Stockpile volumes are monitored by their companies as the product (i.e., aggregate, soil) is moved in and out of the facilities to ensure minimal product loss. Companies are mandated to report product movement to the government to ensure that the aggregate and soil is going where it is supposed to go. Many tools are used to monitor stockpile volumes including truck scales (to weigh incoming and outgoing trucks), light detection and ranging (LiDAR), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) equipment, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry. These processes give a good estimate of stockpile volumes. Errors in these estimates typically come from transportation and natural degradation of the stockpile. Not much research has been done on the best practices when using UAV photogrammetry to find the volume of a stockpile. Most recent research is about specific situations for finding a stockpile volume and whether UAV photogrammetry is as good as traditional methods for finding stockpile's volume. This study focuses on the effect of the flight height, camera angle, and presence of ground control points (GCP) in processing on the final volume calculated. Six UAV flights were done for this study; three different flight heights and two different camera angles. Additionally, the UAV reconstructed models were run with and without the GCPs to give twelve reconstructed volumes to examine for statistically significant differences. A similar study was done by Tucci et. al\cite{Tucci2019} where they focused on only camera orientation and found that the camera orientation was not statistically significant. We found that the differences between if GCPs in processing or not and between each flight elevation was statistically insignificant. We found that the differences in camera orientation between nadir and oblique were statistically significant. These different results could be due to many variables including differences in the dataset, differences in the statistical analysis, or the difference in stockpile size. We recommend using a high flight elevation and oblique photos to develop an efficient, accurate model.

We study the relationship between subdivision rules, 3-dimensional manifolds, and circle packings. We find explicit subdivision rules for closed right-angled hyperbolic manifolds, a large family of hyperbolic manifolds with boundary, and all 3-manifolds of the E^3,H^2 x R, S^2 x R, SL_2(R), and S^3 geometries (up to finite covers). We define subdivision rules in all dimensions and find explicit subdivision rules for the n-dimensional torus as an example in each dimension. We define a graph and space at infinity for all subdivision rules, and use that to show that all subdivision rules for non-hyperbolic manifolds have mesh not going to 0. We provide an alternate proof of the Combinatorial Riemann Mapping Theorem using circle packings (although this has been done before). We provide a new definition of conformal for subdivision rules of unbounded valence, show that the subdivision rules for the Borromean rings complement are conformal and show that barycentric subdivision is almost conformal. Finally, we show that subdivision rules can be degenerate on a dense set, while still having convergent circle packings.

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are being used more frequently in space applications because of their reconfigurability and intensive processing capabilities. FPGAs in environments like space are susceptible to ionizing radiation which can cause Single Event Upsets (SEUs) in the FPGA's configuration memory. These upsets may cause the programmed user design on the FPGA to deviate from its normal behavior. Space missions cannot afford to allow important data processing applications to become corrupted due to these radiation upsets.Configuration scrubbing is an upset mitigation technique that detects and corrects upsets in an FPGA's configuration memory. Configuration scrubbing periodically monitors an FPGA's configuration memory utilizing mechanisms such as Error Correction Codes (ECCs), Cyclic Redundancy Checks (CRCs), a protected golden file, and partial reconfiguration to detect and correct upset memory bits. This work presents improved Xilinx 7-Series configuration scrubbing architectures that achieve minimal hardware footprints, competitive performance metrics, and robust detection and correction capabilities. The two principal scrubbing architectures presented in this work are the readback and hybrid scrubbers which detect and correct Single Bit Upsets (SBUs) and Multi-Bit Upsets (MBUs). Harnessing the performance advantages granted by the 7-Series internal Readback CRC scan, a hybrid scrubber built in software for the Zynq XZC07020 FPGA has been measured to correct SBUs in 8.024 ms, even-numbered MBUs in 13.38 ms, and odd-numbered MBUs in 21.40 ms. It can also perform a full readback scrub of the entire device in under two seconds. These scrubbing architectures were validated in radiation beam tests, where one of the architectures corrected MBUs as large as sixteen bits in a single frame.

