Digital Commons Network^™

Designing The Future: A Vr Campus Environment, Jasmine Talitha Banman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This capstone project details the development of the "USU Virtual Campus," a high-fidelity 3D replica of the Utah State University College of Engineering building. Grounded in constructionist learning, I designed a unique architectural model in the USU virtual campus and gained practical experience using a 3D modeling platform. The project documents a transition from 2D UX/UI theory to 3D environmental design, highlighting technical challenges. Moving from greyboxing to high-fidelity detailing-the project establishes a future-proof framework for building a digital replica. Ultimately, this virtual environment promotes accessibility by allowing students to engage with the USU community regardless of geographic or physical …

Influence Of Induced Brumation On Health And Stress Indicators In Captive Thamnophis Elegans, Preston Papa

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Reptiles that live in temperate environments undergo prolonged periods of inactivity and reduced metabolism called brumation to survive seasonal periods of cold. Garter snakes (Thamnophis spp.) are known for congregations during seasonal brumation and are often held in captivity for research or as pets. Additionally, changing climate has influenced the brumation period of temperate reptiles including garter snakes all across North America. Understanding how natural populations may respond to changing environmental conditions such as shorter winters is important for conservation of the ecosystem. This study examined the health implications of artificially inducing brumation in garter snakes (Thamnophis …

Learning From 2002: County-Level Economic Analysis Of The Salt Lake City Winter Olympics And Implications For Utah 2034, Ronan Spencer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper examines economic and distributional impacts and the existing literature on the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics to inform policy recommendations for the upcoming 2034 Utah Olympic Games. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework on county-level data from 1995 to 2006, we compare Utah host counties to Colorado counties. Results indicate that the Games generated an average of 1,084 Leisure and Hospitality jobs per host county, suggesting approximately 5,420 total jobs across all five host counties. We saw a positive but marginally significant increase in tourism and hospitality GDP of $37.2 million relative to Colorado controls (p=0.078). We also …

Exploring The Experiences Of Adult Children Of Parents With Addiction: A Qualitative Support Group Approach, Brooke Stanton

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Adult children of parents with addiction often grow up having to navigate emotional instability, inconsistent caregiving, and long-term relational impacts that continue into adulthood. Many individuals report limited access to supportive care and spaces where they can share their stories. This capstone project addresses the gap by designing and facilitating a support group specifically for adult children of parents to build connection and healing. Through this qualitative study, participant feedback, and analysis, this project examines how structured peer support can create meaningful change for this population. The following paper outlines the development of the group, the theoretical foundations that guided …

Ngc - Torch Test Ablation Stand Improvements And Upgrades, Sarah Nelson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This capstone project is sponsored by Northrop Grumman (NGC). The goal of the project is to redesign an ablation torch testing system to improve usability, safety, and versatility. Northrop Grumman relies on their ablation torch testing system to conduct quantitative evaluations of materials and high stress and high temperature conditions. The system provides essential data that supports product development, safety validation, and compliance with performance standards. By improving usability, safety, and versatility, NGC will be able to streamline testing operations, increase accuracy of results, and reduce operator risk. The system must allow testing using both a bent and straight torch …

Obsequium, And Other Stories, Jesse Epps

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis collection, Obsequium, and Other Stories, explores the emotional and social consequences of poverty, racism, addiction, grief, and generational trauma through a blend of literary fiction, horror, and postmodern satire. Drawing heavily from the author's upbringing in the American South, the collection examines how people navigate systems of oppression while struggling to maintain identity, dignity, and agency. The accompanying critical preface reflects on the author's creative development, personal hardships, and the literary influences that shaped the work, including horror writers such as Stephen King and postmodern authors like Chuck Palahniuk and Percival Everett. Across the stories, recurring themes of …

