Digital Commons Network^™

Using Real-World Data As A Basis For Problem-Based Learning: Investigating Preservation Biases Of Fish In Fossil Butte National Monument, Blair Larsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project examined the design and development of an online problem-based learning module to teach earth-system science to K-12 educators. The module revolved around identifying earth sphere (lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere) interactions needed to produce mass fish mortality layers found in the Green River Formation at Fossil Butte National Monument. Students investigated the unique earth sphere combinations needed to produce mass fish mortality layers, reflected on the formation of such deposits, and examined the impact of these earth spheres on the earth system. As a supplement to the course, the students also analyzed data on fossils collected from a …

Modeling Potential Native Plant Species Distributions In Rich County, Utah, Kathryn A. Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Georeferenced field data were used to develop logistic regression models of the geographic distribution of 38 frequently common plant species throughout Rich County, Utah, to assist in the future correlation of Natural Resources Conservation Service Ecological Site Descriptions to soil map units. Field data were collected primarily during the summer of 2007, and augmented with previously existing data collected in 2001 and 2006. Several abiotic parameters and Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery were used to stratify the study area into sampling units prior to the 2007 field season.

Models were initially evaluated using an independent dataset extracted from data collected by …

Disordered: A Tale Of The Body, Elizabeth M. Benson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

While a body of creative nonfiction writing exists regarding experiences with various psychological disorders, few personal accounts have been written about the physical complications of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Some memoirs tell a tale of serious illness in a straightforward narrative line. On the opposite end of this spectrum, other memoirs intentionally blur the lines of truth and heighten the confusion of a disorder. This thesis is as much a narrative of my experience with Generalized Anxiety Disorder as it is a response to the void in creative nonfiction surrounding this specific disorder and the narrative forms others have chosen to …

The Effects Of A Short-Term Teacher Abroad Program On Teachers' Perceptions Of Themselves And Their Responsibilities As Global Educators, Raquel Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In October 2007, two hundred American educators traveled to Japan for three weeks as guests of the Japanese government under the Japanese Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Abroad program. The purpose of the trip was to increase understanding between the people of Japan and the United States; to enrich American and Japanese curricula with international perspectives; to encourage appreciation for the people, culture, and educational system of Japan; and to expand professional development opportunities for educators.

Broadly speaking, these are the goals of global education. The question this qualitative case study examined is whether teachers who participate in isolated, short-term …

A River Transformed: Historic Geomorphic Changes Of The Lower Rio Grande In The Big Bend Region Of Texas, Chihuahua, And Coahuila, David James Dean

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over the last century, the construction and management of large dams and stream-flow diversions, and periodic drought have resulted in significant declines in stream flow of the lower Rio Grande in the Big Bend region. Reductions in mean annual flow and peak discharge have resulted in channel narrowing by the formation of vertically accreting inset floodplains. Narrowing has been temporarily interrupted by infrequent large dam releases greater than 1000 m³/s that have temporarily widened the channel; however, after each of these events, narrowing has resumed. Prior to 1942, floods of this magnitude occurred approximately once every 4 years …

Seasonal Outlook: An Examination Of How The Foundations Of Attachment To Community Differ Between Seasonal And Year-Round Residents In High Amenity Areas, Brain M. Jennings

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah is a popular second-home destination due to its unique landscapes that offer numerous natural amenities. Therefore, this research utilizes a mail survey of residents in six Utah counties to examine if seasonal residents become attached to their local communities in the same way as year-round residents. The objective of this research was two-fold: 1) to determine if the commonly cited dimensions of community attachment are an accurate representation of the concept itself; and 2) to determine if the foundations of community attachment, based on those conceptual dimensions, are different for year-round and seasonal homeowners.

