Digital Commons Network^™

Transfer Of Learning For K-12 Stem Teachers: From The Gear Up Engineering Camp Professional Learning Experience To The Classroom, Ryan F. Barlow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because of the new Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) standards, which are based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Utah science teachers in K-12 schools are now being asked to incorporate engineering into their science classes. Many science teachers in the State of Utah do not have a background in engineering and have not received training in how to incorporate engineering into their classes. To help remedy this problem, six STEM teachers from the State of Utah, and one STEM teacher from Nevada, came to the campus of Utah State University in July 2019 to participate with a …

A Deep Dive Into Natural Swimming Pool Filtration: Living Walls As Technical Wetland Filters, Anna Farb

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Vertical gardens such as living walls can filter air and water, in addition to cooling buildings, reducing noise, increasing urban biodiversity, providing food, and enhancing well-being. Natural swimming pools (NSPs) are an ecologically sound alternative to chemically treated pools, but they have not reached their potential in the U.S. We investigated whether a living wall could be integrated into an NSP system for water filtration purposes, given that the vertical filter would have to produce excellent water quality for human swimmers. This could be a novel landscape design, particularly in the cases of steep contours, urbanized sites with limited space, …

Analytic Guidance Strategies For Passively Safe Rendezvous And Proximity Operations, Simon Shuster

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A safety ellipse is a type of relative motion trajectory that is commonly used for unmanned rendezvous and proximity operations. As the name suggests, safety ellipses are passively safe relative motion trajectories, which means that their natural motion inherently maintains a low collision risk. The focus of this dissertation is the derivation, analysis, and application of guidance strategies that reconfigure, establish, and exit a safety ellipse. The guidance strategies consist of a set of ∆v vectors and impulse times, all written in closed form. Through applications of optimal control theory and parameter optimization, it is shown that these maneuver …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Among Native Americans Within The State Of Utah, Erica Ficklin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Native Americans are diagnosed with disabilities at a significantly higher rate than the general American population. Due to cultural differences, other factors are likely impacting this difference in diagnosis rates. One possible factor is that Native Americans may have a different definition for ‘disability’ than the general American population. This study aimed to identify whether there is a difference in the definition for ‘disability’ and to learn about the current services available and what changes should be made to better serve Native Americans with disabilities. Native American participants were asked to share their experiences and thoughts about disabilities in sharing …

Micro Grid Control Optimization With Load And Solar Prediction, Shaju Saha

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Using renewable energy can save money and keep the environment cleaner. Installing a solar PV system is a one-time cost but it can generate energy for a lifetime. Solar PV does not generate carbon emissions while producing power. This thesis evaluates the value of being able to make accurate predictions in the use of solar energy. It uses predicted solar power and load for a system and a battery to store the energy for future use and calculates the operating cost or profit in several designed conditions. Various factors like a different place, tuning the capacity of sources, changing buy/sell …

Deep Q Learning Applied To Stock Trading, Agnibh Dasgupta

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Developing a strategy for stock trading is a vital task for investors. However, it is challenging to obtain an optimal strategy, given the complex and dynamic nature of the stock market. This thesis aims to explore the applications of Reinforcement Learning with the goal of maximizing returns from market investment, keeping in mind the human aspect of trading by utilizing stock prices represented as candlestick graphs. Furthermore, the algorithm studies public interest patterns in form of graphs extracted from Google Trends to make predictions. Deep Q learning has been used to train an agent based on fused images of stock …

Automation Of Feature Selection And Generation Of Optimal Feature Subsets For Beehive Audio Sample Classification, Aditya Bhouraskar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The last couple of decades have witnessed an abnormal phenomenon of reduction in the bee population, this is a serious matter of concern as three out of four crops available globally have honey bee as their sole pollinator causing significant economic losses and an unbalance in the ecosystem. There have been many theories about the cause of bee colony collapses such as parasites, pesticides and poor nutrition however conclusive evidence of this phenomenon is yet to be identified.

Human inspection of beehives requires precision. It takes an experienced beekeeper to determine the health of a hive by the sounds generated …

Effects Of The Radiation Belt On The Plasmasphere Distribution, Stefan Thonnard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examines the interaction of plasma, ions and electrons created by Solar illumination in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, that travels along magnetic field lines filling the Plasmasphere, and the naturally occurring trapped particles known as the outer radiation belt. Although these two science disciplines have been largely worked independent of each other due the vast differences in the energy of the particles, recent satellite observations indicate a large population of particles with lower energy and greater mass also exist in the outer radiation belt. This study shows that during conditions of low solar output in an 11-year cycle, these …

Acquisition, Processing, And Analysis Of Video, Audio And Meteorological Data In Multi-Sensor Electronic Beehive Monitoring, Sarbajit Mukherjee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In recent years, a widespread decline has been seen in honey bee population and this is widely attributed to colony collapse disorder. Hence, it is of utmost importance that a system is designed to gather relevant information. This will allow for a deeper understanding of the possible reasons behind the above phenomenon to aid in the design of suitable countermeasures.

