Digital Commons Network^™

Mathematica Program To Compute Klein Gordon Equation For Generic Black Holes, Brant Smith

Physics Capstone Projects

The goal of this project is to develop a program that will compute the Klein Gordon equation for generic Black Holes through the program Mathematica. This program will be available on Utah State websites for public usage. This project focuses on an understanding of General Relativity and more concretely on theoretical aspects of Black Holes. Developing the program begins with computing the Laplace equation in flat space to understand what it means to have empty space without a Black Hole. The Klein Gordon equation for a Schwarzschild Black Hole is then solved to show what happens once a static, non-rotating …

The Writer: An Endangered Species, Hayley Dykman

Tutor's Column

The ability to write is a necessity in every stage of education and the career field beyond; however, few people are willing to label themselves as “writers.” It is especially important that students adopt the mindset that they are “writers” because writing is something they are required to do frequently. Believing you are a “writer” makes writing seem easier and a more innate part of your abilities. However, students often have an incorrect idea of what it means to be a “writer,” thinking that to be a “writer” is to be a published author or someone who always enjoys the …

Low-Precision Linear Algebra For Neural Networks, Frost Bennion Mitchell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Neural networks have been widely responsible for recent advances in machine learning, powering technologies such as digital assistants and AR photography. LPLANN (Low-Precision Linear Algebra for Neural Networks) is a cross-platform library written in C++ used for implementing neural networks. The software allows users to set specific levels of precision for calculations. Low-precision calculations use advanced parallelization techniques (SIMD, SWAR) to run neural networks at faster rates than full-precision calculations. This library is lightweight enough to run on embedded systems, only relies on OpenMP as a dependency, and is portable to any operating system. LPLANN also includes optimizations to provide …

Relationships Between Teachers' Past Experiences Learning Mathematics And Their Pedagogical Practices And Beliefs, Caci M. Jensen

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

This creative project centered around the cyclical pattern of mathematics anxiety currently prevalent in our schools. A high percentage of elementary teachers carry mathematics anxiety and beliefs around mathematics that effect their pedagogical practices day-to-day. This anxiety transfers to their students effecting their future choices in mathematics. This project was conducted in case studies with six teachers from a rural charter school. Journey maps, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and observations were used to collect the data.

A Case Study On How Meeting The Academic Needs Of Students Substantially Below Grade Level In Mathematics Affects Their Self-Efficacy Beliefs And Engagement, Lauren K. M. Burton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This researcher examined an alternative classroom structure for ninth-grade students substantially below grade level (SBGL) in mathematics. This researcher considered whether targeting the academic and social needs of students SBGL in mathematics in a ninth-grade class would increase their self-efficacy and engagement with the mathematics by studying four teaching effects: teacher, teacher-curriculum, peer-curriculum, and peer.

The researcher used interviews, observations, and surveys to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The case study (n = 19) employed a QUAL + quan convergent parallel mixed methods case study. Meta-inferences from the analyses of qualitative and quantitative data indicate that the structure of …

Improving Accuracy Of The Edgebox Approach, Kamna Yadav

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Object region detection plays a vital role in many domains ranging from self-driving cars to lane detection, which heavily involves the task of object detection. Improving the performance of object region detection approaches is of great importance and therefore is an active ongoing research in Computer Vision. Traditional sliding window paradigm has been widely used to identify hundreds of thousands of windows (covering different scales, angles, and aspect ratios for objects) before the classification step. However, it is not only computationally expensive but also produces relatively low accuracy in terms of the classifier output by providing many negative samples. Object …

Study Of The 3Ω Measurement Of The In-Plane And The Cross-Plane Thermal Properties On Anisotropic Thin Film Materials, Daxi Zhang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to the size of the nano-scale and micro-scale materials, traditional method for measuring the thermal properties of the bulk materials cannot be applied. The 3 Omega Method was developed by D. G. Cahill in the early 90s. It was used extensively to measure the thermal properties of thin film dielectric materials. Compare with other simulations or experimental methods, the 3 Omega Method has many advantages. Previous research has indicate that the 3 Omega method is capable of measuring the cross-plane thermal conductivity of thin film materials. In extension, an alternative improvement for measurement of the in-plane thermal conductivity and …

The Nesting Ecology Of Woodpeckers In The Eastern Cascades And Their Interactions With Nest Competitors And Predators, Samuel D. Cowell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Woodpeckers create nesting cavities for other birds and animals in forests. This creates dynamic interactions between both woodpeckers and these other animals. Using video cameras, we documented direct behavioral interactions between nesting woodpeckers and other animals in the Eastern Washington Cascades during the 2015 and 2016 breeding seasons. Additionally, we offered 937 students in a General Biology laboratory course to participate in this original research opportunity and described and the impact the experience had on the participants as well as the researchers.

