Digital Commons Network^™

Underground Anthology Vol. 1, Eden Railsback, Juan Vergara, Shanae Aurora Martinez

Underground Anthology

The Underground Anthology is a journal for BIPOC authors to share their creative writing works with the world. The UA team felt there was something missing in existing creative writing publications on campus: BIPOC representation. In a predominantly white institution, and a predominantly white field of study, all we want are our stories told. UA acknowledges that it is equally as important to uplift, amplify, and empower the talented voices of underrepresented students in order to create a more vibrant and diversified campus climate. We hope that this journal will inspire change in the ways we conventionally think about literature. …

Apple’S Cost-Sharing Arrangement: Frankenstein’S Monster, David G. Chamberlain, Stephen L. Curtis

Accounting

In this two-part report, Curtis and Chamberlain break down Apple’s cost-sharing arrangement and explain how corporate taxpayers have been able to exploit the cost-sharing regulations to shift hundreds of billions or even trillions in U.S. profits offshore with little or no IRS detection or enforcement.

Maternal Diet During Pregnancy And Lactation And Child Food Preferences, Dietary Patterns, And Weight Outcomes: A Review Of Recent Research, Alison K. Ventura, Suzanne Phelan, Karina Silva Garcia

Kinesiology and Public Health

Purpose of Review Efforts to promote children’s preferences for healthy foods hold much potential for improving diet quality and preventing obesity. The purpose of this review was to summarize recent evidence for associations between maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation and child food preferences, dietary patterns, and weight outcomes.

Recent Findings Recent research illustrates greater maternal vegetable intakes during pregnancy and lactation predict greater child preferences for and intakes of vegetables. Recent randomized clinical trials to improve maternal weight outcomes during the perinatal period via behavioral lifestyle interventions that included dietary components have yielded mixed findings for effects on child …

Skill Or Slaughter In ‘Fair Chase:’ What Does Animal Resistance Tell Us About Modern Sports Hunting, Erica Von Essen, Michael P. Allen

Between the Species

In philosophy of sport, the internal justification for sports hunting is often that the chase empowers hunters to become skilled performers. However, this internal justification for sport hunting is challenged by two factors. One is the growing awareness that the hunted non-human animals themselves are skilled performers, demonstrating agency is resisting their hunters. Another is that recent developments in hunting practice undermine the internal justification by reducing the necessity for hunters to refine their performance skills, in effect allowing them to rely on technology and shortcuts in place of sportsmanship. Both factors reveal important justificatory deficits in modern sports hunting …

Analysis Into Artificial Intelligence And Its Developing Dynamic And Relationship In Agricultural Supply Chains, Samantha Jane Ault

Master's Theses

The thesis explores artificial intelligence (AI) in agricultural (Ag) supply chains (SCs) and presents a new typology to understand artificial intelligence-based solutions in agricultural SCs. The thesis was performed utilizing a research-based review to investigate the current uses of artificial intelligence-based solutions in agricultural SCs. The AI-based solutions were found in case studies that reviewed AI operations in different areas internationally.

The typology was formed on the foundation of two dynamics, the location of AI applications in Ag SCs and the driving values to integrate the AI applications. In order to develop the typology, the AI applications were studied in …

Executive Committee - Combined Minutes For 8/24/2021 And 8/30/2021, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of The Central Coast Rangeland Coalition: Trust And Other Factors Important For Collaborative Conservation, Dustin Tran

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

The proliferation of collaborative partnerships across the western United States and the lack of tools and protocols to evaluate them have been well documented. As the number and types (conservation-based, policy actions, information sharing) of collaboratives rises, there is a need for research that aims to evaluate these partnerships' performance and collaborative process considering their importance and potential to solve complex ecological, economic, and social problems. This study aims to contribute to this pool of research by interviewing the Steering Committee (SC) members of the Central Coast Rangeland Coalition (CCRC), a volunteer-based and information-sharing rangeland collaborative coalition. We evaluate and …

A Comparative Review Of Cell-Based Mariculture And Conventional Seafood Life Cycle Assesments, Kyle Rathbone

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

The global fishing and aquaculture industries inflict significant environmental impacts on our planet’s oceans. The overfishing, pollution, and environmental degradation currently caused by these industries threatens the sustainability of marine ecological and industrial systems. Despite this, demand for seafood is expected to rise in the coming decades to service the growing global population with nutrient-rich foods. The difficulty in reconciling the need for drastic improvements in marine sustainability and the need to continue meeting global seafood demand has produced an interest in alternative solutions to seafood production. The emerging cell-based foods industry may hold the potential to produce seafood products …

