Estimating The Effects Of Overstory Retention, Vegetative Competition, And Site Quality On The Height Growth Of Small Ponderosa Pine Trees Using Regression Quantiles, Colin P. Kirkmire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson) forests in the Inland Northwestern region of the US are increasingly managed under multi-aged silvicultural systems that provide stand structure for wildlife habitat, timber production, enhanced aesthetic, or restoration of presettlement conditions (O'Hara 2005). Partial retention harvest, where an element of the previous stand's overstory structure is retained, is commonly used to achieve a multi-aged stand structure. However, little is known about how ponderosa pine trees in the understory respond to overstory and understory competitive factors following partial retention harvest. The height growth of small trees was hypothesized to be influenced by site …

An Exploratory Study Of Burial Identification Using Historic Human Remains Detection Dog Alerts And Inorganic Soil Analyses, Britt Schlosshardt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

One point at which forensic science and historical archaeology intersect, and the focus of this thesis, is using the decidedly forensic avenues of trained dogs, probing, and chemical analyses of soils, informed by archaeological survey, to locate burials. Human remains detection dogs have proven to be a nonintrusive and effective method for identifying or confirming historic unmarked burial locations. Inorganic soil analyses have been demonstrated in prior research to show variations in grave soil. For this research, the hypothesis that is explored is that a corpse will chemically alter the soil in or on which it is placed to a …

Osmoticana: Stories About Boundary, Heather Jurva

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Problem-Solving For Environmental Justice, Sophie C. Wolfram

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An extensive body of environmental justice literature has demonstrated repeatedly what impacted communities have long known from experience, that environmental pollution including groundwater threats, diesel particulate matter, toxic releases, pesticide use, and hazardous waste sites, disproportionately burdens people of color and low-income communities. The environmental justice movement seeks to bring about equal protection of all people from environmental hazards, including equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Advocacy within the movement has frequently adopted oppositional framings with respect to the state; however, collaborative approaches to environmental justice problem-solving have become more common, especially as states increasingly recognize environmental justice in …

Radical Dissonance And Haunted Gestures: Rupture And Reverence In The Artwork Of Aja Mujinga Sherrard, Aja M. Sherrard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper serves to establish the studio practice of Aja Mujinga Sherrard within the framework of conceptual art, touching on the flexible use of media, the subversive or political nature of the work, and its relationship to movements and disciplines such as Feminism and Poststructuralism.

The section entitled “Race and Incoherence” addresses the practice of Radical Dissonance—or the creation of ruptures within commonly accepted concepts and social constructions—through the Costuming Kinship Series, 13≠12≠12.2 (Genetics Project), and Body Double. The section entitled ”Art, Loss, and the Unspeakable” traces an emotional shift in her work and speaks directly to the pieces …

A Quantitative Study On The Influence Of Persistence Factors On American Indian Graduate Students, Aislinn Rae Heavy Runner-Rioux

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The underrepresentation of American Indian students continues to exist at the undergraduate and graduate levels of postsecondary education despite increases of American Indian student enrollment. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to identify correlations between academic factors and graduate student persistence, as well as to understand how likely graduate degree completion is based on known academic factors for American Indian students. The analyses of the data included survey results, descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, and multivariate regression. A sample of n=63 American Indian Graduate students represented 41 tribes and villages with over 32 unique tribal languages. The respondents indicated …

Does Timing Of Herbicide Use Influence Rates Of Germination Or Seedling Biomass Of Native Plants Used For Restoration?, Christine Mcmanamen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Invasive plants can negatively impact native grasslands by changing their species composition, productivity, and function. Managers commonly use herbicides as a control method; however, this practice can lead to secondary invasion by other non-native invasive plants, unless measures are taken to promote natives. Because of this, managers often seed native plants after spraying herbicides. There is evidence, however, that chemical control of invasive plants may reduce the effectiveness of subsequent seed-addition treatments, but there is currently little quantitative information on optimal timing between spraying and seeding or on variation in herbicide sensitivity among native plants commonly used in seed mixes. …

Disappearing Act, Kate Barrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Disappearing Act is a manuscript of fiction consisting of four short stories: "Disappearing Act," "California Zephyr," "Lost & Found," and "We Run to the Desert." The collection explores issues pertaining to relationships, sexuality, and the myriad definitions of both platonic and romantic love.

