Digital Commons Network^™

Ground To Roof Snow Load Ratio (Gr) Data Release, Brennan Bean, Cooper Nelson, Jesse Wheeler, Scout Jarman, Salam Adil Al-Rubaye, Marc Maguire

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This data release provides historical ground-to-roof snow load ratio (GR) datasets used for snow load research and model development. The release includes original referenced datasets, cleaned country specific datasets, and a master dataset that combines Canadian and United States datasets into a standardized format for research and engineering applications.

Economic Efficiency Of End-Guns On Center Pivot Irrigation Systems For Utah Alfalfa Production, Sophia Moss

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This study looks at whether using an end-gun on a center pivot irrigation system is financially worthwhile for Utah alfalfa producers. End-guns are used to water extra acreage beyond the end of a pivot, they can also apply water less evenly, which may reduce production on those outer acres. To examine this tradeoff, the study compares farm returns with and without an end-gun using historical Utah alfalfa price and yield data along with estimates of irrigation cost, added acreage, and possible yield loss. The results suggest that end-guns can improve profitability in many cases, mainly because they bring more acres …

Student Study Teams For Child Find: Identifying Barriers In A Rural School District, Malynda Ivory

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This project explores the challenges associated with the teacher referral process for students at risk of academic and behavior difficulties in a rural school. The Student Study Team (SST) plays an important role in identifying and supporting students; yet, teacher engagement with the referral process is inconsistent in my K-4 school. Teacher participation in our school is low.  Referrals mostly occur after parent-teacher conferences, and teacher participation in the lower grades (K-2) is noticeably lower than referrals from our 3^rd and 4^th grade teachers. Many factors, including limited understanding of the SST’s purpose, time constraints, and perceived effectiveness …

Evaluating The Discus Throw As An Ancient Greek Combat Training Tool Through Modern Performance Metrics, Daniel R. Porter

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This study’s purpose was to explore the correlations between peak velocity in a rotational throw with a medicine ball, peak force (PF) and rate of force development (RFD) in an isometric mid-thigh pull, time to failure in a plank test, and peak velocity in a sword thrust task, which was also tested for reliability. Twenty-seven recreationally trained male participants between the ages of 18-35 completed the study. The sword thrust task was significantly correlated with the medicine ball throw (p = 0.012, r = 0.475, r² = 0.226, 95% CI [0.724, 0.116]) and PF (p = 0.045, r …

A Focus On Student Needs In German Instruction, Elisa E. Remund

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This portfolio serves as documentation of the author’s professional progress throughout the Master of Science of Second Language Teaching (MSSLT) program at Utah State University, shown through teaching philosophy, hands-on teaching experience and practice, and demonstrates the author’s use of pedagogical strategies and theory, including but not exclusive to comprehensible input, the sociocultural method, dynamic assessment, and the output hypothesis. It details the usage of current research-based strategies to increase classroom engagement and student proficiency, such as the IMAGE Model for teaching culture and language, collaborative learning, and dynamic assessment strategies. Furthermore, the portfolio includes a reflection on the benefits …

Effective Locations And Landscape Design For Ev Charging Sites In The Intermountain West, Eli Woodward

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The rapid growth of electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the United States, particularly in the Intermountain West, has created an increasing demand for accessible and well-distributed charging infrastructure, yet limited attention has been given to how site selection and landscape design influence the effectiveness and user experience of these locations. This thesis explores how EV charging stations can be strategically located and designed to improve usability, encourage engagement, and support local economic development through a multi-criteria site selection process that considers major transportation corridors, regional demographics, Opportunity Zones, and proximity to recreational and public lands. Using geographic information systems (GIS), …

Tales, Traditions, And Tides: The Little Logan River And Its Role In Cache Valley's History, Culture, And Conservation, Emily A. Kovacic

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Little Logan River (LLR) plays a vital role in the cultural, historical, and ecological landscape of Cache Valley, Utah. Amid growing concerns raised by the Logan River Watershed Project (LRWP), which threatens to alter the river’s environment, this project seeks to understand the significance of the LLR as a cultural and recreational asset through collected oral histories. Building on folkloric perspectives of place-based storytelling, this thesis introduces the idea of vivus locum, or “that place which is alive,” through the example of the LLR to the study of folkloristics. The concept of vivus locum emphasizes the importance of …

Park Visitor Education And Landscape Conservation: Evaluating Education-Based Strategies To Mitigate Visitor-Caused Damage In Goblin Valley State Park, Jason Beukers

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Goblin Valley State Park contains rare and highly fragile geological formations that are increasingly impacted through visitor-caused damage. While the park’s open-range management approach enhances recreational freedom and the visitor experience, it also leaves vulnerable hoodoo formations susceptible to vandalism and damage by visitor behavior and exploration. Balancing public access with landscape preservation remains a persistent challenge, particularly in large, protected areas where staffing, enforcement, and management resources are limited. This thesis reviews the effectiveness of management strategies, particularly education-based strategies such as signage and visitor messaging, in reducing depreciative visitor behaviors in national and state parks and other protected …

