Digital Commons Network^™

Third-Eye, Aaron Fassler

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The Third-Eye Device is a peripheral device compatible with any firearm equipped with the Picatinny rail system. Its system of a camera attached to the weapon which connects to an eyepiece allows the user to aim the weapon without aiming down the sights. This device is potentially crucial to those who regularly engage in close-quarters combat such as police and military specialists, whose ability to quickly and accurately clear rooms during operations is critical to their safety and the safety of others. The student team was tasked with improving the device, primarily in its survivability in dusty and wet environments, …

Potential Weather Data Anomolies Within The Usda's Pasture Rangeland And Forage Insurance Program, Chad Steven Van Orden

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this study is to delve into the functionality of the PRF insurance program. The primary goal is to uncover any underlying anomalies which may inadvertently skew data within the program. Because the USDA uses NOAA’s weather stations regardless of location or timing of activation, it is consequential that the collected precipitation data may be inconsistent across both time and space. This phenomenon could have substantial and significant effects on the RMA’s PRF insurance program, resulting in producers being compensated inaccurately for their insurance claims.

Jeromf: A Software Development Framework For Building Distributed Applications Based On Microservices And Jeromq, Aditi Jain

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This report describes a project involving the design, implementation, and testing of a software development framework, called JeroMF, that can help developers create scalable distributed applications based on a microservice architecture and that uses JeroMQ (a native Java implementation of ZeroMQ) for message passing. JeroMF provides an execution framework and extensible components for implementing processes, services, communication channels, messages, communication statistics, and encryption. Applications built with JeroMF do not require a message broker or any other middleware processes. However, they may include an optional Service Registry that can facilitate for service discovery and secure communications. The Service Registry itself was …

Incorporating Natural Play Spaces Into Elementary Playgrounds For Child Developmental Benefits, Ariel L. Wright

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Play environments are crucial to providing developmental opportunities for children and natural playgrounds provide a developmentally rich play environment. This study compared elementary school playgrounds and nature explore classrooms to determine what natural play spaces can be implemented into an elementary school playground for developmental benefits. The playgrounds were evaluated on safety, ADA requirements and what developmental affordances are encouraged through different play components. A Nature Playground Play Spaces List and handouts were developed, and a playground design exploration was conducted as an example for how the play spaces list can be used and to show what benefits can be …

Modeling Lake Temperature Response To Climate Change In The Alaskan Arctic, Thomas Balkcom

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis study focuses on simulating lake temperature and ice duration for four lakes at the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research site, near the Toolik Field Station in Alaska. Model projections were driven by the representative global climate model outputs under different carbon emission scenarios. Results show that my simple lake model can reproduce historical lake temperature and ice duration observations, indicating the reliability of the model for future projections. Model projections show that JuneSeptember lake temperatures would increase by 4.3-5.8 °C from the historical period with most progressive carbon emission scenarios, but by 0.7-2.2 °C in the conservative scenarios. Results …

Do Changing Resource Conditions Displace Anglers? A Study Of Contingent Travel Behaviors And Substitution Patterns On Minnesota’S North Shore, Adam Hestetune

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Angling in Minnesota’s North Shore faces unique threats from the impacts of climate change. These impacts, such as changes in the presence and/or abundance of specific species, present management challenges which might also influence the demand for recreational angling throughout the region. Anglers’ adaptations to climate change in the North Shore region could shift densities, timing, and spatial use of the region’s fish populations, increasing the stress on ecological systems. Developing an empirically-grounded understanding of the contingent behaviors of anglers is imperative if the region’s fish populations are to be managed sustainably. Using a travel cost model, we measured the …

Called To Serve: Understanding The Role Of The Woman’S Mission Decision Narrative In Latter-Day Saint Culture And Belief, Rachel Ross

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In my thesis I explore the role of mission decision narratives of women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Before 2012, women could not serve missions until age 21. Once the minimum age was changed to 19 in October of 2012, many more women were able to serve on mission as the opportunity was less likely to disrupt their education or romantic relationships. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, missions are seen as a priesthood duty for men but a matter of choice for women. This ability to choose and the narrative that follows …

Assessing & Protecting Dark Night Skies In El Morro National Monument, Leslie Kobinsky

