Digital Commons Network^™

Grimelda And The Spooktacular Pet Show, Karen Abbott

Children's Book and Media Review

While flying on her broom through town, Grimelda sees a poster for the Spooktacular Pet Show. Sure that her cat is the most spooktacular pet around, she rushes home to find Wizzleworts sound asleep. Her friend wooshes by on her fire-breathing dragon and Grimelda wonders if Wizzleworts is up to the competition. She searches for another spooky pet and in a bog she finds a monster eel, but he is a bit too much for her to handle. She escapes the eel and finds that a spell will turn Wizzleworts into a truly spooktacular pet. They rush to the competition …

Scholastic Discover More: Dolphins, Kristie Hinckley

Children's Book and Media Review

Readers will learn more than they ever knew about dolphins in Scholastic Discover More: Dolphins. Dolphins are similar to humans in many ways, including their status as mammals. Readers will learn how dolphins breathe, communicate, travel, and hunt. Many interesting facts are scattered throughout the book; for example, did you know that a dolphin can rest half of its brain while the other half is alert? This book is also full of captivating photographs of dolphins in their natural habitats.

I Took The Moon For A Walk, Jess Verzello

Children's Book and Media Review

A little boy is joined by the moon as they take a walk across the town, through the park, and over the bridge. They see many nocturnal animals and enjoy the beauty of nighttime before heading home and settling down to sleep.

Farmyard Security, Kristie Hinckley

Children's Book and Media Review

Farmyard Security is a reader’s theater script and guide and the play is appropriate for students reading between a third- and sixth-grade level. This fairy tale, with elements of Chicken Little, is set on a farm. The hen, who is woken up from her nap by a fallen apple, informs all the animals on the farm that “the sky is falling!” While informing all the animals, the hen and other farmyard friends are lured to “safety” in the wolf’s den. Thankfully, the farmer saves his precious animals from the wolf’s guile and the mystery of the falling sky is resolved.

I Am Not A Chair!, Ariel Woodbury

Children's Book and Media Review

All the other animals keep mistaking Giraffe for a chair! He tries to speak up, but every time he does something happens! So he tries a different approach: he decides to show them the difference between himself and the chair by making one. Unfortunately for Giraffe, the chair looks just like him! A hungry lion sits on Giraffe while he looks for an animal to eat. Giraffe stands still until he finally tells the lion that he's a giraffe. The lion is so scared that his chair is talking that he runs away. The next day, Giraffe tells everyone what …

Alligators Eat And Grow, Kristie Hinckley

Children's Book and Media Review

Alligators start their life in a small egg, but they can grow to be twelve feet long and weigh 550 pounds! Mother alligators try to keep their babies safe from birds and raccoons. Baby alligators eat bugs, frogs, and small fish; adult alligators eat snakes, turtles, and birds. Alligators eat their food whole and can live to be fifty years old! Readers will learn all this and more in Alligators Eat and Grow.

The Shady Tree, Sierra Beveridge

Children's Book and Media Review

Tan Tan is an angry rich boy who loves his Shady Tree. He lives in a big house and loves to play under the shade of the tree with all of his toys, but then Ping shows up. Tan Tan does not like Ping and tells him to leave. Ping gets the idea to buy the shade from the beautiful tree and Tan Tan agrees to sell Ping the shade because he thinks Ping is being silly. But Tan Tan slowly learns that this was a mistake as Ping invites his friends (and their animals) over to sit with him …

Mingo The Flamingo, Ariel Woodbury

Children's Book and Media Review

Mingo is heading out on his very first migration. Everything is going well until his family flies into a storm and Mingo crash-lands on a farm! The farm animals aren't sure what Mingo is. After determining that he is indeed an animal and not a golf club or lawn ornament, Mingo tries to remember who he is. But nothing seems right until one day he remembers! But poor Mingo's wing is still hurt and he can't fly to meet his family. Mingo trains to become strong enough to fly, but he still can't! His friends on the farm build him …

Green Animals, Kristie Hinckley

Children's Book and Media Review

In Green Animals, readers learn that green is the combination of the primary colors blue and yellow which makes it a secondary color. There are green animals that live in water and on land. Some of these animals include tree pythons, European tree frogs, green basilisks, caterpillars, and Amazon parrots. Many animals, including several varieties of mantis, use their green characteristics as camouflage. Some animals like tree sloths turn green from the algae that grows on them. Readers will learn all kinds of interesting facts about green animals in this book.

