Digital Commons Network^™

Determining The Structure And Function Of Type Iv-A Anti-Crisprs, Olivine Redman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Bacteria face a constant existential threat in the form of infection by viruses along with other forms of mobile genetic elements, such as bacteriophage and transposable elements. To survive, bacteria and other prokaryotes have evolved various immune systems to evade these would-be invaders. One such immune system is the CRISPR-Cas system, an adaptive immune system able to record the genetic signature of invading viruses in order to recognize and destroy them should they be encountered again in the future. In this thesis I present data that sheds light on the mechanism of one particular subtype of CRISPR-Cas systems: the type …

Second Nature: Nurturing Stewardship Through Ecological Presence, Tyler Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Environmental education is essential for preparing students to address today’s ecological challenges. However, many educational approaches focus primarily on individual behavior (e.g., personally conserving water) rather than broader systemic solutions. This research highlights that gap through a review of environmental education and introduces a new framework for designing and evaluating environmental education. This framework aims to help students explore their relationship with the environment in locally relevant and place-based ways. By applying this framework in rural Hawaii, this study examines how students perceive their roles within ecological systems and compares different curricular approaches to see how students’ understanding evolves. This …

Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Dynamics And Grazing, A Study Of Vegetation Indices And Survival, Codi R. Backen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

North American rangelands are vast, open landscapes that support diverse ecosystems and provide many ecosystem services. Many wildlife call sagebrush rangelands home, including the Greater sage-grouse (sage-grouse; Centrocercus urophasianus). Sage-grouse habitat encompasses 165 million acres across western North America, and this bird has been of conservation concern as their populations drastically declined since the 1960s. Rangelands are also grazed by livestock, which has the potential to negatively affect sagebrush ecosystems when overgrazed or overstocked, which could be detrimental to sage-grouse nesting habitat. Additionally, sagebrush rangelands undergo annual variations in precipitation, temperature, growing season length, and vegetation vigor, which has …

Physically Based Assessment Of Flow Resistance In Stepped Chutes, T. L. Wahl, B. J. Heiner, K. R. Smithgall, C. C. Shupe, J. Falkenstine

5th International Seminar on Dam Protections Against Overtopping

Existing physically based methods for estimating stepped chute friction factors or energy dissipation rates consider relative step height and relative step-tip spacing to be key factors, but do not fully account for chute slope and associated step orientation. For slopes steeper than 45° each step acts as an offset into the flow, while for flatter slopes each step presents an offset away from the flow, but methods that consider only the step-tip spacing do not account for this difference. Furthermore, most experimental studies have been performed in open channel spillway models, where two-phase air-water flow and variable flow depths make …

Ahead Of His Time? A Reanalysis Of The Air-Tunnel Stepped Chute Studies Of Marcos José Tozzi, T. L. Wahl, J. A. Higgs, J. Matos

5th International Seminar on Dam Protections Against Overtopping

Stepped spillways offer energy dissipation advantages and construction efficiencies over smooth spillway chutes. Energy dissipation is typically estimated using empirical relations that depend on chute slope, unit discharge and relative step height. Open-channel tests of model spillways experience self-aerated air-water flow downstream from the aeration inception point, and the presence of air dramatically affects energy dissipation and flow depth, making it difficult to separately determine the effects of step geometry and other basic flow properties. The 1992 doctoral dissertation of Marcos José Tozzi from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo included open channel stepped spillway tests with …

Hydraulic Measurements In A Saf Stilling Basin With A Stepped Chute For Embankment Protection, B. M. Crookston, N. Young

5th International Seminar on Dam Protections Against Overtopping

Stepped chutes have become commonplace in embankment dam rehabilitation projects due to project economy, constructability, and improved chute energy dissipation. Consequently, for applications where a stilling basin is merited the interaction of stepped chutes and stilling basins is of high interest. A commonly used stilling basin type for many smaller embankment dams, the St. Anthony Falls stilling basin (SAF), has no specific hydraulic design guidance for use downstream of a stepped chute. Therefore, this study was conducted at the Utah Water Research Laboratory in a flume with 0.1 m tall steps, a total drop height of 1.8 m, and an …

