Digital Commons Network^™

Pedestrian Behavior At Signalized Intersections Throughout Utah, Sadie Boyer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Pedestrians and vehicles interact with each other all over the world. Pedestrian-vehicle interactions are most likely to occur at intersections. One way to streamline these interactions and reduce the number of potential conflicts is by using traffic signals. Signalized intersections were developed to increase the overall safety and efficiency of movements involving motorists and, later, pedestrians (Clark, 2022). The number of signalized intersections is increasing across the country as vehicle volumes increase. This means that pedestrian-vehicle conflicts are also increasing. Pedestrian-vehicle conflicts can have serious, even fatal, consequences if not appropriately managed.

This study was a sponsored project by the …

Hidden Mechanisms Of Climate Impacts In Western Forests: Integrating Theory And Observation For Climate Adaptation, Sara J. Germain

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fire, insects, and disease are necessary components of forest ecosystems. Yet, climate change is intensifying these tree stressors and creating new interactions that threaten forest survival. This dissertation combined field observations with statistical predictions of changing disturbances in western forests to identify 1) how conventional models may underestimate future forest loss, and 2) how positive relationships between trees may be exploited by managers to prevent forest loss.

In Chapter II, I tested whether increasingly extreme weather with climate change increases Pacific yew extinction risk. I found that conventional modeling methods underestimated local extinction risk because trees were adapted to a …

Highly Variable Rainfall-Runoff Patterns Across Burned Mountainous Watersheds In The Colorado River Headwaters, Haley Anne Canham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wildfires can contribute to enhanced flooding, erosion, debris flows, sediment transport, and water quality changes that impact downstream infrastructure, water users, and aquatic habitat. With increasing wildfire risk in the western U.S. due to a changing climate, understanding post-wildfire rainfall-runoff patterns and controls is critical for continued water resources security. To improve understanding of post-wildfire rainfall-runoff patterns and controls, we developed a transparent, repeatable analysis framework to collect precipitation and streamflow data, identify paired rainfall-runoff events, and analyze these events to evaluate post-wildfire rainfall-runoff patterns and controls. To automate the rainfall-runoff event identification, the Rainfall-Runoff Event Detection and Identification (RREDI) …

Fabrication And Testing Of Catalyst-Infused Filament For 3d Printing Of Ignition-Augmented Hybrid Rocket Fuels, Kurt C. Olsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis describes and addresses the need for reliable ignition in small satellite hybrid propulsion systems using higher density oxidizers. It describes methods of creating custom 3D printing ABS plastic based filaments that contain small amounts of catalysts. These catalysts lead to a more reliable and energy-efficient ignition of a hybrid rocked propulsion system using catalyst-infused ABS and nitrous oxide and oxygen blend called Nytrox, commonly known as ”laughing gas.” The ”laughing gas” has a higher density and can therefore provide more ”miles per gallon” in a hybrid propulsion system on a small satellite when compared to gaseous oxygen (GOX). …

Psychosocial Development In Adolescents With Disabilities: Modification And Evaluation Of Measures, Myles Maxey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are often overlooked in research, including psychosocial development (self-esteem, autonomy, attachment, and identity formation). Reliable and consistent survey tools are essential to understanding developmental trends. This study focused on creating surveys that could be comprehended by all adolescents, no matter if they experience IDD or not. Findings from this study suggested that there are more similarities than difference across areas of psychosocial development among adolescents with IDD as well as with their typically developing peers. These findings can help researchers more accurately assess psychosocial development for more adolescents, including those experiencing IDD.

Implications Of Malthus-Boserup Ratcheting For Interpreting The Archaeological Record, Gideon F. Maughan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Prehistoric populations across North America seem to grow exponentially, with some variation between regions. Archaeologists have explored the differences somewhat, but have not explained the differences or the sustained growth with any reference to what may be going on under the surface in a way that is relevant to all regions. I propose that environmental limits on population are shaped by what populations eat and how they acquire food, and that when populations are large enough to feel the scarcity in their environment, they change their way of life in a way that increases those limits. The model I propose …

Initial Development And Validation Of A New Measure Of Students' Social-Emotial Competencies, Stephanie A. Vinal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In order to support student success, schools and researchers are targeting non-academic skills, termed social-emotional learning. Social-emotional learning (SEL) represents the process by which students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, establish healthy and positive relationships, and identify as well as regulate emotions. Research shows SEL interventions are effective in decreasing student problems (e.g., anxiety, depression, low motivation; Barry et al., 2015; Corcoran, et al., 2018; Durlak et al., 2011; Weare & Nind, 2011) and increasing positive student outcomes (e.g., academic success, personal growth; Merrell, 2010; Zins et al., 2007). Although SEL is gaining popularity among practitioners and researchers, there …

