Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Appetitive, Pre-Exposed, And Novel Distracters On Interval Timing Behavior: Role Of Nomifensine Within The Prelimbic Cortex, Alexander R. Matthews

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Poor attentional focus harms the estimation of time within the seconds-to-minutes range, i.e. interval timing. Interval timing behavior is related to several cognitive functions including perception of the passage of time, decision making, and to memory processes. Harmful delays in timing are caused by distractions of attention, within the timing task in the form of novel, or familiar distracters, which may or may not have been previously conditioned. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how attention to novel or familiar distractions within the timing task can be altered using catecholamine reuptake blocker nomifensine. The experiment in Chapter 3, …

Visitor Perceptions And Resource Conditions Of Campsites In Two Coastal Alaskan National Parks, Shannon T. Wesstrom

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Increasing visitation in parks and protected areas presents managers with the challenge of providing quality visitor experiences while mitigating ecological impacts from recreation. Successful management strategies often suggest determining desired conditions for visitor experiences and ecological conditions to establish thresholds. These thresholds can then be compared to existing conditions in order to determine if changes in management strategies should be made. By integrating visitor survey results with ecological assessments, this research is a unique coastal Alaskan regional analysis of the three components of a management framework: 1. Establishes visitor determined thresholds of acceptability for crowding and coastal resource conditions in …

Factors Explaining Remote Work Adoption In The United States, Paul A. Hill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Rural Online Initiative program at Utah State University Extension supported this quantitative study investigating the factors explaining the process of remote work adoption by organizations in the U.S. Given the potential for remote work with respect to technological advances, shifts in traditional work arrangements, and its impact on organizational/operational efficiency, there was a need to investigate how organizational characteristics and leaders’ perceptions of remote work relate to its adoption. This study was guided by Rogers’ theory of diffusion of innovations where research objectives were to (1) determine where organizations range in the innovation-decision process of remote work adoption, (2) …

Bibliotherapy For Depression: Evaluating Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Approaches And Examining The Role Of Client Choice, Carter H. Davis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An alarming number of college students suffer from depression, which is often accompanied by struggles with anxiety and feeling inadequate compared to others (i.e., stigma). Seeing a counselor in person is challenging for many students due to wait times or feeling embarrassed or shameful. Using self-help books may be a helpful alternative for depressed students, but these books are not often tested in formal studies, and getting students to use self-help books over time is also difficult. Therefore, this study examined whether self-help books accessed online could help students with depression. We tested two books which use different approaches to …

An Analysis Of Racial Disparities Affecting College Of Business Degree Completion At A University's Satellite Campuses, John S. Jaggi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research study provides campus-type specific insight into the graduation rates of students of color at a departmental (i.e., School of Business) level. With underrepresented student populations comprising up to a third of business school enrollment, there is institutional and departmental value in understanding how, and at what levels, undergraduate business students of color persist and graduate at satellite campuses.

Findings from this study could be used to inform institutional and departmental administrators and program managers on different strategies to foster not only a more diverse matriculation, but also to improve graduation outcomes for underrepresented student populations. Study results could …

Investigating Heat Risk Messaging Using Social Media Studies And A Survey Experiment, Yajie Li

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extreme heat causes hundreds of deaths each year in the United States even though cost-effective protective measures are available. Heat warning messages sent by government agencies have the potential to reduce the negative impacts by motivating people to take protective actions. To help reach the potential, this dissertation examined the content of warning messages and public responses to warning messages in the US. This research analyzed three kinds of data: 1) heat warning messages posted on Twitter, 2) public comments on heat warning messages posted on Facebook, and 3) experimental results collected using an online survey.

Results show that, for …

Achieving Hate Speech Detection In A Low Resource Setting, Peiyu Li

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Online social networks provide people with convenient platforms to communicate and share life moments. However, because of the anonymous property of these social media platforms, the cases of online hate speeches are increasing. Hate speech is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation”. Online hate speech has caused serious negative effects to legitimate users, including mental or emotional stress, reputational damage, and fear for one’s safety. To protect legitimate online users, automatically hate speech detection techniques are …

The Effects Of Cannabinoids On Stress-Coping Behaviors And Neuroendocrinological Measures In Chronic Unpredictable Stress: A Preclinical Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Noa Reuveni

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is unclear if cannabis helps individuals cope with life’s stressors or increases the likelihood of developing stress-related disorders such as depression. Chronic unpredictable stress is a validated model of depression that exposes rodents to a series of frequently-occurring, intermittent stressors over the course of a few weeks. This systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes existing research using rodents on the effects of cannabinoids on stress-coping behaviors and neuroendocrinological measurements in chronic unpredictable stress. Databases were systematically searched for articles that met inclusion criteria, and effect sizes between control chronic unpredictable stress groups and cannabinoid-treated chronic unpredictable stress groups were calculated. …

