Digital Commons Network^™

The Relative Abundance Of Deer Mice With Antibody To Sin Nombre Virus Corresponds To The Occurrence Of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome In Nearby Humans, Charles H. Calisher, James N. Mills, J. Jeffrey Root, Jeffrey B. Doty, Barry J. Beaty

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Sin Nombre virus (SNV) is the principal cause of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in the United States and deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) are its principal rodent host, and thus the natural cycle of the virus is related to the occurrence of HPS. Prevalence of rodent infection appears to be associated with fluctuations in deer mouse populations and, indirectly, with timing and amount of precipitation, a complex of biologic events. Given that rodent population abundances fluctuate, often acutely, it is not unreasonable to assume a direct correlation between the numbers of infected rodents and the number of human infections, …

Movements Of White-Tailed Deer In Riparian Habitat: Implications For Infectious Diseases, Gregory M. Clements, Scott E. Hygnstrom, Jason M. Gilsdorf, David M. Baasch, Myndi J. Clements, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Movements of male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are of great concern with respect to spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) across landscapes because most yearlings males disperse and adult males have higher prevalence of CWD than do females and younger deer. We radio-collared and monitored 85 male white-tailed deer in the middle Missouri River Valley of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, USA from 2004 to 2008. Average size (±SE) of fixed-kernel annual home ranges (95%) and core areas (50%) for resident deer were 449 (±32) ha and 99 (±7) ha, respectively. Resident deer exhibited a high degree of …

Landscape Genetics Of Fishers (Martes Pennanti) In The Northeast: Dispersal Barriers And Historical Influences, Paul Hapeman, Emily K. Latch, Jennifer A. Fike, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., C. William Kilpatrick

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Habitat fragmentation and overtrapping are thought to have resulted in severe population declines for fisher (Martes pennanti) across the northeastern United States, and by the end of the 1930s only 3 remnant populations remained. Subsequent trapping cessation, extensive reintroduction programs, and natural recolonization have helped fishers to reclaim much of their historical range. The degree to which these processes have impacted genetic structure in this species, however, remains unknown. We used 11 microsatellites from tissue samples (n = 432) of fishers to characterize contemporary population structure in light of historical population structure and thus to determine the …

Fifteen Years Of Urban Deer Management: The Fontenelle Forest Experience, Scott E. Hygnstrom, Gary W. Garabrandt, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Fontenelle Forest (FF) is a 16.5-km² serene natural area surrounded by a developed landscape, including Omaha and Bellevue, Nebraska, USA. An overabundant population of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) degraded the local forest. In January 1995, we estimated the density of deer at 27 deer/km² in FF and the adjacent Gifford Point Wildlife Management Area (GP) and Bellevue residential (BR) area. We engaged in a public process to establish a deer management program in this developed landscape and learned from 15 years of experience. Formation of the Bellevue Deer Task Force led to implementation of controlled deer-hunting …

Listening To The Voices Of Preschool Aged Children Experiencing Homelessness: A Qualitative Approach, Maureen Turner

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory, three phase qualitative research project gives a voice to preschool aged children experiencing homelessness to identify the significant relationships in their lives. Goals of this research included the exploration of: the central relationships of children experiencing homelessness, who children identify as important people in those relationships, how they describe those relationships, and how those relationships were formed. This research approach utilized a community participatory model in which the children's mothers contributed to the direction of the research project through group interviews. Children were observed for four months and then interviewed while completing three activities. The results suggested three …

Augmented Hands-On: An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Augmented Reality Technology On Informal Science Learning Behavior, Karen J. Elinich

Theses and Dissertations

This evaluative comparison study was designed to determine the extent to which the application of augmented reality technology increases realization of a hands-on exhibit device's intent and how augmented reality technology might influence family learning behaviors and facilitate the integration of the experiential and interpretive aspects of an informal science learning experience. The study was conducted at The Franklin Institute Science Museum during the summer of 2010. Twenty families interacted with an exhibit device called "Be the Path" in both its traditional hands-on condition and a novel augmented condition. While the sample size was too small to generate statistically significant …

From Isolation To Collaboration: A New Perspective On School Leadership, Bois Paula Du

Theses and Dissertations

Challenging times demand a greater urgency than usual. Quite unexpectedly, No Child Left Behind has unleashed a powerful catalyst for change in the 21st century. It is within this era of increasing accountability and disparity that greater demands are being placed on school leaders to produce significant and positive student outcomes. The constantly changing educational landscape of today's schools along with the local, state and national legislation that mandates guidelines from which schools must conform necessitates a change in how school leaders are prepared. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to focus on a new perspective of school leadership …

