Digital Commons Network^™

Anchorage Homeless Shelter Denied Injunction In Challenge To Revised Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Federal District Court Refuses To Dismiss Challenge To West Virginia Law Banning Trans Girls From Scholastic Athletic Competition, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

U.S. District Court Orders Indiana High School To Provide Equal Privileges To Gay-Straight Student Alliance, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Trauma-Informed Forensic Mental Health Assessment: Practical Implications, Ethical Tensions, And Alignment With Therapeutic Jurisprudence Principles, Julie Goldenson, Stanley Brodsky, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

The need for trauma-informed practice is well recognized across mental health and legal settings; however, relatively little has been written about its application in forensic mental health assessment. This paper focuses on trauma-informed assessment of criminal justice involved individuals, given the high rates of trauma exposure and related sequelae in this population. A trauma-informed lens allows forensic mental health examiners to assess examinees in the context of their developmental histories and lived experience. Such a lens also has implications for the entire assessment process in terms of interviewing, psychological testing, diagnostic conclusions, feedback, and the provision of testimony and educating …

Heavenly Procreation, Blake Hereth

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Heavenly Procreation, Blake Hereth

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Air Pollution As Public Nuisance: Comparing Modern-Day Greenhouse Gas Abatement With Nineteenth-Century Smoke Abatement, Kate Markey

Michigan Law Review

Public nuisance allows plaintiffs to sue actors in tort for causing environmental harm that disrupts the public’s use and enjoyment of the land. In recent years, state and local governments have filed public nuisance actions against oil companies, hoping to hold them responsible for the harm of climate change. Since no plaintiff has prevailed on the merits so far, whether these lawsuits are worth bringing, given the other legal avenues available, remains an open question. This Comment situates these actions in their appropriate historical context to show that these lawsuits are neither unprecedented nor futile. In particular, it examines the …

Promote Smart Decarceration And Eliminate Racism Grand Challenges For Social Work: Reimagining Marijuana Policy, Charles H. Lea Iii, Gaby Mohr, Susan A. Mccarter, Sarah B. Coughlin, Aaron Gottlieb, Briana S. Partlow, Keshawn S. Matthews, Branden A. Mcleod

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Marijuana decriminalization and legalization policies are being passed in many state and local jurisdictions throughout the United States (U.S.). In this process, many lawmakers have used the argument that these policies and associated practices will redress racial disparities in the criminal punishment system. Yet, the evidence suggests this is not the case. We, therefore, use Critical Race Theory (CRT) to interrogate how marijuana-related policies and practices perpetuate collateral consequences and racial disparities in mass incarceration and recidivism to uncover the ways in which they challenge efforts to promote smart decarceration and eliminate racism. We argue that in order to effectively …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 49, No. 2

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Volume 49, Issue 3 (2022)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

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Is More, Better? Relationships Of Multiple Psychological Well-Being Facets With Cardiometabolic Disease, Anna-Josée Guimond, Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald, Julia K. Boehm, Farah Qureshi, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: Cardiometabolic disease (CMD) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Assessments of psychological well-being taken at one time point are linked to reduced cardiometabolic risk, but psychological well-being may change over time and how longitudinal trajectories of psychological well-being may be related to CMD risk remains unclear. Furthermore, psychological well-being is a multidimensional construct comprised of distinct facets, but no work has examined whether sustaining high levels of multiple facets may confer additive protection. This study tested if trajectories of four psychological well-being facets would be associated with lower risk of self-reported nonfatal CMD. Method: Participants were …

Oklahoma’S Health Education Act And The Benefit Of Comprehensive Sex Education Curriculum, Landes Bauter

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Epistemoligical Uncertainty And Political Ideology: Exploring The Relationship Between Temporal Threats And Ideology, James Donald Mcfarland

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Research in motivation suggests that individuals are highly attuned to perceived risk and danger and tend to form groups (physical and ideological) on the basis of the threats they collectively share with like-minded others. These initial stages of threat detection and evaluation are often found to occur through subtle environmental cues. This study examined the relationship between feelings of uneasiness and political ideology through the framing of temporal cues (e.g., past- vs. future-tense). Participants (n = 181) were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and were randomly assigned a short vignette about a relatable life experience (e.g., purchasing a car). …

Bridging The Gap: Where Indigenous Knowledge And Western Science Come Together To Shape Environmental Stewardship, Bowman Leigh

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the era of climate change, humans are grappling with how to ensure that natural resources exist into the future. For millennia, Indigenous people have actively managed the environment, drawing upon deep connections to the land passed down through generations. The Western worldview, on the other hand, sees humans as separate from nature — an attitude that has led to many of the environmental crises we see today.

