Digital Commons Network^™

Variation Of Tool Mark Characteristics In Frozen Bone As It Relates To Dismemberment, Elena Hughes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The act of dismembering a body leaves identifiable marks on the bone. These marks, whether they be from knives, saws, axes, or any other tool, can help provide law enforcement with information about the type of tool they should be looking for. While there has been considerable research done on the marks left by different types of weapons, a factor that has not been examined is the differences in tool marks based on the condition of the body at the time of dismemberment. This study will initiate this new avenue of research by analyzing the differences seen in tool mark …

Meat Reimagined: The Ethics Of Cultured Meat, Valan Anthos

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this paper I explore a relatively new technology that is being developed to try and solve some of the major issues with modern animal agriculture called cultured meat. I cover the short history of this technology and where it is at currently before addressing two different ways of evaluating the ethics of cultured meat. Responding to much of the praise for cultured meat based on consequentialist ethics, I lay out reasons for skepticism and how some of these estimates might be overblown due to those people advocating for it being situated in the ideology of ecomodernism. I argue that …

Agency Panic: A Reckoning Of Place, Brock M. Mickelsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Agency Panic: A Reckoning of Place may be best described as a type of documentation of a conversation between the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and myself, one where a mutual language is not spoken but one where some understanding can be reached none-the-less. By moving through the landscape without goals or intentions a physical exchange ensues, a push and pull, a call and response, intimacy is gained through tactile experience. Through the use of wet-plate collodion photography I am able to create imagery that engages directly with the place. Its vulnerability records a conversation between two acting powers, artist …

Establishing A Metric Of Job Specific Fitness For Wildland Firefighters Using Heart Rate Response During The Arduous Work Capacity Test, Christopher J. Alfiero

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Wilderness Solitude In The 21st Century, Thomas C. Lang

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recent advances in mobile communication technology have led to a decrease in opportunities for individuals to experience alone-time within daily life. As a result, the solitude offered by wilderness landscapes has become all the more valuable. Past research on wilderness solitude has been divided into two distinct frameworks: the Social-Spatial Perspective and the Humanistic Perspective. This distinction has severely limited the development of a comprehensive research model that incorporates all the possible conditions relating to wilderness solitude. This study synthesized past research and theory to create a quantitative model of wilderness solitude which includes elements from both research perspectives, while …

An Inter-Watershed Comparison Study Of Bedrock Controls On Shallow Subsurface Flow And Streamflow Response, Robert Livesay

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Bedrock controls on watershed response have been actively studied in recent years, however, most conclusions are based on surface water analysis leaving unresolved questions about the nature of bedrock flow paths and ultimately their control on watershed response. In this study, we investigated bedrock controls on watershed response by simultaneously monitoring the hydrology of two adjacent watersheds underlain by dissimilar geologic formations (monzonite vs. meta-sandstone) and by characterizing subsurface conditions through bedrock drilling and fracture mapping. We hypothesized, when soils saturate, the underlying bedrock geology may influence the partitioning of shallow subsurface flow (SSF) between soil and bedrock flow paths, …

A New And Familiar Power: The Rise Of Pentecostalism Among The Blackfeet In Montana, 1940-1975, Scott A. Barnett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis charts the rise of Pentecostalism among the Blackfeet in and around Browning, Montana on the Blackfeet Reservation from 1940 through 1975. The Pentecostal message was first brought to the Blackfeet around 1940 by white ministers with the Assemblies of God from nearby Cut Bank, Montana. By 1965 the Blackfeet Pentecostal movement was led entirely by Blackfeet ministers, leading to the proliferation of the Pentecostal message among the tribe. The Pentecostal movement made tremendous inroads among the Blackfeet because of its emphasis on receiving dramatic power from a divine source. This experience of divine empowerment was both new, yet …

Ecology, Epidemiology, And Evolutionary Genetics Of Canine Distemper Virus Spillover In African Lions, Julie Kay Weckworth

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The impact of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) on the health and persistence of wildlife populations is an increasing conservation concern. Large carnivores are particularly vulnerable to EID impacts because they often occur in small, isolated populations with demographic and genetic challenges to long-term persistence. Ecological forces that isolate carnivore populations, e.g. agricultural intensification, simultaneously increase the probability of disease exposure from domestic species and can amplify population susceptibility to infection.

