2014 Abstracts

Sarah Dursteler, Weber State University Communications The culture of sex outside intimate relationships including dating scripts and sexual scripts has shifted to one of more ambiguity. Multiple changes in sexual scripts have occurred in the last 50 years with the diversification of types of relationships in which sex occurs, including, a greater acceptance of sex outside of relationships (Gagnon & Simon, 1987). This study is in response to the call for more research on how social identities influence perceptions of sexual interaction (Backstrom, Armstrong, and Puentes, 2012). The purpose of this study is to examine hook-up culture outside of traditional intimate relationships. This study explores the extent of the shift from traditional dating scripts to a culture of hooking up as perceived by males and females that identify with the predominant Latter-Day Saint (LDS) religious culture. Using the tenants of social exchange and scripting theories this study examined the attitudes of males and females. Transcripts from four same gender and religion focus groups and 100 open-ended survey responses provided data for analysis. The constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) provided the means by which to analyze data within emergent categories. One open-ended response question was reviewed to assess content theme analysis. The constant comparative method indicated distinct contrast of perceptions of sexual intimacy between males and females. Findings suggest that there are distinct differences between male and female and LDS and non-LDS attitudes about and perceptions of hook-up culture. These results are consistent with previous research indicating that hooking-up can be a functional strategy used to shift focus from traditional intimate relationships to more academic and professional goals.

Taylor Topham, Dixie State University Communications With the new generations comes new forms of entertainment. Rarely is there a home without a television. The Cultivation Theory presented by George Gerbner and his colleagues states that television is so common in our society that it has an affect on our perceptions of the world. The Cultivation Theory specifically looks at violence on television and its effects on the viewer. Those that are heavy viewers of television often have what is known as mean-world syndrome. Because of the violence they watch on television, they are more likely to see the world as a violent place (Littlejohn & Foss, 2011). Along with a television often comes some type of video gaming system. Studies state that over 65% of North American households now have a video gaming system (Chiawen, Aiken & Huang, 2012). The purpose of this research is to determine if video gaming effects the perception of individuals similarly to that of television as described by George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory.

Emma Penrod, Brigham Young University Communications A newspaper is the catalog of a community’s past. I spent about three years researching the impact of industrialization on Tooele from a variety of angles, primarily by reading archived newspapers from 1905 to 1970. During this time, I also collected and scanned nearly 200 original photographs. Industrialization came to Tooele in force in 1908, with the construction on the International Smelter and the Tooele Valley Railroad. Prior to the railroad and the smelter, Tooele was a small, predominantly Mormon community with an agrarian economy. Construction of the railroad, the smelter, and several affiliated projects could have employed 72 percent of every man, woman and child living in Tooele City in the early 1900s. An influx of immigrants changed the social landscape dramatically, reshaping Tooele as one of Utah’s most diverse communities. Through the early 1900s, conflict between the original Mormon settlers and the transplants embroiled the community in something of a perpetual identity crisis. Temporarily, a sort of physical segregation solved the problem-Mormons lived west of Main Street, and the immigrants set up shop east of Main Street. But it wouldn’t be long before the Tooele newspapers came to accept the newcomers and the advertising revenue they had to offer. The Great Depression and football, of all things, finally brought the community back together, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the immigrant families were invited to fly their native colors at important community events that celebrated Tooele’s heritage.

Jessica Read, Brigham Young University Communications As the world of online social networking has changed to accommodate public interest, online dating sites have become increasingly popular. With this new trend in social media there has been an increased awareness as to how one might present him or herself in the most favorable way possible through computer mediated stimuli. To find out if nonverbal cues played a significant role in online impression formation, we had males and females randomly assigned to one of two variables, where they viewed stimuli of a member of the opposite gender. The stimuli that was presented was either a photograph accompanied by a written autobiography about a member of the opposite gender, or a video of the person reading their own autobiography, which allowed for the presence of nonverbal cues. Participants rated the subjects in the assigned stimuli on a number of different scales ranging from trustworthiness to sexual attractiveness based on their first impressions. Results showed no significant differences between the presence of nonverbal cues in the video stimuli or the photographic stimuli, reasoning for the indifference participants had towards the nonverbal cues is discussed. However, there were significant gender differences among the first impressions formed, other findings are presented.

