Digital Commons Network^™

Impact Of Fish Oil On Intestinal Permeability, Inflammation, And Performance In Swine, Anthony Fernando Alberto

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Our research examined the effects of fish oil supplementation on intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation and performance in piglets. An lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge was done to stimulate the synthesis and release of the cytokines, in an effort to mimic the immune response that piglets would have when facing stress or pathogen challenge. Fish oil increased feed intake but did not affect growth when compared to control. Total fatty acid digestibility increased by 6% when fish oil was included in the diet. Also, we observed a 16% increase on 16-carbon fatty acids digestibility. Fish oil did not affect the plasma …

Soil Health Monitoring And Management In Corn And Soybean Agroecosystems Of The Midwestern U.S., Bradley S. Crookston

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Soil health is a concept and condition of the soil where measurable soil properties represent the capacity of a soil fulfilling its intended use, such as producing crops, without constraint to its agro-ecological quality. Soil health assessments are used to estimate the health of a soil by assessing soil biological, chemical, and physical attributes, called soil health indicators, and scoring them on a scale, usually 0 to 100, to guide soil and crop management. However, there are few large-scale analyses of soil health assessment scores and their relationships with crop yield. Understanding how soil health assessments relate to crop yield …

Tractor Connections For Killing Tensors And Their Generalizations, Benjamin D. Shaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We create new symbolic software tools for the analysis of Killing tensors. Central to our work is the construction of the tractor connection defined on the tractor bundle, which allows one to obtain information about the space of Killing tensors without solving the Killing equations–an approach termed the tractor approach. We give a new application of the tractor approach which allows one to more easily check explicitly for linear independence of a given set of Killing tensors. We develop software to implement such methods in the case of rank 2 Killing tensors; similarly, we develop software to implement analogous methods …

Geometrization Of Perfect Fluids, Scalar Fields, And (2+1)-Dimensional Electromagnetic Fields, Dionisios Sotirios Krongos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Rainich equations provide a purely geometrical interpretation of matter in terms of the gravitational field it generates. All this takes place within the geometrical formulation of gravity provided by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Rainich-type conditions giving spacetime "goemetrizations" are reviewed and extended. Three types of matter are considered: perfect fluids, scalar fields, and electromagnetic fields.

Numerical Cognition And Autism Spectrum Traits In Adults, Benjamin Covington

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evidence suggests that individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be particularly inclined toward math proficiency, especially in adulthood. There is also evidence, however, that many of those with an ASD struggle in math as children compared to their typically-developing peers. These ostensibly inconsistent findings may indicate that individuals with an ASD struggle with number sense, a precursor to formal math, rather than with formal math per se. This account is compatible with evidence of a specific form of neural dysregulation, excitatory/inhibitory imbalance, in ASD that results in reduced signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) for processes that occur in downstream …

Gps-Denied Navigation Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Images And Neural Networks, Teresa White

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) often rely on GPS for navigation. GPS signals, however, are very low in power and easily jammed or otherwise disrupted. This paper presents a method for determining the navigation errors present at the beginning of a GPS-denied period utilizing data from a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. This is accomplished by comparing an online-generated SAR image with a reference image obtained a priori. The distortions relative to the reference image are learned and exploited with a convolutional neural network to recover the initial navigational errors, which can be used to recover the true flight trajectory throughout …

Assessing The Relationship Between Geophytes And The Archaeological Presence Of Maize In North America, Paige Dorsey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis investigates the possible relationship between the archaeological presence of maize, in the United States, and historical environmental variables, rainfall and temperature, in addition to the number of underground plants that store energy and nutrients, in a given area. The thought behind this is that where the abundance of these underground plant species is highest, the lower the number of archaeological sites containing maize because such resources were a more attractive alternative food than maize. Conversely, where geophytes are less abundant, archaeological instances of maize should be more abundant because maize is a better option in such environments for …

Absolute Neutral Densities And Temperatures And Their Climatologies In The Middle Atmosphere Using An Optimal Estimation Method With Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar Observations Obtained At Utah State University, Jonathan L. Price

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Earth’s atmosphere is comprised of layers which can be defined by their temperature characteristics. These layers are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere. The region where life exists is in the troposphere, however the study of the layers above is important as changes in these regions can directly impact, or indicate significant changes in, weather in the troposphere. The mesosphere is the least well-known region because it is the most difficult to observe. One of the best tools for observing this region is the Rayleigh-scatter lidar. It is capable of remotely observing the entirety of the mesosphere with good …

