Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of Selected Climate Action Plans In California, Christopher R. Dedo

City and Regional Planning

This project involves the research and comparison of seven cities’ climate action plans, each from its own region within California. The areas selected roughly represent major California regions, each with unique characteristics that will impact the characteristics of the climate action plan’s framework and contents. This analysis will identify similarities in framework and content among each plan, highlighting organizational differences, some generalized observations, and the consistency of topics covered and not covered within the plans. This project reviews the California Office of Planning & Research’s General Plan Guidelines Chapter 8, the California Office of Emergency Services’ California Adaptation Planning Guide, …

Modeling The Evolution Of Differences In Variability Between Sexes, Theodore P. Hill

Research Scholars in Residence

An elementary mathematical theory based on a “selectivity-variability” principle is proposed to address a question raised by Charles Darwin, namely, how one sex of a sexually dimorphic species might tend to evolve with greater variability than the other sex. Two mathematical models of the principle are presented: a discrete-time one-step probabilistic model of the short-term behavior of the subpopulations of a given sex, with an example using normally distributed perceived fitness values; and a continuous-time deterministic coupled ODE model for the long-term asymptotic behavior of the expected sizes of the subpopulations, with an example using exponentially distributed fitness levels.

Development And Optimization Of Imaging And Image Quantification Techniques For Tissue-Engineered Blood Vessel Mimics, Ashley Turcott

Master's Theses

Blood vessels mimics (BVMs) are tissue-engineered blood vessels used to test vascular devices in an environment that mimics some simple anatomical factors of native blood vessels. It is important to accurately and consistently assess tissue-engineered blood vessels, although there is currently a lack of standardization in Cal Poly’s Tissue Engineering Lab and in the entirety of the field. The goal of this thesis was to develop and optimize imaging and image quantification techniques for tissue-engineered blood vessels.

The first aim of this thesis optimized and compared imaging and assessment techniques for electrospun scaffolds. Images from different SEMs were compared to …

Feeling Out Your Food: A Histological Analysis Of The Whisker System In Seals, Cameron Cooper

Master's Theses

The vibrissal (whisker) system is present in nearly all mammals and is especially important in deep-diving mammals. Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses) have highly sensitive whiskers that are used to follow hydrodynamic trails created by their swimming prey. Each pinniped vibrissa is surrounded by a tripartite blood sinus system composed of an upper cavernous sinus (UCS), a ring sinus (RS), and a lower cavernous sinus (LCS). The UCS has been hypothesized to play a thermoregulatory role, insulating temperature sensitive mechanoreceptors located within the vibrissal follicle. The aim of this study was to examine this hypothesis by measuring and comparing …

Saturday Night Live Club Lamb Sale, Tyler P. Wilkerson

Agricultural Education and Communication

“Competition is said to be the backbone of the stock show industry,” (Davis, 1998). A statement spoken in a 1998 thesis paper on the junior livestock industry still holds water in today’s world. Youth livestock exhibition, especially in California, continues to grow in the number of youth participants and the number of livestock entries at shows (Switzer, 2019).

It is the responsibility of livestock breeders to breed, raise, and sell their livestock to maximize the opportunity for youth to acquire livestock to show. In his research, Wendt discusses the capabilities of purchasing livestock through online platforms. He speaks to the …

Becoming Agricultured: Creating An Agriculture Literacy Podcast For Consumers, Madalyn C. Souza

Agricultural Education and Communication

Today’s consumers want to become more aware of where their food comes from. There is a need and a desire to bridge the gap between consumers and production agriculture. One way to reach consumers is through audio podcasts. Podcasts are digital audio recordings that are streamed online. The podcast Becoming Agricultured will be a platform to show the relationship between agriculture and the environment, food, fiber and energy, animals, lifestyle, the economy and technology. The podcast is aimed to tell agriculture's story through factual research and personal accounts of those involved in different sectors of the agriculture industry and cultivate …

Creating A Marketing Plan: Cal Poly Bull Test, Haley A. Boyajian

Agricultural Education and Communication

The Cal Poly Bull Test is a student-run performance bull test and sale looking to improve its marketing and create a marketing plan for future students to use. There needs to be complete analysis of its current marketing efforts as well as a comparison to the marketing efforts of similar bull sales in the state.

