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High Sugar Diet Alters Immune Function And The Gut Microbiome In Juvenile Green Iguanas (Iguana Iguana), Kwanho Claudia Ki

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The present work aimed to study whether a high sugar diet can alter immune responses and the gut microbiome in green iguanas. Thirty-six iguanas were split into four treatment groups using a 2×2 design. Iguanas received either a sugar-supplemented diet or a control diet, and either a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection or a phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) injection. Iguanas were given their respective diet treatment through the entire study (∼3 months) and received a primary immune challenge 1 and 2 months into the experiment. Blood samples and cloacal swabs were taken at various points in the experiment and used to measure changes …

Curriculum Subcommittee Agenda September 5, 2024, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes – April 4, 2024

• Program Proposals

• Semester Course Approval Reviews:

• College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences,
• Caine College of the Arts,
• Jon M. Huntsman School of Business,
• Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services,
• College of Engineering,
• College of Humanities and Social Sciences,
• S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources,
• College of Science,
• College of Veterinary Medicine,
• Other

• Other Business

• Adjourn: 3:00 pm

Educational Policies Committee Agenda September 5, 2024, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes – April 4, 2024

• Subcommittee Reports –

• Curriculum Subcommittee,
• Program Proposals,
• Academic Standards Subcommittee,
• General Education Subcommittee

• Other Business

• Adjourn: 4:00 pm

Forest Defoliation By And Invasive Outbreak Insect: Catastrophic Consequences For A Charismatic Mega Moth, Richard L. Lindroth, Mark R. Zierden, Clay J. Morrow, Patricia C. Fernandez

Aspen Bibliography

Earth is now experiencing declines in insect abundance and diversity unparalleled in human history. The drivers underlying those declines are many, complex, and incompletely known. Here, using a natural experiment, we report the first test of the hypothesis that forest defoliation by an invasive outbreak insect compromises the fitness of a native insect via damage-induced increases in toxicity of the forest canopy. We demonstrate that defoliation by the invasive spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) elicits an average 8.4-fold increase in foliar defense expression among aspen (Populus tremuloides) genotypes. In turn, elevated defense dramatically reduces survivorship, feeding, and …

Malivhu: A Comprehensive Bioinformatics Resource For Filtering Sars And Mers Virus Proteins By Their Classification, Family And Species, And Prediction Of Their Interactions Against Human Proteins, David Guevara-Barrientos, Rakesh Kaundal

Computer Science Student Research

COVID 19 pandemic is still ongoing, having taken more than 6 million human lives with it, and it seems that the world will have to learn how to live with the virus around. In consequence, there is a need to develop different treatments against it, not only with vaccines, but also new medicines. To do this, human-virus protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play a key part in drug-target discovery, but finding them experimentally can be either costly or sometimes unreliable. Therefore, computational methods arose as a powerful alternative to predict these interactions, reducing costs and helping researchers confirm only certain interactions instead …

Cognitive Reappraisal: The Bridge Between Cognitive Load And Emotion, Rebecca Brockbank, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Within this integrative review, cognitive load theory (CLT) is asserted as a powerful framework for conceptualizing human cognitive processes within learning. The relationship between cognition and emotion is then examined and further integrated within the scope of CLT. Emotion regulation strategies are discussed and adaptive strategies are proposed as being of particular relevance to broadening the theoretical and practical impacts of CLT. Central to the argument of this review is the use of cognitive reappraisal as a potential mitigator of cognitive load. Cognitive reappraisal involves reframing or reassessing understandings or beliefs that underlie an emotional response, which may mitigate cognitive …

Navigating The Spectrum: An Overview Of Itu's Regulatory Process For Small Satellites, Chuen Chern Loo, Xiuqi Wang

Small Satellite Conference

Originating from 1865, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has evolved into a diverse community comprising 193 member states, more than 1000 public and private sector companies, universities, research institutes as well as international and regional telecommunication entities. World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC) are convened every four years, providing a crucial platform for updating the ITU Radio Regulations, ensuring that it continues to meet the demands of the industry.

