Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Structural And Functional Characterization Of The Ldp3 (Vhz) Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase, Vyacheslav I. Kuznetsov

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Protein phosphorylation is as an important regulatory mechanism that controls a large number of physiologically important cellular processes. Proteins are phosphorylated on aliphatic (serine and threonine) as well aromatic (histidine and tyrosine) residues predominantly located on sterically accessible loops. Phosphorylation affects three- dimensional structures of proteins resulting in conformational changes which activate or deactivate enzymatic functions. Because of the ability of protein phosphorylation to modulate a multitude of diverse cellular processes, it became an appealing and promising target for drug therapy.

Attachment of phosphate is accomplished by kinases, whereas the removal of the phosphoryl group is performed by protein phosphatases. …

Spatially Indexed Functional Data, Oleksandr Gromenko

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The increased concentration of greenhouse gases is associated with the global warming in the lower troposphere. For over twenty years, the space physics community has studied a hypothesis of global cooling in the thermosphere, attributable to greenhouse gases. While the global temperature increase in the lower troposphere has been relatively well established, the existence of global changes in the thermosphere is still under investigation.

A central difficulty in reaching definite conclusions is the absence of data with sufficiently long temporal and sufficiently broad spatial coverage. Time series of data that cover several decades exist only in a few separated (industrialized) …

Measurements Of The Temperature Dependence Of Radiation Induced Conductivity In Polymeric Dielectrics, Jodie Corbridge Gillespie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Radiation Induced Conductivity (RIC) is the change in conductivity of a material due to bombardment from incident high energy radiation. This study is to determine the effect of RIC and RIC's temperature dependence in polymeric dielectrics, specifically Kapton HN, Kapton E, PTFE Teflon, Tefzel, and Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE). Interest in these materials arises from applications for use in future spacecraft, specifically the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

One major issue in the design of JWST, as in all spacecraft, is the charging and arcing of exposed materials, resulting in fatal damage to the electronics and/or the craft itself. Particles …

A Middle To Late Holocene Record Of Arroyo Cut-Fill Events In Kitchen Corral Wash, Southern Utah, William M. Huff

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arroyos are steeply entrenched channels that form by incision into weakly consolidated valley-fill alluvium. This study attempts to offers clues into the processes behind their formation by dating arroyo sediments using luminescence and radiocarbon techniques. The importance of understanding arroyo formation is due to a possible linkage with decadal to centennial-scale climate fluctuations. In the 1800s and early 1900s, many of the shallow, perennial streams throughout southern Utah that used for a variety of agricultural and domestic uses were incised up to ~30 m into their alluvium by frequent and high-magnitude flood events. The economical and ecological effects of these …

Dendrochronology In Northern Utah: Modeling Sensitivity And Reconstructing Logan River Flows, Eric B. Allen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The population centers in northern Utah are highly dependent upon snowpack for drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower. When the snowpack melts in the spring and early summer, it feeds streams draining the Wasatch, Bear River, and Uinta Mountains. The rivers are diverted and dammed to deliver water to the greater Salt Lake metropolitan area. In order to properly allocate this water, managers need to know how much water normally flows in the rivers and the frequency and magnitude of wet and dry periods to expect. However, climate patterns in the region are not well understood and records of streamflows are …

Knowledge Extraction In Video Through The Interaction Analysis Of Activities, Omar Ulises Florez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A video is a growing stream of unstructured data that significantly increases the amount of information transmitted and stored on the Internet. For example, every minute YouTube users upload 72 GB of information. Some of the best applications for video analysis include the monitoring of activities in defense and security scenarios such as the autonomous planes that collect video and images at reduced risk and the surveillance cameras in public places like traffic lights, airports, and schools.

Some of the challenges in the analysis of video correspond to implement complex operations such as searching of activities, understanding of scenes, and …

Clonal Diversity Of Quaking Aspen (Populus Tremuloides): How Multiple Clones May Add To Theresilience And Persistence Of This Forest Type, Richard Scott Gardner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aspen forests and woodlands are widespread across the western United States and are a primary component of many ecosystems in the west. Aspen is a clonal species, with reproduction occurring both by root sprouting (suckering) and seeding. Traditionally, western aspen forests were thought to consist almost entirely of large clones established several thousands of years ago, with seeding events being rare and ecologically negligible. Although clones in the western US can grow to be many acres, recent studies have demonstrated a far greater proportion of small clones than had been previously thought to exist. In this study I wanted to …

Concurrent Neurological And Behavioral Assessment Of Number Line Estimation Performance In Children And Adults, Joseph Michael Baker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding the brain’s response to common math-learning activities may help improve math education. For example, by imaging the brains of typically developing children and adults throughout a number line estimation task, it is possible to establish a baseline of what “typical” brains do in such situations. Thus, comparisons may be made to determine the degree to which brain functioning differs between typical and atypical math learners. Moreover, by identifying methods that may increase the brain’s response to real-world math activities, it may be possible to improve the math learning process for typical and atypical learners alike.

