Digital Commons Network^™

Fire-Environment Analysis: An Example Of Army Garrison Camp Williams, Utah, Scott M. Frost, Martin E. Alexander, R. Justin Derose, Michael J. Jenkins

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The planning of fuel treatments for ecological or societal purposes requires an in-depth understanding of the conditions associated with the occurrence of free-burning fire behavior for the area of concern. Detailed fire-environment analysis for Army Garrison Camp Williams (AGCW) in north-central Utah was completed as a prerequisite for fuel treatment planning, using a procedure that could be generally applied. Vegetation and fuels data, topographic and terrain features, and weather and climate data, were assessed and integrated into predictive fuel models to aid planning. A fire behavior fuel model map was developed from biophysical variables, vegetation type, and plot survey data …

Collaborative Research: Quantifying Crustal Hydration Effects In The Colorado Plateau From Xenoliths, Dennis Newell

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Strategies For Determining Electron Yield Material Parameters For Spacecraft Charge Modeling, Phil Lundgreen, John R. Dennison

All Physics Faculty Publications

Accurate modeling of spacecraft charging is essential to mitigate well‐known and all‐too‐common deleterious and costly effects on spacecraft resulting from charging induced by interactions with the space plasma environment. This paper addresses how limited availability of electron emission and transport properties of spacecraft materials—in particular, secondary electron yields—and the wide ranges measured for such properties pose a critical issue for modeling spacecraft charging. It describes a materials charging database for electron emission properties under development, which facilitates more accurate spacecraft charge modeling when used in concert with the strategies outlined herein. These data and techniques provide tools for more accurate …

Characterizing The Growth Of One Student's Mathematical Understanding In A Multi-Representational Learning Environment, Hilal Gulkilik, Patricia S. Moyer-Packenham, Hasan Huseyin Ugurlu, Nejla Yuruk

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to characterize the growth of one student’s mathematical understanding and use of different representations about a geometric transformation, dilation. We accomplished this purpose by using the Pirie-Kieren model jointly with the Semiotic Representation Theory as a lens. Elif, a 10^th- grade student, was purposefully chosen as the case for this study because of the growth of mathematical understanding about dilation she exhibited over time. Elif participated in task-based interviews before, during and after participating in a variety of transformation lessons where she used multiple representations, including physical and virtual manipulatives. The results …

New Water Resources Management Textbook Co-Authored By Ryan Dupont, Utah Water Research Laboratory

News

UWRL faculty member R. Ryan Dupont recently published a new textbook with co-author Louis Theodore, an internationally recognized author and lecturer on chemical engineering and environmental protection topics. Dr. Dupont, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been teaching and conducting research in environmental engineering at UWRL at USU for more than 35 years. His main research areas have addressed soil and groundwater bioremediation, stormwater management via green infrastructure, field remediation technology demonstration and treatment system performance verification, and water reuse technology performance and risks. He also served as Acting Director of the Utah Water Research …

Potential For Managed Aquifer Recharge To Enhance Fish Habitat In A Regulated River, Robert W. Van Kirk, Bryce A. Contor, Christina N. Morrisett, Sarah E. Null, Ashly S. Loibman

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is typically used to enhance the agricultural water supply but may also be promising to maintain summer streamflows and temperatures for cold-water fish. An existing aquifer model, water temperature data, and analysis of water administration were used to assess potential benefits of MAR to cold-water fisheries in Idaho’s Snake River. This highly-regulated river supports irrigated agriculture worth US $10 billion and recreational trout fisheries worth $100 million. The assessment focused on the Henry’s Fork Snake River, which receives groundwater from recharge incidental to irrigation and from MAR operations 8 km from the river, addressing (1) the …

The Validity And Instructional Value Of A Rubric For Evaluating Online Course Quality: An Empirical Study, Ji Eun Lee, Mimi Recker, Min Yuan

