Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cryostat System For Spacecraft Materials Testing, Justin Dekany

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An existing space environment simulation test chamber used in the study of electron emission, sample charging and discharge, electrostatic discharge and arcing, electron transport, and luminescence of spacecraft materials now has extended temperature control capabilities. By incorporating a two-stage, closed-cycle helium cryostat, it is now possible to simulate the temperature typical spacecraft will experience when in orbit, ranging from < 40 K to > 450 K. The system was designed to maintain compatibility with an existing ultrahigh vacuum chamber that can simulate diverse space environments. This vacuum chamber can simulate space environment conditions by producing the same pressure, amount of electrons, electromagnetic radiation and temperature …

To Dot Product Graphs And Beyond, Sean Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We will introduce three new vector representations of graphs. These representations are based on relationships between the vectors that are used. Specifically, we will examine scenarios where we ignore specific relationships, where we consider if information is missing, and where we look for when the information in common is not of a specified amount.

Quantum Mechanical Studies Of Charge Assisted Hydrogen And Halogen Bonds, Binod Nepal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Like cement bridges one brick to another, noncovalent forces also bridge two or more molecules together to form a molecular crystal or molecular cluster. Although weaker than the covalent bond, the existence of noncovalent forces can be seen everywhere from liquid water to construction of complex biomolecules like DNA, RNA, proteins etc. An introduction of suitable charge; positive or negative, on the binding units can increase the strength of noncovalent interaction by several orders of magnitude. The primary aim of this dissertation is to explore some fundamental properties of such charge assisted noncovalent interactions which will be helpful for the …

Sagebrush Ecology Of Parker Mountain, Utah, Nathan E. Dulfon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

On Parker Mountain located in south central Utah, management actions such as controlling mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. subsp. vaseyana), with mechanical and chemical treatments can increase forage for livestock and benefit wildlife such as greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Tebuthiuron treatments were applied on Parker Mountain from 2000-2012 with assistance from the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, the Utah Department of Food and Agriculture, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Treatments applied to mountain big sagebrush on Parker Mountain provide an important opportunity to evaluate the value of mountain big sagebrush treatments in …

Definition And Construction Of Entropy Satisfying Multiresolution Analysis (Mra), Ju Y. Yi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This paper considers some numerical schemes for the approximate solution of conservation laws and various wavelet methods are reviewed. This is followed by the construction of wavelet spaces based on a polynomial framework for the approximate solution of conservation laws. Construction of a representation of the approximate solution in terms of an entropy satisfying Multiresolution Analysis (MRA) is defined. Finally, a proof of convergence of the approximate solution of conservation laws using the characterization provided by the basis functions in the MRA will be given.

Classification Of Spacetimes With Symmetry, Jesse W. Hicks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spacetimes with symmetry play a critical role in Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Missing from the literature is a correct, usable, and computer accessible classification of such spacetimes. This dissertation fills this gap; specifically, we

i) give a new and different approach to the classification of spacetimes with symmetry using modern methods and tools such as the Schmidt method and computer algebra systems, resulting in ninety-two spacetimes;

ii) create digital databases of the classification for easy access and use for researchers;

iii) create software to classify any spacetime metric with symmetry against the new database;

iv) compare results of our …

Crustal Architecture Of The Snake River Plain, Idaho, Through Geochemical Investigation Of Crustal Sill And Shallow Subvolcanic Xenoliths, Douglas James Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Snake River Plain (SRP) in southern Idaho is one of the most well-preserved examples of continent-hotspot interaction available today. Geophysical studies have imaged a feature ~10 km thick at the base of the upper crust. This feature, termed the “mid-crustal sill complex” is likely a layered mafic intrusion. The study of layered mafic intrusions is important because it provides a link between deep plutonic processes and shallow volcanic processes. Investigation of the mid crustal sill complex will provide better understanding of the evolutionary process of SRP basalts.

This thesis investigates three xenoliths sampled from the Kimama drill core collected …

Oxidative Carbon-Carbon Bond Cleavage Reactions Of Metal Flavonolato And Chlorodiketonate Complexes, Sushma L. Saraf

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The research presented in this dissertation focuses on the oxidative cleavage of chemical bonds between two carbon atoms. This type of reactivity is of significant interest due to its potential application toward the development of ways to convert chemical feed stock into useful products such as pharmaceuticals, polymers and fuels in an environmentally benign and cost-efficient manner. Reactions that cleave specific carbon-carbon bonds, are catalyzed by earth-abundant metals, and involve O₂ as the terminal oxidant, are of particular interest.

