Digital Commons Network^™

The Open Wiki Of Electrochemical Methods (Owem): A Community-Driven Educational Resource, Anderson Fuller, Devin Rappleye

Reviews, Analyses, and Instructional Studies in Electrochemistry (RAISE)

The traditional resources for learning electrochemical methods—textbooks, academic literature, and university coursework—remain essential but are limited in accessibility, update frequency, and practical usability. This paper introduces the Open Wiki of Electrochemical Methods (OWEM), an open-access, community-driven platform designed to complement these resources. OWEM organizes content into equations, definitions, methods, tutorials, and supplementary articles, with a heavy emphasis on experimental relevance. A case study on cyclic voltammetry demonstrates how OWEM consolidates foundational theory, lesser-known results, and practical guidance within a continuously maintainable framework to benefit the broader electrochemistry community.

Russian Language In An Interdisciplinary Setting: A Case Study, Foreign Area Studies At The United States Naval Academy, Joan Chevalier

Russian Language Journal

Russian language enrollments have been dropping in recent years at colleges and universities in the United States. In contrast to this national trend, the number of students studying Russian language at the United States Naval Academy (USNA) has remained robust over the past decade and is poised to increase in the near future as a relatively new interdisciplinary major, Foreign Area Studies (FAS), is expanded and revised. This paper traces recent developments at USNA that have led to the development and expansion of Foreign Area Studies, integrating language study into an interdisciplinary curriculum featuring courses related to nations and cultures …

Russian As A Lingua Franca In A Security Cooperation Context: Designing Career-Oriented Language Training Programs, Daniel Medford

Russian Language Journal

As Slavic language programs seek to align their curricula with workforce needs, the role of Russian and other Slavic languages in military and government service presents unique challenges and opportunities. This paper examines how linguistic training, particularly in Russian, can be better structured for students at American universities and colleges who wish to pursue government and security-related careers. Drawing on 30 interviews with native and non-native Russian speakers serving in the U.S. Army, this study explores the implications of using Russian as a lingua franca for U.S. military cooperation with former Soviet states. Given the political sensitivities surrounding the Russian …

Grit, Self-Assessment, And Second Language Proficiency: A Large-Scale Examination Using Data From The Language Ability Self-Evaluation Resource, Andrew T. Skoy

Theses and Dissertations

Grit has been defined as being "perseverance and passion for long-term goals" (Duckworth et al., 2007). Research has tied grit to success in the discipline of second language acquisition (SLA), where researchers have adapted Duckworth's general grit self-assessment instrument to capture measurements of grit within second language learners (Teimouri et al., 2022). Such a scale appears on the Language Ability Self-Evaluation Resource (LASER), a standardized language proficiency test developed by researcher at Brigham Young University. With the aim of replicating the studies that were done to validate the design of the LASER, responses to the grit-measuring section of the test …

Learning Trajectories Of Online Batch Selection Methods, Luke Green

Theses and Dissertations

Modern deep neural networks achieve strong performance on large-scale datasets, but often require substantial training time. Online batch selection methods seek to reduce this cost by updating models on informative subsets of each batch rather than on all available examples. Recently introduced methods leverage teacher models and report substantial speedups, particularly in noisy-label settings. However, comparisons are often based on the number of epochs required to reach a target test accuracy, a coarse metric that is sensitive to implementation details and may obscure important differences in learning dynamics. In this thesis, we implement several online batch selection methods in a …

Beyond Single Images: A Comprehensive Benchmark For Album-Level Vision-Language Understanding, Shawn Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic album organization has been studied extensively over the past decades due to significant progress in digital photography. Recent Vision-Language Models (VLMs) have shown strong performance on multi-image understanding, making them natural candidates for automating album organization workflows. While VLMs’ abilities in multi-image understanding have been widely studied, their performance on album organization remains underexplored. To bridge this gap, we introduce AlbumBench, the first comprehensive benchmark for automatic album organization. Specifically, we (1) define album organization tasks as photo selection for album-specific user objectives, photo rating according to how well user intents are fulfilled, and album-specific photo grouping given a …

