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Nano-Raman Spectroscopy And Surface Nanostructuring Using Near-Field Optics, Kaijun Yi

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To satisfy the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, techniques to characterize and fabricate nanostructures and nanodevices are in great demand. Laser, as a unique monochromatic and coherent light source, meets the needs because it exhibits the potential to reveal some vital information of the materials. However, the applications of laser technology to nanoscience and nanotechnology are facing a severe challenge: the spatial resolution cannot be further enhanced to achieve nanometer scales due to the optical diffraction limit associated with conventional optics. In response to this challenge, near-field optics has been emerging as a new scientific area to deal with optical …

Constitutional Secrecy: Aligning National Security Letter Nondisclosure Provisions With First Amendment Rights, Brian D. Eyink

Duke Law Journal

First created in the 1980s, national security letters and their nondisclosure provisions evaded judicial review until 2004. These secretive investigative tools allow federal agencies such as the FBI to compel disclosure of information about hundreds of thousands of people while also allowing the same agencies to unilaterally issue gag orders that can silence the people who receive these letters. This Note examines the nondisclosure provisions in the national security letter statutes. It argues that the nondisclosure provisions are unconstitutional prior restraints on speech and content-based speech restrictions. This Note then proposes a three-part solution that constitutionally balances the government's need …

Teaching Creativity In Technical Communication Curricula, Curtis Robert Newbold

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis addresses the need to claim creativity as an essential component to our technical communication curricula as we prepare students for what their managers want. While many technical communication programs at universities across the country have recognized a need to teach skills beyond "writing technically," few, if any, have addressed or "claimed" a concept such as creativity that helps build these skills. I argue that creativity is what managers are looking for and what technical communication programs are already implementing. Claiming this concept will help us further define a discipline that is becoming much richer and help students develop …

Adolescent Religiosity, Religious Affiliation, And Premarital Predictors Of Marital Quality And Stability, Stacey Macarthur

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The influence of religiosity in adolescence on several variables that have been shown to be predictors of marital quality and stability was examined using a nationally representative sample of 3,151 youth, aged 13 to 17 years, from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Religiosity was defined to incorporate multiple characteristics including religious beliefs, attitudes, participation, experiences, and identities. The effect of religious affiliation and religiosity was also examined for seven premarital predictors, which included relationship with parents, ideal age for marriage, right and wrong, academic achievement, sexual behavior, attitude toward cohabitation, and attitude toward divorce. Data were collected …

Student Teachers' Beliefs And Practices About Developmentally Appropriate Practice For Infants And Toddlers, Trisha Haws

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ beliefs and practices about developmentally appropriate practice with infants and toddlers. This study examined whether coursework in child development, combined with a lab experience engaging with children of the same age group, was related to developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices of student teachers. In particular, the study examined how coursework and practicum taken concurrently may have differed from taking the coursework alone. The relationships between descriptive data and student teachers’ developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices were also of interest.

A total of 390 college students participated in this study. These students …

Principals' Perspectives On Adolescent Literacy Implementation And Support In Secondary Schools: Views Through A Sociocultural Lens, Jack A. Robinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this study, interview data were analyzed to illustrate the perspectives of five secondary school principals in adolescent literacy implementation and support. These principals fell on the continuum from beginning practitioners in adolescent literacy to “seasoned veterans.” They were selected based on the recommendations of their district’s assistant superintendents and/or curriculum directors. I interviewed two high school principals, two middle school principals, and one junior high school principal.

