Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Analysis Of Small Faults In A Sandstone Reservoir Analog, San Rafael Desert: Implications For Fluid Flow At The Reservoir-Scale, Leslie Noël Clayton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We examined small-displacement faults in the Jurassic Entrada Sandstone adjacent to the Iron Wash Fault, central Utah east of the San Rafael Swell, in order to describe the nature and timing of past fluid movement and deformation in the Entrada Sandstone. Using field studies, microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis, we identified mineralized fractures and cementation features in association with deformation bands and fractures at the interface of the Earthy and Slick Rock Members of the Entrada Sandstone.

Where the faults cross the Earthy-Slick Rock Member interface, deformation band faults in the Slick Rock Member become opening-mode fractures in the Earthy …

Elevating Outdoor Recreation Together: Opportunities For Collaboration Between State Offices Of Outdoor Recreation And Federal Land Management Agencies, Brooke A. Sausser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Outdoor recreation is a robust pillar of local, state, and national economies as well as a critical component of residents’ quality of life. Recognition of the economic power of the outdoor industry, fused with the growing desire for greater outdoor recreation opportunities, has inspired more than 11 states to establish state offices of outdoor recreation. The organizational structure and mission of each office is tailored to each state, varying from temporary task forces, councils, and commissions to more permanent offices or advisory positions. These offices, though embedded within various sectors of state government, often coordinate across or blend the functions …

Mountain-Block Recharge To The Cache Valley Principal Aquifer And Geochemical Controls On Groundwater Movement In Alpine Karst, Skyler J. Sorsby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Groundwater is documented to flow through solution-widened fractures and bedding planes in limestone and dolostone units in low-relief topography. This enhancement, or karstification, is much harder to study in alpine environments like the Bear River Range of northern Utah. This is problematic, due to the fact that the Bear River Range karst aquifer system supplies the City of Logan with a large quantity of water at Dewitt Spring. Furthermore, the karst aquifer sustains the Logan River for much of the year, and may allow groundwater to flow directly in the subsurface to the Cache Valley principal aquifer system.

Flow measurements …

Spring Precipitation In Intermountain West Influenced By Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, Jason A. Phelps

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Unusually wet spring seasons in the Intermountain West (IW) have been linked to a wind fluctuation in higher levels of the atmosphere near the equator. Strong westerly winds during October-January often result in unusually wet conditions in the following spring. Average winds near the equator at 75,000 feet above the earth’s surface can be split into different categories according to wind direction: westerly (positive), easterly (negative), and transitional. Composites of winter and spring precipitation anomalies based on these different categories show that strong westerly winds occur in October-January prior to most extreme spring precipitation events. Drier springs tend to occur …

An Examination Of Seasonal Shifts In Climate And Visitation, And Perspectives On Seasonal Shifts And Climate Adaptation Strategies In Tourism And Recreation Businesses For Moab, Utah, Elizabeth Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The city of Moab, an outdoor recreation hub in eastern Utah, has been encountering both shifts in the seasonality of visitation, and increases in tourist visitation, even with summer temperatures above the normal high. Tourism research describing the effects of climate change on the outdoor recreation industry has focused on winter, snow-dependent activities, while studies in Moab city have focused on the economic value of outdoor recreational activities. Few studies have described the relationship between seasonal tourism and climate change for arid desert locations. The purpose of this study is to describe how the tourism and recreation industry in Moab, …

Micro- To Macro-Scale Structural And Lithological Architecture Of Basal Nonconformities: Implications For Fluid Flow And Injection Induced Seismicity, Garth Hesseltine

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rising incidents of earthquakes caused by human activity in the United States, known as induced earthquakes, is a growing concern. Induced earthquakes may occur when fluid and/or wastewater is injected several kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface into sedimentary rocks. Fluids and pressures can migrate from the sedimentary rocks, which are typically friendlier to fluid flow, into underlying less friendlier crystalline rocks along fluid pathways weakening and possibly reactivating preexisting faults. Understanding potential fluid pathways and/or barriers from the sedimentary rocks to crystalline rocks is crucial. I investigate the structure, composition, and heterogeneity of rocks near the contact between the sedimentary …

Visible Light-Triggered Carbon Monoxide-Releasing Molecules, Marina Popova

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Carbon monoxide (CO) is now well established as one of the signaling molecules in higher organisms, including humans. Due to its physiological roles, CO is now accepted as a potential therapeutic agent. The use of CO gas has been studied in multiple clinical trials. Vasodilation, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, anti-proliferative and cytoprotective effects are just a few of the pharmacological actions attributed to CO gas in various models of diseases. Use of inhaled CO gas as a therapeutic has many limitations which necessitate the development of a new approach for CO delivery. In order to handle CO safely, compounds that release CO …

Juxtaposition At 45 Km Of Temperatures From Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar And Reanalysis Models, David K. Moser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Weather and climate forecasts are almost exclusively produced by computer models, which use atmospheric measurements as starting points. It is a well-known and joked-about fact that model predictions can be incorrect at times. One of the reasons this happens is due to gaps in our knowledge of atmospheric conditions in areas where measurements don’t often taken place, such as the mesosphere, which stretches from roughly 45-90 km altitude.

