Digital Commons Network^™

Neural Network Based Edge Detection For Automated Medical Diagnosis, Dingran Lu, Xiao-Hua Yu, Xiaomin Jin, Bin Li, Quan Chen, Jianhua Zhu

Electrical Engineering

Edge detection is an important but rather difficult task in image processing and analysis. In this research, artificial neural networks are employed for edge detection based on its adaptive learning and nonlinear mapping properties. Fuzzy sets are introduced during the training phase to improve the generalization ability of neural networks. The application of the proposed neural network approach to the edge detection of medical images for automated bladder cancer diagnosis is also investigated. Successful computer simulation results are obtained.

Mustang Daily, June 6, 2011

Cal Poly Student Newspaper

Student newspaper of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Mustang Daily, June 2, 2011

Cal Poly Student Newspaper

Student newspaper of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Soil Development Processes On The Western Slope Of The Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains: A Geographic Study, Kristopher (Kris) Osterloh

Earth and Soil Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Therapeutic Recreation Through Ropes Courses And Teambuilding Activities, Jenny Phan

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Each day people are suffering some type of a disorder - physically, emotionally, mentally, or psychologically. With every new discovery, invention, and generation, both positive and negative affect comes with it. In the 21^st century, many individuals are under much pressure due to divorces, deaths, family dysfunctions, finances, cultural expectations, pollution, and high work demands. The basis of this research is to assess the benefits and impact of a ropes course and teambuilding activities have on participants, which leisure activity may potentially improve one’s health. The study was conducted at Chumash Challenge during the spring and summer of 2010 …

Assessment Of Foreign Language Proficiency Amongst Parks, Recreation, And Tourism Professionals, Brook Garnica

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

The purpose of this study was to assess foreign language (FL) proficiency perceptions and motivations amongst individuals employed in the recreation, parks, and tourism (RPT) fields. The subjects of this study were California Travel Association (CalTravel) members to represent the tourism sector and California Park and Recreation Society (CPRS) members to represent the recreation and parks sector. This study was conducted through the Web-based survey application, Zoomerang. The results of the survey indicate that members of CalTravel and CPRS both agree that professionals in their fields should have a basic knowledge of FL vocabulary. Both CalTravel and CPRS members are …

City Of San Joaquin 2040 Community Plan, Volume I: Background Report, City Of San Joaquin, California, Graduate Community And Regional Planning Studio, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Millennial Organic Wine Consumers Of San Luis Obispo, Ca, Tadeo Perez

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Conventional And Organic Lettuce Production In San Luis Obispo County, Mark Freitas Crusha

Agribusiness

This study was undertaken to evaluate the net returns for conventional head lettuce compared to organic leaf lettuce in San Luis Obispo County. Price, yield, and costs for both lettuce systems were collected to perform a budgeting analysis projected over a twenty-year period.

Organic leaf lettuce was found to be more capable of paying finance charges and fixed commitments to produce in San Luis Obispo County. This conclusion was based on projected price and yield data along with a comparison of the profit and loss statements for the two types of lettuce for the time period of 2011 through 2030. …

Isolation Of Antifungal Lactic Acid Bacteria From Food Sources And Their Use To Inhibit Mold Growth In Cheese, Dan Zhao

Master's Theses

A large amount of cheese is lost every year due to mold contamination. Biopreservation, which is the use of biological entities (microbes) and their metabolites to suppress microbial spoilage instead of chemical preservatives has lately gained increasing interest. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have the potential for use in biopreservation, because they are safe to consume and naturally exist in many foods. In this study, fifteen strains of lactobacilli isolated from dairy products, vegetables, and fermented pickles were tested by agar overlay assay for their anti-mold activity. Six strains grown on MRS agar showed strong inhibitory activity against a target mold …

Setup Reduction Time At A Batch Manufacturing Plant, Mario A. Aguilar

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project documents the efforts to reduce setup times at a batch manufacturing culture media production plant. The company is one of the leading producers in medical and laboratory supplies, including culture media. In the production of culture media, the production line requires to switch between solutions once or twice a day depending on the production schedule.

The report provides the production plant with a concrete analysis of their current changeover method, which tends to be lengthy and complicated, and suggest alternatives in short and long term periods of time to reduce setup time.

After analyzing the time studies of …

City Of San Joaquin 2040 Community Plan: Policy Document, Winter 2011, Crp 552/ 554 Community And Regional Planning Studio

City and Regional Planning Studios and Projects

No abstract provided.