Sydney Tycksen, Utah Valley University Communications An award winning research project, this summary highlights research conducted by Communication students at Utah Valley University of a grassroots public relations campaign created to increase awareness among middle school students, parents, educators, and community leaders of the serious short and long term consequences of youth bullying. The study also demonstrates how the campaign informed audiences of the steps they should take to help prevent bullying. The goal of the research was to understand the short-and-long term effects of bullying, types of bullying, and the prominence of bullying in the surrounding community where the research was conducted. A public relations strategic communication plan was developed based on the research to change bullying behavior in the community. The campaign aimed to spread awareness of the short and long term effects of bullying and outline the steps to report and prevent bullying through the development of strategies and tactics. These steps help students, parents, educators, and community members understand bullying, recognize the signs and types, and know the appropriate authority to whom to report the behavior. This presentation will show how the research provided the students with the information needed to establish measureable objectives for the campaign, reach their key publics and provide an evaluation of the strategies and tactics used to meet campaign objectives. The document reviews the outcome and evaluation of each strategy and tactic implemented during the campaign, including media relations and social media tactics, The summary concludes with an overview of how campaign objectives of teaching key publics how to take steps to prevent bullying were achieved due to thorough research and understanding of how to effectively use messaging to generate behavior changes within the key public.

Emma Josey, Dixie State University Communications Romance novels seem to be a staple in the devoted reader’s array of books and have remained an extremely popular genre throughout the centuries. Not only are the actual stories appealing to the readers, but some readers go a step further and interact with or create a relationship with characters themselves. A phenomenon called parasocial interaction. This research study seeks to discover if the parasocial interactions female romance novel readers experience relate to a practice of a particular attachment style and jealousy in their romantic relationships. These characteristics are important to the health and sustainability of people’s romantic relationships, and this study seeks to learn whether or not the quasi relationships romance novel readers create with characters influences those relationships.

Indigo Klabanoff, Dixie State University Communications With globalization and the minority population changing, it is extremely important to learn the real statistics that are out there when it comes to single parenting. The most important thing though, is to figure out is which communication styles work in healthy communication, with single parent families.

David Lindell, Brigham Young University Engineering Current ion detector technologies require low pressures and temperatures to achieve high sensitivity. These extra constraints result in bulky or expensive ion detection units and make a highly-portable mass spectrometer difficult or impractical to produce. A new ion detector technology that is unhampered by such constraints would allow the construction of miniaturized mass spectrometers. Such devices would have a myriad of potential applications, including use in space probes, on-site chemical weapon analyses, and in-field forensics. This research has produced solid-state ion detection devices with detection levels in the hundreds-of-ions range. The detectors are produced on a printed circuit board, are inexpensive, and are functional at room temperature and pressure. Solid-state detection capabilities were realized by adopting concepts from modern non-volatile (flash) memory and using custom-made low capacitance MOSFETs. Detection occurs as ions impact a Faraday cup and charge the gate of a MOSFET, yielding a voltage change in the circuit. In addition to refinements made by incorporating low-capacitance MOSFETs, commercial MEMS switches (which have only recently become available) are used to produce ion counts at rates up to 30 kHz. Amplification and filtering circuitry has also been added to further increase sensitivity levels. Results of this research show that ion detectors can be reduced in size and complexity, making a portable mass spectrometer more viable.

Stephanie Mitts, Weber State University Engineering The recent development of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as a local government and individual property owner solution to stormwater management and water supply has led to a wide array of individual program implementations across the country. RWH involves collecting stormwater runoff, storing it and applying it for beneficial reuse or release at a controlled rate. Decreased need of freshwater withdrawals reduces hydrology based energy consumption and protects ecosystems, potentially making RWH a more sustainable and efficient practice than centralized water supply. The goal of this research project was to compile and analyze the national trends for local government urban rainwater harvesting program policy. A survey was created and administered to RWH managers across the country to collect U.S. policy information. This report contains information to be used as a guide for local governments and other institutions considering implementing a program to promote RWH.

Braden Hancock, Brigham Young University Engineering In Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO), the mechanism of epsilon-dominance has received a lot of attention because of its ability to guarantee convergence near the Pareto frontier and maintain diversity among solutions at a reasonable computational cost. The main weakness of this mechanism is its inability to also identify and exploit knee regions of the Pareto frontier, which are frequently the regions of the frontier that are most interesting to the user. Many attempts have been made to resolve this issue, but each has resulted in either decreased computational efficiency or slower convergence. We therefore propose a new mechanism – Lamé-dominance – as a replacement for epsilon-dominance in EMO. The geometry of the Lamé curve naturally supports a greater concentration of solutions in directions of high tradeoff between objectives. This adaptable resolution of solutions in knee regions of the Pareto frontier will result in significant savings in time and money for complex optimization routines in large n-objective design scenarios.

Arthur Castleton, Brigham Young University Engineering More than one in three people die because of organ failures such as congestive heart failure. The major issues of heart transplants include a scarcity of donors, immunorejection and blood clot formation. Over the last decade bioartificial organs have emerged as a potential alternative to traditional transplantation because they eliminate the need for immunosuppressants, DNA testing, and the use of another human’s organs. In this study an economic, effective, and rapid decellularization process that produces minimal damage to a cardiac extracellular matrix (cECM) is described. In addition, a static blood thrombosis assay was used to verify the effect of exposed cECM on clotting. Also an aorta was recellularized and analyzed.

