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Climate Change Impacts on Atmospheric Ammonia and Implications for Human Health
Casey Olson, Connor Snow, and Bridger Jorgensen
According to national data Cache Valley has the highest concentrations of atmospheric ammonia in the nation. This study aims to answer the questions of whether climate variables and events such as precipitation, averaged winds, geopotential height, and teleconnections can be used to predict the behavior of pollutants and how human biology is potentially affected. Data from the Utah Climate Center shows that the 3rd yearly quartile has the highest levels of airborne ammonia due to the high levels of fertilizer use and livestock emissions in the farming industry in Cache Valley. After data analysis, there seems to be a connection between climate variables and atmospheric ammonia, specifically, precipitation appears to have the strongest (negative) correlation due to atmospheric scattering of particulates during precipitation events. In addition, according to data from Utah's Public Health Data Resource there also seems to be a connection between peak ammonia season and occurrence of asthma incidences requiring a hospital visit. There is still much research to be done on the impacts of airborne ammonia on human health, but due to the limited resources available to our team we were only able to obtain data pertaining to asthma attacks, as more information becomes available we hope to incorporate it in our presentation.This research is especially significant to Cache Valley and the State of Utah at large due to its implications of climate and air quality prediction, and public health.
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Coping Strategies in Utah State Students With Depression
Mekenzie Orton, Emma Wirtz, and Lauren Ambuehl
In this study, a Sociology student research group looked at previous and ongoing coping strategies of college students at Utah State University. Previous research indicates that college students suffer from depression and use copious coping strategies to deal with this debilitating mental illness. They may be positive or negative in nature. Previous research is dated, and new material should be conducted to continue the education on coping strategies students use to deal with depression. This paper will outline the steps taken, research done, and an overall analysis of data of Utah State University students and their coping strategies for depression. This study included 66 college students who participated in an online survey found on Google Forms. The information was gathered by walking around campus and asking people to participate, online links through social media, and promoting it within social groups. There was not a monetary incentive for completing the survey. To understand our subjects better, we collected demographic information (gender and grade level). There were not any other identifiable factors recorded, nor a way to link the information back to the participants afterward. This is an important point of emphasis in our gathering of data and was mentioned to the participants.
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The Impact of China's Recent Economic Growth Has Had On the Environment: Challenging the Assumption That in Order to Protect the Environment We Must Sacrifice Development.
McKay Overton
Pollution is a major issue in China effecting both the health and environment of the Chinese people. Since its rapid rise in economic and technological development, China has become one of the global leaders in business and technology. Conversely, China has also become one of the global leaders in the amount of pollution it creates. Every day, large amounts of coal and fossil fuels are burned. There are few regulations to protect the environment, and even fewer that are actually enforced. High levels of pollution cause high rates of cancer as well as high rates of lung and heart issues among its citizens. The young and the old are especially vulnerable. Additionally, it does not just negatively impact its own country. The pollution that China produces effect not only itself, but countries and people in the rest of Asia, as well as in the rest of the world. However, when environmental protection is brought up, there is some controversy surrounding it. Will they have to trade environmental protection in place of economic development? This paper examines how the two go hand in hand.
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A Computational Model of Angiogenesis in Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Brandon Pace
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a chronic disease which causes central blindness in the eye. This progressive disease is thought to affect 1 of every 4 people over the age of 80 living in developed countries, including America. There is no cure and the only treatments to halt disease progression involve biweekly eye injections for the rest of the patient’s life. Clearly there is a great need to understand AMD and find better treatment for the many afflicted. It is known that harmful capillary growth (angiogenesis) contributes to AMD. By learning more about retinal angiogenesis, we can understand AMD in greater detail and search for better treatments. This mathematical model uses weighted probabilistic theory to simulate capillary tip cell (EC) response to AMD retinal conditions. In this model, EC escape a parent blood vessel, travel through an extracellular matrix (fibronectin), sense angiogenic factors (VEGF) and anti-factors (PEDF), and emit enzymes to dissolve fibronectin (protease). EC proliferation, death, and movement are all based on equation-based weighted probabilities, and a random number chosen ensures that this model retains the random nature found in biological models. This model has great value to help researchers study a complicated disease. Benefits include being able to simulate disease progression over dozens of years in a matter of hours, methods which can be quick and simple to update as we learn more about the proteins involved, and thousands of simulations can be ran at little cost. In the future, this model will be utilized to test possible treatments to see their effectiveness. This will help find the most effective treatments and speed their pathway to lab experiments to find a more suitable treatment.
