Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of An Instrument For Assessing Culturally Congruent Science Teaching, Regina Christine Sievert

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Demographers forecast that ethnic minority students will make up the majority of students in America’s K-12 schools sometime in the next few decades. Yet most ethnic minority students continue to experience a lower level of achievement compared to their White peers. Emerging research indicates that culturally congruent instruction (CCI) is correlated with improved ethnic minority student achievement and so may be one means to close the achievement differential. Calls for more research in CCI are increasing, yet measuring CCI is challenging due to its context specific nature and abstract elements that are difficult to define and operationalize. This study responded …

Limited Political Contributions After Mccutcheon, Citizens United, And Speechnow, Albert W. Alschuler

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Nanoparticulate Drug Delivery Platforms For Advancing Bone Infection Therapies, Vuk Uskoković, Tejal A. Dasai

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction—The ongoing surge of resistance of bacterial pathogens to antibiotic therapies and the consistently aging median member of the human race signal an impending increase in the incidence of chronic bone infection. Nanotechnological platforms for local and sustained delivery of therapeutics hold the greatest potential for providing minimally invasive and maximally regenerative therapies for this rare but persistent condition.

Areas covered—Shortcomings of the clinically available treatment options, including poly(methyl methacrylate) beads and calcium sulfate cements, are discussed and their transcending using calcium-phosphate/polymeric nanoparticulate composites is foreseen. Bone is a composite wherein the weakness of each component alone is …

Cxcr7 Expression Disrupts Endothelial Cell Homeostasis And Causes Ligand-Dependent Invasion, Jennifer Totonchy, Lisa Clepper, Kevin G. Phillips, Owen J. T. Mccarty, Ashlee V. Moses

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The homeostatic function of endothelial cells (EC ) is critical for a number of physiological processes including vascular integrity, immunity, and wound healing. Indeed, vascular abnormalities resulting from EC dysfunction contribute to the development and spread of malignancies. The alternative SDF-1/CXCL12 receptor CXCR7 is frequently and specifically highly expressed in tumor-associated vessels. In this study, we investigate whether CXCR7 contributes to vascular dysfunction by specifically examining the effect of CXCR7 expression on EC barrier function and motility. We demonstrate that CXCR7 expression in EC results in redistribution of CD31/PECAM-1 and loss of contact inhibition. Moreover, CXCR7+ EC are deficient in …

Orphic Ecology: Melancholy And The Poetics Of Robert Duncan, Robert Nolan Knapp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper explores the poetry of Robert Duncan and the political potential of melancholy. Relying on Judith Butler’s examination of the difference between “mourning” and “melancholy” in Precarious Lives, I argue that Robert Duncan enacts a condition of melancholia that he might respond to what Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands identifies in Queer Ecologies as “the psychically ungrievable”: homosexual desire and the environment. I contend in this thesis that one might enact an active experience of melancholy as both a preservative and rejuvenative force. In the first chapter of the thesis I explore Robert Duncan’s revisitation of a passage from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in …

The Role Of Nadph Oxidase In The Modulation Of Pp2a, Nicole M. Byrnes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Transient, but severe global ischemia results in AMPA receptor (AMPAR) mediated delayed neuronal death (DND). AMPARs, a major glutamatergic receptor in the CNS, are heteromeric complexes composed of GluA1 - GluA4 subunits. Most AMPARs in the hippocampus are calcium-impermeable due to the presence of the edited form of the GluA2 subunit. Ischemia results in a down-regulation of GluA2 mRNA and protein expression, resulting in the expression of GluA2- lacking, calcium/zinc-permeable AMPARs. It has been indicated that these GluA2-lacking AMPARs play a key role in promoting DND following ischemic injury. Recent studies report that an oxidative stress signaling pathway is responsible …

"What Is Peoria For?": Reading As Spiritual Practice In David Foster Wallace's The Pale King, Jeremy Reed

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since its publication in 2011, critics have written about David Foster Wallace’s final, unfinished novel, The Pale King, by looking for resonances with his career-long interests of irony, alienation, and the text’s relation to the reader, but few have written of his final fiction as exhibiting a new approach to these topics. To further such criticism, I argue that in The Pale King Wallace uses new means – religious, and specifically mystic, vocabularies of experience – to seek ethical practices for living in a period heavily influenced by Postmodern irony. In the process, Wallace’s characters end up advocating a mystical …

The Politics Of Melancholy In Alfonso Cuarón’S Y Tu Mamá También, Children Of Men And The Possibility Of Hope, Jessica Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines how three films directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Y Tu Mamá También, Children of Men, and The Possibility of Hope, represent the impact of globalization on society and the environment. These films are thematically related, and intended to be considered in connection with one another, as indicated by both interviews with Cuarón, and by critical commentary informing audience reception of these works. Each film uses melancholy as a plot device, and as an ambient presence to elucidate Cuarón’s underlying message that we must re-examine the problematic social, economic and environmental consequences of neo-liberal capitalist models of globalization. Melancholy …

Neuroplasticity, Dosage, And Repetition Priming Effects In Individuals With Stroke-Induced Aphasia, Jenna Ray Griffin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Intensity significantly impacts aphasia treatment efficacy, yet research protocols have not answered questions about optimal intensity and/or dosage. A single-subject ABA design investigated the influence of repetition priming on naming performance for four individuals with stroke-induced aphasia. The participants completed an intensive training protocol with repeated attempts to name pictures. Independent variables included training status and stimulus dosage. The dependent variable was response accuracy. Response accuracy increased for all participants during the training phase, and training effects persisted through the maintenance phase for all participants. Stimulus dosage did not consistently influence response accuracy for the participants.

