Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of The Encryption Algorithms Proposed For The Mqtt Protocol On Resource Constrained Iot Devices, John Joseph Keenan

Theses and Dissertations

As more IoT devices are used to gather data and automate devices throughout the world, more security solutions are needed to keep these devices and the data they transmit secure. Many of these devices use the MQTT protocol, which does not encrypt the transferred data by default. The TLS/SSL protocols are the standard proposed solution for encrypting this traffic, but many resource constrained IoT devices do not have enough resources to run these protocols efficiently. Because of this, many other encryption algorithms have been proposed or designed for resource constrained IoT devices running the MQTT protocol, but very limited research …

“Radio . . . What [Is It] Doing To Our Children?” The Impact Of Radio On Families During The Golden Age Of Broadcasting, Samuel Pulsipher

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Eerie string music, a dark cackle of laughter, and then a sinister voice says, “Who knows what evils lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.”3 Suddenly, an interruption by the Goodrich Man. He has something to say about Goodrich tires with their lifesaving tread and blow- out protection: “So, play safe, equip your car with Goodrich, safety Silvertown!” The Goodrich- Man is ushered out by organ music as our hero Lamont Cranston, the Shadow, is introduced. He is heralded as a man of wealth and science who devotes his life to righting wrongs, protecting the innocent, and punishing …

“To Inherit God Himself?” The Metaphysical Transformation Of Man As Theorized In Cotton Mather’S Biblia Americana, Michael Green

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The tumult of the Enlightenment was enormous, not least in its impact on theologians of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Biblical exegesis (explanation of a scriptural text based on its own historical and cultural circumstances) of the Reformation that idealized interpretations grounded in unerring prophetic figures were suddenly and forcefully subjected to the tide of historical literalism propagated by major intellectual figures such as Hugo Grotius and Baruch Spinoza. They and their cohort believed that the Bible should be treated as a historical source and its merits scrutinized based on its literal accuracy

Social Belonging In Post-Resettlement Refugees: The Role Of Aid Organizations In The United States, Jessica Jean Byers

Theses and Dissertations

Since 1975, an estimated 3.6 million refugees have entered the United States (USA Facts, 2024). The months and even years following resettlement can be difficult and isolating for refugees. Previous research has shown that creating connections with others can enhance well-being, feelings of security, and self-reliance, all of which are especially needed for vulnerable populations such as refugees (Archambault et al., 2022; Giovanetti et al., 2022). Using the theory of social network analysis and semi-structured, in-depth interviews with aid organization leaders, this study seeks to understand the relationship between refugees and aid organizations during the post-resettlement phase. It also explores …

Lists Of Selected Full-Text Databases By Subscription In East Asian Studies, Michiko Ito, Ellie Kim, Jian P. Lee, Anlin Yang

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Eye Anatomy Education: Integrating 3d Models In Open Educational Resources, Hayley Nickels Yancey

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

This project explores how interactive 3D models can enhance eye anatomy education within the framework of open educational resources (OER). Recognizing that students in anatomy and physiology courses often struggle to recognize anatomical structures from multiple perspectives—and frequently lack access to high-quality, low-cost study tools—this project addressed these gaps by designing and developing a custom, interactive 3D model of the human eye. Created using Blender and embedded into a web interface via Verge3D, the model allows users to rotate, zoom, highlight, and isolate structures of the eye, including both external and internal components. The tool was designed specifically for students …

Imu-Mechanized Discrete Error-State Kalman Filtering With Lie-Group Pose Representations, Daniel P. Koch

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates methodologies for consistent Kalman filtering with Lie-group based representations of the vehicle pose. Early results are centered around the relative navigation framework, which maintains filter observability and consistency by only tracking the state relative to the latest keyframe of an odometry system such as visual odometry or laser scan matching. A detailed derivation of a relative multiplicative extended Kalman filter, using a quaternion parameterization of the attitude state, is presented for application to multirotor vehicles. The remainder of the dissertation focuses on Kalman filtering using a Lie-group SE(3) pose representation, which improves filter consistency by correctly modeling …