Balance Control And Exercise-Based Interventions In Older Adults, Youngwook Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Loss of balance and consequential falling, caused by natural degenerations in the sensory and motor systems with aging, are critical issues that require constant research exploration to ultimately improve the quality of life in older populations. Balance can be simply classified into static and dynamic balance, and the latter is more associated with common causes of falling in older adults. There are numerous ways to improve dynamic balance, and exercise training has been considered the most beneficial intervention for that purpose. Specifically, aquatic exercises have been suggested as a promising modality because several properties of water, including buoyance and hydrostatic …

High-Magnification Digital Image Correlation Techniques For Aged Nuclear Fuel Cladding Testing, Robert Scott Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nuclear fuel cladding in light water reactors, often made of zirconium alloys, is naturally made more brittle by exposure to the water coolant during normal reactor operation. However, this embrittlement by zirconium hydrides changes the mechanical behavior of the cladding material, affecting how it will deform and what may cause it to fail. Because the cladding already has different properties in different material directions, mechanical testing also needs to be direction specific. In addition, to understand the effects that these microscale hydride features have, measurements of deforming cladding need to be at a microscale. This dissertation describes several high-magnification innovations …

Candidate Ideology And Small Donor Contributions, Ryan Kobe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

While individual citizens are the biggest source of campaign fundraising in Senate and House elections, previous research has focused on individuals donating over the reporting limit of $200. The Federal Elections Committee now makes available data on individuals who donate less than $200, and as these donors take on a bigger role in congressional fundraising, a new analysis of donor motivations is needed. This thesis investigates if and how candidate ideology is related to amount contributed. Specifically, I ask whether the dollar amount of contributions changes depending on how conservative or liberal a candidate is. These results have important implications …

A Comparison Of The Ecology Of Resident And Translocated Beavers Used For Passive Restoration In Degraded Desert Rivers, Emma Doden

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ecosystem engineers are species that create, destroy, modify, or maintain habitat. As ecosystem engineers, beavers have the potential to assist in stream restoration. Translocation is the capture and relocation of an animal to another area. Translocation of nuisance beavers has become a popular method to reduce human-wildlife conflict and restore waterways. However, few projects monitor beavers after release and compare behavior to naturally occurring resident beavers. Translocations to desert rivers are also rare. We captured, tagged, and monitored 47 beavers which we translocated to desert river restoration sites on the Price and San Rafael Rivers, Utah, USA. We compared translocated …

Does Fashion Sustainability Instruction Influence Student Intention To Make Sustainable Apparel Choices?, Amber Swasey Williams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the effects that sustainable fashion education had on college students’ attitudes, subjective norms, knowledge, and intention to make sustainable apparel choices. In addition, relationships were analyzed and interpreted between intention and attitudes, subjective norms, and knowledge. The need for this research stems from changes in the fashion industry that required the adoption of new business models. The circular economy model embraces a culture that makes, consumes, enriches, or returns the product to supply chains. For the circular model to be successful, all stakeholders must understand the role one plays in creating a sustainable industry. The consumer is …

The Experience Of Becoming A Teacher Leader, Cory G. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Teacher leadership has become an increasingly important aspect of school reform and evaluation. Teacher leadership is often viewed as teachers leading either through formal positions or influencing others informally. There is a lot of research describing the benefits of teacher leadership, but there is little that describes the process of a teacher leader and the effects this experience has on the teacher leaders themselves. This study examines the experience of becoming a teacher leader as viewed through interviews with 11 junior high school teachers from a single school district.

The findings of this study suggest the importance of initial events, …

Educational Barriers Childhood Cancer Patients And Survivors Experience: Cancer Care Team Perspectives, Karely Mann

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

After a child is diagnosed with cancer their life changes dramatically, including their school attendance and education goals. This study was done to find out common schooling and education problems young cancer patients and survivors face and how cancer care team members try to help.

This study focused on the point of view of the cancer care team members. Cancer care team members include nurses, social workers, oncologists, and many other professionals. All cancer care team members who participated in the study took a survey and many of them also agreed to participate in a short interview.

