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The Effects Of Moisture On The Conductivity Of M55j Carbon Fiber Composites, Crystal Tingle Apr 2022

The Effects Of Moisture On The Conductivity Of M55j Carbon Fiber Composites, Crystal Tingle

Student Research Symposium

In this research, we studied the effects that humidity (moisture) can have on M55J Carbon Fiber Composite samples.

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Detonation Of A White Dwarf Star: Simulations Of The Sub-Chandrasekhar Type 1a Supernovae, Melissa Rasmussen Apr 2022

Detonation Of A White Dwarf Star: Simulations Of The Sub-Chandrasekhar Type 1a Supernovae, Melissa Rasmussen

Student Research Symposium

A type Ia supernova can result from the double detonation of a white dwarf star below the Chandrasekhar mass limit. Using the hydrodynamics code Castro, we simulate this detonation by perturbing a carbon/oxygen white dwarf with an accumulated shell of helium, with a small amount of nitrogen-14. In this work, we investigate the robustness of the model. Adjusting the location of the perturbation affects whether detonation occurs. Changing the composition of the helium shell affects the speed at which it burns. The size of the reaction network used affects whether the star's core burns immediately or from a shock wave …

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Simultaneous Simulation Of Microgravity And Ionizing Radiation In A Laboratory Environment, Achal Duhoon Apr 2022

Simultaneous Simulation Of Microgravity And Ionizing Radiation In A Laboratory Environment, Achal Duhoon

Student Research Symposium

A novel system was developed to simulate the combined effects of reduced gravity and ionizing radiation present during spaceflight on biological and particulate samples. The miniature rotary cell culture system (mRCCS) was designed to synchronously rotate up to five independent vessels containing particulate samples suspended in fluid media, constructed using radiation tolerant, biocompatible, and vacuum compatible materials. Reduced gravity conditions were achieved when suspended particles (e.g., 200 μm polystyrene microcarrier beads with or without adhered cell clusters) were suspended inside the vessels moving near terminal velocity in viscous neutral-buoyant fluid media with densities matched to the suspended particles to achieve …

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Modeling The Spread Of Curly Top Disease In Tomato Crops, Rachel Frantz Apr 2022

Modeling The Spread Of Curly Top Disease In Tomato Crops, Rachel Frantz

Student Research Symposium

Curly Top disease (CT), caused by a family of curtoviruses, infects a wide variety of agricultural crops. Historically, CT has caused extensive damage in tomato crops resulting in substantial economic loss for the tomato industry. Control methods for CT are scarce, and methods for predicting and assessing the scope of CT outbreaks are limited. In this paper, we formulate two theoretical models, a deterministic model and a stochastic model, for the spread of CT in a heterogeneous environment consisting of beets (preferred host) and tomatoes. The models are composed of two susceptible classes and two infected classes (infectious beets and …

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Small-Scale “Atmospheric Perturbations” With A Horizontal Scale Of A Few Tens Of Meters, Jonas Hamrick Apr 2022

Small-Scale “Atmospheric Perturbations” With A Horizontal Scale Of A Few Tens Of Meters, Jonas Hamrick

Student Research Symposium

The objective of this investigation isto identify and understand the small-scale atmospheric perturbations with a horizontal scale of a few tens of meters, based on a novel Na imager. These extremely small perturbations in this altitude range are believed to contribute considerably to the dynamics in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere, ranging between ~ 80 to 110 km. By changing the intensity of these Na images to mesospheric Na number density, we can derive the amplitudes of these perturbations based on the Na mixing ratios that provides a direct measure of the perturbation magnitudes. The perturbations of such scale …

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Characteristics Of Mesospheric Temperature And Gravity Waves Over Chile In 2020-2021, Damien Devitt Apr 2022

Characteristics Of Mesospheric Temperature And Gravity Waves Over Chile In 2020-2021, Damien Devitt

Student Research Symposium

Atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) that propagate up into the mesospheric region break and transfer energy into the region. This energy process affects seasonal temperatures in the mesosphere and has important implications for rocket launches and GPS satellites. Using the Utah State University (USU) Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (MTM) located at the Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO) in Chile (30°S), wave activity and seasonal temperature changes were studied over the Andes Mountain Range from Jan 2020 to the first few months of 2021 for this study. The primary goal of the whole project was to continue the long-term data collection and analysis (since …

