Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Reaching The Gold Standard: Assessing Driving Ability Among Student And Expert Drivers, Alyssa Davis

Statistics

No abstract provided.

Common Core 4th Grade Environmental Science Lesson Plans For California Teachers, Gillian Schoenfeld

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

This project and its analyses were conducted to assist California fourth grade elementary school teachers in adjusting to teaching Common Core standards and science curriculum in their classrooms. The project included the creation of lesson plans, which could be utilized throughout the state of California.

As the Common Core standards, California’s Next Generation Science Standards for K- 12, were just proposed in June of 2013, these lesson plans would help teachers update their lessons and provide them materials and concepts of how to do so. These lessons provide higher-order thinking for students, which is the whole concept of the new …

Geoelectrical Detection Of Water Table Depth At Two Locations In The Los Osos Groundwater Basin, Hallie A. Douglas

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The city of Los Osos sits on top of a coastal groundwater aquifer which is the sole supplier of all its residential, agricultural, and industrial water needs. Lacking a sewer system, the upper aquifer became progressively contaminated with nitrates over several decades. Groundwater pumping eventually shifted to the lower aquifer, however seawater intrusion of the lower aquifer caused by over-pumping has further degraded water quality. The Los Osos groundwater basin provides an excellent field region to examine the utility of geophysical methods for characterizing aquifer structure. In this study shallow (<20 >m) electrical resistivity imaging methods were performed at two …

Surficial Geologic Map Of Kings Canyon: Implications For Relatively Slow Stream Incision Rates, Andrew Farris

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Most of the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California has responded to regional uplift with rapid incision, creating the deepest canyon in the United States. However, Kings Canyon near Cedar Grove is still a mountainous relict landscape with little evidence of fluvial incision. Mapping took place in the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon to assess factors and/or processes causing relatively low stream incision rates in the region during Holocene time. A surficial geologic map was created in the field, along with visual observations of the South Fork of the Kings River and characterization of geologic map …

Astrophobia: A 3d Multiplayer Space Combat Game With Linear Entity Interpolation, Luke Larson

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Astrophobia is a Descent-like 3D networked multiplayer space combat game with linear entity interpolation (client-side animation between game-state packets to give the illusion of continuous game updates) similar to entity interpolation implemented in Valve Software’s Source engine. Additionally, Astrophobia procedurally generates unique levels, has zero-gravity physics, ship and projectile wall bouncing, hit detection, OpenGL 3D graphics, Phong lighting, ship model and texture, and a simple HUD that provides visualization of health points, aiming crosshair, and player scoreboard.

Reconstructing Point Clouds Of Mid-Size Objects, Spencer Woodworth

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This project explores the use of an inexpensive 3D camera for the acquisition and reconstruction of mid-size objects. The disparity of objects between stereo image pairs are used to calculate depth and generate a depth map. The depth map is used to generate a point cloud representation of the object from a single view. Finally, point clouds are generated from several views of an object and then aligned and merged into a seamless 360-degree point cloud.

Viscosity Dependence Of Faraday Wave Formation Thresholds, Lisa Michelle Slaughter

Physics

This experiment uses an electromagnetic shaker to produce standing wave patterns on the surface of a vertically oscillating sample of silicon liquid. These surface waves, known as Faraday waves, form shapes such as squares, lines, and hexagons. They are known to be dependent upon the frequency and amplitude of the forcing as well as on the viscosity and depth of the liquid in the dish. At a depth of 4mm and for various silicon liquids having kinematic viscosities of 10, 20, and 38 cSt, we determined the acceleration at which patterns form for frequencies between 10 and 60 Hz. For …

Time Variation Of The Broad Hβ And Hα Emission Lines In Active Galactic Nuclei, Bryan R. Scott

Physics

High-quality Keck/LRIS long-slit spectra for a sample of 97 active galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (redshift between 0.02 & 0.1; Black Hole Mass approximately 10⁷ Solar Masses) were obtained between January 2009 and March 2010 in order to study the black hole (BH) mass scaling relation in the local universe. Typically, the width of the broad Hβ emission line is used to measure the mass of the black hole (MBH). However, signs of variability in the emission line profile are seen for eight objects: While broad Hβ emission lines had previously been observed in spectra from …

