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Stability, Electronic Structure, And Nonlinear Optical Properties In Clusters And Materials: A Synergistic Experimental-Computational Analysis, Maksim Kulichenko

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The main objective of Chemistry as a science is an understanding of how and why certain atoms are bonded together and what effects these bonds cause. Modern computational chemistry offers a wide range of tools that greatly assist the exploration of vast chemical space replacing expensive trial-and-error experimental approaches. Computational chemistry may serve to characterize newly synthesized compounds and provide atomic scale insights inaccessible to experimentalists’ vision. Moreover, predictive power of computational chemistry may be used as a guidance for future experiments and for the rational design of new compounds with desired properties.

This dissertation demonstrates the capabilities of joint …

Detecting Ecosystem Response To Restoration Efforts With Implications For Recovery Of The Threatened June Sucker (Chasmistes Liorus) In A Shallow, Eutrophic, Utah Lake, Ryan D. Dillingham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Environmental damage associated with a growing human population will increase globally without active management. Restoration can promote ecosystem recovery, yet often fails to produce desired results and may require decades to achieve noticeable benefits. Detecting small, incremental change sis imperative in these difficult situations. Here, I demonstrate that restoration focused on fish removal triggers incremental responses in aquatic plants and animals. Removing common carp is expected to encourage recovery of aquatic plants, increasing animal habitat, resulting in more macroinvertebrates (e.g., aquatic insects, snails). Carp removal should also increase water clarity, improving visibility for fishes, thus increasing their ability to find …

History Strikes Back! The Portrayal Of Greek And Roman History In Hollywood Films And How It Furthers The Discussion Of History, Ethan P. Frost

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In an article published in 2009, Robert Rosenstone expressed disappointment in two films he played a role in developing the Reds (1981) and the The Good Fight (1984). He expressed regret the films did not reach his expectations as a historian. As a result, he wondered whether there was a point in historians being involved in the making of historical films.

This thesis focused on six historical films set in ancient Greece and Rome. The six films are Alexander the Great (1956), The 300 Spartans (1962), and 300 (2006) for Greek history; and The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), The …

A Multi-Scalar Socio-Policy Analysis Of Resource Reallocation And Water Security In Twenty-First Century Utah, Usa, Clint P. Carney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As drought and a warming climate continue to impact the western United States, balancing the water needs of cities, agriculture, and natural systems is becoming increasingly more complex. One approach commonly promoted to address water supply issues is the transfer of water between users via markets. However, markets for water face multiple obstacles that can often be costly for participants due to constraints inherent in western U.S. water law. Coinciding with issues of cost, water markets must overcome disinterest among water rights holders in releasing their water rights for uses even if temporarily. Moreover, water transfers bring to light the …

The Influence Of A Course On Assessment For Inservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers, Natalie M. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many mathematics teachers are not prepared to design valid and usable measurements of their students’ mathematical achievements. There are relatively few opportunities for mathematics teachers to improve their assessment literacy. The purpose of this study is to (1) design a course on assessment for inservice mathematics teachers and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of the course. This paper recounts the development of the course and its influence on 16 teachers. Teachers who completed the course submitted a unit outline with learning objectives, a test blueprint, and a unit test. These artifacts influenced my evaluation on the effectiveness of the course. All …

Advances In Process Understanding And Methods To Support River Temperature Modeling In Large Regulated Systems, Bryce A. Mihalevich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

River temperatures play a key role in determining the suitability of habitat for aquatic ecosystems. While thermal regimes are influenced by many factors, flow and temperature patterns in large rivers are often shaped by water development. As such, water management associated with large reservoirs and diversions have also altered aquatic ecosystems. As climate change introduces new climate and hydrologic patterns, the decisions water managers make to address changes in runoff may further impact aquatic ecosystems. This calls for robust modeling tools that can predict river and reservoir temperature responses to water management decisions over large regions. However, highly variable topography …

Role Of Mitochondria In Postmortem Proteolysis And Meat Tenderness, David Son Dang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Among all eating quality characteristics in beef, tenderness is regarded as one of the most important traits. Previous research indicates that consumers are willing to pay a premium for beef guaranteed to be tender. Yet, tenderness is difficult to control and predict as it is influenced by a multitude of factors. Among these factors, meat aging has been shown to be a strong determinant of tenderness. Meat aging describes a process in which muscle tissue is broken down by other proteins within the muscle, resulting in a more tender product after cooking. Two well-recognized proteins that participate in the breakdown …

