Digital Commons Network^™

Safety First Means Safety Fits- An Awareness Campaign For Inclusive Ppe Designed For Women, Reagan Kellen Tonda

Construction Management

The construction industry has long overlooked the unique needs of women in terms of personal protective equipment (PPE), leading to discomfort and safety risks. This paper presents the "Safety First Means Safety Fits" social media awareness campaign, which aims to increase awareness about the importance of size-inclusive PPE for women and the progress being made in the industry. The campaign utilized social media, specifically Instagram, as a platform for dialogue and information distribution. The campaign involved the creation of an Instagram account (@safetyfits_CP) and the development of six posts addressing various aspects of women's PPE. The posts were promoted through …

Using Virtual Reality And Construction Software To Transform Construction Facilities, Jacqueline Ana Badal

Construction Management

The objective of this project is to analyze construction jobsite facilities, specifically portable restroom facilities, and brainstorm how they can be redesigned to better suit the needs of women and individuals working on site. Portable toilets endure a great amount of weathering throughout the duration of the project and can become extremely unsanitary and often riddled with profanity. This can create an unclean and unwelcoming environment, especially for women working on the jobsite. The purpose of this project is to create a discussion around jobsite safety, starting with portable toilets. This is done using construction technology. Virtual reality was used …

A Comparison Of Carbon-Based Calculators For Building Construction, Adam J. Walsh

Construction Management

The construction industry has a significant environmental impact, contributing to energy usage, carbon emissions, and waste generation. Efforts to promote sustainability and reduce this impact have emerged, with organizations like the U.S. Green Building Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency leading the way. One key aspect of sustainable construction is the use of carbon calculators, web-based tools that estimate and track carbon emissions throughout the building process. These calculators consider factors such as energy consumption, transportation, and waste disposal to provide a holistic view of a building's carbon footprint. However, there are challenges and limitations associated with these calculators, …

The Importance Of Implementing Safety Programs For Spanish-Only Workers In Mep, Izak J. Lozano

Construction Management

Hispanics make up 30% of the construction workers, the highest percentage of any non-Hispanic minority group. Unfortunately, evidence also suggests Hispanic and Latino workers with limited to no English language skills are not receiving an adequate amount of safety training which is a growing concern. A lack of safety training and language barriers on the jobsite are seen as the cause for Hispanic workers having 41.6% higher injuries and non-fatal injuries in construction as compared to non-Hispanics in 2020. Three contractors were interviewed about their safety training programs for Spanish-only workers to find what strategies were found to be effective. …

Slab Extension At Woods Humane Society, Corey K. Smith

Construction Management

Woods Humane Society is an animal shelter that provides pet rehabilitation and adoption services to San Luis Obispo and surrounding areas. The Woods’ facility contains a number of kennels for dogs as well as numerous outdoor, fenced-in, concrete exercise yards. These yards give dogs the opportunity to play outside a few times a day allowing them to get vital exercise. One of these yards on the south side of the property had an exterior fence that was offset from an existing slab on the interior of the fence by one foot. This was an issue for the shelter as dogs …

The Sonoma Developmental Center Redevelopment Project: A Stakeholder Salience And Conflict Analysis Case Study, Leo Dickson

Construction Management

This analytical case study is an experimental exploration into the utilization of stakeholder salience research to analyze land redevelopment projects from a managerial perspective. The study attempted to develop and apply a simple and approachable research model to a real redevelopment project. The research design is derived from an existing mathematical model designed to quantitatively measure stakeholder salience. Stakeholder salience theory and Pawlak’s conflict theory are the fundamental concepts used to create the research design model. The objective of this research was to assess its effectiveness when applied to a rural land redevelopment setting in the United States. The Sonoma …

Mobile Classroom: City Farm, Slo, Robert Dasch

Construction Management

The Mobile Classroom project is one element of the larger “Garden for All” project at City Farm SLO. The “Garden for All” project has created a garden that is accessible to mobility limited people, such as those in wheelchairs. The Mobile Classroom is 3 picnic tables with 6 movable benches. The tables are not be connected to the benches which allow a person in a wheelchair to roll up to the table. The picnic tables are 6’ long, 40” wide, and 29” tall. The benches are 6’ long, 14.5” wide, and 18” tall. The supporting elements of the tables and …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Noise Ordinances On Residential Construction: A Case Study In San Luis Obispo, Duncan Catley

