Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nitrogen Transport, Transformation And Cycling Through A Mountain Lake, Bull Trout Lake, Idaho, Usa, Ryan Settle Lockwood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effects of a mountain lake on nitrogen dynamics in a sub-alpine watershed were examined via watershed monitoring, mesocosm experiments, microcosm experiments, and enzymatic assays during spring and summer of a single year. Our study addressed the questions: (1) How does hydrologic transport through the lake affect the net fluxes of dissolved nitrogen (N) species? (2) What are the net effects of the littoral zone biota on dissolved N fluxes? (3) What are the seston and benthic uptake rates of nitrate? (4) What is the magnitude of N retention in littoral zone sediments? (5) What role does microbial hydrolysis of …

Soil Organic Carbon And Site Characteristics In Aspen And Evaluation Of The Potential Effects Of Conifer Encroachment On Soil Properties In Northern Utah, Mical K. Woldeselassie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the Intermountain West, aspen (Populus tremuloides) has declined mainly due to a combination of successional processes, fire suppression and long-term use of ungulates which has led to replacement by conifers, sagebrush or other shrub communities. Conifer encroachment is believed to cause critical changes in the ecosystem properties. In order to understand the impacts of conifer encroachment on soil properties such as soil organic carbon (SOC) storage, soil morphology, and soil chemical properties, and the implications of such changes, it is very important to assess the soil properties under the two vegetation types. The objectives of this study …

Measurement And Modeling Of Reduced-Gravity Fluid Distribution And Transport In Unsaturated Porous Plant-Growth Media, Robert Heinse

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effect of reduced gravity on the balanced management of liquid, gaseous and ionic fluxes in unsaturated porous media remains a central challenge for plant-based bio-regenerative life support systems needed for long-duration space missions. This research investigated how shifting capillary and gravitational forces alter the sample-scale transport and distribution of fluids in mm-sized porous ceramic aggregates. Measurements in variably saturated media conducted on the International Space Station in microgravity (~1⋅10^-3 g_earth) and measurements during parabolic flight in variable gravity encompassing microgravity, terrestrial gravity and hypergravity (~1.8g_earth) were supported by numerical modeling based on fundamental, …

Predicting The Growth Potential Of A Shallow, Warm-Water Sport Fishery: A Spatially Explicit Bioenergetics Approach, Samuel Kirk Dahle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Capturing the range of fish consumption and growth potential of large, heterogeneous lentic systems can be challenging due to strong gradients in productivity, the diversity of habits types present, and in some cases, site-specific water quality issues. Cutler Reservoir (Utah, USA) displays a high degree of spatial and temporal variation in physical conditions and potential water quality limitations for fish, including high summertime water temperature and large, diel fluctuations in dissolved oxygen concentrations. The combination of bioenergetics modeling and GIS spatial analysis offers a promising interface for quantifying the fish consumptive and growth potential across a spatially and temporally heterogeneous …

Predicting Rna Secondary Structures By Folding Simulation: Software And Experiments, Joel Omni Gillespie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We present a new method for predicting the secondary structure of RNA sequences. Using our method, each RNA nucleotide of an RNA Sequence is represented as a point on a 3D triangular lattice. Using the Simulated Annealing technique, we manipulate the location of the points on the lattice. We explore various scoring functions for judging the relative quality of the structures created by these manipulations. After near optimal configurations on the lattice have been found, we describe how the lattice locations of the nucleotides can be used to predict a secondary structure for the sequence. This prediction can be further …

Correlation, Paleogeography, And Provenance Of The Neoproterozoic Eastern Uinta Mountain Group, Goslin Mountain Area, Northeastern Utah, Daniel J. Rybczynski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Geologic mapping, facies analysis, sedimentary petrography, and detrital zircon analyses of undivided eastern Uinta Mountain Group stratigraphy are presented to better understand the depositional environments and tectonic setting of the Uinta Mountain Group basin. Subdivided units have been modified and correlated from previous work and include the Red Pine Shale, Hades Pass, Crouse Canyon, Outlaw Trail, and Diamond Breaks formations. Three lower-order maximum flooding surfaces associated with the lower Outlaw Trail formation, lower Hades Pass formation, and Red Pine Shale are interpreted. The relative magnitude of each lower-order transgression increases up section along with increasing diversity of palynomorph assemblages found …

