Digital Commons Network^™

An Alternative Representation For Temporal Json, Bishal Sarkar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a common format for representing and exchanging data on the web. Most systems only keep the current version of a JSON document, even though, in many situations, it is also important to know how that document changed over time. For example, an application might need to answer questions such as “What did this record look like last week?” or “How has this list grown over the past year?” A simple way to keep this history is to store a full copy of the document every time it changes, but this quickly becomes wasteful, most of …

Scalable Roof Polygon Extraction And Geometric Characterization From Remotely-Sensed Data For Snow Load Assessment, Jashon Newlun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Heavy snow accumulation on rooftops is a serious structural risk in cold climates, and understanding how much snow builds up on different types of roofs is essential for safe building design. Currently, most data on roof snow loads comes from small, labor-intensive field surveys that cover only a handful of buildings at a time. This results in far too few measurements of buildings to draw confident conclusions about how snow behaves across communities. This thesis develops and demonstrates a new automated approach for measuring roof snow accumulation and extracting key building characteristics across thousands of buildings at once using airborne …

Gradient Based Optimization Methods For Robust Learning And Biomedical Signal Modeling, Jarrod Mau

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This dissertation explores how modern artificial intelligence techniques can be used to better understand complex biological data. Specifically, it develops new machine learning based methods and applies them to two important biomedical problems: analyzing brain signals and studying protein behavior.

The first part of the work introduces a new machine learning approach designed to improve how computers classify structured data. Traditional neural networks are powerful but can sometimes generalize poorly. This research proposes a method that combines the flexibility of neural networks with the reliability of ensemble techniques, leading to more robust and accurate predictions across different types of datasets. …

Faculty Senate Agenda April 27, 2026, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• 3:00 Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes - March 30, 2026
• 3:05 University Business
• 3:20 Faculty Senate Business
• 3:35 Report
• Strategic Enrollment Management Annual Report
• Student Success Annual Report
• Committee on Committees Annual Report
• Calendar Committee Annual Report
• 4:00 Information
• EPC Report - April 2, 2026
• 4:15 Additional Business
• Faculty Senate President-Elect
• Format & Responsibilities
• Passing the Gavel
• Adjourn: 4:30 pm

Reflective Refinement Through Iterative Model Building, Idris Solola, Hillary Swanson, Sarah Schwartz, Rida Munir, Jared B. Arnell, Ravi Sinha

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Student Research

While research has emphasized the role of classroom discourse, hands-on demonstrations, and carefully crafted prompts in eliciting and responding to students’ ideas, there’s a need to investigate how the systematic design of modeling instruction can serve as the structure that naturally supports responsive teaching. Drawing on the knowledge in pieces (KiP) epistemology and the concept of responsive teaching, we present an instructional approach called guided reflective refinement (GRR), which guides students to articulate and examine their thinking through building and evaluating models. We analyzed middle school students’ model drafts over a 7-day unit on conservation of energy to understand the …

Energetic Characterization Of 3-D Printed Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Fuels For Hybrid Rocket Propulsion Applications, Stephen A. Whitmore, Ryan J. Thibaudeau, Ava T. Wilkey

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Hybrid rocket technologies are gaining recognition as eco-friendly alternatives to traditional propulsion systems. Utah State University’s Propulsion Research Laboratory has developed a High-Performance Green Hybrid Propulsion (HPGHP) technology, leveraging 3D-printed ABS fuel for reliable, low-energy ignition. Among tested materials, only ABS shows suitable electrical-breakdown properties for arc ignition. Unfortunately, due to the proprietary formulations in commercial ABS blends, and its limited use as a rocket-propellant, related composition and combustion data are limited. This study uses spectroscopic evaluation and bomb calorimetry to estimate material compositions, enthalpies of formation, and combustion energies for multiple commercially available 3-D print feed stock ABS types, …

Evaluating The Impact Of Residential Landscape Audits Using 5-Second Water Use Data, Mahmud Aveek, Camilo J. Bastidas Pacheco, David E. Rosenberg, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Kelly Kopp, Belize A. Lane

