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Effects Of Anthropogenic Noise On The Provisioning Behavior Of Western Bluebirds And Artificial Light At Night On Nestling Development, Kerstin H. Ozkan

Master's Theses

Sensory environments are rapidly changing due to increased human activity in urban and non-urban areas alike. For instance, background sounds can interfere with parent-offspring communication and mask cues reflective of predation risk, resulting in elevated vigilance at the cost of provisioning. In chapter 1, we studied nestling provisioning behavior among Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) in response to short-term (1 hr) and long-term (continuous exposure throughout nesting period) noise exposure. Provisioning rates were lower at nests exposed to short-term experimental traffic noise compared to exposure to ambient background sounds. Trial order strongly influenced provisioning behavior, with the decline in …

Design And Test The Effectiveness Of Interpretive Signs Using Eye Tracking And Biometric Data, Hadara Gordon, Wendy Miyazaki

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Recreational trails on forested lands should satisfy the needs of recreationists, safeguard important habitats, and maintain the natural environment (Kortenkamp et al., 2021). Appropriate management is critical because of the increasing number of visitors. Signs are a cost-effective method to reduce the negative impacts on visitors and enhance visitor experiences (Brown et al., 2010). This research aimed to investigate how visitors pay attention to signs, view the trail surrounded by trees and behave in a natural space.

Automated Tree Mortality Detection Using Ubiquitously Available Public Data, Michael T. Huggins

Master's Theses

Understanding the dynamic interplay between fire severity, topography, and tree mortality, is crucial for predicting future forest dynamics and enhancing resilience against climate change-induced wildfire regimes. This thesis develops a multi-sensor approach for automated estimation of tree mortality, then applies it to examine trends in tree mortality over a six-year period across a fire affected study site in the Trinity River basin in Northern California. The Random Forest model uses publicly available USGS 3D Elevation Program Lidar (3DEP) and NAIP imagery as inputs and is likely to be easily adaptable to other landscapes. The model had a Receiver Operating Characteristic …

Coralai: Emergent Ecosystems Of Neural Cellular Automata, Aidan A. Barbieux, Aidan A. Barbieux

Master's Theses

Artificial intelligence has traditionally been approached through centralized architectures and optimization of specific metrics on large datasets. However, the frontiers of fields spanning cognitive science, biology, physics, and computer science suggest that intelligence is better understood as a multi-scale, decentralized, emergent phenomenon. As such, scaling up approaches that mirror the natural world may be one of the next big advances in AI. This thesis presents Coralai, a framework for efficiently simulating the emergence of diverse artificial life ecosystems integrated with modular physics. The key innovations of Coralai include: 1) Hosting diverse Neural Cellular Automata organisms in the same simulation that …

Deep Ocean Vehicle Applications And Modifications, Nichole "Nikki" T. Arm

Master's Theses

This project had two primary goals: (1) to explore opportunities to further a deep-ocean vehicle’s reach using alternative pressure spheres, and (2) to implement an existing deep-ocean vehicle (lander) in active scientific research.

I gained a greater understanding of the limitations and design choices made for existing pressure spheres using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). My simplified FEA model predicted sphere failure for the existing 30% Fiber Glass 70% Nylon injection molded spheres at an external pressure of 3,954psi or 2,690m ocean-depth (only a 7.38% error compared to the tested minimum failure depth), so I determined it a valid model. I …

Evaluation Of Facilitation On Translocation Outcomes For San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel In The Carrizo Plain, California, Patrick R. Anderson

Master's Theses

In arid and semi-arid environments, burrowing mammals play a key role in increasing landscape heterogeneity through facilitative species interactions. The loss of burrowing mammal populations can consequently lead to negative effects cascading through the ecosystem. It is critical to understand these facilitative interactions for conservation and management. Understanding facilitative interactions may improve wildlife management tools, like translocation, which is often not very successful. To investigate the importance of burrow facilitation on San Joaquin antelope squirrel (Ammospermophilus nelsoni; SJAS) translocation success, I designed a natural experiment with a burrowing facilitator, the giant kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ingens; GKR). I …

Using Noninvasive Calibrated Cuff Plethysmography To Observe The Effects Of Cold-Water Immersion On Arterial Compliance, Rita M. Grigorian

Master's Theses

As the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases continues to exponentially grow in populations across the globe, the necessity of determining underlying factors, effective methods of diagnoses, and universally available preventive measures also grows. Early detection of endothelial dysfunction, a proven precursor of cardiovascular diseases, can be extremely impactful in encouraging preventative measures and early intervention before medical conditions become chronic. In recent years, ice plunging, a form of cryotherapy involving full body immersion in cold water, has gained popularity within circles of fitness and health practitioners, gaining the interest of people of all backgrounds. Certain parallels observed between the human physiological …