A lidar is a device that can shoot out short bursts of laser light to measure things such as atmospheric thickness at a distance. From this information one can then derive the …

Ediacaran Depositional Age And Subsequent Fluid-Rock Interactions In The Mutual And Browns Hole Formations Of Northern Utah, Ashley W. Provow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Constraining the depositional age of Neoproterozoic stratigraphy in western North America has implications for correlating global glaciation and tectonic events. The depositional ages of the Neoproterozoic Mutual and Browns Hole formations of northern Utah are controlled by two conflicting datapoints. However, new U-Pb geochronological data from 95 detrital apatite grains refines the maximum depositional age of the volcanic member of the Browns Hole Formation to 613 ± 12 Ma (2σ). This places new restrictions on the time available for the deposition of underlying units. Due to debate regarding the age models for underlying stratigraphy, two scenarios for sediment accumulation rates …

Structural Control Of Thermal Fluid Circulation And Geochemistry In A Flat-Slab Subduction Zone, Peru, Brandt E. Scott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Hot spring geochemistry from the Peruvian Andes provide insight on how faults, or fractures in the Earth's crust, are capable of influencing fluid circulation. Faults can either promote or inhibit fluid flow and the goal of this study is test the role of a major fault, such as the Cordillera Blanca detachment, as a channel for transporting deep fluids to the surface. Hot springs are abundant in the Cordillera Blanca and Huayhuash ranges in Peru, and several springs issue along the Cordillera Blanca detachment, making this region an ideal setting for our study. To test the role of the Cordillera …

Inorganic Electrocatalysts For Innovative Water Splitting And Organic Upgrading, Nan Jiang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The booming worldwide demand for energy and the increasing concerns about global warming due to fossil fuel consumption have urged the development of techniques for storing and converting renewable and clean energy resources. Electrocatlytic or photoelectrocatalytic water splitting to generate green energy carrier H₂ with sustainable energy input, like solar, has been regarded as an attractive strategy for carbon-neutral energy needs. However, the sluggish kinetics for both half reactions (HER and OER), high overpotentials and thermodynamic requirements, and H₂ and O₂ gas crossover have been regarded as the major challenges, which limit its widespread application.

On account …

Statistical Methods To Account For Gene-Level Covariates In Normalization Of High-Dimensional Read-Count Data, Lauren Holt Lenz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of genetic-based cancer research is often to identify which genes behave differently in cancerous and healthy tissue. This difference in behavior, referred to as differential expression, may lead researchers to more targeted preventative care and treatment. One way to measure the expression of genes is though a process called RNA-Seq, that takes physical tissue samples and maps gene products and fragments in the sample back to the gene that created it, resulting in a large read-count matrix with genes in the rows and a column for each sample. The read-counts for tumor and normal samples are then compared …

Quantum Mechanical Studies Of N-H···N Hydrogen Bonding In Acetamide Derivatives And Amino Acids, Sandra J. Lundell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Proteins are made of vast chains of amino acids that twist and fold into intricate designs. These structures are held in place by networks of noncovalent interactions. One of these, the hydrogen bond, forms bridges between adjacent pieces of the protein chain and is one of the most important contributors to the shape and stability of proteins. Hydrogen bonds come in all shapes and sizes and a full understanding of these not only aids in our understanding of proteins in general but can bridge the gap to finding cures to many protein-related diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia. The primary aim …

Identifying Criticality In Market Sentiment: A Data Mining Approach, Vaibhav Sahu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The aim of this thesis is to study and identify time periods of high activity in commodity and stock market sentiment based on a data mining approach. The method is to develop tools to extract relevant information from web searches and Twitter feeds based on the tally of certain keywords and their combinations at regular intervals. Periods of high activity are identified by a measure of complexity developed for analysis of living systems. Experiments were conducted to see if the measure of activity could be applied as a predictor of changes in stock market and commodity prices.

