Engineering Commons^™

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 57 Number 4, Fall 2016, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

3 - MISSION MATTERS

4 - THE BEST RUGBY TEAM EVER. By Sam Scott '96.

6 - QUESTIONS

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 57 Number 3, Summer 2016, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

26 - CAN’T THREAD A MOVING NEEDLE To tackle sexual assault on college campuses, a playwriting project comes to the screen. By Danae Stahlnecker ’15.

28 - MISSION CRITICAL When three students fell ill from meningitis-causing bacteria—which can be fatal—it meant the clock was ticking. And to get through this, it would take everybody’s help. By Harold Gutmann.

36 - “WHERE ARE THEY TAKING US?” A journal from the front lines of the Syrian refugee crisis in Greece. By Colleen Sinsky ’10.

40 - NO STRANGERS HERE Refugees, home, and work by Ameera Naguib ’16 from Jordan to Silicon Valley. …

El Alisal (Bernal) - Diseños, Glo No. 265, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

CañAda De La Carpenteria - Diseños, Glo No. 243, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

Cienega Del Gabilan - Diseños, Glo No. 243, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

El Pescadero (Jacks) - Diseños, Glo No. 280, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

Written Communication For Engineers, Marcella Reekie

Open Access Textbooks

This course packet seeks to develop the upper level engineering student’s sense of audience and purpose in a research-based context with workplace constraints. It requires the student to choose a technical topic of interest and research it to solve for a specific problem or to meet a typical industry need by way of several assignments: Unsolicited Research Proposal, Progress Report, Visual Aids, and Oral Presentation, all of which lead to the Formal Report. This approach readies students to write informatively and persuasively in the engineering workplace, providing excellent examples of each assignment contributed by former students whose Formal Reports have …

2016 - The Twenty-First Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Twenty-first Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 21, 2016. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Investigating The After-Effects Of Stochastic Resonance For Use In Laparoscopic Surgery, Muhammad S. Hamdan, Caroline G. L. Cao

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

Laparoscopic surgery is a modern surgical technique in which surgeons insert tools through small incisions in the abdomen to perform a surgical procedure.

Nondestructive Evaluation & Radar Imaging Using Terahertz Signals, D. Amal Mirando, Michael D. Higgins, Sonya Sokhey, Matthew Larson, Douglas T. Petkie

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

Nondestructive imaging is a method of examining a material without direct contact that additionally does not alter the properties of the material. The terahertz imaging system currently in development uses the principle of interferometry (a Michelson Interferometer) such that frequency modulated terahertz signals are split and directed to the object under study and a reference mirror; then the detector will acquire the intensity of the combined reflected signals that contains information about the objects in the path of the beam.

Synthesis Of Functionalized Peek Analogues Via “One-Pot” Synthesis, Zachary B. Ewing, Eric A. Fossum

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

Poly(arylene ether)s, PAEs

• High performance engineering thermoplastic materials

• Excellent mechanical properties and thermal stability

• Resistant to hydrolysis and oxidation

• Many prepared via nucleophilic aromatic substitution (NAS)

• Electron withdrawing groups (EWG) typically in para positions

• PAEs can also be synthesized with an EWG in the meta positions, creating easily functionalized systems, with no change in the backbone

City360: Visualizing Multimodal City Events For Decision Support, Vaikunth Sridharan, Tanvi Banerjee, Pramod Anantharam, Archana Sheshadri, Roopteja Muppalla, Amit P. Sheth, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

Cities are increasingly outfitted with sensors for monitoring various conditions such as traffic, weather, air quality, and infrastructure related issues. Such well outfitted cities are generating massive amounts of multi-modal data leading to daunting challenges in assimilating, visualizing, and making sense of this data by city authorities and citizens. We propose City360 to address these challenges and provide decision support to city authorities and citizens. We demonstrate the utility of our system through concrete use cases for San Francisco Bay area that utilize heterogeneous data from various open city data sources.

Comparing Network Centrality Measures Of Non-Traditional Students In An Introductory Physics Class, Emily N. Sandt, Adrienne L. Traxler

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

The goal of this research was to compare different models of network influence for students. Two research questions were composed: 1. How do common centrality measures compare when ranking students' network influence? 2. Do centrality values of non-traditional students show different trend than traditional students?

