Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Influencing Hindgut Fermentation Characteristics Of The Leopard Tortoise (Stigmochelys Pardalis): Survey Of The Microbiome, Breanna P. Modica

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Novel fecal microbiome identification of mature female leopard tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis, n = 16) fed exclusively one of three, nutritionally complete, pelleted diets was evaluated in a blind, complete randomized design study. Two diets included insoluble fiber (powdered cellulose) consisting of either 2.0 mm or 0.2 mm length. There were no differences in diversity indices (J’ and H’) of total OTUs by diet, with and without unidentified sequences. Analysis of phyla similarity by diet revealed three distinct groups with > 92% similarity. Analysis of genera similarity revealed two distinct groups with > 80% similarity. At both phyla and genera levels, fecal microbiomes …

Roborodentia 2016 - Autonomous Omnidirectional Ring Moving Robot, Matthew Ng, Darus Holmgren, Mytch Johnson

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Our team created an autonomous omnidirectional driving robot that was capable of small micro adjustments to accurately follow the black guide line using four motors. This omnidirectional robot used a linear potentiometer to raise and lower the grabbing mechanism. The grabbing mechanism was a claw with 3D printed extensions which increased the amount of rings that could be picked up in a single motion. We expect this methodology of quick driving and streamlined movements would be a deciding factor in scoring points for our team.

Understanding The Transition From Dispersive Larva To Benthic Adult: A Study Of The Environmental Factors That Impact Kelletia Kelletii Larval Settlement, Megan Wilson

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

There is a paucity of information concerning the growth, development, and behavior of early life history stages of Kelletia kelletii, a marine predatory gastropod and emerging fisheries species. This is a significant barrier to our current understanding of the population dynamics of this species, as the early life stages are responsible for the dispersion of individuals. For this project, Kelletia kelletii specimen were collected and spawned, their egg capsules incubated, and their larvae reared in a laboratory setting. We measured the size of individual larvae at each developmental stage within the capsule, and fit several growth functions to the data. …

Food Sustainability At Cal Poly: Comparative Analysis Between Global And Local Distribution Of Produce Items, Ariana Brandao, Elizabeth Jacobs, Olivia Surnow, Stacy Olsen

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Baseline data for Cal Poly produce items purchased in 2014, were generated using food miles and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of transportation related impacts measured in units of global warming potential. A regional simulation of a local food system compiled using Harvest Santa Barbara serves as a model of a regional wholesale produce distributor. Research objectives aim to identify produce items that would significantly decrease food miles and transportation related impacts when sourced through a regional food distributor. Comparative analysis between the global and local food distribution systems, associated with 59 produce types illustrate tomatoes having the most significant impact …

Testing Of The Impact Diffusing Football Helmet, Michael Schuster, Steven Warnert

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Football is a much loved sport in the United States. Unfortunately, it is also hard on the players and puts them at very high risk of concussion. To combat this an inventor in Santa Barbara brought a new design to Cal Poly to be tested. The design was tested in small scale first in order to make some preliminary conclusions about the design. In order to fully test the helmet design; however, full scale testing was required. In order to carry out this testing a drop tower was built based on National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, NOCSAE, …

The Manifestation Of Implicit Biases Upon Attending A Non-Racially Diverse University, Maddison Montana, Michael Kramer

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

The overarching purpose of this research project is to investigate how exposure to diversity influences implicit racial bias (i.e., unconscious racial prejudice). Specifically, we examine whether attending Cal Poly, a university with lower levels of racial diversity as compared to other state universities, has a significant impact on the implicit racial biases of its student population. By quantifying the implicit racial biases of Cal Poly freshman during their first quarter of attendance, we received a baseline measure of their racial bias (via a measure called the Implicit Associations Test (IAT)). During their third quarter, Spring of their freshman year, we …

Point-Of-Care Diagnostic Device For The Quantitative Analysis Of Human Estradiol At Low-Picomolar Concentrations, E Brandon Strong, Brittany A. Lore, Zachary B. Hoffman

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

A fundamental issue in healthcare is the development of cost-effective and reliable diagnostic assays. While still a relatively new field, paper-based analytical devices are emerging as inexpensive and portable methods of providing healthcare professionals with real-time diagnostic information. Furthermore, these devices can often be used at the point of care, thus eliminating the need for a myriad of time-consuming laboratory techniques. While the original goal of this project was to develop a paper-based lateral flow immunoassay capable of colorimetric quantitation, the device design was altered over the course of the past year. Upon testing, the originally proposed lateral flow assay …

