Gaussian Limits and Polynomials on High Dimensional Spheres

We show in detail that the limit of spherical surface integrals taken over slices of a high dimensional sphere is a Gaussian integral on an affine plane of finite codimension in infinite dimensional space. We then utilize these ideas to show that a natural class of orthogonal polynomials on high dimensional spheres limit to Hermite polynomials

The Effect Of Biodiesel Blends On A Multi-Cylinder Engine And The Impact On Aftertreatment

Recently, topics including global warming, increased environmental awareness, recycling, and organically produced meat and vegetables have been prevalent in the media and research arenas. The rapidly increasing cost for fossil fuels and the pursuit of environmental conservation has brought about the interest in a renewable and clean burning fuel, specifically biodiesel. Biodiesel, or vegetable oil ester as it was originally referred to, has been improving and progressing since the early 1900\u27s. Fortunately, significant advancement in the understanding of raw vegetable oil as a fuel as well as converting it to ethyl or methyl esters, now known as biodiesel, has been evolving for nearly a century after. The objective of this study is predicated on the potential marketing of biodiesel blends, up to 20% by volume, without modification to standard production available engines to be used by the average consumer. The NextEnergy Biodiesel program is a collaborative effort involving a variety of disciplines and expertise. Objectives include developing manufacturing methods for soy-based biodiesel, evaluating and recording parameters such as cetane number, oxidative stability, and lubricity made from different feedstocks to be used for engine testing. The evaluations of these selected fuels are then blended with ULSD and tested in single and multi-cylinder engines. The proceeding work specifically focuses on results from a multi-cylinder engine coupled with a diesel oxidation catalyst, diesel particulate filter and a selective catalytic reduction catalyst and the effect that biodiesel blends has on their performance and effectiveness

A Single-Case Experimental Investigation of Sketch and Speak Expository Intervention for Adolescents with Language-Related Learning Disabilities via Telepractice

This study investigated the effects of Sketch and Speak expository language intervention for adolescent students with language-related learning disabilities (LLD). Students with LLD have trouble understanding and using academic language for reading and writing and often benefit from explicit instruction in these areas. Sketch and Speak is an expository language intervention that teaches students to take notes in two forms and to systematically use oral practice to facilitate understanding and memory of notes. First, students learn to take notes using simple sketch writing, or pictography, which allows them to focus on the ideas of the text rather than the spelling, letter formulation, and other cognitive demands of written language. Students then generate full oral sentences from their pictographic note and practice saying the sentences aloud to solidify the information in their memory. In the second session, students transfer their pictography notes and full sentences to the more traditional form of bulleted notes by identifying key words from their well-formed oral sentences. Students are also scaffolded into practicing full oral reports from their notes in each session. This combination of repeated oral practice of sentences and full reports and two types of note-taking helps students to comprehend and express information from complex informational texts. This study is a multiple baseline across participants single-case experiment. Participants completed three, six, or nine baseline sessions before moving into the treatment phase. All participants completed 12 45-minute sessions of intervention. This study is the first to investigate Sketch and Speak with adolescent students. Three ninth grade students with LLD participated in one-on-one instruction sessions via telepractice in the summer of 2021. Data was collected in each baseline and treatment session on participants’ abilities to generate Oral Reports and answer Short-Answer Recall questions about a novel topic. In baseline, participants followed along with a read-aloud informational text and then took notes on the article with no further instructional support prior to the Independent Session Test. In treatment, participants were provided with instruction on two different types of notes and systematic oral practice prior to the Guided Session Tests (Oral Report and Short-Answer Recall). Additionally, participant’s notes were examined for Note Quantity and Note Quality across session types (i.e., baseline and treatment). All three students significantly improved on their ability to compose accurate oral reports and generate more high-quality notes about the topic after participating in the intervention. Participants also completed an expository oral reporting task about a different expository content area at pre-/post-treatment. This semi-standardized activity allows for comparisons of oral report performance to typically developing peers of the same age. Though a pre-/post-treatment test is not common in a single-case design like this one, this test allowed the researcher to examine whether learned note-taking and oral reporting skills were used independently by the students in a different expository content area than was taught in treatment. All three students made significant gains in note-taking and oral reporting at post-test when compared to their independent pre-test performance. The perceived importance of the intervention and delivery mode was also examined through social validity questionnaires. Participants, parents, and speech-language pathologists answered social validity questions about the intervention and study strategies for adolescents at pre- and post-test. Responses for all three groups indicated that the intervention was viewed as meaningful. Participants reported that they had learned strategies that they could apply independently in the high school setting. The participants also answered questions about the telepractice delivery mode, with most responses indicating that it was viewed as a positive experience. This study provides evidence for the use of Sketch and Speak intervention with older students and lays the groundwork for future studies with this population. This study also contributes to the literature base on telepractice service delivery for intervention, which is important as this delivery style has become more popular after the onset of COVID-19