Rex King, Brigham Young University Engineering The purpose of this research is to use slab coupled optical sensors (SCOS) to take high voltage measurements at high frequencies. Voltage dividers are currently used to take high voltage measurements. However, these voltage measurements are limited to bandwidths up to the range of 1MHz. SCOS sensors are electric field detectors developed by the BYU optics lab which couple light from a D-shaped fiber into a lithium-niobate slab wave guide. This light couples at certain frequencies and the frequencies at which these resonances occur will shift in proportion to the applied electric field. The electric field measurement can be used to measure voltage.

Raymond Bilodeau, Brigham Young University Engineering Extreme piezoresistivity was discovered in a silicone/nickel nanostrand (silicone/NiNs) nanocomposite. A quantum mechanical tunneling percolation model has been developed which bridges the gap between quantum effects at the nanoscopic scale and bulk material response at the macroscopic scale. To further improve on this theory, a measurement technique was adapted for use in measuring the average distance (in nm) between the NiNs in the silicone matrix. The measurements produced strong correlation to newly developed theories on the nature of the nickel-silicone interaction. The predictions of the previously developed model were also compared to these new experimental measurements and the model is being adapted to more accurately represent the real data.

Anthony Bennett, Brigham Young University Engineering Foot Mouth Disease is considered to be the greatest hindrance to livestock trade in the world. The disease is extremely contagious and can transmit via aerosol, food scraps, and through blood, and tears among other transmission routes [1]. Currently, technological challenges hinder eradication efforts due to a wide variety of FMD strains, high vaccine production costs, as well as limited efficacy of vaccines across strains [2]. The countries most affected by the disease also face economic, social, and political challenges to disease eradication. Based upon historical evidence disease eradication has proven to be possible as shown in the US, the UK, and other countries [3]. In this presentation, we highlight these challenges and propose various routes to eradication in order to open up economic opportunities to developing countries as well as eliminating the threat of a disease outbreak in countries currently free of the disease. Morgan, E.R., et al., Assessing risks of disease transmission between wildlife and livestock: The Saiga antelope as a case study. Biological Conservation, 2006. 131(2): p. 244-254. Parida, S., Vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease virus: strategies and effectiveness. 2009. Perry, B. and K. Sones, Poverty reduction through animal health. Science, 2007. 315.

Craig Daniels, Brigham Young University Engineering Martensite is a steel phase that has a body-centered tetragonal crystal lattice. It significantly affects the material properties of steel, particularly hardness and strength. Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) is a microscopy technique that is used to characterize the crystal and grain structure of metals by analyzing diffraction patterns. Martensite is traditionally difficult to identify using EBSD techniques because its diffraction patterns are too similar to the ferrite phase, which is body-centered cubic (BCC). The martensite crystal is modeled as BCC, but with an imposed tetragonal strain. “High resolution” EBSD can reveal the absolute strain of the crystal lattice, and is sensitive enough to measure the strain imposed in the model. This technique uses cross-correlation to compare experimental diffraction patterns to kinematically simulated patterns, and returns the absolute strain tensor. The tensor is rotated into the crystal frame, and the principle strains are used to create a tetragonality index. This tetragonality index can then be used to identify martensite. Further, the lattice parameters of martensite are related to the carbon content. A theoretical tetragonality index can be created using only lattice parameters. If the experimental index can be fitted to the theoretical index, this technique could be used to characterize the carbon content of steel at a sub-grain level.

Nathan Madsen, Brigham Young University Engineering A scatterometer is a type of radar used to measure the backscatter of the earth’s surface. In 2014, NASA will launch a new scatterometer, RapidSCAT, and mount it on the International Space Station (ISS). An integral part of the processing code for RapidSCAT is the X-table. X relates the power received by the scatterometer to the backscatter of the surface. It depends on the antenna, processor, and frequency of the sensor, as well as the sensor’s position, velocity, and attitude. The ISS’s comparatively unstable orbit renders previous methods of X-table generation inaccurate. By incorporating position, velocity, and attitude data from a revolution of the ISS, a table that is accurate for that revolution has been produced. This table can be made accurate for up to 8 revolutions of the ISS, by parametrizing variations in X with another variable. Different methods of estimating the relationship between these variables are attempted. Because the table will have to be recalculated repeatedly through the mission life of the sensor, tradeoffs between accuracy and processing time are explored.

Benjamin Lindsay, Brigham Young University Engineering Current treatments for cancer and diseased tissue often cause severe side effects due to drug interactions with healthy cells. In order to minimize these effects, we are developing a nano-scale near-infrared (NIR) light-responsive drug delivery system based on liposome-encapsulated perfluoropentane (PFC5) emulsions with gold nanorods in the PFC5 phase. The nanorods efficiently convert NIR light to heat, vaporizing the liquid PFC5 emulsions, which have boiling points near body temperature. Emulsion vaporization increases the volume inside the liposome enough to burst the phospholipid bilayer and release encapsulated cargo. This system will allow continuous therapeutic drug release localized at the site of NIR laser irradiation with a low-power, portable NIR laser diode. To date, we have successfully loaded PFC5 emulsions with gold nanorods and have loaded liposomes with PFC5 emulsions. Previous work in our lab has shown that a release to the cytosol of cells can be induced by ultrasound using similar liposomes. Experiments designed to demonstrate NIR laser-induced cargo release are currently in progress. We will continue to improve upon this system over the coming months to increase release and decrease the required laser power.

