Mountain Scholar

Mountain Scholar is an open access repository service that collects, preserves, and provides access to digitized library collections and other scholarly and creative works from Colorado State University and the University Press of Colorado. It also serves as a dark archive for the Open Textbook Library.

Communities in Mountain Scholar

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Colorado State University, Fort Collins 26343
Explore the Colorado State University community’s scholarly output as well as items from the University at large and the CSU Libraries.
Open Textbook Library Archive 25
A limited number of titles are available here. To see all OTL titles, please visit the Open Textbook Library at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. Only Open Textbook Library staff have access to all OTL Archive titles held in Mountain Scholar.
University Press of Colorado 1067
Access is limited to University Press of Colorado members. Non-members: to purchase books, please visit https://upcolorado.com/.

Recent Submissions

Access status: Open Access ,
Fostering hope: the transformative role of community support for foster children and families
(2025) Weis, Lindsey, author; Merline, Anne Marie, advisor; Burks, Conner, committee member
Most foster youth entering the child welfare system have experienced trauma and instability, and continue to face these challenges through frequent placement changes and inconsistent access to support. These disruptions can create lasting emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties, especially when mental health and educational resources are limited. This thesis explores how community-based support systems can strengthen the resilience of foster youth and caregivers to mitigate the challenges posed by the foster care system. Through a literature review, I examine how consistent community support and positive social connections influence foster youths' well-being, development, and sense of identity. Kids at Heart is a Northern Colorado nonprofit focused on providing structured respite and enrichment programs for foster and adoptive families. Volunteering for and interviewing this organization's director has given me insight into how a reliable, caring environment can help rebuild trust and promote emotional growth among foster youth, while reducing caregiver stress. My findings indicate that a strong sense of community can make a meaningful difference for families navigating the foster care system, and this thesis highlights the importance of consistent, supportive networks for helping foster youth and caregivers thrive.
Access status: Open Access ,
Establishment of metadata digitization in the Colorado State University Biology Teaching Collection: literature review and applied outcome
(2025) Barr, Lindsay, author; Dewey, Tanya, advisor; Neuwald, Jennifer, committee member
Digitization in natural history collections is essential in the pursuit of sharing information in the scientific field. However, this is an underutilized resource, and the absence of digital records increases barriers to entry in scientific research. This is especially true with small and teaching-focused collections, such as the Biology teaching collection at Colorado State University, which is underrepresented in digital databases. The collection houses more than 13,000 specimens with valuable scientific data, yet no data is accessible outside of the collection. These collections lack consistency and have a high turnover rate of volunteers, which poses a challenge to setting up and maintaining an effective and reliable system. This project aims to synthesize the current knowledge on digitization strategies, and implement an effective workflow through the platform of Symbiota for how volunteers can digitize collections in the future. I conducted a literature review examining peer-reviewed studies and case studies to evaluate the best approaches for accessibility and sustainability in digitization. This led to the creation of an official Symbiota guide, detailing how to input data in the system, along with the facilitation of a workshop for members of the different specimen collections on the CSU campus. Ultimately, small collections such as the Biology Teaching Collection hold great value in their specimens, particularly with locally significant data, but are frequently overlooked. Platforms like Symbiota, which are publicly accessible, make these data available worldwide and can significantly contribute to the field of scientific study. The establishment of digitization initiatives in smaller collections is essential for strengthening biodiversity data networks and expanding scientific knowledge.
Access status: Open Access ,
Comparative analysis on the influence of land management on conservation methods of endangered species ranges
(2025) Buckmire, Sinder, author; Bombaci, Sara, advisor; Bailey, Larissa, committee member
