Digital Commons Network^™

Neural Networks In Strategic Marketing: Exploring The Possibilities, Kristen Bell Detienne, David H. Detienne

Faculty Publications

A review of the literature indicates that few studies have used artificial neural networks (ANNs) for data analysis in business and marketing research, even though there are many benefits to the use of ANNs. Therefore, this article discusses neural networks (NNs) that can be used in addition to or as an alternative to linear regression for data analysis in strategic marketing. The function and layout of NNs make them ideal for research dealing with nonlinear, incomplete, unspecified, or ‘fuzzy’ data and offer several advantages over linear regression. Unfortunately, in many marketing studies, the information being modeled is far from flawless …

Structural Covariance Of Sensory Networks, The Cerebellum, And Amygdala In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Garrett Cardon, Susan Hepburn, Donald C. Rojas

Faculty Publications

Sensory dysfunction is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and abnormalities with sensory responsivity and processing can be extremely debilitating to ASD patients and their families. However, relatively little is known about the underlying neuroanatomical and neurophysiological factors that lead to sensory abnormalities in ASD. Investigation into these aspects of ASD could lead to significant advancements in our general knowledge about ASD, as well as provide targets for treatment and inform diagnostic procedures. Thus, the current study aimed to measure the covariation of volumes of brain structures (i.e., structural magnetic resonance imaging) that may be involved in abnormal …

Effects Of Voice-Sparing Cricotracheal Resection On Phonation In Women, Christopher Dromey, Kristine Tanner, Mark L. Berardi, Lisa M. Mattei, Jenny L. Pierce, Jonathan J. Wisco, Eric J. Hunter, Marshall E. Smith

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Individuals with idiopathic subglottic stenosis (SGS) are at risk for voice disorders prior to and following surgical management. This study examined the nature and severity of voice disorders in patients with SGS before and after a revised cricotracheal resection (CTR) procedure designed to minimize adverse effects on voice function. Method: Eleven women with idiopathic SGS provided presurgical and postsurgical audio recordings. Voice Handicap Index (VHI) scores were also collected. Cepstral, signal-to-noise, periodicity, and fundamental frequency (F0) analyses wereundertaken for connected speech and sustained vowel samples. Listeners made auditory-perceptual ratings of overall qualityand monotonicity.Results: Paired samples statistical analyses revealed that …

Animals In The Book Of Mormon: Challenges And Perspectives, Wade E. Miller, Matthew Roper

BYU Studies

When the Book of Mormon first appeared, skeptics said that references to horses, asses, elephants, and other animals (such as swine and cows) were out of place. During the first century after its publication, Book of Mormon critics argued that such animals never existed anywhere in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and western Europeans in the late fifteenth century. In time, however, scientific discoveries showed that species of horses, asses, elephants, and other animals had once been present in North America, although dating to an earlier period than that covered in the Book of Mormon. Encouraged by such …

American Universities And The Birth Of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940, Heather M. Seferovich

BYU Studies

Thomas W. Simpson. American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

Foster Care Privatization: How An Increasingly Popular Public Policy Leads To Increased Levels Of Abuse And Neglect, Mandi Eatough

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Foster care in the U.S. is largely influenced by federal and state legislation. Since 1996, legislation establishing privatized foster care has become increasingly popular (Lee 2008). As levels of privatization increase nationwide, it is important to understand the impact this has on the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of children around the country. The movement toward privatizing foster care is generally attributed to the improvement in economic efficiency of case management by contracted child placement agencies (Hansen and Hansen 2006). However, the economic benefit afforded to states by privatizing foster care has been considered independently from the quality of …

Apocalypse Then, Apocalypse Now: Rethinking Joan Of Arc In The Twenty-First Century, Timothy M. Thibodeau

Quidditas

Joan of Arc has stood alone among legendary figures of the Middle Ages in her capacity to be appropriated and employed for a host of modern noble causes. However, a fresh examination of Joan’s words and deeds reveals that her aims and objectives were not the universal “greater goods” of modern activists who have used her story to craft their own narratives. I propose that Joan’s continued attractiveness as a cultural icon now faces two major obstacles. First, in the wake of the rapid secularization of modern western society and the evolution of social mores related to gender identity and …

What Do We Really Know About How Habituation To Warnings Occurs Over Time? A Longitudinal Fmri Study Of Habituation And Polymorphic Warnings, Anthony Vance, Brock Kirwan, Daniel Bjornn, Jeff Jenkins, Bonnie Brinton Anderson

Faculty Publications

A major inhibitor of the effectiveness of security warnings is habituation: decreased response to a repeated warning. Although habituation develops over time, previous studies have examined habituation and possible solutions to its effects only within a single experimental session, providing an incomplete view of the problem. To address this gap, we conducted a longitudinal experiment that examines how habituation develops over the course of a five-day workweek and how polymorphic warnings decrease habituation. We measured habituation using two complementary methods simultaneously: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye tracking.

