Digital Commons Network^™

A Historical Analysis Of How Preach My Gospel Came To Be, Benjamin H. White

Theses and Dissertations

Missionary work is one of the most important tasks undertaken by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Spreading the gospel is at the heart of the Savior's message to his apostles shortly before his ascension into heaven, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," (Matt. 28:19). Full time missionaries of the Church are charged with teaching Christ's message. The questions of what to teach and how to teach it have led to four sets of formal missionary discussions published by the …

Assessment Of Acgh Clustering Methodologies, Serena F. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) is a technique for identifying duplications and deletions of DNA at specific locations across a genome. Potential objectives of aCGH analysis are the identification of (1) altered regions for a given subject, (2) altered regions across a set of individuals, and (3) clinically relevant clusters of hybridizations. aCGH analysis can be particularly useful when it identifies previously unknown clusters with clinical relevance. This project focuses on the assessment of existing aCGH clustering methodologies. Three methodologies are considered: hierarchical clustering, weighted clustering of called aCGH data, and clustering based on probabilistic recurrent regions of alteration within …

Design Principles And Preliminary Actuation Approaches For Novel Multiple-Layer Lamina Emergent Mechanisms, Paul Shumway Gollnick

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple-layer Lamina Emergent Mechanisms (MLEMs) are mechanisms made from multiple sheets (lamina) of material with motion that emerges out of the fabrication plane. This study has shown that understanding how layers are used in existing products and in nature provides insight into how MLEMs can also use layers to achieve certain tasks. The multi-layered nature of MLEMs and the interactions between these layers are what enhance the capabilities of MLEMs and allow them to better meet design objectives. Layer separation is one objective for which MLEMs are well-suited. Layer separation can have a variety of applications and there are a …

Written Corrective Feedback: Practitioners’ Perspectives, Norman W. Evans, K. James Hartshorn, Emily Allen Tuioti

Faculty Publications

Abstract in English:

Considerable attention has been given to written corrective feedback (WCF) in second language writing (L2) over the past several decades. One of the central questions has focused on the appropriateness of its use in L2 writing. In these academic discussions, scholars frequently describe how WCF is utilized in the classroom. However, many of these claims of teacher practice have no research base, since few studies have actually asked teachers what place WCF has in their writing classroom (Ferris, et al., in press/2011a; Ferris, et al., in press/2011b; Hyland, 2003; Lee, 2004). This paucity of data from teachers …

Effects Of Long-Term Livestock Grazing And Habitat On Understory Vegetation, Jonathan D. Bakker, Faith Rudebusch, Margaret M. Moore

Western North American Naturalist

The herbaceous understory stratum contains most of the plant diversity in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa P. & C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.) forests of the American Southwest and provides critical food and habitat for many wildlife species. During the last century, this stratum has been affected by livestock grazing and by increased dominance of overstory trees. We sampled a unique grazing exclosure to examine the relative importance of long-term livestock grazing (grazed or ungrazed) and habitat (park or tree) on the understory community. We sampled 3 plots of 192 contiguous quadrats (each quadrat 0.5 m²) in each …

An Evaluation Of Communicative Activities In First-Year High School Spanish Textbooks, Marcella C. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

The study analyzed activities of Spanish Level 1 textbooks used in high school to determine the extent to which they incorporate some of the most respected theories of communicative language learning, in particular the theories of Krashen, Swain, Long and Nunan. Five well known Spanish books were chosen: Realidades, Exprésate, Así­ se dice, Avancemos, and Aventura. For each book, Chapter 2 and Chapter 5 were chosen to be evaluated by two raters. The activities in these chapters were analyzed according to four criteria derived from the abovementioned theories. Results suggest that textbooks may not be …

Detailed Requirements For Robots In Autism Therapy, Alan Atherton, Bonnie Brinton, Mark Colton, Nicole Giullian, Michael A. Goodrich, Daniel Ricks

Faculty Publications

Robot-based autism therapy is a rapidly developing area of research, with a wide variety of robots being developed for use in clinical settings. Specific, detailed requirements for robots and user interfaces are needed to provide guidelines for the creation of robots that more effectively assist therapists in autism therapy. This paper enumerates a set of requirements for a clinical humanoid robot and the associated human interface. The design of two humanoid robots and an intuitive and flexible user interface for use by therapists in the treatment of children with autism are described.

