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Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

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Open Liver Open Lung: Elaborate Expressions In White Hmong, Luke Walker Packer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a description of four-word elaborate expressions in White Hmong, a Hmong-Mienh language spoken in the northern mountains of Southeast Asia. The goal of this work is to describe the behavior, characteristics, and functions of the expressions using data from the White Hmong-English Dictionary (Heimbach 1980). A native speaker helped find 318 examples of elaborate expressions in the dictionary. Elaborate expressions have previously been described as "a balanced group of four words in which the first and third element, and the second and fourth element, are either identical to each other or share a common meaning and often …

Examining The Validity Of A Dynamic Assessment Of Narrative Language To Identify Language Disorder In Diverse School-Age Children, Samantha Kate Rainsdon Meek

Theses and Dissertations

The United States is a culturally and linguistically diverse country. Few assessments used in educational settings have been developed that can be used appropriately with culturally and linguistically diverse students, and research has shown that static, norm-referenced assessments are often biased against these students. One alternative method that shows great promise for overcoming the limitations of static, norm-referenced tests is dynamic assessment. Despite the research and recommendations that support the use of dynamic assessments, relatively few dynamic assessments have been formally developed for the purpose of identifying language disorder. Therefore, the current study sought to determine the validity of a …

Code Switching Use, Attitudes, And Identity: Differences Among Spanish-English Bilinguals In Canada, Mexico, And The United States, Ana Sofia Rubalcava Karmanov

Theses and Dissertations

Code-switching (CS) has been extensively studied for a variety of purposes and under many contexts. In recent years there has been a shift in CS literature to better understand the sociological forces that affect speakers’ use of CS. While in earlier literature, CS was perceived negatively by both speakers and the general public (Milroy & Muysken, 1995; MacGregor-Mendoza, 2021; Anderson & Toribio, 2007; Fishman, 1967), it has since been shown that many bilinguals view CS positively. More recent research suggests that bilinguals perceive CS as an important part of their identity and use it to show they belong to particular …

Who Is Talking About The Children? A Systematic Literature Review Of The Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis Effects On Children, Angela Marcel Fields

Theses and Dissertations

The ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis has affected thousands of families throughout the United States and Canada, resulting in probable trauma to children in the families and communities for generations. Although awareness of the crisis has been growing in recent years through avenues such as social media (#MMIW, etc.), little action has been taken to stem the crisis and its effects. The effects of the crisis on the children left behind is a compelling question that is not often addressed in the media, however. A systematic review of the scientific literature from the United States and Canada …

Understanding Gender Identification Within Individuals With Autism Using The Bem Sex-Role Inventory, Zackery Alan Cusworth

Theses and Dissertations

Gender is a socially derived construct that is taught and understood at young ages. However, not every individual has the same social skills to understand these seen and unseen social cues about gender. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory was given to adult individuals with autism in the United States to better understand their masculine, feminine, and androgenous perceptions. These data were then compared to the original Bem Sex-Role Inventory general population study to see if there were any differences. The data show that males with autism had lower masculine scores and higher feminine scores than males in the general population. Females …

Lumbar Skin Strain Fields In The Context Of Skin Adhered Wearables, Andrew Kent Gibbons

Theses and Dissertations

A comprehensive background is herein presented for lumbar skin strain and its effect on skin adhered wearable (SAW) products. A background of the development of computational models of the interaction of skin and novel SAWs being researched is also presented. These include products involving the use of high deflection strain gauges to measure skin strain during functional movements (FMs) as a method to address the complicated phenotyping of the etiological causes of low back pain (LBP). The background concludes with the mathematical calculation of the principal skin strain magnitudes and orientations using retroreflective marker coordinate data in a motion capture …

Parents' Perceptions Of The Importance Of Teaching Mathematics: A Q-Study, Ashlynn M. Holley

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics education has gone through multiple reform efforts over the last century and continues to be the target of improvement efforts. Past changes in curriculum and goals have sometimes led to heated debates between various stakeholders. Knowing the views of different stakeholders can help determine what common ground there is between these different groups and where areas of disagreement might arise. Parents are especially important to understand because they have been influential in past reform efforts. Despite the importance of parents' opinions, little research has been conducted concerning their perspectives on the importance of mathematics teaching. Using Q-methodology, I was …

A Step Into Structural Biology: Structural Determination Of Tnk1-Uba And Computational Design Of A Radical Sam Cyclase, Yi-Jie Tseng