Brain imaging devices such …

The Chain-Link Fence Model: A Framework For Creating Security Procedures, Robert F. Houghton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Information technology security professionals are facing an ever growing threat to the networks that they defend. The process for creating procedures to help stem this threat is very difficult for security professionals. The Chain-Link Fence Model helps security professionals by guiding them through the process of creating and implementing new security procedures.

Lunar Tidal Effects In The Electrodynamics Of The Low-Latitude Ionosphere, Brian David Tracy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In order to model and perform better forecasts of the upper atmosphere, we have studied variations in the equatorial ionosphere due to lunar tidal forcing. We used extensive measurements made by the Jicamarca Unattended Long-Term Investigations of the Ionosphere and Atmosphere (JULIA) and Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) systems at Jicamarca, Peru during geomagnetic quiet conditions to determine the season, local time, and lunar age-dependent lunar tidal effects on equatorial vertical plasma drifts. The amplitudes and phases of the semimonthly and monthly lunar tidal perturbations were derived using a least squares method. Our results indicate that, as expected, lunar tidal effects …

Southward Continuation Of The San Jacinto Fault Zone Through And Beneath The Extra And Elmore Ranch Left-Lateral Fault Arrays, Southern California, Steven Jesse Thornock

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Clark fault is a significant fault within the southern San Andreas fault system. The Clark fault abruptly ends where it intersects a second, smaller fault that crosses it called the Extra fault zone. In this study we investigate the possibility of the Clark fault continuing beneath and beyond the Extra fault zone. Based on field mapping and other geological data that we present, we determine that the Clark fault continues below the Extra fault and is not evident on the surface. Over time, earthquake slip along the Clark fault has caused the Extra fault zone to rotate in a …

Dot Product Graphs And Their Applications To Ecology, Sean Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We will introduce a new tool to visualize the comparison between different birds. This tool will allow users to use any number of measurable traits to see relationships between different birds, both individually and collectively.

On Mobile Detection And Localization Of Skewed Nutrition Facts Tables, Christopher Blay

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Computer Science Assistive Technology Laboratory (CSATL) at Utah State University has a long history of research in visually impaired grocery shopping tech. CSATL’s ShopMobile II introduced nutrition facts table (NFT) analysis but only with perfectly aligned and square input images.

A new method which detects and localizes NFTs more quickly and from rotated or non-square images has been released and is slated for integration with ShopMobile II to improve this feature substantially. This is great news for the estimated 3.6 million adults in the United States having visual impairment or blindness and also opens the doors to other applications …

A Qualitative And Evaluative Study On Recruiting And Retaining Students In College Computer Science Programs, Matthew Gardner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Computer science is a discipline that is increasing in importance and value in our society, yet we are still failing to graduate a sufficient number of students to keep up with the demand required in the United States economy. We research several ways to retain students. We also discuss ways to increase students’ interest in the major, i.e., those who normally would not know about computer science. We discuss ways to increase female participation as well as overall participation in the major.

Evaluation Of The Geothermal Potential Of The Snake River Plain, Idaho, Based On Three Exploration Holes, Thomas G. Freeman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work in this thesis was based on analyzing water samples collected from three exploratory boreholes drilled during Project Hotspot. The water samples were analyzed for their chemical properties. The chemical properties of the water samples were used as a basis for further analysis.

Geophysical logs, mainly temperature logs, were also analyzed for this project. Temperature logs measure temperature in relation to depth within a borehole.

