Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling De Novo Granulation Of Anaerobic Sludge, Honey Varghese

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The global market for biological waste water treatment is large and growing. Bioengineered reactor setups employ microorganisms to degrade waste and produce useful/less harmful components. Scientists are interested in studies that reveal the biological mechanisms involved in the process of these microbial actions in order to improve the reactor performance. The process of granulation in aerobic sludge is one such interesting process which is less explained.

The primary goal of the thesis is to design a computational model that simulates the process of granulation in anaerobic sludge and that addresses the role physiochemical and biological processes play in granule formation. …

Alternative Treatment Technologies For Low-Cost Industrial And Municipal Wastewater Management, Alan J. Hodges

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Roughly the same volume of water that rushes over the Niagara Falls is produced as wastewater in North America. This wastewater is treated through a variety of means to ensure that it can be safely returned to the natural ecosystem. This thesis examines two novel means for this treatment, one biological and one physical-chemical in nature, namely, Rotating Algae Biofilm Reactor treatment and expanded shale augmented coagulation-flocculation.

Rotating algae biofilm reactors (RABRs) support biofilm algae growth, and in turn, the algae take up harmful contaminants from the wastewater. This system was tested in wastewater from petroleum refining operations. The efficacy …

Eportfolio Adoption's Mediating Influence On Faculty Perspectives: An Activity Theory View, Jonathan M. Thomas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A case-comparative mixed methods approach was used to discover how faculty members’ teaching perspectives changed as they adopted an eportfolio tool (Pathbrite). Ten faculty members took the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) before and after using the tool during Fall semester 2015. Also, systems logs were collected and interviews were conducted after the post survey was completed. Interview data found that faculty members developed a broader view of the potential of eportfolios. Participants also appreciated the long-term benefits that eportfolios would have on their students. However, when use was associated with accreditation standards, gains in student-centered perspectives were minimal. The study …

International Policy Diffusion And Religious Freedom, 1990-2008, Allison R. Hale

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Why do governments restrict religious freedom? As more and more governments have adopted restrictive policies over the past thirty years, scholars have traditionally examined internal domestic factors—such as the role of democratic governance, economic growth, or internal competition—that may influence government choices. I build on this literature by extending the discussion to external factors, arguing that some policies may also spread from one government to another. This process, identified by scholars as the idea of policy diffusion, may occur in several ways.

While previous research has focused on the spread of policies that are generally considered positive (i.e. the spread …

Conservative Tryptophan Mutations In Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Ptp1b And Its Effect On Catalytic Rate And Chemical Reaction, Teisha Richan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) catalyze the hydrolysis of phosphorylated tyrosines by a 2-step mechanism involving nucleophilic attack by cysteine and general acid catalysis by aspartic acid. In most PTPs the aspartic acid resides on a flexible protein loop, consisting of about a dozen residues, called the WPD loop. PTP catalysis rates span several orders of magnitude, and differences in WPD loop dynamics have recently been show to correlate with the rate of enzymatic catalysis. The rate of WPD loop motion could possibly be related to a widely conserved tryptophan residue on the WPD loop. Therefore, point mutants were made in PTP1B …

Production Of Phenol-Formaldehyde Adhesives From Catalytic Pyrolysis Oil, Angela M. Akude

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Phenol-formaldehyde adhesives conventionally synthesized from fossil fuel resources pose two major concerns: sustainability issues and environmental concerns. The sustainability issues arise from the inevitable depletion of fossil fuel resources while
the environmental concerns, primarily, stem from the emission of volatile organic compounds. Thus, opting for alternative raw materials from renewable resources reduces the dependence on fossil fuels as well as promote the production of environmentally-friendly products.

The successful commercialization of bio-adhesives requires that the substitution of phenol with bio-oil during resin synthesis should be above 40%. In this study, catalytic pyrolysis oil produced from pinyon-juniper biomass and red mud alumina …

A Descriptive Case Study Of Writing Standards-Based Individualized Education Plan Goals Via Problem-Based Learning In A Virtual World, Peter J. Blair

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of this study was to examine the professional development experiences of two participants while they were creating standards-based individualized education plan (IEP) goals using a virtual world called TeacherSim. The focuses of the study were how did special educators engage with the task of creating standards-based IEP goals using TeacherSim and how did TeacherSim support or hinder this? This research used a descriptive case study selecting two participants from the larger data set of seven participants. The data was analyzed using qualitative coding which compared the observed experiences with the case propositions. This case study demonstrated that special …

The Magic Of The Magic Kingdom: Folklore And Fan Culture In Disneyland, David Giles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A strong and vibrant fan culture surrounds Disneyland, despite the fact that Disney itself, in many cases, works hard to quash it. This surprising relationship dynamic is likely a result of the so-called “Disney Magic”—a term appropriated from Disney marketing material and applied to the unique emotional experience found in the park, often described with quasi-spiritual language.