A Geologic And Hydrochemical Investigation Of The Suitability Of Central Utah's Navajo Sandstone For The Disposal Of Saline Process Water And Co2, Kevin L. Randall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Salt water is produced from the Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale in central Utah as part of the production of coalbed methane (CBM) and is disposed of by injection predominantly into the Navajo Sandstone between 4,500 feet to 7,300 feet and is considered to be a hazardous waste. Local government agencies are concerned about the potential impacts on shallow groundwater because of this disposal method.

Water samples were gathered from four shallow water-supply wells, and nine salt water disposal (SWD) wells to compare hydrochemistries as an indicator of potential mixing. Shallow water-supply wells are likely recharged by local …

Optimal Candidate Generation In Spatial Co-Location Mining, Zhongshan Lin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Existing spatial co-location algorithms based on levels suffer from generating extra, nonclique candidate instances. Thus, they require cliqueness checking at every level. In this thesis, a novel, spatial co-location mining algorithm that automatically generates co-located spatial features without generating any nonclique candidates at any level is proposed. Subsequently, this algorithm generates fewer candidates than other existing level-wise, co-location algorithms without losing any pertinent information. The benefits of this algorithm have been clearly observed at early stages in the mining process.

A River Transformed: Historic Geomorphic Changes Of The Lower Rio Grande In The Big Bend Region Of Texas, Chihuahua, And Coahuila, David James Dean

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over the last century, the construction and management of large dams and stream-flow diversions, and periodic drought have resulted in significant declines in stream flow of the lower Rio Grande in the Big Bend region. Reductions in mean annual flow and peak discharge have resulted in channel narrowing by the formation of vertically accreting inset floodplains. Narrowing has been temporarily interrupted by infrequent large dam releases greater than 1000 m³/s that have temporarily widened the channel; however, after each of these events, narrowing has resumed. Prior to 1942, floods of this magnitude occurred approximately once every 4 years …

Modeling The Evolution Of Insect Phenology With Particular Reference To Mountain Pine Beetle, Brian P. Yurk

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Climate change is likely to disrupt the timing of developmental events (phenology) in insect populations in which development time is largely determined by temperature. Shifting phenology puts insects at risk of being exposed to seasonal weather extremes during sensitive life stages and losing synchrony with biotic resources. Additionally, warming may result in loss of developmental synchronization within a population, making it difficult to find mates or mount mass attacks against well-defended resources at low population densities. It is unknown whether genetic evolution of development time can occur rapidly enough to moderate these effects.

The work presented here is largely motivated …

Exploring The Spawning Dynamics And Identifying Limitations To The Early Life-History Survival Of An Important, Endemic Fish Species, Sara Elizabeth Seidel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For many native, imperiled salmonid species, the prioritization of recovery and conservation efforts hinges upon the identification of a species most limiting life stage. The early life-history stage can be a limiting life stage for fish, and given the importance of the reproductive stage to overall persistence, there is a need to better understand the spawning ecology and early life history of many salmonids. The Logan River, in northern Utah, contains one of the largest metapopulations of imperiled Bonneville cutthroat trout (BCT) throughout the Bonneville Basin. Little research has evaluated the temporal and spatial distribution of BCT spawning nor quantified …

Simulation, Kriging, And Visualization Of Circular-Spatial Data, William James Morphet