Electronic Beehive Monitoring is one such way of gathering critical information regarding a colony’s health and behavior without invasive beehive inspections. In this dissertation, we have presented an electronic beehive monitoring system called BeePi that can be placed on top …

Systems Thinking In Engineering Design: Differences In Expert Vs. Novice And Relationship To Personality Traits, Yuzhen Luo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Systems thinking is the ability to see the big picture and the related elements when designing, and how these relationships form the big picture. In engineering design, systems thinking is valuable to both industry, as well as engineering education. As such, it creates opportunities for researchers to better understand systems thinking of both professional engineers in industry, who are assumed to be the experts, and engineering students in higher education, who are assumed to be the novices. The purpose of this study was to compare and identify the differences between expert and novice systems thinking in engineering design. Additionally, the …

A Thermochronometric, Microtextural, And Numerical Modeling Approach To Deciphering The Rock Record Of Deformation Processes In The Wasatch And Denali Fault Zones, Robert G. Mcdermott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fault zones are the primary features that accommodate movement of Earth’s crust, resulting in the formation of mountain belts and damaging earthquakes. Rocks modified by faulting and brought to Earth’s surface by erosion are archives of the mechanical processes involved in earthquakes and(or) aseismic creep. Thermochronometry is a radioisotopic dating system primarily sensitive to temperature and offers a means to constrain dates and rates of thermal processes. Hematite is common in fault zones, amenable to (U-Th)/He (He) thermochronometry, and exhibits distinct microtextures diagnostic of fault zone mechanics. I apply hematite He thermochronometry and microtextural analyses with a suite of other …

Testing Investment Strategies For Superior Predictive Ability, Jack K. Baldwin

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

When different models are tested on one data sample and repeatedly altered in order to be found significant, the results are likely spurious. This is data-snooping – an ever-growing problem in the finance industry likely due to fierce competition and developments in data processing capacity. In academia, although recognized as a deplorable practice, data-snooping is likewise pervasive perhaps as a result of poor incentive structures at both the university and publisher levels. I manifest the problem of data-snooping through multiple academic and industry examples and then summarize Halbert White and Peter Hansen’s offered solutions, White’s Reality Check and Hansen’s Test …

Hardware Implementations Of Ccsds Deep Space Ldpc Codes For A Satellite Transponder, Dana R. Sorensen

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

Error-correction coding is a technique that adds mathematical structure to a message, allowing corruptions to be detected and corrected when the message is received. This is especially important for deep space satellite communications, since the long distances and low signal power levels often cause message corruption. A very strong type of error-correction coding known as LDPC codes was recently standardized for use with space communications. This project implements the encoding and decoding algorithms required for a small satellite radio to be able to use these LDPC codes. Several decoder architectures are implemented and compared by their performance, speed, and complexity. …

Investigating Mesospheric Mountain Waves And Oh Temperature Dynamics Over Chile, David G. Soward

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

Atmospheric gravity waves (GW) occur throughout the atmosphere, propagating from copious sources in the lower atmosphere into the upper neutral atmosphere and ionosphere. There are many sources of GW, most of them are associated with strong weather disturbances which are highly transient in nature. Another source of GW are strong winds blowing over prominent mountains that generate mountain waves (MW.) An important property of all of these waves is that they propagate upwards, carrying large amounts of energy and momentum which can be deposited in the upper atmosphere as the waves saturate and break. The Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO) was …

Fruit Tree Responses To Water Stress: Automated Physiological Measurements And Rootstock Responses, William D. Wheeler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

New orchard plantings utilize trees grafted to dwarfing rootstocks planted close together to facilitate larger harvests. These dwarfing rootstocks have not been comprehensively studied for their ability to withstand drought. This is of special importance in the Intermountain West which has limited rainfall. Additionally, orchard growers face competition for water from a growing population and increased uncertainty in rainfall from climate change. My research examined the use of dendrometers, which measure changes in trunk diameter, and sap flow sensors, which measure how quickly sap moves, as methods to inform growers about tree water status. I also used a weighing lysimeter …

Nato And The Ifrc: A Comparative Case Study, Abigail Kosiak

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This research analyzes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Multinational Telemedicine System (MnTS) Project and works to answer five main questions:

1) What challenges did the NATO MnTS Project face that are directly related to the fact that the project included members from different countries and worked to create a system that operates across national borders?