Driscoll’S Water-Use Efficiency (Wue) Strawberry Breeding Trial, Aidan Inoue

Plant Sciences

California’s water supply is seeing stress and growers are increasingly under pressure to lower their water use. While reducing irrigation to strawberry plants can be used to raise sugars (°bx), research on the impact of deficit irrigation on plant growth, fruit yield and quality are not yet quantified. The purpose of this experiment is to observe the effects of a ~50% deficit irrigation treatment on tabletop strawberry plants where drainage measurements and plant absorption can be recorded. Results indicate that plant vigor and total marketable yield are predominantly treatment dependent whereas fruit characteristics, including culls and berry size are reliant …

Fire Effects On Soil Organic Matter In The Creek Fire, Gracie E. Doolin

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Wildfires have increased in frequency and severity over the past few decades due to the increased concertation of CO2 emissions from anthropogenic influence. Soil carbon (C) sequestration has been identified as a climate change mitigation strategy; however, the influx of large-scale wildfires has accelerated landscape processes such as erosion, reducing soil aggradation, and soil C and nitrogen (N) protection. This trend is highlighted by the Creek Fire that occurred in September 2020 and burned 379,895 acres in the Sierra National Forest. This research is designed to close the knowledge gap regarding the impact of burn severity on soil organic matter …

Physical Treatments To Modify The Functionality Of Carrot Pomace And The Development Of An Enhanced Beef Patty, Jordan O.A Richards

Master's Theses

Approximately one-third of the global food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted somewhere along the food chain. Carrots are one of the most important and widely produced root vegetables grown worldwide; they are rich in many beneficial bioactive compounds such as dietary fiber and carotenoids. Every year, an estimated 29% of processed carrots are lost as waste. The U.S. is the 3^rd largest producer of carrots worldwide, 85% of which come from California. During carrot juice processing, up to 50% of the raw material remains as carrot pomace. Carrot pomace may contain up to 55% total dietary …

Mountain Lion Resource Selection In The California Central Coast: Modeling Habitat Suitability For A Large Carnivore In A Rapidly Changing Environment, Megan Elizabeth O'Connor

Master's Theses

Land use conversion toward agriculture such as orchards and vineyards can have severe negative impacts on habitat and wildlife, particularly large carnivores, globally through habitat fragmentation and loss. The mountain lion (Puma concolor) population in the California Central Coast is thought to provide “stepping-stone” connectivity between several severely genetically compromised coastal populations throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains and several mountain ranges in Southern California; however, the California Central Coast is one of the fastest-developing regions of California with little protection against future land use conversion. Conserving areas of and corridors between high-quality mountain lion habitat through conservation easements …

Mate Choice And Sexual Conflict In A Livebearing Fish, Julia C. Kasper

Master's Theses

Eavesdropping occurs when a receiver extracts information from an interaction without directly engaging with the signaler. Eavesdropping has been shown to be an effective way of evaluating the quality of potential mates and their abilities in male-male competition, without having to directly interact with them, thereby reducing energy costs and mating harassment. Girardinus metallicus is a livebearing poeciliid fish endemic to Cuba whose mating system is dominated by mating harassment in the form of sneak copulations, persistent displaying, and male-male aggression. G. metallicus has a male specific polymorphism in both melanin coloration and behavior. Males with melanin coloration are known …

Evaluation Of Potential Surrogates For Listeria Monocytogenes In Fresh Citrus-Specific Validation Studies, Kimiko Grace Casuga

Master's Theses

The FSMA Produce Safety Rule (PSR) requires citrus packers to more closely assess, manage, and monitor food safety risks. Although there have been no foodborne illness outbreaks and only one recall in fresh citrus, the risk of pathogens coming in on the fruit and cross contamination during washing still exists. Packhouses have dynamic washing systems and in-plant validations may be the only way to demonstrate compliance with the PSR. In-plant validations use surrogates in place of pathogens, and none have been identified or validated for citrus. The aim of this research was to identify a surrogate for use in fresh …

Effects Of Intertidal Position On The Response To Oxygen And Desiccation Stress In The Common Acorn Barnacle, Balanus Glandula, Megan M. Dotterweich

Master's Theses

Sessile invertebrates in the rocky intertidal experience intermittent periods of air exposure due to tidal flux, presenting risks of temperature extremes, hypoxia, nutrient limitation, and most dangerously, desiccation. Microscale variation in severity and frequency of these risks is widely dependent on vertical position within the intertidal zone. Common acorn barnacles (Balanus glandula) have a wide vertical distribution in the intertidal, creating large differences in microhabitat between the highest and lowest individuals in the population. This study set out to explore whether tidal position dependent differences exist in the response to oxygen and desiccation stress in B. glandula. …

Food For Thought: The Effects Of Feeding On Neurogenesis In The Ball Python, Python Regius, Hannah F. Bow

