Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Correspondence Of Attachment Dimensions To Prayer Styles Among Undergraduate Students, Nathaniel Aaron Lamkin

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Varieties Of Deer Imagery: Gender And Cosmology In Prehistoric Belief Systems Of Central Asia And South Siberia., Luke Champouillon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the Altai Mountains of far-western Mongolia near the convergence of China, Kazakhstan, and Russia, the Biluut Rock Art Complex contains over 9,000 petroglyphs. Hundreds of associated archaeological features including stone mounds and different types of standing stones are also present. Perhaps most crucial to connecting Biluut rock art with these features are deer stones, found not only here, but also throughout northern and central Mongolia, the larger Altai region, and Central Asia. These monuments bear important connections to khirigsuurs, Bronze Age burial mounds of stone encircled by ringed “fences”. Stylized “Mongolian deer” engraved on the classical type of deer …

Assessing And Enabling Independent Component Analysis As A Hyperspectral Unmixing Approach, Matthew R. Stites

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Perhaps the most common way to distinguish materials is by color. For example, this is typically how one determines, from some distance, whether a material on the ground is grass (green), soil (brown), or asphalt (black). To accomplish this, most digital cameras (along with the human eye) produce images that are comprised of three different colors, called spectral bands: red, green, and blue. The combination of these bands enables material discrimination. Working in the same way, but on a much larger scale, hyperspectral imaging sensors produce images that are comprised of hundreds of spectral bands. This combination of bands enables …

Unsteady Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Validation And Uncertainty Quantification For A Confined Bank Of Cylinders Using Particle Image Velocimetry (Piv), Brandon M. Wilson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Computational modeling is of particular interest to science and engineering for the improvement of design and development of products and research of physical phenomena. However, confidence in a computational model must be validated prior to it's application through comparison to experimental data. The nuclear power industry has interest in the application of computational modeling to plant design, safety, and development for the increased understanding of heat transfer and fluid dynamics. Fluid dynamics, particularly time-varying phenomena within the reactor core, has a strong effect on heat (energy) transfer and transient accident scenarios of a nuclear power plant. While this work was …

Social Organization And Decision Making In North American Bison: Implications For Management, Ryan A. Shaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Social organization varies widely among herbivores, and the level of social organization in bison is widely debated. I hypothesized that when mother-daughter relationships are allowed to develop, bison form long-term associations. In my study, 25 treatment mothers were selected from a free-ranging herd and kept together with their calves, while 25 control females had their calves forcefully removed. Treatment mothers and offspring had by far the greatest number of associations with a greater percentage of individuals with a half weight index (HWI) > 0.50. The strongest associations (HWI > 0.31) were among treatment mothers and their offspring. Moreover, these associations persisted over …

Systematics Of Multillidae (Hymenoptera) With Special Emphasis On Dasymutilla And Their Allies, Kevin A. Williams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Velvet ants are solitary wasps that are excellent candidates as model organisms for studying evolutionary phenomena like mimicry and biogeography. They can also be used in conservation studies because of their local abundance. Their abundance, coupled with parasitic lifestyle on native pollinators, suggests they will be economically important as native pollinators are implemented more widely. Velvet ants, however, are rarely studied and their research potential is drastically hindered by lack of phylogenetic and taxonomic data and lack of interest in the scientific community. In this dissertation, I sought to overcome the hindrances to mutillid research with a holistic systematic research …

The Role Of Fine-Scale Habitat Associations In Structuring Spider Assemblages: Determinants Of Spatial Patterns In Community Composition, Stephanie M. Cobbold

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ecologists strive to identify the mechanisms that drive the identity and abundance of species in different locations, because a better understanding of such factors enables them to better predict the effects of habitat modification on organisms, and to identify landscapes in which species are likely to benefit from conservation interventions. However, there is still no consensus on the mechanisms behind geographical variation in species diversity. The primary objective of this dissertation was to focus on spider assemblages to investigate how the fine-scale habitat associations of organisms may drive the composition of their communities at larger scales. Research was conducted in …

Spider Community Composition And Structure In A Shrub-Steppe Ecosystem: The Effects Of Prey Availability And Shrub Architecture, Lori R. Spears

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Habitat structure is cited as an important factor influencing organisms, but few studies investigate whether habitat structure interacts with other environmental variables to affect community dynamics. The purpose of this study was to determine, using field experiments, the importance of prey availability and shrub architecture on a spider community in northern Utah, USA. We were also interested in determining whether surrounding shrub architectures influence spider and prey responses.

