Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Galaxies: Island Universes In The Cosmos, Shane L. Larson

Public Talks

No abstract provided.

Pakistan’S Two-Stage Monsoon And Links With The Recent Climate Change, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Robert Davies, Wan Ru Huang, Robert R. Gillies

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Meteorological conditions related to the Pakistan floods of 2010 were examined in the context of monsoon dynamics and large‐scale circulations. Case and climatological analyses suggest that summer precipitation in northern Pakistan comprises two distinct phases: (1) a premonsoon trough phase (July) whose rainfall is more episodic and intense, occurring prior to arrival of the monsoon trough, and (2) a monsoon trough phase (August) whose rainfall is persistent, yet less episodic, driven by northward migration of the monsoon trough. Analyses of conditional instability, moisture flux, and circulation features support a persistent increase in conditional instability during the July premonsoon trough phase, …

Modeling Phloem Temperatures Relative To Mountain Pine Beetle Phenology, Matthew Jared Lewis

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

We explore a variety of methods to estimate phloem temperatures from ambient air temperatures suitable for the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae. A model's ability to induce the same phenology generated from observed phloem temperatures measures its effectiveness rather than a simple reconstruction of phloem temperatures. From a model's phenology results we are able to ascertain whether the model produces a similar amount of developmental energy exhibited by observed phloem temperatures.

Three models performed best: Newton, Newton South and Matching. The Newton model uses Newton's Law of Cooling to effectively estimate northern aspect phloem temperatures. The Newton South model …

Software For Analyzing Municipal Water Data To Design Water Conservation Strategies, Adrian Patton Welsh

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

Planning for drought and growth-induced water scarcity is a challenge confronting municipal water departments. When water shortages occur, demand management policies and programs are often implemented to encourage water conservation. Due to the nature of water resources and municipal water delivery systems, cities are concerned about meeting citizens’ water needs. A city can review water billing records to see how much water people use, but how do they know how much water people need? Standards and guidelines have been established for indoor water use (gallons/person/day), but the amount of water needed to irrigate outdoor landscapes is more variable, highly contextualized, …

Dietary Patterns And Cognitive Decline In Aged Populations, Austin J. Bowles

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

In this paper, we discuss distinctive features of longitudinal studies, and illustrate two regression-based methods for the analysis of longitudinal data. A study of dietary patterns and cognitive decline (Cache County Memory Study) is used to motivate our discussion and analysis. Cognitive decline is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, the sixth leading cause of all deaths among Americans. The study attempted to identify dietary patterns associated with reduced risk of age-related cognitive decline in elderly populations. Higher levels of adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and/or Mediterranean diets were found to be associated with increased cognitive …

Stressors Across The Lifespan And Dementia Risk: A Statistical Method Analysis, Megan Platt Borrowman

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

The Cache Lifespan Stressors and Alzheimer's Disease (LSAD) study has access to data from the Cache County Study on Memory Health and Aging (CCS) that have been linked to the extensive genealogical and vital records from the Utah Population Database (UPDB). Information about stressful life events experienced by the original 5092 CCS participants has been extracted objectively from the UPDB, without the possibility of recall bias. This information was then statistically analyzed to look for relationships between key stressors and dementia risk. The LSAD study made it possible to examine the correlation between stressors as well as look at patterns …

Newfield Master Development Plan No. 6, United States Department Of The Interior, Bureau Of Land Management

Environmental Assessments (UT)

This Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to analyze Newfield Production Company's (Newfield) proposed 20-acre infill development project within the Greater Monument Butte Unit (GMBU).

An Extendable Software Architecture For Massively Parallel Biological Simulation, Karthik Iyer

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

Information technology has aided tremendously in the growth of the medical sciences industry. Tissue simulation is one such area wherein information technology aids in the field of medical science. This project focuses on defining, designing, and developing a computational architecture that performs repetitive and rigorous tissue simulation runs under different conditions and utilizes parallel computation.

