Digital Commons Network^™

Quantifying The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Of Hazards: Incorporating Disaster Mitigation Strategies In Climate Action Plans, Michael Germeraad

Master's Theses

Reconstruction after natural disasters can represent large peaks in a community’s greenhouse gas emission inventory. Components of the built environment destroyed by natural hazards have their useful life shortened, requiring replacement before functionally necessary. Though the hazard itself does not release greenhouse gasses, the demolition and rebuilding process does, and these are the emissions we can quantify to better understand the climate impacts of disasters.

The proposed methodology draws data from existing emission and hazard resource literature and combines the information in a community scale life cycle assessment. Case studies of past disasters are used to refine the methodology and …

Learning About Led Lighting Technology Through Patents, Joe C. Liu

Master's Theses

Patents and published patent applications are valuable resources to students, engineers, and researchers for learning about technology. This thesis investigated the ability to learn about a technology through the disclosures that are made in published patent applications and issued patents.

This thesis first provides an overview of U.S. patent law, system, and resources that are available to the public. It is through an understanding of U.S. patent law and system that one can appreciate that patents and patent applications are a resource for learning about technology.

By providing the basic building blocks of LED lighting technology as learned through the …

Investigation Of Degradation Effects Due To Gate Stress In Gan-On-Si High Electron Mobility Transistors Through Analysis Of Low Frequency Noise, Michael Curtis Meyer Masuda

Master's Theses

Gallium Nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) have superior performance characteristics compared to Silicon (Si) and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) based transistors. GaN is a wide bandgap semiconductor which allows it to operate at higher breakdown voltages and power. Unlike traditional semiconductor devices, the GaN HEMT channel region is undoped and relies on the piezoelectric effect created at the GaN and Aluminum Gallium Nitride (AlGaN) heterojunction to create a conduction channel in the form of a quantum well known as the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Because the GaN HEMTs are undoped, these devices have higher electron mobility crucial for …

Evaluation Of Red Alder Mortality In The Little Creek Watershed Following The 2009 Lockheed Fire, Dylan Robert Theobald

Master's Theses

Five hundred eighty red alder along a 2.16 km portion of the Little Creek riparian zone were assessed for mortality following the 2009 Lockheed Fire near Davenport, California. The study area was divided into burn severity zones and every red alder within the riparian zone was observed and assessed for mortality. Height, diameter at breast height (DBH), and age were collected on selected trees. An estimation of red alder large woody debris (LWD) input to Little Creek since a 2010 LWD survey (Smith, 2010) was calculated using average red alder tree dimensions applied to Smalian’s formula (MLNRO, 2011). The mean …

Territorial Behavior And Cortical Brain Plasticity In Adult Male Sceloporus Occidentalis, Daniel R. Pfau

Master's Theses

The hippocampus is a brain region that can undergo tremendous plasticity in adulthood. The hippocampus is related to the formation of spatial memories in birds and mammals. In birds, plasticity in the hippocampus occurs when formation of such memories is directly relevant to survival or reproduction, such as for breeding or food caching. In reptiles, the homologues to the hippocampus are the dorsal and medial cortices (DC and MC). In several lizard, snake and turtle species, these structures have been related to spatial memory. Experimental investigations indicate that differences in DC volume are related to space use associated with differing …

Development Of Safety Standards For Cubesat Propulsion Systems, Liam Jon Cheney

Master's Theses

The CubeSat community has begun to develop and implement propulsion systems. This movement represents a new capability which may satisfy mission needs such as orbital and constellation maintenance, formation flight, de-orbit, and even interplanetary travel. With the freedom and capability granted by propulsion systems, CubeSat providers must accept new responsibilities in proportion to the potential hazards that propulsion systems may present.

The Cal Poly CubeSat program publishes and maintains the CubeSat Design Specification (CDS). They wish to help the CubeSat community to safety and responsibly expand its capabilities to include propulsive designs. For this reason, the author embarked on the …

Optical Security Using The Double-Random-Phase Encryption With Photon-Counting, Adam Markman

Master's Theses

We investigate a full phase based photon-counting double-random-phase encryption (PC-DRPE) method. A photon-counting technique is applied during the encryption process creating sparse images. The statistical distribution of the photon-counting decrypted data for full phase encoding and amplitude phase encoding are derived and their statistical parameters are used for authentication. The performance of the full phase PC-DRPE is compared with the amplitude-based PC-DRPE method. The photon-counting decrypted images make it difficult to visually authenticate the input image; however, advanced correlation filters can be used to authenticate the decrypted images given the correct keys. Initial computational simulations show that the full phase …

