Digital Commons Network^™

Bird And Small Mammal Preference For Water Developments, Lizzie Wilson, Randy Larsen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

 Different types of water developments nicknamed “guzzlers” have been installed in many different arid and semi-arid environments to provide water resources to game species in the state of Utah.

 Upland game guzzlers are usually covered by a sheet of metal and are used to target species like chukar partridge and quail (Figure 1).

 Big game guzzlers are open pools of water that are used to target species like mule deer and desert big horn sheep (Figure 2).  Most visitations to guzzlers are by native species not targeted by the guzzlers or wildlife management efforts (3).

Exploring Extended Reality In An Aqueous Processing Test Bed For Nuclear Material, Sam Wald

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research aided in the ongoing creation of an extended reality training experience for Beartooth, an aqueous processing test bed for nuclear material, by exploring what will be comfortable and effective for users of the experience. Participants consisted of staff members from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and authorized members of the Augmented Learning Lab at BYU. We conducted usability testing with participants who were given extended reality (XR) equipment to explore the Beartooth virtual training system. We also performed a heuristic evaluation on the system using an augmented reality evaluation checklist. Findings were discussed with the INL team and recommendations …

N-H Nhc Palladium Catalysts Derived From Unique 2-Phosphinoimidazole Precursors For C-C Cross Coupling Reactions And Application Of Slow Releasing Polymers Impregnated With Gibberellic Acid To Overcome Seed Dormancy For Land Reclamation, Alexandra Jean Setelin Larson

Theses and Dissertations

Organometallic chemistry is highly dependent upon the ligands which are employed on a metal's surface. These ligands control steric bulk and electronics of the metal center which can change the reactivity of the organometallic complex. Ligands that are standard in organometallic chemistry include phosphine ligands. These phosphine ligands have been utilized in the field since the 1960's and have shaped the development of many key organometallic catalysts. Phosphine ligands are easily functionalized and highly reactive. This increased reactivity, however, causes severe limitations as phosphine ligands are often unstable under standard benchtop conditions and must be handled both air and moisture …

Triumph Of Conviction: The Fall Of Communism In The Wake Of Helsinki's Human Rights, Michael Schroth

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

When the Final Act of the Helsinki Accords was signed by the nations of Europe and North America in 1975, the potential effect of the document was met with skepticism. Those who were a party to the act expected little. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in uncaring fashion, said dismissively, "I don't care if they're written in Swahili. " Kissinger's counterpart, Andrei Gromyko, made sure Soviet authority was not questioned by stating, "We are masters in our own house." Nonetheless, the language contained in the Final Act definitely entitled all citizens of the signatory powers to specific human rights. These …

Full Issue

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Anthropomorphism In Aesop's Fables, Nasih Alam

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Generally, Aesop’s The Complete Fables is considered didactic for children. In my paper, I discuss how Aesop represents nonhumans in his fables and how they could negatively affect the psychology of children aged 7-12 if we as parents, teachers and legal guardians do not become conscious of its problematic didactic function. I show that most of the anthropomorphized animals in The Complete Fables have anthropocentric and provide environmentally harmful rhetorics. In order to keep the required length of paper in mind, I have limited myself to five tales from Aesop’s The Complete Fables, to show how and where the rhetoric …

“Creating And Maintaining Black Life-Worlds”: The Black Aesthetics Of Bernardine Evaristo’S Blonde Roots And Girl, Woman, Other, Sharanya Dg

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Black Aesthetics is the philosophical inquiry into the objects and practices of expressions coming from people who have been racialized as black. These expressive practices then lend to the creation of the life-worlds of people subjected to racist discourses. One such author in the contemporary English society, Bernadine Evaristo, responds to anti-black racist discourses by exploring the cultural plurality of British black life-worlds. This paper is a textual and formal analysis of two experimental novels of Evaristo to study how they distinctly present the quotidian lives of various characters in their racialised bodies to reflect on the sociocultural and political …

Beyond "His Native Town": Travel And Alienation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Erin G. Quinn

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein features a surprisingly extensive variety of locations through which Victor Frankenstein travels, ranging from the vibrant cities of London and Oxford to the isolated Orkney islands and Arctic lands. Scholars have analyzed the roles which some of these settings, namely, the Alps and the Arctic, play in the novel, and many have noted the importance of travel to the text. However, little scholarship exists assessing how Victor’s travels as a whole impact him, as well as their collective purpose within the story. Given the prominence of travel in Shelley’s text, as well as the fact …

