Digital Commons Network^™

Proof Processes Of Novice Mathematics Proof Writers, Hillary Dee Vanspronsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Previous studies have shown that a large portion of undergraduate mathematics students have difficulties constructing, understanding, and validating proofs (Martin and Harel, 1989; Coe and Ruthven, 1994; Moore, 1994; Baker, 1996; Mingus and Grassl, 1999; Knuth, 2002; Weber, 2001, 2003). However, proofs are the foundation of mathematics; it is therefore essential that every university mathematics student be able to step through the proof writing process. Research has sought to describe the strategies involved in the process of mathematical problem solving (Baker, 1996; Bell, 1979; Carlson and Bloom, 2005; McGivney and DeFranco, 1995; Pape and Wang, 2003; Polya, 1973; Pugalee, 2001; …

Cost Analysis Of Requirements, Design, And Code Reviews And How This Impacts The Cost Of Quality, Mark W. Huston

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines the difference between accepted theoretical and real world return on investment of requirements, design, and code reviews. The differences have a significant impact on the cost of quality. The goal of this thesis is to examine the differences between two data sets (one derived from widely accepted software principles and one derived from real-world data) and draw conclusions about the effectiveness (cost vs. increase defect detection) of reviews based upon these analyses. This thesis will compare accepted relationships pertaining to cost per defect and overall project cost against actual data from a real world project in order …

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 …

Depression-Era Coloma: A World-Systems Study Of Mining And Daily Life Experiences In A Reoccupied Montana Ghost Town, Benjamin Woody

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Anthropologically based studies are underdeveloped on the subject of people living in Montana during the Great Depression. During the summer of 2006, archaeological materials were retrieved from a Depression-Era trash dump at Coloma, Montana. From these artifacts and the available historical records about the area, this thesis postulates on the possible daily experiences of the people responsible for the creation of this dump. The data is then used as the foundation for a World-Systems perspective on the site, which, in turn, connects this mining camp to the world at large during the 1930s.

Building The Case For Delivery Of Health Promotion Services Within The Vocational Rehabilitation, Catherine Adele Ipsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The majority of wellness programs are offered at the worksite to full-time employees. Research about these programs indicates that participating employees experience improved health and work-related outcomes, and that outcomes are exaggerated for workers with multiple health risk factors.

People who are not employed or are underemployed cannot access health promotion services at the worksite. This is a significant barrier for people with physical disability because they experience lower rates of employment and higher rates of secondary health conditions than the general population.

Compromised health reduces the probability of full-time employment. Secondary health issues such as pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, …

Le Laboratoire Épistolaire Dans Les Oeuvres Scientifiques De La Marquise Du Châtelet, Arianne Nicole Margolin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the eighteenth century, three camps of scientific thought appeared within the French scientific community: the Cartesians, the Newtonians, and the Leibnizians. According to the accepted physics argued by Fontenelle, Descartes, Malebranche, and Mairan, momentum, not force, was the essential quantity of motion. While Newtonians and Leibnizians agreed upon the significance of gravity and force, they bitterly disagreed with respect to momentum as the essential measurement of force. According to Newton, momentum and gravity were the main type of forces essential to movement; as with Cartesian mechanics, Newtonian momentum was given by the product of the mass and velocity. For …

Material And Social Relations In Friedrich Von Hardenberg's Heinrich Von Afterdingen, Robert Earl Mottram

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In an attempt to widen interpretations, this study first explores the myths associated with Friedrich von Hardenberg, commonly known as Novalis, which have resulted in the neglect of material interpretations of his works. After an introduction to Hardenberg's theory of the Self and Karl Marx's theory of alienation, an analysis of Hardenberg's most widely read work, Heinrich von Afterdingen, demonstrates how Hardenberg was as concerned with the material and the social relations among human beings and their labor as he was with their spiritual endeavors. The self-development of Heinrich, the main character in Afterdingen, is chronicled in this study with …

