Digital Commons Network^™

Pressure Driven Desalination Utilizing Nanomaterials, Fangyou Xie

Master's Theses

Nanomaterials such as graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes, have demonstrated excellent properties for membrane desalination, including decrease of maintenance, increase of flux rate, simple solution casting, and impressive chemical inertness. Here, two projects are studied to investigate nanocarbon based membrane desalination. The first project is to prepare hybrid membranes with amyloid fibrils intercalated with graphene oxide sheets. The addition of protein amyloid fibrils expands the interlayer spacing between graphene oxide nanosheets and introduces additional functional groups in the diffusion pathways, resulting in increase of flux rate and rejection rate for the organic dyes. Amyloid fibrils also provide structural assistance to …

Rheological Studies Of Fully-Formulated Coatings Thickened With Heur: Effects Of Surfactants, Brandon M. Bonilla

Master's Theses

Rheology modifiers such as hydrophobically-modified ethoxylated urethane (HEUR)thickeners are included in waterborne latex coatings to optimize shear-rate dependent viscosity and other rheological properties. While these HEUR polymers are commonly used in industry, the complex chemical interactions that contribute to rheological properties are still not completely understood. Prior work in this area has focused on understanding latex-HEUR and latex-surfactant-HEUR interactions that affect rheological properties. Additionally, studies have been previously conducted to understand the relaxation mechanisms of complex interactions present in HEUR-thickened waterborne latex coatings under various dynamic conditions. The objective of this work is to extend the experimental work to fully-formulated …

Abalone Recruitment In Abalone Recruitment In Low-Density And Aggregated Populations Facing Climatic Stress, Ryan K. Walter

Physics

Understanding spatial and temporal patterns in the recruitment of marine invertebrates with complex life histories remains a critical knowledge gap in marine ecology and fisheries. As marine invertebrates are facing multiple stressors from overfishing and climatic stress, it is important to evaluate the conditions that facilitate recruitment in low-density populations. The red abalone Haliolis rufescens historically supported an economically important fishery in California, but the fishery was sequentially closed as stocks declined, and the last fished area was closed in 2018 following the collapse of the kelp forests in Northern California. Here, red abalone recruitment was evaluated annually from 2012 …

Influences Of Conservation Farming Practice Adoption Amongst Vineyards On The Central Coast Of California, Jazlyn Guerrero

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Farming practices will require changes to reduce crop sensitivity to climate change, which is projected to cause extreme heat events, variable precipitation, extended periods of drought, and increasing presence of pest and disease. Conservation agricultural practices build farm resiliency to climate impacts by improving soil health, reducing erosion and sediment runoff, and improving water infiltration. Literature on the adoption of conservation agriculture practices find no universal factors that indicate adoption of practices but suggest that the adoption of practices can be better understood by investigating practices specific variables and farm level characteristics and their implications on adoption. Our objective is …

Agricultural Conservation Decision-Making Under Environmental Risk And Uncertainty On The California Central Coast, Diego Rivera

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Global climate change is a process that is, in part, caused by agricultural practices, and will adversely affect agricultural operations, especially vineyards. The objective of this project is to determine how viticulturalists in Paso Robles, California view global climate change and how they use conservation practices that combat climate change and prepare for the associated negative effects. Interviews were conducted with vineyard advisors and managers to determine what general risks associated with wine grape production exist for their operations, and whether wine advisors and producers perceive global climate change to be one of those risks. The interview responses were then …

A Groundwater Model Of The San Luis Obispo Valley Basin Using Comsol Multiphysics, Brian Whetsler

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

A groundwater model of a subsection of the San Luis Obispo Valley basin was pro- duced using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5 software. The goal of this project was to create a general model using forward modeling techniques which would serve as the foundation for a more refined, complete, and calibrated groundwater hydrology model. The San Luis Obispo and Edna Valley basins are characterized as high-priority by the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act because of historic overdrafting of groundwater reserves during periods of drought in the early 1990's. Natural resource managers must use tools such as computer models to help forecast trends …