The Confidence Trap In Pr Academia: Barriers And Solutions For Female Professors, Kailey R. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the career barriers female public relations professors face through the lens of Brubaker et al.'s (2025) theoretical model of "The Confidence Trap." While existing research has explored gender disparities in the PR industry, limited scholarship has investigated the challenges faced by women in PR academia. This qualitative study utilizes in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 22 female public relations professors currently on the tenure track or who have earned tenure at R1 and R2 research institutions in the United States. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts revealed that traditional barriers--such as the glass ceiling, sticky floors, maternal walls, and sexism--manifest …

Exploring The Effects Of Red-Light Camera System Policy On Intersection-Related Crashes, Nicholas O'Connor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The number of traffic-related fatalities in the United States is 2.3 times higher than the average rate of 28 other high-income countries (Yellman 2022). Some municipalities have implemented Red Light Camera Systems (RLCSs) to improve intersection safety. However, the effectiveness of these cameras is a topic of ongoing debate, and recent policy shifts have resulted in their widespread removal (Ebeling, 2013). This study investigates the causal impact of a statewide ban on RLCSs in Texas, focusing on how the deactivation of these cameras affects intersection-level crash frequency. Utilizing a difference-in-differences framework, we compare intersections impacted by the ban with those …

Regulation Of Cell Cycle Proteins At The Extremes Of Copy Number Variation In Cancer, Hannah Tran

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Copy number variation is one of the main forms of genomic alteration in cancer genomes. The amplification of oncogenes or deletion of tumor suppressors commonly drives tumor formation. Average copy number variation events vary across cancer types; ovarian cancer has the highest average number of copy number changes, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has the least. With the copy number differences between cancer types, it is likely that different mechanisms of producing copy number changes exist. We propose that a possible mechanism is cell cycle reversal, which was recently shown to potentially occur during the G2 phase of the cell cycle …

Machine Learning For Time Series Prediction In Psychotherapy, Ian Goodwin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The need for quality mental health care is great, but many clinics face limited resources as they work to help clients. Predictions of a client’s future mental state during a course of therapy have the potential to inform decisions by individual therapists and counseling clinics. In this paper, we use archival OQ-45 data from a large university counseling center to examine the ability of many simple, rule-of-thumb predictive methods, as well as more complex methods (ridge regression, random forests, and LSTMs), to predict the next value in a time series of distress scores based on the previous scores. Learned inference …

Seeing The Storm: Leveraging Multimodal Llms For Disaster Social Media Video Filtering, Holden Clark

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Emergency management relies on the rapid triage of information to respond appropriately to disaster events. Social media platforms can provide emergency managers with ground-level insights, and videos, in particular, offer an immersive medium for understanding public responses and on-the-ground conditions. However, the overwhelming volume of irrelevant or redundant videos complicates their use for emergency response. This paper investigates the use of multimodal large language models (MLLMs)–specifically the Gemini 1.5 flash model–to automate the identification of relevant videos shared on X (formerly Twitter) during hurricanes. We develop and evaluate a framework to test the accuracy of different prompting styles and question …

Delaying Marriage And Its Impact On Future Income: A Historical Econometric Analysis (1900-1940), Britton Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

I investigate the impact of delaying marriage on future income using historical data from the 1900–1940 United States Decennial Censuses. While existing literature suggests that marriage positively affects income, little is known about the financial implications of postponing marriage. I address that gap in knowledge by employing an instrumental variable framework, exploiting the effect of serving in WWI on age at marriage as an exogenous instrument, to determine the effect of delaying marriage on personal income. I leverage the Census Tree project to link individuals across census years, finding their siblings, age at first marriage, veteran status, and income. I …

Byu Nano-Carbon Physics Lab, Robert Davis Dr., Richard Vanfleet Dr., Felipe Rivera Dr., David Hayes, Nick Allen, Bridget Kemper, Dan Broadbent

Faculty Publications

BYU Nano-Carbon Physics Lab

Started in 2003 by Physics Professors Robert Davis and Richard Vanfleet, who received the BYU Technology Transfer Award in 2024.

Over 81 undergraduate and 21 graduate student projects in the lab have advanced carbon nanotube (CNT) research.

Applications of research from the lab have resulted in over 30 patents, many of which have been licensed to companies for use in the world.

This display showcases highlights of work done in the lab.