The Imperative Of Conserving California's Foothill Oak Woodlands, Lauren Phillips

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

In Perfect Xen, A Performance Study Of The Emerging Xen Scheduler, Ryan Hnarakis

Master's Theses

Fifty percent of Fortune 500 companies trust Xen, an open-source bare-metal hypervisor, to virtualize their websites and mission critical services in the cloud. Providing superior fault tolerance, scalability, and migration, virtualization allows these companies to run several isolated operating systems simultaneously on the same physical server. These isolated operating systems, called virtual machines, require a virtual traffic guard to cooperate with one another. This guard known as the Credit2 scheduler along with the newest Xen hypervisor was recently developed to supersede the older schedulers. Since wasted CPU cycles can be costly, the Credit2 prototype must undergo significant performance validation before …

Formulation Development Of A Polymer-Drug Matrix With A Controlled Release Profile For The Treatment Of Glaucoma, Eric W. Tsoi

Master's Theses

Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the United States accounting for 9-12% of all cases of blindness. Currently, the front line treatment for glaucoma are prostaglandins that may have to be taken up to several times a day. Even with proper treatment, roughly 11% of the patients using the treatment are non-compliant and lose their vision. In this project, ForSight Laboratories has developed a pharmaceutical drug delivering implant with the capability of sustaining long-term release of a prostaglandin as a new way to treat the condition. This project reports the product development of a polymer drug matrix with …

Can Clustering Improve Requirements Traceability? A Tracelab-Enabled Study, Brett Taylor Armstrong

Master's Theses

Software permeates every aspect of our modern lives. In many applications, such in the software for airplane flight controls, or nuclear power control systems software failures can have catastrophic consequences. As we place so much trust in software, how can we know if it is trustworthy? Through software assurance, we can attempt to quantify just that.

Building complex, high assurance software is no simple task. The difficult information landscape of a software engineering project can make verification and validation, the process by which the assurance of a software is assessed, very difficult. In order to manage the inevitable information overload …

Phase Behavior And Rheology Of Latex, Thickener, Surfactant Mixtures And Liquid Crystal Based Compositions For Printing High-Efficiency Flexible Electronics, Franceska Anna Santos

Master's Theses

This project consists of two parts. One area of focus in the first part is understanding the interactions between a non-ionic, block copolymer type dispersant and hydrophobically-modified, ethoxylated urethane (HEUR) associative thickeners in water. The dispersant was mixed at various concentrations (0-2% by weight) with HEUR thickeners at 1% by weight concentration in the aqueous medium. This study is an integral part of our attempts to determine mechanisms of viscosity drop when colorant dispersions are added to latex tint base formulations thickened with associative thickeners. One of the HEUR thickeners is a product that has been available for over three …

The Influence Of Hydrogeomorphology, Soil Redox Conditions, And Salinity On The Spatial Zoning Of Saltgrass, Salt Rush, And Cattails In Scotts Creek Marsh, Swanton Pacific Ranch, Ca, Mark D. Gormley

Master's Theses

Scotts Creek Marsh (SCM) is a small coastal wetland ecosystem in Davenport, CA. The vegetation of SCM is dominated by three halophytic zones comprised of saltgrass, salt rush, cattails. The objectives of the study were (i) to investigate the variables that influence the zoning of the three dominant halophyte communities in SCM and (ii) to the test the effectiveness of Indicator of Reduction in Soil (IRIS) tubes to indicate the reduction of S. The study examined the following parameters from April 6 to July 21, 2013: (i) the HGM of Scotts Creek Marsh, (ii) soil oxidation and reduction (redox) conditions, …

Nanoparticles And Polymer Crystallization Kinetics In Hybrid Electronic Devices, Taylor William Wagner

