Digital Commons Network^™

The Brigham Young University Football Program And The Analytics Revolution, Nelson Chung

BYU Studies

The Brigham Young University football program is the most visible component of the LDS Church’s flagship school. In 2010, it contracted to ESPN the broadcast of a majority of its games for a reported $800,000 to $1.2 million per home game through 2018. During the 2015 season, its eight games on the ESPN–ABC family of networks reached 14.8 million televisions, an average of 1.9 million each game. In terms of missionary value, the program rivals the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Along with publicity, the Choir has also invited a fair amount of scholarly attention, most notably a study of how its …

Nephi’S Use Of Inverted Parallels, Dennis Newton

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Did Nephi intentionally use chiasmus in his writings? An analysis of fifteen multi-level chiasm candidates in Nephi’s writings demonstrates a high statistical probability (99%+) that the poetic form was used intentionally by Nephi but only during two specific writing periods. This finding is buttressed by further analysis, which reveals a clear and unexpected literary pattern for which Nephi seems to have reserved his usage of chiasmus. The nature of obedience is a major theme in Nephi’s writings, and he regularly employed chiasms to explore the topic early in his writings. After a period during which he discontinued use of the …

On The Expressive Function Of Russian Quantitative Aktionsarten In Speech, Elena Nikolaenko

Russian Language Journal

The goal of this article is to examine the expressive function of Russian quantitative Aktionsarten in oral and written speech from the perspective of functional grammar and cognitive linguistics, the theoretical principles of which are outlined below. The focus will be on occasionally used Aktionsarten, which name an action quantity as “greater than the norm”; the term is used by native Russian speakers to express personal appreciation/depreciation of the action.

Visualizing Apostolic Succession, Meilan Jin, Iliesa S. K. Delai, Geoffrey M. Draper

BYU Studies

For years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has published pictures and other illustrative diagrams to communicate its message. For example, the children's book Book of Mormon Stories includes an illustrative map indicating the possible route of Lehi's family from the Arabian peninsula to the Americas. Seminary students receive bookmarks showing a timeline of peoples and events in the Book of Mormon. More recently, the Church has published a series of "information graphics" (known more commonly as infographics) on its website. Infographics in a visually pleasing manner. The Church's infographics cover a range of topics such as …

Folate And Inflammatory Markers Moderate The Association Between Helicobacter Pylori Exposure And Cognitive Function In Us Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Andrew N. Berrett, Shawn D. Gale, Lance D. Erickson, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

Background: Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) infection is associated with cogni-tive deficits in humans, an association potentially mediated or moderated byfolate concentration or inflammation.Materials and

Methods: We used the National Health and Nutrition Exami-nation Survey (NHANES) datasets to examine whether folate concentrationor inflammation mediates or moderates the relationship betweenH. pyloriand cognitive function. Models were performed using linear, Poisson, andzero-inflated Poisson regression, and we performed separate analyses forgroups aged 20–59 and 60–90 years with sample sizes ranging from 700 to1700.Results:We did not find evidence of mediation in either age group. In the20- to 59-year group, interactions betweenH. pyloriand ferritin (pvaluesranging from .004 to …

Landscapes Of Interaction: Understanding Social Landscapes Through Quantitative Models Of Artifact Distributions, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

Exchange of material goods is one of the most basic forms of human interactions. By tracing the distribution of ceramics, stone tools, and other materials archaeologists are often able to make inferences about the nature of interactions, and about the economic and social relationships of the people involved. These artefact distributions are a fundamental feature of social landscapes, with the potential to reveal much about the structure of social life. But artefact distributions are often complex and difficult to describe, especially at large spatial scales, and they often require some form of abstraction to make them comprehensible. Archaeologists have therefore …

Compensation Or Feedback: Motivating Performance In Multidimensional Tasks, Margaret H. Christ, Scott A. Emett, William B. Tayler, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Employees often perform tasks with multiple dimensions. In this study, we examine how employees' performance on multidimensional tasks differs under different control structures. We conduct two experiments in which we manipulate the presence of compensation controls and the presence of feedback controls on multiple task dimensions. Our findings suggest that when employees are compensated on multiple dimensions they commit to multiple goals and divide their attention among those task dimensions. However, when feedback controls are implemented on one task dimension with compensation controls on another dimension, employees can improve performance on individual dimensions as well as their overall task performance. …