Cooking Systems Using Aluminum Foam, Ryan Tetsuo Mizukami

Physics

In developing countries, the use of wood burning fires for cooking is cause for illness and death. With this in mind, research was conducted to develop a solar cooking device capable of cooking of soup within 15 mins in order to reduce the negative impacts of cooking with wood. Current methods of solar-based cooking, such as solar concentrators and solar tube ovens, are impractical. A small solar panel is a cost-effective way to produce energy but will not produce enough power to cook within a reasonable amount of time. Even if it is assumed that all of the energy produced …

Artificial Night Lighting And Anthropogenic Noise Alter Animal Activity, Body Condition, Species Richness, And Community Structure, Joshua Willems

Master's Theses

Sensory pollution from artificial night-lighting and anthropogenic noise have increased at a dramatic rate over the last several decades. Alterations to the sensory environment have been found to affect wildlife in a wide variety of ways including behavioral changes, physiological responses, changes in species interactions, and altered community structure. Increased levels of light and noise pollution can originate from many sources including roads, energy development and infrastructure, and urbanization. Even remote or protected areas are not immune to the effects of increased sensory disturbances with 63 percent of protected areas within the United States found to have been exposed to …

Exploring The Relationships Between Mothers' Use Of Food To Soothe, Feeding Type And Mode, Maternal Feeding Style, Infant Behavior, And Infant Weight-Related Outcomes During Early Infancy, Megan K. Hupp

Master's Theses

Rapid infant weight gain (RWG) in the first six months postpartum is a strong predictor for obesity during childhood and adolescence. Although biological factors can influence infant weight gain trajectories, the modifiable factor of parent feeding practices can also have an influence. The use of food to soothe (FTS), or the act of feeding a child when he/she is upset for reasons other than hunger, has been associated with unhealthy eating behaviors and less-favorable weight outcomes in children and older infants. However, limited studies have explored the use of FTS during early infancy before the introduction of solids foods. The …

Hydraulic Effects Of Perpendicular Water Approach Velocity On Meter Gate Flow Measurement, John M. Thorburn

Master's Theses

Accurate flow measurement is required to effectively manage water resources. California Senate Bill X7-7 (SB X7-7), legislates this need by requiring agricultural water providers serving areas greater than 25,000 acres to develop an Agricultural Water Management Plan (AWMP) and adopt pricing based at least partly on volumetric water deliveries (DWR, 2009). This study focused on two of the most common flow measurement/flow control devices used in California open channel water conveyance systems: the circular meter gate and the rectangular meter gate. Testing was conducted on three Armco-type (round gates over round discharge pipe) gates measuring 12”, 18”, and 24” and …

Antibacterial Coatings Derived From Novel Chemically Responsive Vesicles, Emily B. Mobley

Master's Theses

In order for a drug, or any material used for the purpose of eliciting a change in an organisms’ physical or chemical state, to be effective it must reach the intended target intact and for a sustained rate over time. Drug delivery systems encapsulate a drug to protect it from degradation, prevent side reactions, increase solubility, improve accumulation rates at target sites, and release drugs at a controlled rate. Controlled and sustained release of drugs is achieved by degradation of the carrier triggered by breaking dynamic chemical bonds caused by changes in the chemical environment such as pH or redox …

Quantifying The Ecological Drivers And Impacts Of Parrotfish Predation On Caribbean Corals Communities, Hannah Sima Rempel

Master's Theses

Parrotfishes (Scarinae) are dominant Caribbean herbivores that play an important role in reducing coral-algae competition by grazing algae; yet some species are also occasional coral predators (corallivores) and thereby can have direct negative impacts on coral growth and survivorship. There is concern that parrotfish corallivory may contribute to substantial long-term declines in targeted coral species, particularly in areas with a high biomass of parrotfishes and low cover of corals. However, the capacity of target coral species to heal from parrotfish predation and the ecological drivers of corallivory are poorly understood.

In Chapter 1, we examined the patterns of coral healing …

An Executive Functioning Perspective In Neurofibromatosis Type 1: From Adhd And Autism Spectrum Disorder To Research Domains, Taylor Smith, Jessica A. Kaczorokski, Maria T. Acosta

Psychology and Child Development

Purpose: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a rare monogenic disorder associated with executive function (EF) deficits and heightened risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal of this paper is to understand how EFs provide a common foundation to understand vulnerabilities for ADHD and ASD within NF1.

