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Terrain-Relative And Beacon-Relative Navigation For Lunar Powered Descent And Landing, Daniel Porter Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As NASA prepares to return humans to the moon and establish a long-term presence on the surface, technologies must be developed to access previously unvisited terrain regardless of the condition. Among these technologies is a guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system capable of safely and precisely delivering a spacecraft, whether manned or robotic, to a predetermined landing area. This thesis presents detailed research of both terrain-relative navigation using a terrain-scanning instrument and beacon-relative radiometric navigation using beacons in lunar orbit or on the surface of the moon. The models for these sensors are developed along with a baseline sensor suite …

The Correlation Between A Pre-Engineering Student's Spatial Ability And Achievement In An Electronics Fundamentals Course, Mark E. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Though there is ample evidence showing a positive relationship between a student's spatial ability and achievement in many fields of science, technology, and engineering, this study was seeking evidence that a relationship exists between a pre-engineering student's spatial ability and achievement in an electronics fundamentals course.

The importance of spatial ability to mentally design, develop, and manipulate images has been linked to measures of practical and mechanical abilities that are quite useful in technical occupations. Spatial abilities are frequently attributed to creative and higher order thinking skills in science and mathematics. Spatial imagery is tremendously important in art and creative …

Novel Growth Of Ingaas/Gaas Nanostructures By Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Dong Jun Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation presents an extensive study of the epitaxial growth mechanism by a novel growth method. This novel growth method was developed at Utah State University and is a modification of the Stranski-Krastanov (S-K) growth mode. Our new growth method consists of a two-step process, low temperature growth and high temperature annealing. During low temperature growth, diffusion is minimized, resulting in the deposition of a pseudomorphic epilayer. During high temperature annealing, diffusion is induced from the pseudomorphic epilayer, resulting in the transformation of the epilayer into nanostructures. Benefits of this novel growth method are a significantly smaller segregation and suppressed …

Brief Application Of Contingent Reversals: Treatment Utility In Increasing Appropriate Classroom Behaviors, Jaclyn King Knapp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Identifying positive behavioral interventions for students who display disruptive behavior in the classroom has become a critical issue for schools due to the high frequency of these behaviors and recent changes in legislative requirements. To address this issue, the present study investigated the utility of brief experimental analysis approach as a means to identify the most efficient and effective interventions for three students displaying problem behaviors in the classroom. By using a multi-element design, the brief experimental analysis was conducted by randomly applying interventions for three common functions of problem behavior in the classroom: teacher attention, peer attention, and escape …

Sonication Assisted Synthesis Of Oligomannosides, Christabel Tomla Tanifum

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Oligomannosides prevalently exist as cell surface antigens. They play important roles in diseases such as viral infection and cancer, and they have been shown to be useful as candidates for vaccines. HIV, one of the most devastating modern diseases, has a high content of mannose sugars on its envelope glycoprotein gp120. Oligomannosides of the HIV virus, also called Man9, which are found on the glycoprotein gp120, have been shown to play a protective role for the HIV virus, shielding highly conserved protein domains of gp120 from proteolytic attacks. Thus gp120 plays an important role in HIV infection of cells, being …

Predicting The Growth Potential Of A Shallow, Warm-Water Sport Fishery: A Spatially Explicit Bioenergetics Approach, Samuel Kirk Dahle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Capturing the range of fish consumption and growth potential of large, heterogeneous lentic systems can be challenging due to strong gradients in productivity, the diversity of habits types present, and in some cases, site-specific water quality issues. Cutler Reservoir (Utah, USA) displays a high degree of spatial and temporal variation in physical conditions and potential water quality limitations for fish, including high summertime water temperature and large, diel fluctuations in dissolved oxygen concentrations. The combination of bioenergetics modeling and GIS spatial analysis offers a promising interface for quantifying the fish consumptive and growth potential across a spatially and temporally heterogeneous …

A Case Study Of Learner Support Services In The Turkish Open Education System, Murat Ozoglu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine and identify support service needs and preferences of distance learners studying at the Turkish Open Education System (OES). In order to fulfill this purpose, views and perceptions of OES students on importance and accessibility of student support services at the OES were investigated through a mixed-method approach that uses both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods.

