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Brigham Young University

2020

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Articles 1 - 30 of 90

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Leveraging The Inductive Bias Of Large Language Models For Abstract Textual Reasoning, Christopher Michael Rytting Dec 2020

Leveraging The Inductive Bias Of Large Language Models For Abstract Textual Reasoning, Christopher Michael Rytting

Theses and Dissertations

Large natural language models (such as GPT-2 or T5) demonstrate impressive abilities across a range of general NLP tasks. Here, we show that the knowledge embedded in such models provides a useful inductive bias, not just on traditional NLP tasks, but also in the nontraditional task of training a symbolic reasoning engine. We observe that these engines learn quickly and generalize in a natural way that reflects human intuition. For example, training such a system to model block-stacking might naturally generalize to stacking other types of objects because of structure in the real world that has been partially captured by …


A Water Budget And Solute Flux Budget For Waimea River Watershed, Kauai, Hi, U.S.A., Joseph Harold Tolworthy Dec 2020

A Water Budget And Solute Flux Budget For Waimea River Watershed, Kauai, Hi, U.S.A., Joseph Harold Tolworthy

Theses and Dissertations

Waimea Canyon is a deep V-shaped canyon on the island of Kauai, Hawaii in which the Waimea River and its tributaries flow. The shape and size of the canyon are noteworthy and unusual compared to its contemporary canyons on the Hawaiian Islands which are usually U-shaped or flat bottomed. This could be because there is significantly more physical erosion in Waimea Canyon compared to others. A water budget was created using ArcGIS Pro and data from the University of Hawaii’s rainfall and evapotranspiration atlases, as well as from the United States Geological Survey’s stream gage data. A mass flux was …


Nature And Origin Of The East Traverse Mountains Mega-Landslide, Northern Utah (Usa), Rodney Ryan Chadburn Dec 2020

Nature And Origin Of The East Traverse Mountains Mega-Landslide, Northern Utah (Usa), Rodney Ryan Chadburn

Theses and Dissertations

The East Traverse Mountains are an E-W trending mountain range dividing Utah and Salt Lake valleys in northern Utah. Geologically perplexing, the nature of the East Traverse Mountains has been under investigation for 140 years. Previously, the mountain range was proposed to be a dismembered but still coherent down-faulted block that experienced 4 km of post-thrusting extension within the Charleston-Nebo thrust sheet. However, new insight on the origin of the East Traverse Mountains indicate that it is a mega landslide, roughly ~100 km3 in size, which catastrophically slid from the upper reaches of the Little-Cottonwood stock to its present-day location. …


Instrumentation And Application Of Image-Charge Detection Of Electrospray-Charged Microparticles And Microdroplets, Jiuzhi Gao Dec 2020

Instrumentation And Application Of Image-Charge Detection Of Electrospray-Charged Microparticles And Microdroplets, Jiuzhi Gao

Theses and Dissertations

Image-charge detection is emerging as an important tool to analyze heavy and heterogeneous samples because of its unique advantages in measuring highly charged microparticles. Conventional image-charge detection instruments include at least three fundamental components: an ionization source, an aerodynamic particle delivery system, and an image-charge detector. Here I report research efforts that investigated the mechanisms of image-charge detection and proposed some instrumental developments of these components to suit specific research purposes. In Chapter 2, I report an investigation of the electrospray ionization (ESI) mechanism based on an observation that a certain portion of charged particles generated with an ESI source …


Structures And Characteristics Of Macromolecular Interactions In Gas Phase Using Fourier-Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Jiewen Shen Dec 2020

Structures And Characteristics Of Macromolecular Interactions In Gas Phase Using Fourier-Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Jiewen Shen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates non-covalent macromolecular chemistry using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) based techniques. The included studies reveal the impact of molecular structure on conformation and binding energetics. Supramolecules that might be too heavy to be dissociated in single collision-induced dissociation (CID) were dissociated using sustained off-resonance collision induced dissociation (SORI-CID) techniques. Relative binding energies and thresholds were evaluated for various macromolecular host-guest systems. Besides the non-covalent binding energies, conformation characterization was undertaken by a novel method to determine collision cross sectional areas using FTICR (CRAFTI, and multi-CRAFTI), initially developed by the Dearden lab. The systems chosen …


