Digital Commons Network^™

Transgenerational Impacts Of Covid-19: Exploring The Epigenetic Impacts Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection On Parental Reproductive Health And Offspring Development, Isaac Mckay Stirland

Theses and Dissertations

The mechanisms and consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection, including clinical manifestations, immune response, pathogenicity, long-term sequelae, etc., have been studied in detail following the 2019 pandemic however, very little has been done to explore the interplay between SARS-CoV-2 and host DNA methylation. Given the role of DNA methylation in genetic regulation, genomic imprinting, and induction of transgenerational effects, an understanding of viral interaction(s) with the host methylome is imperative in promoting reproductive and developmental health. Numerous reports describe infections with similar pathogenicity to SARS-CoV-2 and their correlation to altered host tissues at the epigenetic, physiologic, and macroscopic level. These reported epigenetic …

The Effectiveness Of Dialogic Reading Workshops For Parents Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Jessica Driskill

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of dialogic reading workshops in improving at-home reading behaviors of both parents and their preschool-aged children. A focus of the study is to understand the dialogic reading experiences of parents with children who have developmental disabilities. Thirteen parents of children at a local preschool participated in one or more phases of the study. Phases included completing a pre-survey, attending the workshop, completing a post-survey, and participating in an interview. Five parents of typically developing children and four parents of children with developmental disabilities participated in the interviews. Participants noted an …

The Confidence Trap In Pr Academia: Barriers And Solutions For Female Professors, Kailey R. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the career barriers female public relations professors face through the lens of Brubaker et al.'s (2025) theoretical model of "The Confidence Trap." While existing research has explored gender disparities in the PR industry, limited scholarship has investigated the challenges faced by women in PR academia. This qualitative study utilizes in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 22 female public relations professors currently on the tenure track or who have earned tenure at R1 and R2 research institutions in the United States. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts revealed that traditional barriers--such as the glass ceiling, sticky floors, maternal walls, and sexism--manifest …

Intermittent Pneumatic Compression And Heart Rate Variability, Bethany Elisabeth Hartwell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Intermittent Pneumatic Compression (IPC) technology has historic use in promoting fluid movement throughout the body, specifically the legs following surgery. When used in athletics and sports performance training, IPC boots help athletes recover faster and reduce soreness in the lower legs. Research has demonstrated that these boots can significantly shorten recovery times after use. However, the specific mechanisms through which these boots promote recovery remain unclear. One possibility is that IPC boots enhance parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity, which may reduce physiological stress; however, this hypothesis has not yet been formally tested. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of …

A Century Of Depicting Characters With Disabilities In Newbery Award And Honor Books, Merna Kay Raines

Theses and Dissertations

A Century of Depicting Characters With Disabilities in Newbery Award and Honor Books Merna Kay Raines Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, BYU Educational Specialist Between 1922 and 2021, 426 books received the Newbery Award, with 64 books featuring characters with disabilities. However, it was not until 1931 that the Newbery Honor Award was given to recognize the author of a book featuring a character with disabilities. Newbery Award-winning books are considered quality literature and are found in most libraries and classrooms. Understanding the portrayal of characters with disabilities is important because students easily access these books. This content …

“It Is Now In Flames, But It Will Never Burn Down”: A Conservation Of Resources Perspective On Resilience In The Yugoslav Wars, Sarah Denton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The genocides, sieges, and brutal longevity of the Yugoslav Wars profoundly affected the lives of millions of people across the Balkans. Here, the theory of Conservation of Resources (COR) has been applied to contextualize the trauma and regrowth of survivors of these wars. COR theory suggests that people work to protect, maintain, and expand their resources, such as material assets, desirable personality traits, and religion. The threatening or actual loss of these resources induces stress. In environments that threaten or deplete many resources—such as war—other resources become essential for survival and healing. Applying this theory to the memoirs and oral …

