Digital Commons Network^™

Ambient Air Pollution, Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy, And Geomasking In Montana, Elizabeth Rae Susanne Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: Air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental health risk. Particulate matter air pollution with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5) poses significant health hazards and has been increasing in some parts of the United States in recent decades due to increased wildfire activity. Prenatal exposure to PM2.5 may increase risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDPs), though this has not been evaluated in a rural, wildfire-prone context. To develop recommendations to mitigate harmful health effects of PM2.5, more research is needed to understand the precise timing and dose of PM2.5 that is harmful to human health. Such research …

A Comparison Of Concurrent Training And Moderate Intensity Continuous Training In Patients With Coronary Artery Disease, Amanda Alfaro-Chaverri, John Quindry, Charles Dumke, Brian Loyd

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Moderate intensity continuous training (MICT) is the most studied method in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Traditionally, resistance training has been utilized as a secondary role in CR. Recent interest in the topic suggests that MICT and resistance training should be applied collectively, an approach termed concurrent training (CT). The collective understanding of the potential of CT in CR patients is currently lacking.

Purpose: The aim of this professional paper is to analyze scientific evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of CT versus MICT. The analysis will focus on five primary measurements: exercise capacity, cardiovascular …

Big Sky Above, Big Space Below: Montana Is A Frontier For Deep Carbon Storage, Najifa Farhat

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Snowy River Carbon Sequestration Project in southeastern Montana aims to store carbon dioxide emissions from two Wyoming power plants deep underground. This project aligns with new federal pollution regulations emphasizing carbon storage. Previously, carbon capture and storage (CCS) was mainly used to enhance oil production, but it's now transitioning to focus solely on emission reduction due to government incentives. The project represents Montana's first venture into using public lands for carbon storage, a trend expected to grow significantly with future federal mandates. Fossil fuel companies are investing heavily in CCS technology, with an eye on emission reduction rather than …

Foodway Comparions And Patterns Of Consumer Behavior: The Use Of Orphan And Salvage Archaeological Collections From Historic Missoula, Montana, Emily Thea Meick

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The goal of this project is to better understand and test theories about consumer behavior and meat consumption through faunal remains using orphaned and salvaged historic archaeological collections from three sites across Missoula, Montana, from the 1860s through the 1920s. Previous research underscored the need for properly defined units of analysis that represent what was being purchased and consumed. Using a consumer behavior framework and meat quality index, as indicated by price and meat yield, foodways comparisons between a Euromerican household that maintained renters, occupants of a Chinese store, Joss House, and residential dwellings within Missoula’s Red-Light District, and enlisted …

Menopause In The Public Sphere: The Consciousness-Raising Practices Of Technical And Experiential Experts, Emma J. Murdock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Menopause is frequently discussed through a biomedical lens, which stresses technical language and knowledge, yet emerging in popular culture is experiential experts sharing how they feel about menopause. This paper analyses Michelle Obama's podcast episode titled “What Your Mother Never Told You” (2022) featuring Dr. Sharon Malone, a medical doctor and menopause experiential expert. Using consciousness-raising and the spheres of argumentation, I analyze how the experiential and technical experts of the podcast address and speak about menopause. This paper aims to question how consciousness-raising can reconstruct the understanding of menopause through an experiential-centric lens by placing personal testimony and experiences …

A Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum Model To Simulate Seedling Response To Water Stress, Michael Kurt Kendree Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Most current ecohydrologic models simplify the hydraulics that are at play in plant-water relationships by assuming that the water content within the plant is static. In reality, plants have a relative water content that varies with time in response to environmental stresses. To some extent, variations in plant relative water content are regulated by changes in the osmotic potential of water within plant cells, which contributes to the resilience of plants during periods of water shortage. We present a model that simulates plant water transport and storage within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. The model incorporates the role of osmotic regulation in …

Esop Shocks: Employee Ownership And Employment Stability In Public Firms During The Covid-19 Crisis, Richard Taylor Lennox

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Did employee ownership preserve jobs and firm-level skill retention during the COVID-19 pandemic? In the United States, employee ownership (EO) primarily takes the form of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Using a longitudinal dataset composed of Department of Labor Form 5500 – CompuStat Fundamentals matched data from 2010-2022, this thesis examines the relationship between ESOPs and employment stability during the COVID pandemic for a large sample of public firms in the US. A fixed effects specification, controlling for a vector of firm characteristics and the national employment-to-population ratio, suggests that ESOPs had an employment-cushioning effect in public firms during the …