Methods For Generative Adversarial Output Enhancement, Michael B. Brodie Dec 2020

Methods For Generative Adversarial Output Enhancement, Michael B. Brodie

Theses and Dissertations

Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) learn to synthesize novel samples for a given data distribution. While GANs can train on diverse data of various modalities, the most successful use cases to date apply GANs to computer vision tasks. Despite significant advances in training algorithms and network architectures, GANs still struggle to consistently generate high-quality outputs after training. We present a series of papers that improve GAN output inference qualitatively and quantitatively. The first chapter, Alpha Model Domination, addresses a related subfield of Multiple Choice Learning, which -- like GANs -- aims to generate diverse sets of outputs. The next chapter, CoachGAN, …


Eigenvalues Of Differential Operators And Nontrivial Zeros Of L-Functions, Dongsheng Wu Dec 2020

Eigenvalues Of Differential Operators And Nontrivial Zeros Of L-Functions, Dongsheng Wu

Theses and Dissertations

The Hilbert-P\'olya conjecture asserts that the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function $\zeta(s)$ correspond (in a certain canonical way) to the eigenvalues of some positive operator. R. Meyer constructed a differential operator $D_-$ acting on a function space $\H$ and showed that the eigenvalues of the adjoint of $D_-$ are exactly the nontrivial zeros of $\zeta(s)$ with multiplicity correspondence. We follow Meyer's construction with a slight modification. Specifically, we define two function spaces $\H_\cap$ and $\H_-$ on $(0,\infty)$ and characterize them via the Mellin transform. This allows us to show that $Z\H_\cap\subseteq\H_-$ where $Zf(x)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty f(nx)$. Also, the differential operator …


Novel Αvβ6 Inhibitor Reduces Fibrotic Progression In Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Murine Model, Rebecca C. Viazzo Winegar Dec 2020

Novel Αvβ6 Inhibitor Reduces Fibrotic Progression In Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Murine Model, Rebecca C. Viazzo Winegar

Theses and Dissertations

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is one of the most aggressive and severe interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) for which there is no cure. IPF is characterized by an excessive accumulation of fibroblasts which secrete an abundance of extracellular proteins such as collagen. These processes lead to repetitive tissue scarring and fibrosis in the lung parenchyma. As a result, lungs become rigid limiting oxygen intake and gas exchange. Once diagnosed, IPF is fatal within 2-3 years. There is no known cause or proven treatment that significantly improves outcomes. Although the cause is unknown, the current model of IPF suggests that an overactive …


Galectin-1 Improves Sarcolemma Repair And Decreases The Inflammatory Response In Lgmd2b Models, Matthew F. Rathgeber Dec 2020

Galectin-1 Improves Sarcolemma Repair And Decreases The Inflammatory Response In Lgmd2b Models, Matthew F. Rathgeber

Theses and Dissertations

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2B (LGMD2B) is caused by mutations in the dysferlin gene, resulting in non-functional dysferlin, a key protein found in muscle membrane. Treatment options available for patients are chiefly palliative in nature and focus on maintaining ambulation. Our hypothesis is that galectin-1 (Gal-1), a soluble carbohydrate binding protein, increases membrane repair capacity, myogenic potential, M2 macrophage polarization and decreases NF-κB inflammation in dysferlin-deficient models. To test this hypothesis, we used recombinant human galectin-1 (rHsGal-1) to treat dysferlin-deficient models. We show that rHsGal-1 treatments of 48 h-72 h promotes myogenic maturation as indicated through improvements in size, myotube …


Metalearning By Exploiting Granular Machine Learning Pipeline Metadata, Brandon J. Schoenfeld Dec 2020

Metalearning By Exploiting Granular Machine Learning Pipeline Metadata, Brandon J. Schoenfeld