Much emphasis has been placed over the last several decades on improving the reading skills of elementary school children, especially in the primary grades. While this goal continues to be an important …

Technologically Assisted Intervention (Tai): Are Clients Satisfied With Online Therapy?, Jennifer A. Morrow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the level of satisfaction reported by participants of a technologically assisted intervention study (TAI). TAI is a type of teletherapy done through online, live video conferencing. Satisfaction was examined at three different time points, post therapy, 3-months post therapy, and 6-months post therapy. Analyses examined if there were any changes in reported satisfaction over the three time periods. Participants received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) targeted at reducing symptoms of mild to moderately severe depression. A satisfaction measure was developed for this study, and included quantitative and qualitative items which were analyzed to determine participants' level of satisfaction. …

Growing Wild: Crested Wheatgrass And The Landscape Of Belonging, Lafe Gerald Conner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Crested wheatgrass arrived in North America at the turn of the twentieth century through the foreign plant exploration missions sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture. During the first two decades of the new century, scientists tested the grass at agricultural experiment stations. They determined it was useful for grazing and particularly valuable because it could grow in drought conditions with little or no care and would continue to produce high quality feed even after several years of heavy use. Beginning in the 1930s federally sponsored land utilization and agricultural adjustment programs sponsored the use of crested wheatgrass for …

Transforming Teachers’ Knowledge And Skills: Lesson Study In Mathematics Instruction Sensitive For Diverse Learners At Middle Level, Vessela Ilieva

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the learning of middle school mathematics teachers as they worked in a student-sensitive lesson study group. Three mathematics teachers collaborated to develop and teach student-sensitive math lessons. The original Japanese lesson study model was extended to involve a diversity consultant with experience and expertise in providing student-sensitive instruction. Collaboratively, the members of the lesson study group tailored their mathematics lessons to provide enhanced mathematics instruction to the diverse groups of students in their classrooms. The lesson study team held weekly meetings to develop three student-sensitive lessons over a six-month period.

A case study design was used to …

Angles-Only Navigation For Autonomous Orbital Rendezvous, David Charles Woffinden

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The proposed thesis of this dissertation has both a practical element and theoretical component which aim to answer key questions related to the use of angles-only navigation for autonomous orbital rendezvous. The first and fundamental principle to this work argues that an angles-only navigation filter can determine the relative position and orientation (pose) between two spacecraft to perform the necessary maneuvers and close proximity operations for autonomous orbital rendezvous. Second, the implementation of angles-only navigation for on-orbit applications is looked upon with skeptical eyes because of its perceived limitation of determining the relative range between two vehicles. This assumed, yet …

Disturbance As Restoration In The Intermountain Sagebrush Steppe: Effects On Non Target Bird Species, Russell Edward Norvell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Changes in shrubsteppe passerine bird habitat associations in response to disturbance were investigated at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Spatial measures incorporated the effects of area at different ecological scales (nest site, territory, and landscape) to include ecologically meaningful extents. Temporal measures included seasonal and annual effects, and were designed to detect lagged responses should they occur. Local-to-landscape scale effects of mechanical restoration treatments on local extirpation and abundances of nine species indicated most were insensitive to changes in habitat quality, while abundance models showed only broad declines. Changing the availability of nesting habitat on both the attractiveness and quality …

Academic Performance As A Predictor Of Student Growth In Achievement And Mental Motivation During An Engineering Design Challenge In Engineering And Technology Education, Nathan Mentzer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this correlational research study was to determine if students’ academic success was correlated with: (a) the student change in achievement during an engineering design challenge; and (b) student change in mental motivation toward solving problems and critical thinking during an engineering design challenge. Multiple experimental studies have shown engineering design challenges increase student achievement and attitude toward learning, but conflicting evidence surrounded the impact on higher and lower academically achieving students.

