Digital Commons Network^™

Variational Asymptotic Micromechanics Modeling Of Composite Materials, Tian Tang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The issue of accurately determining the effective properties of composite materials has received the attention of numerous researchers in the last few decades and continues to be in the forefront of material research. Micromechanics models have been proven to be very useful tools for design and analysis of composite materials. In the present work, a versatile micromechanics modeling framework, namely, the Variational Asymptotic Method for Unit Cell Homogenization (VAMUCH), has been invented and various micromechancis models have been constructed in light of this novel framework. Considering the periodicity as a small parameter, we can …

The Process Of Tracking In Mathematics In Box Elder School District, Megan Haramoto Bushnell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Educational policymakers have used tracking to instruct students in a variety of subjects, including mathematics. Tracking, which has also been called ability grouping, is a process by which students in the same grade are placed into different classes based on academic ability. Few educators and sociologists have looked at the process by which students are placed in different mathematics tracks. The research design of this study focused on accumulating, evaluating, and reporting the understanding and observations of 12 teachers and 4 counselors as they discussed their knowledge and involvement in the mathematics placement procedures from the intermediate and middle school …

Aminoglycosides And Syringomycin E As Fungicides Against Fusarium Graminearum In Head Blight Disease, Yukie Kawasaki

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fusarium graminearum is one of the most problematic phytopathogens in US agriculture. This fungus causes head blight, foot rot, and damping off on wheat and barley. The infection lowers the grain yield and causes contamination of the grain product with mycotoxins. Effective control measures are lacking, and new fungicides that kill F. graminearum but remain safe and economical to use are needed. Newly synthesized aminoglycosides (JL22, JL38, JL39, JL40, NEOF004, NEOF005), classic aminoglycosides (amikacin, gentamicin, kanamycin A, kanamycin B, neomycin, and ribostamycin), and a lipopeptide, syringomycin E (SRE), were studied to determine their antifungal potential to control F. graminearum. …

Family Involvement In Three Utah Adolescent Residential Treatment Centers, Wesley W. Larson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Family participation in residential treatment for disturbed adolescents has increased over time. A general sense of this movement is that this is beneficial. However, there are no common descriptions of family involvement in residential treatment in the literature. In order to be able to better understand which components of family involvement are most beneficial, we need to first understand how residential treatment centers (RTCs) define and describe family involvement. This study compiled data from interviews with nine participants, one each from administration, therapy staff, and direct care staff level of three northern Utah RTCs that claimed family involvement in youth …

Impact Analysis Of System And Network Attacks, Anupama Biswas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Systems and networks have been under attack from the time the Internet first came into existence. There is always some uncertainty associated with the impact of the new attacks. Compared to the problem of attack detection, analysis of attack impact has received very little attention. Generalize and forecasting the kind of attack that will hit systems in future is not possible. However, it is possible to predict the behavior of a new attack and, thereby, the impact of the attack. This thesis proposes a method for predicting the impact of a new attack on systems and networks as well as …

Reported Mental Health Issues And Marital Quality: A Statewide Survey, Joseph Ruben Smart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study included a representative random sample of 886 married individuals in Utah. This sample was surveyed to discover the relationship between demographic variables, reported mental health issues, and marital quality. In addition, this study sought to discover models, using demographic variables and reported mental health issues, to predict for separate dimensions of marital quality. This survey was a replication of a study completed primarily in Oklahoma, with the addition of questions about the participants' mental health.

Spearman's rho, Pearson's R, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. The results of the study show that: religious beliefs …

A Qualitative Study Of Seminary Principals For The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Eric W. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This qualitative study investigates how leadership is embodied within the role of seminary principals in released-time seminaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This study utilized a grounded theory approach and constant comparative analysis while triangulating the data obtained from personal interviews, participant observations, and analysis of documents. The primary sources of data came from the personal experiences and perspectives of four principals, eight teachers, and one area administrator that are analyzed through biographical interviews.

