Digital Commons Network^™

Reusable Light-Activated Antimicrobial Materials Prepared With Food Ingredients, Andrew T. Gagon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Microbial contamination and proliferation in food processing, distribution and storage continues to be a real risk in spite the wide variety of food processing and preservation techniques available. Some of these techniques (such as heat treatments and the use of chemical preservatives) may require substantial amounts of energy and their effects in the general population and the environment may be harmful. This has generated an interest over alternative methods of food preservation. The use of reusable light-activated materials may represent an effective approach. In this study, a polypropylene plastic was modified with either zein, which is found in corn, or …

Cross-Boundary Stewardship For Wetland Integrity And Resilience In The Greater Rocky Mountain National Park Ecosystem, Meghan K. Tait

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Approximately half of the wetlands in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) are degraded due to human disturbances that often occur beyond park boundaries. Like most protected areas, RMNP is part of a larger ecosystem with critical connections to surrounding lands. Therefore, more effective stewardship of wetlands within RMNP is likely to be achieved through cross-boundary cooperative efforts. Through interviews with wetland stewardship agencies and organizations and an analysis of their wetland plans and policies, barriers and opportunities for cross-boundary stewardship were identified, as well as common structures used to facilitate work across boundaries. Wetlands outside of RMNP are experiencing similar …

The Effects Of Different Organic Pastures On Dairy Heifer Growth And Development, Jacob A. Hadfield

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Raising dairy heifers in a certified organic setting can be difficult for producers. Conventionally, heifers are raised in a confined setting, and fed a total mixed ration (TMR) that is balanced daily to contain all the needed nutrients for developing heifers. Organic producers can use a TMR in their operations, but due to high organic feed costs, many choose to raise their heifers in pasture-based systems. While pasture-based systems may lower costs, heifers on pasture commonly have lower rates of gain, which can be financially burdensome to producers. Grass-legume pastures may help improve rates of gain in heifers on pasture-based …

Making A Decision On Ethical Decision-Making Models, Melanie K. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Those in the helping professions, like psychology, counseling, and social work, have numerous ethical guidelines and codes to dictate ethical behavior. These codes, while extensive, do not encompass all situations. When professionals find themselves in an ambiguous situation, it is called an ethical dilemma. Many of the professional organizations that create ethical codes also recommend the use of ethical decision-making models. Ethical decision-making models provide steps, or instructions, on how to make an ethical decision when presented with an ethical dilemma.

Little research has been done on ethical decision-making models, so it cannot be concluded that these models actually help …

The Role Of Carbonate Minerals In Arsenic Mobility In A Shallow Aquifer Influenced By A Seasonally Fluctuating Groundwater Table, Jeremy Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arsenic (As) is a poison historically used to great effect before modern detection methods rendered it obsolete. However, the largest mass poisoning in human history occurred due to groundwater in the Bengal Basin contaminated by natural sources of As. Since that time, research has determined that As is found in groundwater worldwide. This includes aquifers located in basin-filled valleys of the western United States. One of these valleys is the Cache Valley Basin located in Northern Utah. This semi-arid region contains carbonate-rich soils and is heavily influenced by snowmelt and seasonal runoff. Previous studies have found that 15% of private …

Visual Saliency Estimation And Its Applications, Fei Xu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The human visual system can automatically emphasize some parts of the image and ignore the other parts when seeing an image or a scene. Visual Saliency Estimation (VSE) aims to imitate this functionality of the human visual system to estimate the degree of human attention attracted by different image regions and locate the salient object. The study of VSE will help us explore the way human visual systems extract objects from an image. It has wide applications, such as robot navigation, video surveillance, object tracking, self-driving, etc.

The current VSE approaches on natural images models generic visual stimuli based on …

An Economic Comparison Of Two Leading Aquaponic Technologies Using Cost Benefit Analysis: The Coupled And Decoupled Systems, Grace M. Gibbons

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aquaponics is an agricultural production practice which combines aquaculture, the raising of fish, and hydroponics, a soil-less crop production method, to create a system that symbiotically produces both. Compared to conventional open-field agriculture, this practice is highly resource efficient in terms of water and land usage, but has yet to be widely adopted due to a lack of research regarding its economic feasibility. This study compares the two most economically promising aquaponic system designs to determine which would be more profitable at the intermediate-commercial scale. The first of these is the coupled system which continuously circulates water in a closed …

