Digital Commons Network^™

Distribution Of Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) In Upper-Columbia River Sub-Basins From Environmental Dna Analysis, Matthew Benjamin Laramie

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Determining accurate species distribution is crucial to conservation and management strategies for imperiled species, but challenging for small populations that are approaching extinction or being reestablished. We evaluated the efficacy of environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis for improving detection and thus known distribution of Chinook salmon in the Methow and Okanogan Sub-basins of the Upper-Columbia River, Washington, USA. We developed an assay to target a 90 base pair sequence of Chinook DNA and used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to quantify the amount of Chinook eDNA in 1-L water samples collected at 48 sites in the sub-basins. We collected samples once …

Analysis Of A Miniature Radio Frequency Ion Thruster With An Inductively Coupled Plasma Source, Peter Paul Bumbarger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The performance of a 2 cm miniature ion thruster was analyzed. A thruster of this size was predicted to produce a thrust of 200 μN. The plasma density was measured against rf input power and propellant flow rate for three configurations: the ICP source by itself; the ICP source with discharge chamber; and finally, the ICP source, the discharge chamber, and the permanent magnet cusp system. Once the optimum case was determined, electrostatic grids were added and thrust measurements were taken with a set of segmented ion collector plates.

The miniature rf ion thruster obtained a thrust of 22.35 μN …

Ordinary Effort, John Mcmahon

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The thesis is primarily concerned with how the search for knowledge is driven by a quest for certainty, resulting in a compulsion to fix knowledge in explicit rules and procedures. Rather than producing a satisfactory sense of stability, this produces comedy and tragedy as human endeavors play out against a backdrop of arbitrary structure.

Three videos explore this problem through the lens of professional sport, where the quest for certainty is evaluated against the application of rules, against rules governing the action of the body, and against the attempt to circumvent the rules. Theoretical background is provided by examining the …

Children's Recognition Of Pride: An Experimental Approach, Darren Jason Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Pride is elicited when a child takes credit for an achievement or exceeds a socially valued standard or expectation. Evidence suggests that pride has a distinct nonverbal expression that is recognized by adults across cultures (Tracy & Robins, 2004). Research examining when children recognize pride has yielded age discrepancies between studies that use forced-choice response formats and those that use spontaneous-response formats. Differences in children's ability to use and comprehend language may account for some of these differences. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the age at which children reliably recognize pride, while minimizing the need for children …

Adolescent Self-Disclosure And Father Involvement Transactions Across Early To Midadolescence, Stephanie Blickfeldt

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the transactional relationship between father involvement and adolescent self-disclosure from early to midadolescence. Four hundred and ninety-six adolescents reported on their general self-disclosure to fathers, and mothers reported on father involvement behaviors and maternal involvement behaviors at ages 11, 13, and 15. Results from a longitudinal cross-lagged model indicated a unidirectional relationship from father involvement to child self-disclosure in both early and midadolescence, and a transactional relationship from adolescent self-disclosure to father involvement in early adolescence. A multiple group analysis by gender revealed that both unidirectional and transactional relationships were significant for boys only. Future research efforts …

An Investigation Of The Asit Problem-Solving Method On Middle School Technology Education Student's Ability To Produce Creative Solutions, Jared Aaron Merrill

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared two groups of students being instructed in various methods of problem solving over a two-week period. The control group was instructed using the standard Career and Technology Education (CTE) Introduction curriculum on using brainstorming to solve problems. The treatment group was instructed using a structured problem solving method developed to help focus problem solving on finding a solution that satisfies the conditions. Students were selected from 7th grade students at a suburban middle school in Utah. The independent variable in this study was the type of problem solving instruction received. The dependent variables of interest were the …

Reading And Listening To Music Increase Resting Energy Expenditure During Indirect Calorimetry In Healthy Adults , Blaire Snell

Theses and Dissertations

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has developed an evidence analysis library (EAL) for Nutrition and Dietetics professionals. The EAL is updated by members through workgroups consisting of experts in their fields, most often in response to unanswered questions. One such question is: what kinds of activities can be done during the rest period of an indirect calorimetry test in a healthy population? The objective of our study was to determine if listening to self-selected relaxing music or reading on an electronic device or a magazine effects resting energy expenditure (REE) as measured by an indirect calorimetry test in a …

What Is Meant By Argumentative Competence? An Integrative Review Of Methods Of Analysis And Assessment In Education, Chrysi Rapanta, Merce Garcia-Mila, Sandra Gilabert

All Works

The need to enhance argument skills through education has become increasingly evident during the past 20 years. This need has resulted in an ongoing discussion that focuses on students' and teachers' argumentation and its support. However, apart from the extended competence-based discourse, no clear and homogeneous definition exists for argumentative competence and its constituent skills. To respond to this deficiency, we conducted an integrative literature review focusing on the methods of argument analysis and assessment that have been proposed thus far in the field of education. Specifically, we constructed an interpretative framework to organize the information contained in 97 reviewed …

Ucc Minutes, December 10, 2013, University Curriculum Council

UCC Agendas/Minutes

No abstract provided.