Canine distemper virus emerged as a conservation threat to African lions when an explosive epizootic caused the death or disappearance of a third of the Serengeti lion population in 1994. …

Mismatched Identities: Experiencing White Womanhood And White Motherhood As An Exotic Dancer, Phoenicia S. Sweeney-Summers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this paper I examine the work of exotic dancers in the Rocky Mountain West, focusing on their identities, identity conflict, identity threat, and overcompensation. In over twelve hours of recorded interviews, I asked ten exotic dancers working in Montana about their work, families, and communities as well as their perceptions of themselves and their work. I found that this marginalized group that resides in places that have rural characteristics, often face identity threat because their identities are known within their communities. The identity threat arises as a result of expectations and stereotypes of dancers, and in order to deal …

Recreational Marijuana And Traffic Fatalities: Sensationalism Or New Safety Concern, Dylan Cole

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Using Multiple Environmental Tracers To Investigate The Relative Role Of Soil And Deep Groundwater In Stream Water Generation For A Snow-Dominated Headwater Catchment, Isabellah V. Von Trapp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this study, seasonal fluctuation of environmental tracers in stream flow, soil water, and deep bedrock groundwater were used to constrain the role of deep bedrock groundwater in streamflow generation for a mountainous headwater catchment. Synoptic measurements of stream discharge, ²²²Rn, specific conductivity and major ion concentrations were measured throughout the water year over a 5 km reach of Cap Wallace Creek in the Lubrecht Experimental Forest, Montana, U.S.A. with the intention of understanding groundwater – surface water interactions across spatial and temporal scales. Stage measurements were continually recorded at seven stilling well locations along the reach. Discharge measurements …

Mediating Cultural Border Crossings Between American Indian Tribal College Students And Natural Resources Science Learning Using Culturally Congruent Education, Shandin Hashkeh Pete

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study is motivated by two research questions: (1) How does Culturally Congruent Instruction (CCI) influence American Indian (AI) students' attitudes and achievement in natural resources science at a tribally controlled college/university (TCU)? And (2) What is the nature of the relationship between CCI course modifications and changes (or lack of) in AI students' science attitudes and achievement at a TCU? Findings developed a Culturally Congruent Instructional Framework (CCIF) for use in TCUs and beyond.

Previous research suggest that AI students and tribal college science must find congruence for the student to cross cultural boundaries of the institution. TCUs can …

Self-Compassion, Social Connectedness, And Interpersonal Competence, Jacob H. Bloch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Self-compassion has consistently been found to be related to well-being (Barnard & Curry 2011). Most research has focused on the intrapersonal benefits of self-compassion, such as its positive relationships with happiness, optimism, positive affect (Neff & Vonk, 2009), and life satisfaction (Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007). In contrast, little research has addressed how engaging in self-compassion may be beneficial to one’s relationships. There is strong evidence that social connectedness (e.g. Lee, Draper, & Lee, 2001; Lee & Robbins, 1998; Mauss et al., 2011; Neff, 2003b) and interpersonal competence (e.g Fiori, Antonucci, & Cortina, 2006; Berkman & Syme, 1979; Delongis, Folkman, …

40 Years On The International Flathead: An Assessment Of Transboundary River Governance, Jedd Sankar-Gorton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global population growth, climate change, and industrialization, are putting extreme pressures on worldwide freshwater supplies (Cosens 2010). Of the global freshwater supplies, transboundary water sources play a crucial role in sustaining populations. Over 40% of humans on Earth rely on a transboundary river or lake for access to water, and 90% of the world’s population lives in countries that share bodies of water with at least one other country (UN 2008). Taken together, the motivations for improving governance of transboundary water systems have never been stronger. To meet the challenges associated with transboundary water governance, researchers working at multiple scales …

Biotic Pulses, Bryotic Pulses And The Effects Of Mosses On Communities And Ecosystems, Mandy Lynn Slate

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Non-vascular mosses are known to be ecologically influential and structure communities through their physiological and physical attributes. My dissertation had two objectives. The first goal was to understand how fundamental differences in the physiology of mosses might drive much of their ecological impact. Mosses frequently and rapidly fluctuate between dehydration and rehydration. During these transitions, the cellular integrity of moss is compromised and intra-cellular contents (carbohydrates, amino acids, and ionic compounds) are released. Thus during wet-dry transition periods, mosses have the potential to release pulses of nutrients which may have important effects on other species. However, few studies have explored …

The Ethosophy Of The Grizzly Man: Timothy Treadwell's Three Ethologies, Blake L. Ginsburg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper explores the ethical appropriateness and significance of Timothy Treadwell’s life among the bears and foxes of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. In an attempt to reveal the formative and transformative aspects of Treadwell’s project, I rely upon an ethological framework developed by Matthew Calarco that moves beyond the narrow conception of ethology as a scientific practice aimed at systematic and rigorous documentation of the quantifiable aspects of animal behavior. While many people might be hesitant to conceive of Treadwell’s project as an ethological one, I hope to illuminate the ways in which his life among bears and …

