Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

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.

Statistical Algorithms For Optimal Experimental Design With Correlated Observations, Chang Li

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The first part of my dissertation demonstrates that a modified simulated annealing algorithm can successfully determine highly efficient D-optimal designs for second order polynomial regression for a variety of correlated error structures.

In the second part, I solved weak universal optimal block designs for the nearest neighbor correlation structure and multiple block sizes, for the hub correlation structure with any block size, and for circulant correlation with odd block size.

In the third part, we propose an improved Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm with time varying parameters. Then combining the theorem of decision making and PSO, we innovated nested PSO …

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 …

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) …

Study Of Genes Relating To Degradation Of Aromatic Compounds And Carbon Metabolism In Mycobacterium Sp. Strain Kms, Chun Zhang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are produced from incomplete combustion of organic materials by human or natural activities. These polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are classified as pollutants because of their toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic characteristics. Mycobacterium sp. strain KMS, isolated from a contaminated soil, grows on the model polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, pyrene, with its degradation to water and carbon dioxide. This study locates genes on the chromosome and plasmids of isolate KMS relating to pyrene degradation, elucidates the influence of other carbon sources available in the habitats of isolate KMS on degradation of pyrene, and deduces possible metabolic pathways used by isolate …

Cougar Predation Behavior In North-Central Utah, Dustin L. Mitchell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Today’s ability to apply global positioning systems (GPS) collars to wild animals and track their movements, without inadvertently disrupting their daily routine, is a major benefit to wildlife research. Cougars are carnivorous predators that have been identified as being one of several possible causes for recent mule deer population declines throughout the Western United States. Past cougar predation studies have relied on snow tracking, radio-collar tracking, and modeling techniques to estimate cougar prey use and predation rates. These methods rely heavily on weather conditions, logistical availabilities, and broad assumptions, which have led to a wide range of predation rate estimates. …

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 …

A Social–Ecological Approach To Conservation Planning: Embedding Social Considerations, Natalie C. Ban, Morena Mills, Jordan Tam, Christina C. Hicks, Sarah Klain, Natalie Stoeckl, Madeleine C. Bottrill, Jordan Levine, Robert L. Pressey, Terre Satterfield, Kai M. A. Chan

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Many conservation plans remain unimplemented, in part because of insufficient consideration of the social processes that influence conservation decisions. Complementing social considerations with an integrated understanding of the ecology of a region can result in a more complete conservation approach. We suggest that linking conservation planning to a social–ecological systems (SES) framework can lead to a more thorough understanding of human–environment interactions and more effective integration of social considerations. By characterizing SES as a set of subsystems, and their interactions with each other and with external factors, the SES framework can improve our understanding of the linkages between social and …

Compilation And Comparison Of Electron Penetration Ranges As A Function Of Effective Number Of Valence Electrons, Teancum Quist

Senior Theses and Projects

The continuous-slow-down approximation (CSDA) is used to create a simple composite analytical formula to estimate the range or maximum penetration depth of bombarding electrons into traditional materials including conductors, semiconductors, and insulators. This formula generates an approximation to the range using a single fitting parameter, N_v, described as the effective number of valence electrons. This applicability of the formulation extends to electrons with energies from 10MeV. These calculations are of great value for studies of high electron bombardment, such as electron spectroscopy or the vacuum of space. A list comprised of 187 materials has been collected that greatly …

Mesobiliverdin Ixα Enhances Rat Pancreatic Islet Yield And Function, Taihei Ito, Dong Chen, Cheng-Wei Tom Chang, Takashi Kenmochi, Tomonori Saito, Satoshi Suzuki, Jon Y. Takemoto

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The aims of this study were to produce mesobiliverdin IXα, an analog of anti-inflammatory biliverdin IXα, and to test its ability to enhance rat pancreatic islet yield for allograft transplantation into diabetic recipients. Mesobiliverdin IXα was synthesized from phycocyanobilin derived from cyanobacteria, and its identity and purity were analyzed by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. Mesobiliverdin IXα was a substrate for human NADPH biliverdin reductase. Excised Lewis rat pancreata infused with mesobiliverdin IXα and biliverdin IXα-HCl (1–100 μM) yielded islet equivalents as high as 86.7 and 36.5%, respectively, above those from non-treated controls, and the islets showed a high degree of …

Overtone Analysis Of A Holtkamp Organ Using Fourier Methods, Mario Harper, David Berg

Student Showcase

This research is a study of the similarities and differences of the four sound families (principal, flute, reed, and string) of the organ, specifically, we used the organ located in the Kent Hall at USU. This experiment focuses on the mechanics of the organ, turning sound into mathematical signals, and performing Fourier analysis using computer methods. We conclude that a certain family of pipes (flute pipe family) had the most similarities to the “natural” series while the reed family was the most variant. We show the steps taken in our experiment and attempt to explain the variance and correlation of …