Species ranges play an important role in understanding species ecology for effective conservation management, with the distribution of endangered species ranges across different land management jurisdictions being a key determinant of the conservation strategies and regulatory frameworks that shape species recovery. This study used ArcGIS to perform spatial intersection analyses to quantify the overlap between federally-managed and Indigenous-managed lands, and the extant range of three species of high conservation concern (at least an Endangered listing under the IUCN Red List) in the US: the Black-footed Ferret, the Mojave Desert Tortoise, and the Western Alligator Snapping Turtle. Results found that the Black-footed Ferret and Mojave Desert Tortoise have a significantly larger portion of their total ranges on federally-managed lands, while the Western Alligator Snapping Turtle has a moderately balanced distribution across federal and Indigenous jurisdictions, but exhibits a much smaller amount of overlap with the two land management types across their total range. These patterns indicate that conservation methods for some endangered species depend on the strategies employed under a particular land management type, while others depend on collaborative governance. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of integrating land governance into species range analyses, and highlights the need for collaborative Indigenous-federal conservation strategies to increase the effectiveness of conservation actions and improve recovery for species of high conservation concern.
Access status: Open Access ,
Slow scan cyclic voltammetry of Li-ion insertion in T-Nb₂O₅ reveals hidden peaks and multi-electron redox
(2025-12-13) Salzer, Luke D., author; Christensen, Cami, author; Gervais, Claire Y., author; Steeley, Jacob D., author; Neilson, James R., author; Sambur, Justin B., author
The orthorhombic phase of Nb2O5 formed at low temperatures (T-Nb2O5) is a promising alternative anode material for lithium-ion batteries due to its ability to reversibly (de)lithiate at high rates without forming lithium metal, which is a major safety limitation of conventional graphite anodes. Despite decades of research, the cyclic voltammetry response of T-Nb2O5 remains poorly understood, with conflicting reports regarding the number and peak potentials of cathodic and anodic redox peaks in the voltammogram. While some studies report a single broad redox feature in cyclic voltammograms, others observe multiple peaks, yet often describe lithiation using a single overall reaction: 〖T"-" Nb〗_2 O_5+〖xLi〗^++〖xe〗^-↔〖"T-Li" 〗_"x" 〖"Nb" 〗_"2" "O" _"5" for 0 < x < 2. In this work, we employ slow-scan cyclic voltammetry (SSCV) at an ultra-slow rate of 1.5 μV/s to minimize resistive losses and kinetic limitations in the oxide. Under these near-equilibrium conditions, we achieve x = 3.0 in T-LixNb2O5 from 3.0–1.2 V, corresponding to more than one electron per Nb center, and resolve five distinct cathodic peaks during lithiation. Three broad peaks are assigned to structural transformations based on recent literature in situ synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction data (Han, H.; et al. Nat. Mater. 2023, 22 (9), 1128–1135): an orthorhombic-to-monoclinic distortion at x ≈ 0.5, followed by transitions to an amorphous insulating phase and a tetragonal Li-rich layered rock salt structure at x = 2.0 and x = 2.5, respectively. In addition, two sharp peaks at 1.678 and 1.658 V, which merge into a single "super peak" at faster sweep rates (>100 μV/s), are attributed to surface-related electrochemical processes such as Nb reduction and Li-ion adsorption, surface phase transitions, or solid electrolyte interphase formation. These features, widely observed in the literature but previously unassigned, underscore how electrode architecture (particles vs thin films), morphology, and scan rate conditions shape the voltammetric signature of T-Nb2O5. SSCV reveals previously unresolved redox features, providing new insight into the stepwise lithiation behavior of T-Nb2O5 and refining our understanding of its electrochemical mechanism.
Access status: Open Access ,
Quantifying chiral handedness of core-shell inorganic nanotube photocatalysts via electron microscopy and diffraction
(2025-12-21) Wang, Kaiyuan, author; Geiss, Beilynn, author; Geiss, Roy, author; Neilson, James R., author; Zak, Alla, author; Sambur, Justin B., author
Intrinsically chiral inorganic nanotubes (NTs) based on WS2 and MoS2 are promising visible-light-absorbing materials for heterogeneous enantioselective photocatalysis and, potentially, for fundamental studies of the chiral induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect. Accurate identification of chiral handedness is essential for advancing enantioselective applications of these materials, but existing imaging and diffraction-based protocols do not rapidly facilitate the identification of NT handedness. We present a combined transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) approach for determining the chiral handedness of WS2 NTs that contain WOx cores. We observe the WOx core lattice and WS2 atomic layers in the same TEM image. By comparing the lattice orientations of the WOx core relative to the WS2 layers, and confirming that relationship with the chiral angle revealed by SAED patterns, we can unambiguously identify the right- or left-handed structure of individual NTs. In addition, we show that moiré patterns formed from the WS2 shells and oxide core can also be used to characterize lattice orientation, chiral indices, and handedness. This approach requires no additional sample preparation, instrumentation, or experimental adjustments, and may be applied broadly to other core-shell nanotube systems such as MoS2, BN, and carbon NTs. The significance of this work is that it enables reliable handedness determination of chiral core-shell nanostructures and addresses a key difficulty in the existing characterization methods of multiwalled NTs. We envision that the single particle catalysis community can leverage these methods to study structure-activity relationships of this unique class of intrinsically chiral semiconductor nanostructures.