Digital Commons Network^™

Making Space On Orbit: Responsible Orbital Deployment In The Era Of High-Volume Launch, Peter Beck

Small Satellite Conference

The long-awaited era of dedicated small satellite launches has arrived, and with it, new challenges and responsibilities for launch providers. For decades the focus has been on providing a frequent, reliable and affordable service to space for small satellites. With this now a reality, the question on the industry’s mind is how to cope with the growing challenge of orbital debris from high-volume launch. Following Rocket Lab’s recent successful orbital launches, a growing number of commercial launch players are looking to provide a service to orbit for the burgeoning market. Given space’s significance as a global resource, the safe and …

Balancing Capability And Cost On The Stpsat-5 Microsat Mission, Clifford Graham, Mark Barrera, Pat Remias, John Eterno, Linda Ettling

Small Satellite Conference

STPSat-5 is a small technology demonstration satellite developed for the DoD Space Test Program, recently launched in December 2018. The STPSat-5 space vehicle is hosting five separate space experiments in Low Earth Orbit on a single Microsatellite platform. This paper discusses the development and operation of the STPSat-5 mission with an emphasis on methods used to achieve high capability with low-cost solutions. The application of CubeSat-class hardware in a Microsatellite-class space vehicle is reviewed. Attention is given to approaches for establishing flight readiness for commercial hardware. In addition, this paper covers lessons learned in adapting heritage flight software for operation …

A Formal Approach To Verification And Validation Of Guidance, Navigation, And Control Algorithms, Jason Crane, Jason Westphal, Islam Hussein, Meeko Oishi, Abraham Vinod, Joseph Gleason

Small Satellite Conference

The traditional Monte Carlo based approaches to Verification & Validation (V&V) of Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C) algorithms suffers from drawbacks, including typically requiring a significant amount of computational resources to guarantee a candidate algorithm’s appropriateness. Formal approaches to V&V of GN&C algorithms can help address these is-sues as they are not based on simulation. Therefore, we are investigating and developing an innovative formal V&V algorithm for spacecraft GN&C, specifically in the determination of safety of maneuvers for satellite Remote Proximity Operations and Docking (RPOD). Formal V&V methods could provide rigorous and quantifiable assurances of safety for a given satellite …

Educative Platform Based On The Pocketqube 60 Standard, Ivan Ibrahim Fernandez-Morales, Sergio Escobedo-Juarez, Roxana Lechuga-Rodriquez, Israel Alejandro Arriaga-Trejo

Small Satellite Conference

We present the results of workshops aimed to high school students in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico using an educational platform based on the PocketQube60 electrical specification. The modules that constitute the platform (EPS, OBC, COMMS and the payload) were designed by engineering students of the Autonomous University of Zacatecas.

The $99 Satellite, Luca Maresi

Small Satellite Conference

The rule of the game is called 'shared economy'. Some of the most successful companies in the world don't own the assets they sell. Uber, the largest taxi company in the world, does not own taxis. Airbnb doesn’t own the houses they rent. This was already the case in the past. For example, tour operators didn't own the hotels in their portfolio. The difference, with respect to Airbnb and Uber, is that in these cases the assets are privately owned and shared with customers. The big revolution of the shared economy is happening thanks to the Internet. The users can …

Marco: Flight Review And Lessons Learned, Andrew T. Klesh, John Baker, Joel Krajewski

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Pycubed: An Open-Source, Radiation-Tested Cubesat Platform Programmable Entirely In Python, Maximillian Holliday, Andrea Ramirez, Connor Settle, Tane Tatum, Debbie Senesky, Zachary Manchester

Small Satellite Conference

The hardware and software pitfalls associated with satellite development have led to a nearly 60% failure rate among first-time CubeSat builders. We believe that a high-quality, community-driven CubeSat avionics platform would dramatically improve mission success rates. PyCubed is an open-source, radiation-tested CubeSat avionics platform that integrates power, computing, communication, and attitude determination and control functionality into a single low-cost PC104-compatible module programmable entirely in Python. PyCubed addresses many hardware-related failure modes through component and system-level radiation testing, in-depth design and qualification documentation, and flight heritage on a successful LEO mission. The challenge of flight software development is also mitigated through …