The goal of this work is to demonstrate a parallel network-based architecture involving multiple clients interacting with a server that sends and receives voluminous data. The project assumes large memory capacity for the clients and the servers, but limits bandwidth requirements. The work demonstrates a …

Charm Web-Interface, Nirmal G. Tiwari

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

This project presents a web-based interface for Child Health Advanced Record Management System (CHARM) users that provides easy and fast access to child information from multiple data sources. This project’s overarching goal is to integrate child information from different participating programs under a single interface to allow any CHARM user (including users not belonging to any particular participating program) to view information from different participating programs. To that end, the interface allows any registered CHARM user to access child information from multiple data sources without the user being a registered member of any particular participating program. Thus, the user can …

A Merging System For Integrated Person-Centric Information Systems, Swati Jain

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

Large-scale integrated information systems correlate equivalent or related information from multiple data sources to provide a unified view of data. This report describes the design and implementation of a tool called xMerger that provides a unified view from multiple matching records, which could be multi-source duplicates and overlapping records. To achieve this xMerger provides a merging process that generates a complete and accurate merged record from conflicting and incomplete records. This report also discusses the challenges present in the process of merging and xMerger’s solutions. xMerger’s design and implementation was validated by adapting it to CHARM, a real world integrated …

Creating A Representation Of Items And Version That Support Efficient Evaluation Of The Transaction-Time Axis In Xml-Based Databases, Kaylan Goutham Mekala

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

This project was developed to create a platform for implementing the features and query support provided by the transaction time axis (tt-axis). The basis for this platform is a new numbering plan called item version timestamp level numbering (IVTLN), and it extends an existing numbering plan, namely, dewey level numbering (DLN), by including version and timestamp information. Thus, the transaction time axis provides a temporal perspective for XML nodes in addition to non-temporal axes like the ancestor and descendant axes. This project provides an efficient, extensible, and comprehensible platform for the implementation of the new numbering plan and the services …

Test Data Extraction And Comparison With Test Data Generation, Ali Raza

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Testing an integrated information system that relies on data from multiple sources can be a challenge, particularly when the data is confidential. This thesis describes a novel test data extraction approach, called semantic-based test data extraction for integrated systems (iSTDE) that solves many of the problems associated with creating realistic test data for integrated information systems containing confidential data. iSTDE reads a consistent cross-section of data from the production databases, manipulates that data to obscure individual identities while still preserving overall semantic data characteristics that are critical to thorough system testing, and then moves that test data to …

Ecologically-Based Manipulation Practices For Managing Bromus Tectorum-Infested Rangelands, Beth Fowers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is an invasive annual grass common in several semiarid plant communities in the western U.S. B. tectorum presence increases fire frequency and size, reducing species diversity, and leading to annual species-dominated systems with inconsistent livestock forage potential and degraded wildlife habitat value. Most efforts to manage B. tectorum-dominated rangelands have focused on controlling the plant itself rather than addressing the causes of vegetation change. An alternative approach, ecologically-based invasive plant management (EBIPM), identifies treatments that can alter factors associated with the causes of succession, leading to a more desirable vegetation state. This study utilized …

Reducing Reliance On Supplemental Winter Feeding In Elk (Cervus Canadensis): An Applied Management Experiment At Deseret Land And Livestock Ranch, Utah, Dax L. Mangus

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wildlife managers have fed elk in North America for nearly 100 years. Giving winter feed to elk can compensate for a shortage of natural winter range and may boost elk populations while also helping prevent commingling with livestock and depredation of winter feed intended for livestock. In contrast to these benefits of supplemental feeding, there are economic and environmental costs associated with feeding, and elk herds that winter on feeding grounds have a higher risk of contracting and transmitting disease. Brucellosis is of primary concern now, and Chronic Wasting Disease may be in the future. Many see the discontinuation of …

From The Big Bang To Table Mountain: The Cosmic Biography Of Atoms, Shane L. Larson

Public Talks

No abstract provided.

Mercury In The Pelagic And Benthic Food Webs Of The Great Salt Lake, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Erin Fleming, Caleb Izdepski, Jodi Gardberg

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Winter Ridge Ha Wild Horse Gather And Removal Plan, United States Department Of The Interior, Bureau Of Land Management

Environmental Assessments (UT)

The Winter Ridge HA encompasses approximately 46,500 acres of public and private land, within Grand and Uintah Counties in Utah. The HA is approximately 90 miles south of Vernal, Utah. The BLM has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) to analyze the environmental impacts associated with the gather and removal; refer to DOI-BLM-UT-010-2010-0208.

Mesospheric Temperature Variability And Seasonal Characteristics Over The Andes, Jonathan Pugmire, Yucheng Zhao, Michael J. Taylor, P D. Pautet

Graduate Student Posters

The Utah State University CEDAR Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (MTM) is a high-quality CCD imager capable of remote sensing faint optical emissions from the night sky to determine mesospheric temperature and its variability at an altitude of ~87 km. The MTM was operated at the new Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO)located at Cerro Pachon, Chile (30.2° S, 70.7° W) since August 2009 to investigate the seasonal characteristic of the mesopause at mid-latitudes. Measurement were made alongside a powerful lidar capable of height sounding the mesosphere. In this study, the MTM data have been analyzed to determine night to night variability and seasonal …

The World's Most Sensitive Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar, Leda Sox, V. B. Wickwar, J P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham, Lance W. Peterson

Posters

No abstract provided.