Improving Our Ability To Estimate Vital Rates Of Endangered Fishes On The San Juan River Using Novel Applications Of Pit-Tag Technology, J. Benjamin Stout

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Estimating demographic parameters, such as survival and abundance, with accuracy and precision is vital for detecting trends in populations and assessing the effectiveness of management actions. In most cases, a lack of capture data make estimating parameters very challenging. The use of new technologies to increase the amount of remotely collected data is increasing, but brings new limitations and analytical issues to be resolved. One of those new technologies is the use of a mobile floating PIT-tag antenna to detect PIT-tagged fish. The issue that arises with this technology is determination of the status of detected tags (i.e., live fish …

Venturi Flowmeter Performance Installed Downstream Of The Branch Of A Tee Junction, Benjamin G. Sandberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the influence of a tee junction on flow rate measurement of a Venturi flowmeter installed downstream of the branch of a tee. Accuracy in flow measurement is important to organizations where miscalculated flow rates can add up to be millions of dollars in either lost revenue, overcharges to the client, or improper system operation. This research used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to determine ratios by which the manufacturer’s straight-line calibrated C_d (discharge coefficient) can be adjusted to improve the accuracy of the flow measurement when the Venturi is installed on the …

Temporal Bisection Dynamics, Mahdi Shafiei

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Temporal bisection is a behavioral task used to study how we perceive time. However, it is not fully clear how time perception should be interpreted in different variations of this task. Moreover, it is not understood why the results of this task are often different for human and animal subjects. Understanding parameters of this task and making a connection between human and animal experiments may help researchers to understand how time is perceived in the brain and consequently disorders involving time perception.

In this thesis, I propose a computational model that A) provides researchers with a framework to study the …

Validation Of A Brief Prosody Rating Scale For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sarai S. Holbrook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Differences in the speech prosody, or "melody" of speech, of persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have long been noted by researchers. Yet, despite many studies, researchers have not identified a universal description of speech prosody in ASD. It may be flat or monotonous, not different from typical, or overly variable. However, atypical speech prosody can immediately set someone apart from their peers. This distinction could negatively social, academic, and vocational interactions. For those persons with ASD whose speech prosody is different from typical and interferes with daily functioning, valid, reliable, and efficient assessments of speech prosody are needed. Currently, …

Fluted Films Caused By Gravity Driven Water Drainage From Vertical Tubes, Matthew B. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

When a stationary mass of water in a vertical tube is suddenly released, it creates a variety of artistic shapes and behaviors as it escapes the tube exit. As the descending water accelerates in the tube, friction along the tube wall slows the outer radius, resulting in a moving film entrained on the tube that trails the main body of water. When this film exits the tube, surface tension, gravity, and inertia interact to cause the film to create a wide variety of shapes, including jets, tubes, water bells, champagne glasses, and bubbles; rich forms that appear in other natural …

A Compilation Of Research Experiences, Samantha C. Gotcher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Multiple projects comprised this thesis requirement. The projects ranged in breadth and depth and included 1) literature reviews across a variety of deaf education topics, including spreadsheets summarizing each literature review, 2) development of over 100 article summaries for the Hear to Learn website, 3) authorship on a manuscript submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, and 4) a peer-reviewed poster presentation at a national conference. My experiences in engaging in these activities immersed me into a greater understanding of the research in the field, resources for services, position papers of various entities, and recommended practices in Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) …

Characterization Of Chinese Hamster Ovary Cell Performance With Pentanoic Acid And N-Acetyl Cysteine Treatment, Joseph Camire

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To improve the cost of producing protein therapeutics manufacturers can attempt to increase the amount of protein produced per unit volume. Some small fatty-acids have shown the ability to increase protein concentrations in some manufacturing systems. An example system is in the industrially important cell line derived from a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO). A drawback of adding these fatty-acids is they can increase the rate of cell death.

A potential way to minimize the cell death rate, caused by adding fatty-acids, is to also add additional anti-oxidants. Through a series of studies, we demonstrate production with different fatty-acids, butanoic acid …

A Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo Approach To Uncertainty Quantification, Matthew Isaac

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is a framework used frequently in engineering analyses to understand how uncertainty in system inputs lead to uncertainty in the system output. An instability is observed in a UQ method proposed by Roy and Oberkampf and a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach to UQ is offered as an alternative. The Bayesian approach allows analysts to incorporate information from various available sources including observed measurements and expert opinion and to update the analysis and results as more information becomes available. An illustrative engineering example is provided as a platform to demonstrate the Bayesian UQ approach and to …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Needs Of First-Year Small Grains Following Alfalfa, Collin Pound