An important piece in marketing bull sales to the public is sharing information about the bulls that will be up for sale (Chvosta, 2001). Furthermore, when constructing a marketing plan, the most important factors to consider include “the firm's short- term and long-term goals, the …

Hericium Erinaceus: Erinacine A, Ventura Villanueva

Agricultural Education and Communication

Hericium erinaceus (Lion's Mane)

Erinacines - component found in Lion's Mane

A variety of mushroom that has been grabbing the attention of different pharmaceutical companies is the Hericium Erinaceus commonly known as Lion’s Mane. Lion’s Mane also known as, “Sheep’s head, Bear’s head, Bearded tooth carpophore, and Yamabushitmnnake” (Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus)). Lion’s Mane in nature is found growing off the dry bark of trees (Kuo, 2016). Nowadays there are many products in the market that sell Lion’s Mane mushroom powder as a superfood. Lion’s Mane mushroom is known to have the component erinacines. Erinacines as of …

Sit, Stay, Learn: Agricultural Education- An Sae Manual For Dog Obedience Training, Amber Renee Thompsen

Agricultural Education and Communication

Canine Obedience training is a bountiful career path that allows students to work with animals to work with both people and their pets. Being a dog trainer is just as much an animal job as it is a people job and experience in training and working with customers is the best way to get a company position.

This manual aims to provide an all-encompassing resource for Novice, Intermediate, and Advance FFA members looking to explore an SAE in Canine training. This manual serves the purpose of guiding members in starting a project. This guide is for students who have an …

Golden Photo And Media, Natalie Goldstein

Journalism

After discovering photography in 2018 and dedicating the past year of my life to this passion I want to turn it into a career. This paper looks into the necessary research it takes to start a photography business. After carefully conducting the research, I created a business proposal appropriate to our current pandemic situation. I looked at different ways COVID-19 will affect my desired profession and the events and music industry in which I hope to work. After thoroughly familiarizing myself with these industries, I was able to discern that a career in photography is possible if I market myself, …

Efficacy Of Catalytic Ozonation Advanced Oxidation Processes Compared To Traditional Ozone-Based Advanced Oxidation Processes For Degradation Of Recalcitrant Compounds, Cindy Jocelyn Sevilla Esparza

Master's Theses

This study reviews catalytic ozonation AOPs and traditional ozone-based AOPs to compare their efficiency for degradation of ozone-recalcitrant compounds. With the world’s population increasing and water becoming a scarce resource, it is important to improve current water recycling methods. Recycling water will play a large role in accommodating the increasing demand, but it will also be necessary to be improve the level of treatment in order to account for emerging contaminants (ECs) such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been developed to degrade ECs that are not effectively removed by conventional wastewater treatment. The goal …

Noble Animals, Brutish Animals, Marcus William Hunt

Between the Species

The paper begins with a description of a grey seal performing conspecific infanticide. The paper then gives an account of “nobleness” and “brutishness.” Roughly, a behavioural-disposition is noble/brutish if it is one that would be a moral virtue/vice if the possessor of the behavioural-disposition were a moral agent. The paper then advances two pairs of axiological claims. The first pair of claims is that nobleness is good and that brutishness is bad. The second pair of claims is about an axiological interaction between nobleness/brutishness and well-being. That any non-human animal lacks well-being is bad. Yet, it is worse that …

Phrenology, Physical Anthropology And Ethnology: Nineteenth-Century Race Science And The Foundations Of Eurocentrism, Mckenzie Jayne Leeds

History

This paper explores phrenology, physical anthropology, and ethnology--each a nineteenth-century scientific discipline that significantly influenced racial beliefs. These sciences were integral in forming and perpetuating racial hierarchies and the belief of perceived European superiority. The main goal of this project was to deconstruct the European superiority narrative, and to argue that these disciplines created a network of continued racism.

Development Of Gluten-Free And Vegan Pies At Spaans Cookie Company, Brittney Lane Thompson

Agricultural Education and Communication

The trend of healthy and innovative products in a myriad of stores have spread like wildfire in the past decade, and the food industry is no exception. With words like “keto,” “paleo,” “vegan” and “gluten-free” being plastered onto several products in grocery stores, the demand has gone up exponentially. Social media has adopted these types of goods, and created aesthetic feeds to show users how healthy eating can be fun. Regardless of consumer knowledge on the matter, shoppers are gaining headway on the “healthy diet lifestyle” idea.

With the introduction of products that are cultivating a healthy and “trendy” future, …

Graduate Internship In Agricultural Education Report, Molly Sasha Miller

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This document outlines the purpose and creation of a training resource used by members of the California Association of Standards and Agricultural Professionals (CASAP). The training resource is hosted on the CASAP website and focuses on content included on the eight licenses issued by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) for County Agricultural Biologist Inspectors and County Weights and Measures Inspectors.

