Digital Commons Network^™

Research Development & Early-Career Faculty: Catalysts Of Change For Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Stem, Monica Castañeda-Kessel, Idalis Villanueva Alarcón, Ryan Berke

Office of Research Faculty and Staff Publications

Problem Statement: Early-career science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) faculty members are often challenged when identifying authentic diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals, objectives, and tasks for their research grant proposals. Advancing DEI has not been one person’s job but rather the responsibility of a highly organized network within a system. Research development professionals have been and will continue to be critical resources for developing DEI plans and broadening participation. Their value is partly due to relationship-oriented processes that research professionals cultivate and shepherd as well as the inherently cross-disciplinary nature of the day-to-day work. Observation: In FY 19, 53% …

2023 Utah People & Environment Poll Descriptive Report, Jessica Schad, Sadie Braddock, Cole Lancaster

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

From March to May 2023, faculty and graduate students at Utah State University (USU) in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS) and in the department of Environment and Society started the Utah People and Environment Poll, or UPEP, to survey adult Utah residents about their perceptions on environmental issues of importance to the state.

Cultural-Emotional Learning And Mental Health Challenges Among American Indian/Alaska Native Students, Mark Se Baez Phd, Carla Allison Baez Phd

Journal of Indigenous Research

Abstract

When working with American Indian/Alaska Native students, contextual and cultural matters. Social and emotional approaches must be modified to address cultural differences for a successful outcome. A practical approach that is culturally responsive among American Indian/Alaska Native students towards their academics, behaviors, and emotional learning, is imperative for those facilitating the learning among these students to understand the cultural dynamics and experiences (Cultural-Emotional Learning) as they enter their school buildings. Cultural-Emotional Learning for American Indian/Alaska Native students is a methodology for faculty/educators working with American Indian/Alaskan Native students to assist them in the initial cultural dialog in developing cultural …

Chapter 7- The Crucial Role And Responsibilities Of The Mentoring Program Coordinator, Michael A. Christiansen, Don Busenbark

Making Connections

Mentoring is a crucial part of personal and professional development in practically any environment, including higher education, industry, and private institutions, though the nature and methods of such mentoring may vary as much as the organizations themselves. Because institutions differ so much in their structures and needs, it is important that a dedicated program coordinator be assigned to define mentoring and spearhead the construction, implementation, assessment, and evaluation of any institutional mentoring program. This program coordinator should have enthusiasm for mentoring, effectively communicate program goals, and provide the training and resources necessary to implement an efficient mentoring model. Coordinators should …

Chapter 5- Needs Assessment And Data Analytics: Understanding Your Constituencies, Neal Legler

Making Connections

Needs assessment is an important early step in the development of a mentoring program because it helps ensure that program resources go toward improving prioritized institutional results. Needs assessment should involve key stakeholders, organized into a needs assessment committee, and then follow a systematic process to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data and identify existing organizational needs. Needs are defined as the gap between desired organizational results and current results. They should be considered holistically and at all levels of the organization. As needs are identified, the needs assessment committee works with stakeholders through a combination of group management …

Chapter 14- The Mentoring Program As A Research Project, David Law, Nicole Vouvalis, Andy Harris, Jim Lamuth

Making Connections

Chapter 14, “The Mentoring Program as a Research Project,” helps stakeholders, program coordinators, and researchers distinguish the differences and similarities between program evaluation and program research. If stakeholders choose to include program research, they will need approval from their university’s institutional review board (IRB). Therefore, the second section of this chapter helps stakeholders navigate the IRB. The third section of this chapter describes how theoretical frameworks, operational definitions of mentoring, and methodological designs factor into mentoring programs that contain research. While all formal mentoring programs in academia should include theoretical frameworks, operational definitions, and sound methodology, many do not. The …

Chapter 12- A New Vision For Promoting Equity And Inclusion In Academic Mentoring Programs, Assata Zerai, Nancy López

Making Connections

What are the pitfalls of conventional student, faculty, and staff mentoring programs? Despite good intentions, how might they negatively impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), as well as other marginalized faculty who are women, LGBTQIA+, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), or first-generation college students (e.g., grew up in household where no parent/legal guardian earned a four-year college degree in the United States or abroad)? How could employing an intersectional framework—attention to the simultaneity of systems of oppression and resistance—as inquiry and praxis transform student, faculty, and staff mentoring programs? This chapter examines the challenges and possibilities for advancing equity …

Chapter 25- Mentoring Programs For Staff Of Educational Institutions: Unm Staff Council Mentorship Program, Amy Hawkins

