Digital Commons Network^™

Procedural Pre-Training For Visual Recognition, Connor S. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning models can perform many tasks very capably, provided they are trained correctly. Usually, this requires a large amount of data. Pre-training refers to a process of creating a strong initial model by first training it on a large-scale dataset. Such a model can then be adapted to many different tasks, while only requiring a comparatively small amount of task-specific training data. Pre-training is the standard approach in most computer vision scenarios, but it's not without drawbacks. Aside from the cost and effort involved in collecting large pre-training datasets, such data may also contain unwanted biases, violations of privacy, …

Chromosome-Scale Assemblies And A Pangenome Reveal Ltr Repeat Dynamics As A Major Driver Of Genome Evolution In Chenopodium, Kate E. Jaggi

Theses and Dissertations

The genus Chenopodium, which comprises around 150 species globally, is characterized by its wide geographic distribution and ecological adaptability, particularly in temperate regions. Some species, such as Chenopodium quinoa and Chenopodium pallidicaule, have served as domesticated staple crops in the Andean region of South America for centuries, valued for their robust nutritional profile and adaptability to adverse environmental conditions. In contrast, wild Chenopodium species exhibit broad geographic distributions and diverse niche adaptations, functioning as reservoirs for beneficial traits, including disease resistance and climate hardiness, essential for enhancing domesticated crops through introgression and breeding efforts. However, taxonomic classification within the genus …

Characterizing The Potential For Failure In Environment Testing Due To Bolted-Joint Friction Nonlinearity And Bilinearity, Brennen Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Nonlinear behavior in systems complicates the analysis and design of many systems in engineering. In vibration engineering, typical methods such as modal analysis fail or require significant adjustment in the presence of nonlinearity. Understanding and modeling nonlinear behavior is becoming more important in many modern engineering applications. One area that is relatively unexplored is how nonlinearity affects environment testing. This can cover a wide variety of subtopics, but this thesis focuses on failures that can occur in a system which are not predicted by corresponding linearized systems. To further limit the scope of this work, and to provide a context …

Evaluating Computational Predictions Of Magnetic Resonance Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging For Breast Cancer Focused Ultrasound Surgery, Chloe K. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: In magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) therapies performed in highly heterogeneous tissues such as the breast, the focal location must be located and characterized to guide successful treatments of tumors. Treatment time can be minimized by a priori prediction of the focal location through computational models. The purpose of this work is to evaluate numerical simulations of focused ultrasound (FUS) on their predictions of the focal location. Those simulations are compared to clinical magnetic resonance acoustic radiation force imaging (MR-ARFI) data collected during in vivo treatment of breast tumors. Methods: The focal location was evaluated prior to MRgFUS treatment …

Zeros Of Convex Combinations Of Elementary Families Of Harmonic Functions, Rebekah Ottinger

Theses and Dissertations

Brilleslyper et al. analyzed a one-parameter family of harmonic trinomials, and Brooks and Lee analyzed a one-parameter family of harmonic functions with poles. Each family was explored to find the relationship between the size of the parameter and the number of zeros of the harmonic function. In this thesis, we examine convex combinations of members of these families. We determine conditions under which the critical curves separating the sense-preserving and sense-reversing regions are circular. We show that the number of zeros of a convex combination can be greater than the maximum number of zeros of either part.

Ocean Rain Detection And Wind Retrieval Through Deep Learning Architectures On Advanced Scatterometer Data, Matthew Yoshinori Otani Mckinney

Theses and Dissertations

The Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) is a satellite-based remote sensing instrument designed for measuring wind speed and direction over the Earth's oceans. This thesis aims to expand and improve the capabilities of ASCAT by adding rain detection and advancing wind retrieval. Additionally, this expansion to ASCAT serves as evidence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques learning both novel and traditional methods in remote sensing. I apply semantic segmentation to ASCAT measurements to detect rain over the oceans, enhancing capabilities to monitor global precipitation. I use two common neural network architectures and train them on measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) …

