Digital Commons Network^™

Collaborative Classrooms: Incorporating Pragmatics And Technology In Language Learning With A Focus On Generation 1.5, Brandee Burk

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of work that the author accomplished during the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University (USU). It reflects the culmination of the author’s learning and teaching experiences during her coursework and as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) in the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI).

The portfolio contains three main sections: teaching perspectives, research perspectives, and an annotated bibliography. In the first section the author explains her desired professional environment, her philosophy of teaching, as well as insights from language classroom observations she will incorporate into her teaching. The research perspectives section consists …

Short Selling Around Reverse Stock Splits, Ryan Voges

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I examine whether short selling increases around reverse stock splits using 2019 daily short selling data instead of bimonthly short interest data required by FINRA. In my difference-in-difference analysis, I find that average short selling increases significantly for firms that reverse split their stock, relative to matched control firms that do not, around the split dates. I also find that firms that reverse split their stock experience negative cumulative abnormal returns in the 20-day period after the reverse stock splits, particularly for those firms that are heavily shorted. These results are in agreeance with existent literature and suggest that short …

Where Light Greets Night: A Modern Retelling Of "The Sea-Hare", Kelsie Peterson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Set in the Pacific Northwest, this contemporary retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s traditional tale sees a tower as a lighthouse, a princess as a keeper, and suitors as candidates for her replacement. The critical introduction of this thesis discusses the idea of “telephoning the narrative” and establishes the importance of modern fairy retellings. With an in-depth examination of binaries within the traditional tale and how they are handled within the retelling, the introduction sets the stage for the way “Where Light Greets Night” works to blur such black and white ideas. This tale also seeks to question judgment and bias …

The River, The Residents, And The City: A Holistic Vision Study For Logan River's Upper Reach, Lisa Aedo

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The three-mile Upper Reach of the Logan River starting at the USU Water Lab to the 100 East bridge has been negatively impacted by residential development and diversion for agriculture and industry. A task force comprised of faculty at USU, professionals, government and city officials, and concerned residents has developed a Conservation Action Plan focused on twenty-two baseline indicators which, if improved, can help rehabilitate the river. This thesis looks at the factors that created the current challenges and seeks to provide a holistic vision with design solutions to address said challenges in alignment with that Plan. A literature review …

Retail Trading And Stock Volatility: The Case Of Robinhood, Cooper Jones

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

We examine the relation between Robinhood usership and stock market volatility. We show that daily fluctuations in Robinhood usership, which is used to proxy retail trading, significantly influence various measures of volatility. These results might suggest that Robinhood users contribute to noise trading as they are generally individuals trading on name recognition, media coverage, popularity, and familiarity of products, rather than on fundamental values. In our empirical approach, we find that the percentage increase in Robinhood usership Granger causes increases in daily stock volatility.

Digital Scripture: An Investigation Of The Design And Use Of A Mobile Application For Reading Sacred Text, Neil Carpenter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Digital sacred text reading is rapidly growing as digital devices such as mobile smartphones are becoming more common across the globe. Although sacred text can have strong influence on identify and behavior, the effects of a digital revolution on scripture reading practices are not well understood. In particular, current research literature indicates that more information is needed about the design and use of digital sacred text applications (apps) such as mobile Bibles across different religious groups or cultures. Therefore, this study builds upon and extends previous work to analyze a religious text app, Gospel Library, which is designed and largely …

Pando's Lessons: Restoration Of A Giant Aspen Clone, Paul C. Rogers, Jody Gale, Darren Mcavoy

Aspen Bibliography

A 106 acre (43 ha) aspen clone lives in the Fishlake National Forest in south-central Utah. Clones are comprised of multiple aspen stems, called ramets, which are genetically identical. This particular colony of ramets was named “Pando” (Latin for “I spread”) by researchers believing it to be the largest living organism by mass on earth. Recently, forest managers have noted a rapid dying of mature stems without recruitment of younger trees. This unsustainable situation has galvanized restoration efforts at Pando. Human interventions caused this imbalance; restoration will rely on protection, monitoring, and innovation. As a laboratory, this forest icon may …

The Demographic Effect Of Minimum Wage: Evidence From San Francisco County, Poorya Mehrabinia

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The minimum wage in San Francisco was increased from $6.75 to $8.5 per hour in November 2003. This was primarily aimed to improve low-income workers' well-being, especially racial and ethnic minorities. This paper conducts a difference-in-difference model using a synthetic control group for San Francisco, looking into a possible change in employees' demographic composition in the Accommodation & Food Services, and Manufacturing industries. The results indicate that the ratio of white employees increased significantly, suggesting that a labor-labor substitution happened in the following years of the minimum wage increase.