Data collection took place in three distinct phases. In the first phase, available learner support services were identified through review of the literature, investigation of institutional artifacts, and interviews with the institutional representatives. In …

Watershed-Scale Analysis Of Riparian Buffer Function, Molly Van Appledorn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The ability of riparian buffers to filter undesirable nutrients from upland sources has long been recognized as an important ecosystem service for maintaining or improving water quality, and as a result, many land management strategies have been built around the preservation or restoration of buffer zones. Newly derived flow-path metrics have shown great promise as a way to assess riparian buffer function at the watershed scale but a thorough investigation of metric performance was necessary. The goals of this study were to: 1) test the independence of flow-path metrics from traditional metrics using a spatially extensive, independent sample of watersheds, …

A Comprehensive Integration And Analysis Of Dynamic Load Balancing Architectures Within Molecular Dynamics, Christopher Reed Rogers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The world of nano-science is an ever-changing field. Molecular Dynamics (MD) is a computational suite of tools that is useful for analyzing and predicting behaviors of substances on the molecular level. The nature of MD is such that only a few types of computations are repeated thousands or sometimes millions of times over. Even a small increase speedup or efficiency of an MD simulator can compound itself over the life of the simulation and have a positive and observable effect. This thesis is the end result of an attempted speedup of the MD problem. Two types of MD architectures are …

Patterns Of Learning Object Reuse In The Connexions Repository, S. M. Duncan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Since the term learning object was first published, there has been either an explicit or implicit expectation of reuse. There has also been a lot of speculation about why learning objects are, or are not, reused. This study quantitatively examined the actual amount and type of learning object use, to include reuse, modification, and translation, within a single open educational resource repository–Connexions. The results indicate that about a quarter of used objects are subsequently reused, modified, or translated. While these results are repository specific, they represent an important first step in providing an empirical evaluation of the frequency and some …

A Computational Geometry Approach To Digital Image Contour Extraction, Pedro J. Tejada

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We present a method for extracting contours from digital images, using techniques from computational geometry. Our approach is different from traditional pixel-based methods in image processing. Instead of working directly with pixels, we extract a set of oriented feature points from the input digital images, then apply classical geometric techniques, such as clustering, linking, and simplification, to find contours among these points. Experiments on synthetic and natural images show that our method can effectively extract contours, even from images with considerable noise; moreover, the extracted contours have a very compact representation.

A Comparative Analysis Of Elementary Education Preservice And Novice Teachers' Perceptions Of Preparedness And Teacher Efficacy, Sarah K. Clark

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The focus of this study was threefold. First, the study sought to determine the validity and reliability of an instrument being used to measure teacher efficacy. After psychometric analysis, the Utah Teacher Efficacy Scale (UTES) was deemed as both a valid and reliable instrument for the purpose of measuring preservice and novice elementary school teacher efficacy.

Second, this study analyzed teacher self-efficacy of preservice and novice elementary school teachers at two different points in a time – once at the end of their teacher preparation program, and again after they had taught for one academic year. The sample (N …

Social Cognitive Predictors Of College Students' Fruit And Vegetable Intake, Denice C. Ahlstrom

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the social cognitive theory factors of home availability of fruits and vegetables, nutrition knowledge, food preparation ability, and cooking self-efficacy and the demographic factors of race/ethnicity, age, gender, marital status, living situation, and meal plan participation in relation to college students' fruit and vegetable consumption. The study sample was comprised of students attending on-campus classes at Utah State University during spring semester of 2009. Data were collected via traditional pencil-and-paper surveys distributed during classes with students in varying stages of their college education and from different fields of study. In total, 207 surveys were used for the …

The Utility Of Mathematics Curriculum-Based Measurement To Predict Student Risk Status On Standardized Academic Achievement Measures, Kyle Max Hancock

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The predictive utility of mathematics curriculum-based measurement (MCBM) to identify students who are at risk for failure on important educational measures is an emerging area of study in need of further investigation. The present study sought to identify which of four MCBM probes could be accurately used to determine students' risk status on selected subtests of three important educational measures commonly used to make educational placement decisions (WIAT-II, WJ-ACH-III, and KM 3) in grades 2 (n = 49), 4 (n = 48), and 6 (n = 47). The study also sought to determine which type of student …

A Methodology To Design Pipelined Simulated Annealing Kernel Accelerators On Space-Borne Field-Programmable Gate Arrays, Jeffrey Michael Carver

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Increased levels of science objectives expected from spacecraft systems necessitate the ability to carry out fast on-board autonomous mission planning and scheduling. Heterogeneous radiation-hardened Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) with embedded multiplier and memory modules are well suited to support the acceleration of scheduling algorithms. A methodology to design circuits specifically to accelerate Simulated Annealing Kernels (SAKs) in event scheduling algorithms is shown. The main contribution of this thesis is the low complexity scoring calculation used for the heuristic mapping algorithm used to balance resource allocation across a coarse-grained pipelined data-path. The methodology was exercised over various kernels with different …

Geochemical Provenance Of Clastic Sedimentary Rocks In The Western Cordillera: Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, And Oregon, John Aaron Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sedimentary rocks are an important source of information about previous orogenic conditions and the composition of which may describe the evolution of provenance and tectonic setting. Many factors influence sediment composition, namely, source rock composition, chemical weathering, climate, transport burial, and diagenesis. As the sediment composition changes through time, the geochemical characteristics of the sediment can be used to understand its geologic history.