2) How do these challenges compare to those faced by a non-governmental organization (NGO) like the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)?

3) What successes has the IFRC had with its current operational model?

4) In what ways could …

Triggerable, Targetable, And Trackable Flavonol-Based Carbon Monoxide-Releasing Molecules, Livia S. Lazarus

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Long known as a toxic gas, carbon monoxide (CO) has been recently redefined as a health beneficial molecule produced endogenously in humans. The biological activity of CO has been extensively examined in inflammatory conditions, vasoprotection, anti-apoptotic and anticancer studies, although the mechanisms of action are still not well defined. Because CO is a gaseous molecule, a straightforward administration would be inhalation. However, this delivery method is limited to use in hospital settings under professional supervision. For improved control over the amount and location of CO delivery, metal-free and light-triggered carbon monoxide-releasing molecules are of particular current interest. Our lab is …

Exact Generalized Voronoi Diagram Computation Using A Sweepline Algorithm, Daniel Marsden

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Voronoi Diagrams can provide useful spatial information. Little work has been done on computing exact Voronoi Diagrams when the sites are more complex than a point. We introduce a technique that measures the exact Generalized Voronoi Diagram from points, line segments and, connected lines including lines that connect to form simple polygons. Our technique is an extension of Fortune’s method. Our approach treats connected lines (or polygons) as a single site.

"You Can Tell They Care": A Phenomenographic Study Of Student Experiences With Empathic Concern Expressed By Professors In Engineering, Kate Youmans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In order to address the increasingly complex challenges of the 21st century, there is a need to continue to grow the technical workforce by improving graduation rates of engineering students. To accomplish this, the culture of engineering programs must shift from demanding or intimidating to more inclusive and supportive. Professors can play a critical role in creating these cultures by building relationships with students. Empathic concern is essential in building relationships that can encourage student growth and development. This form of empathy, sometimes referred to as care or concern, is expressed through actions of understanding, compassion, and non-judgement. While research …

Exploring The Feasibility Of Introducing Alternative Fuel Vehicles Into Fleet, Samia Rubaiat

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Transportation is one of the most significant contributing sectors to emissions and consequently air pollution in the United States. Many state and private fleet agencies have announced their visions of zero-emission fleet programs. Adopting alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) is a viable option for achieving this objective. AFVs offer lower emissions along with low operating and maintenance costs, and higher fuel economy. The advancement of technologies has provided several AFV options, such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), electric vehicles (EV), compressed natural gas vehicles (CNGV), and liquefied petroleum gas vehicles (LPGV). The main challenges in adopting AFVs are the high purchasing …

Classification Of Jacobian Elliptic Fibrations On A Special Family Of K3 Surfaces Of Picard Rank Sixteen, Thomas Hill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

K3 surfaces are an important tool used to understand the symmetries in physics that link different string theories, called string dualities. For example, heterotic string theory compactified on an elliptic curve describes a theory physically equivalent to (dual to) F-theory compactified on a K3 surface. In fact, M-theory, the type IIA string, the type IIB string, the Spin(32)/Z₂ heterotic string, and the E₈ x E₈ heterotic string are all related by compactification on Calabi-Yau manifolds.

We study a special family of K3 surfaces, namely a family of rank sixteen K3 surfaces polarized by the lattice H⊕E …

Delta Hedging Of Financial Options Using Reinforcement Learning And An Impossibility Hypothesis, Ronak Tali

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this thesis we take a fresh perspective on delta hedging of financial options as undertaken by market makers. The current industry standard of delta hedging relies on the famous Black Scholes formulation that prescribes continuous time hedging in a way that allows the market maker to remain risk neutral at all times. But the Black Scholes formulation is a deterministic model that comes with several strict assumptions such as zero transaction costs, log normal distribution of the underlying stock prices, etc. In this paper we employ Reinforcement Learning to redesign the delta hedging problem in way that allows us …

The Development And Use Of A Secondary Electron Yield Database For Spacecraft Charge Modeling, Phillip Lundgreen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Charge modeling of electron-solid interactions requires a detailed and accurate compilation of experimental data on which to base its physics and against which to test its predictions. Historically researchers used methods involving individual research or information taken from existing, vague, databases that were often found wanting. To streamline the charge modeling process, a collection of data has been assembled and categorized based upon surface morphology and contamination from various published sources and existing databases. The quality and quantity of the compilation vary widely with very little information offered with regards to surface conditions of various materials (contamination, morphology, etc. ...). …