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study investigated the validity and instructional value of a rubric developed to evaluate the quality of online courses offered at a midsized public university. This rubric was adapted from an online course quality rubric widely used in higher education, the Quality Matters rubric. We first examined the reliability and preliminary construct validity of the rubric using quality ratings for 202 online courses and eliminated twelve problematic items. We then examined the instructional value of the rubric by investigating causal relationships between 1) course quality scores, 2) online interactions between students, instructors, and content, and 3) student course performance (course …

The Development And Validation Of A 'Flux-Corrected Transport' Based Solution Methodology For The Plasmasphere Refilling Problem Following Geomagnetic Storms, Kausik Chatterjee, Robert W. Schunk

All Physics Faculty Publications

The refilling of the plasmasphere following geomagnetic storms remains one of the longstanding and interesting problems in ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling research. The objective of this paper is the formulation and development of a one-dimensional (1D) refilling model using the flux-corrected transport method, a numerical method that is extremely well-suited to handling problems with shocks and discontinuities. In this paper, the developed methodology has been validated against exact, analytical benchmarks, and extremely good agreement has been obtained between these analytical benchmarks and numerical results. The ultimate objective of this research is the development of a three-dimensional (3D) multi-ion model for ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling …

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, February 27, 2020, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

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

Educational Policies Committee Agenda, February 27, 2020, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Machine Learning Predicts Reach-Scale Channel Types From Coarse-Scale Geospatial Data In A Large River Basin, Hervé Guillon, Colin F. Byrne, Belize A. Lane, Samuel Sandoval Solis, Gregory B. Pasternack

Publications

Hydrologic and geomorphic classifications have gained traction in response to the increasing need for basin-wide water resources management. Regardless of the selected classification scheme, an open scientific challenge is how to extend information from limited field sites to classify tens of thousands to millions of channel reaches across a basin. To address this spatial scaling challenge, this study leverages machine learning to predict reach-scale geomorphic channel types using publicly available geospatial data. A bottom-up machine learning approach selects the most accurate and stable model among∼20,000 combinations of 287 coarse geospatial predictors, preprocessing methods, and algorithms in a three-tiered framework to …

Individual Behavior Drives Ecosystem Function And The Impacts Of Harvest, Jacob E. Allgeier, Timothy J. Cline, Timothy E. Walsworth, Gus Wathen, Craig A. Layman, Daniel E. Schindler

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Current approaches for biodiversity conservation and management focus on sustaining high levels of diversity among species to maintain ecosystem function. We show that the diversity among individuals within a single population drives function at the ecosystem scale. Specifically, nutrient supply from individual fish differs from the population average >80% of the time, and accounting for this individual variation nearly doubles estimates of nutrients supplied to the ecosystem. We test how management (i.e., selective harvest regimes) can alter ecosystem function and find that strategies targeting more active individuals reduce nutrient supply to the ecosystem up to 69%, a greater effect than …

Crustal Composition And Moho Variations Of The Central And Eastern United States: Improving Resolutionand Geologic Interpretation Of Earthscope Usarray Seismic Images Using Gravity, H. L. Zhang, D. Ravat, Anthony R. Lowry

Geosciences Faculty Publications

EarthScope's USArray Transportable Array has shortcomings for the purpose of interpreting geologic features of wavelengths less than the Transportable Array station spacing, but these can be overcome by using higher spatial resolution gravity data. In this study, we exploit USArray receiver functions to reduce nonuniqueness in the interpretation of gravity anomalies. We model gravity anomalies from previously derived density variations of sedimentary basins, crustal V_p/V_s variation, Moho variation, and upper mantle density variation derived from body wave imaging informed by surface wave tomography to estimate V_p/V_s. Although average densities and density contrasts for …

Plant–Soil Feedback Effects Altered By Aboveground Herbivory Explain Plant Species Abundance In The Landscape, Johannes Heinze, Alexander Wacker, Andrew Kulmatiski