Enhancing Emotional Support For Advanced Placement Students, Laine Mckay Nesbitt

Theses and Dissertations

Although they may struggle with their emotional well-being, academically accelerated students are underrepresented in the research literature. Teachers are in a position to influence students' emotional well-being. Minimal qualitative research with student voices has been conducted. This study highlights the perspectives of students who have participated in an academically accelerated program. Students were interviewed about what their teachers do to help or hinder their emotional well-being and what they wish that teachers could do to support their emotional well-being. A total of 14 high school students were interviewed using the critical incident technique (CIT). The participants emphasized the importance of …

Respect And Aggression In Intimate Relationships: A Grounded Theory Of Relational Responsiveness, Aaron T. Fife

Theses and Dissertations

The negative effects of aggression in intimate relationships have been well documented through research and clinical literature (Lawrence & Bradbury, 2001; Shortt et al., 2006). Conversely, the positive effects of respectful behavior are well-known (Gottman, 1994; Dew & Wilcox, 2013). This important dimension of relationships is crucial to understanding what makes up healthy and unhealthy relationships. However, little is known about how couples understand the varying types of respect and aggression within intimate relationships, nor how they are lived and experienced relationally. The purpose of this study is to explore the dyadic processes behind respect and aggression as well as …

Toward Passwordless Document Encryption, Isaac Henry Teuscher

Theses and Dissertations

Document files with sensitive information are used across nearly every industry. In recent years, cyberattacks targeting cloud-based file transfer applications have resulted in millions of sensitive documents being exposed. Although document encryption methods exist, they are often limited in usability, security, or deployability. Password-based encryption, the most widely available option, remains vulnerable to brute-force attacks, unauthorized sharing, and human error. We address these gaps in three phases. First, we present a structured comparative framework adapted from the usability-deployability-security model to evaluate nine document encryption methods across 15 design properties, identifying the benefits and limitations of current approaches. Second, we design …

A Lesson In Class: How Parents' Class Identity Changes Relate To Children's Exposure To Social Classes -- A Latent Profile Analysis, L. Caroline Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Class inequality in the United States has reached levels not seen since the late 1920s. This inequality has been linked to numerous harmful societal outcomes and may be particularly detrimental for children, who often experience limited intergroup contact with individuals from different social class backgrounds. Drawing on Social Identity Theory and the significant role parents play in shaping children's social environments, this study examined how White and Black parents' changes in perceived social class from childhood to adulthood relate to the ways they prioritize exposing their children to different social class environments (N = 702, U.S. sample). Latent Profile Analysis …

This One's For The Girls: Co-Creating A Social Confidence Group Intervention For Autistic Adolescent Girls, Kendra Noelle Zitzman

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have been completed regarding social confidence-building interventions for individuals with autism. However few studies have studied autistic females' experience with social confidence and targeted interventions for their unique needs. The purpose of this study was to co-create a social confidence curriculum with adolescent and young adult autistic females based on their experiences, perceived strengths and weaknesses, and goals. We analyzed first-person experiences and perceptions about social confidence-building interventions and supports. We used pre- and post-group interviews of the adolescent autistic participants (n =11) and college-aged mentors (n = 4), pre- and post-group measures with the Social Responsiveness Scale, …

Influence Of Timed Repeated Readings On Grade 2 French Immersion Students' Reading Fluency And Comprehension, Kathryn Rosie Baldwin

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of Timed Repeated Reading (TRR) on reading fluency, comprehension, and reading attitudes among second grade students in a French Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program in Utah. Forty-one students from two pre-existing classroom groups participated over 11 weeks, with one class receiving TRR and the other serving as a control. Fluency was measured in correct words per minute (CWPM), comprehension through cloze tests, and attitudes using a seven-item affective survey with a four-point visual scale. A mixed between-within subjects ANOVA analysed pre- and post-test data across four intervals. Results showed significant fluency gains over time for …