We found that …

Examining Segregation Between Chinese And Euroamerican Residences Using Suitability Modeling Within The Built Environment At Terrace, Utah: A Case Study, Kelly N. Jimenez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Suitability modeling is a useful approach for exploring human interactions with their environments. Within a geographic information system (GIS) environment, locations are weighted relative to each other, resulting in a landscape hierarchy that displays regions from least to most suitable. Suitability modeling is used in various disciplines, from urban planning to natural resources, but a gap exists in research concerning social human behavior. This method can especially contribute to the investigation of social inequality at archaeological sites by considering multiple attributes within a site. In this thesis, I use method to determine social inequality between cultural groups at the historic …

Characterizing Relational Values To Inform Message-Framing At The Boa Ogoi Historical Site, Cole G. Stocker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In an increasingly polarized political climate–particularly in the U.S.– environmental issues such as climate change and its effects on the environment have become hot-button partisan talking points resulting in further division. This has led to research on ways to communicate science which does not further inflame political tensions, but rather reinforces and validates the audience’s values. Science communication research provides the foundation for my case study, which focuses on characterizing the environmental values and worldviews of land managers residing and working near the Boa Ogoi Historical Site in southern Idaho. The Northwest Band of Shoshone Nation (NWBSN) is in the …

The Effects Of Explicitly Teaching Summarization Skills On The Reading Comprehension Of Students With Specific Learning Disabilities, Sherri Lay

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Students with reading disabilities struggle with comprehending what they are reading and the necessary strategies to help them understand what they read. Summarizing what was read is a proven strategy for improving reading comprehension. This project examined one strategy for writing summaries called Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text or GIST. Participants included two 7^th grade students and one 8^th grade student who were in Special Education classroom for reading services. The results of this study were inconclusive. Participants showed growth in their summarizing skills, but the growth could not be adequately attributed to the GIST strategy.

Methods To Improve Our Understanding Of Aspen Regeneration And Aspen Distribution Across The Intermountain West, Robert Joseph Julius Bidner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the dominant broadleaf tree and an ecologically important species at upper elevations in the Intermountain West. Recent large-scale forest mortality events have raised questions about how physiological and climatic factors influence aspen’s distribution across the western U.S. Aspen is particularly well-known for reproducing asexually from its root sprouts, leading to the formation of large clonal stands. In addition, as a wind-dispersed species, aspen sexual reproduction plays an important role in how it is distributed at a landscape scale. My research focuses on questions relating to both sexual and asexual reproduction of aspen.

My …

Intelligent Traffic Management: From Practical Stochastic Path Planning To Reinforcement Learning Based City-Wide Traffic Optimization, Kamilia Ahmadi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research focuses on intelligent traffic management including stochastic path planning and city scale traffic optimization. Stochastic path planning focuses on finding paths when edge weights are not fixed and change depending on the time of day/week. Then we focus on minimizing the running time of the overall procedure at query time utilizing precomputation and approximation. The city graph is partitioned into smaller groups of nodes and represented by its exemplar. In query time, source and destination pairs are connected to their respective exemplars and the path between those exemplars is found. After this, we move toward minimizing the city …

Determinants Of The Student Loan Decision And Financial Well-Being: The Role Of Financial Education, Financial Literacy, And Student Loan Characteristics, Emily Shaffer Hales

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The student loan crisis has been an important area of personal, political, and research discussion. Many individuals must make the decision to attend college with the help of student loans and millions are currently in repayment on their student loan. However, it can be difficult to understand what factors may play a role the decision to take out a student loan and how managing one’s student loan could affect their personal financial well-being. Thus, this study examined factors that could be related to how an individual may decide to take out a student loan, such as if they participated in …

Characteristic Of The Dynamics Of Disorder In Crystalline And Amorphous Materials, Amir Behbahanian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work provides the evidence to apply simulation methods that are applicable to systems with structural randomness to simulate crystalline materials at high temperatures. My work not only open the avenue to expand the simulation capability of materials but also provides insight to the physics of vibrations of atoms under different temperature and for different types of materials. I have also evaluated the reliability of Molecular Dynamics simulations at the frequency level and found that theses types of simulations, despite the previous belief, are reliable at low temperatures but up to a measurable frequency. In addition, the result of my …

An Investigation Into The Feasibility Of Streamlining Language Sample Analysis Through Computer-Automated Transcription And Scoring, Carly Fox

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the study was to investigate the feasibility of streamlining the transcription and scoring portion of language sample analysis (LSA) through computer-automation. LSA is a gold-standard procedure for examining childrens’ language abilities that is underutilized by speech language pathologists due to its time-consuming nature. To decrease the time associated with the process, the accuracy of transcripts produced automatically with Google Cloud Speech and the accuracy of scores generated by a hard-coded scoring function called the Literate Language Use in Narrative Analysis (LLUNA) were evaluated. A collection of narrative transcripts and audio recordings of narrative samples were selected to …

On The Geometry Of The Moduli Space Of Certain Lattice Polarized K3 Surfaces And Their Picard-Fuchs Operators, Michael T. Schultz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

K3 surfaces have a long and rich study in mathematics, and more recently in physics via string theory. Often, K3 surfaces come in multiparameter families - the parameters describing these surfaces fit together to form their own geometric space, a so-called moduli space. In particular, the moduli spaces of K3 surfaces equipped with a lattice polarization can sometimes be constructed explicitly, which subsequently reveals important information about the original K3 surface.