Ecology Center Publications

Relatively little is known about how plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs) may affect plant growth in field conditions where factors such as herbivory may be important. Using a potted experiment in a grassland, we measured PSFs with and without aboveground insect herbivory for 20 plant species. We then compared PSF values to plant landscape abundance. Aboveground herbivory had a large negative effect on PSF values. For 15 of 20 species, PSFs were more negative with herbivory than without. This occurred because plant biomass on “home” soils was smaller with herbivory than without. PSF values with herbivory were correlated with plant landscape abundance, …

On Tanzania’S Precipitation Climatology, Variability, And Future Projection, Krishna Borhara, Binod Pokharel, Brennan L. Bean, Liping Deng, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

We investigate historical and projected precipitation in Tanzania using observational and climate model data. Precipitation in Tanzania is highly variable in both space and time due to topographical variations, coastal influences, and the presence of lakes. Annual and seasonal precipitation trend analyses from 1961 to 2016 show maximum rainfall decline in Tanzania during the long rainy season in the fall (March–May), and an increasing precipitation trend in northwestern Tanzania during the short rainy season in the spring (September–November). Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis applied to Tanzania’s precipitation patterns shows a stronger correlation with warmer temperatures in the western Indian Ocean …

Emerging Priorities For Microbiome Research, Chad M. Cullen, Kawalpreet K. Aneja, Sinem Beyhan, Clara E. Cho, Stephen Woloszynek, Matteo Convertino, Sophie J. Mccoy, Yanyan Zhang, Matthew Z. Anderson, David Alvarez-Ponce, Ekaterina Smirnova, Lisa Karstens, Pieter C. Dorrestein, Hongzhe Li, Ananya Sen Gupta, Et Al.

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Microbiome research has increased dramatically in recent years, driven by advances in technology and significant reductions in the cost of analysis. Such research has unlocked a wealth of data, which has yielded tremendous insight into the nature of the microbial communities, including their interactions and effects, both within a host and in an external environment as part of an ecological community. Understanding the role of microbiota, including their dynamic interactions with their hosts and other microbes, can enable the engineering of new diagnostic techniques and interventional strategies that can be used in a diverse spectrum of fields, spanning from ecology …

Projected Increase Of The East Asian Summer Monsoon (Meiyu) In Taiwan By Climate Models With Variable Performance, Yu-Shiang Tung, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Jung-Lien Chu, Chi-Hua Wu, Yung-Ming Chen, Chao-Tzuen Cheng, Lee-Yaw Lin

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The active phase of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) in Taiwan during May and June, known as Meiyu, produces substantial precipitation for water uses in all sectors of society. Following a companion study that analysed the historical increase in the Meiyu precipitation, the present study conducted model evaluation and diagnosis based on the EASM lifecycle over Taiwan. Higher and lower skill groups were identified from 17 Couple Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models, with five models in each group. Despite the difference in model performance, both groups projected a substantial increase in the Meiyu precipitation over Taiwan. …

In-Situ Gold–Ceria Nanoparticles: Superior Optical Fluorescence Quenching Sensor For Dissolved Oxygen, Nader Shehata, Ishac Kandas, Effat Samir

Biology Faculty Publications

Cerium oxide (ceria) nanoparticles (NPs) have been proved to be an efficient optical fluorescent material through generating visible emission (~530 nm) under violet excitation. This feature allowed ceria NPs to be used as an optical sensor via the fluorescence quenching Technique. In this paper, the impact of in-situ embedded gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) inside ceria nanoparticles was studied. Then, gold–ceria NPs were used for sensing dissolved oxygen (DO) in aqueous media. It was observed that both fluorescence intensity and lifetime were changed due to increased concentration of DO. Added gold was found to enhance the sensitivity of ceria to DO …

Gold/Qds-Embedded-Ceria Nanoparticles: Optical Fluorescence Enhancement As A Quenching Sensor, Nader Shehata, Effat Samir, Ishac Kandas

