Poor Maternal Nutrition Reduced Body Weight, Growth Variables, And Circulating Concentrations Of Igf-I And Igfbp-3 In Lambs, Melissa A. Rokosa

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of A Model Androgen 5a-Dihydrotestosterone On Mummichog (Fundulus Heteroclitus) Reproduction Under Different Salinities, Chelsea O'Connor Blatchley

Master's Theses

Abstract

Endocrine disrupting substances (EDSs) have the potential to disrupt sensitive hormone pathways, including those involved in development and reproduction. Both fresh and estuarine water bodies receive inputs of EDSs from a variety of sources, including sewage effluent, industrial effluent, and agricultural runoff. Based on limited available literature, freshwater species appear to respond to lower levels of EDSs than estuarine or marine species. To address this potential difference, a short-term reproductive bioassay was carried out under low and high salinity conditions using mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus), a euryhaline species that is native to the east coast of North America. …

A Spatial Analysis Of West Nile Virus In Texas, 2012, Allison G. Bradshaw

Master's Theses

The outbreak of West Nile Virus (WNV) in 2012 included over 1,880 reported cases in the state of Texas, and was a dramatic increase from the disease prevalence of previous years. Based on the framework of human ecology triangle, this investigation sought to test the validity of previously identified factors of West Nile Virus to this year’s outbreak and investigate the broad range of incidence rates across zip codes in Texas. A selection of demographic, environmental, and weather-related risk factors was included in the analysis in order to examine areas of high and low incidence across a varied landscape.

A …

The Effectiveness Of Periodontal Therapy On Renal Patients With Chronic Periodontitis, Philip L. Fava Ii

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Spatial Patterns Of Mobile Regolith Thickness And Meteoric 10be In Gordon Gulch, Front Range, Co, Neil Shea

Master's Theses

The Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory (BcCZO) aims to understand the history, architecture, and evolution of hillslopes found within the diverse topography and climate regimes of the Colorado Front Range. Here, I present the results of a systematic study that documents spatial patterns of mobile regolith thickness and uses concentrations of meteoric ¹⁰Be to assess the mechanisms and time scales of sediment transport and storage in Gordon Gulch, a mid-elevation watershed representative of topography throughout the region. Gordon Gulch lies within the unglaciated portion of the Front Range and is hypothesized to be in long-term steady state evolution. This …

Alteration Of Biological Properties Of Bacterial Lipids By Calcium Hydroxide Treatment, Sharefa Al-Asfour

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Metamaterial Enhanced Wireless Power Transmission System, Travis Jade Heffernan

Master's Theses

Nikolai Tesla's revolutionary experiments demonstrated the possible benefits of transmitting power wirelessly as early as 1891. Applications for the military, consumers, emergency personnel, remote sensors, and others use Tesla’s discovery of wireless power. Wireless power transmission (WPT) has the potential to be a common source of consumable energy, but it will only receive serious consideration if the transmit and receive systems are extremely efficient and capable of delivering usable amounts of power. Research has been conducted to improve the efficiency and performance of nearly every aspect of WPT systems, but the relatively new field of metamaterials (MTMs) has yet to …

The Effect Of Corticision And Different Force Magnitudes On Orthodontic Tooth Movement In A Rat Model, Christopher A. Murphy Dmd, Mds

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Association Between Ependymal Integrity And Ventriculomegaly, Meredith Halling

Master's Theses

The ventricles of the brain are lined by a monolayer of ciliated ependymal cells that act as an interface between the circulating cerebrospinal fluid and the underlying tissue. Along the lateral walls of the lateral ventricles, the ependymal cells have additional significance as they are considered one of the cell types that comprise the subventricular zone (SVZ) neurogenic niche. Since lateral ventricle expansion is a well documented occurrence in not only a variety of neurological disorders but also with normal aging, it is important to consider the effect of this expansion on the ependyma. By combining MRI-based 3-D reconstructions of …

Efficiency Of Piezotome-Corticision Assisted Orthodontics In Alleviating Mandibular Anterior Crowding - A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial, Rana Mehr

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the duration of mandibular-crowding alleviation with piezotome-corticision orthodontics compared with conventional orthodontics and the accompanying effects on patient’s pain and satisfaction.