The Critter Club: Liz Learns A Lesson, Kristie Hinckley

Children's Book and Media Review

Liz is one of four girls that make up the Critter Club. After school, the girls help run a small animal shelter in Ms. Sullivan’s barn. As summer approaches, Liz can’t wait to take care of the animals and take an art class at the local library. But her plans change when her mom and principal decide she needs a little help with math over the summer. She has to go to the school library every week and take a class for kids who struggle with math instead of going to art class. Even though she’s daydreamed about art class …

Room On The Broom, Annie Huish

Children's Book and Media Review

The witch tapped her broomstick and whoosh! The witch and her cat were gone. This captivating motion picture, as inspired by the book Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson, follows a witch and her cat as they fly through the wind. Along the way, the witch loses articles including her hat, bow, and wand. As each article is lost, the witch and her cat fly down to find what they are looking for, and on their way pick up a dog, a bird, and a frog. Everyone seems happy (even though the cat may not have been at first), …

Room On The Broom, Annie Huish

Children's Book and Media Review

The witch tapped her broomstick and whoosh! The witch and her cat were gone. This captivating book follows a witch and her cat as they fly through the wind. Along the way, the witch loses articles including her hat, bow, and wand. As each article is lost, the witch and her cat fly down to find what they are looking for, and on their way befriend a dog, a bird, and a frog. Everyone seems happy, but when the frog jumps on the broomstick, it snaps in two and the animals all fall into a bog! As the witch gains …

The Administrative History Of San Miguel Island: The National Park Service On San Miguel From 1963 To 2016, Ian Williams, Mike Hill, Rob Danno, Reed Mccluskey, Mike Maki, Bill Ehorn, Ann Huston

Western North American Naturalist

In 2013, retired Park Ranger Mike Hill proposed writing the administrative history of the National Park Service (NPS) on San Miguel Island. An administrative history is the agency history of the NPS at a particular park, or in this case, on a particular island. Toward that end, 5 of the park rangers who have served as San Miguel Island Ranger gathered on that island in November 2013, along with former Superintendent Bill Ehorn and Chief of Cultural Resources Ann Huston. They reflected on years spent on San Miguel and recorded oral history interviews about those times.

This paper traces the …

Reaching In Clutter With Whole-Arm Tactile Sensing, Advait Jain, Marc D. Killpack, Aaron Edsinger, Charles Kemp

Faculty Publications

Clutter creates challenges for robot manipulation, including a lack of non-contact trajectories and reduced visibility for line-of-sight sensors. We demonstrate that robots can use whole-arm tactile sensing to perceive clutter and maneuver within it, while keeping contact forces low. We first present our approach to manipulation, which emphasizes the benefits of making contact across the entire manipulator and assumes the manipulator has low-stiffness actuation and tactile sensing across its entire surface. We then present a novel controller that exploits these assumptions. The controller only requires haptic sensing, handles multiple contacts, and does not need an explicit model of the environment …

The Intrigue Of Paradigmatic Similarity: Leibniz And China, Yu Liu

Comparative Civilizations Review

The cosmology of China is indeed strikingly similar to the metaphysics of Leibniz, but precisely where the two resemble each other, the former is unmistakably different from Christianity. Scholars of Leibniz have so far generally taken it for granted that he was ideologically aligned with Christianity, but his paradigmatic similarity to China should alert us of a surprisingly different story. Leibniz was indisputably “the greatest of the seventeenth century sinophiles” and key Chinese cosmological ideas were introduced to Europe long before he formulated his worldview. Together, these two facts can help us decide whether he “owes to Chinese organic naturalism …

William Egginton, The Man Who Invented Fiction: How Cervantes Ushered In The Modern World. Bloomsbury, 2016., Ernest B. Hook

