cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
title: An Agricultural Model for the Central and Sacaba Valleys in Cochabamba, Bolivia
Creators: name: Ibañez-Meier, Carlos A.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 1980

description: The purpose of this thesis is to assess the impact of increasing the quantity of water supplied for irrigated agriculture in the Central and Sacaba Valleys. Specifically, this study examines the feasibility of Misicuni multiple-purpose project in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This project involves construction of a reservoir for the purpose of irrigating and the above mentioned areas, supply potable water to the urban areas, and produced electrical power. The Misicuni Survey, Ministerio de Agricultura y Asuntos Campesionos (MACA) bulletins, and information from other institutions were used as a source of data for the formulation of a linear programming model which represents the agricultural sector in that area. Using the model, pseudo data relating different levels of agricultural production were obtained with different levels of input combinations. The problem was solved by maintaining the demand for agricultural products in the area at the levels prevalent in 1976-1977. This data was fitted by linear regression techniques to a translogarithmic production function which defines a continuous functional relationship between the value-added to GNP by the region under study and the input factors of production. The results derived from the estimated production function show that, unless considerable expansion in the demand for agricultural products is induced in this area, the change in the value of output through increases in the quantity of water available for irrigation by the Misicuni Project will be insignificant. If the government constructs the mentioned dam (as designed), there is a high probability of unused excess water resource capacity. This will result in considerable economic loss and a misallocation of the scarce resources of the country.
title: Bio-Inspired Materials and Micro/Nanostructures Enabled by Peptides and Proteins
Creators: name: Swaminathan, Swathi
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: The development of a general approach for non-destructive chemical and biological functionalization of materials could expand opportunities for both fundamental studies and creating various device platforms. Phage display has emerged as a powerful method for selecting peptides that possess enhanced selectivity and binding affinity toward a variety of targets. In this study, a powerful yet benign approach for identifying binding motifs to materials like (Poly) dimethylsiloxane, epoxy, and (Poly) ethylenetetraphthalate and peptide nanotubes has been demonstrated via comprehensively screened phage-displayed peptides. Further, along with the development of microstructures, micropatterns and micro-molecular self-assembly, recognition with phage-displayed peptides can be specifically localized in these microstructures.
In addition, the development of a facile approach for fabricating a library of precisely positioned nanostructures and microfluidic systems based on mammalian hair offers exciting opportunities in fundamental research and practical applications. The current top-down and bottom-up nanofabrication methods have been restricted in accessibility in standard labs due to their high cost and complexity. Novel fabrication methods utilizing biomimetic materials and natural proteins for large-scale nanopatterning with hierarchical assembly of functional materials have been reported. It is anticipated that these results could open up exciting opportunities in the use of peptide-recognized materials in fundamental biochemical recognition studies, as well as in applications ranging from analytical storage devices, hybrid materials, sensors, surface and interface, to cell biology.
title: Analysis of Full-Scale Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) Wall Using Crimped Steel Wire Reinforcement
Creators: name: Jensen, Joshua Aaron
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2014

description: Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls have provided an effective solution to constructing retaining walls. The engineering and construction industry is continually striving to provide more cost-effective and design-efficient means to building MSE walls. Hilfiker Retaining Walls has developed a new semi-extensible metal mat reinforcement technology which does not fit into the current extensible or inextensible categories as defined by regulating authorities. The objective of this project was to construct and observe the behavior collect quantitative data for a 20-foot tall MSE wall using the prototype semi-extensible reinforcement technology. The results were compared to expected American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Load Reduction Factored Design values and was also compared to another case study, Prediction of Reinforcement Loads in Reinforced Soil Walls as conducted by Tony M. Allen, P.E., and Richard J. Bathurst, Ph. D., P. Eng. Comparing the behavior of the 20-foot prototype MSE wall to these design regulations and case studies allowed for proper classification and will facilitate future industry design efforts.