Beyond Robot Fan-Out: Towards Multi-Operator Supervisory Control, Michael A. Goodrich, Yisong Guo, Jonathan M. Whetten

Faculty Publications

This paper explores multi-operator supervisory control (MOSC) of multiple independent robots using two complementary approaches: a human factors experiment and an agent-based simulation. The experiment identifies two task and environment limitations on MOSC: task saturation and task diffusion. It also identifies the correlation between task specialization and performance, and the possible existence of untapped spare capacity that emerges when multiple operators coordinate. The presence of untapped spare capacity is explored using agent-based simulation, resulting in evidence which suggests that operators may be more effective when they operate at less than maximum capacity.

The Group Selection Questionnaire: Discriminant Outcomes And Effectiveness, Jeffrey Lee Elder

Theses and Dissertations

The Group Selection Questionnaire (GSQ; Cox et al., 2004) is a measure that has been developed to facilitate clinical decisions about a client's readiness for group psychotherapy. The GSQ has demonstrated an ability to predict which clients will experience a reduction in distress through the use of group psychotherapy. This dissertation examines the Group Selection Questionnaire's ability to measure client characteristics that predict the client's ability to benefit from receiving group psychotherapy compared to the ability to benefit from receiving another form of treatment, such as individual or a combination of individual and group psychotherapy, as measured by improved scores …

“This Is My Gospel”: Jesus' Discourse In 3 Nephi, Andrew C. Skinner

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

“The Unspeakable Gift Of The Holy Ghost”, P. Scott Ferguson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

On Agency, D. Morgan Davis

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

An Identification Of Themes In The Charted Course Of The Church In Education, John Morrison Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis operates under the assumption that the earliest form of mass communication is the religious sermon as recorded in the Bible. This thesis looks to Bormann, who used a sacred to secular approach and found similarities between Puritan sermons and the rhetoric of political speeches. This research reverses that order and moves from secular to sacred by looking first at well-known American speeches and then at landmark addresses to Seminary and Institutes of Religion teachers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and specifically at Clark's The Charted Course of the Church in Education. This single sermon, delivered …

Comparing The Pedagogical Thinking Of More Successful And Less Successful Adult Esl Instructors Using Stimulated Recall, Jason Paul Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

This paper reports a study that examined the pedagogical knowledge (knowledge and beliefs related to the act of teaching) of two more successful and two less successful adult ESL instructors during planning teaching and post teaching reflection. The verbal reports of their teaching were compared to previous studies (Gatbonton, 2000, 2008; Mullock, 2006) that used stimulated recall to categorize adult ESL instructors' pedagogical thoughts during their instruction. The comparison showed that the previous categories were inadequate to cover the data. Additional codes were added in order to codify all the data after which patterns and themes emerged that overarched the …

Samoan Speech Audiometry: Developing Word Recognition Materials For Native Speakers Of Samoan, Emma Lilian Kruger

Theses and Dissertations

Hearing can be evaluated through the presentation of tones or speech. Speech audiometry determines an individual's speech recognition threshold and word recognition score. Traditionally these materials were developed using familiar, frequently used, monosyllabic words. Currently, there are various types of word recognition materials including those which use word lists, short half-lists, and materials which use sentences level stimuli with competing noise. Word recognition materials were first developed in Standard American English; today, materials are now readily available in many other languages. When possible, word recognition materials are developed digitally to standardize their presentation. Currently, no recorded word recognition materials are …

Synthesis And Characterization Of An Oligothiophene-Ruthenium Complex And Synthesis And Optical Properties Of Oligothiophene-Ruthenium Complexes Bound To Cdse Nanoparticles, Nathan A. Bair

Theses and Dissertations

Oligothiophenes are of increasing interest in organic based electronic devices in part due to their high electron and hole mobilities. In an organic photovoltaic (OPV) device, the electronic properties of oligothiophenes make them advantageous as charge transfer junctions. To serve as charge transfer junctions, oligothiophenes must be functionalized to bind to the donor and acceptor parts of the device. The donor and acceptor parts are different materials and the synthesis of asymmetric oligothiophenes is of great interest. Previous researchers in our lab synthesized four asymmetric oligothiophenes, two with two thiophene subunits and two with four. Each set of oligothiophenes contained …

The Design Of Specifications For The Development Of Broadcast English Materials In Academic Listening/Speaking Courses, Amy Barlow

