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Institute Supports Graduates And Undergraduates

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

The Maxwell Institute continues to encourage and support the work of graduate and undergraduate students through two funds.

Each year at this time we remind graduate students about the Nibley Fellowship Program and its application deadline. Named in honor of the late eminent Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley, this pro-gram provides financial aid to students enrolled in accredited PhD programs in areas of study directly related to the work and mission of the Maxwell Institute, particularly work done under the auspices of one department of the Institute, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, such as studies of the …

Impact Of Zirconia Slurry In Steel Powder On Melt Pool Characteristics In Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Taylor Davis, Tracy W. Nelson, Nathan B. Crane

Faculty Publications

Purpose – dding dopants to a powder bed could be a cost-effective method for spatially varying the material properties in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) or for evaluating new materials and processing relationships. However, these additions may impact the selection of processing parameters. Furthermore, these impacts may be different when depositing nanoparticles into the powder bed than when the same composition is incorporated into the powder particles as by ball milling of powders or mixing similarly sized powders. This study aims to measure the changes in the single bead characteristics with laser power, laser scan speed, laser spot size and …

Charge Detection Mass Spectrometry Using Printed Circuit Board Arrays For The Analysis Of Microparticles In The Martian Atmosphere, Elaura Luanne Gustafson

Theses and Dissertations

Charge detection mass spectrometry (CDMS) is a single particle technique capable of simultaneously measuring charge and mass-to-charge ratios for individual ions or particles. The linear array CDMS design theoretically has no upper mass limit and is therefore a choice method for the analysis of high mass and heterogeneous samples, such as dust microparticles in the Martian atmosphere. This dissertation describes the development of a novel charge detection mass spectrometer made of printed circuit boards (PCB) for the analysis of dust microparticles in the Martian atmosphere. Development of this device has required investigations in analysis methods and the engineering design of …

Robert Kingston Vickery, Jr.—In Memoriam, E. Durant Mcarthur

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Experimentally Measured Lumbar Skin Strains During Activities Of Daily Living, Andrew Gibbons, Paul Mcmullin, Darian Emmett, Ulrike H. Mitchell, David T. Fullwood, Anton E. Bowden

Student Works

Introduction: When mechanical stimulation of the skin, post-surgery, is kept at a minimum, the risk for hypertrophic scarring is reduced. Therefore, surgeons have utilized different tools for optimal scar outcomes such as cutting along or perpendicular to the Langers lines or collagen fiber orientation^1,2. However, biomechanical strains induced in the skin during activities of daily living (ADL) are the primary mechanism for suture opening, and increased awareness of these strains may provide informative insights to both pre-operative incision planning, as well as post-operative counseling with the patient regarding specific activities that may lead to wound re-opening.

Methods: Data …

Improving Ideation Of User Actions Using A Novel Ideation Method, Thomas L. Ashworth

Theses and Dissertations

During early stages of the design process, ideation methods are used to generate a set of potential solutions based on a particular need. Solutions to design problems generally require both technology and user actions (or tactics) of some sort, although solution ideas may omit explicit mention of either technology or tactics. Previous research suggests that an explicit consideration of tactics in early-stage ideation enables design teams to improve the quantity, quality, variety, and novelty of their idea sets. In this paper, a novel ideation method known as the Random Prompts method is presented, and its performance is evaluated against a …

Barriers To Career Advancement Among Skilled Immigrants In The Us, Cassie Anita

Ballard Brief

Over 2 million highly-skilled immigrants in the US are either underemployed or unemployed due to barriers to career advancement. Barriers to career advancement include, but are not limited to, legal status, the process of transferring credentials, the license and certification process, lack of employer recognition, lack of cultural literacy, and the language barrier. Because of these barriers, immigrants face many challenges, such as retraining, paying high fees for courses or tests, limited course options due to a language barrier, and lacking knowledge of US job application processes. These challenges often prevent immigrants from working high-skilled jobs in the workplace. When …

Book Review: Hans-Joachim Gehrke, Ed. Making Civilizations: The World Before 600, Robert Bedeski

Comparative Civilizations Review

Studying ancient civilizations is not a precise enterprise, and many statements are approximations, subject to validation or dispute. Several key concepts describe the flow and progress of collective human development. Individuals, families, clans, and tribes precede formation of civilization, which provides the foundation for states. Governments are managerial organizations of more complex societies, providing concentrated focus on defense, currency and infrastructure. Civilizations improve life security as urbanization, innovation, and division of labor increase, requiring more complex and powerful governing institutions.