Fast-Track To The Frontline: Evaluating A Surgical Technology Program’S Response To A Workforce Shortage, Jill Theresa Davis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As the demand for Certified Surgical Technologists (CSTs) continues to grow, traditional educational pathways struggle to meet the urgent workforce needs within the healthcare sector. This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of a pilot fast-track surgical technology program implemented at Missoula College, designed to expedite the training of surgical technologists while maintaining high educational standards. Employing a mixed-methods research approach, this study assesses both the quantitative outcomes and qualitative experiences of participants in the fast-track program compared to traditional pathways. Key findings indicate that the fast-track program not only reduces the time required for training but also adequately prepares students …

Converting Forest Activity Fuels Into Biochar: Costs And Logisitical Considerations Of Using An Air Curtain Burner And Flame Cap Kilns In Western Montana, Klemensas Krasaitis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

From Creek To Ditch And Back Again: The History And Future Of Pattee Creek, Missoula, Montana, Carver Edward Butterfield

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pattee Creek was once a free-flowing stream that meandered across the Missoula Valley, but has been channelized, piped, and degraded by logging, mining, agriculture, and urbanization. This thesis used a mixed-method approach to examine the impact of human activities on the Pattee Creek watershed. Beginning with a historical overview, the story of how the creek has been utilized and why it was buried was told. An analysis of historical photos from 1937 to 2019 revealed drastic changes in the land cover of the watershed and the channel of lower Pattee Creek. Developed land increased dramatically, while open land decreased and …

Wildfires Are Burning Less Frequently And More Severely Than Historically In The Western Us: A Novel Approach To Calculating Fire-Regime Departures, Jeffrey Ryan Chandler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Changing climate, vegetation, and fire exclusion are altering and homogenizing fire-regime attributes compared to historic conditions. Fire-regime changes are commonly quantified using departure metrics, which are often based on measures of central tendency (i.e. changes in the mean). These metrics can mischaracterize complex changes to the distributional characteristics of fire-regime attributes. Here we develop a fire-regime departure metric that quantifies nonparametric distributional changes to fire-regime attributes over time. We use this metric to compare fire frequency and severity between historical (~1600-1880) and contemporary (1880- 2021) time periods in western US forests. Our analysis revealed that 89% of Western US forests …

Quantifying Structural Vegetation Change On Arctic Tundra: A Multi-Decadal Study Integrating Remotely Sensed Imagery And Traditional Field Measurements, Anna M. Moser

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Arctic regions have experienced an amplified rate of climate warming in recent decades, contributing to well-documented increases in tundra vegetation productivity. Satellite remote sensing has historically played a crucial role in detecting and quantifying trends at regional and biome scales; however, coarse resolution imagery has proven insufficient for capturing fine-scale variability in vegetation response. Considering the spatial heterogeneity of tundra vegetation, high resolution, plot-scale remote sensing observations are necessary. This study couples traditional field measurements with high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery and plane-based aerial photos to quantify changes in vegetation on the North Slope of Alaska over a 28-year …

Perspectives On Using Pharmacogenomics To Guide Tobacco Cessation: Survey Results From An American Indian Community, Daniela Mariana Wall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pharmacogenomics research has predominantly focused on populations of European ancestry, limiting the application for diverse populations such as American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Our community-centric study aims to understand perspectives of utilizing pharmacogenomics to guide tobacco cessation in an AIAN community using a survey with qualitative and quantitative components. We assessed participant (n=273) tobacco usage and cessation history, pharmacogenomics knowledge, and perceptions of utilizing pharmacogenomics in the context of tobacco cessation. We found that the majority of participants (92%) were aware of risks associated with tobacco usage and believe it to be a problem within their community (76%). …

Drivers And Fates Of Primary Production In A Dammed, Eutrophic River, Laurel Genzoli

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Algae, cyanobacteria, and aquatic plants are essential components of river ecosystems, providing the basis for aquatic food webs, determining water quality, and controlling carbon and nutrient cycling in rivers. Despite their importance to river ecosystems, growth and accumulation of river photoautotrophs beyond historic levels cause ecological and social harm. The drivers of riverine primary production are poorly understood relative to algae blooms in lakes due to a paucity of studies in rivers, challenges with quantifying periphyton, and interacting and co-varying controls associated with river flows. In my dissertation, I quantified photoautotrophs and aquatic primary productivity in a dammed, eutrophic river …

Understanding Cellular Dynamics: Investigating A Yeast-Two Hybrid Protein-Protein Interaction, Riok3:Cse1l; Also By Investigating Trogocytosis Of Cd4+ T Cells From Rhog-/- Mice, Brittnee N. Crane

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a negative-sense virus that was first described in 1930 when it was isolated from sheep during an outbreak. In the last 25 years there has been a spread in the geographical range into the Middle East. The most susceptible animals are cattle, goats, sheep, and camels. The most overt symptom of livestock infection is that infected pregnant animals experience spontaneous abortion. Humans are susceptible as well and symptoms range from mild febrile illness to liver necrosis, blindness, hemorrhagic fever, and death. An important player in the cellular innate response to RVFV infections is the …