Assessing The Use Of Exon-Skipping Morpholino Antisense Oligonucleotides Targeting The Different Sumo Paralogs As Enhancers Of The Antitumor Activity Of Chemotherapeutic Agents, Andrea Teresa Garcia-Morin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are critical regulators of protein function, stability, and localization, with SUMOylation emerging as a key modulator of cellular stress response and survival in cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is characterized by heightened dependence on SUMOylation to sustain pro-survival signaling, DNA repair, and resistance to chemotherapy. This dissertation investigates a novel chemosensitization strategy based on the splice-switching of SUMO transcripts in NSCLC cells using exon-skipping morpholinos (ESMs), which redirect splicing toward non-conjugatable SUMO alpha isoforms, thereby reducing global SUMOylation. We hypothesized that decreasing global SUMOylation through forced alternative splicing of SUMO transcripts would impair the stress-protective functions …

Application Of Path Analysis To Determine The Impact Of Age And Sex On The Neural Circuits That Promote Nicotine Withdrawal Severity, Veronika Espinoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The rising prevalence of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use presents a major public health concern, particularly in adolescent females who are most susceptible to nicotine use and its long-term negative health consequences. The goal of this dissertation was to utilize preclinical rodent models to understand how group differences in age and sex influence neural activation patterns in brain circuits believed to promote nicotine withdrawal. Prior pre-clinical work, conducted largely in male rodents, has established that there are two major brain pathways that modulate the behavioral effects of nicotine withdrawal. These include the mesolimbic and medial habenula-interpeduncular nucleus (MHb-IPN) pathways. To assess …

Prediabetes Prediction Before Disease Onset Using Multimodal Health Data: A Machine Learning Approach, Luisa Veronica Gracia Mazuca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prediabetes is a critical health condition that increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test diagnoses patients with prediabetes, but the disease has already caused metabolic alterations. Early detection is essential for timely interventions, and machine learning models offer a promising approach to identify prediabetic individuals through the analysis of biomarkers such as cytokines. We compared four classifiers-logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, and k-nearest neighbors - using cytokines (TNF-α, MCP-1, IL-1β, IL-6, IFN-γ), age, BMI, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Models were evaluated using stratified 5-fold cross-validation and ROC-AUC. K-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) achieved the highest …

What Do Captains And Lieutenants Believe To Be The Most Effective Professional Development For Fire Officers?, Claudia Haley

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the professional development of fire officers through a blend of research methods and theoretical frameworks. The primary question driving this research is: "What do captains and lieutenants consider to be the most effective professional development for fire officers?" The framework employed to conduct this study was constructivist grounded theory. It was essential to consider the perspectives of those actively working in the industry when developing a professional development program for officers, as their expertise lends significant credibility to the study. The research utilized the Delphi method to identify and ensure the key elements that experts believe are …

Provenance Analysis Of Advanced Persistent Threats In Operational Technology Environments, Laura Aminta Guevara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Live vulnerability testing and penetration assessments of critical infrastructure are costly, complex operationally and, in many cases, unsafe to conduct directly against live systems, whether these are commissioned in-house and through third-party providers. For Operational Technology environments specifically, these constraints are further aggravated by the limited vendor support and inconsistent security patching available that characterize many industrial communication protocols. This significantly restricts the scope and feasibility of conventional penetration testing. At the same time, the increasing overlapping of OT systems with enterprise networks and the internet has expanded the attack surface of ICS infrastructure, making more pressing the need for …

Ai-Based Framework For Elucidating The Ring Opening Energy Of Cycloalkanes, Evan Griffin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cycloalkanes are a prominent component of jet fuels due to their high volumetric energy density and lower soot yield compared to aromatics. However, the structural nuance of cycloalkanes can make predicting their combustion kinetics challenging. The present study aims to develop a quantitative structure-property relationship of the ring opening energy (ROE) of cycloalkanes. A total of 253 cycloalkanes were curated from the ZINC15 database, ranging from monocycloalkanes to tetra-cycloalkanes. The 3-D cartesian coordinates of the closed shell and open shell diradical states for all curated cycloalkanes was generated with RDKit in Python and used MMFF94 to optimize the molecular geometries. …