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Light pollution is causing the disappearance of dark night skies around the world. In the United States alone, 1/3 of people are unable to see the Milky Way where they live (Ramlagan, 2016). National Park Service sites contain some of the darkest skies in the country. Here at El Morro National Monument, these dark skies are a beautiful and healthy benefit to people in the local community and visitors traveling from afar. El Morro’s current park legislation does not include specific measures of protection for the night sky. This capstone project will create a baseline data set of night sky …

Metal Storytellers: Reflections Of War Culture In Silverplate B-29 Nose Art From The 509th Composite Group, Terri Wesemann

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Most people are familiar with the Enola Gay—the B-29 that dropped Little Boy, the first atomic bomb, over the city of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Less known are the fifteen Silverplate B-29 airplanes that trained for the mission, that were named and later adorned with nose art. However, in recorded history, the atomic mission overshadowed the occupational folklore of this group. Because the abundance of planes were scrapped in the decade after World War II and most WWII veterans have passed on, all that remains of their occupational folklore are photographs, oral and written histories, some books, …

Building An Effective Learning Environment For Chinese Language Learners, Wen-Yu Chang

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of papers that the author originally wrote during her study in the program of Master of Second Language Teaching at Utah State University. While pursuing the Master’s degree, the author also served as an instructor, teaching assistant, and research assistant in the Chinese program. Thus, this work is framed by the author's personal reflection accumulated from her day-to-day teaching experiences and class observations.

The portfolio consists of three major sections: (1) teaching perspectives, (2) research perspectives, and (3) an annotated bibliography. With the aim to identify the elements of an effective and communicative learning environment …

Mental Health Awareness And Advocacy: Assessment Tool Development And An Evaluation Of A College-Based Curriculum, Ty B. Aller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Students’ mental health issues are a common concern on college campuses and are often addressed via prevention programming called mental health literacy. This dissertation consists of two studies regarding mental health literacy programming for college students at a western university in the United States. In study one, the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool (MHAA-AT) was created and evaluated for its utility in assessing college students’ mental health literacy. This assessment tool is unique in that it is built upon a process-based approach to mental health literacy. The assessment tool demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and it was deemed an …

Navigating Adulthood: Exploring The Impact Of A High School Life-Skills Course On Adulthood Transition Experiences, Lacee R. Boschetto

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to explore the adulthood transition experiences of Utah high-school graduates, with heightened focus on the application value of educational content from the course, Adult Roles. The purpose of the study was identified through experiential interactions with high-school graduates, and was supported by research on 21st century adulthood transitions shown to divert away from traditional adulthood markers. The inconsistency between modern adulthood transition behaviors and traditionally held adulthood assumptions lead to negative perceptions about young adult’s capability to adapt to adulthood. The researcher was motivated to investigate opportunities that may provide increased preparation for the transition into …

Reducing Thermal Bridging And Understanding Second-Order Effects In Concrete Sandwich Wall Panels, Taylor J. Sorensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Structural engineers have traditionally detailed structures with structural and fabrication efficiency in mind, but often based on a limited understanding of thermal efficiency. Some connection designs can create significant thermal bridging, leading to unnecessary heat transfer and even premature degradation through condensation. Thermal bridging occurs when heat transfer is given a path through a more conductive material like concrete or steel rather than insulation. Concrete sandwich wall panels (SWP) tend to be highly efficient at preventing heat transfer in the middle of panels, with greatest heat transfer occurring at connections. This project identified thermally efficient details for future SWP construction …

Shall I Sing You A Ghost Story: The Nature And Purpose Of Ghost Songs In Maritime Communities Of Northern New England And Atlantic Canada, Richard A. Blake

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper will be discussing the nature of maritime ghost stories put forth in musical narrative. There are two questions that I will be endeavoring to answer. 1) What kinds of changes can occur to a ghost story when it is put into a song and 2) How would the understanding of a folksong’s story change when it crosses boundaries from one place to another? More specifically it will discuss those changes when crossing provincial or national boundaries. The investigation into these questions will involve the use of several written and audio sources. The written sources include titles like the …

Assessing Beaver Dam Dynamics In The Logan-Little Bear Watershed, Connor Penrod

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper seeks to address a knowledge gap concerning how flood events impact beaver dams over time. To address this gap, I took four time-snapshots of beaver dams, mapping them across the Utah portion of the Logan-Little Bear watershed, from 2009 to 2016 to bookend a large flood event in 2011. I assessed dam status (intact, breached, or blown out) for each dam mapped to assess the impact of the large spring runoff on the dam status. Assessing dam status over time allowed me to assess the change in condition over time, from before to several years after, while also …

Transition Portfolio, Sarah Atkinson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Teaching self-determination skills has been shown to be successful among those who are from Anglo-Saxon decent. However, not much has been done to study the effects of teaching culturally responsive self-determination skills to those who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The literature review in this transition portfolio addresses how teaching culturally and linguistically responsive self-determination skills can be useful to help individuals who receive special education services to more fully succeed in a post-high school setting.

