Architecture

Authors: David Schloesser. Mentors: B Kal Munis. Insitution: Utah Valley University. How do place-based identities influence American’s attitudes towards perpetrators of politically motivated violence? Through the implementation of a pre-registered conjoint experiment, I seek to answer this question. Ideally, and under normative circumstances, punishment of politically motivated violence should be applied to perpetrators with considerations only towards what/who was targeted in the act and the severity of the violence committed. In the U.S. however, evaluations of guilt are determined through the trial of peers, leaving room for the influence of in-group and out-group biases to appear in the judgement of perpetrators according to the suggestions of Social Identity Theory. As such, biases arise that cloud human judgement based on preconceived attitudes towards various group identities that influence our opinions when judging other individuals. One’s sense of place, or how strongly they identify themselves with their locality and its’ culture, is one of these powerful group social identities that establishes a salient “in-group” persona to other locals, while influencing attitudes towards various “out-groups” of people not from that place. Holding constant other considerations pertinent to acts of politically motivated violence, Americans more harshly evaluate perpetrators of violence from geographic communities other than their own. To judge the relative weight that these place-based identities hold towards the judgement of political violence perpetrators, evaluators were presented with perpetrators with randomly assigned personal characteristics (e.g., where they are from) and varied features of the violent act (e.g., how severe the act was, what/who was targeted), and asked to determine the level of punishment or mercy to be assigned to each perpetrator. I found that perpetrator place characteristics indeed influences the evaluator’s excusal of political violence, however when weighted against the features of the act, the nature of the act matters much more for evaluations on average. These findings can be interpreted as normatively negative, given that an evaluator’s place identity appears to reflect in-group out-group biases that affect the assignment of punishment to a crime. However, the disproportionate effect of the violent act’s target and severity are normatively encouraging.

Authors: Adam Smith, adam@tallsmith.com. Mentors: Kal Munis. Insitution: Utah Valley University. The social desirability bias is a well-documented and well-studied phenomenon in the social sciences, but it has only been in relatively recent literature that experimentalists have begun to study the effects treatments have on the manner in which the social desirability bias is reflected in social behavior. The aim of this study is to test the effects of perceived privacy influences the way people answer this question: "What is the aim of politics?" This study seeks to replicate findings in other research that has delved into the relationship between perceived privacy and social desirability. Another significant area of interest is how neurodivergent identity, especially autism, fits into the relationship. With this study, we can better understand how social desirability affects political discourse as well as provide insights into the neurodivergent mind and how it relates to politics.

Authors: Bryan Jay Frandsen. Mentors: Joseph McMurray. Insitution: Brigham Young University. This paper expands on a citizen-candidate model of electoral competition under both plurality rule and ranked choice voting. The paper finds that ranked choice voting nominally avoids Duverger’s Law by accumulating many identical candidates but yields fewer viable equilibrium policy positions than plurality rule. Additionally, ranked choice voting favors moderate candidates and policies, increasing the probability of their implementation compared to plurality rule. This moderate bias leads to lower polarization in equilibrium than is possible under plurality rule.

Authors: Ethan Reese. Mentors: Russ Bailey. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Many individuals struggle with oppressively high standards for their character, behavior and environment, know commonly as perfectionism. Perfectionism also carries significant attention in the fields of psychology, at least partially because of its association with higher rates of OCD, depression and anxiety, but also higher performance and goal-achieving (Lunn et al., 2023). The presentation will be synthesized from available literature, and focus on how perfectionism can be positive or negative, and how to effectively adopt beneficial perfectionism. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of perfectionism in academic and workplace settings.There are moderating factors that distinguish adaptive perfectionism from maladaptive perfectionism and various sources of perfectionism, including self-prescribed, socially-prescribed, and other-oriented perfectionism (Benson, 2003). There are diverse explanations of the many ways individuals strive for perfection, or how they impose expectations of it on others, and many of those will be elaborated on. Therapists have both the ability and the professional responsibility to assist in those efforts. The therapeutic modalities specifically suited for working with perfectionism and the consequences of complex relationships between it and certain mental illnesses will be presented for analysis. This discussion will benefit individuals inside and outside of mental health professions alike through exploreing the process of turning perfectionism adaptive, as well as provide direction for future research in on the topic.References:Lunn, J., Greene, D., Callaghan, T., & Egan, S. J. (2023). Associations between perfectionism and symptoms of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression in young people: A meta-analysis. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 52(5), 460–487. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2023.2211736Benson, E. S. (2003, November 1). The many faces of perfectionism. Monitor on Psychology, 34(10). https://www.apa.org/monitor/nov03/manyfaces