Finding Specific, Topic Related Information From A Sea Of Social Media Posts, Scott J. Duberstein, Daniel Asamoah, Derek Doran, Shu Z. Schiller

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

As social media continues to become an incredible mode of communication in daily life dealing with the exchange of information, these systems provide authors a platform where they can share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences about a number of topics. Harnessing the information expressed publicly through these modes can be incredibly powerful: public perceptions, signals, and data about a variety of specific topics could be extracted and studied from these posts. However, there is a common trade-off in collecting information about a topic from social media: the more specific the topic, generally, the more challenging it is to extract meaningful …

Evaluation Of A Brief Marriage Intervention For Internal Behavioral Health Consultants In Military Primary Care, Ashley L. Evans, Jeffrey A. Cigrang, Tatiana D. Grey, James V. Cordova, Elizabeth Najera, Rosalyn S. Pace, Abby D. Fields, Michael A. Glotfelter, Jennifer A. Mitchell, Jolyn Tatum

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

Military couples face significant challenges to their relationships including demanding schedules, multiple deployments, and frequent moves. Despite the high costs of chronic marital distress, very few military (or civilian) couples seek marriage therapy. The military services and the VA system have implemented collaborative care models in primary care where internal behavioral health consultants are integrated into primary care. Integrated primary care can reduce the stigma of behavioral health services and may increase the odds that couples would seek help earlier. There are no established couple interventions designed for use in primary care. The purpose of this presentation is to describe …

Wright State University's Celebration Of Research, Scholarship And Creative Activities Book Of Abstracts From Friday, April 15, 2016, Wright State University Office Of Undergraduate Research And Stemm Activities

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students' oral and poster presentations at Wright State University's Annual Celebration of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities on April 15, 2016.

Evaluation Of Mammalian Stress And Inflammatory Response To A Novel Porphyrin

Stander Symposium Projects

Porphyrins are a specific class of aromatic, heterocyclic compounds that are either naturally occurring or artificially synthesized. Porphyrins have demonstrated robust antibacterial properties, which arise from the generation of singlet oxygen. However, most porphyrins are photodynamic, meaning they require activation by light at an optimal wavelength. A novel porphyrin, developed by Dr. Shawn Swavey (UD Chemistry Department) has shown exceptional antibacterial efficiency against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, even without photoactivation. As P. aeruginosa infections are often the root cause behind lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, identifying a way to safely control bacterial presence is a major concern. The ability of this …

Greek Life And Catholic Universities: Do The Values Of Greek Life Match With Those Of The Catholic Church?

Stander Symposium Projects

Greek Life organizations face many negative stipulations across the United States due to several allegations of disrespectful actions. Due to these negative actions, there are Catholic institutions across the United States that do not allow Greek Life organizations on their respective campus. Such reasons Catholic institutions give is that Greek Life is not needed on campus for students to live out Catholic values. Instead, students have service, special interest and sports clubs to join to live out Catholic values. As a student apart of Greek Life on the University of Dayton’s campus feel that the values between Greek life and …

Effects Of Body Weight Loading On Arch Height

Stander Symposium Projects

Foot functionality is integral to normal human locomotion. The most commonly assessed area of the human body studied during locomotion is the medial longitudinal arch and its deformation. The Arch Height Index Measurement System (AHIMS) is the most reliable tool to measure this arch. This system typically measures arch deformation in two baseline conditions, sitting and standing. The sitting condition is considered unweighted and approximately 10% of a person’s body weight. The standing condition is considered a loaded condition and represents 50% of body weight. The first aim of this study was to see if the baseline measurements traditionally taken …

Portfolio Weights And Capture Ratio Analysis: A Look At Performance In The Consumers Staples Sector 2010-2015

Stander Symposium Projects

Since the recession in 2008, the stock market has experienced periods of extreme volatility, with market moves of 200-400 points on almost a daily basis. One sector that should do well when market volatility is high and rising is consumer staples. In this study I use a dynamic pricing model to determine the portfolio weights for the 10 largest value weighted stocks in the consumer staples sector. The model relies on the upside/downside Capture Ratios (U/D) for each stock to calculate the portfolio weights and dollar investment in each stock. I test the following hypotheses: (1) Stocks with higher U/D …

Size, Value And Momentum In Stock Returns: An Empirical Analysis, 2010-2014

Stander Symposium Projects

Based on the landmark studies of Eugene Fama and Kenneth French in the 1990's, most financial economists consider a firm's market capitalization (size) and price to book as two of the most important factors affecting the cross section of stock market returns. In recent years, other factors including stock price momentum have been accepted as predictors of stock returns in the cross section. In this study, I develop a three factor analysis of S&P 500 stock returns for the period 2010-2014. This period was chosen because it is not included in more recent studies. It also reflects a period of …

Design And Prototyping Of A Variable Geometry Extrusion Die To Exhibit Significant Alteration In Shape

