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Hydrologic Characteristics Of Summer Stream Temperatures In Little Creek And Scotts Creek At The Swanton Pacific Ranch, Justin M. Louen

Master's Theses

Stream temperature impacts have resulted in increased restrictions on land management such as timber harvest and have created considerable uncertainty for future planning and management of redwood forestlands. Challenges remain in the assessment of downstream cumulative effects given the complexity of stream temperature dynamics. The goal of this research is to identify the risk of downstream temperature heating based on the summer low flow residence times, stream morphological characteristics, stream water storage, and heat budget exchanges. Stream temperature, hydrologic, climatic, and channel morphological data were collected on two, approximately 800 m stream reaches on Little Creek and Scotts Creek located …

Wind Climatology: A Study Of Trends On Rodgers' Dry Lakebed, Dana Coppernoll-Houston

STAR Program Research Presentations

A number of smaller projects at the Armstrong Flight Research Center fly on or close to the ground and are subject to ground-level winds. Many of these are new prototype models, such as PRANDTL-D (Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Lower Drag). Waiting for the right conditions on a day of variable winds can sometimes mean that teams fail to complete testing. A strategic analysis of wind behavior at a locations where winds can vary greatly due to terrain could lend insight into the best times to test for near-ground aircraft. The purpose of this project was to data mine historical …

Environmental And Economic Implications Of Alternative Cruise Ship Pathways In Bermuda, Sarah E. Lester, Crow White, Kevin Mayall, Ryan K. Walter

Physics

As the cruise ship industry moves towards ever larger vessels, many tourist destinations are faced with dilemmas about how to accommodate the latest generation of ships, which require deeper and wider shipping pathways. The location of nearshore shipping channels traveled by cruise ships has important environmental and economic implications, as dredging larger lanes damages habitat, ship traffic produces sediment plumes that can smother adjacent sensitive habitats (e.g., coral reefs, seagrass beds), and dredging costs vary spatially. These environmental and economic costs should ideally be evaluated in the context of projected benefits from increased tourism. To inform decision-making on cruise ship …

Integrating Indigenous Knowledge And Western Science Into Forestry, Natural Resources, And Environmental Programs, Priya Verma, Karen Vaughan, Kathleen J. Martin, Elvira Pulitano, James Garrett, Douglas D. Piirto

Ethnic Studies

A new minor titled “Indigenous Studies in Natural Resources and the Environment” (INRE) became available to students at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, in the fall of 2013. This minor aims to bring together the principles of both Indigenous ecological knowledge and western science. Instruction in these two approaches provides students with practical knowledge, research, and critical thinking skills to address complex environmental issues and natural resources management problems facing both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities around the world today. The INRE minor seeks to prepare students by providing a balanced education in the arts, sciences, and …

About Agn Ionization Echoes, Thermal Echoes, And Ionization Deficits In Low Redshift Lyman-Alpha Blobs, Mischa Schirmer, Sangeeta Malhotra, Nancy A. Levenson, Hai Fu, Rebecca L. Davies, William Keel, Paul Torrey, Vardha Nicola Bennert, Anna Pancoast, James E. H. Turner

Physics

We report the discovery of 14 Lyα blobs (LABs) at z ∼ 0.3, existing at least 4–7 billion years later in the Universe than all other LABs known. Their optical diameters are 20–70 kpc, and GALEX data imply Lyα luminosities of (0.4–6.3) × 10⁴³ erg s⁻¹. Contrary to high-z LABs, they live in low-density areas. They are ionized by AGN, suggesting that cold accretion streams as a power source must deplete between z = 2 and 0.3. We also show that transient AGN naturally explain the ionization deficits observed in many LABs. Their Lyα and X-ray …

Automated Detection Of Deep-Sea Animals, Dallas J. Hollis, Duane Edgington, Danelle Cline

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute routinely deploys remotely operated underwater vehicles equipped with high definition cameras for use in scientific studies. Utilizing a video collection of over 22,000 hours and the Video Annotation and Reference System, we have set out to automate the detection and classification of deep-sea animals. This paper serves to explore the pitfalls of automation and suggest possible solutions to automated detection in diverse ecosystems with varying field conditions. Detection was tested using a saliency-based neuromorphic selective attention algorithm. The animals that were not detected were then used to tune saliency parameters. Once objects are detected, …