Towards Radio Frequency Detection Of High-Energy Neutrinos And Cosmic Rays, Caroline Paciaroni

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

The goal of the project was to measure the impulse response of a bicone antenna used in an experiment done at the SLAC National Laboratory in 2014.The SLAC T-­‐510 experiment measured a particle air shower in a lab environment by directing the SLAC particle beam into a dielectric material and measuring, with antennas, the resultant radio-­‐frequency signal produced.The experiment is significant to understanding how extremely high-energy particles such as cosmic rays and neutrinos interact.These high-­energy particles carry information about the extremely volatile events happening in universe.Potential sources of these particles include Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs).This …

The Association Between Vitamin A Status Or Supplementation And Hiv/Aids, Mikaela Kathleen Curtis

Food Science and Nutrition

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected millions of people since the start of the epidemic in the early 1980s. HIV is the etiologic agent of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which has taken millions of lives. It is extremely difficult for particular populations to receive medication to treat HIV infection and prevent the progression of HIV to AIDS. Multiple studies have examined the effect of vitamin A on HIV infection, due to its immune stimulating effects. It is unclear whether an association exists between vitamin A and different aspects of HIV. This review examined the effect of vitamin A …

Farming: From The Ground Up, Brock Becker, Max Burt, Michael Gardner

Case Studies in Agribusiness

With half of all current farmers expected to retire within 10 years and entry-level farmers decreasing 30% since 1987, it appears we need to encourage new, entry-level farmers. This case study tracks how a young farmer started his business and the decisions and issues he dealt with along the way. Decisions discussed include whether to rent or lease land, and possible crop-share arrangements, offering custom operations as a way generate revenue and obtain equipment, crop selection and using labor contractors versus in-house labor.

Beach Hut Deli Case Study, Chris Mangiola, Seth Sobottka, Lauren Yien, Megan Fox

Case Studies in Agribusiness

Beach Hut Deli Case Study describes the origin, development and growth of a quick service restaurant in Granite Bay, CA, which has now expanded to 35 locations in California, Reno, and Las Vegas with plans to expand into the Pacific Northwest. The case discusses in-house and external marketing, menu development and franchising options and issues.

Just Desserts, Daniel Dentoni, Eric Griffen, Jimmy Pallios, Zane Westmoreland

Case Studies in Agribusiness

Just Desserts started at a San Francisco café in 1974 with a premium line of hand-crafted desserts. It moved to Oakland in 2001 to increase its production, only to bankrupt in 2003. It was saved by a group of investors who hired professional, experienced manage, with Michael Mendez becoming CEO in 2012. Mendez moved into organics, revamped packaging, and has grown the company.

Talley Farms Fresh Harvest: Excellence In Everything, Brandon Berguia, Emily Ormonde, Erin Van Grouw, Lance Van Grouw

Case Studies in Agribusiness

Talley Farms is a 3rd generation produce farm in the California Central Coast. Always looking for new ways to add value to their operations, they decided to see about community supported agriculture (CSA), an idea brought to the US from Switzerland and Japan in the 1980s. A CSA has subscribers who sign up to receive a box of produce on a regular basis. Decisions for Talley included what to put in the box, how to deliver it, sources of produce and how to market.

Learn By Neglect: A History Of Cal Poly's Stance On Campus Racial Climate, Salar Malik

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

On the eve of the 12th of November, 2015, one hundred and thirty students gathered to protest the erection of a “Free Speech wall on Cal Poly’s famed Dexter Lawn.”[1] Put together by the Cal Poly Republicans, the initially blank wall was designed to uphold the value and principle of free speech, however the wall quickly turned into a flashpoint for controversy as students took the opportunity to fill the wall with words of hate and degradation explicitly directed towards the LGBTQ, African-American, and the Muslim communities. The series of events which followed included multiple protests, several forums, and a …

Cal Poly's Soccer Campus Image, Vidal Aguilera

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

Cal Poly’s soccer program has attracted large crowds to the home games against their local rival, the University of California, Santa Barbara in recent years. Cal Poly is viewed as a “Soccer Campus” because when both teams get together they manage to create great games that have attracted large crowds to the games. The research of my paper is the rivalry between Cal Poly and the University of California, Santa Barbara since it has helped the program improve by being more competitive and attracting large crowds. The research is going to be on the most recent history now call the …