Transformational Leadership And Personal Development: The Impact Of The Youth Citizenship Seminar On Former Participants, Keichea Lashun Reever

Theses and Dissertations

The researcher investigated how the Southern California Youth Citizenship Seminar (YCS) impacted the personal development (as outlined by Cashman, 2008) of 142 former participants who responded to an open ended question in a survey administered by Kirnon (2008) and Musick (2008). This qualitative, within site case study utilized detailed analysis and coding of 142 open ended question responses submitted by former Southern California Youth Citizenship Seminar (YCS) participants. The findings of this study revealed that the transformational leadership style utilized by the counselors and guest speakers of the Southern California YCS positively impacted the personal development of 97% of former …

Job Satisfaction Of Managers And Individual Contributors Within Local And Virtual Software Teams, Michael D. Demas

Theses and Dissertations

This study compares the job satisfaction of individual contributors and managers on local (co-located) software teams versus those working on virtual teams. It also examines differences in job satisfaction among workers of differing experience levels. Participants were recruited from two software organizations; one from Company V and one from Company L, a spinoff company formed from Company V's former semiconductor division. The Company L team was a local (co-located) team housed in one building. The Company V team is a distributed virtual software development team and is spread across five cities in California, Oregon, Arizona and Texas. Some members of …

The Implementation Of Corporate Downsizing By Human Resource Managers, A Phenomenological Study, Denise Fazio

Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive study explored the phenomenon of corporate downsizing as experienced by Human Resource (HR) managers who were directly involved in its implementation. It was concerned with two primary questions: First, what is the essential structure of the phenomenon of downsizing as experienced by the Human Resource (HR) managers who have been directly involved in its implementation? Second, how does this phenomenon or experience take place? Through the detailed descriptions of four corporate Human Resource managers' downsizing experiences--gathered through in-depth, face-to-face interviews--and my analysis of that data, I explicated the structure (the relationship among the most invariant constituents of the …

Dying And Cultural Meaning: Recommendations For Psychological Support Of Korean Americans, Jung Yi

Theses and Dissertations

Death is a natural part of the life cycle that all humankind faces at some point. The American Psychological Association (2001) states that psychologists can make an important clinical contribution to patients who are dying and offer support to their families as they navigate this life event. What is absent from the current discussion is the relevance of culture to issues related to death, dying, and grief, which from the perspective of the researcher is a critical oversight, given the diverse cultures represented in the U.S. and the uniqueness of how many of these cultures conceptualize and memorialize death. This …

Digital Course Materials: A Case Study Of The Apple Ipad In The Academic Environment, Michael H. Bush, Andrea H. Cameron

Theses and Dissertations

The newness of the iPad device creates a phenomenon unique and unstudied in the academic environment. By merging the innovations of electronic text, e-reader, and multi-modal functionality, the iPad tablet device can act as an e-reader providing digital course materials as well as a range of other supplementary academic applications. This qualitative research study was designed to explore the how the use of a multi-modal tablet device affects the academic environment. It is the writers' assumption that an increased understanding will aid in the appropriate use of a tablet device to enhance learning. The pilot program in this study included …

View From The Virtual Pocket: Using Virtual Simulation And Video Game Technology To Assess The Situation Awareness And Decision Making Of Ncaa Quarterbacks, Burnie Bristow

Theses and Dissertations

View from the Virtual Pocket is a proof of concept study in which a theoretical proposition about situation awareness in time constrained decision making is wedded to the affordances of a computer based simulation to ascertain if the real world decision making in the pocket of an NCAA quarterback can be modeled successfully for simulation based learning. The researcher used the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) for the purposes of (a) analyzing the situation awareness requirements for expert decision making and (b) to empirically assess the viability of using a computer based football simulator as a SAGAT simulation tool. …

Exploring Individual Self-Awareness As It Relates To Self-Acceptance And The Quality Of Interpersonal Relationships, Camille Fung

Theses and Dissertations

Most people spend a significant amount of time at work. Because many workplaces steer away from individual work toward collaboration, the need for high-quality, productive workplace relationships continues to increase. This study examined self-awareness, self-acceptance, and relationship quality to determine the implications for organizations. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of self-awareness and how it relates to an individual's degree of self-acceptance and quality of relationship with others. The research questions were: 1. Do people who show higher degrees of self-awareness report higher degrees of self-acceptance? 2. Do people who show higher degrees of self-awareness …