Stellar Fossils: Globular Clusters As Probes Of The Galaxy, Shane L. Larson

Public Talks

No abstract provided.

Astro Camp Presentation, Get Away Special Team 2011

Education and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Seasonal Variability And Dynamics Of Mesospheric Gravity Waves Over The Andes, Neal R. Criddle, Michael J. Taylor, P. D. Pautet, Y. Zhao

Graduate Student Posters

The ALO is a new facility developed for atmospheric research, located at the foot of the Andes mountain range in Cerro Pachon, Chile (30.2°S, 70.7°W). As part of a collaborative program, Utah State has a mesospheric temperature mapper (MTM) on site, which is used to study short period gravity wave dynamics and temperature variations in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere region. The MTM began taking measurements of the OH(6,2) and O2(0,1) spectral bands in August 2009 and a complete profile of seasonal variation in gravity wave characteristics has been created for August 2009 through August 2010 using the OH(6,2) Band. The primary …

Linking Rates Of Diffusion And Consumption In Relationto Resources, Tal Avgar, Daniel Kuefler, John M. Fryxell

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The functional response is a fundamental model of the relationship between consumer intake rate and resource abundance. The random walk is a fundamental model of animal movement and is well approximated by simple diffusion. Both models are central to our understanding of numerous ecological processes but are rarely linked in ecological theory. To derive a synthetic model, we draw on the common logical premise underlying these models and show how the diffusion and consumption rates of consumers depend on elementary attributes of naturally occurring consumer-resource interactions: the abundance, spatial aggregation, and traveling speed of resources as well as consumer handling …

Envs 6900: Graduate Student Publishing Seminar, Charles Romesburg

Charles Romesburg

Course syllabus for ENVS 6900, Graduate Student Publishing Seminar describes course (purpose, format, etc.) and provides lists of readings and magazine outlets for student writings.

A Systematic Construction Of Curved Phase Space: A Gravitational Gauge Theory With Symplectic Form, Jeffrey Hazboun, James Thomas Wheeler

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Darboux Integrability - A Brief Historial Survey, Ian M. Anderson

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Collecting, Analyzing And Interpreting Bivariate Data From Leaky Buckets: A Project-Based Learning Unit, Florence Funmilayo Obielodan

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

Despite the significance and the emphasis placed on mathematics as a subject and field of study, achieving the right attitude to improve students‟ understanding and performance is still a challenge. Previous studies have shown that the problem cuts across nations around the world, both developing countries and developed alike. Teachers and educators of the subject have responsibilities to continuously develop innovative pedagogical approaches that will enhance students‟ interests and performance. Teaching approaches that emphasize real life applications of the subject have become imperative. It is believed that this will stimulate learners‟ interest in the subject as they will be able …

Alternative Futures For The Upper Colorado River Ecosystem: Phase Ii, Temis G. Taylor

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

Wildlife habitat and biodiversity in the Upper Colorado River Ecosystem are threatened by growth of urban areas, subdivision of rural lands, and exploitation of natural resources. The White-Yampa, Colorado Headwaters, and Gunnison River Watersheds within the region were investigated to discover areas supporting high biodiversity that would be possible candidates for conservation efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Using an alternative futures planning process and principles of landscape ecology, development of energy of the resources in the region was found to be the primary driver for land use and impacts to wildlife habitat. Through application of geospatial modeling …

Climate Change And Community Dynamics: A Hierarchical Bayesian Model Of Resource-Driven Changes In A Desert Rodent Community, Glenda M. Yenni

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

Predicting effects of climate change on species persistence often assumes that those species are responding to abiotic effects alone. However, biotic interactions between community members may affect species’ ability to respond to abiotic changes. Latent Gaussian models of resource availability using precipitation and NDVI and accounting for spatial autocorrelation and rodent group-level uncertainty in the process are developed to detect differences in seasons, groups, and the experimental removal of one group. Precipitation and NDVI have overall positive effects on rodent energy use as expected, but meaningful differences were detected. Differences in the importance of seasonality when the dominant group was …

Solving Equations Applet Project, Kimberly Thatcher

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

The purpose of this paper is to summarize a Masters Project for the MMath Degree. The purpose of the project was to create and evaluate an applet that maintains the advantages of the existent manipulatives (Hands-On Equations® and the NLVM applet) while also overcoming the limitations of each. Another product of this project is accompanying lesson plans for teachers.