Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Out-Of-Pocket Cost For Individuals Being Treated For Opioid Dependence In Rutland County, Vermont, Christopher T. Veal

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Each day more than 140 Americans die from drug overdoses, 91 specifically due to opioids. In Vermont, more than 50 people die each year from opioid poisoning. With insurance coverage being a critical component of Opioid Dependence Recovery, many people seeking treatment are unaware of the financial barriers to recovery- namely the out-of-pocket costs associated with treatment. This study sought to provide insight on the financial impact of Opioid Dependence Treatment on the patient, and provide financial assistance information to the Rutland County community.

My Experience In Public Speech, Camillia Mbo Ngubani

A with Honors Projects

This essay is a reflection on the student's experiences giving a speech as a nonnative English speaker in a communications class at Parkland College.

The Role Of Indicators In Promoting Gender Equality Through The Millennium And Sustainable Development Goals, Sara Rose Taylor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With the global rise of evidence-based policy, indicators have become an increasingly important part of governance. Indicators are statistics that represent social experiences, turning complex norms into simplified representations. Although seemingly objective, indicators reflect the values and beliefs of the actors who create them. An indicator’s normative underpinnings have significant consequences for social governance and policy because of an indicator’s power to shape understanding. This multi-manuscript dissertation analyzes the impact of governance by indicators as seen in the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals (MDGs and SDGs), two major United Nations initiatives in the field of global social governance. The focus …

Securitizing Schooling: Post-Secondary Campuses As Security Projects, Andrea Corradi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Societal pressure to increase security after violent incidents on post-secondary campuses such as the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, combined with the pressure for universities to have high recruitment rates, has led to an emerging climate of security on campuses across North America. The present study uses Valverde’s (2001; 2008; 2009; 2011a; 2011 b; 2014) security projects framework to examine the lived experiences of security measures on a Canadian urban-integrated campus. Through semi-structured interviews with administrators, campus police officers, students, and faculty, and constructivist grounded theorizing, this study provides an in-depth examination of security from multiple perspectives within one institution. …

The Role Of Bipolar Disorder, Stigma, And Hurtful Messages In Romantic Relationships, Callie Parrish

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study explores hurtful messages received by individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder I/II from their romantic partners. Close romantic relationships present opportunities for the utterance of hurtful messages, and the stigmatization that accompanies a mental health diagnosis could affect the attributions made surrounding hurtful messages. By applying attribution theory, the current study increases understanding of how individuals with bipolar disorder experience and attribute hurtful messages. Participants (N = 99) were adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder who had received a hurtful message from their romantic partner. Data was collected via online surveys comprised of Likert scales and short answer questions. …

Personality And Mental Health Support Effects On Occupational Trauma And Posttraumatic Growth In Police Officers, Jennifer Leigh Wills

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate relationships between occupational trauma exposure, work environment stress, personality traits, posttraumatic stress, and posttraumatic growth in police officers.

Scope of the study: A cross sectional mixed method research study design with longitudinal component was utilized. The sample consisted of 109 police officers in approximately 13 police agencies from multiple communities ranging from small rural departments to major city and statewide agencies.

Instruments used: The California Psychological Inventory 434 (CPI-434); the Police Stress Questionnaire-Operational; the Police Stress Questionnaire-Organizational; the Critical Incident History Questionnaire; the Posttraumatic Checklist for the DSM-5; the Centrality of …

The Battle Of The Little Bighorn Gunshot Trauma Analysis: Suicide Prevalence Among The Soldiers Of The 7th Cavalry, Genevieve M. Mielke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Watered Down: The Challenges Of Managing Water Resources In Montana, Beau E. Baker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Like much of the American West, Montana sits in the cross hairs of climate change. State drought resiliency projects and cooperative watershed management are on the rise in the face of decreased snowpack, early runoff, precipitation variability and lower seasonal stream flows. Population growth, land use practices, recreation and tourism all contribute to pressures on state water supplies.