The ITU regulations for frequency and orbit regestration of satellites, particularly on the occupancy of the geostationary satellite orbits (GSO) for the traditional telecommunications satellites, have been well-known among operators with large satellites. …

Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment: Initial Operations And Flight Results, Justin Kruger, Simone D'Amico, Soon S. Hwang

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents initial flight results for distributed optical angles-only navigation of a swarm of small spacecraft, conducted during the Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment (StarFOX). StarFOX is a core payload of the NASA Starling mission, which consists of four CubeSats launched in 2023. Angles-only methods apply inter-satellite bearing angles obtained by on-board cameras for navigation, increasing satellite autonomy and enabling new mission concepts. Nevertheless, prior flight demonstrations have only featured one observer and target and have relied upon a-priori target orbit knowledge for initialization, translational maneuvers to resolve target range, and external absolute orbit updates to maintain convergence. StarFOX overcomes …

Achieving Low-Cost, High-Reliability Payload Services Through A Collegiate Approach Using Standardized Satellite Bus Architectures, Nathan Drzadinski, Griffin Hentzen

Small Satellite Conference

The space community is rapidly expanding, especially in the Small Sat sector. The incremental implementation of more compact technology and the decline of launch costs lowers the barrier to entry into space, allowing for new actors to expand into the market. Two important players in this incremental process are collegiate satellite programs and commercial satellite-as-a-service (SataaS) providers. Collegiate satellite programs have previously occupied the low-cost, low-reliability market. These are often in a one-time collaboration with a professor or company, always resulting in the design of a unique bus derived by mission-specific stakeholder needs. In contrast with university programs, current commercial …

The Progress Ahead On The Pedago-Sat Academic Nanosatellite Training Platform Project, Aissa Boutte, El Yazid Belaidi

Small Satellite Conference

Since the beginning of 2022, development of the ”PEDAGO-SAT” platform has been underway, in line with a 36-months development plan that proposes a nano-satellite platform (Open -source) using an accessible products. The main objective is to design a training solution aligned with the Algerian Space Agency’s (ASAL) strategy to promote local aerospace activity and encourage national universities to play a role in advancing this sector. Once the nanosatellite is built and the tests on the various sub-systems and learning scenarios and procedure validated, the project’s outcome will be proposed as an educational support to space engineering graduates and training the …

An Autonomous Reinforcement Learning Framework For Fault Recovery And Mission Replanning On Cubesats, Ganesh Danke, Rajiv Iyer

Small Satellite Conference

Onboard system failures during CubeSat operation can have significant consequences for mission success. Limited resources during the development process can hamper the development and implementation of recovery systems, increasing the likelihood of mission failures. In response, this paper establishes a reusable autonomous framework for mission replanning in the event of an onboard system failure. Prior to launch, the framework ingests a standardized mission plan detailing mission objectives, mission priorities, and onboard capabilities and resources. Segmenting this information into a set of discrete tasks with completion dependencies, a reinforcement learning approach is used to select a schedule of tasks with the …

Introduction To The Traffic Coordination System For Space (Tracss), Christine Joseph

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents an overview of the Department of Commerce’s Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), its planned architecture, and the basic space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic coordination (STC) services which it will provide.

In 2018, the White House’s Space Policy Directive-3 identified the Department of Commerce (DOC) as the lead agency for civil SSA, directing transfer of that responsibility from the Department of Defense (DoD), which has historically offered that function to all space operators. This will allow the DoD to focus on its critical space domain awareness needs and mission, while DOC can drive spaceflight safety, …

Design And Testing Of A Resilient Cots Point Of Load Converter For Deep Space Cubesats, Jacob Cook, Phil Bland, Robert Howie

Small Satellite Conference

To support the development of the upcoming Binar Space Program 12U Explorer Class platform, currently being designed for lunar and interplanetary research applications, the design and testing of a modular Gallium Nitride (GaN) based Point of Load (PoL) converter is being undertaken. The converter has been designed to supply power to high-transient-current loads, such as communications systems, by regulating down a higher voltage derived from a range of common CubeSat battery configurations to a target voltage of 5V. The system consists of parallel-connected linear regulator and buck converter stages which deliver power to the load through a high-side current sense …

Maximizing Autonomy On A Small Satellite Platform, Per Bodin, Danilo Costales, Anders Edfors

Small Satellite Conference

OHB Sweden's future generation InnoSat microsatellite platforms will see a large upgrade in the platform's functionality maximizing onboard autonomy. In this paper, three development lines will be presented each contributing to maximizing efficiency and autonomy on a small satellite platform.