Our results suggest that spider distribution, abundance, and biodiversity are influenced by shrub architecture. Shrub architecture influenced spiders both directly and indirectly via associated changes in prey availability. Spiders were also directly …

Problem Solving In Latino Families, Eliza Torres

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this dissertation is to learn if the quality of problem solving, parent engagement, and child engagement improve as a result of participating in a parenting intervention. The quality of problem solving was coded by independent observers watching a 5-minute videotaped task. Parent and child engagement were also coded by an observer and were evident in behaviors such as making eye contact, using good social skills, using humor, minimizing problems, and showing empathy were also rated by individual coders who were blinded to treatment/control groups. Each parent-child pair had a total of three scores, one for each variable …

An Examination Of The Effects Of Transformational And Transactional Leadership Styles On Branch Level Success Of Industrial Distribution Companies, Rod L. Flanigan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wholesale distribution represents an estimated 7% of our country's GDP. The industrial distribution segment of this market is nearly $400 billion, annually. The rapid change of technology, foreign imports, and societal change continues to have significant impact on the industrial distribution market. Combined with the imminent leadership gap in the industry over the next several years, and the impact of developing and understanding effective leadership at the branch levels of industrial distributors, this becomes critically important for the long-term success of the entire organization.

This study attempts to understand the impact of leadership style on the success of industrial distributors …

Integration Of Nutrition Education Classes Into English As Second Language Classes For Refugees, Sarah Gunnell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Each year approximately 73,000 refugees are resettled into the United States because it is unsafe for them to return to their country of origin. Resettlement agencies help refugees learn about their new environment and provide assistance with housing, food, English classes, and job skills training. The goal of resettlement programs is to help refugees become self-sufficient as quickly as possible.

Recently resettled refugees face many challenges that make it difficult to eat healthy food. Transportation, English skills, and conflicting work hours are some of the barriers to receiving nutrition education. This research evaluated the integration of nutrition lessons into English …

Web Usage Mining: Application To An Online Educational Digital Library Service, Bart C. Palmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation examined how users of the Instructional Architect (IA; http://ia.usu.edu) utilized the system in order to find online learning resources, place them in a new online instructional activities, and share and use them with students. The online learning resources can be found in educational digital libraries such as the National Science Digital Library (NSLD; http://nsdl.org) or the wider Web. Usage data from 22 months of IA use were processed to form usage features that were analyzed in order to find clusters of user behavior using latent class analysis (LCA).

The users were segmented into two samples with 5–90 and …

Dads' Parent Interactions With Children-Checklist Of Observations Linked To Outcomes (Piccolo-D): Developing An Observational Measure Of Father-Child Interaction, Sheila Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Intervention programs providing support for father parenting skills need a practical but psychometrically strong observational measure of fathers’ early positive parenting interactions with children. The primary purpose of this project was to develop a valid, reliable observational measure of father-child interaction, based on research and theory, that predicts child outcomes, identifies fathers’ strengths, and will be useful for home visiting practitioners. This study sought to fulfill this need by developing a new measure called Dads’ Parenting Interactions with Children—Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO-D) for home visitors to use to identify fathering strengths. Developed with extant video observations of …

The Mechanisms Of Hydride Exchange, Organic Combination And Displacement Reactions, Weifang Hao

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The primary aim of this dissertation was to seek the answer to the question: “Is the single transition-state model appropriate for the fundamental reactions in organic chemistry?” The goal was accomplished by performing enormous kinetic data collection and detailed mechanistic analysis on several typical fundamental organic chemical reactions. Three new methodologies for differentiating between a simple one-step and complex multi-step mechanism were developed and extensively confirmed during the application in the kinetic studies of all of the reaction discussed in this dissertation. The three methods consist of (1) half-life dependence of kapp, (2) sequential linear pseudo-first-order correlation, and (3) revised …

Rationalizing Structure, Stability, And Chemical Bonding Of Pure And Doped Clusters Isolated And Solvated Multiply Charged Anions, And Solid State Materials, Alina P. Sergeeva

