Digital Commons Network^™

Exact And Approximate Relaxation Techniques For Computational Guidance, Sheril Avikkal Kunhippurayil

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The focus of this dissertation is in the development and application of relaxation techniques that enable efficient and real-time solution of complex computational guidance problems. Relaxations transform a non-convex constraint into a convex constraint and provides proof that the optimal solutions to the relaxed problem are optimal for the original problem. Unique contributions of this work include: 1) a relaxation technique for solving fixed final time problems between fixed points, 2) a performance analysis on the application of computational guidance for the Mars Ascent Vehicle, and 3) establishment of sufficient conditions for non-singularity of optimal control for problems on a …

Examining The Use Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In Undergraduate Mathematics Learning Modules With Students Of Color, Thomas A. Mgonja

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In mathematics, Students of Color have persistently performed lower than their White counterparts, thus creating a need to explore instructional methods that could reduce performance disparities. This study investigated culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) to understand how it might support students’ mathematics learning in undergraduate mathematics learning modules. The overarching research question focused on how CRP in undergraduate mathematics Learning Modules supported students’ mathematics learning. There were also two main questions that focused on participants’ evaluations of the CRP modules and how those evaluations were reported based on subgroups (Students of Color and White). The researcher employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods …

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles To Quantify Erosion Control Measures On A Reclaimed Central Utah Coal Mine, Christopher R. Brown

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For certain landscape reclamation efforts surrounding, the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining (UDOGM) utilizes a surface roughing technique called “pocking”. The process of pocking establishes closely spaced gouges approximately 1.2 meters in diameter and 0.5 meters deep across a reclaimed landscape in order to reduce surface erosion and promote plant growth on steep terrain in arid regions. Pocks are designed as a series of micro watersheds that trap water to aid in plant establishment and reduces overland flow of water. Over time vegetation grows within the pocks as they infill with sediment. While this method is considered an …

Comparative Study Of Machine Learning Models On Solar Flare Prediction Problem, Nikhil Sai Kurivella

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Solar flare events are explosions of energy and radiation from the Sun’s surface. These events occur due to the tangling and twisting of magnetic fields associated with sunspots. When Coronal Mass ejections accompany solar flares, solar storms could travel towards earth at very high speeds, disrupting all earthly technologies and posing radiation hazards to astronauts. For this reason, the prediction of solar flares has become a crucial aspect of forecasting space weather. Our thesis utilized the time-series data consisting of active solar region magnetic field parameters acquired from SDO that span more than eight years. The classification models take AR …

Understanding The Marginal Utilities Of Commute Time, Work Time, Travel Cost, And Income Using Stated Preferences Surveys, Niranjan Poudel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In transportation economics, measuring the willingness to pay (WTP) for a reduction in travel time–the monetary value of travel time savings (VTTS) –plays an important role in understanding the social benefits of various transportation projects. These monetary appraisals (WTP, VTTS) are better understood either through expensive daily activity-travel-expenditure diaries or using discrete choice experiments (DCEs). This study made use of data collected from two different stated preference surveys – a type of DCEs - (one from Portland, Oregon, US, and one from all over the US) to understand the marginal utilities of work, commute, income, and travel cost. The marginal …

Intraday Stock Trading Using Reinforcement Learning: An Investigation Of Visual Representations Of Price, Kanak Tenguria

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this study, we are developing a reinforcement learning-based strategy for the intraday trading of stocks. This study’s primary goals include developing an environment that can be used as a simulator for the day trading stock market and, train an agent to trade in this environment by performing actions and finding the optimal policy to maximize its reward.

This study also focuses on experimentation with different state representations to understand how data representation affects the learning system. We have experimented with three different state representations. All the representations focus on presenting the intraday stock data as images. We have chosen …

Geologic Characterization Of The Nonconformity Interface Using Outcrop And Drillcore Analogs: Implications For Injection-Induced Seismicity, Kayla Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Starting around 2009, a greater number of earthquakes than anticipated have occurred in the midcontinent region of the United States. These earthquakes have been linked to increased rates and volumes of wastewater injection at several km’s depth into the Earth’s crust near a contact between crystalline metamorphic or igneous rock and overlying sedimentary rock, known as a nonconformity. While much is known about why these new earthquakes occur, comparatively little is known about the physical and chemical rock properties because the nonconformity contact is primarily buried under km’s of sedimentary rock in the midcontinent region. These rock properties are important …

Constraining Deformation Mechanisms Of Fault Damage Zones: A Case Study Of The Shallow San Andreas Fault At Elizabeth Lake, Southern California., Caroline Studnicky