Blended Teaching In Higher Education Textbook, Breanna Slaugh

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

BYU's Instructional Psychology and Technology (IP&T) program offers a graduate-level course in blended and online teaching: IP&T 538. This course discusses various methods and frameworks for instructors and instructional designers to develop, facilitate, and evaluate teaching materials tailored for blended and online learning environments. Before this project, IP&T 538 lacked a dedicated textbook that aligned directly with the content of the course. Instead, online activities relied on excerpts from various textbook chapters and readings from academic articles. With this structure, some students felt the content was overwhelming and disjointed. To address this need, my client wanted to consolidate pertinent content …

Byu Library Digital Content Exploratory Committee Final Report, Lindsey Memory, Rebecca A. Wiederhold, Cory L. Nimer, Dainan Skeem, David Brownell, Jamie E. Wiser, Nicole Lewis, Paul K.J. Robbins, Trevor Alvord, Tyler Thorsted

Harold B. Lee Library Faculty Publications

The BYU Library's cross-divisional Digital Content Exploratory Committee examined the extant personnel, systems, and workflows allocated to the care of a wide range of digital content types stewarded by the library (examples: digitized master and access derivative files, born-digital manuscript materials, born-digital scholarly materials, web archives, data, etc.). We compared our problems, standards, and staffing structures to the field at large through a literature review and an environmental scan. Our research has affirmed to us the unique and in many ways still-uncharted challenges and opportunities inherent to collecting, facilitating access to, and preserving digital content of research and historical value …

Using Video Modeling To Improve Hygiene Practices For Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities, Allison Hovey

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of instruction delivered by video to teach hygiene skills to students with significant cognitive disabilities. The independent variable in this study is personal hygiene instruction delivered by a video model. The dependent variable in this study is the ability of a participant to complete a multi-step hygiene task. The dependent variable will be measured during each data session of intervention by two scorers using the same measures and procedures across phases. Visual analysis demonstrated a functional relationship between the hygiene skill video model intervention and an increase in the percentage …

Chemical Herding As A Multiplicative Factor For Top-Down Manipulation Of Colloids, Mark N. Mcdonald, Douglas R. Tree, Cameron K. Peterson

Faculty Publications

Colloidal particles can create reconfigurable nanomaterials, with applications such as color-changing, self-repairing, and self-regulating materials and reconfigurable drug delivery systems. However, top-down methods for manipulating colloids are limited in the scale they can control. We consider here a new method for using chemical reactions to multiply the effects of existing top-down colloidal manipulation methods to arrange large numbers of colloids with single-particle precision, which we refer to as chemical herding. Using simulation-based methods, we show that if a set of chemically active colloids (herders) can be steered using external forces (i.e., electrophoretic, dielectrophoretic, magnetic, or optical forces), then a larger …

Electrochemical Identification Of Metal Chlorides In Eutectic Licl-Kcl Without Prior Knowledge Of Analyte Identities, Tyler Williams, Jason Torrie, Mark Schvaneveldt, Ranon Fuller, Greg Chipman, Devin Rappleye

Faculty Publications

The identities of unknown analytes within four eutectic LiCl-KCl melts were determined using electrochemical methods, simulating the uncertainty of electrochemically probing an electrorefiner salt bath or molten salt nuclear reactor. With a variety of electrochemical methods (e.g. cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry, and square-wave voltammetry), and electroanalytical techniques (e.g. semi-differentiation), every analyte was positively identified, although one false positive occurred because of an unexpected chemical interaction. This study highlights some remaining challenges for the use of electrochemical sensors in nuclear material control and accountability in molten salts: (1) quantification of analytes without the use of calibration curves (e.g. error in property values, …

