Digital Commons Network^™

Teachers As Writers: Opening The Door To Dialogism, Eric Mark Lynn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In an attempt to put better writing instruction into practice by learning from past mistakes, the author explores the potential benefits and perils that teachers who regularly write bring to their instruction and the promise and enactment of dialogical writing.

The Bear In The Footprint: Using Ethnography To Interpret Archaeological Evidence Of Bear Hunting And Bear Veneration In The Northern Rockies, Michael D. Ciani

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Archaeological evidence of prehistoric bear hunting and bear veneration in the northern Rocky Mountains and northwestern Plains is presented. Ethnographic documents and the writings of trappers, traders, and explorers are assessed in order to establish an interpretative framework to help decipher archaeological contexts in the region that include bear remains and rock art depicting bears. Examining prehistoric archaeological contexts in Montana and Wyoming within this framework suggests evidence of bear hunting and veneration similar to the regional ethnographic record. Data trends imply there may be a relationship between such sites and variables like site location, seasonality, function, and age. Contexts …

Use Of A Forest Reconstruction Model To Assess Changes To Sierra Nevada Mixed-Conifer Forest Conditions During The Fire Suppression Era, Molly Augusta Frederica Barth

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fire suppression has resulted in dramatic changes to species composition and structural diversity in the Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests of California. Advancing the ecological understanding and management of these forests requires a better understanding of changes that occurred during the fire suppression era, but empirical historical datasets are rare and methodologies for developing new historical reference information are subject to many limitations. I sought to develop historical reference information for the Yosemite Forest Dynamics Plot (YFDP), a research plot located in an old-growth mixed-conifer stand in Yosemite National Park. I performed a dendrochronological fire history analysis to characterize the historical …

Addressing The Challenges Of Monitoring A Rare And Elusive Seabird, Anne Louise Schaefer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Kittlitz’s murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) is a small alcid endemic to Alaska and eastern Russia. Due to its pelagic lifestyle, researchers lack information regarding environmental conditions experienced by Kittlitz’s murrelets throughout the year and how these conditions impact their physiology and vital rates. Further, unlike most seabirds, the Kittlitz’s murrelet is a dispersed nester; therefore, data are limited for this species even within the breeding season. The goal of this research was to evaluate and improve the monitoring methods for the Kittlitz’s murrelet throughout the year. I approached this goal from 2 different perspectives. First, I worked to clarify abundance …

Quantifying The Hydrologic Impact Of Mountain Pine Beetle Disturbance In A Western Montana Ecosystem, James A. Reilly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae, MPB) is a forest pest endemic to the Rocky Mountain West. Since the late 1990s, millions of hectares of lodgepole pine forest have experienced extensive tree mortality due to MPB disturbance and this may have significant implications for forested mountain water supplies. MPB disturbance may affect the amount of moisture that enters and leaves the forest hydrologic system, through changes in snowpack accumulation, snowmelt timing, transpiration and subsequently soil water content. The cumulative effect of these changes is that soil moisture is expected to be higher in disturbed forests as the hydrologic system responds to …

The Missouri Compromised, Kate Casper Walker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recreation versus navigation. Flood control versus wildlife. Agriculture versus water quality. Arguments over Missouri River management have been spinning for decades, literally trapped by the 1940s ideas and engineering that transformed the river. The Missouri Compromised is a 30-minute documentary that asks its audience to weigh the social and environmental tradeoffs when engineering a tremendously powerful natural system. Once a passage for tradesmen and settlers into the West, as well as a dynamic and rich ecosystem, the Missouri River today bears the marks of humanity’s control. The six main-stem dams on the upper Missouri, and the 750-mile bank-stabilized navigation channel …

Pet Advocate Program For The Homeless In Missoula, Mt, Lisa Jane Bruce

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies have shown the importance of the relationship that homeless individuals, including victims of domestic violence, have with their pets. This relationship can often create a barrier to accessing emergency shelters since not many shelters accept pets. This paper examines the need to create a community-wide program in Missoula, MT which provides a way to house pets while their owners access emergency shelters. The final section of this paper proposes a “Pet Advocate Program” that could be adopted by the Humane Society of Western Montana.