Applying Basic Gamification Techniques To It Compliance Training: Evidence From The Lab And Field, Ryan J. Baxter, D. Kip Holderness, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Companies depend on strong internal controls to protect the integrity of accounting information systems. IT security and data privacy training are critical controls to safeguarding company information. However, employees often dislike the training, which can cause a lack of attention to and poor understanding of training concepts, leading to less effective internal controls. To improve the training experience, companies are implementing principles of games into employee training modules; a practice known as gamification. Using a laboratory experiment of data privacy training and a field study involving a publicly-traded bank’s rollout of IT security training, we test whether a training environment …

Parameterized Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Wake Model Using Cfd Vorticity Data, Andrew Ning, Eric Tingey

Faculty Publications

In order to analyze or optimize a wind farm layout, reduced-order wake models are often used to estimate the interactions between turbines. While many such models exist for horizontal-axis wind turbines, for vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) a simple parametric wake model does not exist. Using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations we computed vorticity in a VAWT wake, and parameterized the data based on normalized downstream positions, tip-speed ratio, and solidity to predict a normalized wake velocity deficit. When compared to CFD, which takes about a day to run one simulation, the reduced-order model predicts the velocity deficit at any location …

The Application Of Layer Theory To Design: The Control Layer, Andrew S. Gibbons Iii, Matt Langton

Faculty Publications

Validation of an architectural theory of instructional design layering is accomplished for one of the proposed layers by verifying the theory’s claim that for every layer there exists a body of design theory from outside the field of instructional design that is capable of informing design within that layer.

Measurement Of The Yb I 1S0-1P1 Transition Frequency At 399 Nm Using An Optical Frequency Comb, Michaela Kleinert, M. E. Gold Dahl, Scott D. Bergeson

Faculty Publications

We determine the frequency of the Yb I ¹S₀-¹P₁ transition at 399 nm using an optical frequency comb. Although this transition was measured previously using an optical transfer cavity [D. Das et al., Phys, Rev. A 72, 032506 (2005)], recent work has uncovered significant errors in that method. We compare our result of 751 526 533.49 ± 0.33 MHz for the ¹⁷⁴Yb isotope with those from the literature and discuss observed differences. We verify the correctness of our method by measuring the frequencies of well-known transitions in Rb and Cs, and by …

Dodging Marshmallows: Simulations To Teach Ethics, Justin Weidman, Dawan Coombs

Faculty Publications

Students had just participated in an experiential learning exercise where they played dodgeball using marshmallows. But the unique context of the game introduced ethical dilemmas that integrated ethics education into a technical education classroom setting.

Research shows that “Engineering curriculum and activities at the K-12 level should be designed to expose students to [ethical considerations inherent in the practice of engineering], and as a result students should be aware of the importance of these issues in the field of engineering” (Moore, Glancy, Tank, Kersten, Smith, & Stohlmann, 2014). But how do STEM teachers teach students to think about ethical issues …

Facilitating Deployable Mechanisms And Structures Via Developable Lamina Emergent Arrays, Larry L. Howell, Robert J. Lang, Spencer P. Magleby, Todd G. Nelson, Nathan A. Pherson

Faculty Publications

A method is presented utilizing networks of lamina emergent joints, known as lamina emergent arrays, to accommodate large-curvature developable structures suited to deployable applications. By exploiting the ruling lines in developable surfaces, this method enables developable structures and mechanisms that can be manufactured with two-dimensional geometry and yet have a greater range of elastic motion than is possible with a solid sheet of material. Aligning the joints to the ruling lines also biases the structure to a specific deployment path. A mathematical model is developed to describe the resulting stiffness of the structure employing the lamina emergent arrays and equations …

Constructing A Russian Elicited Imitation Exam, Troy L. Cox, Jennifer Brown, Jacob Burdis

Faculty Publications

A Russian student wants to know if it is worth the expense to pay for an official ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). The director of a flagship program wants to measure the improvement of the oral proficiency of students returning from their in-country experience. A university department needs to provide evidence that their students are meeting learning objectives as part of accreditation. In each of these cases, a cost-effective, scalable solution to measuring oral proficiency would be helpful.