Time Immemorial: Water Governance Approaches and Indigenous Rights
Creators: name: Bray, Meg
name: Sanchez, Andre
name: Ogwu, Matthew
Publisher: name: QUBES Educational Resources
Year: 2023

description: The purpose of this experiential lesson is to introduce students to key concepts in water governance in the United States, and provide them with the opportunity to reflect on the western and Indigenous understandings of water governance in a field setting. Part I will introduce students to foundational water rights structures such as First in Time, First in Right (The Doctrine of Prior Appropriation), Winters Rights, Time Immemorial, and riparian rights, along with collaborative and adaptive water management. In Part II, students will spend time in a watershed. There, students will be asked to observe and reflect on water governance, time immemorial, and human connection to water. Upon completing this lesson, students will be able to utilize field-based journaling techniques for qualitative observations of landscapes. Additionally, students will be able to commit to more effective stewardship and allyship for the long term.
title: Modeling Transportation Planning Applications via Path Flow Estimator
Creators: name: Ryu, Seungkyu
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: The Path Flow Estimator (PEE) concept was originally developed to estimate path flows (hence origin-destination flows) and link flows for a whole road network (given some counts at selected roads). It is now further developed as an alternative for modeling different transportation planning applications: (1) a bicycle network analysis tool for non-motorized transportation planning, (2) a multi-class traffic assignment model for freight planning, and (3) a simplified travel demand forecasting framework for small community planning.
The first application of the redeveloped PFE is to develop a two-stage bicycle traffic assignment model for estimating/predicting bicycle volumes on a transportation network. The first stage considers key criteria (e.g., distance related attributes, safety related attributes, air quality related attributes etc.) to generate a set of non-dominated (or efficient) paths, while the second stage adopts several traffic assignment methods to determine the flow allocations to the network. This two-stage approach can be used as a stand-alone bicycle traffic assignment to the transportation network given a bicycle origin-destination (O-D) matrix. The second application aims to enhance the realism of traffic assignment models for freight planning by incorporating different modeling considerations into the multi-class traffic assignment problem. These modeling considerations involve developing both model formulation and customized solution algorithm, which in turn involve asymmetric interactions among different vehicle types (i.e., cars versus trucks), a path-size logit (PSL) model (for accounting random perceptions of network conditions with explicit consideration of route overlapping), and various traffic restrictions imposed either individually or together to multiple vehicle types in a transportation network. In the third application, a simplified planning framework is developed to perform planning applications in small communities where limited planning resources hinder the development and application of a full four-step model. Two versions (i.e., base year and future year) of the PFE are proposed to address the specific transportation planning issues and needs of small communities.
These new PFE developments for planning applications are tested with different realistic transportation networks. The results suggest that the new PFE applications proposed in this dissertation provide an alternative to the traditional four-step travel demand forecasting model that can be used as a stand-alone application with better modeling capability and fewer resources.
Universal scaling in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas
Creators: name: Löw, Robert
name: Weimer, Hendrik
name: Krohn, Ulrich
name: Heidemann, Rolf
name: Bendkowsky, Vera
name: Butscher, Björn
name: Büchler, Hans Peter
name: Pfau, Tilman
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study a gas of ultracold atoms resonantly driven into a strongly interacting Rydberg state. The long distance behavior of the spatially frozen effective pseudospin system is determined by a set of dimensionless parameters, and we find that the experimental data exhibits algebraic scaling laws for the excitation dynamics and the saturation of Rydberg excitation. Mean field calculations as well as numerical simulations provide an excellent agreement with the experimental finding, and are evidence for universality in a strongly interacting frozen Rydberg gas.
description: 6 pages, 3 figures
A laser-excited optical resonator for electron density measurements on A Z-pinch plasma
Creators: name: Medley, Sidney Sylvester
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2011

description: A technique which employs a laser-excited optical resonator has been developed to measure the electron density distribution, both temporal and spatial, in the collapse stage of a fast Z-pinch discharge. The resonator device has an experimentally determined time resolution of better than 0.05 µsec and is suitable for measuring electron densities in excess of 5 • 10¹⁶ /Lʎ cm⁻³, where L is the length of the plasma in cm and ʎ is the wavelength of the laser in microns. A novel feature of this instrument is the use of an unstable optical resonator. The technique is applied to a discharge in argon at filling pressures of 100 and 1000 µHg. The temporal and radial electron density distributions obtained exhibit several interesting features which are discussed from the point of view of the collapse process.
