During wintertime temperature inversion episodes the concentrations of particulate air pollution, also defined as particulate matter (PM), in Utah’s Cache Valley have often been highest in the nation, with concentrations surpassing more populated and industrial areas. This has attracted much local and national attention to the area and its pollution. The Cache Valley has recently been declared to be in non-attainment of provisions of Federal law bringing to bear Federal regulatory attention as well. While there is epidemiological evidence indicating that PM is detrimental to public health, there is much less information indicating by which biological and molecular mechanisms PM can exert harm. This study was undertaken to better understand the mechanisms by which ambient PM collected in the Cache Valley can be harmful to human lung cells. Cache Valley PM was found to be mildly cytotoxic only at concentrations that were much greater than physiologically achievable, and such concentrations were difficult to obtain with the limited amounts of captured ambient PM. The limited cytotoxicity was despite apparent PM-induced pro-apoptotic signaling such as caspase-3 upregulation, and activation of caspase-12 and calpain. Cache Valley PM was found to be stressful to cells, triggering endoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response. Cache Valley PM was also found to be inflammogenic leading to activation of pro-inflammatory transcription factors, increases in the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, as well as the upregulation of the activating receptors of these cytokines. The proinflammatory effects and absence of apoptosis, despite pro-apoptotic signaling of the Cache Valley PM on human lung cells appeared to stem from increased activation of the central pro-growth protein Akt with subsequent inactivation of the tumor suppressor P-TEN. These findings have indicated novel mechanisms of PM-related cellular stress and inflammation contributing needed information on what may be underlying mechanisms of PM associcated illnesses.

Dispersed recreation management is a form of management that has emerged over the past century of outdoor recreation management on public lands in the United States. Techniques used in dispersed recreation management seek to disperse recreation use, recreational areas, and their impacts across landscapes and ecosystems or to concentrate such use to areas that remain undeveloped. This study is a mixed-methods, descriptive study of dispersed recreation management on national forest lands. In particular, this study focuses on United States Forest Service (USFS) management Concentrated Use Areas (CUAs) on Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (UWCNF), as identified in the 2003 Revised Forest Plan of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. A qualitative approach of inventorying past management actions, observing CUAs, and interviewing recreation managers and resource specialists on the UWCNF was used. The qualitative aspects of this study were also coupled with a quantitative analysis of Geographic Positioning System (GPS) based data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to better understand characteristics of CUAs and their management in dispersed recreation settings. Overall, this study draws many conclusions involving the definition of, and management and design solutions for CUAs. CUAs can be described as easily accessible, flat areas adjacent to roads, with good access to water, and shade. These areas are often used for camping of various types, with trailers and groups being a predominant use. ATVs and motorized use are also associated with these areas. Use is generally considered high and continual during the summer season, with sites often being used year after year by families and groups of friends. Loss of vegetation, soil compaction, and soil erosion are common impacts attributed to concentrated recreational use. Another finding was that recreation resource managers and resource specialists have similar views of what CUAs are and how they are managed. Management actions generally consist of both indirect and direct management actions focused on limiting environmental impacts caused by recreation uses. Management actions are conducted on both large and small scales within districts, and dispersed recreation protocol was found that called on management to reduce biophysical impacts. However, management techniques lack official targets and metrics for measuring the success of management. Design is also a component of CUA management. The design of CUAs generally consists of adapting user-created recreation areas into more structured and defined areas.

