Digital Commons Network^™

On-Orbit Polymer Degradation Results From Makersat-1: First Satellite Designed To Be Additively Manufactured In Space, Ben Campbell, Connor Nogales, Braden Grim, Mitch Kamstra, Joshua Griffin, Stephen Parke

Small Satellite Conference

MakerSat-1, a 1U cubesat, is a proof-of-concept mission from Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) and Made In Space (MIS). It demonstrates microgravity additive manufacturing of a cubesat aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It is the first satellite specifically designed to be 3D printed and easily snap-assembled in microgravity. Its structural frame was 3D printed on the ISS AMF printer in August 2017. In late 2019, MakerSat-1 was loaded in a SEOPS Hypergiant Slingshot deployer and then launched to the ISS aboard SpaceX CRS-19 Dragon on Dec. 5, 2019. On Jan. 31, 2020, this deployer was mounted on the hatchdoor of …

Smallsat Platform Development For Coast Guard Academy Collaborative Space-Based Research, Royce W. James, Richard W. Freeman, Lorraine A. Allen, Erik Tejero, Brian Kay, Jin S. Kang

Small Satellite Conference

Collaborations utilizing small spacecraft in near earth orbit between the U. S. Coast Guard Academy (CGA), Naval Research Lab (NRL), the U. S. Naval Academy (USNA), and the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) have initiated scientific and engineering space-based experiments. Sourced opportunities like the VaSpace ThinSat missions have provided a platform for payload, sensor, and experiment development that would have otherwise been resource prohibitive. We have constructed an impedance probe payload for launch in Fall 2020 derived from the existing ‘Space PlasmA Diagnostic suitE’ (SPADE) mission operating from NASA’s International Space Station. Currently both space and laboratory plasmas are …

Advanced Electrical Bus (Albus) Cubesat: From Build To Flight, Deboshri Sadhukhan, Allen T. Guzik, Othmane Benafan, Issam Boukabou, Brian J. Tomko, Mark R. Sorrells, William A. Fabanich

Small Satellite Conference

Advanced eLectrical Bus (ALBus) CubeSat is a technology demonstration mission of a 3-U CubeSat with an advanced digitally controlled electrical power system and novel use of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) technology for reliable deployable solar array mechanisms. The primary objective was to advance the power management and distribution (PMAD) capabilities to enable future missions requiring more flexible and reliable power systems with higher output power capabilities. Goals included demonstration of 100W distribution to a target electrical load, response to continuous and fast transient power requirements, and exhibition of reliable deployment of solar arrays and antennas utilizing re-settable SMA mechanisms. The …

Eyesat: A Great Student Adventure Within The French Space Agency Leading Up To Lessons Learned From Orbit, Fabien Apper, Antoine Ressouche, Nicholas Humeau, Matthieu Vuillemin, Guillaume Crooks, Gregor Vindry, Frédérick Viaud, Nicolas Verdier, Stéphane Fredon, Alain Gaboriaud

Small Satellite Conference

EyeSat has been a tremendous, challenging and successful student project. With 250 students over 7 years, CNES has achieved to put in orbit a 3U CubeSat that carries tens of state-of-the art innovative nanosatellite subsystems resulting from R&D programs carried out within the French space ecosystem. Launched in December 18, 2019, EyeSat has proved to be fully functional in orbit and has started its mission to map the intensity and the polarization direction of the zodiacal light. Housekeeping data, acquired over the past 5 months, has been analyzed by the team. Precious comparisons have been made between design and simulation …

Experimental Evaluation Of On-Board Contact-Graph Routing Solutions For Future Nano-Satellite Constellations, Blas F. Vega, Juan A. Fraire

Small Satellite Conference

Hardware processing performance and storage capability for nanosatellites have increased notably in recent years. Unfortunately, this progress is not observed at the same pace in transmission data rate, mostly limited by available power in reduced and constrained platforms. Thus, space-to-ground data transfer becomes the operations bottleneck of most modern space applications. As channel rates are approaching the Shannon limit, alternative solutions to manage the data transmission are on the spot. Among these, networked nano-satellite constellations can cooperatively offload data to neighboring nodes via frequent inter-satellite links (ISL) opportunities in order to augment the overall volume and reduce the end-to-end data …

Design Of A Green Monopropellant Propulsion System For The Lunar Flashlight Cubesat Mission, Dawn Andrews, Grayson Huggins, E. Glenn Lightsey, Nathan Cheek, Nathan Daniel Lee, Ali Talaksi, Sterling Peet, Lacey Littleton, Sahaj Patel, Daniel Cavender, Hunter Williams, Don Mcqueen, John Baker, Matt Kowalkowski