Effective Science Instruction For Elementary Aged Students With Significant Cognitive And Adaptive Delays, Rabecca L. Juarez

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

In Utah, students begin participating in statewide end-of-year assessments in third grade, with science added in fourth grade. Students with the most significant cognitive and adaptive disabilities participate in the Dynamic Learning Maps® (DLM®) alternate assessment, which measures student performance in English language arts, mathematics, and science aligned to Essential Elements (EE). Despite participation in statewide accountability systems, students with significant cognitive disabilities in a Southwest Utah School District have consistently demonstrated low science performance on the DLM assessment.

The aim of this project was to collaboratively create science lessons for students who participate in the alternate assessment. This project …

Using A Social-Ecological-Technological Systems Approach For Assessing Vulnerabilities Downstream Of Dams, Michael J. Englert

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Dam failure is rare, but when it occurs the consequences can extend far beyond the structure of the dam itself. This project assessed vulnerabilities downstream of Utah’s 189 state-regulated, high-hazard dams using a Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) approach. The purpose of the project was to look beyond engineering and structural risk alone and identify the people, protected ecosystems, critical infrastructure, and land cover types located within mapped dam inundation zones.

Potential inundation zone maps were obtained from the Utah Division of Water Rights Dam Safety Section. They were processed using ArcGIS Pro and integrated with publicly available nationwide geospatial datasets to …

The Legend Of The Bear Lake Monster, Melissa Anderson Asay

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Bear Lake Monster is a legend that has persisted for centuries. This monster is rooted in Shoshone oral traditions and hold the potential to be based off of fossils found in the Shoshone territory. This living legend was later amplified by Mormon settlers. One settler in particular, Joseph C. Rich, played a significant role in shaping its narrative. Though he eventually admitted to fabricating sightings to encourage settlement, belief in the creature remains alive today. The serpent’s presence in local lore has undeniably influenced the Bear Lake region, shaping both its identity and tourism industry. This legend serves as …

Historical Inquiry-Based Lessons In World History Classrooms: Creating Opportunities For Historical Thinking, Melinda Thatcher Lofland

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This Plan B project creates inquiry-based lessons that help students investigate the global tapestry of World History with its vast threads of transregional connections and diverse cultures that color our contemporary world and help prepare them to participate as global citizens. This project uses primary and secondary sources to create evidence-based lesson plans that will help history teachers provide opportunities for students to practice historical inquiry skills in Utah’s world history classrooms. These plans employ current scholarship and best teaching practices while following national and state standards for World History. In addition, these lessons were developed using inquiry-based historical thinking …

The Development Of A Plant Database For Waterwise Plants Along The Intermountain West, Tyler G. Peterson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis presents the rationale behind the importance of accurate 3D plant models. The research conducted provides logical explanations for why we should accurately represent plants in our 3D models, not only as landscape architects but as designers in general. In addition to this research, a database of waterwise plants was produced to provide designers with a resource to better represent landscapes. During the creation of this database, detailed process records were maintained to enable others to continue to add to and build on the work done within this thesis. It is hoped that this database, begun in this thesis, …

Water Use And Yield Of Subsurface Drip-Irrigated Forage Crops In Northern Utah, Nishchal Tamang

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Growing water scarcity in the Intermountain West has increased interest in improving water use efficiency. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) has the potential to reduce evapotranspiration (ET), evaporative losses, surface runoff, and deep percolation. SDI adoption in Utah forage crops is limited, and region-specific information on forage crop water use under SDI is lacking. This study compared ET, yield, and productivity of forage crops between SDI and conventional irrigation methods in northern Utah.

The study was conducted on production fields. Applied irrigation, precipitation, and crop yield were directly measured, while deep percolation was estimated using numerical unsaturated flow modeling. Surface runoff …

Accelerating Rans Cfd Convergence For Bluff Body Flows Using Surface-Vorticity Panel Solver Initialization, Trisha Babu

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Reynolds-Averaged Navier--Stokes (RANS) simulations are widely used for predicting aerodynamic performance in engineering applications but often require substantial computational time to achieve convergence, particularly for bluff-body flows characterized by large-scale separation and wake formation. Improving the initialization of CFD simulations offers a practical approach for reducing computational cost without modifying the underlying numerical algorithms. This study investigates the use of a surface-vorticity panel solver (FlightStream) to generate physically informed velocity fields for initializing steady RANS simulations in STAR-CCM+.

