Digital Commons Network^™

Microfluidic Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy System Automation And Characterization, Keaton Frahmann

Master's Theses

In this work, a novel microfluidic cell culture platform capable of automated electrical impedance measurements and immunofluorescence and brightfield microscopy was developed for further in-vitro cellular research intended to optimize cell culture conditions. The microfluidic system design, fabrication, automation, and design verification testing are described. Electrical and optical measurements of the 16 parallel cell culture chambers were automated via a custom LabView interface. A proposed design change will enable gas diffusion, removing the need for an environmental enclosure and allow long-term cell culture experiments. This "lab on a chip" system miniaturizes and automates experiments improving testing throughput and accuracy while …

Prediction Of In-Plane Stiffnesses And Thermomechanical Stresses In Cylindrical Composite Cross-Sections, Bryson M. Chan

Master's Theses

Accurate mechanical analysis of composite structures is necessary for the prediction of laminate behavior. Cylindrical composite tubes are a mainstay in many structural applications. The fundamental design of circular composite cross-sections necessitates the development of a comprehensive composite lamination theory. A new analytical method is developed to characterize the behavior of thin-walled composite cylindrical tubes using a modified plate theory. A generated numerical solver can predict properties such as axial stiffness, bending stiffness, layer stresses, and layer strains in composite tubes subjected to combined mechanical loading and thermal effects. The model accounts for the curvature by transforming and translating the …

Reciprocal Transplant And Machine Learning Study Of Oak Mistletoe On Three Host Oak Species In Santa Margarita, California, Ella Abelli-Amen

Master's Theses

At Santa Margarita Ranch, California, oak mistletoe (Phoradendron villosum) parasitizes valley oak and blue oak but cannot be found growing on coast live oak despite its abundance and ability to parasitize coast live oak in other areas. It seems as though this species of mistletoe is specializing on certain host oak trees, but the mechanisms of this specialization are unknown. In order to investigate this pattern, we utilized a type of machine learning in GIS called supervised classification as well as a reciprocal transplant study in the field. The three species of oak trees were classified with 87% accuracy using …

Perishable Food Waste Reduction Through Technological Implementation At The Retail Level Of The Food Supply Chain, Cassandra Harriman

Master's Theses

Food waste has become a disaster of global proportion that the world can no longer turn a blind eye to. This paper aims to reduce food waste at the retail level of the food supply chain by recommending and quantifying the effects of current technology that can be implemented in traditional supermarkets. This research recommends that retailers implement electronic shelf labels in stores and employ dynamic pricing of perishable products, leading to reduction of food waste. No prior research had considered the primary goal of reducing food waste while preserving retailer profit through technological implementation. This paper quantifies the effects …

A Performance Survey Of Text-Based Sentiment Analysis Methods For Automating Usability Evaluations, Kelsi Van Damme

Master's Theses

Usability testing, or user experience (UX) testing, is increasingly recognized as an important part of the user interface design process. However, evaluating usability tests can be expensive in terms of time and resources and can lack consistency between human evaluators. This makes automation an appealing expansion or alternative to conventional usability techniques.

Early usability automation focused on evaluating human behavior through quantitative metrics but the explosion of opinion mining and sentiment analysis applications in recent decades has led to exciting new possibilities for usability evaluation methods.

This paper presents a survey of modern, open-source sentiment analyzers’ usefulness in extracting and …

An Artificial Neural Network For Bankruptcy Prediction, Walter D. Magdefrau

Master's Theses

Assessing the financial health of organizations remains a topic of great interest to economists, financial institutions, and invested stakeholders. For more than a century, research into financial distress has focused primarily on traditional applications of statistical analysis; however, modern advances in computational efficiency have created a significant opportunity for more sophisticated approaches. This thesis investigates the application of artificial intelligence on company bankruptcy prediction. The proposed neural network model is evaluated using the Polish Companies Bankruptcy dataset and yields a 5-year prediction accuracy of 96.5% and an AUC (area under receiver operating characteristic curve) measure of 92.4%.

Hands-Free Electric Skateboard, Blaise M. Bibolet

Electrical Engineering

An electric skateboard functions as a skateboard propelled by electric motors. It is usually controlled with a handheld controller. This project describes an electric skateboard controlled via weight distribution. To accelerate, the rider leans forward, and to decelerate, the rider leans backward. It can travel 17 miles per hour and has regenerative braking to recharge the battery.