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Chemistry is the study of materials and the changes that materials undergo. One can tune the properties of the known materials and design the novel materials with desired properties knowing what is responsible for the chemical reactivity, structure, and stability of those materials. The unified chemical bonding theory could address all these questions, but we do not have one available yet. The most accepted general theory of chemical bonding was proposed by Lewis in 1916, though Lewis’s theory fails to explain the bonding in materials with delocalized electron density such as sub-nano and nanoclusters, as well as aromatic organic and …

Treatment Of Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Utilizing Parent-Facilitated Acceptance And Commitment Therapy, Jennifer Yardley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects as many as 2.7% of children. Pediatric OCD is associated with significant distress for both families and children in multiple domains. Unfortunately, the majority of children with OCD do not receive adequate treatment. Without treatment pediatric OCD often persists into adulthood.

The current primary psychological treatment for pediatric OCD is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure and response prevention (ERP). However, there are multiple limitations of this treatment. Some children either do not respond to current treatments or respond only minimally, while others drop out or refuse treatment.
Exposure-based treatments yield problems with treatment adherence, …

Use Of Rumen Modifiers To Manipulate Ruminal Fermentation And Improve Nutrient Utilization And Lactational Performance Of Dairy Cows, Christopher M. Dschaak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A series of lactation studies reported in this dissertation hypothesized that supplementing different rumen modifiers would have consistent responses on ruminal fermentation and lactational performance under optimal rumen conditions.

The first experiment investigated the influence of magnesium exchanged zeolite on ruminal fermentation and lactational performance. Intake of dry matter (DM), milk yield, milk fat, and feed efficiency were not affected. Milk protein concentration tended (P = 0.15) to be higher for cows fed the zeolite. Ruminal pH tended to increase (P = 0.11) by feeding the sodium bicarbonate or the zeolite.

A second lactation experiment determined …

On-Farm Water Management Game With Heuristic Capabilities, Mohammed Z. Shaban

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Improved on-farm irrigation practices can result in more economical farming, and better productivity. Very little has been done with regard to improved training tools that can be used to promote better and more effective on-farm irrigation practices. Games considered as an effective decision support tools in which players are able to test alternatives, and demonstrate the effects of their decisions, in a short time, and without being afraid of making mistakes. Training tools in the form of games promotes what is called “learning based on experience” through a schematic version of reality, and observing the effects.

The WaterMan game was …

'Accidental Genius' At The Milwaukee Art Museum, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Autonomy And Paternalism, Ilona K. Phipps-Morgan

Scripps Senior Theses

I wish to determine when one is justified in paternalistic interferences that override a subject’s autonomy. In order to lay the groundwork for discussing paternalistic interferences with autonomous decisions, I first consider different conceptions of autonomy, welfare, and paternalism, and determine which I mean to use. In particular, I proceed with Dworkin’s characterization of autonomy as a combination of authenticity and self-determination; Nussbaum’s capabilities theory in order to determine welfare; and a definition of paternalism as being an interference with a subject’s liberty or autonomy that is motivated exclusively by consideration for that subject’s own good or welfare.

Once I …

Une Éthique De La Modestie Dans Les Essais De Montaigne (Towards A Modest Ethics In Montaigne's Essays), Catherine Parker Sweatt

Scripps Senior Theses

La plupart des lectures contemporaines des Essais ignore la pensée morale de Montaigne. Ici, je maintiens que Montaigne épouse ‘une éthique de la modestie’ en même temps qu’il rejette toute éthique normative. En particulier, je cherche à aborder comment Montaigne suggère que nous connaissons la vertu et agissons si deux individus ne partagent pas le même perspective et on ne peut pas être le même sujet éthique deux fois. Je vais commencer par discuter la position épistémique de Montaigne par rapport aux universels pour illustrer comment Montaigne met en question l’universalité des lois éthiques et un bien connu a priori …

Parsimony And Quantum Mechanics: An Analysis Of The Copenhagen And Bohmian Interpretations, Jhenna Voorhis

Scripps Senior Theses

Parsimony, sometime referred to as simplicity, is an effective criterion of theory choice in the case of Quantum Mechanics. The Copenhagen and Bohmian interpretations are rival theories, with the Bohmian interpretation being more parsimonious. More parsimonious theories have a higher probability of being true than less parsimonious rivals. The Bohmian interpretation should thus be preferred on these grounds.