Our strategy has been to study the oxidative carbon-carbon bond cleavage reactivity of metal complexes containing components similar to structures …

Confirmation Of A New Geometric And Kinematic Model Of The San Andreas Fault At Its Southern Tip, Durmid Hill, Southern California, Daniel K. Markowski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study explains the origin of the deforming structures between the San Andreas fault and the Salton Sea within the Salton Trough in Southern California. ShakeOut simulations and other studies model shaking resulting from a large rupture on the San Andreas fault. These models simulate a start at the southern fault tip of the San Andreas fault that propagates to the northwest. A secondary strand of the San Andreas fault called the East Shoreline fault is located at the southern tip of the San Andreas fault near the shoreline of the Salton Sea. Between the East Shoreline fault zone and …

Interference Mitigation In Multi-Hop Wireless Networks With Advanced Physical-Layer Techniques, Yantian Hou

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the ever-growing number of wireless systems, the problem of spectrum scarcity is becoming more important than ever. Many devices coexist in the same frequency band, e.g., IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), 802.15.4 (ZigBee), 802.16 (WiMax), and Bluetooth in the ISM bands. Coexisting in the crowded spectrum bands inevitably leads to mutual interferences. For a wireless network, the interference could be from external sources such as microwave oven and cordless phone, or from internal nodes within multi-flow and multi-hop wireless networks. All these interferences can be detrimental to the performance of co-locating networks if they are not properly mitigated. In my dissertation, …

Fluorescent Probes To Investigate Homologous Recombination Dynamics, Eric Parker Davenport

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As the average cell’s DNA undergoes roughly 1 million molecular lesions per day, learning about one of the repair mechanisms which fixes damaged DNA is a worthwhile endeavor. Such work may provide insights into how to treat or prevent diseases such as cancers and associated genetic disorders. Homologous recombination (HR) is one pathway which is used by cells to repair a specific type of DNA damage, double-strand breaks. While HR is a complex process involving over 25 different proteins, exactly how HR works, including its regulation, is largely unknown. One protein in particular, Rad51, forms a filament on the damaged …

The Influence Of Small Displacement Faults On Seal Integrity And Lateral Movement Of Fluids, Eric A. Rasmusson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As groundwater, liquid and gas hydrocarbons, or CO₂ fluids move through the subsurface, faults can act as pathways or barriers to flow. Recent studies also show that when a fault juxtaposes high permeability sandstone against a low permeability shale, the corner at the sandstone-shale interface and the fault can become a site of high pressure that may fracture the seal and allow fluids to escape. This can have negative implications for industries dependent on the quality of that seal, for example, petroleum, CO₂ sequestration, waste fluid injection, and nuclear waste storage industries.

We examined five small-scale faults in …

The Mh-2 Core From Project Hotspot: Description, Geologic Interpretation, And Significance To Geothermal Exploration In The Western Snake River Plain, Idaho, Jerome A. Varriale

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Harnessing the earth’s natural heat generation as an energy resource has seen increased interest in recent history. While geothermal energy is a sustainable, low-carbon emitting, and viable source of energy in certain regions, large upfront risks, including costs of exploration and deep well drilling, have kept private sector investment at bay. Lowering the risks to capital investment that are inherent to subsurface exploration can help to assuage investors and bring this well-known energy-generating technology to the masses.

A blind potential geothermal system was encountered while drilling the MH2 science drill hole, on Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The MH-2 …

Separation Of Points And Interval Estimation In Mixed Dose-Response Curves With Selective Component Labeling, Darl D. Flake Ii

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dose-response experiments are those that involve giving subjects different amounts of a treatment and observing the outcome. For example, plants may be given fertilizer and their growth could be measured or cancer patients could be given different doses of chemotherapy and their response could be monitored. These experiments are used to understand the relationship between the amount of, and response to, the treatment. Logistic regression models are often used to summarize data from these types of experiments. The dose-response experiment that motivated this dissertation involved treating a grain-pest with a pesticide. Some of the beetles had genes that made them …

Long-Term Study Of Crowdfunding Platform: Predicting Project Success And Fundraising Amount, Jinwook Chung

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Crowdfunding that is the combination word of crowdsourcing and funding makes people can start a business easily. Legislating JOBS act in US played a major role in removing restricted barriers of crowdfunding on public offerings of fence and private funds for small business. The growth speed of crowdfunding takes some beating. Through Kickstarter that is a popular crowdfunding platform and being considered the typical case of crowdfunding, 480 million dollars and more than half a billion dollars were invested in about 19 thousand and 22 projects for 2013 and 2014 respectively. But in spite of the rapid growth, the successful …

Detecting Experts On Quora: By Their Activity, Quality Of Answers, Linguistic Characteristics And Temporal Behaviors, Sumanth Kumar Reddy Nagarur Patil

