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Experimental And Numerical Investigation Of Air-Cooled Heat Sinks, Ethan Weems

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Lightweight and affordable cooling capabilities are critical as the physical scale of electronics continues to decrease. Air-cooled heat sinks that dissipate heat from electronic components to the surrounding air are excellent candidates to fill this role. While plate-fin and pin-fin heat sinks have been implemented extensively for electronic cooling, recent advances in additive manufacturing enable the fabrication of more complex structures. In this undergraduate Honors thesis, a means by which to generate novel heat sink geometries is presented. To that end, an experimental characterization facility is developed to evaluate existing traditional heat sinks. The heat transfer performance of the heat …

A Review And Analysis Of General Aviation Instructional Accidents, Sydney Sommers

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

General aviation student pilot accidents represent a substantial portion of all aviation accidents in the United States. Almost 50% of general aviation accidents involve student pilots. Analyzing historical accident reports is the most common approach to studying accident causation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates all civil aviation accidents in the US. Using the NTSB data, I analyzed general aviation student pilot accidents in the US between 2013 and 2022. Results indicate that most accidents take place in California and Florida and can be attributed to student pilots between 18 and 65 years of age. Alaska and Maine had …

A Study Of Varying Dielectric Constant And Thickness Of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Devices And Their Subsequent Plasma Actuation, Sharon Kardasz

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The principles of air-breathing ion propulsion are relatively unestablished in the aerodynamic realm as traditional forms of combustion for propulsion systems have remained in use. However, due to increasing environmental, economic, and efficiency concerns of traditional combustion, interests in innovative propulsion methodologies, such as electric propulsion, are emerging. A primary technology of interest for use of ion propulsion is the Dielectric Barrier Discharge Device (DBD). Preliminary research conducted at the University of Arkansas has determined the most favorable DBD geometry. This work will continue the preliminary research to decipher the most favorable DBD configuration by varying dielectric thickness and dielectric …

“Lifting The Private-Law Veil”: Employer Authority And The “Contractual-Coating” Of Worker Subordination, Valerio De Stefano, Nicola Countouris

All Papers

Despite the notion of subordination in work relations and the subjection of workers to the managerial prerogatives of employers have received significant consideration and discourse since the outset of labour law, critical examinations of the underlying foundations of such subordination and subjection in contemporary democracies founded on the rule of law remain scarce. This article wants to prompt a novel reflection on these issues, starting with a historical analysis of their origins and a renewed understanding of their legal background. It opens by discussing some outstanding issues concerning work subordination that are not adequately captured by the classic theory of …

Cosmic Object Space Management Operations System (C.O.S.M.O.S.), Riah Ivy, Tyler Bumpus, Gabriel Soter

Senior Design Project For Engineers

In the expansive realm of outer space, humanity has ventured into new territories, yet this progress is accompanied by challenges. Among the most significant challenges confronting space exploration today is the growing amount of space debris within low earth orbit. Satellites, spent rocket stages, and assorted fragments orbiting Earth present a considerable hazard to spacecraft and astronauts, and this issue is steadily worsening. For years, the task of remedying this orbital congestion has remained formidable and unresolved. This design provides a novel and innovative solution to this growing problem.

Chm116 Principles Of Chemistry Ii Lecture Slides, Leah S. Cohen, Probal Banerjee

Open Educational Resources

This file contains the lecture slides that are used in CHM116, Principles of Chemistry II.

A Mechanical Model For Stress Relaxation Of Polylactic Acid/Thermoplastic Polyurethane Blends, Yi-Sheng Jhao, Hao Ouyang, Chien-Chao Huang, Fuqian Yang, Sanboh Lee

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Polylactic acid (PLA) is considered a promising biodegradable polymer alternative. Due to its high brittleness, composite materials made by melt blending thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with PLA can enhance the toughness of PLA. To understand the forced aging caused by stress relaxation in polymer materials, this study explains the stress relaxation experiments of PLA/TPU blends with different mass ratios under applied strain through mechanical model simulations. The Kelvin representation of the standard linear solid model (SLSM) is used to analyze the stress relaxation data of TPU/PLA blends, successfully explaining that the Young’s moduli (E1 and E2) of springs decrease with increasing …

