Digital Commons Network^™

Electrocatalytic Valorization Of Biomass Intermediates Via 1st-Row Transition Metal Electrocatalysts, Yujie Sun

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Career: Advocating For Engineering Through Hidden Curricula: A Multi‐Institutional Mixed Method Approach, Idalis Villanueva

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Pain Acceptance Potentially Mediates The Relationship Between Pain Catastrophizing And Post-Surgery Outcomes Among Compensated Lumbar Fusion Patients, Cassie Dance, M. Scott Deberard, Jessica Gundy Cuneo

Psychology Student Research

Purpose: Chronic low back pain is highly prevalent and often treatment recalcitrant condition, particularly among workers’ compensation patients. There is a need to identify psychological factors that may predispose such patients to pain chronicity. The primary aim of this study was to examine whether pain acceptance potentially mediated the relationship between pain catastrophizing and post-surgical outcomes in a sample of compensated lumbar fusion patients.
Patients and methods: Patients insured with the Workers Compensation Fund of Utah and who were at least 2 years post-lumbar fusion surgery completed an outcome survey. These data were obtained from a prior retrospective-cohort study that …

An Investigation Of Factors That Influence Acceptability Of Parent Training, Trisha M. Chase, Gretchen Gimpel Peacock

Psychology Student Research

Parent training is an effective intervention for parents of children with a variety of childhood disorders, including conduct problems, and parents often view behavioral parent training as acceptable. Explanations and rationales for parent training are commonly provided at the beginning of treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether changing the description of a behavioral parenting intervention influenced parents’ acceptability ratings and whether mothers and fathers differed in their ratings. There were 78 participants (39 mother-father dyads) in this study. Participants viewed one of two descriptions of parent training that focused on either addressing deficits in parenting skills …

Career: Thermochronometric And Textural Signatures Of Fault Damage Zones And Stimulating Middle School Student Interest In Earthquake Science, Alexis Ault

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Partner Influence In Diet And Exercise Behaviors: Testing Behavior Modeling, Social Control, And Normative Body Size, Brea Perry, Gabriele Circiurkaite, Christy Freadreacea Brady, Justin Garcia

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Previous research has documented social contagion in obesity and related health behaviors, but less is known about the social processes underlying these patterns. Focusing on married or cohabitating couples, we simultaneously explore three potential social mechanisms influencing obesity: normative body size, social control, and behavior modeling. We analyze the association between partner characteristics and the obesity-related health behaviors of focal respondents, comparing the effects of partners’ body type, partners’ attempts to manage respondents’ eating behaviors, and partners’ own health behaviors on respondents’ health behaviors (physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and fast food consumption). Data on 215 partners are extracted …

Tree Circumference Dynamics In Four Forests Characterized Using Automated Dendrometer Bands, Valentine Herrmann, Sean M. Mcmahon, Matteo Detto, James A. Lutz, Chia-Hao Chang-Yang, Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Stem diameter is one of the most commonly measured attributes of trees, forming the foundation of forest censuses and monitoring. Changes in tree stem circumference include both irreversible woody stem growth and reversible circumference changes related to water status, yet these fine-scale dynamics are rarely leveraged to understand forest ecophysiology and typically ignored in plot- or stand-scale estimates of tree growth and forest productivity. Here, we deployed automated dendrometer bands on 12–40 trees at four different forested sites—two temperate broadleaf deciduous, one temperate conifer, and one tropical broad-leaf semi-deciduous—to understand how tree circumference varies on time scales of hours to …

Advancing Nasa’S Airmoss P-Band Radar Root Zone Soil Moisture Retrieval Algorithm Via Incorporation Of Richards’ Equation, Morteza Sadeghi, Alireza Tabatabaeenejad, Markus Tuller, Mahta Moghaddam, Scott B. Jones

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

P-band radar remote sensing applied during the Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) mission has shown great potential for estimation of root zone soil moisture. When retrieving the soil moisture profile (SMP) from P-band radar observations, a mathematical function describing the vertical moisture distribution is required. Because only a limited number of observations are available, the number of free parameters of the mathematical model must not exceed the number of observed data. For this reason, an empirical quadratic function (second order polynomial) is currently applied in the AirMOSS inversion algorithm to retrieve the SMP. The three free parameters …

Usu Engineering Faculty Receives Prestigious Nsf Career Grant | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – Dec. 26, 2016 – A Utah State University professor who specializes in the emerging field of engineering education has been selected to receive a major grant from the National Science Foundation for her ongoing research into improving engineering teaching practices.