4-Health: A Programmatic Evaluation Of A Parent-Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Program, Carrie Benke, Sandra Bailey, Galen Eldridge, Wesley Lynch

Journal of Youth Development

The 4-Health Project promotes healthy lifestyles for rural families with an overall goal of reducing or preventing childhood obesity. 4-Health is an integrated research and educational outreach program delivered by agents located in Montana State University Extension offices throughout the state. The collaborative project was developed to provide healthy living programs focusing on the areas of parenting and family communication, body image, food and nutrition, and physical activity to rural parents of 8-12 year old children participating in Montana’s 4-H Youth Development programs. Evaluation outcomes of the 4-Health Educational (experimental) program and the Healthy Living Information (control) program both showed …

Major Win Streak, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Two weeks ago the University of Minnesota was defeated 3-2 in hockey by the University of North Dakota. Twenty-two months earlier on February 17, 2012 the University of North Dakota defeated the University of Minnesota in overtime, 2- 1. The next day Minnesota beat North Dakota 5-2 beginning a 62 match winning streak that included two NCAA national championships and one undefeated season of 41 straight wins.

Acupuncture For Sleep Disturbances In Veterans With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Heather C. King Phd

Dissertations

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has emerged as a significant problem among Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans. Disturbed sleep is one of the most frequently reported symptoms among OEF/OIF veterans with PTSD. PTSD itself is impairing, but the burden of this disorder is likely heightened when accompanied by sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances have been associated with a 75-90% increased risk of co-morbid conditions, increased levels of depression and anxiety, daytime sleepiness and fatigue, reduced psychomotor performance, diminished work productivity, and decreased quality of life. These consequences of disturbed sleep emphasize the critical need for additional evidence based therapies …

Stressors And Coping Behaviors Of Female Peer Leaders Participating In College Club Sports, Leigh A. Bryant

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Peer leadership positions on collegiate club sport teams can be valuable opportunities for students to develop leadership skills, maintain healthy habits, create friendships, and foster organizational and personal connections across the university setting. Nevertheless, involvement in club sports can create stress over and above the many stressors that college students may encounter during their undergraduate experience. This study focused on exploring female leaders' perceived stressors inside and outside of the sport setting, and the ways in which they coped with them. Participants ( N = 7) were interviewed based on nominations from their respective teammates. Interviews were conducted using a …

The Relationship Between Health Literacy And Health Outcomes: A Mixed-Methods Study Of African-American Adult Patients With Asthma, Courtnee Erin Melton

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Introduction: Asthma affects 24.6 million people in the United States, and AfricanAmericans share a disproportionate burden of the disease. African-Americans have a higher prevalence of asthma, worse asthma control, higher hospitalization rates, and higher asthma mortality rates African-Americans are also more likely to have low health literacy. Low health literacy has been linked to increased use of emergency care, increased hospitalization, decreased use of preventive services, poorer medication adherence, poorer interpretation of prescription labels, nutrition labels, and health messages, and poorer health outcomes. Consequently, health literacy is one of the modifiable individual factors that contributes to asthma disparities among African-Americans. …

Creating Female Space: The Feminine Sublime In The Awakening And The House Of Mirth, Emily F. Faison

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis examines the Edna Pontellier and Lily Bart, the respective protagonists of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, integrating the theoretical concept of the sublime, particularly engaging Barbara Freemans’s idea of a feminine sublime, as discussed in her book, The Feminine Sublime: Gender and Excess in Women’s Fiction. In three chapters, the thesis provides an overview and brief history of the theory of the sublime, contextualizing Freeman’s argument, and measures the success of both Edna’s and Lily’s attempts to engage the sublime as they each struggle to find their place as women …

Cross-Reporting Of Interpersonal Violence And Animal Cruelty: The Charlotte Project, Dennis D. Long, Shanti J. Kulkarni

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The overlapping nature of interpersonal violence and animal cruelty is well established, however historically each issue has been addressed by distinct and separate protective systems. An innovative community-based project is described that utilized crosstraining as a mechanism to foster collaboration between human services and animal control agencies. Findings are useful for professionals and community stakeholders interested in facilitating the cross-reporting of interpersonal violence and animal cruelty.