A high school classroom was chosen in which elements of engineering design were purposefully taught. Eleventh-grade student participants represented a diverse set of academic backgrounds (measured …

Mountain Pine Beetle Fecundity And Offspring Size Differ Among Lodgepole Pine And Whitebark Pine Hosts, Donovan Gross

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelmann) is a treeline species in the central Rocky Mountains. Its occupation of high elevations previously protected whitebark pine from long-term mountain pine beetle outbreaks. The mountain pine beetle, however, is currently reaching outbreaks of record magnitude in high-elevation whitebark pine. We used a factorial laboratory experiment to compare mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) life history characteristics between a typical host, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Engelmann), and whitebark pine. We tested the effects of natal host and brood host on beetle fecundity, offspring size, and brood sex-ratio. We reared mountain pine beetles …

Long-Term Effectiveness Of Brief Multiple-Stimulus Without Replacement Preference Assessments On Individualized Education Plan Reading Progress Of Students With Severe Disabilities, Heather C. Thornton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To teach operant behaviors to individuals with severe disabilities, stimulus preference assessment (SPA) methods have been developed to accurately identify stimuli that may function as reinforcers. Previous researchers have used multiple-stimulus preference assessments without replacement (MSWO) effectively over a short time period to teach target behaviors to individuals with disabilities. The present study investigated the long-term effects of incorporating brief MSWO preference assessments into the instructional routine for students with severe disabilities on individualized education plan reading goal/objective progress. This was done by investigating the effectiveness of incorporating brief MSWO preference assessments by comparing reading goal progress when a random …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Differential Reinforcement Of Alternative Behavior On Students With Mild/Moderate Disabilities In A School Classroom, Katrina Spangenberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the effects of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), a behavior reduction procedure, on problem behavior exhibited by three elementary school students in a general education classroom. DRA involves reinforcement of an alternative behavior while withholding reinforcement for the inappropriate behavior. The three participants were classified as experiencing mild/moderate disabilities but received most services (and participated in this research) in a general education classroom. Problem behaviors included off-task, talk-outs, and inappropriate touching. Alternative behaviors included on-task and hand-raising to get teacher attention. Results indicated that DRA decreased off-task and talk-out behavior for two participants, although effects were …

Generalized Event Tree Algorithm And Software For Dam Safety Risk Analysis, Anurag Srivastava

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Event tree analysis is a most commonly used method in dam safety risk analysis modeling. Available software tools for performing event tree analyses lack the flexibility to efficiently address many important factors in dam safety risk analysis. As a result of these practical limitations, spreadsheets have been used, sometimes including Visual Basic macros, to perform these analyses. However, this approach lacks generality and can require significant effort to apply to a specific dam or to modify the event tree structure. In response to these limitations, here a generalized event tree analysis tool, DAMRAE (DAM safety Risk Analysis Engine), has been …

Utah Off-Highway Vehicle Owners' Specialization And Its Relationship To Environmental Attitudes And Motivations, Jordan W. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) use has grown enormously on Utah’s public lands and is one of the most contentious and difficult issues for federal, state, and local land management agencies to address and provide for. Despite OHV use’s meteoric rise in popularity and its ongoing public conflicts, little is known about OHV recreationists. This thesis develops a typology that identifies within-activity differences related to recreation specialization; it also determines differences in OHV owners’ environmental attitudes and motivations. Findings show Utah’s owners comprise a range of use along the recreation specialization continuum. Results also indicate that an OHV owners’ specialization level is …

Sex-Biased Predation On Taricha By A Novel Predator In Annadel State Park, Amber Noelle Brouillette

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Newts of the genus Taricha have long been studied due to the powerful neurotoxin found in their skin. Tetrodotoxin (TTX) acts by blocking receptors in sodium channels, ultimately resulting in death via asphyxiation. The only documented predators of species in this genus have been snakes of the genus Thamnophis. Recently, predation on Taricha in Ledson Marsh in Annadel State Park, Santa Rosa, CA was discovered. Predation was in the form of laceration or evisceration, and tracking of predation from 1998-2008 showed that it was male-biased. Two species of Taricha were found living sympatrically at this location, the California newt …

Online Education For Nontraditional Adult Students: Perceptions And Attitudes Of Emergency Services Workers In Asynchronous Learning Environments, R. Jeffery Maxfield