Leveraging Biological Mechanisms In Machine Learning, Kyle J. Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis integrates biologically-inspired mechanisms into machine learning to develop novel tuning algorithms, gradient abstractions for depth-wise parallelism, and an original bias neuron design. We introduce neuromodulatory tuning, which uses neurotransmitter-inspired bias adjustments to enhance transfer learning in spiking and non-spiking neural networks, significantly reducing parameter usage while maintaining performance. Additionally, we propose a novel approach that decouples the backward pass of backpropagation using layer abstractions, inspired by feedback loops in biological systems, enabling depth-wise training parallelization. We further extend neuromodulatory tuning by designing spiking bias neurons that mimic dopamine neuron mechanisms, leading to the development of volumetric tuning. This …

Infrared Light-Based Data Association And Pose Estimation For Aircraft Landing In Urban Environments, David Akagi

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we explore an infrared light-based approach to the problem of pose estimation during aircraft landing in urban environments where GPS is unreliable or unavailable. We introduce a novel fiducial constellation composed of sparse infrared lights that incorporates projective invariant properties in its design to allow for robust recognition and association from arbitrary camera perspectives. We propose a pose estimation pipeline capable of producing high accuracy pose measurements at real-time rates from monocular infrared camera views of the fiducial constellation, and present as part of that pipeline a data association method that is able to robustly identify and …

Reactivity To Environmental And Social Demands In Autistic And Neurotypical Adults: More Alike Than Different?, Mackenzie Marjorie Hyde

Theses and Dissertations

Lack of mutual understanding between autistic and neurotypical individuals contributes to the marginalization of the autistic community. This study aimed to investigate similarities in reactivity to environmental and social pressures between autistic and neurotypical adults in order to facility empathy between the communities. Participants were 328 young adults aged 18-26 years old. Twenty-eight young adults (14 female) reported a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 300 young adults (150 female) comprised a complimentary group of neurotypical individuals. Participants completed multiple standardized tests to measure autistic trait expression and an original survey that measured their reactivity to eight scenarios that …

Parent Perspectives Of A Dialogic Book Reading Workshop, Camille Slocum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify how parents perceive dialogic book reading workshops that they participate in, and how cultural backgrounds affect these perspectives. Four native English-speaking mothers, and one Spanish-speaking mother with preschool-age children participated in this study. After two dialogic book reading workshops, parents participated in focus groups to discuss their perceptions. Participants noted three positive themes including motivators like incentives and childcare, positive influences, and effective adaptations in their reading routines with their children, and how the workshops were structured with helpful facilitators, supplemental materials, and content. Participants suggested various ideas for improvement. The Spanish-speaking …

Factors Surrounding Mental Health Well-Being For Male Adolescent Pacific Islanders, Melia Fonoimoana Garrett

Theses and Dissertations

Despite increasing mental health concerns, individuals from the Pacific Islands largely do not utilize the resources available to them (National Survey of Drug Use and Health, 2020). This is of particular concern among male adolescents within the population who are more at risk of mental health concerns. An interpretative phenomenological analysis focus group study was conducted in person with male adolescent Pacific Islanders (PI; ages 14–16) residing in one Western state (n = 3). Male adolescents reported that admitting to mental health concerns would greatly limit their academic, career, and personal ambitions due to the stigma attached. They also discussed …

Design Of Precision Deployable Origami-Based Space Arrays, Clark Thomas Roubicek

Theses and Dissertations

Deployable origami-based arrays can offer many benefits for a wide variety of engineering applications because of their ability to stow compactly and deploy to a large area. These types of arrays have been demonstrated for use in solar arrays, heat shields, and more; however, they have yet to be shown in high precision applications such as telescopes. The biggest roadblock to using origami in high precision arrays is align- ment in the deployed state; in optical systems, local (single panel) and global (entire array) misalignment can drastically reduce performance. Precision positioning of origami-based arrays can be a challenge because of …

Medial Temporal Lobe Surface Features And Cognition In Aging Amyloid-Positive Individuals, Jacob Johnston