Theses and Dissertations

Structural biology uncovers life's secrets by studying protein structures via techniques like X-ray crystallography. This knowledge drives advancements in protein engineering for the improvement of human lives. Yet, obtaining high-quality crystals in X-ray crystallography is challenging. To overcome this, we used Translocation ETS Leukemia protein Sterile Alpha Motif domain (TELSAM), a promising polymer-forming crystallization chaperone (PFCC), to enhance protein crystallization. Human thirty-eight-negative kinase-1 (TNK1), a key player in cancer progression, possess a ubiquitin association (UBA) domain that binds polyubiquitin and regulates TNK1 activity and stability. Although sequence analysis hints at an unconventional TNK1 UBA domain architecture, its molecular structure lacks …

The Dialectic Of Human Liberty In Thomas Carlyle's Past And Present And J.S. Mill's On Liberty, Kyle Belanger

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores the divergent arguments that Thomas Carlyle and J.S. Mill make on the subject of liberty in their most influential works, Past and Present (1843) and On Liberty (1859), respectively. Whereas Carlyle presents a corporate vision of liberty, deriving from the visionary capabilities of heroic leaders, Mill defines liberty as fundamentally rooted in individual rights and, in the third chapter of his long essay, directly critiques Carlyle in a section of On Liberty, with striking evidence that Mill responds to rhetoric found in Past and Present. Understanding their theoretical divergences provides a new vantage point with which to …

Aquatic Insect Communities Remain Impaired Following Large-Scale River Restoration, Jared Meek, Jackson Birrell, Teagan Mulford, Dennis K. Shiozawa, C. Riley Nelson

Western North American Naturalist

River manipulation and degradation can cause detrimental impacts on aquatic insect communities. River restoration projects seek to mitigate these human disturbances. Assessing the efficacy of river restoration remains an important goal for river managers and conservation biologists so that improved restoration methods can be used in the future. From 1999 to 2008, the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission restored a 15-km channelized portion of the Provo River (Wasatch County, Utah, USA). Before (1999) and during (2002) the restoration project, macroinvertebrate samples were collected using modified kick nets from 3 sites within the restored area and 1 site outside the …

Byu Research Center Gets New Director

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

One of the newest entities at Brigham Young University has a new director. The university administration has appointed Daniel C. Peterson, chairman of the FARMS board, to be the director of the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART), a subsidiary of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. He succeeds Noel B. Reynolds, who was recently named associate academic vice president of BYU (see story on page 3). This appointment will constitute Peterson's primary university assignment, and he will be released from most of his teaching duties during his service as director.

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

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Books On Cd And Web

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Two new FARMS books, Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited and LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls, plus other FARMS volumes and more than two thousand other works, are included on a new CD, "Infobases Collectors Library."

Imaging The Fire-Damaged Petra Scrolls

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

A FARMS-sponsored team specializing in state-of-the-art imaging technology is producing remarkable images of the Petra scrolls. These ancient papyrus documents were found in a charred heap during the 1993 excavation of a sixth-century Byzantine church in Petra, in southwestern Jordan.

Byu Symposium Honors Renowned Lds Scholar

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Scholars who contributed to the newly released FARMS book Mormons, Scripture, and the Ancient World: Studies in Honor of John L. Sorenson presented their papers at a symposium held at Brigham Young University on 21 March 1998. Sponsored by the BYU Department of Anthropology and FARMS, the half-day event featured seven LDS scholars who summarized their recent research and then responded to questions from the audience.

New Volume Of Research Honors John L. Sorenson

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

To many, John L. Sorenson is best known for his research on the lands and cultures of Book of Mormon peoples, the topic of his 1985 book, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, and the focus of his most recent book, Images of Ancient America: Visualizing Book of Mormon Life (see article on page 1). A highly trained anthropologist, Sorenson has often broken new ground in other areas of his discipline as well, such as his penetrating empirical studies of Mormon culture. Aside from teaching courses in anthropology and archaeology at BYU for many years, Sorenson …

Captain George Cannon: One Man's Role In The Conquest Of Sugar In The Transatlantic Slave Trade, Leah Brown

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Numerous scholars have examined the transatlantic slave trade in an attempt to understand the brutal system. However, there has been little research on the “Middle Passage,” the part of the trade system when the enslaved would be boarded onto slaving vessels and forced to endure months of abuse till they landed in the Americas. This paper examines the logbook of Captain George Cannon of the slave ship Iris to understand the life of one of the slaving captains and how a seemingly regular British citizen could become such a key member of the system. It came down to political, economic, …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

2 Insights, November 1999 Farms Through The Years, Part 1: A Conversation With John Welch And John Sorenson

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

FARMS's 20th anniversary this month gives reason to reflect on the Foundation's past progress and future promise. The following article begins a three-part series, each installment featuring comments from two people who figure prominently in the history and ongoing work of FARMS. John W. (Jack) Welch and John L. Sorenson were involved with FARMS since its inception, Stephen D. Ricks and Noel B. Reynolds were administrative officers during the organization's middle years, and Daniel C. Peterson and Daniel Oswald are current administrative officers at FARMS. This first segment presents responses from separate interviews conducted by Don Brugger, managing editor of …

Book On Romans 1 Launches New Series

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Romans 1: Notes and Reflections, by James E. Faulconer, is the inaugural volume in FARMS's new Ancient Texts and Mormon Studies series. The · aim of this series is to explain the historical origins and purposes of ancient religious texts and to show their main points of value to modern religious readers. Like forthcoming volumes in the series, Romans 1 includes the ancient text, a readable English translation, and general commentary.

