Digital Commons Network^™

Mary Ann Starkey: Domesticity & Political Leadership In New Bern, North Carolina During The Civil War, Julie A. Zafiratos

Master's Theses

Mary Ann Starkey was a pivotal change agent in New Bern, North Carolina during the Civil War. She was born into slavery, yet by 1863 was in a position to bring together abolitionists and recruiters from the North and refugees and freedom fighters from her community. She was president of the 400-member Colored Women’s Union Relief Association of Newbern, North Carolina which worked to heal, feed and support the first colored regiments in North Carolina in their fight for freedom. This thesis looks closely at the Civil War through the life of this one woman, by examining the archival evidence …

Water Quality Assessment For San Luis Obispo Creek And Stenner Creek, Brent Flemmer

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Water quality was assessed in five stream segments in San Luis Obispo and Stenner Creeks in Spring of 2023. Two of the five sites were located along San Luis Obispo Creek, and three located along Stenner Creek. Criteria to evaluate these aquatic systems was provided by the Standard Operating Procedures of the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program, formulated by the State Water Resources Control Board. These procedures describe the methodology surrounding the collection of chemical, physical, and biological parameters of stream systems; streamflow, substrate, flow habitat, chemical water quality, and benthic macroinvertebrates are some of the criteria collected that allows …

Asme Electric-Human Powered Vehicle (Ehpv) Project, George Bernat, Roman Bradley, Casey Pickett, Paul Mansfield

Mechanical Engineering

This report documents the collaborative efforts of the senior design team and the Cal Poly Human Powered Vehicles Club in creating an electric-assisted human powered vehicle tailored for participation in ASME's e-HPV Spring 2024 competition. Delving into a comprehensive account of the project's lifecycle, the report outlines the iterative stages of ideation and design, the manufacturing processes, testing , and subsequent refinements undertaken by the team. Additionally, it provides analysis of the project management strategies employed, as well as an overall appraisal of successes, setbacks, and areas improvement. As a result of the project, the vehicle (shown below) was successfully …

Tourniquet Pressure Gradient Measurement Apparatus, Luis Enrique Perez, Elsa Elizabeth Bates

Biomedical Engineering

The goal of this project was to design a device that would measure pressure gradient data across the width of an elastic and inelastic tourniquet cuff using a human limb model. The main customer requirements that were focused on were to accurately measure the pressure from a tourniquet, keep the cost down, and be easy to use. The targeted design specifications were to read pressure values ranging from 0-400 mmHg, keep the test length under 5 minutes, and to keep the cost of materials under $400. The design of the device ended up consisting of 5 IV pouches that were …

Stress Effects On The Growth Physiology Of Pacific Rockfishes (Sebastes Spp.): Negative Impacts Of Cortisol And Elevated Temperature Exposure, Hayley M. Mapes

Master's Theses

Fish experiencing stressful conditions increase production of the glucocorticoid hormone cortisol, which alters energy intake and allocation to help recover physiological homeostasis. Fish experiencing prolonged elevations of cortisol, however, often exhibit reduced somatic growth. While it has been shown previously in fish that cortisol inhibits anabolic growth processes in part via changes in endocrine growth hormone (Gh)/insulin- like growth factor-1 (Igf1) signaling, it is not fully understood which components of Gh/Igf1 pathways are modulated by cortisol. Here, we explored how cortisol influences the Gh/Igf1 system in blue rockfish (Sebastes mystinus) by administering exogenous cortisol and examining effects on …

Insights Into Cellular Evolution: Temporal Deep Learning Models And Analysis For Cell Image Classification, Xinran Zhao

Master's Theses

Understanding the temporal evolution of cells poses a significant challenge in developmental biology. This study embarks on a comparative analysis of various machine-learning techniques to classify cell colony images across different timestamps, thereby aiming to capture dynamic transitions of cellular states. By performing Transfer Learning with state-of-the-art classification networks, we achieve high accuracy in categorizing single-timestamp images. Furthermore, this research introduces the integration of temporal models, notably LSTM (Long Short Term Memory Network), R-Transformer (Recurrent Neural Network enhanced Transformer) and ViViT (Video Vision Transformer), to undertake this classification task to verify the effectiveness of incorporating temporal features into the classification …

A Comparison Of Western And Eastern Soft Systems Approaches, John L. Anaya, John L. Anaya, John L. Anaya