Whisk: Web Hosted Information Into Summarized Knowledge, Jiewen Wu

Master's Theses

Today’s online content increases at an alarmingly rate which exceeds users’ ability to consume such content. Modern search techniques allow users to enter keyword queries to find content they wish to see. However, such techniques break down when users freely browse the internet without knowing exactly what they want. Users may have to invest an unnecessarily long time reading content to see if they are interested in it. Automatic text summarization helps relieve this problem by creating synopses that significantly reduce the text while preserving the key points. Steffen Lyngbaek created the SPORK summarization pipeline to solve the content overload …

Leveraging New Platforms To Provide Students With A Realistic Soc Design Experience, Andrew Danowitz, Antonio M. Leija

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Recently there have been a slew of digital design products released that promise to simplify the task of giving students a real-world System-on-Chip (SoC) design experience. These “programmable SoCs” from companies such as Xilinx, Cypress, and Altera combine modern multi-core ARM processors connected to an FPGA through a widely used SoC interconnect standard. This paper discusses a Real Time Embedded System Course I designed that uses the Xilinx Zynq platform to give students first-hand experience with modern System-on-Chip design methodologies and the challenges that designers face in both hardware and software bring-up for a modern IP-based design.

The first portion …

Executive Committee - Agenda, 6/2/2016, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Mechanism By Which Southern Sea Otters (Enhydra Lutris Nereis) Facilitate The Invasion Of An Exotic Fouling Bryozoan, Maggie Jenkins

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

I made progress on satisfying the objectives I set out to accomplish for my thesis project. Since spring of 2016, I designed and built predatory exclusion cages, deployed cages at the North T-Pier, and trapped crabs and maintained them at the Cal Poly pier. Additionally, I led over 30 scientific dives and collected sea otter foraging data weekly. I still need to run the foraging data through the Sea Otter Foraging Analysis (SOFA) program develop by Dr. Tim Tinker. However, based on my observations, clams comprise a majority of the sea otter diet in Morro Bay, but crabs still seem …

Automated Avocado Yield Forecasting Using Multi-Modal Imaging, Michael Woodson, Charlie Ross

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Yield forecasting is a common technique utilized to predict the amount of fruit expected at harvest. Orchard managers forecast yield to predict future packaging requirements, labor requirements, and to make agricultural decisions to help improve future yields. In order to forecast yield, one must first count the number of fruit on a representative sample of trees. Next, one must use a model to predict the total yield expected given the number of fruit counted. However, as population and labor costs continue to increase, a need for automation grows. While research has explored automated yield forecasting for various fruits, there currently …

Estimating The Impact Of Lost To Follow-Up On Breast Cancer Patients' Five-Year Disease-Free Survival, Megan Whitworth

Statistics

Abstract

Background Nationally, the 5-year survival rate for patients with breast cancer is relatively higher than patients diagnosed with other types of cancer. In addition to the higher survival rates, breast cancer patients also tend to have increased rates of lost to follow-up as compared to other cancers. When a patient becomes lost, the occurrence of distant metastasis cannot be reliably ascertained, unless the patient had a breast cancer-specific death. As a consequence of the missing information from lost patients, results from statistical analyses that contain lost patients may not adequately reflect the actual recurrence and disease-free survival rates. The …

Markov League Baseball: Baseball Analysis Using Markov Chains, Victor Joseph Asaro

Statistics

No abstract provided.

Structure And Geochronology Of The White Fork Pluton, Southern Sierra Nevada, Ian Richard Mahaffey

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The Sierra Nevada batholith represents an archetypal continental arc, although the style of deformation throughout the history of the arc is only poorly understood, in part due to the voluminous nature of Late Cretaceous magmatism that has overprinted earlier structures. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of pre-Late Cretaceous deformation in the Sierra Nevada batholith through a structural and geochronological study of the Jurassic White Fork pluton. A Jurassic age for the White Fork pluton is indicated by its inclusion of numerous 148 Ma Independence dikes, and geochronology on the White Fork pluton is limited …

Quartz Crystal Preferred Orientation And Recrystallization Patterns From Naturally Deformed Rocks Under Constriction, Riley Quine