'I Try To Take The Whole Family Thing Out Of The Picture': How Professionals Navigate Motherhood Bias At Work, Rachael Gulbrandsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research aims to improve our understanding of professional mothers and the strategies they develop to navigate bias and sustain their careers. Previous research has shown that women with children face a motherhood bias that results in negative career outcomes such as reduced wages, fewer high-quality assignments, and decreased chances for promotion and leadership opportunities. This research investigates how professional mothers respond to that bias by analyzing interviews with forty-seven women in the field of law about their professional experiences: their experiences before and after having children; the challenges they face navigating their careers and families; and the strategies they’ve …

Optimal Relative Path Planning For Constrained Stochastic Space Systems, Nathan Bohus Stastny

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rendezvous and proximity operations for automated spacecraft systems requires advanced path planning techniques that are capable of generating optimal paths. Real-world constraints, such as sensor noise and actuator errors, complicate the planning process. Operations also require flight safety considerations in order to prevent the spacecraft from potentially colliding with the associated companion spacecraft. This work proposes a new, ground-based trajectory planning approach that seeks an optimal trajectory while meeting all mission constraints and accounting for vehicle performance and safety requirements. This approach uses a closed-loop linear covariance simulation of the relative trajectory coupled with a genetic algorithm to determine fuel …

Release Of Large Water Droplets, Jeffrey N. Fonnesbeck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water is familiar to all human beings and water droplets are an integral part of our daily lives. From irrigation sprinklers to waterfalls we can observe the formation of water droplets. For most, the droplets are so common and mundane that no thought is given to how the droplets form. Scientists have spent many decades detailing the processes that lead to droplet formation. Current theories and experiments agree quite well for specific cases such as pendant drop formation and jet breakup, but in regards to large volumes of free falling liquid there is very little experimental work to confirm the …

A Randomized Controlled Trial On Using Peer-Support Coaching To Improve Adherence To Online Self-Help For College Mental Health, Korena S. Klimczak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Online self-help programs can serve as accessible mental health resources, allowing users to learn skills for improving their mental health at their own pace. The self-guided nature of these programs allows them to be cost-efficient as compared to traditional therapy and appealing to those who do not want to attend traditional therapy due to stigma or low-perceived need. However, these programs also struggle with low adherence rates, with typically only a small subset of users completing a given program in full. Coaching has been previously explored as a way to increase program adherence, adding a low-intensity human component to self-help …

Quantifying The Dynamics Of An Idealized Oil-Plume In Stratified Environment Using Direct Numerical Simulations, Jasmin Ahmed

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Deep-water oil spills such as the incident in the northern Gulf of Mexico 2010, produce turbulent oil plumes. Multiphase turbulent plumes under stratification are simulated to understand the dynamics of oil plume in oceanic environment. The evolution of the plume is strongly affected by the level of turbulent mixing during the rise of oil through the stratified water. The relative velocity due to the difference in density between oil and water causes slip of oil in water. The plume has been modeled as a two fluid mixture-model, which allows the use of one continuity and momentum equation for the oil-water …

Implicit Cost Of Retaliatory Tariffs By Mexico On U.S. Cheese Export, Pengyan Sun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mexico imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. cheeses ranging from 20 to 25 percent in July 2018. In order to provide valuable information for the government and farmers, my research estimated the implicit cost of retaliatory tariffs by Mexico on U.S. cheese exports. In particular, I estimate the difference between the forecasted value of cheese exported to Mexico and the actual value of cheese exported to Mexico using four different models. The total impact to the U.S. economy from the losses due to retaliatory tariffs was assessed by IMPLAN, an input/output model. The results showed that Mexican tariffs decreased U.S. industry …

Evaluation Of Hydrograph Separation Techniques With Uncertain End-Member Composition, Eileen Page Lukens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Changes to precipitation and temperature occurring as a result of climate change can influence water sources (such as groundwater or snowmelt) that contribute to stream flow in a watershed. This is significant, as shifts in the amount of water coming from different water sources can shape watershed management decisions. One technique often used to investigate changes in water sources is hydrograph separation, a mathematical tool that allows for the quantification of the amount of water that came from different water sources. However, it can be difficult to perform hydrograph separations in remote watersheds as there may be insufficient infrastructure, i.e. …

Characterizing The Migratory Phenology And Routes Of The Lazuli Bunting (Passerina Amoena) In Northern Utah, Kim Savides

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Migratory species time their movements to follow changes in food and environmental resources throughout the year. Despite the ubiquity of migration in birds, little is still known about how birds select routes and time migrations. Recent advancements in miniaturized tracking devices now allow tracking of small birds throughout their annual life cycle, presenting opportunities for migratory ecology research at scales immeasurable in the past. Here we investigated the migratory ecology of a northern Utah, USA breeding population of Lazuli Bunting, a common songbird in western North America for which few migratory studies have been completed. We sought to compare breeding …