Methods: A literature review and synthesis was conducted.

Results: EF difficulties in working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and planning are evident in NF1, ADHD, and ASD. However, relatively little is known about the heterogeneity of EFs and ADHD and ASD outcomes in NF1. Assessment of ADHD and ASD …

Characterization Of Byv10x 600p Diode As An Isec Heat Source, Liam Cox

Physics

Insulated Solar Electric Cookers (ISEC) use a chain of about 18 BYV10X 600P diodes which is a new diode model from past ISEC devices. The past model is cylindrical in shape with the leads coming from the top and bottom. The new BYV10X model is square in shape with both leads on one of the edges. The diodes were tested under conditions modelling the inside of an ISEC device to determine performance bounds. The manufacturer stated these diodes are rated for a max average forward current of 10 amps. In two experiments the diodes reached up to 35 amps before …

An Application Of The Unscented Kalman Filter For Spacecraft Attitude Estimation On Real And Simulated Light Curve Data, Kent A. Rush

Master's Theses

In the past, analyses of lightcurve data have been applied to asteroids in order to determine their axis of rotation, rotation rate and other parameters. In recent decades, these analyses have begun to be applied in the domain of Earth orbiting spacecraft. Due to the complex geometry of spacecraft and the wide variety of parameters that can influence the way in which they reflect light, these analyses require more complex assumptions and a greater knowledge about the object being studied. Previous investigations have shown success in extracting attitude parameters from unresolved spacecraft using simulated data. This paper presents a focused …

Learning Assistant And Instructor Communication: Impacts On Perceived Efficacy, Jahangir Rassouli, Laura Ríos

Physics

The Learning Assistant (LA) Model was co-developed by Richard McCray and Valerie Otero at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2003. In this model, senior undergraduate students serve as facilitators for group discussion in lower-division courses, and employ evidenced-based practices for promoting inquiry and active learning [1]. Since its inception, the LA model has grown to various departments, disciplines, and universities.

At California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), the LA program in the physics department is still in its early stages. As such, it is an environment rich for exploration into the affordances, limitations, and benefits of …

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.

Limitations Of Initial Orbit Determination Methods For Low Earth Orbit Cubesats With Short Arc Orbital Passes, James P. Johnson

Master's Theses

This thesis will focus on the performance of angles only initial orbit determi- nation (IOD) methods on observational data of low Earth orbit (LEO) CubeSats. Using data obtained by Lockheed Martin’s Space Object Tracking (SpOT) facil- ity, four methods: Gauss, Double-R, Gooding and Assumed Circular, will use different amounts of orbital arc to determine which methods perform the best in the short arc regime of less than 10 degrees of orbital arc. Once the best method for estimating the orbit is determined, there will be analysis on whether these IOD methods are accurate enough to predict a secondary observation session. …

The Use And Explanation Of The Phase Angle In Forced Vibration Testing, Nicholas R. Slavin, Ryan D. Thornton

Architectural Engineering

Forced vibration testing is a tool used to characterize a structure’s dynamic properties. When subjecting a structure to a forced harmonic load, the results help define the structure’s fundamental frequencies and dominant mode shapes. However, when conducting testing, it is difficult to determine the contributions of each mode to the response at a given location in the structure. The recorded response from a forced vibration test is a combination of unknown modal constituents. Excitation may not result in the pure, single mode response that the experimenter desires, but may instead result in a combination of modal responses that obscure the …

Combining Machine Learning And Empirical Engineering Methods Towards Improving Oil Production Forecasting, Andrew J. Allen

Master's Theses

Current methods of production forecasting such as decline curve analysis (DCA) or numerical simulation require years of historical production data, and their accuracy is limited by the choice of model parameters. Unconventional resources have proven challenging to apply traditional methods of production forecasting because they lack long production histories and have extremely variable model parameters. This research proposes a data-driven alternative to reservoir simulation and production forecasting techniques. We create a proxy-well model for predicting cumulative oil production by selecting statistically significant well completion parameters and reservoir information as independent predictor variables in regression-based models. Then, principal component analysis (PCA) …