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Isotopic Analysis Of Hydrous Phenocrysts In Lava Flows Of The Peruvian Altiplano Plateau: Testing For A Subduction Signature, Alyssa Schiwal Apr 2022

Isotopic Analysis Of Hydrous Phenocrysts In Lava Flows Of The Peruvian Altiplano Plateau: Testing For A Subduction Signature, Alyssa Schiwal

Student Research Symposium

The process of flat-slab subduction introduces fluids directly into the overlaying lithosphere, leaving behind a unique stable isotope and trace element signature to the surrounding crust/mantle. Fluid alteration of the deep lithosphere can help explain geologic processes that are observed at the surface, such as patterns of crustal deformation (mountain building) and volcanism. The young high-K mafic volcanic rocks found in the Altiplano region of Southern Peru are derived from the melting of an altered mantle source. By analyzing the hydrogen stable isotopes as well as the trace elements of these volcanic rocks we can locate the water source associated …

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Milestones In Computational Thinking And Mathematics Competencies In Early Childhood, Katelyn Childers Apr 2022

Milestones In Computational Thinking And Mathematics Competencies In Early Childhood, Katelyn Childers

Student Research Symposium

In Utah, the technology industry is rapidly growing, and with it the demand for a STEM workforce. Similarly, there is a push to integrate Computational Thinking (CT) and Computer Science (CS), usually in the form of coding, into K-12 education. While Utah has adopted standards to inform CS instruction, the standards lack an evidence-based foundation. Further, K-12 schools lack instructional minutes and resources to teach CT and coding. In order to address these needs, this project aims to collect empirical data on how students engage with computational thinking throughout early childhood. Our goal is to inform the further development of …

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Manifold Alignment With Inter-Domain Diffusion, Andres Duque Apr 2022

Manifold Alignment With Inter-Domain Diffusion, Andres Duque

Student Research Symposium

The integration of multimodal data presents a challenge in cases when the study of a given phenomena by different instruments or conditions generates distinct but related domains. In this paper, we propose Diffusion Transport Alignment (DTA) a semi-supervised manifold alignment method that exploits prior correspondence knowledge between distinct data views. DTA finds a bijection between two domains, which by assumption, share a similar geometrical structure coming from the same underlying data generating process. We empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of our method to integrate multimodal data, as well as how it can improve the performance of machine learning tasks, otherwise less …

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The Outdoor Fashion Industry Is Not Sustainable, Joshua Hillam Apr 2022

The Outdoor Fashion Industry Is Not Sustainable, Joshua Hillam

Student Research Symposium

Outdoor fashion companies are responsible for a large amount of waste and pollution worldwide. I believe they are ethically bound to make changes in their manufacturing process to decrease their footprint because their products are used in outdoor environments that are impacted negatively by waste and pollution. The fashion industry as a whole is responsible for 10% of the carbon emissions worldwide. Research was conducted by first understanding what being sustainable means from the EPA, from individuals who work in the fashion industry, and from companies that advocate for more sustainable clothing. I then investigated what materials are the most …

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Analyzing Suicidal Text Using Natural Language Processing, Cassandra Barton Apr 2022

Analyzing Suicidal Text Using Natural Language Processing, Cassandra Barton

Student Research Symposium

Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), we are able to analyze text from suicidal individuals. This can be done using a variety of methods. I analyzed a dataset of a girl named Victoria that died by suicide. I used a machine learning method to train a different dataset and tested it on her diary entries to classify her text into two categories: suicidal vs non-suicidal. I used topic modeling to find out unique topics in each subset. I also found a pattern in her diary entries. NLP allows us to help individuals that are suicidal and their family members and close …

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Detecting Climate Change In Trilobite Time, Michelle Norman Apr 2022

Detecting Climate Change In Trilobite Time, Michelle Norman

Student Research Symposium

Trilobites are a signature marine fossil of the Cambrian explosion, which took place about 500 Ma (million years ago). By studying these fossiliferous rocks (limestone), we can get an understanding of ecological and environmental change. In fact, we can detect the ancient carbon cycle by measuring stable carbon isotopes in these limestone samples. By studying the carbon environment the trilobites lived in and which trilobite species evolve or go extinct, we can learn more about ancient climate events and constrain them to a certain period of time based off the age of radioactive zircons we find in sandy material around …