Solving Chromatic Number With Quantum Search And Quantum Counting, David Lutze

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a novel quantum algorithm that solves the Chromatic Number problem. Complexity analysis of this algorithm revealed a run time of O(2^n/2n²(log2n)²). This is an improvement over the best known algorithm, with a run time of 2ⁿn^O(1) [1]. This algorithm uses the Quantum Search algorithm (often called Grover's Algorithm), and the Quantum Counting algorithm. Chromatic Number is an example of an NP-Hard problem, which suggests that other NP-Hard problems can also benefit from a speed-up provided by quantum technology. This has wide implications as many real world problems can …

Calibrated Tensioner For Total Knee Arthroplasty Gap Balancer, Lauren Henigman, Jaypreet Dhanota, Corey Catuara

Biomedical Engineering

The purpose of this project was to design a device that interfaces with the previously created gap balancer to simultaneously measure the gap between the femur and tibia and measure the tension in the ligaments of the knee. First, we met with Dr. Delagrammaticas to outline the key customer requirements: we wanted the device to be precise, sterilizable, reliable, and compatible with the gap balancer. Based on the customer requirements, we outlined the specifications that would drive our design and testing, which included precision, ease of use, size, and material properties. The design process began by using a morphology to …

Adapting To California Wildfires: Keys To Rebuilding In High Fire Risk Locations, Sebastian Dante Froman

Construction Management

A rise in California wildfires has led to a significant increase in the number of acres and structures destroyed annually. The Tubbs Fire, known as one of California’s most destructive fires, affected parts of Northern California in October 2017. In an effort to reduce the damage caused by wildfires, it is vital that houses are constructed so that they are more fire resistant, specifically in areas that are at high risk of wildfires. This paper will look at the reconstruction of Santa Rosa after the Tubbs Fire to see what building methods are being used by contractors. This was investigated …

City Farm Slo - Walk-In Produce Coolbot Cooler, Connor Morinini

Construction Management

This paper describes the planning, financing, and construction of a commercial sized refrigerator for a non-profit urban farm in San Luis Obispo, CA, called City Farm SLO. Construction of the project occurred over a nine-month period from September of 2020 to May of 2021. The project involved building a Tuffshed, site grading, framing a room inside the Tuffshed, hanging a door, installing electricity inside the room, insulating the interior, painting the exterior, installing an air conditioner, and wiring the Coolbot to the air conditioner. The project was built to allow the non-profit organization to begin storing their agricultural crops in …

The Utilization Of Industrial Hemp As A Structural Material, Matthew C. Wirick

Construction Management

The need for alternative materials within the construction industry is increasing as more projects are undertaken. Many of the natural resources currently used are being depleted. Various alternatives, such as using recycled concrete as a replacement for aggregate, are being researched and applied to projects with the purpose of reducing construction waste. However, substitutes are needed especially when it comes to structural materials. Industrial hemp is a fast-growing fibrous plant that can be made into a variety of goods and has properties that give it a high enough strength to be fabricated into products that can handle loads such as …

Development Plan For A Multi-Family Residential Building In San Luis Obispo, Shelby L. Wineman

Construction Management

Real estate development is often regarded as a daunting effort that requires a large sum of time and money. However, a greater supply of multi-family housing will protect cities from this homelessness, lack of availability to education, along with poor mental and physical health conditions. This paper addresses methods in which any new developer can efficiently approach developing small-scale, multi-family housing in San Luis Obispo and see overall profitability. The initial research set forth provides interested parties with a generalized basis of the analysis of value, design considerations, and methods of savings involved in development. The research is then directly …

The Benefits And Challenges Of Automation In The Modular Construction Industry, Allen Le

Construction Management

Modular construction combined with automation technology such as robotics presents benefits and challenges associated with it. Modular construction takes on the traditional building methods and has streamlined the production of modules making it safer, efficient, and productive. Along with innovation and cutting-edge technology such as automation, it offers an alternative building method to the modular construction industry that enhances productivity, worker safety, and efficiency. This research presents an investigation on factors that may be benefited from the adoption of automation but also addresses the challenges in modular construction. Qualitative interviews with designers and consultants in the modular industry were conducted …

Sustainability In Residential Construction: Homeowner Input On Sustainable Features, Samuel Bina