Bradley Hackett, Utah Valley University Engineering The Arduino microcontroller is very robust and is capable of performing a wide variety of functions to fit the needs of almost countless different projects. Many robots that are being built use a microcontroller, and the Arduino microcontroller is a good fit for many robots. The microcontroller is also standardized so it can be learned easily, and maintained easily as well, especially in a team environment. The simplicity of the Arduino offers a much more accessible design and development environment. This environment allows for very complex projects such as robotics to be approached in a manageable way. The SERA Bot is a robot which is designed efficiently and yet still has complexity, using the Arduino microcontroller. The S.E.R.A Bot is an acronym which stands for Searching Exploring Roaming Autonomous robot. The first task this robot can do is to communicate over Bluetooth to an Android tablet or phone to remotely control the robot by driving the motors or sending command signals to the Arduino microcontroller. The next task it is capable of is to use Light Dependant Resistors or LDRs to follow a light source or find the most brightly illuminated area of a room. The third task is object avoidance which is implemented using a simple ultrasonic distance sensor to detect if there is an object close in front of the robot. The last function of this robot is the ability to locate a beacon which emits a loud detectable sound, and is implemented using three amplified condenser microphones. The purpose behind this project is mainly to incorporate many simple functions to one robot. Many robots do one simple task, but the focus is to create a versatile robot, with enough complexity to be useful, but simple enough to be efficient.

Jason Ellers, Utah Valley University Engineering Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology is becoming more popular among Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) developers. The ease of development and the maintainability makes FPGAs a very attractive option in many performance and efficiency critical applications. The purpose behind this project was to implement an arcade style game on top of a VGA driver. The project was developed on a Xilinx Spartan-3E Starter board using Verilog, a hardware descriptive language.

Zola Adjei, Brigham Young University Engineering The research project is aimed at developing a tool to monitor the progress of rehabilitation efforts in Lake Malheur in Harney count, Oregon. The application of remote sensing techniques, which will be used to detect chlorophyll-a distribution from water algae growth in the lake. Concentrations of chlorophyll-a act as an indicator for algal blooms, which compete for nutrients and oxygen and can have significant detrimental effects on a body of water. To better identify the trend in growth activities of algal colonies, remote sensing will be effective in developing a model to map the path and region of high activities of algal growth and subsequently monitoring fish habitation on the entire Malheur Lake. The method uses satellite images which measure the reflectance of pigment concentrations, which can then be quantified as concentrations of chlorophyll-a using appropriate software and algorithms. The algorithms are based on relationships between the chlorophyll-a concentration measured in-situ and the reflectance measured in the satellite images. The algorithm that would be tested relies on the ratio of suitable bands in the electromagnetic spectrum. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife services have set preliminary actions by taking chlorophyll measurements earlier this year that will be used to help draw the relationship between the measured and satellite derived chlorophyll-a concentrations. There exists a research group in the Civil and Environmental engineering department that have employed this process on the Deer Creek lake in Utah and other surrounding water bodies which has shown successful outcomes in monitoring these lake’s water quality parameters including chlorophyll-a to help support the survival of fishes, restore their habitats and preserve cultural history. There will be a comparison done to the performance of remote sensing models in a large, shallow lake in Oregon, compared to models developed in deep, narrow lakes.

Erika Handly, Brigham Young University Engineering The development of an effective treatment for cancer is one of the most important goals for research today. One method of treatment is a targeted delivery mechanism using encapsulating drug carriers paired with a release mechanism. The Pitt laboratory has developed a potent chemotherapeutic called eLipoDox that uses a liposomal delivery construct combined with ultrasound release. eLipodox is composed of a liposome that encases an emulsion and the drug Doxorubicin. The emulsion droplet is a perflourocarbon stabilized by a lipid bilayer that contains a high vapor pressure solvent that will expand and burst the liposome upon sonication. The liposome is an artificially made lipid bilayer membrane that effectively encases the drug and does not allow the drug to diffuse freely through the body. Doxorubicin works through intercalating DNA, or distorting the structure of DNA, which is effective in treating tumors. However, it can cause heart failure and thus can have deathly effects for human patients. Encapsulating Doxorubicin minimizes the effects of Doxorubicin to other parts of the body while increasing the efficiency of the drug. Currently, the efficiency of loading the chemotherapeutic drug into the liposome is only around 34 to 38 percent, which is not ideal due to how expensive the drug is and the labor required to make the carrier. Thus, the purpose of this research was to systematically examine loading parameters and test the optimized carrier on a human cancer cell line. Higher temperature, greater sonication rounds, and lower concentration of drug on the exterior all correlated to greater loading efficiency. Cell death was also demonstrated with the optimized construct.