Analysis Of Optically Transparent Antennas Designed From Different Transparent Conductors, Rakib Hasan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This master’s thesis work presents an investigative study about the performance of transparent antennas. The antennas have been fabricated using two advanced transparent conductive films (TCF) namely Nano-C Hybrid and Silver-Nanowire (AgNW). Nano-C Hybrid is a new transparent conductive film which combines thin conductors like Carbon Nanotube and Silver Nanowire. The antennas made from Nano-C Hybrid and AgNW are of monopole types and are mounted on a ground plane made out of a printed circuit board and the antennas are excited using an SMA connector through that printed circuit board. Simulation works have been performed to find out the optimum …

Executive Functioning And Brain Activation In Young Monolingual And Bilingual Children: An Fnirs Study, Matthew L. Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over the past 40 years, the prevalence of bilingualism in the United States has increased. As bilingualism is increasing, it is important to examine potential benefits or drawbacks that early household bilingual exposure has on child development and how bilingualism may facilitate those benefits or drawbacks. This study included 5 monolingual and 6 bilingual children and compared differences in brain activation location and executive functioning skills. Results from this project show a trend of activation differences where the monolingual children had less activation of the middle area of the prefrontal cortex while there was similar activation in both the left …

Joint Invariants Of Primitive Homogenous Spaces, Illia Hayes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Joint invariants are motivated by the study of congruence problems in Euclidean geometry, where they provide necessary and sufficient conditions for congruence. More recently joint invariants have been used in computer image recognition problems. This thesis develops new methods to compute joint invariants by developing a reduction technique, and applies the reduction to a number of important examples.

A Single-Case Experimental Investigation Of Sketch And Speak Expository Intervention For Adolescents With Language-Related Learning Disabilities Via Telepractice, Amy K. Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the effects of Sketch and Speak expository language intervention for adolescent students with language-related learning disabilities (LLD). Students with LLD have trouble understanding and using academic language for reading and writing and often benefit from explicit instruction in these areas. Sketch and Speak is an expository language intervention that teaches students to take notes in two forms and to systematically use oral practice to facilitate understanding and memory of notes. First, students learn to take notes using simple sketch writing, or pictography, which allows them to focus on the ideas of the text rather than the spelling, …

Passage Probability Of Woody Debris Elements And Accumulations At I- And V-Shaped Rock Weirs, Kathryn Margetts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The transport and accumulation of driftwood or large woody debris (LWD) in mountain streams is a natural part of catchment health and river connectivity. At hydraulic structures, the presence of LWD may impact flow efficiency and influence upstream water depth. LWD has been studied at a variety of spillways and weir types, however, little is known about its interaction at rock weirs. This study investigated factors affecting the passage of individual LWD elements and any LWD accumulations at rock weirs, as well as potential impacts upstream of LWD accumulations through field-informed scaled model testing. Observations of LWD at rock weirs …

Stewards And Conservationists: Merging Moral Norms And The Theory Of Planned Behavior To Understand Altruistic Conservation Behavior Among Hunters In Southwestern Utah, Jacob C. Richards

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The leading cause of mortality in California Condors (condors) is lead poisoning, which occurs when condors ingest lead-based ammunition left in carcasses. As a critically endangered species with approximately 115 individuals remaining in the American southwest, increasing the adoption of non-lead ammunition is essential to the recovery of the species. In Utah, the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) uses communication with hunters as the primary tool for increasing the adoption of non-lead ammunition in southwestern Utah. In this research, we use social science theory and data collected from a survey of hunters throughout the region to develop a strategic communication …

Investigating Factors That Impact Income Generation And Distribution In Western National Park Gateway Communities, Elizabeth Depew

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many rural towns in the western united states have come to be defined by high levels of tourism, seasonal residents, and migration driven by the desire to be close to natural amenities and the higher quality of life they afford. This shift is especially apparent in communities that are “gateways” to natural amenities such as national parks. Embracing this shift towards the “New West,” many community planners have heralded amenity-led development as a remedy to the waning feasibility of relying on agriculture and extractive industries. However, anecdotal evidence and several case studies indicate the factors which make these gateway communities …

Natural And Experimental Slow Slip Observed Along Shallow Hematite Faults, Alexandra A. Dimonte

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fault slip relieves stress in the shallow crust by slipping suddenly during earthquakes, but some faults also slip slowly in between earthquakes. Exhumed faults, brought up to the Earth’s surface from depth, preserve a record of fault processes and slip rates informed by fault rock structures, textures, and chemistry. Hematite, a common iron oxide mineral that precipitates on fault surfaces, exhibits crystal textures that potentially indicate past slip rate. Hematite can be dated using the radioisotopic system of (U-Th)/He thermochronometry, which constrains the time when He is trapped within a crystal, a process that is a function of temperature. Exhumed …