Exploring The Effects Of Red-Light Camera System Policy On Intersection-Related Crashes, Nicholas O'Connor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The number of traffic-related fatalities in the United States is 2.3 times higher than the average rate of 28 other high-income countries (Yellman 2022). Some municipalities have implemented Red Light Camera Systems (RLCSs) to improve intersection safety. However, the effectiveness of these cameras is a topic of ongoing debate, and recent policy shifts have resulted in their widespread removal (Ebeling, 2013). This study investigates the causal impact of a statewide ban on RLCSs in Texas, focusing on how the deactivation of these cameras affects intersection-level crash frequency. Utilizing a difference-in-differences framework, we compare intersections impacted by the ban with those …

Measuring The Growth Of A Bacteria Encapsulated Within A Droplet Of Growth Media Suspended In Oil For Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Tests In Microfluidic Devices, Parker Johns

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study is part of an ongoing project to develop a rapid antibiotic susceptibility test using 3D-printed microfluidic devices to reduce the wait-time for patients with blood infections to receive treatment. My goal was to reduce the cytotoxicity of 3D-printed poly(ethylene) glycol diacrylate microfluidic devices and select an oil suitable for bacterial growth and droplet generation for encapsulation of bacteria in a rapid antibiotic susceptibility test. I tested the growth of Escherichia coli containing a plasmid coding for green fluorescent protein in different environments to assess what factors most affected its growth in microfluidic devices. I found that a 12-hour …

Regulation Of Cell Cycle Proteins At The Extremes Of Copy Number Variation In Cancer, Hannah Tran

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Copy number variation is one of the main forms of genomic alteration in cancer genomes. The amplification of oncogenes or deletion of tumor suppressors commonly drives tumor formation. Average copy number variation events vary across cancer types; ovarian cancer has the highest average number of copy number changes, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has the least. With the copy number differences between cancer types, it is likely that different mechanisms of producing copy number changes exist. We propose that a possible mechanism is cell cycle reversal, which was recently shown to potentially occur during the G2 phase of the cell cycle …

Mirrors For Pacific Islander Children: Teaching Resilience Through Culturally Adapted Bibliotherapy, Isabel Medina Hull, Elizabeth Cutrer, Paul H. Ricks, G. E. Kawika Allen, Kendra M. Hall-Kenyon, Lorena Seu, Kristopher J. Urbina, Melia Fonoimoana Garrett

Faculty Publications

Pacific Islander youth face disproportionately high rates of suicide and mental health challenges, yet culturally appropriate interventions remain scarce. This study investigated whether culturally adapted bibliotherapy could effectively promote resilience in American Samoan children by incorporating culturally relevant stories and coping strategies. Through collaboration with on-island Samoan cultural brokers, we developed and implemented culturally adapted stories and lessons designed to resonate with the experiences of children in American Samoa. The study employed a mixed-methods approach with 34 American Samoan children aged 5–13 years, using observations, adapted card sorts, and forced-choice procedures to measure responses to the intervention. The results demonstrated …

From Static To Dynamic: Redesigning Byu Online High School's Learning Library Learning Aids And Tools Section, Brady Allred

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

From Static to Dynamic: Redesigning the Learning Aids and Tools Section (LATS) for BYU Online High School is an innovative project that reimagines traditional static learning resources into an interactive, student-centered platform. This project addresses the critical need for a dynamic digital environment that fosters academic soft skills, including test preparation, time management, critical thinking, and problem-solving. By integrating interactive elements and user-friendly design, the redesigned LATS engages learners in real-time and asynchronous activities that encourage self-directed study and reflection.

