Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Relationships In The Flash Pilot Study For Stride, Mathew R. Adams, Katrina J. Jackson, Andrew J. Zbin

Statistics

No abstract provided.

Statistical Analysis Of Texas Holdem Poker, Daniel Bragonier

Statistics

Gathered lifetime online Poker data for Mike Linn. Attempted to analyze data to obtain information to maximize profit. Techniques included Univariate Analysis, Regression analysis, Anova analysis, Logistic Regression, and outlier Analysis. After the analysis, nothing of supreme importance or sustenance was found. Encountered issues with too much power. Results lead to plenty of statistical significance, but little practical significance. Results showed that the data did not provide all the answers that were being sought after, but there was some value in examining the data in a strict statistical manner.

Exact Solutions For Wind-Driven Coastal Upwelling And Downwelling Over Sloping Bathymetry, Dana Lynn Duke, Paul Derek Sinz

Mathematics

The dynamics of wind-driven coastal upwelling and downwelling are studied using a simplified dynamical model. Exact solutions are examined as a function of time and over a family of sloping bathymetries. Assumptions in the two-dimensional model include a frictionless ocean interior below the surface Ekman layer, and no alongshore dependence of the variables; however, dependence in the cross-shore and vertical directions is retained. Additionally, density and alongshore momentum are advected by the cross-shore velocity in order to maintain thermal wind. The time-dependent initial-value problem is solved with constant initial stratification and no initial alongshore flow. An alongshore pressure gradient is …

Poisonous Rangeland Plants In San Luis Obispo County, Sara Litten, Amanda Ou

Animal Science

Poisonous Rangeland Plants in San Luis Obispo County is a comprehensive educational guide to rangeland plants that are toxic to domestic livestock. This guide begins with an exploration of how the biological systems are affected by the poisonous plant toxins. The biochemistry behind these toxins is included in the discussion. Next, reference material for fourteen plants that inhabit San Luis Obispo County is provided. This information includes specific toxins found in poisonous plants, affected animals, symptoms of poisoning, stages of growth, lethal dose, and distribution of the plant in California. This section of the guide is filled with helpful photos …

Fire: Ecology & Prevention, Justin R. Frey

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Variations In Vulnerability To Climate Change In Southeast Asia, Kelsey Margaret Allard

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Agriculture: A Time For Education, Kortnie Millhouse

Agricultural Education and Communication

This study used a fifteen-question survey to identify the articulation between education of water quality practices and the willingness to implement sustainable water quality techniques on farmland according to twenty-five agricultural operations residing on the Central Coast. Questions one through eight asked respondents to indicate their agreement or disagreement with various water quality assessment tools. Questions nine through twelve asked respondents to personally rate their operation’s level of water quality management on a scale from one to ten. Questions thirteen through fifteen were open-ended questions to generate responses about demographics. Consensus was reached that the higher the level of education …

Employee Time Scheduling, Mark Peter Smith

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Small business managers face the common problem of employee time scheduling. There is a solution to this problem in the form of an application called Lemming Scheduler. Lemming Scheduler is a Java based employee time scheduling program. Its features include a desktop based application that stores employee and business information as well as a web interface for employees to view schedules and update availability. The desktop application uses employee and shift information to automatically generate schedules. The generated schedules are viewable by employees outside of work by way of the web interface. Lemming Scheduler provides a light weight interface for …

The Applications And Limitations Of Printable Batteries, Matthew Delmanowski

Graphic Communication

This study focuses on the potential applications for printed batteries and how they could affect the printing industry. It also analyzes the main problems associated with manufacturing this technology and what needs to be done to overcome these issues. To find the answers to these questions, two methods of research were used. The first was through the elite and specialized interviewing of Dr. Scott Williams of Rochester Institute of Technology and Professor Nancy Cullins from Cal Poly. The second form of research was a common, yet useful, method called secondary research. This entailed looking at recent written research papers about …

Optical Coherence: Recreation Of The Experiment Of Thompson And Wolf, David Collins

Physics

The purpose of our experiment is to recreate the experiment done by Thompson and Wolf in 1957 on the measurement of optical coherence. What is novel about our approach is that it allows one to view the effects of source size on optical spatial coherence in real time.

Design And Construction Of A Thermal Diffusion Cloud Chamber, Alexander Donoghue

Physics

This paper will cover the theory behind a thermal diffusion cloud chamber. In addition to that it will cover the process, thought and material used to construct two different cloud chambers. It will also discuss the effects of materials used in each chamber on the working of the chamber.

Determining Pulsation Period For An Rr Lyrae Star, Leah M. Fabrizio

Physics

No abstract provided.