Design Of Controlled Environment For Tissue Engineering, Malcolm Gerald Lapera

Master's Theses

Design of Controlled Environment for Tissue Engineering

Malcolm Lapera

Tissue engineering aims at relieving the need for donor tissue and organs by developing a process of creating viable tissues in the laboratory setting. With over 120,000 people awaiting a transplant, the need for generating tissue engineered organs is very large [3]. In order for organs to be engineered, a few issues need to be overcome. A work space that both creates an environment which maintains cell viability over an extended period of time as well as accommodates the necessary fabrication equipment will be needed to further tissue engineering research. Therefore, …

The Ecological Effects Of Cattle Grazing On Reptiles And Small Mammals In A San Joaquin Valley Grassland, Michael William Tom

Master's Theses

Livestock grazing is a common and extensive land use practice in the United States occurring in a wide range of habitat types. As such, livestock grazing has the potential to alter ecosystem structure, function and community composition. The primary component (Chapter 1) of this thesis examined the effects of cattle grazing in a San Joaquin Valley grassland on two target taxa: reptiles and small mammals. The study took place on the Chimineas Unit of the Carrizo Ecological Reserve, San Luis Obispo County, California during Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. These taxa were sampled on matched pairs of two grazed and …

Roubaud's Circus: Playing With Words And Animals In Les Animaux De Tout Le Monde, Miranda R. Mueller

Master's Theses

It is commonly held that there is a solid, defined line existing between men and animals. This thesis explores the ideological boundary and, through a close examination of Jacques Roubaud’s collection of poetry Les animaux de tout le monde, imagines the line as a fluid structure that can be broken, approached, and multiplied.

In a circus theme following the playful style of Roubaud’s own verses, I include several close readings of poems as well as an analysis of Roubaud’s influence from Lewis Carroll’s nonsense genre, the Fables of Jean de la Fontaine, and Medieval bestiaries in order to create a …

The Relationship Between Obesity And Occupations Among The U.S. Population Based On Occupational Tasks, Luz D. Flaherty

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Bandwidth Aggregation Across Multiple Smartphone Devices, Bradley R. Zeller

Master's Theses

Smartphones now account for the majority of all cell phones in use today [23]. Ubiquitous Internet access is a valuable feature offered by these devices and the vast majority of smartphone applications make use of the Internet in one way or another. However, the bandwidth offered by these cellular networks is often much lower than we typically experience on our standard home networks, leading to a less-than-optimal user experience. This makes it very challenging and frustrating to access certain types of web content such as video streaming, large file downloads, loading large webpages, etc.

Given that most modern smartphones are …

Child Abuse Reporting: When Given The Option, Do Youth Choose To Report?, Michelle L. Vos

Master's Theses

Christensen and Prout (2002) explain, "The task of the social scientist is to work for the right of people to have a voice and to be heard. In the case of children, `age' is perhaps one of the most dominant factors used to discriminate against children being heard and listened to" (p. 483). And in the case of children experiencing neglect or abuse, the opportunity for them to be heard is even more limited. This project analyzes data from the National Runway Safeline - one place where children's voice can be heard. NRS, established in 1971, offers confidential and anonymous …

Loose Coupling Within Special Education, Christina Sedrel

Master's Theses

Since the Salamanca Framework was established in 1994, countries have made a concerted effort to work to promote special education, namely inclusive education or inclusion. The recognition of students with special educational needs (SEN) has lead to national policies in which students with SEN are brought into the classroom along side their peers. Despite these efforts, there is an interruption between policy and practice which ultimately prevent students with SEN to enter the classroom or to receive an education. This thesis looks at the loose coupling of policy and practice with in special education by analyzing the practices of nine …

Utilization Of Crowdsourced Maps In Catastrophic Disasters, Makiko Hong

Master's Theses

Crowdsourced data, the collective messages from citizens through social media like Twitter® or Facebook®, have been increasingly recognized as a vital information source in a catastrophic disaster. Because there is often insufficient emergency personnel to gather situational information during a big disaster, the crowdsourced data can offer a supplemental means for data collection or dissemination immediately after the disaster. In addition, crowdsourced maps can empower citizens with their involvement.

