Digital Commons Network^™

Carbon Sinks And Sources In Great Salt Lake: Consequences Of Declining Lake Levels, Melissa Cobo Arias

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Globally, saline lakes are experiencing declining water level as a consequence of climate change, water diversions for human consumption, and management strategies that do not account for changing climate and drought conditions. Great Salt Lake (GSL) is a large saline lake in Utah, USA, and is, as most saline lakes, experiencing decreasing lake levels which may impact local carbon cycling. It is unknown how lakebed drying affects processes that control carbon sequestration and carbon emissions to the atmosphere. The goal of this research was to measure various biological processes that use, create, and transform carbon in GSL to understand the …

Power Approximations For Generalized Linear Mixed Models In R Using Steep Priors On Variance Components, Sydney Geisler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

When designing an experiment, researchers often want to know how likely they are to detect statistically significant effects in the resulting data, i.e., they want to estimate their statistical power. The probability distribution method is a flexible way to do this, and it is currently implemented in the statistical software package SAS. This method requires a hypothetical data set (showing the magnitude of hypothesized effects) and constant values of variance components, which are critical elements of the statistical models used. The statistical software package R is increasingly popular, but the probability distribution method has not yet been implemented in R, …

Data Visualization, Dimensionality Reduction, And Data Alignment Via Manifold Learning, Andrés Felipe Duque Correa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The high dimensionality of modern data introduces significant challenges in descriptive and exploratory data analysis. These challenges gave rise to extensive work on dimensionality reduction and manifold learning aiming to provide low dimensional representations that preserve or uncover intrinsic patterns and structures in the data. In this thesis, we expand the current literature in manifold learning developing two methods called DIG (Dynamical Information Geometry) and GRAE (Geometry Regularized Autoencoders). DIG is a method capable of finding low-dimensional representations of high-frequency multivariate time series data, especially suited for visualization. GRAE is a general framework which splices the well-established machinery from kernel …

Numerical Modeling And Simulating Thermal Performance Of Printed Circuit Boards, Paul R. Ziegenfelder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research investigates how heat transfer theory can be applied to evaluate the thermal performance of printed circuit board (PCB) designs. A model was developed for correlating theory to the physical parameters relating to the construction of the PCB and a computer application was developed to perform the thermal analysis. The application allows the importation of common PCB design files for a straightforward and quick analysis of a PCB design’s thermal performance. The application is open-source to allows for further development and free access from the public.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Assessing Socio-Demographic And Urban Form Changes Of Sprawl Retrofitting Projects In The United States, Hooman Hadayeghi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Growing population and urbanization have escalated the inclination in today’s societies to live in the suburbs. In the United States, urban development has had a suburbanization pattern since World War II. People living in such areas must use their cars to reach their destination and commute to work. Sprawl retrofitting is a term introduced by planners and researchers to overcome urban sprawl's negative impacts on mobility, transportation, and the environment. This approach is used to densify and change the built environment to make daily trips easier, shorten daily travels, and enhance pedestrian activity in places dealing with sprawl. Sprawl retrofitting …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Functional Characterization Of The Newly Discovered Type V Crispr-Cas Protein Cas12a2, Dylan J. Keiser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Similarly to people, bacteria are under the treat of infection by viruses. To circumvent these threats, bacteria evolve complex immune systems. Our understanding of some of these immune systems has led to many advancements in the field of Biotechnology including tools that made expressing proteins for study in a lab easier, tools that revolutionized the feasibility of gene editing, and tools that could change the way we think about viral diagnostics and cancer therapeutics. A certain type of immune system that bacteria use to fight virus is called a CRISPR system. Presented here is work to understand the function of …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Varied Verbal Prompts Paired With Visual Prompts On Echoic Verbal Behavior With Minimally Verbal Students, Chelsea Nielsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Previous research conducted by Valentino, Shillingsburg, Conine and Powell (2012) has recommended that practitioners do not utilize the word “say” before or in an instruction to reduce the word “say” being echoed. The current study sought to extend previous research by including the word “say” and comparing it with the condition of not using the word “say”. Components compared included how frequently responses occurred and how long it took for a response to occur. Two participants were included in the study, but only one participant completed the study. Findings agreed with the recommendation made by Valentino, Shillingsburg, Conine and Powell …