Programming Process, Patterns And Behaviors: Insights From Keystroke Analysis Of Cs1 Students, Raj Shrestha

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With all the experiences and knowledge, I take programming as granted. But learning to program is still difficult for a lot of introductory programming students. This is also one of the major reasons for a high attrition rate in CS1 courses. If instructors were able to identify struggling students then effective interventions can be taken to help them. This thesis is a research done on programming process data that can be collected non-intrusively from CS1 students when they are programming. The data and their findings can be leveraged in understanding students’ thought process, detecting patterns and identifying behaviors that could …

Developing Cultural Competence Among Sixth-Grade Students Through Indigenous Knowledge And Place-Based Education, Tyus Roanhorse

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is a need to develop cultural competence in educational settings. While there is a focus on training K-12 educators to be culturally competent, there is little focus on developing and examining the impact of student cultural competence training. Integrating Indigenous knowledge in an education setting is a unique way to start developing cultural competency by recognizing cross-cultural worldviews and perspectives. This can be done while using place-based education, which links the classroom to the cultural environment that has significant meaning to Indigenous peoples while enriching the learning experience for all students. The current study examines and measures the development …

Holocene Chronostratigraphy Of Dune Fields In Southern Utah: Geomorphic Record Of Past Aridity In The Central Colorado Plateau, Harriet S. Cornachione

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The southwestern United States is characterized by dry climate, and droughts are common. The region is currently in an extreme drought that began in 2000 CE and has lasted longer than any previous drought in at least 500 years. Models predict greater future climate extremes under human-caused climate change. Understanding of the natural range of climate variability is important to put these changes in context. Sedimentary archives of past sand dune activity can help extend the available instrumental observations (last century) and tree-ring records (last millennium).

Sand dunes are landforms that are sensitive to aridity and decreased vegetation cover. They …

Spatiotemporal Data Augmentation Of Modis-Landsat Water Bodies Using Generative Adversarial Networks, Ashit Neema

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The monitoring of the shape and area of a water body is an essential component for many Earth science and Hydrological applications. For this purpose, these applications require remote sensing data which provides accurate analysis of the water bodies. In this thesis the same is being attempted, first, a model is created that can map the information from one kind of satellite that captures the data from a distance of 500m to another data that is captured by a different satellite at a distance of 30m. To achieve this, we first collected the data from both of the satellites and …

Masculinity, Affirmations, Belongingness, And Resiliency In Male Adolescents: Effects On School Engagement, Kelsey Burt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study focused on male adolescent students within 7^th and 8^th grade and how endorsement of masculine stereotypes impacts their school engagement and feelings of belonging. The study also examines how peers maintain masculine conformity and how individual resiliency change outcomes. This research is based on two main theories, inclusive masculinity and social learning theory. These theories describe how behaviors are largely learned from the social environment and maintained due to reinforcement or punishment. There were 127 adolescent males who participated in this study and were recruited through an online survey system. Results of the study show that …

Changes In Healthy Eating And Physical Activity Behaviors Of Adult Participants In Create Better Health's Education (Snap-Ed) Program, Kami Bullock

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of delivery method on the nutrition, food resource management (FRM), and physical activity behavior of participants enrolled in either Create Better Health’s in-person or online courses. The pre-survey and post-survey included data on nutrition, FRM, and physical activity behaviors. The researcher analyzed preexisting data from 138 SNAP-eligible adults who participated in Create Better Health’s online and in-person courses.

Results showed similar improvements in most of the nutrition and physical activity behaviors among those who took the CBH courses online or in-person. The online course showed statistically higher scores for four …

The Working Man's Rendezvous, Tameron Gentry Raines Williams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mountain men—fur traders of the Rocky Mountain trade between 1822-1840—are prominent in the history of the American West. Their adventures and exploits have been told and retold as their legend grew as did the myth surrounding their lives. This thesis seeks to dismantle that myth through focused study on the conditions of fur trapping work, the interactions between mountain men and Indigenous tribes of the region, and the role of lesser-known Black fur trappers.