Materials and Methods: 14 subjects were selected based on the following inclusion criteria: adult patients 18 or older, single arch or double arch treatment, non-extraction treatment in the mandibular arch, presence of a full complement of dentition from mandibular first molar to first molar, no spaces in the mandibular arch, mandibular anterior irregularity index greater than 5, patient with healthy periodontium and attachment loss of up to 2mm, the …

Enhancing Graduate Landscape Architecture Education Through Transdisciplinary Research Approaches: A Case Study At The University Of Connecticut, Julissa Mendez

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study To Determine The Agricultural Perceptions Of High School Students For The "I Love Farmers…They Feed My Soul!" Organization, Mindy N. Burris

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to identify a target market of the “I Love Farmers…They Feed My Soul!” (ILF) organization and establish marketing techniques for the organization. ILF is a non-profit organization committed to connecting the younger generations with information about agriculture and how food is produced.

This study thoroughly investigated the markets in three geographic areas throughout California. Surveys were administered to three high school’s English classes to gather data for analysis. The analysis identified the target market of the ILF organization and the associations between each target market and responses to questions regarding their agricultural knowledge, social …

Escherichia Coli Strain Diversity In Humans: Effects Of Sampling Effort And Methodology, Emily R. Neal

Master's Theses

Studies investigating Escherichia coli strain diversity and demographics in human hosts are frequently inconsistent regarding sampling effort and methodology while current strain typing methods are often expensive or laborious. To rectify these inconsistencies, sampling effort was investigated by comparing the diversity of 15-isolate collections to 100-isolate collections from 3 human subjects. Temporal variation in E. coli strain diversity was also studied by collecting 15 isolates once every 6 months. Additionally, strain identification and diversity collected by different sampling methods (fecal swabs vs. anal swabs collected at different times around defecation) were compared to identify any inherent biases in sampling method. …

Computer Sketch Recognition, Richard Steigerwald

Master's Theses

Tens of thousands of years ago, humans drew sketches that we can see and identify even today. Sketches are the oldest recorded form of human communication and are still widely used. The universality of sketches supersedes that of culture and language. Despite the universal accessibility of sketches by humans, computers are unable to interpret or even correctly identify the contents of sketches drawn by humans with a practical level of accuracy.

In my thesis, I demonstrate that the accuracy of existing sketch recognition techniques can be improved by optimizing the classification criteria. Current techniques classify a 20,000 sketch crowd-sourced dataset …

Cplop: The Cal Poly Library Of Pyroprints, Jan Lorenz Villaceran Soliman

Master's Theses

To date, microbial source tracking (MST), i.e. determining the source of microbial contamination based on the specific strains observed in the environment, often uses methods that are time-consuming, expensive and not always reliable. The biology department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo has developed a new method for MST called pyroprinting. Pyroprints can be used as DNA fingerprints for identifying sources of fecal contamination and studying bacterial populations in host animals. The MST method consists of two parts: the pyroprinting process and a database of pyroprints. The Cal Poly Library of Pyroprints (CPLOP) was developed to provide a database application …

Computational Modeling To Evaluate Helical Electrode Designs For Use In Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Anthony W. Cowley

Master's Theses

An estimated 0.5% of world’s population has been diagnosed with epilepsy. Of these patients 20-30% will be unable to achieve seizure control with anti-epileptic drugs. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) may be an appropriate treatment option for some patients with pharmaceutically refractory, partial-onset seizures.