Theses and Dissertations

ESL students in academic listening/speaking courses often listen to long audio recordings similar to a lecture or other academic passages. When listening to these passages, students can lose their interest which impedes their learning of new strategies for understanding academic language. Students in the Level Four Listening/Speaking classes at Brigham Young University's English Language Center (ELC), under the previous curriculum, would experience this challenge. All of the passages were available only in audio and were long in duration. The students would lose interest and improve little in their listening skills. Under the new curriculum at the ELC, students in Academic …

Model Detection Based Upon Amino Acid Properties, Kit J. Menlove

Theses and Dissertations

Similarity searches are an essential component to most bioinformatic applications. They form the bases of structural motif identification, gene identification, and insights into functional associations. With the rapid increase in the available genetic data through a wide variety of databases, similarity searches are an essential tool for accessing these data in an informative and productive way. In our chapter, we provide an overview of similarity searching approaches, related databases, and parameter options to achieve the best results for a variety of applications. We then provide a worked example and some notes for consideration. Homology detection is one of the most …

Chronostratigraphy And Paleontology Of The Mid-Cretaceous Wayan Formation Of Eastern Idaho, With A Description Of The First Oryctodromeus Specimens From Idaho, Laurel J. Krumenacker

Theses and Dissertations

The mid-Cretaceous Wayan Formation of Idaho consists of floodplain-deposited siltstones and mudstones, with subordinate fluvial sandstones and conglomerates. Deposition occurred in a tectonic foredeep at the toe of the Sevier thrust complex. Measurement of two incomplete and one complete section indicates a thickness of roughly 1,344 meters in the study area. No laterally extensive marker beds are present but the lower Wayan contains distinct chert pebble conglomerates, and the middle Wayan may contain a higher relative abundance of fluvial sandstone. Known fossil localities are limited to the lower and middle portions of the formation. The Wayan Formation, as currently defined, …

A Hybrid System For Glossary Generation Of Feature Film Content For Language Learning, Ryan Arthur Corradini

Theses and Dissertations

This report introduces a suite of command-line tools created to assist content developers with the creation of rich supplementary material to use in conjunction with feature films and other video assets in language teaching. The tools are intended to leverage open-source corpora and software (the OPUS OpenSubs corpus and the Moses statistical machine translation system, respectively), but are written in a modular fashion so that other resources could be leveraged in their place. The completed tool suite facilitates three main tasks, which together constitute this project. First, several scripts created for use in preparing linguistic data for the system are …

Determining The Function Of Nuclear Bmp4, Trina Jane Loos

Theses and Dissertations

Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (Bmp4) is a well known growth factor that regulates gene expression through the SMAD signaling pathway. Bmp4 is involved in many developmental processes and has been identified as an important factor in several cancers, including melanoma, ovarian cancer, and colon cancer. Madoz-Gurpide et al. recently observed Bmp4 in the nuclei of a minor percentage of cells in colon cancer tissues. In addition, our lab has recently discovered a nuclear variant of Bmp2 (nBmp2), the TGF-β family member most closely related to Bmp4. These observations led us to hypothesize that a nuclear variant of Bmp4 (nBmp4) also …

Construction Of Complex A At La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico: A History Of Buildings, Burials, Offerings, And Stone Monuments, Arlene Colman

Theses and Dissertations

In 1969, Paul Tolstoy commented that archaeological investigation at La Venta had become "a fairly long and at times tortuous story of excavation, interpretation, re-interpretation, and depredation at the famous site found by Stirling." This thesis adds to the torture by describing and illustrating the architecture, burials, offerings, and stone sculpture of La Venta Complex A in an effort to reconcile data into an accurate sequence of meaningful cultural events. The details derive from excavation reports, field notes, maps, photographs, and correspondence of the early investigators of the site. This study addressed three myopic perceptions regarding La Venta: (1) the …

Social Relationships And Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analytic Review, Timothy B. Smith, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, J. Bradley Layton

Faculty Publications

Background: The quality and quantity of individuals' social relationships has been linked not only to mental health but also to both morbidity and mortality. Objectives: This meta-analytic review was conducted to determine the extent to which social relationships influence risk for mortality, which aspects of social relationships are most highly predictive, and which factors may moderate the risk. Data Extraction: Data were extracted on several participant characteristics, including cause of mortality, initial health status, and pre-existing health conditions, as well as on study characteristics, including length of follow-up and type of assessment of social relationships. Results: Across 148 studies (308,849 …