Metabolic Energy Requirements During Load Carriage: Implications For The Wildland Firefighter Arduous Pack Test, Jeffrey T. Strang, Christopher J. Alfiero, Charles Dumke, Brent Ruby, Matthew Bundle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite extensive and ongoing scientific study into the metabolic requirements of load carriage, an understanding quantifying the effect of speed, load, sex and body mass has yet to come forth and the extent to which established models predict these requirements is largely untested. Specifically, because existing experimental efforts have typically focused on relatively modest walking speeds using loads representing a fixed portion of the subject’s mass, extending the available predictions to applications where individuals complete a common task carrying an identical absolute load provides estimates of unknown accuracy. PURPOSE: Here, we measured the energy use in a large subject group …

Elucidaton Of The Pysical And Chemical Properties Of Cytochrome C – Cardiolipin Interactions, Margaret Marie Elmer-Dixon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recently, the electron transport protein Cytochrome c (Cytc) was shown to interact with the mitochondrial lipid cardiolipin (CL) during the initial stages of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. This interaction is characterized by the protein binding and oxidation of cardiolipin on the concave surface of the outer leaflet of the inner mitochondrial membrane. To date, this interaction has been studied with a variety of methods and techniques reporting varied and often conflicting findings characterizing the nature and extent of the protein-lipid interaction. Cytc has been hypothesized to interact with cardiolipin electrostatically, hydrophobically and through hydrogen bonding and is thought to partially …

Using Astrobiology As A Platform To Study The Impact On The Mathematical Content Knowledge And Pedagogical Content Knowledge Of Elementary Education Majors, Meredith Kay Berthelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Early mathematical skills have long been hailed as a cornerstone and as the best predictor of later success in mathematics and literacy. This perception highlights the importance of elementary educator’s mathematical content knowledge (MCK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study explored a novel approach to motivating and facilitating preservice elementary educators’ engagement in an interdisciplinary context. Astrobiology is a growing interdisciplinary field with extraordinary educational potential. It has the potential to provide an exciting science framework structure to mathematics for preservice educators. Due to its interdisciplinary content, astrobiology offers preservice educators an opportunity to see math content through a …

Intelligent Personal Assistants In The Classroom: Impact On Student Engagement, Jason Patrick Neiffer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Intelligent personal assists are as a software tool utilized by millions of consumers to interact with their smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, or smart speaker. As more mobile and computer operating systems offer the feature, more classrooms and ultimately students will have access to one of these tools, either on a school-purchased device or a personal device.

The aim of this study was to look at a specific implementation of Siri, an intelligent personal assistant platform, in upper elementary and middle school science classrooms. The researcher utilized the lense of student engagement to measure the impact of the implementation …

Universal Design For Learning In Online Credit Recovery: Do Course Features Impact Achievement?, Robert I. Squires

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This experimental study investigated whether the addition of course features based on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework impacted achievement in an online English 1A credit recovery course offered by a state virtual school in the Western United States. An alternative format for completing course mastery assignments and eText support tools (ReadSpeaker and TextAid) were added to an existing version of the course. Writing prompts were also included in the alternative mastery assignments. Credit recovery students were randomly enrolled by school personnel into control and treatment sections of the English 1A courses using the enrollment mechanism of the school’s …

Psychological Abuse In Romantic Relationships And Associated Mental Health Outcomes, Jessica J. Peatee

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Many researchers hypothesize that experiencing psychological abuse in a romantic relationship may be more common than experiencing other forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) because psychological abuse often co-occurs with the presence of physical violence in a relationship and may be likely to occur on its own (Follingstad & Rogers, 2014; Hennings & Klesges, 2003). Some data have linked the experience of psychological abuse in a romantic partnership with mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and somatization (Rogers & Follingstad, 2014). Although, few empirical studies have examined the unique experiences of individuals who have endured psychological abuse alone (without …

Neuromuscular Responses To Exhaustive Bouts Of Sprint Running In Non-Steady Speed Trials, Brandon C. Gruver, Matthew W. Bundle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Empty Cup: Tea, Mythos, And Initiation Through Emergent Ritual, Katherine C. West

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

West, Katherine Church, M.A., Summer 2018

Master of Arts in Fine Arts, Integrated Arts and Education

Abstract

In our increasingly fast paced and busy world, the cultural value placed in ritual and ceremony has been lost. Yet, cultures for centuries have known the importance of such initiations to both usher us into and through important passages that mark a new time in our lives by deepening our awareness of our own lives and an understanding of the collective human experience.

