Digital Commons Network^™

Historical Analysis Of Leadership Theory In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints And Its Educational System, Kevin D. Whitehead

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An organization’s leadership theory acts as a collection of primary guiding characteristics which influence its identity and direction. Developing leaders has always been important for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historically, the Church has promoted leadership ideals for all its members through various aspects of its doctrine and organization. This study provides an analysis of multiple leadership texts produced by the ecclesiastical and educational wings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study helps to reveal how Latter-day Saint leadership theory has developed over time. This study considers the unfolding of Latter-day Saint leadership …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Enhanced Hands-On Intervention Versus Textbook Interventions To Understand Student Misconceptions In Particle Dynamics, Gang Liu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present dissertation research examined the effects of applying the enhanced hands-on intervention to reveal and correct student misunderstandings of the concepts in engineering dynamics, especially particle dynamics. We involved 36 student volunteers for three different research topics. The student participants were divided into two groups in each research topic: enhanced hands-on intervention and pure textbook groups. An interview and intervention was conducted with each participant individually.

The author introduced the “Think-Aloud” method with two kinds of interventions mentioned above. The participants were required to speak out their thought process loud as they worked on the two sets of assessment …

Impacts Of Phragmites Australis Management On Wetland Plant Community Recovery, Seedbank Composition, And The Physical Environment In The Chesapeake Bay, Eric L. G. Hazelton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Biological invasions have adverse economic, cultural, and ecological effects worldwide. Among the most impactful in North America is the invasion of Phragmites australis (Phragmites), a large-scale clonal grass that rapidly colonizes wetlands. Phragmites crowds out native plants and alters habitat for native fauna. In doing so, Phragmites also alters human access to water resources and has adverse economic effects, including decreasing property value, inhibiting recreational use, and limiting populations of game species.

The efforts described in this dissertation are a component of a large, multidisciplinary effort to better understand the anthropogenic stressors to Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, at the …

Feature Screening Of Ultrahigh Dimensional Feature Spaces With Applications In Interaction Screening, Randall D. Reese

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Data for which the number of predictors exponentially exceeds the number of observations is becoming increasingly prevalent in fields such as bioinformatics, medical imaging, computer vision, And social network analysis. One of the leading questions statisticians must answer when confronted with such “big data” is how to reduce a set of exponentially many predictors down to a set of a mere few predictors which have a truly causative effect on the response being modelled. This process is often referred to as feature screening. In this work we propose three new methods for feature screening. The first method we propose (TC-SIS) …

An Experimental Comparison Of Student Motivation Between Two Computational Thinking-Based Stem Activities: Vex-Based Automation And Robotics And A Quadcopter Activity, Cory J. Ortiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to compare student motivation between two junior high level computational thinking based STEM curricular activities. These two activities were a newly developed quadcopter based curriculum and a VEX based curricular activity developed for Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology – Automation and Robotics course. Student motivation was assessed using an assessment called My Class Activities which broke motivation into four constructs: interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment.

This study assessed students in three schools in a northern Utah school district. Students were assessed after receiving each curriculum. Assessment responses were then coded and analyzed. …

Undercurrents: The Life Cycle Of An Outdoor Experiential Learning Program In A Mainstream Public Middle School, Eric Jackson Newell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This autoethnographic study details the researcher’s experiences as a high school student and as a new teacher—which eventually led to the creation, implementation, and 8-year life cycle of Mount Logan Discovery, a sixth-grade integrated outdoor experiential learning program in a public middle school. Routine field experiences established academic background knowledge, fostered relationships, built confidence, and provided purpose for curriculum standards. Perspectives of parents, students, colleagues, administrators, and donors add detail. This study responds to calls qualitative studies that focus on how outdoor programs are conducted, the descriptions of experiences and perceptions of students and parents, and how participants were changed …

Promoting Sociodramatic Play Between Children With Autism And Their Typically Developing Peers Using Activity Schedules, Azure J. Pellegrino

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) demonstrate behavioral deficits and excesses that can adversely affect their play skills. Teaching children with ASD to use activity schedules with embedded scripts have led to increased appropriate game play with other children with autism and typically developing peers; however, there is sparse research on promoting more dynamic social play in children with ASD. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teaching the use of activity schedules with embedded scripts on the sociodramatic play of preschoolers with ASD with their typically developing peers. We also examined the extent to …

The Effects Of Cultural Diplomacy On Public Perception In Asia, Joseph R. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many states use their cultures to promote a positive image of themselves abroad. Some scholars argue that this can provide states with international benefits. However, other scholars point to cases where a foreign state’s cultural influence has led to nationalist backlashes and negative public reactions. In this paper, I examine how two common types of cultural diplomacy programs can influence how states are perceived abroad.