Women At Cal Poly: The Fear Of Sexual Integration, Gabriela Shy

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

In September of 1956 women were granted the ability to attend California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The Cal Poly administration approached this change in part by preparing regulations on campus that demonstrated how apprehensive many campuses were during this period of time concerning women and men living and pursing their education while coexisting within the same college campus. The book, Cues for Coeds, indicated a set of certain mandatory regulations and rules by which women were required to act in accordance. The rules also showed how the faculty at Cal Poly believed women would require greater supervision than …

Mockery Of Philanthropy: How The Inter Fraternity Council Of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Disassociates From Philanthropic Tradition, Graham E. Peralta

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

My intention for this research is to reintroduce a history that has been largely overlooked in relation to its impact on the student body at Cal Poly. Moreover, this research will ideally propose skepticism surrounding the primary claim of Greek life regarding its relevance to the independent student body, and greater community of San Luis Obispo. The Inter Fraternity Council of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo has been historically inadequate in their philanthropic efforts, while attempting to classify charitable donation as true philanthropy.

A Contemporary Witch Hunt: The Mccarthy Era At Cal Poly, Courtney M. Thompson

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

The Second Red Scare, starting in 1947, continuing through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, can be described as a contemporary witch hunt. McCarthyism, described as “a method, a tactic, an attitude, a tendency, a mood, a hysteria, an ideology, and a philosophy,” was in full force as Senator Joseph R. McCarthy began to play on the panic the public felt regarding the USSR and communism. McCarthy dedicated five years attempting to expose communists and other “left-wing loyalty risks” within the U.S. government. Due to the “hyper-suspicious atmosphere” of the Cold War, even insinuating disloyalty was enough to convince …

Names For Fame, Tamiko L. Cavey

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

It is a common practice to name a university’s buildings, fields, and monuments after its past presidents, prominent administrators, or gracious donors. Starting from the school’s earliest days as a two-year vocational institution and continuing today as a four-year state university, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo frequently named buildings after notable individuals. But what distinguishes these certain people to be recognized with their name on a lasting artifact of this prestigious school? And how does the naming process operate? This paper explores why specific administrators and faculty between 1928-1988 were commemorated with their names on buildings at Cal Poly, while …

Student Government: An Investment In Human Potential, Alex O. Budding

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

Officially incorporated in 1964, California Polytechnic State University’s Associated Students, Inc. presides over a variety of aspects of student life on campus including student government, the management of several on-campus buildings, and employing students to work in these facilities.[1] The official ASI webpage proudly states their vision to “be every student’s connection to the ultimate college experience.”[2] Cal Poly has had student body presidents since the 1905-06 school year, but it wasn’t until 1921 that the first official organization was created in the form of the Student Affairs Council, or SAC.[3] Nationally, student self-governance in higher education has existed in …

Rodeo And The Women's Barrel Racing Team At Cal Poly, Sara D. Fellbaum

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

In the 1980 El Rodeo there is a picture captioned, “The smallest barrel racers in town.”1 It is a picture of an Australian shepherd dog used in the herding events working the barrels with a monkey strapped to its back. It emphasizes the fact that barrel racing is always entertaining, especially with “smaller” barrel racers. This paper will look at the history of rodeo at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo and how it affected student life. It will also look at a few different schools that had the capacity for a rodeo team. Rodeo has been an important …

Altitude: Cal Poly's Aeronautics Department And "Learn By Doing", Austin S. Ng

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

The California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, started as a humble polytechnic school in a time when such schools had little repute. Given these origins, one might not think that Cal Poly would latch on to the latest technologies of its day as quickly as the larger, more established universities. But, in 1927, just 15 years after the first-ever powered flight, Cal Poly had established an Aeronautical Engineering Department with a class that had students build a functional airplane. This paper will examine if this applied learning approach to aeronautics education, ingrained in the Cal Poly slogan “Learn By …

Cal Poly Entrepreneurship: The Journey Of Innovative Culture At The University, David N. Karditzas

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

Entrepreneurship is an essential part of the free enterprise system that the economies of most countries including the United States are based upon. For such a vital part of the economy entrepreneurship is surprisingly a lacking topic of focus at the university level. Research and development has seen steady growth at top American universities, but at a general level smaller universities have either not implemented an entrepreneurship concentration or not placed enough resources into developing a successful program. California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo stands out as a smaller public university that has cultivated an impactful entrepreneurship program, producing successful …

