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Housing And Urban Development Home Development And The Future Of The Industry: Case Study, Nolan J. Binkele

Construction Management

A HUD home is a 1-4 unit residential property acquired by HUD (Housing and Urban Development) as a result of a foreclosure action. These homes tend to be priced slightly below market value in order to regain past losses. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has developed a building code to classify manufactured homes as HUD. Although manufactured homes are typically sold to single property owners, I hypothesize that building them in a tract form can benefit a community by providing affordable, adequate housing for low income families and single families. I also hypothesize that HUD home development will …

Announcing The 2021 Induction Of Members Into The Accounting Hall Of Fame, American Accounting Association

Accounting Hall of Fame Brochures

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Highly Sensitive Pressure Sensing System With Custom-Built Software For Continuous Physiological Measurements, Masoud Panahi

Masters Theses

In this work, a pressure sensing system was designed and fabricated by developing a highly sensitive cone-structured pressure sensor with a custom-built software for physiological monitoring applications. A novel highly sensitive cone structured porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based pressure sensor capable of detecting very low-pressure ranges was developed for respiration monitoring. The pressure sensor was fabricated using a master mold, a hybrid-structured dielectric layer, and fabric-based electrodes. The master mold with inverted cone structures was created using a rapid and precise three-dimensional (3D) printing technique. The dielectric layer, with pores and cone structures, was prepared by annealing a mixture of PDMS, …

A Cross-Sectional Assessment Of Cem Curriculum Offerings At The Pre-College Level In The Carolinas, Cayla Lenore Anderson

All Theses

Career and Technical Education (CATE or CTE) is essential at the pre-college level since students primarily make career decisions during this time. CTE curriculum is implemented in various schools, including Title 1, to develop knowledge for students regarding technical careers. The construction, engineering, and management (CEM) curriculum is a type of CTE curriculum designed to educate pre-college level students about careers in the construction industry. Knowledge opportunities about the construction industry can contribute to a workforce shortage. Research suggests a shortage of future workforce in the construction industry within the next decade or by 2040. Assessing the CEM curriculum at …

Alternative Doppler Extraction For Indoor Communication Signals, Thomas L. Bradshaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Radar is a common detection system for detecting the speed and velocity of moving objects. Radar is performed by transmitting a radio signal in the direction of a moving object and then processing the received reflected radio waves. The radar system processes the received signal to extract the Doppler frequency of the reflected waves, which reveals information about the velocity of the object. In traditional radar, the system uses one antenna for both the transmitter and the receiver.

In passive bistatic radar, the transmit antenna and receiver antenna are separated. In addition, the radar system has no control over the …

Accessing Healthcare In The Intermountain West During The Age Of Precarious Labor, Jordan Hammon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research aims to improve our understanding about the association between precarious employment and healthcare access. Using the framework of neoliberalism and the history of welfare reform in the United States, this thesis investigates the relationship between precarious labor and two outcomes associated with health insurance access, namely Medicaid utilization, and being uninsured. I also examine one potential consequence of Medicaid utilization and lack of insurance, having a usual place of health care in the context of the Intermountain West region of the United States.

Using new survey data and quantitative methodologies, this research shows how economic changes, particularly related …

Gender And Political Incentives: Examining The Applicant Pool Under Merit Selection, Logan M. Loftis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Merit selection is a judicial selection system for when a state’s constitution or statute directs an independent nominating commission to evaluate applicants as a precursor to gubernatorial appointment. The initial process to fill a judicial vacancy under merit selection has three steps: application, nomination, and appointment. Proponents of the selection system insist that by de-emphasizing politics and highlighting qualifications, judicial diversification will be more likely to increase under merit selection. Yet, there is not a clear consensus as to whether merit selection systematically engenders a more diverse bench.

In this thesis, I explore whether women are less likely to apply …

Exploring Analytical Issues Associated With Oxidation Kinetics In Drinking Water, Shadi Haji Eghrari

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation contains two different section that pertain to two different subjects.

Section One (Haloamines): Disinfection with ozone and chlorine is critical in protecting the public and animals from pathogens in pools. Disinfection results in in the formation of haloamines from the unintended reactions of human and animal inputs and bromide/chloride with oxidants and disinfectants which cause health problems.