Master's Theses

Soft System Approaches have been developed worldwide to help problem-solvers and decision-makers develop solutions to complex problems, such as aerospace systems. Soft System Approaches were designed to help lower the disorder of developing a complex system by increasing understanding of a situation. Four Soft System Approaches were investigated, two from the West and two from the East. Within the context of the paper, the West refers to thought patterns associated with thinkers and scientists in Europe and North America, and the East refers to those from and around China. The two from the West are Peter Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology …

Long Story Short, Hannah M. Varghese

Graphic Communication

Long Story Short and is a vintage up-cycling art brand. Our mission is to breathe new life into vintage pieces, crafting them into modern wearable art. As the name suggests, each creation tells a story while being revitalized for today’s fashion forward community.

Fast fashion and trend cycling has been a growing problem in today’s society. Things are going ‘in’ and ‘out’ quicker than they ever have. Trend cycling usually operates on a 20-year timeline. But, today’s sped up cycle encourages people to constantly over-consume in chase of the next cool thing. It’s unsustainable and an impossible chase. With a …

A Study On Ethical Hacking In Cybersecurity Education Within The United States, Jordan Chew

Master's Theses

As the field of computer security continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to educate the next generation of security professionals. However, much of the current education landscape primarily focuses on teaching defensive skills. Teaching offensive security, otherwise known as ethical hacking, is an important component in the education of all students who hope to contribute to the field of cybersecurity. Doing so requires a careful consideration of what ethical, legal, and practical issues arise from teaching students skills that can be used to cause harm. In this thesis, we first examine the current state of cybersecurity education in the …

Supersonic Air Inlet Modeling Using The Method Of Characteristics, Shay S. Takei

Master's Theses

The Air Inlet Method of Characteristics Analysis Tool (AIMCAT), a tool based in Python 3, is developed to model supersonic air inlet geometries during the early phases of design. The method of characteristics (MOC) is used to solve the governing equations for an inviscid, irrotational, isentropic, steady, supersonic flowfield. A comparison is made between modeling shock waves implicitly using Mach wave coalescence and modeling them explicitly using oblique shock relations. Multiple test cases are used to assess the accuracy of the tool by comparing to experimental wind tunnel data. Good general agreement was achieved over the majority of the supersonic …

Coralai: Emergent Ecosystems Of Neural Cellular Automata, Aidan A. Barbieux, Aidan A. Barbieux

Master's Theses

Artificial intelligence has traditionally been approached through centralized architectures and optimization of specific metrics on large datasets. However, the frontiers of fields spanning cognitive science, biology, physics, and computer science suggest that intelligence is better understood as a multi-scale, decentralized, emergent phenomenon. As such, scaling up approaches that mirror the natural world may be one of the next big advances in AI. This thesis presents Coralai, a framework for efficiently simulating the emergence of diverse artificial life ecosystems integrated with modular physics. The key innovations of Coralai include: 1) Hosting diverse Neural Cellular Automata organisms in the same simulation that …

Improving Automatic Transcription Using Natural Language Processing, Anna Kiefer

Master's Theses

Digital Democracy is a CalMatters and California Polytechnic State University initia-
tive to promote transparency in state government by increasing access to the Califor-
nia legislature. While Digital Democracy is made up of many resources, one founda-
tional step of the project is obtaining accurate, timely transcripts of California Senate
and Assembly hearings. The information extracted from these transcripts provides
crucial data for subsequent steps in the pipeline. In the context of Digital Democracy,
upleveling is when humans verify, correct, and annotate the transcript results after
the legislative hearings have been automatically transcribed. The upleveling process
is done with the …

Finite Element Analysis Of The Bearing Component Of Total Ankle Replacement Implants During The Stance Phase Of Gait, Timothy S. Jain

Master's Theses

Total ankle replacement (TAR) implants are an effective option to restore the range of motion of the ankle joint for arthritic patients. An effective tool for analyzing these implants’ mechanical performance and longevity in-silico is finite element analysis (FEA). ABAQUS FEA was used to statically analyze the von Mises stress and contact pressure on the articulating surface of the bearing component in two newly installed fixed-bearing total ankle replacement implants (the Wright Medical INBONE II and the Exactech Vantage). This bearing component rotates on the talar component to induce primary ankle joint motion of plantarflexion and dorsiflexion. The stress response …