Assessing speaking ability in a foreign language has traditionally been a difficult and time-intensive task. A traditional method of measuring oral language …

Global Sensitivity Analysis For A Comprehensive Char Conversion Model In Oxy-Fuel Conditions, Troy Michael Holland, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Oxy-fired coal combustion is a promising potential carbon capture technology. Predictive CFD simulations are valuable tools in evaluating and deploying oxy-fuel and other carbon capture technologies either as retrofit technologies or for new construction. However, accurate predictive simulations require physically realistic submodels with low computational requirements. In particular, comprehensive char oxidation and gasification models have been developed that describe multiple reaction and diffusion processes. This work focuses on the sensitivity of a recent comprehensive char conversion code named CCK, which treats surface oxidation and gasification reactions as well as the processes such as film diffusion, pore diffusion, ash encapsulation, and …

Mormonism And The Scientific Persistence Of Circles: Aristotle, Spacetime, And One Eternal Round, Elizabeth Nielson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The prominence of circles and circular motion has been one present in scientific discussion of the structure of the universe from Aristotle to Einstein. Development through Ptolemy, Copernicus and Kepler created elliptical variations, but in essence, the scientific community has been unable to break free of a certain degree of circular motion that ultimately seems fundamental to the very nature of the universe. Just as the circle featured prominently in Aristotle’s cosmology, it remains an integral aspect of reality, though perhaps it is more difficult to pick out in its present forms as planetary ellipses and curved space-time. In this …

Nephi’S Change Of Heart, Dennis Newton

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

How long did it take Nephi to compose his portions of the “small account?” Careful text analysis and data mining suggest that “Nephi’s” texts may have been composed across periods as great as forty years apart. I propose a timeline with four distinct periods of composition. The merits of this timeline are weighed, and some thoughts are explored as to how this timeline alters the reader’s perceptions of Nephi. The net effect is that Nephi becomes more sympathetic, more personable, and more relatable as his record progresses and that the totality of Nephi’s writings are best understood and interpreted when …

Inspiring Students To Value Reading, Ann C. Sharp, Lorilynn Brandt, Douglas S. Gardner

The Utah English Journal

Have you ever seen a struggling reader rally his friends to buy the same book at a school book fair, and then spearhead a series of literacy circle activities during recess time? Uncommon at best, right? Recently, one fourth grade teacher in Utah County while implementing reading motivational principles in her classroom reported just such an incident. In her words: “I have a group of boys in my class and one of them is a[n] extremely low reader and I don’t know if he has ever tried reading a chapter book or anything like that, and they made their own …

Constructing A Russian Elicited Imitation Exam, Troy Cox, Jennifer Bown, Jacob Burdis

Russian Language Journal

A Russian student wants to know if it is worth the expense to pay for an official ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). The director of a flagship program wants to measure the improvement of the oral proficiency of students returning from their in-country experience. A university department needs to provide evidence that their students are meeting learning objectives as part of accreditation. In each of these cases, a cost-effective, scalable solution to measuring oral proficiency would be helpful.

A Thoughtful Faith: Essays On Belief By Mormon Scholars, Philip L. Barlow

Books

No abstract provided.

Phonetic Shift /Ɔr/ Phonemic Change? American English Mergers Over 40 Years, Joseph A. Stanley, Margaret E. L. Renwick

Faculty Publications

In this paper we analyze the vowel formants of a speaker over four decades to show phonemic change through time. Other real-time studies (Harrington, Palethorpe & Watson 2000; Harrington & Reubold 2015) have found that the vowel spaces of UK English speakers shift over the lifetime, likely as a consequence of interaction with speakers of other dialects or social classes. We focus on an understudied variety of English, spoken in the western United States, to investigate a pair of phonological mergers, the cord-card merger and the hoarse-horse merger.

The cord-card merger is a result of a historical three-way contrast of …

Optical Approach To Resin Formulation For 3d Printed Microfluidics, Hua Gong, Michael Beauchamp, Steven Perry, Adam T. Woolley, Gregory P. Nordin

Faculty Publications

Microfluidics imposes different requirements on 3D printing compared to many applications because the critical features for microfluidics consist of internal microvoids. Resins for general 3D printing applications, however, are not necessarily formulated to meet the requirements of microfluidics and minimize the size of fabricated voids. In this paper we use an optical approach to guide custom formulation of resins to minimize the cross sectional size of fabricated flow channels as exemplars of such voids. We focus on stereolithgraphy (SL) 3D printing with Digital Light Processing (DLP) based on a micromirror array and use a commercially available 3D printer. We develop …

Silicon Carbon Nanotube Lithium Ion Batteries, Lawrence Kent Barrett

Theses and Dissertations

Silicon has the highest theoretical capacity of any known anode material, and silicon coated carbon nanotubes (Si-CNTs) have shown promise of dramatically increasing battery capacity. However, capacity fading with cycling and low rate capability prevent widespread use. Here, three studies on differing aspects of these batteries are presented. Here, three studies on differing aspects of these batteries are presented. The first examines the rate capability of these batteries. It compares the cycling of electrodes hundreds of microns thick with and without ten micron access holes to facilitate diffusion. The holes do not improve rate capability, but thinner coatings of silicon …

