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Bugs, Bullets And Birds: Factors Affecting The Health And Survival Of Ferruginous Hawk Nestlings In The Intermountain West, Ellis A. Juhlin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ferruginous Hawks are a bird of prey species that nest in sagebrush steppe and grassland habitat. These birds are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation from urbanization, rural development, oil and natural gas extraction, habitat treatment projects, and wildfires, and experiencing widespread population declines across their breeding range. Because of this, Ferruginous Hawks (FEHAs) have been deemed a Species of Greatest Conservation Need by state management agencies in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. The health and survival of Ferruginous Hawk (FEHA) nestlings is crucial to long-term population viability. Understanding the threats these birds are facing as nestlings can provide valuable …

Temperature Dependent Density Of States Models And Compiled Data For Radiation Induced Conductivity, Jodie Gillespie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Radiation Induced Conductivity (RIC) is the change in conductivity of a material due to bombardment from incident high energy radiation. RIC has consistently been found to follow a standard power law relation, 𝜎_𝑅𝐼𝐶(𝑇) = 𝑘_𝑅𝐼𝐶(𝑇)Ḋ^∆(𝑇), between conductivity, 𝜎_𝑅𝐼𝐶 and adsorbed dose rate, Ḋ. 𝑘_𝑅𝐼𝐶(𝑇) and ∆(𝑇) are material dependent parameters. Previous RIC models were developed in the 𝑇 → 0 limit. Now expanded models are developed in the low temperature limit (within a few 𝑘_𝐵𝑇 of the effective Fermi level) by approximating the Fermi-Dirac equation within a …

The Efficacy And Feasibility Of Web-Based Acceptance-Enhanced Behavioral Treatment For Trichotillomania In Adults: A Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial, Leila K. Capel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Trichotillomania, or chronic hair pulling, impacts several aspects of a person’s everyday life and functioning including making it difficult to fully engage in school, work, romantic relationships, and other social relationships. There are several treatment options for trichotillomania and one that is particularly promising is acceptance and commitment therapy-enhanced behavioral therapy (AEBT). Several studies have been done in person and through telehealth and this treatment has helped participants.

Many people in the U.S. struggle with trichotillomania but many people are not able to access treatment for their hair pulling because clinicians are not available in their area, clinicians are not …

Pleistocene Deposits Of Lower Wahweap Creek And Its Tributaries, Southern Utah, Noah Slade

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The famous landscapes of the Colorado Plateau have been created over millions of years, primarily by erosive forces of wind and water. Interruptions in the long-term erosion of the landscape occur when streams gain more sediment than they can transport, which causes deposition along channels and floodplains. The resulting sequences of terrace deposits are used by geologists to study when and how river systems have evolved.

Mammoth bones were recently discovered in stream deposits along Wahweap Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River in southern Utah. Previous work indicates that the deposits pre-date the last ice age, making it one …

Effects Of Obesity On Knee Extensor Structure, Function, And Gait: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Michael N. Vakula

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Obesity is a common, costly, and critical disease that increases the risk of disability and premature death. Most commonly, obesity is caused by an increased consumption of energy dense foods and decreased time spent being physically active. The greater weight with obesity interrupts normal musculoskeletal function which can lead to physical adaptations such as decreased lower-extremity muscle strength and abnormal walking patterns, both of which are among top risk factors for falls in older individuals. However, the effects of obesity on walking and lower-extremity muscle strength have not previously been examined by incorporating the results of all existing studies in …

Storytelling To Promote Mental Health: A Conceptual Analysis And Application With Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Depression, Carter H. Davis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mental health treatments can be delivered in many ways. One approach is to use storytelling to communicate healthy practices. While societies across the world have engaged in storytelling for thousands of years, these practices have been used less in the mental health field. The aim of this project was to study the overlap between the areas of mental health and storytelling. We also tested how a storytelling-based mental health treatment could help solve a particular clinical problem. In this case, the problem of people who receive inadequate help for managing depression through medication alone.

We examined one particular mental health …

Together, Our Voices Will Strengthen The Weaving: Using Autoethnography And Narrative Inquiry To Indigenize Sense Of Belonging In Higher Education, Devon S. Isaacs

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Native American students in higher education are often asked to find a sense of belonging in places and spaces that do not reflect their cultures or worldviews. This can lead to isolation and a feeling of having to choose between themselves and their identities as Indigenous peoples. This contributes to poorer mental health, loss of well-being, and decreased academic success. The purpose of this study was to ask seven Native American participants how they defined sense of belonging from their own worldviews. Participants were also asked about spaces and places in higher education that helped or did not help them …