Direct production of a light CP-odd Higgs boson at the Tevatron and LHC
Creators: name: Dermisek, Radovan
name: Gunion, John F.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We show that the existing CDF $L=630 pb^{-1}$ Tevatron data on $pp\to μ^+μ^- + X$ places substantial limits on a light CP-odd Higgs boson $a$ with $m_a<2m_B$ produced via $gg\to a$, even for $m_a>2m_τ$ for which $BR(a\to μ^+μ^-)$ is relatively small. Extrapolation of this existing CDF analysis to $L=10 fb^{-1}$ suggests that Tevatron limits on the $a b\anti b$ coupling strength in the region $m_a>8\gev$ could be comparable to or better than limits from Upsilon decays in the $m_a<7\gev$ region. We also give rough estimates of future prospects at the LHC, demonstrating that early running will substantially improve limits on a light $a$ (or perhaps discover a signal). In particular, outside the Upsilon peak region, integrated luminosity of only $5-20 fb^{-1}$ (depending on $m_a$ and $\sqrt s$) could reveal a peak in $M_{μ^+μ^-}$ and will certainly place important new limits on a light $a$. The importance of such limits in the context of NMSSM Higgs discovery and $(g-2)_μ$ are outlined.
description: 25 pages, 12 figures, updated LHC estimates and table based on ATLAS-related input now included (v4 and v5). In addition, comments regarding final ALEPH limits in the Z+4\tau channel are included in v5.
Implications of High-Resolution Simulations on Indirect Dark Matter Searches
Creators: name: Pieri, Lidia
name: Lavalle, Julien
name: Bertone, Gianfranco
name: Branchini, Enzo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the prospects for detecting the annihilation products of Dark Matter [DM] in the framework of the two highest-resolution numerical simulations currently available, i.e. {\it Via Lactea II} and {\it Aquarius}. We propose a strategy to determine the shape and size of the region around the Galactic center that maximizes the probability of observing a DM signal, and we show that although the predicted flux can differ by a factor of 10 for a given DM candidate in the two simulation setups, the search strategy remains actually unchanged, since it relies on the angular profile of the annihilation flux, not on its normalization. We present mock gamma-ray maps that keep into account the diffuse emission produced by unresolved halos in the Galaxy, and we estimate that in an optimistic DM scenario a few individual clumps can be resolved above the background with the Fermi-LAT. Finally we calculate the energy-dependent boost factors for positrons and antiprotons, and show that they are always of $\cal O$(1), and therefore they cannot lead to the large enhancements of the antimatter fluxes required to explain the recent PAMELA, ATIC, Fermi and HESS data.
description: 23 pages, 15 figures, revised version (e.g. more insights on the spatial distribution of subhalos)
title: Teaching Bystander Skills Through Fluency Training
Creators: name: Hagloch, Emilee
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of bullying interventions targeted at bystanders; however, a fluency component has not been used in any studies to teach these skills. The present study investigated the inclusion of fluency training to teach and enhance skills that can be used when responding and defending the victim in fourth- and fifth-grade students (N=55 and N=53, respectively). All students participated in a modified version of the Bully Prevention in Positive Behavior Support for Elementary School program and filled out pre- and postrating scales to determine participant roles related to bullying. An experimental group also participated in fluency training sessions to teach bystander skills. Results showed that there was a significant interaction between group and time showing more growth on correct responses per minute (CRPM) for the experimental fluency group than the control group on bystander skills fluency task. Additionally, results showed that defender role scores significantly increased for the fluency group at post but not for the control group. There were no significant differences for the reinforcer or outsider role scores. Implications of these findings for school-based practice and research are discussed.
title: Novel Techniques to Determine Soil Evaporation Rates: Heat Pulse Probe and Automated Microlysimeter
Creators: name: Rumana, Kashifa
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: Soil water evaporation is a critical component of both the surface energy balance and the hydrologic cycle, coupling heat and water transfer between land and atmosphere. Bare-soil evaporation and plant-soil-atmospheric interactions are important components of the water balance, especially in semiarid and arid regions. Soil evaporation has been thoroughly studied during the past century, yielding many methods and models.
However, none of the methods have adequately addressed the needs for in situ and real-time monitoring of soil evaporation. The objectives of this research project were to track soil water evaporation losses using two different methods: a heat pulse probe (HPP) array and a fully automated microlysimeter (FAML). The HPP consists of a heater needle and five thermistor needles; when rotated to an angle of 27.3° from a vertical orientation, it yielded temperature measurements every 3 mm within the soil profile. On the application of heat input to a resistance wire in the heater needle, the remaining thermistor needles measured the temperature response at a fixed distance of 6.5 mm from the heater. Results from our study demonstrate application of the sensible heat balance approach that provided reasonable estimates of subsurface evaporation rates. Inconsistencies due to the inability of the HPP to estimate evaporation rates in the near-surface "undetectable zone" are also reported in comparison to actual stage-2 evaporation based on the mass balance method. Additionally, deviations from the prescribed installation angle introduced errors when calculating the temperature gradient; hence, a vertical spacing algorithm was developed to resolve spacing errors. In the third chapter, a fully automated design is discussed based on the microlysimeter concept with the enhancement of an 8- cm deep lysimeter that was mounted on a 10 kg load cell for real-time monitoring diurnal evaporation rates from bare soil. The comparison with HYDRUS-1D simulation validated the FAML measured instantaneous evaporation rates with slight disparity toward the end of the experiment. Overall, this study shows two feasible methods for estimating real time evaporation rates in situ over prolonged periods with the aid of the HPP or the FAML. These tools can assist researchers with improved assessment of soil evaporation while taking into account proper correction methods.