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Students Perception of Racial Inequality on Utah State Campus
Abigail Pilling and Elmer Reyes
This paper will discuss racial inequality studies at Utah State University Campuses and include multiple studies of racial inequality on campuses around the United States. Each of these additional studies is focused on different aspects of how a campus can be neglecting or hurtful to their students or patrons, in ways such as academics, financial aid, athletics, rigorous schedules, student and classroom atmosphere, and lack of student resources and encouragement. This paper and study will focus on different racial minorities and what racial oppression and social class inequality they have experienced on campus, and how it creates barriers for them to learn and succeed. The articles and analysis conducted show different aspects of inequality that are placed in front of students of color, such as, disadvantages in University admissions, financial aid or scholarships opportunities, athletics, rigorous schedules, peer and staff encouragement, and the lack of student resources. This paper and study will also discuss the aspects in which campuses can improve and help close the gap between students' opportunities and feeling of belonging on campuses, especially predominantly White Campuses.
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A Hot Wheeler's Heaven or Hell? A Rhetorical Analysis of the Hot Wheels Red Line Club Online Forums and How They Compare to Other Online Mediums
Samuel Richens
This research project aims to shed light on the unique phenomenon of the Hot Wheels Red Line Club online forums and how the rhetorical interactions that take place there compare to other mainstream forums. To the uninitiated, Hot Wheels by Mattel, introduced in 1968, is the best-selling toy, even outperforming Barbie, who debuted a decade earlier. To begin, a rhetorical analysis of conversations on the online discussion forum was conducted. In addition, a survey was distributed to students asking about their online forum experiences, and an interview was conducted with an expert on online forums to gain their knowledge and insight. What we find is that these forums for Hot Wheels aficionados, despite being locked behind the exclusivity of a paywall, are similar in many ways to popular mainstream forums, while also having their own unique differences.
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Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights! Forced Sterilization of Latino Communities and the Long Histroy of Human Rights Violations in the United States
Jenna Riches and Andria Araujo
As a post-colonial nation, the United States of America has denounced the attitudes of blatant racism and discrimination against marginalized groups. However, racism is deeply embedded within the laws and organizations of the country. This phenomenon is called institutional or systemic racism and manifests discrimination in almost all public and private sectors of society, including employment, housing, healthcare and education. Because these attitudes and procedures are so ingrained in our society, it is very difficult to identify certain policies as being racist or discriminatory, and therefore it is even more difficult to change these harmful practices. This research will examine the impact of systemic racism within United States healthcare practices, and the many instances in which fundamental human and reproductive rights have been violated by forced and involuntary sterilizations of Latino individuals. The practice of forced sterilization as a means of population control has been repeated many times throughout the history of this nation, from the 19th century up to the present day. This issue is examined in the documentaries, Rosie Perez’s Yo soy Boricua Pa’ que tú lo sepas, Michelle Ferrari’s The Eugenics Crusade, and Rene Tajima-Peña’s No más bebés. These practices and the mindsets behind them are unethical and preventable. As the United States continues to progress, nation legislation must be put into place to prevent this discrimination and racism.
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The Language of Classroom Design: How Aesthetic Impacts Learning
Josie Rivera
Secondary classrooms are the settings where crucial learning experiences occur, yet much of the existing research on classroom design pertains to elementary schools. The general lack of importance placed on the physical layout of secondary classrooms insinuates that while younger students benefit from an attractive, visually pleasing classroom, teenage students do not. Despite this, educators seek to make their classrooms places of refuge and learning. For example, Utah’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, Lauren Merkley, decorates her room with thrifted lamps which emit a warm glow in her classroom. Martin Reeder of Sky View High School curated a ‘book nook’ with chairs, couches, and a rug to encourage independent reading and discourse, all while achieving an inviting ambiance. This research aims to understand the rationale behind current secondary teachers’ classroom design choices and how the tangible learning environment affects student engagement and learning. After conducting four interviews with teachers and surveying both current secondary educators and former secondary students, the researcher concluded that while the intellectual needs of students are essential and the basis of our curriculums, teachers must also prioritize the design of the physical classroom environment. Classroom design contributes to building rapport with students, utilizes space for the benefit of teachers and students alike, and conveys a message of cultural awareness to the communities we serve.
