Digital Commons Network^™

Hand Signs, Rebecca Kristine Swanberg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hand Signs is a novel-in-progress that follows a friendship between two high school women, set in the world of elite choirs. It is an investigation of giving up one’s individuality for the sake of a greater harmony, in both the context of choral arts and young female friendships.

Characterizing The Requirements For The Matricellular Protein, Dccn, In Nervous System Function, Elizabeth L. Catudio Garrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The brain is organized as a complex network of specialized neurons that communicate via a combination of electrical and chemical signals. Our brains function to generate movement, control organ function, or direct complex behaviors; all of which requires the ability to regulate the flow of communication between circuits and networks. Work in this thesis addresses two areas of neuron communication: first, how does the release of more than one neurotransmitter from a single neuron impact behavior, and second, are matricellular proteins (MCPs) key contributors to synaptic transmission and neuron function? The conserved CCN family of MCPs have a …

Leadership In Higher Education And The Impact On Faculty Satisfaction And Retention, Theresa A. Petersen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Change Is The Only Constant: A Snowpack Retention Analysis And Climate Vulnerability Road Map For The Skalkaho Creek Sub-Basin, Zachary Freeman Goodwin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is impacting the whole of North America, although the impacts differ depending on regional geography. In the Intermountain West, climate change is contributing to lower overall snowpack totals and diminished late season streamflows. These changes will likely contribute to vulnerabilities in how much water is available to irrigators, municipalities, and fisheries dependent upon a consistent yearly flow of meltwater. This paper explores how snowpack retention has changed via the NASA dataset Daymet, which provides gridded estimates of weather parameters including Snow Water Equivalent in the Bitterroot River Basin of western Montana. This analysis showed that snowpack retention from …

Leadership In Higher Education And The Impact On Faculty Satisfaction And Retention, Theresa Petersen, Frances O'Reilly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Flowers From The Devil: An American Opiate Crisis, The Criminalization Of Marijuana, And The Triumph Of The Prohibition State, 1840-1940, Clinton David Lawson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation focuses on historic changes in public perception of narcotic use and abuse from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. From the 1840s to the outbreak of Civil War, politicians, physicians, the general public, and state and federal government remained largely ambivalent on the topic of drug use. Opium, morphine, and cannabis were legal, widely available in American pharmacies, and touted as essential medicines. Within the Bohemian community, artists and writers experimented with the recreational use of cannabis and their accounts of that style of consumption filled the pages of Harper’s, The New Yorker, and a host of other …

The Relationship Between Public School Principals’ Authentic Leadership And Implicit Theory Of Intelligence, Erica A. Zins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Public school principals are facing increasingly more demands and stressful environments. These leaders need tools to help with the overwhelming workload and building a healthy supportive school community. Principals require easy-to-access skills to build healthy strategies for working with these chaotic environments, which could include a growth mindset and authentic qualities of self-awareness, balanced processing, moral virtue and relational transparency.

The purpose of this study was to research the relationship between Montana K-12 public school principals’ authentic leadership theory and their implicit theories of intelligence. This non-experimental quantitative study utilized a survey method to gather self-report information. The voluntary sample …

Single-Particle Cryo-Em Study Of The Ric-8a:Gαi1 Complex, Jake David Johnston Mr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Resiliency Training On Self-Reported Compassion Fatigue And Compassion Satisfaction In Mental Health Professionals And Counselors-In-Training, Julie Kay Ballew

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Compassion fatigue (CF) is a pervasive problem in all caring professions, including counseling. The combination of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout (BO) can lead to an overabundance of negative symptoms decreasing both professional and personal quality of life, perhaps resulting in career attrition. However, this does not have to be the case. CF experiences have been shown to be malleable to interventions like those offered through the Accelerated Recovery Program (ARP) and subsequent resiliency workshops. While yielding non-statistically significant results, this quasi-experimental control time series design found support for the reduction of self-reported CF in the short term and …