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wheat, barley, triticale, and oats, are small grains commonly grown as hay and grain following alfalfa in Utah and the Intermountain West, especially during drought years as they require less irrigation than corn. Several studies in many parts of the world have shown that first-year corn following alfalfa rarely needs nitrogen (N) fertilizer, yet relatively few have evaluated the N needs of small grains, especially small grains grown for hay. Objectives of this research were to determine whether N fertilizer is needed to economically optimize the yield and quality of first-year small grains following alfalfa, develop N guidelines, and whether …

Facial Expression Recognition In The Wild Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Amir Hossein Farzaneh

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Facial Expression Recognition (FER) is the task of predicting a specific facial expression given a facial image. FER has demonstrated remarkable progress due to the advancement of deep learning. Generally, a FER system as a prediction model is built using two sub-modules: 1. Facial image representation model that learns a mapping from the input 2D facial image to a compact feature representation in the embedding space, and 2. A classifier module that maps the learned features to the label space comprising seven labels of neutral, happy, sad, surprise, anger, fear, or disgust. Ultimately, …

An Analysis Of Syntax Exercises On The Performance Of Cs1 Students, Shelsey B. Sullivan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Students in introductory programming classes (CS1) generally have a difficult time learning the rules of programming. Although the general concepts of programming are relatively easy to learn, it can be difficult to learn what exactly can be typed in what order, which is known as syntax. To attempt to help students overcome this barrier, a study was conducted that introduced exercises into a CS1 class which taught the programming syntax in simple steps. The results of this study were obtained by analyzing the keys the students pressed, the errors of their code, their midterm exam scores, and their responses to …

Espoused And Enacted Beliefs Of High School English Language Arts Teachers In Writing Instruction, Sydnie Schoepf

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the current study is to explore the espoused beliefs and enacted practices of secondary English Language Arts teachers with regards to writing instruction and how these beliefs correlate with teacher self-efficacy beliefs. The study worked to build upon the literature mainly in the fields of mathematics and science in order to explore what the perceived and enacted beliefs are and how they affect the self-efficacy belief of teachers within the field of writing instruction in the high school classroom. The study used a collective case study design in order to better understand what espoused and enacted pedagogical …

Transient Thermal Modeling Of Bioprocessing Equipment, Cody M. Cummings

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bioprocessing is leveraging cells to produce high value, lifesaving products. Precise environmental control is needed to maintain integrity of the bioprocessing production process. Temperature control requires both appropriate equipment choice and correct control parameter selection. To aid in the equipment selection process, enable better understanding of equipment capacity, and enable optimization of control parameters, a transient thermal model of both heat transfer characteristics and control systems was created in silico.

Social Change Engagement And Leadership Development Among College Students, Andrew Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Young people are increasingly in the public view as agents of social change. As suggested in the Social Change Model of Leadership Development, those who develop the seven values of socially responsible leadership (consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, common purpose, collaboration, controversy with civility, and citizenship) are prepared to engage in the leadership process by creating positive social change. Findings from this study suggest that the socially responsible leadership value of citizenship was the value most consistently related to social change engagement. Additionally, social generativity, or the desire to leave a legacy for future generations, as well as participating in …

Teaching Appropriate Feedback Reception Skills Using Computer-Based Training, Seth G. Walker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Feedback is a commonly used intervention to address performance issues in a number of settings. Most research on feedback has focused on manipulating parameters surrounding the delivery of feedback. However, the interaction between those delivering the feedback and a feedback recipient may also influence the impact of performance feedback. The current study investigated the efficacy of training individuals to receive feedback in an appropriate manner using a computer-based training format. Following computer-based training, participants exhibited increases in accuracy of appropriate feedback behaviors when compared to baseline. Participants also demonstrated slight increases in performance on primary job tasks. This study extends …

Universal Localizations Of Certain Noncommutative Rings, Tyler B. Bowles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A common theme throughout algebra is the extension of arithmetic systems to ones over which new equations can be solved. For instance, someone who knows only positive numbers might think that there is no solution to x + 3 = 0, yet later learns x = -3 to be a feasible solution. Likewise, when faced with the equation 2x = 3, someone familiar only with integers may declare that there is no solution, but may later learn that x = 3/2 is a reasonable answer. Many eventually learn that the extension of real numbers to complex numbers unlocks solutions …