I first look at the promotion of pop culture products, such as books, movies, and music. Using survey data from 12 Asian countries, I find that an increase in cultural product imports from Japan, South …

On-Task Behavior For Students In A Resource Classroom Setting: Effects Of Activity Schedules On On-Task Behavior, Stephanie L. Mattson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Students who receive special education services in resource classroom settings often engage in low levels of on-task behavior during independent work time. Given the independent work demands in middle school classrooms, it is crucial for students who receive services in a resource classroom to engage in high levels of on-task behavior. The researchers examined the effects of activity schedules on on-task behavior, on-schedule behavior, and percentage of work problems correct in four middle school students receiving special education services in a resource math classroom. Results of the study demonstrate that on-task and on-schedule behavior increased for all participants following the …

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) And Positive And Negative Social Support As Components Of The Interpersonal Psychological Theory Of Suicide In The United States Military Veterans, Jordan M. Kugler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Veterans are at a greater risk for suicide compared to the general population. Suicide risk further increases for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS) states that a combination of higher perceived burden and lower thwarted belonging increases risk for suicidal ideation (SI), and when SI is present, higher acquired capability for suicide (ACFS) increases risk for suicide attempt. The IPTS is well supported in samples of the general population, but understudied in military samples. The current study tested the IPTS, using PTSD severity in place of perceived burden, and bothersomeness of negative social …

Homeless Social Service Workers As Street-Level Bureaucrats, Curtis Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Social service outreach workers serving homeless populations exemplify what Michael Lipsky calls street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) who exercise discretionary power in the performance of their professional roles. This dissertation draws on over 200 hours of ethnographic fieldwork in an urban center in the Mountain West to examine the challenges faced by homeless outreach workers and case managers in serving the needs of homeless clients and the practices they use to manage those challenges. Using a grounded theory analysis of participant observation and interview data, this dissertation focuses on what is termed “aggressive advocacy” in which social service SLBs creatively and actively …

Influence Of Global Atmospheric Circulation Variations On Weather And Climate Extremes, Yen-Heng Lin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Global warming and climate change deeply influence weather and climate extremes, causing substantial property damage and loss every year around the world. Given the importance of heating differences between low-latitude and Arctic regions, which produce heat sources and cold sources that each influence global circulations, we investigate three extreme weather events in different regions in order to better understand the possible connections between extreme events and global circulation changes.

This study begins with climate variations in the low-latitude western North Pacific. In early summer, the timing of the wet season has shifted from late May to early June since 1979. …

Word Recognition In Nutrition Labels With Convolutional Neural Network, Anuj Khasgiwala

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nowadays, everyone is very busy and running around trying to maintain a balance between their work life and family, as the working hours are increasing day by day. In such hassled life people either ignore or do not give enough attention to a healthy diet. An imperative part of a healthy eating routine is the cognizance and maintenance of nourishing data and comprehension of how extraordinary sustenance and nutritious constituents influence our bodies. Besides in the USA, in many other countries, nutritional information is fundamentally passed on to consumers through nutrition labels (NLs) which can be found in all packaged …

Plume Contamination Measurements Of An Additively-Printed Gox/Abs Hybrid Thruster, David A. Brewer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines the impact of the physical contamination on optical surfaces of spacecraft by an ABS/GOX thruster. Plume contamination presents a significant operational hazard for spacecraft solar arrays and thermal control surfaces can lead to decreased power production and increased spacecraft temperatures. Historically, due to the lack of a reliable, on-demand, and multiple-use ignition methodology, hybrid rockets have never been previously considered for in-space propulsion. Recent advancements in hybrid rocket technologies, have made hybrid systems feasible for in space propulsion. However, prior to this study no research had ever been performed with regard to plume contamination effects due to …

Biomass And Phycocyanin From Oil And Natural Gas Extraction Produced Water Utilizing A Cyanobacteria Dominated Rotating Algal Biofilm Reactor (Rabr), Jonathan L. Wood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The production of cyanobacterial biofilm biomass and phycocyanin from Rotating Algal Biofilm Reactors utilizing undiluted produced water from oil and natural gas extraction as a culture medium was investigated in this study. Produced water is the largest waste stream generated by the oil and natural gas industries and represents a large volume of non-potable water that may be available for algae culture with minimal impact on freshwater resources. Combining the use of produced wastewater as culture medium with the production of high value algal pigments, such as phycocyanin, may increase the economic viability of algae culture and wastewater purification. High …