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The circular dataimage is defined by displaying direction as the color at the same direction in a color wheel composed of a sequence of two-color gradients with color continuity between gradients. The resulting image of circular-spatial data is continuous with high resolution. Examples include ocean wind direction, Earth's main magnetic field, and rocket nozzle internal combustion flow. The cosineogram is defined as the mean cosine of the angle between random components of direction as a function of distance between observation locations. It expresses the spatial correlation of circular-spatial data. A circular kriging solution is developed based on a model fitted …

Evolution Of The Lower Cretaceous Chifeng Half-Graben Basins, Inner Mongolia, China, Scott Joshua Friedman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As a result of complex extensional tectonics in northeast China and southern portions of Mongolia, some workers have interpreted the Cretaceous Maanshan Uplift and associated Chifeng basins as metamorphic core complex. Previous work has relied solely upon kinematic indicators to determine the structural origin of these basins. To fully understand the creation of these basins, the sedimentiological record was analyzed in this study. The early Cretaceous sedimentary fill of these basins was analyzed to determine if it is synextensional in nature, and if so what manner of extension was in progress during that deposition.

The Chifeng basins are filled with …

The Adaptability Of Langmuir Probes To The Pico-Satellite Regime, Andrew Jay Auman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether it is feasible to use Langmuir probes on pico-satellites flying in low Earth orbit over mid- to low-latitude geographic regions. Following chapters on the expected ionospheric conditions and an overview of Langmuir probe theory, a chapter addressing the difficulties involved with pico-satellite Langmuir probes is presented. Also, the necessary satellite-to-probe surface area requirements in order to achieve confidence in pico-satellite Langmuir probe data, for the orbital regions of interest to this thesis, are stated.

Identification Of Subsoil Compaction Using Electrical Conductivity And Spectral Data Across Varying Soil Moisture Regimes In Utah, Jay Murray Payne

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Subsoil compaction is a major yield limiting factor for most agricultural crops. Tillage is the most efficient method to quickly treat compacted subsoil, but it is also expensive, increases erosion, and accelerates nutrient cycling.

The use of real-time electrical conductivity (EC) and near-infrared (NIR) reflectance values to differentiate compacted areas from uncompacted areas was studied. This method has potential to reduce monetary and time investments inherent in traditional grid sampling and the resultant deep tillage of an entire field. EC and NIR reflectance are both very sensitive to spatial variability of soil attributes.

The objective of this research was to …

Modeling The Electrodynamics Of The Low-Latitude Ionosphere, Christian Stephen Wohlwend

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The electrodynamics of the Earth's low-latitude ionosphere is dependent on the ionospheric conductivity and the thermospheric neutral density, temperature, and winds present. This two-part study focused on the gravity wave seeding mechanism of equatorial plasma depletions in the ionosphere and the associated equatorial spread F, as well as the differences between a two-dimensional flux tube integrated electrodynamics model and a three-dimensional model for the same time period. The gravity wave seeding study was based on a parameterization of a gravity wave perturbation using a background empirical thermosphere and a physics-based ionosphere for the case of 12 UT on 26 September …

Factors Affecting Landowner Participation In The Candidate Conservation Agreements With Assurances Program, Kendra Womack

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States’ Endangered Species Act of 1973 has been recognized as one of the most powerful laws enacted to protect endangered species in the world. Its protections for animal species extends onto private land, which has in some cases created conflict between the law, its enforcers, and private landowners. The Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAA) program was developed in 1999 to provide a regulatory incentive for private landowners to engage in pro-active conservation for sensitive species to preclude the need for listing under the ESA in the future. Since 1999, however, there have only been 17 CCAAs signed, …

Application Of Resiliency Theory And Adaptive Cycles As A Framework For Evaluating Change In Amenity-Transition Communities, Scott L. Hoffmann

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In recent decades, many rural, natural resource-dependent communities have experienced ubiquitous and oftentimes substantial economic decline due to downturns in their commodity-oriented industries. In spite of this, communities with access to varying forms of natural capital have experienced an upsurge in activities such as recreation, tourism, second home growth, and retirement in-migration. If managed properly, amenity-oriented development has potential to reverse economic decline by attracting tourists, entrepreneurs, younger and more educated workers, and retirees, and may ultimately generate economic diversification, local growth, and an improved quality of life for residents. While there are literally thousands of potential measures of well-being, …

