Digital Commons Network^™

Public Transportation Accessibility: Perceptions Of Riders With Disabilities In Utah, Cherissa R. Alldredge

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Transportation plays an essential role in social inclusion and participation, subjective well-being, and overall quality of life. A lack of private transportation options may make individuals with disabilities more dependent on public transportation systems. Despite increased use, people with disabilities continue to report barriers accessing public transportation services. Interestingly, little is known about these barriers at the regional transportation district level. The purpose of this study was to better understand the barriers and perceived accessibility of the Utah Transit Authority’s (UTA) public transportation system for individuals with disabilities living within the UTA service area.

Using an online survey, data were …

Gpu-Accelerated Demodulation For A Satellite Ground Station, Emily Clark Young

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One consequence of the increasing number of small satellite missions is an increasing demand for high data rate downlinks. As the satellites transmit at high data rates, ground-side receivers need to demodulate the transmitted data as quickly as possible. While application specific hardware can be designed, software defined radio solutions for ground stations are attractive for their flexibility, adaptability, and portability.

Another industry trend is the increasing use of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in general-purpose processing. By performing many operations simultaneously, GPUs are capable of accelerating processing when given a problem that can be implemented in a parallel manner. Furthermore, …

Activity Tracker Measurement Of Physical Activity And Sedentary Time In The Workplace Including An Intervention Involving Reminders To Move, Cassie Dance

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sedentary time and physical inactivity have negative impacts on health and health costs as well as an impact on workplace wellbeing. There is evidence that people are more sedentary and engage in less physical activity on work days. Additionally, sedentary behavior has been found to increase distress and negative mood. Activity trackers such as Fitbits are a useful way to collect and intervene on sedentary behavior and potentially impact other factors of workplace wellbeing in real time and promote self-monitoring. The reminder to move prompts that are now part of Fitbit models provide an innovative and simple way to intervene …

The Processes Of Collective Buy-In, Actuation, And Deep Social Learning In Seminary Classes, Donald B. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This phenomenological study explored a common essence of collective class actuation (CCA) among six seminary teachers in a Western state. CCA is an optimal learning state of a class collective. Data were gathered through interviews, observations, and a focus group. Data analysis yielded themes, textural and structural descriptions, an overall essence, and a model explaining the processes of buy-in and actuation.

Findings indicate that seminary teachers seek to actuate their classes by leading them toward agentic, collective buy-in. This requires management of two social environments: the internal social environment (the heart) and the external social environment. The internal social environment …

Developing, Adopting, And Executing 100% Net-Renewable Electricity Resolutions At The Local Level, Emily E. Skill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the absence of national leadership on climate policy, municipalities are adopting resolutions to reduce their carbon footprint and transition to clean energy. However, what leads to successful adoption of these resolutions and how to effectively implement climate goals at the community level needs further exploration. To investigate these questions, this thesis examines the resolutions adopted in Salt Lake City, Park City, and Moab, Utah to transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2032. Data was collected through documents, such as city reports and newspapers, and interviews with government officials, city staff, and community members involved with the resolution process. A …

The Effects Of Fluctuations In Federal Revenue Sharing Payments Made To Rural Counties On School District Budgets, Camille Harmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Federal revenue sharing programs aim to make up lost tax revenue to counties that contain federal land, as counties do not receive any property tax revenue from publicly owned lands. This may have a significant impact on rural school districts with a limited tax base, as most funding for public education comes from property tax revenue. My analysis seeks to determine the full impact of certain federal revenue sharing payments (paid out by the U.S. Forest Service) on school districts in counties that contain U.S. Forest Service land. My analysis shows that the payments have little impact on school district …

Plug-And-Play Web Services, Arihant Jain

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of this research is to make it easier to design and create web services for relational databases. A web service is a software service for providing data over computer networks. Web services provide data endpoints for many web applications. We adopt a plug-and-play approach for web service creation whereby a designer constructs a “plug,” which is a simple specification of the output produced by the service. If the plug can be “played” on the database then the web service is generated. Our plug-and-play approach has three advantages. First, a plug is portable. You can take the plug …

Reducing Thermal Bridging And Understanding Second-Order Effects In Concrete Sandwich Wall Panels, Taylor J. Sorensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Structural engineers have traditionally detailed structures with structural and fabrication efficiency in mind, but often based on a limited understanding of thermal efficiency. Some connection designs can create significant thermal bridging, leading to unnecessary heat transfer and even premature degradation through condensation. Thermal bridging occurs when heat transfer is given a path through a more conductive material like concrete or steel rather than insulation. Concrete sandwich wall panels (SWP) tend to be highly efficient at preventing heat transfer in the middle of panels, with greatest heat transfer occurring at connections. This project identified thermally efficient details for future SWP construction …