Varvara Jones, Utah Valley University Engineering Mobile devices are promising tools today to people’s life thanks to lower-cost hardware, steep subsidies from wireless carriers and the popularity of mobile apps. Equipping with touchscreen is the point of fulfillment for all that a mobile device promises to deliver to normal users. However, few mobile devices today have been built that address accessibility and usability of the touchscreen for a wide range of physical capabilities and challenges. In this research, we investigate human capabilities, environmental factors and hardware ergonomics that can improve the usability when people with impairment disabilities use a touchscreen-equipped mobile device.

Shana Black, University of Utah Engineering Goals: The pudendal nerve (PN) was targeted in attempt to create controlled micturition via intrafascicular electrical stimulation (IES) following the onset of surgically induced incontinence. We investigated both the effectiveness of unilateral and bilateral transection of the PN in creating a model of urinary incontinence and the ability of IES of efferent fibers to excite the external urethral sphincter (EUS) in order to restore a controlled voiding pattern. High Density Utah Electrode Arrays (HD-USEAs) were used to provide IES in these studies.

Jake Seiter, University of Utah Engineering Mining has always been among the most hazardous of occupations, and with the increasing demand for coal and minerals, safety in mines assumes even greater importance. Worldwide, underground miners are being exposed to noise and respirable dust hazards associated with roof bolt drilling. These hazards are now being understood to cause irreparable damage to the health of miners.

Jeffery Nielson, Brigham Young University Engineering Annually, 500,000 US inhabitants suffer from end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Allogeneic transplantation struggles with few donors and the high risk of organ rejection. Decellularized kidneys reseeded with autologous cells present a promising solution. Proposed decellularization methods require long times or high flow rates that may damage extracellular matrices’ (ECMs’) native architecture and lead to implantation thrombosis. We aim to optimize decellularization to preserve ECM integrity for subsequent recellularization and reimplantation.

Michael Borgholthaus, Brigham State University Engineering This paper seeks to demonstrate the simulated gain characterization of MOS transistors in different regions of channel inversion on silicon. In the weak region of MOSFET inversion a constant value of gain is observed. When current is increased and the device determined to be strongly inverted the gain falls off with the square of k/L from this constant gain. Between the weak and strong inversion regions is the moderate inversion region. In the moderate inversion region the gain rises above the constant weak inversion value before falling off as the channel becomes strongly inverted. If biased to low or moderate inversion, amplifying circuits can achieve higher gain performance at low currents than could be achieved in the typical strong inversion region.

Christopher Burns, Brigham Young University Engineering People around the world suffer from degenerative diseases of the retina that can eventually lead to blindness, including age-related macular degeneration. The human retina does not regenerate spontaneously, increasing the severity and long-term effects of these diseases. Currently, a highly-successful treatment for degenerative diseases of the retina doesn’t exist. Some attempts at retinal regeneration have slowed or stopped degeneration (Lanza). However, restoration of sight to its pre-diseased state requires regeneration of retinal tissue, not simply impedance of degeneration.

Parker Rosquist, Brigham Young University Engineering This paper presents a newly discovered class of foam-based nano-composite materials with self-sensing properties. By embedding nano-particles in high-elongation foams, materials are created that display piezoelectric characteristics when any deformation is applied. When used in place of regular padding materials, they become impact sensors for a range of applications. The physics behind the phenomenon, and the optimization of the material response, are explored in this article.

Cameron Bell, Brigham Young University Engineering 72-hour emergency kits are often inadequately equipped; they lack means to treat water or cook food, compromising chances of survival in an extended critical situation. Dr. Jones and I aim to develop a foldable, lightweight biomass cookstove to solve this problem.

Daniel Smith, Brigham Young University Engineering Although it is known as a graceful sport, figure skating can take a serious toll on skaters’ bodies. Considering that figure skaters commonly train five days per week, with 50-100 jumps per day, it is not surprising that repetitive stress injuries are a serious issue in figure skating. Because the forces associated with these jumps are poorly understood (including their magnitudes, loading rate, and when they occur) training plans designed to prevent injury are incapable of preparing athletes to best avoid their negative effects.

Mark Lindsay, Brigham Young University Engineering The protein production industry which creates vaccines, cancer drugs, and enzymes for chemical manufacturing and biocatalysis has revenue of over $160 billion a year. However, there are several significant protein production obstacles: high production costs exacerbated by difficulties with protein purification, retention, and stability. By better understanding protein structure and function we can resolve these issues. However, traditional methods of studying protein structure and function are costly and time consuming, taking several days to even a week to study one or a few sites. We have developed a process to study up to potentially hundreds of sites simultaneously in a matter of hours.

