Digital Commons Network^™

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Pesticide-Leaf Interactions And Their Implications For Pesticide Fate Modeling, Ashlie Kinross

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work described here provides measured data to improve the understanding of the interaction between a pesticide and leaf surface after application. Two methods were developed, one using a newly introduced instrument, for the extraction of pesticides from leaves. This is required to measure the concentration of pesticide in the leaves. Using one of the developed extraction methods, measurements were made to determine how a pesticide equilibrates between a leaf and the air above it. These measurements were incorporated into a pesticide fate model that predicts how a pesticide moves through the environment after application to an agricultural field. The …

An Exploration Of System Level Dimensions Of Nutrition In Relation To Health: Interprofessional Teams And Food Insecurity, Mckenna Christy Voorhees

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many factors influence health; two such factors that warrant additional research include interdisciplinary healthcare teams and food insecurity. These factors may be particularly important among vulnerable populations such as individuals with special healthcare needs, lower income populations, and individuals with disabilities.

Interdisciplinary teamwork promotes improved, and more efficient patient care through the collaboration of healthcare providers in various professional disciplines. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) are experts in the science and application of nutrition, which plays an important role in various disease states. Despite the established need for RDNs on interdisciplinary teams, there is limited research in the interdisciplinary scholarship targeting …

Conservation Genetics Of A Declining Bumble Bee In Western North America; The Influence Of Geography, Dispersal Limitation, And Anthopogenic Activity, Ashley T. Rohde

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Conservation biology addresses the problem of species loss by identifying species in need of protection. Conservation biology has subfields to address different aspects of biodiversity loss, including genetics and sociology. I used genetic approaches to assess the conservation status of western bumble bees, a bumble bee species of conservation concern.

The western bumble bee is a bumble bee species that ranges from Alaska to New Mexico and as far east as Wyoming and Colorado. This species is disappearing in some places. It may soon be listed as endangered in the United States and is already listed as endangered in parts …

Contributions To Random Forest Variable Importance With Applications In R, Kelvyn K. Bladen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A major focus in statistics is building and improving computational algorithms that can use data to predict a response. Two fundamental camps of research arise from such a goal. The first camp is researching ways to get more accurate predictions. Many sophisticated methods, collectively known as machine learning methods, have been developed for this very purpose. One such method that is widely used across industry and many other areas of investigation is called Random Forests.

The second camp of research is that of improving the interpretability of machine learning methods. This is worthy of attention when analysts desire to optimize …

Redefining Nba Basketball Positions Through Visualization And Mega-Cluster Analysis, Alexander L. Hedquist

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Basketball players have historically been classified based on one of five positions, namely Point Guards, Shooting Guards, Small Forwards, and Centers. While grouping players into these five categories may provide general descriptions of their perceived role, these standard positions fall short of describing players based on their true abilities and performance. This MS thesis proposes a method to group players of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from the past 20 seasons into more meaningful and specific player positions. We systematically group these players into nine distinct categories, and we draw from a vast array of visualization tools, techniques, and software …

Geometry- And Accuracy-Preserving Random Forest Proximities With Applications, Jake S. Rhodes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many machine learning algorithms use calculated distances or similarities between data observations to make predictions, cluster similar data, visualize patterns, or generally explore the data. Most distances or similarity measures do not incorporate known data labels and are thus considered unsupervised. Supervised methods for measuring distance exist which incorporate data labels and thereby exaggerate separation between data points of different classes. This approach tends to distort the natural structure of the data. Instead of following similar approaches, we leverage a popular algorithm used for making data-driven predictions, known as random forests, to naturally incorporate data labels into similarity measures known …

The Gambler's Edge - A Theoretical Framework To Trading Securities, Matthew Haines

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Like gamblers, retail investors seeking excess returns in financial markets are prone to miscalculation and their models are often misspeciffied. Forecasting asset prices is extremely difficult in the long run and nearly infeasible in the short run. Additionally, retail investors are likely to be at a disadvantage both technologically and informationally—rarely will they be ahead of the curve. With these disadvantages and the difficulty of predicting future outcomes, retail investors may come to view prices as unpredictable and random in nature, like a roll of the dice. This theoretical research explores a possible investing methodology (derived from gambling principles) should …

Calibration Procedure For Dic Strain Measurements During Vibration-Based Fatigue Testing, Benjamin D. Hill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Vibration-based fatigue testing is fast and effective method for determining failure characteristics of a material. Often, a small electrical device called a strain gage is bonded to a rectangular plate specimen to measure the deformation of the plate during a test. However, these strain gages break before the plate does, so an alternative method would improve the results obtained from the test. As an alternative to strain gages, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a non-contacting, camera-based technique that measures the deformation of an object by comparing digital images taken before and after the object is deformed. During a vibration-based fatigue …

Thermodynamic Analysis Of A Novel Cycle For Nuclear Smr And Heat Transfer Performance Validation Of The Related Supercritical Working Fluids, Benjamin M. Pepper

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Currently, all operating nuclear power facilities in the U.S. follow the same general design and process: light-water reactors boil water into steam using bundles of nuclear fuel rods as a heat source, pumping that steam through a turbine which powers a generator to produce clean year-round electricity. Water is an effective coolant, but other facilities around the world have demonstrated the ability to use non-water-based coolants in nuclear reactor designs, which consequently have their own trade-offs. Some positive consequences of using different reactor designs include enhanced safety, better economics, and cheaper clean consumer energy. The work described in this paper …