Biology Student Research

This work focuses on improving the fluorescence intensity of cerium oxide (ceria) nanoparticles (NPs) through added plasmonic nanostructures. Ceria nanoparticles are fluorescent nanostructures which can emit visible fluorescence emissions under violet excitation. Here, we investigated different added plasmonic nanostructures, such as gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and Cadmium sulfide/selenide quantum dots (CdS/CdSe QDs), to check the enhancement of fluorescence intensity emissions caused by ceria NPs. Different plasmonic resonances of both aforementioned nanostructures have been selected to develop optical coupling with both fluorescence excitation and emission wavelengths of ceria. In addition, different additions whether in-situ or post-synthesis have been investigated. We found …

Collaborative Research: A General Approach To Partitioning Contributions From Multiple Drivers Affecting Individuals, Populations, And Communities, Peter B. Adler

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Usu Students Win First Asdso Student Dam Model Competition, Utah Water Research Laboratory

News

USU students Kyler Olsen, Braiden Amata, Jack Tousley, Kathryn Margetts, and their Technical Advisor Dr. Brian Crookston recently won the ASDSO’s first student dam model competition.

Dynamic Habitat Disturbance And Ecological Resilience (Dyhder): Modeling Population Responses To Habitat Condition, Brendan P. Murphy, Timothy E. Walsworth, Patrick Belmont, Mary M. Conner, Phaedra Budy

Ecology Center Publications

Understanding how populations respond to spatially heterogeneous habitat disturbance is as critical to conservation as it is challenging. Here, we present a new, free, and open‐source metapopulation model: Dynamic Habitat Disturbance and Ecological Resilience (DyHDER), which incorporates subpopulation habitat condition and connectivity into a population viability analysis framework. Modeling temporally dynamic and spatially explicit habitat disturbance of varying magnitude and duration is accomplished through the use of habitat time‐series data and a mechanistic approach to adjusting subpopulation vital rates. Additionally, DyHDER uses a probabilistic dispersal model driven by site‐specific habitat suitability, density dependence, and directionally dependent connectivity. In the first …

Glaciers In The Canadian Columbia Basin, Technical Report, Brian Menounos, Ben M. Pelto, Sean W. Fleming, R. Dan Moore, Frank Weber, Dave Hutchinson, Janice Brahney

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The cryosphere - all forms of frozen water on Earth- plays a fundamental role in its climate system. Seasonal snow, mountain glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice reflect much of the incoming shortwave radiation at high latitudes and in mountainous terrain back to space, helping to regulate the surface temperature of the planet. Accelerating concentrations of greenhouse gases (Solomon et al. 2009) are responsible for late twentieth and early twenty-first century tropospheric warming; this warming in turn drives large-scale changes in the cryosphere, with global implications that include changes in hemispheric circulation (Francis and Vavrus 2012), sea level rise (Gardner …

Consequences Of Didymo Blooms In The Transnational Kootenay River Basin, Niall G. Clancy, Janice Brahney, Jeff Curtis, Phaedra E. Budy

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Stream habitat changes that affect primary consumers often indirectly impact secondary consumers such as fishes. Blooms of the benthic algae Didymosphenia geminata (Didymo) represent one such habitat change known to affect stream macroinvertebrates. However, the potential indirect trophic impacts on fish consumers via modifications to their diet are poorly understood. The overall goal of this project was to determine if Didymo blooms in streams of the Kootenay River basin of British Columbia and Montana affect the condition and growth of fishes, and to see whether trophic mechanisms were responsible for any observed changes. We therefore quantified the diet, condition, and …

Competition Between Intra And Intermolecular Triel Bonds. Complexes Between Naphthalene Derivatives And Neutral Or Anionic Lewis Bases, Wiktor Zierkiewicz, Mariusz Michalczyk, Steve Scheiner