The Relationship Between Social Skills And Coping Drinking Motives: A Test Of The Social Skills Deficit Vulnerability Model, Jaimee A. Smart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because drinking alcohol to cope has many negative outcomes (e.g., alcohol use disorder, problematic drinking patterns, etc.), it is vital to understand what contributes to drinking to cope. Having adequate social skills and social support has been found to help overall mental health. As such, it was logical to reason that social skills and social support could also impact physical health. Specifically, social skills and social support were examined as potential ways to buffer coping drinking development. This study utilized information from 176 adults living in the United States to understand the role social skills and social support play in …

A Facilitator's Guide To Transformative Teaching, Bobbi Petersen

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

A facilitator's guide to transformative teaching is a workshop designed for the Center for Collaborative Conflict to help teachers teach conflict in a way that is most likely to encourage student's positive transformation. The project includes a visual guide, lesson plans for the person facilitating the workshop and a document that overviews the project and explains the theoretical foundation behind the workshop.

Allyship Training Programs In Higher Education: Creating A Critical Curriculum Of Change, Macy Marin Keith

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

Allies Training Programs (also known as Safe Space/Zone training) are found in many institutions of higher education. Usually provided by an LGBTQA+ or Gender and Sexuality Center staff, the goal is to prepare participants for an allyship role in hopes of promoting safe spaces on campus and decrease instances of queerphobia. This thesis examined current allies training programs to determine what content is being presented and compare to the latest critiques and definitions. After analysis it is determined that current allyship trainings are inadequately preparing higher education staff and faculty for an ally role. Using the results of this study …

Teaching Chinese As A Second Language: Exploring Teaching Methods, Identity Development, And Learner-Centered Education, Zhen Li

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

This portfolio includes a collection of essays reflecting the writer’s beliefs about teaching and explorations of topics related to second language teaching, especially in the context of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The first part of the portfolio consists of the writer’s teaching philosophy statement, professional environment, and reflections on her observations of other teachers’ classes. The second part consists of two papers focused on the interconnections between language and culture. The first explores refusal strategies in Chinese while the second addresses identity negotiation in Chinese Heritage Learners’ study abroad experiences. The third part is an annotated bibliography on …

Comparing Chunking Abilities Of Children With And Without Developmental Language Disorders, Alison Barlow

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

This study compared memory abilities in 58, school-age children with and without developmental language disorders (DLD) using traditional and novel measures related to chunking of information in long term memory. Results showed significant differences between the groups for all of the measures, with the exception of clause access for the sentence-level task. Implications for future studies related to intervention are discussed.

Exploring Teaching Language With Culture, Sixin Fu

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

This portfolio contains the author's insights into teaching a second language, which she gained while in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It is organized in two major sections: teaching perspectives and research perspectives. The content reflects the author’s main focus and value on language teaching as a graduate instructor and student.

In the teaching perspectives section, the author shares the professional environment that she wants to work in, her teaching philosophy statement, and the professional development in language education through observing her colleagues’ teaching. In the research perspectives, two research papers and …

An Examination Of Articulatory Precision In Children And Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Elizabeth R. Josephson

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

The speech of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been perceptually judged as less clear and articulate than the speech of their typically developing (TD) peers. Some evidence suggests that reduced articulatory precision may contribute to negative listener impressions of individuals with ASD. Using an objective, holistic measure of articulatory precision, findings from a corpus of 900 semi-structured speech samples indicate that individuals with ASD produced speech with reduced articulatory precision compared to TD peers. In both TD populations and populations with ASD, children were less precise than adults. While more research is required to substantiate these preliminary findings, …

Exploiting A Grading Policy Shift As An Instrument To Estimate Impact Of Grading On Teacher Evaluations, Gavin Johnson

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

Professors at a university plausibly have an incentive to give higher grades to students, and these higher grades will be reflected in student evaluations, which are used to assess teaching quality, which could have career impacts. This paper takes advantage of a policy shift at the business school at Utah State University that introduced suggested caps on the average course grades that teachers gave. This allowed instrumental variable analysis to correct for bias in OLS estimations of these impacts. The correlation between grades and students' evaluations of teachers was found to be positive suggesting that student evaluations of teachers are …

Teaching Chinese As A Second Language In A Supportive Student-Centered Environment, Linqi Peng

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

This portfolio is a compilation that includes the author’s research, thoughts, and opinions while studying in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It represents the author’s reflections and perspectives as a MSLT graduate student and as a graduate instructor who taught Chinese as a Second Language courses to undergraduates at beginners’ levels.