In 2015, Western Blubebirds took over two active Black-backed Woodpecker nests by physically attacking the woodpeckers. In 2016, …

Spatial Ability Degradation In Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Students During The Winter Semester Break, Benjamin J. Call

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spatial ability represents our ability to mentally arrange, rotate, and explore objects in multiple dimensions. This ability has been found to be important for engineers and engineering students. Past research has shown that many interventions can be created to boost an individual’s spatial ability. In fact, past research has indicated that engineering students significantly increase in spatial ability without an intervention while they are enrolled in certain engineering courses. Some researchers have claimed that the spatial ability boosts are permanent after an intervention. However, most researchers do not check the validity of that claim with continued assessment after more than …

Sparse Signal Recovery Based On Compressive Sensing And Exploration Using Multiple Mobile Sensors, Mohammad Shekaramiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work in this dissertation is focused on two areas within the general discipline of statistical signal processing. First, several new algorithms are developed and exhaustively tested for solving the inverse problem of compressive sensing (CS). CS is a recently developed sub-sampling technique for signal acquisition and reconstruction which is more efficient than the traditional Nyquist sampling method. It provides the possibility of compressed data acquisition approaches to directly acquire just the important information of the signal of interest. Many natural signals are sparse or compressible in some domain such as pixel domain of images, time, frequency and so forth. …

An Examination Of What Motivates Utah Residents To Adopt The Practice Of Rainwater Harvesting, D. Wayne Honaker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although most of the earth is covered in water, a very limited amount of that water is fresh water, which is essential to our survival. Therefore, it is imperative that we do all that is possible to conserve and protect our extremely limited water resources, especially in arid regions such as the American West. While there are many ways and means to protecting and preserving our water resources, this thesis focuses on the strategy of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as it is done throughout the state of Utah. RWH is defined as taking the precipitation that falls on our built structures …

Quantum Mechanical Studies Of N-H···N Hydrogen Bonding In Acetamide Derivatives And Amino Acids, Sandra J. Lundell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Proteins are made of vast chains of amino acids that twist and fold into intricate designs. These structures are held in place by networks of noncovalent interactions. One of these, the hydrogen bond, forms bridges between adjacent pieces of the protein chain and is one of the most important contributors to the shape and stability of proteins. Hydrogen bonds come in all shapes and sizes and a full understanding of these not only aids in our understanding of proteins in general but can bridge the gap to finding cures to many protein-related diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia. The primary aim …

An Assessment Tool To Analyze Code Written In App Inventor, Rohit Gopalan

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

Assessment plays a significant role in today’s educational field. When creating an assessment tool, we should keep in mind that the tool measures learning, supports learning and encourages learning. Many assessment tools are available in the educational market such as Dr. Scratch, FCS1 Assessment Instrument, and Beyond the rubric. These tools help teachers to evaluate students’ performance in programming activities, but they do not completely measure the creativity shown by students in programming. For example, Dr. Scratch measures abstraction, problem decomposition, and parallelism. FCS1 Assessment Instrument measures a set of foundational computer science concepts like variables, loops, and arrays. It …

Statistical Methods To Account For Gene-Level Covariates In Normalization Of High-Dimensional Read-Count Data, Lauren Holt Lenz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of genetic-based cancer research is often to identify which genes behave differently in cancerous and healthy tissue. This difference in behavior, referred to as differential expression, may lead researchers to more targeted preventative care and treatment. One way to measure the expression of genes is though a process called RNA-Seq, that takes physical tissue samples and maps gene products and fragments in the sample back to the gene that created it, resulting in a large read-count matrix with genes in the rows and a column for each sample. The read-counts for tumor and normal samples are then compared …

Impact Of Bubble Baths On Stainless Steel Sphere Water Entry, Wesley Robinson

Physics Capstone Projects

Soap Bubbles on the water surface would seem to be an intuitive means for splash suppression, but their presence appears to be a double edged sword. We present on the water entry of hydrophilic spheres where the liquid surface is augmented by the presence of a bubble layer, similar to a bubble bath. While the presence of a bubble layer can diminish splashing upon impact at low Weber numbers, it also induces cavity formation at speeds below the critical velocity. The formation of a cavity generally results in larger Worthington jets and thus, larger amounts of ejected liquid. Bubble layers …

Exponent: High Speed Cubesat Radio, Dana Sorensen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Software Defined Radios (SDR) are limited by their usable bandwidth, which restricts how quickly they can transmit or receive data. The High Speed CubeSat Radio (HSCR) is capable of transmitting and receiving higher bandwidth signals by combining the bandwidths of several individual SDR transceivers. The HSCR performs phase correction to seamlessly stitch the bandwidths of each individual SDR into a single larger bandwidth.