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic machine learning (AutoML) systems have been shown to perform better when they use metamodels trained offline. Existing offline metalearning approaches treat ML models as black boxes. However, modern ML models often compose multiple ML algorithms into ML pipelines. We expand previous metalearning work on estimating the performance and ranking of ML models by exploiting the metadata about which ML algorithms are used in a given pipeline. We propose a dynamically assembled neural network with the potential to model arbitrary DAG structures. We compare our proposed metamodel against reasonable baselines that exploit varying amounts of pipeline metadata, including metamodels used …


Building A Predictive Model For Stratigraphic Transitions And Lateral Facies Changes In The Cretaceous Almond Formation, Wyoming, Joseph E. Phillips Dec 2020

Building A Predictive Model For Stratigraphic Transitions And Lateral Facies Changes In The Cretaceous Almond Formation, Wyoming, Joseph E. Phillips

Theses and Dissertations

The Cretaceous Almond Formation, located in the Greater Green River Basin, records deposition of coastal plain fluvial sandstones and shallow marginal-marine sandstones in a net-transgressive sequence along the western margin of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway (CIS) from the late Campanian to early Maastrichtian. The Almond Formation is an important hydrocarbon reservoir, with development mainly along the Wamsutter Arch and the northeast margins of the Washakie Basin. Previous studies have primarily focused on outcrops along the eastern flank of the Rock Springs Uplift and subsurface data targeting the Wamsutter Arch. Further development of the Almond petroleum system requires extending our understanding …


Varying The Aspect Ratio Of Toroidal Ion Traps: Implications For Design, Performance, And Miniaturization, Praneeth Madushan Hettikankanange Dec 2020

Varying The Aspect Ratio Of Toroidal Ion Traps: Implications For Design, Performance, And Miniaturization, Praneeth Madushan Hettikankanange

Theses and Dissertations

A large aspect ratio leads to higher ion capacity in miniaturized ion trap mass spectrometers. The aspect ratio (AR) of an ion trap represents the ratio between an extended trapping dimension and the characteristic trapping dimension. In contrast to linear and rectilinear traps, changing the AR of a toroidal ion trap (TorIT) results in changes to the degree of curvature and shape of the trapping potential, and hence, on performance as a mass analyzer. SIMION simulations show that higher-order terms in the trapping potential vary strongly for small and moderate AR values (below ~10), with the effects asymptotically flattening for …


Segment And Intersection Crash Analysis Methodologies For Utah Highways, Camille Cherie Lunt Dec 2020

Segment And Intersection Crash Analysis Methodologies For Utah Highways, Camille Cherie Lunt

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the Crash Analysis Methodology for Segments (CAMS) which provides a way for engineers at the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) to prioritize safety improvements on state-owned roadways. Unlike the Utah crash analysis methodologies that come before it, the CAMS focuses exclusively on segment-related crashes. The benefits of such an analysis can be found in identifying locations that have safety concerns unbiased from intersections and their related crashes. The CAMS uses UDOT data to create a spreadsheet of roadway segments and their associated crashes. Each segment is homogeneous with respect to five variables: Annual Average Daily Traffic …


The Impact Of Experiential Virtual Dinosaur Excavation Assignments On Exam Preparation And Performance Inâ An Introductory, University-Level Geology Course, Nicole Elizabeth Ortiz Dec 2020

The Impact Of Experiential Virtual Dinosaur Excavation Assignments On Exam Preparation And Performance Inâ An Introductory, University-Level Geology Course, Nicole Elizabeth Ortiz

Theses and Dissertations

Advocates assert that experiential/applicational learning facilitates deep understanding but there is a dearth of empirical research testing the effectiveness of experiential learning in university geology courses. Domack (1999) and Moecher (2004) document applicational assignments within geology courses. These evaluations, however, are based solely on instructor opinion and informal student comments. To evaluate the effectiveness of experiential assignments this study utilizes empirical data from control and test groups in each of two semesters of Geology 100, a general education course on dinosaurs. Control groups completed traditional research papers which were replaced by experiential assignments in the test groups. The first semester …


Trace: A Differentiable Approach To Line-Level Stroke Recovery For Offline Handwritten Text, Taylor Neil Archibald Dec 2020