Resolving Ionospheric E-Region Modeling Challenges: The Solar Photon Flux Dependence, Joseph B. Jensen, Jan J. Sojka, Michael David, Kent Tobiska, Robert W. Schunk, Tom Woods, Frank Eparvier

Browse All Undergraduate research

The EVE instrument of the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) provides for the first time EUV and XUV measurements of the solar irradiance that adequately define the major source of ionization of the atmosphere. In our study we modeled the E-region of the ionosphere and analyzed how it is affected by the solar irradiance data obtained by EVE and contrast this with the S2000 Solar Irradiance model, used previously. The ionosphere has two major layers, the E-layer at 100 km, and the F-layer at 300 km. The difference in solar irradiances are small except at some wavelength bands, it is …

Charge Transport And Electrical Degradation Research For Power Grid Applications, Allen Andersen, Jr Dennison

Graduate Student Presentations

No abstract provided.

Resolving Ionospheric E-Region Modeling Challenges: The Solar Photon Flux Dependence, Joseph B. Jensen, Jan J. Sojka, Michael David, Kent Tobiska, Robert W. Schunk, Tom Woods, Frank Eparvier

Student Showcase

No abstract provided.

Functionalizing Carbon Nanotube Forests, Ben Pound, F. K. Shen

Student Showcase

A carbon nanotube forest is an array of carbon nanotubes vertically aligned and entangled. Because the aspect ratio of each tube can be more than 1000, the forest will greatly increase the number of potential binding sites on the surface for chemical and biological detector applications, if each bundle of tubes can be functionalized with specific molecules. The 1,5-diaminoaphthalene can be a versatile linker molecule for proteins. In this study, we characterize the concentration of 1,5-diaminoaphthalene in solvent by fluorescence spectroscopy. It appears, however, that the solvent collapses the carbon nanotube forest, resulting in no detectable fluorescence emission. Lithographically defined …

Measuring The Eco-Hydrological Performance Of The Lower Bear River Basin Through Experiential Learning – The Bear River Fellows Program, Liisa Piiparinen, Russell Babb, Sarah Stander, Ayman Alafifi, David E. Rosenberg

Spring Runoff Conference

Measuring and evaluating the performance of river systems necessarily requires understanding the variety of environmental and ecological variables driving the decision-making process in managing river basins. Such variables are best understood with field measurements, data analysis and computational modeling. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University (USU), through a National Science Foundation project, has partnered with the Outdoor Recreation, and Parks and Recreation programs at USU to offer the Bear River Fellows Program - a new, unique river-based experiential learning opportunity for 5 freshmen Fellows to receive first-hand experience in collecting, synthesizing and analyzing environmental and …

Simulation Chamber For Space Environment Survivability Testing, Robert H. Johnson, Lisa D. Montierth

Student Showcase

A vacuum chamber was designed and built that simulates the space environment making possible the testing of material modification due to exposure of solar radiation. Critical environmental components required include an ultra high vacuum (10-9 Torr), a UV/VIS/NIR solar spectrum source, an electron gun and charge plasma, temperature extremes, and long exposure duration. To simulate the solar spectrum, a solar simulator was attached to the chamber with a range of 200nm to 2000nm. The exposure time can be accelerated by scaling the solar intensity up to four suns. A Krypton lamp imitates the 120 nm ultraviolet hydrogen Lymann alpha emission …

Electron Penetration Ranges As A Function Of Effective Number Of Valence Electrons, Teancum Quist, Blake Moore, Greg Wilson, Jr Dennison

Posters

The Continuous-Slow-Down Approximation (CSDA) is used to create a simple composite analytical formula to estimate the range or maximum penetration depth of incident electrons into diverse materials including conductors, semiconductors, and insulators. This formula generates an approximation to the range using a single fitting parameter, N_v, described as the effective number of valence electrons. This range of the formulation extends to electrons with energies from <10 eV to >10MeV, with 20% accuracy. A list comprised of 222 materials has been collected that greatly extends the applicability of this model. Several key material constants were compiled for each material, including the atomic …

Can The Causeway In The Great Salt Lake Be Used To Manage Salinity, Sarah E. Null, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Craig Miller

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ionospheric Induced Scintillation: A Space Weather Enigma, Jan Josef Sojka