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of An Electromagnetic Rail Gun For The Repeated Testing And Simulation Of Orbital Debris Impacts, Jeff Maniglia, Jordan Smiroldo, Alex Westfall, Guy Zohar

Aerospace Engineering

An Electromagnetic Railgun (EMRG) was designed, built, and tested, capable of firing a projectile a 1 gram projectile at 650 m/s muzzle velocity. The EMRG utilizes an injector, a high voltage power supply, a capacitor bank, inductors and rails. The injector fires 2300 psig Nitrogen gas into the system to provide an initial velocity. The high voltage power supply charges the capacitor bank. The capacitor bank discharges the electric potential built up through the projectile while inside the rails in order to create the EMRG’s force. The inductors are used to pulse form the capacitor bank in order to get …

City Of San Joaquin 2040 Community Plan: Background Report, City Of San Joaquin, California, Graduate Community And Regional Planning Studio, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

City and Regional Planning

The City of San Joaquin General Plan Update Background Report was prepared by second-year graduate students and a professor in the City and Regional Planning Department at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. Under an agreement between the City and the Department, this report is the first deliverable in a two-phase Graduate Community and Regional Planning Studio project to prepare a General Plan Update for the City. This project partially fulfills the requirements necessary to obtain a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from the University. This document represents 12 weeks of research regarding existing conditions and …

City Of San Joaquin 2040 Community Plan: Policy Document, City Of San Joaquin, California, Graduate Community And Regional Planning Studio, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

City and Regional Planning

The City of San Joaquin 2040 Community Plan was prepared by a group of 15 Graduate Students and one professor in the City and Regional Planning Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, between September 2010 and March 2011. The Plan, which embodies seven months of research on the existing conditions and future direction for the City of San Joaquin, California, was completed as a component of the graduate degree requirements to obtain a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from the University. The plan represents a collaboration between the City and University.

The students would like …

The Effects Of Cure Schedule On Properties Of Glass-Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Matrix Composites, Trevor J. Lee

Materials Engineering

Two different two-component resin systems were cured, via Differential Scanning Calorimetry, for the times recommended by their respective manufacturers. The resin cure schedules were designed to simulate typical and attainable processing conditions; they were cured at 120°F, 140°F, and 160°F, and in-mold post-cured at 200°F, 230°F, and 260°F. The resulting scans were then compared to a baseline cure for each resin system, consisting of two heating-cooling cycles at a constant rate of temperature change. These baseline cures were then used to determine the percent cure of each sample and the shift in glass transition temperature between the baseline cure and …

Ergonomic Improvement On The Farm/Garden Hoe, Yuan Chao Jiang

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The hoes are widely used in the farms and home gardens in the United States. Many existing hoes are not ergonomically designed because they require a lot of back bending and wrist bending during use. Back bending often causes lower back injuries, and wrist bending often causes carpal tunnel syndrome. It can be very expensive to cure these injuries. The objective of this project is to reduce back bending and wrist bending by redesigning the hoe in an ergonomic perspective. In order to achieve the objective, ergonomics and human factors concepts are applied in the design. Two additional side handles …

Review Of Kathleen L. Hull, Pestilence And Persistence: Yosemite Indian Demography And Culture In Colonial California, Terry L. Jones

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

From Where I Am Standing: Indigenous Narrative And Photo Documentary, Nestor R. Veloz Passalacqua

Ethnic Studies

Latin American Indigenous Peoples (LAIP) are a marginalized segment in Latin America. They inhabit a sub-America and are forced to migrate due to socio-political struggle and cultural coercion. LAIP experience a transnational and transborder migration that reflects the quality of cultural hybridity and of regional, ethnic, and cultural crossings. The purpose of this study is to research LAIP ways of reclaiming and reproducing cultural practices that elicit Indigenous awareness, knowledge, and ethnic identification in a transnational setting. The study examines through interviews and photographs transborder experiences and the lives of the participants. As a result, the project reveals that LAIP …

Creating An Environmental Education Program For Camp Fire Usa, Shannon Diaz

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The topic area for this Senior Project is Environmental Education. There were four environmental hands-on lesson plans that were created for the non-profit organization Camp Fire USA, Central Coast Council. These lessons will be implemented at Camp Natoma, the resident camp the Central Coast Council owns in Paso Robles, California. The lesson plans take up hour-long increments and have been created for youth ages eight through fifteen. The topics covered in the lessons include: composting; reduce, reuse, and recycle; solar energy; and wetlands. These lesson plans will be implemented as a new “Nature Class” that campers can choose to take …

Camera Study For Mammalian Carnivore Presence Across Seasons In Montana De Oro State Park, San Luis Obispo County, Ca, Samuel R. Young