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A Method to Assess Response Inhibition During a Balance Recovery Step
Molly Rowley
Background: Correlations between falls and executive function tests, particularly those tests emphasizing inhibitory control, suggests that the ability to suppress automatic, but unwanted action, is important in fall prevention. Response inhibition has been a topic of considerable interest in the cognitive neuroscience community for many decades, bringing with it, the development of techniques that could be used to inform assessment of reactive balance. Research question: Can we apply a method used in traditional cognitive testing - the stop signal task - to measure response inhibition in a speeded, balance recovery task? Methods: Twenty healthy, young adults completed a novel reactive balance test which required occasional suppression of a rapid balance recovery step. Participants were released from a supported lean (‘Go’ cue) requiring them to quickly step forward to regain balance. On some trials, a stop tone instructed participants to suppress a step and relax into a harness. Step trials were much more frequent (80%) than stop trials (20%) to bias a rapid stepping response. The stop tone was presented at various delays post-perturbation, to manipulate task difficulty (i.e., longer delays make step suppression difficult). Stopping capacity was determined using lift off times from force plates, and by contrasting muscle activation in failed versus successful stop trials. Results: Most participants were able to successfully suppress a balance recovery step on occasion, allowing for accurate estimation of stopping capacity. This was especially true in a group of participants (n = 10) where shorter, and thus easier, stop signal delays were used. Significance: While balance assessments often stress reflexive action, there is a need for methods that evaluate response inhibition. The present study leveraged a gold standard cognitive test of action cancellation to develop a method to estimate stopping capacity in a reactive balance context.
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Designing an Electric Vehicle Wireless Charging System
Conner Sabin
USU researchers at ASPIRE NSF Engineering research center are developing power electronic systems including wireless charging systems to increase EV charging accessibility. EV wireless charging systems include two charging coils, one on the ground and one on the bottom of the car. Current is driven through the charging coil as a car drives over the top of or parks on top of this coil. High current creates a magnetic field which induces current in the car coil. The alternating magnetic fields can charge the car as the car is simply parked on the top of this coil. Designing a wireless charging system requires determining many many variables based on certain constraints. These including the shapes and size of both the primary and secondary coils, the AC-DC circuit design, and the power circuit detuning in the case where connection to the car motor is broken. This research provides an introduction about how a wireless charging system is designed using an iterative process and multiple computer software and simulations tools. Specifically, this research discusses the design of a small-scale wireless charging system that will be used in school demonstrations to help junior high and high school students learn hands on about the engineering design process.
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Smart Solar Microgrid Inverter
Conner Sabin, Mckay Waite, Dakota Goodrich, and Tucker Skinner
With a major increase in the integration of renewable and distributed energy resources along with the use of solar inverters in microgrid applications, the need for advanced power electronics, specifically smart inverters, is higher than ever. It is desirable for these smart inverters to operate with maximum efficiency as well as provide grid services such as voltage and frequency regulation. A smart inverter design can improve the reliability and resilience of the grid, reduce the cost of energy, and ease grid maintenance. This is done through the management of active power generation and reactive power compensation between the solar inverter and the electric grid. Enhanced designs have the potential to increment efficiency, reduce system loss-related heatsink size, and minimize installation cost. The purpose of this research is to develop a smart solar microgrid inverter. This design shall prove to be low cost with high efficiency and power density. The goal of our team is to identify trade-offs between efficiency, cost, and volume. In addition, our team seeks to achieve innovations in circuit topologies and smart inverter control strategies, optimization in circuit parameters, and the application of highly efficient wide-bandgap devices. Two stages are realized in the microgrid inverter design: a DC-DC stage and a DC-AC stage. The DC-DC stage employs a frequency-modulated LLC resonant converter with zero-voltage switching (ZVS) for a wide load range. The DC-AC stage consists of a grid-connected three-leg converter which can be operated in a single-phase or three-phase mode depending on the number of legs that are switched. The possibility of using a single converter for both modes reduces the number of circuitries needed in the system. Consequently, this increases the power density of the system. Stiff DC link is employed to have a decoupled system that helps in closed-loop control and provides flexibility to scale the converter to process more power. The DC-DC stage can be modularized, and the DC-AC stage can be scaled as needed to process more power. Wide-Bandgap GaN devices are chosen to implement the converter’s DC-DC and DC-AC stages owing to their inherently superior Figure-of-Merit (FOM) that helps improve performance. Higher frequency operation is proposed for both stages to improve the overall power density and have higher control bandwidths.