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Question and answering sites are useful in sharing the knowledge by answering questions. It is a medium of sharing knowledge. Quora is the fastest emerging effective Q&A site, which is the best source of knowledge. Here you can ask a question, and get help in getting answers from people with firsthand experience, and blog about what you know. In this paper, we are investigating and identifying potential experts who are providing the best solutions to the questioner needs. We have considered several techniques in identifying user as an expert or non-expert. We have targeted the most followed topics in Quora …

The Colorado Plateau As A Virtual Laboratory For Mobile Games For Geoscience Education And Relations Between Rock Strength And River Metrics, Natalie Bursztyn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation encompasses two studies: one developing virtual field trips for mobile devices for an innovative approach to lower-division geoscience education, and the other examining the role of rock strength in river erosion and landscape evolution.

The education study involves the development of three virtual field trip modules (Geologic Time, Geologic Structures, and Hydrologic Processes, all free on iTunes and Google Play) that lead students down a virtual Colorado River through Grand Canyon by physically moving around their campus quad, football field or other location, using their GPS-equipped smart phone or tablet. As students reach each location in the scaled …

Improving The Scalability And Usability Of The Public Information Officer Monitoring Application, Rohan D. Shah

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis work addresses the limitations of a web application called the Public Information Officer Monitoring Application (PMA). This application helps Public Information Officers (PIOs) to gather, monitor, sort, store, and report social media data during a crisis event. Before this work, PMA was unable to handle large data sets and as a result, it had not been adequately tested with potential users of the application.

This thesis describes changes made to PMA to improve its ability to handle large data sets. After these changes were made, the application was then tested with target users. All test participants found the …

Face Recognition Under Varying Illuminations, Mohammadreza Faraji

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Face recognition under illumination is really challenging. This dissertation proposes four effective methods to produce illumination-invariant features for images with various levels of illuminations. The proposed methods are called logarithmic fractal dimension (LFD), eight local directional patterns (ELDP), adaptive homomorphic eight local directional pat- terns (AH-ELDP), and complete eight local directional patterns (CELDP), respectively.

LFD, employing the log function and the fractal analysis (FA), produces a logarithmic fractal dimension (LFD) image that is illumination-invariant. The proposed FA feature-based method is an effective edge enhancer technique to extract and enhance facial features such as eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth.

The proposed …

Image Blur Detection With Two-Dimensional Haar Wavelet Transform, Sarat Kiran Andhavarapu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Efficient detection of image blur and its extent is an open research problem in computer vision. Image blur has a negative impact on image quality. Blur is introduced into images due to various factors including limited contrast, improper exposure time or unstable device handling. Toward this end, an algorithm is presented for image blur detection with the use of Two-Dimensional Haar Wavelet transform (2D HWT). The algorithm is experimentally compared with two other image blur detection algorithms frequently cited in the literature. When evaluated over a sample of images, the algorithm performed on par or better than the two other …

Modeling Seed Dispersal And Population Migration Given A Distribution Of Seed Handling Times And Variable Dispersal Motility: Case Study For Pinyon And Juniper In Utah, Ram C. Neupane

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The spread of fruiting tree species is strongly determined by the behavior and range of fruit-eating animals, particularly birds. Birds either consume and digest seeds or carry and cache them at some distance from the source tree. These carried and settled seeds provide some form of distribution which generates tree spread to the new location. Firstly, we modal seed dispersal by birds and introduce it in a dispersal model to estimate seed distribution. Using this distribution, we create a population model to estimate the speed at which juniper and pinyon forest boundaries move.

Secondly, we introduce a fact that bird …

Fake And Spam Messages: Detecting Misinformation During Natural Disasters On Social Media, Meet Rajdev

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

During natural disasters or crises, users on social media tend to easily believe contents of postings related to the events, and retweet the postings, hoping that the postings will be reached by many other users. Unfortunately, there are malicious users who understand the tendency and post misinformation such as spam and fake messages with expecting wider propagation. To resolve the problem, in this paper we conduct a case study of the 2013 Moore Tornado and Hurricane Sandy. Concretely, we (i) understand behaviors of these malicious users; (ii) analyze properties of spam, fake and legitimate messages; (iii) propose flat and hierarchical …

Tropical Arithmetics And Dot Product Representations Of Graphs, Nicole Turner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In tropical algebras we substitute min or max for the typical addition and then substitute addition for multiplication. A dot product representation of a graph assigns each vertex of the graph a vector such that two edges are adjacent if and only if the dot product of their vectors is greater than some chosen threshold. The resultS of creating dot product representations of graphs using tropical algebras are examined. In particular we examine the tropical dot product dimensions of graphs and establish connections to threshold graphs and the threshold dimension of a graph.