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Earthquakes nucleate at depth and rupture along the fault plane up to the Earth’s surface releasing seismic energy as the fault propagates. This energy creates the shaking we feel on the surface. Some faults do not rupture and create shaking but deform slowly and smoothly accommodating fault slip over extended time periods. This process is referred to as aseismic slip or creep. Whether a fault ruptures or creeps depends on the properties of the rocks through which the fault plane extends. In order to model seismic hazards correctly, we need to characterize the composition, deformation structures, and alteration materials of …

Analysis Of Large Embankment Dam In Case Of Rapid Drawdown And Earthquake Aftershock, Pothikul Vivithkeyoonvong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dams and reservoirs are important as a source of freshwater as well as for regulating flooding and producing hydroelectricity. The same as with any other manmade structure, dams need to monitored and maintained to prevent disastrous failure.

One of the events that can reduce the stability of an embankment dam is rapid drawdown. Rapid drawdown is when the water level decreases at such a rapid rate that the dam material(s) cannot drain and adjust to the change in time. Without the buttressing effect of the water, the upstream slope of the dam becomes less stable. Another threat to dam stability …

Active Stability Monitoring And Stability Control Of Dc Microgrids Using Incremental Continuous Injection, Rohail Hassan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Electrified transportation and integration of renewable energy in the electric power grid requires the use of power electronic converters for integrating different forms of power; from ac to dc, dc to ac, dc to dc, etc. Recent trend towards electrifying automobiles, aircraft and ships, and increasing penetration of renewable energy has increased the required power levels and number of the power electronics converters connected together in a dc microgrid system. Stable operation of these interfacing converters for all operating conditions has been a topic of renewed interest in the last couple of decades. Traditionally, dc microgrids have been designed conservatively …

Multi-Proxy Approach To Robustly Capture Earthquake Temperature Rise At The Punchbowl Fault, California, Emma M. Armstrong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Earthquakes produce heat along a fault surface from friction created as two blocks of rock move past each other. The amount of heat generated depends on a variety of factors, including rock type, stresses, and thickness of the fault zone. Identifying evidence for and quantifying this earthquake (coseismic) temperature rise are essential for identifying past earthquakes in the rock record. Indirect methods, such as textures and geochemical signatures that change with temperature, can serve as paleothermometers. Here we compare two paleothermometers, biomarkers and thermochronometry, from two transects across the Punchbowl fault (PF), California. The PF is an ancient fault strand …

Plug-And-Play Sql, Shubham Swami

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We present an efficient model to retrieve data from a database by implementing plug-and-play queries using the query guards. The model is efficient in the sense that it saves time when writing a query and promotes query portability and reuse. A plug-and-play query is a freestanding query that can couple to any data socket and self determine whether it can be evaluated reliably on the data. We use hierarchies to improve SQL querying in a way that eliminates the need to write a view to construct virtual tables or a set of tables to run a query. The hierarchy is …

Measuring Similar But Distinct Aspects Of The Memory System: A Proof Of Concept Study, Hailey A. Martineau

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

This study assessed the reliability and convergent validity of a discourse-level measure of chunking in memory. Measures were obtained for 58, school-age children with and without developmental language disorders. Results indicated that the word, sentence and discourse measures of chunking measured similar but distinct aspects of the memory system.

Report: Spatial Facilitation-Inhibition Effects On Vegetation Distribution And Their Associated Patterns, Daniel D'Alessio

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

Changes in the spatial distribution of vegetation respond to variations in the production and transportation mechanisms of seeds at different locations subject to heterogeneities, often because of soil characteristics. In semi-arid environments, the competition for water and nutrients pushes the superficial plant’s roots to obtain scarce resources at long ranges. In this report, we assume that vegetation biomass interacts with itself in two different ways, facilitation and inhibition, depending on the relative distances. We present a 1-dimensional Integro-difference model to represent and study the emergence of patterns in the distribution of vegetation.