The purpose of this research was to examine the occurrence of haloamines during the chlorination of saltwaters. In this study, the effect of bromide concentration was observed to exert a significant effect on the stability of Haloamines, and with no bromide …

Methods Development, Design Analysis, And Testing Of Novel Centrifugal Devices For Mammalian Cell Culture Harvest, W. Aaron Dryden

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thermo Fisher Scientific is developing a centrifugal device to be used in the biopharmaceutical industry. The novel technology was used to remove cells from cell cultures, which produce drugs and medical treatments. The harvest process of removing cells is the first step towards product purification and is an important unit operation for ensuring high product yield. Since the device is a novel technology, methods to test and evaluate the performance of the centrifuge needed to be developed.

Successful testing methods were developed in this work and were implemented on over 30 different centrifuge designs. Amongst these many designs, different operating …

Generation Of Sheep Models Of Cystic Fibrosis By Gene Editing And Cloning, Iuri Viótti Périssé

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease that affects over 80,000 people worldwide and is caused by mutations that disrupt the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) gene. This gene encodes a channel protein that regulates ion transport in cells. The most common mutation in the human CFTR gene is F508del, which is characterized by the deletion of a phenylalanine amino acid in the CFTR protein. The second most common mutation is G542X, a protein synthesis “stop” mutation that prevents the production of the CFTR channel protein. An impediment that prevents the further understanding CF is the limited …

Susceptibility Of High-Elevation Forests To Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Ponderosae Hopkins) Under Climate Change, David N. Soderberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Across western North America, pine forests are important for timber, wildlife habitat, and at high elevations are important for water retention and yield from rain and snowmelt. The mountain pine beetle (MPB) is one of the most significant disturbance agents shaping pine forests, and like all insects, temperature is a major driver of its population success and the dynamics of the landscapes that they inhabit. Changing temperature regimes can therefore directly influence MPB population persistence at a particular location, in addition to potential shifts in the range boundaries that they inhabit. MPB is currently expanding its range northward in British …

Venturi Meter Performance When Installed On The Branch Of A Tee Junction With Converging Run Flow, E. Elliot Naulu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Venturi flow meters are often installed downstream of disturbances such as a tee junction, valve, or elbow. In such a case, a laboratory calibration may be needed to measure the Venturi meter’s performance under said limitations so that accurate metering is achieved. However, in some cases, laboratory calibration may not be possible.The purpose of this research was to investigate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) ability to simulate a Venturi meter installed on the branch of a tee junction with converging run flow.

This study used CFD to compare against laboratory results to illustrate CFD’s capability as a calibration method. The results …

Intraday Stock Trading Using Reinforcement Learning: An Investigation Of Visual Representations Of Price, Kanak Tenguria

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this study, we are developing a reinforcement learning-based strategy for the intraday trading of stocks. This study’s primary goals include developing an environment that can be used as a simulator for the day trading stock market and, train an agent to trade in this environment by performing actions and finding the optimal policy to maximize its reward.

This study also focuses on experimentation with different state representations to understand how data representation affects the learning system. We have experimented with three different state representations. All the representations focus on presenting the intraday stock data as images. We have chosen …

Investigating The Habits Of Mind Of Practicing Engineers, Theresa K. Green

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One goal of undergraduate engineering education is to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and decision-making strategies that are necessary for success in engineering practice. One proposed method to teach students these skills is to incorporate habits of mind into K-12 and undergraduate curricula. Habits of mind are the intelligent, social behaviors that engineers should aspire to have when solving problems, engaging with others, and dealing with uncertainty. Previous literature has suggested that incorporating ideas about habits of mind in educational curricula can teach students the disciplinary skills, technical knowledge, and social values that would help prepare them to enter …

Active Stability Monitoring And Stability Control Of Dc Microgrids Using Incremental Continuous Injection, Rohail Hassan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Electrified transportation and integration of renewable energy in the electric power grid requires the use of power electronic converters for integrating different forms of power; from ac to dc, dc to ac, dc to dc, etc. Recent trend towards electrifying automobiles, aircraft and ships, and increasing penetration of renewable energy has increased the required power levels and number of the power electronics converters connected together in a dc microgrid system. Stable operation of these interfacing converters for all operating conditions has been a topic of renewed interest in the last couple of decades. Traditionally, dc microgrids have been designed conservatively …

Analysis Of Large Embankment Dam In Case Of Rapid Drawdown And Earthquake Aftershock, Pothikul Vivithkeyoonvong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dams and reservoirs are important as a source of freshwater as well as for regulating flooding and producing hydroelectricity. The same as with any other manmade structure, dams need to monitored and maintained to prevent disastrous failure.