All Physics Faculty Publications

The effect of scintillation on radio signals whose propagation path involves the Earth’s ionosphere is analogous to the allies of World War II receiving radio messages that had passed through the Enigma machine. In both these cases, man-made information has been encrypted and transmitted via radio. The two encryption methods are shown in Figure 1. The right panel shows a World War II Enigma machine used extensively by German U-boats to convey encrypted messages transmitted by radio [Perera, 2010]. The left panel gives an extreme example of a mapping of ionospheric irregularities at 3 m, which creates very severe scintillation …

Drilling Active Tectonics And Magmatism (Volcanics, Geoprisms, Fault Zones Post-Safod) Proceedings Of A Workshop, John W. Shervais, James P. Evans, Virginia Toy, John Eichelberger, James Kirkpatrick, Amanda Clarke

Geosciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Research Report: Water User Dimensions Of Meter Implementation On Secondary Pressurized Irrigation Systems, Joanna Endter-Wada, Diana Glenn, Clayton Lewis, Roger Kjelgren, Christopher Neale

Joanna Endter-Wada

Weber Basin Water Conservancy District (District) secured Bureau of Reclamation funding in spring 2011 to install individual secondary water meters at residential connections in order to implement water efficiency and accountability measures included in the District’s Water Conservation Plan (Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, 2010). Initially, the District will not use the meters for billing water use but, instead, will use them to help the District determine if end users are exceeding their contracted allotment of water and to promote water use accountability.The purpose of the study titled “Water User Dimensions of Meter Implementation on Secondary Pressurized Irrigation Systems” conducted …

Spock, Euler, And Madison: Graph Theory In The Classroom, Michael Buhler

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This work is an attempt to accomplish two main objectives. First is to encourage secondary students to engage in the kinds of mathematical reasoning skills that will be necessary to them when they move to college math classes. My experience in college, along with that of many others is that "school math," with its obsession with calculations and memorization, is dreadfully insufficient in preparing students for the proof and reasoning-based classes they will face in high school. This is an attempt to integrate some of those reasoning skills into high school courses using graph theory as a vehicle.

The second …

Biology And Impacts Of Pacific Island Invasive Species. 9. Capra Hircus, The Feral Goat (Mammalia: Bovidae), Mark William Chynoweth, Creighton M. Litton, Christopher A. Lepczyk, Steven C. Hess, Susan Cordell

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Domestic goats, Capra hircus, were intentionally introduced to numerous oceanic islands beginning in the sixteenth century. The remarkable ability of C. hircus to survive in a variety of conditions has enabled this animal to become feral and impact native ecosystems on islands throughout the world. Direct ecological impacts include consumption and trampling of native plants, leading to plant community modification and transformation of ecosystem structure. Although the negative impacts of feral goats are well known and effective management strategies have been developed to control this invasive species, large populations persist on many islands. This review summarizes impacts of feral goats …

Rainich-Type Conditions For Null Electrovacuum Spacetimes I, Charles G. Torre

Research Vignettes

In this worksheet I describe local Rainich-type conditions on a spacetime geometry which are necessary and sufficient for the existence of a solution of the Einstein-Maxwell equations with a null electromagnetic field. When it exists, the electromagnetic field is easily constructed.

Physics 3710 – Exam Ii, David Peak

Exams

No abstract provided.

Electric Multipole Interactions In An Extended Beg Model, Teresa Burns, Jr Dennison

Posters

General 2D dielectric phase diagrams and phase transitions for multipolar molecules adsorbed to a square ionic crystal are presented. The adsorbed molecules are modeled using a dilute spin-one Ising model in the Blume-Emery-Griffiths formalism, using a mean-field approximation. Physical constants such as the electricmultipole moments and binding energies are used to uniquely determine the interaction parameters over the full range of physically-relevant values. We find that temperature- and coverage-dependent antiferroelectric to ferroelectric, coverage-dependent ferroelectric up to ferroelectric down, reentrant ferroelectric to ferrielectric, and order-disorder dipole phase transitions can occur. The results are presented as a quasi-continuous set of phase diagrams. …

Simulation Of Uv Induced Discoloration On Space Polymers, Kelby T. Peterson, Jr Dennison

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Extending A Geographic Lens Towards Climate Justice, Part 1: Climate Change Characterization And Impacts, Morey Burnham, Claudia Radel, Zhao Ma, Ann Laudati

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

There has been a recent increase of interest within the academic literature on the justice issues posed by climate change and the human responses to its present and forecasted effects. This literature is partially shaped by debates from environmental justice scholarship, but also has roots in various subfields of geography. In two parts (here and in a subsequent article), we review and synthesize the recent literature by asking what climate justice concerns have been identified within three related realms: 1) the characterization of climate change itself and the assignment of responsibility for that change; 2) the differential or uneven impacts …