Effects Of Rotor-Airframe Interaction On The Aeromechanics And Wake Of A Quadcopter In Forward Flight, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning, Philippe Chatelain, Grégoire Winckelmans

Faculty Publications

From small drones to large Urban Air Mobility vehicles, the market of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is currently booming. Modern VTOL designs feature a variety of configurations involving rotors, lifting surfaces and bluff bodies. The resulting aerodynamics are highly impacted by the interactions between those components and their wakes. This has consequences on the aircraft performance and on the downstream wake. Studying the effects of those interactions through CFD can inform the development of cheaper numerical models. In this work, we focus on the interaction between rotors and bluff bodies based on the example of a generic quadcopter …

Li-Ion Electrode Microstructure Evolution During Drying And Calendering, Mojdeh Nikpour, Baichuan Liu, Paul Minson, Zachary Hillman, Brian A. Mazzeo, Dean R. Wheeler

Faculty Publications

The drying process of electrodes might seem to be a simple operation, but it has profound effects on the microstructure. Some unexpected changes can happen depending on the drying conditions. In prior work, we developed the multiphase-smoothed-particle (MPSP) model, which predicted a relative increase in the carbon additive and binder adjacent to the current collector during drying. This motivated us to undertake the present experimental investigation of the relationship between the drying rate and microstructure and transport properties for a typical anode and cathode. Specifically, the drying rate was controlled by means of temperature for both an NMC532 cathode and …

Tactics Ideation Experiment Data, Thomas L. Ashworth, Carl D. Sorensen

ScholarsArchive Data

This data includes the template worksheets, as well as filled worksheets that include ideas written by the participants in a research experiment. This experiment tested the effectiveness of a novel tactics ideation method (i.e., Random Prompts method) to a modified Brainwriting method. Transcribed copies of this data are also included.

Accompanying the data are experiment briefing presentations, Python code for rapid evaluation of the data (the evaluation methods themselves were also developed by the authors), a spreadsheet file with evaluation data (this is a necessary input to the code), and organizational trees (for team idea sets) associated with the evaluation …

A Comparison Of Layer Deposition And Open Molding Of Petg By Fused Pellet Fabrication In An Additive Manufacturing System, Alex Gibson, Jason Weaver

Faculty Publications

Additive manufacturing continues to offer new possibilities in both production and economics. The industry has quickly adopted it to rapidly produce parts that would be difficult or cost preventative otherwise. Recent innovation has expanded its capabilities, however there are still significant limitations. Most AM processes are restricted by materials available, in producing large parts, or by not achieving material deposition speeds to make certain products feasible. In addition, tight tolerances for features and surfaces cannot be produced without substantial post processing. High-speed Fused Pellet Fabrication (FPF) in combination with Hybrid Manufacturing (HM) offers expanded capabilities as additive and subtractive process …

Trade-Off Characterization Between Social And Environmental Impacts Using Agent-Based Models And Life-Cycle Assessment, Joseph C. Leichty, Christopher S. Mabey, Christopher A. Mattson, John L. Salmon, Jason Weaver

Faculty Publications

Meeting the UN’s sustainable development goals requires designers and engineers to solve multi-objective optimization problems involving trade-offs between social, environmental, and economic impacts. This paper presents an approach for designers and engineers to quantify the social and environmental impacts of a product at a population-level and then perform a trade-off analysis between those impacts. In the approach, designers and engineers define the attributes of the product as well as the materials and processes used in the product’s life cycle. Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) tools that have been developed to model the social impacts of products are combined with Life- Cycle Assessment …

Optimizing Build Plate Adhesion Of Polymers In Fused Granule Fabrication Processes, Alex Schroeder, Jason Weaver

Faculty Publications

Perhaps the most crucial element of fused granule fabrication (FGF) is material adhesion; in order to achieve a successful product, the material being printed must adhere to the build plate. For optimal products, the material should only adhere to the build plate until the print is complete, then be easily removable. This paper examines the effects of different build plates, environments, and bonding agents on material adhesion during the FGF process in a CNC mill machine. The force to remove polycarbonate (PC) and polypropylene (PP) from build plates was tested with various bonding agents. Except in one case, the adhesive …

Dbl Study Reflectivity Journal, Gloria Mora

ScholarsArchive Data

This is a reflectivity journal to document all the steps taken to complete the Thesis "Decision-Based Learning as a Tool for Teaching Statistics in a Peruvian University." This journal documents all the conversations that the researchers have about their understanding of DBL and all the major decisions made it
to complete this study.