Beyond The Bell Curve: Understanding Native American Academic Placements, Sarah-Margaret Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined biases regarding the referrals that teachers make regarding student placement recommendations for Native American students. Special education teachers (n = 97) from around the United States completed a digital card sort task involving 24 fictitious student record cards. The student record cards contained subtle information about the ethnicity of the student, as indicated through the use of racial identification (Native American, Asian, or White) on the student records and the use of student names that may be associated with these three categories. Academic information was equal among each of these three groups. Each group contained identical male …

Calibration And Validation Of An Ogden Material Model For Thermoplastic Polyurethane In 3d-Printed Tensegrity Structures, Caleb C. Swain

Theses and Dissertations

This work is motivated by ongoing efforts within the Smart Materials, Adaptronics, and Shock Laboratory (SMASH Lab) at Brigham Young University (BYU) to develop variable-stiffness, external fixators using 3D-printed tensegrity structures. In the process of designing and evaluating these systems, the need arose to accurately model the nonlinear mechanical behavior of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), the primary material used in prototype fabrication. This thesis investigates how accurately a calibrated Ogden material model can predict the nonlinear mechanical response of TPU in 3D-printed tensegrity structures. Experimental data were used to calibrate the parameters of the hyperelastic constitutive model through nonlinear optimization. An …

Exploring Generative Artificial Intelligence Perceptions And Information Retrieval Behaviors Among Students: An Investigation Of Google Search And Chatgpt Queries, Annie Kiele Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Generative AI tools are rapidly reshaping how undergraduate students seek and engage with academic information, yet empirical understanding of what drives adoption and how students behave when using these tools relative to traditional search engines remains limited. This study examined undergraduate students’ information-retrieval behaviors and perceptions when using ChatGPT compared to Google Search, using the technology acceptance model (TAM; Davis, 1989) extended to include trust (Gefen et al., 2003) as the guiding framework. An embedded mixed-methods design was employed, in which Likert-scale perception ratings provided a structured quantitative signal and thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, structured information-retrieval tasks, and concurrent …

Unlocking Potential: Teachers' Perspectives On 504 Accommodations For Students With Adhd, Haley Stubbs

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined high school teachers' perspectives on the development, implementation, and effectiveness of Section 504 accommodations for students with ADHD. Five secondary teachers from a public high school participated in a focus group, and data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that teachers report limited understanding of the 504 process, minimal involvement in eligibility decisions, and little training on how to implement accommodations. Teachers describe accommodations as vague and difficult to apply consistently within the constraints of secondary classrooms, often relying on universal classroom practices and student self-advocacy to meet student needs. Teachers also question whether accommodations …

Engineering 3d Optical Interconnects And Low-Power Radio Frequency Gaze Tracking, Blake P. Crosby

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents two independent research works in optical in- terconnects and radio-frequency (RF)-based gaze tracking. The first work demonstrates a silicon optical waveguide fabricated from four through-silicon vias (TSVs) produced using two-photon-absorption- assisted photo-electrochemical etching. Unlike conventional TSV fabrica- tion methods, this approach enables highly localized, non-line-of-sight etching in silicon using a focused femtosecond laser. Four approximately 5 μm diameter TSVs were etched through a 200 μm silicon wafer in a 7 μm by 7 μm pattern, leaving a central silicon region that functions as a waveguide. The fabricated structure achieved an aspect ratio of approxi- mately 40:1 with …

Fear Appeal Advertising As A Tool For Preventative Medicine And Chronic Disease Mitigation, Samuel J. Moore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Chronic disease refers broadly to a group of diseases that develop and progress as individuals age, that last 1 or more years, and that require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living, or both (“About chronic diseases,” 2026). Chronic disease is most often associated with years of compounding effects of poor nutrition and physical inactivity. Since negative emotion-based advertising, also known as “fear campaigns,” have been shown to be effective forms of communication for other health related topics (Huang et al, 2017), we sought to test a fear campaign’s potential to discourage unhealthy physical activity practices in young …

Exploring The Relationship Between Body Composition, Bmi, And Sleep Outcomes Among Nepalese Brick Workers, Zoe C. Peterson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sleep is a critical determinant of metabolic health, with extensive evidence linking insufficient and fragmented sleep to increased adiposity and obesity risk in high-income populations. However, these relationships remain poorly understood in labor-intensive, low-income occupational settings. This study examined associations between objectively measured sleep characteristics using accelerometry and body composition among a population of Nepalese brick workers, a group of people exposed to substantial environmental and occupational stressors.