Making Connections

In higher education, staff sometimes feel like the third wheel, the step-child, the forgotten ones sitting on the sidelines as students and faculty bask in the warm glow of academia. Administrators in university settings owe duties to (a) faculty and student needs; and (b) staff development, morale, needs, pay, and benefits. The University of New Mexico’s Staff Council was created so that volunteer university staff elected to serve as councilors can advocate for staff by offering recommendations to the university regarding staff development, morale, needs, pay, and benefits. Each can bring constituent concerns to the full Staff Council and its …

Chapter 29- Conclusion, David Law, Nora Domínguez

Making Connections

Too often, formal mentoring programs are started at universities without thinking through and addressing the details needed for the program to succeed. As stated at the beginning, the primary purpose of this handbook is to provide a “one-stop shop” resource that guides program coordinators to be intentional and effective in designing, implementing, evaluating, sustaining, and funding their academic mentoring program. In this concluding section, we describe how this book’s chapters and case studies connect to form a comprehensive guide for program coordinators and other stakeholders. Making the chapter’s interconnections explicit makes a needed contribution to the mentoring field, particularly as …

The Revised Dacs Principles In Action: Applying Modern Practice To Legacy Description, Ryan Lee, Rebecca A. Wiederhold, Becky Skeen, Paul Daybell, Heather Housley, Kelly Rovegno

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Since SAA revised DACS's archival description principles from 8 concepts into 11 reworked value statements in 2019, archivists have wondered how to incorporate the revised principles into existing description practices. Archivists from BYU and USU libraries have undertaken large projects on legacy collections informed by these principles. We invite attendees to learn from our experiences in implementing current DACS principles while grappling with less-than-ideal records. BYU will describe a project to revise the description of a significant collection of Mesoamerican materials after discovering the finding aid had serious problems introduced by previous revisions by archivists. USU will describe an undertaking …

One-Dimensional Radial Turbomachinery Modeling, Chase Oliphant

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Centrifugal flow impellers are commonly used in a wide variety of industrial machines. Predicting the performance of these impellers over the entire operating range is key to the system development during the early design stages. The two element in series (TEIS) and two-zone model can be used to accurately predict impeller performance based on flow physics and empirical correlations. Correlations were made with linear regression on a database of 50 pumps and 75 impellers. These correlations were later found to only apply to designs that are similar to those in the database. This paper proposes a new method to generate …

Characterization, Comparison And Confirmation: Atmospheric Composition Of Wasp-39b With Jwst, Brian Seamons, Joshua Lothringer

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In late 2022, astronomers from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team (ERS) observed WASP-39b, an ultra hot (1200 K) planet with a Jupiter-like radius and Saturn-like mass using the JWST Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec), which provides broad-wavelength observations between (0.5 and 5.5 μm). Zafar Rustamkulov et al. 2023 revealed that they had not only confirmed previous characterizations of WASP-39b’s atmosphere by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, but found strong evidence for multiple chemicals, such as Na, H₂O, CO₂, CO, and surprisingly, SO₂ .

Reducing Carbon Dioxide Levels On Mars Using Cyanobacteria, Lonnie Ernst

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Cyanobacteria are the largest contributor to oxygen production on earth and play a substantial role in making earth a viable place to live. With increasing interest in the colonization of Mars, this project aims to use cyanobacteria to terraform the atmosphere of Mars. Carbon dioxide constitutes 98% of the Martian atmosphere making it uninhabitable for most forms of life. An emulation of the Martian atmosphere will be created using an anaerobic chamber, putting the pressure under vacuum, and supplementing the air with carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas. Cyanobacteria will be grown in a photobioreactor under these conditions and the oxygen …

Are They Really Muons: Determining The Viability Of Cosmicwatch Muon Detectors In ‘Coincidence Mode’, Matt Wilkinson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Our project went forward in two stages, the first stage being the building and testing of the detectors and the second being the primary experiment to test the detectors in their coincidence modes. Experiences with the build phase, particularly with the setting of thresholds for the detectors, lead to the interest in determining the statistical significance of these values.