Climate Adaptation And Water Conservation Decision-Making In Paso Robles, California Vineyards, Christopher Klier

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

This paper examines vineyard perceptions and adoption of climate change adaptation and water conservation measures in the Paso Robles American Viticultural Area (AVA). A survey was distributed to all 220 vineyards and vineyard management companies that operate in the AVA, with a 53.64% response rate. The objective of the survey was to determine vineyard manager and owner attitudes towards climate change and adaptation, as well as their perceptions of how these threats would impact their operation. A second objective was to document the current level of water conservation and climate adaptation while identifying the barriers and opportunities for further adoption …

Plastic In Agricultural Soils And Its Biological Impacts, Olivia Mckay

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Agricultural plastic mulch reduces weeds, yields higher crop quality and quantity, and increases soil temperature, but it can also become a soil pollutant. The impact of agricultural plastic contamination on soil microbial activity remains poorly documented. To better understand how plastic pollution influences soil microbial decomposers, we sampled three farms in Watsonville, CA. Each site is characterized by large amounts of plastic contamination in the form of polyethylene mulch and polyvinyl chloride dripline. The fields contain marked amounts of macro- (and presumably micro-) plastic fragments primarily derived from PVC dripline and polyethylene mulch. We haphazardly collected 6" deep soil samples …

Soil Disturbance In Sierra Nevada Montane Meadow Following Lodgepole Pine Removal, Nicholas Cary

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Climate change and other anthropogenic stressors are driving conifer encroachment into meadow habitat. Encroachment, if ignored, can revert meadows back into dense forested habitat, negating meadow’s ecologic services (Durak et al. 2014). This research attempts to measure soil and stream habitat disturbances in Rock Creek meadow, located with Collins Pine Company land in Plumas County, California after clear-cut removal of encroaching lodgepole pine with mechanical machinery. Soil bulk density, ground cover transect data, and stream habitat conditions were monitored before (July 2019) and after (June 2021) restoration to measure changes in soil compaction, stream temperature, and surface disturbance (rutting/ tracks). …

Rebuilding California History: Research, Conceptual Design, And Code Analysis For The Reconstruction Of The Swanton Pacific Railroad On Swanton Ranch, David J. Choy

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this report is to provide code research, code analysis, and conceptual design work for the Swanton Pacific Railroad. This work will provide a basis that decisions makers can use to review potential actions for the future of the Swanton Pacific Railroad. Based on the research, several issues have been identified that will need to be addressed if rebuilding is to succeed.

• The parcel that the railroad is located on is Split Zoned, which will need to be resolved.
• A decision needs to be made if this project is: Only rebuilding what was existing beforehand, rebuilding in part …

Interior Point Optimization Of Low-Thrust Spacecraft Trajectories, Jordan D. Frederiksen

Master's Theses

Low-thrust interplanetary spacecraft trajectory optimization poses a uniquely difficult problem to solve because of the inherent nonlinearities of the dynamics and constraints as well as the large size of the search space of possible solutions. Tools currently exist that optimize low-thrust interplanetary trajectories, but these tools are rarely openly available to the public, and when they are available they require multiple interfaces between multiple different packages. The goal of this work is to present a new piece of low-thrust interplanetary spacecraft trajectory optimization software that is open-source and entirely self-contained so that more people can have access to the ability …

Subclinical Atherosclerosis Quantified Through Cumulative Shear Measurement, Margaret Lynne Papka

Master's Theses

With the high mortality rate of cardiovascular disease, it is important to study the early signs. The early detection of cardiovascular disease can lead to saved lives. Currently the most prevalent detection methods are the Framingham Risk Score and the carotid intima media thickness, both of which are insufficient. The necessary tool for early detection requires a uniform quantification system. The stimulus leading to endothelial dysfunction, the most significant predictor of a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE)—and subsequently subclinical atherosclerosis—is reduced shear stress. Increased surface relative roughness affects the flow profile transition from laminar to turbulent resulting in reduced shear …

Snr: Software Library For Introductory Robotics, Spencer F. Shaw

Master's Theses

This thesis introduces "SNR," a Python library for programming robotic systems in the context of introductory robotics courses. Greater demand for roboticists has pressured educational institutions to expand robotics curricula. Students are now more likely to take robotics courses earlier and with less prior programming experience. Students may be attempting to simultaneously learn a systems programming language, a library API, and robotics concepts. SNR is written purely in Python to present familiar semantics, eliminating one of these learning curves. Industry standard robotics libraries such as ROS often require additional build tools and configuration languages. Students in introductory courses frequently lack …