A secondary cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from 233 adult brick workers in the Nepal Kathmandu valley. Sleep metrics – including total sleep, wake after sleep onset (WASO), and number of …

Third Space Thinking In The Secondary School Writing Center: A Model For A More Just Approach To Education, Annika Peacock

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the ways that Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial Third Space theory aligns with writing centers, and more specifically writing centers in secondary schools. The thesis introduces Third Space theory in six characteristics and the ways that writing centers are Third Spaces. Next, through content analysis, 25 mission statements from secondary school writing centers are qualitatively coded to reveal what writing centers prioritize and understand about their center. The thesis finishes with a framework called Third Space thinking, providing examples of how writing centers as Third Spaces can help to develop a more just and equitable educational experience for students …

Differentiation Of Self As A Therapist Effect In Couple Therapy, Nathan D. Knebel

Theses and Dissertations

Murray Bowen proposed that a therapist's level of differentiation of self influences therapeutic effectiveness, particularly in clinically distressed relational systems. Although existing literature has demonstrated that therapist effects account for a meaningful portion of variance in couple therapy outcomes, differentiation of self has received limited empirical attention as a therapist-level predictor. The present article proposes a framework for empirically examining Bowen's hypothesis by investigating whether therapist differentiation predicts trajectories of couple relationship quality across treatment. Additionally, the article explores theoretical pathways through which therapists may increase their level of differentiation, assuming Bowen's hypothesis is supported.

A Parallelized Multi-Component Radiation Testing Methodology For Systems-On-Chip, Weston M. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

As the space industry expands, there is an increased reliance on system on chip (SoC) devices in high radiation environments. The reliability of these devices becomes crucial, especially in space applications. The industry's rapid growth has led to a massive expansion in the use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components. Electronic systems are vulnerable to single event upsets (SEUs) and the failure modes caused by SEUs are not fully understood, especially for COTS SoCs. Standard radiation testing techniques of SEUs use a single core of a multi-core processor to monitor bit flips. In this work, we present a parallelized radiation testing …

Developing Custom High Resolution 3d Printers For Microfluidic Device Fabrication, Dallin Scott Miner

Theses and Dissertations

The advancement of microfluidics in biomedical diagnostics and lab-on-a-chip systems is increasingly dependent on the ability to fabricate complex, three-dimensional architectures with high-resolution negative features. While Digital Light Processing Stereolithography (DLP-SLA) has emerged as a leading fabrication method, it remains constrained by a fundamental trade-off between feature resolution and build volume, as well as challenges regarding fabrication consistency and design accessibility. This dissertation presents an integrated ecosystem of hardware, materials, and software designed to overcome these barriers and enable scalable, high-resolution microfluidic fabrication. We first introduce a novel multi-resolution 3D printing technique utilizing a dual-optical engine architecture, comprising a Very …

Speech Motor Variability In Typical Speakers With Blocked, Predictable, And Unpredictable Stimulus Order, Jocelyn L. Turley

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect on spatiotemporal variability of speech in reading threesyllable, five-syllable, and eight-syllable phrases in blocked, predictable, or unpredictable order. This was done to address the need in the field for a greater understanding of the interactions of stimulus length and stimulus presentation order. The experiment was completed with 35 typically speaking young adult participants. Participants read variable stimuli in the different presentation orders to measure the spatiotemporal variability in different conditions with electromagnetic articulography and audio recording software tracking their speech. The statistical analysis main condition effect revealed a significant impact on all phrase lengths between …