To What Extent Do Young Adults With Disabilities Report Their High School Educational Experiences Prepared Them To Transition To Employment Or Post-Secondary Education, Marlee Jones

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study examined the post school outcomes for young adults with disabilities having participated in special education programs while attending high school. An electronic survey was used to collect information from a population of previous special education students ages 18 to 19 years from a school district in the state of Utah. After sending the survey to approximately 275 former students, the researcher received responses from 4 individuals; a 1.45% response rate. The survey data were examined to identify overall satisfaction of participants’ high school education. Current participant employment rates, as well as post-secondary education enrollment was examined. No conclusions …

Secondson, Jonathan Blake Heaton

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This author’s introduction is an analysis of graphic literature and poetry, and the combining of the two to create graphic poetry. Themes are explored of what it means to be a second son in a world permeated by traditional values, regarding the prominence of the first son.

This thesis was split into five sections: Finding My Story—in which the author explains how he came to the main narrative content behind Secondson; Finding My Themes—in which the author discusses the four themes that are included in Secondson and the inspiration received from outside works of poetry; Finding My Genre—in which the …

Deep Reinforcement Learning Pairs Trading, Andrew Brim

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This research applies a deep reinforcement learning technique, Deep Q-network, to a stock market pairs trading strategy for profit. Artificial intelligent methods have long since been applied to optimize trading strategies. This work trains and tests a DQN to trade co-integrated stock market prices, in a pairs trading strategy. The results demonstrate the DQN is able to consistently produce positive returns when executing a pairs trading strategy.

History Takes Flight: Evaluating The Cache Valley: An Airminded Community Exhibition, Landon O. Wilkey

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A regularly overlooked but vital element of Cache Valley history is the impact of aviation. Just eight short years after the Wright Brothers achieved manned flight, the first aircraft arrived in Logan to perform for the masses eager to catch a glimpse of this burgeoning technology. From that point on, aviation has been a relevant topic to community leaders and members. This fervor for all things flight-related has been coined “airmindedness.”

To bring the discussion of airmindedness to the forefront, I created a traveling exhibit that could be used throughout the community to shed light on both the vibrant history …

Rapid Prediction Of Low-Boom And Aerodynamic Performance Of Supersonic Transport Aircraft Using Panel Methods, Ted N. Giblette

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah State University Aerolab developed and tested a set of tools for rapid prediction of the loudness of a sonic boom generated by supersonic transport aircraft. This work supported a larger effort led by Texas A&M to investigate the use of adaptive aerostructures in lowering sonic boom loudness at off design conditions. Successful completion of this effort will improve the feasibility of supersonic commercial transport over land.

Funding was provided by a NASA University Leadership Initiative grant to several universities, including Utah State University, as well as industry partners to complete this work over a five year period. The …

The Influences Of Calculus I On Engineering Student Persistence, Amie Baisley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

About half of the students that are declared engineering majors end up leaving engineering within their first two years at the university. This happens following the required math and science courses that these students must take before getting into the technical engineering coursework. There are two systems that students must be a part of at the university to feel comfortable and have the desire to continue on in their degree. These include the academic system and the social system. The experiences engineering students have during their first required math course, Calculus I, is likely not promoting integration into these two …

Redefining Ceremony And The Sacred: Short Stories From The Dinétah, Stacie S. Denetsosie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This is a creative thesis comprised of three short stories centered on the experiences of three Navajo protagonists living on the Navajo reservation. The short stories fit within the field of Native American Literature and highlight issues of mortality, sexuality, and ceremony. The stories illustrate the experiences of modern-day Navajo youth grappling to understand how to connect traditional knowledge with modernity. The three stories featured within this thesis are offered as a way to understand these challenges. Each protagonist is faced with an issue of morality, sexuality, or ceremony, and each reach differing conclusions about these topics within their lives. …