Materials Engineering

This study analyzes crystal preferred orientation (CPO) patterns within constrictional quartz-rich gneisses. Quartz deformation and CPO patterns are an area of interest because quartz is one of the most prevalent minerals in earth's crust. Understanding the typical way that quartz crystals reorient under different states of strain can provide geologists with an additional tool for understanding paleo-strain. Temperature and strain geometry are two dominant factors that control the orientation of quartz crystals within a rock. Temperature determines which slip planes are active and slip planes typically reorient so that they are perpendicular to maximum stress. Previous workers have suggested that …

Creating A Probabilistic Graph For Wordnet Using Markov Logic Network, Lubomir Stanchev

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The paper shows how to create a probabilistic graph for WordNet. A node is created for every word and phrase in WordNet. An edge between two nodes is labeled with the probability that a user that is interested in the source concept will also be interested in the destination concept. For example, an edge with weight 0.3 between “canine” and “dog” indicates that there is a 30% probability that a user who searches for “canine” will be interested in results that contain the word “dog”. We refer to the graph as probabilistic because we enforce the constraint that the sum …

Selection Of A Flexible Polymer To Protect Dry Carbon Fibers In A Cfrp Wallet Hinge, Evan Dowey, Matthew Johnson

Materials Engineering

Common Fibers, a company founded by Cal Poly alumni, produces carbon fiber wallets. The invention of their built-in fiber-matrix composite hinge reduces the need for extra complexity and added mass that is inherent with using standard metal hinges to join standard composite panels. Replacing the polyurethane tape on the wallet hinge allows for improved protection while maintaining flexibility and other performance properties is critical to the success of such a design. The most important material property in this project is the bond strength between carbon fiber and a variety of flexible resin candidates. The silicone and urethane based elastomer resins …

Effect Of The 2013-2015 California Drought On Small Mammal Abundance And Diversity In Chaparral, Oak Woodland And Riparian Habitats, Nicole Desideri

Biological Sciences

Long-term biodiversity surveys are a useful tool for assessing the impacts of stochastic events on wildlife and their communities. A recent stochastic event to affect the state of California is the historic 2013-2015 drought. This drought, described as a one-in-one-thousand year event, brought precipitation to a historic low; the statewide rainfall reaching 34% below average (Swain et al. 2014). While humans are feeling the impact of this water shortage, the effects on native ecosystems and wildlife populations are poorly documented. Baseline small mammal biodiversity data collected in 2011, before the drought, allows us the opportunity to study the impacts of …

Predicting Flexural Strength Of Composite Honeycomb Core Sandwich Panels Using Mechanical Models Of Face Sheet Compressive Strength, Nicholas Bruffey, William Shiu

Materials Engineering

The design process at Zodiac Aerospace requires the ability to accurately predict the strength of a composite honeycomb core sandwich panel to adhere to strict FAA regulations. The most common failure mode in long beam composites is in compression. Following ASTM D7249 for a four-point bend test of a long beam flexural test, a mechanical model has been developed that relates the compressive strength of glass fiber face sheets to the flexural strength of the sandwich panel. Zodiac does not currently have data on the compressive strength of the face sheets, so testing was performed to find this property. Asymmetric …

Buckling Strength In Carbon Fiber Polymer Matrix Composites Produced By Filament Winding For Structural Use In Rockets, Kyle Rosenow

Materials Engineering

High-powered rockets use thin walled carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) tubes as the primary structure and the tubes experience compressive stress during flight, which is estimated at 18MPa. Cal Poly Space Systems (CPSS) recently acquired the capability to use filament winding for manufacturing CFRP structures. Filament winding wraps carbon-fiber tow coated in epoxy around an axisymmetric object, and in this case, an aluminum cylinder. The tube laminate is an angle-ply orientation testing the winding angles 35°, 50°, 65°, and 80° and winding patterns 1/1 and 8/1 in combination using an unsupported parallel compression test. Coupons are one-inch in height, 2.5 inches …

Accelerating Hash Grid And Screen-Space Photon Mapping In 3d Interactive Applications With Opencl, Nikolai Shkurkin

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Achieving interactive and realistic rendering is only possible with a combination of rendering algorithms, rendering pipelines, multi-core hardware, and parallelization APIs. This project explores and implements two photon mapping pipelines based on the work of Mara et. al [5] and Singh et. al [7] to achieve interactive rendering performance for a set of simple scenes using OpenCL and C++ to work with a GPU. In particular, both a 3D hash grid and a screen-space tiling algorithm are parallelized to accelerate photon lookup in order to compute direct and indirect lighting on visible surfaces in a scene. By using OpenCL with …

Improvements To Digital Democracy's Transcription Tool, Andrew Reinman

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Digital Democracy is a website that hosts legislative court hearings along with their transcripts and other information. The current process for getting these videos onto the website is quite tedious. By improving the tool currently used, I will automate a lot of the current work in order to greatly reduce the time spent getting videos on our website.