Construction Management

Recently, sustainability has become extremely popular in construction, and in particular residential construction. Regulations for sustainable construction have increased over the years and have begun to increase in popularity amongst homeowners. This report dives further into the importance of sustainability in residential construction, in particular working with homeowners to identify the best methods of increasing sustainability in their homes. Currently, little information has been published regarding homeowners’ perspectives on sustainability and the types of features they would be likely to incorporate into their homes that are not mandated by codes. This report serves to provide information to both the construction …

The Relationships Between Personality Types And Project Management Team Satisfaction, Patrick Moran

Construction Management

This research studies the relationships between personality types in Project Managers and Project Engineers and how they relate to project team satisfaction. Goals this research set out to accomplish include: finding relationships between personality types and team satisfaction, determining if heterogeneous or homogeneous team compositions yield greater levels of satisfaction, and determining if certain personality types influence team satisfaction more than others. In order to answer these goals, a specific study was conducted comparing two project teams composed of PMs and PEs. These teams were instructed to complete the NERIS Type Explorer® along with a Likert Scale questionnaire to self-assess …

Paso Robles Police Department Outdoor Training Facility Improvements, Nicolas A. Petri

Construction Management

This paper will outline the pre-construction and construction processes of the Paso Robles Police Department’s outdoor training facility improvements. The project, located in East Paso Robles, focuses on 12,000 square feet of a 24,300 square foot site owned by the city of Paso Robles. This is a group project done with Gavin Abraham and Zach Stellini that remodeled an existing outdoor training facility, including over 1400 square feet of concrete flatwork, underground utilities, 80 cubic yards of decomposed granite and various site civil improvements. The purpose of this project was to provide the Paso Robles Police Department with a cleaner …

San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden Amphitheater Bench Project – Concrete Formwork Construction, Kyler N. Cruz

Construction Management

This paper summarizes the efforts towards constructing formwork for 10 concrete benches. The formwork construction is a part of the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden amphitheater seating senior project. The project included the design, construction, and installation of precast concrete benches to create seating for 40 people. The project was completed by Kyler Cruz, Brandon Keefer, Sydnee Greer, Makenna Gitchell, Devin Barthmaier, and Anthony Masarweh. The concrete formwork consisted of plywood, 2x4 lumber for bracing, rebar cages, and foam inserts. The key considerations for this scope of work included: reinforcing rebar, the number of forms built, formwork failure, and the …

Alternatives To Oil-Based Binders For Asphalt Concrete Paving In Northern California, Parker E. Jenks

Construction Management

Every day, millions of Americans travel along highways and roadways during their everyday lives. Many people do not understand the vital impact that this infrastructure has on their day to day activities and what goes into building these roadways. The traditional process of using paving a roadway requires the use of an asphalt binder that is typically an oil-based binder. With the environmental effects of manufacturing and producing these oils, as well as the effects on the environment when the asphalt is placed, there have been a few accounts of producing an alternative asphalt binder that does not use oil. …

Home Builders’ Perception Of Virtual Inspections: A Case Study, Kyle J. Morse

Construction Management

The COVID-19 pandemic created a new set of restrictions and safety protocols for the residential construction industry. Many jurisdictions began placing social distancing practices on inspectors, limiting their ability to visit the jobsite. The adjustment required many residential builders and inspectors to adapt to virtual inspections using videos, photographs, and recordings. As this new technology gains traction in the residential industry, questions arise regarding its benefits, drawbacks, and industry acceptance. This case study analyzes the perceptions and experiences of five separate homebuilders in Yolo County, California. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five residential general contractors, transcribed, and thematically analyzed to …

City Farm Slo - Walk-In Produce Coolbot Cooler, Connor Morinini

Construction Management

This paper describes the planning, financing, and construction of a commercial sized refrigerator for a non-profit urban farm in San Luis Obispo, CA, called City Farm SLO. Construction of the project occurred over a nine-month period from September of 2020 to May of 2021. The project involved building a Tuffshed, site grading, framing a room inside the Tuffshed, hanging a door, installing electricity inside the room, insulating the interior, painting the exterior, installing an air conditioner, and wiring the Coolbot to the air conditioner. The project was built to allow the non-profit organization to begin storing their agricultural crops in …

Best Practices For Lean Scheduling And Coordination In Commercial Construction, Josselyn Marie Verutti