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Montana de Oro (MDO) is one of the largest state parks in California. Little is known however about its wildlife or their habits. Large predators such as mountain lion (Puma concolor) and black bear (Ursus americanus), and non–native species such as red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral pig (Sus scropha) are of management concern because of their potentially dramatic ecological roles. Cameras were deployed at 5 sites along the Coon Creek hiking trail in spring (May 3–June 7), summer (July 15–August 19), and fall (October 10–November 23) sessions with the goal of …

Financial Analysis Of A Value Added Dairy Operation In California, Jason De Groot

Agribusiness

The case study was undertaken to determine whether if it is more financially profitable to become a value-added dairy business in California. This is a frequently discussed issue in agriculture, but there is not a lot of information available of how value-added facilities are doing.

This report uses two highly recognized financial reporting methods including an income statement and balance sheet to determine if the case study was financially profitable. Financial data was gathered from the enterprises, both farm and processing facility, for fiscal year 2010. The information generated made it possible to view financial income and profit for each …

Motivations Of Recreation, Parks, And Tourism Administration Students To Attend Professional Conferences, Nika Jalali

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Associations have increasingly been holding professional conferences globally. The California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration (RPTA) department offers students the chance to attend various professional conferences annually. The purpose of this study was to assess the motivations of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo RPTA students to attend professional conferences. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire on the Cal Poly campus. The findings from 80 subjects indicated a high interest in attending conferences; the top motivating factors to attend professional conferences were networking with professionals, job opportunities, and the relation of the …

A Follow Up Study Of Organic Wine Consumers In San Luis Obispo County, Andrew Whiting

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Juicy Boost: A Business Plan, Scott Silverman

Agribusiness

A start up business plan dealing with the opening of a Juice Bar in Paris, France.

The Ergo Knife Manufacturability Project: A Prosthetic Device, Caleb Sarris

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Millions of Americans’ upper extremities have been rendered useless or amputated due to injury or illness. Without strength and dexterity in the hand or wrist, these people are in need of tools to help them in everyday activities. The Ergo Knife offers these individuals a way to cope with this way of life as a device that can assist them, primarily in food consumption and can also be expanded to many other applications. The purpose of this project is to further develop the Ergo Knife so that it can better assist these individuals and improve the necessary processes used to …

Parker Aerospace Fluid Systems Division Product Support Facility Redesign, Sean Walker

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

With growing popularity for commercial air travel and aerial military operations comes an increase in demand for innovative, technological solutions of aircraft system components. As OEM sales of these components rise, this creates a burden on the aftermarket side of the business when these parts and systems require service in order to continue functioning properly. Parker Aerospace, Fluid Systems Division, and its Product Support Team are experiencing this growth burden and want to reconfigure necessary means within the layout to succeed in accommodating new program areas on the aftermarket side. During this process, cost reduction opportunities will be explored and …

Quality Of Life Plus (Ql+) 2011 Rideable Tour, Daniel J. Pelisek

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Quality of Life Plus (QL+) does important work supporting members of the United States armed forces. Without significant funding, it is unlikely they could continue doing that work. Our goal was to hold a charity bike ride, the 2011 QL+ RideABLE Tour, to help them raise the funds they need. We approached the ride from two different perspectives, event planning and project management, with the hope that the two approaches could work in synergy towards a successful event. The project management approach focused on industrial engineering tools like work breakdown structures (WBS), cost analysis, and risk assessment. The goal was …

Use Of Electroluminescent Wire For Monitoring Fatigue In Manual Materials Handling, Spencer Martinez, Chester Matkey

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In the field of manual materials handling, millions of dollars are lost each year in accidents caused by physical fatigue. The purpose of this project is to design a device for monitoring fatigue in manual material handling operations. Combining our knowledge of electronics, new product design, ergonomics, and human factors, we were able to design and test a product to meet these specifications in hopes of developing a prototype for marketability. While we have only developed a prototype, the economic justification is performed for mass production of the product. Using statistics gathered on the percentage of injuries caused each year …

Emergency Response Manufacturing: Lead Time Minimization And Human Factors For Ozone Water Filter Assembly And Kitting Process, Travis Gary

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In the unfortunate event of a natural disaster affecting San Luis Obispo, response from national entities cannot be relied upon for a timely or efficient response. Local disaster recovery is superior because it minimizes response time, the need for costly stockpiling and creates a solution that is uniquely suited to the community that empowers local people in their most troubled times. Extensive planning is required for local disaster recovery and this project aims to provide the research and recovery system design required to implement an effective recovery plan.

Potable water is the primary need for people in the disaster situations …