Shallow Composition And Structure Of The San Gabriel Fault, California In Drill Core And Geophysical Logs: Implications For Fault Slip And Energetics, Kaitlyn A. Crouch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Earthquakes are the sudden and intensive release of energy due to slip along faults. This energy may be felt on the Earth’s surface and may cause displacement of the Earth’s crust (seismic slip). As an earthquake ruptures, rocks in and around the fault are damaged and altered. When a fault displaces without earthquakes, it is referred to as aseismic creep. Faults may experience both seismic slip and aseismic creep throughout their cycles. In order to better model earthquake hazards and understand the cause of seismic slip versus aseismic creep in the shallow crust, we need to characterize the properties of …

Improved Digital Image Correlation Techniques At High Speed And High Temperature, Lindsey J. Rowley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In extreme environments, such as hot-fire rocket testing, gathering strain data can be challenging due to temperature constraints. Traditional methods for measuring material deformation such as strain gages, a small device attached to a test specimen, cannot withstand the extreme temperature and tend to burn off. When these situations occur non-contacting methods such as Digital Image Correlation (DIC) are preferable. DIC is an optical method of measuring strains across the material’s entire surface by using a camera to track the deformation of a speckle pattern applied to the surface of a deforming object. When used at temperatures above approximately 500°C, …

Comparative Studies In Rangeland Management: Examining The Foundational Assessments Relationship To The Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Assessment Framework And Assessment Of Predicted Cattle Distributions Using Gps Collars In Rich County, Utah, Michael T. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is being used as an umbrella species to manage for 350 plant and animal species that also depend on rangeland communities. Sage-grouse habitat assessments have been carried out using multiple methods. Standard sage-grouse methods described by Connelly et al 2003, include line intercept (LI) and Daubenmire frames (DF) measuring canopy cover. These methods were adopted broadly among sage-grouse biologist and used to develop habitat objectives for greater sage-grouse. Federal land management agencies now use the Habitat Assessment Framework (HAF). Specifically, HAF employs line-point intercept (LPI), to assess foliar cover in sage-grouse habitat. While …

Efficient And Secure Resource Allocation In Mobile Edge Computing Enabled Wireless Networks, Qun Wang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To support emerging applications such as autonomous vehicles and smart homes and to build an intelligent society, the next-generation internet of things (IoT) is calling for up to 50 billion devices connected world wide. Massive devices connection, explosive data circulation, and colossal data processing demand are driving both the industry and academia to explore new solutions.

Uploading this vast amount of data to the cloud center for processing will significantly increase the load on backbone networks and cause relatively long latency to time-sensitive applications. A practical solution is to deploy the computing resource closer to end-users to process the distributed …

Opportunities For Optimal Apple Production Management In Arid Conditions, Sam Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Apple trees are susceptible to biotic and abiotic stresses in the Intermountain West. The arid climate along with non-ideal soils make apple production challenging. Also, as high-quality agricultural land is developed, crop production gets pushed to land that often is saline. Apple trees grow poorly in saline soils. If apples are going to be grown in Utah, rootstocks must be identified that will tolerate saline soils. The USDA rootstock breeding program produced some rootstocks that may show salt tolerance. This project assessed the salt tolerance of these apple rootstocks in the greenhouse and in the field. Test rootstocks were compared …

Greater Sage-Grouse Brood Responses To Livestock Grazing In Sagebrush Rangelands, Hailey Peatross Wayment

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The distribution and abundance of the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) have declined in the last 60 years. Range contractions and population declines have been attributed to loss and fragmentation of their sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats. Grazing by livestock remains the predominant anthropogenic land-use across sagebrush ecosystems in North America, occurring on 87% of remaining sage-grouse habitat. Most of the peer-reviewed literature reports the potential for negative impacts of sagebrush reduction treatments, to increase livestock forage, on sage-grouse habitat. However, few studies have linked livestock grazing at the landscape level to vital rates (e.g., nest initiation rates, …

Fitting Physical Models To Spatiotemporal Observations: Discovering Developmental Regulatory Networks Of Drosophila, Dj Holt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Deep learning continues to solve significant scientific and engineering problems, but the solutions found are neural networks with thousands of parameters that provide no scientific or engineering insights. A solution to this problem, explored in this work, is to learn mathematical models that represent mechanisms that can be interpreted by scientists and engineers.

