Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Parental Support For Stem Students, Rebecca Stull Zundel

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

This project report explores the design and implementation of instructional resources aimed at enhancing parental support for STEM students within the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP). Through a human-centered approach, the project addresses the need for parental involvement in fostering students' STEM education and career exploration. Drawing on multiple design principles and theories, the project aims to empower parents with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide informed guidance and support in STEM fields. The design process involves a comprehensive analysis of learner needs, environmental factors, and project constraints, resulting in the development of self-directed resources tailored to the specific …

A Bilevel Approach To Resource Allocation For Utility-Based Request-Response Systems, Tanner Jack Sundwall

Theses and Dissertations

We present a novel bilevel programming formulation that aims to solve a resource allocation problem for request-response systems. Our formulation is motivated by potential inefficiencies in the allocation of computational resources to incoming user requests in such systems. In our experience, systems often operate with a surplus of resources despite potentially incurring unjustifiable cost. Our work attempts to optimize the tradeoff between the financial cost of resources and the opportunity cost of unfulfilled user demand. Our bilevel formulation consists of an \textit{upper} problem which has a constraint value appearing in the \textit{lower} problem. We derive efficient methods for finding global …

Neurobiological Underpinnings Of Autistic Traits, Sensory Processing, And Mental Health In Young Adult Males And Females, Miranda Jane Mcquarrie

Theses and Dissertations

Females may present with autism more frequently than is diagnosed, due, in part, to autistic trait and sensory processing differences. Unfortunately, recruiting enough autistic female participants is difficult, because of such underdiagnoses. By approaching autism as a continuous variable, neurotypical (NT) individuals can be studied to better understand autistic individuals. Thus, to examine potential neurobiological underpinnings of sex-based behavioral profiles, we recruited 52 NT individuals (22 male; 30 female). Participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how functional network connectivity (via group independent components analysis) underpinned overall male/female differences in previously measured behavioral autistic trait and sensory …

Dissecting Trypanosome Metabolism By Discovering Glycolytic Inhibitors, Drug Targets, And Glycosomal Ph Regulation, Daniel Hale Call

Theses and Dissertations

Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis, and its relatives Trypanosoma cruzi and several Leishmania species belong to a class of protozoa called kinetoplastids that cause a significant health burden in tropical and semitropical countries across the world. While an improved therapy was recently approved for African trypanosomiasis, the therapies available to treat infections caused by T. cruzi and Leishmania spp. remain relatively poor. Improving our understanding of T. brucei metabolism can inform on metabolism of its relatives. The purpose of the research presented in this dissertation was to develop novel tools and methods to study metabolism in T. …

Hybrid Rib And Air Core Arrow Waveguides Fabricated In A Thin Membrane Covered Trench, Seth Brent Walker

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this work is the development of hollow core Anti-Resonant Reflecting Optical Waveguides (ARROWs) fabricated in a membrane covered trench. This technique is a new approach at building more efficient hollow core waveguides for integration into various platforms that involve liquid or gases. These structures are built on silicon wafers using standard microfabrication techniques, including plasma etching to form trenches. Four waveguide designs are demonstrated, which have different numbers of thin film reflecting layers. Research and manufacturing were conducted in BYU's Integrated Microelectronic Laboratory (IML). A brief history of past work at BYU on hollow core ARROW devices …

Probing The Surface Structure Of Ferrocene Modified Electrodes Using Cyclic Voltammetry, Rebekah S. Stanley

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

Modifying electrodes imparts new electrochemical properties for use in various applications. To fully understand these electrochemical properties the structure of the modified surface needs to be characterized. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) offers a quick and simple way to determine if the surface structure has been homogeneously modified even at low surface concentrations. Nonideal responses in CV scans give insights to the microenvironments and structure of the monolayer surface that may be indistinguishable in other techniques. Peak fitting CV data, coupled with other surface techniques, can further characterize the contributions and nature of these microenvironments and aid in structural determination.