Fluvial and lacustrine sediments of great thickness accumulated in the intermountain basins of the western United States during Tertiary time. The Salt Lake group in northern Utah and parts of surrounding states is a conspicuous stratigraphic unit of these basins. The "beds of light color" in Morgan Valley in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah were named the "Salt Lake group" by Hayden (1869) because of similar occurrences in Salt Lake Valley and because he reasoned that the succession could be divided into formations. Similar rocks crop out in Ogden Valley, north of Morgan Valley, and in Cache Valley, Utah and Idaho. Cache Valley is bounded by the Wasatch and Malad Ranges to the west and the Bear River Range to the east (Fig. 1). It extends from the divide between Ogden and Cache valleys about 18 miles south of Los an. Utah. to Red Rock Pass. about 19 miles northwest of Preston. Idaho. The Bear River enters Cache Valley northeast of Preston. Idaho. and leaves through the Bear River Narrows west of Logan. Utah. at a point between the northern end of the Wasatch Range and the Malad Range. Red Rock Pass, northwest of Preston, Idaho, was the outlet of Lake Bonneville.

Modern processors use architecture like caches, branch predictors, and speculative execution in order to maximize computation throughput. For instance, recently accessed memory can be stored in a cache so that subsequent accesses take less time. Unfortunately microarchitecture-based side channel attacks can utilize this cache property to enable unauthorized memory accesses. The Spectre attack is a recent example of this attack. The Spectre attack is particularly dangerous because the vulnerabilities that it exploits are found in microprocessors used in billions of current systems. It involves the attacker inducing a victim’s process to speculatively execute code with a malicious input and store the recently accessed memory into the cache. This paper describes the previous microarchitecture side channel attacks. It then describes the three variants of the Spectre attack. It describes and evaluates proposed defenses against Spectre.

As the number of NUMA system's cache coherency protocols based on the IEEE Std. 1596-1992, Standard for Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) Specification increases, it is important to review this complex protocol to determine if the protocol can be enhanced in any way. This research provides two realizable extensions to the standard SCI cache protocol. Both of these extensions lie in the basic confines of the SCI architectures. The first extension is a simplification to the SCI protocol in the area of prepending to a sharing list. Depending if the cache line is marked "Fresh" or "Gone", the flow of events is distinctly different. The guaranteed forward progress extension is a simplification to the SCI protocol in this area; making the act of prepending to an existing sharing list independent of whether the line is in the "Fresh" or "Gone" state. In addition, this extension eliminates the need for SCI command, as well as distributes the resource requirements of supplying data of a shared line equally among all nodes of the sharing list. The second extension addresses the time to purge (or invalidate) an SCI sharing list. This extension provides a realizable solution that allows the node being invalidated to acknowledge the request prior to the completion of the invalidation while maintaining the memory consistency model of the processors of the system. The resulting cache protocol was developed and implemented for Sequent Computer System Inc. NUMA-Q system. The cache protocol was run on systems ranging from eight to sixty four processors and provided between 7% and 20% reduction in time to invalidate an SCI sharing list.

A groundwater model of Cache Valley was created using MODFLOW. Steady-state calibration of the model demonstrated that recharge to the lower confined aquifer may occur along the margin of the valley that borders the Wellsville Mountains and the Bear River Range. Steady-state calibration also showed that discharge from the unconfined aquifer may occur along the eastern and western margins of the valley in both the Utah and the Idaho portions of the valley. Two simulations were run with increased pumping of 3 5 cubic feet per second (1 cubic meter per second) from the principal aquifer. The first simulation was run with the average annual precipitation value of 1.2 feet per year (0.36 meters per year), while the second was run with a less than average annual precipitation value of 1 foot per year (0.3 meters per year). The first simulation produced very little change within the unconfined aquifer. The discharge from the groundwater system through springs, seepage to streams, evapotranspiration, and general head boundaries remained unchanged with the increase in discharge through pumping. This indicates that the two continuous, confining layers that blanket the valley may serve as a barrier to groundwater flow between the unconfined and lower confined aquifer. The increased pumping within the principal aquifer did not stimulate increased recharge along the western margin of the valley. This indicates that true steady-state conditions were not achieved in the amount of time that the model had indicated. During the second simulation, decreased recharge to the groundwater system through infiltration of precipitation caused a decrease in discharge from the groundwater system through seepage to streams, springs, evapotranspiration, and general head boundaries. The increased pumping within the principal aquifer also did not stimulate increased recharge along the western margin of the valley. As with the first simulation, this indicates that true steady-state conditions were not achieved in the amount of time that the model had indicated. A sensitivity analysis of the model concluded that the hydraulic conductivity of the two continuous, confining layers that blanket the valley proved to have a relatively substantial impact on the water levels in the confined aquifers. The sensitivity analysis also showed that altering the vertical hydraulic conductivity of the lower confined aquifer produced minimal head changes.