The current research study is responding to recent findings wherein, Fischer et al. (2013) report a risk rate based on EAT-26 scores in the range of 9.2% to 10.8% at BYU in comparison to the 15% they found reported in the literature using samples from other college campuses. Risk rates based on BSQ scores were reported in the 27.2% to 31.1% range, which was on par with a risk rate of 28.7% reported at a comparable university (Fischer et al., 2013). Fischer et al. (2013) conclude that while body shape concerns were estimated to be equal to or lower than reports at other universities, the level of eating disorder risk was not what would have been expected based on the estimates of other universities of the correlations normally found between EAT-26 and BSQ scores. This qualitative study investigated the experiences of 14 women who were identified as exhibiting high body shape dissatisfaction as determined by the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) and did endorse having disordered eating attitudes or habits as determined by the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). The In-depth interviews and data analysis were conducted using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis method and aimed at exploring the experiences of these women and what they believe keeps them healthy. Seven themes emerged from the data: Control, Social, Spiritual, Priorities, Exposure to Information, Avoidance, and Food Relationship. The first four themes were further conceptualized as having both a positive, or protective, impact and a negative, or counterproductive, impact on the participants. These four themes contributed to the participants overall Self-concept. The latter three themes, although likely having the same dual potential conceptualization were less compatible with an overall model despite being themes that were emphasized in the transcripts. The theme Control was further conceptualized to depict how the positive/protective impact functioned through a perception of choice and empowerment and how the negative/counterproductive impact functioned through a perception of no choice and disempowerment. Each of these possibilities yielded two potential outcomes for the participants, (a) enforce desired behaviors; or (b) do not enforce desired behaviors. What appears to be most protective against allowing body dissatisfaction to lead to disordered eating attitudes and behaviors is having a sense of self that is accepted by both oneself and by others. Ultimately, the results are a first step in the exploration of protective factors for women with a risk of developing an eating disorder. The results provide potential implications for future research and hint at potential clinical uses, both of which are discussed.

Turbine engine efficiency modeling depends on many parameters related to fluid dynamics and heat transfer. Many of these parameters change dynamically once the engine enters service and begins to experience surface degradation. This thesis presents a validation of the design and operation of an accelerated testing facility for the study of foreign deposit layers typical to the operation of land-based gas turbines. It also reports on the use of this facility in an effort to characterize the change in thermal resistance on the surface of turbine blades as deposits accumulate. The facility was designed to produce turbine deposits in a 4-hour test that would simulate 10,000 hours of turbine operation. This is accomplished by matching the net foreign particulate throughput of an actual gas turbine. Flow Mach number, temperature and particulate impingement angle are also matched. Validation tests were conducted to model the ingestion of foreign particulate typically found in the urban environment. The majority of this particulate is ceramic in nature and smaller than 10µm in size, but varies in size up to 80µm. Deposits were formed for flow Mach number and temperature of 0.3 and 1150°C respectively, using air plasma sprayed (APS) thermal barrier coat (TBC) material coupons donated from industry. These conditions are typical of a modern, first stage nozzle. Investigations over a range of impingement angles yielded samples with deposit thicknesses from 50 to 200µm in 4-hour, accelerated-service simulations. Above a threshold temperature, deposit thickness was dependent primarily upon particle concentration. Test validation was achieved using direct comparison with deposits from service hardware. Deposit characteristics affecting blade heat transfer via convection and conduction were assessed. Surface topography analysis indicated that the surface structure of the generated deposits were similar to those found on actual turbine blades. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and x-ray spectroscopy analyses indicated that the deposit microstructures and chemical compositions were comparable to turbine blade deposit samples obtained from industry. A roadmap for the development of a theoretical model of thermal resistance using the SEM scan is presented. Thermal resistance experiments conducted with deposit samples indicate that a general decrease in thermal resistance occurs as the samples are exposed to operating conditions in the accelerated testing facility. This is likely due to sintering effects within the TBC dominating any thermal resistance increase arising from deposition. Recommendations for future research into the interaction between TBC sintering and deposit evolution are presented.