Small Satellite Conference

Lunar Flashlight is a 6U CubeSat mission from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that will search for water-ice deposits near the lunar south pole. Lunar Flashlight aims to add to the flight experience of deep-space CubeSats by demonstrating an orbit insertion using a green monopropellant propulsion system designed uniquely for this mission. Developed by NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC) and Georgia Tech's Space Systems Design Laboratory (SSDL), the Lunar Flashlight Propulsion System (LFPS) delivers over 2500N-s of total impulse for the orbit insertion and necessary attitude maneuvers. The custom propulsion system fits within a 2.5U volume and has a total wet …

Initial Development And Verification Of A Precise Orbit Determination Filter For The Apex Cubesat Mission, Kyle J. Craft, Grant R. Hecht

Small Satellite Conference

Current research for the Advanced Propulsion Experiment (APEX) at Missouri University of Science and Technology is focused on precise orbit and parameter determination to verify the performance of the Multi-Mode Ionic Monopropellant thruster payload. A batch filter to process dual-frequency GPS pseudoranges using the International GNSS Service precise position, clock, and phase center data products was developed. The filter estimates the dynamic states of the vehicle in conjunction with the coefficients of drag and solar radiation pressure, a constant average thrust magnitude, and the time biases of the GNSS receiver clock at each measurement epoch. Furthermore, it considers uncertainty in …

Ultra-Low Swap Relative Navigation, Morgan Redfield, Chris Owens, Andrew Horchler

Small Satellite Conference

UltraNavis a low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) compute-enabled camera system capable of implementing industry standard computer-vision algorithms such as object recognition and tracking, state-estimation, and relative navigation. This system simplifies advanced missions that require capabilities such as Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN), visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), 3D reconstruction, or fiducial targeting. Algorithms such as these have been limited to large spacecraft on high budget missions due to processing requirements and the resulting increase in SWaP-C. The sensor’s flexibility allows it to be used for low level image capture, image processing, or as a host for a full …

A Brief Online Acceptance And Commitment Training For Enhancing Outcomes Of A Cultural Competence Intervention, Elizabeth Tish Hicks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In an increasingly diverse and multicultural society, there is a pressing and practical need for interventions to help professionals improve their cultural competence. Cultural competence trainings that target psychological flexibility in addition to knowledge, awareness, and skills may produce more efficacious results. The current study will examined the utility of targeting psychological flexibility (the ability to maintain contact the present moment and current internal experiences and to choose contextually appropriate, values-consistent behaviors, regardless of what one’s internal experiences are) as a process to enhance the impact of a cultural competence intervention with an Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT)-enhanced cultural competence …

Psychosocial Effects Of Shared Book Reading, Amy Halling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many studies have examined the academic benefits of parents reading with their children, but few studies have looked at the psychological and social benefits, and even fewer have related the quality of shared book reading to psycho-social benefits. This study looked at whether positive and negative reading interactions during shared book reading predicted parent-child relationships, child social skills and child academic skills. Twenty-five parents of 4-year-olds read a story with their child and completed parent relationship and child social skills questionnaires. The reading interactions were then coded into two separate composite scores: positive and negative. Positive interactions did not significantly …

Novel Three-Dimensional Scaffold For Skeletal Muscle Tissue, Matthew H. Clegg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cells are traditionally grown on a flat, plastic surface that has been optimized for cell attachment. While this is appropriate for growing and maintaining cells, this two-dimensional cell culture model is not an adequate representation of a three-dimensional body. Creating three-dimensional lab models is an important step to model diseases and damage to the skeletal muscle system.

To create this three-dimensional environment, a plastic frame was designed to support silkworm fibers. Skeletal muscle cells were then grown along the silkworm fibers and the growth of these cells in a three-dimensional environment was compared to cells grown on a flat, two-dimensional …

Evaluating The Hydraulic Performance Of Digital Photogrammetry-Derived 3-Dimensional Models Of A Hydraulic Structure Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Tyler J. Ashby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research investigated the combination of aerial imagery, photogrammetry, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Two 3D models of an 8-ft ramp flume were developed from aerial imagery using a commercial photogrammetry software. The GCP model was developed using ground control points (GCP) to improve and measure the model's accuracy. The Non-GCP model used GCPs as check points, which only measure the model's accuracy. The horizontal and vertical errors were, respectively, 0.39 in. and 0.73 in. for the GCP model, and 5.37 in. and 2.80 in. for the Non-GCP model.

In addition to the GCP and Non-GCP models, two hybrid 3D …

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 …

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, …

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 …

College Prescription Opioid Misuse: An Exploration Of Social Learning, Social Control, And Strain Theories, Julie Murray

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Prescription opioids, when used as medically intended, can be effective in pain management. However, the consequences and costs of widespread misuse of prescription opioids in the United States are cause for concern. Prescription opioids are related to increased risk of death and injury. Young adults, between the ages of 18 and 25, have the highest rates of misuse nationally and within this age group, college students may be particularly at risk. In order to effectively curb the growing misuse of prescription opioids within college populations, we must have a better understanding of the factors that potentially lead to misuse.

This …

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 …