Fast Food Results In Similar Post-Exercise Glycogen Recovery And Exercise Performance Compared To Sport Supplements, Michael Joseph Cramer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A variety of dietary choices are marketed to enhance glycogen recovery after physical activity. Past research provides recommendations regarding the timing, dose, and nutrient compositions to facilitate glycogen resynthesis. This study examined the effects of isocaloric sport supplements (SS) vs fast-food (FF) on glycogen resynthesis and exercise performance. Eleven male completed two experimental trials in a randomized, counterbalanced order. Each trial included a 90-minute glycogen depletion ride followed by a 4-hour recovery period. Absolute amounts of macronutrients (1.54±0.27 g.kg-1 carbohydrate, 0.24±0.04 g.kg-1 fat, and 0.18±0.03 g.kg-1 protein) as either SS or FF were provided at 0 and 2 hours. Muscle …

Just Leftovers, Sarah Elizabeth Tancred

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Just Leftovers is intended to offer an understanding of the woman’s role within the domestic realm and its evolution over time in American society. My ultimate goal is to create an awareness of women’s inequality historically, but also to expose the inequality, biases, and double standards that continue to exist in our contemporary society. I choose to create this awareness through visual art with the manipulation of recognizable objects that the general public, stereotypically speaking, would associate with femininity and domesticity. I am fascinated by how these “feminine” objects and their historical content [e.g. bread pan] have been socially constructed …

Yerba Mate (Ilex Paraguariensis) Production, Agricultural Change, And Livelihood Security In Southeastern Paraguay, Mason Robert Bradbury

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Smallholders in Southeastern Paraguay are threatened by the advance of mechanized farming, environmental degradation, and limited access to credit and inputs. Agroforestry initiatives have been proposed as a way to increase smallholder livelihood security in the face of such vulnerability. Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) is a tree crop native to Paraguay that may be grown in agroforestry systems. While prices paid to farmers for yerba mate have increased in recent years, spurring interest and adoption of yerba mate production among some farmers, to this date, there have been no analyses of the effects that yerba mate production may have on …

An Alloy Of Steel And Information And Communication Technology (Ict): Does It Facilitate Trade?, Volodymyr Shemayev

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) over the last 20 years, particularly proliferation of the Internet, fixed-telephones, and mobile phones, have significantly reshaped the way modern firms do their business. The economic literature suggests that ICT could be a potential trade-enabler, given its ability to reduce costs of search and communication between trade partners. This research intends to examine whether ICT affects countries’ capabilities to export steel and its articles. To estimate the impacts of the Internet, mobile phones, and fixed-telephones on bilateral trade flows in the steel industry, I apply various gravity model specifications, including those capturing …

Cardiac Rehabilitation Enrollment Rates And Different Referral Strategies, Whitney Tameler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. Although cardiac rehabilitation is recognized as a standard element of continuum of cardiac care only 10-60% of eligible patients participate. Various barriers exist preventing cardiac patients to enroll in cardiac rehabilitation. These barriers are categorized into three different levels: 1) patient barriers, 2) physician barriers and 3) healthcare system barriers. Patient barriers can include lack of insurance, transportation, need to return to work, family issues and the perception cardiac rehabilitation is not needed but lack of physician referral is the leading deterrent for patients not enrolling …

Disentangling Disadvantage: Can We Distinguish Good Teaching From Classroom Composition?, Gema Zamarro, John Engberg, Juan Esteban Saavedra, Jennifer Steele

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This paper focuses on the use of teacher value-added estimates to assess the distribution of effective teaching across students of varying socioeconomic disadvantage. We use simulation methods to examine the extent to which different commonly used teacher-value added estimators accurately capture both the rank correlation between true and estimated teacher effects and the distribution of effective teaching across student characteristics in the presence of classroom composition effects. Varying the amount of teacher sorting by student characteristics, the withinteacher variability in classroom composition, and the amount of student learning decay, we compare aggregated residuals, teacher random effects, and teacher fixed effects …

Virtual Collaboration: A Phenomenological Study Of Remote Online Adjuncts Virtual Collaboration Lived Experiences, Lori Schieffer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Online education is rapidly growing in higher education. To stay competitive, many colleges and universities have begun to offer online classes. Some institutions even offer complete degree programs online. This has left colleges needing to hire more part-time remote adjuncts to fill the fluctuating number of available courses. Because remote online adjuncts are susceptible to isolation, the need has arisen to study the benefits and barriers of virtual collaboration. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the virtual collaboration lived experiences of remote online adjuncts. The study helped unveil the motives and lived experiences of virtual collaboration …

The Effect Of Fluoxetine On Self-Control In Betta Splendens, Kathryn Gwen Lamp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The present study examined the effect of fluoxetine on self-control in Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). The subjects included 17 male Betta splendens that were exposed to varying levels of fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that increases levels of serotonin, and instrumental choice trials were run. A subject began each trial in the start box and, when a guillotine divider door was lifted, entered one side of a divided goal box. The checkerboard side of the choice door represented either the smaller-sooner choice (SS) or the larger-later choice (LL). When the subject had entered one side of the goal …