Exploring Perceptions Of New Media Among The Lakota Nation, Isabelle C. Kramer

Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception, the worldwide web has fundamentally altered our understanding of communications. With the rapid adoption of new media around the globe, individuals are increasingly able to communicate with people on the other side of the planet in real-time--traditional boundaries like time and space are no longer relevant barriers to intercultural communication. As such, scholars are scrambling to recognize and understand the broader implications of social media, videoconferencing, blogging, etc on more traditional definitions of culture. Additionally, researchers are beginning to study the ways in which minority cultures are utilizing new media, and the way that new media impacts …

Air Quality Impacts From Mineral Dust, Fireworks, And Urban Pollution Revealed By Trace Element Chemistry And Strontium Isotopes Ratios In The Wasatch Front, Utah, Usa, Micah J. Marcy

Theses and Dissertations

Airborne particulate matter (PM) in urban areas is derived from a combination of natural and anthropogenic sources. To identify PM sources and their effects on air quality, we collected PM using active filter samplers over a two-year period in the urban Wasatch Front, northern Utah, an area affected by multiple pollution sources. Filters from active samplers and other PM samples were analyzed for major and trace element concentrations and 87Sr/86Sr ratios. We identified wind-blown mineral dust from dry lake beds, winter inversions, and fireworks as primary PM sources affecting air quality in the Wasatch Front. Dust contributes Al, Be, Ca, …

An Exploration Of Factors That Impact Uptake Of Human Papillomavirus Vaccines, David Samuel Redd

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction The discovery and continued development of vaccines is arguably one of the most important innovations in human history. Vaccination greatly reduces the worldwide incidence and transmission of diseases, preventing permanent injury and premature death. Mass vaccination campaigns have led to the eradication or partial eradication of severe infectious such as smallpox and polio, have reduced childhood mortality, and has led to an overall increase in average health in the human population globally. Despite the documented benefits of vaccination, vaccine hesitancy is increasing, and the uptake of some vaccines is low. Vaccines have been so successful at preventing disease that …

Regulation Of T Cell Activation By The Cd5 Co-Receptor And Altered Peptides, Characterization Of Thymidine Kinase-Specific Antibodies, And Integrating Genomics Education In Society, Kiara Vaden Whitley

Theses and Dissertations

Helper T cells (Th) are a vital component of the immune system responsible for directing other immune cells to eliminate pathogens and cancer. Specifically, Th cells facilitate B cell and cytotoxic T cell (Tc) activation and recruitment and enhance their function against cancer and infectious diseases. Th cells are a valuable resource for improving Tc responses in cancer treatment and have become a focus of immunotherapeutic research. While it is increasingly clear that helper T cells serve an important role, the details about which entities produce an effective Th cell response remain unclear. CD5 is a T cell co-receptor that …

Yardang Morphometry And Substrate Properties In Ignimbrites Of The Campo Piedra Pomez, Argentina Compared With The Medusae Fossae Formation, Mars, Dylan Stephen Mcdougall

Theses and Dissertations

Yardangs are streamlined ridges carved by the action of wind into consolidated yet erodible substrates. The direction of sediment transport is indicated by their elongate shapes and steep sides which redirects most of the sediment transport layer onto adjacent low-lying surfaces, resulting in lower erosion rates on the elevated areas. Despite this simple premise, the rates of erosion and transport as well as the material properties necessary to form yardangs have until now been largely unknown. This study aims to determine how material properties affect yardang dimensions in order to use yardang morphometry to derive the mechanical properties of a …

Examination Of 14-3-3 Interactors Identifies A Novel Mechanism Of Regulation For The Ubiquitin Binding Kinase Tnk1 That Can Be Targeted To Block Tumor Growth, Christina Marie Egbert

Theses and Dissertations

Decades of research have begun to identify oncogenic mut-drivers that are responsible for driving a large percentage of cancers. These high frequency mut-drivers have therapeutics in the clinic for patient treatment. However, there is another group of low frequency mut-drivers that fail to rise above the noise of the high frequently drivers. These low frequency drivers represent a group of genes with untapped potential for new targeted therapies. However, identifying these drivers can be difficult. This study focuses on identifying new functional phosphorylations using the phospho-docking protein 14-3-3. The family of 14-3-3 proteins have been linked to many oncogenic pathways …

A Spatial Long-Term Trend Analysis Of Estimated Chlorophyll-A Concentrations In Utah Lake Using Earth Observation Data, Kaylee Brook Tanner

Theses and Dissertations

We analyzed chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentrations in shallow, turbid Utah Lake using Landsat data from 1984 to 2021. Utah Lake is ~40 km by 21 km, has a surface area of ~390 km2, an average depth of ~3 m, and loses ~50% of inflow to evaporation. This limits spatial mixing, allowing us to evaluate impacts to smaller lake regions. We evaluated long-term trends at the pixel level and for areas related to boundary conditions. We created 17 study areas based on differences in shoreline development and nutrient inflows. We expected impacted areas to exhibit increasing chl-a trends, as population growth and …

Leveraging Large Language Models Trained On Code For Symbol Binding, Joshua Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