A challenging learning problem is to discover the genetic regulatory mechanisms that drive pattern formation during early biological development. Using known mathematical models of these processes, consisting of coupled ordinary differential and partial differential equations, we aim to identify the model parameters that describe the biological mechanisms …

Efficacy Of Conservation Actions For Imperiled Colorado River Fishes In The Grand Canyon, Arizona, Brian D. Healy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many fishes are critically imperiled, particularly in their native rivers, due to human water use and dam construction, which can dramatically alter habitats and block fish migratory routes. The introduction of invasive sport-fishes that prey on native fish further threatens native species that maybe restricted to only a single river basin (i.e., “endemic”). To preserve native fishes in river systems with degraded habitats, managers need to understand the effects of conservation actions to ensure limited resources are applied effectively. Two commonly applied native fish conservation actions include removal of invasive fishes, and translocations of native fish from one place into …

Toddler Internalizing And Externalizing Problem Behaviors And Child Care Provider Mental Health, Danielle M. Jensen Egan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Caregiver depression, particularly maternal depression, has repeatedly been shown to be a risk factor for the development of problem behaviors in young children. Problem behaviors fit within two categories: internalizing and externalizing. Externalizing behaviors include peer aggression, defiance, and impulsivity. Internalizing behaviors include generalized anxiety, withdrawal, separation distress, depression, and inhibition to novelty.

Gaps still exist in the research regarding the mental health of other caregivers that directly interact with children’s lives. Increasingly more children spend a great deal of time in child care settings. Less is known about child care provider stress and depression in relation to toddler problem …

Designing And Decoding Chemical Bonds: A Computational Pipeline Backed Up By Magnetic Criteria And Experiment, Nikita Fedik

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

You may find plenty of definitions of chemistry but all of them, explicitly or not, are centered around chemical bonds. When we say “chemical properties”, “reactivity”, “stability”, “structure” etc., we have in mind chemical bonds and their reorganization which almost completely defines the behavior of the matter. Why some materials are ultrahard and can cut through steel while others are so soft that you can form them with your bare hands? You probably have already guessed that it occurs because their chemical bonding is very different. Although the elemental composition could be the same! In this Dissertation, we report results …

Increasing Independence In Students With Disabilities Through The Use Of Visual Activity Schedules Within The General Education Classroom, Natalie Stevens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Individuals with disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often require more prompts and specialized instruction than their peers in the school setting. These individuals often benefit from using Visual Activity Schedules (VAS) to learn to complete routines and increase independence while decreasing the needs for adult help and prompts. This study uses VAS plus prompting to increase independence in three children with ASD within the general education elementary classroom. During the study, VAS were introduced and paired with specific prompts aimed to help students become more independent at completing a given routine throughout their school day. Results from the …

Measuring Changes In Motivation In Response To An Online Repeated Reading Intervention With Self-Monitoring, David N. Longhurst

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reading is a complex cognitive process that is integral to learning, achievement, and future life outcomes. Students with reading disabilities struggle to obtain information and develop specific interests. Unfortunately, many students in the United States do not meet expected reading benchmarks. Also due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has presented multiple challenges for student academic reading growth. Motivation beliefs, such as self-efficacy, interest, and goal-directed behavior, play an important role in students’ education and development. This study examined whether motivational constructs change throughout the course of an online repeated reading intervention with self-monitoring. Five elementary students were selected …

Seam Shifted Wake In The Magnus And Non-Magnus Directions, John W. Garrett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An experiment was done to look at the effect baseball seams can have on how a pitched baseball moves in flight. Both non-spinning and spinning baseballs were analyzed in this study. Data was taken and analyzed at 60, 90, and 110 MPH to determine the influence of velocity and altitude on the ability of seams to alter the trajectory of a pitched baseball. Additionally, a ball's spin causes movement in a certain direction that is dependent on the spin axis. A second focus of this study was on the effect of baseball seams changing the movement in the same direction …

The Influence Of A Values Affirmation Intervention On Students' Mathematical, Social, And Epistemological Empowerment, Carrie Olson Bala

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to better understand the influence of educators’ attention to identity construction as tenth grade Emergent Bilinguals and native English-speaking students develop mathematical, social, and epistemological empowerment in a mathematics classroom. I incorporated a framework detailing critical consciousness as a mediator between students’ identity construction and their empowerment development. I employed a mixed methods transformative design, utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the influence of a values affirmation intervention on students’ critical consciousness and empowerment. To follow, I incorporate integrated analysis to highlight emerging and differing patterns in the empowerment data, the specific characteristics …

Implementing A Digital Sharing Space In Online Studio Coursework In The Field Of Landscape Architecture, Elizabeth Braithwaite

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Landscape architecture education focuses on creating socially-rich environments for learning. Coursework in landscape architecture often is labeled as “studio learning.” These types of classes involve a high degree of collaboration and detailed critique. They create opportunities for students to interact with each other and their professors. When considering the adoption of online learning, a primary concern of landscape architecture professors is to maintain this high degree of social interaction in online classes.

This study explores the use of several platforms to facilitate social interaction in online landscape architecture coursework. These platforms include Canvas, Basecamp, and Conceptboard. Canvas is the learning …