This portfolio examines places and programs where Western science and Indigenous knowledge (IK) or traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) come together to shape environmental stewardship. Western science and IK/TEK are inherently different ways …

Fathmm: Frameshift Aware Translated Hidden Markov Models, Genevieve Krause

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Distal Sibling Grief: Exploring Emotional Affect And Salience Of Listener Behaviors In Stories Of Sibling Death, Margaret C. Brock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Communicated Narrative Sense-Making (CNSM) theory is used as a theoretical framework to understand the storytelling surrounding a sibling’s death years after the loss. Analysis of 174 narratives from individuals whose siblings died five or more years ago revealed that a neutral tone, rather than the use of positive or negative affect, was predominant in this retrospective storytelling. When affect was present, it was more likely to be negative than positive. However, positive affect was associated with an individual’s satisfaction with life when it was present. The neutrality and frequency of retrospective storytelling among distally bereaved siblings in this study may …

Voices Of The Often Unheard: The Environmental Impacts Of Catastrophic Wildfire Events On Individuals With Developmental Disabilities, Mary Madison Mckenzie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Thomas Fire for a time was the largest wildfire in California history, burning 281,893 acres and destroying 1,063 structures. Within three years, the August Complex Fire, at 1,032,649 acres, almost quadrupled that record. Climate related disasters such as these have impelled social science researchers to heed calls for a paradigm shift in understanding the risks climate change poses to the social world, in particular, disaster risks for vulnerable groups. Existing research tends to focus on disasters such as hurricanes, featuring risks for vulnerable populations by race, class, and/or individuals with disabilities in general, but not for individuals with developmental …

Catch My Drift? Perceptions And Experiences Of Pesticide Contamination Of Organic Crops In Montana, Sarah Rodgers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pesticide drift and inadvertent contamination pose particular risks to organic production. Some organic producers have lost their crops, certification, and/or organic markets because of contamination events. Through this thesis research, I explain the perceptions and experiences that certified organic farmers in Montana have about drift and inadvertent pesticide contamination. I conducted semi-structured interviews with eleven certified organic farmers from various regions of Montana. Along with one-on-one interviews with organic farmers, interviews with industry and regulatory officials were conducted to better understand the policies and procedures that control what happens when drift occurs at the state level. Industry and regulatory official …

Genetic Rescue Of Isolated Cutthroat Trout, Donovan Alexander Bell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Anthropogenic habitat destruction has isolated innumerable populations that now face increased extinction risk due to demographic and genetic factors. Although often the best strategy, restoring connectivity can be challenging or even harmful. Such is the case for westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi; WCT) in the Missouri River basin, which are limited to completely isolated populations. Nonnative species threaten WCT in connected watersheds and barrier removal could be detrimental. My dissertation examines trade-offs and strategies for the management of isolated WCT. I first examined how nonnative trout species and climate change influence the distribution of WCT using a multispecies, dynamic …

Identifying Skeletal Trauma Markers Associated With Intimate Partner Violence (Ipv), Haley K. Omeasoo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Objectives: This is a validation study of Biddle (2019), where much of the same materials are used, with the addition of new data from other databases to include more Native American and minority samples. A comparison database will also be analyzed against this data, with known cases of live individuals assaulted and assessed by health officials, some in IPV situations. All data is analyzed to discover which fracture locations are most common in IPV situations and which ethnic, sex, and age groups are most affected. Most fractures analyzed are those of the maxillofacial area, concentrating on the Zygomaticomaxillary Complex (ZMC) …

Alternative Splicing Regulates The Innate Immune Response To Viral Infection, Luke A. White

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne RNA virus that infects humans and livestock in sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian peninsula, causing disease ranging from a mild flu-like illness to liver damage, blindness, hemorrhagic fever, death, and, especially in livestock animals, high rates of abortive pregnancies. There is no approved vaccine for RVFV, and as a disease with a high rate of spread that causes severe illness, it is listed as a Category A pathogen by the USA CDC. A better understanding of RVFV’s molecular virology will be instrumental to combating RVFV as climate change causes its mosquito host …