This thesis examines three aspects of Disneyland’s fan culture in an attempt to understand the Magic and how it manifests in and sustains its fan culture. First is urban legends surrounding ash scatterings at the Haunted Mansion ride, which speak to dedicated fans’ …

Physico-Chemical And Microbiological Quality Changes In Cocoa And Whey Protein Enriched Functional Dairy Drink During Storage, H. R. Gupta, S. K. Kanawjia, M. K. Salooja, Prateek Sharma, Anil Kumar

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Cocoa and whey protein enriched functional dairy drink was subjected to storage studies at refrigeration temperature 4±1°C in the present study. The samples were studied for microbial and physicochemical tests during storage. The results in this study suggest that the product can be stored upto 18 days at 4±1°C. A decrease in pH from 7.01 to 6.49 for whey protein enriched product and from 6.94 to 6.41 in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product was observed at the end of shelf life. The FFA increased from 0.72 to 1.46 meq./ml at the end of shelf life of 18 …

Speech Rate Entrainment In Children And Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Camille Wynn

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

Purpose: Conversational entrainment, the phenomenon whereby people modify their behaviors to match their communication partner, has been evidenced as critical to successful conversation. It is plausible that deficits in entrainment contribute to the conversational breakdowns and social difficulties exhibited by people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study examined speech rate entrainment in populations with and without ASD.

Method: Sixty participants including typically developing children, children with ASD, typically developed adults, and adults with ASD, participated in a quasi-conversational paradigm with a pseudo-confederate. The confederate’s speech rate was digitally manipulated to create slow and fast speech rate conditions.

Results: …

Predicting The Impact Of A Northern Pike (Esox Lucius) Invasion On Endangered June Sucker (Chasmistes Liorus) And Sport Fishes In Utah Lake, Ut, Jamie Reynolds

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Invasive species introductions are associated with negative economic and environmental impacts, including reductions in native species populations. Successful invasive species populations often grow rapidly and a new food web structure is established. The ability of invasive species to outcompete and prey upon native species are two characteristics that make them a leading cause of fish extinctions in North America.

Northern pike (Esox lucius; hereafter pike) are voracious ambush top predators \native to the upper Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the lower 48 United States, Alaska, and southern Canada. Pike have been spreading across the Intermountain West and Pacific …

Characterization Of The Thermal Resistance Of Grain Boundaries Of Cerium Oxide, Jesse Spackman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many materials are made up of small crystals, or grains. Grain boundaries are the interfaces between two grains and affect the flow of heat through the material. These interfaces serve to interfere with the energy carriers by scattering or disrupting them. Because of the negative effect these interfaces have on these energy carriers, they inhibit heat flow and act as thermal resistors. The thermal boundary resistance between two grains of the same material is sometimes referred to as the Kapitza resistance, although this term is also used to describe the thermal resistance between solid/solid interfaces of different materials or solid/liquid …

Same Revolution, Different Outcome: Why Did The Syrian Regime Survive The Arab Spring?, Adam Alrowaiti

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

The Arab Region faced a wave of massive public demonstrations in 2011. People across the region demanded freedom, justice, and equality. That movement overthrew some of the region’s dictatorship regimes that had been in power since decades. In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen the regimes collapsed in the face of the people’s revolution. However, public demonstrations and opposition could not overcome the Al-Assad regime in Syria. This thesis seeks the reasons behind the survival of the Syrian regime when other regimes collapsed. The thesis analyzes the case of Syria by comparing it to the case of Libya, since Libya went …

A Journey Of Foreign Language Teaching And Learning, I-Chiao Hung

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

This portfolio is designed to share with the reader the author’s beliefs about a number of issues related to effective foreign language (FL) learning and teaching rooted in theoretical foundations of second language acquisition as well as provide insights about her own teaching and observation experiences per the requirements for her Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. The target languages focused on in this portfolio are FL Chinese and English.

Divided into three main parts, this portfolio addresses: 1) the author’s teaching philosophy; 2) language, literacy, and culture papers from research perspectives; and 3) annotated bibliographies that serve as …

Community Supported Agriculture At Indian Creek Nature Center's Sugar Grove Farm: Sustainable Farming For Iowa, Erin Anzalone

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

Agriculture is the largest revenue source for the state of Iowa and the state’s two priority crops are corn and soybeans. Farming practices that emphasize monoculture production of these crops can reduce biological diversity and habitat for all-important pollinators, and exacerbate runoff and erosion that sends nutrient-rich soil, herbicides, and pesticides into streams and rivers. The industrial agriculture model is lucrative now, but unsustainable for Iowa over the long run. Sugar Grove Farm, a subset of Indian Creek Nature Center (ICNC), plans to grow a variety of food crops on a large-scale, economically sustainable farm, and support low-income households in …

Making Connections Across Language Barriers, Aaron Salgado

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

This compilation of academic papers is a portfolio designed to invite the reader to explore the author’s beliefs and ideas concerning effective second language learning and teaching. Divided into three main parts, this portfolio addresses: 1. expressing the author’s teaching philosophy while putting his position into the context from which it formed, 2. exploring the research perspectives that drive the author to continue participating in this academic field, 3. and chronicling the process of studying the academic material that inspired the previous two sections. Major topics include a macro view of the U.S. government’s and its education system’s dance together …