Master's Theses

Pythons are a well-studied model of postprandial physiological plasticity. Consuming a meal has been shown by past work to evoke a suite of physiological changes in pythons and elicit one of the largest documented increases in post-feeding metabolic rates relative to resting values. However, little is known about how this plasticity manifests in the brains of ball pythons, Python regius. Previous work using the cell-birth marker 5-bromo-12’-deoxyuridine (BrdU) has shown that cell proliferation in the python brain increases six days following meal consumption. This study aimed to confirm these findings and build on them in the long term by …

Predicting Location And Training Effectiveness (Plate), Erik Rolf Bruenner

Master's Theses

Abstract Predicting Location and Training Effectiveness (PLATE)
Erik Bruenner

Physical activity and exercise have been shown to have an enormous impact on many areas of human health and can reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. In order to better understand how exercise may affect the body, current kinesiology studies are designed to track human movements over large intervals of time. Procedures used in these studies provide a way for researchers to quantify an individual’s activity level over time, along with tracking various types of activities that individuals may engage in. Movement data of research subjects is often collected through …

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Hydric Physiology Of Lizards, Savannah Weaver

Master's Theses

Chapter 1: Animals can respond to extreme climate by behaviorally avoiding it, or by physiologically coping with it. We understand behavioral thermoregulation and physiological thermal tolerances, but water balance has largely been neglected. Climate change includes both global warming and changes in precipitation regimes, so improving our understanding of organismal water balance is increasingly urgent. We assessed the hydric physiology of endangered Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizards (Gambelia sila) by measuring cutaneous evaporative water loss (CEWL), plasma osmolality, body mass, and body condition throughout their active season. On average, G. sila had low CEWL that is likely desert-adaptive, and high …

Reducing Scope 3 Emissions By Investing In Regenerative Agriculture In Supply Chains, Stephanie Cain

Master's Theses

The agricultural industry has an opportunity to shift to a more sustainable practice that helps restore vital topsoil, improve water quality, reduce environmental impact, and sequester atmospheric carbon into the vast soil carbon pool. However, to implement these practices at considerable scale, agricultural producers require access to resources and capital they rarely have and can be difficult to acquire. As a company, investing in regenerative agriculture in supply chains can lead to reduced Scope 3 emissions, more resilient supply chains, and better marketability as an investment fund, an employer, and a brand. Insetting regenerative agriculture can protect supply chains against …

Southern Sea Otter (Enhydra Lutris Nereis) Fur Morphology, Thermal Function, And Buoyancy Across Ontogeny, Kate Riordan

Master's Theses

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) have the densest fur of any animal, and the hairs function to trap a layer of air that is used for insulation. When a sea otter is born, it has a natal pelage (baby fur), and sea otters eventually molt that fur and replace it with a pelt resembling the adult fur. Sea otter fur is composed of 3 types of hairs: underhairs, intermediate hairs, and guard hairs. Sea otters are more susceptible to the negative effects of oiling from oil spills compared to other marine mammal species because they solely rely on fur …

Development Of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Knock Out Protocol For Drug Substance Assay Development, Julia C. Hanna

Master's Theses

Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) is a rare X-linked primary immunodeficiency affecting approximately 1 in 100,000 live XY births in North America and is caused by a mutation to the WAS gene which is expressed across hematopoietic lineages. The WAS protein (WASp) plays a role in regulating actin polymerization. On a cellular level, there are a variety of effects of a lack of WASp or expression of a dysfunctional WASp protein for patients including issues with migration, adhesion, chemotactic response, phagocytosis, activation, and proliferation across different cell types in addition to reduced platelet size and output. This can lead to several systematic …

Learning Documentary Film Production By Doing, Erin Lucille Grasty

Journalism

No abstract provided.

Analysis And Installation Of A Demonstration Agroforestry Orchard For Californian Mediterranean Plant Communities, Brandon Hurd

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Climate-appropriate agroforestry can provide low-input food security and ecosystem services for local Californian Mediterranean climates, while conserving natural resources (e.g., water, nitrogen, etc.). This project showcases a variety of agroforestry methods for five common plant communities of California and other analogous Mediterranean climates at the CAFES Experimental Farm on the campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Plant community species and their ethnobotanical uses were analyzed to mimic and incorporate aspects of native flora. Agricultural plants were also characterized to represent each of the five selected plant communities. GIS was used to assess the project site for soil, slope, and …

The Perceptions And Effects Of Nutrition On Worker Health And Productivity In Construction, Matthew Scott Howell

Construction Management

Construction workers often have poor dietary habits due to poor nutrition education, lack of nutritious food options, and social stigma. These habits often lead to health problems like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease which can decrease productivity and put workers at risk of on-site injury. This preliminary study examines how nutrition impacts worker safety and productivity. A survey was distributed to six students involved in construction work for Cal Poly’s Residential Construction course. This survey identified their eating habits and inhibitors for healthy eating. Two meals, one with high nutritional value and one with low nutritional value, were given to …