Milton, Immortality, And Obtaining Eliot's "Significant Emotion", Aaron By Gorner

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

In his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent, T. S. Eliot famously asserts that very few can actually access "significant emotion" in poetry, and do so by understanding where relics of the classical tradition assert their immortality. In my article, I support Eliot's claims by demonstrating two (previously undiscussed) occasions where Milton, via Paradise Lost, inserts Christianity into the classical world: Satan and Abdiel alluding to Virgil's Remulus and Ascanius, and then Eve and Adam with Virgil's Nisus and Euryalus. Ultimately it will be apparent that not only does Milton's poetry obtain Eliot's "significant emotion" and its associated immortality, …

The “Fruit” Of Success: Christina Rossetti’S “Goblin Market” As An Allegory Of The 19th Century Literary Marketplace, Priyodarshini Ghosh

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is probably her most critically acclaimed literary masterpiece. It has been accepted undoubtedly as an allegory of something, but critics have not been able to come to a unanimous conclusion as to what. Some have tried to establish it as a Christian allegory of Fall and Redemption, while others as an allegory of sexual temptation. Certain critics have hinted that this poem could be an allegory of the literary marketplace during the 19^th century, which was wholly dominated by men, women’s entry into that marketplace being either restricted or marked by insurmountable obstacles. Following the …

From "Pictures Of Perfection" To "No Ideal Expression": How Jane Austen Reimagines And Reinvents Eighteenth-Century Heroines, Gretchen Picklesimer Kinney

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Cover And Front Matter

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Gender And Orality In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon, Nessa Ordukhani

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This essay explores the intersection of postmodernism and multiculturalism in Toni Morrison's novel, Song of Solomon. It delves into the destabilization of historical metanarratives by postmodernism through the theories of Jean-François Lyotard, which challenges the notion of a singular truth and questions who constructs popular historical narratives. The essay discusses the role of the victors, particularly white males, in shaping history and the process of legitimation through which historical facts are determined. It examines how Morrison's novel offers an alternative history that highlights African American perspectives and challenges the dominant white narrative. Additionally, the essay explores the tension between multiculturalism …

School Psychologist's Tiered Social-Emotional Recommendations In Response To Data Gathered From Social-Emotional Screening, Audrey Anita Andersen

Theses and Dissertations

Universal school-wide social-emotional screeners identify at-risk students with social-emotional behavior problems (Romer et al., 2020). Identifying such students alone cannot prevent these social, emotional, and behavioral concerns from becoming problematic. However, data gathered from social-emotional screening can guide the development of strategies, supports, interventions, and progress monitoring students at risk across all tiers (Yates et al., 2008), leading to the prevention of social-emotional and behavioral problems from turning maladaptive (Humphrey & Wigelsworth, 2016; Walker et al., 2004). A school district in the Mountain West area of the United States developed a screening survey that addresses school climate, culture, and connectedness …

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Remote Patient Monitoring Using Spirometry: A Systematic Review, Joseph Nielson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects an estimated 30 million Americans and is the third leading cause of death worldwide. A recent effort to curb deaths and hospitalizations involves remote patient monitoring (RPM). Of all possible monitoring parameters, spirometry presents itself as potentially helpful. Existing RPM studies using spirometry present software systems in early stages of development that have yet to be tested thoroughly in large trials. Further, the array of data elements and software features that should be combined with spirometry for effective COPD RPM and care have yet to be determined. A meta-analysis was performed to determine a …

Exploring The Border Identity Of The Residents Of Ambos Nogales: A Pilot Study, Emily Rodriguez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is a mixed-methods pilot study seeking to explore Border Identity among the residents of Ambos Nogales. Border Identity is a concept that has been widely debated in Border Studies yet is still under-researched. This thesis adds to the existing literature by conducting survey and interview analyses to determine the essential characteristics that make up Border Identity in today’s political climate. It also serves as a pilot study meant to encourage further research on the Border and Border people. This thesis provides important suggestions for future Border research and amplifies the voices of the Residents of Nogales.