Identification Of Users Via Ssh Timing Attack, Thomas J. Flucke

Master's Theses

Secure Shell, a tool to securely access and run programs on a remote machine, is an important tool for both system administrators and developers alike. The technology landscape is becoming increasingly distributed and reliant on tools such as Secure Shell to protect information as a user works on a system remotely. While Secure Shell accounts for the abuses the security of older tools such as telnet overlook, it still has fundamental vulnerabilities which leak information about both the user and their activities through timing attacks. The OpenSSH client, the implementation included in all Linux, Mac, and Windows computers, sends each …

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 …

An [O Iii] Search For Extended Emission Around Agn With Hi Mapping: A Distant Cloud Ionized By Mkn 1, Erin Darnell Knese, William C. Keel, Greg Knese, Vardha N. Bennert, Alexei Moiseev, Aleksandra Grokhovskaya, Sergei N. Dodonov

Physics

Motivated by the discovery of large ionized clouds around AGN, and particularly the large fraction of those that are consistent with photoionized gaseous tidal debris, we searched for [O III] emission around Seyfert galaxies previously mapped in H I, many with extended gas features. Of 26 Seyfert galaxies, we find one spatially extended emission feature, a discrete cloud projected ≈12 kpc SW from the centre of Mkn 1 and spanning a transverse extent of 8 kpc. Optical spectroscopy (Kast/Lick and SCORPIO/BTA) of this cloud confirms its association with the Mkn 1–NGC 451 galaxy pair, closely matching the kinematics of nearby …

The Danger Of Current Rwandan Gender Politics, Amani Briggs

Women's, Gender and Queer Studies

This critical analysis will investigate whether Rwanda’s glorified representation of women in government positions truly serves the women in their society or rather the agenda of the men in power. Rwanda is frequently hailed as the prime example for African feminism due to their 2008 parliamentary elections. The 2013 Rwandan Parliamentary elections ushered in a record -breaking sixty-four percent of seats for women candidates, making Rwanda the top country for women in politics. In comparison, women make up a global average of 23.8 percent of parliament members as of June 2018 (W.E. Forum, 2017). Their representation of women in government …

Data Acquisition, Analysis, And Modeling Of Rotordynamic Systems, Michael P. Mullen

Master's Theses

Data acquisition systems for rotordynamic analysis and machine vibration were explored for the purpose of replacing the obsolete Bently Nevada ADRE 208 and ADRE for Windows system. These included the development of Matlab based custom data acquisition systems and a user interface. A model of an anisotropic rotor response undergoing transient speed was developed for the rapid prototyping and testing of data acquisition systems. Several methods for the measurement of amplitudes and phase in both the time domain and frequency domain were developed and compared. An alternate data acquisition method which is more inline with industry practices was created for …

Urban Palimpsests: Studying Enlightenment Influences In The Post-Earthquake Rebuilding Of Lima And Lisbon, 1746–1765, Emily Chung

The Forum: Journal of History

Urban renewal has long existed as a vessel for the assertion of authority, embodying hierarchy, policy, and culture in the most tangible way with architecture and civic landscaping shaped to accommodate the upper strata of society. Particularly interesting to study through this lens is the latter half of the eighteenth century which marks the turning point between royal absolutism and the emergence of competing forms of power in the European Empire, through the growth of the Enlightenment movement. This paper offers a comparison of two imperial cities, Lima and Lisbon, which due to similarly tragic earthquakes, were provided the opportunity …

Towards Equitable Communication: An Exploratory Study To Guide Knowledge Translation In Kinesiology, Akuekegbe Y. Uwadiale, Jafra D. Thomas

Kinesiology and Public Health

Resources at or below the 8th grade reading level is key if behavioral resources are to support end-user health literacy, a strong predictor of prevention-oriented health behaviors and health risk. To understand how readability issues effect physical activity resources, we performed a systematic review of the kinesiology literature. A sample of 18 original studies was obtained (M publication date=2010, SD=7.45), which on average reported public resources exceeded the 8th grade reading level by at least two grades. Thematic analysis resulted in 14 general ways material readability could be easily improved. Project findings will be discussed and next steps presented.

Graduate Internship Report - Frontier High School, Bakersfield, Mallory P. Harrison

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 Frontier 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 Frontier High School, the agriculture program and the community.

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.

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.