Two canonical bluff-body geometries are considered: a sphere at a Reynolds number of 5 X 10⁵ and an isolated cube at …

Graph-Based Machine Learning For Multivariate Time Series Prediction In Scientific Domains: Streamflow Forecasting And Solar Flare Prediction, Kishore Ragul Alagarsamy

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Machine learning methods applied to multivariate time series data have emerged as powerful tools across a range of scientific domains. This report examines two distinct application areas in which such methods yield actionable predictive insights: hydrological streamflow forecasting and solar flare prediction in space weather.

In the domain of streamflow forecasting, a Two-Graph Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network (Two-Graph STGNN) was developed to predict river discharge across a 20-station network in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The architecture separates hydrological and meteorological feature streams into two complementary graph representations and fuses them through a learned attention mechanism. Systematic evaluation across 23 …

Flexible Grazing: Evaluating Stocker Cattle As A Drought Management Tool For Utah Livestock Producers?, Ross Israelsen

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Drought is a persistent concern in the western United States, often leading to reduced forage production, overgrazing, and economic challenges for livestock producers. This study evaluates the economic feasibility of incorporating stocker cattle as a flexible drought management strategy under varying forage conditions across four Utah grazing locations: Park Valley, Nephi, Vernal, and Beaver. The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) was used to estimate annual forage production and stocking rates from 2001 through 2025. Four stocking-rate scenarios (100%, 75%, 60%, and 50% cow–calf stocking rates) were evaluated using a Net Present Value (NPV) framework to compare the economic performance of traditional …

Retrofitting Chapel Lawns: Shifting The Landscaping Paradigm In Utah, Jessica Snider

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Utah is facing a water crisis. The state’s aggressive rate of population growth combined with its dry climate makes it difficult to meet water demands and has pushed the Great Salt Lake to the verge of collapse. Utah residents can save water by installing waterwise landscapes instead of lawns. As one of Utah's most prominent organizations and a strong advocate for earth stewardship, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is well positioned to lead a cultural shift toward more sustainable landscaping practices by showcasing well-designed, well-maintained waterwise landscapes at its chapels. The purpose of this project is to …

A Design Guide For Extreme Heat In Play Environments: Exploring Landscape Architecture Strategies, Amy Elise Guenther

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Urban heat is a rising concern and is affecting vulnerable populations such as our youth. A particular concern is exposure to extremely high temperatures on playgrounds – an environment that is meant to be safe for children even in extreme weather conditions. There has been an increase in many impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt in urban areas. These surfaces absorb solar radiation, which contributes to the heat island effect. These same surfaces are in and around playground areas, which are contributing to the extreme heat felt within these play environments. Therefore, requiring intervention to help mitigate the effects …

Reintegrating Contaminated Sites Into The Urban Fabric: Redevelopment In Pocatello, Idaho, Hadley Ocheltree

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Brownfield sites represent some of the most environmentally compromised landscapes in the United States and are frequently concentrated within economically disadvantaged communities, raising important environmental justice concerns. Redeveloping these sites requires integrated approaches that address contamination, urban form, ecological restoration, and long term community needs. This thesis examines the 143 acre former Union Pacific Railroad site in Pocatello, Idaho and proposes a comprehensive redevelopment framework that reconnects a historically significant industrial landscape to the surrounding city.

The project draws from an analysis of eight precedent brownfield redevelopment projects and applies key planning and landscape architecture principles, including New Urbanism, pedestrian …

Sensitivity Analysis Of A Low-Power Wireless Capacitive Charging System To Inform Thermal Limitations And Battery Size Reduction Potential For Electric Passenger Vehicles, Karmen Teuscher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The purpose of using electric vehicles instead of internal combustion engine vehicles that burn gas is to reduce pollutants in the air and potential environmental impacts such as climate change. EVs produce much less air pollutants than ICEVs but manufacturing the EV batteries and the repeated recharging still contributes to the overall air pollution.

Capacitive power transfer systems can wirelessly charge vehicles through the road as they drive along highways or stop at traffic lights. If vehicles charge as they drive, an opportunity opens to reduce the size of the battery while maintaining the same driving range. Reducing the size …

Hidden Symmetries And Higher Dimensional Rotating Black Holes, Luis Fernando Temoche Hurtado

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

A standard approach to probing the dynamics of a physical system is to expose it to an external perturbation—such as an incident wave—and analyze its response after the interaction. Mathematically, this procedure is formulated in terms of differential equations governing the evolution of the perturbation.

In the context of black hole physics, an analogous strategy can be employed by studying the response of the event horizon to external perturbations. The differential equations describing these interactions are often invariant under nontrivial transformations, revealing hidden symmetries that help explain distinctive features of higher-dimensional black holes.

By exploiting these hidden symmetries in the …

Asynchronous Intervention For Students With Disabilities On Career Awareness, Erica Rood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Historically, students with disabilities have fewer opportunities to prepare for post-high school life, and this is especially true when it comes to getting a job. This is also true for those students with complex support needs (i.e., autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, other health impairment). One way to help individuals with disabilities have greater success after high school is to teach them about different careers.