Civil and Environmental Engineering Student Research

We used 5-s water use data to evaluate the effectiveness of residential landscape water audits in summer 2022. Fifty-nine households in two northern Utah cities were monitored for 2–5 weeks before and 3–10 weeks after an audit. We found that the distribution of weekly irrigation volumes postaudit was statistically less than the distribution preaudit (significant at the 1.9E10-5 level). Collectively, the participants reduced their landscape irrigation water use by approximately 379,000 L per week (100,300 gal per week; 0.3 acre-feet per week). We also analyzed changes in irrigation event volume, duration, frequency, and the number of days between events at …

Fairhiveframes-1k: A Public Fair Dataset Of 1265 Annotated Hive Frame Images With Preliminary Yolov8 And Yolov11 Baselines, Vladimir Kulyukin, Reagan Hill, Aleksey Kulyukin

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

In precision apiculture, the portable digital camera is a cost-effective sensor for capturing hive images or videos used to quantify different colony variables. Openly accessible, well-annotated, interoperable cell-level image datasets are still the exception rather than the norm. This shortage constitutes a major barrier to AI-driven approaches aimed at automating image-based comb analysis. In this article, we present FAIRHiveFrames-1K, a publicly available dataset of 1265 annotated hive frame images (1920 × 1080 PNG) designed to facilitate research in AI-intensive image-based comb analysis automation. The dataset, derived from a 2013–2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service multi-sensor research reservoir, includes 124,669 …

Hypersonic Impact Method For Aerodynamics And Convective Heating (Hi-Mach) With Sensitivities, Jeremiah Goates, Logan Freeman, Nathan Hoch, Douglas Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this paper is to present the development of an engineering level code for calculating hypersonic aerodynamics and convective heating, HI-Mach. Novel to this paper are the use of analytic methods for streamline tracing and the direct differentiation of geometric sensitivities for both forces and heat load. Independent panel inclination methods calculate the pressure distribution on the surface of a hypersonic vehicle. Normal shock relations provide the thermodynamic state on each panel. Streamlines are integrated using closed-form streamline equations. Flat plate formulas corrected for compressibility calculate the skin friction coefficient and acreage heat flux on each panel. Formulas …

Building On Common Ground: Autistic Adults' And Parents Of Young Autistic Children's Perspectives Of Early Behavioral Intervention Practices, Sophia R. D'Agostino, Naima Bhana-Lopez, Trenton J. Landon, Alyssa Roylance, Avery Briggs

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of autistic adults and parents of autistic children regarding applied behavior analysis (ABA)-based early intervention, their beliefs about best practices in early intervention, and their recommendations for improving service delivery. A mixed-methods design was used to compare quantitative survey data from 70 participants (33 autistic adults, 37 parents) with qualitative interview responses (12 autistic adults, 12 parents), exploring perceptions of ABA and early intervention implementation. Quantitative analyses revealed significant group differences in perceptions of ABA’s benefits and side effects: parents rated ABA-based interventions more positively overall, whereas autistic adults expressed …

Gomphrena Cut Flower Production In Utah, Kellie Webb, Melanie Stock, Cheyenne Reid, Victoria Xiong, Benjamin Scow, Amanda Pratt, Claudia Nischwitz, Nick Volesky

All Current Publications

Gomphrena, also known as globe amaranth, is a full-sun annual with clover-like, papery blooms. Plants thrive in the heat and prefer drier soils once established, making this crop a water-wise choice for Utah cut flower production. Blooms range from soft to fluorescent pink, white, orange, lilac, and red. Gomphrena is especially useful in detailed design work, such as boutonnieres and corsages, as the blooms do well out of water. Gomphrena is also an exceptional flower for drying. The versatility of selling gomphrena as both a fresh and dried cut flower increases its value for Utah growers. Grown primarily for field …

Detection Of Lupine Alkaloids In Earwax Of Sheep, Clinton A. Stonecipher, Stephen T. Lee, Benedict T. Green, Daniel Cook