Todd Davis, Brigham Young University Engineering Oil shale is a sedimentary rock containing about 10% oil hydrocarbons. The United States has about 4 trillion barrels of oil in large regions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The hydrocarbons can be extracted by heating the shale to about 1000 F. This requires excessive amounts of energy, making it difficult to extract more energy than is consumed. We are researching a method to reuse or recycle the thermal energy of the heated shale back into the whole process, increasing the efficiency. This method is analogous to co-current or counter-flow heat exchangers in fluid flow. We are currently researching counter-current flow. To accomplish this we designed our retort (high heat kiln) to move the oil shale through a series of baffles. As it flows, the shale is heated and the oil is extracted as it becomes a vapor. A vacuum pump extracts this energy rich vapor out of the retort where it is condensed into a liquid oil. Meanwhile, the heated inert rock of the shale is returned adjacent to the incoming cold shale (counter-current heat exchange). This proximity of heated shale to cold shale allows the thermal energy to be transferred. 80% of the sensible heat has been recovered in our research. As stated above, the whole mechanism for this process is a rotating retort (kiln). The retort is about a 1 meter in length and ½ a meter in diameter. The kiln, on its small scale, can process about 5 tons oil shale/day. This comes to be about 85 gal Oil/day or 1.5 barrels/day.

LeGrand Shumway, Brigham Young University Engineering Ion traps are widely used in the field of mass spectrometry. These devices use high electric fields to mass-selectively trap, eject, and count the particles of a material, producing a mass spectrum of the given substance. Because of the usefulness of these devices, technology pushes for smaller, more portable ion traps for field use.

Christopher Werner, Brigham Young University Engineering Preparation of DNA linear expression templates (LET) via Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is significantly faster than procurement of DNA via cell growth and plasmid purification. Unfortunately, linear templates have not consistently achieved protein yields comparable to plasmids in cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS). Possible reasons for lower LET yields were investigated by producing a number of different extracts. Extracts were differentiated by varying harvest time after induction and modifying the extract preparation procedure. These extracts were tested with py71 sfGFP plasmid (producing a reporter protein) and LET’s created through PCR from the same plasmid. Protein yields obtained by fluorescence measurement were plotted against combined tRNA and rRNA amounts obtained through DNA electrophoreses and densitometry. A correlation was seen between tRNA and rRNA amounts and a normalized LET yield (LET yield divided by the plasmid yield under identical conditions). We considered two reasons for this correlation. First, the increased tRNA and rRNA indicated and increase in the concentration of cell translation machinery present, which increased the kinetics of the reaction, allowing LET’s to produce protein quicker before degradation by Deoxyribonucleases (DNAse). Second, the increased tRNA and rRNA amounts acted as a shield for mRNA from Ribonucleases, allowing more of the mRNA to be translated before LET’s were degraded by DNAse’s. Further work must be done to verify the accuracy of this correlation, as well as to determine the cause for increased LET yields in extracts with higher tRNA and rRNA amounts.

Josephine Bastian, Brigham Young University Engineering 3D immersive visualization systems, or CAVEs™, have found wide adoption for use in geosciences, planetary science, medical research, and computer science. However, much of the potential for such systems in practical civil and environmental engineering settings has been severely limited due to 1) extreme costs in both hardware and software; 2) immobility due to calibration and darkroom requirements; and 3) extensive and expensive manpower requirements for both operation and maintenance. This project presents the development and testing of a new mobile low-cost immersive stereo visualization system – the “VuePod” – that attempts to address these challenges through the use of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies, open source software, consumer-grade passive 3-D television monitors, an active tracking system, and a modular construction approach. The VuePod capitalizes on recent functional advancements and cost decreases in both hardware and software and is demonstrated herein as a viable alternative to projector-based walk-in CAVEs and their limitations. A description of the hardware and its assembly, software and its configuration, and the modular structural system is presented as well as results from several benchmark computation and visualization tests.

Mitchel Faulkner, Brigham Young University Engineering Introduction

Cameron Rogers, Brigham Young University Engineering The mechanical properties of materials are greatly influenced by their microstructure. Grain boundaries, part of the microstructure, effect mechanical properties and the manufacturing of crystalline solids. Grain boundaries in nickel have been shone to be more mobile at temperatures approaching the melting temperature (Olmsted, Holm, and Foiles, 2009). However, little is know about their behavior at low temperatures, and the notion that mobility decreases with decreasing temperature may be incomplete. Using the molecular dynamic simulator LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator) we are simulating the mobility of 41 Σ3 boundaries in nickel, a face centered cubic (FCC) metal, at various cryogenic temperatures. We have begun to see that these boundaries defy the previously stated notion and move faster with decreasing temperature. Using these molecular simulations we are also investigating the underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon, which could lead to further investigation.