The project leverages instructional design principles, such as Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction, to ensure that each interactive module is …

Machine Learning For Time Series Prediction In Psychotherapy, Ian Goodwin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The need for quality mental health care is great, but many clinics face limited resources as they work to help clients. Predictions of a client’s future mental state during a course of therapy have the potential to inform decisions by individual therapists and counseling clinics. In this paper, we use archival OQ-45 data from a large university counseling center to examine the ability of many simple, rule-of-thumb predictive methods, as well as more complex methods (ridge regression, random forests, and LSTMs), to predict the next value in a time series of distress scores based on the previous scores. Learned inference …

Hoping For A Better World: Utopian Performatives In Jez Butterworth's "The Hills Of California", Lily Jensen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Jez Butterworth’s 2024 play, The Hills of California, tells the story of the Webb sisters—Joan, Gloria, Ruby, Jillian—and their mother, Veronica, in 1950s and 1970s Blackpool, England. In 1976, it is the hottest summer on record in Blackpool, and Veronica is dying of cancer. Jillian, Gloria, and Ruby have gathered together to wait for her to die, with the hope that Joan (who has supposedly been living a fabulous life in America for 20 years) will come back to say a last goodbye to their mother. The play flips back and forth between the 70s and the 50s. We …

More Than A Vessel: Presentations Of The Mother In Lucie Delarue-Mardrus’ Marie, Fille-Mère; Pagu’S Parque Industrial; And Nella Larsen’S Quicksand, Sophie Hirtle

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores portrayals of the pregnant female mind in early 20th-century literature completed by female authors in the francophone, lusophone, and anglophone tradition. The three cited authors—Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Pagu, and Nella Larsen—have each produced novels which include explicit references to childbirth and maternity, as well as veiled references to the mother’s mental state before, during, and after pregnancy. A close analysis of these scenes reveals an underlying discourse of the effects of pregnancy on cognition and mental health, suggesting that the contemporary discourse on the self-sacrificing mother was over-simplistic and placed women within strict categories of “good mother” or …

Seeing The Storm: Leveraging Multimodal Llms For Disaster Social Media Video Filtering, Holden Clark

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Emergency management relies on the rapid triage of information to respond appropriately to disaster events. Social media platforms can provide emergency managers with ground-level insights, and videos, in particular, offer an immersive medium for understanding public responses and on-the-ground conditions. However, the overwhelming volume of irrelevant or redundant videos complicates their use for emergency response. This paper investigates the use of multimodal large language models (MLLMs)–specifically the Gemini 1.5 flash model–to automate the identification of relevant videos shared on X (formerly Twitter) during hurricanes. We develop and evaluate a framework to test the accuracy of different prompting styles and question …

Environmental Justice: Healing Environmental And Societal Wounds In The Overstory And Torto Arado, Marcia Tagg

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the approaches of two contemporary novels, The Overstory and Torto Arado, in providing pathways to environmental justice. The Overstory by Richard Powers is an American novel that provides a post-secular perspective on trees and their ability to provide answers on how to heal a wounded world. This wisdom works in the lives of individuals, and it alludes to how society at large could be impacted by the adoption of a more tree-like perspective, especially in how they view time. Torto Arado by Itamar Vieira Junior is a Brazilian novel that shows the importance of Afrodiasporic religious …

Delaying Marriage And Its Impact On Future Income: A Historical Econometric Analysis (1900-1940), Britton Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

I investigate the impact of delaying marriage on future income using historical data from the 1900–1940 United States Decennial Censuses. While existing literature suggests that marriage positively affects income, little is known about the financial implications of postponing marriage. I address that gap in knowledge by employing an instrumental variable framework, exploiting the effect of serving in WWI on age at marriage as an exogenous instrument, to determine the effect of delaying marriage on personal income. I leverage the Census Tree project to link individuals across census years, finding their siblings, age at first marriage, veteran status, and income. I …

Supporting Student Mothers: A Study Of Well-Being, Challenges, And Resource Accessibility At Brigham Young University, Sophia Claire Cranney

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Student mothers may face unique challenges in balancing their educational and parental responsibilities, yet their experiences remain underexplored in academic research. This study examines the well-being, challenges, and resource accessibility of student mothers at Brigham Young University (BYU). Using survey data from 20 student mothers, this research evaluates their perceived school support, mental well-being, and awareness of available campus resources. Participants reported moderate levels of perceived school support and overall mental well-being, with lower scores on measures of relaxation, social connectedness, and energy levels. While no significant correlation was found between resource availability and well-being, qualitative responses revealed critical gaps …