All the analyses were made in order to estimate the geothermal potential of the project areas. The exploratory boreholes were all drilled in different areas and each had unique characteristics. The Mountain Home borehole …

Earthquake Petrology: Linking Fault-Related Deformation To The Earthquake Cycle, Mitchell R. Prante

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Faults have a controlling influence on a variety of geologic processes including fluid flow, the mechanical behavior of the crust, and seismicity. The geologic sciences have long recognized that faults generate earthquakes; however, few indicators of ancient earthquakes exist in fault-zones. This dissertation documents several indicators for the preservation of ancient earthquakes in fault-zones including frictional melt (pseudotachylyte), highly-polished fault slip surfaces, and hydrothermal alteration.

These deformation products result from rapid generation of frictional heat during earthquakes. This dissertation also focuses on the seismic potential of continental low-angle normal faults (LANF). We document the preservation of voluminous pseudotachylyte along a …

The Effects Of Abstraction On Best Nblock First Search, Justin R. Redd

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Search is an important aspect of Artificial Intelligence. Efficiently searching for solutions to large problems is important. One way to scale search large in problems quickly is to divide the work between multiple processors. There are many ways to divide this work using abstractions. This thesis examines the previous way this has been done in the past and introduces other ways to more efficiently divide the work and search in parallel.

Enhancement Of Random Forests Using Trees With Oblique Splits, Andrejus Parfionovas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Statistical classification is widely used in many areas where there is a need to make a data-driven decision, or to classify complicated cases or objects. For instance: disease diagnostics (is a patient sick or healthy, based on the blood test results?); weather forecasting (will there be a storm tomorrow, based on today's atmospheric pressure, air temperature, and wind velocity?); speech recognition (what was said over the phone, based on the caller's voice level and articulation); spam detection (can the unsolicited commercial e-mails be identified by their content?); and so on.

Classification trees …

Comparison Of Topographic Surveying Techniques In Streams, Sara G. Bangen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Fish and Wildlife Program (FWP) mitigates impacts, including mortality, from hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin for ESA-listed salmon and steelhead populations and other species of special concern. Given the extensive economic resources invested in mitigation and the incredible diversity of in-stream habitat across the Columbia River basin, questions have arisen about which sampling strategies are most tractable across the entire Columbia River Watershed, but also produce datasets that allow researchers to answer meaningful questions about salmonid populations and trends in habitat. In response to these issues, the NOAA Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring …

Eyes-Free Vision-Based Scanning Of Aligned Barcodes And Information Extraction From Aligned Nutrition Tables, Aliasgar Kutiyanawala

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Independent grocery shopping is one of the biggest challenges faced by visually impaired (VI) individuals. VI individuals may be able to get to a store on their own by using public transportation or by walking but are unable to shop there independently. Some of the problems that they face after getting to the store include long wait times to get an employee to assist them or getting a store employee who is not familiar with the store layout, gets irritated with long searches, or does not possess the required English skills. These problems ultimately result in VI shoppers having to …

Applications Of Bayesian Statistics In Fluvial Bed Load Transport, Mark L. Schmelter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The science of fluvial sediment transport studies the processes involved in the movement of river sediments. It is commonly understood that when rivers flood they have a great capacity to move sand, gravel, and even larger cobbles and boulders. This process is not only limited to the big floods that usually attract so much attention, but also the more common river flows play a very important role in forming a river. As engineers and scientists, we like to be able to develop equations and relationships that describe some natural phenomenon—in this case, fluvial sediment transport. While we are able to …

Fault Seal Analysis For Co2 Storage: Fault Zone Architecture, Fault Permeability, And Fluid Migration Pathways In Exposed Analogs In Southeastern Utah, David J. Richey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) primarily resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels can be captured and stored by injection into underground porous sandstone reservoirs. This process has been proposed as a method for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Two of the major risks associated with this technology include: 1) upwards migration and leakage of injected fluids along natural fault and fracture networks, and 2) possible induced seismicity (earthquakes) resulting from increasing the pressure in reservoirs and along existing faults.

We use geologic field mapping, petrographic analysis, characterization of the fault zone, analysis of altered …

The Effects Of Bison On Cattle Winter Range In The Henry Mountains Of South Central Utah: Resolving A Conflict, Ian M. Ware

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The American Bison in the Henry Mountains are one of the last free-roaming, genetically pure herds of bison remaining in North America. Over the last decade, the herd has used a cattle winter range during the summer and early fall, creating a conflict between the wildlife officials who manage the bison population, and Bureau of Land Management officials and local ranchers who manage the rangeland. At the heart of this conflict is the question of whether bison are negatively impacting the rangeland resource, potentially reducing the abundance of preferable plant species. Negative impacts could include reduced forage availability in the …

In Situ Measurements Of Electron-Beam-Induced Surface Voltage Of Highly Resistive Materials, Joshua Hodges

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Surface charging and subsequent electrostatic discharge due to interactions with the space environment is one of the primary concerns of spacecraft charging studies. Laboratory measurements of the evolution of surface voltages and dissipation currents under simulated space conditions are the primary method used to determine the response of key spacecraft materials to diverse incident fluxes. Increasing the database of information for the electronic properties of insulating materials can assist spacecraft designers in mitigating the harsh effects of the space environment.