Poisonous Plant Research (PPR)

Lupines (Lupinus spp.) are a common plant species located on western U.S. rangelands. Most livestock death losses due to lupine toxicosis occur in sheep. Cattle are often affected due to the teratogenic nature of lupines in which crooked calf syndrome can occur. Earwax has been used to detect lupine alkaloids in cattle, but it is unknown if the alkaloids in lupine can be detected in the earwax of sheep. The objective of this study was to evaluate earwax as a noninvasive specimen to determine sheep exposure to lupine. Fifteen sheep (45 ± 3.8 kg body weight) were group housed …

Small Grain Forage Production Guide, Matt Yost, Megan Baker, Earl Creech, Justin Wyatt Clawson, Michael Pace, Kalen Taylor, Cory Farnsworth, Jacob Hadfield, Corey Ransom, Steven Price, Claudia Nischwitz, Clara Anderson

All Current Publications

Small grain forages can be used for pasture, hay, and silage and have become more common in cropping systems in Utah and the western United States. The most common small grain species used for forage production are barley, oat, rye, triticale, and wheat. Although there has been an increase in the use of small grains for forage production in the western U.S., little published information is available on best management practices for small grain forage production. This guide will discuss the key production practices for small grains used for forage.

25 Rules Of Thumb For Field Crops, Matt Yost, Niel Allen, Grant Cardon, Earl Creech, Ryan Larsen, Rhonda Miller, Mark Nelson, Claudia Nischwitz, Matthew Palmer, Steven Price, Ricardo Ramirez, Corey Ransom, Benjamin Scow, Randall Violett

All Current Publications

This article is not a comprehensive list of the practices farmers need to be successful in their operations, but it represents an attempt to capture 25 common tips or “rules” from a wide range of Extension experts throughout Utah, from seedbed preparation, to harvesting guidelines.

Sorghum-Sudangrass Production Guide, Dakota Boren, Matt Yost, Luree Johnson, Tina Sullivan, Earl Creech, Grant Cardon, Corey Ransom, Randall Violett, Cheyenne Reid, Cody Zesiger, Kalen Taylor, Jacob Hadfield, Michael Pace, Jody Gale

All Current Publications

Sudex is a warm-season forage crop that performs well in Utah’s dry climate due to its drought tolerance. It can be especially useful during drought years or when irrigation supplies are limited. As well as being a high-quality feed, Sudex has many benefits, including weed suppression and soil-building properties. Although there are concerns for prussic acid and nitrate poisoning, these concerns can be reduced and often eliminated with proper management. This fact sheet provides information to producers about using Sudex and best production practices. Much of the information may also apply to forage sorghum and a few of the major …

Predicting Soil Organic Carbon In Lower Depths From Surface Soil Features Using Machine Learning Methods, Lawrence Aula, Milena Maria Tomaz De Oliveira, Amanda C. Easterly, Cody F. Creech

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Topsoil features within a depth of 0–10 cm are vital for making soil management decisions that affect crop production. However, the use of these soil features to predict soil organic carbon (SOC) at 10–20 cm requires further investigation. The study aims to predict SOC at 10–20 cm using total nitrogen (total N), pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and SOC at 0–10 cm and select a suitable model for predicting SOC. This study was conducted using data from a long-term tillage, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow experiment established in autumn 1970. Treatments included moldboard plow, stubble mulch, no-till, and native …

Rethinking Behavior - Spring 2026, Midwest Symposium For Leadership In Behavior Disorders

ReThinking Behavior Magazine

A magazine for professionals serving children and youth with behavioral needs.