Transformational Leadership Styles Of Organizational Social Network Leaders As Observed By Fully Employed Pepperdine Business And Leadership Students, Eric Hilary Furlong

Theses and Dissertations

Of the mechanisms that organizations embrace to find a competitive advantage in post-bureaucratic environments, one of the more common is to allow the emergence of informal networks in which individuals work together regardless of the formal scope of their responsibilities. As these networks emerge, so do leaders within them. To date, there has been almost no research on the leadership behaviors of emergent network leaders. However, that has not stopped many thinkers on the topics of leadership and organizational theory from assigning behaviors to them. Avolio, Bass, and others have assigned transformational leadership to these leaders; and such assignments seem …

Simple Rules Leaders Use To Guide Their Organizations During Times Of Rapid Change, Kristine Quade

Theses and Dissertations

Few leaders would refer to their organization as a complex adaptive system (CAS)--one that is irreversible and unpredictable. They might say their organization contains diverse elements and is constantly learning--the other two aspects of a CAS. Few top leaders rarely are able to identify the self-organizing patterns as they emerge. This study involved 58 senior leaders in five 5 market sectors who were guiding their organizations during times of rapid change. Using a Delphi method, the intent was to identify what simple rules the leaders used to shape the speed, direction and outcomes of self-organizing patterns. A simple rule expands …

The Perceptions Of Middle And High School Students Participating In A School-Based Mentoring Program, Annette Marie Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative descriptive study included a pool of 22 middle and high school students who participated in the Stand By Me Mentoring Program during the 2010-2011 school year, exploring their perceptions related to the positive and negative aspects of their mentoring relationship, the positive and negative aspects of the impact of their mentoring relationship, and the positive and negative aspects of the mentoring program. Focus group interviews were used to collect data from the participants. Questions asked during the focus group interviews were modified with permission from What's Working? Tools For Evaluating Your Mentor Program, by Saito (2001) for The …

Social Media As A Venue For Personal Learning For Educators: Personal Learning Networks Encourage Application Of Knowledge And Skills, Linda S. Eller

Theses and Dissertations

Social media sites furnish an online space for a community of practice to create relationships and trust, collaboration and connections, and a personal learning environment. Social networking sites, both public and private, have common elements: member profiles, groups, discussions, and forums. A community of practice brings participants together to share a common interest, to learn from experts, and develop relationships. This dissertation study focused on Apple Distinguished Educators (ADE), a social network, and presents findings on how their participation affected personal learning, how their personal learning impacted their professional practice, and how participation resulted in new network connections and more …

Bernard Williams On Coercion And Reasons For Action, Joseph Stephenson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding the nature of reasons for action and, specifically, how one can come to understand and criticize another’s reasons for action can help us to better understand what possible outcomes we can hope for when engaging another agent. Understanding reasons for action may even give us some insight into what shared ground ethical theory can offer. Bernard Williams’ treatment of reasons for action informs much of the contemporary discussion. Williams argues that there are generally two classes of statements about reasons: internal and external. An internal reason, according to Williams, is a reason which depends entirely on an agent’s motivations …

Community News Service Of The 62nd Montana Legislature, Cody Bloomsburg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is my news coverage of one of the strangest and most divisive sessions of the Montana Legislature in the past 30 years. In essence, a Republican-controlled Legislature with a faction of far-right conservatives pitted their agenda of shrinking government and expanding states' rights against the will of Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the most popular politician in the state at the time. In November, 2010, the GOP harnessed a wave of anti-federal government and anti-Democratic Party sentiment to win a historic, 68-32 majority in the Montana House of Representatives and gain another seat in the Montana Senate to give it …

Nest Site Characteristics And Breeding Biology Of Flammmulated Owls In Missoula Valley, Mathew T. Seidensticker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Seidensticker, Mathew, M.S., Spring 2011 Environmental Studies Nest Sites and Breeding Biology of Flammulated Owls in Missoula Valley Chairperson: Len Broberg The Flammulated Owl is listed as a sensitive or species of concern with United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Despite these listings the Flammulated Owl is little studied in Montana. Although region-wide surveys have greatly increased our understanding of distribution and landscape level habitat associations of Flammulated Owls, information about breeding is lacking. In order to address this need for breeding information I searched for and quantified nest site characteristics and …

Opportunities And Constraints To Community Forests For Local Income Generation And Livelihood: A Case Study Of Four Community Forests In Bumthang District, Bhutan, Wangchuk Dorji