The Effect Of Temperature And Hydroperiod On Rotifer Hatching Diversity And Phenology In Ephemeral Playas, Brent Samuel Hogue

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As climate continues to change, weather events such as heat waves and precipitation are expected to become more extreme, and organisms living in these ephemeral habitats will experience unprecedented conditions that may test their limits. However, some organisms that live in these habitats are adapted for resiliency in the face of fluctuating conditions. The focal taxa of this study are rotifers, which have the ability to produce diapausing eggs, that are stored in sediment egg banks. Diapausing eggs will hatch once suitable conditions occur in the habitat, while the rest remain stored in the sediment. This strategy assists in the …

The Mouse At The Border: Magic, Money, And Manufactured Identity, Ricardo Manuel Hinojosa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates the methods by which The Walt Disney Company constructs and negotiates representations of Latine, gender, and queer identities within contemporary animation, with a particular emphasis on Coco (2017), Encanto (2021), and Wish (2023). Through a critical and intersectional lens, this research posits that Disney strikes a balance between cultural specificity and global market appeal, often leading to representations that are visually elaborate yet narratively limited. Both Coco and Encanto showcase a significant engagement with cultural traditions and themes such as memory and generational trauma; however, they ultimately fall short of thoroughly addressing systemic issues like colonialism and …

Impact Of Campus Leadership Behaviors On Teacher Experiences With Burnout, Carmen Imai

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Teacher burnout continues to be a significant concern in K-12 education, contributing to emotional exhaustion, decreased job satisfaction, teacher attrition, and negative impacts on student learning. While previous research has examined the causes and symptoms of burnout, less attention has been given to how teachers perceive the role of campus leadership in either mitigating or contributing to burnout experiences. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how teachers who have experienced burnout perceive the role of campus administrators within that process. The study was guided by three research questions focused on teachers' experiences with burnout, perceptions of …

Exploratory Proxy Occupational Health Risk Assessment On Pm2.5 Exposure Among Outdoor Personnel At International Ports Of Entry, Josdell Maria Guerra Ruiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite growing public health concerns on PM2.5 exposure and its respiratory health effects, no documented evidence has been found on the application of proxy methods to perform occupational health risk assessments for PM2.5 exposure among outdoor personnel. The purpose of this research study was to conduct a descriptive and predictive occupational health risk assessment for cancer and non-cancer respiratory health outcomes related to PM2.5 exposure among outdoor personnel at targeted international ports of entry (IPOE). A total of 61 samples were collected, for 24 hours, at two targeted IPOEs (every sixth day) over 12-month period. Samples included measurements on PM2.5 …

Three Essays On Consumers' Financial Decision-Making, Zakieh Kaveh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines how emerging financial and service technologies shape consumer decision-making and consumption behavior. Across three essays, this research investigates how technological features embedded in payment methods, self-service systems, and artificial intelligence influence consumers' psychological processes and behavioral outcomes in financial and marketplace contexts.

Microcosms & Warscapes, Heather J. Lathers

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This poetry collection features sensory-centered writing and common objects, scenes, and interactions to authentically capture the multi-perspective and nuanced experiences of wartime. Detailed language is critical when poets become mouthpieces for those enduring war's pain. Focusing closely on items such as teacups, boots, bones, mud, rice, and rats creates a kind of intimacy not often found in war writing. Specific conflicts addressed include World War I, Vietnam, and The Cambodian Genocide. The poems here, in various forms and voices, aim to spotlight the lost, marginalized, abused, and forgotten-- the much-needed humanity war stories tend to neglect. Ultimately, these pieces seek …