Consumerism & Sustainability, Karen Strange

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

The purpose of my project was two-fold. Firstly, it aimed to create a supplemental course on Consumerism and Sustainability to accompany existing textbook readings in a BYU course on textiles. Secondly, the project sought to convert an activity from the chapter with passive learner-content interaction with the video lectures and chapter readings into one that had interactive learner-content interaction. This project was created for the instructor/students in the Textile Course 382 in FACS Education Department at BYU. By updating the course content, students would have an opportunity to interact with the content as well as with other students in a …

Landslide Susceptibility And Tree Ring Eccentricity Analysis Along Unstable Slopes Of The New River Watershed, Anderson And Morgan Counties, Tn, Megan Palmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Landslides are mass movements that affect infrastructure across East Tennessee, causing problems for the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). An assessment of conditions and locations of unstable slopes can aid TDOT in infrastructure management. Landslide susceptibility was evaluated for Anderson and Morgan counties, TN, off State Route 116 in the New River watershed. Susceptibility maps used a landslide inventory and six factors: elevation, slope, geology, distance from stream, rainfall, and curvature, input in forest-based classification and logistic regression models. Additionally, affected trees along these unstable slopes in Anderson and Morgan counties were cored to analyze mass movement impacts on tree …

Cost Saving And Resource Limited Public Health Interventions In Southeast Asia, Amanda Blackwelder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Public health interventions are any activity with the objective of improving human health such as preventing or curing disease, reducing the severity or duration of a disease, or assisting in regaining function after a disease or injury. These interventions are known to be impactful; however, those living with the highest burden of disease such as individuals in low- and middle-income countries have limited money and resources to successfully implement these interventions. Southeast Asian countries are among some of the middle-income countries effected by the lack of affordable interventions. The aims of this study were to assess cost saving and …

Keeping It In The Ground: An Analysis Of Colorado Oil And Gas Law And The Legal Tools To Limit Production, Colin Hull

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Goalbert: Goal-Directed Colbert For Iterative Retrieval, Ben Giacalone

Theses

We dissect and extend ColBERT, a state of the art multi-vector retrieval model. We first perform a number of experiments to identify the role structural tokens (i.e. [CLS], [SEP], [MASK], [Q]) play in retrieval. The most consequential findings are that (1) [MASK] tokens can be remapped to their closest non-[MASK] embedding without a significant degradation in performance, (2) the existence of [MASK], [Q], and [D] does not really affect the contextualization of query text tokens, and (3) [CLS] and [SEP] can act as “summary” embeddings for the model. In another set of experiments, we ex tend the number of [MASK] …

Relation Between Cognitive Assessment And Clinical Physical Performance Measures After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Prokopios Antonellis, Margaret M. Weightman, Peter C. Fino, Siting Chen, Mark E. Lester, Carrie W. Hoppes, Leland E. Dibble, Laurie A. King

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Objectives

To investigate the relation between cognitive and motor performance in individuals with mild traumatic brain injury(mTBI) and examine differences in both cognitive and motor performance between adults after mTBI and healthy controls.

Design

Multi-center, cross-sectional study.

Setting

Three institutional sites (Courage Kenny Research Center, Minneapolis, MN, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, and University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT).

Participants

Data were collected from 110 participants (N=110), including those with mTBI and healthy controls, who completed cognitive and physical performance assessments.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Outcome Measures

Cognitive assessments involved the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics to evaluate …

How Monitoring Food Is Protecting People, Grace Sugden

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

While the issue of food safety has always been a concern for humanity, what that looks like has changed drastically over time. Instead of trying to judge if a stream has safe drinking water, consumers are now faced with deciding which preservatives and pesticides they expose themselves to. With the multitude of United States agencies tasked with protecting the public, standards and quality control processes should be transparent and efficient. Since the creation of the Bureau of Chemistry, numerous acts have been passed that regulate ingredients, processing procedures, and minimize contamination risks. When a spoiled product enters the food web, …

Journalistic Quality In The Digital Age Relating To Newsroom Diversity, Max Guerrera