Harvest Efficiency Of Forage Grazed By Cattle And The Effect Of Pinyon And Juniper Treatments On Vegetation Cover On The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Ruger P. Carter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM), located in central south Utah, currently has 76,957 active grazing animal unit months on the monument. Recently, there has been questions whether the harvest and grazing efficiency coefficients developed in the Midwest are applicable to the arid, bunch grass dominated systems of the GSENM. Harvest and grazing efficiency defines the percentage of allocated forage that is being ingested by the animal, and the percentage that is being wasted. Harvest and grazing efficiency coefficients were calculated on the Lower Cattle allotment on the GSENM by taking total forage production and dividing that by expected …

Development And Identification Of Metrics To Predict The Impact Of Dimension Reduction Techniques On Classical Machine Learning Algorithms For Still Highway Images, Wasim Akram Khan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We are witnessing an influx of data - images, texts, video, etc. Their high dimensionality and large volume make it challenging to apply machine learning to obtain actionable insight. This thesis explores several aspects pertaining to dimensional reduction: dimension reduction methods, metrics to measure distortion, image preprocessing, etc. Faster training and inference time on reduced data and smaller models which can be deployed on commodity hardware are a critical advantage of dimension reduction. For this study, classical machine learning methods were explored owing to their solid mathematical foundation and interpretability.

The dataset used is a time series of images from …

Geomorphic History Of The Grand Staircase Region Of The Colorado Plateau: Understanding Arroyo Cut-Fill Dynamics, Erosion Rates, And Wildfire, Kerry E. Riley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Most streams in the southwestern United States do not flow all year, and given their delicate balance of sediment and water flow, they are sensitive to climate change. At the turn of the 20th century, many streams in the Southwest rapidly incised into their floodplains, forming arroyos with a channel entrenched into near-vertical channel banks mostly composed of sand and mud. This dissertation investigates past changes in watersheds draining the Grand Staircase region in southern Utah with the goal of understanding how changes in climate and sediment influence these types of streams. Results show sediment supply is highly variable across …

Design Of A Sweeping Impedance Probe For The Sport Mission, Caleb W. Young

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In our modern world satellite systems are an evermore common part of day to day life. Reliable communication from the ground to these satellites is becoming more and more necessary. Plasma scintillations in the ionosphere can make these communications difficult or even impossible. By gaining a better understanding of these scintillations, times of bad satellite connection can be predicted in the same way terrestrial weather gets predicted and reported today. The objective of the SPORT mission is to gain a better understanding of these plasma scintillations. In order to measure plasma density, and gain a better understanding of plasma scintillations, …

Orson Pratt And The Expansion Of The Doctrine And Covenants, Brian C. Passantino

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a faith that is distinguished by its religious texts. The nickname "Mormon," that has been applied to adherents of the faith, comes from the name of its most cherished canonical book, the Book of Mormon. Aside from the Bible and the Book of Mormon, Latter-day Saints accept two other books of scriptures – the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants. These four books constitute the authorized scriptures of the faith, or as they refer to them, "the standard works."

My thesis focuses on the book entitled the Doctrine …

Study Of Levee Underseepage Through Abandoned Channels And Point Bars On Curved Levee Sections Using The Response Surface-Monte Carlo Method, Tomsen Reed

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The current procedures for calculated the probability of failure of levees (earthen structures designed to prevent flooding of important locations) all have their own unique limitations. Some methods are very simplistic, and either ignore or do not allow for inclusion of complex geometries. Other methods allow for complex geometry, but do not lend themselves to large quantities of analysis because of the amount of time it takes to create or modify a model. For these reasons, previous research performed by Lourdes Polanco and Dr. John Rice developed the preliminary stages of a new method called the Response Surface-Monte Carlo method. …

Anthropogenic Influences On Bacterial Assemblages In Stream Biofilms, Elizabeth M. Ogata

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bacteria within biofilms are an essential component of stream ecosystems, influencing the movement of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in watersheds. To better understand the ecological effects of human activities on stream ecosystems, my research examined how nutrients and pharmaceuticals, common pollutants in streams worldwide, influence bacterial assemblages in stream biofilms. First, I tested how nutrients (N, P, iron) and pharmaceuticals (caffeine, diphenhydramine) influenced biofilm bacterial microbiomes (taxa present in at least 75% of samples of a contaminant treatment). Nutrients allowed taxa known for their ability to thrive in nutrient-rich environments to dominate microbiomes, pharmaceuticals supported a rich …