Montana is faced with the arrival of invasive species that threaten the ecological health of its lakes, rivers and streams. State budget constraints and depressed agency capacity are hurting our ability to fend off these threats. There’s a lack of public education …

Wildfire Risk Perception And Homeowner Mitigation: Evidence From Montana, Madison G. Nagle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fire prevention managers find that homeowners often do not perform mitigation actions that could reduce the damage and spread of wildfire. There is widespread belief among these fire professionals that one of the primary reasons that homeowners do not perform mitigation actions is that homeowners misperceive the risk that wildfire poses. Thus, a significant component of fire prevention programs’ focus on increasing homeowner awareness of the risk. However, it is possible that homeowners are aware of the fire risk but choose not to mitigate because of a variety of reasons, to include the costs of mitigation, limited monetary liability that …

A Comparison Of Three Agricultural Startups, John Dindia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Transitioning Montana To A Renewable Energy Future: The Social And Economic Impacts, Jacqueline O. Sussman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana is home to the second-largest coal-fired power plant in the West, the Colstrip Generating Station. The value and demand for coal both domestically and globally is quickly diminishing, while the renewable energy industries of wind and solar are booming. As utilities in the Northwest transition their investments from coal to renewable energy, Montana faces a critical decision on the future of its energy system that will impact the lives of generations of Montanans to come.

This five-part report aims to aid in the discussion and decision-making process by reviewing the most up-to-date economic data on renewable energy; discussing the …

The Relationship Between Memorable Messages And Identity Construction, Raphaela P. Barros Campbell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A qualitative analysis is reported here, in which 22 international students were interviewed about their overall experiences studying abroad, as well as memorable messages received and the context in which those were communicated. Scholars like Larson and Gill (2017) and Alvesson (2010) have focused on the role communication plays in constructing identity. With that in mind, Knapp et al.’s (1981) concept of memorable messages informs how specific messages influence individuals’ sense of who they are. This study expands knowledge on the relationship between memorable messages and international students’ identity construction, focusing on the impact of messages exchanged before and during …

Natural Amenities And Rural Development: A Multilevel Analysis Of Regional Trends And Local Patterns, Dawson Reisig

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As rural communities began seeing increased rates of growth following the rural rebound of the 1970’s, many studies have examined the causes and consequences of this shift through the lens of regional amenities and migration trends. Additionally, as development patterns have moved outwards from concentrated growth in urban areas to sprawling development at the rural-urban fringe, many studies have examined the locations of rural development in relation to open space and the amenities it provides. However, examinations of the relationship between these two processes have been severely lacking in the field of land use studies, despite widespread acknowledgement that the …

The Formation Of A Citizen-Police Encounter And Its Effect On Dispositional Outcomes For Traffic Stops In A City And County Jurisdiction, Darby A. Semenza

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research extends Donald Black’s (1976) theory of law to a large, more diverse sample of traffic stops than previous research. The theory suggests that with every citizen-police encounter, there is social distance separating the two parties. This distance is based on observable characteristics of both the officer and citizen involved. Specifically, their gender, age, race, demeanor, and whether they differ across these variables or not. A large difference in “social distance” increases the likelihood that an officer will cite a motorist; while a small distance reduces this likelihood. Social distance is the amount of diversity between two parties in …

California Creek Quarry: Regional Persepctives And Uas Mapping, David A. Schwab

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Western Montana hosts an abundance of lithic deposits useful for precontact stone tool manufacturing. Lithic sources likely factored prominently into patterns of settlement, trade, subsistence and mobility for past populations in the region. The mining of these lithic resources results in a unique land use area, a prehistoric quarry. Prehistoric quarries in Western Montana have received very little research or spatial documentation. This may be due in part to their abundance and often overwhelming size and extent. Providing even basic spatial documentation for large quarries can be prohibitively time consuming and expensive. One such understudied quarry site is the California …

Managing Mining Pollution: The Case Of Water Quality Governance In The Transboundary Kootenai/Y, Ashley Juric

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis addresses current water quality management challenges in the transboundary Kootenai/y River Basin, and how these challenges are shaped by historical, economic, political, and social factors. The water quality of this basin, both in the United State and Canada, has been severely affected by coal mining that has occurred in British Columbia over the last hundred years and continues to be threatened by several proposed mining expansion projects. The goals of this research are to uncover the forces shaping water management and to determine the potential for interested and affected parties to participate in crafting water quality protection measures. …

Differential Decomposition Rates Of Non-Human Remains With The Facilitation Of Sodium Hydroxide In Dissimilar Deposition Environments, Hayley Savage