The Role Of Dysfunctional Beliefs And Attitudes About Sleep (Dbas), Rumination, Psychological Inflexibility, And Insomnia Among College Students, Guadalupe G. San Miguel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the study was to understand additional variables that play a role between insomnia and the inability to stay present with internal feelings/emotions (i.e., psychological inflexibility) among college students. These variables that were predicted to help explain this relationship include dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions and insomnia rumination. To do this, college students were surveyed online at the start of the study and one month later. In addition, to be included in the study they must have been enrolled in a 2- or 4-year university, have access to the internet, and not diagnosed with another sleep disorder. Participants (n …

Quantifying Floral Resource Availability Using Unmanned Aerial Systems And Machine Learning Classifications To Predict Bee Community Structure, Jesse Anjin Tabor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bees are important for agricultural and non-agricultural ecosystems because they pollinate both wild plants and commercial crops. Flowers provide pollen and nectar resources that bees use to survive and reproduce. Measuring the relationship between the floral community and bee community may help apiarists and land managers to make informed decisions in managing wild and domesticated bee species. Manual methods to describe and count flowering vegetation is costly in time and personnel. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology may be an efficient way to describe and count flowering vegetation on a large scale. UAVs with classification analysis and ground transect surveys were …

Investigations Of Prokaryotic Defense Systems, Hannah Domgaard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bacteria are constantly threatened with infection by mobile genetic elements (MGE) such as bacteriophage and plasmids. Bacteriophage and plasmids require the bacteria's cellular infrastructure to replicate their genomes. Rampant replication can lead to cell death which is one reason why bacteria have developed a diverse array of immune systems to prevent or limit infection. This thesis studies three types of bacterial immune systems, type IV-A CRISPR-Cas (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat –CRISPR associated), type V-A2 CRISPR-Cas systems, and Wadjet systems.

The type IV-A system lies adjacent to a dinG-like helicase gene. Research has shown that this system can target …

Event-Based Obstacle Detection With Commercial Lidar, Chaz Cornwall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Computerized obstacle detection for moving vehicles is becoming more important as vehicle manufacturers make their systems more autonomous and safe. However, obstacle detection must operate quickly in dynamic environments such as driving at highway speeds. A unique obstacle detection system using 3D changes in the environment is proposed. Furthermore, these 3D changes are shown to contain sufficient information for avoiding obstacles. To make the system easy to integrate onto a vehicle, additional processing is implemented to remove unnecessary dependencies. This system provides a method for obstacle detection that breaks away from typical systems to be more efficient.

Extreme, Positive Geomorphic Change In A Historically Degraded Desert River: Implications For Imperiled Fishes, Tansy T. Remiszewski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rivers comprise some of the most unique and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet with their waters supporting both human societies as well as the organisms that make these rivers their home. Large rivers like the Colorado are often highly regulated and diverted in order to support human residence in arid regions like the desert Southwest, and these water diversions often have dramatic, negative impacts on the natural flow regime of the river. These impacts leave large reaches of the river dry, reduce the river’s capacity to transport sediment, cause channel and habitat homogenization, and significantly reduce the amount of suitable …

River Response To Sediment Supply: The Sand Bed Case, Christina M. Leonard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Effective management of in-channel and floodplain habitat requires an ability to forecast river response to changes in water and sediment supply. These changes may result from dam construction/decommissioning, changes in reservoir operations, or changes in grazing or forestry practices. If a change in water and sediment supply causes sediment to be delivered faster than the channel’s capacity to transport it, sediment will accumulate in the reach, leading to changes in channel form and increasing the potential for flooding. A decrease in sediment supply relative to transport capacity can lead to channel incision. The extent and timing of sediment accumulation or …

Seed Ecology And Regeneration Processes To Inform Seed-Based Wetland Restoration, Emily E. Tarsa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wetlands provide immense value to wildlife and humans but have been degrading rapidly around the world. One major challenge is the loss of native plant species in wetlands, which limits the ability of wetlands to function as they should. Restoring wetlands requires a combination of removing the cause of degradation (such as invasive plant species) and, in many cases, actively returning native plants to the site especially via seeding. Further, early plant life stages are the most vulnerable for plants and is often the time in which sown species die and fail to establish. Thus, understanding how and why seeds …

Modeling And Control Of Battery Management Systems With High-Frequency Ac Link Coupled Multiport Series Resonant Converters For 2nd Life Battery Applications, Brooks Jace Maughan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

While the use and production of Electric Vehicles becomes more prevalent, it is also important to make this economical and ensure the reduction of a carbon footprint. Second-life batteries can satisfy both problems as batteries can be used in a second-life application for lower power purposes such as supplementing the grid so the infrastructure needed to charge the expanding fleet of Electric Vehicles can be easily supplied. This thesis goes through the process of Active Cell Balancing which will produce equal capacities, or similar batteries, that can be more efficiently used in these and other types of second-life applications. The …

