Digital Commons Network^™

Is Relationship Satisfaction A Personal Trait?, Alyssa Brown

Theses and Dissertations

We explored individual differences in relationship satisfaction. We hypothesized a stable proportion of relationship satisfaction would be explained by individual differences. In Study 1 (N = 1619), individual differences accounted for 41% of the variance in ratings for relationship satisfaction and 22% for ratings of dedication. In Study 2, we attempted to model this unique variance using a Correlated Traits Correlated Methods Confirmatory Factor Analysis approach, then predict it using established traits from previous literature. Although our initial model had to be revised, our final exploratory model suggested individual relationship satisfaction was multifaceted: both dependent upon relationship type and possessing …

Cyclic Testing Of Special Moment Frame Connections With Buckling-Restrained Fuse Plates, Jeremiah John Merrell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the development and evaluation of a new special steel moment frame connection that employs replaceable buckling-restrained fuse plates that can enhance seismic performance and post-earthquake repairability. A total of eight unique specimens were tested on two series of beam-to-column subassemblies (W36 and W24) to investigate connection behavior under cyclic loading. The experiments examined the influence of fuse plate geometry, bolt configuration, and buckling-restraints on strength, ductility, and deformation capacity. Results indicated that the buckling-restraint washers and bolts were effective at preventing out-of-plane buckling. Specimen M1.5 was successful in meeting the AISC 341-22 qualifications requirements for special moment …

Validation Of A Mesh-Based Computational Fluid Dynamics Model, The Generataion Of Reference Wake Mixing Data, And A Preliminary Comparison To A Lagrangian Vortex Based Model, Justin Don Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations

Three things are accomplished in this work. First, a verified wind turbine model is developed for both turbulent and non-turbulent flows. The verified model is created using AMR-Wind, a mesh-based CFD solver which uses an actuator line model to represent the turbine blades. Second, a database of turbine forces and wake data is compiled using the verified wake model. This data is collected for simulations of two turbines operating in close proximity to one another in various configurations. When the wake of one turbine interacts with another, wake mixing occurs. Wake mixing affects turbine performance and is important for predicting …

Enhancing Fuel Performance Of Molten Salt Reactors Through Improved Thermophysical Property Data, High-Fidelity Simulation, And Advanced Control Strategies, Jackson Seth Ivory

Theses and Dissertations

The deployment of molten salt reactors (MSRs) as next-generation nuclear technology requires accurate thermophysical property data, validated system models, and advanced control strategies to ensure safe and economically competitive operation. This dissertation, Enhancing Fuel Performance of Molten Salt Reactors Through Improved Thermophysical Property Data, High-Fidelity Simulation, and Advanced Control Strategies, integrates experimental measurements, thermal hydraulic simulation, and model predictive control (MPC) to enhance understanding of MSR fuel behavior under steady state and transient conditions. New density and heat capacity measurements of UF4-FLiNaK molten salts were obtained using Archimedean and differential scanning calorimetry methods, respectively, to address critical gaps for fueled …

ユースのためのユーピ概要, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

ユーピメソッドの概要を３ページで中高生用にまとめました。

同世代用ユーピ概要, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

わたしと同世代の高齢者の方々に、勇気をもって様々なチャレンジに挑戦していただくためのツールとしてのユーピメソッドを紹介しています。

大学生のためのユーピ概要, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

大学生に特化したユーピメソッドの概要です。

Be My Guest: Discovering The Benefits Of Being Interviewed On A Podcast, Daisy Arvonen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to discover in what ways podcast guests benefit from being interviewed on a podcast, and what podcast hosts can do to optimize the experience of their guests. While much research in journalism and storytelling is centralized on the needs, experience, and interests of the audience, this project shifts the focus onto those involved in the creation of the podcasts—the guests.

At the end of the research presentation, five episodes of The Greatest Cause Podcast are included, created as part of this project. The guests featured in these episodes and guests of other podcasts were sent an anonymous …

Upi Intro For Youth, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

🚀 Stop Grinding, Start Winning

Discover the UPI Method!

Want to crush your goals in school, sports, and life? The UPI Method is the ultimate cheat code for your success. Backed by PhD research, this battle-tested blueprint helps you master 5 keys—Ownership, Environment, Chaos, Cycles, and Reflection—to unlock the “Dynamite Effect.”

Turn your biggest challenges into massive wins and become the strongest version of yourself. I’ve spent 30 years perfecting this and want to share the blessings with you for FREE. Ready to boss up?