Advances In Noninvasive Urine Oxygen Monitoring For Detection Of Acute Kidney Injury, Lars Lofgren, Kai Kück, Natalie Silverton

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of cardiac surgery that is associated with increased hospital length of stay and mortality risk. The most common diagnostic criteria come from the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes Guidelines. These criteria rely on detecting changes in serum creatinine relative to a baseline measurement and decreased urine output. These markers are meant to capture a decrease in the overall filtration rate. However, the filtration rate may or may not change depending on the baseline health of the individual patient and the type and severity of the injury. In addition, these markers are influenced …

Notes Of Black Holes, A. B. Chanson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Fully leveraging Analysis onto physics proves fruitful, as a number of results are displayed; in particular, emergent symmetries are, generally, categorized as information symmetries; together with Noether’s theorems, these laws are found dual to the Laws of Thermodynamics as well as the Three Isomorphism Theories (alongside the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra). Most remarkably, the fine structure constant is analytically derived (using monodromy techniques), the cosmological hierarchy problem is resolved (using thermodynamic techniques), and a new duality between quantum information, celestial holography, and black holes is exhibited and exploited to resolve the Arrow of Time.

Factors Affecting Remote Workers’ Job Satisfaction In Utah: An Exploratory Study, Amanda D. Ali, Lendel K. Narine, Paul A. Hill, Dominic C. Bria

Extension Research

With structural changes in work arrangements, employee retention becomes more important for organizational success. Guided by the Ability, Motivation, Opportunity (AMO) framework, this study investigated the factors affecting remote workers’ job satisfaction and personal wellbeing in Utah. From a sample of n = 143 remote workers, the study used a correlational design to identify the significant predictors of job satisfaction and personal wellbeing. It mapped the relationships between significant predictors of job satisfaction and personal wellbeing and explored the role of human resources (HR) policies and organizational culture in a remote work environment. Results showed intrinsic motivation, affective commitment, opportunity, …

Assessing The Possibility And Properties Of Types I And Ii Chalcogen Bonds, Steve Scheiner

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Type I and II halogen bonds are well-recognized motifs that commonly occur within crystals. Quantum calculations are applied to examine whether such geometries might occur in their closely related chalcogen bond cousins. Homodimers are constructed of the R1R2C=Y and R1R2Y monomers, wherein Y represents a chalcogen atom, S, Se, or Te; R1 and R2 refer to either H or F. A Type II (T2) geometry wherein the lone pair of one Y is closely aligned with a σ-hole of its partner represents a stable arrangement for all except YH2, although not all such structures are true minima. The symmetric T1 …

Utah State University Commencement, 2023 – Main Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2023 Commencement Ceremony for the main campus of Utah State University.

Growth, Morphological, And Biochemical Responses Of Four Native Species To Salinity Stress, Asmita Paudel, Youping Sun

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Native plants are of great value in landscape maintenance. Despite their importance in the landscape, the salt tolerance of most native plants has received little attention. The present research was designed to assess morphological, physiological, and biochemical responses of four Utah-native plants [Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (kinnikinnick), Cercocarpus ledifolius (curl-leaf mountain mahogany), Cercocarpus montanus ‘Coy’ (alder-leaf mountain mahogany), and Shepherdia ×utahensis ‘Torrey’ (hybrid buffaloberry)] at different salinity levels. Each species was irrigated with a nutrient solution at an electrical conductivity (EC) of 1.2 dS·m^-1 (control) or saline solutions at ECs of 5.0 or 10.0 dS·m^-1 for 8 …

Shifting The Paradigm With Wednesday Addams: Why Nuanced, Intersectional Portrayals Of Autistic People Matter, Camille Alyse Bassett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For decades, Autistic people have been portrayed in the media through dehumanizing stereotypes such as the robot, the superhuman savant, and the empty shell. Through these stereotypes, Autistic people are construed as non-human, above-human, and sub-human but never as human beings with complexity, authenticity, and dignity. In addition to being stereotypical, depictions of Autistic people have historically featured white and male characters, a longstanding pattern that erases Autistic women and people of color, among others. In 2022, however, Netflix’s spinoff series of The Addams Family, Wednesday, brought to the screen one of the very first autistic-coded …

Ethical Issues With Schizophrenia Research And Treatment, Chloé Brogdon

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Schizophrenia is a complex and debilitating mental disorder that affects millions of individuals worldwide. Current medical science is rapidly growing in its understanding of this illness. As researchers and practitioners seek to better understand and treat this condition from a medical and physiological standpoint, it is crucial that ethical implications of research and treatment approaches are fully considered and prioritized. This project investigated the nature and scope of schizophrenia as an illness in order to delve into ethical issues with current research and treatment approaches. Some of the ethical issues identified and analyzed include issues with informed consent, stigmatization, and …

The Framing Of The Shrew: Induction, Gender, And Agency In William Shakespeare’S The Taming Of The Shrew, Samantha Stringham