By increasing the number of SDRs inside the HSCR, the bandwidth of the overall system will increase. This increase in bandwidth is limited only by the speed of the processing unit in working with received or transmitting …

Examining Teacher Perceptions When Utilizing Volunteers In School-Based Agricultural Education Programs, Ashley B. Cromer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There has been little research conducted related to how school-based agricultural (SBAE) teachers perceive the utilization of volunteers in the classroom. The United States is facing a shortage of SBAE teachers, and with turnover rates that are not sustainable, solutions for support and reduction of the SBAE teachers’ workload must be sought with diligence. There is potential for volunteers to reduce some of the responsibilities that the SBAE teacher is faced with. The purposes of this study are to determine the demographic characteristics of the volunteers being utilized and of the SBAE teachers, determine the perceived benefits, barriers and beliefs …

Financial Outcomes From Selection Of Insurance Intervals, Shana Anderson Stewart

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

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential value of enrolling in rainfall-index for pasture, rangeland, and forage insurance for Utah producers. A stochastic optimization model is used to identify the optimal selection of insurance intervals that will provide the maximum indemnity payments less premiums. Four Utah counties were selected for analysis. Results indicate that positive returns will occur greater than 60% of the time in all counties with the selected insurance intervals. The optimal months to insure varied in each county.

Comparing The Predictive Power Of Executive Function Assessment Strategies On Preschool Mathematics Performance, Jacob A. Esplin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A child’s executive function (aspects: working memory, response inhibition, and set-shifting between sets of rules) capabilities have been found to strongly relate to their mathematics skills. However, while the relationship has been strongly supported by researchers, a consensus has not been reached regarding the specifics of the relationship between executive function and math skills, including which executive function aspect is most predictive of mathematical performance and the differences in said relationship that might be found when examining both numeracy, such as counting skills and basic operations, and geometry skills. The lack of consensus may be in part because researchers have …

Running The Cañons Of The Rio Grande: Part 2 Boquillas Canyon, Texas And Coahuila, Todd L. Blythe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 1899, Robert T. Hill led the first scientific exploration of the remote segment of the Rio Grande known as the Big Bend. Hill’s observations from this expedition were published in an article titled “Running the Cañons of the Rio Grande.” At the time of Hill’s expedition, the stream flow of the Rio Grande was largely depleted by water development in the upstream portions of the basin. The continued overallocation of the Rio Grande has led to the degradation of aquatic ecosystems in the Big Bend, one of North America’s largest transboundary protected areas, such that management of natural resources …

Space Syntax: Regional Planning For Bicycles, Connor J. White

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study focused on using a mapping tool, Space Syntax, to analyze the connectivity of the Cache County road network and its use to plan for bicycles. Space Syntax is being compared to another method that is already used by city planners called Bicycle Level of Service, or BLOS. The two analyses used data from Cache County and, after they were modeled and evaluated, a statistical analysis was done to see how similar one is to the other. The analyses were done at both a regional and a local scale. At both scales the analyses were not similar.

Data was …

The Use Of Explicit Comprehension Strategies During Oral Instruction Of Informational Text Structures And The Effect On First-Graders' Listening Comprehension, Noelle E. Converse

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study evaluated the effect of an explicit comprehension read-aloud routine of science content on first grade students’ listening comprehension.The read-aloud routine taught the structures common in the informational text (compare, contrast, and compare-contrast) and found in first grade science big books with the goal of improving understanding of the science content. Students who received the intervention showed improvements in their ability to understand the compare-contrast text structures compared to students who were taught the same content without the routine or students who were taught typical science read-aloud content without the routine. Observations revealed that teachers who were most consistent …

Multi-Resolution Analysis Using Wavelet Basis Conditioned On Homogenization, Abibat Adebisi Lasisi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation considers an approximation strategy using a wavelet reconstruction scheme for solving elliptic problems. The foci of the work are on (1) the approximate solution of differential equations using multiresolution analysis based on wavelet transforms and (2) the homogenization process for solving one and two-dimensional problems, to understand the solutions of second order elliptic problems. We employed homogenization to compute the average formula for permeability in a porous medium. The structure of the associated multiresolution analysis allows for the reconstruction of the approximate solution of the primary variable in the elliptic equation. Using a one-dimensional wavelet reconstruction algorithm proposed …