title: Beginning Teachers' Perceptions of Their Novice Year of Teaching
Creators: name: Rees, Rebecca Bingham
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: This qualitative study was an investigation of first-year teachers who completed their teacher preparation program at large, land-grant university in the west (n=16). It explored teachers' perceptions of their first teaching year centered around the questions of challenges and successes they had encountered, whether they felt prepared for their first year by their teacher preparation program, in what areas would they have liked more instruction during their teacher preparation program, and if they felt able to implement developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) within their classroom.
Study findings indicated three main areas remarked on by teachers: creating and implementing instruction and assessment; experiences of teachers; and classroom organization, management, and procedures. All of the teachers within the study had comments within the area of creating and implementing instruction and assessment. About 46% of the comments within this theme referred to whether teachers felt able to implement DAP in their classrooms. Almost 77% of teachers reported that they were able to implement DAP within their classrooms. Fourteen of the teachers had comments coded within the theme of experience. Almost 68% of those comments fell within the subtheme of student teaching experience. Over half of the teachers expressed satisfaction with their student teaching experience. Fourteen teachers also commented within the theme of classroom organization, management, and procedures. About 73% of those comments were coded within the subtheme of classroom management. Teachers reported feeling both successful and challenged within this theme, and it was also identified as an area they would have liked more instruction in during their teacher preparation programs. Five less prominent themes were also delineated: special education, teacher intrinsic qualities, teacher characteristics, child and classroom characteristics, and parent and family issues. Study findings demonstrated, as well, that most teachers felt prepared for their first year of teaching by their teacher preparation program. The majority of teachers began first teaching in a public school setting and participants were teaching students ranging from pre-school to first grade. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
title: The Design and Testing of a Three-Degree-of-Freedom Small Satellite Simulator Using a Linear Controller with Feedback Linearization and Trajectory Generation
Creators: name: Samuels, Marina A
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2014

description: A small satellite simulator with attitude determination and control was designed and implemented in hardware. The simulator consists of inertial sensors for attitude determination and a pyramidal four-wheel momentum exchange system as the control actuators. A linearized PV controller with trajectory generation and feedback linearization was implemented, with the focus on controlling yaw. The simulator was tested on a spherical air bearing platform to allow three-degree-of-freedom operation. The simulator software was developed to read measurements from the sensors, apply the control algorithm, and send commands to the actuators. A data processing routine was developed. Electromechanical testing for the system as well as test results are presented.
title: Spatial Patterns of Rural and Exurban Residential Settlement and Agricultural Trends in the Intermountain West
Creators: name: Ahmed, Saleh
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: In recent years, counties in the Intermountain West (CO, ID, MT, UT, WY) have experienced rapid population growth and housing development, and much of this growth is occurring outside of urban areas. Residental development can have negative impacts on farmlands, farm viability, and environmental services provided by working landscapes. In this study, I use county-level data to explore the association between residential settlement patterns and trends in farm numbers, copland acres, and farm sales between 1997-2012 in this region. Results from traditional ordinary least-squares and spatial regression models demonstrate that population pressure (e.g. rural population density), socioeconomic structure (e.g. median household income), and biophysical resources (e.g. length of growing season) are related to different types of farm trends, but that accounting for the spatial pattern or arrangement of rural and exurban residential development can improve models to explain agricultural change. Since spatial dependencies are present among different variables, this study also demonstrates that spatial regression methods are appropriate and useful to use when modeling country-level processes of socioeconomic change.