Trace: A Differentiable Approach To Line-Level Stroke Recovery For Offline Handwritten Text, Taylor Neil Archibald

Theses and Dissertations

Stroke order and velocity are helpful features in the fields of signature verification, handwriting recognition, and handwriting synthesis. Recovering these features from offline handwritten text is a challenging and well-studied problem. We propose a new model called TRACE (Trajectory Recovery by an Adaptively-trained Convolutional Encoder). TRACE is a differentiable approach using a convolutional recurrent neural network (CRNN) to infer temporal stroke information from long lines of offline handwritten text with many characters. TRACE is perhaps the first system to be trained end-to-end on entire lines of text of arbitrary width and does not require the use of dynamic exemplars. Moreover, …


Lithofacies, Sequence Stratigraphy, And Sedimentology Of Desert Creek Platform, Slope, And Basin Carbonates, Southern Margin Of The Aneth Complex, Middle Pennsylvanian, Paradox Basin, Utah, Christopher M. Perfili Nov 2020

Lithofacies, Sequence Stratigraphy, And Sedimentology Of Desert Creek Platform, Slope, And Basin Carbonates, Southern Margin Of The Aneth Complex, Middle Pennsylvanian, Paradox Basin, Utah, Christopher M. Perfili

Theses and Dissertations

The Aneth Field in the Paradox Basin (SE Utah) has produced nearly 500 MMbbls of oil from phylloid-algal and oolitic carbonate reservoirs of the lower and upper Desert Creek (Paradox Formation, Middle Pennsylvanian) sequences, respectively. The oil resides in a 150 to 200 foot-thick isolated carbonate platform located in a distal ramp setting on the southwest margin of the Paradox Basin. The horseshoe-shaped platform is roughly 12 miles in diameter with an aerial extent of approximately 144 square miles. Evaluation of the platform-to-basin transition on the leeward (southern) margin of the Aneth Platform, the focus of this study, was made …


An Ulk1-Independent Mechanism Of Atg9a Regulation In Basal Autophagy, Ashari Rashmi Kannangara Nov 2020

An Ulk1-Independent Mechanism Of Atg9a Regulation In Basal Autophagy, Ashari Rashmi Kannangara

Theses and Dissertations

Macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as autophagy) is the bulk degradation and recycling of cytoplasmic materials by forming a double membrane vesicle called the autophagosome. Autophagosome formation is regulated by the coordinated action of a set of proteins. ATG9A is the only multispanning transmembrane protein that plays an essential role in autophagosome formation, yet its function is largely elusive. Previous studies have shown that the C-terminus of ATG9A plays an important role in regulating its trafficking and proper function in autophagy. In line with that idea, we previously identified an AMPK- and ULK1- mediated phosphorylation on the C terminus of ATG9A …


Formulating A Crowd State Prediction Problem For Application To Crowd Control, Brooks A. Butler Nov 2020

Formulating A Crowd State Prediction Problem For Application To Crowd Control, Brooks A. Butler

Theses and Dissertations

This project considers a new application of crowd control, namely, keeping the public safe during large scale demonstrations. This problem is difficult for a variety of reasons, including limited access to informative sensing and effective actuation mechanisms, as well as limited understanding of crowd psychology and dynamics. This project takes a first step towards solving this problem by formulating a crowd state prediction problem in consideration of recent work involving crowd behavior identification, crowd movement modeling, and crowd psychology modeling. We build a non-linear crowd behavior model incorporating components of personality modeling, human emotion modeling, group opinion dynamics, and group …


Predicting Plans And Actions In Two-Player Repeated Games, Najma Mathema Sep 2020

Predicting Plans And Actions In Two-Player Repeated Games, Najma Mathema

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) agents will need to interact with both other AI agents and humans. One way to enable effective interaction is to create models of associates to help to predict the modeled agents' actions, plans, and intentions. If AI agents are able to predict what other agents in their environment will be doing in the future and can understand the intentions of these other agents, the AI agents can use these predictions in their planning, decision-making and assessing their own potential. Prior work [13, 14] introduced the S# algorithm, which is designed as a robust algorithm for many two-player …


