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Ice Flow Impacts The Firn Structure Of Greenland's Percolation Zone, Rosemary C. Leone

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

One dimensional simulations of firn evolution neglect horizontal transport as the firn column moves down slope during burial. This approach is justifiable near Greenland's ice divide, where ice flow is near vertical, but fidelity is lost in the percolation zone where horizontal ice flow advects the firn column through climate gradients. We simulate firn evolution processes under advection conditions using a transient, thermo-mechanically coupled model for firn densification and heat transfer with various schemes for meltwater penetration and refreezing. The simulations isolate processes in synthetic runs and investigate an ice core site and four transects of Greenland’s percolation zone. The …

“Out Of The Mother . . . And Home To The Mother”: Essays On Medieval Literature And Climate Crisis, Rachel Kuhr Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Methods For Analyzing High Dimensional Data With Applications To The Wearable And Microbiome Data Analysis, Quy Xuan Cao

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Modern studies in medicine, epidemiology, pharmacy and other fields generate high dimensional data. We developed statistical analysis methods for two types of such data: activity and microbiome data. Specifically, reliable measures of the frequency, duration and intensity of physical activity provided by wearable technology were used in the analysis of activity data. Accelerometry-derived measures of physical activity were compared with established predictors of 5-year all-cause mortality in older adults, aged between 50 and 85 years from the 2003- 2006 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, in terms of individual, relative, and combined predictive performance. A total of 33 predictors of …

Understanding Tourism Within A Social-Ecological System: Ometepe Island, Nicaragua, Chelsea Leigh Leven

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tourism endures as a major component of development strategies worldwide, despite a dearth of documented successes. Tourism failures arise in part from simplistic and reductionist approaches to sustainability and tourism. Successfully implementing tourism to support sustainable futures requires, at a minimum, a more holistic and complex conceptualization than tourism currently receives, including recognition of how human values shape a system. To achieve a more complex understanding of tourism, I analyzed tourism through a social-ecological system (SES) perspective using the paradigm of resilience thinking. Through a case study in Ometepe, Nicaragua, my research considered opportunities for tourism contributions to sustainable futures …

Missoula Prescription Produce Program: Lessons Learned 2015-2017, Harley Fredriksen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Missoula Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Produce program (MFVPP) started in 2015 as a partnership between Garden City Harvest (a Missoula, MT food-security non-profit) and the Providence Endocrinology Center (a local health clinic focused on diabetes care). MVFPP allows physicians, physician assistants, and dieticians to prescribe fresh produce to their patients. Patients must be of low income and suffer from chronic disease. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the MFVPP to lead to improved biometric measurements for patients. This paper also discusses the program’s limitations and complications and aims to chart a path forward for …

Perceptions Of Vulnerability To Flooding, Hurricanes, And Climate Change On Grand Isle, Louisiana’S Only Inhabited Barrier Island, Lauren Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study used in-depth interviews of permanent residents on Grand Isle, Louisiana, a remote barrier island, to better understand their perceptions of structural flood measures, non-structural responses to flooding and hurricanes, and perceptions of vulnerability to flooding, hurricanes, and climate change on a remote barrier island-Grand Isle, Louisiana. Residents' perceptions regarding the various structural measures implemented by the federal, state, and local government appeared mixed. Non-structural responses to flooding risks implemented at the household, community, state, and federal level continue to strengthen resiliency on Grand Isle. According to interviewees, aspects of environmental, rural, and economic vulnerability on Grand Isle impact …

Remote Sensing Of Avalanche Paths In Glacier National Park, Montana, Morgan Voss

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Snow avalanches are the common form of mass wasting in the high mountain environments of Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana. These natural disturbances play important roles in mountain ecosystems by regularly disturbing montane systems, providing critical habitat for some species, transporting debris, and influencing vegetation and fire dynamics. Since the 1900s, natural avalanche-related activity recorded along important transportation corridors within the park has frequently disrupted transportation.

While many of the steep slopes of GNP are susceptible to avalanching, formal inventories exist only for small, critical portions of the park and they vary substantially from one another. GNP’s protected status does …

The Environmental Imaginations Of Moby-Dick: Technology And Vulnerability In Human/More-Than-Human Relationships, Jensen A. Lillquist

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the twenty-first century, the relationship between the human and the more-than-human is a problem of massive proportions, as we live in an age of climate change, mass-extinction, over-population, and resource depletion. Evaluating how we have arrived where we are and re-thinking the issues at play as we move forward is crucial for future adaptation of human/more-than-human relationships; this is the primary goal of my analysis of the environmental imaginations of Moby-Dick.