Our results show a dramatic drop in attention throughout the workweek …

Using Wearable Devices For Non-Invasive, Inexpensive Physiological Data Collection, James Gaskin, Jeffrey Jenkins, Thomas Meservy, Jacob Steffen, Katherine Payne

Faculty Publications

Using sensors to gather physiological data about users can provide valuable insights for Information Systems (IS) research that are not availed through traditional measures. While useful in many laboratory settings, many of these physiological sensors (e.g., fMRI, EEG, EKG, etc.) are impractical and severely limited in other scenarios due to (1) prohibitive cost, (2) small sample size, (3) invasiveness, and (4) the difficulty to match psychological traits to physiological measures. In this study, we demonstrate how inexpensive consumer-grade wearable technologies overcome these first three limitations while we extend existing research on exploring the fourth limitation.

Evolving Faith: Wanderings Of A Mormon Biologist, Blake T. Ostler

BYU Studies

Steven L. Peck. Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist.

Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute, 2015.

Psychological Resilience Can Help Combat The Effect Of Stress On Problematic Social Networking Site Usage, Xiang-Ling Hou, Hai-Zhen Wang, Cheng Guo, James Gaskin, Detlef H. Rost, Jin-Liang Wang

Faculty Publications

This study was aimed to test the association between perceived stress and problematic social networking site (SNS) usage, and to figure outwhether psychological resiliencemoderated this relationship. The Perceived Stress Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire were administered to 499 Chinese college students. The results showed that (1) perceived stress was positively associated with problematic SNS usage; (2) psychological resiliencewas negatively relatedwith problematic SNS usage; and (3) psychological resilience moderated the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS usage. Specifically, the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS usage was statistically significant for students with a lower level of …

Optimal Combined Long-Term Facility Design And Short-Term Operational Strategy For Chp Capacity Investments, Jose Mojica, Damon Petersen, Brigham Hansen, Kody Powell, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

This work presents a detailed case study for the optimization of the expansion of a district energy system evaluating the investment decision timing, type of capacity expansion, and fine-scale operational modes. The study develops an optimization framework to find the investment schedule over 30 years with options of investing in traditional heating sources (boilers) or a next-generation combined heat and power (CHP) plant that provides heat and electricity. In district energy systems, the selected capacity and type of system is dependent on demand-side requirements, energy prices, and environmental costs. This work formulates capacity planning over a time horizon as a …

Conceptualizing The Neurobiology Of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury From The Perspective Of The Research Domain Criteria Project, Scott R. Braithwaite, Melinda Westlund Schreiner, Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, Erin D. Begnel, Kathryn R. Cullen

Faculty Publications

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) commonly starts in adolescence and is associated with an array of negative outcomes. Neurobiological research investigating NSSI is in its early stages and most studies have examined this behavior within the context of specific diagnoses. However, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative encourages researchers to examine brain-behavior relationships across diagnoses. This review on the neurobiology associated with NSSI is organized using the domains proposed by RDoC: Negative Valence, Positive Valence, Cognitive, Social Processes, and Arousal/Regulatory Systems. Evidence of neurobiological anomalies is found in each of these domains. We also propose future research directions, especially in regard to …

Fundamental Principles Of Tremor Propagation In The Upper Limb, Andrew D. Davidson, Steven Knight Charles

Faculty Publications

Although tremor is the most common movement disorder, there exist few effective tremor-suppressing devices, in part because the characteristics of tremor throughout the upper limb are unknown. To clarify, optimally suppressing tremor requires a knowledge of the mechanical origin, propagation, and distribution of tremor throughout the upper limb. Here we present the first systematic investigation of how tremor propagates between the shoulder, elbow, forearm, and wrist. We simulated tremor propagation using a linear, time-invariant, lumped-parameter model relating joint torques and the resulting joint displacements. The model focused on the seven main degrees of freedom from the shoulder to the wrist …

A Continuous Time Model Of Centrally Controlled Motion With Random Switching Terms, J. C. Dallon, L C. Despain, E J. Evans, C P. Grant, Willaim V. Smith

Faculty Publications

This paper considers differential problems with random switching, with specific applications to the motion of cells and centrally coordinated motion. Starting with a differential-equation model of cell motion that was proposed previously, we set the relaxation time to zero and consider the simpler model that results. We prove that this model is well-posed, in the sense that it corresponds to a pure jump-type continuous time Markov process (without explosion). We then describe the model's long-time behavior, first by specifying an attracting steady-state distribution for a projection of the model, then by examining the expected location of the cell center when …

Developing A Feminist Pedagogy: A Look At Intersectionality And Poe's Women, Riley Haacke

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the world’s most prolific writers and therefore has an immense capacity to influence and change how we, as a society, engage with literature. By developing a feminist pedagogy centered on the intersectionality of Poe’s diverse female characters we can begin to develop a value based education model that influences the critical conversations we have about women’s issues.