Prior research has shown that …

From Sagebrush To Subdivisions: Visualizing Tourist Development In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1967-2002, Clinton R. Pumphrey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Historians have long recognized the tendency of communities to embrace tourism when extractive practices like agriculture, mining, and ranching fail as a dominant economic strategy. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a prime example of this phenomenon in the American West. From its origins as a Mormon farming community in the late-nineteenth century, the valley evolved into an extensively developed tourist mecca by the end of the next. While this industry was initially supported by hotel-dwelling auto tourists, by the 1960s wealthy second-home buyers began to descend on Jackson Hole, buying up scenic property and constructing vacation homes. Over the next few …

"Big, Smelly, Salty Lake That I Call Home": Sense Of Place With A Mixed Amenity Setting, Carla Koons Trentelman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Drawing from literature on place, this dissertation studies place dynamics in relationships between people and a mixed amenity place. Using Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah, as a case study, I use a social constructionist approach to examine the sense of place held by those who live nearest to the lake. I analyze qualitative interview and focus group data as well as quantitative survey data to discern the meanings the lake holds for these nearest neighbors and to examine distinctions between people who see the lake differently.

This study is relatively unique in its examination of relationships with a mixed amenity …

Frames And Ways Of Knowing: Key Considerations For Policy Responses To Climate Risk And Vulnerability, Helen Ingram, Joanna Endter-Wada

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

This paper argues that resilience and adaptability in face of climate change is largely dependent upon the ways in which framing occurs and knowledge is produced and diffused in particular communities and contexts. Climate change problems are contextual, multifaceted and complex, engendering wide variation in social sense making and invoking different formulations of facts and relevant knowledge. Transferring and translating information among different ways of knowing and transforming ways of knowing so that they are more inclusive and accepted is critical to adaptability and resilience. Examples from the American West and Latin America illustrate that only when multiple frames and …

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, March 5, 2009, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Department of Applied Economics

• Prerequisite Change
• Prerequisite Change, Remove repeatable for credit
• Prerequisite Change, Add University Studies Designation

Department of Plants, Soils and Climate

• Title Change, Course Prefix Change, Course Number Change
• Prefix Change and or Course Number Change
• Prefix Change, Course Number Change
• Credit Hour Change
• Reactivate Course
• Delete Course

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

• Change of Grading Mode

Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation

• Add University Studies Designation

Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation

• New Course

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Prerequisite Change
• Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change
• Course Description Change

Department of Electrical and …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, February 17, 2009, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• FEC – Course Evaluation Update
• Research Council Report
• Budget and Faculty Welfare Committee Report
• Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee Report
• ASUSU Tobacco Policy
• ASUSU Excused Absence Policy
• PRPC Items
• EPC Items
• FDDE Code Change Proposal 405.6.2(2) and 405.8.2(2)
• Classroom Racial/Cultural Discrimination Issues

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, January 20, 2009, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Bookstore Report
• PRPC Items
• PRPC Item
• EPC Items

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes, January 20, 2009, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Bookstore Report
• PRPC, Grievance Policies and Procedures Policy 407.1.2(calendar change – for second reading)
• PRPC, Grievance Policies and Procedures – Policy 407.1.2 (Language about availability of committee) [first reading]
• EPC Items

Educational Policies Committee Agenda, January 8, 2009, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Requests from Departments
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, January 8, 2009, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Department of Agricultural Systems Technology and Education

• Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change

Department of Plants, Soils and Climate

• Credit Hour Change
• Prerequisite Change
• Delete Course

Huntsman School of Business

• Grading Mode Change

Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation

• Prerequisite Change

Department of Psychology

• Title Change, Course Description Change, Flexible Title for Sections

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

• New Course

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Prerequisite Change

Department of Military Science

• Add University Studies Designation

Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology

• New Course
• Dual List Change, Prerequisite Change
• Credit Hour Change, Dual List Change

Other

• Creating a …

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, January 8, 2009, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Faculty Senate Agenda, January 5, 2009, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Council on Teacher Education
• Scholarship Advisory Board
• EPC Items
• Code Review Committee
• PRPC – Proposal to amend Sections 402.11.1 and 402.12.6(2 & 8)
• Elimination of Distance & Electronic Education Subcommittee
• Grievance Policies – Definition of Days (policy 407.1.2) first reading remove from tab

Jesus In America, Claudia Gould

All USU Press Publications

Claudia Gould draws on fieldwork she conducted, as an anthropologist, in North Carolina, where she earlier spent large parts of her childhood, among a net of paternal relations. From that ethnography and from lifelong observation, she crafts stories that lay open the human heart and social complications of fundamentalist Christian belief. These stories and the compelling characters who inhabit them pull us into the complicated, variable core of religious experience among southern American Christians. Jesus in America, a perceptive work rich with cultural insight, is a singular addition to the growing genre of ethnographic fiction.