Spring 2026, Volume 9, Issue 3

Faculty Senate Minutes March 30, 2026, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes - March 2, 2026
• University Business
• Faculty Senate Business
• Reports
• Budget and Faculty Welfare
• Faculty Development and Educational Leadership
• Sustainability Council
• Information
• EPC Report - March 5, 2026
• Employee Benefits
• Task Force Report
• Additional Business
• President Elect Nominations
• Faculty Senate Spotlight
• 2026-2027 Faculty Senate Calendar
• Adjourn - 4:39

Utah Altitude Adjustments For Home Canning, Margie Memmott, Ariel Petersen, Callahan Adams, Andrea Schmutz

All Current Publications

Knowing your altitude is critical for canning. Safe home food preservation depends on adjusting processing times and pressures for altitude. This fact sheet provides a county-by-county and town-by-town listing of elevations across Utah, paired with the boiling-water and pressure canner adjustments recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Center for Home Food Preservation. By referencing this resource, Extension educators, food preservation instructors, and home canners can quickly identify the correct processing adjustment for their location.

Meteorological Monitoring With Real-Time Data Processing Using Uas, Htoo Poe Sar, Cal Coopmans, Sierra Young

Spring Runoff Conference

Background and Motivation 

• Agricultural water management requires information about crop water use and water consumption 
• Remote sensing methods are used to model and estimate environmental processes – but they require weather data 

Recombinant Hagfish Intermediate Filament Proteins Enable Neural Culture Substrates That Promote Neurite Extension And Reduce Oxidative Stress, Justin Jones, Kristin Durrant

Browse all Datasets

This dataset supports the production, characterization, and biological validation of a novel recombinant hagfish intermediate filament (rHIF) protein functionalized with spider silk motifs (rHIF-alpha-GRGGL). The data demonstrates a scalable bioprocess resulting in a 7.76 g/L yield, high structural alpha-helicity (77.2%), and significant support for N2a cells.

The Do-It-Yourself Guide To Backyard Drip Irrigation, Jaydee Gunnell, Taun Beddes, Burdette Barker

All Current Publications

This guide promotes efficient backyard drip irrigation as a vital strategy for water conservation in Utah, the third-driest state in the U.S. It explains evapotranspiration (ET), drip system components, and provides formulas to calculate a plant’s water needs. The guide provides practical advice on converting traditional irrigation systems to drip systems, particularly in flower beds and around shrubs and trees. By implementing drip irrigation, homeowners can contribute to water conservation while enhancing the health of their landscapes.

Alternative Tree Species For Utah Syrup Production, Abigail Porter, Steven Price, Youping Sun, Darren Mcavoy

All Current Publications

When thinking about producing syrup from trees, most people's minds go straight to maple trees. However, a variety of other species in the Intermountain West can be tapped for sap, including other maple species, birch, sycamore, aspen, and walnut. This fact sheet reviews alternative tree species for syrup production in Utah.

Power Approximations With Non-Normal Data In Generalized Linear Mixed Models In R Using Steep Priors On Variance Components, Carlie Prinster, John Stevens

Mathematics and Statistics Student Research and Class Projects

ENAR Spring 2026 Conference presentation on Power Approximations with Non-Normal Data in Generalized Linear Mixed Models in R Using Steep Priors on Variance Components

Comparative Assessment Of Uav-Based Tseb And Field-Calibrated Aquacrop For Evapotranspiration On The Arid Coast Of Peru, Roxana Peña-Amaro, José Huanuqueño-Murillo, Lia Ramos-Fernández, Abel Ramos-Ayala, David Quispe-Tito, Lena Cruz-Villacorta, Elizabeth Heros-Aguilar, Edwin Pino-Vargas, Alfonso Torres-Rua

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Precise estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for sustainable water management in arid agroecosystems, particularly for high-water-demand crops such as rice. This study integrated very-high-resolution UAV thermal–multispectral imagery with a Two-Source Energy Balance model (UAV–TSEB) and a field-calibrated AquaCrop model to quantify daily ET and its components under continuous flooding on the arid Peruvian coast during the 2024–2025 season. A network of 24 drainage lysimeters provided an independent observational benchmark (ET_lys); to represent the treatment-level response, lysimeter observations were aggregated as the mean across the 24 units for each UAV campaign. Thirteen UAV surveys supplied radiometric surface temperature …