Investigating The Roles Of Bacterial Endosymbionts In The Evolution Of Adelgidae (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha), Kathryn M. Weglarz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Insects form close partnerships, or symbioses, with bacteria. These partnerships allow the insects to use resources that would be unavailable to them otherwise. Certain insects, hemipterans, are able to feed on nutrient-poor plant-sap because these bacteria supplement their diets. While this association is beneficial for both the insect and bacteria, it also comes with consequences: the genomes of bacterial symbionts typically undergo extreme degradation, becoming small and lacking many genes necessary for typical bacterial functioning. In the Hemiptera, aphids, mealybugs, cicadas, true bugs, and their relatives, these bacterial partnerships tend to be stable over millions of years. However, adelgids (Aphidoidea: …

Relationship Maintenance Behaviors And Marital Stability In Remarriage: The Examination Of Stepfamily Constellations And Associated Challenges, Ron C. Bean

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research on stepfamily life in the 21^st century reveals unexplored variables at every turn. This is important because around half of American adults report close step-relationships and the challenges and demographic and relational differences for different types of stepfamilies remains unexplored. The first of these studies explored data for 879 husbands and wives couples to explore how positivity, negativity, and sexual interest levels differ depending which of the couple, both partners, or neither had previous children. Wives reported higher levels of marital instability and positivity than husbands. Marital instability was linked with one’s own and one’s partners’ negativity, and …

The Role Of Social Support In Dementia Care Facilities: Staff Member Perspectives, Malinda K. Dokos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this study, certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who work regularly with long-term care residents with dementia were interviewed to investigate whether they considered providing social and emotional support to people with dementia an important part of their jobs. They were given an online survey, then each participated in an in-person interview that was recorded and later transcribed and analyzed for common themes. Through data analysis, I found that the participating CNAs unanimously considered social support to be an important aspect of caring for someone with dementia, and several personal values were associated with this perspective. They also reported the trainings …

The Determinants Of Municipal Minimum Wage Ordinances: An Analysis Of 100 Large Cities From 2012-2017, Nicholas S. Hilton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The city of Seattle, Washington made headlines in 2014 when its city council enacted the highest minimum wage in the history of the United States. The ruling appeared to begin a trend as similar policies began diffusing in cities across the country. In reality, however, municipal minimum wage ordinances have existed since the early 1990’s. Yet, despite over two decade’s worth of data on the subject, little research has been conducted to understand the characteristics that influence cities to enact minimum wages in the first place. This study contributes to our understanding of the predictors of minimum wage ordinances by …

Career Prospects And Resources Of Domestic Engineering Doctoral Students, Laura A. Gelles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Career prospects are a motivating factor for entry and retention of doctoral students, especially in the discipline of engineering. While doctoral student training provides them with highly specialized skills to be an independent researcher, they may not have the requisite skills or guidance to secure the job position of their choice. Therefore, it is important to provide doctoral students with opportunities, training, and information (i.e., resources) about different types of careers to not only ensure they are productive contributors of teaching and research, but also equip them for future career prospects. Research techniques based upon in-depth narrative interviews and combining …

Power V. Threshold: Near-Channel Morphology Controls Sediment Rating Curve Shape In Coastal Redwood Watersheds, Adam Caspian Nebraska Fisher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

River sediment is one of the most pervasive pollutants in the world. Excess amounts of fine sediment can reduce water quality, damage stream ecosystems, and harm aquatic life. Both natural and human-caused processes can add sediment to a river, such as tectonic uplift, landslides, and timber harvesting. Therefore, it is important to understand how fine sediment enters and moves through a rive system to inform policymakers and land-managers on effective ecosystem management.

In this study, we determined how the relationship between river flow and suspended sediment changed among watersheds along the North Coast of California. We found a rise in …

Herbage Characteristics Affecting Intake By Dairy Heifers Grazing Grass-Monoculture And Grass-Birdsfoot Trefoil Pastures, Marcus F. Rose

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Pasture-based dairies have become more prevalent in recent years due to a higher proportion of organic milk demand and production. Organic certification requires that animals must graze at least 120 days in each growing season. However, dry matter intake is often limited when dairy animals receive most of their herbage from pasture, resulting in lower animal performance and milk production. The purpose of this study was to analyze the complimentary effect of high energy grasses with birdsfoot trefoil (BFT) tannins to improve intake of dairy heifers. Jersey heifers were rotationally grazed for 105 days in 2017 and 2018 on eight …