Building Artificial Reefs From Recycled Construction Materials: A Feasibility Study, Nicholas H. Lew

Construction Management

Naturally occurring reefs are some of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems formed by jagged rocks tucked slightly below sea level. In recent years global warming began to pose a major threat to many reef habitats. Most relevant is the increase in surface seawater temperatures that cause coral to bleach, taking away major food sources for larger marine species. Researchers have combated this by deploying artificial reefs in substitution for naturally formed limestone rock formations in order to promote the expansion of coastal habitats. This project specifically aims to utilize construction waste towards the production of artificial reefs, effectively upcycling …

Psf Sampling In Fluorescence Image Deconvolution, Eric A. Inman

Master's Theses

All microscope imaging is largely affected by inherent resolution limitations because of out-of-focus light and diffraction effects. The traditional approach to restoring the image resolution is to use a deconvolution algorithm to “invert” the effect of convolving the volume with the point spread function. However, these algorithms fall short in several areas such as noise amplification and stopping criterion. In this paper, we try to reconstruct an explicit volumetric representation of the fluorescence density in the sample and fit a neural network to the target z-stack to properly minimize a reconstruction cost function for an optimal result. Additionally, we do …

Lichens Of Ultramafic Rocks: A Multidisciplinary Approach To Understanding The Ecology Of An Understudied Organism In A Well-Studied System, Michael Mulroy

Master's Theses

Lichens are among the most prominent and successful life forms of metal-rich habitats, including ultramafic rocks and soils; however, research on lichens of ultramafic habitats is limited, especially on the North American continent. A review of the published literature on lichens of ultramafic substrates in North America yielded a total of 437 lichen species reported from ultramafic rocks and soils. Lichen assemblages of ultramafic substrates vary in composition and are dominated by acidophytic (low pH preferring) taxa with a minor, but consistent, basiphytic (high pH preferring) component. Species lists from ultramafic habitats in different geographic regions varied widely, suggesting that …

Ectotherm Thermoregulation At Fine Scales: Novel Methods Reveal A Link Between The Spatial Distribution Of Temperature And Habitat Quality, Ian Axsom

Master's Theses

Investigating ecological questions at the scale of individual organisms is necessary to understand and predict the biological consequences of environmental conditions. For small organisms this can be challenging because we need tools with the appropriate accuracy and resolution to record and quantify their ecological interactions. Unfortunately, many of our existing tools are only appropriate for medium to large organisms or those that are wide ranging, inhibiting our ability to investigate the ecology of small organisms at fine scales.

In Chapter 1, I tested a novel workflow for recording animal movements at very fine spatial and temporal scales. The workflow combined …

Functionality Of The Gracilis Collateral Is Impaired Following Arteriogenesis And Cell Transplantation, Ada A. Tadeo

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral Arterial Disease involves narrowed arteries, reducing blood flow to limbs. Increasing blood flow to those extremities is possible by redirecting the blood to flow through natural bypasses (i.e. collateral arteries), which can enlarge via arteriogenesis to maintain blood supply once the prominent arteries have become occluded. This study aims to investigate how arteriogenesis affects collateral function, if myoblast transplantation can stimulate collateral growth, and how that in turn may affect collateral function. Femoral artery ligation was performed to mimic the blockage that occurs in patients with ischemic diseases on lean mice and mice with diet induced obesity (DIO). A …

Vermicompost Versus Traditional Compost Amendments Leads To Different Soil Health Outcomes In A Mediterranean Vineyard, Elizabeth L. Luck

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Compost application has become a common practice in vineyard management to increase soil and crop health, however, the environmental externalities such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from cropping systems that utilize organic fertilizers, such as compost, is uncertain. Vermicompost, which is compost created through the digestion of organic matter by earthworms, and its related ‘extract’ are commonly thought to provide more benefits for soil and crop health compared to standard compost. However, organic fertilizers such as vermicompost, vermicompost extract, and compost have not been compared in their effects on soil health in Mediterranean vineyards. In this two-year study, I assessed …

Post-Fire Erosion Following The Czu Lightning Complex Fire: Quantifying Hillslope Erosion And Providing Guidance Towards Improving Post-Fire Response, Matthew C. Crockett, Matthew Crockett

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

The size and severity of wildfires have increased in California during recent decades. This trend is highlighted through the CZU Lightning Complex fire of August 2020 which burned over 86,000 acres in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. The fire greatly impacted the Little Creek watershed, a roughly 1,300 acre watershed that exists largely within Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Swanton Pacific Ranch (SPR). The current trends of California’s increased wildfire regime are expected to continue, raising concerns regarding the direct and secondary effects on forest watersheds and the effectiveness of current post-fire erosion control management. Accelerated rates of erosion …