Utah Lake From Space: Analysis Of Sentinel 2 And Modis Data Shows Spatiotemporal Trends And Patterns In Chlorophyll-A, Turbidity, And Temperature, Kaylee Brook Tanner

Theses and Dissertations

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a serious and growing risk to waterbodies around the world. Excessive algal growth, especially when it involves cyanobacteria, impairs the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and threatens the health of humans and animals using the water. There is currently great interest in developing effective prevention and mitigation strategies for these blooms, particularly in ecologically and economically vital freshwater lakes. Such development, however, requires detailed understanding of HAB drivers and dynamics, which can be highly complex and difficult to characterize. High-frequency, high-resolution imagery from earth observation satellites provides spatially and temporally comprehensive data on global lakes--data which …

Snow Surfacing Optimized For An Animated Short Film Pipeline, Kristen Whitehouse

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Love and Gold is the BYU Center for Animation’s 2025 senior capstone short film. This ambitious film is the longest produced in the history of the animation program. It’s a love story that takes place in at least five different large environment sets. Two of these sets contain snow. This creative thesis tackles the problem of surfacing the snow within that context.

Surfacing snow required research and development of a snow generator for adding new geometry on top of objects in a scene and a snow shader to make that geometry appear like snow in the final render. Packaging the …

Spatial Ecology And Population Dynamics Of Chukar Partridge, Jacob Taft Barnes

Theses and Dissertations

Chukar (Alectoris chukar) are a non-native bird that has naturalized in North America following its introduction over a century ago. Today, the species supports hunting opportunities in 11 U.S. states and one Canadian province. Despite its wide distribution and recreational value, key aspects of chukar ecology remain poorly understood. Limited information is available on the species' spatial ecology, including patterns of space use. Likewise, information regarding the influence of weather on population dynamics of chukar has not been formally conducted. As part of our investigation, we evaluated the space use of chukar in western Utah, USA utilizing GPS transmitters (Chapter …

Modeling Network Growth Via Generalized Isospectral Reductions, David Thomas Litster

Theses and Dissertations

Many real-world networks also exhibit a variety of symmetries. In this thesis we study equitable partitions and isospectral reductions, both of which are generalizations of symmetries. We formalize the relationship between these two types of generalized symmetry through the study of invariant subspaces. We then use recent results about the presence of equitable partitions in real-world networks to develop a network growth model that introduces similar structures, thereby introducing symmetries similar to those in real world networks.

Intrinsic Stability Of Controlled Systems Via Gershgorin-Type Estimates, David Friedbaum

Theses and Dissertations

Time delays are an inherent feature of real-world dynamical systems, arising whenever information, matter, or energy requires non-negligible time to propagate. Even small delays can destabilize systems that are otherwise well behaved, yet most standard control designs--such as PID or LQR--do not explicitly account for them and may fail when delays are present. This thesis investigates the stability of controlled dynamical systems subject to arbitrary time delays and develops new tools to determine when such systems remain stable. Our approach builds on the notion of intrinsic stability, a strong form of global stability introduced by Webb and Bunimovich, which guaranties …

Characterizing Temperature-Dependent Properties Of Fat For Improving High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Simulations, Brian Easthope

Theses and Dissertations

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a non-invasive therapeutic technique that relies on the precise delivery of acoustic energy to ablate diseased tissue. The presence of subcutaneous fat can significantly alter focal accuracy and treatment efficiency due to its distinct thermal and acoustic behavior. This study characterized the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, specific heat capacity, acoustic attenuation, and acoustic velocity of human subcutaneous fat to improve pretreatment modeling for HIFU therapies. Measurements were performed using a dual needle probe for thermal conductivity and diffusivity, differential scanning calorimetry for specific heat capacity, radiation force balance for attenuation, and through-transmission methods for …

Game-Theoretically Optimal Strategies In Baseball, William Michael Melville

Theses and Dissertations

Baseball players and their managers make numerous decisions that can have a significant effect on the result of the game. The effectiveness of their decision-making strategies depend on the strategies played by their opponents. For example, throwing a first-pitch fastball down the middle is a good strategy against a hitter who always takes the first pitch, but it is a risky strategy against a hitter who likes to swing at the first pitch and who is good at hitting fastballs. Additionally, any payoff a player receives from playing a strategy comes at the expense of their opponent. A batter cannot …