Energy Management Of Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer Systems For Electric Vehicle Applications, Ahmed N. Azad

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wireless power transfer is a method of transferring electric power from a transmitter to a receiver without requiring any physical connection between the two. Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) entails having the transmitters buried under the roadway and the receiver unit being installed on the Electric Vehicle (EV). In this method, EVs are charged while driving over the transmitters as they receive bursts of electric energy at the time of significant alignment between transmitters and receivers. Compared to the stationary charging method which involves parking the EV for long hours for a full charge, the dynamic charging method (i.e., DWPT) …

The Role Of A Peer-Led Academic Intervention In College Students' Development Of Self-Regulated Learning: A Person-Centered Approach, Soojeong Jeong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to its unsupervised nature, undergraduate education requires students to manage their own learning. They need to use self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in order to achieve academic success. However, college students often have insufficient regulatory skills and strategies, suggesting the need for substantive and practical support. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a well-recognized academic intervention that utilizes peer-led study groups for difficult college courses, through which students can develop their SRL abilities.

This study focuses on the role of the SI program in college students’ development of SRL from a person-centered perspective. First, this study examines the heterogeneous effects of the …

Using A Discrete Choice Experiment To Estimate Willingness To Pay For Location Based Housing Attributes, Kristopher C. Toll

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 1993, a travel study was conducted along the Wasatch front in Utah (Research Systems Group INC, 2013). The main purpose of this study was to assess travel behavior to understand the needs for future growth in Utah. Since then, the Research Service Group (RSG), conducted a new study in 2012 to understand current travel preferences in Utah. This survey, called the Residential Choice Stated Preference survey, asked respondents to make ten choice comparisons between two hypothetical homes. Each home in the choice comparison was described by different attributes, those attributes that were used are, type of neighborhood, distance from …

Seeding Treatments To Enhance Seedling Performance Of The Bulrushes Bolboschoenus Maritimus, Schoenoplectus Acutus And S. Americanus In Wetland Restorations, David M. England

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A major goal in restoration is to reestablish native plant communities. There are several ways to reestablish species, but for large areas the most logistically feasible approach is to sow seed of desirable species. However, most wetland seeds are buoyant and are extremely difficult to establish in designated areas before floating away. In upland areas, tackifiers have been used to stabilize hill slopes from erosion and to keep seeds in place. The tackifier works as an adhesive that binds the seeds to the soil. However, the use of a tackifier has not been widely employed in wetland restorations, and prior …

Temporal Json, Aayush Goyal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a format for representing data. In this thesis we show how to capture the history of changes to a JSON document. Capturing the history is important in many applications, where not only the current version of a document is required, but all the previous versions. Conceptually the history can be thought of as a sequence of non-temporal JSON documents, one for each instant of time. Each document in the sequence is called a snapshot. Since changes to a document are few and infrequent, the sequence of snapshots largely duplicates a document across many time instants, …

Evaluating Relationships Of Knowledge, Attitudes, And Perception Between Ranchers And Bureau Of Land Management Professionals, Calee L. Garn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages approximately 245 million acres in the U.S., the majority of which are in the western half of the country. There have been several conflicts in Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Arizona, since 2010 that have resulted in a fatality, armed militias, several incarcerations, and lawsuits facing the federal government. Following a preliminary needs assessment conducted in Box Elder County, Utah, and a comprehensive review of the literature, further research was needed to understand BLM professional (BLM managers or BLM specialists) and rancher perceptions regarding BLM policies and procedures. The study specifically looked at attitudes, …

Technology In Parenting Programs: A Systematic Review And Pilot Study Of An App-Based Intervention For Latinx Families, Samantha M. Corralejo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Technology and psychological treatments have increasingly been used together to increase the reach of psychotherapy and potentially reduce treatment costs. This research focused on how technology has been used to deliver or facilitate treatments focused on behavioral parent training. Behavioral parent training is a research-supported method of improving parenting skills and child behavior. We first reviewed any existing research on the topic, and found that treatments that used technology to teach parenting skills were generally successful at improving parent and child behavior. The review also identified many research questions that have yet to be answered about the cost of such …

Coaching Parents To Use Positive Behavior Support: Function-Based Interventions For Preschool Children With Challenging Behavior, Lauren E. Pace

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Parents who have children with challenging behavior may feel stressed, overwhelmed and at a loss for solutions. Challenging behavior can cause problems with children’s relationships with others and their school success. There are many resources for schools and children with special needs; however, resources for parents for young children (ages 3 to 5) with challenging behavior are limited. This study examined the impact of a 6-week intervention to coach parents to use strategies that encouraged children to develop skills that helped them to express frustration and solve problems in positive ways. Parents were better able to understand what the children …