Neil Hinckley, Brigham Young University Engineering Due to the increasing interest in combining the physical and digital world devices which allow users to naturally interact with digital systems are becoming much more important and prevalent. In order to improve upon standard haptic controllers and interfaces we explored compliant haptic devices, which us a compliant member to provide tunable force feedback to users. We were able to produce a prototype device and demonstrate some of the capabilities and advantages of compliant haptic devices.

Ryan Putman, Utah State University Engineering Spider silk possesses superior mechanical properties to most other biological or man-made materials. In particular, research has demonstrated that spider silk is as strong as Kevlar, yet much more elastic. The unique feature of both strength and elasticity naturally piques interest in numerous scientific fields (e.g. medical sutures, automobile seat belts, or athletic performance wear). However, the limiting factors in using spider silk on a commercial scale are the production of sufficient protein product and the ability to do so in a cost-effective manner. An additional challenge is due to the territorial and cannibalistic nature of spiders, which makes harvesting their silk from large “spider farms” an infeasible task. To overcome these limitations, an approach using synthetic biological engineering principles has been employed. This emerging field of study provides a powerful tool, the use of standard biological parts called BioBricks. Using these standard DNA parts, a genetic circuit with the necessary regulatory components was engineered to recombinantly produce a synthetic spider silk protein in the microorganism Escherichia coli, which will provide a more consistent and sustainable source of spider silk than by harvesting directly from spiders. Expression of this recombinant protein has been verified through SDS-PAGE protein gels and subsequent protein immunoblot. The next step is to create a genetic circuit that will be used to secrete the spider silk protein outside of the E. coli bacterium. This could greatly reduce the downstream processing costs associated with protein purification as well as potentially increase overall yield. Therefore, a genetic tag that targets products for secretion has been fused to the spider silk coding regions. Further testing is required to determine the difference in overall protein yield from secreting as opposed to non-secreting strains of the engineered bacteria. Once these values are determined, the production can be optimized and scaled-up.

Brad Hancock, Brigham Young University Engineering Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis is a reaction used to convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen into high-quality liquid fuels. The reaction takes place in the presence of a cobalt- or iron-based catalyst. An important factor in how well a catalyst works is how highly it is dispersed on a given support. Sugar can be used to increase the viscosity of the impregnation solution to change the dispersion of the cobalt on the alumina support. The present study will determine the effect of adding sugar to the impregnating solution and dispersion of cobalt on the alumina support.

Dayton Minore, Brigham Young University Engineering Microwave scatterometers, which use radar backscatter measurements from satellites to infer wind vectors near the ocean’s surface, have the ability to monitor global wind speeds at high resolutions. Such data is used for weather forecasting and climate research. However, scatterometer observations can be contaminated by land proximity. Consequently, current methods do not use measurements within 30 km of the coast (about 10.6 million square kilometers worldwide) in the data set. This unused data can be utilized by a recently developed algorithm that can measure winds as close as 5 km to the coast. The author proposes that areas near land can be systematically targeted for special processing, providing valuable near coastal wind data. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the targeting method on a global scale, a sample 4-day data set will be processed. The data is to be stored and published in compatible file formats to current wind data, so that it will be easily usable by wind-vector users.

Jeremy Hunt, Brigham Young University Engineering Unnatural amino acid incorporation is a power tool in the synthetic biology toolbox that allows for unique residue chemistry to be incorporated into proteins. This technology has many promising applications in areas such as protein-protein interaction, biotherapeutics, biosensing, and biocatalysis. One challenge of uAA-incorporation is the current inability to properly predict the impact of the novel uAA-residue chemistry on proper protein folding and function. Therefore, a screening technology would be desirable to rapidly assess the viability of uAA-incorporation sites. Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) provides a promising basis for rapid screening technologies. The open environment of CFPS has a variety of advantages over conventional in vivo systems, such as direct monitoring, selective protein expression, and facile deployment of synthetic pathways. Another primary benefit CFPS has over in vivo expression is the ability to directly express proteins from PCR-generated products, known as linear expression templates (LETs). The use of LETs decreases the labor and time to expression of recombinant proteins. Thus, LET-based CFPS is a propitious system for rapid screening of uAA-incorporation. Here we demonstrate uAA-incorporation using LET-based CFPS and identify how this technology can significantly reduce time and labor to rapidly express proteins containing uAAs.