Effects Of A Complexity-Based Approach For Treatment Of Be Verbs In Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Single-Case Design, Megan Shawnee Rowe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine whether a complexity-based treatment approach improves the production of BE verb structures in a child with developmental language disorder (DLD). One school-age child with morphosyntactic deficits participated in a single-case AB experimental design. Treatment targeted a complex structure (auxiliary BE questions), and performance was measured using experimental probes, a narrative language sample, and the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (TEGI). Results indicate a functional relationship between treatment and increased accuracy of the treated structure, with a medium effect size (τ = .695, p = .019). In addition, the participant demonstrated generalization to …

Prosodic Characteristics Of People With Moderate Broca's Aphasia: Measures Of Pitch And Intensity, Morgan Smith Lambert

Theses and Dissertations

Aphasia is an acquired neurogenic language disorder commonly treated by speech language pathologists (SLPs). People with aphasia (PWA) experience various language deficits which impact their ability to effectively communicate with their environment. One of these deficits which impacts individuals with non-fluent aphasia is dysprosody. The purpose of this study is to acoustically evaluate the pitch and intensity of individuals with moderate Broca's aphasia along with age and gender matched control participants across a variety of task types in order to help SLPs better understand how to effectively assess and treat prosody in PWA. This study is an extension of Pickard …

Tectonics: Supporting Information For Deformation Rates And Patterns Of The Emerging Banda Ranges Revealed By Uplifted Coral Terraces In Timor-Leste, Ron Harris, Nicole Cox, Megan Flexhaug, Dorothy Merritts, Chua-Chou Shen, Frederico Santos

ScholarsArchive Data

The supplementary information provided consist primarily of figures detailing coral terrace profiles and terrace inner margin elevation to MIS highstand correlations.

• a general overview of the kind of data files;
• a general description of processing steps used;
• any known imperfections or anomalies in the data.

Examining The Effects Of A Complexity-Based Treatment For One Child With Down Syndrome Using Single-Case Design, Markelle Luddington

Theses and Dissertations

Common language difficulties observed in English-speaking children with Down syndrome (DS) and developmental language disorder (DLD) include challenges with marking tense and agreement on verbs, particularly with BE verbs. In addition, difficulties with syntactic movement may further exacerbate these challenges, often resulting in increased omission errors. A complexity-based approach to treatment target selection has been suggested as one method to address these needs. Therefore, this single-case design study examined the effects of a complexity-based treatment approach for one participant with Down syndrome. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of targeting a more complex treated structure, auxiliary BE questions, and the …

A Unified Behavioral Core: How Cbt And Act Often Do The Same Thing, Davis M. Paxton

Student Works

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) have emerged from the shared heritage of behavioral therapy and learning theory. ACT and CBT are evidenced to be effective and complementary by shared clinical outcomes across various patient demographics. Both therapies share a therapeutic framework or a unified behavioral core, despite formal differences. This behavioral core utilizes functionally equivalent awareness-based and behavior-change processes to accomplish the shared goals of symptom reduction and patient well-being. Psychological flexibility as defined by Hayes can be understood as both an outcome and potentially a mechanism of change for both therapies. Techniques from CBT …

Sequencing Of Chenopodium A-Genome Diploids To Identify Potential Mechanisms Of Speciation: A Preliminary Study, Riley Roser

Theses and Dissertations

The genus Chenopodium is of increasing significance, mainly due to allotetraploid quinoa (C. quinoa Willd.,2x = 4x =36, AABB genome) becoming globally recognized for its high nutritional value and tolerance for stress. Diploid A-genome relatives of quinoa in the Western Hemisphere have shown speciation patterns congruent to adaptive radiation, particularly in the North American continent, where a number inhabit ecological niches while others form mixed populations where they are sympatric. Characterization of the genetic mechanism(s) underlying this rapid speciation, could clarify their potential usefulness for improving quinoa . Previous whole-genome assemblies of AA diploids C. watsonii A. Watson and C. …