In the Haiti earthquake of 2010, crowdsourced data was first used to create a web map application to aid the humanitarian effort. With some success in Haiti, these crowdsourced maps have …

Experiences Of Immigration Among Women From Taiwan, Robert Johnston

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the transformative effects of immigration from the 1960s through the 2010s among women from Taiwan living in the County of Santa Clara. The study focused on three substantive areas: (1) early life experiences and factors leading to immigration; (2) shifts in social identities after leaving Taiwan (e.g., political, national, and ethnic self-concepts in various contexts); and (3) practices of child-rearing. Several methodological tools were employed during the data collection phase of the research process, including interviews, surveys, and participant observations. The findings of this study suggested a dynamic process of change in which informants adapted to, were …

Adaptive Filtering For Heart Rate Signals, Samira Jaafari

Master's Theses

This work focused on the effects of suppressing the motion artifact of wrist photoplethysmographic heart rate signals. Monitoring of the heart can offer important insight with regard to health and wellness. The objective of the experiment conducted here was to recover the distorted signal resulting from body movement while measuring the heart rate signal non-invasively from the wrist.

The class of filters, known as adaptive filters, that can extract meaningful information from the distorted signal, used predetermined initial conditions to equalize the signal distortion due to motion. These filters do not require prior knowledge about the system.

Adaptive filters of …

Hittingtime And Pagerank, Shanthi Kannan

Master's Theses

In this thesis, we study convergence of finite state, discrete, and time homogeneous Markov chains to a stationary distribution. Expressing the probability of transitioning between states as a matrix allows us to look at the conditions that make the matrix primitive. Using the Perron-Frobenius theorem we find the stationary distribution of a Markov chain to be the left Perron vector of the probability transition matrix.

We study a special type of Markov chain &mdash random walks on connected graphs. Using the concept of fundamental matrix and the method of spectral decomposition, we derive a formula

that calculates expected hitting times …

Delay Flip-Flop (Dff) Metastability Impact On Clock And Data Recovery (Cdr) And Phase-Locked Loop (Pll) Circuits, Alfred Sargezisardrud

Master's Theses

Modeling delay flip-flops for binary (e.g., Alexander) phase detectors requires paying close attention to three important timing parameters: setup time, hold time, and clock edge-to-output (or briefly C2Q time). These parameters have a critical role in determining the status of the system on the circuit level. This study provided a guideline for designing an optimum DFF for an Alexander phase detector in a clock and data recovery circuit. Furthermore, it indicated DFF timing requirements for a high-speed phase detector in a clock and data recovery circuit. The CDR was also modeled by Verilog-A, and the results were compared with Simulink …

The Excavation And Analysis Of Prehistoric Caribbean Remains: A Bioarchaeological Case Study Of A Prehistoric Female From Nevis, West Indies, Chris Keith

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT:

The Excavation and Analysis of Prehistoric Caribbean Remains: A Bioarchaeological Case Study of a Prehistoric Female from Nevis, West Indies

By Chris Keith

In the summer of 2011, the remains of a 1000 year old indigenous Caribbean woman were discovered buried on a beach near White Bay, Nevis, West Indies. The following summer, a team of excavators and osteologists, including the author, returned to Nevis to excavate and analyze the remains with the intention to learn as much as possible about the remains and, through proxy, the people to whom they belonged. We felt that through our investigations of …

Design Of A Simplified Test Track For Automated Transit Network Development, Adam Livingston Krueger

Master's Theses

A scaled test platform has been developed for the purpose of testing, validating, and demonstrating key concepts of Automated Transit Networks (ATN). The test platform is relatively low cost, easily expandable, and it will allow future research and development to be done on control systems for ATN.

The test platform and reference vehicle were designed to adhere to a requirements document that was constructed to specify the necessary features of a fully functioning design. The work described in this thesis adheres to the phase one implementation of the requirements document. The vehicle and track were designed using commercially available computer …

Radio:Reaching Young Adult Audiences, What Are The Challenges And Opportunities For Radio Programmers In Cultivating Young Adult Audiences In The Current Media Environment?, Joel David Abramson

Master's Theses

As young adults have adopted the use of digital new media technologies, previous scholarly research has predicted a lack of interest by young adults in traditional media, including radio. This waining interest in traditional media by young adults has also been reported in the popular press. An abandonment of radio by young adults could bring about an eventual decline in audience, resulting in adverse economic effects to the broadcast radio industry and related industries, including a decrease in radio revenues, the deflation in the value of radio properties, and potential job loss. This research examined the challenges radio programmers and …

Perceived Underemployment Among The Foreign-Born: Its Outcomes And The Moderating Role Of Psychological Empowerment And Perceived Organizational Support, Ayse Avcil Okuyucu