The Effects Of The Fur Trade On Aboriginal Households In The Middle Fraser Region Of British Columbia, Lisa Michelle Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ethnographic literature of First Nations groups in the Middle Fraser region of British Columbia describe communities that were hierarchically organized with elite, commoner, and slave classes, underwritten by elite ownership of keystone resources, and perpetuated by competitive feasting events used to maintain debt relations, unequal distribution of food and raw materials, and possibly elite control over trade networks. Narratives of the ethnographic present are commonly utilized to describe cultural patterns of the deeper past, despite the fact that we lack knowledge of the effects of European colonialism and the role it may have had in shaping the socioeconomic and political …

The Significance Of Administrative Support For The State-Wide Innovation Of Montana's Indian Education For All, Chris Michael Olszewski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This non-experimental dominant-less dominant mixed-methods study examined data specific to principal and teacher perceptions of the leadership support for Indian Education for All (IEFA) professional development in their school. The data from each instrument were compared to (a) the administrators’ and teachers’ Peak Stage of Concern of the Indian Education for All innovation, (b) the highest IEFA training level attained, and (c) the amount of time that administrators and teachers report spending on supporting and implementing IEFA in their school and classroom. Spearman’s rho correlations were utilized to examine these relationships.

This study examined if the level of leadership support, …

A Phenomenological Study Of Leadership: Developmental Pathways Of Leaders With Disabilities, Mika Watanabe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Research on leaders with disabilities is largely limited in scope to civil rights and disability rights leadership. This qualitative research investigated how individuals with disabilities transformed themselves into leaders in the disability field. This research focuses on the leaders’ perceptions of critical experiences and relationships that influenced them as leaders. A phenomenological approach was used to understand the lived experiences of six leaders with disabilities. Open-ended interviews with recognized leaders who had disabilities were analyzed by examining their narrative statements, resulting in a combined description of their lived experience.

The results of the analysis revealed that these leaders with disabilities …

Ties That Bind On The Northwestern Plains: Contexts For Prehistoric Trade And Travel, Sara Alicia Scott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This PhD dissertation focuses on several interrelated archaeological problems in Northwestern Plains and Intermountain prehistory. The dissertation is comprised of three articles that have been either accepted for publication in peer-reviewed regional or international archaeological journals or are in the process of being reviewed for publication. The articles focus on the following subjects: 1) radiocarbon dating and analysis of Late Prehistoric period perishable items from Pictograph and Ghost Caves in south-central Montana; 2) radiocarbon dating of lower cultural levels in Pictograph Cave to assess the accuracy of the chronology established by William Mulloy in 1958; and 3) an analysis of …

Use And Effectiveness Of Wildlife Crossing Structures With Short Sections Of Wildlife Fencing, Elizabeth Rose Fairbank

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Our growing transportation infrastructure in the United States has many direct and indirect impacts to wildlife populations. Humans are also impacted by the interaction of roads and wildlife in terms of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC’s); which annually result in: hundreds of human fatalities, tens of thousands of human injuries, and billions of dollars in property damage. In response to concerns for wildlife and human safety, road mitigation measures are becoming an increasingly important tool for transportation agencies to minimize the risks of WVC’s. The construction of multiple wildlife crossing structures in combination with wildlife fencing have been shown to reduce WVC’s …

Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of A Library Of Polyacetylene Compounds Based On An Antiprotozoal Natural Product From Cussonia Zimmermannii, John Hoody

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Leishmaniasis is one of several tropical diseases classified as a ôneglected tropical diseaseö. Its global prevalence is 12 million people with an estimated at-risk population of 350 million people.1 Current treatments include antimonials, amphotericin B, pentamidine, and miltefosine. Access to these medications is often limited in the impoverished nations that Leishmaniasis predominantly affects. Drug resistance and toxicity are also significant drawbacks to the current treatments.3 Therefore, there is an immediate need for the research and development of novel therapeutic molecules and strategies to combat Leishmaniasis.

Epigenetic Changes After Prenatal Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure And Asthma, Sonja Christensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Allergic asthma affects over 300 million people worldwide. Multiple factors have been shown to alter an individuals' susceptibility to this allergic airway disease such as exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), endotoxin, and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Prenatal exposure to these contaminants, especially ETS, has been shown to increase risk for an individuals’ asthma risk, however, the mechanism by which this happens is still unknown. Epigenetic alterations, particularly DNA methylation patterns, have been introduced as a proposed mechanism. The goals of this project were to use a house dust mite (HDM) murine model of asthma to determine the methylation alterations …