Construction Management

Construction activities inherently generate substantial noise. As a result, construction becomes a notable source of ambient sound that permeates populated areas daily. This sound, especially at extreme volumes, can be the source of significant public annoyance and anger. Studies have shown that prolonged noise exposure can lead to hypertension, distraction, and even cognitive impairment in children. For these reasons, local governments will set noise ordinances to limit when and at what volume construction sounds can be made. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of these noise ordinances set by the city of San Luis Obispo. The …

Pcra-Icra Pre-Construction Risk Assessment/Infection Control Risk Assessment Course, Nicholas Dean Schorno

Construction Management

The Preconstruction Risk Assessment and Infection Control Risk Assessment (PCRA/ICRA) course is a collaboration between Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Construction Management Department, Cal Poly’s California Center for Construction Education, Green Advantage, LLC and Thomas Kommer, J.D. The goal is to create a certification course in which industry professionals become certified, signifying their knowledge and understanding of PCRA/ICRA practices associated with construction in the environment of patient care. The project began with the PCRA/ICRA manual authored by Stellar Performance, LLC. Working with Devin Deiranieh, the author developed the learning material for the course. The learning material consists of power point …

Integrative Analyses Of Genomic And Metabolomic Data Reveal Molecular Mechanisms Associated With Uterine Disease Traits In Transitioning Dairy Cattle, Leanna C. Sanchez, Mohammed Abo-Ismail, Daniel Peterson, Fernando Campos-Chillon

Master's Theses

The metritis complex (MC), characterizing post-partum uterine diseases in dairy cattle has negative implications on animal welfare, production efficiency, and the economic stability of the dairy industry. The studies in this thesis aimed to investigate the genetic architecture of the metritis complex and identify genomic regions and metabolites associated with the development of MC. Thereby enhancing our understanding of the biological pathways and molecular mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of MC during the transition period in Jersey and Holstein dairy cattle.

Chapter 2 sheds light on the previous work done on MC. The goals of this review were to (1) …

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 …

Flash Cooking: Phase Change Thermal Storage With Solar Salt, Orion B. Barar

Physics

After a few hours of sun, the solar salt Insulated Solar Electric Cooker (ISECooker) can deliver up to 0.7 kWh of energy to the contents of a cookpot. In the first 2 minutes of cooking, the ISECooker provides an average ~5000 W to the food, resulting in “flash cooking.” Molten solar salt holds solar electric energy in an insulated chamber, allowing a user to cook in the evening, hours after the sun has set. A global group of collaborators is working to optimize the construction, dissemination and designs of ISECookers.

Child Sexual Assault Prevention And Intervention, Kira Peterson, Amaya Ibuna, Emily Valenzuela

Psychology and Child Development

In our paper, we discuss child sexual assault, its risk factors, short and long-term outcomes, as well as prevention and intervention programs that have been shown to be valuable. To limit research, our focus will be on children living in the United States who have been physically sexually assaulted. To spread awareness of child sexual abuse, we also developed a pamphlet (See Appendix) that will be distributed to CASAs, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. The development of the pamphlet is described in the combined Method and Results section. We conclude our project and paper with a Discussion section …

Surface Characterization Of Low-Density Polyethylene Mulch, Risha Shah

Materials Engineering

Plastic pollution in aquatic systems has traditionally been highlighted in past and current research due to the increase in plastic production every year. Unfortunately, quantitative and qualitative data regarding plastic pollution on land systems such as agricultural mulch is limited. Agricultural mulch breaks down into macroplastics and then degrades into microplastics. The microplastics investigated in this study are all secondary microplastics: microplastics that form due to weathering of larger fragments of plastic. Weathering can occur due to a variety of factors; however, UV radiation and mechanical weathering have been the factors of focus on most current research in microplastic formulation. …

Biomechanical Knee Joint For Exoskeleton, Gabriel Ireton Ahern, Calloway Miller, Christianna Altamura, Eric Mailes

Mechanical Engineering

Our senior design project consisted of designing and manufacturing a biomechanically accurate, actuated knee joint to be integrated into an exoskeleton being developed by the Lower Limb Exoskeleton Assist Project (LLEAP), a part of the EMPOWER student association at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. As the human knee flexes and extends throughout gait motion, the center of rotation changes. Currently marketed exoskeletons have one point of rotation, which over constrains the knee and causes misalignment between the user and the suit [1]. Our goal was to mimic natural knee joint motion by changing the center or rotation, thus reducing misalignment …