Academic Senate - Minutes, 2/27/2024, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Academic Senate - Agenda, 2/27/2024, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Marine Heatwaves On Subsurface Temperatures And Dissolved Oxygen In The Chesapeake Bay, Nathan P. Shunk, Piero L. F. Mazzini, Ryan K. Walter

Physics

Subsurface impacts associated with Marine Heatwaves (MHWs) in estuaries are not well understood, largely due to data scarcity. Using over three decades (1986–2021) of observations from several monitoring programs, this study investigates subsurface temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) anomalies associated with surface MHWs in the Chesapeake Bay (CB). Seasonal variability in temperature anomalies followed a simple 1-D response to surface heating with downward heat transport and diffusion controlled by seasonally variable stratification and mixing. Two distinct temperature regimes were found: a thermally stratified spring-summer regime, when positive temperature anomalies were confined to the surface mixed layer (SML); and a homogeneous …

Jwst Lensed Quasar Dark Matter Survey – I. Description And First Results, A. M. Nierenberg, R. E. Keeley, D. Sluse, D. Gilman, S. Birrer, T. Treu, K. N. Abazajian, T. Anguita, A. J. Benson, Vardha N. Bennert

Physics

The flux ratios of gravitationally lensed quasars provide a powerful probe of the nature of dark matter. Importantly, these ratios are sensitive to small-scale structure, irrespective of the presence of baryons. This sensitivity may allow us to study the halo mass function even below the scales where galaxies form observable stars. For accurate measurements, it is essential that the quasar’s light is emitted from a physical region of the quasar with an angular scale of milliarcseconds or larger; this minimizes microlensing effects by stars within the deflector. The warm dust region of quasars fits this criterion, as it has parsec-size …

The Seoul National University Agn Monitoring Project. Iii. Hβ Lag Measurements Of 32 Luminous Active Galactic Nuclei And The High-Luminosity End Of The Size–Luminosity Relation, Jong-Hak Woo, Shu Wang, Suvendu Rakshit, Hojin Cho, Donghoon Son, Vardha N. Bennert, Elena Gallo, Edmund Hodges-Kluck, Tommaso Treu, Aaron J. Barth

Physics

We present the main results from a long-term reverberation mapping campaign carried out for the Seoul National University AGN Monitoring Project (SAMP). High-quality data were obtained during 2015–2021 for 32 luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs; i.e., continuum luminosity in the range of 1044–46 erg s−1) at a regular cadence, of 20–30 days for spectroscopy and 3–5 days for photometry. We obtain time lag measurements between the variability in the Hβ emission and the continuum for 32 AGNs; 25 of those have the best lag measurements based on our quality assessment, examining correlation strength and the posterior lag distribution. Our …

Coffee Cactus, Mackenzie Haneman

Graphic Communication

Coffee is one of the most well known and enjoyed drinks in the world. So many people go out to coffee shops to get work done, catch up with friends, or just to simply enjoy a local cup of coffee. Yet, many people find it difficult to bring that experience into the comfort of their own homes or have found tools that bring a personal and unique experience. Espresso machines, coffee tools, and unique terminology can be very intimidating for someone who is just starting to learn about coffee or wants to grow their own at home experience. The problem …

Evaluating Corporate Marine Plastic Pollution Reduction Pledges: Achieving Plastic Reductions Or Contributing To Greenwashing, Ansar Z. Mohammed

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

This paper examines major corporations' commitments and performance in reducing virgin plastic production, aligning corporate initiatives with tangible outcomes. It draws on sustainability governance literature and analyzes plastic reduction strategies by industry leaders such as SC Johnson, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Borealis, Nestlé, and Unilever. By synthesizing corporate reports and scholarly literature, the research provides an understanding of corporate plastic reduction within the framework of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14), which focuses on marine conservation. The study evaluates the alignment of corporate commitments with SDG 14, identifying genuine environmental stewardship and potential greenwashing. It employs three methodologies: transparency, accountability, and science-based …

Untitled Musings From The City, Grace Gillio

Intertidal

No abstract provided.