Authors: Jaycob M Russell, Sujeong Hwang, Jake A Harward, Emily R Morden, Danielle T Taylor, Devin H Taylor. Mentors: Danielle Taylor, Devin Taylor. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is estimated to cost four billion dollars per year in the United States that has a wide range of symptoms including low birth weight, microcephaly, and neurobehavioral problems (Belhorma et al., 2021). Drosophila melanogaster is a prime model organism to study FASD as they have variation in sensitivity to alcohol, metabolic and functional tolerance, and withdrawal to ethanol. We collected wild-type (WT) fly embryos and raised them in a regular diet or an antioxidant supplemented diet (acai or curcumin) both with or without ethanol exposure during development. Adult 4-8 day old fruit flies were starved for 24 hours before the conditioning paradigm. The different conditions included exposure to different odors in either an agar environment (CS-) or agar with sucrose (CS+) environment. After conditioning flies were starved again for 24 hours before testing. Y-mazes were used to test their learning and memory abilities. We hypothesized that flies reared on ethanol with the supplemented diet of antioxidants will show an increase in learning and memory performance compared to the FASD condition of flies raised in normal food without antioxidant supplementation, as flies raised in antioxidant supplemented diets will have less oxidative stress. Performance indices for Y-maze tests were calculated based on published protocols: [# No. of flies choosing (CS+) - # No. of flies choosing (CS-) ]/ Total # of flies that made a choice (Mohandasan et al., 2020).

Authors: Andrew Knowlton, Matt Olson. Mentors: Matt Olson. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Snow melt is one of the most important parts of Utah’s water budget and has an impact on the Great Salt Lake (GSL) ecosystem, which hit a historic low point in 2022. One aspect contributing to water availability is an increase in dust on our snowpack which enhances snow melt and causes less water in the GSL basin. Using satellite imagery, we will calculate the increase in energy (radiative forcing) over the snowpack due to dust on snow. In previous research, I used a coarse satellite product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to locate areas of dust hotspots on snow in the mountains surrounding the GSL. This project will use imagery with higher spatial detail (Landsat 8) using the same algorithm to measure radiative forcing over snow due to dust deposition. I will compare this data to the same algorithm using MODIS data to have a better analysis of dust in the snowpack. After performing this analysis I can better understand how spatial detail and acquisition frequency affect our accuracy at detecting radiative forcing due to dust on snow and how it changes our water budget.

Authors: Dallin Zollinger, Lauren Brooks. Mentors: Lauren Brooks. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Antibiotics are one of the most important inventions in recent history, saving countless lives. However, their use has also caused antibiotic resistance to increase in frequency among bacterial populations at an astonishing rate. This increase in frequency will influence our treatment of infections worldwide since previous treatments will no longer be effective, causing many deaths that would once have been preventable. Streptogramins are a class of antibiotics used to treat infections which bacteria have evolved resistance to. This study was focused on the vatA gene, which encodes resistance to streptogramins in Staphylococcus aureus. Samples were collected from various areas on the Utah Valley University campus, the DNA was extracted, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) specific to the vatA gene was performed. Gel electrophoresis was then performed to visualize the amplicons generated from the PCR to evaluate the presence or absence of the vatA gene. Through this work, we have identified locations where this gene is found.

Authors: Sydney Holt, Mikaela Cowles. Mentors: Joe Jensen. Insitution: Utah Valley University. We are using Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) to measure distances to giant elliptical galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These distance measurements will be used to better define the Hubble Constant, and hopefully help resolve the Hubble tension crisis in cosmology. Part of SBF requires a knowledge of the colors of the galaxies to be studied in order to account for variations in age and composition of the stars contained within. To this end, we are using PanSTARRS and DECam data to determine the optical g-z color (464 nm-900 nm) values for galaxies from the Virgo and Fornax clusters out to 300 million light years.