A Novel Technique Of Network Auditability With Managers In The Loop, Rian Shelley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Network management requires a large amount of knowledge about the network. In particular, knowledge about used network addresses, access time, and topology is useful. In a network composed of managed devices, much of the data necessary can come from simple network management protocol (SNMP) queries. Other data can come from other databases, or analysis of existing data. In particular, layer-two network topology can be determined by analyzing the mac address forwarding tables of layer-two devices. The layer-two topology can be merged with a layer-three topology to generate a complete topology of the network. This information is useless unless it is …

Automated Data Type Identification And Localization Using Statistical Analysis Data Identification, Sarah Jean Moody

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research presents a new and unique technique called SÁDI, statistical analysis data identification, for identifying the type of data on a digital device and its storage format based on data type, specifically the values of the bytes representing the data being examined. This research incorporates the automation required for specialized data identification tools to be useful and applicable in real-world applications. The SÁDI technique utilizes the byte values of the data stored on a digital storage device in such a way that the accuracy of the technique does not rely solely on the potentially misleading metadata information but rather …

Decadal-Scale Changes On Coral Reefs In Quintana Roo, Mexico, Thaddeus Allen Nicholls

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 1988 data on coral reef community composition were collected from two areas, Akumal and Chemuyil, Quintana Roo, Mexico, ranging from 5-35m depth. These areas were revisited in 2005 and data were collected by the same methods and at the same depths as in 1988. Data from 1988 and 2005 were compared to determine if the coral reefs had undergone significant changes, and what specific changes had occurred. Chi-square analysis determined that community composition data collected in 1988 are significantly different from data collected in 2005 at all sites and depths within the categories of corals, gorgonians, sponges, and macroalgae. …

Factors Related To Success And Participants’ Psychological Ownership In Collaborative Wildlife Management: A Survey Of Sage-Grouse Local Working Groups, Lorien R. Belton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Declines of sage-grouse (Centrocercus spp.) across the western United States have prompted the formation of numerous collaborative stakeholder partnerships, known as local working groups. These voluntary groups create and implement local sage-grouse management plans and projects, often in the hopes that their efforts may help avert a federal Endangered Species designation for the bird. Using a mail survey of participants in 54 local working groups, I examined the importance of psychological ownership in working group dynamics. Psychological ownership is conceptualized as a latent, multidimensional variable consisting of responsibility, control, and caring elements. Multiple regression analysis showed early-stage group success, representative …

Development Of A Post-Fire Monitoring Protocol For Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness And Cheatgrass Abundance Using Quickbird Imagery And Ground Observations, Gabriel Bissonette

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 9.3 million hectares of land in Utah and has implemented an Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) Program to protect life and property, combat soil erosion, and reduce the invasion of exotic/noxious weeds following wildland fire. In highly vulnerable sites, seeding treatments may be applied to establish an interim landcover to stabilize the soil and competitively exclude weed invasions. Monitoring treatment effectiveness is mandated through ESR guidelines and necessary for the submission of annual Accomplishment Reports for the first three years following fire containment. Ground monitoring has been the traditional approach to fulfilling this …

Impact Analysis Of System And Network Attacks, Anupama Biswas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Systems and networks have been under attack from the time the Internet first came into existence. There is always some uncertainty associated with the impact of the new attacks. Compared to the problem of attack detection, analysis of attack impact has received very little attention. Generalize and forecasting the kind of attack that will hit systems in future is not possible. However, it is possible to predict the behavior of a new attack and, thereby, the impact of the attack. This thesis proposes a method for predicting the impact of a new attack on systems and networks as well as …

A C To Register Transfer Level Algorithm Using Structured Circuit Templates: A Case Study With Simulated Annealing, Jonathan D. Phillips