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

A TrF₂ group (Tr = B, Al, Ga, In, Tl) is placed on one of the α positions of naphthalene, and its ability to engage in a triel bond (TrB) with a weak (NCH) and strong (NC⁻) nucleophile is assessed by ab initio calculations. As a competitor, an NH₂ group is placed on the neighboring C^α, from which point it forms an intramolecular TrB with the TrF₂ group. The latter internal TrB reduces the intensity of the π-hole on the Tr atom, decreasing its ability to engage in a second external TrB. The …

Explicit Ambient Metrics And Holonomy, Ian M. Anderson, Thomas Leistner, Pawel Nurowski

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

We present three large classes of examples of conformal structures whose Fefferman-Graham ambient metrics can be found explicitly. Our method for constructing these examples rests upon a set of sufficiency conditions under which the Fefferman-Graham equations are assured to reduce to a system of inhomogeneous linear partial differential equations. Our examples include conformal pp-waves and, more importantly, conformal structures that are defined by generic co-rank 3 distributions in dimensions 5 and 6.Our examples illustrate various aspects of the ambient metric construction.

The holonomy algebras of our ambient metrics are studied in detail. In particular, we exhibit a large class of …

Cooperative Extension And Sustainability Outreach: Programmatic Successes, Administrative Support, And Areas For Improvement, Roslynn Brain Mccann, Mark Apel, Clark Dove, Ramona Madhosingh-Hector, Jennison Kipp Searcy, David Kay

Extension Research

According to the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, without urgent global changes, climate catastrophe caused by warming of greater than 1.5°C will occur by 2030, endangering the planet's capacity to sustain human populations and livelihoods. The National Network for Sustainable Living Education administered a national survey in January 2017 to assess how well-positioned Extension is to address sustainability in the communities the organization serves. Educators from 40 states responded, and 1,395 usable surveys were received. Survey results will help Extension employees discover opportunities for innovation and relevancy in their programming.

Radiometric Stability Of The Saber Instrument, Martin G. Mlynczak, Taumi Daniels, Linda A. Hunt, Jia Yue, B. Thomas Marshall, James M. Russell Iii, Ellis E. Remsburg, Joseph Tansock, Roy Esplin, Mark Jensen, Andrew Shumway, Larry Gordley, J. -H. Yee

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

The SABER instrument on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Thermosphere‐Ionosphere‐Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite continues to provide a long‐term record of Earth's stratosphere, mesosphere, and lower thermosphere. The SABER data are being used to examine long‐term changes and trends in temperature, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. A tacit, central assumption of these analyses is that the SABER instrument radiometric calibration is not changing with time; that is, the instrument is stable. SABER stratospheric temperatures and those derived from Global Positioning System Radio Occultation measurements are compared to examine SABER's stability. Global Positioning System Radio Occultation measurements are inherently stable …

Periodic Bouncing Modes For Two Uniformly Magnetized Spheres. I. Trajectories, Boyd F. Edwards, Bo A. Johnson, John M. Edwards

All Physics Faculty Publications

We consider a uniformly magnetized sphere that moves without friction in a plane in response to the field of a second, identical, fixed sphere, making elastic hard-sphere collisions with this sphere. We seek periodic solutions to the associated nonlinear equations of motion. We find closed-form mathematical solutions for small-amplitude modes and use these to characterize and validate our large-amplitude modes, which we find numerically. Our Runge-Kutta integration approach allows us to find 1243 distinct periodic modes with the free sphere located initially at its stable equilibrium position. Each of these modes bifurcates from the finite-amplitude radial bouncing mode with infinitesimal-amplitude …

Can Aromaticity Be A Kinetic Trap? Example Of Mechanically Interlocked Aromatic [2-5]Catenanes Built From Cyclo[18]Carbon, Nikita Fedik, Maksim Kulichenko, Dmitriy Steglenko, Alexander I. Boldyrev

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The unusual stability of cyclo[18]carbon arising from its aromaticity might be used to provide the kinetic trapping needed in the design of interlocked systems. The kinetic barrier separating the interlocked rings and the chemically bonded complex is about 30 kcal mol−1. In addition, the rings can slide freely, which is a promising property for the design of molecular gears and motors.