Authors: Isaac Settle, Easton Gray, Bonnie Anderson. Mentors: Bonnie Anderson. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Study of mode transitions with an artificially-blown clarinet Isaac Settle, Easton Gray, and Bonnie AndersenAbstractWhile playing the clarinet one might experience what is called a squeak or grunt note. A squeak note is a note that is in a higher register without any change of the keys being pressed. Similarly, a grunt note is a lower shifted note with the same circumstances. Both tend to be undesirable while playing, but often happen when learning how to play the clarinet. A similar occurrence of tonal differences can be controlled intentionally when advanced students enacting the technique called voicing to play the instrument in different registers. This research studied the physical parameters that cause squeak and grunt notes. An airtight box was built to hold the mouthpiece of the clarinet and attached to an air compressor. The effects on mode transitions between registers based on air pressure and where contact is applied on specific parts of the reed of the clarinet were studied. Additionally, a laser vibrometer was used to compare reed vibrations to that of the pitch of the clarinet. This data can help clarinet students as they learn the technique of voicing.

Authors: John Walton, Mason Astill, Jarrett Nelson. Mentors: Dustin Shipp. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Our research group is working to create a meta analysis of the variables that affect the efficiency of eddy current braking systems. We are making a track to accelerate marbles made from different non-ferromagnetic materials down an incline, through a photogate to get its initial velocity, then through a solenoid. We are testing several metals for the marbles and solenoids driven by alternating current with different frequencies. The marble after passing through the solenoid will have its new velocity recorded, allowing us to determine the deceleration experienced by the marble.

Authors: Sarah Adams, Bailey Bennion, Sara S Rocks. Mentors: Sara S Rocks. Insitution: Utah Valley University. The abundance of microplastics within Earth’s environment is of great concern to public health. Heavy toxic metals like lead and mercury concentrate on the surfaces of microplastics, and can readily enter the biosphere. This poses a risk to humans and other forms of life because of the large amount of microplastics that have been found in even the most remote locations on Earth. Not much has been studied about the origins and presence of microplastics in Utah snow. It would be beneficial to study microplastics in snow because, once the snow melts in the spring, it is a substantial source of water for Utah and communities in the American West. Preliminary data indicates increased concentrations of microplastics in snow samples that originated from ski resorts compared to snow samples in areas with little recreation. The current project further investigates the origins and quantity of microplastics in the snow at the Sundance ski resort. Snow samples from the Sundance ski resort and from a remote location with little human activity are compared. Additionally, the number of microplastics at Sundance between natural and artificial snow samples are compared to see if the plastic components within snowmaking machines generate a greater amount of microplastics in the snow. To investigate if snowboards and skis can release plastics, microplastics in fresh snow are quantified before and after snowboard contact. Because microplastics can also be shed from clothing, researchers also examined samples for fibers generated from winter garments. This project aims to shed light on the sources and number of microplastics in Utah snow, especially the effects of skiing and snowboarding.

Authors: Elizabeth Jenkins. Mentors: Jerry Johnson. Insitution: Brigham Young University. There is convincing data on the potential relationship between predator-prey environments and cognitive abilities. There is often an increase in cognition found in species living among predators. Culum Brown and Victoria A. Braithwaite (2005) conducted an experiment to test this hypothesis on Brachyraphis episcopi. While they anticipated their results would support this hypothesis, the populations under non-predator conditions solved the cognitive tests more quickly. In this study, I replicate their experiment with a different species, named Brachyraphis rhabdophora, to determine if their results are repeatable. Populations of Brachyrhaphis rhabdophora are found in northwestern Costa Rica and are distinctly segregated into different river drainages. In each drainage, the populations are isolated into predator and non-predator populations. These populations experience a parallel separation of social environment to the populations used by Brown and Braithwaite. Using their same methodology, we measured cognition in Brachyrhaphis rhabdophora by presenting them with the task of locating a hidden food patch. I expected that that the predatory-prey population would complete this task more efficiently, although it’s possible that this species could produce the same contradictory results. Once the data are all collected, I will present the results and publish a paper on my findings.