I argue that the four primary environmental imaginations—the providential, the utilitarian, the Romantic, and the ecological—that have influenced United States culture since European settlement are represented by Herman …

Development Of An Open-Source, Custom Environmental Data Logger For Spatially Scalable Data Collection, Tim Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Characterizing the processes that lead to differences in ecosystem productivity and watershed hydrology across complex terrain remains a challenge. This difficulty can be partially attributed to the cost of installing networks of proprietary data loggers that monitor differences in the biophysical factors contributing to vegetation growth or hydrological processes. Studies that aim to compare concurrent time-series data sets across multiple locations must therefore balance the high cost of these data logger systems with the need for spatial resolution in their data. Here, we present the design, implementation, and case study for an open-source “Pinecone” data logger system, released under the …

Fear, Power, & Teeth (2007), Olivia Hockenbroch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Vagina dentata is the myth of the toothed vagina; in most iterations, it serves as a warning to men that women’s vaginas must be conquered to be safe for a man’s sexual pleasure (Koehler, 2017). The vagina dentata myth has been carried forth from ancient ancestors in numerous cultures all over the world (Koehler). It is one of many destructive cultural myths that guides discourses about sex and women’s bodies. In this paper, I explore a recent articulation of the myth, the 2007 film Teeth, and I argue that in this film, the vagina dentata is made more complicated. While …

The Impact Of Salient Naming Targets During Aphasia Therapy, Kathy Kay Molesh, Catherine Off Ph.D., Craig Mcfarland Ph.D., Jenna Griffin M.S.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Translational research has led to aphasia therapies that incorporate principles of experience dependent neuroplasticity. The neuroplasticity principle of salience has received less attention from speech language pathologists than other principles, such as dose and treatment intensity. Incorporating salience in aphasia therapies has the potential to increase functional outcomes by addressing multiple aspects of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. This study explored the impact of salient stimuli targets on picture naming acquisition and maintenance for two individuals with chronic aphasia, following cerebrovascular accident. Participants were enrolled in a five-week Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (ICAP) at …

Examining Injury Trends In Wildland Firefighters To Develop An Injury Screening Assessment Pilot Project, Isabella Grace Callis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fire suppression is an arduous profession that poses many work hazards and risks for wildland firefighters (WLFF) on a daily basis. One of the major threats to WLFF health on the line is musculoskeletal injury. Injury on the fire line and during personal training inhibits WLFF from performing their job to their full capacity. Currently there are no prevention strategies utilized to reduce the number of injuries this tactical population is experiencing. By accurately tracking injuries in WLFF, development of prevention strategies could assist in reducing the cost of injuries, maintain overall health in WLFF, and decrease work-related disability.

A …

Toward A Comprehensive Worldview Measure, Shailee R. Woodard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Worldview is an individual difference construct that has been linked to various behavioral and health outcomes. However, very little is known about how worldviews develop and how worldview beliefs, values, and attitudes coalesce into different worldview factors. One obstacle that has impeded research on worldviews is the lack of a robust worldview measure. The creation of a new, more valid worldview measure will aid in answering these important questions. This research project is the first step in the creation of a more comprehensive worldview measure. The primary aims of Study 1 were to compile existing published worldview measures and reduce …

Environmental Variation And Sexual Selection In The Mountain Bluebird (Sialia Currucoides), Sara A. Berk

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sexual selection acts on traits that increase mating success, either through mating preferences or intrasexual competition for access to mates. For traits to be honest, we expect sexually selected traits to reflect individual condition at the time of trait development. Furthermore, when sexual selection operates through mating preferences, we also expect traits to indicate benefits (direct or indirect) that females receive for exercising their preference. If sexual selection acts through differential success in intrasexual contests over mates, we expect traits to indicate resource holding potential, or fighting ability. These links between individual condition, trait quality, and performance maintain honesty, because …

Natural Product Induction In Pencillium And Human Caspase Crystallography, Kelly J. Mcgrath

