Digital Commons Network^™

Too Much Time Alone: Disciplinary Segregation As A Cruel And Unusual Punishment, Elijah Swolgaard, Spencer Schlag

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Disciplinary segregation has historically been used as an arbitrary form of punishment in American prison systems. The severe psychological effects of this confinement allow it be classified as a cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment and generally lead to higher recidivism rates. This Note argues that in order to prevent these effects from occurring, disciplinary segregation should be ruled unconstitutional. Previous scholarship has argued for removal of solitary confinement generally. In contrast, this Note argues for the removal of disciplinary segregation specifically, while maintaining the use of necessary forms of solitary confinement such as administrative segregation. This will …

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Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

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Exploring Teacher Perspectives Of Literacy Instruction For Students With Behavioral Needs, Lauren Dalton Astle

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the perceptions of elementary teachers who have implemented effective literacy instruction strategies to enhance the reading skills of students with significant behavioral challenges in general education classrooms. Recognizing that students with behavioral issues often face amplified academic and social difficulties, the study highlights the necessity of robust literacy instruction to foster academic success. Nineteen teachers, whose students achieved at least 85% student progress in reading as assessed by the Acadience Learning assessments, were interviewed to gather their perceptions of effective instructional practices. The findings identified four critical themes: teacher efficacy, instructional design, an intentional learning environment, and …

Evaluating And Improving U.S. National Water Model Evapotranspiration Estimates Through Eddy-Covariance Flux Tower Observations And Machine Learning Post-Processing, Abin Raj Chapagain

Theses and Dissertations

Despite ET's critical importance in the hydrological cycle, very little has been done to provide ET forecasts at a national level. This study comprises two research chapters examining the National Water Model's (NWM) evapotranspiration (ET) simulations. In Chapter II, we conducted the first comprehensive NWM ET model performance assessment by comparing simulations to eddy-covariance flux tower measurements across the Continental United States (CONUS) on a high-resolution, 1 KM square grid. We clustered results by National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFCs), land cover classifications, elevation bands, and Köppen-Geiger Climate Zones. The NWM performs best in the Northeast and Ohio …

Evaluation Of Background Music In Listening Assessment Items For English Language Proficiency, Jennifer Hansen

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

The purpose of this evaluation was to determine how background music in authentic intermediate-level listening items affects the scores and experience of the English language learners taking the Adaptive Listening Test created by the Center for Language Studies at Brigham Young University. The evaluation research found that background music does not significantly affect test difficulty or student performance. The analysis showed a strong correlation between the difficulty levels of items with and without music. Survey results and test scores revealed that students' feelings about items with background music had no measurable impact on their performance, either positively or negatively. Since …

Comparing The Effects Of Square, 4-7-8, And 6 Breaths-Per-Minute Breathing Conditions On Heart Rate Variability, Co2 Levels, And Mood, Joshua Marchant

Theses and Dissertations

Background and Hypotheses: Square and 4-7-8 breathing are popularly promoted by psychotherapists but have little empirical support. We hypothesized that breathing at 6 breaths per minute (bpm) would improve HRV, reduce blood pressure, and improve mood more than either square or 4-7-8 breathing. We also hypothesized square and 4-7-8 breathing would increase end-tidal CO2 (PETCO2). Methods: Eighty-four college students (60% female) had HRV measured at baseline and during 1) square breathing, 2) 4-7-8 breathing, 3) 6 bpm with a 4:6 inhale-to-exhale ratio, and 4) 6 bpm with a 5:5 ratio. We used a 3-lead electrocardiogram to measure HRV and a …

Characterizing The Effects Of Rage Upregulation In Lung Development, Derek Michael Clarke

Theses and Dissertations

The Receptor for Advanced Glycation End-products (RAGE) is a transmembrane, multi-ligand cell surface receptor highly expressed in pulmonary tissue, where it plays a critical role in mediating inflammatory responses. Under chronic toxicant exposure, often associated with cigarette, e-cigarette, and diesel particulate, RAGE transitions from a protective to a deleterious state, contributing to pathological processes. In adult models, RAGE's role in the development of lung disease has been well studied, yet in the context of lung development RAGE has not been well studied with a small number of clinical papers finding increased levels of RAGE in bronchopulmonary dysplasia(BPD) and respiratory distress …

Imu-Mechanized Discrete Error-State Kalman Filtering With Lie-Group Pose Representations, Daniel P. Koch

