Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Calculating The Cohomology Of A Lie Algebra Using Maple And The Serre Hochschild Spectral Sequence, Jacob Kullberg

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Lie algebra cohomology is an important tool in many branches of mathematics. It is used in the Topology of homogeneous spaces, Deformation theory, and Extension theory. There exists extensive theory for calculating the cohomology of semi simple Lie algebras, but more tools are needed for calculating the cohomology of general Lie algebras. To calculate the cohomology of general Lie algebras, I used the symbolic software program called Maple. I wrote software to calculate the cohomology in several different ways. I wrote several programs to calculate the cohomology directly. This proved to be computationally expensive as the number of differential forms …

Rfviz: An Interactive Visualization Package For Random Forests In R, Christopher Beckett

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Random forests are very popular tools for predictive analysis and data science. They work for both classification (where there is a categorical response variable) and regression (where the response is continuous). Random forests provide proximities, and both local and global measures of variable importance. However, these quantities require special tools to be effectively used to interpret the forest. Rfviz is a sophisticated interactive visualization package and toolkit in R, specially designed for interpreting the results of a random forest in a user-friendly way. Rfviz uses a recently developed R package (loon) from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) to create …

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper: Remote Sensing Of The Nighttime Oh Layer During The Deepwave Campaign, Pattilyn Mclaughlin

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper [AMTM] is a remote sensing instrument developed at Utah State University to map temperature structures in the hydroxyl airglow emission at ~87 km. These maps can then be used to quantify wave field characteristics and to observe general climatology trends. Two recent campaigns that it has been involved with are the DEEPWAVE campaign in Lauder, New Zealand and the Super Soaker campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment, “DEEPWAVE” was an international measurement and modeling program intended to characterize the generation and propagation of a broad range of atmospheric gravity waves with …

A Comparison Of R, Sas, And Python Implementations Of Random Forests, Breckell Soifua

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Random Forest method is a useful machine learning tool developed by Leo Breiman. There are many existing implementations across different programming languages; the most popular of which exist in R, SAS, and Python. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive comparison of these implementations with regards to the accuracy, variable importance measurements, and timing. This comparison was done on a variety of real and simulated data with different classification difficulty levels, number of predictors, and sample sizes. The comparison shows unexpectedly different results between the three implementations.

Commuter Rail And The Landscape: Alternative Futures For Planning In Southeastern Box Elder County, C. Michael Gottfredson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis analyzes the impact the FrontRunner commuter-rail service would have on Southeastern Box Elder County, Utah, using both anticipated future and alternative future scenarios created in a geographic information system (GIS). These alternative future scenarios include having the FrontRunner developed at anticipated stops and a transit-oriented development (TOD) scenario. Using techniques and methods developed by scholars in the bioregional planning field, these alternative future scenarios were compared against impact-data models addressing residential land-use suitability and landscape risk.

Outcomes: from this analysis, the TOD alternative future scenario had the least impact on landscape risk impact-data model. The TOD model …

A Framework For Assessing Natural Lands And Finding Common Ground In The Bear River Range, Scott Mccomb

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Forests, wetlands, grasslands, lakes and deserts make up the natural lands that humans and nature rely on. In the Bear River Range, these lands are becoming smaller and more disconnected due to residential and commercial development, agriculture, energy production and transportation corridors. In addition, natural lands are owned and managed by a variety of groups representing different values, priorities and traditions. For large-scale conservation to be successful, it needs to incorporate multiple priorities. The purpose of this study was to provide a process for identifying the remaining network of natural lands within the Bear River Range that indicate high ecological …

The Perception Of Utah Division Of Wildlife Resource’S Law Enforcement By Local, County And Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies, Wyatt Bubak

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Like most states throughout the nation, Utah’s population has continually grown since settlement. In 2014 Utah’s population was estimated at 2.95 million and between 2015-2016 Utah had the highest percentage growth rate of any state in the nation. This profound amount of growth can be attributed to many factors that are unique to Utah; two of which are the aesthetic and recreational opportunities available to Utah residents.

Due to population growth and urban sprawl, areas commonly patrolled by Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) conservation officers are now located closer to urban populations. Previously rural or backcountry areas are seeing …

Analysis Of The Parkway Drive Landslide, North Salt Lake, Ut, Brianna V. Hill

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

On August 5^th, 2014, a hillside failed behind a North Salt Lake City, UT neighborhood threatening several homes. Aerial Photography, Digital Elevation Models (DEM), geochemistry, rain gage and seismic data were used to test the influence of contributing factors in this landslide failure. Aerial photographs available from 1993 to present were examined for signs of tension cracks suggesting impending ground motion, as well as documentation of human modification along the hillslope. Repeat DEM analysis of elevation and slope of the hillside before and after the slide were examined to characterize the pre-failure hillslope and subsequent landslide. Geochemical analyses …

Investigation Of Alternatives For Migrating The One-Stop-Shop (Oss) Application To A Single, Web-Based Offering That Is Conducive For Both Desktop And Mobile Use., Sahiti Katragadda

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The One-Stop-Shop (OSS) application provides real-time data which is helpful for travelers in the Western United States in planning their travel. Included is traditional information (routing, imagery, weather), as well as points of interest and other route-specific information (elevations, rest areas, etc.). The system displays real-time data streams in a web-based application and in a separate mobile web application, which are presented to end users in a user-friendly format.

OSS web application and OSS mobile web application features have been examined and the best design features for the mobile application have been identified. Along with that, additional design features are …

Supplementation And Community Involvement As Drivers Of Salmon Recovery: Summer Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus Keta) Populations In Union And Tahuya Rivers, Washington, United States, Seth M. Elsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Between the 1970s and late 1990s, Summer Chum salmon abundance in the Hood Canal basin declined significantly to the point the population was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (1999), with multiple subpopulations extirpated. The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, in partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, developed and implemented a supplementation program to increase spawner abundance in the Union River so that supplementation could eventually take place in the Tahuya River, where Summer Chum had been extirpated. The program, which is only possible with intense volunteer efforts, reduced extinction risks for the Union River …

Examining Quadratic Relationships Between Traits And Methods In Two Multitrait-Multimethod Models, Fredric A. Hintz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Psychological researchers are interested in the validity of the measures they use, and the multitrait-multimethod design is one of the most frequently employed methods to examine validity. Confirmatory factor analysis is now a commonly used analytic tool for examining multitrait-multimethod data, where an underlying mathematical model is fit to data and the amount of variance due to the trait and method factors is estimated. While most contemporary confirmatory factor analysis methods for examining multi-trait multi-method data do not allow relationships between the trait and method factors, a few recently proposed models allow for the examination of linear relationships between traits …