Changes In Cultural Capital For Native English And Native Spanish-Speaking Families' Children Who Do And Do Not Participate In An Elementary Spanish Dual Immersion Program, Allen Smithee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study is framed in Bourdieu’s theory of capital, which asserts that the choices we make are usually designed to help us become better off economically; that economic capital is, to some degree, exchangeable with other types of capital (e.g., social and cultural); and that other types of capital can be exchanged for economic capital. The purpose of this study was to understand which forms of capital native English-speaking and native Spanish-speaking families believed they would acquire by choosing to participate in or not participate in Spanish dual language immersion.

In this study I interviewed four native Spanish-speaking students who …

Use Of Verified Twitter Accounts During Crisis Events, Kai Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis reports on the use of verified Twitter accounts during crisis events. Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to broadcast and exchange public text messages and it can be used as a communication tool during crisis events. Verified Twitter accounts are those accounts that Twitter has investigated and found to be genuinely maintained by the claimed owner. Celebrities, public officials, and other well-known persons or companies often seek this account status. The owners of these accounts are likely to provide more accurate or relevant information during a crisis event because they represent a brand, whether themselves …

A Deep Learning Approach To Recognizing Bees In Video Analysis Of Bee Traffic, Astha Tiwari

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been a major threat to bee colonies around the world which affects vital human food crop pollination. The decline in bee population can have tragic consequences, for humans as well as the bees and the ecosystem. Bee health has been a cause of urgent concern for farmers and scientists around the world for at least a decade but a specific cause for the phenomenon has yet to be conclusively identified.

This work uses Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision approaches to develop and analyze techniques to help in continuous monitoring of bee traffic which will further …

Self-Reliance, Social Welfare, And Sacred Landscapes: Mormon Agricultural Spaces And Their Paradoxical Sense Of Place, Anthony Ross Garner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

What is the sense of place of Mormon agricultural landscapes? That is to say, what makes an LDS Church-owned welfare farm or a Mormon family garden meaningful to those who interact with it? In formulating a partial answer to this question, this thesis demonstrates how religious ideals of self-reliance and social welfare explicitly define Mormon agricultural landscapes, providing a sacred sense of their purpose to those who work and benefit from them. However, these sacred landscapes are complicated by developments of industrial agricultural equipment, corporate institutions, and urban demographics, which tend to isolate people from each other and the land …

Socioeconomic Status Influence On Mothers’ Interactions With Infants: Contributions To Early Infant Development, Krista L. Gurko

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Children from different socioeconomic backgrounds often have different long-term outcomes in terms of school, language, and emotional wellbeing. At this time, no reasons for these differences have been agreed upon by experts across disciplines. Parents with different personal characteristics and life situations use different types and amounts of interactions with their infants. The social interactions infants experience during their first year of life provide the start of their developmental path in the areas of language and executive control while also guiding their expectations for interactions with people around them.

This study used previously unpublished data from a sample of 79 …

Changing Delay Discounting: Identification And Evaluation Of Ecologically Valid Methods For Reducing Impulsive Choice, Jillian M. Rung

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Impulsivity takes many forms, one of which is termed impulsive choice. Impulsive choice entails preference for an outcome due to its immediacy relative to more optimal outcomes that take longer to come to fruition. For example, one may wish to have another serving of a decadent dessert after dinner—but doing so may undermine a longer-term goal of improved health and nutrition. If having the extra serving becomes a habit, the consequences of that choice compound and may lead to, for example, obesity. A high degree of impulsive choice such as this is indeed related to issues such as obesity, …

The Effects Of Geometric And Stoichometric Change In Nanoparticles And Materials On Lattice Thermal Conductivity, W. Tanner Yorgason

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thermal transport properties are critical for applications ranging from thermal management to energy conversion. Passive thermal management has been an area of study for over a century and has only grown as technology has advanced because it requires no additional energy to remove heat. Changing the nanostructure of the materials involved in passive heat transfer methods, either by geometric changes or stoichiometric changes, can greatly improve the effectiveness of this heat transfer method. In order to explore this further, this work employs LAMMPS molecular dynamics (MD) simulation software to calculate the lattice thermal conductivity (λ_p) of a …

Using Social Network Analysis To Examine The Intersection Of Adolescent Friendships And Health Behavior, Emily Long