One of the events that can reduce the stability of an embankment dam is rapid drawdown. Rapid drawdown is when the water level decreases at such a rapid rate that the dam material(s) cannot drain and adjust to the change in time. Without the buttressing effect of the water, the upstream slope of the dam becomes less stable. Another threat to dam stability …

3d-Printed Morphing Wings For Controlling Yaw On Flying-Wing Aircraft, Benjamin C. Moulton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The flaps on an airplane wing are used to control the aircraft during flight. These flaps traditionally have at most three articulation or hinge points. Recent studies have shown improved flap efficiency using a conformal flap, which deforms following a curved shape. Much of aircraft improvement comes through increasing its efficiency during flight. This efficiency is generally improved by decreasing the drag force on the aircraft. A potential solution to decrease drag is to remove additional lifting surfaces, such as the horizontal and vertical stabilizer ubiquitous on general aviation aircraft. These additional lifting surfaces are used to trim and control …

Attitude And Reflection Parameter Estimation Of Resident Space Objects Using Ground-Based Photometry, Arun J. Bernard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There are currently thousands of objects orbiting Earth, and this number is only going to increase. Larger number of satellites will require that operators have a greater knowledge of the state their assets. Electro-optical telescopes are currently being used to observe and track many of these objects. When using these telescopes to take images of satellites, they often appear as dots in the image. Depending on the surface properties of the satellite, and its orientation at a given time, the dots in the image can appear brighter or dimmer. Photometry measurements are a quantification of how bright the object appears. …

Safety In Numbers: Models Of Pedestrian And Bicycle Crash Frequency And Severity At Signalized Intersections In Utah Using Innovative Measure Of Exposure, Ahadul Islam

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Recent trends indicate a dramatic increase in both the number and share of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities nationally and in many states. This study aimed at understanding (geometric, traffic, operational, and other) factors associated with pedestrian and bicycle safety and also to assist in the prioritization and selection of countermeasures to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety at signalized intersections. Several negative binomial models were estimated to investigate factors affecting pedestrian and bicycle crash frequency. The models suggested several characteristics of the road network, land use, built environment, and neighborhood sociodemographics were significantly associated with more (or fewer) pedestrian …

Development Of An Anisotropic Thermal Stress Model For A Low-Erosion Hybrid Rocket Nozzle System, Judson C. Stephens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Hybrid rockets are rockets which employ a solid fuel grain with a liquid oxidizer. Hybrids have many promising potential applications, however they also have a few drawbacks. Of interest to this research is the increased rate of nozzle erosion inherent to hybrid rockets. In order to address this issue, a low-erosion nozzle is proposed and evaluated.

Metaxmorph: Hierarchical Transformation Of Data With Metadata, Shubham Airan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research is about transforming data. Data comes in different shapes; it can be structured as a graph, a tree, a collection of tables, or some other shape. In this thesis, we focus on data structured as a tree, which is known as hierarchical data. The same data could be structured in many different tree shapes. Previously it was shown how to transform data from one tree shape, one hierarchy to another without losing any information. But sometimes the pieces of the hierarchy are annotated or associated with metadata, that is, with data about the data itself. The metadata can …

Evaluation Of Bioretention Performance In Northern Utah As A Function Of Media, Vegetation, And Loading, Trixie Rife

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Pollutants found in stormwater runoff are a growing environmental concern. The EPA has identified bioretention (BR) systems as a best management practice for the control of pollutants in stormwater runoff. BR systems reduce pollutant loads discharged to surface water bodies and to lower pollutant concentrations of water infiltrating into underlying groundwater. However, knowledge of the performance of BR systems in semi-arid Western climates is lacking. This study was conducted at three field sites in Northern Utah to evaluate the effectiveness of various natural and engineered media and various plant species on pollutant removal subjected to a range of pollutant loadings …

Embracing Low-Power Systems With Improvement In Security And Energy-Efficiency, Pramesh Pandey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As the economies around the world are aligning more towards usage of computing systems, the global energy demand for computing is increasing rapidly. Additionally, the boom in AI based applications and services has already invited the pervasion of specialized computing hardware architectures for AI (accelerators). A big chunk of research in the industry and academia is being focused on providing energy efficiency to all kinds of power hungry computing architectures. This dissertation adds to these efforts.