Impacts Of A Teacher Geospatial Technologies Professional Development Project On Student Spatial Literacy Skills And Interests In Science And Technology In Grade 5 – 12 Classrooms Across Montana, Jeffrey Willard Crews

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study utilized participants in a teacher geospatial technologies professional development project. Data was collected on the impact this professional development model, and the corresponding classroom implementation of the curriculum, had on student spatial literacy skills and students' interest in science and technology. Twenty teachers from across Montana with demonstrated competency in the use of geospatial technologies were selected for participation in this project. These twenty teachers were broken into two cohorts, cohort one served as the experimental group and cohort two served as the control group. Students within these classrooms ranging in grades 5 - 12, took two assessments, …

The Rise Of Alternative Teaching Certification In Relation To Students Who Are Impoverished, Ethnic Minorities And Change In Teacher Salary In United States Public Schools, Scott Richard Hohnstein

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last three decades, alternative teaching certification (ATC) programs and policies have been rising on the United States (US) public education landscape. In this dissertation, I investigated various dimensions of alternative teaching certification. Specifically, I discussed the theoretical applications, development, characteristics and outcomes of this teaching certification phenomenon.

Further, I conducted quantitative analysis on a population of 35 US states across two multiple regression prediction equations employing the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). In the first prediction equation, I regressed the numbers of alternative teaching certificates granted during the 2003-04 public school year in 35 US states …

Testing Xuml: A Study Of Implementing And Testing Model Driven Architecture, Dylan O. Flaherty

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is a relatively new and completely different approach to developing software in which diagrams and formal specifications are written and then translated into executable programs. Development using this approach takes longer than using traditional software engineering approaches, but results in products that more correctly meet user requirements and take less maintenance effort. While there is considerable information available regarding development using MDA, the implications for testing have not been fully explored or measured. In order to investigate this facet of MDA, a traditional C++ program which had previously been tested was rebuilt as an MDA model. …

Teachers' Perceptions Of First Nations, Metis And Inuit Students In Alberta Public School Classrooms, Wendell Blaine Hogg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This qualitative inquiry explored a grounded theory of leadership by examining the perceptions of classroom teachers regarding the First Nations students in their schools. The sample came from three schools in Southern Alberta Canada. Included, were 15 teachers of grades one through nine. Data were collected during two interviews. The first interview involved the teachers telling stories involving any of their students. The second interview consisted of the researcher asking specific questions that focused on the First Nations students in that particular teacher's classroom.

Three coding procedures were used in this study: (a) open coding, (b) axial coding and (c) …

Student Academic Performance In Skills-Based Technology Courses Delivered Through Different Scheduling Formats, Shaun Eric Scott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This descriptive study investigated student academic performance in skills-based word processing courses taught in two different scheduling formats at one small rural western United States university over the period of several years. One scheduling format followed a more traditional approach where courses were taken at the same time as at least one other course and in a time frame more resembling a typical semester. This distributed practice model, or cohort approach, required a prerequisite beginning level course or appropriate substitute course before enrolling in an advanced word processing course, thus spreading the instructional time over a longer timeframe. The other …

Direct And Indirect Modification Of Stream Flow In The Flathead River Basin In Northwestern Montana: Hydrologic Parameter Development And Implementation, Angie Lynn Bell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is comprised of two potential professional papers that were written to be independent of one another. Both papers were written in the context of the hydrology of the northwestern United States. The snowpack stores winter precipitation and releases it in the spring. This snowmelt-dominated streamflow is used by agriculture, municipalities and water-reliant ecosystems. Chapter 1 considered the response of unmodified snowmelt-dominated streamflow to climate change in the Flathead River basin in northwestern Montana from 1940 to 2006. A parameter to quantify annual flow regime components was developed. Drivers of natural variability of flow regime were also considered. A …

Gifford Pinchot's Photographic Aesthetic, Carlie Shaw Magill

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Gifford Pinchot’s aesthetic developed in childhood and combined the pictorial considerations of the Hudson River School with the use philosophy of early landscape architecture and the format of early western survey photographers. Pinchot and photography came of age during the American industrial revolution; at a time when medium and man seemed to encompass both art and science. Gifford Pinchot used photography to ask the questions what is the proper course? what is the appropriate plan of use?