From Instructional Design To Student Experience: Engagement As Designed And Experienced In Asynchronous Graduate Education, Francisco Javier Maldonado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The expansion of asynchronous online learning in graduate education has reshaped instructional delivery; however, concerns persist regarding declining student engagement in fully online environments. While faculty often perceive engagement as sustained through structured course design and digital communication strategies, graduate students report experiences of disconnection, diminished motivation, and limited meaningful interaction. This misalignment in perception presents a significant challenge for graduate programs seeking to promote student success and retention. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how asynchronous online instructional practices influence graduate student engagement within a Master's-level Higher Education Leadership program. Guided by the Academic Constructs of …

Energy Poverty In U.S.-Mexico Border Communities: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Lived Experiences In El Paso And Laredo, Texas And Quantitative Patterns In Brownsville, Texas, Felipe Israel Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Energy poverty in the U.S.-Mexico border region remains understudied, and much of the existing literature overlooks the lived experiences of households in this region. This thesis examines the lived experiences and coping strategies of residents in El Paso and Laredo, Texas, while also analyzing the sociodemographic variables associated with electric disconnection in Brownsville, Texas. The study employs a mixed-methods design that combines a quantitative ZIP code-year panel of electric disconnections in Brownsville, Texas from 2015 to 2024 with 14 qualitative interviews conducted with residents in El Paso and Laredo, Texas who had experienced electric disconnections or shutoff notices. These two …

Numerical Methods For Modeling Darcy-Forchheimer Flow In Heterogeneous Porous Media, Nate Mcnair

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Classic approaches to modeling fluid flow in porous media rely on Darcy's Law, which assumes a linear relationship between volumetric flow rate and the pressure gradient. However, in recent years, applications such as enhanced geothermal systems have highlighted the need to model nonlinear flow behavior, since experimental and observational data show that, once flow velocity exceeds a certain threshold, the relationship between velocity and macroscopic pressure gradient becomes nonlinear. This requires alternative models that more accurately capture the physical behavior of these systems.The Darcy-Forchheimer model provides one such alternative by introducing a nonlinear velocity-pressure relationship. However, this nonlinearity creates additional …

The Outcome Of Falling, Nia Simone Mccray

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The following thesis project is an erotic romance novel, accompanied by a critical essay on it. This project follows the journey of Zane and Adeena as they navigate the enlightening experience of falling in love. Love is not easy - it challenges the characters to inwardly and outwardly reflect on who they are as people and how they live their lives. In the novel, it is seen how Zane and Adeena's connection brings pleasure and catalytic change to themselves. The preface is a critical and aesthetic-based discussion on how the novel came to fruition. The essay includes discussion on the …

Design And Optimization Of Peptide Inhibitors Targeting Kinesin: Molecular Modeling Studies And Virtual Screening For Therapeutic Candidate Development, Maraf Mbah Bake

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Kinesins are ATP-driven molecular motors essential for intracellular transport and mitotic spindle assembly, and their mechanochemical behavior has been extensively characterized through computational tools. The first project reviews decades of advances in molecular dynamic simulations, including all-atom and coarse-grained molecular dynamics, Markov state models, Brownian dynamics, and free-energy approaches, which have collectively deepened our understanding of conformational transitions, microtubule-binding interfaces, and ligand interactions, especially for the mitotic motor Eg5. The second review examines the rapid emergence of quantum computing as a transformative technology for drug discovery, highlighting key historical milestones, recent progress in hybrid quantum-classical algorithms, quantum-enhanced docking, and quantum …

Process Optimization Of Directed Energy Deposition Via Dmaic Methodology And Lean Manufacturing Principles, Erick Gerardo Molina Castaneda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM), particularly Direct Energy Deposition (DED), has gained increasing relevance in industrial and research environments due to its capability to manufacture complex geometries and repair high-value components. However, despite its technological advantages, DED processes often lack standardization, clear documentation, and structured workflows, especially in academic laboratories. This research aims to optimize and standardize DED processes through the application of Lean Manufacturing principles using the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology. The study was conducted at the Keck Center for 3D Innovation, focusing on pre-printing and printing activities. Key issues were identified. Improvement actions included the implementation of …