Assessing Post-Fire Revegetation Efforts In Box Elder County, Utah, Using The Rangeland Analysis Platform, Rayce Bryan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

After fires occur in western rangelands, land management agencies commonly perform vegetation treatments and reseeding projects. The West Box Elder Coordinated Resource Management Group expressed concern regarding the difficult process of determining outcomes from the many post-fire revegetation projects undertaken on rangeland of Box Elder County, Utah. This research attempted to compile and clarify the fire and treatment history of the county and produce an assessment of the outcomes from each unique post-fire treatment in West Box Elder County. Also produced was a database of post-fire revegetation outcomes in published literature.

Unique treatment polygons were identified and then subset according …

Normative Evaluations Of Resource Conditions: The Influence Of Visitor Characteristics And Implications For Recreation Management In Urban-Proximate Parks, Jordan E. Nesbitt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Urban-proximate parks and protected areas provide a unique recreation landscape to individuals living in and near urban centers. They have been shown to provide similar recreation experiences to traditionally studied parks and protected areas such as National Parks, National Forests and Wilderness areas. This study takes place in a set of four urban-proximate parks in Orange County, California, USA. These parks are designated as urban-proximate because they are located within 100 miles of an urban center with 1 million or more people. Using norm theory, a well vetted social science theory, this work sought to identify thresholds of acceptability for …

Investigating The Use Of Quartz Luminescence And Rock-Color Alteration To Characterize Wildfire Exposure; Applied To The 2020 Mangum Fire, Kaibab Plateau, Arizona, April I. Phinney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wildfires appear to be increasing in size, severity, and frequency. Land managers need information on past wildfire behavior to make effective and adaptive land management plans. However, there are only a few techniques and data sources that provide information on past fire heating. This study aims to provide new methods to equip managers with a more robust understanding of historic and modern fire behavior. Fire behavior is assessed using novel methods that can assess soil and rock response to past wildfire heat exposure.

This study examined samples from the 2020 Mangum Fire, in northern Arizona. Sediment and rock were gathered …

Characterizing Karst Mountain Watersheds Through Streamflow Response To Snowmelt, Daniel Meade Thurber

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The climate in many parts of the Western US is characterized by cold, wet winters preceding long, dry summers. In the absence of precipitation, water supplies in these regions are sustained by melting snow and mountain groundwater. Changes in regional climate can reduce snow accumulation, accelerate melt, and prolong dry periods, all increasing the importance of groundwater on summertime water availability. In mountainous regions with limestone and dolomite geology, bedrock formations can host significant karst aquifers comprising dissolution-enhanced karst conduits which play an outsized and variable role in how precipitation is translated into streamflow. In this study, we considered an …

Linearized Rigid-Body Static And Dynamic Stability Of An Aircraft With A Bio-Inspired Rotating Empennage, Austin J. Kohler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States Air Force (USAF) will likely seek to remove the vertical tail of next-generation fighter aircraft. This work seeks to characterize the static and dynamic stability and handling qualities of a vertical-tailless aircraft concept that would satisfy the USAF’s goal. This concept aircraft, one modified with a Bio-Inspired Rotating Empennage (BIRE), does not have a vertical tail, and is instead capable of rotating the horizontal tail about the fuselage axis for maneuvering. The dynamic characteristics of the BIRE-modified aircraft are compared to a baseline unmodified aircraft, similar to the F16, with a traditional vertical tail. Linearized aerodynamic models …

A Theoretical Trade-Off Between Wave Drag And Sonic Boom Loudness Due To Equivalent Area Changes On A Supersonic Body, Nolan L. Dixon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The NASA University Leadership Initiative (ULI) titled ”Adaptive Aerostructures for Revolutionary Civil Supersonic Transportation” consists of a team of university and industry partners studying the feasibility of reducing the perceived loudness of the sonic boom by introducing an adaptive geometry at localized regions of an aircraft’s outer-mold line. The Utah State University AeroLab is a member of this ULI team and has produced low-fidelity tools to predict the aerodynamic and boom loudness effects from localized changes to the geometry.

Such changes to the geometry affect both the sonic boom loudness and wave drag; however, the precise relationship between boom loudness …