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

An 1880s Invitation To Buy Land In East Missouri And In Arkansas, Robert Wells

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

The Fox And The Goose: The Pamphlet Wars And Volpone's Animal Metaphors, Julie Anne Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Ben Jonson wrote Volpone when England's pamphlet wars and the rule of Queen Elizabeth I contributed to an environment in which the "woman question" was forefront in many minds. These social concerns echo in Volpone, resulting in a play that not only deals with vices and greed, but that also, to a limited degree, contributes to the querelle de femmes. The play's numerous animal metaphors create distinctions between characters; among other things, animalistic surnames represent the vices and complexities of humanity, and, more specifically, reverberate with judgments that seem to underscore the injustices of misogynistic pamphleteers. Moreover, Jonson's …

The Fox And The Goose: The Pamphlet Wars And Volpone's Animal Metaphors, Julie Anne Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Ben Jonson wrote Volpone when England's pamphlet wars and the rule of Queen Elizabeth I contributed to an environment in which the woman question was forefront in many minds. These social concerns echo in Volpone, resulting in a play that not only deals with vices and greed, but that also, to a limited degree, contributes to the querelle de femmes. The play's numerous animal metaphors create distinctions between characters; among other things, animalistic surnames represent the vices and complexities of humanity, and, more specifically, reverberate with judgments that seem to underscore the injustices of misogynistic pamphleteers. Moreover, Jonson's characters Bonario …

To Read Or Not To Read The “Classics”: Teaching Hamlet, Tara Pearce

The Utah English Journal

If you happened to walk by my classroom the day I told my students we were going to be reading a Shakespeare play, you would have witnessed a revolt. Perhaps the word “revolt” seems strong, but their reactions were also unexpectedly strong— swearing, storming out of class, slamming the door, a chair or two being knocked over in the process. They were furious, and frightened, about the prospect of reading Shakespeare. “We can’t understand Shakespeare,” “I don’t even read,” “Miss, Shakespeare is boring,” “This has nothing to do with us!” I heard phrases like these, peppered with profanity of course, …

Say Yes: Reading Infographics In The English Classroom, Samantha Andrus-Henry

The Utah English Journal

A summer or two ago, I was reading Shonda Rhimes’ (2015) book Year of Yes, while sitting in a waiting room where three teenage girls were discussing a beauty infographic in a popular glamour magazine. The infographic was beautifully composed and engaging at a glance, but as I looked a bit longer, I noticed a few flaws, and wondered what the informal literature circle I saw unfolding beside me thought. So I tuned in more closely to their conversation, and was startled at the deductions and reasoning I heard happening as the girls interpreted the infographic and applied it to …

40ar/39ar Ages, Compositions, And Likely Source Of The Eocene Fallout Tuffs In The Duchesne River Formation, Northeastern Utah, Michael Seth Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Thin fallout tuffs in the Duchesne River Formation in the Uinta Basin, Utah are evidence that volcanism was active in northern Nevada and Utah in the late Eocene. The Uinta Basin is a sedimentary basin that formed during the Laramide orogeny. Ponded lakes of various salinity filled and emptied and during the late Eocene the northern rim was dominated by a wetland/floodplain depositional setting. Most of the tuffs have rhyolitic mineral assemblages including quartz, biotite, sanidine, and allanite. Rhyolitic glass shards were also found in one of the ash beds. Biotite compositions have Fe/(Fe+Mg) ratios typical of calc-alkaline igneous rocks …

Optimizing Monitoring Efforts Of Kit Fox (Vulpes Macrotis) In Utah, Kelsey Alina Richards

Theses and Dissertations

The kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) is a species of conservation concern in western North America. Recent methods for monitoring populations of kit fox include using lures and remote cameras in an occupancy-modeling framework and habitat modeling to predict areas of occupancy. In chapter one, we tested the optimal lure and movement procedure for scent stations to maximize visits and detection of foxes, thereby improving estimates of occupancy. Between May 2015 and October 2016, we placed remote cameras at 522 random locations throughout nine study areas in the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin Desert, and Mojave Desert. Each location was …

"Sure It's Foreign Music, But It's Not Foreign To Me" Understanding K-Pop's Popularity In The U.S. Using Q Sort, Janice Kim Cho

Theses and Dissertations

Korea has become a strong influencer of global popular culture. With a handful of Korean celebrities entering mainstream U.S. pop music, Hallyu, the Korean Wave, has been growing tremendously in popularity. Following this global trend, American audiences are increasingly tuning into K-pop. The current study uses Q-sort methodology to investigate the motives, opinions, and attitudes of American fans of K-pop, specifically to find what drives people to seek music whose roots lie in an unfamiliar cultural landscape. Study results show that non-Korean K-pop fans in the United States fall into three distinct groups: the human lovers ("Honey honey, how you …

