Digital Commons Network^™

A Polymorphic Approach To Esports Betting, Chadohl Kang

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

With the Supreme Court ruling in Murphy v. NCAA, states can legalize sports betting. Many states have chosen to do so. Unfortunately, it is still unclear whether electronic sports, or Esports, is included in the legislations. This is due in part to society not seeing Esports as a true sport. For a growing, nearly billion dollar industry, this isn’t good news. The polymorphic approach can be a resolution to this situation. The polymorphic approach to sports allows states to decide if it is in their interest to view Esports as a sport in betting legislation. Based on the possible revenue …

In And Out Of Place: Civilization Interaction And The Making Of Australia In Oceania And Asia, Jeremy C. A. Smith

Comparative Civilizations Review

The making of Euro-Australia occurred against the backdrop of two dimensions of its historical constitution. First, it occurred on the back of Britain’s entry into the Oceanian world and its intercivilizational encounters with Pacific cultures. The second dimension was the appropriation of the land of a complex and internally diverse Aboriginal civilization and suppression of its social world view. This was vital to a lasting sense of ambivalence in Australian identity and in the relations of the Commonwealth of Australia with island states in the Pacific. After Federation (1901), Australia became more independent in the context of devolution of the …

Multiple Identities: Touchstones In Terrorism, Democratic Institutions, And The Rule Of Law, Mary Frances Lebamoff

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper explores the underlying, foundational politico-social theories and themes that relate closely to radicalization, terrorism, democracy and the rule of law. It examines factors (touchstones) critical to these areas (political violence, terrorism, rule of law and democracy, along with democratic institutions). Some of these touchstones include the ‘lenses’ of identities, tribalism, and contrasts between identities, including cultural, linguistic, socialization and civilizational aspects.

Mythological Models In Civilization Analysis, Vytautas Kavolis

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Deep Learning For Document Image Analysis, Christopher Alan Tensmeyer

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic machine understanding of documents from image inputs enables many applications in modern document workflows, digital archives of historical documents, and general machine intelligence, among others. Together, the techniques for understanding document images comprise the field of Document Image Analysis (DIA). Within DIA, the research community has identified several sub-problems, such as page segmentation and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). As the field has matured, there has been a trend of moving away from heuristic-based methods, designed for particular tasks and domains of documents, and moving towards machine learning methods that learn to solve tasks from examples of input/output pairs. Within …

Surrealism And Postmodernism In Gregory Abbott's Remlack Too, Elizabeth Helen Donakey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Gregory Abbott's Remlack Too, particularly in its fusion of surrealism and postmodernism. It addresses the ways in which Remlack Too highlights the artist's experience with sleep apnea, but acknowledges that this is only one level of understanding the painting. Other layers are realized through a study of surrealism and postmodernism. This research analyzes the ways in which surrealism and postmodernism work together, including through their lack of style, fluidity in definition, incorporation of semiotics, distrust in science, reliance on psychoanalysis, and especially through postmodernism's appropriating of earlier artistic movements. This thesis reviews the previously overlooked elements of …

Troll-In-Chief: Donald Trump, Antinomic Rhetoric, And The Short-Circuiting Of Civic Discourse, Joseph Wayne Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

On November 9, 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. No aspect of the campaign was more remarkable than Trump’s rhetoric, which ranged from the candid and unexpected to the crude and incendiary. Now, two years later, his rhetoric—and the reasons for its widespread appeal—remain largely opaque, even under examination from proto-fascist or populist lenses. I seek for a partial account of Trump’s rhetoric using the concept of antinomic rhetoric coupled with the widespread popular perception of him as similar to an internet troll. In short, I believe it is his violation of the conventional standards (nomoi) …

An Observational Study Of Physicochemical Changes In Cheddar Enzyme-Modified Cheese During Incubation, David Gary Doxey

Theses and Dissertations

This study is an observation of the various physicochemical changes that occur in enzyme-modified cheese (EMC) during the incubation step of production. The purpose of this study was an attempt to gain a better understanding of the changes that occur due to enzymatic reactions during EMC production. A standard EMC batch was prepared with the addition of two exogenous enzymes, a lipase and a protease (LP). Two additional treatment batches had either only a lipase (L) or a protease (P) added individually. Batches were prepared in duplicate with each replicate performed on different days. Each batch was incubated at 42±0.5°C …

Mesoscale Modeling Of Shape Memory Alloys By Kinetic Monte Carlo–Finite Element Analysis Methods, Adam David Herron