Neon Is Trying To Tell You Something, Grace Arenas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following is the manuscript of my poetry collection, “Neon is Trying to Tell You Something.” This manuscript represents my development of poetic voice and style over the course of the past two years. In these poems, images accrue and take on new meaning, while still retaining echoes of their original connotations. This is how the speaker’s mind makes sense of things: evolutionarily. As a collection, these poems do not attempt to world-build or use their foreign landscapes as the driving force of symbol, but rather they use these landscapes as the essential terminology for their logic puzzles, their syllogistic …

Impact Of Local Government Revenue And Spending During Oil And Gas Booms In The Rocky Mountain States, Tina Cummins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Keeping House, Anna J. Blackburn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This collection of poems and short prose is a meditation on questions of boundary and perception. The Keeping House is locus of loss and entrapment, resistance and desire. It embodies the irresistible gravity of the self—both its material and psychical spaces. The speaker grapples with the instability of a world where “shrouds become things, and things become shrouds.” Even knowledge is unreliable. These poems enact a quest for meaning through internal and external landscapes.

Lateral Heterogeneity And Architectural Analysis Of The Wall Creek Member Of The Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Frontier Formation, John Zupanic

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Upper Turonian Wall Creek Member (WCM) of the Frontier Formation is part of a series of marine sandstones that were deposited on the western flank of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (KWIS). The KWIS was a low accommodation shallow-marine foreland basin system that included many large deltaic complexes on its western margin. Deposition of WCM deltaic deposits was strongly influenced by fourthorder glacioeustatic cycles, oceanographic circulation patterns, and tectonics related to the active Sevier fold and thrust belt to the west. An in-depth field study of the WCM was performed on the western flank of the Powder River Basin …

Assessing The Character Of Place To Guide Geotourism In Montana: A Case Study Of Whitefish And White Sulphur Springs, Montana, Michael E. Tipton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2007 the governor’s Montana Tourism Advisory Council adopted the Montana Tourism and Recreation Charter. Its guiding principle of geotourism pledged to sustain and enhance the character of the places that the people of Montana call home. How can the state’s efforts to keep this pledge be assessed when “character of place” has never been clearly defined or understood in detail? To keep this pledge, and chart the future of geotourism in the state, it was important to clarify what is meant by character of place and identify the full range of present and potential problems that threaten the integrity …

The Prescribed West, Evan M. Hauser

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Police Decision-Making And The Initial Detention Of Juveniles, Tessa G. Decunzo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Police decisions can have a direct impact on juvenile outcomes. These decisions are especially impactful in Montana as Montana law enforcement officers are provided statutory discretion pertaining to the decision to arrest and initially detain a youth. The goal of this study is to understand police officer decision-making as it pertains to the initial detention of juveniles and to inform future theory and policy. The research was guided by a focused hypothesis: The factors identified by law enforcement will be significant predictors of the factors associated with the likelihood of initial detention. In order to examine this issue, the current …

Sms Parent Action Intervention (Span): A Pilot Study To Assess The Feasibility Of Using Text Messaging To Promote Child Health On An American Indian Reservation, Julia M. Malich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract

Purpose: Childhood obesity and its associated health risks are widely recognized as a major public health crisis in the United States (Johnson & Johnson, 2014; Proctor, 2008; Rogers et al, 2013; Vinci et al, 2016) and worldwide (Elías-Boneta, Toro, Garcia, Torres, & Palacios, 2015). Among children in low-income families, American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children have the highest prevalence of obesity (21.1%) compared to other racial/ethnic groups (14.74% overall) (Pan et al, 2015). Parents play an important role in introducing healthy foods and encouraging physical activity in young children (Birch & Ventura, 2009; Lindsay et al., 2006; Natale et al., …