University Cubesat Project Management For Success, Lucinda Berthoud, Michael Swartwout, James Cutler, David Klumpar, Jesper A. Larsen, Jens Dalsgaard Nielsen

Small Satellite Conference

CubeSats have been developed by many different institutions since they were introduced by California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University in 1999. Given the 40% failure rate of university missions, it is important to discover what project arrangements may give the CubeSat the best chance of success. The aim of this paper is to offer those wishing to start a CubeSat program some indications of what successful project management at a university may look like. This paper provides case studies of 3 universities who have launched more than 4 satellites: University of Michigan, the Montana State University, and Aalborg University …

Application Of Micro-Scale 3d Printing In Pharmaceutics, Andrew Kjar, Yu Huang

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

3D printing, as one of the most rapidly-evolving fabrication technologies, has released a cascade of innovation in the last two decades. In the pharmaceutical field, the integration of 3D printing technology has offered unique advantages, especially at the micro-scale. When printed at a micro-scale, materials and devices can provide nuanced solutions to controlled release, minimally invasive delivery, high-precision targeting, biomimetic models for drug discovery and development, and future opportunities for personalized medicine. This review aims to cover the recent advances in this area. First, the 3D printing techniques are introduced with respect to the technical parameters and features that are …

2019 Utah State University Orientation Guide, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

A special supplemental magazine provided by The Utah Statesman to take a closer look at some of the services and departments available at Utah State University.

Ant Diversity Patterns Across Tropical Elevation Gradients: Effects Of Sampling Method And Subcommunity, John T. Longino, Michael G. Branstetter, Philip S. Ward

All PIRU Publications

Local diversity may be influenced by niche assembly processes involving competition for limited resources, or by niche conservatism and the length of time clades have had to diversify. Mid‐elevation peaks in ant diversity on wet forest elevational gradients are most consistent with niche conservatism effects. However, it is possible that subsets of the ant community vary in the degree to which niche assembly processes are important, and this may be revealed by sampling methods that bias toward particular subsets. A previous study of ant‐elevation patterns in Middle American wet forest relied on Winkler sampling, a method that samples much of …

Utah State Magazine, Fall 2019, Utah State University

Utah State Magazine

The quarterly magazine for friends and alumni of Utah State University.

Comparing Uk Tax Returns Of Foreign Multinationals To Matched Domestic Firms, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

In this paper, I use confidential UK corporate tax returns data to explore whether there are systematic differences in the amount of taxable profits that multinational and domestic companies report. I find that the ratio of taxable profits to total assets reported by foreign multinational subsidiaries is one-half that of comparable domestic standalones. The majority of the difference is attributable to the fact that a higher proportion of foreign multinational subsidiaries report zero taxable profits. I document how the estimated difference is related to profit shifting and show that using accounting data leads to much smaller estimates of the difference.

Licentious Legends: A Folklore Podcast, Alexandra L. Haynes

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

Licentious Legends was created out of a need to both understand and educate about sexual contemporary legends; not just what they are and what defines them, but the effect that they have on those who experience them. The purpose of this podcast is not to shame, but to take what has been found and educate about the joys and dangers of these legends. These legends range from the everyday (such as "The Hook"), to legends about a young man killing himself with a plunger. In an effort to gather as many examples as they could, Faye interviewed several of their …

The Rise Of Populist Rhetoric And The Mainstreaming Of A Party? Testing The Rhetorical Shifts Between Front National’S Presidents Jean-Marie Le Pen And Marine Le Pen, Muriel C. Mcgregor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Populist movements have been on the rise across Europe and the Americas. In France, the far right-wing party, Le Front National, has experienced recent growth in electoral success. Scholars of the Front National have in part attributed the party’s success to its increased use of populist rhetoric. This thesis examines the populist rhetoric used between the Front National’s past president Jean-Marie Le Pen and current president Marine Le Pen in order to test these scholarly claims. Based on their campaign speeches for the 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017 French presidential elections, I conducted a quantitative dictionary-based analysis on …