Unlocking The West: A Critique Of Previous Statutory Attempts And A Proposed Statutory Solution To Allow Access To Corner-Locked Public Land, Sawyer J. Connelly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Across the American West, 9.52 million acres of federal and state public lands are inaccessible to the public. The legality of accessing much of those public lands through corner-crossing is unclear in the law because, in the infinitesimal space where four corners of land meet in a checkerboard pattern, there is ambiguity; neither private landowners nor the public can assert an exclusive right or absolute control without infringing upon the rights of the other. This paper discusses the origins of landlocked public land, common law doctrines that inform legal actors in this space, and analyzes federal statute and state legislative …

Brat Olympics, Caroline Ganci Patterson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

brat olympics is an exploration of feminine disgust, apprehension, and disorientation contextualized through interpersonal relationships and societal shapeshifting. It pays particular attention to gender performance, surburban queerness, and strangerness. The manuscript plays on the history of the bildungsroman, but instead of one consistent singular timeline, it provides three separate attempts at a characterization of a life. These disparate approaches to a singular life’s characterization stress the mundanity of documentation.

This multinarrative approach satirizes the ideal of the singular confessional, and presents a discursive approach to the way we choose to build our worlds. Building off the works of the New …

Siksikaitsitapi Returning The Gaze On Human & Wildlife Interactions, Celina C. Gray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Niitawahsii–our home territory, the ecoregion of the Siksikaitsitapi–Blackfoot Confederacy, a Traditional Ecological Knowledge Application (TEKA) for socio-ecological research was developed. Aawaaahsskataiks–elders and extant literature identified a need to develop shared understanding regarding strong connections to wildlife niksokowaiks–relatives, through Siksikaitsitapi Traditional Ecological Knowledge (S-TEK). Multistage chain referral sampling, semi-structured interviews and grounded theory coding & analysis from Western science, i.e. Napikowaiks–non-natives’ research methods, were adjusted like to align with kipaitapiwahsinnooni–the Blackfoot paradigm of traditional knowledge; and more generally, Indigenous Research Methods. The result was a rigorous qualitative human-dimension of wildlife research TEKA; for use by Siksikaitsitapi and others interested in …

Nurture Through Nature – The Impact Of The Environment On Prospective Memory, Emily Catherine Hicks

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There is a need for brief, accessible interventions to improve cognitive functioning, including prospective memory. Previous research has found that exposure to nature is linked to benefits for cognition and mood, including improved executive function, working memory, creativity, attention, and mood. However, there is a dearth of literature exploring the relationship between nature exposure and prospective memory. Additionally, benefits for cognition and mood have been observed with direct nature exposure and indirect exposure through videos and images. The present study sought to evaluate the impact of natural setting versus urban setting video exposure on prospective memory, creativity, hope, and affect. …

Impact Of Emotion Regulation On Prospective Memory, Hannes Heppner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Prospective memory necessitates the deliberate formation and timely execution of preplanned intentions. The degree of cognitive demand required is thought to be lower for focal compared to non-focal prospective memory cues. While negatively evocative focal cues have been shown to improve prospective memory performance, it is unclear if and to what extent the cognitive reappraisal of negative emotion impacts prospective memory performance. Cognitive reappraisal is often utilized to help individuals effortfully attenuate negative emotions and reduces the chronic burden on cognitive resources. In the present study, we hypothesized that more effective cognitive reappraisal is associated with better prospective memory performance. …

Temporal And Spatial Connectivity And The Impacts Of Hydropower In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, Serena Lynn Butler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tropical regions hold untapped hydropower potential, but dam construction often adversely impacts multiple dimensions of connectivity in river systems, rigorous evaluation of which is often lacking. This study investigates temporal and spatial dimensions of longitudinal and lateral connectivity in the Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, a region with ongoing and planned hydropower projects. Limited in-situ monitoring data is a common challenge in tropical rivers. To address this, we utilized satellite imagery from Landsat (via Google Earth Engine) and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) data. We examined alterations in the flow regime over time and relative to dam construction. We also …

Weaving The Web: Faculty’S Multilayered Approach To Problems Of Professional Competence (Ppc), Sabina Ramilievna Sabyrkulova

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Counselor Education and Supervision (CES) programs, doctoral students assume five primary professional roles: counseling, teaching, supervision, research, and leadership/advocacy. Counselor educators bear the responsibility of assessing doctoral students’ professional development in these roles, encompassing professional dispositions and competence. This study explores how counselor educators in CES programs experience and address problems of professional competence (PPC) among doctoral students. Given the limited research on this topic, a constructivist grounded theory approach was employed. The study involved eight counselor educators from CACREP-accredited CES doctoral programs. Data collection included semi-structured interviews conducted in two rounds, followed by member checks. Data analysis followed …