The Post-Revolutionary Roles Of Fidel Castro: A Semiotic Analysis Of Cuban Political Posters, 1959-1988, Meghan Elizabeth Payne

Theses and Dissertations

This study employs semiotic methods to identify the post-revolutionary roles of former Cuban President Fidel Castro in order to classify the transformations of his character portrayal over time. Informed by Goffman's framing theory as well as suggestions of agenda-setting and priming, this qualitative study analyzes 19 propaganda posters for communications of encoded messages. In this medium, the research explores thematic patterns of sociopolitical and sociocultural signs which add to the richness of Castro's appeal. In addition to providing a unique perspective on interrogating visual images, this study offers a better understanding of the influential power of professional design and the …

Impacts Of A Mixed Ungulate Community On Aspen Forests: From Landscape To Leaf, Aaron C. Rhodes

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the differential effects of an ungulate community (cattle, mule deer, and American elk) on aspen (Populus tremuloides) regeneration pre- and post-fire disturbance. It's first chapter examines the differential effects of cattle, mule deer, and American elk on aspen regeneration across variable topography, climate and forest type; aspen dominant to conifer dominant subalpine forests. We found that each ungulate species, if sufficiently numerous, can cause aspen regeneration failure. Also, high elevation, southern aspect and high winter snow pack increase resilience to ungulate herbivory. Chapter two compares the efficacy of four methods of estimating ungulate impact on …

40Ar/39Ar Ages, Compositions, And Likely Source Of The Eocene Fallout Tuffs In The Duchesne River Formation, Northeastern Utah, Michael Seth Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Thin fallout tuffs in the Duchesne River Formation in the Uinta Basin, Utah are evidence that volcanism was active in northern Nevada and Utah in the late Eocene. The Uinta Basin is a sedimentary basin that formed during the Laramide orogeny. Ponded lakes of various salinity filled and emptied and during the late Eocene the northern rim was dominated by a wetland/floodplain depositional setting. Most of the tuffs have rhyolitic mineral assemblages including quartz, biotite, sanidine, and allanite. Rhyolitic glass shards were also found in one of the ash beds. Biotite compositions have Fe/(Fe+Mg) ratios typical of calc-alkaline igneous rocks …

Pharmaceutical And Natural (Exercise) Mechanisms To Mitigate The Negative Impact Of Ptsd And Chronic Stress On Synaptic Plasticity And Memory, Roxanne M. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Synapses can be altered due to experiences in a process called synaptic plasticity, which causes memory formations. Synapses can be strengthened through methods known as long-term potentiation (LTP) or weakened through long-term depression (LTD). Stresses can cause changes by altering synapses through either LTP or LTD. Rats were used to study the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-like symptoms and a prophylactic treatment using pharmaceuticals. The first model used was the single prolonged stress (SPS) with two weeks of chronic light, which was not as effective for causing changes in synaptic plasticity. The second model, seven days of social defeat …

Why Does It Take Two To Tango? Lifetime Fitness Consequences Of Parental Care In A Burying Beetle, Ashlee N. Smith, J. Curtis Creighton, Mark C. Belk

Faculty Publications

In species that require parental care, each parent can either care for their offspring or leave them in the care of the other parent. For each parent this creates three possible parental care strategies: biparental care, uniparental (male or female) care, and uniparental desertion by either the male or female. The burying beetle, Nicrophorus orbicollis, typically exhibits biparental care of offspring, and thus provides a unique system that allows us to compare the fitness benefits of these parental care strategies in an unconfounded way. In this study, we assess the lifetime fitness of biparental care, uniparental care, and uniparental …

The Importance Of Peer-To-Peer Grooming Among Non-Human Primates

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Among non-human primates, grooming is a common practice. Research has shown that there are many underlying reasons why non-human primates groom. It is not completely altruistic or selfish but is often a resource traded for food, mating access, protection, and other social benefits. It can be used to achieve higher social rank as the bonds formed from grooming help primates climb the social ladder. There are other advantages of grooming, which include increased social bonding, mating access, and offspring support