The Edge Effect: Lateral Habitat Ecology Of An Alluvial River Flood Plain, Michelle Louise Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We describe the ecology of off-channel or "lateral" habitats as key attributes of the Shifting Habitat Mosaic (SHM) of a river flood plain at the Nyack Research Natural Area in northwestern Montana. Our working hypothesis was that lateral habitats are important to the cycling of energy and materials within the SHM and contribute greatly to the productivity and biodiversity of the floodplain ecosystem. We produce a quantitative description of temperature variation across aquatic and terrestrial habitats at Nyack. Thermal patterns across lateral habitats indicate vast differences exist between lateral habitats in habitat suitability for aquatic organisms over an annual cycle. …

The Experience Of Attrition: A Phenomenological Study Of Freshmen In Academic Good Standing At The University Of Montana, Cheryl L. Minnick

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain clear, precise systematic descriptions of the experienced meaning of voluntary non-continuation of academic studies, attrition, after the first-year. Based on interviews with six college freshman in academic good standing, with phenomenology as a research method, the study documented ways in which college freshman perceived, experienced and defined their decision and experience of dropping out of college.

Data were collected via one-on-one, open-ended, unstructured interviews conducted to gain an uncensored account of the experience of attrition reflected by the query, "Please share with me your experience of deciding not to continue …

Topos-Like Properties In Two Categories Of Graphs And Graph-Like Features In An Abstract Category, Demitri Joel Plessas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the study of the Category of Graphs, the usual notion of a graph is that of a simple graph with at most one loop on any vertex, and the usual notion of a graph homomorphism is a mapping of graphs that sends vertices to vertices, edges to edges, and preserves incidence of the mapped vertices and edges. A more general view is to create a category of graphs that allows graphs to have multiple edges between two vertices and multiple loops at a vertex, coupled with a more general graph homomorphism that allows edges to be mapped to vertices …

Transcendental Idealism, Transcendental Realism, And The Possibility Of Objective Reference, Eric Dane Walker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The goal of my thesis is to understand why Kant thinks that transcendental idealism can secure empirical realism, the idea that there really exists an objective world that we can come to know through experience. I maintain that, according to Kant, the possibility of coming to know objective reality depends upon the possibility of referring to objects, which itself, Kant thinks, can be explained by transcendental idealism. The transcendental idealist worldview is supposed by Kant to explain the possibility of referring to objects because it recognizes that objects must conform to cognition and not the other way around. Therefore, I …

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 …

Using Noninvasive Genetic Sampling To Assess And Monitor Grizzly Bear Population Status In The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, Jeffrey Brian Stetz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildlife managers need reliable estimates of population size, trend, and distribution to recover at–risk populations, yet obtaining these estimates is costly and often imprecise. The threatened grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population in northwestern Montana has been managed for recovery since 1975, yet no rigorous data were available to evaluate the program’s success. We assessed population status using data from a large noninvasive genetic sampling project and 33–years of physical captures. Our abundance estimate, Nˆ= 765 (CV = 3.8%), was more than double the working estimate. Based on our results, the total known, human–caused mortality rate was 4.6%, slightly above the …

Seasonal Nutrient Dynamics In A Small-Scale Constructed Wetland Treating Primary Effluent With Applications Of Effluent Reuse In Biomass Production, Paul Thomas Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Constructed wetlands have been investigated for use in the treatment of municipal wastewater. Species of nitrogen and phosphorus are the nutrients of focus and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS) and fecal coliform are the pollutants. Prior work has focused on design concepts, plant effects on nutrient and pollutant treatment, and annualized treatment performance characteristics. This work builds upon published design concepts and wetland plant community and its function and investigates seasonal treatment performance and the kinetics of treatment performance for certain nutrients and pollutants during each season. Previous engineering based work has broadly suggested that first order …