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates methodologies for consistent Kalman filtering with Lie-group based representations of the vehicle pose. Early results are centered around the relative navigation framework, which maintains filter observability and consistency by only tracking the state relative to the latest keyframe of an odometry system such as visual odometry or laser scan matching. A detailed derivation of a relative multiplicative extended Kalman filter, using a quaternion parameterization of the attitude state, is presented for application to multirotor vehicles. The remainder of the dissertation focuses on Kalman filtering using a Lie-group SE(3) pose representation, which improves filter consistency by correctly modeling …

The Effectiveness Of Dialogic Reading Workshops For Parents Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Jessica Driskill

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of dialogic reading workshops in improving at-home reading behaviors of both parents and their preschool-aged children. A focus of the study is to understand the dialogic reading experiences of parents with children who have developmental disabilities. Thirteen parents of children at a local preschool participated in one or more phases of the study. Phases included completing a pre-survey, attending the workshop, completing a post-survey, and participating in an interview. Five parents of typically developing children and four parents of children with developmental disabilities participated in the interviews. Participants noted an …

Data-Driven Fusion Of Earth Observation And Hydrologic Data To Forecast Flood Extents At Regional To Continental Scales, Kel N. Markert

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate and timely flood inundation forecasts are crucial for mitigating the devastating impacts of floods, which affect 1.47 billion people globally and cause significant economic losses. While traditional flood forecasting methods, such as hydrologic and hydrodynamic models, have limitations in providing comprehensive and spatially explicit inundation information, recent research has focused on leveraging Earth observation data and machine learning for enhanced flood prediction. This dissertation advances the state-of-the-art in data-driven flood inundation forecasting by exploring the capabilities and scalability of the Forecasting Inundation Extents using Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function (FIER) framework. This dissertation focuses on investigating different aspects of FIER …

Exploring The Effects Of Red-Light Camera System Policy On Intersection-Related Crashes, Nicholas O'Connor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The number of traffic-related fatalities in the United States is 2.3 times higher than the average rate of 28 other high-income countries (Yellman 2022). Some municipalities have implemented Red Light Camera Systems (RLCSs) to improve intersection safety. However, the effectiveness of these cameras is a topic of ongoing debate, and recent policy shifts have resulted in their widespread removal (Ebeling, 2013). This study investigates the causal impact of a statewide ban on RLCSs in Texas, focusing on how the deactivation of these cameras affects intersection-level crash frequency. Utilizing a difference-in-differences framework, we compare intersections impacted by the ban with those …

Measuring The Growth Of A Bacteria Encapsulated Within A Droplet Of Growth Media Suspended In Oil For Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Tests In Microfluidic Devices, Parker Johns

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study is part of an ongoing project to develop a rapid antibiotic susceptibility test using 3D-printed microfluidic devices to reduce the wait-time for patients with blood infections to receive treatment. My goal was to reduce the cytotoxicity of 3D-printed poly(ethylene) glycol diacrylate microfluidic devices and select an oil suitable for bacterial growth and droplet generation for encapsulation of bacteria in a rapid antibiotic susceptibility test. I tested the growth of Escherichia coli containing a plasmid coding for green fluorescent protein in different environments to assess what factors most affected its growth in microfluidic devices. I found that a 12-hour …

Regulation Of Cell Cycle Proteins At The Extremes Of Copy Number Variation In Cancer, Hannah Tran

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Copy number variation is one of the main forms of genomic alteration in cancer genomes. The amplification of oncogenes or deletion of tumor suppressors commonly drives tumor formation. Average copy number variation events vary across cancer types; ovarian cancer has the highest average number of copy number changes, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has the least. With the copy number differences between cancer types, it is likely that different mechanisms of producing copy number changes exist. We propose that a possible mechanism is cell cycle reversal, which was recently shown to potentially occur during the G2 phase of the cell cycle …

Improvement Of A Novel Motorized Quinoa Washer For Single-Family Farmers, Brooklyn Olson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Quinoa is an important crop in the Andean region of South America and is often grown by single family farmers. Before eating, quinoa must be washed to remove its saponin coating. The BYU GEO team has developed a quinoa washer to aid these farmers in washing their quinoa. This paper explores areas of needed improvement in the current quinoa washer based on feedback from individual farmers and focus groups. Areas explored include the motor, washer operations, parts and sourcing, and cleaning and use. Results include a promising motor alternative in the form of a powered drill, which decreases cost and …

From Static To Dynamic: Redesigning Byu Online High School's Learning Library Learning Aids And Tools Section, Brady Allred

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

From Static to Dynamic: Redesigning the Learning Aids and Tools Section (LATS) for BYU Online High School is an innovative project that reimagines traditional static learning resources into an interactive, student-centered platform. This project addresses the critical need for a dynamic digital environment that fosters academic soft skills, including test preparation, time management, critical thinking, and problem-solving. By integrating interactive elements and user-friendly design, the redesigned LATS engages learners in real-time and asynchronous activities that encourage self-directed study and reflection.