Using Photographic Activity Schedules To Facilitate Independent Completion Of Academic Tasks For Young Children With Autism, Nicole Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle to perform a series of academic tasks, like academic worksheets, independently. Photographic activity schedules are one technique that has been demonstrated to promote independent behavior in individuals with ASD. This study examined how activity schedules impacted the accurate and independent completion of a series of academic worksheets for three young children with ASD ages 6 and 7. Participants needed to performed a series of math and reading worksheets in the presence of an adult, but struggle to display those concepts accurately in the absence of an adult. Procedures involved training participants to …

Non-Contact Evaluation Methods For Infrastructure Condition Assessment, Sattar Dorafshan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States infrastructure, e.g. roads and bridges, are in a critical condition. Inspection, monitoring, and maintenance of these infrastructure in the traditional manner can be expensive, dangerous, time-consuming, and tied to human judgment (the inspector). Non-contact methods can help overcoming these challenges. In this dissertation two aspects of non-contact methods are explored: inspections using unmanned aerial systems (UASs), and conditions assessment using image processing and machine learning techniques. This presents a set of investigations to determine a guideline for remote autonomous bridge inspections.

New Ca-Id-Tims Detrital Zircon Constraints On Middle Neoproterozoic Sedimentary Successions, Southwestern United States, Abigail R. Bullard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Three related sedimentary successions located in Arizona, Utah, and California were deposited in basins on proto-North America during the early rifting of Rodinia (~780 Mya). Previous detrital zircon U-Pb maximum ages for the units are inexact, making it difficult to piece together what happened at this point in Earth history.

We report better maximum age constraints on these units obtained by subjecting detrital zircons to high-precision CA-ID-TIMS analysis, which provide more exact ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U ages. These new data significantly improve the precision for the base of the ChUMP units, with an average age of 775.63 ± 0.27 Ma …

Climate Change Perceptions And Adaptation Among Small-Scale Farmers In Uganda: A Community-Based Participatory Approach, Thomas Derr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Climate change in the East African country of Uganda is causing severe variations in the once predictable seasonal weather patterns that farmers had come to depend on. This, in combination with social and economic challenges, has significantly increased the vulnerability of farmers who make up the majority of Uganda’s population. Previous knowledge and observations suggest that Ugandan farmers may be reluctant or slow to change their practices in response to the changing climate. Strategies are therefore needed to identify challenges and sustainable solutions. This research used qualitative data collection methods known as participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory action research …

Supporting Adolescent Metacognition In Engineering Design Through Scripted Prompts From Peer Tutors: A Comparative Case Study, Kristin Marie Strong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 2013, developers of the Next Generation Science Standards implemented national K-12 directives and elevated engineering design to the level of scientific inquiry. Teaching design, however, is challenging to educators due to the complex nature of design problems, which cannot be solved via simple algorithms. Solving design problems requires a more reflective and iterative approach that emphasizes metacognitive skills like planning, monitoring, and taking another person’s perspective. Educators are further challenged by children’s immature metacognitive skills, which may be insufficient to engage in the entire design process.

A qualitative study of paired seventh graders demonstrated a pragmatic learning activity for …

The Influence Of Mechanical Stratigraphy On Thrust-Ramp Nucleation And Propagation Of Thrust Faults, Sarah S. Wigginton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Our current understanding of thrust fault kinematics predicts that thrust faults nucleate on low angle, weak surfaces before they propagate upward and forms a higher angle ramp. While this classic kinematic and geometric model serves well in some settings, it does not fully consider the observations of footwall deformation beneath some thrust faults. We examine an alternative end-member model of thrust fault formation called “ramp-first” fault formation. This model hypothesizes that in mechanically layered rocks, thrust ramps nucleate in the structurally strong units, and that faults can propagate both upward and downward into weaker units forming folds at both fault …

Historical Channel Change Caused By A Century Of Flow Alteration On Sixth Water Creek And Diamond Fork River, Ut, Jabari C. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Changes in the amount of water and sediment that enter a river can change its shape and size. The way that rivers change is affected by a variety of factors, including the size of the sediment in the river, and past changes to the river. The Diamond Fork River in central Utah has been altered by water delivered from the Colorado River system for over a century. Beginning in 1915, water used for irrigation was delivered through a tributary, Sixth Water Creek, with daily summer flows that were much larger than natural flows. This caused drastic change to the rivers, …