Annotation Tools For Multivariate Gene Set Testing Of Non-Model Organisms, Russell K. Banks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Microarray chip technology enables researchers to obtain measures of gene activity for essentially all genes in an organism. After grouping genes into biologically meaningful sets, researchers employ certain statistical tests to identify which gene sets (biological processes) show different levels of activity across different treatment groups. The idea is to identify which biological processes are significantly affected by a certain treatment/condition in a given organism.

Non-model organisms (such as sheep) are not widely studied so gene set membership information is not always readily accessible. This thesis work utilizes two microarray studies involving sheep to provide researchers with working examples of …

Relative Toxicity Of Select Dehydropyrrolizidine Alkaloids And Evaluation Of A Heterozygous P53 Knockout Mouse Model For Dehydropyrrolizidine Alkaloid Induced Carcinogenesis, Ammon W. Brown

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dehydropyrrolizidine alkaloids (DHPAs) are toxins produced by approximately 3% of the world’s flowering plants that can be present naturally or as contaminants in animal feed and the human food supply. Many of these compounds have been determined to cause cancer in animals and probably also cause cancer in humans. Due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient amounts of pure DHPAs most toxicity research has been done via injection of a small amount into the abdomen of a rodent, although natural exposure is exclusively oral. For the same reason, cancer research is limited to a handful of the hundreds of known …

Digital Soil Mapping Using Landscape Stratification For Arid Rangelands In The Eastern Great Basin, Central Utah, Brook B. Fonnesbeck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In some parts of the western US there is limited publicly available soil information that can be used to make land management decisions on both public and private land. A goal of the USDI Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Utah was to map an area in central Utah where such soil maps and value-added information was not available for management and restoration decisions following a wildfire. In 2007, the Milford Flat Fire had burned more than 363,000 acres, removing vegetation that was holding erosion-sensitive soils in place. Following inconsistent results from stabilization and restoration efforts, this study was funded …

Algorithmic Information Theory Applications In Bright Field Microscopy And Epithelial Pattern Formation, Hamid Mohamadlou

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The incredible patterns of multicellular organisms emerge as a result of the operation of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRN) that work during development. Understanding how GRNs produce these complex multicellular patterns is a significant challenge in biology. The primary goal of this dissertation is to employ Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT), also known as Kolmogorov complexity, to unravel the information complexity of GRNs and the resultant multicellular patterns. To obtain a better understanding of Kolmogorov complexity performance, first we study an application in cell image segmentation.

There are an estimated 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome. The sheer size of the …

Sequence Stratigraphy, Depositional Environments And Geochemistry Of The Middle Cambrian Bloomington Formation In Northern Utah, Christopher Ryan Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bloomington Formation (~425 m thick) is a latest Middle Cambrian (~506.5-505 Ma.), mixed warm water, carbonate and shale unit on the Cordilleran passive margin in northern Utah and southern Idaho. The Hodges Shale and Calls Fort Shale Members are shale dominated and the Middle Limestone Member is a thick carbonate. Fossil diversity and abundance is surprisingly low for a Middle Cambrian carbonate/shale formation. Present, however, are 10-50 cm thrombolite mud mounds, associated with Girvanella oncoliths. These mud mounds represent shallow water carbonates that experienced a small flooding event that gives the mud mounds time and proper conditions to build …

Linking Form And Process In Braided Rivers Using Physical And Numerical Models, Alan Kasprak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Braided rivers are characterized by their dynamic nature, and are often significantly reshaped during each flood capable of transporting sediment. Over time, they adjust in response to the frequency and magnitude of floods, along with the amount of sediment available for bar building. Factors such as climate change, dam construction, or land use alteration that change the amount of sediment or water available to braided rivers may subsequently affect channel form. One avenue toward understanding braided channel evolution is to develop simple relationships between channel form and sediment transport, and extrapolate those relationships over extended timescales. With funding from the …

Computational Modeling To Study Disease Development: Applications To Breast Cancer And An In Vitro Model Of Macular Degeneration, Qanita Bani Baker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There have been several techniques developed in recent years to develop computer models of a variety of disease behaviors. Agent-based modeling is a discrete-based modeling approach used agents to represent individual cells that mechanically interact and secrete, consume or react to soluble products. It has become a powerful modeling approach, widely used by computational researchers. In this research, we utilized agent-based modeling to study and explore disease development, particularly in two applications, breast cancer and bioengineering experiments. We further proposed an error-minimization search approach and used it to estimate cellular parameters from multicellular in vitro data.

In this dissertation, in …