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A tool flow is presented for deriving simulated annealing accelerator circuits on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) from C source code by exploring architecture solutions that conform to a preset template through scheduling and mapping algorithms. A case study carried out on simulated annealing-based Autonomous Mission Planning and Scheduling (AMPS) software used for autonomous spacecraft systems is explained. The goal of the research is an automated method for the derivation of a hardware design that maximizes performance while minimizing the FPGA footprint. Results obtained are compared with a peer C to register transfer level (RTL) logic tool, a state-of-the-art …

Approximations To Continuous Processes In Hierarchical Models, Amanda Cangelosi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Models for natural nonlinear processes, such as population dynamics, have been given much attention in applied mathematics. For example, species competition has been extensively modeled by differential equations. Often, the scientist has preferred to model the underlying dynamical processes (i.e., theoretical mechanisms) in continuous-time. It is of both scientific and mathematical interest to implement such models in a statistical framework to quantify uncertainty associated with the models in the presence of observations. That is, given discrete observations arising from the underlying continuous process, the unobserved process can be formally described while accounting for multiple sources of uncertainty ( …

Two Highly Diverse Studies In Computing: A Vitruvian Framework For Distribution And A Search Approach To Cancer Therapies, Brian G. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Solid cancer tumors must recruit new blood vessels for growth and maintenance. Discovering drugs that block this tumor-induced development of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) is an important approach in cancer treatment. However, the complexity of angiogenesis and the difficulty in implementing and evaluating medical changes prevent the discovery of novel and effective new therapies. This paper presents a massively parallel computational search-based approach for the discovery of novel potential cancer treatments, using a high fidelity simulation of angiogenesis. Discovering new therapies is viewed as multi-objective combinatorial optimization over two competing objectives: minimizing the medical cost of the intervention while minimizing …

Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, And Organic Geochemistry Of The Red Pine Shale, Uinta Mountains, Utah: A Prograding Deltaic System In A Mid-Neoproterozoic Interior Seaway, Caroline Amelia Myer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Red Pine Shale (RPS; ~1120m thick), uppermost formation of the Neoproterozoic Uinta Mountain Group, Utah, is an organic-rich sedimentary succession interpreted as a marine deltaic system that delivered immature sediment from the north that mixed with mature sediment from the east. Multiple data sets suggest regional climate and sea-level changes associated with changing organic-carbon burial rates.

Six facies were identified and represent wave-, tidal-, and river-influenced parts of the distal prodelta to delta front in a marine system. These include the shale facies and associated concretion facies (distal prodelta), the shale-sandstone facies (proximal prodelta to delta front), the slump …

Perceived Crowding And Visitor Support For Use Rationing: A Reanalysis Of Existing Data, Jascha M. Zeitlin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents a reanalysis of data collected between 1999 and 2006 by the Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism (IORT) at Utah State University. These data concern a variety of outdoor recreation sites in Utah, Idaho, and South Dakota, and were collected via intercept, mail, and, to a very limited extent, telephone surveys. Survey instruments contained questions related to visitor perceptions of crowding, overall satisfaction, support for use limits/rationing, and estimates of use density, in addition to other conceptually related factors.

Analyses consisted of multiple regression models for both perceived crowding and visitor support for use limits dependent variables …

Hydrological Characterization Of A Riparian Vegetation Zone Using High Resolution Multi-Spectral Airborne Imagery, Osama Zaki Akasheh

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Middle Rio Grande River (MRGR) is the main source of fresh water for the state of New Mexico. Located in an arid area with scarce local water resources, this has led to extensive diversions of river water to supply the high demand from municipalities and irrigated agricultural activities. The extensive water diversions over the last few decades have affected the composition of the native riparian vegetation by decreasing the area of cottonwood and coyote willow and increasing the spread of invasive species such as Tamarisk and Russian Olives, harmful to the river system, due to their high transpiration rates, …