New Interdisciplinary Research At 48pa551: Land Tenure And Subsistence Strategies Among Middle Holocene Rocky Mountain Hunter-Gatherers, Ethan Patrick Ryan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation studies land tenure and resource procurement strategies among Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The research provides a better understanding of a stratified archaeological site on the eastern flank of the Yellowstone Plateau, 48PA551, a crucial location for winter resource procurement. Geophysical survey, collection’s research, obsidian sourcing, and stable isotope analysis are all used to test theoretical models of social conditions and hunting strategies during the harsh winters of the mountainous environment of northwest Wyoming. Site 48PA551 has already proven to contain evidence for a unique Middle Archaic adaptive strategy, being one of the only …

Subfamily Clustering Using Label Uncertainty (For Transposable Element Families), Audrey M. Shingleton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Biological sequence annotation is typically performed by aligning a sequence to a database of known sequence elements. For transposable elements, these known sequences represent subfamily consensus sequences. When many of the subfamily models in the database are highly similar to each other, a sequence belonging to one subfamily can easily be mistaken as belonging to another, causing non-reproducible subfamily annotation. Because annotation with subfamilies is expected to give some amount of insight into a sequence’s evolutionary history, it is important that such annotation be reproducible. Here, we present our software tool, SCULU, which builds upon our previously-described methods for computing …

Combined Effects Of Temperature And Heavy Metals On The Performance Of The Giant Salmonfly., James Frakes, Amanda Andreas, Benjamin P. Colman, Aurthur Woods

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In many freshwater ecosystems, communities of aquatic insects are facing the combined stresses of warmer waters due to climate change and increased exposure to heavy metal toxicants. Although each stressor may threaten aquatic insects independently, they also likely interact in important ways to affect insect physiology and performance. Here we investigate this potential interaction using two populations of aquatic nymphs of the giant salmonfly, Pteronarcys californica, collected from adjacent rivers in Montana: naïve individuals from Rock Creek, a relatively pristine stream, and individuals from the Upper Clark Fork River, which has a history of heavy metal pollution and higher …

Facing The Fire - Challenges And Triumphs Of Western Firefighters In A Changing Climate, Mak Sisson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The American West sits at a dangerous position in the age of climate change. Wildfires burn hotter, longer, and cover more area than ever measured. Decreased snowpack, early spring run-off, a glut of built-up timber in parks and public lands, and longer droughts all build upon one another, and it just takes one spark to start a raging wildfire that devastates a community. As such, a firefighting force is needed to deal with this changing landscape.

However, that force is dwindling, especially at the federal level. A reported 20% of wildland firefighting positions are vacant, and the Bureau of Land …

Keeping What You Sow: Intellectual Property Rights For Plant Breeders And Seed Growers, Paulina B. Jenney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last 150 years, the food system in the present-day United States has undergone a transformational restructuring, from a diversified, decentralized, network of farmers and seed growers, to one in which the majority of crop production is controlled by a few industrial corporations. The consolidation of power has been under-girded by the application of intellectual property rights (IPR)—especially utility patents—to plant varieties and genetic traits, which are leveraged to exclude small-scale seed growers from accessing quality germplasm. Patents and restrictive licensing agreements recapitulate colonial structures by appropriating common and traditionally community-held resources for profit, and by creating reliance on …

Where Should Conservation Draw The Line And When Should It Push Forward, Jessica L. Mejia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Management And Consequences Of Hybridization Between Nonnative Rainbow Trout And Native Westslope Cutthroat Trout, Anthony James Dangora

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The introduction of nonnative fish is a major driver in the decline of native fish species. Nonnative rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss; RBT) introduced into the native range of westslope cutthroat trout (O. clarkii lewisi; WCT) have led to the introgressive hybridization between these two species. This widespread hybridization is a primary threat to the long-term persistence of WCT as it can cause population-level genomic extinction. Since there are no set management solutions for hybridization, there is a need to evaluate the different conservation approaches to ensure the persistence of WCT populations. Additionally, beyond propagule pressure, the array of drivers that …

Is Growing Food Wasting Water? Stories From A Surge Of Groundwater Regulations In California, Abigail Jean Lauten-Scrivner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This long-form feature story examines how the nascence of California’s new era of groundwater regulation is playing out for the farmers, families and agencies who must adapt to a sweeping new law against the backdrop of climate change.

California became the last state in the west to adopt a statewide management plan for the invaluable natural resource when it first embarked on a path toward groundwater sustainability in 2020. Known as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), the 20-year plan requires California’s most depleted groundwater basins to become sustainable by 2040.

When SGMA matured in 2020, California’s next drought began …