Master's Theses

Conjugated semi-conducting polymers have become well known for their potential applications in hybrid electronic devices like solar cells, LEDs, and organic displays. These hybrid devices also contain inorganic nanoparticles, which complement the polymer when they are combined into the same layer. Control over the conformation and crystallinity of the polymer is critical for device performance, yet not much is known about the effect that these nanoparticles have on the polymer. Here, zinc oxide nanowire was surface modified with mono-substituted-carboxylic acid tetraphenylporphyrin and dodecanethiol, and introduced to poly(3-hexyl thiophene) in solution. The electron transfer, kinetics, and thermodynamics of this system were …

Lipid Production By Microalgae Treating Municipal Wastewater, James Edward Kelley

Master's Theses

Microalgae hold much promise as a feedstock in liquid biofuel production. Lipid content of microalgae cells range from 30-80% dry weight of biomass. It is projected that microalgae can produce between 1,000-6,500 gallons/acre/year of oil. Currently, production of industrial algae operates in open raceway ponds that use minimal capital and energy inputs to culture algae. Raceway ponds can also be used to grow microalgae from municipal waste streams. Although high biomass productivity can be achieved in these systems, there remains a large production gap between large volumes of biomass cultivation and high lipid content from microalgae cells. Low lipid content …

Morphology And Conformation Of Polythiophene Derivatives In Anisotropic Core-Shell Nanocomposites And Solution, Neil Redeker

Master's Theses

Conjugated semiconducting polymers have garnered substantial interest in recent years due to the potential for use in various applications, particularly in the field of electronic devices such as photovoltaic cells and light emitting diodes. Conjugated polymers offer numerous advantages in these applications, including low cost and high flexibility, but electronic devices based on these materials are currently limited by poor performance. Because of these limitations, increased focus has been placed on improving conjugated polymers for use in commercially viable products. Here, a novel core shell hybrid nanocomposite based on anisotropic zinc oxide nanowires and a side-chain functionalized polythiophene is reported. …

Investigating Fault Structure Using Electrical Resistivity Tomography, Sara Michelle Monahan

Physics

The resolving power of two-dimensional Direct Current (DC) Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) is investigated in the context of shallow faults. Subsurface electrical resistivity data was collected perpendicular to a secondary fault scarp of the Los Osos Fault Zone with a Syscal KID Switch 24 resistivity meter and processed with Prosys II and Res2DInv software to produce two-dimensional cross sections of resistivity values via a smoothness-constrained least-squares optimization method. Comparison of ERT inversion results to a trench wall map of the same fault scarp suggest the location and dip direction of faults is resolvable, while detailed fault structure, such as dip …

Characterization Of Planar Wave Guides By Angle-Dependent Excitation Of Guided Modes, Edward D. Lunde

Physics

In this project a high resolution rotation stage was used to measure the angle of coupling of light into planar waveguide modes. Control of the stage and acquisition of light intensity data was done using the commercially available programming environment, MATLAB. Reliable, repeatable excitation of modes was done using prism coupling. We also investigated coupling using a surface grating on the waveguide.

Road Cuts And Atterberg Limits Of Little Creek Road, Christopher A. Marquis

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

This senior project examined road cuts and soil adjacent to the road cut, along Little Creek road. Contrasting a landslide hillslope complex to a hillslope drainage complex, the project also compared the organic soil horizon to the mineral soil horizon in both soil units. The soils were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative measures of soil properties. The project utilized a road cut inventory to note the characteristics of the road cut such as presence of rill erosion, rock outcrop and sloping degree of the road cut. The project derived the plasticity index for both organic and mineral horizons, and compared …

Depth To Bedrock Estimations Using The H/V Spectral Ratio In The San Joaquin Valley, Tyler A. Morelli

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Basin depth is a fundamental parameter in many types of geologic studies such as resource exploration and regional tectonic mapping. The Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (“H/V”) method has been successfully applied to estimating of basin depths up to several hundred meters. In this study the H/V method is applied to the deep basins on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley to determine the thickness of the sedimentary layers and depth to bedrock. Microtremor data from Earthscope Seismic Array stations are ideal to test the accuracy of the H/V method on deeper basins because the data is of high-quality and …

Field Control Of The Surface Electroclinic Effect In Liquid Crystal Displays, Dana Hipolite