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Results of Lexile Level Reading Practices on Rural Middle School Students
Tiffany Sanderson
Many students have experienced, and remember, reading comprehension exams from their time in grade school. These tests examined student ability to comprehend different levels of reading so that educators could ensure a student was reading within grade level targets. ATOS and A-Z along with the Fountas and Pinnell reading programs are all previous methods used in ELA classrooms across the nation. Some of these are still used widely today. ATOS is a program which closely resembles Lexile as it also determines book and student scores with a method that correlates back to grade level. For example, sixth-grade would be 6.0. However, educators must now face the question: are these methods still the best choice or is Lexile the new best method of engaging students and increasing reading comprehension ability? Lexile Levels are a relatively new implementation in many schools, and only a few states implement Lexile Levels as a method of reading comprehension testing on a wide scale. Lexile Levels are assigned to both students and books in order to match the student with their ideal book within their comprehension range. The idea is that if students read in their comprehension level, they may be able to increase their ability for comprehension. A rural middle school has implemented just that, guiding their students to books that match their Lexile level in an effort to increase student reading comprehension and enjoyment. In this case study, we will discover teacher-perceived impacts. Most research on Lexile level effectiveness has been done by the company itself; this study provides a window into policy and practice and its effectiveness in a particular school district.
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Economic Benefits of Cross-Strait Tensions
Jason Seedall
This research explores the economic benefits experienced by Taiwan due to the cross-strait tensions between the island and mainland China as well as how it affects the future of economic and political relationships between Taiwan, China, and the United States.
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Trauma in Latinx Communities in the United States as Seen Through Literature
Jessica Snider and Kate Allen
Multifaceted trauma is a common aspect of the minority experience in the United States, and Latinx are no exception. They experience discrimination, racism, poverty, and a convergence of cultures that leave them with an ambivalent sense of identity. The premise of this research is to show how historical traumas provoke in the main characters a desire to escape their plight through seeking education, expressing themselves through writing, and distancing themselves from their heritage. This study utilizes Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street (1983), Ernesto Quiñónez’s Chango’s Fire (2004) and Taína (2019), Érika L. Sánchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (2017), and Reyna Grande’s A Dream Called Home (2018). These narratives highlight many of the traumas experienced by Latinx living in the United States and their reactions to these traumas, which force them to confront the realities that their communities face. In this process, their identities are transformed, and they must choose a new role to play in their communities. In doing so, they learn to embrace their cultural heritage, finding belonging and peace in their identities as Americans and as Latinx. These narratives provide to the reader positive examples of resilience, inspire hope for healing, and instill a desire to uplift their communities.
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Airfoil Flow Optimized Control With an Upstream Cylinder
Nicole Steiner
The purpose of this research is to optimize the aerodynamic performance of an airfoil with an upstream cylinder by neural network artificial intelligence. The effects of an upstream oscillating cylinder on the aerodynamic performance of an airfoil are also studied. This paper reports the effects oscillating frequency of the cylinder and the Reynolds number on the lift/drag ratio of the airfoil. The frequency has a complicated correlation with the lift/drag ratio, while the Reynolds number is found to have a positive correlation with the lift/drag ratio. The optimized case is found to have a lift/drag ratio of 1.7319, which is around 1.5 times of the reference baseline case.