Explainable Ai Using Assumption-Alignment Tracking On Multiple Algorithms, Darien Campbell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Autonomous robots are becoming increasingly prevalent in our everyday lives. In order for humans to effectively take advantage of automated systems, robots need to understand their limitations across different environment states, recognize when they need user assistance, and effectively communicate their assessments to human users. The ability of AI systems to communicate their decision process is referred to as Explainable AI.

Research has already been done on how a robot should evaluate its proficiency to predict how well it can perform a task [1]. This thesis explores current Social Science research on how humans explain their own behaviors. These insights …

Improving Human Recognition Of Deepfakes, Jeremy Mumford

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is focused on deepfakes, a new term given to fake videos and images generated by deep learning algorithms and models. Deepfakes pose a considerable threat to society by raising the bar for quality in misinformation while also lowering the amount of skill and effort required. Deepfakes threaten to undermine democratic societies by swaying public opinion through misinformation. While many researchers are working hard to develop automated tools to combat deepfakes, this thesis used a 10-item IRB approved survey to examine whether two separate interventions could successfully improve an individual’s ability to recognize deepfakes. Demographic differences in recognizing deepfakes …

The Abuse Of Greatness: A Comparative Study Between A Leader's Recognition Of Remorse And Their State's Economic, Political, And Social Success, Joleah Long

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the year 1599 William Shakespeare penned a line for his new political drama The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: “The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.” This thesis investigates if and how this claim is mirrored in reality. Utilizing the literature and philosophies of two historic political figures, Marcus Aurelius and Machiavelli, a spectrum of remorse in leadership is defined. On one end Aurelius articulates the necessity of remorse while Machiavelli argues the opposite on the other end of this spectrum. The research then takes us to sub-saharan Africa to explore differences in the leadership styles …

Blue Moon: Exploring The Complexities Of Human Love Through A Werewolf Romance Novel, Kayla Lafroth

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Blue Moon is a werewolf romance novel that emphasizes the heartbreak and triumph of human love through a cast of non-human characters. This story is written to explore the complexities of love, acting as an intersection between werewolves and romantic tragedy. In Blue Moon, Luna’s perfect world comes crashing down when her soulmate, Aspen, rejects her as his mate, something unheard of in werewolf culture. In a desperate attempt to win his affection, Luna feigns a soulmate bond with Kodiak, an alpha werewolf who is looked down upon for having no mate. As the layers of Luna’s relationship with …

Gt-Ches And Dycon: Improved Classification For Human Evolutionary Systems, Joseph S. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this work is to rethink the process of learning in human evolutionary systems. We take a sober look at how game theory, network theory, and chaos theory pertain specifically to the modeling, data, and training components of generalization in human systems. The value of our research is three-fold. First, our work is a direct approach to align machine learning generalization with core behavioral theories. We made our best effort to directly reconcile the axioms of these heretofore incompatible disciplines -- rather than moving from AI/ML towards the behavioral theories while building exclusively on AI/ML intuition. Second, this …

“The History Of Every Country Begins In The Heart Of A…Woman”: Willa Cather’S Reclamation Of The Female American Immigrant Through Edenic Western Narratives, Emma Fox

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes Willa Cather’s Great Plains Trilogy—O, Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918)—in the context of the immigration boom of the early 1900s and the myth of an “American Eden.” This concept was born of cultural portrayals of the West as dominated by white, male pioneers who subdued the landscape, but Cather’s novels, centered around immigrant families, significantly revise this popular myth. Nativists saw the West as the source of American virtues such as democracy and diligence and viewed sending immigrants West as an essential tool for “Americanization,” the process by which …

Development Of N-H N-Heterocyclic Carbene Pd Catalysts For Cross-Coupling Reactions In Organic Synthesis, Rachel Nicole Owens

Theses and Dissertations

The use of N-H N heterocyclic carbene ligands (NHC's) in organometallic chemistry has become a field of interest due to their unique properties that lead to new and interesting reactivity. The hydrogen on the nitrogen of the NHC can be deprotonated, creating an anionic species, or it can participate in hydrogen-bonding with different substrates. In this work we will explore the unique reactivity of N-H NHC palladium complexes in different cross coupling reactions, including the Suzuki-Miyaura and Heck reactions. Our work demonstrates that N-H NHC complexes of palladium can be accessed from 2-phosphinoimidazole ligands via non-oxidative insertion of the palladium …