Theory And Tools: The Future Of Technology-Based Learning (Script), Andrew S. Gibbons Iii

Faculty Publications

We are entering a narrow passage that will see great instability in learning technology, instruction, and distance education. My purpose is to talk about two changes that I believe will redirect the entire future of technology-based education.

Theory And Tools: The Future Of Technology-Based Learning (Slides), Andrew S. Gibbons Iii

Faculty Publications

We are entering a narrow passage that will see great instability in learning technology, instruction, and distance education. My purpose is to talk about two changes that I believe will redirect the entire future of technology-based education.

Full Issue

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Curcumin’S Therapeutic Potential In Cancer Treatment Through Ultrasound Mediated Liposomal Delivery, Remya Radha, Vinod Paul, Shabana Anjum, Ayache Bouakaz, William G. Pitt, Ghaleb A. Husseini

Faculty Publications

Improving the efficacy of chemotherapy remains a key challenge in cancer treatment, considering the low bioavailability, high cytotoxicity, and undesirable side effects of some clinical drugs. Targeted delivery and sustained release of therapeutic drugs to cancer cells can reduce the whole-body cytotoxicity of the agent and deliver a safe localized treatment to the patient. There is growing interest in herbal drugs, such as curcumin, which is highly noted as a promising anti-tumor drug, considering its wide range of bioactivities and therapeutic properties against various tumors. Conversely, the clinical efficacy of curcumin is limited because of poor oral bioavailability, low water …

Front Matter

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Community As A Force Of Action In Lorraine Hansberry's "Les Blancs", Lily Jensen

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This paper explores Hansberry’s philosophy of community in her 1970 play, Les Blancs. The paper analyzes Hansberry’s use of complex characterization in this text to show the wide reach of the colonial power structure and to show what is required of a community to push for effective action. The paper also analyzes the National Theatre’s 2016 production of Les Blancs, and how this production incorporates and enhances Hansberry’s philosophy of community through the characteristics afforded through theatre as a medium.

“Our Experience Is Fragmentary”: Partial Redemption In Marilynne Robinson’S Gilead Tetralogy, Zachary Stevenson

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Although the characters and thematic throughlines vary across the four books in the Gilead series, each book takes an interest in the reality of division and considers ways of negotiating and healing that division. Whether the divisions are theological, familial, socioeconomic or racial, their presence haunts the text and the question of their resolution always hovers near the surface. Taken together, these considerations of difference across the four books demonstrate that Robinson populates her novels with chasms that her characters bridge, but only partially so. This coexistence of alienation and reconciliation allows Robinson to articulate a vision of Christian community …

Withholding In Shakespeare: An Analysis Of King Lear And As You Like It, Nylene R. Ward

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Shakespeare is a name familiar to most people who have had the opportunity to study beyond the third grade. Withholding is a practice that isn’t as well known to us until we reach teenage and young adult years. This essay examines both of these topics, exploring the causes and effects of withholding in King Lear and As You Like It while comparing them to real-world definitions and findings. No concrete resolution is formed, instead leaving the outcome to readers as they consider the ethical, relational, and logical implications of the adult hide-and-seek that is withholding.

The Villainess Does Damage Control: Cultural Rescue In The Man Of Law’S Tale, Lucy Esplin

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

In the late fourteenth century, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his masterwork, The Canterbury Tales, a satirical frame narrative centered on English society. The tales follow a group of pilgrims spanning a wide range of English society, who engage in a storytelling contest as they embark on their pilgrimage. One story is the “Man of Law’s Tale,” a crusader romance that follows the pious Constance in her missionary-like journeys. She first travels to Syria to marry a Sultan, after negotiations between the Roman and Syrian rulers demanded the Sultan be baptized and control over Jerusalem would be handed over to Christians (Chaucer …

Painted As Political: The Cultural Significance Within Zitkala-Ša’S Boarding School Narratives, Toni Aguiar

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Zitkala-Ša was a Dakota writer, educator, and political activist who was and is widely influential within and outside of Native American communities during the twentieth century. As a child, Zitkala-Ša was sent to school at White's Indiana Manual Labor Institute, which spurred her writings in “School Days of an Indian Girl” recounting her experiences at the school and the struggles she faced. Though many scholars debate the activist choices she made in her later life as either pro or anti assimilation, some also extend this political criticism into her childhood experiences. My paper argues an alternative reading of these boarding …