While large language models like GPT-3 have achieved impressive results in the zero-, one-, and few-shot settings, they still significantly underperform on some tasks relative to the state of the art (SOTA). For many tasks it would be useful to have answer options explicitly listed out in a multiple choice format, decreasing computational cost and allowing the model to reason about the relative merits of possible answers. We argue that the reason this hasn't helped models like GPT-3 close the gap with the SOTA is that these models struggle with symbol binding - associating each answer option with a symbol …

Design And Characterization Of A Miniaturized Spectrometer For Wearable Applications, Tyler Richard Westover

Theses and Dissertations

As individual health monitors continue to become more widely adopted in helping individuals make informed decisions, new technologies need to be developed to obtain more biometric data. Spectroscopy is a well-known tool to gain biological information. Traditionally spectrometers are large and expensive making personal or wearable health monitors difficult. Here we present the development and characterization of a miniaturized short wavelength infrared spectrometer for wearable applications. We present a carbon nanotube parallel hole collimator can effectively select a narrow set of allowed angles of light to be separated by a linear variable filter and detected at a photodiode array making …

Economic And Hydraulic Simulation Models For Evaluation Of Sediment Management In A Reservoir, Razieh Anari

Theses and Dissertations

Reservoir sedimentation is a serious problem that threatens the water storage capacities across the world. Extending a dam's life requires adopting a new design and operational paradigm that focuses on managing the reservoir and watershed system to bring sediment inflow and outflow into balance by including reservoir sediment management facilities in dam and reservoir. However, the cost of methods that remove the sediment from reservoirs is usually prohibitive and is a serious factor preventing sustainable sediment management. This thesis considered a case study, Paonia Reservoir in Colorado, to investigate two aspects of reservoir operation, sediment management and economic assessment. The …

Qualitative Proteomic And Genomic Analysis Of Klebsiella Pneumoniae Bacteriophage Kaomega, Emilee Carr

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae that is a common nosocomial pathogen causing pneumonia, infections in the bloodstream, wound infections, and meningitis. It has developed natural resistance to multiple antibiotics, most notably carbapenems which are often seen as the last line of defense against multi-drug resistant pathogens. Bacteriophages are being investigated as a promising alternative treatment to antibiotics in fighting these resistant pathogens. KaOmega, a Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteriophage, was isolated, sequenced, and annotated to characterize and understand its potential for use in a phage therapy. Characterization included Phyre2 analysis to predict putative protein functions based on structural homology, burst size …

Has Covid-19 Affected Patenting In The United States?, Johnny Allen Cope

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have studied how exogenous shocks affect innovation, yet the effects of COVID-19 on one measure of innovative activity, numbers of patent applications, are not well understood. This study looks at what effect disruptions related to COVID-19 have had on numbers of patent applications submitted by inventors in the United States. Using the Patent Examination Research Dataset from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, I examine how numbers of patent applications have changed in 2020 and what effect economic disruptions, health disruptions, and nonpharmaceutical interventions related to COVID-19 have had on numbers …

Mechanical Actuation Via Resorbable Materials, Bethany Parkinson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Resorbable materials—or materials which diffuse into their surroundings—present a promising means of actuating mechanical systems. In current practice, such as in the realm of in vivo surgical devices, resorbable materials are often intended to perform a temporary function and completely dissolve when that function is completed (e.g. resorbable sutures). In this paper, resorbable materials are proposed for use in a different way: as a means for actuating mechanical systems. We create several prototypes which demonstrate that resorbable materials, combined with stored energy, can be used to actuate mechanical systems under several loading conditions and in various applications. We also present …

Use Of Seed Coating Technologies To Improve Cercocarpus Ledifolius (Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany) Seed Germination And Emergence To Reclaim Mine Lands, Emily M. Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

Globally, mining is vital to human interests, but its practice can cause landscape alteration which may look unnatural or engineered. The reintroduction of native plants to these areas is needed to restore the visual appeal and ecological function back into these altered mine lands. Cercocarpus ledifolius (curl-leaf mountain mahogany) is one desirable native species in the Intermountain West that is prized for its potential to grow on step and rocky hillsides and for the habitat it provides for wildlife. Unfortunately, C. ledifolius does not establish well from seed, which has been attributed to seed dormancy. The first objective of this …

External Laryngeal Oscillation And Aerodynamic Measures Of Voice Onset: A Translational Study, Erik Mcleod Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine external laryngeal oscillation and its potential effects on phonation threshold pressure (PTP; cm H2O) and phonation threshold flow (PTF; L/sec). Measures of PTP and PTF have inherent limitations due to the nonlinear nature of phonation, influencing their clinical and experimental utility. This is true particularly for tracking relatively small changes in voice function because variability in the measure itself can be larger than that resulting from voice change. Elevated PTP and PTF are associated with a variety of voice disorders and correlate with self-reported vocal effort and fatigue. Prior studies involving silicone …