The InnoSat platform is a flexible platform concept with a recurring catalog of units, recurrent onboard software and mission control software, and heritage AIT processes. Two InnoSat missions are currently flying: Swedish National Space Agency's MATS and the commercial bring-into-use satellite GMS-T. Two more InnoSat derived missions will be launched in 2024: ESA's Arctic Weather Satellite and Satlantis' Garai-A. In …

Deep Purple Payload Qualifies For Nasa Launch, Could Provide New Method For Real-Time Space-Domain Awareness, Jordan Smilo, Frank Ravizza, John Ganino, Jordan Karburn, Lance Simms, Darrell Carter, Princess Corral, Michael Wong, Aaron Godfrey, Brian Bauman, Cohl Houldin Hatala, Ryan Fellini, Lisle Hagler, Wim De Vries, Alex Pertica, Ben Bahney

Small Satellite Conference

In January 2024, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Space Program fully assembled and qualified its Deep Purple payload. It will be on board NASA's Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-R (PTD-R), scheduled to launch on the SpaceX Transporter 11 in July 2024.

The Livermore team designed, developed, qualified, and delivered the Deep Purple payload in approximately one year and has now been integrated into the PTD-R satellite, a 6U (36 cm x 23 cm x 10 cm) bus constructed by a Laboratory Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) partner Terran Orbital.

NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Programs' PTD-R space vehicle containing the Deep …

Leveraging Cross-Industry Knowledge To Improve The Design Of Space Systems, Jay Lewis, Christian M. Fuchs

Small Satellite Conference

There are valuable satellites that fail early and almost none have been repaired or investigated. Other industries benefit from feedback loops that use failure analysis to accelerate design and manufacturing improvements.¹⁷ Historically the cost of a repair mission would be so high it wouldn't be considered. The cost of space debris mitigation missions can be reduced by leveraging the learning other industries have experienced. Lowering the cost of repair missions will enable more debris mitigation, learn more about why missions failed, and lead to fewer failures and lower costs.

Many space programs rely on outdated processes that increase costs, …

Operating In A Unique Three Body Orbit With A Stuck Thruster, Hannah Umansky, Jack Kelly, Rebecca Rogers, Ethan Kayser, Alec Forsman, Connor Ott, Anthony Zara, Michael Caudill

Small Satellite Conference

The CAPSTONE mission, currently operating in an Earth-Moon L2 Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), encountered a thruster anomaly in transit to NRHO that resulted in thruster valve remaining permanently open. After resolving the initial anomaly recovering the spacecraft from body rates greater than 120 deg/s, the CAPSTONE team redesigned the thruster controller as well as the spacecraft state machine to enable continued propulsive operations including successful insertion into and sustained operations in NRHO. While the redesign enabled continued utilization of the propulsion system with a stuck thruster, the resulting system presents continued operational challenges within the NRHO environment.

The CAPSTONE …

Assessment Of Economic Viability Of Direct Current Fast Charging Infrastructure Investments For Electric Vehicles In The United States, Daniel Bernal, Adeeba A. Raheem, Sundeep Inti, Hongjie Wang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

As the global transportation sector increasingly adopts electric vehicles, the demand for advanced and accessible charging infrastructure is rising. In addition to at-home electric vehicle (EV) charging, there is a growing need for the swift development of commercial direct current fast charging (DCFC) stations to meet on-the-go EV charging demands. While government funds are available to support the expansion of the EV charging network in the United States, the establishment of a robust nationwide EV charging infrastructure requires significant private sector investment. This study was conducted to assess the economic feasibility of various business models for fast charging stations in …

Unlocking The Potential Of Small Satellites: Themis's Active Cooling Technology On The Spirit Mission, Miguel Ortiz Del Castillo, Clint Therakam, Jack Mcrobbie, Andrew Woods, Robert Mearns, Simon Barraclough, Stephen Catsamas, Mika Ohkawa, Jonathan Morgan, Airlie Chapman, Michele Trenti