VNS therapy uses a helical electrode to interface between the implantable pulse generator and the vagus nerve. While there have been several studies related to the mechanical and electrical safety of such electrodes, little work has been done toward understanding the effectiveness of the helical electrode in nerve stimulation. A better understanding of the voltage field and …

Design And Modeling Of Centralized Distribution Network For The Dc House Project, Harpreet S. Bassi

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the design, modeling, simulation, and performance evaluation of Centralized Distribution Network for the DC House Project. Power System Computer Aided Design (PSCAD) is used to model a Centralized PV Source, Battery Bank, and Distribution Network for 25 DC Houses. Design and modeling of each component in the proposed system are described. For the performance evaluation, emphasis is on voltage stability and system reliability under different operating conditions. Results from the simulation demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed Centralized Distribution Network for the DC House Project to support the houses during non-generation periods and distribution network voltage …

Dairy Manure Flushwater Treatment By Packed-Bed Anaerobic Digesters, Neal Cary Adler

Master's Theses

Wastewater treatment performance of three pilot-scale packed-bed anaerobic digesters with walnut shell medium was researched for treating dairy freestall barn flushwater. Reciprocation mixing was evaluated as a means to lessen channelization in the media bed and to improve biogas production and organic matter removal at ambient temperatures. Reciprocation has been used in biological nitrogen removal systems to introduce air into the system to repeatedly oxygenate nitrifying biofilm along with mixing (Behrends et al. 2003), but the anaerobic systems benefit from mixing. Two tanks were used in each system, where one was full and one was empty at any given time. …

Spork: A Summarization Pipeline For Online Repositories Of Knowledge, Steffen Slyngbae Lyngbaek

Master's Theses

The web 2.0 era has ushered an unprecedented amount of interactivity on the Internet resulting in a flood of user-generated content. This content is often unstructured and comes in the form of blog posts and comment discussions. Users can no longer keep up with the amount of content available, which causes developers to start relying on natural language techniques to help mitigate the problem. Although many natural language processing techniques have been employed for years, automatic text summarization, in particular, has recently gained traction. This research proposes a graph-based, extractive text summarization system called SPORK (Summarization Pipeline for Online Repositories …

Establishment And Validation Of A Novel Fucci (Fluorescent Ubiquitination-Based Cell Cycle Indicator) In An In Vitro Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Model, Jane Marie Isquith

Master's Theses

The deregulation of the cell cycle is important in the leukemic transformation and in the continued discovery of more efficient targeted therapies. After elucidation of the role of the RNA editor ADAR1 in the malignant reprogramming of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) progenitors to leukemia stem cells (LSCs) during the chronic phase to blast crisis stages of the disease, current research seeks to uncover the mechanism of action of ADAR1 in this process. To study the potential role ADAR1 plays in the changes to cell cycle during this disease progression, a novel Fucci (fluorescent ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicator) system was introduced …

Shark Sim: A Procedural Method Of Animating Leopard Sharks Based On Raw Location Data, Katherine S. Blizard

Master's Theses

Fish such as the Leopard Shark (Triakis semifasciata) can be tagged on their fin, released back into the wild, and their location tracked though technologies such as autonomous robots. Timestamped location data about their target is stored. We present a way to procedurally generate an animated simulation of T. semifasciata using only these timestamped location points.

This simulation utilizes several components. Input timestamps dictate a monotonic time-space curve mapping the simulation clock to the space curve. The space curve connects all the location points as a spline without any sharp folds that are too implausible for shark traversal. We create …

Post-Fire Response Of Little Creek Watershed: Evaluation Of Change In Sediment Production And Suspended Sediment Transport, Andrew Wood Loganbill

Master's Theses

The Little Creek watershed was assessed to identify changes in event-based suspended sediment export and determine the factors contributing to sediment production the first year following the Lockheed Fire in 2009. The amount and volume of near-stream sediment sources were found to decrease, while an increase in hillslope sediment production was documented. High intensity, short duration rainfall (up to 87 mm/hr for 10 minute duration) initiated extensive rilling and minor channel-derived debris torrents originating from the upper south facing slopes. Rainfall simulations, hillslope erosion plots, and soil infiltration tests indicated that fire produced soil water repellency, the lack of ground …

The Effect Of 2d And 3d Menus On Memory Retention In User Interface Design, Angela Michelle Muscat

Master's Theses

The increasing use of 3D user interface elements, particularly 3D menus, demonstrates the need to expand research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as it pertains to 3D user interfaces. The results of this thesis contribute to the understanding of the cognitive impacts of using 3D menus. Multiple application areas for 3D menus have been identified where memory retention is a critical success factor, but little research has been done in the area of memory retention for 3D menus. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the use of 3D carousel menus increases retention of information …