Newspaper Representations Of Homelessness: A Temporal Comparative Analysis, Sarah Werman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research focuses on the ways in which homelessness is discussed in two newspapers in a major city in the intermountain United States. I analyzed newspaper articles with the goal of understanding public discourse in two ideologically distinct newspaper venues. I examined the news media portrayal of the homeless in 752 articles in these two newspapers during two distinct six­-month time periods, one during which the city was nationally recognized as a major advocate for “Housing First,” or “solving homelessness,” and a more recent period during which urban gentrification has challenged the location of homeless services. Specifically, I addressed the …

Characterization Of Biofilms In A Synthetic Rhizosphere Using Hollow Fiber Root-Mimetic Systems, Michelle Bonebrake

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The area around a plant’s roots hosts a complex and diverse microbial community. This environment can include a large number of bacteria that live on the surface of the root and benefit from the nutrients that the roots exude into the soil. These microbes can in turn be beneficial to the plant by protecting the roots from harmful fungi or stressful environmental conditions such as drought. In this thesis, several root-mimetic systems (RMSs) were developed for the study and growth of plant-beneficial bacteria in the laboratory environment. The RMS uses a porous hollow fiber used in hemodialysis as a surface …

Twenty-First Century Skills: A Needs Assessment Of School-Based Agricultural Education Teachers, Kisia J. Weeks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Preparing students to be career and work ready is a concern of educators and schools nationwide. Twenty-first century skills prepare students to enter the workforce or higher education with the ability to think critically and creatively, collaborate with others, take the initiative when approached with a task, and use technology to its fullest potential. If students are not learning the skills needed for success, it is because educators and schools are not teaching them. When students possess these skills, they are prepared to work in teams, think critically and creatively about a problem, display leadership and social skills, and communicate …

How Virtual Reality Impacts The Landscape Architecture Design Process At Various Scales, Drew M. Hill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the field of landscape architecture, the use of virtual reality (VR) is increasing as a tool for visualization and presentation in the late stages of the design process. Many of the benefits that make VR valuable in the later stages of the design process suggest that VR may also be valuable when used in earlier stages such as analysis and concept development. However, existing research does not provide a detailed study of design within VR during those early stages. Recent advancements in technology allow the potential to bring significant changes in the way that design-related professionals collaborate and design. …

Investigation Of Protein Dynamics And Communication In Adomet-Dependent Methyltransferases: Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthetase And Protein Arginine Methyltransferase, Kyle M. May

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For many enzymes to function correctly they must have the freedom to display a level of dynamics or communication during their catalytic cycle. The effects that protein dynamics and communication can have are wide ranging, from changes in substrate specificity or product profiles, to speed of reaction or switching activity on or off. This project investigates the protein dynamics and communication in two separate systems, a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), and a protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT).

PRMT1, the enzyme responsible for 80% of arginine methylation in humans, has been implicated in a variety of disease states when functioning incorrectly. For …

Association Between Ptsd Symptom Clusters, Substance Use, Hypersexuality, And Erectile Dysfunction In Service Members And Veterans, Jeremiah E. Fruge

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Service members and veterans of the current era, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) are at a high risk for a variety of psychological disorders and physical health impairments. Common disorders among male service members and veterans include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use, and hypersexuality. Each of these disorders affect all aspects of an individual’s life and can deteriorate important interpersonal relationships or impair functioning in a variety of contexts. All these variables can affect sexual health and functioning in these service members. Sexual functioning is an important aspect of overall well-being, …

Adapting Environmental Ethics And Behaviors: Toward A Posthuman Rhetoric Of Community Engagement, Beth J. Shirley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

What persuades people one way or another to accept or deny climate change? More importantly, what persuades people to act on, ignore, or even be defiant of climate change? We would like to think that people are motivated when they hear the science explained clearly and when they are presented with a clear understanding of how their actions have a lasting impact. Yet the science on climate change has been made clear for some time, and doubt in climate change science is rampant (at least in the United States).

This dissertation seeks to answer these questions and develop a new …

Mao’S War On Women: The Perpetuation Of Gender Hierarchies Through Yin-Yang Cosmology In The Chinese Communist Propaganda Of The Mao Era, 1949-1976, Al D. Roberts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China in 1949 with the intention of creating a social utopia with equality between the sexes and China’s diverse ethnic groups. However, by portraying gender, ethnicity, and politics in propaganda along the lines of yin and yang, the Party perpetuated a situation of oppression for women and minorities.