The project leverages instructional design principles, such as Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction, to ensure that each interactive module is …

Machine Learning For Time Series Prediction In Psychotherapy, Ian Goodwin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The need for quality mental health care is great, but many clinics face limited resources as they work to help clients. Predictions of a client’s future mental state during a course of therapy have the potential to inform decisions by individual therapists and counseling clinics. In this paper, we use archival OQ-45 data from a large university counseling center to examine the ability of many simple, rule-of-thumb predictive methods, as well as more complex methods (ridge regression, random forests, and LSTMs), to predict the next value in a time series of distress scores based on the previous scores. Learned inference …

Hoping For A Better World: Utopian Performatives In Jez Butterworth's "The Hills Of California", Lily Jensen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Jez Butterworth’s 2024 play, The Hills of California, tells the story of the Webb sisters—Joan, Gloria, Ruby, Jillian—and their mother, Veronica, in 1950s and 1970s Blackpool, England. In 1976, it is the hottest summer on record in Blackpool, and Veronica is dying of cancer. Jillian, Gloria, and Ruby have gathered together to wait for her to die, with the hope that Joan (who has supposedly been living a fabulous life in America for 20 years) will come back to say a last goodbye to their mother. The play flips back and forth between the 70s and the 50s. We …

Seeing The Storm: Leveraging Multimodal Llms For Disaster Social Media Video Filtering, Holden Clark

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Emergency management relies on the rapid triage of information to respond appropriately to disaster events. Social media platforms can provide emergency managers with ground-level insights, and videos, in particular, offer an immersive medium for understanding public responses and on-the-ground conditions. However, the overwhelming volume of irrelevant or redundant videos complicates their use for emergency response. This paper investigates the use of multimodal large language models (MLLMs)–specifically the Gemini 1.5 flash model–to automate the identification of relevant videos shared on X (formerly Twitter) during hurricanes. We develop and evaluate a framework to test the accuracy of different prompting styles and question …

Connecther: Connecting Women In The Byu Marriott School To The Workplace And To Each Other’S Success (With A Ten-Step Job Search Guide), Hope Detweiler

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis addresses two research questions: 1) Given the existence of gender bias in the broader culture, what particular challenges do women in business face in the job search process? 2) How can female business students (or young professionals) specifically address these challenges? This document provides actionable guidance and timely instructions in the form of presentations and lists. Accordingly, it adheres to the “creative works” format for honors theses. Specifically, this paper focuses on women in the BYU Marriott School of Business who are majoring in or graduating from any of the business majors and seeking employment in professional services …

信仰によって学ぶ：データの分析、まとめ、発展, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Spiritual Proficiency

「信仰によって学ぶ」が実践されるように、実証的なデータに基づいた研究を始めようと思っています。この記事はその第１歩と位置付けられるものです。関心のある方は共同研究として一緒に進めませんか。この資料を参考にすると、学生たちが「信仰によって学ぶ」ことを具体的に行うためのたくさんのアイデアがあり、先生たちはそれを演出する大切な役割を果たすことができるでしょう。

The Effects Of Social Learning On Second Language Acquisition And Memory: An Fnirs Study, Siena Christensen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis addresses the question of what effect social learning has on successful second language acquisition behaviorally and neurologically. Participants were taught novel L2 words in a social learning condition and a non-social translation condition. They were then tested with a social testing condition and a non-social translation condition right after learning and at a later date, either 1 week, 4 weeks, or 2 months after learning. Brain activity was measured by comparing oxygenated hemoglobin levels with an fNIRS device. A significant positive effect of sociality was found for response accuracy, as words learned in the social condition performed better …

Delaying Marriage And Its Impact On Future Income: A Historical Econometric Analysis (1900-1940), Britton Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

I investigate the impact of delaying marriage on future income using historical data from the 1900–1940 United States Decennial Censuses. While existing literature suggests that marriage positively affects income, little is known about the financial implications of postponing marriage. I address that gap in knowledge by employing an instrumental variable framework, exploiting the effect of serving in WWI on age at marriage as an exogenous instrument, to determine the effect of delaying marriage on personal income. I leverage the Census Tree project to link individuals across census years, finding their siblings, age at first marriage, veteran status, and income. I …

Learning By Faith: Analyzing, Synthesizing, And Developing Data, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Spiritual Proficiency

I am planning to start a research project based on empirical data to ensure that "learning through faith" is practiced. This article is supposed to be the first step in that direction. If anyone is interested, would you like to collaborate on this research? By using this material as a reference, there are many ideas on how students can practically engage in "learning through faith," and teachers can play a vital role in facilitating this process.