This study was for high school students with disabilities who have complex support needs. It focused on helping them learn about different careers through online modules. The study looked at whether this type of learning …

The Role Of Heterogeneity In Earthquake Rupture Dynamics: Insights From Friction Experiments On A 1-Meter Laboratory Fault, Alejandro Aguilar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Tectonic faults are made of many kinds of rocks and minerals, creating natural weak and strong zones along faults where earthquakes occur. These differences can affect how faults move, including whether slip occurs slowly and quietly or suddenly and destructively during an earthquake. However, it is not fully understood how these variations influence when earthquakes start, how fast they spread, and whether they stop or grow into large ruptures. This research studies how different fault materials interact during earthquake slip. Using a large laboratory machine that simulates fault movement under realistic conditions, we recreate earthquake processes and closely measure how …

Understanding The Impact Of Environmental Change On Shorebird Abundance And Distribution Across The Intermountain West Over The Past 30 Years, Sharon Montecino

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Shorebirds have declined worldwide over the past century, mainly due to wetland loss and degradation. Wetlands are sites that are temporarily or permanently flooded and provide critical habitat for shorebirds, especially in arid and semi-arid regions such as the Intermountain West. However, climate change and human water use threaten these wetlands, and how these threats may affect shorebirds in this region remains poorly understood. In the early 1990s, shorebird counts at over 160 wetlands across the Intermountain West provided a broad assessment of shorebird populations in the region. These counts remained the only large-scale surveys until 2022, when the Intermountain …

Bridging The Gap: Exploring The Development Of Science Self-Efficacy Among Students With Learning Disabilities, Aria Hadley-Hulet

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Students with learning disabilities are often overlooked in efforts to broaden participation in STEM. This multi-paper dissertation investigates science self-efficacy among this population through the lenses of the social model of disability and self-efficacy theory. An integrative review reveals consistently lower academic self-efficacy among students with learning disabilities and a lack of research examining their science self-efficacy specifically. Quantitative analysis of national data shows lower science self-efficacy overall, yet no differences among students enrolled in advanced science courses. A mixed-methods study further demonstrates that in inclusive school environments characterized by asset-based teacher beliefs and normalized accommodations, science self-efficacy differences disappear. …

Comparison Of Forces Generated By An Impinging Water Jet Using Numerical And Physical Experimentation, Spencer R. Young

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

When water is released from hydraulic structures such as dams water jets are formed and land on the downstream surfaces. When these jets land there is high potential for erosion or scour. Scour has the potential to compromise the structure and cause the uncontrolled release of water that can endanger downstream communities and infrastructure.

Engineers use tools including computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to inform their designs to mitigate the risk of scour. This study compares how well CFD is able to model the forces created by a water jet by comparing the results to laboratory collected physical data. To make …

Applications Of Machine Learning To Gas Plume Analysis In Longwave Infrared Hyperspectral Images, Scout C. Jarman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Each pixel from a hyperspectral camera measures the intensity of light over a continuous range of wavelengths, which is in contrast to traditional color cameras, which just measure the intensity of red, green, and blue wavelengths of light. Longwave infrared hyperspectral images can be used to detect gases from a distance by measuring how different materials emit and absorb heat. This makes them useful for applications such as monitoring industrial emissions or locating hazardous gas leaks. In practice, however, gas signatures in these hyperspectral images are often weak and easily obscured by variations in the background scene, making reliable identification …

Nutrient Leaching Under Traditional And Intercropped Cover Crop Fields In Northern Utah, Katherine Hewitt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This study examines whether cover crops can be used in Utah and the Intermountain West to improve water quality and reduce contamination due to nutrient leaching from agricultural soils into the groundwater. Cover crops such as grasses, clover, and other seed mixtures can be planted to improve soil health, increasing the soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients, which reduces the amount of nitrate and phosphate fertilizers lost through leaching and contamination. In Utah, short growing seasons and limited irrigation water availability hinder the ability to establish cover crops. By planting the cover crop between the rows (intercropping) when the …

Dbssnet: Dual-Branch Spectral-Spatial Network With Data-Driven And Knowledge-Guided Band Selection For Uav Hyperspectral Wheat Rust Detection, Subin Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wheat rust is a serious plant disease that can reduce crop yield and quality. In practice, the disease is often noticed only after visible symptoms appear, when some damage may already be difficult to reverse. This thesis studies whether drone-based imaging can help detect wheat rust earlier and more reliably in field environments. 

Unlike an ordinary color photograph, a hyperspectral image records reflected light at many narrow wavelengths. These measurements can reveal useful information about plant condition, but they are also high dimensional, noisy, and difficult to analyze when only a limited number of labeled field samples are available. To …