Investigating Atmospheric Gravity Waves Using 3-Dimensional Spectral Analysis, Kenneth I. Zia

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Atmospheric gravity waves (GW) are generated from the ground and go into the upper layers of the atmosphere where space begins. These waves have strong effects on the temperature and circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere. The temperature changes caused by these waves are observed through special cameras looking at light that the Earth’s atmosphere naturally emit at night. One of these cameras is placed at McMurdo Station, Antarctica where the long nights are used to see these waves longer than anywhere else. The images captured there are automatically analyzed to determine wave properties to better understand how often they are …

Development Of In Situ Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Scatterings For Molecular Behaviors At Aerosol Surfaces, Yuqin Qian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aerosol particles are one of the most important components of the atmosphere. During the growth of aerosol particles, they directly or indirectly affect air quality, human health, and environmental chemistry. Therefore, understanding the chemical and physical properties of such particles is an important scientific, engineering, and medical issue. The growth of aerosol particles in the atmosphere is closely related to the chemical structure at its surface, as well as the heterogeneous reactions which take place at and below the particle’s surface. However, there is a lack of suitable surface-specific analytical techniques which directly measure the chemical structure of aerosol particle …

Validation And Exploration Of The Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory With A Sample Of Adolescents, John Barr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The current study attempted to further psychological flexibility literature by validating the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI) with a sample of adolescents (ages 16 and 17). This analysis also examined how the MPFI associates with other indicators of psychological flexibility, distress (depression, anxiety, somatic symptom severity and related distress, difficulties in emotion regulation) and well-being (subjective happiness, life satisfaction, self-compassion, emotional approach coping).

Results from this study suggested that psychological inflexibility as measured by the MPFI positively associated with a number of measures of distress, but generally did not inversely correlate with measures of well-being in a theoretically-consistent manner, which …

Old-Growth Forest Dynamics After Fire And Drought In The Sierra Nevada, California, Usa, Kendall M.L. Becker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding forest ecosystems is important because forests cover approximately one-third of Earth’s land area, store half of Earth’s carbon, shelter half of Earth’s species, and absorb a quarter of new anthropogenic carbon emissions, slowing climate change. This dissertation provides insight into future forest habitat, fuels, species composition, and structure by investigating what happens to snags, seedlings, and trees in an old-growth forest after a low- to moderate-severity fire.

Chapter II explores how low- to moderate-severity fire changes snag fall rates. Predicting how long snags will remain standing after fire is essential for managing habitat, understanding chemical cycling in forests, and …

Serendipity Shape Function For Hybrid Fluid/Kinetic-Pic Simulations, Trevor V. Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Sun in our solar system and stars are capable of generating enormous amounts of energy. The process by which these gaseous, celestial bodies are able to produce such large amounts of energy is called thermonuclear fusion. Fusion happens when particles collide with one another at energy levels high enough to overcome the Coulomb force and then release vast amounts of energy. Plasma, the fourth state of matter, is the natural state of stars. Plasma is an ionized gas that consists of negatively and positively charged particles. Stars, which have immense mass, can confine the plasma through their gravity to …

Late Pleistocene Piedmont Records In The Grand Staircase Region, Southern Utah, Alexander K. Short

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Today the climate in the southwestern United States is arid, characterized by desert landscapes and habitats, periods of drought, and arroyo streams that frequently fill with, and erode, through fine riverbed sediments. A series of cliffs and benches rising from the Grand Canyon to the southern plateaus of Utah, known as the Grand Staircase - home to Kodachrome Basin State Park, Bryce Canyon, are a classical example of this environment as we know it today. However, a record spanning the past 300 thousand years is preserved on the steps of the staircase indicating periods in the past where the climate …

Path Planning For Aircraft Under Threat Of Detection From Ground-Based Radar With Uncertainty In Aircraft And Radar States, Austin D. Costley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mission planners for manned and unmanned aircraft operating within the detection range of ground-based radar systems are often concerned with the probability of detection. Several factors influence the probability of detection, including aircraft position and orientation, radar position, and radar performance parameters. Current path planning algorithms assume that these factors are known with certainty, but in practice, these factors are estimated and have some uncertainty.