Respectfully Submitted,

Molly Sasha Miller

Graduate Intership Report Aged 539_ Madera Tec, Felipe Andres Barrientos

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

The graduate internship report included the acquisition of a variety of validation documents, plus information on the development of an 8th-grade agriculture curriculum. In addition, it focuses on recruitment efforts and material as well as developing a PLC culture which is all crucial aspects of opening a new school successfully. All aspects of the curriculum and school culture were designed to be collaborative and hands-on in nature.

Graduate Internship Report - Central High School, Yesenia A. Ramirez

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship report includes reflections and supporting documentation required in meeting the twelve quality criteria for secondary-level Agriculture Education Programs in the State of California. The quality criteria are used to evaluate the quality of an agriculture program and determine its eligibility for Agriculture Incentive Grant funds. The supporting documentation includes information used to receive state and local funding, outline the goals and objectives of the program, along with an overview of Central West, the agriculture program, and the community.

Graduate Internship Report: Golden West High School, Amber R. Nagel

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship and project report includes documentation required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. The documents are concurrently used for the Agriculture Incentive Grant review process at Golden West High School conducted by representatives of the California Department of Education. The supporting material includes information to receive state and local funding, outline the goals and objectives of the program, along with an overview of Golden West High School, the agriculture program and the community.

Design And Implementation Of A Deterministic And Nondeterministic Finite Automaton Simulator, Camron C. Dennler

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The purpose of this project is to assist students in visualizing and understanding the structure and operation of deterministic and nondeterministic finite automata. This software achieves this purpose by providing students with the ability to build, modify, and test automata in an intuitive environment. This enables a simple and efficient avenue for experimentation, which upholds the Cal Poly ideal of Learning by Doing.

Readers of this report should be familiar with basic concepts in the theory of finite state machines; a general understanding of object-oriented programming is also necessary.

Bi-Directional Dc-Dc Converter, John W. Hamlin, Oscar Ambriz, Luis Onofre

Electrical Engineering

This project was developed with the purpose of creating an efficient energy management system for the DC House project, with a centralized 12V battery system fed by a 48V Multiple Input Single Output Source (MISO). The energy management system will consist of a bidirectional DC-DC converter. During the day when the renewable sources produce enough energy to fulfill the load’s energy demand, the converter will make use of the excess energy by taking a 48V DC input and stepping it down to a 12V DC output in order to charge a 12V 100 Ah battery. When renewable sources can no …

Miso Dc-Dc Farmbot, Quyen Thi Nguyen, Brian Armijo, Astha Adhikari

Electrical Engineering

Making use of renewable energy directly from the location of production requires converting source power into usable power. The specific scope of this project focuses on the DC to DC conversion within a user friendly universal farmbot system. Since renewable sources vary widely in voltage and current, a wide input-range DC to DC converter is desired. Physical isolation, long lifespan, and adverse weather requires safe and reliable final product specifications. The goal of a very wide customer base drives the need for a product that does not require tinkering to get working, but to be usable out of the box …

Lawn Buddy, Jayson Johnston, Andrew Brown, Jacob Maljian

Electrical Engineering

Grass lawns are a common hallmark of the American home. In 2019, a survey from the National Association of Landscape Professionals found that 81% of all Americans owned a lawn [1]. Mowing is a time consuming and costly chore that is part of maintaining a grass lawn. The manual labor in mowing a lawn can exceed 40 hours per year [2]. People commonly incur weekly costs on mowing services to save time. Traditional gas powered mowers are physically demanding and use engines that need routine maintenance. They operate loudly enough that users should be wearing hearing protection and the noise …

Plant Growing Control With Modicon M580, Brittany M.Y. Won, Eileen T. Tran

Electrical Engineering

Currently, the Industrial Power and Controls lab is being developed by the Cal Poly Electrical Engineering department. The lab is equipped with recently donated Modicon M580 Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) from Schneider Electric. In addition to PLCs, Schneider Electric also donated Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) and input/output modules. This project focuses on the creation of a lab experiment that will give future Cal Poly electrical engineering students hands-on experience with this equipment. To show students the broad range of PLCs and the role that electrical engineering plays in various industries, this experiment focuses on the agriculture industry, but more specifically, …

Fast Chirped Signals For A Tdma Ultrasonic Indoor Positioning System, Lauren M. Williams

