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Brine Shrimp Grazing And Fecal Production Increase Sedimentation To The Deep Brine Layer (Monimolimnion) Of Great Salt Lake, Utah, Piotr Maszczyk, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Great Salt Lake (Utah) has a monimolimnion with high concentrations of salts, particulate matter, nutrients, and mercury. To test the importance of brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) grazing on particulate matter flux, we created salinity gradients in 160-cm high columns, reflecting the lake’s gradient. Two experiments were performed in replicated columns with or without Artemia. Sediment traps were positioned at the bottoms of the mixolimnion (95 cm), chemolimnion (105 cm), or monimolimnion (140 cm). We hypothesized that because of the high salt densities of the monimolimnia, greater accumulation of sediments would be in the lower chemocline, than in …

Effects Of Temperature And Radiation Dose On Radiation Induced Conductivity, Jr Dennison

Presentations

Radiation induced conductivity (RIC) is an important conduction mechanism in highly disordered insulating materials exposed to ionizing radiation. Measurements of RIC as a function of dose rate and exposure time of polymeric and glassy insulators will be presented. RIC results from excitation of carriers into conduction states by the ionizing radiation. The measurements will be discussed in terms of models for the distribution of localized disordered states. The effects of temperature and radiation damage from ionizing radiation on the density and occupation of trap states, and how this affects RIC, will also be discussed.

Effects Of Temperature And Radiation Dose On Radiation Induced Conductivity, Jr Dennison

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Enhanced Test Facility For Survivability And Characterization Of Evolving Multiscale Materials In Extreme Plasma Environments, Jr Dennison

Posters

No abstract provided.

Congratulations 2017 Graduates | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

The College of Engineering at Utah State University congratulates all students who graduated May 5-6.

Using Formative Research To Develop A Hospital-Based Perinatal Public Health Intervention In The Us: The Thirty Million Words Initiative Newborn Parent Education Curriculum, Eileen Graf, Livia Garofalo, Alison C. Hundertmark, Glenda L. Montague, Nicole M. Polash, Elizabeth Suskind, Kristin R. Leffel, Robert J. Webber, Dana L. Suskind

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Parents and caregivers do not exist in a vacuum, and with regard to crafting impactful interventions, it is increasingly being recognized that there are no one-size-fits-all approaches to behavior change. Implementing research to practice is a complex endeavor and requires the adaptation of basic research findings to different cultural and environmental contexts of intended beneficiaries (Sepinwall, 2002; Weisner & Hay, 2014). The practice of formative research allows for the systematic assessment of diverse implementation contexts and provides insights into responsive adaptations of content and delivery. In this study, we detail the use of formative testing to inform the development of …

The Journal Of Early Hearing Detection And Intervention: Volume 2 Issue 1

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

No abstract provided.

In The News Spring 2017, Jason Matthews, Joe N. Caudell

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

Mpb Spot Infestation Data, James A. Powell

Browse all Datasets

This folder contains ASCII text raster files describing the pine density model and yearly aerial detection survey (ADS) data for three study areas: Sawtooth (central Idaho, USA), Chelan (north-central Washington, USA) and Northern Colorado (USA). These data supported analyses presented in

Powell, J.A., M.J. Garlick, B.J. Bentz and N.A. Friedenberg. (2017) Differential Dispersal and the Allee Effect Create Power-Law Behavior: Distribution of Spot Infestations During Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreaks. Journal of Animal Ecology.

Each raster is at 30m resolution, and each pixel is a density in a space-separated ascii file. The top five rows of each file are commented using …

Using Hotspot Analysis And Detection Of Early Season Invasives (Desi) To Analyze The Temporal And Spatial Dynamics Of Invasive Cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum)., Tara B.B. Bishop, J. Belnap, S. Munson, R. A. Gill, Sam B. St. Clair

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The invasion of exotic annual grasses during the last century has transformed plant habitats and communities worldwide. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is a winter annual grass that has invaded over 100 million acres of the western United States (Pellant and Hall, 1994. Pellant, 1996). Cheatgrass quickly utilizes available resources especially after a disturbance to the landscape. A major impact of invasion is the increased frequency in fires (D’Antonio and Vitousek, 1992). As cheatgrass is highly successful at invading open and disturbed landscapes at a rapid pace it increases the frequency and severity of fires in arid landscapes (Brooks, 2005). …

Desorption Electrospray Ionization (Desi) Mass Spectrometric Imaging Of Spatially Regulated In Vivo Metabolic Rates, Charlotte R. Lewis, Richard H. Carson, Mercede N. Erikson, Anna P. Zagieboylo, Bradley C. Naylor, Kelvin W. Li, John C. Price, Paul B. Farnsworth

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) is an ambient ionization technique used for mass spectrometric imaging of biological samples. When coupled with isotopic ratio measurements of deuterium-labeled tissues, DESI provides a means of measuring metabolic rates on a spatially resolved basis. In vivo metabolic rates are desired to better understand diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s and to study the impact of space travel on muscle tissue growth and wasting. Although DESI has been used to image lipids and metabolites of a variety of tissues and other imaging techniques, such as NIMS, have been used to study kinetic turnover rates, DESI …