Determining The Influence Of Habitat Complexity On Fish Diversity And Abundance In Hawaiian Coral Reefs, Gabrielle Reece Demarco

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since AUVs maintain heightened levels of identification, advanced system complexity coverage, low taxonomic selectivity, while maintaining large sample sizes and exceptional navigational accuracies, AUVs could be beneficial in certain circumstances. However, since UVC’s tend to have higher biomass identification accuracies and AUVs lack of agility and reactivity increase unidentifiable fish (While increasing biomass coverage), its costs may not justify the means. However, with advances in camera and drone technologies, it may be possible to heighten the identification abilities of AUVs, thus offering a low-interruption solution to fish surveying

Measuring Support For Democracy Through Public Understanding: A Conjoint Survey Approach, Kendra Pinegar

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, I explore how individuals conceptualize democracy and whether their support is based on democratic principles or its outcomes. Using a conjoint experiment in Chile and Peru, I examine how respondents define democracy, assess governance, and adjust their support based on institutional attributes. My findings show that citizens struggle to distinguish between democracy’s core institutions and the broader social and economic conditions they associate with it. Their support is often tied to government performance rather than democratic principles. Moreover, they favor their own definition of democracy over an objective, institutional one, revealing a disconnect between public perception and …

The Readable Scriptures: Creating A Dyslexia-Friendly Book Of Mormon, Elijah Pearce

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis appears in two parts. The first is a 135-page project where I have implemented features and practices to aid the readability of the Book of Mormon for individuals with dyslexia. The second part of this thesis is an analysis where I present a brief literature review of dyslexia and my method of applying these features and practices to a section of the English Book of Mormon, namely, the twenty-two chapters that comprise 1 Nephi. This project is not intended to present a format that will aid all individuals with dyslexia, nor is this project a complete, finished work—it …

How Length Of Residence Moderates The Relationship Between Time And Community Satisfaction In Rural Utah, Anna Jacob

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Olympics served as a mega-event during the early 2000’s which greatly affected the surrounding areas in rural Utah. There were social disruptions and changes in the community that altered resident’s perceptions of their community in which they had lived most of their life: however, it also became a community of interest due to the publicity and traction the Olympics brought to Heber and surrounding areas. This study seeks to explore the relationship between length of residence as a moderator between time and community satisfaction in Heber, Wallsburg, Daniel, and Charleston Utah during pre-boom, boom, and post-boom time periods. Additionally, …

Enhancement Of The Edtech Books Editing Tool, Natalie Larson

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

As EdTech Books (ETB) expanded to a broader user base, its editing platform required an overhaul to better accommodate authors, particularly those with diverse technical backgrounds. This project focused on redesigning the ETB editing tool to be more intuitive, efficient, and aligned with familiar digital editing conventions. By incorporating principles such as wayfinding, usability heuristics, and cognitive load reduction, the new tool streamlines workflows and enhances usability. Stakeholder collaboration and iterative testing guided refinements. The result is a platform that remains intuitive for novice users while retaining flexibility for advanced editors. While the transition introduced a learning curve for existing …

What Is Faith?, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Spiritual Proficiency

This article discusses that faith is a concrete concept related with action. A well-studied concept of self-efficacy has so much commonality with faith; thus the related studies can be applicable for us to enhance our faith. Faith is measurable depending our efforts to figure out empirical approaches to do it.