Micronaut: A 2d Action Side Scrolling Platformer For The Apple Tv, Christopher Michael Williams

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Micronaut is a 2D side scrolling platformer video game application developed for the Apple TV with the tvOS SDK version 9.1. It explores human­computer interaction of platformer video games on the Apple TV and aims to give the player the most control to maximize enjoyment. Micronaut features five engaging levels with each level designed to focus on teaching the player the mechanics one at a time. Micronaut has been submitted and is undergoing submission for the Apple TV App Store at the time of this paper. Christopher Williams managed the software development and design, and Jacob Johannesen created the graphical …

Raspberry Pi Radio Scanner Control Web Application, Jackson Marshall Strand

Computer Science and Software Engineering

In this senior project I design and develop software for the Raspberry Pi which allows the user to listen to and control a scanner radio anywhere in their home. The solution involves utilizing a Raspberry Pi 2 interfaced with the radio, a software package to communicate directly with the radio, and a web app hosting a web client providing the interface for user control. Audio streaming is achieved through the use of FFmpeg. Listening on the client is achieved by using an external software such as Video Lan (VLC) to open the audio stream. We provide an operable proof-of-concept with …

Black Holes Modeled As Fluid Droplets On Membranes, Anthony Bardessono

Physics

No abstract provided.

Real-Time, Non-Contact Heart Rate Monitor, Daniel Blike

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Subsystem Failure Analysis Within The Horizon Simulation Framework, Ian M. Lunsford

Master's Theses

System design is an inherently expensive and time consuming process. Engineers are constantly tasked to investigate new solutions for various programs. Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is an up and coming successful method used to reduce the time spent during the design process. By utilizing simulations, model-based systems engineering can verify high-level system requirements quickly and at low cost early in the design process. The Horizon Simulation Framework, or HSF, provides the capability of simulating a system and verifying the system performance. This paper outlines an improvement to the Horizon Simulation Framework by providing information to the user regarding schedule failures …

An Investigation Into The Use Of Polymer Bound Boronic Acid For Glucose Detection In Paper Based Microfluidic Devices, Spencer A. Schultz

Master's Theses

Paper Based Microfluidic Devices (microPADs) are a new platform for point-of-care diagnostic assays for use in resource-limited settings. These devices rely typically on enzymatic assays to produce their results, which makes them susceptible to degradation when exposed to extreme environmental conditions such as high temperature. In order to overcome this limitation, this research project focused on investigating the use of polymers instead of enzymes to detect analytes on microPADs.

Polymer-bound boronic acid, a glucose and pH sensitive polymer, was incorporated into microPADs in order to develop a chronometric, paper-based glucose assay. The polymer was tested with both lateral and vertical …

Exertion Control, Travis Taylor

Electrical Engineering

Current wearable fitness devices give the user after-the-fact fitness data, but little real-time feedback. Exertion Control, a new wearable device, continuously measures the user’s heart rate, creates a heart rate target, and helps the user reach it. This project completes the senior design and master’s thesis requirements and contains two milestones. The senior design product continuously measures the wearer’s heart rate and logs it with a user-friendly interface. This data models the heart’s exertion response and recovery response. The master’s thesis device refines the closed control loop with the user to give them a workout optimized to fit their needs.

Texting Etiquette And Its Effects On Our Perceptions Of Intimate Relationships, Taylor Clarke

Communication Studies

Abstract

This study seeks to understand the association between texting habits and characteristics and partner perceptions of intimate relationships. This study investigates multiple aspects of texting such as: temporality, participants’ perceived satisfaction with their significant other, length of text messages, frequency of communication, among others. It is hypothesized that texting etiquette and its various sub-components will be influential in how participants will rate their level of satisfaction (closeness, intimacy, emotional support, and effort) with their significant other. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with college-aged participants. They were asked questions regarding the texting etiquette of their significant other as well as …