved nitric acid oxidation and isolation method for each aldaric acid is described.

Aldaric acids are the starting monomers for a class of polymers known as polyhydroxypolyamides (PHPAs) or "hydroxylated nylons," produced through condensation polymerization of the esterified aldaric acid and a diamine of choice. In an effort to obtain …

The Traditional Wilderness Conception, Postmodern Cultural Constructionism And The Importance Of Physical Environments, Matthew Adam Gray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recently, a heated debate has emerged between advocates of the traditional wilderness concept and those who believe that this concept is merely a cultural construction. The traditional wilderness conception viewed wilderness as an objective place separate from humans that is defined by being primarily shaped by natural forces, possessing natural origins and being free of human inhabitants and structures. This view culminated in the definition of wilderness featured in the 1964 Wilderness Act. A postmodern critique of the traditional wilderness conception began in the 1980s. In this view, the traditional wilderness conception is thought to be a product of Euro- …

The Vesicular Glutamate Transporter (Vglut): Heterologous Expression, Proteoliposome, Computational And Mass Spectral Studies, Chih-Kai Chao

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) are integral membrane proteins that uptake glutamate into synaptic vesicles and are involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission. Since VGLUTs were identified and cloned, efforts have been made to characterize their functional roles. However, due to experimental limitations, the structural features of VGLUT protein remain unclear. In an attempt to better understand VGLUTs, computational and biochemical approaches were employed to characterize them. Plasmid DNA encoding rat VGLUT1 was constructed, amplified and expressed in Pichia pastoris to produce VGLUT1 protein. Immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) was employed to purify the protein for structural analysis by mass spectrometry and to …

Novel Roles Of The Endocannabinoid System In Modulating Synaptic Plasticity, Alicia Ninet Angell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Learning and memory formation are invaluable processes in human life; however, the cellular mechanisms that control these phenomena are largely unknown. Synaptic plasticity, which is the ability of the synapse between two neurons to change in strength based on activity, is believed to be a key process in the formation of memories and learning. Endocannabinoids (eCB) have recently emerged as important modulators of synaptic plasticity but their precise roles and mechanisms are not well understood and many contradictions exist in the current literature. We have investigated the roles of eCBs and their primary receptor, the CB1 receptor, in the central …

Probing Structural Differences Of Recombinant Prion Isoforms Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Jessica Louise Gilbert

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conversion of prion protein (PrP) from its normal, cellular isoform, PrPC, to an infectious, misfolded, fibrillar isoform, PrPSc, is responsible for various neurodegenerative diseases in a variety of mammalian hosts. Although the structure of PrPC is well studied, the structure of PrPSc is not known. Obtaining structural information on the misfolded isoform of prion may lead to preventative therapies and treatments of prion diseases. In this study, six single-tryptophan mutants of recombinant PrP were expressed, purified, and refolded into PrPC or two misfolded isoforms of prion, PrPb and PrPF. Solvent accessibilities of the six tryptophan residues were probed among the …

An Experimental Demographic Approach To Exotic Plant Success: Cynoglossum Officinale In Its Native And Introduced Ranges, Jennifer Lynn Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Invasive species often face novel abiotic and biotic environments with different selective regimes where they are introduced. How these changed conditions influence individual life-history traits, and what particular factors spur increases in population abundance in the introduced versus native range, are not well understood. I conducted parallel experiments in both the native and introduced ranges of a widespread plant invader in North America, houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale). I combined these experimental results with demographic monitoring in each range, and population modeling, to explore how introduction has affected houndstongue demography and life-history evolution, and to determine the role of specialist …

Anthropometric Variation In California: A Study Of Native American Populations, Catherine R. Mahoney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Physical anthropologists study the patterns of human morphology to observe the influence of genetics and environment on cranial form. The following study compares cephalic and nasal index means from four Native American populations using modern statistical methods, including one-way ANOVA tests and Games-Howell comparison tests. The individuals used were of only Native American ancestry, over the age of seventeen when the data was collected, and were divided into male and female samples. The climatic conditions of each of the regions are compared to examine the relationship between the mean cranial and nasal indices and the environments in which the populations …

Causes And Consequences Of Displacement Decision-Making In Banhine National Park, Mozambique, Chad Edward Dear

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Decision-making is looming regarding the displacement of people resident in and reliant on resources in strict protected areas around the world. This research investigated the causes and consequences of displacement decision-making in Banhine National Park (BNP), Mozambique. I investigated causes using political-economic, actor-centered, and post-structural perspectives on power. I investigated consequences using the Impoverishment Risk and Reconstruction (IRR) framework. Methods included interviews, focus groups, and observations involving BNP-area residents; park staff; district, provincial, and national-level government employees from various sectors; NGO and World Bank staff; and private consultants. I also analyzed numerous government and donor policies, plans, reports, and legal …

Chronic Low-Level Pb Exposure During Development Alters Proteins Involved In Energy Metabolism In Auditory Neurons Of The Brainstem, John Prins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Low level lead (Pb) exposure is a risk factor for neurological dysfunction including ADHD. How Pb produces these behavioral deficits is unknown, but low-level exposure during development is associated with auditory temporal processing deficits, even though hearing remains normal. Pb disrupts cellular energy metabolism and efficient energy production is crucial for auditory neurons to maintain their high rates of synaptic activity. The voltage dependent ion channel (VDAC) is an ion channel involved in the regulation of mitochondrial physiology and is a critical component in controlling mitochondrial energy production. No studies to date have investigated the effect of Pb on VDAC, …

A Landscape Approach To Grassland Bird Conservation In The Prairie Pothole Region Of The Northern Great Plains, Frank Royce Quamen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Prairie is one of the most imperiled ecosystems, and grassland birds have experienced steeper and more consistent declines than any other group of birds in North America. Habitat-based planning tools are a cornerstone of conservation in forested ecosystems, but remain a novel approach in grasslands. In Chapter 2, I develop spatially-explicit habitat models as decision support tools for conservation. I survey birds, measure local vegetation and quantify landscape features at 952 sites in western Minnesota and northwest Iowa. Findings indicate that cropland provides little habitat for grassland songbirds and that hayland does not compensate for loss of grasslands. Multiscale models …

Exploring The Benefits Of An Outdoor Adventure Program For Improving Self-Esteem And Self-Efficacy And Reducing Problem Behaviors In Adolescent Girls, Kristen O'Shea

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The study assessed change in self-efficacy, self-esteem, and problem behaviors from pre-treatment to post-treatment and at 6-month follow-up for adolescent girls enrolled in an outdoor adventure program. Family security and previous program experience were also considered. Participants included 62 girls (ages 10 - 18) from diverse ethnic and SES backgrounds (the majority were Euro American from middle class backgrounds). As expected, problem behaviors were negatively correlated with self-esteem throughout the trip; they were negatively correlated with self-efficacy at 6-month follow-up. Girls from "higher security" families reported significantly higher levels of self-esteem (p < .05) and fewer problem behaviors (p < .01) than girls from "lower security" families. A principal components analysis (PCA) was run to review test properties of one of the study measures, the modified General Self-Efficacy Scales. Limitations of the study, including low power and few statistically significant results, are discussed.