Lgbtq+ Identity Development And Individual Vs Group Psychotherapy Experience: A Consensual Qualitative Analysis, Aileen Marie Rands

Theses and Dissertations

Multicultural topics, such as LGBTQ+ experience, have accrued predominance within the field of psychology. It has become clear that better understanding minority experience is of utmost importance. Pervasive stigma, discrimination, and mistreatment culminate into minority stress; thus LGBTQ+ individuals face greater risk for poor mental health and seek out psychotherapy at higher rates. Despite this reality, limited psychotherapy research exists in this area generally and essentially no research has looking into the experience of LGBTQ+ individuals in group therapy. The current study investigated experiences of LGBTQ+ clients who have participated in both individual and group psychotherapy. Eleven participants were interviewed …

Enhancing Mucus Flow And Clearance By Grafting Zwitterionic Hydrogel Films To Luminal Surfaces, Ryan Horne, Caleb Escudero, Morgan Ellerman, C. Allan Guymon, Marlan Hansen

Faculty Publications

Objective

To determine the effects of zwitterionic hydrogel films on mucus contact angles, flow, and stasis with respect to medical polymer surfaces, both flat and tubular.

Methods

A zwitterionic hydrogel thin film was photografted onto medical rubber surfaces and compared against non-zwitterionic hydrogel thin films and untreated surfaces to determine its impact on mucus contact angles, mucus flow on sheets and tubes, and mucus plugging.

Results

Zwitterionic and conventional hydrogel films significantly reduce the mucus contact angles and the tilt required to initiate mucus flow on sheets and in tubular systems. Preliminary experiments show that these films may also shorten …

Byu Nano-Carbon Physics Lab, Robert Davis Dr., Richard Vanfleet Dr., Felipe Rivera Dr., David Hayes, Nick Allen, Bridget Kemper, Dan Broadbent

Faculty Publications

BYU Nano-Carbon Physics Lab

Started in 2003 by Physics Professors Robert Davis and Richard Vanfleet, who received the BYU Technology Transfer Award in 2024.

Over 81 undergraduate and 21 graduate student projects in the lab have advanced carbon nanotube (CNT) research.

Applications of research from the lab have resulted in over 30 patents, many of which have been licensed to companies for use in the world.

This display showcases highlights of work done in the lab.

Sustainable Well-Being For Young Adults: An Online Course To Build Ecological And Psychological Flourishing In A Changing Climate, Jeremy Stanley Bekker

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable well-being is "happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or global well-being without exploiting other people, the environment or future generations" (O'Brien, 2010, p. 2). Sustainable well-being education may encourage environmentally sustainable behavior while also teaching people how to live meaningful lives. However, there is currently a lack of research-based disseminable courses for teaching sustainable well-being. We hypothesized that taking the course would result in lower eco-anxiety and higher well-being, as well as increased pro-environmental self-efficacy and pro-environmental values. We used a randomized crossover repeated measures research design to assess pre and post effects. Quantitative results indicated that participating in …

Post-Irradiation Fault Injection For Complex Fpga Designs, Nathan G. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Fault injection is a common technique for estimating the impact of single-event upsets (SEUs) within the configuration memory (CRAM) of an FPGA design. Fault injection is typically conducted prior to a radiation test to evaluate the effectiveness of SEU mitigation techniques, estimate the FPGA design's behavior at the radiation test, and prepare the radiation test infrastructure. This thesis explores how fault injection can be used after radiation testing to reveal additional insight into an FPGA's behavior during a radiation test. A unique methodology, referred to as post-irradiation fault injection (PIRFI), was developed in which the locations and timestamps of CRAM …

Microfabrication Of Sic Using Femtosecond Lasers, Jared Eldon Payne

Theses and Dissertations

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a desirable material in a wide variety of semiconductor fields. The impressive thermal, chemical, and mechanical properties that make SiC an attractive material also make it very difficult to machine. New fabrication techniques are required to take full advantage of the potential of SiC. First, a new 3-dimensional (3D) non-line-of-sight (NLOS) fabrication technique using two-photon absorption is demonstrated in SiC. NLOS microchannels are shown with aspect ratios higher than 100:1. The process is the only method known, at this time, that can create truly 3D subsurface structures in SiC without direct line of sight to the …