Moral Identification: An Alternative Approach To Framing Second-Generation Immigrants' Ethnic Identity Ambivalence, Benjamin R. Brady

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary sociological research on second-generation immigrants living in the United States is lined with questions of ethnic inclusion and transnational participation. Many scholars are interested in how the children of immigrants relate to their parents' ethnic identity while being raised in a new land. Noting that the majority of scholars in this field approach ethnic identity within a social constructionist perspective, in this study I explore the ways that identity ambivalence and ethnic belonging are framed. Specifically, I critically question the ways that an ethnic identity is assumed to be valued and asserted in a constructionist model. After presenting a …

Representations Of Remembrance: Literature And Memory In Borges, Pigila, And Fresán, Paul Michael Mcneil

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines three works by Argentine authors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries: Jorge Luis Borges's "La memoria de Shakespeare," Ricardo Piglia's La ciudad ausente, and Rodrigo Fresán's Mantra. These works explore the theme of memory directly, and provide insight into the role of memory in relation to literature, technology, and media. To understand memory and its functions and failures, I employ concepts from recent scientific inquiry into the nature of memory, particularly neuroscience and clinical psychology. Within this framework, I show how memory and narrative fiction share a number of similarities, and explore the …

Change Trajectories And Early Warning System To Identify Youth At Risk For Negative Psychotherapy Outcome, Philip Legrand Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

The field of mental health treatment is making efforts to better serve all psychotherapy clients, but especially the 5–10% of clients who deteriorate in treatment (Lambert & Ogles, 2004) and the 30–60% who drop out prematurely (Pekarik & Stephenson, 1988). These efforts involve collaboration between research and practice. Both research and practice have been treatment focused for much of their history, primarily examining treatment efficacy or effectiveness, and never quite settling on the generalizability or applicability of specific treatments. The patient-focused research paradigm has shifted the focus from treatment outcomes on the group level to outcomes on the individual client …

Estimating The Reliability Of Concept Map Ratings Using A Scoring Rubric Based On Three Attributes, Laura Jimenez

Theses and Dissertations

Concept maps provide a way to assess how well students have developed an organized understanding of how the concepts taught in a unit are interrelated and fit together. However, concept maps are challenging to score because of the idiosyncratic ways in which students organize their knowledge (McClure, Sonak, & Suen, 1999). The construct a map or C-mapping" task has been shown to capture students' organized understanding. This "C-mapping" task involves giving students a list of concepts and asking them to produce a map showing how these concepts are interrelated. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to determine to …

Defining Well-Being From Inside The Navajo Nation: Education As Poverty Derivation And Poverty Reduction, Donald R. Baum

Theses and Dissertations

The stated purpose of this study was to facilitate Navajos through a process of determining for themselves what poverty is, what indicators determine well-being, and what factors contribute to the phenomenon of poverty on the Navajo Indian reservation. The study used a Q-Squared Participatory Poverty Assessment to gain a better understanding of how the Navajo culture and Navajo people themselves view and operationalize wealth and poverty. Semi-structured participatory interviews performed with 22 Navajo Indians, in the reservation communities of Chinle, Arizona, and San Juan, New Mexico, discussed and determined what it means to be poor in Navajo households and communities, …

The Nature Of Transfer From The Concepts And Vocabulary Taught In A Character Education Unit To Students Classroom Discourse, Marianne E. Gill

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study was conducted to inform my teaching practices on character education. The purpose of this study was to better understand the nature of transfer from the concepts of character taught in lessons to students' classroom discourse. Data were systematically collected from student comments, class meetings, and student reflection journals during a 13-week character education unit. Their discourse was coded and analyzed for evidence of transfer through an iterative process that allowed for ongoing comparison of the data. Evidence of transfer was identified only once prior to the eleventh week of the study. However,during the eleventh week, evidence …

Frequency Response Of Synthetic Vocal Fold Models With Linear And Nonlinear Material Properties, Stephanie M. Shaw

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have shown the importance of cricothyroid muscle activation in altering fundamental frequency in the human voice. Other studies have investigated the non-linear properties of vocal fold tissue and the impact of this non-linearity on frequency response. Several physical models of the vocal folds have been made for research purposes. However, all have been isotropic in nature with linear stress-strain properties. The purpose of this study was to create a physical model with non-linear stress-strain properties to investigate the frequency response of the model as cricothyroid muscle activation was simulated (in other words, as the vocal folds were stretched …