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dissolving bodies is a contemporary method of disposing human remains and has been practiced throughout the years. In popular media, criminals attempt to dispose of their victims by using various chemicals to dissolve the corpses. There is an immense gap in the literature pertaining to this research, so this present study aims to combat the lack of information on the topic. This research investigates the effects of sodium hydroxide (NaOH), generally known as lye or caustic soda, a common household chemical, on human tissues and bone by using an animal analogue (domestic pig, Sus scrofa domesticus). Four dissimilar deposition environments …

Chipping Through Time: The Evolution Of Lithic Spatial Organization At The Bridge River Pithouse Village, British Columbia, Ethan P. Ryan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Archaeological investigations at Housepit 54 within the Bridge River site have, to date, exposed 15 discreet floors primarily dating to ca. 1500-1000 cal. B.P. In this thesis, the spatial distributions of lithic artifacts from every floor are examined. Questions will be addressed specifically towards formation processes and the potential relationships between the patterning of lithic distributions as they relate to hearth-centered activity areas or domestic areas and fluctuations in estimated population. In addition, this thesis explores spatial organization as a cultural trait or concept that can be transmitted through time. Using the same methodological and theoretical approach for each floor, …

Internal Structure Of Semelfactive Predicates In English, Lynn C. Nelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents an analysis of the internal structure of semelfactive predicates. I propose that the lexical aspect class of semelfactives consists of three sub-categories: (i) semelfactive predicates with internal plurality, (ii) semelfactive predicates which are uni-directional and (iii) semelfactive predicates with plurality of participants. Based on these sub-categories, I further propose that the feature of instantaneity attributed to semelfactives (Smith 1997), should not be used, as semelfactives are in actuality not instantaneous events. Furthermore, I propose that an additional feature of atomicity, which distinguishes between events with plurality and those without, should be added to the binary features of …

The Effect Of Female Priming On Male Betta Splendens, Susan Greene

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Male betta fish are naturally aggressive to attract a mate and defend a territory. This makes them a good model for studying aggression and choice behavior. This study looked at male Betta splendens aggressive nature when impacted by priming with a female and exposure to the SSRI drug fluoxetine. Males in the study received a prime before each choice trial, and the latency for each choice was measured and analyzed. We found no significant differences for preference for a mirror versus a non-mirror trail, or latency for choice for the mirror. However, a significant effect was found for fighting data, …

Tribal Consultation: A Critical Reminder Of Cultural Resource Management Laws And Obligations, Natasha F. Larose

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

By categorizing the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act as red tape hindering infrastructure, the current Presidential administration is attempting to streamline processes to approve federal undertakings. In doing so, it threatens the government-to-government relationship between federal agencies and tribal governments. This relationship is a work-in-progress that needs to be nurtured rather than reverting to assertion of plenary powers over tribal affairs. The purpose of this research is to remind federal agencies that there are legal obligations to include tribal entities in the decision-making processes for federal undertakings. Furthermore, this research can serve as a reference for …

Self-Compassion, Social Connectedness, And Interpersonal Competence, Jacob H. Bloch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Self-compassion has consistently been found to be related to well-being (Barnard & Curry 2011). Most research has focused on the intrapersonal benefits of self-compassion, such as its positive relationships with happiness, optimism, positive affect (Neff & Vonk, 2009), and life satisfaction (Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007). In contrast, little research has addressed how engaging in self-compassion may be beneficial to one’s relationships. There is strong evidence that social connectedness (e.g. Lee, Draper, & Lee, 2001; Lee & Robbins, 1998; Mauss et al., 2011; Neff, 2003b) and interpersonal competence (e.g Fiori, Antonucci, & Cortina, 2006; Berkman & Syme, 1979; Delongis, Folkman, …

Mismatched Identities: Experiencing White Womanhood And White Motherhood As An Exotic Dancer, Phoenicia S. Sweeney-Summers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this paper I examine the work of exotic dancers in the Rocky Mountain West, focusing on their identities, identity conflict, identity threat, and overcompensation. In over twelve hours of recorded interviews, I asked ten exotic dancers working in Montana about their work, families, and communities as well as their perceptions of themselves and their work. I found that this marginalized group that resides in places that have rural characteristics, often face identity threat because their identities are known within their communities. The identity threat arises as a result of expectations and stereotypes of dancers, and in order to deal …

The Sylvan Blindspot: The Archaeological Value Of Surface Vegetation And A Critique Of Its Documentation, John S. Harris