Mannequin Challenge | Biological Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Who says that learning about the various properties of Biomaterials is boring? Clearly, they haven't taken Dr. Yu Huang's BENG 2330 Properties of Biomaterials course. Not only do these students know how to distinguish the differences between natural and synthetic biomaterials.They know how to have a good time bringing the mannequin challenge into their lab clean up.

Diet And Lifetyle Factors Associated With Mirna Expression In Colorectal Tissue, Martha L. Slattery, Jennifer S. Herrick, Lila E. Mullany, John R. Stevens, Roger K. Wolff

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-protein-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression. Diet and lifestyle factors have been hypothesized to be involved in the regulation of miRNA expression. In this study it was hypothesized that diet and lifestyle factors are associated with miRNA expression. Data from 1,447 cases of colorectal cancer to evaluate 34 diet and lifestyle variables using miRNA expression in normal colorectal mucosa as well as for differential expression between paired carcinoma and normal tissue were used. miRNA data were obtained using an Agilent platform. Multiple comparisons were adjusted for using the false discovery rate q-value. There were 250 …

Labor Force Participation: Impact Recommendation Report, Erin Jemison, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

Participants: Carrie Mayne (DWS), Lecia Langston (DWS), Jennifer Seelig (SLC), Pamela Perlich (Director of Demographic Research, Kem C. Gardnes Policy Institute, University of Utah), Anne Burkholder (CEO, YWCA Utah, WIEC Member), Rep. Becky Edwards (Utah House of Representatives, CoChair of the WIEC), Rebecca Chavez-Houck Utah House of Representatives, Co-Chair of the WIEC), Susan Madsen (UWLP Director), Erin Jemison (Director of Public Policy, YWCA Utah)

Equivalent Representations Of Non-Exponential Discounting Models, James A. Feigenbaum

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

I characterize the entire class of consumption rules for finite-horizon models in which consumption is proportional to lifetime wealth. Any such rule can be obtained from a preference model with CRRA period utility. In a steady state with constant interest rates, a proportional consumption rule can be derived from a model with time-consistent preferences or from a model with possibly time-inconsistent preferences in which a household continually reoptimizes future utility discounted relative to the present instant. These two preference models will only coincide for the special case when the discount function is exponential. More generally, there will be two distinct …

Quantifying Gravity Wave Momentum Fluxes With Mesosphere Temperature Mappers And Correlative Instrumentation, David C. Fritts, Pierre-Dominique Pautet, Katrina Bossert, Michael J. Taylor, Bifford P. Williams, Hiroyuki Iimura, Tao Yuan, Nicholas J. Mitchell, Gunter Stober

Publications

An Advanced Mesosphere Temperature Mapper and other instruments at the Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research in Norway (69.3°N) and at Logan and Bear Lake Observatory in Utah (42°N) are used to demonstrate a new method for quantifying gravity wave (GW) pseudo-momentum fluxes accompanying spatially and temporally localized GW packets. The method improves on previous airglow techniques by employing direct characterization of the GW temperature perturbations averaged over the OH airglow layer and correlative wind and temperature measurements to define the intrinsic GW properties with high confidence. These methods are applied to two events, each of which involves superpositions …

Senior Recital - Ellyn Porter, Ellyn Porter, Rachel Larsen

All Music Department Programs

This recital is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music in Music Performance. Ellyn Porter is a student of Bradley Ottesen.

Defense Company Donates $5,000 To Society Of Women Engineers | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – LOGAN, UTAH, Dec. 14, 2016 – The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Utah State University was presented with a check for $5,000 from defense company Northrop Grumman on Dec. 1.

Death Row Dilemmas: The Sentencing And Execution Of Ronald Smith Jr., Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In the early hours of the morning, on November 8th, 1994, Casey Wilson was working his shift at a Circle K in Huntsville, Alabama. That morning, 23-year-old Ronald Bert Smith Jr. came into the station with the intention to rob it. He pistol-whipped Wilson and forced him to the convenience store restroom where he shot him. Wilson died of his wounds. To avoid detection and identification, Smith removed the store’s surveillance videotape from that night and brought it with him.