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of this research was to better understand the lived experiences and perceptions of nontraditional, adult college students in an asynchronous online environment. Contemporary researchers have investigated the differences between online education and the traditional, in-class learning. Most of the work has been done in quantitative methodologies, focusing on the similarities and differences in cognitive achievement. The extant literature is replete with studies and positions claiming little or no difference between the two delivery methods. However, most research is not presented in a theoretical construct; therefore, it is difficult to create a nexus between one study and the next. …

Transforming Perspectives Through Service-Learning Participation: A Case Study Of The College Counts Program, James O. Peacock

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A case study has been conducted on the College Counts program, a well-integrated service-learning program, to examine the experiential learning of 10 former participants. It was the objective of this investigation to view the learning of 10 college students, through the lens of transformational learning, as they reflect on their experiences as participants in the College Counts program. Transformational learning theory was used as a lens to determine if high school students have the ability to engage in transformative learning. Students reported in their own voices transformative learning in one or more of the following forms: increased cultural inclusiveness, commitment …

Factors Related To Success And Participants’ Psychological Ownership In Collaborative Wildlife Management: A Survey Of Sage-Grouse Local Working Groups, Lorien R. Belton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Declines of sage-grouse (Centrocercus spp.) across the western United States have prompted the formation of numerous collaborative stakeholder partnerships, known as local working groups. These voluntary groups create and implement local sage-grouse management plans and projects, often in the hopes that their efforts may help avert a federal Endangered Species designation for the bird. Using a mail survey of participants in 54 local working groups, I examined the importance of psychological ownership in working group dynamics. Psychological ownership is conceptualized as a latent, multidimensional variable consisting of responsibility, control, and caring elements. Multiple regression analysis showed early-stage group success, representative …

Rank-Data Distribution Method (R-D Method) For Daily Time-Series Bayesian Networks And Total Maximum Daily Load Estimation, Joon-Hee Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Daily time series-based models are required to estimate the higher frequency fluctuations of nutrient loads and concentrations. Some mechanistic mathematical models can provide daily time series outputs of nutrient concentrations but it is difficult to incorporate non-numerical data, such as management scenarios, to mechanistic mathematical models. Bayesian networks (BNs) were designed to accept and process inputs of varied types of both numerical and non-numerical inputs.

A Rank-Data distribution method (R-D method) was developed to provide large time series of daily predicted flows and Total Phosphorus (TP) loads to BNs driving daily time series estimates of T-P concentrations into Hyrum and …

Two Highly Diverse Studies In Computing: A Vitruvian Framework For Distribution And A Search Approach To Cancer Therapies, Brian G. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Solid cancer tumors must recruit new blood vessels for growth and maintenance. Discovering drugs that block this tumor-induced development of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) is an important approach in cancer treatment. However, the complexity of angiogenesis and the difficulty in implementing and evaluating medical changes prevent the discovery of novel and effective new therapies. This paper presents a massively parallel computational search-based approach for the discovery of novel potential cancer treatments, using a high fidelity simulation of angiogenesis. Discovering new therapies is viewed as multi-objective combinatorial optimization over two competing objectives: minimizing the medical cost of the intervention while minimizing …

Reproductive Tactics Of Aphidophagous Lady Beetles: Comparison Of A Native Species And An Invasive Species That Is Displacing It, Yukie Kajita

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Coccinella septempunctata L. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) has been introduced to North America in recent decades, raising concerns of adverse impacts on native lady beetles, including the congeneric C. transversoguttata richardsoni (Brown). The central focus of my dissertation is to understand the importance of reproduction, in particular, in promoting invasion of C. septempunctata and its replacement of native lady beetles in alfalfa fields of western North America.