Surf Sled 2.0, Troy I. Feinstein

Mechanical Engineering

This Preliminary Design Review documents the complete detail of our final design and justifies that our specifications were met. For our senior project though California Polytechnic University, we were assigned a design and build challenge from the company AmpSurf. The project was sponsored by the Founder of AmpSurf, Dana Cummings, and involved designing and manufacturing a fully functional Surf Sled. The objective was to safely carry a physically impaired AmpSurf client across the sand on a surfboard and launch them into the ocean. The goal for our team was to improve upon a previous design, Surf Sled 1.0, to be …

Backflow Relief Valve Test Stand, Olivia Mcnulty, Wiill Halvorsen, Ryan Dubois, David Leaman

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) document details the final design, manufacturing, testing, and results of the Zurn Wilkins Backflow Relief Valve Test Stand Project under the sponsorship of Brian Yale and Rueben Westmoreland. This project involves simulating real-world conditions of static pressure and water hammer cycling. The stand will give Zurn Wilkins’ engineers a method by which to test their relief valves prior to a rigorous, yearlong University of Southern California (USC) testing procedure. Our design involves using city water, a pump, a Zurn backflow preventer, and a control system to apply specific pressures to each end of the relief …

Fourth Wave Feminist Magazine, Chase E. Iseley

Graphic Communication

The idea of feminism is often negatively misconstrued, and much of the controversy surrounding feminism stems from perpetuated stereotypes and misconceptions. Although feminism may mean something different to everyone, the advocacy of women’s rights and equality of the sexes should not be overlooked. This magazine will be a collection of articles which clarify misconceptions, define feminism, and highlight women and other supporters. This magazine is an opportunity to educate and inspire future feminists.

Feasibility Assessment Of An All-Electric, Narrow-Body Airliner, Ariel Sampson

Master's Theses

Combustion emissions from aviation operations contribute significantly to climate change and air pollution. Accordingly, there is increasing interest in advancing battery-powered propulsion for aviation applications to reduce emissions. As batteries continue to improve, it is essential to recognize breakthroughs in battery specific energy in the context of air transport vehicles. Most electric aircraft designs and programs have focused on small aircraft because of restrictive battery performance. This work presents a feasibility assessment for an all-electric airliner based on an Airbus A220-100 with turbofan engines replaced by electric motors and propellers. The analysis compares the performance characteristics of the electric airliner …

Mmf-Drl: Multimodal Fusion-Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach With Domain-Specific Features For Classifying Time Series Data, Asmita Sharma

Master's Theses

This research focuses on addressing two pertinent problems in machine learning (ML) which are (a) the supervised classification of time series and (b) the need for large amounts of labeled images for training supervised classifiers. The novel contributions are two-fold. The first problem of time series classification is addressed by proposing to transform time series into domain-specific 2D features such as scalograms and recurrence plot (RP) images. The second problem which is the need for large amounts of labeled image data, is tackled by proposing a new way of using a reinforcement learning (RL) technique as a supervised classifier by …

​ Soilborne Pathogens Of Strawberry In The Central Coast Region Of California: ​ Survey And Cover Cropping With Wheat For Management Of Macrophomina Phaseolina, Mary Steele

Master's Theses

Surveys of the four major soilborne pathogens of strawberry (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fragariae, Macrophomina phaseolina, Phytophthora spp., and Verticillium dahliae) to determine their relative prevalence were conducted in Watsonville-Salinas, CA in 2021 and in Santa Maria, CA in 2022. All four major pathogens were detected at relatively similar prevalence in Watsonville-Salinas, between 22% and 31% of sampled fields. In Santa Maria, M. phaseolina was far more prevalent at 52% of sampled fields, the other three falling between 14% and 17%. Additionally replicated greenhouse and field trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of wheat as …

Effects Of Concussion And Visuomotor Metrics On Nhl Performance: An Explainable Ai Approach, Michael T. Moschitto