Carbon Monoxide On Demand: Light-Induced Co Release Of Flavonols, Stacey N. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an extremely useful molecule with applications in industrial manufacturing, synthetic procedures as a C1 building block, and as a potential pharmaceutical to produce anti-inflammatory effects and vasodilation. However, the toxicity associated with CO has prevented its full utilization. In order to safely handle CO, compounds and molecules have been developed that act as storage materials for the gas. Ideal storage platforms only release CO upon stimulation via a trigger. Light activation is the most desirable trigger as it can be regulated in terms of the intensity and the wavelength of light used. The majority of light-induced …

Sheaf Theory As A Foundation For Heterogeneous Data Fusion, Seyed M-H Mansourbeigi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A major impediment to scientific progress in many fields is the inability to make sense of the huge amounts of data that have been collected via experiment or computer simulation. This dissertation provides tools to visualize, represent, and analyze the collection of sensors and data all at once in a single combinatorial geometric object. Encoding and translating heterogeneous data into common language are modeled by supporting objects. In this methodology, the behavior of the system based on the detection of noise in the system, possible failure in data exchange and recognition of the redundant or complimentary sensors are studied via …

The Influence Of Mechanical Stratigraphy On Thrust-Ramp Nucleation And Propagation Of Thrust Faults, Sarah S. Wigginton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Our current understanding of thrust fault kinematics predicts that thrust faults nucleate on low angle, weak surfaces before they propagate upward and forms a higher angle ramp. While this classic kinematic and geometric model serves well in some settings, it does not fully consider the observations of footwall deformation beneath some thrust faults. We examine an alternative end-member model of thrust fault formation called “ramp-first” fault formation. This model hypothesizes that in mechanically layered rocks, thrust ramps nucleate in the structurally strong units, and that faults can propagate both upward and downward into weaker units forming folds at both fault …

Energy And Risk: Discourse, Framing, And Content, Temis Gardner Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research examined how people communicate and create knowledge about energy-related risks. Analysis of the discourse, frames, and content surrounding unconventional energy policy and development in the Western United States was conducted using three case studies. The results contribute to an understanding of energy-related risk perceptions in social and historical contexts.

Discourses contained in newspapers and public comments to the Bureau of Land Management presented arguments on the basis of risks to the environment; climate; human health and safety; jobs and economic prosperity; property rights; and local governments. Governments were seen as risks when they were perceived to allow misuse …

Mesospheric Gravity Wave Climatology And Variances Over The Andes Mountains, Jonathan Rich Pugmire

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Look up! Travelling over your head in the air are waves. They are present all the time in the atmosphere all over the Earth. Now imagine throwing a small rock in a pond and watching the ripples spread out around it. The same thing happens in the atmosphere except the rock is a thunderstorm, the wind blowing over a mountain, or another disturbance. As the wave (known as a gravity wave) travels upwards the thinning air allows the wave to grow larger and larger. Eventually the gravity wave gets too large – and like waves on the beach – it …

An Examination Of What Motivates Utah Residents To Adopt The Practice Of Rainwater Harvesting, D. Wayne Honaker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although most of the earth is covered in water, a very limited amount of that water is fresh water, which is essential to our survival. Therefore, it is imperative that we do all that is possible to conserve and protect our extremely limited water resources, especially in arid regions such as the American West. While there are many ways and means to protecting and preserving our water resources, this thesis focuses on the strategy of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as it is done throughout the state of Utah. RWH is defined as taking the precipitation that falls on our built structures …

Running The Cañons Of The Rio Grande: Part 2 Boquillas Canyon, Texas And Coahuila, Todd L. Blythe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 1899, Robert T. Hill led the first scientific exploration of the remote segment of the Rio Grande known as the Big Bend. Hill’s observations from this expedition were published in an article titled “Running the Cañons of the Rio Grande.” At the time of Hill’s expedition, the stream flow of the Rio Grande was largely depleted by water development in the upstream portions of the basin. The continued overallocation of the Rio Grande has led to the degradation of aquatic ecosystems in the Big Bend, one of North America’s largest transboundary protected areas, such that management of natural resources …

Multi-Resolution Analysis Using Wavelet Basis Conditioned On Homogenization, Abibat Adebisi Lasisi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation considers an approximation strategy using a wavelet reconstruction scheme for solving elliptic problems. The foci of the work are on (1) the approximate solution of differential equations using multiresolution analysis based on wavelet transforms and (2) the homogenization process for solving one and two-dimensional problems, to understand the solutions of second order elliptic problems. We employed homogenization to compute the average formula for permeability in a porous medium. The structure of the associated multiresolution analysis allows for the reconstruction of the approximate solution of the primary variable in the elliptic equation. Using a one-dimensional wavelet reconstruction algorithm proposed …

New Ca-Id-Tims Detrital Zircon Constraints On Middle Neoproterozoic Sedimentary Successions, Southwestern United States, Abigail R. Bullard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Three related sedimentary successions located in Arizona, Utah, and California were deposited in basins on proto-North America during the early rifting of Rodinia (~780 Mya). Previous detrital zircon U-Pb maximum ages for the units are inexact, making it difficult to piece together what happened at this point in Earth history.