Crisis As A Constant: Understanding The Communicative Enactment Of Communities Of Practice Within The Extension Disaster Education Network (Eden), Danielle Maria Farley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Crisis is a constant of our reality. We are caught in the continual and inevitable cycle of crisis development. Whether it is a natural disaster, international conflict, or disease outbreak; knowledge is central to our ability to prepare for, respond, and recover from crisis. Knowledge is a social process that requires active participation (Wenger, 1998). CoP theory explains how knowledge is accomplished through the communicative practice of mutual engagement, negotiation of a joint enterprise, and shared repertoires (Iverson & McPhee, 2008). The Extension Disaster Education Network is a CoP that is longstanding, enacts knowledge, and is focused on preparing for, …

Family Environment And Attachment In Relation To Complex Trauma And C-Ptsd, Susan Elizabeth Ocean

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Childhood traumatic experiences occurring during critical developmental stages are strongly linked to poor mental health outcomes during adulthood, including PTSD. Yet, individuals who have experienced multiple traumas (and across developmental stages) report a profile of symptoms that is not well-represented by traditional PTSD diagnostic criteria. Recent research suggests that resulting post-traumatic stress after the experience of complex trauma should be considered a separate, yet related, disorder from the well-established PTSD. Since traumatic experiences are commonplace and often detrimental, establishing which factors contribute to risk and resilience is of great importance. Having secure attachment to a primary caregiver and family cohesion …

Prioritizing Parcels For Conservation Easements Using Least-Cost Path Analyses Of Land Ownership: Case Study Within Theorized Grizzly Bear Migration Corridors Of Western Montana, Joseph H. Offer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As the world’s human population has grown and converted large natural habitats to human dominated landscapes, the planet’s biodiversity has decreased. To combat the loss of biodiversity from human development, many conservation professionals champion the concept of conservation corridors between intact habitats. Conservation corridors, made up of protected land, serve as a connection for wildlife populations to intermix genetics and, subsequently, help reduce the risk of extinction. The ideal geographic location of corridors is generally determined through geographic information system modeling using biophysical conditions and theorized animal movement. However, the resulting corridors are often expansive and protecting entire corridors is …

An Exploration Of The Adaptive Capacity Of Community-Based Organizations In Northern Botswana In Response To A Hunting Ban, Katherine Kellam Coe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Trophy hunting serves as a large economic sector in several African countries and has been considered important for wildlife conservation and local rural development. In many parts of Africa, local communities’ attitudes and decisions can affect the fate of conservation efforts outside of protected areas and it is thought that benefits from trophy hunting tourism can influence pro-conservation behavior at local scales. In Botswana, recent mandates, such as a 2014 nation-wide hunting ban and a 2019 lifting of the ban, have disrupted the relationships between wildlife conservation and rural livelihoods, resulting in adverse economic, social, and ecological impacts at various …

A Non-Representational Focus On Wilderness Affect, Mark Lane Douglas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wilderness is integral to the fabric of American culture. With the National Wilderness Preservation System, America has a measure against which everyday life may be compared. But there remains concern over disconnection between members of society and wilderness. Nonrepresentational theory (non-rep) is a rich and recent style of scientific practice that holds potential. Non-rep places emphasis on habitual practices and everyday life. Those interested in human affection for and connection with wilderness and the outdoors may find non-rep intellectually and practically refreshing. One aspect of this study offers a macrostructural analysis of the levels, layers, and sub-layers on which non-representational …

Buffalo Renaissance: The Northern Plains Tribes' Path To Self-Determination, Elizabeth Louise Johns

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This long-form journalistic story and photo essay is about the Blackfoot Tribes in the United States and Canada and their efforts to restore bison to their land, their diet, and their culture. In 2014, ten tribes from the United States and Canada came together at Blackfeet Nation in Browning, Montana to sign the Buffalo Treaty, a commitment to bringing wild buffalo back to parts of their historical range. The Treaty signing marked the first time in more than 150 years that a diverse group of tribes, some historical enemies, came together in the name of restoring the animal they evolved …

Sediment Dynamics In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia: Implications For Understanding Tropical River Processes And Hydropower Development, Luke H. Fisher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Magdalena River Basin of Colombia has a globally relevant sediment flux, however, studies of the sediment regime in the basin are limited in scope. This knowledge gap limits application of understanding of sediment dynamics to hydropower decision making. To close this gap, we implemented a sediment budget framework to quantify the impacts of hydropower development in a 118,000 km² portion of the Magdalena River basin. We informed this framework with analysis of background erosion rates derived from ¹⁰Be cosmogenic nuclides and modern sediment fluxes derived from monitoring and optical remote sensing. We standardized these data to spatially …