Some Universal Properties for Restricted Trace Gaussian Orthogonal, Unitary and Symplectic Ensembles
Creators: name: Liu, Dang-Zheng
name: Zhou, Da-Sheng
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: 15A52; 41A60

description: Consider fixed and bounded trace Gaussian orthogonal, unitary and symplectic ensembles, closely related to Gaussian ensembles without any constraint. For three restricted trace Gaussian ensembles, we prove universal limits of correlation functions at zero and at the edge of the spectrum edge. In addition, by using the universal result in the bulk for fixed trace Gaussian unitary ensemble, which has been obtained by G$\ddot{o}$tze and Gordin, we also prove universal limits of correlation functions for bounded trace Gaussian unitary ensemble.
description: 19pages,bounded trace Gaussian ensembles are added
Lasers for Gas Sensing
Creators: name: Kłos, Krzysztof
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: lasers, gas sensing, IR detector, TDLAS, TDLS, spectroscopy, detectors

description: Report from research on gas sensing done within Prophet - MC ITN Project, located in Procal Ltd. (Peterborough, UK).
description: FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN - Marie-Curie Action: "Initial Training Networks"
Enjeux et actualités de la normalisation
Creators: name: Joannic Seta, Frédérique
name: Miura, Grégory
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: normalisation

description: À la faveur du changement de présidence du comité technique 46 « Information et documentation » de l’Organisation internationale de normalisation (International Standards Organisation, ISO), il sera question de revenir sur les dossiers en cours et de dessiner les perspectives et les enjeux d’une activité de normalisation dont il s’agira de mettre en lumière l’intérêt stratégique pour l’ensemble des métiers des bibliothèques et au-delà.
Decoy-state quantum key distribution with both source errors and statistical fluctuations
Creators: name: Wang, Xiang-Bin
name: Yang, Lin
name: Peng, Cheng-Zhi
name: Pan, Jian-Wei
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We show how to calculate the fraction of single photon counts of the 3-intensity decoy-state quantum cryptography faithfully with both statistical fluctuations and source errors. Our results only rely on the bound values of a few parameters of the states of pulses.
description: Published version with revisions
title: Sequence Stratigraphy, Depositional Environments and Geochemistry of the middle Cambrian Bloomington Formation in Northern Utah
Creators: name: Jensen, Christopher Ryan
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: The Bloomington Formation (~425 m thick) is a latest Middle Cambrian (~506.5-505 Ma), mixed, warm water, continental-shelf carbonate and fine-grained siliciclastic unit on the Cordilleran passive margin exposed in northern Utah and southern Idaho. Thicknesses of the Bloomington Formation at Calls Fort Canyon are 111 m in the Hodges Shale Member, 230 m in the middle limestone Member, and 84 m in the Calls Fort Shale Member.
The Hodges Shale and Calls Fort Shale Members are shale dominated and represent outer detrital belt deposition. The Logan Canyon outcrop of the Hodges Shale Member shows an environmental change that may represent a transition form an open marine facies into what appears to be a lagoonal facies. The middle limestone member represents shallow marine carbonate deposition on the passive margin shelf.
The Bloomington Formation has a low fossil abundance and diversity when compared to correlative units such as the Wheeler and Marjum Formations. There are, however, 10-50 cm thrombolite bioherms, associated with Girvanella oncoliths. These bioherms indicate a shallow-water carbonate facies that experienced a small flooding event that gives the bioherms time and proper conditions to build up.
δ18O and δ13C results both show positive and negative shifts with δ13CVPDB values of 1.0 to -4.7 per mil and δ18OVSMOW values of -12.9 to -20.8 per mil. A negative δ13C excursion in the Hodges Shale may correlate to a similar excursion in the base of the Wheeler Formation that represents the DICE event. Lower and Middle Cambrian Formations in the Wellsville Range have been interpreted as being part of a second order transgressive system and containing third and higher-order cycles. The contact of the Hodges Shale Member and the underlying Blacksmith Dolomite represents a flooding surface and a sequence boundary, followed by a third order cycle. Flooding is indicated by shale deposits that overlie carbonates with a shallowing upward trend. High frequency fourth or fifth order cycles are expressed as laminated shale and thick-bedded limestones as well as thick packages of interbedded, thin limestones and shales.