Theophylline And Ambrisentan Combination: Effects On Human Performance, Ams And Physiological Responses To Altitude, Hilary Linda Palakovich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recent research efforts have attempted to determine the effectiveness of the combination of a pharmacological cardiac stimulant (theophylline) and pulmonary vasodilator (ambrisentan) in attenuating performance losses and mountain sickness at altitude. This combination has been observed to improve hypoxic exercise performance in rats, but never tested in human subjects. In the current study, 30 male participants were tested in a paired fashion to assess whether this drug combination would improve exercise performance and/or decrease symptoms of AMS. The experimental group (EXP, n = 15) received a treatment of 400 mg theophylline and 5 mg ambrisentan, while the placebo group (PLA, …

The U.S. National Park Service: Organizational Adaptation In An Era Of Complexity, Uncertainty, And Change, Anna Christina Mills

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conservation agencies worldwide are facing rapid, volatile social and ecological change, which is especially problematic for bureaucratic, hierarchical conservation organizations that are designed to be stable and resistant to change. The current science and management paradigm based on Progressive era ideology is proving to be inadequate to deal with this change, and the need for a new paradigm that embraces complexity and uncertainty in our social ecological systems is emerging. The National Park Service (NPS) is one of these organizations that has acknowledged the need to better adapt to a changing environment. An external science committee recommends in Revisiting Leopold: …

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 …

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Free Markets: Alec's Populist Constructions Of "The People" In State Politics, Anne Sherwood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, has been championing neoliberal and neoconservative bills relatively unnoticed in statehouses across the country for years. Using the populist frame, I contend that ALEC creates a new subject position for its corporate and legislative members as small business owners and virtuous entrepreneurs. This rhetoric is also on display in Wisconsin, where Governor Scott Walker utilizes populist rhetoric to constitute "the people" as workers.

Impacts Of Urban Land Use Change On Sources Of Drinking Water In Kumasi, Ghana, Michael Kofi Eduful

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Land use has a major influence on water quality, and the issue is of great concern in developing world urban areas where there are competing land uses. Kumasi, Ghana like most cities in the developing world, struggles to control and prevent urban water supply pollution through appropriate water resource protection measures that minimize or eradicate adverse impacts of land uses. Presently all rivers in the city are highly polluted, including the one where raw-water is obtained for treatment and supply of potable water. This study investigates how sources of drinking water are impacted by land use in Kumasi, the implications …

Understanding The Nature Of Interactions Between Visitors And Mountain Goats (Oreamnos Americanus) On The Hidden Lake Trail, Glacier National Park, Sarah Ilene Markegard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined interactions between visitors and mountain goats on the most heavily used trail in Glacier National Park. The primary objective was to give park managers a baseline of unbiased, reliable data with which to make informed decisions and improve the quality of interactions between visitors and mountain goats. Secondarily, this research was intended to achieve a thorough understanding of both human and wildlife responses during interactions on publically protected lands. The study was conducted over a two month period during the summer of 2013, and it was purely observational. Observations were recorded five days a week for approximately …

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 …

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 …

"It Was My Job To Keep My Children Safe": Sandra Steingraber And The Parental Rhetoric Of Precaution, Mollie Katherine Murphy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Advancing the environmental movement requires overcoming a number of rhetorical challenges. Rhetors must negotiate the significant dichotomies of environmental rhetoric including human/nature, public/private, and science/experience. Moreover, they face the challenge of educating and mobilizing uninformed citizens to take action. This analysis focuses on how Sandra Steingraber, an ecologist, writer, and environmental activist, negotiates these challenges. I argue that Steingraber negotiates these challenges by turning to three interrelated rhetorical strategies: the feminine style, autobiography, and synecdoche. I illustrate this through an analysis of two texts Steingraber wrote after becoming a mother: Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, and Raising Elijah: …

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 …

Impacts Of Montana Public Wolf Hunting And Trapping On Tolerance And Acceptance Of Gray Wolves Among Rural Resident Ranchers, Trappers, And Big Game Hunters, Alia Winn Mulder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Public Trust Doctrine placed wildlife in trust, via state control and regulation, for the benefit of the people. Managing agencies that lose sight of the importance of public acceptance of predator policies and management actions may find themselves legislatively or judicially subverted. This study examines how the Montana public wolf hunting and trapping seasons have affected tolerance and acceptance of gray wolves (Canis lupus) among rural resident ranchers, hunters, and trappers. Twenty residents from the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, and Ninemile Valleys were qualitatively interviewed over the summer and fall of 2013. Potential participants were initially identified using purposive sampling, with …