Learning The Language Of Genes: Representing Global Codon Bias With Deep Language Models, M. Stanley Fujimoto, Paul M. Bodily, Cole A. Lyman, J. Andrew Jacobsen, Mark J. Clement

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Codon bias, the usage patterns of synonymous codons for encoding a protein sequence as nucleotides, is a biological phenomenon that is not well understood. Current methods that measure and model the codon bias of an organism exist for usage in codon optimization. In synthetic biology, codon optimization is a task the involves selecting the appropriate codons to reverse translate a protein sequence into a nucleotide sequence to maximize expression in a vector. These features include codon adaptation index (CAI) [1], individual codon usage (ICU), hidden stop codons (HSC) [2] and codon context (CC) [3]. While explicitly modeling these features has …

Lab-On-A-Chip Biosensor For Interplanetary Life Detection Missions, Thomas Wall

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Space research still consists of the major goal of the successful detection of life on another planet. The 2012 biological and life detection (BOLD) mission to Mars included the ARROW biosensor as one of its main life detection tools for the mission. Although the mission never went forward, the ARROW biosensor remains an obvious choice for interplanetary life detection missions. The sensor is cheap, small, lightweight, and very sensitive. All of these factors helped make it the candidate of choice for the BOLD mission to Mars and still make it a good candidate today. Since 2012, the ARROW biosensor has …

Of Mice And Materials: Payoffs Of Unsgc Research Infrastructure Awards, Jr Dennison, Kent Hartley, Lisa Phillipps, Justin Dekany, Robert H. Johnson, James S. Dyer

Presentations

A versatile test facility has been designed and built to study space environments effects on small satellites and system components. Testing for potentially environmental-induced modifications of small satellites is critical to avoid possible deleterious or catastrophic effects over the duration of space mission. This is increasingly more important as small satellite programs have longer mission lifetimes, expand to more harsh environments (such as polar or geosynchronous orbits), make more diverse and sensitive measurements, minimize shielding to reduce mass, and utilize more compact and sensitive electronics (often including untested off-the-shelf components). The vacuum chamber described here is particularly well suited for …

Of Mice And Materials: Payoffs Of Unsgc Research Infrastructure Awards, Jr Dennison

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Stem Summer Camp For K-6 Students At Uvu, Bonnie Andersen, Cyrill Slezak

Utah Space Grant Consortium

UVU offers an excellent academic summer program in the fields of Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM) specifically designed to engage and further students having completed grades 1-6. Program courses have been developed in close collaboration with experienced STEM endorsed Elementary school teachers and established university research faculty aligned with state curriculum standards. Engaging students within a community of motivated students and enthusiastic faculty in hands-on projects will develop critical thinking, content knowledge, and problem-solving skills.

Extracting Dna From Salt: Using Picogreen To Explore Detection Limits, Joshua Webb, Luisa Rusta, Erin Tabish, Edgar Chavez, Brett Denney, Bonnie Baxter

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Biological materials surviving in modern halite (salt) on Earth may point to a method for detection of potential or former life in salt deposits on Mars. This project attempts to find an efficient method extracting cells and DNA from modern halite crystals to gain more insight into efficient method of extracting DNA from ancient salt. Our method considers the limitations of Mars Rover techniques in terms of reagents and simplicity. Halite was collected form the north shore of Great Salt Lake, Utah. Through direct experimentation, we designed a filtration system to isolate DNA from salt samples and refined this process …

The Space Survivability Test Chamber, Alexander Souvall, Benjamin Russon, Brian Wood, Gregory Wilson, Jr Dennison

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The Space Survivability Test Chamber (SST) provides an extensive, versatile, and cost-effective system for pre-launch verification and assessment of small satellites, system components, and spacecraft materials. A UNSGC Faculty Research Infrastructure Grant was awarded a for the purpose of making improvements to enhance and extend the capabilities of the SST. Since the SST was brought online in August 2016, several externally funded projects have been completed and collaborative projects with The University of Tsukuba (Japan) and Logan High School (Utah). Many more projects are forthcoming and the capabilities of the SST continue to be improved and developed for the future.

Undergraduate Examination Of Pollutant Aerosols In Earth's Atmosphere, Matthew Toon, Tyler Weenig, Zach Collins, Fred Davis, Christopher Maughan, Kyle Strong, Kim Nielsen

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Air pollution can result from both natural and human-caused actions. Natural pollutants may result from events like: forest fires, volcanic eruptions, wind erosion, natural radioactivity, etc. Human pollutants can result from: toxic emissions from vehicles or manufacturing plants, burning fossil fuels, household or farming chemicals released into the air, second hand smoke from tobacco users, etc.