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Memory consolidation and metabolism are known to differ between amyloid-beta plaque positive (A+) and negative (A-) amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia participants despite similar medial temporal lobe (MTL) volume between groups. Using high-dimensional surface analysis (shape characterization), this study identified structural differences in the medial temporal lobe between A+ aMCI, A+ AD dementia, and amyloid-negative (A-) healthy control groups (CON), specifically in the CA1 and subiculum regions of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Additionally, regional brain surface-based features were correlated with procedural and episodic memory measures, finding positive associations between CA1 integrity and episodic memory …

One Size Does Not Fit All: Creating Educational Equity For Later Diagnosed Autistic Women, Naomi Julian

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Autism research focuses on the externalized behaviors usually associated with the male phenotype of autism with little representation of the internalized behaviors associated with the female phenotype of autism. Even more so, there is little research involving later diagnosed autistic women — especially women of color. Beyond this, non-white individuals have been marginalized within the sphere of education, and their marginalization is exacerbated by an autism diagnosis.

In the realm of schooling, the relationship between race, gender, and disability lacks investigation. In this exploratory study, I draw upon qualitative data from interviews of 17 racially diverse autistic women ages ranging …

Investigation Of Collision Cross Sections & Time-Resolved Structural Modification Of Biomolecules, Host-Guest Systems, & Small Molecules Using Ion Mobility & Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Noah Mismash

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the structures and structural changes of supramolecular host-guest systems, proteins, and other small molecules in the gas phase, utilizing a combination of computational modeling and experimental data. The primary instruments employed were a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTICR-MS) and an ion mobility mass spectrometer (IM-MS). In the IM-MS experiments, the focus was on investigating the binding behavior of cyclodextrin macrocycles—specifically α, β, and γ-cyclodextrin—with per-fluoroalkane substances (PFAS), which are pervasive environmental contaminants. This investigation involved measuring ion-neutral collision cross sections and using computational modeling to determine whether PFAS compounds bind inside or outside the …

Mathematical Modeling And Understanding The Physiological Mechanisms Of Vibration On Wound Healing And Scar Remodeling, Devin Rion Needs

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic wounds and pathological scars reduce the quality of life for millions of people worldwide. Through mathematical modeling and clinical testing, understanding of how these conditions occur continues to increase. These tools have also been employed to investigate the efficacy of treatments that could impact wound healing and scar remodeling. The purpose of this work is to investigate the physiological effects of vibration treatment on wound healing, blood flow, and scar remodeling through mathematical modeling and experimental testing. This work presents and validates a mathematical murine model for whole body vibration enhanced wound healing (VEWH). This VEWH model builds on …

Effects Of Professional Development On Secondary School Teachers’ Self-Efficacy, Knowledge, And Attitudes About Adhd, Rebecca Jeanne Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Educators in general are not likely to have an accurate understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including its etiology, how it presents, or how it is treated. Teachers also report lower satisfaction with students who have ADHD, including frustration with classroom experiences. Additionally, teachers express a desire to learn more about ADHD and how to manage related behaviors in their classrooms. Students with ADHD report wishing their teachers liked them more and understood that they aren't trying to be difficult. Accurate knowledge of ADHD has been shown to improve teacher efficacy. The current research study is adapted from Latouche …

Control, Localization, And Shock Optimization Of Icosahedral Tensegrity Systems, Brett Layer

Theses and Dissertations

Exploring the design space of tensegrity systems is the basis of the work presented in this thesis. The areas explored as part of this research include the optimization of tensegrity structures to minimize the size of a tensegrity structure given payload shock constraints, and the control and locomotion of an icosahedral tensegrity system using movable masses and using an accelerometer in conjunction with leveraging geometrical knowledge of an icosahedral tensegrity system to localize the system after the system moves. In the optimization design space, a simplified model was created to represent an icosahedral tensegrity structure. This was done by assuming …

Transition-Based Services And Community Support: Improving Knowledge Of Community Resources For Youth With Disabilities In Role Transitions, Ian Christopher Gee