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Shrews abound, not only in Shakespeare’s works but in our modern world. Katherine, Shakespeare’s titular shrew, is in the good company of Beatrice, Adriana, and even, some argue, her seemingly virtuous sister Bianca. These women, all of whom push against the confines posed by the social conventions of Renaissance womanhood, have become increasingly relevant as women, now more than ever, demand that their voices be heard and continue to rally against the assertion that railing, scolding, turbulent behavior makes one a shrew (or perhaps, that being a shrew is an inherently bad thing). The increasingly feminist leanings of modern audiences …

Ethics, Fashion, And Film In The 1950s And 60s, Sara Miner

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

To truly understand the nature of identity, autonomy, and morality in the 1950s and 60s, one must look at what artifacts of humanity have been left behind. More specifically, clothes and fashion capture, represent, and immortalize the human experience through each stitch and seam. By analyzing clothing from an anthropologic lens, one can discover the socio-cultural reality of a time long past. Known for intense culmination of social and political movements, the 1950s and 60s contain many radical shifts. Ranging from social movements like Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, Black Feminism, and others, to the political metamorphosis as a result of …

Adversity And Leader Development: Mindfulness As A Potential Moderator, Isaac V. Dixon

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Why do some leaders respond to adversity by becoming more empathetic, impactful, and resilient — while others do not? Since the Covid-19 pandemic, suffering has gained personal relevance to each one of us. Although many researchers have explored why some individuals – when faced with trauma – grow as a result, little work has been done to understand this process specifically within the context of leaders and leader development. As such, the primary purpose of this paper is to explore what allows some leaders to respond to adversity/trauma with leadership development. Based on the mediators of productive framing, cognitive engagement, …

Reason And Rationality In The Post-Pandemic Era, Jordan David Schwanke

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper investigates human reason’s proper function and role in the post-pandemic era. Sections 1 and 2 analyze recent literature on Kahneman’s dual processing theory and Hugo Mercier’s and Dan Sperber’s (M&S) interactionalist approach toward human reason. Kahneman’s theory cannot explain how System 2 is still prone to make serious mistakes, and M&S provide a more plausible alternative: reasoning is all intuitive. Humans can intuit reasons for their beliefs and intuitions. But more importantly, reason is the metarepresentational ability to evaluate the strengths or weaknesses of reasons and arguments. Reason, through the process of evolution, is fundamentally used for justification …

The Supreme Court And Presidential Elections: An Analysis Of Divisive Decisions And Judicial Review In Presidential Elections, Jeff Hastings

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A presidential election is, arguably, the most important event in the American political system. The Congress and the president are undoubtedly affected by the pressures and publicity of these events, but we have little understanding of whether the Supreme Court behaves differently in presidential election years. In this paper, I argue that the Supreme Court will experience more consensus in its decisions and make less use of judicial review because of the potential for heightened public scrutiny that can arise during the term overlapping with a presidential election. I test this claim using ordinary least squares regression. I find that …

Teachers' Conceptions And Enactment Of Disciplinary Literacy In Elementary Science Instruction: A Comparative Case Study, Melissa P. Mendenhall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This case study explores elementary teachers’ conceptions and enactment of disciplinary literacy in elementary science instruction and the interaction between the two. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to describe how four fifth-grade teachers view literacy appropriate to science. Participants for this research were invited to participate by responding to an online survey and were selected based on criteria. Data sources include interviews, teacher artifacts, and observation. Qualitative data were coded, the codes compared to ideas in the field (overall themes), and global themes were generated as sense making tools to describe trends found in each case, case comparisons, …

Family Communication Patterns, Emotion Regulation, And Coping Behaviors In Young Adults, Caleb J. Price

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Family communication establishes expectations for a variety of behaviors, including emotion expression. This study explored if patterns of family communication were related to five behaviors that young adults might use to cope (drinking alcohol, watching TV, masturbating, eating, and exercising) via emotion regulation strategies. The data used for this study came from 504 young adults living across the United States who completed an online survey which asked them questions about how their family communicated when they were adolescents, their emotion regulation strategies, and how often they use the five coping behaviors listed above. The participants were between 18 and 30 …

Fish Community Impacts And Conservation Implications Of A Novel Barrier On The San Juan River, Utah, Zachary T. Ahrens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Stream fragmentation and non-native species introductions are among a suite of anthropogenic disturbances shaping the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems. The impacts of such alterations contribute to the global decline of stream fish biodiversity and may be synergistic in their effects. For example, the Colorado River basin’s unique native fish assemblage is imperiled not only by numerous dams and diversions, but also by threats of predation and competition for limited resources from non-native fish species. On the San Juan River, Utah, a recently formed fish barrier prevents upstream movement of native and non-native fish. The goal of this project …