Uncertainty Propagation And Sensitivity Analysis For Constrained Optimization Of Nuclear Waste Vitrification, Lagrande Gunnell, Xiaonan Lu, John D. Vienna, Dong-Sang Kim, Brian J. Riley, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

The vitrification of high-level waste (HLW) by heating a mixture of glass-forming chemicals (GFCs) with the waste can be improved using a constrained optimization problem. This study explores how different uncertainty propagation (UP) methods implemented with the optimization process can affect the glass formulation of nuclear waste glasses. UP is the effort of propagating uncertain inputs through a system to understand and quantify output distributions. Uncertainty intervals are crafted from output distributions to inform the optimization algorithm. UP is often implemented with Monte Carlo (MC) sampling for large nonlinear systems, which can be difficult to implement within a constrained optimization …

What Counselors Say Matters For Supporting High School Newcomer Multilingual Learners As They Work Toward Graduation, Sonia Lucrecia Molina Openshaw

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how high school (HS) counselors describe their work with newcomer multilingual learners (MLs). Using the lens of Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework to identify asset perspectives in their work with these students. They suggest specific supports and barriers impacting these students' academic and social success in school. Findings reveal that counselors often focus on addressing the immediate needs of HS newcomer MLs, such as language acquisition and academic readiness, but less frequently recognize the cultural, linguistic, and social assets students bring to their educational journey. Counselors highlight the importance of systemic supports, including onboarding processes, …

Service Learning In Mathematics, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

The inspiration obtained by reading this article helps faculty members generate their own ideas to facilitate service learning in the courses they teach.

Guide To Facilitate Service Learning, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This guide contains the list of 10 links to richly useful information that I have accumulated spending hundreds of hours.

Potential Of Individual Upper-Limb Muscles To Contribute To Postural Tremor: Simulations From Neural Drive To Joint Rotation, Spencer A. Baker, Landon J. Beutler, Daniel B. Free, Dario Farina, Steven Knight Charles

Faculty Publications

Background: It is unclear which muscles contribute most to tremor and should therefore be targeted by tremor suppression methods. Previous studies used mathematical models to investigate how upper-limb biomechanics affect muscles’ potential to generate tremor. These investigations yielded principles, but the models included at most only 15 muscles. Here we expand previous models to include 50 upper-limb muscles, simulate tremor propagation, and test the validity of the previously postulated principles. Methods: Tremor propagation was characterized using the gains between tremorogenic neural drive to the 50 muscles (inputs) and tremulous joint rotations in the 7 joint degreesof- freedom (DOF) from shoulder …

Adapting Biological Mechanisms Into Machine Learning Structures And Gradient Propagation, Hao Yu

Theses and Dissertations

As neuromorphic computing gains traction, researchers look for learning schemes that are more suitable for brain-like structures. Although many algorithms have been discovered, such as surrogate gradient or Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity, those algorithms are either unsuitable for on-chip training or not biologically aligned. The goal of this thesis is to discover a learning algorithm which is biologically aligned and suitable for on-chip training. Through the discoveries of our two papers, we are able to introduce the concepts of synaptic clefts and neurotransmitters into a common spiking neuron network. We also designed an error propagation method aligning with biology. With …

The Silent Stakeholders In Censorship: Insights In Letting Young Adults Join The Censorship Conversation, Mercedes Medel

The Utah English Journal

I grew up enjoying Judy Blume’s books: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, Blubber, and many more. There was not much conversation in my community or at home about what books or authors should be read; instead, I was given free range to explore libraries and choose what I was interested in, what I was needing, throughout my adolescence. It wasn’t until I was sitting in Chris Crowe’s Studies in Young Adult Literature class this past spring that I discovered, to my surprise, that Judy Blume was at the center of many controversies throughout her career. …

From The University To The Universe: A Scientific And Historical Overview Of The West Mountain Observatory, Amber Zendejas, Dan Broadbent

BYU West Mountain Observatory Project

BACKGROUND

• November 1980 - Construction began on the observatory’s main building

• 1981 - Observations begin, away from Provo’s Light Pollution

• Located on West Mountain, west of Spanish Fork, UT

Literary Executor Of The Estate Of Christopher Dawson, Julian Scott

Comparative Civilizations Review

Christopher Dawson was a historian of religion and culture who wrote and lectured in England and America between the 1920s and his death in 1970. The author of this review, Dawson’s grandson and literary executor, argues not only that Dawson is very interesting to read as a historian, but also that many of his insights and proposals — such as his writing on European unity, nationalism, the consequences of a secularized culture and the conflict between humane individualism and state totalitarianism — remain highly relevant today. This article highlights some of Dawson’s most interesting and insightful ideas and aims to …