A PCA analysis of thin section point counts indicates that the limestone lithologies of all three members repeat throughout the entire Formation, suggesting cycles of relative sea level rise that cause repeating facies.
title: Negotiated Settlement and the Durability of Peace: Agreement Design, Implementation, and Mediated Civil Wars
Creators: name: Chen, Chong
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: Existing research has shown that negotiated peace agreements are less likely to sustain an enduring peace in the aftermath of civil wars. A large proportion of research concentrates on the effects of either agreement design or agreement implementation on the likelihood of civil war resumption. Generally, existing studies fail to integrate design and implementation as separate parts of an interdependent process. Studies also tend to ignore the implication of preceding agreement design on subsequent implementation. This research develops an integrative framework that engages both the agreement design and implementation stages in the civil war peace process. It also examines the effects of third-party mediation on the durability of peace agreement in the aftermath of civil wars through its in uence on the quality of agreement design and implementation. The presence of third-party mediation helps to resolve future uncertainty and fear resulting from the \commitment problem" between war combatants, and thus makes peace agreements more durable. By using compiled data from the UCDP Peace Agreement Dataset, the Civil War Mediation (CWM) dataset, and the Power-Sharing Event Dataset (PSED), this research employs a Cox Proportional Hazards model to test the implication of design and implementation on the durability of postwar peace. The results suggest that the effect of mediation on peace durability is conditional upon the stages of the peace process. Peace agreements designed and implemented by mediators are more likely to sustain lasting peace. The results also indicate that not all implementation of power-sharing pacts, as promised in the design stage, can produce pacifying effects given the fact that implementing certain types of power-sharing pacts disrupts peace processes.
title: Non-Catalytic Co-Gasification of Sub-Bituminous Coal and Biomass
Creators: name: Nyendu, Guevara Che
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: Fluidization characteristics and co-gasification of pulverized sub-bituminous coal, hybrid poplar wood, corn stover, switchgrass, and their mixtures were investigated. Co-gasification studies were performed over temperature range from 700°C to 900°C in different media (N2, CO2, steam) using a bubbling fluidized bed reactor.
In fluidization experiments, pressure drop (ΔP) observed for coal-biomass mixtures was higher than those of single coal and biomass bed materials in the complete fluidization regime. There was no systematic trend observed for minimum fluidization velocity (Umf) with increasing biomass content. However, porosity at minimum fluidization (εmf) increased with increasing biomass content. Channeling effects were observed in biomass bed materials and coal bed with 40 wt.% and 50 wt.% biomass content at low gas flowrates. The effect of coal pressure overshoot reduced with increasing biomass content.
Co-gasification of coal and corn stover mixtures showed minor interactions. Synergetic effects were observed with 10 wt.% corn stover. Coal mixed with corn stover formed agglomerates during co-gasification experiments and the effect was severe with increase in corn stover content and at 900°C. Syngas (H2 + CO) concentrations obtained using CO2 as cogasification medium were higher (~78 vol.% at 700°C, ~87 vol.% at 800°C, ~93 vol.% at 900°C) than those obtained with N2 medium (~60 vol.% at 700°C, ~65 vol.% at 800°C, ~75 vol.% at 900°C).
Experiments involving co-gasification of coal with poplar showed no synergetic effects. Experimental yields were identical to predicted yield. However, synergetic effects were observed on H2 production when steam was used as the co-gasification medium. Additionally, the presence of steam increased H2/CO ratio up to 2.5 with 10 wt.% hybrid poplar content. Overall, char and tar yields decreased with increasing temperature and increasing biomass content, which led to increase in product gas.
Rotation and Activity in Late-type M Dwarfs
Creators: name: West, Andrew A.
name: Basri, Gibor
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We have examined the relationship between rotation and activity in 14 late-type (M6-M7) M dwarfs, using high resolution spectra taken at the Keck Observatory and flux-calibrated spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Most are inactive at a spectral type where H-alpha emission has previously seen to be very common. We used the cross-correlation technique to quantify the rotational broadening; six of the stars in our sample have vsini>3.5 km/s. Three of these stars do not exhibit H-alpha emission, despite rotating at velocities where previous work has observed strong levels of magnetic field and stellar activity. Our results suggest that rotation and activity in late-type M dwarfs may not always be linked, and open several additional possibilities including a rotation dependant activity threshold, or a Maunder-minimum phenomenon in fully convective stars.
description: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in proceedings of Cool Stars 15
Swapping of spin currents: interchanging spin and flow directions
Creators: name: Lifshits, Maria B.
name: Dyakonov, Michel I.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We introduce a previously unknown spin-related transport phenomenon, consisting in a transformation (swapping) of spin currents, in which the spin direction and the direction of flow are interchanged. Swapping is due to the spin-orbit interaction in scattering. It originates from the correlation between the spin rotation and the scattering angle. This effect is more robust than the skew scattering, since it exists already in the first Born approximation. Swapping may lead to the spin accumulation with spin polarization perpendicular to the surface, unlike what happens in the spin Hall effect.