Studies were conducted to compare reproductive tactics of the invasive C. septempunctata and the native C. transversoguttata, by addressing: 1) maximum rate of reproduction of overwintered lady beetles, 2) population dynamics of the invasive …

Forensic And Anti-Forensic Techniques For Object Linking And Embedding 2 (Ole2)-Formatted Documents, Jason M. Daniels

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Common office documents provide significant opportunity for forensic and anti-forensic work. The Object Linking and Embedding 2 (OLE2) specification used primarily by Microsoft’s Office Suite contains unused or dead space regions that can be over written to hide covert channels of communication. This thesis describes a technique to detect those covert channels and also describes a different method of encoding that lowers the probability of detection.

The algorithm developed, called OleDetection, is based on the use of kurtosis and byte frequency distribution statistics to accurately identify OLE2 documents with covert channels. OleDetection is able to correctly identify 99.97 percent of …

Development Of A Post-Fire Monitoring Protocol For Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness And Cheatgrass Abundance Using Quickbird Imagery And Ground Observations, Gabriel Bissonette

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 9.3 million hectares of land in Utah and has implemented an Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) Program to protect life and property, combat soil erosion, and reduce the invasion of exotic/noxious weeds following wildland fire. In highly vulnerable sites, seeding treatments may be applied to establish an interim landcover to stabilize the soil and competitively exclude weed invasions. Monitoring treatment effectiveness is mandated through ESR guidelines and necessary for the submission of annual Accomplishment Reports for the first three years following fire containment. Ground monitoring has been the traditional approach to fulfilling this …

Examining The Perceived Benefits For Engaging In Cybersex Behavior Among College Students, Delores D. Rimington

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined college students’ cybersex use, perceived benefits of use, time spent online, and compulsive cybersex. Participants consisted of students attending Utah State University Spring semester 2007. Data were collected via an online survey, and 262 surveys were used in the correlation and regression analyses.

Results indicated that age, religion and gender are predictive of perceiving more benefits for cybersex participation. A strong positive correlation was found between perceived benefits and compulsive cybersex use. Students’ lack of social skills was predictive of more time spent online. Time spent online for cybersex was predictive of sexually compulsive behavior. There was …

The Effects Of Aligning Supplemental And Core Reading Instruction On Second-Grade Students' Reading Achievement, Carla V. Wonder-Mcdowell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aligning supplemental reading instruction with core classroom reading instruction on struggling second-grade students’ proficiency in phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Alignment was defined as core classroom and supplemental instruction that are congruent in philosophy, goals, instructional materials, instructional methods, student activities, and reading strategies that follow the same scope and sequence.

This study employed a two-group, pre-post true experimental design. Second-grade students (N = 153) scoring in the lowest quartile on the fall Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Oral Reading Fluency assessment were randomly assigned to …

The Effect Of An Educational Intervention On Adolescent Cognitive Autonomy, Identity, Hope, And Educational Aspirations, Celestial Starr Brandley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis summarizes a study conducted to explore the effect of an educational intervention on cognitive autonomy, identity, hope, and educational aspirations. The primary goal of this study was to investigate (1) the impact of awareness and readiness educational intervention on low-income adolescents’ cognitive autonomy, identity, hope, and educational intentions, and (2) how the low-income adolescents receiving the awareness readiness educational intervention compared to adolescents who did not receive the intervention. The Cognitive Autonomy and Self-Evaluation (CASE) inventory, the Modified Extended Version of the Object Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOMEIS), The Children’s Hope Scale, and a self-report of educational …

Complex Systems In Engineering And Technology Education: A Mixed Methods Study Investigating The Role Computer Simulations Serve In Student Learning, Douglas J. Walrath

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research was conducted to determine if students receiving complex systems instruction in the form of software simulations recognize patterns and underlying elements of complex systems more effectively than students receiving traditional instruction. Complex systems were investigated with an analytic (reductive) approach in a control group and with a synthesis approach in the treatment group. Exploration of this top-down approach to learning complex systems counters traditional bottom-up methodologies, investigating systems and subsystems at the component level. The hypothesis was that students experiencing complex systems scenarios in a computer-based learning environment would outperform their counterparts by constructing a greater number of …