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The Effects of Various Carbon Sources and the Presence of Vitamin B-12 on the Production of 1,3-propanediol by L. reuteri.
Kayden Stevenson
Dairy product preservation has evolved over thousands of years and has been a major benefit to humanity by creating stable, nutrient-dense food sources. Today the lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri is important in preserving fermented dairy products through the production of the compound reuterin. Reuterin (1,3-propanediol) demonstrates antibiotic properties that prevent the fermentation of dairy products by undesirable bacteria. The purpose of this study is to determine if L. reuteri can produce 1,3-propanediol from a variety of carbon sources. Bacterial strains were incubated in the presence of a carbon source with vitamin B-12 or without B-12 for seven days with samples taken on days 0,1 and 7. Substrate carbon sources included 1,2-propanediol, lactate, hydroxyacetone, acetone, and glycerol. GC-MS is an effective method to identify compounds for metabolomic analysis however it requires that the analytes be volatile. Trimethylsilylation was used to achieve necessary volatility by replacing acidic protons in carboxylic acids, amines, thiols, and hydroxides with a trimethylsilyl (TMS) group. The samples were mixed with ribitol as an internal standard and a mixture of acetonitrile, isopropanol, and water. To achieve silylation samples were derivatized with methoxamine hydrochloride in pyridine followed with N-Methyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA). Fatty acid methyl esters were also added as an internal standard and the samples were then submitted to the GC-MS. A method for analyte identification was developed by comparing reference indices and mass spectral data to AMDIS and Shimadzu GC-MS libraries. This method was then used on all samples to detect changes in metabolite presence. The data will ascertain under what conditions L. reuteri can produce the antibiotic compound 1,3-propanediol. This information will allow producers to better preserve dairy products consequently increasing shelf life and food safety.
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Effect of Basal Diet and Black Raspberry Supplementation on Gene Biomarkers of "Leaky Gut" in Mouse Model of Colitis-Associated Colorectal Cancer
Eliza Stewart
Colorectal cancer is currently the third leading cause of cancer death in the world. The risk of developing colorectal cancer increases significantly in individuals who suffer from colitis, which is inflammation of the colon lining, seen in Irritable Bowel Disease. The term “leaky gut” is often used to describe increased intestinal permeability and is closely related to colitis. Leaky gut is associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, which can occur through diet. This dysbiosis leads to pro-longed inflammation and affects genes that encode for proteins involved in the tight junctions between cells. Compromised intestinal integrity allows for translocation of material from the lumen of the colon, including bacteria, into the adjacent connective tissues and nearby blood supply. In this study we used the total Western diet, which emulates typical American dietary patterns at both macronutrient and micronutrient levels. Black raspberries were used as supplements to determine if the anti-inflammatory bioactives they contain would have a protective effect on the colon epithelium. The objective of this study is to determine how diet and supplementation of black raspberries affects expression of genes involved in intestinal permeability before, during, and after colitis. We hypothesize that expression of genes critical for maintaining the gut barrier and responding to bacteria infiltration will be differentially expressed in mice fed the total Western diet as compared to the AIN healthy diet, and their expression restored when supplemented with BRB.
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Effects of the Checks
Andrew Stott
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of people have lost thousands of dollars, and some much more. As a result, the government issued aid in the form of stimulus checks, with the intention to stimulate the economy and compensate for money lost. The government is not adding value to the economy, but merely moving it around, and in many cases simply making it worse. The checks allude to an even bigger issue: that of universal income and welfare checks. Although these things may be helpful to the individual, they are ineffective and harmful to the economy because they haven’t brought people back above the poverty line, haven’t brought people back to work like they were intended to do, and have contributed to the increase of inflation, and therefore should be modified to be more effective. By learning and studying deeper economic concepts, we as an economy will be able to avoid these dangers and downfalls of economic illiteracy and be able to advocate against policies that lead to economic recession. This presentation seeks to help identify what we can do as a society that will change the specific outcomes of unnecessary government aid.