Environmental Beliefs And Concern About Animal Welfare: Exploring The Connections, Catherine A. Faver

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An online survey examined environmental beliefs and concern about animal welfare among 105 social work students in the U.S.- Mexico border region. Environmental beliefs were measured using items from the revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale (Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig, & Jones, 2000). Higher concern about animal welfare was significantly related to three dimensions of the revised NEP Scale: (1) belief in the fragility of nature's balance, (2) belief in the possibility ofan ecological crisis, and (3) rejection of the notion that humans have a right to dominate nature (anti-anthropocentrism). The findings suggest that by making explicit connections between the …

Rct Of Web-Based Personalized Normative Feedback For College Drinking Prevention: Are Typical Student Norms Good Enough?, Joseph W. Labrie, Melissa A. Lewis, David C. Atkins, Clayton Neighbors, Cheng Zheng, Shannon R. Kenney, Lucy E. Napper, Theresa Walter, Jason R. Kilmer, Justin F. Hummer, Joel Grossbard, Tehniat M. Ghaidarov, Sruti Desai, Christine M. Lee, Mary E. Larimer

Heads Up!

Objectives

Personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions are generally effective at correcting normative misperceptions and reducing risky alcohol consumption among college students. However, research has yet to establish what level of reference group specificity is most efficacious in delivering PNF. This study compared the efficacy of a web-based PNF intervention employing eight increasingly-specific reference groups against a Web-BASICS intervention and a repeated-assessment control in reducing risky drinking and associated consequences.

Method

Participants were 1663 heavy drinking Caucasian and Asian undergraduates at two universities. The referent for web-based PNF was either the typical same-campus student, or a same-campus student at one (either …

La Diversidad De Los Análisis De Diversidad La Diversidad De Los Analisis De Diversidad [The Diversity Of Diversity Analyses], Victor D. Carmona-Galindo, Tizziana V. Carmona

Biology Faculty Works

There is a lack of consistency with respect to the use of the terms like species richness, diversity and biodiversity, which extends to the analysis of diversity indices and the merit of using diversity indices in the evaluation (comparison and contrast) of biological communities. The purpose of this article is to provide working definitions for these terms and cite examples from the primary literature that demonstrate the utility of estimating richness, evaluating proportional abundance patterns, as well as comparing indices of diversity and similarity to study patterns of biological organization at different ecological scales. Additionally, we provide a manual in …

Investigation Into Toll Like Receptor Mechanisms Of Action, In Relation To Porphyromonas Gingivalis In Periodontitis, Jonathan Lane

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease caused by bacterial invasion of the gingival epithelial cells within the oral cavity (Bostanci and Belibasakis, 2012). A key bacterium responsible for this is Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis), a gram negative bacterium that evades the host immune system by cell infection. The chronic inflammation shown in periodontitis can cause tissue damage and bone degradation; this can lead to tooth loss (Hajishengallis et al 2011). Within this review P.gingivalis mechanisms of infection are outlined, along with its mediation of the immune system. Recognition by Toll like receptors is also investigated, and the literature on the …

What Factors Structure Anthozoan Microbial Communities?, Joanna Warwick-Dugdale

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The coral holobiont is a complex and diverse composition of organisms including algae, bacteria and viruses. A number of factors suggested as vital in shaping these communities are considered here. The anthozoan host generates great diversity within its microbiota via spatial and metabolic structuring at both macro- and micro-scales; coral communities appear to be somewhat species-specific, yet spatial and temporal variation in coral microbiota suggests the significance of environmental agents. Increasing sea temperatures may cause fatal dissolution of the coral-algal partnership (coral bleaching), and although some adaptation to elevated temperature appears possible, anthropogenic stressors such as reduced pH and sedimentation …

Landsliding On The South East Coast Of The Isle Of Wight: Nature, Characteristics And Causes, Grant Cole

The Plymouth Student Scientist

This comprehensive report conveys the nature, characteristics and causes of landsliding along the south east coast of the Isle of Wight. Landsliding is a major geohazard worldwide and is a major land shaping process on the Isle of Wight especially along its coastline and the island provides a unique opportunity to study this process. This report provides information and data on landsliding in an area of the island which hasn’t received extensive attention compared to other areas such as Ventnor. The report displays a combination of field data involving geological, lithological and geomorphological data and laboratory data in the form …

Students. Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them, Adam Cook

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Guest editorial from the Director, The Science Assembly, and Head of Conservation & Research, Dartmoor Zoological Park.