Buddhist Hard Determinism: No Self, No Free Will, No Responsibility, Rick Repetti

Publications and Research

This is the third article in a four-article series that examines Buddhist responses to the Western philosophical problem of whether free will is compatible with “determinism,” the doctrine of universal causation. The first article (“Earlier”) focused on the first publications on this issue in the 1970s, the “early period.” The second (“Paleo-compatibilism”) and the present articles examine key responses published in the last part of the Twentieth and the first part of the Twenty-first centuries, the “middle period.” The fourth article (“Recent”) examines responses published in the last few years, the “recent period.” Whereas early-period scholars endorsed a compatibilism between …

Berys Gaut's Failed Revival Of Medium-Specificity, Aleksey Balotskiy

Philosophy Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Discovering The Literary Relevancy Of Watchmen: A Review Of The Graphic Novel's Philosophical Themes, Tyler Flynn

Senior Honors Theses

The American comic book, specifically those of the superhero genre, is a medium that has been associated with stagnant, morally upright characters and formulaic plots. However, author Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons changed said stigma with their groundbreaking series Watchmen. An analysis of the work’s storyline, as well as some of the main characters, will reveal the deep philosophical and psychological underpinnings of the graphic novel, and, more importantly, its literary merit. A Christian interpretation of the work will also be presented.

Using Concepts From Freire’S Pedagogy Of The Oppressed To Promote Colorectal Cancer Screening In An Urban Minority Population, Corey H. Brouse, Charles E. Basch, Randi L. Wolf

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

This paper briefly introduces Freire’s philosophy of education, as well as examples of how this philosophy can be used in health education. Concepts from Freire’s work are highlighted along with how they are applicable to educating adults about colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, a health behavior that is less prevalent among poor and minority populations. Concepts highlighted in Freire’s writing can be directly applied to reducing disparities in health.

The Sociology Of Harriet Martineau In Eastern Life, Present And Past: The Foundations Of The Islamic Sociology Of Religion, Deborah A. Ruigh

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This paper is a critical analysis of Harriet Martineau’s philosophical stance and epistemological modes, her systematic sociological methodology, her use of this methodology, and her sociology of religion. How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838), Eastern Life, Present and Past (1848), and other relevant works will be used to examine Martineau’s evolving epistemological modes as well as her sociology of religion. How to Observe, Martineau’s treatise on systematic sociological methodology and cultural relativism, will serve as an exemplar for analysis of Martineau’s methodological practice as evidenced in Eastern Life. The research problem herein is three-fold: (1) to examine …

Buddhist Reductionism And Free Will: Paleo-Compatibilism, Rick Repetti

Publications and Research

This is the second article in a four-article series that examines Buddhist responses to the Western philosophical problem of whether free will is compatible with “determinism,” the doctrine of universal causation. The first article focused on the first publications on this issue in the 1970s, the “early period”; the present article and the next examine key responses published in the last part of the Twentieth century and first part of the Twenty-first, the “middle period”; and the fourth article will examine responses published in the last few years. Whereas early-period scholars endorsed compatibilism, in the middle period the pendulum moved …

Capitalism And The Science Of History: Appleby, Marx, And Postmodernism, Patrick D. Anderson

Grand Valley Journal of History

Joyce Appleby has written an extensive amount on the origins and development of capitalism, but her work is influenced by her belief that history is a science with at least some objectivity. She rejects Marxism as a relic of past historians with naïve beliefs about finding the laws of nature, but she also rejects postmodern criticisms of history because they undermine any chance for objectivity. Appleby believes the historian can be objective even if politics necessarily colors his or her work. For Appleby, her support of capitalism leads her to make policy recommendations with her historiography, recommendations that change with …

Making Room For Matter, David Ebrey

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Socrates rejects material causes in the Phaedo, in sharp contrast to Aristotle, who gives them a fundamental role in his account of the natural world. Why do they disagree about this? It is sometimes suggested that Socrates rejects material causation because he requires causes to be rational or to be teleological. You might think, then, that Aristotle can have material causes because he does not have any such requirement. In this paper I argue for a different explanation. Plato and Aristotle ultimately disagree about material causation because of a difference in their causal frameworks: Socrates thinks that each change has …