Analyses of the data were completed to determine common themes of leadership that were embodied by principals in released-time seminaries for The …

Agent-Organized Network Coalition Formation, Levi L. Barton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents work based on modeling multi-agent coalition formation in an agent organized network. Agents choose which agents to connect with in the network. Tasks are periodically introduced into the network. Each task is defined by a set of skills that agents must fill. Agents form a coalition to complete a task by either joining an existing coalition a network neighbor belongs to, or by proposing a new coalition for a task no agents have proposed a coalition for. We introduce task patience and strategic task selection and show that they improve the number of successful coalitions agents form. …

Utah Middle-Level School Community Councils: An Evaluation Of Compliance, Processes, And Perceived Impact, Richard Jackson Nygaard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The historical perspective of schools in our democratic society provides a framework of tension between local parent and community control versus professional and state control of public school decisions. Today, federal and state requirements demand increased student achievement. The state of Utah requires each public school to have a school community council (SCC) that is responsible for the development of plans for school improvement. Limited funds are provided to each school community council through the School LAND Trust Program to assist in the implementation of the developed plans for the purpose of increased student achievement. Three Utah middlelevel school community …

Distributed Control For Robotic Swarms Using Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations, Shelley Rounds

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis introduces a design combining an emerging area in robotics with a well established mathematical research topic: swarm intelligence and Voronoi tessellations, respectively. The main objective for this research is to design an economical and robust swarm system to achieve distributed control. This research combines swarm intelligence with Voronoi tessellations to localize a source and create formations. Extensive software coding must be implemented for this design, such as the development of a discrete centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) algorithm.

The ultimate purpose of this research is to advance the existing Mobile Actuator and Sensor Network (MASnet) platform to eventually develop …

Development Of Modular Thermal Control Architecture For Modular Satellites, Quinn Eric Young

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research has been completed to determine the most effective thermal control architecture for modular satellites. This research investigated principles of modularity, modular spacecraft examples, thermal control methods, and advanced thermal control technologies. A modular spacecraft was designed as a case study to determine key influences and issues. A number of thermal control architectures were developed. Each was evaluated for compatibility with modularity principles, thermal control performance, and a realizable implementation. Thermal control performance was determined by simulating on-orbit conditions for a number of design reference missions, including traditional thermal control architecture used for comparison. An effective thermal control architecture was …

Student Achievement And Affective Traits In Electrical Engineering Laboratories Using Traditional And Computer-Based Instrumentation, Matthew D. Lammi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Distance education has the ability to transcend distance and time, reaching students anywhere at any time, particularly those underrepresented in engineering. Engineering is a practice-oriented profession requiring an interweaving of scientific theory and applied hands-on activities. Despite the need for distance education in engineering, few studies have systematically investigated the impact of student achievement and attitude in distance engineering laboratories. This quasi-experimental research addressed that need by studying the cognitive and affective domains of achievement in engineering laboratories while employing computer-based and traditional oscilloscopes. The students from two courses, electrical engineering for nonmajors and electronic fundamentals, were randomly assigned into …

Livestock Mortality At Beef Farms With Chronic Wolf (Canis Lupus) Depredation In The Western Great Lakes Region (Wglr), Arion Vandergon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Gray wolf (Canis lupus) depredation on beef calves has been studied extensively in recent years. As wolf populations increase throughout the United States there is a corresponding increase in wolf/livestock interactions. Most research concentrates on summaries of reported depredations and surveys of producers affected by depredations. The objective of this study was to present data on the fate of beef calves on 3 farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin over a 2-year period. Predator presence/absence was studied as an indicator of potential depredations. Also, data are presented comparing 2 techniques that may aid researchers and livestock producers with monitoring …

Employers' Perceptions Of Utah State University's Marriage And Family Therapy Program Requirements, Blake D. Altom

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of program requirements on employability of Utah State University's (USU) marriage and family therapy (MFT) program graduates, the training and employability of USU MFT graduates, and whether or not there is anything that sets these graduates apart from graduates of other MFT programs. Nineteen employers participated in this study. Twelve of these employers were known to have hired USU MFT graduates as the graduates' first employment post-graduation, and seven of the participants were considered potential employers: those who could hire MFTs in the future. Questions were asked to these participants …