The geochemical characteristics of clastic sedimentary rocks are useful in determining the depositional setting and its associated provenance. Although many different studies have used geochemical discriminants to evaluate provenance and tectonic settings, none have used a defined …

Full-Wave Analyses Of Nano-Electromechanical Systems Integrated Multifunctional Reconfigurable Antennas, Xiaoyan Yuan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis work builds upon the theoretical studies and full-wave analysis of radio frequency micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (RF M/NEMS) integrated multi-functional reconfigurable antennas(MRAs). This is a part of the overall μN∈MS research efforts performed in the RF NEMS Laboratory at USU, which includes design, microfabrication, test, and characterization of M/NEMS integrated congitive wireless communication systems (fig. A.1).

The thesis work focuses on two MRAs. 1) A triple bands patch antenna which can operate at 800, 2400, and 4900 MHz in response to public safety wireless communication systems. 2) A multi-frequency multi-polarization MRA for wireless personal area networking application (WPAN) …

The Perceptions Of Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Full-Time Seminary Teachers Regarding The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities, Reginald S. Slocombe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Efforts to formally educate students with special needs have been ongoing for over 50 years in the United States. Teachers are on the front line of the work to include students with disabilities. Previous research indicates a correlation between the attitudes of teachers and successful inclusion of students with disabilities. Two-hundred and fifty-one full-time released-time seminary teachers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Seminaries and Institutes of Religion (S&I, formerly the Church Education System or CES) in Utah responded to a questionnaire regarding their attitudes toward including students with disabilities in their classrooms. Selected personal and professional …

Symmetry Analysis Of General Rank-3 Pfaffian Systems In Five Variables, Francesco Strazzullo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this dissertation we applied geometric methods to study underdetermined second order scalar ordinary differential equations (called general Monge equations), nonlinear involutive systems of two scalar partial differential equations in two independent variables and one unknown and non-Monge-Ampere Goursat parabolic scalar PDE in the plane. These particular kinds of differential equations are related to general rank-3 Pfaffian systems in five variables. Cartan studied these objects in his 1910 paper. In this work Cartan provided normal forms only for some general rank-3 Pfaffian systems with 14-, 7-, and 6-dimensional symmetry algebra.

In this dissertation we provided normal forms of all general …

Inducing A Normal Phenotype In Breast Epithelial Cells Using A Three-Dimensional Basement Membrane Extract Culture System: A Study On The Reversion Of Cancer, Ross H. Booth

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Experimentally, traditional developmental models and transgenic animals consistently underscore the importance of studying cell behavior in the correct tissue context. However, live animal experimentation is inherently complex, and systematic assessment of the effects of individual variables, such as cell shape and matrix compliance on cell behavior, is extremely difficult at best. Two-dimensional monolayer culture of key individual cell types has provided abundant, fundamental information on cell response, but cannot be used to show the normal phenotype of breast epithelial cells. Furthermore, their results often fail to translate into in vivo and clinical studies. It has been previously established that normal …

Nitrogen Transport, Transformation And Cycling Through A Mountain Lake, Bull Trout Lake, Idaho, Usa, Ryan Settle Lockwood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effects of a mountain lake on nitrogen dynamics in a sub-alpine watershed were examined via watershed monitoring, mesocosm experiments, microcosm experiments, and enzymatic assays during spring and summer of a single year. Our study addressed the questions: (1) How does hydrologic transport through the lake affect the net fluxes of dissolved nitrogen (N) species? (2) What are the net effects of the littoral zone biota on dissolved N fluxes? (3) What are the seston and benthic uptake rates of nitrate? (4) What is the magnitude of N retention in littoral zone sediments? (5) What role does microbial hydrolysis of …

Fractional Order Modeling And Control: Development Of Analog Strategies For Plasma Position Control Of The Stor-1m Tokamak, Shayok Mukhopadhyay

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work revolves around the use of fractional order calculus in control science. Techniques such as fractional order universal adaptive stabilization (FO-UAS), and the fascinating results of their application to real-world systems, are presented initially. A major portion of this work deals with fractional order modeling and control of real-life systems like heat flow, fan and plate, and coupled tank systems. The fractional order models and controllers are not only simulated, they are also emulated using analog hardware. The main aim of all the above experimentation is to develop a fractional order controller for plasma position control of the Saskatchewan …

Combining Comprehension Reading Instruction With Video Anchors With Middle-Level Learners, Heidi Andreasen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reading comprehension is a multidimensional process and a key component of this process is the activation of prior knowledge in the comprehension of text. This study utilized video clips as a means to anchor instruction and assist struggling middle-level readers in comprehending text. Participants in this study were 17 seventh- and eighth-grade students from a rural middle school. The study used a single-subject reversal design.