Theses and Dissertations

A coupled kinetic Monte Carlo – Finite Element Analysis (kMC–FEA) method is developed with a numerical implementation in the Scalable Implementation of Finite Elements at NASA (ScIFEN). This method is presented as a mesoscale model for Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) material systems. The model is based on Transition State Theory and predicts the nonlinear mechanical behavior of the 1st order solid–solid phase transformation between Austenite and Martensite in SMAs. The kMC–FEA modeling method presented in this work builds upon the work of Chen and Schuh [1, 2]. It represents a “bottom-up” approach to materials modeling and could serve as a …

Jumping Ahead Of The Wait List: Pyramidal Parent Training, Rebecca Marie Barton

Theses and Dissertations

Parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder experience many stressors in their lives, including managing problem behaviors of their child. Parent training can effectively teach parents strategies to manage noncompliant behaviors; however, many parents spend months on wait lists before accessing this service. This study investigated the preliminary effects of both an expert-led and parent-led training for wait-listed parents. Thirteen parents of children currently on a waitlist to receive behavioral analytic services participated; most were highly educated, all were white and married. The study used a pyramidal training approach: a professional instructed one group of participants while a participant …

Antibacterial And Antifungal Activity Of Ceragenins, Mimics Of Endogenous Antimicrobial Peptides, Marjan Mohammadihashemi

Theses and Dissertations

The continuous emergence of drug-resistance pathogens is a global concern. As a result, substantial effort is being expended to develop new therapeutics and mechanisms for controlling microbial growth to avoid entering a "post-antibiotic" era in which commonly used antibiotics are no longer effective in treating infections. In this work, we investigate the efficacy and application of ceragenins as non-peptide mimics of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). First, this work examines the susceptibility of drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The susceptibility of colistin-resistant clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae to ceragenins and AMPs suggests that there is little to no cross-resistance between colistin and ceragenins/AMPs. Furthermore, …

Deciphering The Transport Of Elastic Filaments By Antagonistic Motor Proteins, Stephanie Portet, Cecil Leduc, Sandrine Etienne-Manneville, J. C. Dallon

Faculty Publications

Intermediate filaments are long elastic fibres that are transported by microtubule-associated motor proteins kinesin and dynein inside the cell. How elastic filaments are efficiently transported by antagonistic motors is not well understood and difficult to measure with current experimental techniques. Adapting the tug-of-war paradigm for vesicle-like cargos, we develop a mathematical model to describe the motion of an elastic filament punctually bound to antagonistic motors. As observed in cells, up to 3 modes of transport are obtained; dynein-driven retrograde, kinesin-driven anterograde fast motions and a slow motion. Motor properties and initial conditions that depend on intracellular context, regulate the transport …

The Accuracy Of A Spanish Dynamic Assessment Of Narrative Language In Identifying Language Disorder: A Cross Validation Study, Mariah Forbush Romero

Theses and Dissertations

This cross-validation study investigated the extent that a Spanish narrative language dynamic assessment accurately identified students with and without language disorder across three separate samples of bilingual and monolingual Spanish-speaking students from Guatemala, Mexico, and the U.S. Students with language disorder and students with typically developing language were administered a narrative dynamic assessment in Spanish. A test-teach-retest format of dynamic assessment was followed and student modifiability, or learning ability, was rated directly following the teaching phase of the assessment. Results indicated that the most predictive dynamic assessment variables for the Guatemalan sample were posttest scores combined with two separate modifiability …

Understanding Soil Liquefaction Of The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, Donald Jared Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The Kumamoto earthquake of April 2016 produced two foreshocks of moment magnitude 6.0 and 6.2 and a mainshock of 7.0, which should have been followed by widespread and intense soil liquefaction. A Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance team (GEER) led by Professor Rob Kayen of UC Berkley was dispatched to the Kumamoto Plain--which is in Kumamoto Prefecture, the southern main island of Japan--immediately following the earthquake. The Japanese and U.S. engineers in the GEER team observed mostly minor and sporadic liquefaction, which was unexpected as the local site geology, known soil stratigraphy, and intensity of the seismic loading made the Kumamoto …

A Content Analysis Of Scientific Practices In A Fourth-Grade Commercial Literacy Program, Hailey A. Oswald

Theses and Dissertations

Increasing science literacy among all students is a longstanding goal of science education. The most recent national attempt to improve science education, and thereby increase science literacy, came in the form of the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards, which include 3 dimensions: scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. The purpose of this content analysis was to examine the alignment between 4 of the scientific practices (Asking Questions; Constructing Explanations; Engaging in Argument from Evidence; and Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information) and a widely used commercial literacy program, Reading Wonders, with …

Phonological Processing In Children With Dyslexia: Analyzing Nonword Repetition Error Types, Camille Christine Stanley