Applied Species Delimitation In Microbial Taxa And Plants, Austin C. Koontz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Species are a fundamental concept in biology, and many subdisciplines in biology utilize species in aspects of theory and in the communication of results. Given the centrality of species in biological science, it can seem surprising that there is no universal definition amongst biologists of what, strictly speaking, a species is. In fact, there are, by some estimates, over 20 different "species concepts", and this lack of a consensus is termed "the species problem". This problem has theoretical underpinnings, but has become more relevant as advances in sequencing technologies over the past two decades have allowed researchers to probe the …

Pre-Eruptive Evolution Of Izu-Bonin Boninite Melts: Mixing, Cooling, And Crystallization, Jesse L. Scholpp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Subduction is the geologic process in which one tectonic plate moves beneath another as it sinks into the Earth’s mantle. Subduction initiation in the Izu-Bonin Marianas system is the result of a gravitational failure during which one tectonic plate (the Pacific plate) spontaneously sinks beneath another (the Philippne Sea plate). Fluids released by the sinking plate that caused the overlying mantle to melt by reducing its meltimg temperature, forming the Izu-Bonin Mariana island arc system.

The resulting melts initially have the chemical compositions that are rich in silica and magnesia, and highly depleted in other elements, refered to a boninite …

Job Satisfaction And Employee Turnover Determinants In Fortune 50 Companies: Insights From Employee Reviews From Indeed.Com, Bishal Sainju

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We explored 682176 employee reviews of Fortune 50 companies from Indeed.com using topic discovery techniques like Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Structural Topic Modeling (STM) to identify salient aspects in employee reviews and automatically infer latent topics that tend to drive employee satisfaction. We also studied how various satisfaction factors could be related to employee turnover. We discovered important topics in the reviews, including Management and Leadership, Advancement Opportunity, Pay and Benefits, Work-Life Balance, and Culture, which we compare to the five Job Descriptive Index (JDI) facets. Both LDA and STM discovered well-separated and distinguishable topics. We also …

Survival Analysis: An Exact Method For Rare Events, Kristina Reutzel

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

Conventional asymptotic methods for survival analysis work well when sample sizes are at least moderately sufficient. When dealing with small sample sizes or rare events, the results from these methods have the potential to be inaccurate or misleading. To handle such data, an exact method is proposed and compared against two other methods: 1) the Cox proportional hazards model and 2) stratified logistic regression for discrete survival analysis data.

Hazard Analysis Of A Segment Of Highway Sr-12 Through Bryce Canyon National Park, Southern Utah, Tomsen Reed

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

Over 2.6 million people travel along highway SR-12, a National Scenic Byway, through Bryce Canyon in southern Utah each year. This highway is a major thoroughfare for tourists traveling to Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and other scenic attractions. SR-12 is susceptible to rockfall and landslide hazards where it descends from the Paunsaugunt Plateau into Tropic Canyon, and these hazards have potential consequences of economic loss due to travel delays for tourists and commodities, and possible loss of life. Rockfall could have devastating effects at this location because of the traffic volume, sharp turns, low visibility, and …

Culturally Disruptive Research: A Critical (Re)Engagement With Research Processes And Teaching Practices, Breanne K. Litts, Melissa Tehee, Jennifer Jenkins, Stuart Baggaley, Devon Isaacs, Megan Hamilton, Lili Yan

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Student Research

Purpose

As scholars, educators and policymakers recognize the impact of partnership-based research, there is a growing need for more in-depth understanding of how to conduct this work, especially with and in diverse project teams. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical examination of adopting a culturally disruptive approach in a research–practice partnership (RPP) that includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, designers and educators who worked together to collaboratively design culturally situated experiences for sixth graders.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a design-based implementation research methodology, data from design and implementation are presented as two case studies to illustrate key findings.

Findings …

Impacts Of Climate Change On Multiple Use Management Of Bureau Of Land Management Land In The Intermountain West, Usa, Elaine M. Brice, Brett A. Miller, Hongchao Zhang, Kirsten Goldstein, Scott N. Zimmer, Guenchik J. Grosklos, Patrick Belmont, Courtney G. Flint, Jennifer E. Givens, Peter B. Adler, Mark W. Brunson, Jordan W. Smith

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Although natural resource managers are concerned about climate change, many are unable to adequately incorporate climate change science into their adaptation strategies or management plans, and are not always aware of or do not employ the most current scientific knowledge. One of the most prominent natural resource management agencies in the United States is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is tasked with managing over 248 million acres (>1 million km²) of public lands for multiple, often conflicting, uses. Climate change will affect the sustainability of many of these land uses and could further increase conflicts …