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adolescence marks a vulnerable developmental period for health behavior, and research demonstrates that social context and interpersonal relationships impact the health behavior choices of adolescents. In addition, theories of adolescent development suggest a bidirectional relationship between environmental factors, including social relationships, and health. Friendships are one of the most salient relationships during adolescence, and new methods from the field of social network analysis allow researchers to explicitly examine the mechanisms through which friends influence health behavior, and simultaneously, how health and health behavior impacts the formation of friendships. Importantly, social network methods (e.g., stochastic actor-based models, exponential random graph models) …

"Full On Toy Story": Exploring The Belief In Object Sentience In Western Culture, Amelia Mathews-Pett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis considers, from a folklorist’s perspective, the people in Western society who believe that everyday objects have feelings. It establishes these people as a cohesive group for study, referred to as “people to experience the belief in object sentience,” then analyzes their personal accounts of the experience to find both commonalities and differences. From this analysis and discussion of folkloristic perspectives on belief, the main argument is established: people in this group have generally been marginalized and could benefit from a more careful consideration of their beliefs.

Counseling Competencies In Audiology: Important Knowledge, Skills, And Attitudes, Alex R. Meibos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to identify counseling competencies considered important for audiologists to possess to provide effective counseling in practice. To achieve this, researchers and clinicians with expertise in audiologic counseling, were recruited to participate in a three-round consensus survey. These experts were asked to generate and rate a list of counseling competency items they believed were important for audiologists to possess. In the final round of the study, final consensus was met on 64 counseling competency items (16 knowledge, 35 skills, and 13 attitudinal items) deemed important for audiologists to possess. The results of this study revealed …

Using Anthropogenic Risks To Inform Salmonid Conservation At The Landscape Scale, Andrew W. Witt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The expansion and industrialization of humanity has caused many unforeseen consequences to the natural world. Due to the importance of freshwater for people, rivers have been particularly altered to meet human needs, often at the expense of the natural world. Supplying water for farms, industries, and cities has reshaped the natural state of rivers by altering river paths, chemistry, and species compositions. These changes have harmed many species that prospered before widespread human alterations, including the native trout and salmon of western North America. As human populations continue to grow, new threats will surface for rivers, and the trout and …

Humans As Sensors: The Influence Of Extreme Heat Vulnerability Factors On Risk Perceptions Across The Contiguous United States, Forrest Scott Schoessow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extreme heat events are the deadliest natural hazard in the United States and will continue to get worse in the coming years due to the effects of climate change. As a result, more people will experience deadly heat conditions. This highlights the need for decision-makers to develop better strategies for preventing future losses. How badly individuals are affected by extreme heat depends on many circumstances, such as how high temperatures actually are, weather conditions, and location. For example, a dry 90 °F day in Phoenix is probably more tolerable than a humid 90 °F day in New Orleans for most …

Implementing The Use Of Personal Activity Data In An Introductory Statistics Course, Lacy Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Integrating real data into a classroom is one of the recommendations in the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) college report which lays out guidelines for an introductory statistics course (Committee, GAISE College Report ASA Revision, 2016). In order to assess the effect of using real data in a classroom, the students received physical activity trackers to wear during an undergraduate introductory statistics course taught in the summer. This tracker, a Fitbit, enabled students to monitor and record their steps, calories, and active time throughout the class. Collecting personal activity data (PAD) creates a large database which …

“[Taking] Responsibility For The Community”: Women Claiming Power And Legitimacy In Technical And Professional Communication In India, 1999-2016, Breeanne Matheson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Though the field of technical and professional communication has long been saturated with the narratives of Euro-Western males, technical and professional communication as a field has a responsibility to expand the lens of study to include the experiences of global and nontraditional practitioners. This study examines the experiences of Indian women working as practitioners, building power and legitimacy in a globalized economy. Drawing from interviews with 49 practitioners as well as an analysis of historical documents, this study examines the methods that Indian practitioners have used to build power and legitimacy by founding professional organizations, leveraging their educational opportunities, and …

Teaching Landscape Construction Using Augmented Reality, Arshdeep Singh

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis describes the design, development, and evaluation of an interactive Microsoft HoloLens application that projects landscape models in Augmented Reality. The application was developed using the Unity framework and 3D models created in Sketchup. Using the application, students can not only visualize the models in real space but can also interact with the models using gestures. The students can interact with the models using gaze and air-tap gestures.

Application testing was conducted with 21 students from the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning department at Utah State University. To evaluate the application, students completed a usability survey after using the …