“Viewed In Prospect Or Retrospect”: Dorothy Wordsworth’S “Revisiting” On The 1820 Continental Tour, Eve Dixon Fennimore

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This paper argues that Dorothy Wordsworth, in her often overlooked Journal of a Tour on the Continent, was essentially “revisiting” places that she was viewing for the first time, as she had visited them secondhand through William's stories and writings about them. In 1820, Dorothy, William, and Mary Wordsworth embarked on a tour of the continent in the inverse direction of William’s youthful 1790 trip. For thirty years, Dorothy had heard stories and read about his experiences, building up an image in her mind of what the Continent would be like which changed her own exploration of the sights. …

Blake’S Green Symbols Of Humanity, Society, And Spirituality, Angela J. Heagy

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

William Blake is an exemplar of Romantic poetry characterized by depictions of the occult, the divine, and human nature. Despite Blake’s reputation as a Romantic poet, many critics claim that there is not sufficient evidence to consider him a nature writer. As a result, Blake’s name is frequently omitted from ecological discussions; some scholars go so far as to claim that Blake’s poetry demonstrates a disregard for nature altogether. This article argues that an eco-critical analysis of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience reveals nature to be Blake’s continual source of inspiration. Within this collection, nature represents the struggles …

College Students' Perceptions And Opinions Of Their Physical Activity Instructor Being Caring In Class, David C. Barney, Kamora Shelton, Katelyn Rogers, Teresa Leavitt Dr.

Faculty Publications

College can be a very impressionable time for a student, both positively and negatively. One way the college experience can be positive is the interactions the student has with their professors/instructors (hereafter the term instructor will be used). One behavior the instructors can exhibit including in physical activity (PA) classes is being caring or showing caring behaviors toward students. The purpose of this study was to investigate college students’ perceptions of the impact of PA instructor caring behaviors toward the student. For this study 69 college students (45 males and 24 females) were surveyed with one open-ended survey question. It …

Effects Of College Physical Activity Instructors' Enthusiasm On Student Experiences In Class, David C. Barney, Teresa Leavitt Dr.

Faculty Publications

It is hoped that teachers in all content areas will be excited, or enthusiastic for what they will be teaching their students. A teacher’s enthusiasm in class can be beneficial to students (Locke & Woods, 1982). Teacher enthusiasm also applies in college physical activity classes. This study investigated college physical activity instructor’s perception and opinions their enthusiasm and how it may affect the student’s experiences in class. For this study 10 college physical activity instructors were surveyed. Generally, the college physical activity felt that when they initiate conversations with students, listen to students, and are excited about what they are …

Techno-Economic Optimization Of A Hybrid Energy System With Limited Grid Connection In Pursuit Of Net Zero Carbon Emissions For New Zealand, Daniel Hill, Shafiqur Rahman Tito, Michael Walmsley, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

As New Zealand moves towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050, multiple factors must be considered including increased electrical load due to electrification, variability of renewable energy generators, required storage capacity, system economics and limitations on grid transmission capacity. Complex and region-specific interactions between the various design choices involved are likely to require an understanding of a range of optimal and near-optimal designs for proposed micro-grid systems as opposed to a single optimal point. This work develops a novel multiscale optimization algorithm for optimization from a univariate capacity optimization approach to a multivariate one. This enhanced algorithm is applied to …

The Olmsted Fault, Southernmost Illinois: A Key To Understanding Seismic Hazard In The Northern New Madrid Seismic Zone, Christopher E. Bexfield

Theses and Dissertations

The northernmost extent of the New Madrid seismic zone in the central USA has been investigated using an integrated approach involving both compressional-wave (P) and horizontally polarized-wave (SH) seismic reflection and regional and dedicated borehole geophysical information in order to assess seismic hazard and risk. Our study area, centered around southernmost Illinois and western Kentucky, USA, represents an area of concentrated facilities (e.g., lock and dam sites and chemical plants on the Ohio River near its confluence with the Mississippi River) as well as an area of high potential soil amplification due to earthquake shaking. Integrated high-resolution seismic reflection profiles …