Master's Theses

In the present study the relationship between perceived underemployment and job

attitudes such as job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and turnover intentions among foreign-born employees was examined. Underemployment occurs when employee education, skills, and previous job experiences are underutilized. Perceived underemployment was used as the specific type of underemployment to examine these relationships. Additionally, psychological empowerment and perceived organizational support (POS) were examined as potential moderators of the relationship between perceived underemployment and job attitudes. Foreign-born employees perceived themselves as moderately underemployed. In addition, there was a significant and negative relationship between perceived underemployment and job satisfaction; but perceived underemployment …

Commitment Types And Influence Of Daily Deals Among Boot Camp Participants, Linda Lund

Master's Theses

The sedentary lifestyle that many Americans exhibit reinforces the need for continued research into the factors associated with the adoption and maintenance of regular physical activity. Internet-based daily deal websites, such as Groupon® and LivingSocial®, feature deals and discounts on many products and services, including fitness programs. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between "daily deals" usage and the types of commitment exhibited by fitness program participants. The targeted program studied was a fitness boot camp. Boot camp participants (N=150), recruited from an indoor boot camp company, completed a questionnaire that included basic demographic information, membership …

Professional Wushu Athletes: Potential Athletic/Personal Dissonance, Yang Zhang

Master's Theses

The success of Chinese professional athletes is attributable to the government-run elite sport system; it is seen as one of the most effective and successful systems at nurturing high-skilled athletes. However, within the Chinese professional sport system, tensions between athletes' athletic skills and overall personal development have been widely documented. Among all studies, very few have employed in-depth interviews with professional wushu athletes. In this study, the researcher utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews with professional wushu athletes from three of the 25 professional wushu teams in mainland China. The study was conducted in order to understand the potential conflicts between athletes' …

Environmental Education As A Catalyst For Changing Students' Environmental Attitudes: A Survey Of Ten Universities In The Tokyo Bay And San Francisco Bay Areas, Minako Nishiyama

Master's Theses

Environmental education has been internationally recognized as a key tool to counter increasing threats to the environment. Previous studies have found that environmental values and beliefs are the fundamental factors that shape various pro-environmental behaviors. This study aimed to increase our understanding of how environmental education during childhood and university periods influence students' sense of connectedness to nature and ecological worldview. Two measures, the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, were used for this purpose. A total of 1,266 students in 10 universities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area participated …

Constructive Feedback In L2 Writing With Chinese High School Students In Taiwan, Chiawei Diane Yang

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the lack of motivation in L2 writing of Chinese high school students in Taiwan. The subject of this study was to examine how age, culture, and the education system in Taiwan influenced students’ motivation in learning English writing. It provided insight about how academic environments influence students’ motivation in learning English, how teachers’ feedback shapes students’ learning attitudes, and effective ways to increase students’ motivation and self-esteem. The study utilized Krashen’s (1981) affective filter hypothesis and Dornyei’s (1994) three levels of motivation theory. Ten Taiwanese students participated in this study. All of …

Inside Jokes: English Language Humor From The Outside, Mieka D. Strawhorn

Master's Theses

Humor is a complex and dynamic mode of communication that serves a number of important social functions. While humor is found in all cultures, English language learners (ELLs) in the United States must learn to navigate American humor with all of its inherent cultural, social and linguistic particularities. The ability to appreciate, comprehend and produce humor is a critical and necessary skillset for full fluency in English. Research has been done on the subject of incorporating humor into the language classroom and the benefits of doing so are myriad (Bell, 2005; 2009). However, very little research has been done on …

On The Job Teacher Training For Native English-Speaking Teachers In South Korean Intensive English Kindergartens, Elizabeth Christensen

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine how native English-speaking teachers from Western countries adapt to teaching Korean kindergarten students within South Korea while adapting to both teaching and working within South Korea. To collect data for the study, eight native English-speaking teachers were interviewed about their training and teaching experiences in South Korea. Results show that many native English-speaking teachers desire better communication from their supervisors during new teacher training programs. The participants especially wanted to have a clearer understanding of their supervisor’s expectations for them. In the interviews, many of the native English-speaking teachers expressed a wish …

Countering The Dreamer Narrative: Storytelling, Immigration Reform, And The Work Of 67 Sueños, Drew Schmenner

Master's Theses

Research question: How has the practice of storytelling been used in the current U.S. conflicts over immigration?

Telling an effective story is an essential part of a complex strategy to bring about social change, but storytelling as a part of collective action has not been extensively studied. For activists in the United States fighting for immigrant rights, especially the passage of the DREAM Act, storytelling has been an important tactic, but the nature of the narrative that was constructed has its drawbacks because it excluded some members of the immigrant community. In 2010, the Bay Area-based group 67 Sueños (“67 …