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Traditionally, journalistic quality is determined by the integrity of a piece, along with its contribution to public knowledge. High quality, ethical journalism serves the purpose of holding those in power accountable and ensuring transparency in government actions through factual reporting. Objectivity is a highly emphasized element of American journalism because it allows the audience to form their own opinions and evaluate facts individually. However, as the distribution of media has changed with technological advancements, so have news writing trends. The theory of agenda setting, the concept that the media have the power to shift public opinions and perceptions of the …

The Importance Of An Operations Manual, Richard Schlotthauer

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Without having an operations manual programs are susceptible to misinformation between one another. Partners for Peace is a program that is dedicated to serving Monterey County, and its troubled youth as well as their parents/guardians. Creating an operations manual will help to ensure that all staff members are on the same page when it comes to day to day issues around the office. Every staff member now has a copy of the operations manual, this will ensure that all members of the team will be on the same page when issues arise in and out of the office. In order …

Educating Hispanic Parents Through An Informative Video In Monterey County, Jonathan Hernandez Hernandez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Local Oral Health Program is a program of the County of Monterey Health Department within the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Division. The program implements workshops to educate parents and elementary school students in Kindergarten and first grade on the importance of oral health. In Monterey County, there are 59.4% of Hispanics. They are a vulnerable population when it comes to oral health problems, which studies have shown. The project's purpose is to educate Hispanic parents regarding dental sealants and the benefits they provide to their children. It is crucial to establish good oral health routines to protect their …

Increasing Emergent Literacy In Preschool-Aged Children, Yuliana Morales Santiago

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on teaching preschool-age children from low-income backgrounds about emergent literacy. Emergent literacy is the foundation of learning to read and write. Before children begin learning to read and write, they develop pre-literacy skills such as understanding that print carries meaning, exploring books independently, and letter knowledge. Many preschool children are not taught the fundamental steps of building literacy development at home because of a lack of resources or knowledge due to socioeconomic status. Carroll et al. (2018) found a link between home literacy environment and socioeconomic factors, such as caregivers' education and the type of employment …

The Importance Of Nutrition Education In Early Childhood, Alexi Larios

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project aimed to highlight the importance of nutrition education in early childhood. I chose this topic because studies have shown a steady increase over the years in children’s diet-related illnesses (Baker & Bjerregaard, 2023). Many factors have contributed to this increase such as media and marketing. Companies use their marketing strategies to target the interests of children and persuade them to desire their unhealthy products (Taillie et al., 2019). This strategy leads to children purchasing and consuming processed foods, high in sugar and empty calories. Another important component in childhood nutrition is socioeconomic status. People from lower socioeconomic …

Emotional Development Support For Kindergarteners, Miriam Elizabeth Abundis Hernandez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

My project is centered on supporting the emotional growth of kindergarten children. Understanding what emotions are, identifying one's own and other people's feelings, and creating useful coping mechanisms are all parts of emotional growth. It is problematic when kindergarteners are unable to communicate or comprehend their feelings because it makes it difficult for them to self-regulate and obtain the assistance they require. Conflicts with the kids and their peers as they get older could result from this in the future. Instruction on recognizing emotions and expressing them to others is necessary. The majority of kids are aware of the fundamentals …

Teaching Future Educators How To Support Students With Adhd, Rachel Schweikhard

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The topic of my capstone project is teaching future educators how to support school-age students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is one of the most common mental disorders of children in the United States. According to the CDC (2023), an estimated 9.8% (6 million) of kids ages 3-17 are diagnosed with ADHD. Because of the difficulties that are symptomatic of ADHD, students with the disorder often fall behind and struggle in school. Many of the symptoms deal with difficulties in executive functions. Executive functioning is the cognitive processes related to skills such as planning, regulation, and memory. These …

Helping Kindergarteners Understand Their Emotions And Their Peers, Marelin Guadalupe Cruz Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The social-emotional development is described in this study. This study examines children who lack pro-social-emotional abilities and find it difficult to build meaningful interactions with others. In my work, I discuss how research and the lessons I taught my participants can help children gain greater social-emotional abilities and an understanding of different emotions. I work with kindergarteners who are five to six years old because I want to support them in developing deep connections with their peers and in learning about their feelings. The issue I will be bringing up is that kids struggle to build positive relationships with their …