Spatial Population Dynamics Of Western Painted Turtles In A Wetland Ecosystem In Northwestern Montana, Kathleen Ann Griffin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Population dynamics are driven by the interplay between the positive forces of births and immigration and the negative forces of deaths and emigration. Understanding dynamics at the local and metapopulation level is key in wildlife conservation. Although data on turtle survival and movement rates are available, few studies use rigorous statistical analyses and none include examination of stage-specific seasonal survival simultaneous with movement estimates. I used capture-mark-recapture methods to estimate apparent survival rates and movement probabilities of adult and juvenile western painted turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii) across space and time in a wetland ecosystem in northwestern Montana. All wetlands within …

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 …

Geodatabase Design For Resource And Land Management Gis: Missoula Field Office Blm Case Study, Mark English

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is in the process of improving their geographic information system (GIS). The main intention is to upgrade their data and present their employees with the geospatial means necessary to accomplish their resource and land management responsibilities. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI„µ) designed the geodatabase model, which provides multiple advantages in organization, management, and maintenance of geographic data. The geodatabase model implements advanced relationships between geospatial features and database tables, creates platforms available in organization and editing, and instills GIS functionality to ensure data integrity. The main goal of this work is to investigate the …

Greater Sage-Grouse Response To Coal-Bed Natural Gas Development And West Nile Virus In The Powder River Basin, Montana And Wyoming, Usa, Brett Lincoln Walker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding how population dynamics respond to landscape-scale disturbance and disease are crucial for effective wildlife management and conservation. Two new potential stressors on greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming are coal-bed natural gas (CBNG) development and West Nile virus (WNv). I first examined how CBNG development, habitat, and other landscape features influenced trends in the abundance of displaying males and the status of sage-grouse leks. Second, I used rates of WNv-induced mortality and seroprevalence from radio-marked birds to estimate rates of WNv infection. Third, I studied the influence of female characteristics, season, …

The Contribution Of Spawning Pacific-Salmon To Nitrogen Fertility And Vegetation Nutrition During Riparian Primary Succession On An Expansive Floodplain Of A Large River, Michael Roger Morris

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Floodplain vegetation communities are mosaics of succession stages caused by erosion/redeposition as river channels migrate throughout their floodplains. Typically, plants colonizing alluvial deposits are severely N-limited, but N accumulates during succession, and this process determines long term fertility. The Kol River (Kamchatka, RU), received large annual N-subsidies from salmon and we sought to determine how salmon-N contributed to fertility during succession.

We constructed a vegetation chronosequence model and made N-fertility measurements within replicate succession stages before, during and after salmon runs. Natural abundance of 15N was used as a tracer of salmon-N.

We found that new alluvial deposits were N-poor, …

Logic Systems And Cross-Cultural Mission, Cheryl Doss

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Backlog 2008, Lipscomb University

Backlogs and Other Yearbooks

The 2008 Lipscomb University Backlog yearbook.

Maximal Evenness As Conceptual Apparatus For A Course On Post-Tonal Theory And Analysis, Adam Ricci

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

"Music Theory's New Pedagogability," Richard Cohn observes that as recently as 25 years ago "the boundary between research and teaching at the introductory levels seemed inevitable and unbreachable...[and that]...we are at a somewhat different juncture now. A number of central concepts have emerged...that can be taught at the introductory level" (Cohn 1998, [3]). Among the central concepts that he mentions is Clough and Douthett's concept of maximal evenness. A maximally even set "is a set whose elements are distributed as evenly as possible around the chromatic circle" (Clough and Douthett 1991, 96). Each maximally even set is labeled ME(c,d), where …

Iron Head Construction, Inc. V. Alan K. Gurney And Vicki W. Gurney : Brief Of Respondent, Utah Supreme Court

Utah Supreme Court Briefs (2000–2020)

No abstract provided.