Evaluation Of An Interactive Health Communication Trans Fat Website, Tara Banks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In order to evaluate the short-term educational and behavioral impact of the American Heart Association's "Face the Fats" web application had upon college students, a study involving 116 Utah State University undergraduate students was conducted. A one-group pre-posttest design was utilized to answer eight research questions focusing on: health risks associated with trans fat, general trans fat knowledge, ability to identify foods containing trans and saturated fats, food label information, healthy alternatives to trans fat, and readiness to change trans fat intake. Participants completed an online pretest survey and then viewed the "Face the Fats" website at their own pace. …

The Adaptability Of Langmuir Probes To The Pico-Satellite Regime, Andrew Jay Auman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether it is feasible to use Langmuir probes on pico-satellites flying in low Earth orbit over mid- to low-latitude geographic regions. Following chapters on the expected ionospheric conditions and an overview of Langmuir probe theory, a chapter addressing the difficulties involved with pico-satellite Langmuir probes is presented. Also, the necessary satellite-to-probe surface area requirements in order to achieve confidence in pico-satellite Langmuir probe data, for the orbital regions of interest to this thesis, are stated.

A Critical Analysis Of The Cooperatives Working Together Program, Spencer N. Parkinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study analyzes the effectiveness of the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program. This program is believed to have improved the farm-level price of milk since it began in July 2003. To date, no publicly available analysis addressing this question has been conducted. Total milk removed by the program was determined and expressed as a percentage of total milk produced nationally during the same time frame. Elasticity measures from prior studies were adapted to determine the impact of the program. This analysis suggests the program has had a significantly positive effect on the price of milk. Issues dealing with future action …

Experiments In Distributed Multi-Robot Coordination, Larry Dale Ballard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Consensus control algorithms for multi-agent systems are an area of much research. Several consensus control laws are experimentally validated on a multi-robot testbed in this thesis. A graphical user interface (GUI) is developed that simplies use of the testbed, as well as allows the execution of the testbed programs to be divided across multiple computers. This not only provides a more powerful computing environment, but a more realistic communication environment for the testbed. A method for a time varying or dynamic formation is both proposed and experimentally validated on the testbed. This research also explores a method for dynamic group …

A Study Of Utah Teachers' Developmentally Appropriate Beliefs And Practices As Related To Perceptions Of Kindergarteners' Successful School Entry, Mary Mceuen Darnell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was an exploration of 450 Utah kindergarten teachers' perceptions of problems children face at the time of kindergarten entry, as well as an examination of the teachers' developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices. Consistent with previous research, teachers' beliefs were found to be more developmentally appropriate than their reported practices. This study also investigated the relationship between both teacher and classroom/school demographics and teachers' developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices. Further, the relationship between teachers' perceptions of children's transition to kindergarten and beliefs, practices, teacher demographics, and classroom/school demographics was studied.

Study findings indicated that teachers perceive 20% of kindergarten …

An Assessment Of The Perceived Value Of Teacher Portfolios In The Early Years Enhancement (Eye) Program By Primary And Secondary Teachers In Utah's Schools, Teresa J. Denison

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of the teacher portfolio as an evaluation of professional development in Utah's new teacher licensing--the Early Year's Enhancement (EYE) program. This study explored teacher perceptions of the value of the portfolio. Results of the study identified the perceived value of teacher portfolios related to: (a) accuracy as an evaluation tool, (b) usefulness with respect to teacher professional growth, (c) feasibility with regard to teacher time, and (d) appropriateness related to the effect of portfolios on teaching practices. It also identified the relationship of the teacher's perceived value and the required …

Mother-Child Interactions Among Latino Families And European-American Families In Relation To Children's Language Outcomes, Katie Christiansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The number of Latino families in the United States is increasing dramatically. For some of the children in these families, the acquisition of reading skills is hampered by inadequate early language development. Early language development is a key predictor of reading success. Identifying ways in which parents in these families can help children acquire early language skills will better prepare them for acquiring reading skills.