Small Satellite Conference

The Thermal Management Integrated System (TheMIS) is a key element of the Australia-Italy Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) mission, launched in a 510km Polar Sun-Synchronous orbit in December 2023. SpIRIT is a 6U CubeSat led by The University of Melbourne in cooperation with the Italian Space Agency, with support from the Australian Space Agency and with contributions from Australian space industry and international research organizations. The TheMIS subsystem actively cools and controls the temperature of sensitive instruments, increasing the potential range of payloads supported on small spacecraft systems. TheMIS core functionality is based on a commercial Stirling Cycle Cryocooler …

An Electrical Power System Development For Vertecs: A 6u Cubesat Mission For Observation The Extragalactic Background Light, Chinathip Narongphun, Shunsuke Nakagawa, Hari Ram Shrestha, Victor Hugo Schulz, Rodrigo Cordova, Necmi Cihan Örger, Kei Sano, Takao Nakagawa

Small Satellite Conference

This paper focuses on an overview of the electrical power system (EPS) implemented in the Visible extragalactic background radiation exploration by CubeSat (VERTECS), a 6U CubeSat developed by a collaboration of the Kyushu institute of technology (Kyutech), JAXA, universities, and companies. Its mission aims to reveal the star-formation history of the universe through observations of the extragalactic background light (EBL) in visible wavelength. This article presents the three primary functions of the EPS in VERTECS design (i.e., power source, energy storage, and power control) in detail, as well as the verification of the system by the breadboard model (BBM). Numerous …

Open-Source Cubesat Solar Panels: Design, Assembly, Testing, And On-Orbit Demonstration, Nicholas J. Sorensen, Erik F. Halliwell

Small Satellite Conference

Cube satellites, or CubeSats, are small satellites commonly used to perform Earth imaging and on-orbit scientific experiments. CubeSats are often powered using expensive, inflexible commercial-off-the-shelf solar panels, largely due to a lack of flight-qualified open-source alternatives. Here, we describe the design of customizable, deployable solar panels, offering an open-source, cost-effective alternative. Towards a fully open-source CubeSat, our designs have mission-tailored power generation capabilities and simple electrical and mechanical integration. The solar panel designs were demonstrated on-orbit on three satellites in the Northern SPIRIT constellation and will be on AlbertaSat’s Ex-Alta 3 satellite, which will launch in 2025. The design files, …

Modelling Climate Effects On Site Productivity And Developing Site Index Conversion Equations For Jack Pine And Trembling Aspen Mixed Stands, Mahadev Sharma

Aspen Bibliography

Forest site productivity estimates are crucial for making informed forest resource management decisions.These estimates are valuable both for the tree species currently growing in the stands and for those being considered for future stands. Current models are generally designed for pure stands and do not account for the influence of climate on tree growth. Consequently, site index (SI) conversion equations were developed specifically for jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) trees grown in naturally originated mixed stands. This work involved sampling 186 trees (93 of each species) from 31 even-aged mixed stands (3 …

Statistical Anomaly Analysis Of Small Satellite Missions Focusing On Payloads, Alexander Schmidt, Nico Gerster, Johannes Bachmann, Alexander Groß, Roger Förstner

Small Satellite Conference

With the rapid development of space technology, the number of new satellites has expanded rapidly in recent years, and the applications of satellites have gradually expanded into other industries and deeper into academia. While the small satellite category is experiencing significant growth, the behavior of small satellites still requires more in-depth study. A growing number of academic and industrial customers are looking to use satellites to achieve their scientific or business goals without having to develop a full satellite mission, including a satellite platform. Hosting payloads on other satellites or procuring pre-qualified platforms enables new mission flexibility while minimizing the …

Proton Single Events Effects Testing By Undergraduate Students For University Cubesat Mission Assurance, Pragun Bethapudi, Matthew Chang, Max Gross

Small Satellite Conference

The PROVES (Pleiades Rapid Orbital Verification Experimental System) Flight Controller Board was irradiated with 200 MeV Protons to a total fluence of 1e10 across multiple runs. Using the n/2000 method [1], this report has concluded the Non-destructive Single Event Effect (SEE) error rate of the Flight Controller Board to be 0.183 SEE per system day.