2d Probabilistic Scour Model For Predicting The Time-Rate Of Scour For Spillways And Overtopping Dams Based On The Erodibility Index Method, M. F. George, G. W. Annandale

5th International Seminar on Dam Protections Against Overtopping

Time-dependent prediction of rock scour for dams and spillways has largely remained elusive given limited available data on rock erosion rate parameters in literature. Recently, a theoretical framework for determining the rate of rock scour was developed by Annandale (2025), enhancing the Erodibility Index Method (EIM). The EIM is the most commonly used and accepted approach for evaluation of scour in rock for dam applications. This theoretical framework has been incorporated into the 2D probabilistic jet impingement scour model (George & Annandale, 2023) so that scour progression due to head-cutting in a spillway channel (lined or unlined) or overtopping onto …

Utah State University Commencement, 2025 – Main Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2025 Commencement Ceremony for the Main Campus of Utah State University.

Association Between Speech Perception In Noise And Sentence Comprehension In School-Age Children, Naveen K. Nagaraj

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Understanding Of Breach Processes Using Computational Fluid Dynamics And Laboratory Tests, K. V. Chua, M. Hassan, C. Goff, M. Morris, H. Haddad

5th International Seminar on Dam Protections Against Overtopping

Accurate prediction of dam breach processes is crucial for risk assessment and emergency response planning. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) offers a powerful tool for simulating such complex phenomena. However, the reliability of CFD models hinges on their validation against experimental data. This paper compares numerical simulations by the open-source code, OpenFOAM, to laboratory flume experiments to assess the accuracy of its predictions of dam breach overtopping processes.OpenFOAM is first being used to model the flow characteristics of two key stages of a dam breach experiment that took place in a physical laboratory setup. The two stages are the surface erosion …

Conclusions From The Performance Assessment Of Industry Applicable Internal Erosion Initiated Breach Prediction Models, Mark W. Morris, Jean-Robert Courivaud

5th International Seminar on Dam Protections Against Overtopping

The EDF funded Performance Assessment of Industry Applicable IE Initiated Breach Prediction Models project was initiated with a workshop at HERU in Stillwater in October 2019. In the following 4 years a team of modelers comprising both model developers and industry model users analyzed the performance of 6 different breach modelling codes against a range of different data sets, including hypothetical, field and real dam failure case studies. Each of the data sets reflected a dam or levee failure initiated by internal erosion, and which subsequently developed into an open breach. Modelers were required to simulate breach formation from the …

A Bivalent Self-Amplifying Rna Vaccine Against Yellow Fever And Zika Viruses, Peter Battisti, Matthew R. Ykema, Darshan N. Kasal, Madeleine F. Jennewein, Samuel Beaver, Abbie E. Weight, Derek Hanson, Jasneet Singh, Julie Bakken, Noah Cross, Pauline Fusco, Jacob Archer, Sierra Reed, Alana Gerhardt, Justin G. Julander, Corey Casper, Emily A. Voigt

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Student Research

Introduction: Yellow fever (YFV) and Zika (ZIKV) viruses cause significant morbidity and mortality, despite the existence of an approved YFV vaccine and the development of multiple ZIKV vaccine candidates to date. New technologies may improve access to vaccines against these pathogens. We previously described a nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC)-delivered self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) vaccine platform with excellent thermostability and immunogenicity, appropriate for prevention of tropical infectious diseases.

Methods: YFV and ZIKV prM-E antigen-expressing saRNA constructs were created using a TC-83 strain Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus-based replicon and complexed with NLC by simple mixing. Monovalent and bivalent vaccine formulations were injected intramuscularly …

One Size Doesn’T Fit All: Towards Design And Evaluation Of Developmentally Appropriate Parental Control Tool, Prakriti Dumaru, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Student Research

As children progress through developmental stages, they undergo substantial biological, cognitive, and social changes, creating unique needs for online safety across different age groups (e.g., young children, tweens, teens). The existing parental control tools fail to account for these differences, leaving a notable gap in the literature on parental mediation. To this end, we conducted 10 focus group sessions with a total of 20 parents to understand their preferences for age-appropriate design components that promote self-regulation and open communication, followed by an ideation workshop with four UX design experts to translate these preferences into customized features. We then evaluated these …