We report better maximum age constraints on these units obtained by subjecting detrital zircons to high-precision CA-ID-TIMS analysis, which provide more exact ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U ages. These new data significantly improve the precision for the base of the ChUMP units, with an average age of 775.63 ± 0.27 Ma …

Improving Accuracy Of The Edgebox Approach, Kamna Yadav

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Object region detection plays a vital role in many domains ranging from self-driving cars to lane detection, which heavily involves the task of object detection. Improving the performance of object region detection approaches is of great importance and therefore is an active ongoing research in Computer Vision. Traditional sliding window paradigm has been widely used to identify hundreds of thousands of windows (covering different scales, angles, and aspect ratios for objects) before the classification step. However, it is not only computationally expensive but also produces relatively low accuracy in terms of the classifier output by providing many negative samples. Object …

Climate Change Perceptions And Adaptation Among Small-Scale Farmers In Uganda: A Community-Based Participatory Approach, Thomas Derr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Climate change in the East African country of Uganda is causing severe variations in the once predictable seasonal weather patterns that farmers had come to depend on. This, in combination with social and economic challenges, has significantly increased the vulnerability of farmers who make up the majority of Uganda’s population. Previous knowledge and observations suggest that Ugandan farmers may be reluctant or slow to change their practices in response to the changing climate. Strategies are therefore needed to identify challenges and sustainable solutions. This research used qualitative data collection methods known as participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory action research …

Historical Channel Change Caused By A Century Of Flow Alteration On Sixth Water Creek And Diamond Fork River, Ut, Jabari C. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Changes in the amount of water and sediment that enter a river can change its shape and size. The way that rivers change is affected by a variety of factors, including the size of the sediment in the river, and past changes to the river. The Diamond Fork River in central Utah has been altered by water delivered from the Colorado River system for over a century. Beginning in 1915, water used for irrigation was delivered through a tributary, Sixth Water Creek, with daily summer flows that were much larger than natural flows. This caused drastic change to the rivers, …

Sensitivity Of The Opal Instrument For Gravity Wave Detection, Kenneth I. Zia

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Knowing what goes on in the upper atmosphere (∼80-140 km) is very important to the space science community. There are several competing forces that influence the temperature and densities of neutral molecules in that region. OPAL (Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb) is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to measure the temperature there using light from oxygen molecules (∼760 nm). To accomplish this,OPAL is built into a CubeSat (a satellite the size of a loaf of bread) to be launched from the International Space Station (ISS) at an altitude of about 400 km. This vantage point is needed …

The Development Of Hydrodynamic And Kinetic Models For The Plasmasphere Refilling Problem Following A Geomagnetic Storm, Kausik Chatterjee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this dissertation is the development of computer simulation-based models for the modeling of upper ionosphere, starting from the first principles. The models were validated by exact analytical benchmarks and are seen to be consistent with experimentally obtained results. This area of research has significant implications in the area of global communication. In addition, these models would lead to a better understanding of the physical processes taking place in the upper ionosphere.

Comparing Performance Of Gene Set Test Methods Using Biologically Relevant Simulated Data, Richard M. Lambert

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Today we know that there are many genetically driven diseases and health conditions. These problems often manifest only when a set of genes are either active or inactive. Recent technology allows us to measure the activity level of genes in cells, which we call gene expression. It is of great interest to society to be able to statistically compare the gene expression of a large number of genes between two or more groups. For example, we may want to compare the gene expression of a group of cancer patients with a group of non-cancer patients to better understand the genetic …

“I Really Don’T Look For Certifications, It All Has To Do With Personal Relationships”: The Construction Of A Meat Philosophy And Innovation Adoption By Culinary Professionals In The Rocky Mountain Region, Kailie B. Leggett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Demand for new methods of beef production is rising due to concern over potential impacts on human health, animal welfare, and the environment. Researchers at Utah State University have developed a method of beef production from cattle finished on tannin-containing legume forages in the Rocky Mountain Region in order to address those concerns. To ensure success of this product, the demand and marketability needed to be assessed. Food values addressed through new production standards and certifications are communicated through labeling by culinary professionals in the kitchen and behind service counters. This research study utilized qualitative methods to understand how culinary …