Computational Techniques For Elucidating Plant-Pathogen Interactions: A Case Study On Citrus-Hlb Interactome, Cristian D. Loaiza

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Citrus fruit industry in the United States has been affected during the last two decades because of the outbreak of the citrus greening disease, also known as Huanglongbing (HLB). Many people and organizations are working in therapeutics to help mitigate the impact of this disease, unfortunately there is not a cure yet. There are many mechanisms that needs to be understood about this disease, especially at the molecular level. Not only HLB, but many other infectious diseases are controlled by the interaction of proteins from the host (Citrus in this case) and from the pathogen that causes the disease. …

Logbert: Log Anomaly Detection Via Bert, Haixuan Guo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

When systems break down, administrators usually check the produced logs to diagnose the failures. Nowadays, systems grow larger and more complicated. It is labor-intensive to manually detect abnormal behaviors in logs. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an automated anomaly detection on system logs. Automated anomaly detection not only identifies malicious patterns promptly but also requires no prior domain knowledge. Many existing log anomaly detection approaches apply natural language models such as Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to log analysis since both are based on sequential data. The proposed model, LogBERT, a BERT-based neural network, can capture the contextual information in …

Backcountry Campsite Environmental Changes And Effective Monitoring Practices: A Case Study In Kenai Fjords National Park, Shannon T. Wesstrom, Christopher Monz

Environment and Society Student Research

This report examines existing backcountry campsites’ resource conditions over a five-year period in Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ), Alaska. Using campsite ecological monitoring techniques, 101 campsites were assessed for area size, vegetation cover loss, condition class assessments, as well as other indicator variable measurements. This research utilized parametric, non-parametric, robust linear regression, and principal component analysis statistical approaches to inform park managers of:

• Spatial and temporal patterns in changing campsite ecological variable conditions.
• Predicted annual variability of each ecological variable by campsite, beach, and bay.
• Opportunities for possible improvements in the efficiency of the current monitoring protocol by identifying:
  • An …

General Catalog 2021-2022, Utah State University

University Catalogs

This catalog contains information on the Academic Departments and Programs as well as Course Descriptions for the above school year at Utah State University. To avoid large file downloads, the Academic Departments and Programs information is located in this file. The Course Description information is located in the secondary file.

A Phenological Model For A Southern Population Of Mountain Pine Beetle, Catherine E. Wangen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) attacks living Pinus trees across a widespread area of western North America, causing significant ecological and economic damage. The ability to make accurate predictions of how MPB populations across this range will respond to temperatures, which affect MPB progress through life stages, is essential. Northern and southern populations of MPB are genetically different in response to temperature, requiring geographic-specific model parameters. There is not currently a predictive model for the southern MPB life cycle, despite concerns that those populations may be more susceptible to increased numbers of generations per year, which would …

It Isn't Easy Speaking Green: The Influence Of Moral Factors On The (Non-) Adoption Of Pro-Environmental Behaviors, Deferral, And Back Again, Alexi Elizabeth Lamm

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Climate change is one of the major issues humans face in the 21^st century. This decade is critical in shaping the future of Earth and the way humans live on it (IPCC, 2018). Changes in human behavior are necessary to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This series of studies explored factors important in communicating and implementing environmental behavior. The first study tested the effects of an online, interactive carbon calculator with moral interventions on three self-reported measures and one objective measure of behavior over a period of weeks. The interventions resulted in small changes in self-reported behavior and …

Breast Ultrasound Image Segmentation Based On Uncertainty Reduction And Context Information, Kuan Huang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Breast cancer frequently occurs in women over the world. It was one of the most serious diseases and the second common cancer among women in 2019. The survival rate of stages 0 and 1 of breast cancer is closed to 100%. It is urgent to develop an approach that can detect breast cancer in the early stages. Breast ultrasound (BUS) imaging is low-cost, portable, and effective; therefore, it becomes the most crucial approach for breast cancer diagnosis. However, BUS images are of poor quality, low contrast, and uncertain. The computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system is developed for breast cancer to prevent …

Fitting Cell-Based Biomechanical Models From Spatiotemporal Data: A Gradient Descent Approach, Namita Raghuvanshi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Biological systems that contain multiple living cells exhibit complex self-organization during development of an embryo as individual cells coordinate their behaviors to form intricate patterns. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie this emergent behavior is within reach because of advances in cell imaging that can now track hundreds of cells’ states and positions in real time. However, computational methods are needed that can fit physical scientific models to these observations in space and time. This work introduces a new method to solve this problem that applies automatic differentiation and gradient descent, techniques that underlie deep-learning advances. The method fits a biomechanical …

Relationships Between High School Students' Performance In Aleks Placement, Preparation, And Learning (Ppl) Modules And Performance On The Aleks College Mathematics Placement Exam, Jenny V. Nehring

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The misalignment between the mathematics taught in high school and the mathematics expected at colleges and universities has created a difficult transition for high school students in the U.S. from high school to college level mathematics. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) have been used to help high school students transition from the mathematics taught in high school to the mathematics expected at colleges and universities across the country. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between high school students’ performance in Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS) Placement, Preparation, and Learning (PPL) Modules and …