Dangerous Writing: Understanding And Political Economy Of Composition, Tony Scott

All USU Press Publications

Building on recent work in rhetoric and composition that takes an historical materialist approach, Dangerous Writing outlines a political economic theory of composition. In addition to work by others, Tony Scott also draws from two of his own studies--a classroom ethnography of an upper division writing class that was focused on labor and institutionality, and a qualitative study of the function of textbooks within a writing program. The book connects pedagogical practices in writing classes to their broader political economic contexts, and argues that the power of students' writing is prevented from reaching its potential by pressures within the academy …

General Catalog 2009-2010, Utah State University

University Catalogs

Contains course descriptions, University college calendar, and college administration

Prince’S Plume In The Landscape, Heidi Kratsch, Graham Hunter

CWEL Extension Fact Sheets

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Morphological And Biological Control Of Exchange With Transient Storage Zones In A Field-Scale Flume, C. Orr, J. Clark, Peter Wilcock, J. Finlay, M. Doyle

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

To determine how differences in geomorphologic setting influence spatial heterogeneity in transport and uptake of limiting nutrients, we investigated reach-scale interactions between porous bed material textures, bed morphology, transient storage, and nutrient retention in a field-scale flume (84 m × 2.75 m). Conservative salt tracer and soluble reactive phosphorous additions were used to quantify effects of plane bed and alternate bar morphologies, and clean gravel versus sandy gravel bed texture on reach-scale nutrient retention and transient storage. We conducted experiments under light and dark conditions to clarify the role of benthic production on surface-subsurface hydrologic interactions and the relative influence …

A Survey Of Apomixis And Ploidy Levels Among Poa L. (Poaceae) Using Flow Cytometry, Alicia Michelle Kelley, Paul G. Johnson, Blair L. Waldron, Michael D. Peel

CWEL Publications

Poa is a complex genus taxonomically and genetically. As a result, relatively little information exists for this economically important genus with regards to reproductive mode and variability in chromosome number. We examined apomixis frequency and ploidy levels in 83 Poa accessions representing 33 species from the National Plant Germplasm System using flow cytometric techniques. In reproductive mode analysis, we analyzed at least three preparations of 50 seeds each from the accessions. In ploidy level analysis, at least three plants of each accession were analyzed. Sixty percent of the species had at least one apomictic or facultative apomictic accession; 40% were …

Production Of Magnesium From Great Salt Lake, Utah Usa, Thomas G. Tripp

Natural Resources and Environmental Issues

Magnesium metal has been commercially produced from the waters of Great Salt Lake since 1972. Worldwide use of magnesium has markedly increased over the last twenty years due to its unique properties of low density and high strength. Great Salt Lake is a valuable resource for the recovery of magnesium minerals due to its chemical composition, natural geography/climate and proximity to transportation and markets. US Magnesium LLC and its predecessors have overcome various technical challenges as well as political hurdles, climatic calamities and market uncertainties. This discussion will describe the extensive use of solar evaporation ponds to produce suitable raw …

Eutrophication, Nutrient Fluxes And Connectivity Between The Bays Of Great Salt Lake, Utah (Usa), Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, David L. Naftz, Shane R. Bradt

Natural Resources and Environmental Issues

No abstract provided.