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Preparation And Characterization Of Highly Insulating Granular Samples For Electron Yield Measurement, Heather Allen Apr 2022

Preparation And Characterization Of Highly Insulating Granular Samples For Electron Yield Measurement, Heather Allen

Student Research Symposium

This experiment focuses primarily on the preparation and characterization of granular samples for the eventual purpose of electron yield measurements. Highly insulating granular samples are notoriously difficult to prepare and present a myriad ofcomplications from both experimental and practical frameworks. A famous example of this was during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission when electrostatically adhered lunar dust damaged the equipment and astronauts suits and led to purported health effects. The electrical properties of this dust for charging and discharge is essential to preventing these effects. In this study, particles of varying size, shape, and composition are used to create multilayered …

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Icon Satellite Measurements, Uncertainty, And Error Calculations, Benjamin Bradshaw Apr 2022

Icon Satellite Measurements, Uncertainty, And Error Calculations, Benjamin Bradshaw

Student Research Symposium

NASA's satellite the Icon (Ionospheric Connections Explorer) is a satellite launched in 2019 to better understand the connection between Earth's atmosphere and the space environment. Though its systems were tested before launching further validation of its measurements are needed. This is accomplished through using USU's NA Lidar systems measurements over similar regions. USU's Na Lidar is a robust instrument that has been shown to be valid for many years. Through this comparison Icon's measurements have been shown to not be very precise at its lower measurements regions as it fails to measure a distinct temperature fluctuation around 92 km.

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Curricular Adaptations By Paraprofessionals During Their Computer Lab Instruction Using Block-Based Coding, Prasina Parameswaran Apr 2022

Curricular Adaptations By Paraprofessionals During Their Computer Lab Instruction Using Block-Based Coding, Prasina Parameswaran

Student Research Symposium

Classroom adaptation is one of the key elements in filling the gap between understanding and application of knowledge in the real world. Our work emphasizes upon the classroom adaptations in the Math classroom. We are studying 5th grade students and computer science (CS) paraprofessionals in the Western United States. Paraprofessionals are provided professional development (PD) to familiarize them with CS and Scratch. Scratch is a block based coding program which uses visual interface and is used for making animations, games, digital stories etc. As paraprofessionals are not certified teachers, this PD works towards helping them understand the Math content and …

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Can Superoxide-Responsive Co Delivery Molecules Be Developed?, Taylor Dittmar Apr 2022

Can Superoxide-Responsive Co Delivery Molecules Be Developed?, Taylor Dittmar

Student Research Symposium

Although known for its toxicity, carbon monoxide (CO) has now been identified as producing beneficial health effects when present at low concentrations. CO is generated in the human body during the breakdown of heme. It is known for its anti-cancer, cardioprotective, and anti-inflammatory effects. To enhance these therapeutic effects, CO delivery molecules have been developed. Fluorescent flavonol-based CO delivery molecules are gaining broad interest due to their triggerable, trackable, and targetable properties. Flavonols can also be used as dual functioning molecules, with additional capabilities such as the detection of reactive oxygen species (ROS) being possible to incorporate in addition to …

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The Connections Between Musculoskeletal Injury And Global Reaction, Keaton Reel Apr 2022

The Connections Between Musculoskeletal Injury And Global Reaction, Keaton Reel

Student Research Symposium

The peripheral effects of severe musculoskeletal injury are a well-studied phenomenon, but less well studied are the neural deficits. Past research has demonstrated that such severe injuries, specifically torn and reconstructed anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), may increase cognitive burden due to lack of afferent feedback from damaged nerves. This has previously shown to lead to delayed voluntary reactions in the lower extremities, but global neural changes are currently unknown. The goal of the conducted research was to determine whether neuromuscular deficits due to ACL injury and reconstruction in one limb influences motor behavior on a global level. Simple reaction time, …

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Rayleigh Scattering Is The Reason The Sky Is Blue, Samuel Monson Apr 2022

Rayleigh Scattering Is The Reason The Sky Is Blue, Samuel Monson

Student Research Symposium

In this experiment what is examined is light scattering. What was done was taking a spectrometer and taking in the sunlight over long periods of time. The goal here is to both identify and determine when Rayleigh or Mie Scattering is taking place. In Rayleigh scattering what should appear is blue light, and in Mie other kinds of light should be observed.