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes quantitative and qualitative differences in errors made during a nonword repetition task between children with dyslexia (n = 75) and their typically developing (TD) peers (n = 75). Participants were auditorily presented with 16 nonwords based on a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pattern; nonwords varied from two to five syllables in length. Verbal responses were recorded, transcribed, and consonant phonemes were analyzed according to the following error types: substitutions, omissions, insertions, and transpositions. Analyses found that children with dyslexia perform more poorly on nonword repetition as compared to their TD peers. Specifically, during this nonword repetition task children with …

Exploring The Capacity Development Of Novice School Administrators: It's Not Only Where Capacity Sources Are Accessed But Also How, Aaron Ross Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Although many school districts provide inservice professional development to build the capacities of novice principals, some of these supports are proving inadequate in recruiting or retaining qualified leaders. Research on capacity development for novice principals is scarce, yields mixed results, and employs methodology which has invited participant response bias. Reflecting the school level, gender, and Title I experience of novice principals within a large school district in the mid-Western United States, a sample of 24 novice principals respond to semi-structured interview questions. Iterations of transcription coding, member-checking, and analysis yield findings that help school districts better understand the capacity development …

After Https: Indicating Risk Instead Of Security, Matthew Wayne Holt

Theses and Dissertations

Browser security indicators show warnings when sites load without HTTPS, but more malicious sites are using HTTPS to appear legitimate in browsers and deceive users. We explore a new approach to browser indicators that overcomes several limitations of existing indicators. First, we develop a high-level risk assessment framework to identify risky interactions and evaluate the utility of this approach through a survey. Next, we evaluate potential designs for a new risk indicator to communicate risk rather than security. Finally, we conduct a within-subjects user study to compare the risk indicator to existing security indicators by observing participant behavior and collecting …

On The Persecution Of The Salvadoran People, Jacob Newman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

El Salvador is the focal point of an American refugee crisis. This crisis owes its origins to protracted abuse and negligence suffered by the Salvadoran people. They are confronted with violence, apathy, and corruption in their homeland and throughout the international sphere. A complex system of harms has come to a concentrated fruition in the form of governments and gangs, histories and happenstance. The purpose of this thesis is, first, to document the persecution faced by Salvadorans and, second, argue that the conditions in El Salvador put many Salvadorans in need of asylum.

Seeing The World Through Humility-Tinted Lenses: Exploring Social Cognitive Explanations For Outcomes Of Humility, Chayce Baldwin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Past research on humility has focused largely on describing the what of humility, but has made little headway in terms of explaining the why of humility. In describing humility, psychological research has accrued evidence suggesting that humble people are more prosocial and characterized by low self-focus. One group of researchers has even described humility as the core value that “binds society together” (Worthington et al., 2017, p. 3). Understanding why humble people act differently may help provide insight into the essence of humility and what factors can help solve important social issues and, indeed, “bind society together”. One reason why …

Games And Social Organization Among Korean Students, Jordan Jones

Undergraduate Honors Theses

South Korean culture has always negotiated between hierarchy and egalitarianism, and never more so than in the last seventy years after regaining independence. This thesis examines how a class of first grade students navigate between these two seeming opposites through an analysis of the games they played and how they played them. The competition between the students provides insight into how the games between both friends and non-friends create peer groups of shared interests and values in the class. The varied influences of different games are examined, and two specific cases of games creating organizational change are analyzed. This analysis …

Evaluating The Impact Of Federal R&D Spending On Patent Registration: A Nasa Case Study, Jack Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the question of what impact federal R&D spending has on patent registration and future technological innovation. Because the causal relationship between federal R&D and patent grants is difficult to determine given aggregate trends and endogeneity, I use the sharp changes in NASA R&D funding between 1959 and 1975 as an interrupted time series. These unique circumstances, caused by the Space Race, make this time period a valuable event study in which to consider the impact of federal R&D. 1,996 unique patents granted to NASA and NASA-affiliates are considered, as well as an additional 19,845 unique patents which …

Computational Regiospecific Analysis Of Brain Lipidomic Profiles, Austin Ahlstrom

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mass spectrometry provides an extensive data set that can prove unwieldy for practical analytical purposes. Applying programming and machine learning methods to automate region analysis in DESI mass spectrometry of mouse brain tissue can help direct and refine such an otherwise unusable data set. The results carry promise of faster, more reliable analysis of this type, and yield interesting insights into molecular characteristics of regions of interest within these brain samples. These results have significant implications in continued investigation of molecular processes in the brain, along with other aspects of mass spectrometry, collective analysis of biological molecules (i.e. omics), and …

Legal Supremacy: The Translation Between Tsarist And Communist Constitutions And Criminal Codes, Jennifer Kimball

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the constitutions and criminal codes which appeared at the end of the Tsarist regime of Nicholas II and the beginning of the new regime of the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin. It contrasts the constitutions and criminal codes of each regime to demonstrate the changes between state ideologies and laws, but also highlight the similarities between the two in terms of their concerns for the state. It shows that despite the changes that occurred in the written law, each regime was primarily concerned with establishing the supremacy of the ruling government.