Public Art And The Future Of Remembrance In Contested Spaces, Rebecca Ann Munoz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the memorial landscape of El Paso, Texas as a contested site of public memory, cultural identity, and community representation. Situated at the U.S.-Mexico border, El Paso functions as a palimpsest of layered histories shaped by colonization, militarization, and ongoing negotiations of belonging. Drawing on memory rhetoric and composition studies, and art history, the paper raises critical questions about community engagement, representational equity, and the politics of visibility in public art processes. The paper ultimately calls for a deeper examination of the rhetorical strategies and institutional frameworks that shape memorial meaning-making at the local level, with broader implications …

Zero-Knowledge Proofs For Verifiable Machine Unlearning, Bidur Niroula

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Machine unlearning aims to remove the influence of deleted data from a trained machine learning model. This is important because privacy regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and PIPEDA give individuals the right to request the deletion of their personal data. Since unlearning can be expensive, a dishonest server may skip it or return an incorrect model and this motivates verifiable machine unlearning. Existing cryptographic approaches prove that the server executed a specific training or unlearning algorithm on the committed dataset, so the proof is tied to the algorithm's trajectory. Empirical verifiers avoid this cost but are known to be circumventable …

Best Linear Unbiased Prediction Based On Optimally Selected Order Statistics Using Compound Design, Foster Nkansah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Any life-testing experiments with censoring generate ordered failure data, which are used to estimate model parameters of the underlying lifetime distribution. However, predicting unobserved failure times is an important goal post inference. Balakrishnan and Bhattacharya [2021] showed that joint best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) are more efficient than their marginal counterparts. In this thesis, we introduce a compound optimal design to compute joint BLUPs based on a suitably chosen subset of the observed data. It is shown that the linear predictors of the parameters from any location-scale distribution, based on a few optimally chosen ranks, obtained from the compound optimal …

Novel Roles Of G-Beta-Gamma Signaling In Microtubule Dynamics And Neurodegeneration, Diana I. Olivas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs), including Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by progressive neuronal dysfunction, cytoskeletal disruption, and cognitive decline. Although Tau hyperphosphorylation and neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) formation are classical hallmarks of AD, emerging evidence suggests that microtubule (MT) dysfunction may precede and occur independently of Tau pathology. Understanding upstream regulators of MT dynamics is therefore critical for elucidating early mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that G protein βγ (Gβγ) subunits directly interact with tubulin and promote MT assembly. However, the mechanism of Gβγ signaling in neuronal cytoskeletal stability and neurodegeneration remained poorly understood. The present study investigated …

Linguistic Experiences And Identity Of Mexican-Origin New Teachers In A Rural District In The U.S.-Mexico Frontera, Patricia L. Ocana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study is developed with the understanding that the linguistic experiences of Mexican-origin new teachers are situated in the socially constructed Institutional Discourses of U.S. schools in la frontera. Discourses that have historically marked Spanish-speaking identities as deficient while privileging English-only norms. Furthermore, the four maestras in this study are considered active agents in their development as bilingual educators and creators of counter-Discourses that affirm the linguistic and cultural identities of their emergent bilingual students. This study looks at Mexican-origin bilingual educators' vivencias as assets that shaped their journeys into the education profession and continue to shape their pedagogical …

Log Anomaly Detection With Parameter-Efficient Tiny Language Models: From Centralized Fine-Tuning To Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning, Isaiah Thompson Thompson Ocansey

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

System logs are a primary source of information for identifying faults, misconfigurations, and security incidents in computing infrastructure. As these logs grow in volume and complexity, manual inspection becomes impractical, and automated detection methods are needed. This thesis investigates how compact language models can be applied to the task of log anomaly detection under two operational conditions: when log data is centralized and when it is located at different data sites.

In the first part, we propose LogTinyLLM, which applies parameter-efficient fine-tuning through Low-Rank Adaptation and adapter-based techniques to adapt tiny language models for identifying contextual anomalies in log sequences. …