Dust Emission At Franklin Lake Playa, Mojave Desert (Usa): Response To Meteorological And Hydrologic Changes 2005-2008, Richard L. Reynolds, Rian Bogle, John Vogel, Harland Goldstein, James Yount

Natural Resources and Environmental Issues

Playa type, size, and setting; playa hydrology; and surface-sediment characteristics are important controls on the type and amount of atmospheric dust emitted from playas. Soft, evaporite-rich sediment develops on the surfaces of some Mojave Desert (USA) playas (wet playas), where the water table is shallow (< 4 m). These areas are sources of atmospheric dust because of continuous or episodic replenishment of wind-erodible salts and disruption of the ground surface during salt formation by evaporation of ground water. Dust emission at Franklin Lake playa was monitored between March 2005 and April 2008. The dust record, based on day-time remote digital camera images captured during high wind, and compared with a nearby precipitation record, shows that aridity suppresses dust emission. High frequency of dust generation appears to be associated with relatively wet periods, identified as either heavy precipitation events or sustained regional precipitation over a few months. Several factors may act separately or in combination to account for this relation. Dust emission may respond rapidly to heavy precipitation when the dissolution of hard, wind-resistant evaporite mineral crusts is followed by the development of soft surfaces with thin, newly formed crusts that are vulnerable to wind erosion and (or) the production of loose aggregates of evaporite minerals that are quickly removed by even moderate winds. Dust loading may also increase when relatively high regional precipitation leads to decreasing depth to the water table, thereby increasing rates of vapor discharge, development of evaporite minerals, and temporary softening of playa surfaces. The seasonality of wind strength was not a major factor in dust-storm frequency at the playa. The lack of major dust emissions related to flood-derived sediment at Franklin Lake playa contrasts with some dry-lake systems elsewhere that may produce large amounts of dust from flood sediments. Flood sediments do not commonly accumulate on the surface of Franklin Lake playa because through-going drainage prevents frequent inundation and deposition of widespread flood sediment.

Geochemistry And Potential Playa Sources Of The January 7, 2008 Southwestern New Mexico "Milky Rain", Joel Gilbert, Thomas E. Gill, David Borrok, Bonnie Frey, Terry Hertel, Maria Lane, Max Bleiweiss, Chris Lehmann, David Gay, Chintalapalle V. Ramana

Natural Resources and Environmental Issues

No abstract provided.

Doctor Vs. Priest: Urban Planning And Reform In Vetusta. Leopoldo Alas’S La Regenta, Anne W. Gilfoil

Decimonónica

At the end of the eighteenth century, new theories about disease transmission would have an enormous effect on city planning. The miasma theory challenged the old contact infection model of contagion. Disease transmission was no longer direct as in person-to- person contagion; it was, rather, the result of exposure to certain conditions in the atmosphere. Emanations from the earth produced by decomposing bodies and excrement poisoned the air and transmitted disease (Corbin 13–32). The miasma theory left a deep imprint on popular imagination. In a study of Madrid, published as late as 1902, the public health expert Philiph Hauser spoke …

The Canary In The Mind: Quintana, Pelayo (1805) And The Play Of War, David T. Gies

Decimonónica

They saw it coming. Writers. The Revolution. Not in any prescient way nor with any real accuracy, and certainly not with any predictability (they were playwrights and poets, after all, not futurologists), but they sensed disquiet, heard the nearly inaudible harp strings of discord playing on the horizon, and picked up on what Bécquer would later so beautifully refer to as “los átomos del aire” (208). When the invasion finally came and the war broke out in 1808, that subtle disquiet turned into a maelstrom of noise, a chorus of voices singing out a harsh reality, mocking an untenable situation …

Arqueologias Americanas. La Representación Del Mundo Antiguo Mexicano Y El Debate Estético En El Contexto Europeo De La Primera Mitad Del Siglo Xix, Antonio E. De Pedro Robles

Decimonónica

En el año de 1834, en plena década en la que Francia se esforzaba por convertirse en el centro hegemónico de la cultural mundial, el estudio de las antigüedades mexicanas lograba despertar el interés de la ciencia y la cultura francesa, sentando las bases del futuro “Americanismo.” Charles Farcy, destacado miembro de Société Royal des Antiquaires de France, del Institut Historique y de la Société libre des Meaux-Arts de Paris, señalaba, en el Discours Preliminaire de la edición de la obra La Real Expedición Anticuaria de México (1805-1808), volumen 2, editado en París en 1834 por Henry …