Authors: Parker R. Carlquist, Lexi Brady, Seth Dotson, Jeff Glenn. Mentors: Jeff Glenn. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Background: Addressing public health problems requires cooperation from stakeholders who may have wide-ranging political, religious, moral, and societal beliefs. If stakeholders lose trust and mutual understanding between one another, the influence of public health efforts decreases. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated these complexities as communities became divided in opinions regarding the appropriate response. Without systems and strategies to maintain and increase trust, divisive public health issues may become unsolvable. Objectives: The Campus Conversations project analyzed the effectiveness of reflective structured dialogue (RSD) in helping develop skills and abilities to address difficult conversations and topics. The project hosted conversations among Brigham Young University students of varying demographics and ideologies on divisive topics such as diversity and gender.Methods: Students were recruited to participate in an hour-long conversation with 4-6 others, including a student facilitator who guided the conversation. Conversations began with foundational agreements followed by 3 rounds of questions. Participants were each given an opportunity to speak uninterrupted in each round, followed by group discussion and questions. The structure encourages the sharing of personal experiences and beliefs in an environment that fosters understanding instead of judgement. Pre- and post-conversation surveys were administered to measure the effects of the conversations on skills. Participants were asked to rate how important they believed a skill was and also assess their ability to use it. A collection of 8 different skills and 6 different mindsets/abilities were measured. Results: Survey results found that participation in a conversation using RSD is associated with statistically significant improvements in how students rated the importance of 6 different skills. Additionally, 8 skills and mindsets/abilities saw statistically significant improvements in students’ assessed capability. The skills of “vulnerability” and “suspending judgement” saw the greatest improvements in both rated importance and assessed capabilities. The average change between pre- and post-surveys overall was a 10.5% increase. Conclusions: In order to develop effective public health policies, consensus and understanding must be achieved among stakeholders and communities. The results highlight the potential for RSD conversations to be used as an effective tool to improve students’ belief in the importance of skills required for difficult conversations and potentially improve their ability to use them. Public Health Implications: Public health is currently working to address various divisive problems that require collaboration from stakeholders that range across the political, demographic, and societal spectrums. Utilizing RSD can help promote understanding and the ability to discuss divisive issues in a calm and structured way, forming a foundation whereupon policy can be effectively created, discussed, and advocated.

Authors: Nykitha chomina, Emalee Dias, Mary Roberts. Mentors: Jodi Lopez. Insitution: Utah Valley University. As e-cigarette use has increased in popularity among the general population, especially among adolescents, the demand for research has become evident. E-cigarettes became available in the United States in 2007 and were created as a tobacco cessation tool, even though there is no current research supporting those claims. The wide array of flavors is attributed to the growing popularity of e-cigarettes with known and unknown properties. There is some overlap between the chemicals found in traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes including nicotine. Some of the most negative effects of these ingredients include carcinogenic effects and negative oral manifestations such as hairy tongue, xerostomia, inflammation, and increased incidence of periodontal disease. For decades dental professionals have been interviewing patients regarding their smoking habits; however, with the rise of e-cigarette use, there is a greater demand for patient education. It is crucial that dental professionals take on an active role when it comes to preaching the truths about the dangers of e-cigarettes and the negative impact on oral health. Keywords: e-cigarette, oral health, ingredients

Authors: Karina Geranios, Madison Mathews, Connor Baird. Mentors: Robert Kagabo. Insitution: Utah Tech University. Abstract: Addressing Teenage Pregnancy and Related Public Health Issues in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlements in UgandaIntroductionWhen individuals cross international borders for fear of persecution due to reasons such as their race, belonging to a particular religion, or political group and seeking safety, they become refugees in the new host country. In most resource deprived countries, these refugees are placed in refugee camps where they receive necessities such as food, water, medical care, or shelter. However, in some cases even in these intended safe refugee camps there are many social and public health challenges mostly due to overcrowding. Teenage pregnancy, which is girls getting pregnant between the ages 10-19 is one of those issues not well investigated within refugee camps. Teenage pregnancy is associated with several adverse outcomes for young mothers including intergenerational cycles of poverty and is the leading cause of death among adolescent girls.MethodsUsing constructs from the community-based participatory research approach, the authors used mixed methods study in June 2023 to collaborate with community members to assess and initiate culturally acceptable teenage pregnancy interventions in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement. Play and sports activities were used to enhance collaborative efforts between community members and researchers.FindingsMeasures intended to decrease the spread of Covid-19 such as tough lockdowns might have increased risk sexual behaviors and abuse and therefore increased teenage pregnancy. Community leaders are in search of appropriate interventions to reduce teenage pregnancy and provide education to teenage mothers.ConclusionThe study resulted in a collaborative interest between researchers, public health providers, and community leaders to identify culturally acceptable teenage pregnancy measures of intervention. Organized play activities, and menstrual clinics proved to be excellent ways to share teenage pregnancy and related public health challenges information including preventive measures.