description: 5 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes corresponding to the published version, title changed, Appendix added
title: A Translational Investigation of Positive and Negative Behavioral Contrast
Creators: name: Boyle, Megan A.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: Behavioral contrast occurs when a change in reinforcement rate in one context causes behavior to change in the opposite direction in another context. Positive contrast occurs when a decrease in the rate of reinforcement in one context results in an increase in behavior in another context. Negative contrast occurs when an increase in the rate of reinforcement in one context results in a decrease in behavior in another context. Research with nonhumans has found that positive contrast is more reliably produced than negative contrast. Research with nonhumans has also found that positive contrast is influenced to a larger degree by changes in reinforcement rate in the following context (vs. in the preceding context); however, results regarding negative contrast and the influence of preceding versus following contexts have been mixed. Finally, within-session contrast effects have been demonstrated in nonhumans. Relative to the entire environmental context, the largest change in behavior occurs immediately prior to (anticipatory contrast) or immediately following (local contrast) the change in reinforcement rate. Behavioral contrast has applied implications, in that practitioners may only be able to implement interventions in one context, which may result in concomitant worsening of behavior in other contexts. Few studies with humans have compared positive and negative contrast, and none have separated preceding- and following schedule effects or have systematically investigated within-session contrast. The purpose of this study was to investigate these effects in humans in a translational arrangement. Positive contrast was found in five of six cases, while negative contrast was found in only three of six. The effect of the following schedule was larger with positive contrast, but the effect of the preceding schedule was larger with negative contrast. There were no systematic within-session effects characteristic of anticipatory or local effects.
title: Dementia Caregiver Personality Traits and Coping Strategies: Association with Care Recipient Outcomes
Creators: name: Snyder, Christine M.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: Using extant data from the Cache County Dementia Progression Study, this study examined the association of dementia caregivers’ personality traits (as assessed by the NEO Personality Inventory/Five Factor Inventory) and use of coping strategies (as reported on the Ways of Coping Checklist) with their care recipients’ outcomes including time to developing severe dementia, being institutionalized, and mortality. Up to 244 dyads of individuals with dementia and a primary caregiver were followed for a maximum of fifteen semi-annual visits, during which time information was collected on other potential caregiver and care recipient factors. The caregiver covariates analyzed in models included caregiver age, gender, kin relation to the care recipient, relationship closeness, and co-residency with care recipient. Potential care recipient covariates analyzed included gender, estimated onset age of dementia, completed education, and neuropsychiatric symptoms.
Individual caregiver personality traits were not predictive of the examined care recipient outcomes. Among the caregivers’ coping strategies, more frequent caregiver use of Avoidance predicted care recipient time to severe dementia (hazard ratio (HR)=1.065,p=.034). More frequent use of Counting Blessings predicted 36% lower hazard of care recipient mortality (HR=0.648,p=.017) when also accounting for the increased risk of mortality with older care recipient age at dementia onset (HR=1.052,p=.004).
Analyses revealed only low to moderate associations between some caregiver personality traits and coping strategies, with Neuroticism having the greatest number of significant associations with five emotion-focused coping strategies. Personality traits did not modify the associations between caregiver coping strategies (Avoidance and Counting Blessings) reported above.
Generally, the examined caregiver characteristics often assumed to be more stable (i.e. personality traits) were not predictive of care recipient outcomes, while caregivers’ use of some coping strategies was predictive of development of severe dementia and mortality in care recipients. This allows for the possibility that interventions aimed at encouraging dementia caregivers to use effective coping strategies may promote better outcomes for care recipients.
Codes in Permutations and Error Correction for Rank Modulation
Creators: name: Barg, Alexander
name: Mazumdar, Arya
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Information Theory (cs.IT)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Codes for rank modulation have been recently proposed as a means of protecting flash memory devices from errors. We study basic coding theoretic problems for such codes, representing them as subsets of the set of permutations of $n$ elements equipped with the Kendall tau distance. We derive several lower and upper bounds on the size of codes. These bounds enable us to establish the exact scaling of the size of optimal codes for large values of $n$. We also show the existence of codes whose size is within a constant factor of the sphere packing bound for any fixed number of errors.