Play-Based Assessment Of The Cardinal Principle, Allyssa Sonnefeld Leavitt

Theses and Dissertations

Gelman and Gallistel (1986) determined five counting principles that are essential for successful counting, including the cardinal principle where children understand that the last number counted represents the quantity of a set of objects. The traditional How many? task and the Give-n task are the most common tasks that have been used to assess whether children understand the cardinal principle. However, many researchers claim that these tasks either overestimate or underestimate children's understanding of the cardinal principle. Some researchers (Baroody & Pellegrino, 2023) suggest that embedding the traditional How many? task in a game may improve its validity. In this …

Measuring And Modeling Nonlinear Vibrations In Structures With Mechanical Joints, Suzanna Gilbert

Theses and Dissertations

Many assembled structures have bolted or riveted joints. Aside from providing a convenient method of assembly, mechanical joints have an important effect on the structure's dynamic response to its environment. Friction and microslip within the joints help to damp out unwanted vibration. However, the joints also introduce nonlinearity into the response. Most notably, the natural vibrational modes of the structure no longer have constant natural frequencies and damping ratios. Rather, they shift as a function of vibration amplitude. Several methods exist to characterize the dynamics of nonlinear systems, yet they are generally validated on simple benchmark structures, and many still …

Windkessel Parameter Estimation For Cardiovascular Feature Identification In Photoplethysmography Data, Calvin Boyce

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Features of cardiovascular health such as blood pressure, cardiac output, arterial compliance, and blood viscosity are important in evaluating heart health and disease risk, but are currently largely measured invasively and therefore only in critical settings. Here we explore the potential for Windkessel models to extract cardiovascular features from photoplethysmography (PPG) data in an attempt to evaluate heart health non-invasively. We show the capacity of a constrained Newton's method optimization scheme to estimate parameters and explore the tractability of the resulting parameters. While Newton's method is able to produce parameters that closely approximate PPG data, we found that using a …

Listening To Life In A Noisy World: The Pitfalls And Promise Of Urban Acoustic Ecology, Leah O'Barr

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the application of soundscape ecology principles to urban settings. Soundscape ecology is the study of the entire sonic makeup of a community, composed of biophony (biological sound), geophony (environmental sound), and anthrophony (human-generated sound). By examining the changes in and qualities of the soundscape, researchers can gain information about the biological makeup and ecological quality of an area, and the temporal and spatial distribution of resident species. Recent technological advances in recording equipment and machine learning methods are making soundscape ecology an increasingly relevant and practical tool.

Applying soundscape ecology methods to urban ecosystems introduces unique challenges, …

Plant Preservation: The Contribution Of Bacteriophage And Transposons To Pathogenic Xanthomonas Evolution, And The Demographic And Reproductive Analysis Of Castilleja Parvula, Ciara A. Green

Theses and Dissertations

Plant preservation, whether through disease research or endemic extinction analyses, plays an important role in the relationship between humans and our surrounding environment. In these analyses, both the role of mobile elements in the evolution of pathogenic Xanthomonas sp. bacteria, and the demographic and reproductive analysis of Castilleja parvula, an imperiled alpine plant, are evaluated. Xanthomonas species are one of the top agricultural threats, and are known to evolve rapidly. Until now, the contributions of mobile elements and particularly bacteriophage have not been thoroughly evaluated. The contribution of these agricultural diseases to food insecurity and the devastation of crops that …

Inelastic Behavior Of Three-Story Buildings With Concrete-Filled Composite Plate Shear Walls Subjected To Wind Loads, Joshua John Blom

Theses and Dissertations

Although elastic design of the main wind force resisting system in a building is the conventional approach it is not always desirable. In this study, nonlinear static and dynamic analyses are used to predict the inelastic behavior of a three-story building with concrete-filled composite plate shear walls subjected to wind loads. To explore the potential for inelastic design, two types of planar composite shear wall buildings are examined: individual shear walls designed using an elastic approach, and coupled shear wall pairs designed using an inelastic approach adopted from seismic design provisions. Nonlinear static "pushover" analyses are run using an assumed …

Experimental Testing Of Axially Loaded Fuse Plates Without Continuous Buckling Restraint, Rebekah Elizabeth Higgins