Evaluating Plant Uptake Of 4,4'-Methylenedianiline, Jeff Wight

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

4,4’-Methylenedianiline (MDA) is an important industrial chemical used primarily in the production of polyurethane. It is toxic and a suspected human carcinogen. Polyurethane is used in a wide variety of applications such as furniture cushioning, coatings, adhesives, sealants, and elastomers. Polyurethane in soil may degrade and release MDA. This is concerning due to some models predicting a high potential for MDA to be taken up by plants and stored in edible tissue, creating a possible route of exposure for humans and animals. In this project, the potential for MDA to be take up by plants was investigated in order to …

Automated Quality Control For In-Situ Water Temperature Sensors, Leah S. Richardson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The identification of data not representative of the target subject for outdoor (in-situ) environmental sensors (bad data) is a topic that has been explored in the past. Many tools (such as data filters and computer models) have succeeded in providing an end user with properly identified incorrect data over 95% of the time. However, with the continuous increase in the use of automated data collection, a simple indication of the bad data may no longer provide the end user with enough information to reduce the amount of time that must be spent for manual quality control. The purpose of this …

Investigating Tourists' Decision Making And Intentions For Outdoor Recreation Participation During Early Covid-19, Prasanna Humagain

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation aims at discerning tourists’ behaviors and decision making processes for outdoor recreation participation, during the early COVID-19 pandemic. An outdoor recreation trip is defined in this study as “a journey involving at least one overnight stay away from home, and where the purpose is to engage in recreational activities in an outdoor or natural environment.” This dissertation first explores the factors that inhibit tourists’ desires for participating in outdoor recreation trips, the strategies they apply to avoid COVID-19 transmission, and the motivational factors that induce their desires for outdoor recreation participation in the COVID-19 context. The impact of …

Children's Mathematical Engagement Based On Their Awareness Of Different Coding Toys' Design Features, Joseph S. Kozlowski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Tangible coding toys have been promulgated as useful learning tools for young children to learn computer science and mathematics concepts and skills. Although research shows coding toys can support mathematics for early childhood aged children, little is known about the specific design features of coding toys that afford mathematical thinking concepts and skills to young children. The purpose of this study was to examine kindergarten-aged children’s awareness of the design features in coding toys and to understand how those design features afford children’s engagement with mathematics. The dataset used for this study was collected as part of design-based research NSF …

The Impact Of Covid-19 And Telehealth Services On Attrition Rates In Psychotherapy, Rylan B. Hellstern

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Clinicians in psychotherapy are constantly looking at their outcomes in order to identify and remove barriers that may inhibit effective treatment. Defined generally as the ending of a treatment prior to proper optimal benefit, attrition has been found to both hinder treatment efficacy and cost-effectiveness in therapy. While most attrition literature focuses on the contributing factors to such premature termination, little to no research is available that discusses potential resources for attrition rates. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the use of telehealth services which may serve as a resource to combat attrition. The current study aims to identify how …

Applications Of Affinity Spaces In English Language Instruction: Writing And Peer Review Of Fanfiction Based On Video Games In An Academic English As A Second Language Writing Course, Marta Halaczkiewicz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This classroom-based research study explored applications of informal online spaces in formal language instruction. Using sociocultural theory as a lens, the present study examined how using creative writing genres and online feedback practices, may assist with alleviating the three pedagogical issues of academic writing instruction: rigidity of academic topics and forms, superficiality of in-class feedback process, and slow language development. Students in an intermediate English language course wrote weekly fiction inspired by their favorite video games. They also engaged in a scaffolded feedback process facilitated in an online space. At the end of the semester, they wrote a reflection on …

Global Change Effects On Carbon Cycling In Terrestrial Ecosystems, Guopeng Liang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Since terrestrial ecosystems store approximately 3 times more carbon (C) than the atmosphere, they have a significant effect on the atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Although many studies have been conducted to determine global change effects on C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, the underlying mechanisms remain uncertain. To address this knowledge gap, I utilized meta-analysis, laboratory experiments, and soil microbial community analysis.

In chapter 2, I conducted a meta-analysis to examine whether effects of long-term N addition on plant productivity can shift over time. I found that 44% of studies showed a marked trend (increase or decrease) in the strength of …

Fitting Physical Models To Spatiotemporal Observations: Discovering Developmental Regulatory Networks Of Drosophila, Dj Holt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Deep learning continues to solve significant scientific and engineering problems, but the solutions found are neural networks with thousands of parameters that provide no scientific or engineering insights. A solution to this problem, explored in this work, is to learn mathematical models that represent mechanisms that can be interpreted by scientists and engineers.

A challenging learning problem is to discover the genetic regulatory mechanisms that drive pattern formation during early biological development. Using known mathematical models of these processes, consisting of coupled ordinary differential and partial differential equations, we aim to identify the model parameters that describe the biological mechanisms …

Measuring Changes In Motivation In Response To An Online Repeated Reading Intervention With Self-Monitoring, David N. Longhurst

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reading is a complex cognitive process that is integral to learning, achievement, and future life outcomes. Students with reading disabilities struggle to obtain information and develop specific interests. Unfortunately, many students in the United States do not meet expected reading benchmarks. Also due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has presented multiple challenges for student academic reading growth. Motivation beliefs, such as self-efficacy, interest, and goal-directed behavior, play an important role in students’ education and development. This study examined whether motivational constructs change throughout the course of an online repeated reading intervention with self-monitoring. Five elementary students were selected …