Predicting Tart Cherry Stem Water Potential Using Uav Multispectral Imagery And Environmental Data Via Symbolic Regression, Anderson L. S. Safre, Alfonso Torres-Rua, Kurt Wedegaertner, Brent Black, Brennan Bean, Burdette Barker, Matt Yost

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Tart cherry is an important fruit crop in Utah, where irrigation is essential due to arid conditions. Precision irrigation requires reliable indicators of plant water status, and stem water potential (Ψ_stem), is among the most sensitive though labor-intensive and spatially limited. This study develops Ψ_stem estimation models using high-resolution multispectral Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imagery combined with meteorological and soil moisture data, applying Symbolic Regression (SR). Results show a stronger correlation between optical bands and Ψ_stem during the pre-harvest period. Among 85 vegetation indices, the Red Chromatic Coordinate (RCC) index performed best (R² = 0.67). …

When The Student Surpasses The Teacher: Better Generalization In Ai-Based Seismic Waveform Quality Assessment Using Knowledge Distillation, Ali Namin, F. Jalaeifar, A. Kottke, M. Zaker Esteghamati

Civil and Environmental Engineering Student Research

This paper presents a knowledge distillation (KD)-based approach to reduce computational expenses and improve the generalizability of deep learning-based models for quality assessment of seismic waveforms. Using two different waveform datasets, teacher models are distilled into lightweight student models from two families of time-series-based and image-based models. Models from both student families are trained on a development dataset and evaluated on the testing portion of the development dataset, as well as on an entirely different external testing dataset. Results indicate that KD can provide student models with substantially reduced size (5%-10% of the teacher model's size) and latency while preserving, …

Comment On The Draft Environmental Impact Statement For New Operations For Lake Powell And Lake Mead Post-2026, Bryan Williams, Caitlyn Andrus, Brittany Fager, Matthew Fugal, Parker Hansen, Ashley Jones, Shaun Joseph, Ashley Mcallister, Braden Wilding, David Rosenberg

Civil and Environmental Engineering Student Research

We appreciate the Bureau of Reclamation’s extensive effort in preparing the Post-2026 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) for operational guidelines for Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and the Colorado River Basin. This commentary will address positives, questions, and concerns from the Draft EIS. We also share recommendations for consideration in the Final EIS.

On Signifiable Computability: Part Iii: A Note On Unnameable Functions On Natural Numbers, Vladimir A. Kulyukin

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

A writing system 𝔚 on an alphabet 𝒜 is a tuple (ℜ,𝔐), where ℜ is a finite set of text formation rules and 𝔐 is a finite rule application mechanism that generates texts on 𝒜. A natural writing system forms natural language texts on an alphabet such as Sanskrit on Devanagari. An artificial writing system generates formal language texts on an alphabet such as Lisp on Unicode. Let ℕ ={0,1,2,…} be the set of natural numbers. A function on natural numbers 𝑓 :ℕ^𝑘 ↦ ℕ, 0 < 𝑘 ∈ ℕ, is nameable by a writing system on an alphabet if, and only if, the system can generate a text on the alphabet that names f and no other function. We show that there exist functions on natural numbers unnameable in principle in that they cannot be named by any writing system on any alphabet. Our results imply the following computability-theoretic hierarchy of functions on natural numbers: computable ⊊ partially computable ⊊ nameable ⊊ 𝔉, where 𝔉 is the set of functions on ℕ.

Pest Management For Utah Cut Flower Production: Insects And Their Relatives, Nick Volesky, Marion Murray, Melanie Stock

All Current Publications

Pest management is important in cut flower production, marketability, and farm profitability. This fact sheet focuses on animal pests (insects, arthropods, mollusks, and vertebrates), not diseases or weeds, and has two parts. Part 1 applies Integrated Pest Management (IPM): using preventive techniques, pest thresholds, and best management practices with pests in cut flower crop production. Part 2 highlights the top 10 common pests of cut flowers in Utah and their management.