Three sections are included in the portfolio. It begins with the author’s teaching perspectives, including professional environment, teaching philosophy statement, and professional development through teaching observations. In the second section, two research papers demonstrate her research interests in the practices of …

The Sea Calls: A Selkie's Liminal Existence, Frances Avery

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

Traditionally, the selkies (or seal people) of Scottish-Irish lore exist between spaces: the land and the sea, human and animal, childbearing and childless. Their existence at sea is voluntary but their existence on land is forced. Once the selkie has left behind its sealskin and both the literal and metaphorical sealskin has been stolen, the selkie becomes subject to human will. The lenses of body, reclamation, violation, and abuse prove that the reason why selkies have faded from popularity is because the lessons are too mature for a young audience. A feminist and queer reading and interpretation of this traditional …

Utah State University Commencement, 2021 – Brigham City Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2021 Commencement Ceremony for the Brigham City Campus of Utah State University.

Supporting Those With Mental Health Diagnoses: An Evidence-Based Practice Guide For Social Work Practitioners, Kimberlie Lassen-Johnson

Evidence-Based Social Work Practice Guide Series

An evidence-based practice guide that explores 5 ways for the general public to support those with mental health and mental health diagnoses. These 5 topics consist of getting to know people with mental health diagnoses, practicing wise mind, re-evaluating your values, establishing boundaries, and challenging your negative thinking.

Trauma-Informed Practice In K-12 Schools: An Evidence-Based Practice Guide For School Administrators, Emily A. Ross

Evidence-Based Social Work Practice Guide Series

This guide will assist K-12 school administrators in implementing better trauma-informed practices in their schools. School administrators consist of leaders and decision-makers in a school system. Specifically, this information is directed toward principals, vice principals, and any other key personnel. Of course, administrators should direct trauma-informed practices with the guidance of school counselors who have the proper training regarding trauma-informed interventions. School counselors’ efforts to promote positive mental health outcomes and social emotional learning will be significantly more impactful with the support of school administrators. The following recommendations are not all inclusive but will lay the groundwork for implementing trauma-informed …

The Utah Statesman, April 26th, 2021, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Improving Skills In Computer Methods: Introductory Toolkit To Python For Undergraduate Physics Majors, Erin O'Donnell, Melissa Rasmussen

Physics Capstone Projects

The computer-based curriculum for undergraduate physics students before 2019 struggled to stay current and applicable. When the course was created in the early 2000s, MathCad was used daily by many physicists. As computer’s and their computational abilities have grown exponentially, so have programming languages and applications. Now in the late 2010s/early 2020s, Excel, Python, and Mathematica are some of the most common computer appliques. To address this, we created toolkits to give undergraduate physicists the experience for future classes, careers, and graduate school. This paper focuses on the process for creating the Python toolkit and overall class setup. Run on …

Utah State University Commencement, 2021 – Uintah Basin Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2021 Commencement Ceremony for the Uintah Basin Campus of Utah State University.

Utah State University Commencement, 2021 – Eastern Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2021 Commencement Ceremony for the Eastern Campus of Utah State University.

Utah State University Commencement, 2021 - Eastern Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2021 Commencement Ceremony for the Eastern Campus of Utah State University.

Utah State University Commencement, 2021 – Blanding Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2021 Commencement Ceremony for the Blanding Campus of Utah State University.

The Utah Statesman, April 19th, 2021, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Light At The Core Of Reconciliation In Canada - Introducing The Path Of Algonquin Chief T8aminik Rankin And Kokum Marie-JoséE Tardif, Sandy Lamalle

Journal of Indigenous Research

Inspiring men and women have been weaving profound change across Canada - contributing to the process of Truth and Reconciliation. Among the survivors of the residential schools, not only did they have the courage to resist oppression, to overcome trauma, anger and the destructive representations of themselves they had to cope with, but also the strength to engage in reconciliation and revitalisation of their cultures and languages. This article is a tribute to these weavers of hope and new relationships, and sheds light on their decisive role in leading and empowering transformation. In the perspective of sharing the testimony of …

I Never Made An Issue About My Kids': How Professional Mothers Navigate Bias At Work, Rachael Gulbrandsen

Student Research Symposium

How do professional women with children navigate motherhood bias? The current study seeks to answer this question by looking at the strategies professional mothers employ both at work and at home to overcome bias and sustain their careers. Previous research has looked at how motherhood penalizes women`s careers and indicates varying impacts across race and class. This paper seeks to fill the gap of how professional mothers intentionally navigate bias through work and family life strategies. To answer this, researchers took a multimethod approach using data from a statewide survey of lawyers and conducted in-depth interviews with women lawyers in …