Physics

Liquid crystals (LCs) are a fascinating class of materials exhibiting a range of phases intermediate between liquid and crystalline. Smectic LCs consist of elongated molecules arranged in a periodic stack (along z) of liquid like layers. In the smectic-A (Sm-A) phase, the average molecular long axis (director) points along z. In the smectic-C (Sm-C) phase, it is tilted relative to z, thus picking out a special direction within the layers. Typically, the Sm-A* to Sm- C* transition will occur as temperature is decreased. In chiral smectics (Sm-*A or Sm-C*) it is possible to induce director titling (i.e. the Sm-C* phase) …

Contributions To The Cuore Collaboration, Samuel Joseph Meijer

Physics

This paper describes work done between 2010 and 2013 to contribute to the CUORE collaboration, a physics collaboration searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in tellurium. Measurement of this decay would indicate fundamental information about the nature of the neutrino. The implementation of a parylene-coated detector frame is described. Also, a temperature stabilization system for an automated gluing system was constructed. An image recognition algorithm is described for locating spots of glue and evaluating their acceptability.

Counting Photons To Calibrate A Photometer For Stellar Intensity Interferometry, Jason Chew

Physics

We use a telescope and photometer to observe stellar photons and measure the rate of observed photons. Based on intensity spectra from the Spectrophotometric Catalogue of Stars, we also predict expected values for the photon rates, which we compare to our measurements. From this comparison, we measure the local optical depth to be τ = 0.60±0.25, a reasonable value. We find that our predictions are directly proportional to our measurements by a factor of 0.98 (+0.02, -0.27) . The similarity between our measurements and expectations shows that we are able to both predict and measure photon rates with accuracy.

Channels: Easy Video Content Consumption, Alexander R. Ledwith

Computer Engineering

The idea for this project is to take a user’s digital movie and television show library, and organize the individual videos into lists that will continuously and concurrently play like cable TV channels. This means that when a list of channels is switched to, video content will automatically start playing, possibly in the middle, based on a schedule. It should serve the needs of the user by allowing the user to quickly watch any of their existing channels, easily add a new channel based on chosen criteria or manual selection, and easily add new video content. In addition, the product …

Inform 7 Usability Precompiler, Chad Robert Brantley, Timothy Phan

Computer Engineering

Inform 7 Usability Precompiler or I7UP is a project which helps Inform 7 authors with their stories by diversifying the possibilities in the author’s interactive fiction. I7UP reads and analyzes the Inform story that is passed in through python and natural language processing then provides the user with a selection of choices to add to his story and lastly automatically generates the corresponding Inform 7 code. By utilizing the combination of Python, Django, and HTML/CSS, I7UP is able to provide an easytouse interface which helps generate additional "Understand" statements and "Conjugated Verb" statements. I7UP is an authoring aid for Inform …

Protocases, Christopher M. Polis

Computer Engineering

Design and implementation of a 3D printing web application.

Motion Controlled Graphics Applications, Robert Burton Jr.

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This project implements a new control scheme for the OpenGL racing game Crusin Pangea[3] using the motion tracking Leap Motion device[1]. It attempts to increase the engagement with the user by interacting on a more fundamental basis of control. The advantages and drawbacks of this new control scheme are then analyzed based on feedback from a user test group.

Brovine: Mammary Gland Gene Database, Therin C. Irwin

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Brovine is used by the Animal Science department at Cal Poly to catalog and analyze genetic information. Brovine, or the Mammary Gland Gene Database, is a system used to store and categorize genetic information which is gathered through experimentation and through TESS, a web application that lets users search through catalogs of similar genetic information. This document describes the purpose, use, and maintenance of Brovine.

Examining Introductory Students’ Attitudes In A Randomization-Based Curriculum, Joshua Ryan Beemer

Statistics

Student attitudes regarding introductory statistics courses are not always the most positive. The purpose of this research is to utilize the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics to evaluate introductory statistics students’ attitudes pre- and post course. Furthermore, comparisons of attitudes within different introductory course curricula across institutions will be made. Various components within the survey, such as difficulty, value, and interest, will be assessed in order to determine where students’ attitudes are affected the most and how they are correlated with other variables such as current GPA and curriculum taught. The outcomes for these models look at demographic predictors that …