In this work, we construct such families explicitly from certain rational elliptic surfaces via the so-called mixed-twist construction of Doran & Malmendier, which in turn produces the moduli …

The Plant Growth Promoting Ability Of The Microbiome Of Ceanothus Velutinus From The Intermountain West Region, Jyothsna Ganesh

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to the ever-changing climate and deterioration of the earth’s ecosystem, environmental stresses like abiotic (drought, salinity) and biotic stresses (pathogen infection) gravely affected plant growth. Native plants are a great way of improving these effects on the urban landscape. They can be used as ornamental plants in landscaping as they are accustomed to their natural environment. The Center for Water-Efficient Landscaping at Utah State University has released a list of plants to be used for low water use landscaping. One such native plant is Ceanothus velutinus (snowbrush ceanothus). They are evergreen plants that can grow in dry and harsh …

Assessing Parental Involvement In Required High School Financial Literacy Education Courses Taught In Utah School Districts, Jennifer L. Gardner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Financial management skills are used throughout our lives, from the first allowance we receive until we provide funds for our funeral services and burial. How do we learn financial skills that last us a lifetime?

Much of our learning comes from watching others, specifically as children and teens, even into young adulthood, as explained by Social Learning Theory. This informal learning can help or hinder us throughout our lives, especially when finances are involved. In recent years, the opportunities for formal education have increased.

Ideally, based on systems theory, formal and informal financial learning would work hand in hand for …

Influence Of External Ph And Organic Acids On Internal Ph And Acid Anion Accumulation In Listeria Monocytogenes And Escherichia Coli, Savannah R. Branson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli are both among the most common microbial pathogens that cause foodborne illnesses and death. They both are capable of growing over a wide range of conditions. Organic acids are widely employed in the food industry to control growth of these pathogens to help prevent foodborne illnesses. There is substantial evidence that intracellular accumulation of organic acid anions is a major inhibitor to cell growth, and that many bacteria may combat anion accumulation by lowering their intracellular pH (pH_i). In this study, we followed the accumulation of acid anion into the cell pellet and …

Sensitivity Study For Uav Gps-Denied Navigation In Uncertain Landmark Fields, Samantha D. Burton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This document provides two 2D simulation sensitivity analyses regarding a drone’s flight characteristic (state) errors within a GPS-denied region. The research focuses on a development and investigation of utilizing a camera to simultaneously determine a drone’s state while locating landmarks, where there is uncertainty in the landmarks’ exact positions prior to the mission (SLAM). This SLAM method is performed in regions with limited access to GPS. Furthermore, there is development and investigation of controlling the drone in conjunction with SLAM using potential error-reducing control parameters. Objectives are to quantitatively understand the UAV’s sensitivity of position errors to sensor grade and …

Control Of Three Invasive Annual Grasses In Utah Using Herbicides Including Indaziflam, Hailey L. Buell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Invasive grasses pose a threat to rangeland ecosystems in Utah. Three grasses in particular: downy brome, medusahead, and ventenata can push out native plants and prevent other vegetation from germinating. These grasses can also degrade grazing lands for cattle and act as kindling for wildfires. The use of herbicides is the most common way to rid a site of invasive plants. Herbicides that prevent germination for many years work well to keep annual grasses at bay while not harming the many long-living native plants that are already growing.

A study was designed on a site infested with downy brome to …

Improvement Opportunities In The Two-Source Energy Balance Model For Et Using Uav Imagery And Point Cloud Information, Mahyar Aboutalebi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In recent years, satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide enormous amounts of spatially-distributed information for monitoring crop conditions by measuring crop’s reflected and emitted radiation at a distance. However, applications of high-resolution UAV imagery and its intermediate products for improving crop water use estimates are not well studied. In other words, the available approaches, methods and algorithms for determining how much water to apply for irrigation using remotely sensed data have been mostly developed at satellite spatial resolutions. High-resolution imageries that have been achieved by small UAVs open new opportunities for revisiting, re-evaluating, and revising available crop water use …