The Utah Statesman, April 28, 2025, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Integrating Human-Centered Design Into Undergraduate Stem Capstone Courses: A Food Product Development Case Study, Saadeddine Shehab, Dawn Bohn, Lucas O'Bryan, Luettamae Lawrence, Mike Tissenbaum

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study examines the integration of human-centered design (HCD) in a Food Science capstone course and explores its impact on students’ learning outcomes and skill development. This case study investigated how 42 undergraduate students engaged with HCD processes—including understanding, synthesizing, ideating, prototyping, and implementing—to develop innovative food products. Through pre- and post-surveys, interaction analysis, and performance assessments, the findings revealed that HCD activities significantly enhanced students’ knowledge, collaboration, creativity, and metacognitive skills. Additionally, students demonstrated improved food science competencies, such as product formulation and sensory evaluation. This study highlights the benefits of embedding HCD within STEM curricula to foster authentic, …

Data-Driven D Region Model (D3r) Svdd: Software Version Description Document (Svdd), James Vincent Eccles

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

This is the Software Version Description Document of the Data-Driven D Region (D3R) model. There are 2 main distributions: (a) D3R designed for containerized deployments (D3Rc) and (b) D3R designed for testing and development. These two distributions are maintained in parallel, and this document describes both. The D3R for containerization is typically provided to customers. The D3R model is a physics-based model for calculating electron density profiles across the D Region ionosphere altitudes (50 km to 95 km) and E Region altitudes (95 km to 120 km) for any given geolocation. The model has two main programs: one to solve …

Who Carries Bear Spray? Reducing Risk In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Through Leave No Trace Communication, Anna B. Miller, Clara-Jane Blye, Jennifer Newton, Lauren Miller, Jacob Richards

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

As bear populations increase in areas like the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), human-bear interactions are rising, with grizzly bear encounters more than doubling in the past decade. To reduce conflicts, land management agencies promote Leave No Trace (LNT) behaviors, emphasizing bear awareness, proper food storage, maintaining distance from wildlife, and carrying bear spray. However, a survey of 566 visitors across the GYE found that 27% of respondents report never carrying bear spray. Non-carriers were often first-time visitors, traveling in larger groups, or day-use visitors to front-country areas. They also viewed the message to carry bear spray as less important than …

Evidence-Based Alternative Pain Management Techniques For Chronic Pain, Alise Williams Condie, Ashley Yaugher, Kira Swensen, Maren Wright Voss

All Current Publications

Chronic pain and opioid use have become topics of importance as opioid overdose deaths have risen to epidemic proportions throughout the nation. Chronic pain lasts for long periods of time and can be caused by a past injury or have no known cause. Opioids have been utilized to treat pain in the past, but it has been discovered that opioids are better used to treat acute pain and not chronic pain. Opioids can have negative consequences including changes to the brain, depression, increased pain, constipation, sedation, and even death. This fact sheet reviews and explains some of the most successful …

The Utah Statesman, April 21, 2025, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Effective Mathematics Instruction In High-Poverty Middle Schools: What Are The "Best" Teachers Doing?, Tye G. Campbell, Jordan Green

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

While there is much literature devoted to mathematics teaching practices, most research does not consider the perspectives of effective teachers in high-poverty schools. This study offers unprecedented access into the teaching practices of the most effective middle school teachers who teach in high-poverty schools. By accessing a state-wide database of thousands of teachers in Utah (USA), we identified middle school teachers whose students consistently showed high growth on standardized assessments compared to other teachers in Utah and taught in high-poverty schools. Our analysis identified seven teachers. We invited these teachers to participate in interviews regarding their teaching practices, and all …

Fact Sheet For Parents: What To Know About Zyn Nicotine Pouches, Aaron Hunt, Gabriela Murza, Alyssa Ferrin

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides information about ZYN, which is a nicotine pouch becoming commonly used among youth due to social media advertising. This fact sheet will help parents understand the impact of ZYN pouches and approaches to monitor, prevent, and address use among youth.

The Utah Statesman, April 14, 2025, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Ethical Concerns And Implications Of Expanded Carrier Screening, Emily Andres

Student Research Symposium

The rapid evolution in the field of genetics is often met with uncertainty and skepticism. With the advancements in genetic technologies, expanded carrier screening (ECS) has emerged as a powerful tool in reproductive medicine. While ECS provides prospective parents with insight into their genetic risk, it also raises serious ethical questions for many.