Perceptions Of Local Hospitals And Food Producers On Opportunities And Barriers To Implementing A Farm-To-Hospital Program, Allison Perline

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to explore current perceptions and attitudes of local food producers and hospital staff towards incorporating locally-sourced foods into hospital food service programs. Perceived opportunities and challenges to procuring and using local products in the hospital setting were identified. Additionally, perceived enablers and barriers of local producers were identified around working directly with institutions. The goal of this study was to integrate perceptions of producers and hospital staff to develop locally relevant suggestions for strengthening producer-hospital relationships and increase the amounts of local foods in hospital food service programs. Qualitative data was collected by conducting …

'This Disc Is Not For A Bird Bath, It's For My Tractor': Exploring Gender, Sustainable Agriculture, And Networks In Western Montana, Eva Kathryn Rocke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Women’s presence in agriculture as farmers, consumers, advocates, and activists has become ever more apparent over the last two decades as census data, popular media, and academic literature increasingly reflect their work. Many of the farmers in western Montana practicing sustainable agriculture are women and have built relationships with other women farmers in the region through existing agriculture-focused organizations like Homegrown and the Western Montana Growers’ Cooperative. Even with the strong presence of these organizations, some women farmers feel there is potential for the formalization of a women farmer network in western Montana that would increase the opportunities for socialization …

Who Uses The Roth 401(K), And How Do They Use It?, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

Using administrative data from twelve companies that added a Roth 401(k) option between 2006 and 2010, we describe the characteristics of Roth contributions. Approximately one year after the Roth is introduced, 9% of 401(k) participants have positive Roth balances. Roth participation is more than twice as high among 401(k) participants who were hired after the Roth introduction than among 401(k) participants who were hired before the Roth introduction. In essence, once an employee joins a 401(k) she becomes passive/inattentive, thereby reducing the likelihood of reacting to the introduction of a new Roth option. Conditional on contributing to the Roth, 66% …

Once Achieved, What Is It Worth?, James Paul Louks

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Once Achieved, What is it Worth? examines the contemporary social, political and physical landscape of the American West. My research for the past three years has been exploring the myths and misconceptions associated with this region and how these illusions inform, misinform, distort and taint the cultural norms of the region. My intention is to create a more factual representation of the American West relative to my own experience. The American West is a region that has been marauded for its resources, historically to the present day. There is little difference between the fracking boom that North Dakota is currently …

An Anxious State: The Search For Identity And The Struggle For Peace In Irish And Palestinian Literature, Benjamin Patrick Sweeney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis works to connect the literature of two geographically and historically disparate people – the Irish and the Palestinians. One can observe patterns of disjuncture, identity crisis, and identity formation in the history of one people; one can then apply the principles learned to analogous historical situations. I argue that the Irish and the Palestinians share a kind of communal psychological trauma brought about by the experience of imperial/colonial domination, violence, and especially diaspora. Because of this shared trauma, Ireland’s historical experience can offer insight into that of Palestine. The situations are unique, but at certain human levels they …

Coordinate Systems In Gã, Kurt Erbach

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents a comprehensive description and analysis of Gã coordinate systems. Gã is spoken primarily in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and no previous research on Gã has addressed the specific type of locative language described as coordinate systems (Lewis, Simmons, & Fennig, 2013). The current study is based on a corpus of Gã locative descriptions collected through interview-style elicitation sessions with a Gã speaker. Analysis of this corpus has revealed coordinate system morphemes ŋwɛ͂ı͂ ‘up’, shĩshĩ ‘down’, hı͂ɛ͂ ‘front’, sɛ̀ɛ̀ ‘back’, nı͂nè-jwurɔ͂ ‘right’, and àbɛ̀kú ‘left’. In describing the use of these morphemes I use Levinson’s (2003) framework …

Craft And The Corporeal In Composition: Embodied Metaphors In Writing Practice, Lauren Macdonald

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The pervasive container metaphor of language used in writing classes carries connotations that writing is a product containing meaning, rather than a process of meaning-making, inquiry, and discovery. This framework is both problematic and harmful as it fails to capture the embodied nature of writing, ignoring the body as a crucial part of composing. As an alternative, this project moves towards a view of writing as techne in which craft and technique are deeply intertwined through the dynamic relationship between text, body, and context. Working from this concept of techne, this project suggests metaphors can be extended into the physical …

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 …

Evaluation Of Relationship Between Self-Advocacy Skills And College Freshmen First Semester Grade Point Average For Students With Disabilities, Lee A. Barnett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study was important in evaluating the relationship between self-advocacy skill and college freshman Grade Point Average (GPA) in Montana for students with disabilities. Research in this area was found to be incomplete and limited. The purpose of this study was to discover if there are inadequacies in students with disabilities preparation for higher education as per self-advocacy skills and how they related to GPA Individuals considered to have a disability in secondary education may be deemed ineligible for services and supports as adults. Secondary and post-secondary institutions rarely collaborated to establish consistent standards. The contrast between the relatively high …