Comparing Fence Modeling And Mapping Approaches To Support Wildlife Management And Research In Southwest Montana, Simon Albert Buzzard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fences pose significant challenges to wildlife movement, but their effects are difficult to quantify because fence location and fence type data are lacking on a global scale. We developed a fence location and density model in southwest Montana, USA to provide data to researchers and managers, and test whether previous models could be applied to a new region and retain suitable levels of statistical accuracy. Our model used local expert opinion to inform how road, land cover, and ownership spatial layers interacted to predict fence locations. We validated the model against fence data collected on random 3.2 km road transects …

Be Creative Now: Seeking Creativity, Sam Kulla

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A self-guided framework for professional and personal creative development including a series of five lesson activities geared towards developing a personal concept of creativity, with links to creativity videos, inclusive design features, and an annotated bibliography. In addition to guiding self-study, this document could be adapted into a syllabus for an online course.

Using Satellite Observations Of Soil Moisture To Improve Modeling Of Terrestrial Water Cycles, Colin W. Brust

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET) describes the flux of water from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere, calculated as the sum of evaporation from soil and leaf surfaces, and transpiration through plant stomata. ET is the largest terrestrial water flux, returning over half of the precipitation that falls on land back to the atmosphere, annually. Additionally, ET plays a key role in Earth’s carbon, water, and energy cycles, linking them together via the movement of water and CO₂ through plant stomata. Because of its important role in these Earth system processes, it is essential that existing methods of measuring and modeling …

A Deep Learning Approach To Mapping Irrigation: U-Net Irrmapper, Thomas Henry Colligan Iv

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Accurate maps of irrigation are essential for understanding and managing water resources in light of a warming climate. We present a new method for mapping irrigation and apply it to the state of Montana over the years 2000-2019. The method is based on an ensemble of convolutional neural networks that only rely on raw Landsat surface reflectance data. The ensemble of networks method learns to mask clouds and ignore Landsat 7 scan-line failures without supervision, reducing the need for preprocessing data or feature engineering. Unlike other approaches to mapping irrigation, the method doesn't use other mapping products like the Cropland …

Decoupled Diel Solutes: Linking Primary Production And Nitrate Uptake In A Montane Stream, Kimberly Bray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tight coupling of surface water diel dissolved oxygen (DO) and nitrate-N (NO₃-N) signals reflects stoichiometric demand of carbon and nitrogen in stream ecosystems. However, DO and NO₃-N can become decoupled due to alternative drivers of diel solutes, resulting in conflicting estimates of stoichiometric and modeled NO₃-N uptake. In this study, I measured benthic biomass, hydrology, and dissolved solutes in a montane stream located in western MT over a growing season (June-October 2019). Daily stream metabolism and NO₃-N uptake were modeled using a single-station open-channel approach. Timing and amplitude of key diel signals …

The Built Environment At Plaza H, Cahal Pech: A Study In Resiliency, Rachel A. Steffen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis seeks to understand the human response to extreme environmental, social, and political change during the Terminal Classic (750-1050 CE) at Cahal Pech. Across the Maya lowlands, this period is distinguished by the end of divine kingships, the cessation of new monumental architecture, rapid changes in prestige goods and trade networks, and population decline at many major centers. Cahal Pech, a medium-sized ceremonial center, experienced great shifts in political power and access to resources during the Terminal Classic. This thesis attempts to understand the last occupation of the site, prior to abandonment. Field data for this study is derived …

Worth A Dam: Glacier View And The Preservation Of Wild America, Shawn Patrick Bailey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conceived in the mid-1930s and formally proposed in 1943, the Glacier View Dam was an Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal for the North Fork of the Flathead River in northwestern Montana. This 416-foot tall dam would have provided inexpensive hydroelectric power to the region and helped control flooding on the volatile Columbia River watershed. Glacier View would also have flooded 20,000 acres of Glacier National Park, one of the “crown jewels” of the national park system. An ideologically diverse coalition of National Park Service officials, wilderness activists and outdoor recreation enthusiasts organized the defense of Glacier National Park and convinced …