description: Some typos corrected from the published journal version
Pure Spinor Approach to Type IIA Superstring Sigma Models and Free Differential Algebras
Creators: name: Tonin, Mario
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: This paper considers the Free Differential Algebra and rheonomic parametrization of type IIA Supergravity, extended to include the BRS differential and the ghosts. We consider not only the ghosts lambda's of supersymmetry but also the ghosts corresponding to gauge and Lorentz transformations. In this way we can derive not only the BRS transformations of fields and ghosts but also the standard pure spinor constraints on lambda's. Moreover the formalism allows to derive the action for the pure spinor formulation of type IIA superstrings in a general background, recovering the action first obtained by Berkovits and Howe.
description: 1+23 pages, v2: added clarifications and a reference, misprints corrected, v3: presentation improved, results unchanged
title: Adoption, Adaptation, and Abandonment: Appropriation of Science Education Professional Development Learning
Creators: name: Longhurst, Max L.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: Understanding factors that impact teacher utilization of learning from professional development is critical in order maximize the educational and financial investment in teacher professional learning. This study used a multicase mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology to investigate the factors that influence teacher adoption, adaption, or abandonment of learning from science teacher professional development. The theoretical framework of activity theory was identified as a useful way to investigate the phenomenon of teacher appropriation of pedagogical practices from professional development. This framework has the capacity to account for a multitude of elements in the context of a learning experience. In this study educational appropriation is understood through a continuum of how an educator acquires and implements both practical and conceptual aspects of learning from professional development within localized context. The variability associated with instructional changes made from professional development drives this inquiry to search for better understandings of the appropriation of pedagogical practices. Purposeful sampling was used to identify two participants from a group of eighth-grade science teachers engaged in professional development designed to investigate how cyber-enabled technologies might enhance instruction and learning in integrated science classrooms. The data from this investigation add to the literature of appropriation of instructional practices by connecting eight factors that influence conceptual and practical tools with the development of ownership of pedagogical practices in the appropriation hierarchy. Recommendations are shared with professional development developers, providers, and participants in anticipation that future science teaching experiences might be informed by findings from this study.
Phonon Hall Effect in Four-Terminal Junctions
Creators: name: Zhang, Lifa
name: Wang, Jian-Sheng
name: Li, Baowen
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Using an exact nonequilibrium Green's function formulism, the phonon Hall effect for paramagnetic dielectrics is studied in a four-terminal device setting. The temperature difference in the transverse direction of the heat current is calculated for two-dimensional models with the magnetic field perpendicular to the plane. We find a surprising result that the square lattice does not have the phonon Hall effect while a honeycomb lattice has. This can be explained by symmetry. The temperature difference changes sign if the magnetic field is sufficiently large.
description: 4 pages, 5 figures
title: The Effect of a Class-wide Training on Prosocial Bystander Behaviors
Creators: name: Barnes, Charity Deanne
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2015

description: The purpose of this study was to decrease school bullying by implementing a class-wide intervention that targets bystanders. Hypotheses include that an intervention will increase prosocial bystander behaviors that will result in reduced rates of bullying and improved positive peer responses. Ross and Horner’s Positive Behavior Supports bullying prevention program was modified to increase incentives for students who defend others from bullying. A multiple baseline design across three general education classrooms was used to examine the effectiveness of the intervention in an elementary school in northwestern Utah. Pre- and posttests were administered to assess participant roles and student intervention acceptability. The findings of the study suggested that bullying behavior decreased and defending increased. Further, acceptability of the intervention and the skills taught to children were rated as moderately high across all classrooms. Even though bullying incidences decreased substantially, bullying behaviors were not eradicated completely in the three classrooms. To decrease rates of bullying further, secondary and tertiary interventions along with continued functional assessment on why bullying occurs are needed. Further, to help increase the practicality of teaching peers the critical skills of defending victims, research on how to increase students’ ability and motivation to intervene is essential.
Hitting all maximum cliques with a stable set using lopsided independent transversals
Creators: name: King, Andrew D.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Discrete Mathematics (cs.DM)
subject: Combinatorics (math.CO)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Rabern recently proved that any graph with omega >= (3/4)(Delta+1) contains a stable set meeting all maximum cliques. We strengthen this result, proving that such a stable set exists for any graph with omega > (2/3)(Delta+1). This is tight, i.e. the inequality in the statement must be strict. The proof relies on finding an independent transversal in a graph partitioned into vertex sets of unequal size.
description: 7 pages. v4: Correction to statement of Lemma 8 and clarified proof.