A Developer Usability Study Of Tls Libraries, Jonathan Blake Armknecht Sep 2020

A Developer Usability Study Of Tls Libraries, Jonathan Blake Armknecht

Theses and Dissertations

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a secure communication protocol between a client and a server over a network. The TLS protocol provides the two endpoints with confidentiality through symmetric encryption, endpoint authentication using public-key cryptography, and data integrity using a MAC. However, studies show that security vulnerabilities within TLS connections are often caused by developers misusing TLS library APIs. We measure the usability of four TLS libraries by performing a developer user study. Participants were given code that connects to google.com through HTTP, and tasked with using a TLS library to change the code so that it connects securely to …


Semantic-Driven Unsupervised Image-To-Image Translation For Distinct Image Domains, Wesley Ackerman Sep 2020

Semantic-Driven Unsupervised Image-To-Image Translation For Distinct Image Domains, Wesley Ackerman

Theses and Dissertations

We expand the scope of image-to-image translation to include more distinct image domains, where the image sets have analogous structures, but may not share object types between them. Semantic-Driven Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation for Distinct Image Domains (SUNIT) is built to more successfully translate images in this setting, where content from one domain is not found in the other. Our method trains an image translation model by learning encodings for semantic segmentations of images. These segmentations are translated between image domains to learn meaningful mappings between the structures in the two domains. The translated segmentations are then used as the basis …


Ansible: Select-To-Edit For Physical Widgets, Benjamin M. Crowder Sep 2020

Ansible: Select-To-Edit For Physical Widgets, Benjamin M. Crowder

Theses and Dissertations

Ansible brings select-to-edit functionality to physical widgets. When programming sets of physical widgets, it can be bothersome for a programmer to remember the name of the software object that corresponds to a specific widget. Click-to-edit functionality in GUI programming provides a physical action--moving the mouse to a widget and clicking a button on the mouse--to select a virtual widget. In a similar vein, when programming physical widgets, it is natural to point at a widget and think, "I want to program that one." Ansible allows physical user interface programmers to "click" on a physical widget by making a physical action: …


Physical Characterization Of Crackle-Related Events In Military Jet Aircraft Noise, Aaron Burton Vaughn Aug 2020

Physical Characterization Of Crackle-Related Events In Military Jet Aircraft Noise, Aaron Burton Vaughn

Theses and Dissertations

Crackle is a perceptual feature of supersonic jet noise that is related to the presence of acoustic shocks. The skewness of the time-derivative of the pressure waveform, or derivative skewness, is used as a metric indicative of crackle perception. The three main objectives of this work are: 1) Determine the potential spatial origin of crackle-related events in the near field of a high-performance military aircraft via an event-based beamforming method. 2) Investigate the potential for nonlinear, irregular shock reflections occurring along the near-field ground array and their implications on derivative skewness. 3) Relate the near-field, crackle-related events to far-field crackle …


Angular Dependence Of Nonlinear Thomson Scattering From Electrons In A High Intensity Laser Focus, Christoph Alexander Schulzke Aug 2020

Angular Dependence Of Nonlinear Thomson Scattering From Electrons In A High Intensity Laser Focus, Christoph Alexander Schulzke

Theses and Dissertations

The theory of nonlinear Thomson scattering is presented. A model for the scattered light is developed. The orthogonal polarizations of the second harmonic of the scattered light are examined. The predictions of the model are compared to measurements by our group in collaboration with the Extreme Light Laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). The veracity of the theory and model are confirmed by comparison to the experimental data.


