ScholarWorks

ScholarWorks is an open access repository for the capture of the intellectual work of Montana State University (MSU) in support of its teaching, research and service missions. MSU ScholarWorks is a central point of discovery for accessing, collecting, sharing, preserving, and distributing knowledge to the Montana State University community and the world.

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Viewfinder Case Study: Newspaper collection metadata
(Montana State University, 2026-09)
Wolfe, Erin
The University of Kansas Student Newspaper Collection is a 189k-page digitized microfilm collection that, until this project, lacked any meaningful metadata beyond broad, reel-level date ranges, making the collection difficult to search or discover. To address this, I used open-weight generative AI models to create detailed descriptive metadata and searchable Optical Character Recognition (OCR) text for the entire collection, producing nearly 1.9 million indexed content objects and close to 300 million words, with substantially improved reading order over the library's previous OCR tool. I used Viewfinder to reflect on this project from my own perspective as the project implementer, as well as from the perspectives of the researcher, library administrator, and library IT stakeholder roles. Working through multiple stakeholder perspectives helped me see values, tensions, and assumptions that were outside of my normal considerations and helped me gain a more complete perspective on this project.
Viewfinder Case Study: Evaluating AI features in licensed library resources
(Montana State University, 2026-09)
McKelvey, Hannah
This case study explores how Viewfinder was used to consider ways to evaluate artificial intelligence (AI) features that are becoming increasingly embedded within licensed library electronic resources and discovery platforms, including AI-powered search tools, summaries, recommendations, and chatbots. As publishers and vendors continue introducing these features, libraries must determine how they align with institutional priorities and library values. Viewfinder was used to consider different stakeholder perspectives and values when evaluating AI features including privacy, trust and transparency, and fiscal responsibility, and how those values can guide decisions about AI within licensed library resources. One outcome of the exercise was the development of a set of questions that libraries can use to assess AI features to support more transparent and values- based decision-making.
The aerobic scope is clearly linked to the supply–demand spectrum as quantified by DEB theory
(Elsevier BV, 2026-01)
Verhille, Christine E.
;
Kooijman, Sebastiaan A. L. M.
Supply-species typically eat what is available, while demand-species eat what they need, almost independently of what is available. The trait ‘supply stress’ quantifies the supply–demand spectrum, in the context of the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory. This dimensionless trait is defined as the maturity maintenance times the squared somatic maintenance, divided by the cubed assimilation. This function of DEB parameters is mostly estimated from data on growth, reproduction and life history, typically applied for fully grown individuals. Only a minority of the over 7300 species in the Add-my-Pet collection also have respiration data, combined with other data. Consistent with a set of traits that characterizes the supply/demand spectrum, birds and mammals score high on the supply stress, reptiles, amphibians, cartilaginous fish score moderate and ray-finned fish and invertebrates score low. The structure of the standard DEB model explains why species must have a low supply stress to allocate a large fraction of their assimilation to reproduction. We show this for large taxa, but also for rodents, compared to carnivorans, where rodents have a lower position in the food chain. We list and discuss ecophysiological properties that characterize the spectrum. A decade ago, the factorial aerobic scope (FAS), i.e. the ratio of the maximum and basal metabolic rate (MMR and BMR), was predicted to be high for species at the demand-end of the spectrum, and low for those at the supply-end. The aim of this paper is to test this prediction for respiration data from the literature. Our conclusion is that the FAS indeed increases for increasing supply stress, but the scatter is substantial. The FAS roughly increases from 3.2 at zero supply stress to 32 at maximum supply stress. We discuss an application of this finding for the estimation of the maturity maintenance rate coefficient from data, which is otherwise difficult with simple data. We also discuss the large scatter of respiration rates and show, with a computer simulation study of the standard DEB model, that a little scatter in food intake translates into a much larger scatter of respiration rates. Despite the scatter, the measured BMR was found to be close to the DEB-predicted field metabolic rate. This is remarkable because DEB theory makes no direct assumptions about respiration, but can still predict it exploiting the conservation laws for the chemical elements C, H, O and N. Our findings not only suggest functionalities of the aerobic scope in a wider context, but also support the concept of maturity maintenance, which is key to DEB theory, but hard to make concrete.
Quantum Education and Workforce Development: Action Steps for Montana
(Montana State University, 2025-10)
Chipps, Jeannie
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Craig, Mark
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Haskins, Judi
;
Iverson, Molly
;
Moser, Jordan
On Oct. 11, 2024, participants from across the state and nation gathered in Bozeman, Montana for a statewide convening called New Frontiers: Education and Workforce Development in Quantum and Emerging Technologies. Attendees learned how quantum, optics, photonics and other emerging technologies have put Montana on the map and explored the current role that Montana State University and its partners play in advancing the quantum ecosystem. This report recaps the speakers, panels and – most importantly – conversations, ideas and brainstorms that took place. The findings have implications for K-12 and higher education; workforce development programs; industry representatives and policy makers.
Chromosome-level assembly and analysis of three hydroxy fatty acid-producing Physaria species
(Nature Portfolio, 2025-12)
Wang, Shuo
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Fan, Ruyi
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Zhang, Mengling
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Zhou, Zhi-Wei
;
Xie, Weibo
Several Physaria species (Brassicaceae) produce abundant hydroxy fatty acids in their seeds, with industrial applications. Here, we report three chromosome-level genomes of Physaria species: P. lindheimeri, P. pallida and P. fendleri, with sizes of 344 Mb, 329 Mb and 452 Mb, respectively. Comparative genome analysis reveals that these three Physaria species diverged from Arabidopsis thaliana approximately 14.10-14.46 million years ago and underwent two consecutive Physaria-specific whole-genome duplication events. Their centromeres harbor an 111-bp satellite repeat and two retrotransposon classes (Gypsy/CRM, Copia/Ale). Transcriptomic analysis identifies seed-highly expressed lipid synthesis genes potentially underlying unique fatty acid profiles. Furthermore, we pinpoint the two residues in FAH12 variants that cause the disparity in hydroxylation activity among the three Physaria species. Taken together, this study provides important genomic resources for investigating the evolution of Physaria species and developing industrial oil crops for sustainable production of hydroxy fatty acids.