The Constitutively Active Form Of A Key Cholesterol Synthesis Enzyme Is Lipid Droplet-Localized And Upregulated In Endometrial Cancer Tissues, Hudson W Coates, Tina B Nguyen, Ximing Du, Ellen M Olzomer, Rhonda Farrell, Frances L Byrne, Hongyuan Yang, Andrew J Brown

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cholesterol is essential for both normal cell viability and cancer cell proliferation. Aberrant activity of squalene monooxygenase (SM, also known as squalene epoxidase), the rate-limiting enzyme of the committed cholesterol synthesis pathway, is accordingly implicated in a growing list of cancers. We previously reported that hypoxia triggers the truncation of SM to a constitutively active form, thus preserving sterol synthesis during oxygen shortfalls. Here, we show SM truncation is upregulated and correlates with the magnitude of hypoxia in endometrial cancer tissues, supporting the in vivo relevance of our earlier work. To further investigate the pathophysiological consequences of SM truncation, we …

The Intrinsic Substrate Specificity Of The Human Tyrosine Kinome, Tomer M Yaron-Barir, Brian A Joughin, Emily M Huntsman, Alexander Kerelsky, Daniel M Cizin, Benjamin M Cohen, Amit Regev, Junho Song, Neil Vasan, Ting-Yu Lin, Jose M Orozco, Christina Schoenherr, Cari Sagum, Mark T Bedford, R Max Wynn, Shih-Chia Tso, David T Chuang, Lei Li, Shawn S-C Li, Pau Creixell, Konstantin Krismer, Mina Takegami, Harin Lee, Bin Zhang, Jingyi Lu, Ian Cossentino, Sean D Landry, Mohamed Uduman, John Blenis, Olivier Elemento, Margaret C Frame, Peter V Hornbeck, Lewis C Cantley, Benjamin E Turk, Michael B Yaffe, Jared L Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Phosphorylation of proteins on tyrosine (Tyr) residues evolved in metazoan organisms as a mechanism of coordinating tissue growth1. Multicellular eukaryotes typically have more than 50 distinct protein Tyr kinases that catalyse the phosphorylation of thousands of Tyr residues throughout the proteome1-3. How a given Tyr kinase can phosphorylate a specific subset of proteins at unique Tyr sites is only partially understood4-7. Here we used combinatorial peptide arrays to profile the substrate sequence specificity of all human Tyr kinases. Globally, the Tyr kinases demonstrate considerable diversity in optimal patterns of residues surrounding the site of phosphorylation, revealing the functional organization of …

Enhanced Ctla-4 Blockade Anti-Tumor Immunity With Apg-157 Combination In A Murine Head And Neck Cancer, Daniel Sanghoon Shin, Saroj Basak, Mysore S Veena, Begoña Comin-Anduix, Arjun Bhattacharya, Tien S Dong, Albert Ko, Philip Han, Jonathan Jacobs, Neda A Moatamed, Luis Avila, Matteo Pellegrini, Marilene Wang, Eri S Srivatsan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: A phase I clinical study for patients with locally advanced H&N cancer with a new class of botanical drug APG-157 provided hints of potential synergy with immunotherapy. We sought to evaluate the efficacy of the combination of APG-157 and immune checkpoint inhibitors.

METHODS: CCL23, UM-SCC1 (human), and SCCVII (HPV-), MEER (HPV+) (murine) H&N cancer cell lines were utilized for in vitro and in vivo studies. We measured tumor growth by treating the mice with APG-157, anti-PD-1, and anti-CTLA-4 antibody combinations (8 groups). The tumor microenvironments were assessed by multi-color flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and RNA-seq analysis. Fecal microbiome was analyzed …

Montelukast As A Repurposable Additive Drug For Standard-Efficacy Multiple Sclerosis Treatment: Emulating Clinical Trials With Retrospective Administrative Health Claims Data, Astrid M Manuel, Assaf Gottlieb, Leorah Freeman, Zhongming Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Effective and safe treatment options for multiple sclerosis (MS) are still needed. Montelukast, a leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA) currently indicated for asthma or allergic rhinitis, may provide an additional therapeutic approach.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate the effects of montelukast on the relapses of people with MS (pwMS).