Aggressive voltage underscaling of chips is one the effective low power paradigms of providing energy efficiency. This dissertation identifies and deals with the reliability …

Returning Veterans’ Experiences Of A Holistic Therapeutic Program, Elda C. Veloso Ph.D, Angela Yehl, James Pann, Jacob Connolly, Stephen Grabner, Lyndsey Zoller, Nicole Staley, Renata F. S. Goldhagen

The Qualitative Report

Since 2001, over 2.7 million U.S. military service members have been deployed (Wenger et al., 2018). Many of these soldiers have encountered serious challenges readjusting upon their return home and many may not access the services needed to achieve successful reintegration. Current literature calls for holistic approaches to service provision, involving collaboration of support services to address the underutilization of services. To better understand the gap in treatment utilization, a qualitative approach was used to examine returning veterans’ experiences of an intensive and holistic service delivery program implemented in coordination with local veterans’ organizations. Within the study, a generic qualitative …

Contributions Of Implicit And Explicit Memories To Sensorimotor Adaptation Of Movement Extent During Goal-Directed Reaching, Devon D. Lantagne, Leigh A. Mrotek, Rebecca Slick, Scott A. Beardsley, Danny G. Thomas, Robert A. Scheidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

We examined how implicit and explicit memories contribute to sensorimotor adaptation of movement extent during goal-directed reaching. Twenty subjects grasped the handle of a horizontal planar robot that rendered spring-like resistance to movement. Subjects made rapid “out-and-back” reaches to capture a remembered visual target at the point of maximal reach extent. The robot’s resistance changed unpredictably between reaches, inducing target capture errors that subjects attempted to correct from one trial to the next. Each subject performed over 400 goal-directed reaching trials. Some trials were performed without concurrent visual cursor feedback of hand motion. Some trials required self-assessment of performance between …

Liveness Analysis, Modeling, And Simulation Of Blockchain Consensus Algorithms' Ability To Tolerate Malicious Miners, Amani Altarawneh

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The blockchain technology revolution and concomitant use of blockchains in various applications have resulted in many organizations and individuals developing and customizing their own fit-for-purpose consensus algorithms. Because security and performance are principally achieved through the chosen consensus algorithm, the reliability and security of these algorithms must be both assured and tested. This work provides a methodology to assess such algorithms for their security level and performance is required; liveness for permissioned blockchain systems is evaluated. We focus on permissioned blockchains because they retain the structure and benefits afforded by the blockchain concept while end users maintain control over their …

An Analytic Hierarchy Process And Markov Chain Based Approach For Condition Rating And Dynamic Service Life Prediction Of Retaining Walls, Abdulazeez Lawal

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Retaining walls are typically considered auxiliary assets within the global transportation asset management scheme. However, failure cases to this structure class have attracted more attention to retaining wall assets. The possibility of failure also helps validate Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) requirements that transportation agencies develop asset management plans. Consequently, this thesis represents the development of a framework that combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Markov Chain to rate and predict the future condition of retaining walls respectively. Based on the Field Survey of candidate retaining walls, the research uses AHP for hierarchical configuration and …

Improving Inter-Area Oscillations Damping Of Power Systems Through Cooperative Active Power Control Of Distributed Energy Resources, Pablo Macedo

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The remarkable growth of power electronics-interfaced renewable generations in the electric power grid has the potential to pronounce the effect of frequency disturbances such as inter-area oscillations. These low-frequency disturbances reduce transmission lines capacity, and at worst even damage the power grid infrastructures. In this paper, we propose a novel control algorithm to eliminate inter-area oscillations modes based on local measurements of frequency and the system's global average frequency. The performance of the proposed solution is investigated on different multi-machine test systems with classic and detailed electromechanical dynamic models through modal analysis and time-domain simulations. The modal analysis results indicate …

Disparities In Health Care: The Pandemic’S Lessons For Health Lawyers, Danielle Pelfrey Duryea, Nicole Huberfeld, Ruqaiijah Yearby

Faculty Scholarship

Population-level disparities in health and health care came to the forefront of U.S. public consciousness in 2020. As the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic stratification of COVID-19 infection and death rates emerged with chilling clarity, the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer focused millions of Americans on the complex, structural nature of inequity and its long-lasting effects.

Access to quality health care is a “social determinant of health,” meaning that it is one of the “non-medical factors that influence health outcomes . . . the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set …

Assessing The Prevalance Of Joint-Controlled Mass Wasting In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A., Madeline Konopinski

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Landslides are common hazards that produce devastating effects worldwide. Within the United States, the Appalachian Mountains are identified as an area of moderate to high susceptibility and incidence for landslides (Mirus et al., 2020; Wieczorek and Morgan, 2008). Given the presence of active seismic zones (eastern Tennessee and Giles County seismic zones) and variable rainfall due to seasonal storms (hurricanes) throughout the Appalachians, ancient earthquake activity or intense rainfall may trigger mass wasting events. Regional bedrock joints may further control the susceptibility of landslides to develop in specific locations during trigger events by providing a pre-existing weakness in the substrate. …