Construction Management

Efficiency and optimization are the major factors required for success in the construction industry. Lean construction is the all-encompassing path to this success, but while many understand the goal of lean construction, few can implement it in a way where it will be successful in saving time and money. Effective scheduling, coordination, and communication comes down to the quality of information flow within the project team. As a result, interaction effectiveness becomes one of the most crucial factors in determining the outcome of a project. The Last Planner System is one of the tools used to improve lean scheduling and …

Implementation Of A 4d Schedule As A Project Communication Tool, Jared Jacobs

Construction Management

This report details the project that was completed to produce a preliminary 4D Schedule for the Alma Clark Glass Residence Hall on Western Washington University’s campus. A 4D schedule combines the 3D model of the building and the project schedule and ultimately shows the sequence of construction. The main objective of this project is to explore areas for improved communication strategies within the project team. A 4D schedule provides an added dimension of communication that has the potential, if delivered effectively, to clearly define construction milestones and sequences for an owner to understand. The goal of this project is to …

The Leed Decision-Making Processes For Northern California Commercial Construction, Shannon Marie Coyle

Construction Management

The purpose of this project was to establish a common decision-making process behind selections on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) scorecard. This report describes the similar and dissimilar motives and processes that lead construction project teams to choose the LEED credits to be implemented. By interviewing experienced project executives, architects, project managers, and LEED accredited professionals at industry-leading companies in the Bay Area, a summarization of the motives behind credit selection have been reported and commonalities and differences in the process have been noted. Through these interviews, time, cost, efficiency, and sensibility have all been considered prioritizing …

Volumetric Modules For Mixed-Use Buildings: Logan At 51st - A Case Study, Abraham J. Ahmed

Construction Management

Modular construction has been a building technique since the 16^th century and has since been refined into one of today’s leading construction approaches. Modular construction is the process of manufacturing buildings or structures off-site. Modular construction is split into panelized systems which are two-dimensional system or volumetric system which are three-dimensional. This paper will examine the largest volumetric modular project, The Logan at 51^st, in the Bay Area which is set to be complete by the end of 2020. This paper will outline the current modular construction trend; the different types of modular construction; the process that …

Public Health Campaigns And The Covid-19 Vaccine: An Analysis Of The Role Marketing And Public Relations Play In Combating Vaccine Hesitancy And The Spread Of Misinformation On Social Media, Emily Mahoney

Journalism

This study is intended to determine the role social media has as a messaging platform for information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and the persuasiveness misinformation on these platforms has on people’s perceptions. Researching how the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and falsehoods can affect perceptions of our society will show how important marketing, PR, and other professional communicators roles are during a time like this.

Cementing Precedence Amid Volatility: Updating The Kcpr Operations Manual, Francisco A. Martinez

Journalism

This paper examines and outlines the reasons needed for solidifying concrete methods in updating an operations manual for an FM radio station; in this case: KCPR. Amid a desire for increased integration with Mustang Media Group, changing media trends within the radio industry and volatility with the accuracy of guiding documents, a student at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo believed it fit to update the Operations Manual and establish further precedent in updating the operations manual. This paper addresses the steps taken to update the Operations Manual and includes specific industry research findings and commentaries …

A Critique Of Scanlon On The Scope Of Morality, Benjamin A. Elmore

Between the Species

In this essay, I argue that contractualism, even when it is actually used to construe our moral duties towards non-human animals, does not do so naturally. We can infer from our experiences with companion animals that we owe moral duties to them because of special relationships we are in with them. We can further abstract that we owe general moral duties to non-human animals because they are the kinds of beings that we can have relationships with, and because of the capacities that make possible this relational capacity. This type of approach better explains our duties to non-human animals and …

Academic Senate - Agenda, 05/25/2021, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Arguing For Vegetarianism: (Symbolic) Ingestion And The (Inevitable) Absent Referent — Intersecting Jacques Derrida And Carol J. Adams, Mariana Almeida Pereira

Between the Species

In this paper I draw together the notion of the absent referent as proposed by Carol J. Adams, and the notions of literal and symbolical sacrifice by eating the other — or ingestion — advanced by Jacques Derrida, to characterize how animals are commonly perceived, which ultimately forbids productive arguments for vegetarianism. I discuss animals as being literally and definitionally absent referents, and I argue, informed by Derrida’s philosophy, that it is impossible to aim at turning them into present referents without reinforcing symbolic ingestion by linking symbolic ingestion to epistemic appropriation or conceptualization. With this, I highlight the ethical …