The Medicinal And Pharmacological Screening Of Wheatgrass Juice (Triticum Aestivum L.): An Investigation Into Chlorophyll Content And Antimicrobial Activity, Patrick Wakeham

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Plant products are of increasing interest in the search for new drugs and medicines in the treatment of disease; and the discovery of new alternatives to existing antibiotics is an important area of this research due to pathogen resistance. One example of a plant product currently under pharmacological investigation is wheatgrass juice; a dietary supplement derived from Triticum aestivum L. There is both anecdotal and scientific evidence to suggest that the medicinal efficacy of this plant may be due to its high chlorophyll concentrations. In this study chlorophyll fresh weight was determined in mg/100g for organic field grown wheatgrass juice …

The Effect Of Copper-Induced Oxidative Stress On Regeneration In Anemonia Viridis (Forskäl, 1775), Katharine Childs

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The release of pollutants such as metals into the aquatic environment has raised concerns over the health of coral reefs, as elevated concentrations of metals are known to cause oxidative stress and bleaching. This is an important issue to address as metals are continuously released into the environment and there is evidence that metals such as copper can still be prevalent after historical mining activities, particularly in estuaries around the Plymouth Sound, UK. Anemonia viridis is commonly found around this area and is used in the literature as a model organism for coral species. A.viridis harbours symbiotic zooxanthellae and is …

Heat Stress In Captive Endothermic Animals, Samantha Ward

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Approximately 26 billion captive animals, spanning over 10, 000 species (Mason 2010) are housed in artificial habitats and face a wide range of potential environmental challenges. These include abiotic sources of stress, for instance, artificial lighting, exposure to loud or aversive sound, arousing odours and uncomfortable temperatures or substrates. In addition, confinement-specific stressors such as restricted movement, forced proximity to humans or conspecifics, reduced feeding opportunities and other behavioural restrictions (Morgan & Tromborg 2007). There is enormous variation between species in how they react to captivity, even among close taxonomic relatives (Mason 2010). Captive wild animals are often healthier, live …

An Investigation Of The Bioavailability Of Heavy Metals In Tailing Run-Off Sediment At Devon Great Consols, Chan Yin Chi

The Plymouth Student Scientist

This project focuses on the environmental geochemistry of the Devon Great Consols by determination of the concentrations of chromium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic, manganese and iron. BCR®701 is a certified reference material (CRM) which was treated by Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) sequential extraction to determine the accuracy and precision of the experiment. Moreover, the CRM was also employed to compare performance of instruments, namely ICP-AES and ICP-MS. The T-test was used to determine any significance of difference between experimental values and certified values. The F- test was used to determine any significance of difference between ICP-AES and …

Feeding Strategies In Sympatric Red Howler Monkeys (Alouatta Seniculus), Saddleback Tamarins (Saguinus Fuscicollis) And Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri Boliviensis), In The Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, Peru, Aimee May

The Plymouth Student Scientist

This study investigated the feeding strategies of sympatric red howlers (Alouatta seniculus), saddleback tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis) and squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis) in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, Peru. The habitat types occupied during all behaviours and purely when feeding differed significantly between the three species (p<0.005). The overall diet consumption was also shown to be significantly different between the three species (p<0.005). These results demonstrated that niche separation between these sympatric primates may be achieved through differences in habitat types used for foraging and food types consumed. Data from this study was compared with data collected at the same site using the same methods in 2011. The diet composition differed significantly within each of the species between 2011 and 2012 (p<0.005). It could be proposed that factors such as changes in climate may have an impact on the rainforest ecosystem, and consequently affect the feeding strategies of primates, however further research is required to determine if this is the case and the exact impacts this would have on the primates.

The Bending Of Beams And The Second Moment Of Area, Chris Bailey, Tim Bull, Aaron Lawrence

The Plymouth Student Scientist

We present an overview of the laws governing the bending of beams and of beam theory. Particular emphasis is put on beam stiffness associated with different cross section shapes using the concept of the second moment of area.

The Effectiveness Of Management Options In Reducing Human Disturbance To Wetland And Coastal Birds, Christopher Batey

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Human disturbance to wildlife is a serious conservation issue for many groups of species. Birds inhabiting wetland and coastal environments may be of particular concern as they are exposed to disturbance both on land and on water, and due to growing pressure from tourism and leisure activities human disturbance in these environments may increase in the future. There are a wide variety of available management options referred to in the literature which aim to reduce or mitigate the negative impacts of disturbance to wetland and coastal birds. This review assesses the evidence for the effectiveness of these different management measures …