During the baseline phase of the study, students read four different titles before a stable baseline could be established. The data collected were the combined mean scores of the teacher-created comprehension assessments and commercially produced …

Object Trajectory Estimation Using Optical Flow, Shuo Liu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Object trajectory tracking is an important topic in many different areas. It is widely used in robot technology, traffic, movie industry, and others. Optical flow is a useful method in the object tracking branch and it can calculate the motion of each pixel between two frames, and thus it provides a possible way to get the trajectory of objects. There are numerous papers describing the implementation of optical flow. Some results are acceptable, but in many projects, there are limitations. In most previous applications, because the camera is usually static, it is easy to apply optical flow to identify the …

Rayleigh-Lidar Observations Of Mesospheric Gravity Wave Activity Above Logan, Utah, Durga N. Kafle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A Rayleigh-scatter lidar operated from Utah State University (41.7°N, 111.8°W) for a period spanning 11 years ― 1993 through 2004. Of the 900 nights observed, data on 150 extended to 90 km or above. They were the ones used in these studies related to atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) between 45 and 90 km. This is the first study of AGWs with an extensive data set that spans the whole mesosphere. Using the temperature and temperature gradient profiles, we produced a climatology of the Brunt-Väisälä (buoyancy) angular frequency squared, N² (rad/s)². The minimum and maximum values of N …

The Use Of Reverse Genetics To Clone And Rescue Infectious, Recombinant Human Parainfluenza Type 3 Viruses, Jason Peter Roth

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reverse genetics is a discipline that involves the use of genetic manipulation and modification to study an organism's altered phenotype. In this study, infectious recombinant viruses were rescued from altered cDNA clones encoding the antigenome of human parainfluenza virus type 3 and the resulting phenotypes were examined. In one clone, the gene for the enhanced green fluorescent protein was inserted into the virus antigenome to be expressed during viral replication, resulting in infected cells emitting green fluorescence. Viral titers, mRNA replication, and genomic replication for the virus expressing the enhanced green fluorescent protein were reduced when compared to the human …

Fluvial Systems Tied Together Through A Common Base Level: The Geomorphic Response Of The Dirty Devil River, North Wash Creek, And The Colorado River To The Rapid Base Level Drop Of Lake Powell, Adam L. Majeski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fluvial adjustment to base level change has its roots in the fundamental concepts of geomorphology. This thesis explores the rate of erosion and sedimentation on the Colorado and Dirty Devil rivers and North Wash Creek under the current base level changes related to the drawdown conditions of Lake Powell. Through cross section and long profile resurveys, the current state of each system is captured and added to the historic record of sedimentation in Lake Powell. All three systems are generally forming narrow and deep incised channels driven by the rapid rate of base level fall. Cross sections that deviate from …

A Qualitative Exploration Of The School Experiences Of Middle-School Students In The Era Of No Child Left Behind, Charles H. Hamilton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Since the inception of the most recent iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has drawn widespread study and discussion. The majority of the research concerning NCLB has reported the perspective of teachers and administrative staff in public schools. The purpose of this research study was to add to the literature the voices of students. Participants in this qualitative research study were six students at Galaxy Junior High. These six students were interviewed multiple times. Based on a qualitative data analysis of their interview transcripts, and follow-up communications, four main categories of …

Gifted First Graders In A Multi-Ability Classroom: An Interpretive Case Study, Cari Buckner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Young gifted students experience school in a variety of ways. They become bored in classrooms where they are not challenged. They can develop disruptive behaviors or underachieve in order to feel accepted by their classmates or teachers. Three gifted first graders in the teacher-researcher's classroom participated in this case study. A variety of assessment tools were used to identify the student participants. Data were collected through teacher observations, videotaped classroom activities, videotaped interviews with students, audiotaped interviews with parents, and portfolios.

Data are reported and discussed within the frame of five themes that emerged: high parent involvement, social relationships, characteristics …

Perceptions Of Agriculture Teachers Toward Including Students With Disabilities, Monica D. Giffing

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The inclusion of students with special needs in regular education classrooms has been required by federal law for more than three decades. However, much of the responsibility for successful accommodation of students with disabilities rests upon the shoulders of teachers. Previous research has indicated that successful inclusion of students with special needs is strongly influenced by the attitude of teachers involved. In this study, all secondary agriculture teachers in Utah were surveyed to determine their attitudes and perceptions related to their willingness and ability to include students with special needs in their classrooms and laboratories. Selected personal and professional characteristics …