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Bhutan has had an active community forestry program since 2000. A key feature of the nationally organized program is the devolution of forest management and use to local residents who participate in a “Community Forestry Management Groups” (CFMG) for managing nearby community forests (CF) according to rules developed by the Department of Forests. These groups are responsible for developing and implementing community forest management plans that entitle them to use locally valuable forest products (fuel wood, construction timber, mushrooms, bamboo etc). Most recently CFMGs have been given the right to sell forest products from their CFs that are not needed …

The Law Of Abandonment And The Passing Of Property In Trash, Cheng Lim Saw

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the law of abandonment – primarily in the context of rubbish disposal – from a comparative perspective. It will, in particular, consider whether the owner of moveable property can, in theory, divest himself of ownership rights therein by simply abandoning the chattel in question, and whether the common law recognises such a concept of (unilateral) divesting abandonment. Additionally, the article will examine how, if at all, the notion of abandonment – as it is understood and applied in relation to physical property – may also operate in the realm of intangible property.

Puma Dispersal Ecology In The Central Rocky Mountains, Jesse R. Newby

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The structuring of populations within a metapopulation, connected through dispersal, is important to basic and applied ecology. However, a considerable gap exists in our knowledge of the influence landscape heterogeneity has on dispersal and its consequences. We examined landscape effects on dispersal and its consequences for puma (Puma concolor) populations using data from three separate populations in the Central Rocky Mountains including the Northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (NGYE), the Southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (SGYE) and the Garnet Mountains of Montana. We found human-induced mortality reduced inter-population vital rates with population consequences. The NGYE population was dependent largely on immigration for …

Is Integration A Discriminatory Purpose?, Michelle Adams

Articles

Is integration a form of discrimination? Remarkably, recent Supreme Court doctrine suggests that the answer to this question may well be yes. In Ricci v. DeStefano, the Court characterizes - for the very first time - government action taken to avoid disparate-impact liability and to integrate the workplace as "race-based," and then invalidates that action under a heightened level of judicial review. Consequently, Ricci suggests that the Court is open to the "equivalence doctrine," which posits that laws intended to racially integrate are morally and constitutionally equivalent to laws intended to racially separate. Under the equivalence doctrine, integration is simply …

Characterisation Of Bacterial Extracellular Polysaccharides (Eps) And Other Complex Carbohydrates With Prebiotic Potential, Padraigin Murphy

Theses

Prebiotics are selectively fermented ingredient that allows specific changes, both in the composition and/or activity in the gastrointestinal microbiota that confers benefits upon host well-being and health’ It is not the prebiotic by itself but rather the changes induced in microflora composition that is responsible for its effects. Several sources of prebiotic were used in this study, namely extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) originating from Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB), barley, oat. Laminaria digitata. Laminaria hyperborea and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. EPS-producing LAB were isolated from a wide variety of environmental and gastrointestinal niches. The strains were typed and classified according to their EPS-producing ability …

Cooperative Learning And Peer Tutoring To Improve Third-Grade Students’ Test Scores On Grade-Level Assessment, Francina Y. Thurston

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to utilize learning strategies that emphasized small-group instructions where students work together cooperatively and with peers to achieve mastery. Traditionally, the classroom practices used in this school lent themselves primarily to whole-class instructions that emphasized competitive and individualistic goals rather than small groups and cooperative practices. The multistrategy used in this study sought to shift the focus of classroom instructions away from what was traditional. However, the introduction of the multistrategy that called for small group teaching required training for teachers and students.

The writer developed several solution strategies that trained students and teachers in …

A Kindle In The Classroom: E-Reading Devices And Reading Habits, Leigh Gardener

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Four Decades Ago: Learning From Mina Shaughnessy, Gregory Shafer

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Invasive Fish Effects On The Invertebrate Constituents Of Wetland Communities, Levi Bridges

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The purpose of this research was to assess the impacts of invasive fishes on wetland communities. Within this study we explored fish effects on the invertebrate constituents of these wetlands, and possible niche overlap of fish and dabbling waterfowl using stable isotope analysis. Brook stickleback (Culaea inconstans) and pumpkinseed (Lipomis gibbosus) pose a potentially growing threat to temperate Pacific drainages of North America due to their ability to outcompete native fauna. Our study compares and contrasts the invertebrate constituents, their diversity, abundances, and stable isotope ecology among fish invaded and non-invaded wetlands. We found that brook stickleback and pumpkinseed are …