Can Functional Traits Predict Turnover Of Alpine Plant Species In Yosemite National Park?, Brooke L. Wallasch

Biological Sciences

Alpine species are a useful tool for predicting the effects of climate change on lowland species. A growing body of research has begun assessing the question of how alpine species will change in response to changing climate. In the study of alpine plant species, some researchers have begun exploring the idea that functional traits could be predictive of turnover in alpine plant communities. In this study, I used a species’-level approach to assess the ability of six functional traits (vegetative height, generative height, leaf thickness, leaf area, leaf dry weight, specific leaf area) to predict species turnover in alpine plants …

Improving Document Classification By Integrating Human-Crafted Semantic Knowledge, Lubomir Stanchev, Zachary Weinfeld

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Document classification is a pivotal task in various domains, warranting the development of robust algorithms. Among these, the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) algorithm, introduced by Google, has proven to perform well when fine-tuned for the task at hand. Leveraging transformer architecture, BERT demonstrates stellar language understanding capabilities. However, the integration of BERT with a range of approaches has shown potential for further enhancing classification accuracy. This paper investigates three techniques that leverage semantic understanding to improve the performance of document classification models trained with BERT. First, we balance corpora afflicted by imbalanced training data distributions. Next, we substitute …

Testing Of Recycled Polypropylene As A Viable Structural Material, Alexandre C. Bouquet, Colin W. Waterhouse, Gianna M. Rocca, Alycia A. Darby

Architectural Engineering

Over the course of 10 weeks, experiments were performed on extruded Polypropylene (PP) to determine the feasibility of its use in construction. Motivated by environmental concerns, the project aimed to explore sustainable alternatives to conventional building materials. Polypropylene, classified as a type 5 plastic according to the Resin Identification Code (RIC), possesses favorable properties such as durability, chemical resistance, and recyclability, making it a promising candidate for construction applications. Type 5 plastics are commonly used in various industries, including packaging, automotive, textiles, and consumer goods. In construction, PP is primarily utilized in applications such as piping systems, insulation, roofing materials, …

A Review Of “Making Black Girls Count In Math Education: Black Feminist Vision For Transformative Teaching, Michelle Craddock Guinn

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Collaborations, Not Competitions, Can Reduce Gender Disparities In Robotics, Sonia Roberts, Alysson Light

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Ungrading: Reflections Through A Feminist Pedagogical Lens, Erin M. Eggleston, Shelby Kimmel

Feminist Pedagogy

Ungrading is a pedagogical approach in which no grades are given on any assignments. Instead, students are provided with many opportunities to submit work and gain feedback. The goal is to shift student focus from achieving a grade to growth as a learner and a person. As instructors, our ungrading approach utilized personalized learning plans, checkpoint reflections, and student-professor learning conferences to put agency in the hands of our students. We employed this method in upper-level biology and computer science courses and provide critical reflections here regarding our experiences and the connections between this approach and feminist STEM pedagogy tenets. …

Feminist Biology: Towards Gender Equity In The Biology Curriculum, Nicole Danos, Carla Y. Bonilla, Sofia Leung

Feminist Pedagogy

The current curriculum in STEM is a product of historically unequal representation of genders in the science community. As a result, most attention has been given to male biology, creating a knowledge gap that has affected our social and political perspectives, such as an underinvestment in women’s health research. Feminist biology seeks to provide equal time and weight to the impact of sex as a biological factor, using inclusive definitions of biological sex that go beyond the male/female binary. Feminist pedagogy is a method of teaching that involves engaged learning and reflection in order to create a community of learners …

Centering Equity In Stem Teaching: Stem Ideas That Change The World, Ileana Vasu

Feminist Pedagogy

No discussion on equity/inequity makes sense without bringing power into that discussion. As instructors we need to ask questions such as “who decides and controls what knowledge is”, “whose identities are empowered and whose are erased”, “who has access and opportunity and who doesn’t”. Traditional teaching in STEM, including mathematics, assumes knowledge is objective, transmittable, repeatable to everyone. When educators follow a traditional curriculum, just like their teachers before them, they do so thinking their methods ensure equality and objectivity. These practices not only deny the role that Western patriarchal cultures have played in creating these so-called equitable practices, but …

Building Community, Competency, And Creativity In Calculus 2: Summary Of A Pilot Year Of Project Implementation, Jennifer Beichman, Candice R. Price

Feminist Pedagogy

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, instructional modes at our institution moved to fully online and remote, then fully online but on campus, and back to in-person learning in fall 2021. To combat perceived issues in student engagement, we piloted using group projects in place of exams at the natural content break points in Calculus 2.