Algorithms For Library-Based Microbial Source Tracking, Aldrin Montana

Master's Theses

Pyroprinting is a novel, library-based microbial source tracking method developed by the Biology department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. This method consists of two parts: (1) a collection of bacterial fingerprints, called pyroprints, from known host species, and (2) a method for pyroprint comparison. Currently, Cal Poly Library of Pyroprints (CPLOP), a web-based database application, provides storage and analysis of over $10000$ pyroprints. This number is quickly growing as students and researchers continue to use pyroprinting for research. Biologists conducting research using pyroprinting rely on methods for partitioning collected bacterial isolates into bacterial strains. Clustering algorithms are commonly used …

Analysis Of Protein Pre-Coatings And Their Effect On Endothelial Cell Adhesion In A Tissue Engineered Blood Vessel Mimic, Rachel Ann Gohres

Master's Theses

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in developing countries. Because thousands of people are affected by this disease, medical device companies are constantly developing new intravascular devices in attempt to cure or alleviate the symptoms of the disease. However, before these devices can be brought to market or implanted in to patients, they must complete three stages of testing to receive FDA approval. These testing stages include: in vitro testing, in vivo testing, and clinical trials. Currently, there is a large gap between in vitro and in vivo testing because it is difficult to obtain physiologic information about …

The Effects Of Age On Muscle Loss And Tissue-Specific Levels Of Nf-ĸb And Sirt6 Proteins In Rats, Tiev C. Laguire

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to examine the influence of age on food intake, tissue and organ mass and NF-ĸB and SIRT6 levels in various tissues. The transcription factor, Nuclear Factor Kappa-B (NF-ĸB), is associated with both catabolic and anabolic pathways of muscle metabolism and may be involved in age-related muscle loss. SIRT6 is a member of the sirtuin family of proteins that function as protein lysine deacetylases and are associated with longevity in a number of organisms. Male Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 6 months (Adult) and 21 months (Old) were fed a commercially available diet for 10-17 days. Old …

Applying Sustainability From A Systems Perspective:, Timothy Brophy

Master's Theses

Becoming sustainable is no longer an option. Current industry methods will not be able to support the necessary changes our growing society demands. In order to keep up with ever increasing demands industry will be aimed toward making major system changes toward a fully sustainable model. As of right now only basic sustainability actions have been put in place. Industry needs to make a strategic change toward resilient systems with an end goal of evolving into fully biomimic systems. This thesis covers a brief history of production leading to the Industrial Revolution which created a need for increased sustainability efforts. …

Urban Agriculture Stormwater Management In California Cities, Rachel L. Cohen

Master's Theses

Cities within California are beginning to incorporate urban agriculture into their land use designations. Prompted by residents and local organizations, cities are hoping to capture the benefits that urban agriculture provides. Research has shown that urban agriculture renews and beautifies neighborhoods, provides healthy food choices, increases public health, has the potential to help with stormwater runoff, creates jobs, and fosters community. In the last few years, several California cities have made headlines as they have adopted new zoning codes that include urban agriculture.

In reviewing these new zoning codes and exploring the topic of urban agriculture, it became evident that …

A Multiphysics Simulation Of A Coronary Artery, Garry L. Howe

Master's Theses

This thesis hypothesizes that a commercially available multiphysics simulation software package can be easily employed to characterize the fluid flow and mechanical behavior in healthy and diseased arteries. To this end, multiphysics model of a coronary artery —the LAD artery—was created in COMSOL Multiphysics®. Wall shear stresses and distension were examined to validate the model. Such a model can be adapted to guide the design of cardiovascular devices.

Getting Biologists To Drop Acid, Ryan Verdon

Master's Theses

Bioinformatics is the field of science in which biology, computer science, and information technology merge to form a single discipline. The ultimate goal of the field is to enable the discovery of new biological insights as well as to create a global perspective from which unifying principles in biology can be discerned. Bioinformatics involves the analysis of various types of data from multiple sources to create a model of a physical process found in the real world. To do the necessary modeling, data is being piled up in various different biological databases. So far this has worked relatively well. Unfortunately …