Water For Fish And Farms: An Examination Of Instream Flow Programs In Montana Using Spatially-Explicit Water Rights Data, Anna Leigh Crockett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The state-level institutions governing water use in the western United States have increasingly come under pressure and scrutiny related to their inability to navigate water use conflicts in recent decades. Rapid population growth and shifting public values towards leaving water instream for recreational and environmental purposes pose challenges to Montana water supplies which are predominantly allocated for irrigated agriculture. Additionally, while water scarcity and unpredictable availability are not new dilemmas in Montana, the rate at which climate change is driving shifts in the distribution, timing, and availability of water supplies is unprecedented. Current water policies may not be nimble enough …

Heat For The Masses: Thermal Ecology Of The Western Tent Caterpillar, Victoria Dahlhoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A unique feature of some gregarious, colonial insects is their ability to create external structures that alter environmental conditions for the entire (often family) group. A combination of physical alteration of local microhabitats and behavioral thermoregulation allows many of these animals to actively control their body temperatures, which allows them to regulate energy use and metabolism in variable thermal environments. Here I describe mechanisms of microhabitat modification and thermal regulation in the western tent caterpillar, Malacosoma californicum pluviale. Tent caterpillars build communal silk tents, whose temperatures can rise substantially above ambient air temperature. I experimentally manipulated colony sizes and examined …

Tribal Consultation Policy And Practice:A Case Study Of The Confederated Salish And Kootenai Tribes And Nmisuletkʷ (The Middle Fork Of The Clark Fork River) As A Tribal Trust Resource, Jennifer J. Harrington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Formal, government-to-government Consultation between sovereign nations is a process of continuous relationship-building, a partnership and an agreement made with all points-of-view included in the process, with results that have the fingerprint of all nations involved evident. The Federal Government is obligated to work with Federally-recognized Tribes as sovereign nations in matters that have or will impact each Nation’s people and places (reservations, treaty-protected areas)—a process legally known as Consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as a federal agency, must uphold the Federal Trust responsibility which includes the act of Consulting with Federally-recognized Tribes on matters involving human health and the …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

Descriptive Statistic Characteristics Study For Level 4 Frontier High Schools In Montana, Jacqueline May Gorshe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Frontier high schools in Montana have a degree of isolation that presents unique challenges setting them apart from their rural, and especially their urban, counterparts. Unfortunately, a one-size-fits-all approach hinders their voices being heard in professional development and policy decision making. This dissertation provides a profile of these high schools and their communities using four social determinants of health: education, access to health care, economics, and behavioral risk factors through mixed methods approach with descriptive statistics and high school principal survey responses. The results of this approach revealed frontier high schools have small class sizes and low teacher-student ratios, but …

Modeling Twitter Sentiment As A Function Of Particulate Matter 2.5 For Communities Impacted By Wildfire Across Montana And Idaho, Matthew Kelly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a known pollutant with clinically detrimental physiological and behavioral effects. We consider Twitter sentiment as a potential indicator for well-being in communities impacted by wildfire-associated PM2.5 across Montana and Idaho spanning 5 years (2014-2018). From these geospatial air quality data and geo-tagged tweets, we trained county level models to examine the power of Twitter sentiment as a function of PM2.5. For all 24 counties sampled, we found between 1 and 8 affective dimensions where a positive �� 2 was detected with a significant F-statistic (�� < 0.05). Specifically, we show that sentiment for anticipation in the wildfire-prone county of Missoula, MT yielded respective training/test set �� 2 of 0.0958 and 0.0686 with a p-value for the F-statistic of 3.09E-07. These analyses support social media sentiment as a potential public health metric by showing one of the first observations of a relationship between PM2.5 and Twitter sentiment.

Attribution Of Soil Surface Temperature Sensitivity To Hydro-Climatic Drivers, Sarah Khalid, Marco Maneta

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Greenhouse gas emissions caused by human economic activity are altering the global hydrologic cycle and the energy exchanges at the land surface. In large portions of the western US there is evidence of reduced summertime precipitation and increased air temperatures and longwave irradiation. At local scales, these changes can translate into more frequent and intense extreme land surface temperature events during the summer, with potential impacts on wildfire activity, forest health, soil biochemical cycles, and thermal comfort for human populations. However, because increases in radiation and sensible heat (air temperature) inputs to the land surface are confounded with changes in …