Isentropic Efficiency And Theoretical Analysis Of The Planetary Rotor Expander, Joseph L. James

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Expanders allow pressurized fluids to undergo a pressure decrease in a controlled environment via volumetric growth to extract fluid energy. There are many types of expanders, and the objective of this thesis is to model the efficiencies of the planetary rotor expander (PRE), a century-old design undeveloped due to insufficient manufacturing capabilities (until recently). Geometric relationships are derived and mathematical models are generated to determine the efficiency of the PRE as a function of design variables. Two industrially relevant case studies show that, to maximize isentropic efficiency, the planetary rotor expander (PRE) rotational frequency is maximized and rotor geometry optimized.

Exploring The Capacity Of Bacteria For Natural Product Biosynthesis, Ozkan Fidan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation is focused on exploring the potential of bacteria for the biosynthesis of natural products with the purposes of generating novel natural product derivatives and of improving the titer of pharmaceutically important natural products.

A wide variety of compounds from various sources have been historically used in the treatment and prevention of diseases. Natural products as a major source of new drugs are extensively explored due to their huge structural diversity and promising biological activities such as antimicrobial, anticancer, antifungal, antiviral and antioxidant properties. For instance, penicillin as an early-discovered antimicrobial agent has saved millions of lives, indicating the …

Thylacine Dreams: The Vernacular Resurrection Of An Extinct Marsupial, Daisy M. Ahlstone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores the folk resurrection of the thylacine through artwork and symbolic interaction. The thylacine, better known as the Tasmanian tiger, is a marsupial that suffered a government-sanctioned massacre leading to its extinction in 1936. The thylacine’s status as a hidden animal has inspired what folklorists call “ostensive practice”; people not only actively seek out the thylacine in the wilderness of Tasmania today and share their sightings online, but they have also incorporated the thylacine as a symbol of hope and perseverance into various forms of folk art.

There have been upwards of five thousand documented sightings of the …

Depression Mediates The Association Of Disordered Eating Behaviors And Sexual Function In Female Service Members And Veterans, Whitney S. Livingston

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Poor sexual function is comprised of diminished sexual desire and arousal, presence of sexual pain, inability to reach orgasm, and low satisfaction. Worse sexual function is associated with disordered eating behavior; however, the mechanism through which this association exists remains unclear. Theory of sexual function suggests that depression mediates the association of disordered eating behaviors and poor sexual function in female service members and veterans, but this has yet to be tested empirically. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether depression mediated the association of disordered eating behaviors and sexual dysfunction.

Participants (N=511) were partnered …

A Narrative Approach To Educational Video Training, Matthew S. Havertz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Teachers often use videos to teach their students, but stories are not used as often in educational videos as they could be. Experts tell us that stories are an important part of teaching and learning. Unfortunately, there is only a small amount of research and no definitive expert agreement about stories used in educational videos. This is especially true for videos used with technical education students, like mechanic students or dental assisting students. In this study, dental assisting students learned how to assist a dentist with a standard cavity procedure after watching a video with or without a story. The …

Spiderworms: Using Silkworms As Hosts To Produce A Hybrid Silkworm-Spider Silk Fiber, Ana Laura Licon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spider silk has received significant attention due to its fascinating mechanical properties. Given the solitary and cannibalistic behavior of spiders, spider silk farming is impractical. Unlike spiders, silkworms are capable of producing large quantities of a fibrous product in a manner mimetic to spiders, and there already exists an industry to process cocoons into threads and textiles for many applications. The combination of silk farming (sericulture), a millennia old practice, and modern advancements in genetic engineering has given rise to an innovative biomaterial inspired by nature; transgenic silkworm silk.

This project focuses on the creation of chimeric silkworm-spider silk fibers …

Edge Caching For Small Cell Networks, Md Ferdous Pervej

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An idea of storing contents, such as media files, music files, movie clips, etc. is simple yet challenging in terms of required effort to make it count. Some of the benefits of pre-storing the contents are reduced delay of accessing/downloading a content, reduced load to the centralized servers and of course, a higher data rate. However, several challenges need to be addressed to achieve these benefits. Among many, some of the fundamentals are limited storage capacity, storing the right content and minimizing the costs. This thesis aims to address these challenges. First, a framework for predicting the proper contents that …