Nonlinear Model Development And Validation For Ball And Plate Control System, Zachary Richter

Master's Theses

Ball and plate balancing control systems are commonly studied due to the complex dynamics associated with the instability of the system in open-loop. For simplicity, mathematical models describing the ball and plate dynamics are often linearized and the effects of complex motion are assumed to be negligible. These assumptions are rarely backed with evidence or explanations validating the simplified form of the dynamical equations of motion. This thesis focuses on developing a nonlinear model that more accurately defines the dynamics of the system, in order to quantify the error of linear and nonlinear models when compared to a Simscape physical …

Take The Lead: Toward A Virtual Video Dance Partner, Ty Farris

Master's Theses

My work focuses on taking a single person as input and predicting the intentional movement of one dance partner based on the other dance partner's movement. Human pose estimation has been applied to dance and computer vision, but many existing applications focus on a single individual or multiple individuals performing. Currently there are very few works that focus specifically on dance couples combined with pose prediction. This thesis is applicable to the entertainment and gaming industry by training people to dance with a virtual dance partner.

Many existing interactive or virtual dance partners require a motion capture system, multiple cameras …

Multi-Assay Nutritional Metabolomics Profiling Of Low Vitamin A Status Versus Adequacy Is Characterized By Reduced Plasma Lipid Mediators Among Lactating Women In The Philippines: A Pilot Study, Catherine M. Johnson

Master's Theses

Background: A significant portion of lactating women in less developed countries have vitamin A (VA) deficiency. Lactation has substantial effects on a mother’s metabolism and VA is known to be needed in multiple biological processes, including growth, vision, immunity, and reproduction.

Objective: The objective of this pilot study was to utilize metabolomics profiling to conduct a broad, exploratory assessment of differences in plasma metabolites associated with low VA status versus adequacy in lactating women.

Methods: Plasma samples from lactating women who participated in a survey in Samar, Philippines, were selected from a cross-sectional study based on plasma retinol concentrations indicating …

Intercropping And Denisity Impacts In A Lettuce And Chard Agroecosystem, Sophia Moser

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Conventional agriculture that uses machinery management, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides, is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of biodiversity and soil health. Agroecological methods, such as intercropping, have the potential to make farming more sustainable, financially feasible and to be implemented on a large scale. Gaps in agricultural research have led to limited information as to how intercropped arrangements can be adapted to be as productive as conventional systems. This research evaluates the ecological and economic performance of a lettuce and chard agroecosystem, specifically investigating the impact that density and intercropping has on plant productivity and profitability. Both species …

Housing And Urban Development Home Development And The Future Of The Industry: Case Study, Nolan J. Binkele

Construction Management

A HUD home is a 1-4 unit residential property acquired by HUD (Housing and Urban Development) as a result of a foreclosure action. These homes tend to be priced slightly below market value in order to regain past losses. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has developed a building code to classify manufactured homes as HUD. Although manufactured homes are typically sold to single property owners, I hypothesize that building them in a tract form can benefit a community by providing affordable, adequate housing for low income families and single families. I also hypothesize that HUD home development will …

The Preconstruction Work For The Shaded Structure At Growing Grounds, Grace Gv Brekke

Construction Management

When beginning a project, one must take vast consideration into the plan. For a construction project, this means considering how long the project will take, how much it will cost, what materials will be used, who will build it, where the money will come from, and who will utilize the space. This paper analyzes all this preconstruction work for a shaded structure at Growing Grounds. The Growing Grounds shared community space in San Luis Obispo, California, provides incredible resources and opportunities to the people in the area that struggle with mental health. Through horticulture, the volunteers must work hard to …

Reasons And Remedies To The Dying Plant Walls, Hayley Q. Mcgough

Construction Management

Sustainability in construction has been increasingly popular and detrimental with the state of the planet and climate change. One of the more popular solutions is the addition of plant façades to a building, which are plants that are put on the vertical of a building. The benefits that come with plant facades include and are not limited to: Reduction of the urban heat island effect, improved air quality, local job creation, improved energy efficiency, building structure protection, noise reduction, increased biodiversity, urban agriculture. These benefits are not reaching their full potential because these plant façades keep dying creating a bigger …

Noninvasive Measurement Of Arterial Compliance With A Blood Pressure Cuff Using A Surrogate Arm Bench Top Model For Oscillometric Use, Shane Wilsey