Snapdragon Cut Flower Production In Utah, Maegen Lewis, Melanie Stock, Tiffany Maughan, Brent Black, Dan Drost

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes snapdragon cut flower production in Utah. Snapdragons can bloom spring through fall, with the highest quality stems produced during cool temperatures. Cultivars are grouped based on their blooming response to light and temperature. High-quality stem production can last up to 21 weeks by using multiple groups, staggered planting dates in a high tunnel and field, pinching, and pruning techniques.

Snake Mind, Wolf Body, Panther Courage: Jojo Rabbit As A Critique Of Hegemonic Masculinity, Christian W. Lippert

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 2019, the movie Jojo Rabbit (Waititi, 2019) was released to theaters. Because the film uses comedy and satire to tell a story about Jojo, a young Nazi who has Hitler as an imaginary friend, it received mix reviews. This analysis focuses on how the movie sheds light on the negative influence of hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity refers to the messages and actions that place men above women or types of masculinity above femininity and other masculinities. Jojo’s desire to be a Nazi is deeply connected to his desire to be man. This analysis examines how hegemonic masculinity a) can …

Detailed Analysis Of The Role Of Mtr4 Arch Domain In Rna Binding And Helicase Activity, Keith J. Olsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The central dogma of biology states that DNA is transcribed into RNA, which is translated into protein. However, this concept portrays RNA purely as an intermediary step from DNA to protein. RNA plays an essential and vital role in a cell, including; regulating protein and RNA levels, act as a template for protein synthesis, cell differentiation, regulatory processes, and signaling molecules. If cells do not adequately monitor and regulate RNA levels, it can lead to disease states and even cell death. The main protein complex that regulates the maturation and degradation of RNA in the nucleus is the RNA nuclear …

Developing Advanced Electrodes And Electrolytes For Energy Storage Beyond Li Ion Batteries, Kevin V. Nielson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Electric vehicles, smart phones, and portable computers are all powered by lithium-ion batteries. This is because Li-ion batteries can store more energy in less space than other battery technologies. Also, they are rechargeable and last for a long time. The most recent 2019 Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino “for the development of lithium-ion batteries”. Through their work, they have made possible cars that do not burn fossil fuels and phones that are wireless and portable. Not only can Li-ion power your phone, it is an incredibly efficient way to store …

Renewable Energy Conversion: Organic Redox Flow Batteries And Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction, Camden R. Debruler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Steadily increasing global energy demands have pushed the industry to investigate renewable energy sources like solar and wind to help alleviate the strain on fossil fuel based non-renewable energy sources while also reducing carbon emissions. However, the energy producing power of these renewable technologies is limited by factors such as weather and the day-night cycle. Additional energy storage technologies are needed which are capable of storing excess energy during periods of high productivity, and delivering it when production rates fluctuate.

Batteries represent one possible energy storage device to meet this need. Specifically, redox flow batteries (RFBs) offer advantages in terms …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Benchmark Validation Experiment Of Plenum-To-Plenum Flow Through Vertical Heated Parallel Channels, Austin W. Parker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The next generation of nuclear power plants will have higher efficiency and improved safety, among other benefits; one attractive option is the high temperature gas reactor. An ability to predict the physics that occur within the reactor under normal conditions and accident scenarios is necessary before it receives regulatory licensing for use. The flow through a high temperature gas reactor involves complex interactions of heat transfer, fluids, and solids.

One method for simulating complex fluid dynamics is called Computational Fluid Dynamics. These simulations have already been used to predict the complex fluid flows found in high temperature gas reactors. Predicting …

An Eulerian Perspective On Spring Migration In Mule Deer, Tatum Del Bosco

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many herbivores travel between low-elevation winter ranges and high-elevation summer sites. These seasonal movements allow them to avoid deep snow cover, ensure access to favorable habitat, and maximize food intake throughout the year. During the spring season, plants at lower elevations green up earlier at lower elevations than at higher elevations. It has been shown that individual animals will track this vegetation growth during their spring migration, which allows them to maximize forage intake coming out of the nutrient scarce winter. This phenomena has previously been studied by monitoring individual movement trajectories, but it is unknown how this pattern scales …

Compassionate Support Training For Adults Impacted By Mental Illness: A Workshop Series Using Transformative Learning Pedagogy, Lindsay Bennett

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This professional project aims to translate current compassion academic research and scholarship for my client partner, the Cache County chapter of NAMI, to aid the family members of loved ones who live with mental illness.