Measuring Actual Behaviors In Hci Research – A Call To Action And An Example, Parker A. Williams, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Joseph S. Valacich, Michael D. Byrd

Faculty Publications

There have been repeated calls for studies in behavioral science and human-computer interaction (HCI) research to measure participants’ actual behaviors. HCI research studies often use multiple constructs as perceived measures of behavior, which are captured using participants’ self-reports on surveys. Response biases, however, are a widespread threat to the validity of self-report measures. To mitigate this threat to validity, we propose that studies in HCI measure actual behaviors in appropriate contexts rather than solely perceptions. We report an example of using movements that reflect both actual behavior and behavioral changes measured within a health care IS usage context, specifically the …

Functional And Mechanistic Insight Into The Role Of Atg9a In Autophagy, Vajira Kaushalya Weerasekara

Theses and Dissertations

The bulk degradative process of macroautophagy requires the dynamic growth of autophagosomes, which carry cellular contents to the lysosome for recycling. Atg9A, a multi-pass transmembrane protein, is an apical regulator of autophagosome growth, yet its regulatory mechanism remains unclear. Our work suggests that hypoxia (low glucose and oxygen) triggers a rearrangement of the small adapter protein 14-3-3ζ interactome. Our data suggest that the localization of mammalian Atg9A to autophagosomes requires phosphorylation on the C terminus of Atg9A at S761, which creates a 14-3-3z docking site. Under basal conditions, this phosphorylation is maintained at a low level and is dependent on …

The Frontier In Paris: Artists From The American West In The French Capital, 1890–1900, James R. Swensen

Faculty Publications

From 1890 to 1900 several artists traveled from the American West to Paris to advance their studies. Coming from the “wild West,” the French capital represented for them the most sophisticated city on earth. Interestingly, they found Paris to be a place of danger and adventure, a frontier of its own right. They also discovered that their European peers longed for images of a frontier West that included Native Americans, cowboys, and wild animals. Through their experiences in this new and exotic land, artists from Robert Henri to Cyrus Dallin learned that the frontier was more of a state of …

Cortical Thickness Of Neural Substrates Supporting Cognitive Empathy In Individuals With Schizophrenia, Derin J. Cobia, Suena H. Massey, Daniel Stern, Eva C. Alden, Julie E. Petersen, Lei Wang, John G. Csernansky, Matthew J. Smith

Faculty Publications

Background—Cognitive empathy is supported by the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), insula (INS), supplementary motor area (SMA), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), and precuneus (PREC). In healthy controls, cortical thickness in these regions has been linked to cognitive empathy. As cognitive empathy is impaired in schizophrenia, we examined whether reduced cortical thickness in these regions was associated with poorer cognitive empathy in this population.

Methods—41 clinically-stable community-dwelling individuals with schizophrenia and 46 healthy controls group-matched on demographic variables completed self-report empathy questionnaires, a cognitive empathy task, and structural magnetic resonance imaging. We examined between-group …

Nominalized Adverbs In Spanish: The Intriguing Case Of Detrás Mío And Its Cohorts, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

Instances of adverbs modified by adjectives (e.g. detrás mío, delante tuyo) were extracted from the Corpus del Español. The corpus analysis reveals that these constructions are attested in all 21 Spanish-speaking countries to varying degrees, but are most frequent in Argentina and Uruguay. Adjectives following the adverbs in questions are predominantly masculine; however, in Peninsular varieties feminine forms are quite common. Although alrededor and lado are both adverbs as well as masculine nouns, they are occasionally followed by feminine adjectives (e.g. al lado suya), which is arguably due to the use of the feminine in other constructions such as encima …

Gazelem The Jaredite, Elliott Jolley

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

Alma refers to Gazelem in his instructions to his son Helaman in Alma 37:23. This article proposes and explores the concept of identifying Gazelem as a Jaredite seer. Other theories of the identity of Gazelem are addressed in this article but not explored in depth. It discusses the full context of Alma’s words, the Jaredite secret combinations and their oaths, Gazelem’s seer stone, and the Nephite interpreters. Additionally, it proposes a possible timeline that Gazelem lived among the Jaredites. It also discusses the usage of “Gazelam” as a substitute name for Joseph Smith in early editions of the Doctrine and …

Addressing Prickly Issues, Rick Anderson

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

This collection of essays conveniently assembles faithful and rigorous treatments of difficult questions related to LDS history and doctrine. While two or three of the essays are sufficiently flawed to give cause for concern and while some of its arguments have been expressed differently in earlier publications, overall this book can be confidently recommended to interested and doctrinally mature Latter-day Saints.