3d-Printed Morphing Wings For Controlling Yaw On Flying-Wing Aircraft, Benjamin C. Moulton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The flaps on an airplane wing are used to control the aircraft during flight. These flaps traditionally have at most three articulation or hinge points. Recent studies have shown improved flap efficiency using a conformal flap, which deforms following a curved shape. Much of aircraft improvement comes through increasing its efficiency during flight. This efficiency is generally improved by decreasing the drag force on the aircraft. A potential solution to decrease drag is to remove additional lifting surfaces, such as the horizontal and vertical stabilizer ubiquitous on general aviation aircraft. These additional lifting surfaces are used to trim and control …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Showed Little Effect On First- And Second-Year Corn Yield And Quality Following Alfalfa, Bailey Brent Shaffer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Silage corn (Zea mays L.) following alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a common crop rotation in Utah and southern Idaho. This is done, in part, to take advantage of residual nitrogen (N) fixed by bacteria that work in symbiosis with the roots of alfalfa. After alfalfa is terminated, much of the N that was fixed by the plant is released into the soil and becomes available for use by the rotational crop. This reduces the amount of N fertilizer that growers need to apply. The Utah Fertilizer Guide currently recommends an N credit to a rotational crop following …

Metaxmorph: Hierarchical Transformation Of Data With Metadata, Shubham Airan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research is about transforming data. Data comes in different shapes; it can be structured as a graph, a tree, a collection of tables, or some other shape. In this thesis, we focus on data structured as a tree, which is known as hierarchical data. The same data could be structured in many different tree shapes. Previously it was shown how to transform data from one tree shape, one hierarchy to another without losing any information. But sometimes the pieces of the hierarchy are annotated or associated with metadata, that is, with data about the data itself. The metadata can …

Exploring Questions Of Tectonic Geomorphology In The Bear River Range, Utah Using Terrain Analysis And Reconstruction, Edward M. Grasinger

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

Despite a long tradition of geologic studies in the region surrounding Utah State University, there remain unexplored questions and unutilized approaches for understanding the landscape evolution of the Bear River Range. A large-scale reconstruction of the East Cache fault system can be useful in estimating the total displacement of the fault, its geologic longevity, and total energy involved. Likewise, an analysis of reach-scale features of the Logan River can explore how tectonics and bedrock type affect the patterns and history of the river. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software is useful in reconstructing, visualizing, and measuring such geomorphological features and changes …

No Evidence Of Stochastic Resonance In Postural Sway Response To Noisy Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation In Healthy Young Adults, Dominique Rice

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

The transcutaneous application of a sub-sensory electrical stimulation to the vestibular afferents, known as noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS), is thought to cause a reduction in postural sway at optimal amplitude intensities due to a mechanism known as stochastic resonance (SR). SR is a phenomenon whereby the addition of low amplitude noise to a non-linear system can be beneficial rather than detrimental. In humans, behavioral markers of SR in postural sway have been inconsistent, potentially due to insufficient power or false positives. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to determine whether the frequency of observing SR-like effects improves …

Predicting Flow Through The Causeway Of The Great Salt Lake Using Hydrodynamic Simulations And Artificial Neural Networks, Som Dutta, Brian Mark Crookston, Michael Rasmussen, Eric Larsen

Reports

At the Great Salt Lake, the northern and southern portions of the lake are divided by an east-to-west causeway that disrupts natural lake currents and significantly increases salt concentrations in the norther portion. To support management efforts to address rising environmental and economic concerns, the causeway was recently modified to include a new breach that typically exhibits a strong density-driven bidirectional flow pattern. To obtain much needed insights into the hydraulic performance of this hydraulic structure and the exchange between the two sections of the lake, a field campaign coupled with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and an artificial neural …

Spatial And Long-Term Temporal Changes In Water Quality Dynamics Of The Tonle Sap Ecosystem, Savoeurn Soum, Peng Bun Ngor, Thomas E. Dilts, Sapana Lohani, Suzanne Kelson, Sarah E. Null, Flavia Tramboni, Zeb S. Hogan, Bunyeth Chan, Sudeep Chandra

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Tonle Sap lake-river floodplain ecosystem (TSE) is one of the world’s most productive freshwater systems. Changes in hydrology, climate, population density, and land use influence water quality in this system. We investigated long term water quality dynamics (22 years) in space and time and identified potential changes in nutrient limitation based on nutrient ratios of inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus. Water quality was assessed at five sites highlighting the dynamics in wet and dry seasons. Predictors of water quality included watershed land use, climate, population, and water level. Most water quality parameters varied across TSE, except pH and nitrate that remained …