The Effects Of Diesel Exhaust Particle Exposure On Adipos Mitochondrial Bioenergetics And Inflammation, Cali Elizabeth Warren

Theses and Dissertations

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) constitutes a significant component of ambient air pollution that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders, including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Among PM2.5 constituents, diesel exhaust particles (DEP) are prevalent particulates that infiltrate the bloodstream to drive systemic pathologies. The purpose of this study was to characterize the metabolic response of adipose tissue to DEP. We aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding by exploring mitochondrial bioenergetics, characterizing the inflammatory marker profile, including adipokines, and conducting a detailed histological analysis of adipocytes to provide valuable insights to the evolving understanding of the intricate …

Growing New Librarians Through Meaningful Internships, Nicole Lewis

Faculty Publications

Internships have the potential to be incredible learning experiences for students, but without thoughtful preparation, they may be nothing more than short-term jobs. Using a metadata internship as a case study, this presentation will discuss how using effective teaching and course design principles could create more thoughtful and meaningful internship experiences, specifically how crafting an internship objective and learning outcomes can help with creating content and learning activities that prepare interns for their hands-on projects. The result is an internship that combines theory and practice into a meaningful experience for the student and delivers needed work for the library.

Early Russian-Chinese Relations, Dean William Bennett

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In February. 1654, Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich Romanov dispatched a friendly, if rather pompous, letter on its way across the vast steppes of Siberia and Mongolia to the emperor of China, Shun-chih. In this letter he lamented that the rulers of the two realms had never before established any official contact between themselves, and he expressed a fond hope that the tsar and the emperor might live thenceforth "in friendship, love, and communication." The prospects should have been alluring, promising trade and wealth for both states, and also frequent exchanges of embassies. But less than three years later, the leader of …

Development Of Bifunctional Peptides As Scaffolds For Bifunctional Catalysis And A Novel Method Of Peptide Stapling Using Squaric Esters, Adam X. Wayment

Theses and Dissertations

Enzymes are some of nature's most powerful tools in chemical processes. However, their molecular complexity makes them difficult to synthesize and complicates their application in traditional organic synthesis. Peptides, a building block of enzymes, can be rapidly synthesized and have been used as a possible alternative in achieving enzyme-like catalysis. However, most peptide-based catalysts are limited in reaction-scope and are unable to incorporate traditional organic catalysts. We have designed a helical peptide scaffold capable of being functionalized with a wide variety of organocatalysts as well as transition-metal based catalysts. In order to understand how the peptide structure effects reactivity and …

Liberty And Justice For Some: Comparing Dwi Convictions By Ethnicity, Gretel Busse, Daniel Wilkerson

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This study observes potential disadvantages faced by minorities in the criminal justice system. Using data from DWI cases, we compare outcomes for Hispanic and white criminal defendants. Controlling for BrAC and criminal history, we find that Hispanics are more likely than whites to be convicted and incarcerated, and less likely to use a private attorney.

Using Eye-Tracking To Examine How Chinese Foreign Language Learners Attend To Chinese Radicals, Yi Hsuan Lin

Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized eye-tracking to investigate 63 intermediate-level university Chinese foreign language (CFL) learners' real-time radical preferences. Radicals are components of Chinese characters and give clues to the meanings and pronunciations of the character. This study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) What type of radicals (semantic/phonetic) do CFL readers most rely on when reading characters? (2) Does reliance on one type of radical (semantic/phonetic) correlate with accuracy in character recognition? (3) Does awareness of semantic/phonetic radicals affect the accuracy of character recognition or reliance on radicals in real-time processing? The results found that participants demonstrated a phonetic …

Transgenic Beetle Modification Via Nanoinjection, Abigail Wallace, Abraham B. Alton, Jane Lundgren, Marianna Ransom, Michelle Teh, Kai Jeffery, Norman Rasmussen, Alex Rolfson, Brian D. Jensen, Colin Dale, Seth Taylor, Sandra Hope

Student Works

The bacterium Sodalis praecaptivus can be transformed with a transgene for expression in the insect. Symbiotic bacteria in the insect’s reproductive tract will be passed on to their offspring. Red fluorescent protein is used for nanoinjection studies.