This paper documents a two part project, one is the creation of a Gypsy Caravan, explored through the process of …

On Internalized Oppression And Sexualized Violence In College Women, Marina Leigh Costanzo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sexualized violence on college campuses has recently entered the media spotlight. One in five women are sexually assaulted during college and over 90% of these women know their attackers (Black et al., 2011; Cleere & Lynn, 2013). Students face the highest risk of sexualized violence within their first six weeks on campus (Graves, Sechrist, White, & Paradise, 2005). The acute and delayed psychological distress caused by sexualized violence is a significant public health concern and there have been relatively few studies that have taken a longitudinal approach (Edwards, Dardis, Sylaska, & Gidycz, 2014). Historically, psychology has focused on factors within …

Understanding Changes To Glacier And Ice Sheet Geometry: The Roles Of Climate And Ice Dynamics, Caitlyn Elizabeth Florentine

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Glacier and ice sheet geometry depend on climatic and ice dynamic processes that are coupled and often highly complex. Thus, partitioning and understanding the drivers of change to glacier and ice sheet geometry requires creative approaches.

Radiostratigraphy data document emergent layers in the ablation zone of western Greenland that emulate theoretical englacial flow paths. Yet true alignment between radar layers and the englacial flow field can be uncertain because these structures have travelled hundreds of km from their original point of deposition, have been shaped by ice deformation for millennia, and have been subjected to complex and three-dimensional ice motion …

Wonder Woman: A Case Study For Critical Media Literacy, Adriana N. Fehrs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

To better grasp the messages Wonder Woman is sending to its audience, a Critical Media Literacy (CML), ideological, and feminist framework is used to examine whether, and if so how, Wonder Woman succumbs to stereotypes that are often portrayed in the media. These theories will be used in the ensuing project to build a curriculum aimed at high school students.The curriculum positions students to examine the hegemonic ideologies that are represented in pop culture, specifically Wonder Woman.

Determination Of Lipid Bilayer Affinities For Small Molecules Using Capillary Electrophoresis And Copolymer – Stabilized Lipid Bilayer Nanodiscs, William Michael Penny

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Electrokinetic chromatography is a variation of capillary electrophoresis that allows for the separation of nonionic analytes by selective interaction with an ionic pseudostationary phase dissolved in the background electrolyte. The utility of electrokinetic chromatography to characterize pseudostationary phases and pseudostationary phase–solute interactions has been recognized since its introduction. The objective of this dissertation was to use electrokinetic chromatography and copolymer stabilized lipid bilayer nanodiscs as a pseudostationary phase to characterize small molecule-lipid bilayer interactions.

Styrene-maleic acid copolymers were used to stabilize cylindrical sections of lipid bilayer in solution, forming nanodiscs. The nanodiscs are formed based on strong hydrophobic interactions between …

Greening Of The Arctic: Plot-Scale Analysis Of Interactions Between Climate, Vegetation, And Permafrost At Toolik Lake, Alaska (1995 - 2017), Brianna Rick

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Air temperatures across the Arctic have increased in recent decades, and through complex feedbacks, vegetation and permafrost (frozen ground) are actively responding as climate warming continues. This study investigates the trends and interactions of observed air, soil-surface temperature (SST), and active-layer thickness (ALT) at Toolik Lake on the Alaskan North Slope between 1995 and 2017, as well as vegetation change over time.

Time series between 1995 and 2017 at CALM site U12B, a 1 ha plot near Toolik Lake, reveal an increase (0.50 °C/decade) in mean summer (Jun-Aug) air temperatures and a decrease (­0.23 °C/decade) in mean summer SST. In …

Directional Non-Covalent Interactions: Exploring The Nuances Of Halogen Bonds And Hydrogen Bonds In Solution And The Solid-State, Nicholas Blouin Wageling

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Molecules interact in numerous ways. Halogen bonding is one of the most newly discovered and poorly understood non-covalent interactions. However, this attractive force may be a useful tool for chemists in various disciplines. The directional nature, and competitive strength of the interaction makes it a promising alternative to hydrogen bonding based molecules. Indeed, through crystal structures and solution phase anion titrations, this work has shown that a halogen bonding scaffold can outperform its hydrogen bonding analogue not only in overall interaction strength, but also in resistance to inactivation from polar solvents (an important feature in anion receptors, organocatalysts, and many …