Exploiting A Grading Policy Shift As An Instrument To Estimate Impact Of Grading On Teacher Evaluations, Gavin Johnson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Professors at a university plausibly have an incentive to give higher grades to students, and these higher grades will be reflected in student evaluations, which are used to assess teaching quality, which could have career impacts. This paper takes advantage of a policy shift at the business school at Utah State University that introduced suggested caps on the average course grades that teachers gave. This allowed instrumental variable analysis to correct for bias in OLS estimations of these impacts. The correlation between grades and students' evaluations of teachers was found to be positive suggesting that student evaluations of teachers are …

A Collection For A Better Misunderstanding, Mark Smeltzer

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

What if being understood becomes even more dreadful than being isolated? This collection of poetry stands between two extremes, using form and language to reflect the struggle of living on a continuum between being understood and being alone. By echoing the direct style of poets like Charles Bukowski and Mark Strand, as well as more abstract figures like May Swenson and Sylvia Plath, this collection asserts that the contradictions we carry can coexist, and even complement one another. Part One features original poetry that relies on the senses to recover old memories. A direct style in Part One seeks to …

Conserving Water Through Modular Planting Design: Water-Wise Templates For Ogden's Residential Front Yard Landscapes, Jessica Clements

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Due to the arid climate of the Wasatch front and the projected population growth in the next thirty years, water conservation is essential. Consequently, because the landscape consumes 60% of Utah residences’ purified drinking water, water-wise landscaping needs to be a priority. This thesis creates water-wise landscape templates that can be applied to the front yards of Ogden rental properties using a modular planting method. This study determines best practices by researching topics such as water-wise plants for Northern Utah, templates utilized in other areas, modular planting, and existing organizations with similar goals. This results in a user-friendly guide that …

Motivating Language Students Through A Collaborative, Multiliteracies Approach, Joshua Richard Lamping

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio conveys some of the author’s principal views regarding second language (L2) teaching and learning. These views have been developed and informed by studying the research literature, personal language learning experience, language teaching observations, and language teaching experience.

The first section, teaching perspectives, contains an explanation of the environment envisioned by the author while writing this portfolio, his teaching philosophy statement, and a summary of classroom observations. The second section, research perspectives, contains two research papers and an annotated bibliography that support the author’s language teaching philosophy.

Portrait Of Rich County, Adrian Thomson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Portrait of Rich County presents the small town of Randolph, Utah in poems describing its wildlife, recreational activities, and the perspectives of citizens in the contemporary rocky mountain west. Special attention to the imagination of the poems’ speaker toward the more dreamlike qualities of Rich County establishes itself throughout, in order to convey a feeling of hope within harsh terrain. This collection examines the theme of salvaging items not often considered, such as rusted junk, ancient houses, or roadside garbage, both in the actions of the speaker and through the act of naming these items upon the page. An over-arching …

Improving The Specificity Of Vertical Stiffness Measurement In Depth Jump Landings, Miles Mercer

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Greater lower extremity stiffness has been shown to increase bilateral jump height through stretch-shortening cycle optimization. Currently, there are two established methods for estimating vertical stiffness (K_vert) of the human body, which is a variant of lower extremity stiffness. The validity of these methods for estimating K_vert in non-cyclical human movements has been questioned recently due to the complex physiological and neuromotor factors that support stiffness regulation in the muscle-tendon complex. The purpose of the present study was to improve the specificity of K_vert measurement using direct derivation of vertical ground reaction force (GRF) and center …

An Analysis Of Obsidian Artifacts From The Black Mountain Redoubt (48fr6463): A Late Archaic To Late Prehistoric Shoshone Campsite In Northwestern Wyoming, Mary Margaret Hagen Erlick

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Black Mountain Redoubt is a small Late Archaic through Late Prehistoric campsite in northwestern Wyoming associated with a series of communal bighorn sheep hunting traps. A diverse tools assemblage along with several house features indicates a wide range of activities specifically associated with bighorn sheep hunting. We use a 100 percent analysis of the obsidian formal tool and debitage assemblage as a test of obsidian conveyance in western Wyoming. Obsidian artifacts come from the five major regional sources but are dominated by Obsidian Cliff materials in keeping with the Yellowstone Plateau conveyance zone. In contrast, obsidian from Malad, Idaho …