Town And Gown At Cal Poly, Jenna E. Iwamura

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

‘It’s not that they’re bad, they just don’t realize how noise travels,’ resident Donna Nash said. Over the years, she’s seen more cars and more students added to the college, and the related neighborhood issues — more noise, specifically screaming — has increased. ‘When the older kids get here, there are a lot of parties, and we find the beer bottles in our bushes and the red cups.’ 1

1 Cynthia Lambert, “Cal Poly hosts walk in streets near campus to eyeball neighborhood concerns,” The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, CA), Sept. 19, 2015, 1.

From The Berkeley Hills To Bishop Peak: Acquisition And Use Of Land At Cal Poly And Uc Berkeley, Paul J. Michaels

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

From the initial 15 acres granted for what originally was supposed to be a normal school in San Luis Obispo to the now roughly 10,000 acres comprising vast agricultural and natural resources, the history of the land at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is as unique as the students who inhabit it. When high school students first begin to research which university to attend, they may come across a statistic that mentions the acreage of the university and that Cal Poly is “the second largest land-holding university in California, second only to UC Berkeley.” A logical progression of thought might …

Cal Poly And The Wayward Field Of Home Economics, Cullen P. Conboy

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

Since its establishment in 1901 California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo has gone through a number of identity crises. What began as a progressive institution that aimed to educate the state’s future blue-collar workers has matured into a recognized academic institution. As the school grew, its faculty and administrators had to decide which features of Cal Poly fit into their vision of its future, and which should be left behind as the university progressed. Many aspects of Cal Poly’s curriculum were scrapped somewhere between rural-secondary school, and comprehensive polytechnic university. The now defunct Department of Home Economics falls …

Politics, Paranoia, And Poly: The Mccarthy-Era Red Scare And Its Impact On California State Polytechnic School, San Luis, Emily E. Scates

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

Commie, Red, Pinko, Ruskie, bread-line potato-drinker; all of these are slurs made by Americans towards communists or communist sympathizers during the Cold War. Although communism is only a political theory designed by Karl Marx that predicts inevitable class warfare leading to publically owned land and shared labor, when this theory was applied in countries like Russia during the Cold War, it proved to be damaging to its citizens. The United States emerged from World War II as a dominating power, economically wealthy from wartime spending, and seemed to prosper in comparison to the U.S.S.R; which had suffered heavy losses during …

How Organizational Communication Shaped The Hearst Ranch Conservation Easement, Mo Tehrani

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to show how organizations involved with the Hearst Ranch Conservation Easement negotiations might have used the feedback loop characteristic of two-way Symmetrical communication theory to reach consensus on the Hearst Ranch Conservation Agreement.

Conservation easements are complex situations and each has separate and distinct goals, constraints, compromises, funding mechanisms, and public values.

This study analyzed public documents from seven different organizations that provided input in the public consultations regarding the Hearst Ranch Conservation Easement, which completed in 2005. This study concluded that one of the communication methods adopted during the Hearst Ranch Conservation Negotiation …

Skycsr: Optimal Communication Methods For Coordinating Ground Support In A Private And General Aviation Setting, Jessica Burke

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Delays due to miscommunication of between the pilot and ground service providers are increasing. The objective of this project is to develop a new method of communication between pilots, line service technicians and customer service agents. This will be achieved first through an investigation into current methods and state of the industry, followed by a survey conducted with a group of pilots and flight schools. This culminates in a web application that will take the deficiencies identified in the survey, to make sure ground service or fuel orders are explicitly clear and minimize the probability of a mis-fueling, overlooked fueling, …

Carbon Emission Awareness And Information Platform, Jose Ignacio Cordero, Paul Romero

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Climate change due to global warming has become a worldwide concern.

Nowadays, people are starting to wake up and realize that changes need to be

made in their lifestyles in order to preserve this earth and provide a better planet

for future generations. Finding a concrete solution to global warming and climate

change has proven to be a very challenging task. Governments have tried

implementing solutions and as a result, corporations have been forced to absorb

or transfer the cost of unsuccessful environmental regulations. Meanwhile,

individuals remain frustrated, wishing they could find a way to help.

The motivation behind this …