Stander Symposium Projects

Extruded parts are conventionally made by forcing melted plastic through a steel die having a fixed opening that matches the shape of the part. Plastic parts made by extrusion include weather stripping, PVC pipe, and composite lumber. Variable geometry dies can change their opening shape during the extrusion process. Developing shape-changing dies technology offers the possibility of making parts with varying cross-sections that currently need to be made through injection molding. This is desirable as, compared to molding, extrusion tends to be faster and less expensive. Variable geometry extrusion dies have been designed and prototyped by the University of Dayton …

Producer Prices, Cost-Push-Inflation And Stock Market Returns

Stander Symposium Projects

Although the Fed looks at the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Personal Consumption Expenditure index (PCE) as the key measures of inflation, in this study I focus my attention on Producer Prices (PPI) as a leading indicator of inflation in final goods produced. I want to test three hypotheses. First there is a high pass through rate for prices in the 4 basic stages of production identified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Using regression analysis to measure the pass through rate, I expect the b coefficients to be greater than zero and close to one. This would …

Spatial Mechanism Analysis And Synthesis By Dual Special Unitary Matrices

Stander Symposium Projects

Numerical algebraic geometry is the field that studies the computation and manipulation of the solution sets of systems of polynomial equations. The goal of this work is to formulate spatial mechanism analysis and design problems via a method suited to employ the tools of numerical algebraic geometry. Specifically, equations are developed using dual special unitary matrices that naturally use complex numbers to express physical and joint parameters in a mechanical system. Unknown parameters expressed as complex numbers readily admit solution by the methods of numerical algebraic geometry. This work illustrates their use by analyzing the spatial RCCC and RRRCC linkages. …

Star Decompositions Of The Complete Split Graph

Stander Symposium Projects

A graph is a discrete mathematical structure that consists of a set of vertices and a set of edges between pairs of vertices. A problem of interest in graph theory is that of graph decomposition, partitioning the set of edges into disjoint sets, producing subgraphs which are isomorphic to each other. Here we consider the problem of decomposing a class of graphs called complete split graphs into stars of a fixed size. We present conditions for the decomposition as well as an algorithm for the decomposition when it is possible.

Research Exercise: Vocation And Arts

Stander Symposium Projects

The Chaminade Scholars 'Vocation and Arts' class have been preparing all semester for an in-depth pilgrimage to Italy in May. The interactive Stander Symposium experience introduces participants to the Art, Culture and Spirituality of Assisi and Rome. Included is an exhibit of students' photography and "Awakening to Beauty publication.

Data Evaluation And Control Of Pollutants In The Air

Stander Symposium Projects

This project is about the data evaluation of the pollutants in the open atmosphere such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, etc. The main aim of this project is to evaluate the data for the pollutants mentioned above as well as to generate different curves with the help of data obtained for past couple of decades and to develop some curve-fit equations to predict the approximate emission values of the pollutants for upcoming future years. As environmental pollution is one of the biggest challenges we are facing now-a-days in the current technology-based world,this work also shows the …

Research Exercise: Tired Of Rubber Landfills: From Environmental Hazard To Sustainable Use Potential Of Discarded Tire Materials

Stander Symposium Projects

How do you dispose of your used car tires? Although answering this on an individual level doesn’t seem to be hard, the sheer amounts of old tires disposed of as a byproduct of a growing car market in the United States have grown to make a significant impact on the environment. Each year, over 350 million tires are consumed and only about 70% of the accruing waste is properly recycled at their end of life. The storage of tires in landfills, or improper methods of disposal, such as burning and waterbody displacement causes hazardous emissions and health problems. For instance, …

A Numerical Solution Of A Model Of Diabetes

Stander Symposium Projects

Many researchers use mathematical models to understand and predict the behavior of biological systems. In this work we consider a mathematical model for diabetes mellitus presented by Hussain and Zadeng to study a metabolic disease for the regulation of glucose in the body by pancreatic insulin. The mathematical models consists of two ordinary differential equations for glucose concentration and insulin concentration. In particular, this study attempts to numerically solve the model using the Runge-Kutta methods of order 2 and 4. We will also perform a qualitative analysis on the behavior of the system

Culture As Context: Effects Of Cultural Polarization On Chinese International Student Adjustment

Stander Symposium Projects

Due to the fact that Chinese international students are such a significant population within American universities across the country, it is worth investigating how this population typically adjusts to living in the United States and what stresses or issues are unique to them. However, it is also important to investigate whether or not Chinese international students experience positive transformations within themselves as a result of the adjustment challenges that they are faced with. This qualitative inquiry examines these vital questions surrounding Chinese international student adjustment, in order to contribute to a more holistic understanding of the complex experiences of Chinese …