Set The Net: The Heritage Significance Of Fish Camp And Wild Salmon In Bristol Bay, Alaska, Sarah Jane Braund

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In over 10 years of environmental and socioeconomic studies surrounding the controversial Pebble Limited Partnership mine project design and permitting, commercial salmon fishers’ voices in Bristol Bay, Alaska remain unheard. To meaningfully participate in cultural resource management decision-making that affects them, communities need to speak, yet fisher communities rarely have an established voice. This dissertation uses critical collaborative ethnography and Indigenist research paradigms to describe how the recognition of living heritage communities can be facilitated through the identification of ethnographic landscapes. Such landscapes reflect the meaningful relationship of culture and place, concepts that are currently under-represented in Alaska. Not only …

A Biogeographic Perspective On The Impacts And Importance Of Rodent Granivory On Native Vs. Invasive Plants, Jacob Elias Lucero

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

One of the most well-known explanations for the success of invasive plants in novel environments is enemy release, which predicts that 1) invasive plants are limited by natural enemies in the native range but not the non-native range, and 2) native competitors in recipient communities remain limited by their natural enemies. Despite considerable empirical attention, very few studies have tested these basic predictions, especially with respect to generalist herbivores. We tested whether invasive cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) has experienced enemy release from granivorous rodents – an important guild of generalists – using exclosures and experimental seed additions in western Asia (where …

Descriptive Analysis Of Injuries Sustained By Wildland Firefighters, Taylor Purchio

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Objective: To develop a better understanding of the types of injuries Wildland Firefighters (WLFFs) sustain during Physical Training (PT) and while out on the fire line, and if there are any discernible trends or patterns that can be addressed through the implementation of a more focused PT program.

Methods: This study is a web-based cross-sectional questionnaire titled Injury Surveillance of Wildland Firefighters (ISWLFF). We utilized a snowball sampling technique to reach seasonal and fulltime WLFFs of the US Forest Service. 360 WLFFs responded to the questionnaire, but were not required to answer every question. While 112 of the respondents did …

Poison In Pink, Sydney V. Cook

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Humans slather, spray, mist, and cleanse their bodies with personal care products like lotion, hairspray, cologne, and shampoo every day. Our cupboards are stocked full of them, but few of us understand what is in those jars and bottles. We trust that if it’s on the shelf at the store, it’s safe. However, this is not always the case, and many personal care products contain chemicals that are harmful to human and environmental health.

My multi-disciplinary Environmental Studies thesis project combines evidenced-based research, interviews, nonfiction narrative, and science communication to create part of a book manuscript intended to educate general …

A Miniaturized Spectrophotometric In Situ Ph Sensor For Seawater, Reuben C. Darlington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since the Industrial Revolution, the world's oceans have absorbed increasing amounts of CO2 and the resultant changes to the marine carbonate chemical system have reduced the pH by > 0.1 units (~ 30%) in surface waters. This acidification of the oceans has many far reaching impacts on marine life and there is great need of quality instrumentation to assess and follow the changing carbonate system. This MIS project aims to develop a low cost pH sensor with high precision and accuracy for open sea measurements with special emphasis on reduced size and cost. Design effort is based on the commercially available …

Dispersal, Genetic Structure, Network Connectivity And Conservation Of An At-Risk, Large-Landscape Species, Todd Bartholomew Cross

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wide-ranging species face many threats to genetic connectivity. In light of these threats, one major challenge is the efficient use of scarce resources for the conservation of these species. Setting conservation priorities for landscapes and connectivity can be informed using molecular genetics, and can ensure the efficient use of scare resources to maximize returns in biodiversity conservation.