Christopher Hutchings, Brigham Young University Engineering The biocatalysis industry has been rapidly expanding due to the fact that there has been a greater demand for ecologically friendly manufacturing processes. The benefit of biocatalytic systems is that it enables stereo-, chemo-, and regio- specificity in chemical manufacturing. This in turn reduces wasteful byproducts from chemical manufacturing. This is especially valuable in industries where removal of chemically similar but physically harmful waste products is essential. The problem with the traditional biocatalytic processes is that they are hindered from limitations in areas such as enzyme stability, leaching, recoverability, and reusability. These limitations significantly impede the cost-effectiveness of biocatalysis for industrial applications. The processes of enzyme immobilization like adsorption, entrapment, and other such forms of immobilizations provide improvements such as stability, recoverability, and reusability. Though they provide improvements they also go through enzyme leaching, complicated or even toxic conjugation procedures and have a lack of specificity to attachment location from. This ends in being counterintuitive and defeats the purpose of enzyme immobilization. It is here we start to build upon the recent advancements in unnatural amino acid and incorporating them into enzymes to demonstrate a biocompatible and covalent enzyme immobilization process that improves protein stability and enables attachment orientation control. This system we refer to as the Protein Residue-Explicit Covalent Immobilization for Stability Enhancement or PRECISE system, and it permits the covalent attachment of enzymes at potentially any location on the enzyme onto a surface. Using this process, we create reusable enzymes that are more stable and more resistant to harsh conditions. We have also concluded from this process that there is no leaching and increased stability from immobilization with the enzyme with satisfactory results in enzyme activity.

Bryce Ostler, Utah Valley University Engineering Much of SQL’s power derives from SQL’s declarative rather than procedural nature: a programmer describes the result desired rather than how to produce the result. Systems using SQL must translate SQL’s declarative language into a procedural language in order to execute queries. Relational Algebra (RA) is a procedural language that SQL can be transformed into and executed on a computer using a RA engine. Optimizations are applied to RA code to improve the performance of a translated query. The author of this abstract will present a simple RA engine written in Python and how it has been used as part of a Database Theory course.

Sean Bedingfield, Utah State University Engineering The delivery of zinc ions using ZnO nanoparticles within the body has been shown to cause the destruction of tumor cells and may also treat neurodegenerative disorders. The silane capping of ZnO nanoparticles is employed as a post-synthesis method to protect them from dissolution in polar solvents. Preliminary research demonstrates standard methods of silane capping result in aggregation of nanoparticles. Aggregation produces particles significantly larger than the original diameter of the nanoparticles, making them too large for some medical applications.

Tyler Mathis, Brigham Young University Education We need to improve our educational system through giving our teachers more chances to be given constructive feedback through teacher evaluations. As teachers receive feedback and are put through effective teacher evaluations their performance will improve and the upcoming generation will be more educated. This will greatly beneficial to the future of our society as a whole. Teacher evaluations is an important topic to raise awareness of to help produce effective and beneficial teaching to the upcoming generation. The topic I will address is how we can make teacher evaluations more effective by exploring ways to quantitatively measure teachers’ effectiveness through examining student gains. I will also examine why implementing teacher observations will be an asset to teacher performance and a necessity in teacher evaluations.

Kristin Murphy, Utah State University Education Past research shows that parents interact more positively with their children and use more supportive language during play than during teaching interactions (Kwon, Bingham, Lewsader, Jeon, & Elicker, 2013). Children with normal language development tend to have parents who use more language supporting speech, (Vigil, Hodges, & Klee, 2005) than parents of children with language delays. The specific research question addressed in this study is: Do maternal (maternal depression, education levels, parenting stress) or child factors (language development, social-emotional development) influence maternal language behaviors in teaching and play contexts?

Michelle Fordham, Utah Valley University Education A Family Write Night is an opportunity for teachers, students, and parents to come together to learn about the different stages of writing development and what writing does for the student at any level. Since writing will strengthen and enhance the student in other literacy skills and knowledge, bringing these students and families together in a friendly, casual atmosphere to provide enjoyable, non-assessed activities builds confidence in a writer’s sense of who they are, their voices as writers, as well as developing critical thinking skills. Parent and family involvement is a key component of this activity. Having families, students, and teachers working together to encourage writing at home builds strong family bonds while strengthening writing skills.

Chelsey Funk, Utah State University Education High school English as a Second Language (ESL) students often feel separated from their schools and communities. These feelings of separation can lead to low engagement and low achievement despite the students’ desire to do well in school. One method used to counter low engagement in mainstream classes is service learning, but there is little research on service learning with ESL students. In this study, an existing group of 9th grade ESL students was taught and observed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of using service-learning methods. The project endeavored to tie academic work to community involvement and therefore increase student engagement and academic confidence. Throughout the implementation of the service-learning project, students displayed increased classroom involvement and reported improvements in attitudes and self-assurance. The methods and procedures described in this study can be adapted to larger class sizes and a variety of projects in order to increase engagement and academic confidence in ESL students.

John Lorz, Utah Valley University Education How about a 20% increase in the class average on the mid-term exam compared with the previous two academic years of the same course? In this session two students share their experiences as (newly piloted) peer mentors in a low-performing, upper division genetics class. Student attitudes towards genetics improved and both mid-term and final grades increased by double-digit percentages. Not only did these peer mentors increase student success, but also experienced a personal developmental opportunity in preparation for graduate school, including this conference presentation and an anticipated peer-reviewed publication to follow.