What Does It Take To Learn A Language? Strategies For Teaching Esl And Japanese, Andrew Mikesell

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

ABSTRACT

This portfolio reflects what the author believes to be effective tools and methods for teaching a second or foreign language. The first section includes the author’s teaching philosophy which addresses teacher and student roles, communicative and meaningful tasks, learning environments, and the importance of literacy development. Following the teaching philosophy are three research perspective papers which discuss the use of digital storytelling as a tool for developing language proficiency, how blogs can be used to help students develop writing skills in their second language, and alternative approaches to teaching and learning kanji, which are one of three sets …

Hanging From The Poplar Tree: Kanye West And Racism In Internet Folklore, Magen Olsen

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

Folk ideas regarding African-Americans in nineteenth century America fueled racially charged stereotypes that served to promote segregation into the 1960s. Despite the belief of many Americans that the Civil Rights movement has ushered in an era of “postracism,” artifacts of digital culture prove that racism is still prevalent in American culture. Members of online social groups spread rumors and memes of popular African-American figures to propagate old racist stereotypes and spread conspiracy rumors among younger audiences.

Folklorists Bill Ellis, Gary Fine, Véronique Campion-Vincente, and Patricia Turner provided foundational scholarship on rumors, conspiracy theories, and how they divide ethnic groups in …

Making Media Work For Your Marriage, Elizabeth Davis, Naomi Brower

All Current Publications

This fact sheet gives tips for strengthening relationships through technology and for safeguarding those relationships.

Utah Master Naturalist Desert Explorations Manual, Mark Larese-Casanova

All Current Publications

The Utah Master Naturalist Desert Explorations Manual provides a comprehensive view of desert ecosystems in Utah, from the geology and climate that create deserts, to the plant and animal communities and their unique adaptations for survival. The Manual explores the human perspective from historic peoples to current management.

Exploiting Self-Organization In Bioengineered Systems: A Computational Approach, Delin Davis, Anna Doloman, Gregory J. Podgorski, Elizabeth Vargis, Nicholas S. Flann

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

The productivity of bioengineered cell factories is limited by inefficiencies in nutrient delivery and waste and product removal. Current solution approaches explore changes in the physical configurations of the bioreactors. This work investigates the possibilities of exploiting self-organizing vascular networks to support producer cells within the factory. A computational model simulates de novo vascular development of endothelial-like cells and the resultant network functioning to deliver nutrients and extract product and waste from the cell culture. Microbial factories with vascular networks are evaluated for their scalability, robustness, and productivity compared to the cell factories without a vascular network. Initial studies demonstrate …

The Utah Statesman, April 27, 2017, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Assembly Of Effective Halide Receptors From Components. Comparing Hydrogen, Halogen, Tetrel Bonds, Steve Scheiner

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Receptors for halide anions are constructed based on the imidazolium unit, and then replacing the H-bonding C-H group firstby halogen-bonding C-I and then by tetrel-bonding C-SnH3 and C-SiF3.Attaching a phenyl ring to any of these species has little effect on its ability to bind a halide, but incorporation of a second imidazolium to the benzene connector, forming a bidentate dicationic receptor, greatly enhances the binding. Addition of electron-withdrawing F atoms to each imidazolium adds a further increment. F- consistently binds more strongly to the various receptor models than does Cl-. Whereas replacement of the H atom on the imidazolium groups …

The Utah Statesman, April 24, 2017, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Engineering Students Organize First Annual Soapbox Derby | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Students from Utah State University’s student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) are gearing up to host the 1^st annual Soapbox Derby on April 22.

The Utah Statesman, April 20, 2017, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

The Utah Statesman, April 17, 2017, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Let’S Talk About Weight Bias Attitudes Among Future Health Professionals, Rees Checketts

Student Research Symposium

Weight bias has been linked with obesity epidemic and other weight-related concerns such as eating disorders in our society. Previous studies have found that healthcare providers such as medical doctors, nurses, and dieticians showed stigmatizing attitudes toward patients who are categorized as overweight or obese individuals. Due to those professionals’ negative attitudes toward the particular vulnerable population, patients expressed lack of willingness to seek out for help or students experienced negative psychological states. To find needs of weight bias training for undergraduate students in health education and related fields, we investigated weight bias attitudes among undergraduate students in the rocky …

Overview Of Event Based Resources On Facebook And Twitter: Fort Mcmurray Wildfire, May 2016, Apoorva Chauhan, Amanda Lee Hughes

Student Research Symposium

Event Based Resources (EBR) are the web resources, named after an event. In this study, we focus on Facebook and Twitter EBRs created around the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. We determine the time when different EBRs were created, and were closed (if closed). We also determine if the content posted by these EBRs were relevant to the Fort McMurray wildfire. We categorize these EBRs, on the basis of their social media profile and the content posted by them, into different categories. We take a closer look at the accounts that were most well-received by the public to see if their …

Mechanical Engineering Students Win Big In Las Vegas | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Mechanical engineering students from Utah State University competed against 23 other teams and won 2^nd place overall in the 2017 Human Powered Vehicle Challenge.