Habitat Quality Influences Migratory Strategy Of Female White-Tailed Deer, Charles R. Henderson Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Partial migration is a life history strategy that is common for ungulate species living in seasonal environments. One factor that influences the decision to migrate by ungulates is access to high quality habitat. We evaluated the influence of access to winter habitat of high quality on the probability of an individual migrating, the differences in seasonal habitat use between and within migratory and resident classes of deer, and the effects of this decision on the survival of female white-tailed deer. We hypothesized that deer with home ranges of relatively low quality in winter would have a relatively high probability of …

Disturbed Waters – A Montana Chemist Searches For The Source Of A Persistent Poison, Kindra Mcquillan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In December 2008, when Montana's great Clark Fork River tested its historic banks for the first time in 100 years, a crowd of hundreds gathered to watch the removal of Milltown Dam at the confluence of the river with the Big Blackfoot. After a century of pollution from Butte's copper mines, the river was undergoing the nation's largest­yet restoration project, the Upper Clark Fork River Superfund Complex.

But in a windowless laboratory a mile away, University of Montana chemist Heiko Langner had troubling news. Toxic methylmercury flowed through the river at concentrations of concern, undetected and undermining the project. It …

A Multiple-Case Study On How Fifth Grade Students Experience Reading, Tiffany Tate

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The research from this study provides information for teachers, leaders, and administrators to review and analyze how fifth grade students experience reading. It will be important to adjust or change the strategies to promote reading and / or the curriculum for fifth grade students. Fullan (2011), a noted change theorist, identified five characteristics of effective leadership for change: (a) moral purpose, (b) understanding the change process, (c) strong relationships, (d) knowledge sharing, and (e) coherence, or connecting new knowledge with existing knowledge that served as the theoretical framework from which the data was viewed. The information from this study is …

An Environmental Toxic Model Of Parkinson's Disease: The Fruit Fly, Jennene Lyda

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder with no known specific cause; although genetic risk factors and/or environmental exposure are thought to be involved. The etiology of PD is currently unknown, although the combination of non-genetic components such as environmental exposures, the accumulation of exposure, and gene-environment interactions are thought to play a major role. However, despite this knowledge it is important to develop better models that parallel PD pathophysiology to further understand the mechanisms underlying dopaminergic neuron (DaN) damage. The use of mammalian models to study the degenerative processes in PD has been the most common …

The Effects Of Seed Source Health On Whitebark Pine Regeneration Density After Wildfire, Signe B. Leirfallom

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is declining nearly range-wide largely from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks and the exotic pathogen Cronartium ribicola, which causes the disease white pine blister rust. With high mortality in cone-bearing whitebark pine, seed production may not be sufficient to support natural regeneration after disturbance such as wildfire. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between whitebark pine seed source health and whitebark pine regeneration density in adjacent, stand-replacing burns. I sampled regeneration patterns and seed source health and status in 15 burns within six national forests and …

Regulation Of Silica-Induced Pulmonary Inflammation, Rupa Biswas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Inhalation of crystalline silica for an extended period of time results in inflammation in the lungs, which plays a pivotal role in the development of silicosis, a progressive, inflammatory and fibrotic pulmonary disease. Inhaled silica particles are encountered by alveolar macrophages (AM) in the lungs. Previous studies have indicated the role of scavenger receptors in binding of environmental particles and also demonstrated that AM recognize and bind silica particles through class A scavenger receptors (SRA) expressed on their surface. MARCO (Macrophage Receptor with Collagenous Structure) is a SRA family receptor and the predominant receptor for recognition and binding of silica …

The Impacts Of Removing Wildfire On Pinus Ponderosa Resistance Against Dendroctonus Ponderosae, Sharon Metzger Hood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Disturbance and disturbance interactions drive multiple ecosystem processes over multiple spatial and temporal scales. I studied the role of frequent, low-severity fire in Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine) forests in altering the success of the irruptive insect Dendroctonus ponderosae (mountain pine beetle (MPB)). I had three overarching research questions: (1) What are the best predictors of ponderosa pine resin flow, a trait related to MPB attack success, and how do these predictors relate to tree growth?; (2) Are predictors of resin flow also predictors of MPB attack success and are they affected by changes to wildfire disturbance regimes?; (3) How do …

A Study Of Hydroclimatic Dynamics In Mountain Landscapes, Nicholas Loren Silverman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The hydroclimatic regime of mountain landscapes in the Pacific Northwest, USA plays a large role in collecting, storing, and distributing water throughout the greater United States. The complexities of the landscape, vegetation, and anthropogenic impacts within this region form a dynamic web of interactions that create unique challenges when quantifying hydrologic variables. This dissertation focuses on these challenges and introduces a new way of deciphering the driving mechanism of streamflow trends. The first project examines the differences between modeling techniques in mountain terrain. In this project, we use a physically-based regional climate model to dynamically downscale global climate estimates for …