Master's Theses

A surrogate arm model was created that is capable of being used for oscillometry. This model is capable of being used as a bench top model for blood pressure cuff devices. The arm consists of endplates and internal supports that are 3D printed with ABS, a silicone rubber outer sleeve, and interchangeable arteries made from two silicone rubber strips glued together at the edges. The interchangeable arteries have varying compliances that can be used as different inputs for oscillometric testing. A process was established to measure the artery compliances with a curve fit correlation of 0.95. However, testing revealed that …

Comparison Of Two Advanced Oxidation Processes For Their Production Of Hydroxyl Radicals And Evaluation Of A Uv/Ozone Aop At Varying Uv Fluence For Treating Diclofenac, Alexandra Cass

Master's Theses

This study explores the efficacy of two advanced oxidation processes for generation of hydroxyl radicals to promote degradation of emerging contaminants. Drought and water shortage have become pressing issues caused by our world’s changing climate. Water reclamation and reuse are increasingly important options for relieving this water stress. Water reuse runs the risk of reintroducing recalcitrant compounds that can accumulate in our bodies and environment. Advanced treatment methods that degrade these compounds are vital to protect our health and the health of the environment while providing necessary water resources. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have shown great promise for removing recalcitrant …

A Fire Protection Life Safety Analysis Of Multipurpose Building, Dalower Hossain

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The following report is a fire and hazard protection analysis of a new building. This new building is a multi-purpose building called MPB locates in Gazipur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The prescriptive requirements set by the codes and standards used at time of construction of the building have been met. The building has been properly classified with respect to occupancy as S1, Group B and F-1 and construction Type I A Sprinklered. Appropriate designs for interior partitions and exterior wall have been identified. Interior finish requirements have been analyzed for a better understanding of aesthetics guidelines. Based on the sprinkler drawing calculations, …

Climate Adaptation And Water Conservation Decision-Making In Paso Robles, California Vineyards, Christopher R. Klier

Master's Theses

This paper examines vineyard perceptions and adoption of climate change adaptation and water conservation measures in the Paso Robles American Viticultural Area (AVA). A survey was distributed to all 220 vineyards and vineyard management companies that operate in the AVA, with a 53.64% response rate. The objective of the survey was to determine vineyard manager and owner attitudes towards climate change and adaptation, as well as their perceptions of how these threats would impact their operation. A second objective was to document the current level of water conservation and climate adaptation while identifying the barriers and opportunities for further adoption …

Development Of A Low-Cost, Photovoltaic-Powered, Automated Water Recovery System, David E. Daley

Master's Theses

An existing water filtration system at the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI) wastes approximately 25 gallons of water per day rinsing out solid waste under light load. To reduce CIMWI’s water and energy consumption, an automated system was designed and built to recover the rinse water and return it to the existing filtration loop. Models for fluid system requirements, basic energy needs, and photo- voltaic energy generation were created to aid in component selection. Basic sensors and electronics were programmed in Python for use with a Raspberry Pi single board computer to collect and process water recovery data …

Integral Boundary Layer Methods In Python, Malachi Joseph Edland

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a modern approach to two Integral Boundary Layer methods implemented in the Python programming language. This work is based on two 2D boundary layer methods: Thwaites' method for laminar boundary layer flows and Head's method for turbulent boundary layer flows. Several novel enhancements improve the quality and usability of the results. These improvements include: a common ordinary differential equation (ODE) integration framework that generalizes computational implementations of Integral Boundary Layer methods; the use of a dense output Runge-Kutta ODE solver that allows for querying of simulation results at any point with accuracy to the same order as …

High Voltage Dc-Dc Converter Design For Submarine Application, Oscar Ambriz

Master's Theses

In this work a proof of concept for a step-down DC-DC converter used in a high voltage submarine application is presented. The purpose of the converter is to step down a 5000V-6000V input to a 24V output which can serve as an input to a submarine sensor. The completed system consists of two stages where the first stage is an unregulated switched capacitor converter to step down the initial input to a voltage range more appropriate for the selected second stage. The second stage is a regulated flyback converter topology which regulates the final output to the desired 24V. Performance …

Comparison Of Animal Versus Plant-Based Protein Supplementation To Nitrogen Balance In Female College Students, Adeline Maykish

Master's Theses

Plant-based diets have become popular in the past 10 years, with approximately 11% of Americans self-identifying as vegan or vegetarian, and many others trying to reduce meat consumption. Due to this increasing interest, the plant-based food market has exploded with several novel innovative products serving as alternatives to animal-based products. One such example is almond protein powder, a fairly new protein supplement created as an alternative to whey protein. A number of studies have compared animal-based protein supplementation, such as whey to plant-based supplementation, such as soy, on muscle protein synthesis and skeletal muscle preservation. Due to the novelty of …