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Dramaturgy for Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley
Samantha Stringham
The aim of this dramaturgical research was to explore and understand Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon within the context of Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice, the sociohistorical and contextual norms of Regency England, and within the world of the play itself. The goal was for this research to be utilized by the cast and production team of Utah State University’s production of Miss Bennet (directed by Tarah Flanagan) as a resource to inform production, performance, and design. This was achieved through strictly textual, and performance-focused analysis of the play. The research was compiled into an informational packet focused on the following areas: Introduction to the play and playwrights including production history, criticism, and acclaim; The world of the play; Analysis of allusions and references; Analysis of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen’s lasting legacy with special focus on how this informs understanding of Miss Bennet; History of the Regency and Enlightenment. This information was presented to the cast on the first night of rehearsal, and discussed in depth during table work, and throughout the entire rehearsal process.
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Students at USU Eastern
Marcos Suarez, Brielle McCourt, Aurelio Rodriguez, and Jessica Hansen
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of people throughout the world in numerous ways. The ramifications of the pandemic will be studied for years to come. We are interested in the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on college students, specifically those at Utah State University Eastern (USUE). We will be conducting an exploratory quantitative survey, in conjunction with the Student Counseling Center, for current students enrolled at USUE, ages 18 and above and will be asking questions about their mental, educational, financial, and social wellbeing. The survey will be distributed by email and will be available through the website Qualtrics. We plan on sharing our survey results with the Student Counseling Center along with other interested parties.
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Patients' Perceptions of Stigma During Emergency Department Visits: Measuring Impacts on Healthcare Satisfaction, Treatment Adherence, and Mental Health
David Suisse
Emergency departments (ED) in the United States receive many patients who have mental health or substance use issues. This population often reports experiences of stigma when seeking emergency healthcare. Stigma is a negative biased perception based on a socially undesirable characteristic. Stigmatization in healthcare can lead to apoor quality of life and psychological distress for stigmatized groups along with reduced rates of treatment completion and treatment seeking in the future. The goal of the current study is to examine the relationship between mental illness and substance abuse patients’ experiences of stigmatization in the ED and their patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, and mental health outcomes. This study takes a mixed methods approach to collect data via a survey and follow-up interviews. The interviews will further investigate the lived emergency healthcare experiences of patients with mental health and/or substance use issues to add context to the survey data. Results are expected to highlight the consequences of stigma messages in the ED and inform health communication education efforts for ED healthcare workers that care for patients with a history of mental illness and/or substance abuse. Ideally, the information gathered from this research will be used by ED healthcare workers to better their relationships with their patients and to improve patient satisfaction.
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Known and Unknown: Women's Voices of the Hole-In-the-Rock Expedition
Bonnie Swenson
In 2020, Utah focused on a significant benchmark in voting rights: the celebration of 150 years of Utah women voting, the first in the modern nation to do so. Over the course of the celebration stories about women were uncovered, recovered, and publicized. Too often, women’s stories in history have been overlooked. This project seeks to recover some of those women’s voices. The Hole-in-the-Rock expedition was an arduous trek in 1879-80 across an uncharted, barren landscape in southeastern Utah by novice pioneers. History has focused primarily on the extraordinary feat building of the 290-mile road. The clever engineering allowed wagons to descend the steep 2000 feet drop to the Colorado River below. The expedition’s moniker “hole-in-the-rock” has limited the public’s view to the blasting and building part of the expedition. The contributions of the 100 women and girls who made the same journey and supported the road builders has been neglected. This research seeks to understand the contributions they made to expedition’s success and lift their voices from the footnotes of history. The women’s “keeping camp” with limited natural resources required these women to use the same tenacity the road builders used. This research required searching archives in the Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU, USU, U of U, and The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers for journals and autobiographies, interviewing descendants, combing through already published histories. A survey conducted revealed a lack of understanding of the expedition and who these novice pioneers were as they carved a path across a wasteland. Women’s participation has been relegated to the back pages of this challenging trek. This is phase one of a longer study to recover these stories. Our research is paramount in creating a change in the way the story has been told.