Cryogenic Refrigeration For Quantum Voltage Standards, Jeffrey Power

Physics

Currently the world maintains the voltage standard using a Josephson junction which makes use of the properties of superconductors and quantum tunneling. Current technology requires liquid He to cool the Josephson junctions to ~4 K to allow them to function as superconductors. He (l) is expensive and price is geographically dependent. Here we investigated using a cryocooler, modeled after a Gifford-McMahon Refrigerator, that could run on 120V (or a standard outlet) and used gaseous He as the working fluid –a less geographically dependent and inexpensive alternative to He (l). We found that indeed a standard outlet gaseous He compressor could …

Survey Of Meteorite Samples For 92nb, 98tc, And 60fe Using Gamma Ray Spectroscopy, Robert Maxwell

Physics

The focus of this senior project was the use of gamma ray spectroscopy to survey meteorite samples for 92Nb, 98Tc, and 60Fe. The presence of measurable amounts of 26Al (half-life 717,000 years) in meteorites leads astrophysists to believe that 92Nb, 98Tc, and 60Fe should also be present in detectable amounts, though they have not yet been conclusively found. Since the isotopes that were looked for in this senior project are not long lived in comparison to the age of the solar system, their presumed presence indicates that they are continuously being made in outer space and deposited on space objects.

Investigation Of Track-Cluster Matching Vs Track-Cell Matching In The Alice Detector At Cern, Kevin Coulombe

Physics

The ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) Experiment is a detector that is one of four stationed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The goal of ALICE is to investigate the properties of the quark-gluon plasma, a new form of matter which only existed during the first microsecond of the Universe. ALICE measures the aftermath of the collision of two lead ions. Some information detected is the trajectory of the particles traveling through the tracking detectors and energy deposited in the calorimeters. Both the tracks and energy are required to determine the identities of the various particles as they travel …

Analysis Of The Blazar 1es1218+30.4, Timothy Wolf

Physics

I analyzed the Blazar 1ES1218+30.4 in the high energy spectrum with VERITAS telescope data. The analysis used improved the energy spectrum obtained for the blazar from a maximum of 2.49 TeV to 3.85 TeV. The flux for this point is greater than the previous fit equation predicts, indicating a possible shoulder in the EBL, or Extragalactic Background Light.

Experiments On De Vries Liquid Crystals: A Software Approach, Austin Havens

Physics

This paper describes two programs I developed to facilitate the study of liquid crystals. The first program is a graphical user interface to increase the accuracy of the birefringence measurements , which relates to their orientational order, by using a camera. The second program was designed to help study the effects of time varying fields on liquid crystals by matching data from a recorded video to oscilloscope data in order to attach data from image analysis to the voltage applied to the cell.

Study Of Accretion Effects Of Transients In Lmxb System, Quentin Lamicq

Physics

Neutron stars are intriguing stellar laboratories that are very exciting to study due to the presence of matter in an extreme state. The luminosity of some neutron star transients in low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) systems is known to have quiescent intervals that may be affected by the rate and duration of accretion from the companion star onto the neutron star. We refined a model of the luminosity of the neutron star to allow for possibility that the accretion rate declines at a steady rate until it reaches zero. After a neutron star goes through an outburst, the quiescent period …

Resistance Of The Superconducting Material Ybco, Christopher Safranski

Physics

No abstract provided.

Identification Of Bottom Quark Jets In Pb+Pb Collisions In Alice At The Lhc, Brandon Boswell

Physics

In the near future, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will begin colliding lead ions together with energies high enough to produce a state of matter known as the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Simulations have shown that Bottom-quark-jets (B-jets) are expected to be produced in these collisions, and that these B-jets provide a useful probe into the nature of the QGP. The ALICE detector (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the LHC is designed to study the nature of the QGP. In this paper we investigate the effect of requiring that an electron be inside observed jets and how this improves the …

The Usage Of Smartphones In The Calculation Of Relativistic Time Dilation Effects At Meager Velocities, Leland Gregory

Physics

The theories of special and general relativity postulate that events are not simultaneous for different observers, and that different observer's times tick at different rates depending on relative velocity and the magnitude of the gravitational field they are in. This project seeks to design a program for use with smartphones that will calculate this change in time, in real time, and keep track of the discrepancies in time experienced between the observer and a stationary point on the surface of the earth.

A New Technique For Detecting Cosmic Strings In The Cosmos Survey Using Shapelet Decomposition, Kevin A. James

Physics

The Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Program images collected as part of the Cosmic Evolution Survey were used to develop a new technique for identifying gravitational lensing events resulting from a less-massive cosmic string. By employing Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic strings embedded within the survey, galaxies were decomposed using Hermite Polynomial shapelets, and compared with the unaltered survey. An efficient set of cuts were determined for identifying a cosmic string in shapelet space. The sensitivity of the new methodology was found to be superior at detecting low-mass cosmic strings than previous methods.