Tacting Of Function In College Student Mental Health: An Online And App-Based Approach To Psychological Flexibility, Benjamin Pierce

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mental and emotional health concerns among college students are prevalent and diverse in their symptom presentations. With increasing demands on counseling centers to provide efficient care and to address students with higher acuity or risk for harm, there has been an increased focus on identifying therapeutic targets that underlie a wide breadth of concerns to broaden the scope and impact of mental health services. Psychological inflexibility is one such target and refers to a combination of excessive avoidance of internal experiences coupled with a lack of actions that align with a person’s values. Interventions for psychological inflexibility aim to support …

Built-In Return-Oriented Programs In Embedded Systems And Deep Learning For Hardware Trojan Detection, Nathanael R. Weidler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Microcontrollers and integrated circuits in general have become ubiquitous in the world today. All aspects of our lives depend on them from driving to work, to calling our friends, to checking our bank account balance. People who would do harm to individuals, corporations and nation states are aware of this and for that reason they seek to find or create and exploit vulnerabilities in integrated circuits. This dissertation contains three papers dealing with these types of vulnerabilities. The first paper talks about a vulnerability that was found on a microcontroller, which is a type of integrated circuit. The final two …

Advancing Cyberinfrastructure For Collaborative Data Sharing And Modeling In Hydrology, Tian Gan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Hydrologic research is increasingly data and computationally intensive, and often involves hydrologic model simulation and collaboration among researchers. With the development of cyberinfrastructure, researchers are able to improve the efficiency, impact, and effectiveness of their research by utilizing online data sharing and hydrologic modeling functionality. However, further efforts are still in need to improve the capability of cyberinfrastructure to serve the hydrologic science community. This dissertation first presents the evaluation of a physically based snowmelt model as an alternative to a temperature index model to improve operational water supply forecasts in the Colorado River Basin. Then it presents the design …

The Relationship Between Small-Group Discourse And Student-Enacted Levels Of Cognitive Demand When Engaging With Mathematics Tasks At Different Depth Of Knowledge Levels, Kristy Litster

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

High cognitive demand (HCD) tasks can help students develop a deeper understanding of mathematics. Teachers need interventions that encourage students to engage in HCD activities. Small-group discourse provides HCD opportunities for students while solving mathematics problems. Discourse can take place after students solve problems individually (reflective) or in groups as students solve problems (exploratory). This study looks at the relationship between these two types of small-group discourse and student-enacted cognitive demand.

This study looks at how students engage with tasks that were designed at four different cognitive demand levels using Webb’s depth of knowledge (DOK) framework. Ninety-seven grade 5 students …

Preschool Science: An Examination Of Classroom And Teacher Predictors, Donna S. Blaylock

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Science experiences during the preschool years is important because it helps build brain development in children, and improves school readiness. This exploratory study examined several characteristics of teachers and classrooms to see if any factors predicted time spent on science. Over 120 teachers participated, with teachers from Head Starts, university child development laboratories, home-based preschools, and other private preschool programs.

Findings suggest that preschool teachers are quite comfortable with teaching science, but science activities are reported to occur infrequently—one to three times a month. Teachers with higher levels of education and comfort levels with science are reported to be more …

Development And Testing Of A Hydrogen Peroxide Injected Thrust Augmenting Nozzle For A Hybrid Rocket, Mark C. Heiner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

During a rocket launch, the point at which the most thrust is needed is at lift-off where the rocket is the heaviest since it is full of propellant. Unfortunately, this is also the point at which rocket engines perform the most poorly due to the relatively high atmospheric pressure at sea level. The Thrust Augmenting Nozzle (TAN) investigated in this paper provides a solution to this dilemma. By injecting extra propellant into the nozzle but downstream of the throat, the internal nozzle pressure is raised and the thrust is increased, and the nozzle efficiency, or specific impulse is potentially improved …

Staff Perceptions Of Quality Interactions In Dementia Care, Rebecka A. Schultz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The national aging trend suggests that population of those aged 65 and older will reach 83.7 million by the year 2050. With increasing age comes the growing possibility of one getting some form of dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association expects the number of American’s with dementia to triple from the reported 5 million cases in 2014 by 2050. With a rise in this cognitively impaired population there is reason to look closely at the needs of persons with dementia living in residential facilities and whether or not they are being met. The main focus of residential facilities is to provide aid …