Assessing The Impacts Of Laep Extension At Usu: Development Of A Model Framework, Jason G. Parkinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over several decades, USU’s Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP) Department and Extension specialists have engaged Utah’s rural communities through several design-based outreach activities. These activities are intended to benefit both community partners interested in learning how design can positively impact the community in tangible ways, and students, who are given the opportunity to engage with real-world projects. This study documents, evaluates, and assesses outcomes of community engagement projects undertaken by LAEP Extension to better understand the program’s impact over time and come up with approaches that will enhance the impact of future community engagement projects.

This research develops a …

The Influence Of An English-As-A-Second-Language Professional Development Program On Perceptions Of Teacher Efficacy For Instructing English Language Learners, Dinah Scott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing student group in U.S. public schools. ELLs also consistently lag behind their native-English speaking peers in academic achievement. These facts set the stage for the study that evaluated one school district’s program to prepare their teachers to effectively educate ELLs. This program included a year-long series of six professional development courses that covered ELL-specific topics. The study’s evaluation tools included an online survey completed by teachers who took the courses, teachers’ feedback on course evaluation forms, interviews of district-level officials familiar with the program, and an examination of the homework assignments from …

Measuring The Self-Efficacy Of Students Participating In Vex Robotics Competitions, Joseph S. Furse

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Robotic competitions have become an increasingly popular educational tool to increase students’ interest and achievement in STEM. The largest and fastest growing of these is VEX Robotics Competitions (VRCs). Although millions of dollars of funding are allocated, and countless hours of effort are expended annually to provide students with the opportunity to compete in VRCs, little research has been done to investigate the educational impacts of participation in these competitions. One promising research framework in this area is to investigate the self-efficacy of students who participate in VRCs. Self-efficacy, or the beliefs one holds about one’s own abilities in a …

Enteric Methane And Nitrogen Emissions In Beef Cattle Grazing A Tannin-Containing Legume Relative To Feedlot And Traditional Pasture-Based Production Systems, Raúl David Guevara Ballesteros

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Beef cattle production is highly criticized because of the high use of land and water resources, and by the pollution (e.g., the gas methane in a cow’s breath and nitrogen in urine) produced by cows fed in feedlots. In contrast to feedlots diets and grasses, some plants (e.g., legumes) contain bioactive compounds (condensed tannins) that reduce pollution and enhance animal nutrition. In my research, I observed that cows grazing a tannin-containing legume (birdsfoot trefoil; BFT) had methane emissions similar to cows fed a feedlot ration with comparable weight gains. Cows in the BFT treatment gained more weight than cows grazing …

Exploring The Physiology And Evolution Of Hornworts, Tanner A. Robison

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Plants contain organelles called chloroplasts, which is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts also contain their own DNA, which is separate from the DNA in the nucleus. This DNA does not change much over evolutionary time, so it can be used to investigate relationships between organisms. Here we created a tool that makes it easier to analyze this chloroplast DNA as well making it easier to share complete chloroplast genomes on public databases. In addition, we also found a mobile element in the chloroplast DNA of a group of ferns, which appears to be driving structural changes in their genomes.

Evolution Of The Book Cliffs Dryland Escarpment In Central Utah - Establishing Rates And Testing Models Of Escarpment Retreat, Nicholas R. Mccarroll

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Since the earliest explorations of the Colorado Plateau, geologists have suspected that cliffs are retreating back laterally. Clarence Dutton envisioned “the beds thus dissolving edge wise until after the lapse of millions of centuries their terminal cliffs stand a hundred miles or more back from their original position” when he wrote about the landscape in 1882. While many geologic studies have determined how fast rivers cut down through the Plateau, only a few studies have calculated how quickly cliffs retreat laterally, and geologists have been arguing since the 1940’s what exactly drives cliffs to retreat in the first place. We …

Foreground Removal In A Multi-Camera System, Daniel T. Mortensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Traditionally, whiteboards have been used to brainstorm, teach, and convey ideas with others. However distributing whiteboard content remotely can be challenging. To solve this problem, A multi-camera system was developed which can be scaled to broadcast an arbitrarily large writing surface while removing objects not related to the whiteboard content. Related research has been performed previously to combine multiple images together, identify and remove unrelated objects, also referred to as foreground, in a single image and correct for warping differences in camera frames. However, this is the first time anyone has attempted to solve this problem using a multi-camera system. …