The Utah State Materials Physics Group, with the funding of the NASA James Webb Space Telescope project and personnel support …

Space Plug-And-Play Architecture Networking: A Self-Configuring Heterogeneous Network Architecture, Jacob Holt Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In spacecraft engineering, the time and money involved in satellite construction is largely spent on design and integration of custom hardware and software. These efforts are duplicated for nearly every satellite with little to no reuse between spacecraft. There is a huge potential for cost savings in removing the duplication of work. However, there is a lack of standardization in the spaceflight community, causing soaring costs and delayed schedules as each component of a spacecraft is individually designed and custom built.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has developed the Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA) to address this problem. SPA provides …

The Application Of Tomographic Reconstruction Techniques To Ill-Conditioned Inverse Problems In Atmospheric Science And Biomedical Imaging, Vern Philip Hart Ii

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Tomography is an imaging technique in which 3D models of objects are created from several 2D projections viewed at different angles. When the number of available projections is limited, the resulting data are said to be sparse. This restriction is often a direct result of the imaging geometry used to acquire the data. One-sided views and a small number of receivers can reduce the range of available projections, which makes the object more difficult to reconstruct. Approximate solutions to difficult imaging problems can be obtained using a class of iterative algorithms known as the algebraic reconstruction techniques (ARTs). The presented …

Modeling Lithospheric Rheology From Modern Measurements Of Bonneville Shoreline Deformation, Eric P. Beard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Here I develop a new method for estimating differences in elevation between pairs of paleo-lake shoreline features. This method is applied to Lake Bonneville, a large lake that inundated nearly 1/3 of the state of Utah as well as parts of Nevada and Idaho from 34 to 11.5 thousand years ago. Under the weight of the lake water load, the surface of the Earth was depressed by up to 75 m. This occurred as Earth mantle rock at depth flowed outward in response to the weight of the lake. I use this new methodology to compile here a denser sample …

Synthesis And Biological Activity Of Aminoglycosides And 1,4-Naphthoquinone Derivatives, Marina Fosso Yatchang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The research described in this dissertation is at the interface of organic chemistry and biology, and it aimed at designing and synthesizing biologically active molecules for the possible development of therapeutic agents.

Spinal muscular atrophy is an incurable disease that affects 1 in every 6000 babies, making it the leading genetic cause of infant mortality. While no treatment is available, efforts are being taken to solve this issue. Part of the work outlined in this dissertation was carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of Missouri to investigate a potential therapeutic for this disease.

In addition, the continuous …

Visual Data Mining Techniques For Functional Actigraphy Data: An Object-Oriented Approach In R, Abbass Sharif

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Actigraphy, a technology for measuring a subject's overall activity level almost continuously over time, has gained a lot of momentum over the last few years. An actigraph, a watch-like device that can be attached to the wrist or ankle of a subject, uses an accelerometer to measure human movement every minute or even every 15 seconds. Actigraphy data is often treated as functional data. In this dissertation, we discuss what has been done regarding the visualization of actigraphy data, and then we will explain the three main goals we achieved: (i) develop new multivariate visualization techniques for actigraphy data; (ii) …

The Effect Of Growth Parameters On The Height And Density Of Carbon Nanotube Forests, Robert Welch Call

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rolled-up graphene sheets, known as carbon nanotubes, are grown in vertically aligned arrays called carbon nanotube forests (CNTFs). CNTFs make extremely dark surfaces. They are being investigated for use on space crafts as calibration surfaces and to protect optical sensors from unwanted signals. These CNTFs are grown by injecting a precursor consisting of a metal catalyst particle and a hydrocarbon component into a furnace at high temperature (~700°C). This study investigates the influence of several different growth parameters on the final height and density of the CNTF. Height and density influence the absorbance of the surface at different wavelengths.