Impacts Of Reef Fish Length On Foraging Radius: Exploring Behavioral Patterns Within A Patch Reef Ecosystem, Kilia Brawand

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

Coral reefs support high levels of marine biodiversity

• Patch reefs serve as vital refuges for small fish.
• Predation risk shapes how far fish stray from their reef, creating a “foraging radius”— the maximum distance traveled before retreating.

Absolute swimming speed in fish increases with body size (1).

• Therefore, larger fish may travel farther away from their refuge to forage over greater areas

This study tested the following question: Does a reef fish’s length influence how far it travels from its patch reef refuge?

Evaluating The Effects Of Oxidative Stress On Primary Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells, Sophia Hessami

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss worldwide, affecting 200 million adults over the age of 40

• Affects subretinal layers: retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), Bruch’s membrane, and choroid (Fig. 1)

Problem: Early mechanisms of AMD are not well understood; oxidative stress is often cited as a key contributing factor to the development of AMD.3 Current studies neglect to use primary RPE cells when investigating oxidative stress.

Oxidative Stress occurs when there is an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and cellular antioxidant defenses

• Overabundance of ROS results in damage to tissue and …

Assessing Response Diversity Of Spawning Conditions Among Streams Due To Interannual Changes In Snowpack, Autumn Zierenberg

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

• Temporarily available streams, including intermittent streams, account for roughly 79% of streams in Utah alone (National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) 2008; Goodrich et al., 2018), yet are often overlooked as suitable habitats for native fishes.
• Intermittent streams are inundated during native Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) spawning season (Budy et al., 2012) and can be used by spawning trout during some years (Rousseau 2024)
• Understanding the role of intermittent streams for productivity of basin scale populations is critical to determining the scale of habitats necessary to conserve stable, productive populations.
• To characterize intermittently available spawning habitats, we assess the …

Social Media And Sports Betting, Mikey Bishop

Student Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Sizzling Success: The Impact Of Wendy's Twitter Roast Campaign, Bryan Mortensen

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

The Wendy’s Roast Me social media campaign created massive engagement, increased brand awareness, and improved brand reception. The reason that I choose to analyze this campaign is because I wanted to read more Wendy’s roasts.

The social media platform that I have chosen to analyze is TikTok, however I did do some research on Twitter as well in order to be able to compare their performance.

Today, I am aim to answer three questions:

• How did TikTok compare to Twitter?
• What made this campaign so successful?
• Can we apply anything from this campaign to others

The Meme-Ification Of Barbie: How Social Media Turned A Movie Into A Cultural Phenomenon, Jayke Martin

Student Research Symposium

The 2023 Barbie movie became a cultural phenomenon, driven by an innovative marketing campaign that leveraged memes and user- generated content, particularly on TikTok. Users embraced the movie's catchy songs and dance routines, sparking widespread excitement. Strategic brand collaborations with Crocs, Cold Stone Creamery, and NYX, combined with the fashion industry's embrace of pink, amplified the film's impact. Notably, the extensive use of fluorescent pink paint led to a global shortage. The teaser trailer, which parodied 2001: A Space Odyssey and premiered before Avatar: The Way of Water, generated early buzz by challenging audience expectations. The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon emerged when …

Wiped Out?: Testing Peribacillus Frigoritolerans Against Hospital Disinfection Techniques, Alexis Lupus, Ashtyn Whatcott, Asaria Zizumbo, Cade Neuberger

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

Hospital disinfection is essential to patient health, as harmful bacteria can compromise patient health. Factors like pathogen type and cleaning frequency influence disinfection efficacy. Sani-Cloth® disinfectant wipes are widely used in healthcare settings and have shown high effectiveness, particularly on surfaces such as iPad screens. The Sani-Cloth® disinfectant wipes tested in this experiment protect against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria .This experiment evaluates three types of Sani-Cloth® wipes against Peribacillus frigoritolerans, a gram-positive soil bacterium. Given the range of microbes introduced in hospital environments, especially in high-traffic areas like emergency departments, identifying the most effective wipes helps ensure optimal infection …