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

From Distance Education To Online Education: A Review Of The Literature, Michael Dean Agostinelli Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Distance learning has come a long way over the past 150 years. From the initial days of text based correspondence courses by mail to the immediate learning powered by the internet and online courses, distance learning is a much more interactive and engaging learning experience in 2019. The third generation of distance education, online learning, has delivered powerful learning models and frameworks, like Community of Inquiry and Adolescent Community of Engagement. These models and frameworks help educators create meaningful teacher to student interactions. Additionally they provide researched based approaches to designing powerful authentic learning opportunities where student to student discussion …

Greetings From..., Casey Mae Schachner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Greetings from... is a reflection of my roots in the tropical vacationland of Florida, a place for which I feel both nostalgic and conflicted. Growing up in southern tourist destinations, I was confronted daily with the extreme contrasts of living in paradise. In my artwork, I am translating the cacophony of Florida through the lens of materiality. By re-configuring commodified objects of the tourism industry, the sculptural works in this show exhibit my consideration for the paradoxical relationships that exist between materials and place. Much like the avant-garde Surrealist object, or the assemblage of found materials in provocative combinations that …

Patient Perspectives Of An Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program For Stroke Survivors, Anya A. Leyhe, Catherine A. Off, Carolyn R. Baylor, Jenna R. Griffin, Kirsten W. Murray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Introduction: Persons with aphasia (PWA) who participate in intensive comprehensive poststroke language rehabilitation programs make a variety of significant investments. While intensive aphasia programs and intensive comprehensive aphasia programs (ICAPs) are becoming increasingly prevalent across health care settings, patient perspectives of ICAPs have not been explored. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine patient perspectives about the experience of participating in an ICAP at the University of Montana. The primary research question of this study was: “what is it like to be a PWA in an ICAP?” Methods: Researchers used an interpretive phenomenological approach to conduct …

Dna Analysis On Ceramic Cooking Vessels, Britney J. Radford

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ceramic vessels are a durable material found in abundance throughout the archaeological record. Organic residue analysis has been used to study ceramic vessels utilizing lipid analysis and protein analysis. Lipids and proteins analysis provide limited information at the genus level, leaving out valuable information that species-specific results can tell us such as unique genetic and environmental information. Lipids and proteins analysis provide limited information at the genus and taxonomic levels leading to issues of misclassification of species. If only certain animals or plants of a genus are being used, then unique genetic and environmental information found only at the species …

Probing Earth Deformation In Response To Localized Hydrologic Mass Loading, Susitna River Basin, Alaska, Andrew Parker Keene

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Surface mass loading contributes a ubiquitous signal to GPS time series that can be modeled and removed for individual sources. We utilize nine GPS stations in the Susitna River watershed, Alaska, to investigate surface displacements from surface mass loading. We find that modeling atmospheric surface pressure and regional hydrologic mass reduces root mean square (RMS) error by 27-39% for all GPS time series. We observe moderate correlation between residual time series pairs and distance, with elevation differences influencing the strength of this correlation. Seasonal horizontal and vertical displacements are observed after removal of all loading models; stations displace downward and …

Influence Of Large Wood On Sediment Routing In A Mixed Bedrock-Alluvial Stream, Robin Welling

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sediment storage by instream wood in forested mountain streams mediates sediment movement from hillslopes through the channel network and can alter channel morphology at multiple spatial scales. Mixed bedrock-alluvial channels are prevalent in mountain stream networks, yet the distribution and geomorphic impact of large wood within these streams are poorly understood. To estimate how the distribution of large wood in a mixed bedrock-alluvial stream relates to sediment storage, we measured and characterized large wood, and surveyed the volume of associated sediment within a stream in the Bitterroot Mountains, Montana. The upstream portion of the study reach is predominantly alluvial and …

Service Failure Management In High-End Hospitality Resorts, Hunter A. Dietrich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to better understand the interactions that occur at high-end resorts during service failures that guests sometimes experience during their stay. Both service-failure managers and guests who had experienced service failures during their stay at a high-end resort were interviewed to examine the service recovery techniques and timing strategies (such as the ex-antecrisis crisis timing strategy) that are perceived to be the best methods to correct service failures during a guest’s stay. In comparing the responses from service recovery managers and guests, commonalities were found regarding the best practices for ways to treat guests during …

Utilization Of Various Methods And A Landsat Ndvi/Google Earth Engine Product For Classifying Irrigated Land Cover, Andrew Nemecek