Theses and Dissertations

Current seismic design practice is to design structures to avoid collapse and protect life. Buildings are designed to resist seismic loading through strength and ductility. In moment frames, this ductility traditionally comes from inelastic deformation of beams. Moment frame connections move inelastic deformation away from the column and allow a plastic hinge to form in the beam. This plastic hinge prevents collapse but leaves the building difficult to repair. Some proprietary moment frame connections address this issue with replaceable fuse plate connections. These fuse plate connections move the plastic hinge out of the beam and into the replaceable fuse, allowing …

Teaching And Learning In Envisioning Byu, Volume 1: Foundations And Dreams: A Latter-Day Saint University Educative Perspective, Nicholas P. Bown

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis outlines the principles of teaching and learning found within Envisioning BYU, Volume 1: Foundations and Dreams, a collection of foundational texts on education at Brigham Young University (BYU). In doing so, this thesis addresses a gap in internal university discourse about how to apply “gospel methodology” to teaching and learning at BYU. This study aims to elucidate these principles based on the assumption they may be of philosophical and practical value within BYU, as well as higher education more generally. In order to identify the salient teaching and learning principles found within Foundations, I conducted a qualitative textual …

One Barrier To Rule Them All: Exploring The Impact Of The Language Barrier For Immigrants In Utah, Reagan Lyman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this paper, I examine the effect of English-language fluency on immigrant experiences and access to integration or inclusion, using Utah as a case study. I seek to answer the following research questions: does language or region of origin matter in integrating into a new country and learning a new language? Is this effect still relevant in a context like Utah where it is easier to find native-born residents who speak one’s first language? And how does English language ability and the language barrier impact the lives of Asian and Latina immigrants living in Utah? I draw upon 34 in-depth …

An Analysis Of Student Performance In Elementary Linear Algebra At Brigham Young University, Adrienne Irene Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates different factors that influence performance in the Elementary Linear Algebra (ELA) course taught at Brigham Young University. These factors include student characteristics such as true freshman status and college enrollment, and content-specific factors such as how performance on essential topics affects overall performance in the course. To analyze the various research questions posed in the study, I used robust linear mixed effects models with random effects controlling for the hierarchical structure of the data. The statistically significant results from these models indicate that (i) true freshmen perform better than other students on exams and in the ELA …

Curious Contradictions: A Critical Edition Of 'The Great War In England In 1897,' By William Le Queux, Jacob D. Liljenquist

Student Works

Written by William Le Queux in 1894, The Great War in England in 1897 is a work of invasion literature, and a book full of curious contradictions. Once popular and now forgotten, its material construction belies its status as sensational literature. This critical edition of the 4th edition copy of the novel housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections evaluates the book's conception, creation, and reception, and provides a material bibliography of the HBLL's unique copy, all with the aim to reveal and explain the contradictions in the book as a product of imperial culture.

Travels In West Africa: A Critical Edition, Erere Iwhi

Student Works

First published in 1897, Mary Henrietta Kingsley’s Travels in West Africa became one of the most influential travel narratives of the Victorian era, changing the way British audiences encountered accounts of West Africa and its peoples. This critical edition examines the book not only as a travel narrative but also as a material artifact shaped by the historical, publishing, and cultural networks that guided its production, circulation, and reception. Extending its analysis beyond Kingsley's experiences of exploration, this edition investigates the forces behind the book’s creation, including Kingsley’s intellectual development, her identity as an independent female traveler and writer, and …

The Relationship Between Light Physical Activity And 10-Year Weight Change In 2,868 U.S. Adults: A National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey Investigation, Chloe Diane Cory

Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of obesity has steadily increased over the past several decades. About 13.4% of Americans aged 20-74 had obesity in 1960-1962 and the prevalence has steadily increased to 40.3% in 2021-2023--more than a 3-fold increase. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between time spent in light physical activity (LPA) and 10-year weight change in a random sample of 2868 women and men representative of the U.S. adult population. METHODS: Data were used from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from the 2003-2006 data cycles. Participants were limited to non-pregnant U.S. …

The Witch, The Fairy, And The Woman: Femininity, Morality, And The Supernatural In Hungarian Fairy Tales, Emese Izso

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the ways female supernatural beings are portrayed in Hungarian fairy tales, with a special focus on how their femininity, morality, and power manifest in their depiction. A close reading of fifty-two Hungarian fairy tales with prevalent female supernatural characters reveals that the spaces they occupy, the forms they take, and the gender roles they fulfill both influence each other and the portrayal of women in these stories. Depending on the space they reside in (whether that is the human domestic sphere, a magical kingdom ruled by a specific species, or a liminal zone of magical wilderness), women …