This study used a new parenting measure, PICCOLO, to identify parenting behaviors that are related to children's language development. The primary focus of this project was on Spanish-speaking Latino families, but a group of English-speaking …

Effective Practices Of Project Lead The Way Partnership Teams, Cody J. Reutzel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to gather information from Project Lead The Way (PLTW) partnership team experts. This project follows the methodology of a modified Delphi study. A review of literature in the areas of curriculum development, pre-college engineering, and the Delphi research technique provided the background for the structure utilized. Top programs from across the country were questioned to identify and come to a consensus on top components essential to developing and utilizing a successful PLTW partnership team. The components were categorized into two lists: effective practices utilized to make a program successful and effective practices employed by …

Mechanisms Of Nutrition Bar Hardening: Effect Of Hydrolyzed Whey Protein And Carbohydrate Source, Shaun P. Adams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The influence of increasing hydrolyzed protein content on the microstructure and hardness of high protein nutrition bars was investigated to determine the mechanism of hardening during storage. Bars with various hydrolyzed protein levels were manufactured using differing ratios of 0, 25, 50, 75, 100% (wt. /wt.) of partially hydrolyzed whey protein isolate (HWPI) to an intact (non-hydrolyzed) whey protein isolate (WPI) which made up approximately 38% of the total bar composition. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) (42%) and vegetable shortening (20%) constituted the rest of the ingredients. Accelerated aging was performed by storing bars at 32 ^oC for 36 …

Extending F10.7'S Time Resolution To Capture Solar Flare Phenomena, Ariel O. Acebal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation ionizes the neutral components in the atmosphere, which is partly responsible for the formation of the ionosphere, and contributes to heating of the atmosphere. Solar flares change the solar spectrum at times by several orders of magnitude. These changes modify the Earth's upper atmosphere, causing problems to communication systems and space operations, such as increased satellite drag. Unfortunately, solar UV measurements are limited since they can only be observed with space-based sensors. In order to work around this limitation, the solar radio emissions at a wavelength of 10.7 cm have been used as a proxy for …

A Conceptual Framework For Understanding Effects Of Wildlife Water Developments In The Western United States, Randy T. Larsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Free water can be a limiting factor to wildlife in arid regions of the world. In the western United States, management agencies have installed numerous, expensive wildlife water developments (e.g. catchments, guzzlers, wells) to: 1) increase the distribution or density of target species, 2) influence animal movements, and 3) mitigate for the loss of available free water. Despite over 50 years as an active management practice, water developments have become controversial for several species. We lack an integrated understanding of the ways free water influences animal populations. In particular, we have not meshed understanding of evolutionary adaptations that reduce the …

Framing Anti-War Theatre: Public Perceptions Of Embedded, Jeremy Gordon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extending research of framing anti-war protest is framed in the public sphere, this study examines theatre critics' reviews and viewers' responses to Tim Robbins' anti-war play Embedded. My research examines how two groups of publics interpreted Embedded: (1) professional theatre reviewers and (2) a sample of Utah State University students. It is important to note that the majority of the students who participated in this study are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), a consistently social and political conservative religious sect. Thus, how this specific group of viewers deciphered Embedded is of special …

Roots

Roots

No abstract provided.

Toward Ethical Plea Bargaining, Erica J. Hashimoto

Scholarly Works

Defendants in criminal cases are overwhelmingly more likely to plead guilty than to go to trial. Presumably, at least a part of the reason that most of them do so is that it is in their interest to plead guilty, i.e., they will receive a more favorable outcome if they plead guilty than if they go to trial. The extent to which pleas reflect fair or rational compromises in practice, however, depends upon a variety of factors, including the amount of information each of the parties has about the case. Some level of informational symmetry therefore is critical to the …

The Extra-Territorial Reach Of U.S. Patent Law On Space-Related Activities: Does The "International Shoe" Fit As We Reach For The Stars?, Kurt G. Hammerle, Theodore U. Ro

Journal of Space Law

No abstract provided.

A Sleeping Beauty Awakens: The 1968 Rescue Agreement After Forty Years, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Journal of Space Law

No abstract provided.