Transfer Learning For Thickener Control, Samuel Arce Munoz, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

Thickener control is a key area of focus in the minerals processing industry, particularly due to its crucial role in water recovery, which is essential for sustainable resource management. The highly nonlinear nature of thickener dynamics presents significant challenges in modeling and optimization, making it a strong candidate for advanced surrogate modeling techniques. However, traditional data-driven approaches often require extensive datasets, which are frequently unavailable, especially in new plants or unexplored operational domains. Developing data-driven models without enough data representative of the dynamics of the system could result in incorrect predictions and consequently, unstable response of the controller. This paper …

A Randomized Trial Of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Leah D. Talbert

Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects over 1.7 million people annually in the U.S., often leading to autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation and reduced heart rate variability (HRV), which may impact cognitive performance. This study investigated whether HRV biofeedback (HRV-B) improves HRV at rest and recovery after stress in individuals with TBI. Secondary aims examined links between HRV improvements and reductions in physical symptoms, enhanced emotional functioning, and better cognitive performance, as well as the role of practice adherence in moderating HRV-B effects. This randomized controlled trial compared HRV-B treatment to a sham control using a pre- and post-assessment design. Of …

Stability Of Lif Mirror Coatings On Space Telescopes At L2 Orbit, Devin M. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

A team at Goddard Space Flight center has developed a coating of aluminum mirrors they term XeLiF. This coating has high ultraviolet reflection and improved environmental stability over similar LiF coatings. For these reasons, it is a potential candidate for the future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) flagship space telescope mission. However, the stability of XeLiF at the planned L2 orbit of HWO has not been investigated. This study highlights the potential damage to XeLiF when irradiated by electrons that will be present at L2. This radiation will begin removing LiF after 6 years of exposure as well as start roughening …

Origami Without Paper: Surrogate Folds For Origami-Inspired Mechanisms, Ivyann Oveson Running

Theses and Dissertations

Origami is a useful tool for generating novel spatial mechanisms that can address needs in a variety of fields. However, replicating paper folding in other materials requires surrogate folds---some way to approximate folding in otherwise rigid materials. This work presents a collection of potential surrogate fold designs suitable for use in origami-inspired applications. The designs are sorted into families and rated against several design characteristics of interest to engineers and designers to create the Surrogate Fold Catalog. The catalog is formatted to be searchable and filterable based on manufacturability, kinematic motion, and additional utility. Using this collection of surrogate folds …

Using A Reconciliation Approach To Teach Evolution May Help Religious Students Remain Faithful, Danny Ferguson, Ethan Tolman, Spencer Shumway, Cassidy Shively

BYU Studies

Many religious people struggle to accept the theory of evolution, and about 40 percent of Americans reject the theory outright, preferring a literalist, creationist account that confirms a young earth.1 As Latter-day Saints ourselves, we understand the trepidation surrounding the idea that perhaps evolution contradicts our belief of an earth created by a loving Father and Savior. People may feel that the scientific theory of evolution implies that there is no need for a God or that our existence is simply an accident. As college-age youth, we are familiar with the struggles that students face as they confront evolution in …

Open Path Spectroscopic Detection Of The Hydroxyl Radical: A Comparison Between Broadband Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (Bbceas) And Bbceas Coupled With A Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (Bbceas-Fp), Callum Flowerday, Ryan Thalman, Matthew C. Asplund, Samuel A. Badstubner, Adam K. Cook, Philip Lundrigan, Jaron C. Hansen

ScholarsArchive Data

Data collected by the BBCEAS and BBCEAS-FP instruments described in the paper "Open Path Spectroscopic Detection of the Hydroxyl Radical: A Comparison Between Broadband Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (BBCEAS) and BBCEAS coupled with a Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (BBCEAS-FP)"

The Development Of A Rag-Based Artificial Intelligence Research Assistant (Aira), Hamid Vakilzadeh, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.