Using The Reshetikhin-Turaev Link Invariant Approach With Non-Semisimple Categories, Adam Robertson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Invariants of knots and links are useful because they give rise to invariants of 3-manifolds. In particular, combinatorial link invariants give rise to combinatorial invariants of 3-manifolds, which are hard to come by using traditional methods from classical topology. The Reshetikhin–Turaev approach, which is based in quantum topology, develops link invariants using semisimple ribbon categories. However, a large class of algebraically interesting ribbon categories are non-semisimple and so give trivial link invariants via the Reshetikhin–Turaev method. We modify the Reshetikhin–Turaev method to make it suitable for non-semisimple ribbon categories. We discuss explicitly the following three examples: semisimple modules for the …

Upstream Methods For Enhancing Engineered Curcumin Biosynthesis, Caleb D. Barton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Curcumin is a bright orange compound with myriad applications for human health and wellness. Curcumin occurs naturally in the plant Curcuma longa (commonly known as turmeric) but must be extracted from the roots in an environmentally unfriendly fashion to obtain commercially relevant amounts of the compound. In addition, extraction of curcumin from turmeric spice yields a mixture of various curcuminoids, presenting an issue for isolating it in its pure form and complicating its use in clinical settings.

Heterologous biosynthetic production of curcumin in Escherichia coli has been used extensively as a viable alternative to plant extraction but suffers from poor …

Multidisciplinary Reference Solutions For Performance-Optimized Aircraft Wings With Tailored Aerodynamic Load Distributions, Jeffrey D. Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Morphing wings, or wings that can change shape during flight, have the potential to substantially reduce the amount of fuel consumed by an aircraft over the course of its flight. However, the extent to which these wings can reduce fuel consumption depends on the design of the wing, including its aerodynamic efficiency and its structural layout, and how the aircraft flies, including its flight altitude and speed. Correctly predicting how these design and operational characteristics interact is critical to predicting how wing morphing may affect aircraft fuel consumption. Many computer prediction tools exist that include the effects of these interactions, …

Evaluating The Use Of Inclusive Teaching Materials For Learners With Autism, Juliana Aguilar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the last decade, the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) has committed to working on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The work began with call-to-action papers, empirical work on cultural accommodations, and most recently, the certifying board has changed the professional standards for board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs). An objective and measurable step that BCBAs can take to adhere to the new ethical and professional standards is to use inclusive teaching materials. Inclusive teaching materials are teaching materials that reflect the diversity of society. This study compared the rate of learning and generalization between an inclusive and non-inclusive set of …

The Bray Schools And Black Education In The Early American Republic, Mitchell Allen Fellows

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ideas about the role of education in American society were contentious during the early years of the Nation. Despite this discord, the vast majority of African Americans lacked access to educational opportunities regardless of whether they were free or enslaved. When schools for African Americans did exist, they were often established by local community leaders or by benevolent societies. Benevolent societies in the early United States existed to prevent what they perceived as a moral decline in the nation. This thesis analyzed the records of schools established by two benevolent societies, the Associates of the Late Dr. Bray and the …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Task Analysis Data Sheet Protocol In Training Educators To Use The You/Me Game During Direct Instruction Reading Groups, Mckenzie Niebergall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Teachers often struggle with classroom management during academic lessons. Self-adapted efforts to improve classroom management are often not founded on researched behavioral principles. These struggles and efforts impact student behavioral and academic outcomes. The You/Me game is a game included in many Direct Instruction curricula, specially sequenced curricula that encourage positive classroom management and the gaining of academic skills, as a means to reward students for correct academic performance. This study examined the effectiveness of providing a sheet of specific written instructions and allowing for clarifying questions in training four general educators to implement the You/Me Game for classroom management …

Comparing Fecal Dna Capture-Recapture Methods To Traditional Mark-Resight Methods For Estimating Abundance Of Mule Deer On Winter Ranges, Andi M. Stewart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Well-designed monitoring strategies are required to obtain accurate estimates of population abundance, which is important for evaluating conservation and management strategies. Obtaining abundance estimates using traditional survey methods, like aerial surveys, is not possible in all scenarios and can be expensive and risky. One survey method that has gained popularity in the last decade is fecal DNA-based capture-recapture (CMR). However, this method has not been evaluated on winter ranges or in snowy, winter conditions.

My first objective was to implement fecal DNA CMR to estimate abundance of mule deer in the Round Valley and Goodale winter survey areas in the …

Finding Relationships Between Physical Properties Of Butter And Water Loss, Annalisa Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Butter is a desirable fat rich product used for laminated pastries, like croissants, because of its flavor and consumer acceptance. However, butter has some functional aspects that reduce its performance and quality. In manufacturing of butter for laminated pastries, large blocks of butter are pushed through a rectangular opening to form a thin sheet. In this process it is not unusual to see water dripping, indicating water loss in the butter. The purpose of this study was to understand the properties of butter and their role in water loss during processing.

The properties of commercial butters were tested to understand …