In-Class Versus At-Home Quizzes: Which Is Better? A Flipped Learning Study In A Two-Site Synchronously-Broadcast Organic Chemistry Course, Michael A. Christensen, Alyssia M. Lambert, Louis S. Nadelson, Kami M. Dupree, Trish A. Kingsford

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We recently shared our design of a two-semester flipped organic chemistry course, in which we gave students in-class quizzes to incentivize attendance and watching the lecture videos in advance. With a second iteration, we planned to make the video-watching experience more engaging. We accordingly hypothesized that if students completed short at-home quizzes while watching the videos, then attentiveness, engagement, and learning would increase. We tested this with a later section of the course, dividing the material into 13 units. For units 1-6, we gave in-class quizzes; for 7-13, quizzes were at home. Although units 1-6 and 7-13 covered different material, …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, December 12, 2016, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Council on Teacher Education Annual Report
• EPC Items (December)
• Scholarship Advisory Board Annual Report
• Discussion of a portion of the Annual Review Procedures
  
  
  

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes, December 12, 2016, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Council on Teacher Education Annual Report – Francine Johnson
• EPC Report (December) - Larry Smith
• Scholarship Advisory Board Annual Report – Susan Barrus for Taya Flores
• Annual Review Procedures – Ronda Callister

Vicarious Calibration Of Suas Thermal Imagery For Scientific Remote Sensing Applications [B53h-0607], Alfonso F. Torres-Rua

AggieAir Presentations

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) have become an accessible technology for collection of spatially distributed temperature data at fine resolution. Nevertheless, lack of standard procedures for atmospheric temperature correction can have an adverse impact on the conclusions and replicability of studies using this technology. This work presents a vicarious calibration methodology for sUAS thermal imagery traceable back to NIST standards. For this methodology, a 3-yr. data collection campaign with a sUAS technology, called “AggieAir”, developed at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, was performed under different daytime conditions. A comparison between original and vicarious calibration for the sUAS thermal imagery is …

Usu Classroom Outfitted For Student Stress Research | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release - LOGAN, UTAH, Dec. 12, 2016 – Utah State University will soon be home to a specialized classroom designed to measure the triggers and effects of student academic stress.

Dr. Idalis Villanueva, an assistant professor of engineering education at USU, is the principal investigator and is targeting her research around engineering programs.

Sounds Of The Stadium, Aggie Marching Band, Usu Wind & Percussion Faculty

All Music Department Programs

Featuring Music of the 2016 Marching Band Season.

Victory And Poetry, Usu Symphony Orchestra, Sergio Bernal, Adam Nielson

All Music Department Programs

No abstract provided.

Utah State University Bands, Symphonic Band, Low Brass Ensemble, Cache Wind Symphony

All Music Department Programs

The USU Department of Music at Utah State University presents a concert featuring performances by the Symphonic Band, the Low Brass Ensemble, and the Cache Wind Symphony.

Forest Restoration Using Variable Density Thinning: Lessons From Douglas-Fir Stands In Western Oregon, Klaus J. Puettmann, Adrian Ares, Julia I. Burton, Erich Kyle Dodson

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

A large research effort was initiated in the 1990s in western United States and Canada to investigate how the development of old-growth structures can be accelerated in young even-aged stands that regenerated following clearcut harvests, while also providing income and ecosystem services. Large-scale experiments were established to compare effects of thinning arrangements (e.g., spatial variability) and residual densities (including leave islands and gaps of various sizes). Treatment effects were context dependent, varying with initial conditions and spatial and temporal scales of measurement. The general trends were highly predictable, but most responses were spatially variable. Thus, accounting for initial conditions at …

The Role Of Diverse Strategies In The Sustainability Of Online Communities, Lingfei Wu, Jacopo A. Baggio, Marco A. Janssen

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Online communities are becoming increasingly important as platforms for large-scale human cooperation. These communities allow users seeking and sharing professional skills to solve problems collaboratively. To investigate how users cooperate to complete a large number of knowledge-producing tasks, we analyze Stack Exchange, one of the largest question and answer systems in the world. We construct attention networks to model the growth of 110 communities in the Stack Exchange system and quantify individual answering strategies using the linking dynamics on attention networks. We identify two answering strategies. Strategy A aims at performing maintenance by doing simple tasks, whereas strategy B aims …

Utah State University Flutes Solo Recital, Smmy Douville, Eric O'Donnell, Jenna Bouvang, Kryshelle Kindred, Alex Traini, Allie Patton, Hadley Kirk, Jennifer Christensen, I. Davies, Patty Serhousek, Beth Foley

All Music Department Programs

No abstract provided.

Winter Songs, Usu Combined Choirs, Cory Evans, Luke Shepherd, Usu Women's Choir, Usu Chorale, Usu Chamber Singers

All Music Department Programs

Concert featuring the USU Combined Choirs, and directors Cory Evans and Luke Shepherd.

Winter Songs, Usu Combined Choirs, Cory Evans, Luke Shepherd

All Music Department Programs

Winter Songs featuring the USU Combined Choirs directed by Cory Evans and Luke Shepherd.