Psychological Safety Of Pre-Licensure Nursing Students: A Longitudinal, Qualitative Study, Laura Butler

Student Works

Background: Previous studies have explored the concept of psychological safety among pre-licensure nursing students; however, the literature is notably sparse on personal descriptions of pre-licensure nursing students’ experiences of psychological safety in clinical settings. Individual descriptions of psychological safety will provide added insight and understanding about the elements that shape psychological safety in pre-licensure nursing students.

Objectives: This research aimed to longitudinally explore pre-licensure nursing students' experiences of psychological safety during clinical rotations and how their experiences of psychological safety change over time.

Methods: This study used a longitudinal, qualitative, descriptive approach. Participants were recruited from a …

Making Library Student Employment More Meaningful, Jeremy Myntti

Faculty Publications

Generally speaking, the twofold mission of a university includes both research and teaching. While each institution has a varying degree of focus on these two overarching missions, universities are in the business of advancing knowledge and producing high-quality graduates ready for a competitive job market.

Classifying Forecasts, Michael S. Drake, James R. Moon Jr., James D. Warren

Faculty Publications

We employ a novel machine learning technique to classify analysts’ forecast revisions into five types based on how the revision weighs publicly available signals. We label these forecast types as quant, sundry, contrarian, herder, and independent forecasts. Our tests reveal that a greater diversity of forecast types within the consensus is associated with increased consensus dispersion and improved consensus accuracy. Additionally, consensus diversity is associated with an improved information environment for firms, as reflected in reduced earnings announcement information asymmetry and volatility, higher earnings response coefficients, and faster price formation. Our study sheds light on how analysts revise their forecasts …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Binding Interdependence: The Necessity Of Marriage In The Stonor Letters, Sarah Emmett

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Upon her Mattiage to William Stonor in 1475, Elizabeth Stonor, nee Croke, was no wedding amateur. Twice before, she had stood on the steps of the church, as was the custom, and promised to share her wealth and her body with her husband. Twice before, her husband had promised to provide for her and leave her a dower portion upon his death. Both grooms had offered Elizabeth gold and silver coins and a ring to seal their union, and both times, Elizabeth and her husband had prostrated themselves before the altar of the church and heard mass among their family, …

The Becket Family Of Salem, Massachusetts, Kaitlyn Richardson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Though Notorious for the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s, history moved on in Salem after the trials. During the eighteenth century, Salem grew increasingly prominent in the seafaring trade, and by 1800 had a population of 9,400, making it the sixth-largest city in the United States and the second-busiest port in Massachusetts. Indeed, Salem and her trade contacts are considered by historians co be integral in the beginnings of United Scares international relations during the early nineteenth century. This port town had contacts with such far-flung places as other North American Colonies, the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, and the West …

Atatiirk's Reforms And Legacy: Exploring A Female Novelist's Critique, David Patton

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On May 19, 1919, in the post-World War I Ottoman Empire an Ottoman military officer named Mustafa Kemal Pasha abandoned his pose after he was sent to Samsun on the Black Sea coast to inspect the Ninth Army of the Ottoman Empire, taking up leadership of the Turkish Nationalist Movement against the Entente powers, Britain and France. This marked the commencement of the Turkish War of Independence, a conflict that lasted until the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which officially drove out the Western powers from Anatolia, the Turkish heartland. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, the …

All Those Who Shall Pass An Italian's Resistance & Nazi Occupation, Alexander Willis

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The song "Bella Ciao" was originally written as an anthem for the struggles of the 19th century Italian working class. Amidst the beginning of Italy's monumental wrestle against fascism (both from Italy's own government and Nazi forces), the words were changed to reflect the struggle of the resistance fighters, known as partisans. "Bella Ciao" was now a song mourning the loss of their beautiful Italy. It was not just a song of grief, but also a song of belligerent determination to resist.