This dissertation explores methods to consider the uncertainty in the detection factors for an aircraft path planner. First, the detection model is extended to include uncertainty in the aircraft position and orientation, radar position, and …

The Relationship Between Bird Species Richness And Human Appropriation Of Net Primary Productivity, Kaeli Mueller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As humans harvest increasing amounts of biomass, it is crucial to gain an understanding of how much energy is being appropriated and the impact that this could have on ecosystems and biodiversity. The primary way in which humans impact biodiversity loss is through land use change. One way of quantifying the impact of land use change is through human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP). This measurement represents the total amount of energy derived from photosynthesis that humans remove from ecosystems and appropriate for their own use. My research studies the relationship between HANPP and bird species richness at the …

Dust Deposition Changes Production, Chlorophyll-A And Community Composition In Mountain Lakes, Jiahao Wen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Increasing quantities of dust emitted from semi-arid soils, agricultural soils, and urban regions are blown to remote mountain lakes in the American West. Remote mountain lakes lacking local nutrient inputs and presenting simple food webs that are easily affected by climate changes. Dust can carry nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) to mountain lakes and potentially enhance algae growth and change algal communities. However, experimental tests of this hypothesis are lacking. Using in situ experiments, we investigated the effects of dust enrichment on the production, biomass, and primary algal species in three mountain lakes in the American West. We found that …

Design Of Environment Aware Planning Heuristics For Complex Navigation Objectives, Carter D. Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A heuristic is the simplified approximations that helps guide a planner in deducing the best way to move forward. Heuristics are valued in many modern AI algorithms and decision-making architectures due to their ability to drastically reduce computation time. Particularly in robotics, path planning heuristics are widely leveraged to aid in navigation and exploration. As the robotic platform explores and navigates, information about the world can and should be used to augment and update the heuristic to guide solutions. Complex heuristics that can account for environmental factors, robot capabilities, and desired actions provide optimal results with little wasted exploration, but …

Bedrock Geology Map Of The Naomi Peak 7.5' Quadangle, Cache County, Utah And Novel Age Constraints On Its Cambrian Strata, Hannah R. Cothren

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Geologists use various “rock-clocks” in order to interpret the timing and tempo of events in Earth’s history. These include global geochemical events in the oceans (chemostratigraphy), the evolution of certain fossil species (trilobite biostratigraphy), and the radiogenic decay of uranium to lead in certain mineral such as zircon (U-Pb geochronology). Integrating these methods in the stratigraphic record in one location can provide a well-constrained timeline for a select part of the Geologic, or Deep Time, record. This technique is especially important in the Cambrian Period (538.8 to 486.9 million years; Ma), which sets the stage for life today with the …

Integrated Concept Mapping As A Method For Democratically Evaluating A Teacher Preparation Program In The Area Of Classroom Assessment Proficiency, Carrie Elizabeth Ashcraft

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation reviews current policies regarding Teacher Preparation Program (TPP) evaluation and addresses “accountability era” influences which often minimize factors related to equity and promote a limited view of teacher and school “effectiveness.” Integrated concept mapping is proposed as an alternative method of evaluation because of its democratic framework for accountability. Using this method, a TPP in the Mountain West was evaluated in the area of classroom assessment.

Lifting-Line Predictions For Life And Twist Distributions To Minimize Induced Drag In Ground Effect, Kyler Church

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The elliptic lift distribution produces the minimum induced drag for a given wingspan and desired lift outside of ground effect. This distribution can be generated on any wing by using geometric and/or aerodynamic twist. However, in ground effect, the elliptic lift distribution is not necessarily that which minimizes induced drag. The present work uses a modern numerical lifting-line algorithm to evaluate how the optimum lift distribution varies as a function of height above ground. The algorithm is also used to obtain the twist distributions that should be applied to wings of varying aspect ratios and taper ratios to produce the …

Nest‐Site Selection, Success, And Response To Predators By Cinnamon Teal And Other Ground‐Nesting Ducks In The Wetlands Of Great Salt Lake, Utah, Mark E. Bell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The wetlands of Great Salt Lake once supported hundreds of thousands of nesting ducks each year. In recent years, the number of nesting ducks in the same area was a fraction of those historic numbers. While many species of ducks do not rely on these wetlands for primary nesting habitat, cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera) do. Great Salt Lake and its associated wetlands are in the heart of the cinnamon teal breeding range, and once supported half of the continental population.

These wetlands are unique from other wetlands where waterfowl nest because they are artificially created using dams to hold …

Multi-Fidelity Predictions For Control Allocation On The Nasa Ikhana Research Aircraft To Minimize Drag, Justice T. Schoenfeld

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Optimal control settings (camber scheduling) can be used by aircraft to minimize drag at various operating conditions during flight. In this work, camber schedules for minimum drag on the NASA Ikhana are obtained over a range of lift coefficients. A modern numerical lifting-line algorithm is used to predict the lift and drag of the aircraft as a function of operating condition and wing section shape (airfoil camber). The SLSQP optimization algorithm is used to solve for the camber schedule that minimizes drag for a given operating condition. The process is repeated, varying the number of control sections to evaluate the …