A lightweight, powerful, yet efficient quad-rotor platform was designed and constructed to obtain experimental results of completely autonomous control of a hovering micro-UAV using a complete on-board vision system. The on-board vision and control system is composed of a Helios FPGA board, an Autonomous Vehicle Toolkit daughterboard, and a Kestrel Autopilot. The resulting platform is referred to as the Helio-copter. An efficient algorithm to detect, correlate, and track features in a scene and estimate attitude information was implemented with a combination of hardware and software on the FPGA, and real-time performance was obtained. The algorithms implemented include a Harris feature detector, template matching feature correlator, RANSAC similarity-constrained homography, color segmentation, radial distortion correction, and an extended Kalman filter with a standard-deviation outlier rejection technique (SORT). This implementation was designed specifically for use as an on-board vision solution in determining movement of small unmanned air vehicles that have size, weight, and power limitations. Experimental results show the Helio-copter capable of maintaining level, stable flight within a 6 foot by 6 foot area for over 40 seconds without human intervention.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of instructional activities that take place before reading, during reading, and after reading in guided reading and shared reading routines in elementary school classrooms in Utah school districts. This project used extant data from classroom observations to answer questions about how the observed activities were used as part of guided and shared reading routines in second and third grades within the five school districts of the Brigham Young University-Public School Partnership. The results of this study showed that there were differences in how teachers implemented the before reading, during reading, and after reading activities for guided and shared reading. The average teacher devoted more time to instructional activities during the reading portion of guided or shared reading than to instructional activities used before reading or after reading as part of the guided reading or shared reading routines. Differences between frequencies for instructional activities done after reading in guided reading differed significantly between second and third grade classrooms in the study. This study determined that school districts in the study had significantly different frequencies for instructional activities implemented before, during, and after reading in guided reading. These significant results and the results of other comparisons were used to provide insights about the possible implications of this study.

The "Mark V" Holographic Video Monitor ("HoloMonitor") is a continuation of effort and accomplishments to produce a low-cost device capable of reproducing true full-color horizontal-parallax-only computer-generated holograms at typical video frame-rates. While other devices around the world may have greater capabilities, these devices are currently confined to laboratory settings due to their sheer complexity and expense. The aim of this project is to provide researchers and "tinkerers" with a device capable of recreating holographic effects in full color, respectable resolution, in real time, and at a comparatively low cost. The "Mark V" HoloMonitor is a closer representation of a consumer product than any other device of the MIT/BYU series of HoloMonitors. In this thesis, I discuss the complete design and construction of all of the optic (sans modulator) electronic subsystems that compose this device, along with explaining and providing working code needed to drive it in various modes of operation. The main objective of this thesis is to sufficiently instruct undergraduate and graduate colleagues so that they can replicate and build upon this work.

Concepts in optimal search theory have been used in human-based aerial search since World War II. This thesis addresses the technical and theoretical issues necessary to apply this crucial theory to search path planning for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAVs). A typical search often requires that more than one target be located. Accordingly, a method is presented to locate multiple targets in three dimensions, as well as to differentiate between them. However, significant error can be present when locating targets from an airborne platform, and the idea of target quality is also introduced as a way to describe the reliability of target estimates. Flight test results are presented to validate the target differentiation algorithm. In this test, five out of six targets as close as 6.1 m apart are located and differentiated with less than four meters of error. This flight test also provides color information that is useful in generating artificial target images and understanding the target detection probability. Image skew is then incorporated into the detection probability model, and a function is derived that predicts target detection as a function of distance. In order to measure the effectiveness of search algorithms with this model, the concept of a probability map is introduced. This map can be updated as the search progresses, and is stored on a probability grid containing nodes that keep track of the probable target locations and the probability of detection. Using this tool, a search width is developed for a given airborne agent. The search width is then used to derive optimal search performance based on a given probability map and SUAV. Finally, the concepts of efficiency and completeness are given specific definitions in the context of discrete search. These metrics are used to develop a search plan that focuses on efficiency, and one that focuses on completeness. Example simulations are used to illustrate the conditions under which each plan might be desirable, and a composite search strategy is presented that combines both plans.

The ability to gather and process information regarding the condition of forest fires is essential to cost-effective, safe, and efficient fire fighting. Advances in sensory and autopilot technology have made miniature unmanned aerial systems (UASs) an important tool in the acquisition of information. This thesis addresses some of the challenges faced when employing UASs for forest-fire perimeter surveillance; namely, perimeter tracking, cooperative perimeter surveillance, and path planning. Solutions to the first two issues are presented and a method for understanding path planning within the context of a forest-fire environment is demonstrated. Both simulation and hardware results are provided for each solution.