Search For Dark Matter Annihilation In M5, Daniel Jackson

Physics

We analyzed the Messier 5 (M5) globular cluster for dark matter annihilation using data from VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) to improve the flux upper limit previously done by Michael McCutecheon. We used updated software and lower energy thresholds. VERITAS consists of four ground-based gamma-ray telescopes located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona. Thirty-five 20 minute observations of M5 from VERITAS are used in our analysis. The observations were collected from February to March in 2009, for a total exposure time of 10.63 hours. Gamma-rays from dark matter annihilation were not found,
but better …

Real-Time Visualizations Of Ocean Data Collected By The Norus Glider, Daniel M. Medina

Master's Theses

Scientific visualization computer applications generate visual representations of large and complex sets of science data. These types of applications allow scientists to gain greater knowledge and insight into their data. For example, the visualization of environmental data is of particular interest to biologists when trying to understand how complex variables interact. Modern robotics and sensors have expanded the ability to collect environmental data, thus, the size and variety of these data-sets have likewise grown. Oftentimes, the collected data are deposited into files and databases where they sit in their separate and unique formats. Without easy to use visualization tools, it …

Effects Of Recycled Water On Landscape Plants, Casey R. Miranda

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT EFFECTS OF RECYCLED WATER ON LANDSCAPE PLANTS Casey Ray Miranda Recycled water is water that has been previously used, has suffered a loss of quality, and has been properly treated for redistribution (Wu et al. 2001). The use of recycled water as an alternative to fresh water in the landscape can have positive and negative effects. Experimentation on 40 different plant species during a 32 week period (2 phases of 16 weeks), was conducted to analyze the effects of recycled water irrigation on the appearance of landscape plants. Each species of plant was planted into 10 individual number 2 …

A Comparison Of Lidar Generated Channel Features With Ground-Surveyed Channel Features In The Little Creek Watershed, Ryan M. Hilburn

Master's Theses

Detecting change in stream channel features over time is important in understanding channel morphology and the effects of both natural and anthropogenic influences. Channel features historically, and now currently, are being measured using a variety of ground survey techniques. These surveys require substantial time commitments and funding to complete. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is an airborne laser mapping technology that holds promise to provide an alternative to ground-based survey methods. For this study, ground surveys were used to verify the accuracy of data collected using airborne LiDAR. Fifty nine cross-sectional profiles were surveyed in the Little Creek watershed at …

Reducing Cluster Power Consumption By Dynamically Suspending Idle Nodes, Brian Michael Oppenheim

Master's Theses

Close to 1% of the world's electricity is consumed by computer servers. Given that the increased use of electricity raises costs and damages the environment, optimizing the world's computing infrastructure for power consumption is worthwhile. This thesis is one attempt at such an optimization. In particular, I began by building a cluster of 6 Intel Atom based low-power nodes to perform work analogous to data center clusters. Then, I installed a version of Hadoop modified with a novel power management system on the cluster. The power management system uses different algorithms to determine when to turn off idle nodes in …

Remediation Of Soil Hydrophobicity On A Coastal Usga Sand-Based Golf Green, Troy David Thompson

Master's Theses

Managing soil hydrophobicity caused by localized dry spots (LDS) on sand based golf greens has become one of the greatest challenges for golf course superintendents and managers, especially as water restrictions intensify. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of thirteen soil surfactants in eliminating LDS and in maximizing root zone soil moisture on a sand based USGA golf green located on the California Central Coast. Potential water repellency of air dried cores (measured utilizing the water droplet penetration time (WDPT) method), phytotoxicity, and climate were analyzed during two experimental trials. Phytotoxicity data was collected for Trial …

Influences Of Environmental Education Programs On The Participant's Affinity For Nature, Justin Alan Schmillen

Master's Theses

This study was conducted to determine the change, and the factors influencing the change, in the participant’s affinity for nature resulting from an environmental education experience. In addition, this study also examined the change and factors of change in aspects of the participant’s affinity for nature that directly relate to marine and coastal resources and environments. An adapted version of the Affinity for Nature scale, an outcome measuring instrument used by the American Camp Association was used to collect data from participants (n=529) at Rancho El Chorro Outdoor School and Camp Ocean Pines, whose experience included an overnight component and …

Water Conservation For The County Of San Luis Obispo, Dimitri Theodore Antoniou

Master's Theses

This study is an academic research project completed to satisfy the California Polytechnic Master Thesis Requirement for the Master Degree of City and Regional Planning in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

The County of San Luis Obispo Planning and Building Department is the client for this professional project. The project was requested by the County of San Luis Obispo to assist in its water conservation efforts and to help achieve a 20 percent per capita reduction of water use by the year 2020.

The project consists of two documents: A Handbook of Water Conservation Technologies and Practices (Handbook) …