When Leaders Surrender Their Divine Lineage: The Loss of Cosmic Connection Between Maya Local Lords and Their Supernatural Deities

The Maya who lived during the Classic Period (200 CE to 900 CE) went through many changes in their daily lives. In the Late Classic Period (600 to 900 CE), social, political and economic stressors caused even more change to their routines, leading to the “collapse” around 800-900 CE. Current hypotheses for this collapse included warfare, environmental factors, human degradation of landscapes, as well as internal and external influences. I hypothesize that in the Early Classic (200 to 600 CE), rulership of local communities by Maya lords, or ajawob, related mainly to their connection to a pantheon of supernatural deities, which led to the ajawob being considered as divine beings. However, this divinity changed over time as the ajawob went from performing rituals and duties on behalf of the people to seeking to increase their power, not through a connection to deities but rather through connections to deeply established, powerful lineages. To examine this hypothesis, I use geospatial analysis to trace ajaw names through time in order to indentify changes in use of terms, titles and names based on location. Additionally, I delve into terms used during the Classic period in the hieroglyphic records, specifically how the terms k’uhul ixik and k’uhul ajaw­—terms that were applied only after death—went out of vogue in exchange for k’ujul (location) ajaw, a title that was self-applied in almost every application. Advisor: Heather Richards-Rissett

An Analysis of national average car rental rates and economic indicators

Travel suppliers have depended largely on business travel as their main source of business and profit because it is less price conscious and finicky compared to the pleasure travel market. The past recession has caused corporations to scale-down by drastically reducing business related travel; therefore, it is understood, as a majority, that the condition of the economy usually dictates future business. Car rental companies are a significant part of the travel supplier industry and it is wondered if the fluctuations in car rental rates are a direct reflection of the rise and fall of the economy also. The study will use four key economic indicators (housing starts, retail sales, car sales and unemployment) as a direct reflection of the economy. Car rental rates will then be added to notice any correlation between the two

A Study of the Effects of Body Image Education on Body Image in Adults Aged 60 and Older

Body image has been addressed through weight loss, but little research has been done that addresses accepting one\u27 s body. Even less research has been done on the body image concerns of older adults. Adults over age 60 who live in Arizona and spend their summers in Logan, Utah, participated in a body image education at Utah State University. The Body Esteem Scale and the Inventory of Positive Psychological Attitudes were used to measure the effect of the course on the participants. Older adults on average scored as high or higher than did younger older adults on both measurements. Body image and psychological attitudes were found to correlate. However, the body image course did not produce significant improvement in the body image or psychological attitudes of participants. This may be due to older adults evaluating their body image by function rather than appearance or because body image is disregarded as a component of self-esteem. The demographic characteristics of age, gender, and body size were found to have no impact on body image or psychological attitudes. This may be due to a small sample size, the unique population, and a short-term intervention. Further research on the importance of body image to older adults who are less healthy--possibly in a care setting--may provide information on the changeability and value of body image in older adults