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter sage grouse) is a species of conservation concern that spans eleven state boundaries, land managed by multiple agencies, and one international boundary. Across the species’ distribution, the threats to the genetic connectivity range from agricultural conversion to …

Exploring The Relationship Between Childhood Sexual Knowledge Acquisition And Adult Sexual Self-Esteem, Guy Ray Backlund

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation investigated the relationship between sexual knowledge acquisition components (parents, sex education, religion, peers, siblings, media and pornography) in both learning and experience, age of first learning and first sexual experience, and quality of learning and first sexual experience in correlation to the construct of sexual self-esteem. Participants (N = 195) were college undergraduate students from the University of Montana and Gonzaga University between the ages of 18 and 25. A standard multiple regression analysis was performed, and between groups ANOVA post hoc analyses investigated comparisons of sexual knowledge acquisition components by Sexual Self-Esteem Inventory scores (SSEI) (Zeanah & …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Of International Service-Learning Experiences And Their Impacts On Post-Service Educational Experiences, C. Roch Turner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Institutions of higher education are increasingly faced with global forces. Consequently, colleges and universities must internationalize in order to stay relevant when faced with global forces. One means by which post-secondary institutions are internationalizing is by offering students international service-learning experiences. During these experiences, students acquire intercultural competencies and a more in-depth understanding of the educational content delivered throughout their educational career. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the acquisition of intercultural competencies by twelve participants attending the University of Montana and Montana State University. Participants were interviewed, utilizing questions about the understanding of intercultural competencies, the acquisition of said competencies, …

Assessing Stream Channel Restoration: The Phased Recovery Framework, Jacob M. Dyste

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Channel reconfiguration projects command a large portion of stream restoration resources, while long-term monitoring and research is severely underfunded and rarely implemented. This has led to a limited knowledge base about ecological response and efficacy. Although channel reconfiguration projects are being implemented to restore biological function to lotic systems, the document responses are highly variable and little evidence has shown these projects are reaching their target goals. I predicted the inconsistent response to these projects is the result of disturbance-induced successional processes and catchment-scale water quality impairment. To address how these endogenous and exogenous factors influence stream response to channel …

Assessing Bicycle Helmet Use In College-Aged Individuals Using The Transtheoretical Model Of Behavior Change, Julia Anne Hammond

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Traumatic brain injury is a serious public health problem in the United States, and cycling represents the largest category of sports-related head injuries. Helmets can significantly lower the risk of brain injury for cyclists of all ages. Yet, the incidence of traumatic brain injury as a result of a bicycle-related injury remains high. Due to consistently low base rates of helmet use in the college-aged population, this group is a prime target for research and interventions focused on bicycle helmet use behaviors. This research uses Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change to examine bicycle helmet use behaviors …

Are Maximum Ground Forces And Leg Compression In Phase? A Test Of The Classical Spring Mass Model Of Running Gaits, Seth Donahue

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The mechanical understanding of human running has classically been described as a spring-mass system, with subsequent models predicting the movements of the body’s center of mass and the forces applied by the leg against the ground. A central requirement of any spring system is the phasic relationship between the length of the elastic elements and the forces applied to these structures. Specifically, elastic elements compress under load and extend as the load is released. We tested whether this model applies to individuals with specialization for extreme performance in human gait. Recent work from elite level sprint runners suggest that their …

Validity Of Clinicians’ Self-Reported Treatment Targets On The Monthly Treatment Progress Summary, Allison K. Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Several decades of research have been spent identifying and testing EBTs, but there is currently very little research that examines the therapeutic practices within usual care. The lack of understanding in this area has been implicated as a factor which hinders the successful implementation of evidence-based therapies (EBTs) into usual mental health care settings. The Monthly Treatment Progress Summary (MTPS) is a measure developed to enable monthly tracking of intervention strategies and content within a statewide system of children’s mental health care. Although a growing body of research exists examining the reliability and validity of the treatment practice and progress …

A Case For Theatre-Based Programming In Early-Childhood And Elementary Education, Tina M. La Plant

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper seeks to answer the question, How can I use my professional experience developing a theatre-based curriculum for early-childhood and elementary students as a platform to advocate for the importance of theatre-based curricula in early and elementary education? The subject of this research project is a Pre-Kindergarten through Fifth Grade theatre-based education program founded by the author. The program was developed over the past 20 years at the Bertschi School, an independent PK-Fifth elementary school located in Seattle, Washington. For the purposes of this paper, the program itself will serve as a proving ground to explore and define primary …

Xic Clustering By Baseyian Network, Kyle J. Handy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.