Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Rural museums: harnessing the power of place to confront silences and revitalize communities(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2023) Moore, Sabre Addington; Co-chairs, Graduate Committee: Alex Harmon and Robert RydellIn the United States, 43 percent of all museums are in rural towns; in Montana, rural towns account for 56.5 percent of museums. Contemporary research has neglected museums based in rural communities. While scholarship on libraries and education in rural communities thrives, there is a gap in research on rural museums. This dissertation acknowledges that gap. It explores how rural museums, like the Carter County Museum in Ekalaka, Montana, can employ the Rural Social Space Model to identify and confront the usual silences about the land and its settlement and explore the ways that power is exercised in the practices of place. Using this framework, this dissertation draws connections between the museum and the areas of environment, social well-being, and economic development, which produce rural social space and contribute to community vitality. This strategy recognizes the value of a physical place, its unique and varied histories, and the diversity of people within and connected to that place, both past and present. Rural communities have distinctive histories embedded within the culture and historical context of a broader region. Rural museums foster the experience of these histories as meaningful and personal, nurturing identity and connection to local places. As such, museums play a vital role in rural community life and provide tools to address equity challenges facing rural places. These museums regularly engage in civic work and can leverage their positions as community congregant spaces and trusted institutions to further civic action, including fostering deliberate discussion, offering volunteer opportunities, hosting public meetings, and engaging visitors in exhibits that explore the connection of past history to present action.Item A formalized approach to remedy tobacco addiction: e-referrals and the ability of documentation to influence opportunities through motivational interviewing(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 2021) Hoffman, Matthew Douglas; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Casey ColeIt is an understatement to report that there is an inconsistent approach for tobacco cessation therapy (TCT) techniques, and this is negatively affecting those with the desire to pursue cessation. Therefore, it is long overdue to better address and incentivize a more consistent quality improvement process to remedy the multifaceted dynamic of tobacco cessation (TC). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) tobacco globally affects 1.2 billion people, and annually imposes an economic damage of $500 billion worldwide (Caponnetto et al., 2019; Epku & Brown, 2015; Gonzales et al., 2020). With attention to detail in the foreground of billing, coding, and documentation, it is anticipated that increased opportunities for a more formalized approach to remedy tobacco addictions through motivational interviewing (MI) have been encouraged. Ultimately, this project guided a synergistic effect between the financial integrity of the medical clinic and the health of the rural Montana population that it serves. In a small rural family medicine clinic and over a six-week timeframe, a provider instituted basic MI techniques to enroll patients interested in TCT via an electronic (e-Referral) to the Montana Tobacco Quit Line (MTQL) to remedy tobacco addiction. Data collection was facilitated and contained within the EPIC EHR system, monitoring the number of known tobacco users, ready to quit statuses, and those both currently and newly enrolled for counseling with an e-Referral to the MTQL. Prior to the project's implementation, a total 23 patients were known as tobacco users at this clinic, two of which were being counseled; three new e-Referrals submitted increase the total to five. Nonetheless, there are now 51 patients that are newly known tobacco users after this project's screening and documentation. The thematic underpinnings that surfaced include a lack of healthcare engagement with documenting tobacco users and the need for continued pursuit of TCT. The generalization that this data infers is that the rural population at this clinic is asking for help, but the health system is not responding adequately.Item A systemic pedestrian safety planning tool for rural and small urban areas(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2018) Jamali, Amir; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Yiyi WangRural areas bear a disproportionate number of pedestrian fatalities: the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled is 2.5 times higher in rural areas than in urban areas. To measurably improve pedestrian safety, it is paramount to predict crash hot spots and apply cost-effective countermeasures. This dissertation work developed a new systemic pedestrian safety tool to enhance crash hotspot identification and safety project prioritization for rural and small urban areas. This new tool suggested a six-step systemic safety framework: (1) initial screening, which identifies what type of facilities are more prone to pedestrian crashes, (2) pedestrian exposure estimation, which provides an area-level exposure metric using National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) 2009, (3) crash risk factor identification, which identifies the factors that contribute to the occurrence and high severity levels of pedestrian crashes, (4) hotspot identification, which identifies the locations that are more likely to experience pedestrian crashes using two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, (5) countermeasure selection, which provides candidate countermeasures through literature sources, and (6) project prioritization, which ranks safety projects through a mixed linear programming. This study incorporated three states' pedestrian crash data from 2011 to 2013: Texas, Oregon, and Montana. It was found that in rural and small urban areas pedestrian safety is associated negatively with male and elderly drivers, shoulder presence, bike lane