When Leaders Surrender Their Divine Lineage: The Loss of Cosmic Connection Between Maya Local Lords and Their Supernatural Deities

The Maya who lived during the Classic Period (200 CE to 900 CE) went through many changes in their daily lives. In the Late Classic Period (600 to 900 CE), social, political and economic stressors caused even more change to their routines, leading to the “collapse” around 800-900 CE. Current hypotheses for this collapse included warfare, environmental factors, human degradation of landscapes, as well as internal and external influences. I hypothesize that in the Early Classic (200 to 600 CE), rulership of local communities by Maya lords, or ajawob, related mainly to their connection to a pantheon of supernatural deities, which led to the ajawob being considered as divine beings. However, this divinity changed over time as the ajawob went from performing rituals and duties on behalf of the people to seeking to increase their power, not through a connection to deities but rather through connections to deeply established, powerful lineages. To examine this hypothesis, I use geospatial analysis to trace ajaw names through time in order to indentify changes in use of terms, titles and names based on location. Additionally, I delve into terms used during the Classic period in the hieroglyphic records, specifically how the terms k’uhul ixik and k’uhul ajaw­—terms that were applied only after death—went out of vogue in exchange for k’ujul (location) ajaw, a title that was self-applied in almost every application. Advisor: Heather Richards-Rissett

Social Support, Parent-Child Communication And Reactions To Pediatric Cancer Medical Procedures

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between social support, parent-child communication during pediatric cancer treatment-related medical procedures, and parent and child reactions to these procedures. Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in children (ACS, 2012) and children and their parents both report that cancer-related medical procedures are worse than the disease itself (Hedstrom et al., 2003). Social support may serve as a buffer against parent and child negative responses to treatment. One hundred and fifteen families were included in the analysis from two pediatric oncology treatment centers. Self-report questionnaire data and observational coding of video-recorded interactions in which a child experienced a cancer-related medical procedure were utilized. OLS and logistic regression models were employed for hypothesis testing. Four measures of social support were tested to predict eight measures of parent and child reactions to treatment, including parent anxiety before the procedure, parent personal distress and empathic concern before the procedure, parent positive and negative emotions after the procedure, parent and child procedure-related distress and child cooperation during the procedure. Multiple coders rated child distress and cooperation. Various types of social support predicted parent and child reactions to treatment. Parents who had more situational social support, collected the day of a treatment procedure, had more empathic concern before the procedure and more positive affect after the procedure. Parents who had more social support associated with the clinic visit had more positive affect and had children who were more cooperative during the procedure. The more sources of social support a parent reported the lower their, and their child\u27s, procedure-related distress. Parent social support is important in the pediatric cancer medical procedure context. Children with cancer, and their parents, would benefit from increased social support resources, which could improve long-term psychosocial functioning for both children in treatment for cancer and their parents

Quantitative microscopy of the Drosophila ovary shows multiple niche signals specify progenitor cell fate.

Adult stem cells commonly give rise to transit-amplifying progenitors, whose progeny differentiate into distinct cell types. It is unclear if stem cell niche signals coordinate fate decisions within the progenitor pool. Here we use quantitative analysis of Wnt, Hh, and Notch signalling reporters and the cell fate markers Eyes Absent (Eya) and Castor (Cas) to study the effects of hyper-activation and loss of niche signals on progenitor development in the Drosophila ovary. Follicle stem cell (FSC) progeny adopt distinct polar, stalk, and main body cell fates. We show that Wnt signalling transiently inhibits expression of the main body cell fate determinant Eya, and Wnt hyperactivity strongly biases cells towards polar and stalk fates. Hh signalling independently controls the proliferation to differentiation transition. Notch is permissive but not instructive for differentiation of multiple cell types. These findings reveal that multiple niche signals coordinate cell fates and differentiation of progenitor cells