"The Little Head Stones Became Monuments": Death In The Early Samoan Mission And The Creation Of The Fagali'i Cemetery, Reid L. Neilson, Scott D. Marianno

BYU Studies

When the call first went forth, Samoa was as far from people’s minds as the islands themselves are from the rest of the civilized world,” a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrote from Apia in 1899. “Women were among the Gospel pioneers on these islands; what they endured, their trials and their hardships, even to parting with life itself, it is a story that today dims the eye with tears. Samoa has never been a happy home for our sisters.”

A Method For Quantifying Stream Network Topology Over Large Geographic Extents

Journal of Spatial Hydrology

An understanding of stream network topology is necessary for a landscape-level perspective of stream hydrology and ecology. We present a method for quantifying stream network topology that overcomes computational constraints of DEM-based analysis over large geographic extents. This method converts vector stream flow paths to raster flow paths to predict spatially-explicit stream properties from a network-constrained upstream cell count (UCC) to flow origins. UCC data enable calculations of stream network structure at designated grain sizes and spatial extents. UCC values were strongly related to empirical measures of upstream basin area (R² = 0.94) and stream width (R² = …

Ideas About Nature In American Art And Visual Culture, Mark Graham

Faculty Publications

The stories we tell ourselves about nature deeply influence how we attempt to preserve, use, or restore nature as well as practices of art and art education that are concerned with ecological issues (Cronon 1996). Landscapes are culture before they are nature (Schama 1996). Yet, our ideas about wilderness, nature, landscape, and sustainability are fraught with paradox and debate. For example, Darwin’s fundamental assertions about the human relationship to nature continue to spark theological, political and educational controversies. Some environmentalists caution that our consumerist economy will destroy the planet and that we need to return to a less sophisticated technology …

The Relationship Between Family Support; Pain And Depression In Elderly With Arthritis, Wendy C. Birmingham, Man Hung, Jerry Bounsanga, Maren W. Voss, Anthony B. Crum, Wei Chen

Faculty Publications

The prevalence and chronic nature of arthritis make it the most common cause of disability among U.S.A adults. Family support reduces the negative impact of chronic conditions generally but its role in pain and depression for arthritic conditions is not well understood. A total of 844 males (35.0%) and 1567 females (65.0%) with arthritic conditions (n = 2411) were drawn from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study to examine the effect of family support on pain and depressive symptoms. Using regression analysis and controlling for age, ethnicity, gender, marital/educational status and employment/income, physical function/disability status, pain and antidepressant medications, and …

Corticosteroid-Laba Inhalers Increase Phonation Threshold Pressure (Ptp) And Flow (Ptf) In Rabbits, Christopher Dromey, Kristine Tanner, Heidi J. Robison, Maya Elena Stevens, Ray M. Merrill, Julie Barkmeier-Kraemer, Ben Christensen

Faculty Publications

Objectives: This study examined the effects of a combination corticosteroid plus long-acting beta2-adrenergic agonist inhaler (IC) on rabbit phonation. Methods: White New Zealand male rabbits were assigned randomly to experimental and control groups (n = 11 per group). The experimental group received twice-daily doses of Advair HFA™ (fluticasone propionate 45 mcg and salmeterol 21 mcg) via a veterinary facemask with 1-way valve and spacer; the control group received aerosolized saline. After 8 weeks, animals were euthanized, larynges excised, frozen, and subsequently thawed and mounted on a standard bench apparatus. Phonation was elicited during 15 successive trials, and phonation threshold pressure …

Examining The Reversal Of Vocal Fold Dehydration Using Aerosolized Saline In An Excised Larynx Model, Maya Elena Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have found vocal fold hydration to be crucial for healthy function of the vocal mechanism. Surface tissue hydration facilitates efficient vocal fold oscillation. The composition of vocal fold surface fluid includes protective water and mucus layers, similar to the fluid that covers the mucosa and epithelia of the upper airway. Laryngeal dehydration has been linked to several factors such as mouth breathing, obstructive sleep apnea, dry air exposure, upper airway hypersensitivity, and certain diseases or behavioral voice use factors. Laryngeal dehydration affects phonation threshold pressure (PTP) and phonation threshold flow (PTF), defined as the pressure and flow observed …

Jewish Families In The United States, Trevan Hatch, Loren Marks, David C. Dollahite

Faculty Publications

As mentioned in chapter 8, the rich context of religious minority families offers the chance to highlight issues like identity formation in youth and emerging adults, the importance of social support from their religious community, and the unique challenges religious minorities face as they strive to live their religion. In this chapter we feature Judaism and the 30 Jewish families from the American Families of Faith project.