Master's Theses

Cognitive motor integration (CMI), the simultaneous coordination between cerebral function and motor output, is known to deteriorate following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This thesis explores the relationship between mTBI, CMI, and the performance of elite athletes in the National Hockey League (NHL). The approach focuses on examining the predictive value of various supervised Machine Learning (ML) models with an emphasis on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) models. Since the ML solution is intended to complement human scouting decisions, we evaluate the experiments based on both interpretability and accuracy on a limited class imbalanced dataset. The contributions of this research …

Reconstructing Identity: Carlton Burgan, Patient Zero In The Development Of Plastic Surgery, Civil War Through World War I, Teresa M. George

Master's Theses

Plastic surgery has played an integral role in helping people achieve societal expectations of appropriate physical appearance since its inception. Through the story of Carlton Burgan, a Union soldier during the American Civil War, who suffered severe facial trauma by mercury poisoning, this thesis hopes to reconstruct the conversation around plastic surgery’s origins as it is influenced by societal standards of the day. Specifically, this thesis argues that the seminal moments leading to plastic surgery being seen as a worthwhile medical specialty was during the Civil War, not World War I as so many scholars have put forth. Violent acts …

Executive Committee - Agenda 5/30/2023, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Academic Senate - Agenda, 5/23/2023, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

“Civil Dialogue” As Feminist Pedagogy: Engendering Material And Symbolic Movement, Sarah E. Jones

Feminist Pedagogy

In the United States, we are socialized to think in Western dualisms, and these patterns of communication characterize discussion of social issues. Consequently, discussion becomes debate and dominant approaches to inquiry are privileged over experience with persuasion being the end goal. Fostering agency, cultivating empathetic understanding, and facilitating critical thought are made more difficult—outcomes that are neither productive nor edifying in the college classroom. This original teaching activity resists hierarchical forms of debate in favor of visibility and solidarity in discussions of gendered violence. Grounded in principles of invitational rhetoric and provocation, the activity uses a “Civil Dialogue” format to …

Mending The Broken Bond: Exploring Human-Elephant Conflict In K. V. Dominic’S Poems, Ramya Kalaivani K, Raichel M. Sylus

Between the Species

Mountains are the immovable totem of the landscape which stand out from the surrounding environment as they are the elevated portion of the earth’s crust. In mountain regions, wildlife is one of the essential factors to be considered for developing a holistic environment. As a result of the rapid dwindling of resources for wildlife, the ecological balance is affected. It deteriorates the relationship and instigates conflict between human beings and animals. Mountains are home to various species. Among various animals, elephants are the significant animals seen in the mountain region. K.V. Dominic’s poems depict humans’ cruelty and brutal treatment towards …

Balance Assessment Using A Smartwatch Inertial Measurement Unit With Principal Component Analysis For Anatomical Calibration, Benjamin M. Presley, Jeffrey C. Sklar, Scott J. Hazelwood, Britta Berg-Johansen, Stephen M. Klisch

Biomedical Engineering

Balance assessment, or posturography, tracks and prevents health complications for a variety of groups with balance impairment, including the elderly population and patients with traumatic brain injury. Wearables can revolutionize state-of-the-art posturography methods, which have recently shifted focus to clinical validation of strictly positioned inertial measurement units (IMUs) as replacements for force-plate systems. Yet, modern anatomical calibration (i.e., sensor-to-segment alignment) methods have not been utilized in inertial-based posturography studies. Functional calibration methods can replace the need for strict placement of inertial measurement units, which may be tedious or confusing for certain users. In this study, balance-related metrics from a smartwatch …

Academic Senate - Agenda, 5/9/2023, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Flushing Time Variability In A Short, Low-Inflow Estuary, Mohsen Taherkhani, Sean Vitousek, Ryan K. Walter, Jennifer O'Leary, Amid P. Khodadoust

Physics

Flushing time, the time scale for exchange and mixing between embayed and oceanic waters in an estuary, plays an integral role in determining water quality and aquatic ecosystem health. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal variability of flushing times throughout Morro Bay, a short, low-inflow estuary (LIE) on the California coast, using a calibrated and validated hydrodynamic model (Delft3D). Morro Bay has historically supported an extensive eelgrass (Zostera marina) habitat, which declined substantially from 139 to 5.4 ha during 2007–2017. Eelgrass decline motivated the current research into the role of changing bed roughness and oceanic drivers (i.e., tide and …