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Methods for classifying irrigated land cover are often complex and not quickly reproducible. Further, moderate resolution time-series datasets have been consistently utilized to produce irrigated land cover products over the past decade, and the body of irrigation classification literature contains no examples of subclassification of irrigated land cover by irrigation method. Creation of geospatial irrigated land cover products with higher resolution datasets could improve reliability, and subclassification of irrigation by method could provide better information for hydrologists and climatologists attempting to model the role of irrigation in the surface-ground water cycle and the water-energy balance. This study summarizes a simple, …

Narratives Of Place: Reasons To Look Up, Dean Justice Leeper

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Exploration Of Clinicians’ Lived Experiences In Culturally Adapting Empirically Supported Treatments For American Indian And Alaska Native Populations, Maegan Rides At The Door

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study investigated the lived experiences of clinicians who have culturally adapted Empirically Supported Treatments (EST) for American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) populations. The central research question for this investigation was: What is the experience of mental health providers in culturally adapting empirically supported treatments for American Indian and Alaska Native populations? A guided semi-structured interview protocol was used to interview eight participants. Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological psychological method was used to develop a general psychological structure representing eight essential constituents. They are: developing an understanding of cultural adaptation, focusing on building and maintaining therapeutic relationships, immersion and engagement with community, experiencing …

The Effects Of Forest Gaps On Animal Communication Networks, Cedar Arran Mathers-Winn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

To avoid predation, many animals have evolved complex systems of anti-predator communication. Alarm calls are a key component of anti-predator behavior in many birds, and can provide detailed information about predators. Additionally, many birds and mammals produce and respond to each other’s alarm calls, creating a complex communication network. Furthermore, individuals may give alarm calls in response to the alarm calls of others nearby, without actually seeing a predator. This makes possible the spatial spread of alarm information, which can result in complex communication networks extending over a large area. However, this requires suitable habitat in which birds will be …

Navigating The Closet: A Mixed Methods Approach To Assessing The Impact Of Concealment On Psychological Outcomes For Sexual And Gender Minorities, James Michael M. Brennan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals suffer at disproportionate rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use, among other mental and physical health outcomes, compared to heterosexual individuals. Concealment of non-heterosexual sexual identity and/or non-cisgender gender identity may be a key contributor to these disparities. Many SGM individuals engage in concealment as a means to avoid victimization, or because of negative perceptions of their own identity. Concealment as a construct has been conceptualized as comprising cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, each of which individually has been demonstrated to have negative health impacts. Additionally, concealment occurs over time between the intrapersonal …

The Relationship Between Training Load And Injury Or Illness Symptoms Using An Acute And Chronic Workload Ratio In Collegiate Cross-Country Runners, Brennan T. Mickelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract

Objectives: Examining the relationship between workloads (miles ran) of collegiate cross-country (XC) athletes (n=18) and symptoms of injury or illness over the course of 10 weeks. This can assist sport coaches, athletic performance coaches, and athletic trainers in keeping athletes healthy and furthering adaptation throughout the course of the season, thus improving the team’s overall success during the season.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to show a relationship between an Acute and chronic workload ratio (ACWR) in miles run and weight lifted, ACWR in miles run grouped by z-scores, weight, age, years of collegiate XC experience, miles …

Development Along Rattlesnake Creek: An Assessment Of Stream Health, Channel Form, And Land Cover, Christopher D. Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using existing water quality data, historical aerial photographs, and recent orthoimagery, this research assessed how the environmental conditions of Rattlesnake Creek near Missoula, Montana have changed over nearly 90 years of human alteration of the Rattlesnake valley. To characterize stream health, the following indicators were investigated: fish genetic composition and species distribution, water temperature, streamflow, and nutrient levels. Five overlapping aerial photos from 1929 were georectified and compared to 2015 orthoimagery to assess changes in channel form (particularly channel straightening) and land cover across the Rattlesnake Creek valley bottom. Results indicate that trout species in Rattlesnake Creek have hybridized, in …

Narratives Of Place: Reasons To Look Up, Dean Justice Leeper, Dean J. Leeper

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Narratives of Place: Reasons to Look Up, is and exploration and reflection of Dean Leeper's personal interaction and relationship to the landscape of Missoula Montana, while as a graduate student at the University of Montana. This paper explores his thoughts, definitions, influences, reflections and descriptions of his most recent work created for his Masters of Fine Art Thesis Exhibition. Leeper presents his work and ideas as a small part of a lager ongoing dialog of how humans understand ideas of place as they relate to finding a sense of self identity.