Hydraulic parameters of aquifers in Cache Valley were compiled from existing but largely unpublished data, from specific capacity data reported in well drillers' records, and from aquifer tests conducted for this study. A GIS database was also created to organize this information. A complete and thorough literature review was performed, which included obtaining unpublished aquifer test data from state and federal agencies, as well as reviewing Drinking Water Source Protection plans for each municipality in the valley. Well drillers' records were obtained from the Utah Division of Water Rights website and examined for pertinent information. Screened unit intervals from 1,314 well drillers' logs were databased and mapped. Transmissivity was estimated from specific capacity values obtained from 378 well drillers' records and keyed into a spatial database. Five pumping tests were also performed. Four of the tests were single-well tests using private domestic wells, and one was a multiple-well test using high-yield municipal wells owned and operated by Logan City. The sites selected for conducting the aquifer tests were the Stevenson well in Weston, Idaho in an unconfined alluvial aquifer; the Tomkinson well south of Newton, Utah in the confined gravels of western Cache Valley; the Henningsen well east of Paradise, Utah in the Salt Lake Formation; the Luthy well east of Cove, Utah in the Salt Lake Formation; and three Logan City, Utah wells in the principal aquifer. Drawdown data collected for each test provide clues regarding the surrounding geology, including the existence of a low permeability barrier and the possible presence of fractured material. The transmissivity and storativity of the principal aquifer, into which the Logan City wells are screened, have been estimated to be 300,000 square feet per day (ft2/day) and 0.000275, respectively. Drawdown curves from wells penetrating close to the East Cache fault display boundary effects. The GIS database shows that the principal aquifer underlies the east side of the valley between Smithfield and Hyrum, and has the highest density of wells, most of which are screened into confined unconsolidated gravels. The transmissivity is highest in the principal aquifer and decreases to the west, north and south of it.

The association of: flies with man has been recorded through many centuries. In nearly all of these records the association is one of discord rather than harmony. In the Book of Exodus, 8:24, in the King James version of the Old Testament, we can read, "...and there came grievous swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses; and in all the land of Egypt the land was corrupted by reason of the swarms of flies." Centuries later the "grievous swarms of flies" 'were associated with a particular disease by Mercurialis. In 1577 he expressed the belief that flies carried the "virus" of plague from those ill or dead of plague to the food of those not yet ill of plague (8).

The relative profitability of sugar beets and competitive crops were studied in Box Elder and Cache counties , Utah . Profitability ratios based on enterprise budget data and resource use requirements were used as a basis for comparison . Sugar beets was found to be more profitable than competing crops in returns per acre , in returns to water used and in returns to fixed investment and management. However, sugar beets was found to be less profitable than certain other crops in returns to operating capital and returns to labor . Also , on land rated low in productivity sugar beets was found to be less profitable than most competing crops . Linear programming techniques were used in studying the production response of sugar beets at various price levels . An aggregated supply curve was developed showing the acreage response in sugar beet production at varying sugar beet prices for the two county area . The price range over which sugar beet acreage was responsive ranged from $11 .70 per ton to a high of $16.70 per ton where the maximum acreage permitted in the model was attained .

This thesis presents the results of a geologic investigation of the Rendezvous Peak area, Cache and Box Elder Counties, Utah (Figure 1). The area lies between the Bear River Range on the east and the Northern Wasatch Mountains on the west (Figure 2). It is south of Cache Valley in which Logan, Utah, is located and north of Ogden Valley, east of the Wasatch Range near Ogden, Utah.