Master's Theses

In this paper, a new concept for ultrasonic indoor positioning based on instantaneous frequency of ultrasonic signals is presented. Nonlinear phase characteristics of ultrasonic transducers introduce a frequency deviation in ultrasonic signals. By sweeping at very fast rates, a large spike in the deviation is introduced. The artefacts observable in instantaneous frequency estimations are highly localized and present an opportunity for accurate frequency detection. In order to be useful, the artefacts need to take place within the pulse and have sufficient magnitude for accurate processing. The system consists of a transducer transmitter and receiver pair, which have a center frequency …

Attacking Computer Vision Models Using Occlusion Analysis To Create Physically Robust Adversarial Images, Jacobsen Loh

Master's Theses

Self-driving cars rely on their sense of sight to function effectively in chaotic and uncontrolled environments. Thanks to recent developments in computer vision, specifically convolutional neural networks, autonomous vehicles have developed the ability to see at or above human-level capabilities, which in turn has allowed for rapid advances in self-driving cars. Unfortunately, much like humans being confused by simple optical illusions, convolutional neural networks are susceptible to simple adversarial inputs. As there is no overlap between the optical illusions that fool humans and the adversarial examples that threaten convolutional neural networks, little is understood as to why these adversarial examples …

The Strawberry Rhizosphere Microbiome: Role On Plant Health And Nutrition, Eric Michael Boyd

Master's Theses

Microbial-root associations are important to help plants cope with abiotic and biotic stressors. Managing these interactions offers an opportunity for improving the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural production. By characterizing the bacterial and archaeal community (via 16S rRNA sequencing) associated with the bulk and rhizosphere soil of sixteen strawberry cultivars in two controlled field studies, we explored the relationships between the soil microbiome and plant resistance to two soilborne fungal pathogens of strawberry (Verticillium dahliae and Macrophomina phaseolina). Overall, the plants had a distinctive rhizosphere microbiome relative to the bulk soil, with higher abundances of known beneficial bacteria …

Barriers To Success: Sheep And Goat Producers In The Service-Grazing Industry, Erin A. Campbell-Craven

Master's Theses

Service-grazing is a novel term for grazing done on land not owned or rented by a livestock producer or manager, for the purpose of land management, and for which the owner or land manager receiving grazing services pays compensation to the service provider. This research project seeks to gather detailed information about producers in the Western United States, providing grazing services under this project’s definition of “service-grazing”, with a focus on those operating in California, in order to discover the business models or practices necessary to be successful within a service-based grazing operation. To this end, an online survey consisting …

Rf Power Amplifier, Angel De Jesus Delgado, Rachanon Wajanakunakorn, Andrew John Ferguson

Electrical Engineering

Wireless devices are part of everyday life, cellphones and radio receivers impact more people than any piece of technology. Thus, the respective building blocks continue to advance and achieve better performance. A primary component of all wireless communication systems is the power amplifier that drives the antenna. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) holds the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) every year where teams compete internationally for the most efficient RF Power Amplifier (PA). Power amplifier technologies strive to maximize efficiency and linearity. Topologies to consider are D, E, F, F-1 and Doherty since they have a maximum theoretical …

Stability Analysis Of Systems With Time Delay Simulation Program, Matthew Carroll, Brandon Replogle

Electrical Engineering

A small company wants to develop a CAD tool, ideally as part of the MATLAB suite of tools, for system stability analysis of nonlinear control systems with time-delay. The program must allow the designer to input the system block diagram graphically, then using symbolic expansion, automatically generate the Laplace domain stability boundary and disturbance settling time. The stable regions are then to be graphically plotted as a set of 2- or 3-dimensional parametric stability boundaries. The designer can then input performance constraints on the system through the MATLAB console and a Simulink environment will automatically be generated.

This program is …

Hvac Fan Control Using Modicon M580, Anthony Tyler, Kevin Shipp

Electrical Engineering

This project is the start of a lab experiment for the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Electrical Engineering department’s new lab focusing on Programmable Logic Controller's (PLCs). The primary focus is to create a lab where students control a Heating, Ventilation, and Air conditioning (HVAC) system controlled by the Modicon M580 PLC, donated by Schneider Electric. The experiment contains a heat source, which the PLC monitors with a temperature sensor, and a cooling source with multiple fans. Students will learn to use function block diagrams to program the PLC, controlling fan output and regulating the system temperature. The experiment specifications …