A Hardware-In-The-Loop Star Tracker Testbed, Ashley Haraguchi

Small Satellite Conference

As the use of small satellites for advanced space missions continues to grow, the importance of low mass and cost three axis attitude stabilization systems is increasing as well, which means high accuracy attitude knowledge is required. Star trackers provide the most accurate attitude knowledge of any type of attitude sensor, but their high cost, size, and weight can be prohibitive to small satellite missions. Many simple star trackers have been developed using commercial-off-the-shelf camera sensors and processing hardware, but the challenge remains in testing and characterizing these devices. Common methods involve night sky tests, where the star tracker is …

Cutting Propagation Of 'Coy' Alder-Leaf Mountain Mahogany, Asmita Paudel, Youping Sun, Atanda Samuel Oladejo

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

‘Coy’ alder-leaf mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus) is a new cultivar developed from a species native to the western United States with potential for use in xeriscaping, rock gardens, and water-efficient landscaping. However, efficient propagation methods are not well developed for it. In this study, cutting propagation of ‘Coy’ alder-leaf mountain mahogany was investigated over 3 years to evaluate the effects of wounding method, rooting hormone, type of cuttings collected, and time for cutting collection on rooting. In May, Jul, and Sep 2020, 2021, and 2022, nondormant hardwood subterminal cuttings and/or semihardwood terminal cuttings were collected for wounding studies. …

Introduction To Landscape Architecture State Standards And Curriculum For Utah High Schools, Joseph Pancoast

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Utah State University (USU) offers a successful Introduction to Landscape Architecture class for college students; this class increases awareness and understanding of landscape architecture as a profession. Though this is a wonderful resource offered at the college level, high school is a key time for career awareness. Unfortunately, there is a lack of student awareness surrounding the profession of landscape architecture. In Utah and the rest of the United States, there are currently no in-person Introduction to Landscape Architecture classes available in a high school setting to increase awareness and understanding for students in a high school setting. Providing a …

Unveiling Key Features: A Comparative Study Of Machine Learning Models For Alzheimer's Detection, Cailean Bushnell

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis rigorously evaluates the application of an array of natural language processing (NLP) techniques and machine learning models to identify linguistic signatures indicative of dementia, as sourced from the DementiaBank Pitt corpus. Utilizing a binary classification paradigm, this study meticulously integrates sophisticated embedding methods—including Doc2Vec, Word2Vec, GloVe, and BERT—with traditional machine learning algorithms such as Random Forest, Multinomial Naïve Bayes, ADA boost, KNN classifier, and Logistic Regression, alongside deep learning architectures like LSTM, Bi-LSTM, and CNN-LSTM. The efficacy of these methodologies is evaluated based on their capacity to differentiate between transcribed speech impacted by dementia and that from control …

Sustainable Waste-To-Bioproducts Engineering Center Laboratory Safety Project, Claudine Mock

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Laboratory accidents are common in teaching and research labs; these accidents can be injurious or even fatal. The consequences of each type of laboratory accident are different based on the activities performed and the hazardous materials used in each facility. However, the most common issue related to laboratory accidents is the lack of proper safety measures (e.g., poor handling of hazardous materials, not reporting incidents immediately, etc.). This project aimed to establish and strengthen best practices and procedures to ensure laboratory safety at the Utah State University Sustainable Waste-to-Bioproducts Engineering Center. To achieve this goal, different practices and measures were …

Legend Trips And Vernacular Film Theory: Spooky Encounters In Tiktok Mediated Legend Trips, Drew Holley

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

In this thesis I looked at how legend tripping is mediated through the affordances of new social technologies and apps, specifically TikTok. Short video formats allowed for folk cinematography to spread legend narratives and at the same time create more visual online landscapes for people to interact with. I defined folk cinematography as the way in which people make videos based on a vernacular level. This has been based on people having more access to video making tools and learning from informal patterns such as trends on sites like TikTok. Because of this, I explored how audiences participate in a …