More Is Better Than One: The Effect Of Ensembling On Deep Learning Performance In Biochemical Prediction Problems, Jacob A. Stern

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents two papers addressing important biochemical prediction challenges. The first paper focuses on accurate protein distance predictions and introduces updates to the ProSPr network. We evaluate its performance in the Critical Assessment of techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP14) competition, investigating its accuracy dependence on sequence length and multiple sequence alignment depth. The ProSPr network, an ensemble of three convolutional neural networks (CNNs), demonstrates superior performance compared to individual networks. The second paper addresses the issue of accurate ligand ranking in virtual screening for drug discovery. We propose MILCDock, a machine learning consensus docking tool that leverages predictions …

The "Missionary Voice": Bona Fide Sociolect Or Figment Of The Mormon Linguistic Imagination?, Joshua Stevenson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Can members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consistently identify the so-called “missionary voice”? That is, when presented with a series of unidentified speech samples that are a mix of currently serving young missionaries and their college-aged peers, how accurate will they be at selecting missionaries from the lineup? Additionally, what features (prosodic and otherwise) make the missionary voice distinct? That is, which characteristics of missionary speech most strongly index it as such? In this paper, I seek to answer both of these questions through a sociolinguistic lens (and, in part, via the tools of perceptual dialectology). …

Student Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Mindfulness Interventions In The Esl Classroom, Lauren Smith

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mindfulness has received increased attention in recent years in educational contexts as a tool to help students mitigate negative emotions, enhance resilience, and improve academic performance (Dawson et al., 2020; Galante et al., 2018). Although interventions teaching principles of mindfulness have flourished in elementary schools and university contexts (Felver et al., 2016; Ma et al., 2019), limited research has looked at the effects of mindfulness interventions in ESL (English as a Second Language) educational contexts. This thesis details a study investigating student perceptions of the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in an Intensive English Program (IEP) for nonmatriculated university students over …

Interdisciplinary Research Origination Awards, Larry Howell

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Ensure alignment with the university mission, enhance the educational experience of students, enlarge the influence of a BYU education

Civilizational Security: Why The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine Shows That ‘National Security’ Is Not Enough To Understand Geopolitics, Greg (Grzegorz) Lewicki

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper argues that the idea of “national security” is sometimes overwritten by “civilizational security” in security-related considerations. Civilizational security, as understood in this paper, refers to a country's security stemming from its belonging to a cultural zone or a civilization. The author clarifies the terms “a civilization,” “civilizational identity,” and “civilizational security.” Citing the examples of Poland, Ukraine, and Russia when considering the parameter of civilizational security allows us to better analyze and predict some processes, including geopolitical dilemmas and civilizational trends. It is argued that prior to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia misunderstood its own civilizational security …

Editor's Note, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

Claude-Henri, Comte de Saint-Simon, a father of modern sociology, observed that the history of the world alternated between two poles: organic periods (in which the social and political institutions are in harmony with the state of civilization), followed by critical periods, which are transitional and marked by conflict and destructive criticism.

The Applicability Of Lessons From American Society For The European Union: Tolerance, Demographic Change, And Social Structure, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

While Americans have long tended to see our society and civilization as exceptional, in fact the civilization is primarily based on European precedent. We see ourselves, in the words of one of our most significant poets, Emma Lazarus, as the new colossus, “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp cries she... I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” We claim to be an exception; that means that we are unique, different, what many, alluding to the New Testament as viewed by the Pilgrim founding fathers, have called “a shining city upon a hill.”2 And as “a beacon of hope.”

The Economic Regions Of Chinese Civilization: A Gis-Based Analysis Of Grain Markets In China, 1736-1842, Karl Ryavec, Mark Henderson, Rocco Bowman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Global Security In The Third Millennium Of The Common Era, Michael Andregg

Comparative Civilizations Review

The primary purpose of this short essay is to catalyze discussion among security professionals about how perspectives on ‘global security’ and ‘wise civilizations’ might affect military affairs during a time of great, interdisciplinary stresses that impact everyone on earth today.

Global civilization faces two main existential threats this century. The first is a quick death from general thermonuclear war or release of other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) like exotic, genetically engineered biological weapons. The second is a slow death from incremental destruction of the living system that supports all civilizations, wise or unwise, by mechanisms like deforestation, desertification, climate …