Theses and Dissertations

Youth with disabilities often struggle to transition into new areas of life; many of these youth have difficulty finding and keeping jobs, making friends, and living independently. The present study evaluated the effects of accessing an online guide detailing how to access supports in one's community. The goal was to increase knowledge of community support options for four students with intellectual and learning disabilities from a transition-support program in the Mountain West. The guide included information on applying for a job, making friends by joining a social club, and finding where to attend church. Results indicated that each student learned …

Perceptual, Acoustic, And Kinematic Measures Of Speech Precision And Steadiness, Jessica Jamiel Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Clinicians rely on perceptual analysis in the assessment and diagnosis of motor speech disorders. However, connecting perceptual measures to quantitative data has proved challenging. This study uses correlational analyses to explore the relationship between perceptual, acoustic, and kinematic measures. Twenty typical speakers provided speech samples of rapid syllable repetition and speech tasks, which were then rated by 12 listeners for precision and steadiness on a visual analog scale. Data was analyzed to identify significant correlations between the measures. We found evidence of a modest perceptual-acoustic relationship, with results suggesting that acoustic rate may be correlated with perceptual features. Our findings …

Nothing About Us Without Us: A Folkloristic Approach To Creating Neurodivergent-Friendly Pedagogies For Secondary Classrooms, Brittney Hatchett

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines how utilizing an applied folkloristic approach of studying the communities of ADHD and autistic people allows us to conduct research that actively involves the voices of ADHD and autistic adults. I have collected personal experience narratives from ADHD and autistic college-aged students about their experiences with different teaching strategies in junior high and high school. Through analysis of these narratives, I examine how the narratives of ADHD and autistic individuals can help guide educational pedagogies towards models that more equitably consider cultures of disabled individuals and better meet the educational needs of future neurodivergent students while simultaneously …

Episodic Memory Influences On Decision-Making: An Fmri Investigation Of Young And Older Adult Populations, Julie Van

Theses and Dissertations

Episodic memory involves the ability to remember specific events and personal experiences. It shares computational and neural resources with episodic future thinking, or the ability to simulate future episodes in anticipation of situations that have not yet occurred. Activity in the frontal lobe has been associated with episodic memory formation, as functional connectivity between the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been associated with the organization and manipulation of information when forming memories. At its core, episodic memory extends to several other functional domains by recombining past information to construct future scenarios, facilitating an aspect of "mental …

Caregiver And Clinician Impressions On The Development Of Spoken Language In Autistic Cochlear Implant Users, Courtney Dawn Marks

Theses and Dissertations

The current literature reports that oral language development is not a realistic goal for autistic cochlear implant users (ACI). This is curious, due to the general success of cochlear implants and the fact that many autistic individuals develop strong spoken language skills. Therefore, this study aimed to examine clinician and caregiver insights into spoken language development in the ACI population with the aim of elucidating the factors that influence the poor outcomes reported in the literature. We predicted that cochlear implant function would not be the limiting factor in ACI language development, but that device use and sensory atypicalities might …

Dungeons & Dragons & Dissertations: A Study Of Therapeutically Applied Tabletop Roleplaying Game Groups At A University Counseling Center, Samuel Mischa Chun

Theses and Dissertations

Although there is a large body of research on the effects of unstructured group therapy among college students, there is inconclusive research on how implementing tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) as a structured activity affects group cohesion for therapy groups made up of college students. Participants were adult, full-time university students who are seeking therapy at the university counseling center. This study measured the effectiveness of therapeutically applied TTRPGs in group therapy with a mixed-methods approach. Participants took the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45) to measure psychological functioning, the Group Questionnaire (GQ) to measure group cohesion, and answered five qualitative questions to describe …

Revolutionize Your Child's Future With The Ultimate Smart Education System, Sam Smith

Student Works

In the journey of life, education is the compass that guides our children toward a brighter future. Yet, in today's fast-paced digital world, the traditional compass is evolving into a sophisticated GPS. Enter the Smart Education System—a revolutionary beacon that harnesses the power of technology to illuminate personalized, engaging, and effective learning pathways. This guide delves into how the ultimate Smart Education System can transform your child's future, paving the way to endless possibilities.