Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Linguistics and Special Languages. / Electronic thesis. Bibliography: leaves 80-82. Also available in print ed.

Thesis (Ed. S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-36).

From the Pioneer Company of 1847 to the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, approximately 60,000 Mormon pioneers made the journey from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. Although some years have received more attention, every footprint placed on the prairie is part of the epic pioneer story. This thesis examines the major challenges and characteristics of the 1848 Mormon pioneers crossing of the plains. The sacrifices and contributions of the 1848 pioneers are as significant to the legacy of the Mormon westward migration as any other year. In order to explore, develop, and explain the thesis statement, this work includes five chapters. Chapter I: Introduction provides the historical setting of the 1848 Mormon pioneers. Chapter II: The L.D.S migration of 1848 in historical context. Chapter III: The general characteristics of the 1848 Mormon migration. Chapter IV: Relief efforts. Chapter V: Conclusion. The primary evidence for this thesis comes from journals of the 1848 Mormon pioneers. This research has discovered that the 1848 pioneers had the largest company in Mormon pioneer history. It is also the only year that each member of the First Presidency led a pioneer company across the plains. The companies' immense size coupled with insufficient provisions and an unusually dry spring required sacrifice and cooperation. Topics researched include: route and distances traveled, role of women, expressions of devotion, livestock issues, Indian relations, sickness, injury, and death. The 1848 pioneers received significant relief from 1847 migrants, who returned to the trail to assist.

Purpose. Brigham Young is best remembered for his role in the colonization of the American West and as a religious leader. He was also involved with the creation of schools and the development of an educational system in Utah. The purpose of this study was to examine Brigham Young as an educational administrator and to explore Young's administrative style. The study was also to investigate the school system established during Young's administration and evaluate him as a school leader. Procedure. A working hypothesis and questions to consider were developed through preliminary research. Information, including much primary material, was then collected and examined with the hypothesis in mind. Sources were scrutinized for biases and analyzed to determine probable causes and effects of Young's decisions and of the events that occurred. After the materials were gathered and critically evaluated, questions weighed, and hypotheses established, the findings were interpreted and reported. Findings. Brigham Young cannot, by common standards, be considered an educational administrator. What Young attempted to do for education he did through his influence as Mormon Church President and as the first Territorial Governor of Utah. Young's administrative style was that of a servant-leader, with education as part of his stewardship. Although Young opposed public education, much was done in Utah during his era to build schools and create a program for education. Conclusions and recommendations. Young championed the building of schools and stressed the importance of education in the lives of young and old. Despite his opposition to a public school system, the people of Utah received more opportunity for education and the state was better prepared to receive public schooling because of Young's influence in the Utah Territory. A study might be done to determine how many of the Mormon schools became state-owned public schools. Other related topics that could prove interesting or valuable are examinations of the curriculum and values taught in Mormon schools and a study of how many Mormons were enrolled in non-Mormon schools and vice versa.

This thesis presents an interface for effectively teleoperating robots that combines an ecological display of range and video information with quickening based on dead-reckoning prediction. This display is built by viewing range and video information from a virtual camera trailing the robot. This is rendered in 3-D by using standard hardware acceleration and 3-D graphics software. Our studies demonstrate that this interface improves performance for most people, including those that do not have much previous experience with robotics. These studies involved 32 test subjects in a simulated environment and 8 in the real world. Subjects were required to drive the robot through several mazes while remembering a sequence of items. People took less time using the ecological interface and experienced fewer collisions, with a much lower workload as measured by joystick entropy. People preferred the interface over a standard interface with side-by-side range and video information and no prediction. Participants tended to rate the interface as more learn-able and more intuitive; participants also felt more confident in the robot's expected behavior.

The Rijndael encryption algorithm has recently been published as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), a Federal Information Processing Standard, and is being accepted by developers and designers as the algorithm of choice where encryption is required. Java is becoming the language of choice for E-Business applications, many of which require cryptography. The performance of any Java application is dependent on the compiler and virtual machine used to compile and interpret. Prior research has provided performance information for the Rijndael algorithm in Java for specific virtual machines. This research includes the development of a Rijndael implementation in Java. Using Java system calls, the performance of the Rijndael implementation is measured across fifteen compilers and fourteen virtual machines. Through analysis of these benchmarks, the Java performance of the Rijndael algorithm across compilers and virtual machines is produced.

Turnitin plagiarism-detection software was operating as a pilot program conducted by the Center for Teaching and Learning in Winter 2007 on the Brigham Young University (BYU) campus. A sample of 6 instructors and 79 student users participated in this evaluation. The evaluation findings show that Turnitin is compatible with the academic honesty environment created by BYU's Honor Code. Turnitin has been effective at detecting intentional and inadvertent plagiarism at BYU. It has also addressed the problem of multiple submissions of the same material. Recommendations are made for promoting Turnitin at the campus and department level. Training tools are proposed for instructors: a FAQ page, an online tutorial, and a set of guidelines for introducing Turnitin to a class.

As online learning enrollments rapidly increase, it is vital to explore effective course designs that deepen students' learning experiences. This multiple-case study explores four online courses at Brigham Young University–Idaho that include learning activities where students learned through Teach One Another activities. Teach One Another is similar to Reciprocal Peer Learning where students simultaneously learn and contribute to their peers' learning. Findings across the cases of this study show that Teach One Another activities in online courses encourage students to be accountable and motivated to complete individual course work as well as group assignments. As students learn to build trusting learning relationships, group activities may deepen students' learning experiences. This study discusses implications for online course designers, developers, and administrators who are interested in giving students opportunities to deepen their learning of the content and develop life skills such as accountability, responsibility, and trust.

The problem of this study was to investigate Brigham Young's recreational philosophy, views, practices and activities. This historical research was conducted and information gathered from Brigham Young's journals, the Manuscript History of Brigham Young, compilations of Brigham Young's discourses, books and articles written by his daughters, accounts written by those who were present when recreational events occurred, compilations of manuscripts and documents, and interpretations of various historians who interpreted events as they read them.The historical data collected indicated Brigham Young developed over a period of time a definite philosophy of recreation in regards to his personal life. He enjoyed not only large group gatherings where recreational events occurred but he enjoyed cultural refinement recreational pursuits as well.

This thesis explores the stories which revolve around folk legend Hugh Winder Nibley and what those stories mean to the people of Brigham Young University. Folklore reveals who we are and what is important to us. But, interestingly, folklore tends to reveal more about the person telling the story than about the subject of the story itself. People can't remember every story they hear. The ones they do remember are important to them. The stories are important because they fulfill basic needs of the teller. Such needs are a desire to look up to a hero, a need to fit in and belong to a group, a need to feel superior, a need to reinforce paradigms, a wish to instill others with values one believes in, a wish fulfillment, or a desire for entertainment. Nibley plays many roles for the people of BYU including hero, iconoclast, eccentric, spiritual guide, and defender of the faith. Whether remembering our group past or individual past, stories fill the functions of codifying what is acceptable behavior, releasing tension, illustrating an important point, mitigating the harshness of life, and providing a unifying link between people in a community. Stories are important. The Nibley stories I have collected demonstrate what BYU as a community feels deeply about.