Integrating Western Science And Indigenous Knowledge For Just Practices In Conservation, Cierra Lea Keith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Shaping Outdoor Recreation In Protected Areas: Insights From Factors Influencing Brazilian Protected Area Professionals, Renata Burlamaqui Bradford

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The growing demand for outdoor recreation (OR) in protected areas has led to positive and negative impacts on natural and social environments. As stewards of these areas, protected area professionals (PAPs) are responsible for planning and managing this complexity, and yet we know little about the factors influencing their decisions and actions. This study fills this gap by examining how psychological and organizational aspects influence PAPs’ decisions and behavioral intentions toward OR in protected areas. Insights come from the PAPs working at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), the Brazilian federal agency. ICMBio’s evolving approach toward OR provides …

Sequence Similarity Search Optimization: Prefiltering Strategies And Exact Matching Techniques For Biological Sequence Data, Tim Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sequence similarity search is one of the most important tasks in the field of bioinformatics. The identification of regions of similarity between one protein or DNA sequence and a separate collection of sequences or models of sequence families has wide-ranging applications. These range from mapping of RNA sequence reads to a given genome to the annotation of gene-encoding regions and the reconstruction of evolutionary relationships of species. As genetic sequencing technologies have improved over the last few decades, the size of genetic sequence databases has grown exponentially. With this growth of sequence databases, more efficient algorithmic approaches are needed to …

Cultural Matching And Identity Safety In K-12 Schools: An Indigenous Research Paradigm, Ashton T. Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Native American and Alaska Native (NA/AN) persons are resilient and have learned to overcome the intergenerational effects of colonization and find new ways to be Native American and Alaska Native in this contemporary life. Learning and well-being are integral values for Native American and Alaska Native people, but finding an appropriate way to approach education and learning can be difficult for Native American and Alaska Native people, especially when historically, the colonial-based systems have been created for them to fail. Because cultural matching and identity safety (CM/IS) for Native American and Alaska Native people in other environments (e.g., psychotherapy, child-welfare …

Tracing Socio-Ecological Resilience In The Milpa, The Monte, And The Kitchen: Milpero And Campesino Perspectives From Tiholop, Yucatan And La Union Libertad, Oaxaca, Mexico, Marisela Chavez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Agrobiodiversity, the diversity of crops that been co-produced through humanenvironment interactions over millennia, constitutes an important part of humanity’s cultural heritage. Agrobiodiversity is as much about the local ecosystem and biotic resources, such as soil, water, pollinators, and microbes, as it is about human processes like sociocultural and linguistic practices, including farming methods, knowledge, skills, and natural resource management. At the center of these dynamics are the smallholder farmers who engage in a range of stewardship practices that contribute to the diversification and evolution of the native crops that in turn support their food security. This research focuses on understanding …

Turbulence Resistant Schools: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study Of Educational Leadership In Central And Eastern Europe, Sofia Reis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The expanding complexity and increasing disruptions of our world affects schools. During both stable and unstable times, successful educational leaders support their schools’ ability to accomplish their core mission: student learning and development. Using a qualitative approach, this research explored experiences of educational leaders who established schools in Central and Eastern Europe during the post-Soviet era and continue leading them to this day. The central question was: What is the lived experience of successful assertive educational leaders as they navigate extreme turbulence? In this study, leadership is understood as a collegial activity determined by the context where it is embedded, …

The Relationship Between Global Competence And National Identity Of The Isec Program Students In China, Jing Xu

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global competence (GC) has become a crucial skill for students in higher education and has been prioritized in talent development objectives at colleges and universities in China, especially in the context of globalization. However, concerns have been voiced that the extensive exposure to global culture and values through mass media may lead to an alteration of college students’ national identity (NI) influenced by global culture and foreign values. Consequently, maintaining a delicate equilibrium between the fostering of GC and NI in college students becomes of paramount importance.

The main purpose of this quantitative non experimental causal comparative study was to …

The Relationship Between Teacher Agency And Occupational Well-Being Among Primary School Teachers, Hongbo Yu

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Primary school teachers’ occupational well-being has been highly discussed in recent years. Improving professional ability, teaching achievement, teaching seminars, teacher-student relations, and colleague relations make teachers busy and unfulfilled. Teachers, reporting decreases in their overall well-being, are experiencing higher burnout rates, increased workloads, higher levels of negative emotions, and negative internalization symptoms.

This study addressed the relationship between agency and occupational well-being among primary school teachers in Hongshan District. Teacher agency, defined as the capacity of teachers to act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional growth and influence their work environment, is increasingly recognized as a critical factor in …