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The Effects Of Absorbed Water On Electrostatic Breakdown Testing, Megan Loveland Dewaal Apr 2022

The Effects Of Absorbed Water On Electrostatic Breakdown Testing, Megan Loveland Dewaal

Student Research Symposium

A critical property of electrical insulators is the breakdown voltage. When exposed to a high enough voltage, the insulator will be permanently damaged and unable to block significant current flow which can lead to the compromise of important electrical equipment. This becomes a concern for applications like spacecraft missions, high voltage direct current power, and microelectronics, as well as many others. Recent preliminary tests suggested that water vapor on the surface of insulators may increase their breakdown voltage and influence phenomena observed during breakdown testing, such as partial discharges, partial breakdowns, and surface flashovers. In this study, thin film PEEK …

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Modeling The Effects Of Surface Roughness On Electron Yield, Trace Taylor, Matthew Robertson, Jr Dennison Apr 2022

Modeling The Effects Of Surface Roughness On Electron Yield, Trace Taylor, Matthew Robertson, Jr Dennison

Conference Proceedings

Surface conditions—including surface morphology, composition, contamination, and oxidation—can significantly affect electron yields and consequently spacecraft charging. The effects of surface roughness on electron yield are modeled in this study by considering four aspects of electron yield calculations: (i) simple models of rough surface geometry, (ii) the angular distributions of electrons emitted from various points on these surfaces, (iii) the likelihood of these emitted electrons escaping the rough surface, and (iv) the relative fractions of smooth and rough surfaces. Three simple periodic one-dimensional surface profiles were considered—namely rectangular, triangular, and sawtooth features; each surface profile was characterized by an aspect ratio …

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Simulation Of The Nonlinear Dynamics Of A Spherical Magnet In The Field Of A Second Stationary Magnet, Luke Price Apr 2022

Simulation Of The Nonlinear Dynamics Of A Spherical Magnet In The Field Of A Second Stationary Magnet, Luke Price

Student Research Symposium

We developed a 4th order Runge-Kutta program for the problem of two uniformly magnetized spheres, one sphere orbiting a second stationary sphere, by means of their magnetic fields. There are four coupled ordinary differential equations that describe the motion of the orbiting magnet. We graphed the solutions to these equations for a range of initial conditions and determined the chaotic indicator called the Lyapunov exponent (LE) in each case. A graph of the potential energy was also made. We look at the numerical values and graphs of the four equations and see how much they differ for a range of …

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When Should Young Married Couples Have Children?, Morgan Anderton Apr 2022

When Should Young Married Couples Have Children?, Morgan Anderton

Student Research Symposium

There are many young married couples who are trying to plan out their lives; one thing they’re deciding is the best time to have children. There are many things to consider when planning for a family, such as, finances, fertility rates, mental preparedness and many others. This research aims to break down these aspects of planning for a family to decide when the best time, for young married couples, is to have children. Research was studied from academic databases, interviews from mothers, therapists, and parenting blogs that provided many points of views on when to start a family. From this …

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2nd Graders Being Creative With An Open-Ended Coding Robot Geometrical Math Task, Lauren Nix Apr 2022

2nd Graders Being Creative With An Open-Ended Coding Robot Geometrical Math Task, Lauren Nix

Student Research Symposium

This semester, I've been working with Dr. Joseph S. Kozlowski in his 2nd-grade classroom at Edith Bowen Laboratory School here at Utah State University. While student teaching, I've also been observing and facilitating what we call Botley Fridays. Each week, we give our students an open-ended math task to work on, explore, and complete using the coding robot Botley 2.0. This presentation contains the cool things our students did during a geometrical math task about shapes.