Deep Learning To Predict Ocean Seabed Type And Source Parameters, David Franklin Van Komen Aug 2020

Deep Learning To Predict Ocean Seabed Type And Source Parameters, David Franklin Van Komen

Theses and Dissertations

In the ocean, light from the surface dissipates quickly leaving sound the only way to see at a distance. Different sediment types on the ocean floor and water properties like salinity, temperature, and ocean depth all change how sound travels across long distances. Hard sediment types, such as sand and bedrock, are highly reflective while softer sediment types, such as mud, are more absorptive and change the received sound upon arrival. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the ocean floor is not mapped and the expenses involved in creating such a map are far too great. Traditional signal processing methods in …


Polarization Of Nonlinear Thomson Scattering From A High Intensity Laser Focus, Brittni Tasha Pratt Aug 2020

Polarization Of Nonlinear Thomson Scattering From A High Intensity Laser Focus, Brittni Tasha Pratt

Theses and Dissertations

Thomson scattering from free electrons in a high-intensity laser focus has been widely studied analytically, but not many measurements of this scattering have been made. We measure polarization-resolved nonlinear Thomson scattering from electrons in a high-intensity laser focus using a parabolic mirror. The weak scattering signal is distinguished from background noise using single-photon detectors and nanosecond time-resolution to distinguish a prompt scattering signal from noise photons. The azimuthal and longitudinal components of the fundamental, second, and third harmonics were measured. Our measurements reasonably match theoretical results, but also show some asymmetry in the emission patterns.


Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Mindsets, Emily Ann Hales Kunz Aug 2020

Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Mindsets, Emily Ann Hales Kunz

Theses and Dissertations

Much research supports that student mindset influences how well students do in school and that teacher actions influence student mindset. Research has also shown that just because a teacher has a growth mindset, it does not imply that their students will also have a growth mindset. This research looks closer as to why a teacher's mindset does not correlate with their students' mindset by further examining teacher mindset and the connection between teacher mindset and teacher actions. In summary, teachers' mindsets do not directly influence student mindset for a few reasons: secondary mathematics teachers have different mindsets towards honors and …


Structure Of Collisional Metamorphism, Soft-Sediment Deformation, And Low-Angle Normal Faulting In The Beaver Dam Mountains, Jacob Isaac Voorhees Aug 2020

Structure Of Collisional Metamorphism, Soft-Sediment Deformation, And Low-Angle Normal Faulting In The Beaver Dam Mountains, Jacob Isaac Voorhees

Theses and Dissertations

Precambrian metamorphic rocks in the Beaver Dam Mountains display asymmetric, isoclinal folds with consistent fold axes plunging to the NW. These folds are parasitic and have a recursive nature that occurs on wavelengths from centimeters to perhaps kilometers as part of a NW-SE striking shear zone. The vergence of the folds indicates oblique shearing with a transport direction plunging 29° to the south. This shear zone may be associated with the collision of Yavapai Province island arcs with Laurentia. Structurally overlying, and adjacent to the metamorphic rocks are allochthonous and attenuated Mississippian limestone blocks and other strata debated to be …


Dynamics Of Interal Phosporus Cycling In A Highly Eutrophic, Shallow, Fresh Water Lake In Utah Lake State Park, Utah, Usa, Sheena Marie Smithson Aug 2020

Dynamics Of Interal Phosporus Cycling In A Highly Eutrophic, Shallow, Fresh Water Lake In Utah Lake State Park, Utah, Usa, Sheena Marie Smithson

Theses and Dissertations

Eutrophication is an increasing global concern as human effluent saturates lakes with an over abundance of nutrients. Phosphorus, generally being the limiting nutrient, is often the most impactful, allowing cyanobacteria populations to grow out of control leading to harmful blooms that can produce cyanotoxins, anoxic lake conditions, and mass fish kills. Utah Lake, a shallow highly eutrophic fresh water lake located in central Utah Valley, has experienced these harmful algal blooms for the last several years. The internal phosphorus cycle is a significant driver in Utah Lake's eutrophication, as the sediments act as both a sink and a source for …


Internships Shape Students' Future Career, Maria F. Arrayan Aug 2020

Internships Shape Students' Future Career, Maria F. Arrayan

Marriott Student Review

Finding an internship has been more difficult than before due to COVID-19. For many, the search for an internship may be frustrating or pointless during this difficult time. Students need to empower themselves with the right tools to find an internship. Maria Fernanda Arrayan talks about the benefits of an internship and four ways to find one. Read this article to find motivation in your search for an internship and try a new way to find your next internship!