Authors: Seth Leavitt. Mentors: Nathan Crane. Insitution: Brigham Young University. One common form of 3D printing is Fused filament fabrication (FFF). In this process, a plastic filament is melted and extruded one line at a time to form a 3D shape. FFF often has problems that arise during printing that can cause the rest of the print to fall apart or otherwise fail. We assessed the feasibility of classifying 3D printing errors in prints using Thermography and data processing. We did this by taking constant thermal video of a specially designed printer to collect our temperature data. Then, using a constant travel speed on the printhead and using the distance traveled, we calculated the speed at which the cooling occurs. We collected cooling data on both control prints as well as parts with simulated defects (gaps in the print substrate). By analyzing the differences between the two sets of data, we determined that is feasible to identify anomalies in the printed part. This is a first step towards improving the quality of 3D-printed parts.

Authors: Edwin Nazario, Mason Davis, Mohammad Shekaramiz, Mohammad Masoum, Abdennour Seibi. Mentors: Mohammad Shekaramiz . Insitution: Utah Valley University. Wind turbine blade maintenance is expensive, time exhaustive, and prone to human error and misdiagnosis. With our energy production rapidly increasing in the green sector, these issues are only exacerbated. As wind energy production is expanded in Utah, and the wider Mountain West, the capital cost of wind turbine damage and the subsequent downtime of the turbines will cause strain on our energy output capabilities. One such solution is the development of autonomous classification and identification of these anomalies through deep learning. In this research, a novel dataset is created using a small wind turbine and multiple deep learning architectures and techniques are deployed for comparative analysis. Here, ResNet-50, VGG-19, Xception, and a custom CNN are deployed for the purpose of anomaly detection. Transfer learning is also investigated for further performance gains with each of the existing architectures as the backbone network. For this research, a new dataset was created that combines both indoor and outdoor images of a small wind turbine. A total of 6 blades were used, 3 representing healthy and 3 representing faulty, resulting in 6000 images. The faults on the blades had a combination of cracks, holes, and erosion to simulate the damage found on commercial grade turbine blades. Indoor images were taken using different cameras and backgrounds to simulate human inspection. To introduce realistic environmental features to the dataset, such as sunlight and clouds, drones were utilized for outdoor imaging. After extensive hyperparameter search and simulations, it was found that the Xception architecture provided the best classification accuracy of 99.33% followed by ResNet-50 and VGG-19 attaining 98.412% and 97.418%, respectively. This accuracy shows promising performance in the autonomous detection of wind turbine faults for the purpose of health monitoring and maintenance scheduling. To expand on our work, fault localization and size analysis techniques will be investigated to provide more detailed information to maintenance personnel.

Authors: Ashton Walden. Mentors: Sayeed Sajal. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Cyber attacks are at an all-time high and mobile devices are some of the most highly targeted devices today. This is due to the shifting landscape of the workforce brought on by the coronavirus. December 12th, 2019 saw the first patients in the Hubei Province of China experience symptoms of what would become known as the Coronavirus that would eventually cause a global pandemic. Little did anyone know at this time the world would change drastically because of this virus. One of the areas that was hit the hardest was the global workforce. Many industries were forced to shut down or adopt a method of remote work. This led to companies adopting either a mobile device management system or a bring-your-own-device policy. Cybercriminals took notice of this abrupt shift and began taking advantage of the many vulnerabilities of mobile devices. This paper investigates those vulnerabilities, how cybercriminals take advantage of those vulnerabilities, and what can be done to prevent attacks on mobile devices. Interviews were conducted with 10 separate iPhone users on their mobile device habits and their basic knowledge of mobile device safety. Various papers related to the topic as well as industry-leading websites were consulted for industry standards and statistics as well as safety recommendations. Through multiple interviews and analysis, I have found that many users have a strong sense of confidence in their phone’s built-in privacy and security protections and many believe that this is sufficient cyber security and leaves them with little to no vulnerabilities. I have also found that security incidents on mobile devices are not uncommon, one 2021 report even showed that 46% of companies reported a security threat stemming from a malicious mobile application installed by an employee. I have concluded that as a result of many individuals believing that their mobile devices have pre-installed security measures they are not at risk of an attack. This may lead them to indeed become more vulnerable as cyber attacks on mobile devices and mobile device management systems have become extremely common in the modern world.