METHODS: In this retrospective case-control study, two independent longitudinal claims datasets were used to emulate randomized clinical trials (RCTs). We identified pwMS aged 18-65 years, on MS disease-modifying therapies concomitantly, in de-identified claims from Optum's Clinformatics

RESULTS: pwMS treated with montelukast demonstrated a statistically significant 23.6% reduction in relapses compared …

Modeling Acute Myocardial Infarction And Cardiac Fibrosis Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Multi-Cellular Heart Organoids, Myeongjin Song, Da Bin Choi, Jeong Suk Im, Ye Na Song, Ji Hyun Kim, Hanbyeol Lee, Jieun An, Ami Kim, Hwan Choi, Joon-Chul Kim, Choongseong Han, Young Keul Jeon, Sung Joon Kim, Dong-Hun Woo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Heart disease involves irreversible myocardial injury that leads to high morbidity and mortality rates. Numerous cell-based cardiac in vitro models have been proposed as complementary approaches to non-clinical animal research. However, most of these approaches struggle to accurately replicate adult human heart conditions, such as myocardial infarction and ventricular remodeling pathology. The intricate interplay between various cell types within the adult heart, including cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells, contributes to the complexity of most heart diseases. Consequently, the mechanisms behind heart disease induction cannot be attributed to a single-cell type. Thus, the use of multi-cellular models becomes essential for creating …

Effect Of Delayed Cell Infusion In Patients With Large B-Cell Lymphoma Treated With Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy, Andrew P Jallouk, Naishu Kui, Ryan Sun, Jason R Westin, Raphael E Steiner, Ranjit Nair, Loretta J Nastoupil, Luis E Fayad, Ajlan Al Zaki, Misha Hawkins, Sherry Adkins, Mansoor Noorani, Kaberi Das, Jared Henderson, Elizabeth J Shpall, Partow Kebriaei, Jeremy Ramdial, Christopher R Flowers, Sattva S Neelapu, Sairah Ahmed, Paolo Strati

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Complications occurring after lymphodepleting chemotherapy (LDC) may delay chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell infusion. The effect of these delays on clinical outcomes is unclear. We performed a retrospective analysis of 240 patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma treated with standard-of-care axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) and identified 40 patients (16.7%) who had delay in axi-cel infusion. Of these, 85% had delay due to infection. At time of LDC initiation, patients with delayed infusion had lower absolute neutrophil count (P=0.006), lower platelets (P=0.004), lower hemoglobin (P5 days (4.6 vs. 8.2 months; P=0.036), but not 1 day (5.7 vs. 8.2 months; P=0.238). Following propensity …

Gamification Of Speech Therapy With Pronunciation Pal, Parker Zbylut

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone report examines the theory and implementation behind applying game design principles to educational applications, and explores their implementation in an educational game through the Pronunciation Pal application. The gamification of learning tools aims to increase learners' engagement and attentiveness with a subject by restructuring content using game design principles of challenges, rewards and feedback. Feedback can be delivered via visuals and/or sounds, as well as regular indicators of player progress and accomplishment. In addition, a successful game implementation establishes challenges to facilitate a player's intrinsic desire to continue playing and improving at the skills presented by the game. …

Anti-Thesis: When Your Worst Moments Become Your Best Work, Abigail Williamson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

My honors capstone project expands the creative work of a major writing assignment in English 3170: Successful Freelance Magazine Writing, which was modeled after Susan Shapiro’s “Humiliation Essay.” Shapiro’s signature assignment encourages students to write about an embarrassing or upsetting moment with the aim to force sincerity and humility. She writes, “It encourages students to shed vanity and pretension and relive an embarrassing moment that makes them look silly, fearful, fragile or naked.” The humiliation essay, she claims, often leads to publication because the conflict of the assignment inspires writers, and the narrator’s self-insight that occurs during the process of …