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The Death Penalty Is A Viable Punishment, Zane Hirning Apr 2022

The Death Penalty Is A Viable Punishment, Zane Hirning

Student Research Symposium

The death penalty is a penalty that is worthy of heinous perpetrators. Heinous crimes will be committed, and often, the perpetrator is given a punishment unworthy of the crime committed. This causes a low-risk factor when committing the crime. This can cause issues for many, including the victim’s family. The lack of worthy punishment can affect the victim's family, and it may result in outrage against the public, or a personal attack on the perpetrator or the perpetrator’s family. This creates a violent environment that can lead to other American citizens being hurt because the victim’s family took their own …

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The Effect Of Temperature Fluctuation On Magnetometer Readings, Brittany Payne Apr 2022

The Effect Of Temperature Fluctuation On Magnetometer Readings, Brittany Payne

Student Research Symposium

The SAM-III is a 3-axis, simple aurora magnetometer that can be used to sense and study geomagnetic fluctuations. These fluctuations can provide information about auroras, solar flares, geomagnetic storms, or radio waves, among others. In line with the manufacturer’s goals of expanding a worldwide, amateur magnetometer network, one of these magnetometers is being stationed at Utah State University. This experiment specifically looks at how temperature fluctuations affect the accuracy of the magnetometer’s measurements. These results will help determine to what extent the magnetometer can be used to gather useful data and as well as decide where it should be stationed …

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Giant Earthquakes' Effects On The Ionosphere, Aaron Houston Apr 2022

Giant Earthquakes' Effects On The Ionosphere, Aaron Houston

Student Research Symposium

The ionosphere is a part of the Earth’s atmosphere that stretches from 80 – 600 kilometers. Gases in this area are ionized which creates a range of free electrons that make up the plasma of the ionosphere. Integrating the electron density along a line between two points will give you the Total Electron Content (TEC), which is responsible for signal delays between satellites in orbit and their GPS receivers on the surface. Using this delay, the TEC in a specific region can be calculated which helps in GPS error analysis. During the earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011, there …

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Ensemble Kernel Density Estimation, Ethan Ancell Apr 2022

Ensemble Kernel Density Estimation, Ethan Ancell

Student Research Symposium

The problem of estimating a probability density function from data has many applications in machine learning and data science. Nonparametric estimators are useful in this context as they require relatively few assumptions on the densities. Unfortunately, standard nonparametric methods such as kernel density estimationtend to converge slowly to the true value in high dimensions as a function of the data sample size. Recent work has shown that optimally weighted ensembles of nonparametric estimators can be used to achieve a fast convergence rate when estimating information theoretic functionals such as information divergence. We explore the extension of this theory to density …

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Laboratory Simulations Of Simultaneous Reduced Gravity And Ionizing Radiation Environments, Achal Duhoon, Jr Dennison Apr 2022

Laboratory Simulations Of Simultaneous Reduced Gravity And Ionizing Radiation Environments, Achal Duhoon, Jr Dennison

Conference Proceedings

A novel system has been developed to simulate the combined effects of reduced gravity and ionizing radiation present during spaceflight on biological and particulate samples. The miniature rotary cell culture system (mRCCS) was designed to synchronously rotate up to five independent vessels containing particulate samples suspended in fluid media, constructed using radiation tolerant, biocompatible, and vacuum compatible materials. Reduced gravity conditions were achieved when particles (e.g., 200 µm polystyrene microcarrier beads with or without adhered cell clusters) were suspended inside the vessels moving near terminal velocity in viscous fluid media with densities matched to the suspended …

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Development Of Particle Image Velocimetry Learning Tool: Learnpiv.Org, Kevin Roberts Apr 2022

Development Of Particle Image Velocimetry Learning Tool: Learnpiv.Org, Kevin Roberts

Student Research Symposium

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is an experimental measurement technique used for quantitative and visual analysis of the velocity distribution in a flow field. Researchers conduct PIV by using lasers to illuminate particles in a flow field of interest, digital cameras to record images of these illuminated particles, and PIV software to analyze the recorded images, producing a velocity vector field. Applying proper techniques to gather useful images and identifying PIV processing algorithm parameters to the collected images is a challenging task for novice PIV users who are unaware of the inner workings of PIV algorithms. Recognizing this problem, we created …

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The Utah Statesman, April 4, 2022, Utah State University Apr 2022

The Utah Statesman, April 4, 2022, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

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