Measuring Support For Democracy Through Public Understanding: A Conjoint Survey Approach, Kendra Pinegar

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, I explore how individuals conceptualize democracy and whether their support is based on democratic principles or its outcomes. Using a conjoint experiment in Chile and Peru, I examine how respondents define democracy, assess governance, and adjust their support based on institutional attributes. My findings show that citizens struggle to distinguish between democracy’s core institutions and the broader social and economic conditions they associate with it. Their support is often tied to government performance rather than democratic principles. Moreover, they favor their own definition of democracy over an objective, institutional one, revealing a disconnect between public perception and …

The Readable Scriptures: Creating A Dyslexia-Friendly Book Of Mormon, Elijah Pearce

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis appears in two parts. The first is a 135-page project where I have implemented features and practices to aid the readability of the Book of Mormon for individuals with dyslexia. The second part of this thesis is an analysis where I present a brief literature review of dyslexia and my method of applying these features and practices to a section of the English Book of Mormon, namely, the twenty-two chapters that comprise 1 Nephi. This project is not intended to present a format that will aid all individuals with dyslexia, nor is this project a complete, finished work—it …

Adjudicating Utah Public Records Requests: A Textual Analysis Of Relevant Appellate And Supreme Court Decisions, Zoe Cook

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis project is to identify the boundaries that have been established by the Utah courts between disclosure and non-disclosure of government records. This analysis focused on the legal theory of balancing public interest in disclosure vs. the rationale for some government records being retained as confidential.

Enhancement Of The Edtech Books Editing Tool, Natalie Larson

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

As EdTech Books (ETB) expanded to a broader user base, its editing platform required an overhaul to better accommodate authors, particularly those with diverse technical backgrounds. This project focused on redesigning the ETB editing tool to be more intuitive, efficient, and aligned with familiar digital editing conventions. By incorporating principles such as wayfinding, usability heuristics, and cognitive load reduction, the new tool streamlines workflows and enhances usability. Stakeholder collaboration and iterative testing guided refinements. The result is a platform that remains intuitive for novice users while retaining flexibility for advanced editors. While the transition introduced a learning curve for existing …

Lgbtq+ Identity Development And Individual Vs Group Psychotherapy Experience: A Consensual Qualitative Analysis, Aileen Marie Rands

Theses and Dissertations

Multicultural topics, such as LGBTQ+ experience, have accrued predominance within the field of psychology. It has become clear that better understanding minority experience is of utmost importance. Pervasive stigma, discrimination, and mistreatment culminate into minority stress; thus LGBTQ+ individuals face greater risk for poor mental health and seek out psychotherapy at higher rates. Despite this reality, limited psychotherapy research exists in this area generally and essentially no research has looking into the experience of LGBTQ+ individuals in group therapy. The current study investigated experiences of LGBTQ+ clients who have participated in both individual and group psychotherapy. Eleven participants were interviewed …

Uncertainty Propagation And Sensitivity Analysis For Constrained Optimization Of Nuclear Waste Vitrification, Lagrande Gunnell, Xiaonan Lu, John D. Vienna, Dong-Sang Kim, Brian J. Riley, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

The vitrification of high-level waste (HLW) by heating a mixture of glass-forming chemicals (GFCs) with the waste can be improved using a constrained optimization problem. This study explores how different uncertainty propagation (UP) methods implemented with the optimization process can affect the glass formulation of nuclear waste glasses. UP is the effort of propagating uncertain inputs through a system to understand and quantify output distributions. Uncertainty intervals are crafted from output distributions to inform the optimization algorithm. UP is often implemented with Monte Carlo (MC) sampling for large nonlinear systems, which can be difficult to implement within a constrained optimization …

Sustainable Well-Being For Young Adults: An Online Course To Build Ecological And Psychological Flourishing In A Changing Climate, Jeremy Stanley Bekker

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable well-being is "happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or global well-being without exploiting other people, the environment or future generations" (O'Brien, 2010, p. 2). Sustainable well-being education may encourage environmentally sustainable behavior while also teaching people how to live meaningful lives. However, there is currently a lack of research-based disseminable courses for teaching sustainable well-being. We hypothesized that taking the course would result in lower eco-anxiety and higher well-being, as well as increased pro-environmental self-efficacy and pro-environmental values. We used a randomized crossover repeated measures research design to assess pre and post effects. Quantitative results indicated that participating in …