Construction Of A 408 Nm Laser System For Use In Ion Interferometry, Lawrence Archibald

Theses and Dissertations

This work reports on the construction of a 408 nm laser system designed to drive stimulated Raman transitions between the F = 4 and F = 5 2 S 1/2 states of 87 Sr + using the 2 P 3/2 state as the intermediate state. This laser system will be used as part of a 87 Sr + ion interferometer. This work also includes a discussion of relevant theory describing the interaction of the ions and laser, along with a calculation of the transition rates as a function of laser power and detuning.

Superimposed And Auxiliary Dunes Of The Northern Namib Sand Sea: A Ground-Penetrating Radar Study, Clayton K. Chandler

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding modern features allows for their use as analogues for understanding the environments of the past and even environments on other planetary bodies. This study uses Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) to image the near surface sedimentary structures on a large linear dune in the northern Namib Sand Sea and image the sedimentary structure of an auxiliary dune. GPR data was collected using a 200 MHz antenna with a continuous scan method and was processed by removing direct arrival, gain balancing, migration and more which produced the highest resolution imagery from this region to date. Large dune data was analyzed to determine …

Teacher Participation And Motivation Inprofessional Development, Krystal A. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Although professional development is accepted as important for making educational improvements, some have been unsuccessful due to how the teachers choose to participate, and the lack of motivation in teachers to attend or implement the suggested changes. A case study of secondary mathematics teachers in a required professional development is used to look at teachers' motivation and participation during the professional development. This study compared mathematics teachers' motivation to attend with ways of participating in order to determine how these influence a teacher's intent to change. It was found that certain aspects of motivation and participation does influence a teacher's …

Elucidating The Mechanisms Of Rate-Dependent Deformation At Ambient Temperatures In A Model Metallic Glass, Matthew Bradley Harris

Theses and Dissertations

In this work, the Shear Transformation Zone (STZ) dynamics model is adapted to capture the transitions between different regimes of flow serration in the deformation map of metallic glass. This was accomplished by scaling the STZ volume with a log-linear fit to the strain rate, and also adjusting the activation energy of an STZ with a log-linear fit to maintain constant yield strength at differing strain rates. Twelve simulations are run at each of six different strain rates ranging from 10^-5 to 10⁰ s^-1, and statistics are collected on simulation behavior and shear band nucleation and …

The Solenoid And Warsawanoid Are Sharkovskii Spaces, Tyler Willes Hills

Theses and Dissertations

We extend Sharkovskii's theorem concerning orbit lengths of endomorphisms of the real line to endomorphisms of a path component of the solenoid and certain subspaces of the Warsawanoid. In particular, Sharkovskii showed that if there exists an orbit of length 3 then there exist orbits of all lengths. The solenoid is the inverse limit of double covers over the circle, and the Warsawanoid is the inverse limit of double covers over the Warsaw circle. We show Sharkovskii's result is true for path components of the solenoid and certain subspaces of the Warsawanoid.

Mathematical Interactions Between Teachers And Students In The Finnish Mathematics Classroom, Paula Jeffery Prestwich

Theses and Dissertations

The Finnish school system has figured prominently in the PISA international assessments for over 10 years. Many reasons are given for Finnish success yet few of them focus on what is happening in the mathematics classroom. This study addresses the question of “What does mathematics instruction in the Finnish mathematics classroom look like?” Eight Finnish mathematics classes, from 6th – 9th grade were recorded, translated, and analyzed using the Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI) 2013 video coding protocol. Other aspects and observations of these classes also are discussed. Although the study is small, this study gives a view into the …

Changes In Acoustic And Kinematic Articulatory Working Space Across Three Intensity Levels, Panika Ellis Palmer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare changes in acoustic and kinematic measures of articulation across soft, comfortable, and loud speech conditions. There were 19 participants, 9 male and 10 female, with age ranging from 20 to 34 with a median age of 25. Each participant had electromagnetic sensors glued to their tongue, jaw, and lips. It was anticipated that the acoustic measures would accurately reflect the kinematic measures of speech as articulation changed across the intensity levels. Vowel space area (VSA) and vowel articulation index (VAI) were computed from the three corner vowels, /α, i, u/. Articulatory-acoustic vowel …