Deflategate And Image Repair Theory: A Case Study, Erica Alejandra Rivas Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

This study employs qualitative research methods to identify crisis communication strategies utilized by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots during the cheating scandal, Deflategate. Informed by Benoit’s image repair theory, this case study analyzes 14 statements made or released in response to developments throughout the scandal. The findings support the theory of image repair in that transparency in communication and public relations are important aspects in the world of professional sports as offenders work to deter or repair any damage to their reputation in the midst of a scandal. In addition to providing a unique perspective on image repair …

Pas Kinase And Tor, Controllers Of Cell Growth And Proliferation, Brooke Jasmyn Cozzens

Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient sensing kinases lie at the heart of cellular health and homeostasis, allowing cells to quickly adapt to changing environments. Target of Rapamycin (TOR) and PAS kinase (PASK, or PASKIN) are two such nutrient kinases, conserved from yeast to man. In yeast, these kinases each have paralogs. The two TOR paralogs in yeast mimic the mammalian TORC1 and TORC2 complexes, except both Tor1 and Tor2 may contribute to TORC1 or TORC2 function. The two PAS kinase paralogs are paired with the TOR paralogs, meaning that both Psk1 and Psk2 regulate TORC1, while Psk2 suppresses a temperature-sensitive allele of Tor2. Herein …

Pedestrian Walking Speeds At Signalized Intersections In Utah, Jordi Jordan Berrett

Theses and Dissertations

The 2009 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) recommends a pedestrian walking speed of 3.5 feet per second for use in the timing of pedestrian clearance intervals at signalized intersections (reduced from 4.0 feet per second in the 2003 edition). Jurisdictions across the state of Utah continue to maintain pedestrian walking speeds of 4.0 feet per second for normal intersections with guidance on engineering judgement for areas where a lower pedestrian walking speed should be considered. In 2018, it was decided that the current state guidance with regard to pedestrian walking speeds be evaluated for any …

Analog Adaptive Calibration For Arbitrary Phased Array Configuration, Mark William Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

The development of phased array antenna systems requires considerable resources and time. Due to this constraint, the Naval Air Command (NAVAIR) needs a phased array that can be physically reconfigured to meet the demands of multiple missions without added development time or cost. This work develops and demonstrates a solution to this problem by implementing an adaptive calibration approach to the development of electronically steerable antennas (ESAs). In contrast to previous analog adaptive beamformer systems, this system allows for an arbitrary antenna configuration with a variable number of antenna elements and locations. A simulation model of arbitrary phased array configurations …

Navigating Palimpsest’S Sea Garden: H.D.’S Spiritual Realism, Mari Anne Murdock

Theses and Dissertations

H.D.’s novel Palimpsest has often been analyzed using psychoanalytic theories due to her relationship with Sigmund Freud and his work. However, her own approach to the science of psychoanalysis reveals that she often complemented her scientific understanding with her syncretic religious beliefs, a perspective she referred to as “spiritual realism,” which suggests that analysis with a spiritual nuance may provide a deeper understanding of the novel’s intended purpose. Postsecular theory makes for a useful lens by which to analyze Palimpsest’s treatment of reintegrating spiritual knowledge into Freud’s secular understanding of the modern world by providing the benefits of such a …

Impact Of Acute Sleep Restriction On Cerebral Glucose Metabolism During Recovery Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Among Individuals With Primary Insomnia And Good Sleeper Controls, Daniel Kay, Helmet T. Karim, Brant P. Hasle, Jeffrey A. James, Anne Germain, Martica H. Hall, Peter L. Franzen, Julie C. Price, Eric A. Nofzinger, Daniel J. Buysse

Faculty Publications

Background: Restricting time in bed improves insomnia symptoms, but the neural mechanisms for this effect are unknown. Total and partial acute sleep restriction may be useful paradigms for elucidating these effects. We examined the impact of acute sleep restriction on cerebral glucose metabolism during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in individuals with primary insomnia (PI; n=17) and good sleep (GS; n=19).

Methods: Participants underwent [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDGPET) scans during baseline and recovery NREM sleep following one night of partial or total sleep restriction. We compared group differences (PI vs. GS) in baseline-recovery changes, as well as main effects …