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Surface vegetation at archaeological sites is a resource overlooked in cultural resource management. Drawing upon comparative documentary surveys of site forms and human surveys of 161 archaeologists in 12 U.S. states, this thesis explores why surface vegetation offers archaeological data potential; how archaeological documentation is an artifact of archaeologists, shaped by various subjectivities; and how improvements can be made for vegetal description in cultural inventory site forms. The surveys offer a critique on how the site form records are a product of disciplinary training oversights, differing work background experience, cultural bias, limitations in botanical knowledge, regional differences in U.S. archaeological …

The Power In Dice And Foam Swords: Gendered Resistance In Dungeons And Dragons And Live-Action Roleplay, Rachel M. Just

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Much of the existing research on gaming suggests that women are often excluded from or discriminated against in gaming communities. However, few scholars focus on women’s positive experiences within those communities, and even fewer examine tabletop and live-action roleplaying games. In this thesis, I utilized Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action, Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, and James C. Scott’s theory of hidden transcripts to analyze how in-game and out-of-game comradery among players created a space in which passive resistance against normative gender expectations was possible. Specifically, the question I wanted to answer was how do women communicatively enact …

A Ceramic Analysis Of Two Terminal Classic Maya Sites: Examining Economic Ties Through Pottery, Kara B. Johannesen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The objective of this thesis is to examine the relationship between two Maya sites, Cahal Pech and Xunantunich, during Terminal Classic (780-950 CE) through ceramic variability. Until recently the Terminal Classic (TC) was often misunderstood as a time of the “Maya collapse.” The TC period is now understood as a complex time with shifting political tides possibly due to environmental pressures. New evidence from a TC deposit at Cahal Pech known as “south of H-1” shows an abundance of a specific decorated ware known as Mount Maloney Black (MMB), a type more closely associated with the neighboring site of Xunantunich. …

Hepatitis C Testing And Treatment Access Among People Who Inject Drugs, Monika Roerig

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Hepatitis C (HCV) remains a global issue as it affects 2-3% of the world’s population. Despite Canada’s universal access to healthcare, barriers to accessing testing and treatment for HCV has contributed to approximately 250,000 Canadians living with chronic HCV. People who inject drugs (PWID) account for about 60% of all HCV cases in Canada, making them the primary target for public health interventions, namely prevention and harm reduction. Harm reduction efforts have proven effective to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases and to prevent overdoses, but there remains a large proportion of individuals living with the virus who are unaware …

Pricing For A Last-Mile Transportation System, Yiwei Chen, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Last-Mile Problem refers to the provision of travel service from the nearest public transportation node to a home or other destination. Last-Mile Transportation System (LMTS), which has recently emerged, provide on-demand shared transportation. We consider an LMTS with multiple passenger types—adults, senior citizens, children, and students. The LMTS designer determines the price for the passengers, last-mile service vehicle capacity, and service fleet size (number of vehicles) for each last-mile region to maximize the social welfare generated by the LMTS. The level of last-mile service (in terms of passenger waiting time) is approximated by using a batch arrival, batch service, …

Swimming In A Sea Of Javascript Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love High-Fidelity Replay, John A. Berlin, Michael L. Nelson, Michele C. Weigle

Computer Science Faculty Publications

[First paragraph] Preserving and replaying modern web pages in high-fidelity has become an increasingly difficult task due to the increased usage of JavaScript. Reliance on server-side rewriting alone results in live-leakage and or the inability to replay a page due to the preserved JavaScript performing an action not permissible from the archive. The current state-of-the-art high fidelity archival preservation and replay solutions rely on handcrafted client-side URL rewriting libraries specifically tailored for the archive, namely Webrecoder's and Pywb's wombat.js [12]. Web archives not utilizing client-side rewriting rely on server-side rewriting that misses URLs used in a manner not accounted for …

It Is Hard To Compute Fixity On Archived Web Pages, Mohamed Aturban, Michael L. Nelson, Michele C. Weigle

Computer Science Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Checking fixity in web archives is performed to ensure archived resources, or mementos (denoted by URI-M) have remained unaltered since when they were captured. The final report of the PREMIS Working Group [2] defines information used for fixity as "information used to verify whether an object has been altered in an undocumented or unauthorized way." The common technique for checking fixity is to generate a current hash value (i.e., a message digest or a checksum) for a file using a cryptographic hash function (e.g., SHA-256) and compare it to the hash value generated originally. If they have different hash …