A Marvelous Work And A Trauma: An Examination Of Narratives Among Latter-Day Saint Sister Missionaries, Maygan Barker

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In LDS folk culture narratives are often required to be uplifting or faith affirming in some dimension. This focus marginalizes traumatic or painful experiences. Further pushed into the sidelines are Sister missionary narratives, with Sister’s trauma narratives being doubly stigmatized. This thesis takes a two pronged approach in exploring Sister missionaries’ trauma narratives: first it examines the beliefs Sisters’ stories embody, with special consideration to the intersection of genre and worldview. I propose that trauma narratives expose four units of worldview, namely: 1) The righteous are blessed and the wicked are punished. 2) If you are suffering it is because …

Patterns Of Use In A Division I University Fueling Station Before And After Implementing A Nutrition Education Intervention, Cady L. Peters

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Well-timed nutrition strategies are a well-established way to improve athletic performance and minimize recovery time, however, athletes often do not prioritize nutrition as a strategy to gain an edge over their competitors. Even with a resource such as a Fueling Station, which provides athletes with nutrient dense, convenient pre- and post-workout snacks, athletes still struggle understanding which foods are an appropriate choice for their purpose of eating.

The purpose of this research was to examine the changes in the appropriateness of the athlete’s meal choices at the Fueling Station based on their macronutrient distribution and timing of workout or training …

Power Of Near-Peers: Conceptualizing And Testing A Near-Peer Mentoring Model In Raising Youths' Self-Efficacy In Computer Programming, Chongning Sun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Self-efficacy is seen as a barrier for youth, females in particular, to enter computer science (CS). In this study, I presented a near-peer mentoring model that focused on changing the mentee’s self-efficacy in CS. The present study had three objectives: (a) to design a near-peer mentoring model (i.e., a conceptual model) around the sources of information that influence self-efficacy, (b) to develop a mentor training model based on the conceptual model, and (c) to test the effectiveness of the training model in increasing mentees’ self-efficacy in the context of a summer App programming camp. The present study adopted a mixed-methods …

The Challenge Of Hybridity: Mormonism In Mauritius, 1980-2020, Marie Vinnarasi Chintaram

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis focuses on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mauritius. This thesis illustrates the implications and pressures of the Church trying to globalize the faith, correlating Mormonism with and conforming it to cosmopolitan communities such as Mauritius.

Fatty Acid Composition Of Forages And Their Effect On The Fatty Acid Composition In Beef Cattle, Britney G. Allen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study focused on how diet changes the rumen microbiome in the cattle and the effects of that on the long chain fatty acids (LCFA) by microbes in the rumen, and on the short chain fatty acids (SCFA) these microbes produce from feed carbohydrates like fiber and starch. The abundance of bacteria belonging to the phyla Tenericutes and Proteobacteria increased in response to high-fiber or high-starch diets, respectively. The production of two SCFA was positively correlated with the presence of increased Tenericutes (acetate) and Proteobacteria (propionate). A greater acetate to propionate ratio is associated with elevated production of enteric methane …

Development Of A Variable Extensometer Method For Measuring Ductility Scaling Parameters, Adam J. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ductility is the measure of how much a material can stretch before separation. It is usually measured in percent elongation, which is the amount a material stretches divided by its original length before stretching. This is an important property to understand for both the design for performance and safety. A material’s ductility can be influenced by several factors including heat treatment, machining, temperature, and radiation dose. Materials used in nuclear energy facilities are often exposed to all these factors, and it is important to be able to understand ductility at each possible combination.

Ductility is usually characterized through tension tests …

It's About Time: Examining The Role Of Time Together And Perceived Stress In Couple Relationships, Rachel J. H. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because stress is a common struggle in romantic relationships and because stress can spill over into couples’ interactions and affect their level of relationship connection, it is important to understand what can help couples adapt to stress and maintain meaningful relationships. Quality time together has been found to have positive effects on relationship outcomes overall. Additionally, family stress theory has posited that having sufficient resources can help couples adapt to stress and avoid a crisis situation. As such, time together was examined as a potential resource for couples to draw upon to adapt to the potential negative effects of perceived …