presence, higher speed limit, number of lanes, wet surface, pedestrian exposure, hospital distance, population density, median income, share of industrial and commercial areas, and dark hours. In contrast, the pedestrian safety is associated positively with signal control, sidewalk and warning sign presence, median presence, icy and snowy surface, higher AADT, and high densely household areas. To validate the proposed hotspot and project prioritization methods, this study used the pedestrian crash data set from 2014 to 2016 in the City of Bozeman, a small urban area. According to findings, about 60 percent of crash locations fall on areas with a high crash risk index. Reasonable countermeasures were suggested for twenty intersections with highest crash risk index. It was found that budget of $100,000 is the optimal budget, where the crash risk index was reduced by 63 percent.Item An investigation of coliform contamination in private well water on the Crow Reservation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Three Irons, Emery UP; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Scott Powell; Margaret Eggers (co-chair)The Crow reservation has a rural population that depends on home well water for domestic use. Many of the home wells do not have a suitable well cap, allowing a potential pathway of bacterial contamination of groundwater. Fecal coliform is associated with acute health problems, such as gastrointestinal illness, diarrhea, and cramps. Therefore, total coliform contamination of well water is an important health concern among Crow home well users. This research examines patterns in total coliform contamination among home well samples with respect to a suite of well and local aquifer characteristics thought to influence vulnerability to contamination, including well protection factors. Well and aquifer characteristics considered in this research include: the geologic production formation, local land cover, and distance to the nearest river. Well protection factors include: cap type, cap condition, depth of completion and time since completion (or age). One hundred water quality samples were collected from home wells along the Little Big Horn River in 2017, and available data on the character of those wells and aquifers were collected for comparison with the patterns in fecal coliform contamination among the samples. Presence/absence of coliform contamination was assessed using the Colilert IDEXX Quanti-Tray 2000 method. Spatial variations in the characteristics of wells and aquifers were characterized through a combination of well logs, the National Land Cover Dataset, and the National Hydrography Dataset. Logistic regression was used to identify potential relationships between probability of coliform contamination and characteristics of associated wells and aquifers. Logistic regression models suggested two notable and statistically significant (? = 0.05 level) relationships: (1) wells completed in alluvium and farther from the river had a higher probability of total coliform contamination, and (2) wells with old style caps had a higher probability of total coliform contamination. The government of the Crow tribe can decide how to use the results for mitigation efforts and awareness for homeowners with contaminated wells. Also, the Crow Water Quality Project should archive and consider these results for future research, planning, development, and management.Item The organization of state music festivals in states with predominantly rural populations(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1974) Fuller, Mary Emelie OpstadItem Rural Montanans' attitudes toward birth control correlated with selected personal factors(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1974) Johnson, Pauline OdegardItem Learning rural perceptions of place : farms and ranches in southwest Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1997) O'Neill, Maire EithneItem Television translators and the second class TV citizen : a Montana case study, 1955-1970(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 1991) Sinnott, Jeffrey AllenThis is an initial study into the infrastructure of rural television, looking at the local, regional, and national forces that have shaped rural viewing. Specifically, it takes the rebroadcast device of the television translator station, and through a case study in Montana during the approximate period of 1955 to 1970 of actions affecting translator use, brings us closer to understanding how television has served rural Americans. It follows the actions and policies of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the regional and later national organization known today as the National Translator Association (NTA), the U. S. Congress, and concerned special interest groups. It necessarily focuses on FCC policies toward translator operators, small market television broadcasters, and Community Antenna Television (CATV) system operators. This study makes extensive use of the papers of Montana broadcaster Edmund B. Craney, which include records of the NTA, the FCC, local translator associations, and other television interest groups. It also utilizes television industry periodicals and recent historical works concerning television programming and regulation during the period. This study finds that rural television viewers had a marginal status compared to those in more densely populated areas, with fewer choices in programming, little or no local access to television air time, and an increased dependence on television as a source of news and entertainment, particularly in geographically isolated areas. The FCC had a shortsighted view of the role of translators in disseminating television signals to the greatest audience, and an inconsistent policy as to how to regulate different technologies in order to expand television service to rural areas. This study concludes that the marginal status of rural television viewers was due to the dichotomy governing FCC regulation of broadcast services, treating television as both a business and an essential public service. For the most part, commercial interests have dictated FCC policies toward the dissemination of television services. Free market forces, therefore, have placed rural viewers in such a marginal status.