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Creating Transparent and Accessible Methods For Approximating the Composite Strength of Concrete Sandwich Wall Panels
Ruth Taylor
Background: The method of designing partially composite sandwich wall panels (SWPs) relies strongly on the use of percent of composite action. Calculating these values proves to be a complex and virtually inaccessible process for practicing engineers, resulting in the reliance on proprietary software or connector-system manufacturers for the necessary values. We simulated percent composite action data, including several relevant variables, to examine the relationship and determine if simple and accessible methods of calculation could be created. Methods: Code from collaborating engineers used to calculate percent composite action with the Iterative Sandwich Beam Theory (ISBT) method was translated into R, a free software. Large data sets (five million observations each) were simulated using the ISBT method, including eight potential explanatory variables and two response variables, percent of deflection composite action (Def.%.Cmp) and percent of cracking composite action (Crk.%.Cmp). Data sets were created for two possible explanatory variable ranges, the “common” range and the full theoretical range. Data were analyzed and cleaned, and traditional variable selection techniques were applied. Ordinary least squares (OLS), quantile regression, and pruned regression trees were fit to the data in an attempt to provide simplified models for calculation. Results: The simple regression methods were unfit for the data sets simulated using the full theoretical ranges for explanatory variables, which exhibited very loose relationships between explanatory and response variables, so the main analysis was run for the common range data sets. Strong relationships were found between predictor variables wall height in inches (variable L), average elastic stiffness of the connectors (kip/in) (variable K) and percent composite action response variables. We found models were most effective with transformations for the response variables ((Def.%.Cmp)1.5 and (Crk.%.Cmp)2). The mean relative absolute error rates were high for OLS, quantile models and traditional pruned regression trees (Def.%.Cmp min.=0.302 max.=0.490, Crk.%.Cmp min.= 0.246 max.=0.490), but the median relative absolute error rates were much lower (Def.%.Cmp min.=0.0744 max.=0.233, Crk.%.Cmp min.= 0.0605 max.=0.156). This indicated inconsistency in prediction; we found that all of the simple regression models tended to overestimate the values of percent composite on the lower and upper tails of the data, indicated by the predicted/observed ratios being over 1. Pruned regression trees were used to estimate coefficients for K, by producing regression trees for (Def.%.Cmp)1.5/K and (Crk.%.Cmp)2/K. Using these new regression trees, we reduced our error drastically compared to our linear models (Def.%.Cmp mean absolute prediction error=0.104 median absolute prediction error=0.0772, Crk.%.Cmp mean absolute prediction error= 0.171 median absolute prediction error =0.0663), and our prediction to observation ratios reduced to roughly 1, indicating less severe overestimation. Conclusions: We found the full theoretical range of variables to produce data too unstable for simple regression methods. Variables L and K were found to be significant and useful in predicting percent composite action. The implemented regression methods were not able to be produced at this stage of research to be of practical use, either from being too inaccurate or too complicated for our purposes. However, the ISBT method for calculation is now available in freely software, allowing for accessibility for practicing engineers.
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The Knights Templar: Blood and Banking
Morgan Thatcher
The Knights Templar were a martial religious order founded in the 12th century AD. Though they were known for their prowess on the battlefield, more importantly, they became an important and integral part of the Medieval financial and economic world. This was only possible due their unique position as a sanctioned part of the Catholic Church, their reputation, political connections, and a changing idea of what money was. The Templar utilized every facet of their position in order to gain wealth and power, but were ultimately brought low at the hands of Philip IV of France.
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Mental Health Awareness Beyond Messaging
Kylee Tidwell
Hope Squad is a mental health organization based in Utah. This presentation evaluates a very important narrative to Hope Squad; Greg Hudnall, the founder of the organization, shares the reason he started Hope Squad at all of the organization events. This story defines the values, assumptions, and norms of Hope Squad. Hope Squad values mental health advocacy and creates an expectation of mental health awareness for every person. The norm that results from these values and assumptions is a culture of mental health awareness for the employees. Hope Squad brings awareness of mental health in a variety of ways, so the employees feel safe to be authentic in their personal mental health. This results in loyal and resilient employees that are passionate in their work at the organization.
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