Pollution can obviously have an extremely negative effect on the air quality that we as humans, as well as all living creatures, breathe and depend on for life. Pollution can also negatively impact water and soil by introducing toxins into these resources needed for …

Serum Biochemistry Panels In African Buffalo: Defining Reference Intervals And Assessing Variability Across Season, Age And Sex, Johanna Rigas, Claire E. Couch, Morgan A. Movius, Anna E. Jolles, M Elena Gorman, Brianna R. Beechler

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Serum biochemical parameters can be utilized to evaluate the physiological status of an animal, and relate it to the animal’s health. In order to accurately interpret individual animal biochemical results, species-specific reference intervals (RI) must be established. Reference intervals for biochemical parameters differ between species, and physiological differences including reproductive status, nutritional resource availability, disease status, and age affect parameters within the same species. The objectives of this study were to (1) establish RI for biochemical parameters in managed African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), (2) assess the effects of age, sex, pregnancy, and season on serum biochemistry values, and (3) compare …

Soil Type More Than Precipitation Determines Fine-Root Abundance In Savannas Of Kruger National Park, South Africa, Andrew Kulmatiski, Sydney R.C. Sprouse, Karen H. Beard

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Aims

Our aim was to examine how soil type and precipitation affect fine-root abundance in savanna ecosystems across Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa.

Methods

Fine-root distributions were measured in four sites that represent the natural factorial combination of soil types (basalt-derived clay or granite-derived sand) and precipitation regimes [wet (~750 mm mean annual precipitation) or dry (~500 mm mean annual precipitation)] that occur in KNP. Root area and biomass (at soil depths of 0–75 cm) were estimated from measurements of root number, length and width in images from minirhizotron tubes at each site. Measurements were made during one mid-season …

Utah State University Commencement, 2017 – Main Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

130th Annual Commencement of Utah State University.

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: …

Inventory, Assessment And Preliminary Management Planning For Utah's Sovereign Land Along The Bear River, Matthew Coombs

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

ABSTRACT

Inventory, Assessment and Preliminary Management Planning for

Utah’s Sovereign Land along the Bear River

by

Matthew S. Coombs

Master of Science in Bioregional Planning

Utah State University, 2017

Major Professor: Richard E. Toth

Department: Environment and Society

The Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands (FFSL) is responsible for the management of state-owned sovereign land in Utah, which includes the bed and banks of the Bear River in Cache and Box Elder Counties. The purpose of this project is to provide relevant background information and data to support the future development of a comprehensive management plan for the …

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 …

Periodic Nonlinear Sliding Modes For Two Uniformly Magnetized Spheres, Boyd F. Edwards, John M. Edwards

All Physics Faculty Publications

A uniformly magnetized sphere slides without friction along the surface of a second, identical sphere that is held fixed in space, subject to the magnetic force and torque of the fixed sphere and the normal force. The free sphere has two stable equilibrium positions and two unstable equilibrium positions. Two small-amplitude oscillatory modes describe the sliding motion of the free sphere near each stable equilibrium, and an unstable oscillatory mode describes the motion near each unstable equilibrium. The three oscillatory modes remain periodic at finite amplitudes, one bifurcating into mixed modes and circumnavigating the free sphere at large energies. For …

Currere And Prolepsis: A Literary Analysis, Kristin Kristner Hall, Mario Itzel Suárez, Sungyoon Lee, Patrick Slattery

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Literary scholars and English teachers will recognize the word prolepsis as a term describing the moment in a short story or novel when the reader becomes fully cognizant of past, present, and future events all in one instant. This is a moment of heightened insight, transcending historical sedimentation. " A proleptic moment is any experience " of a text that shifts the reader/viewer/listener outside of " linear segmentation of time and creates a holistic understanding of the past, present, and future simultaneously " (Slattery, 2013, p. 305). Prolepsis is the moment when all of the events of the narrative coalesce. …

Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products In An Effluent-Dominated Stream: Seasonal Variability And Downstream Fate, Bradley R. Buswell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) consist of a large group of compounds including medicines, lotions, soaps, shampoos, and even flame retardants and insect repellants. After use, PPCPs often enter waste streams that are directed to municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Due to inefficient removals in conventional wastewater treatment processes, WWTP discharges into streams and rivers are a major source of PPCPs to the environment.

The East Canyon Water Reclamation Facility (ECWRF) is a WWTP in Park City, Utah. After treatment, the ECWRF effluent is discharged into a small constructed wetland area before it enters East Canyon Creek. Due to …

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 …

Comparison Of Survival Curves Between Cox Proportional Hazards, Random Forests, And Conditional Inference Forests In Survival Analysis, Brandon Weathers

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

Survival analysis methods are a mainstay of the biomedical fields but are finding increasing use in other disciplines including finance and engineering. A widely used tool in survival analysis is the Cox proportional hazards regression model. For this model, all the predicted survivor curves have the same basic shape, which may not be a good approximation to reality. In contrast the Random Survival Forests does not make the proportional hazards assumption and has the flexibility to model survivor curves that are of quite different shapes for different groups of subjects. We applied both techniques to a number of publicly available …