Digital Commons Network^™

Proposed Subtypes Of Anger Rumination: Brooding And Reflection And Their Associations With Aggression, Fayth Walbridge

Master's Theses

Rumination maintains, exacerbates, and is related to several maladaptive outcomes including negative affect (e.g., sadness, anger), symptoms of depression, and aggression in samples of nonclinical and clinical populations across developmental periods (e.g., McLaughlin & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2011; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1996; Thomsen, 2006; Peled & Moretti, 2007; Yang, et. al., 2014). Recently, the construct of sadness rumination has been conceptualized as two distinct subtypes, reflection and brooding (Treynor, Gonzalez, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2003). Brooding is considered maladaptive because feelings and situations are viewed through a negativistic lens and reflection is viewed as adaptive and uses a problem-solving approach (Lopez, 2010; Burwell & …

An Evaluation Of Activity In A Colonial Maya Cemetery Using Femoral Cross-Sectional Analysis, Casey Lejeune

Master's Theses

Cortical bone formation in the population of Tipu, a colonial visita site in Belize, was examined here to reveal factors of their activity and address the possibility of a status-based burial plan. To answer this question, this research examined the endosteal surface of the midshaft femur using digital imaging methods. The femora from 70 individuals were photographed and examined using the BoneJ plugin in ImageJ software. The cortical bone area was compared to additional variables, including sex, age, stature, pilastric index, and burial location. It was hypothesized that sex, age, and stature would correlate with cortical bone area similarly across …

A Meta-Analysis Of Check-In/Check-Out: Effectiveness, Social Validity, And Design Standards, Caitlyn Weaver

Master's Theses

The present study serves to investigate the evidence-base for Check-in/Check-out (CICO), a widely used behavioral intervention. Fifty-two studies were included in the review and 44 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Standardized mean difference was used to calculate an omnibus effect for CICO, which showed that CICO significantly improves student outcomes. Effect sizes were large for several dependent variables, including academic engagement, reduction in problem behaviors, percentage of points on a daily behavior report card, and reduction in internalizing behaviors. No moderators significantly explained variability within these relationships. Social validity was assessed across CICO studies and was reported to be …

Underrepresentation Of Women In American Politics, Lindsey Crane

Master's Theses

In this project I studied why women are underrepresented in state legislatures. I conducted a data set ranging from 2000 to 2018 for forty-three US states, analyzing the percentage of women who won and the number of women who ran in the elections. Using this data, I found evidence that personal life choices have the most effect on rather women want to run for political office and successfully pursue political careers. Having this specific quantitative dataset, the study provides a better understanding to why women are still widely underrepresented on the state level. I also find that my independent variables …

A Deep Learning-Based Automatic Object Detection Method For Autonomous Driving Ships, Ojonoka Erika Atawodi

Master's Theses

An important feature of an Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) is its capability of automatic object detection to avoid collisions, obstacles and navigate on their own.

Deep learning has made some significant headway in solving fundamental challenges associated with object detection and computer vision. With tremendous demand and advancement in the technologies associated with ASVs, a growing interest in applying deep learning techniques in handling challenges pertaining to autonomous ship driving has substantially increased over the years.

In this thesis, we study, design, and implement an object recognition framework that detects and recognizes objects found in the sea. We first curated …

No More Shade: Deforestation And Rural-Urban Migration In Nigeria, Kambre Sims

Master's Theses

Some of the most well-documented motivating factors of migration in Nigeria include education, employment opportunities, and cultural conflicts. However, as the deforestation crisis has not improved and Nigeria has maintained its spot as the country with the most deforestation on Earth, access to critical forest resources may be in danger. In light of this crisis, this paper attempts to determine if deforestation has become a new motivating factor for migration as those in rural communities seek other avenues of obtaining those vital resources. Subsequently, Nigeria is also experiencing a housing crisis within its rapidly growing urban centers; obtaining and keeping …

Small-Scale Resuspension And Redistribution Of Surface Sediments In The Northeast Gulf Of Mexico, Austin Harris

Master's Theses

Following the release of ~4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from the Macondo wellhead, a vast area of the seafloor contained recently deposited marine sediments contaminated by the oil spill. The initial deposition of these contaminated marine sediments was likely not the end of the journey for the particles. Downslope gravitational processes and events of increased current speed in the deep ocean setting can result in recently deposited sediments to resuspend and be moved laterally with the current flow, increasing the area effected by the oil spill. Erosion experiments performed in a closed-loop resuspension flume were …

Trophic Ecology Of Mesopelagic Fish Larvae And Juveniles In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Emily Gipson

Master's Theses

The deep-pelagic environment encompasses ocean waters below 200 m depth, and comprises 90% of the volume of the Gulf of Mexico. Deep-pelagic fishes are important prey for many oceanic consumers, but relatively little is known about their early life history, including larval fish trophic ecology. An understanding of the role deep-pelagic fish larvae have in oceanic food webs is important in the development of ecosystem models that examine the connectivity (via vertical migrations) between the deep-pelagic and epipelagic environments with respect to trophic interactions, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. In this study, archived plankton samples collected during 2010 and 2011 …

“I’Ll Make A Captain Among Ye, And Do Somewhat To Be Talk Of Forever After”: Female Civic Agency In Sir Thomas More’S Staged Insurrection, Heather Miller

Master's Theses

Sir Thomas More is an English chronicle play that has received far less critical attention than generically similar histories written by Shakespeare. Doll Williamson, the play’s strongest female character, assumes a leadership position in initiating, as well as ultimately quelling, the Evil May Day riots, which provide the play’s initial dramatic impetus. Despite the critical tendency to overlook or diminish the seriousness of her dramatic role in the play, including in the staged insurrection scene, I argue in this thesis that we should take the concerns that Doll articulates and embodies seriously from a feminist perspective. Furthermore, I place Doll’s …

Effects Of Adolescent Motivation And Personality On Adherence And Success In A Voluntary Residential Bootcamp Program, Lydia Sigurdson

Master's Theses

The Youth ChalleNGe Program is a voluntary program for adolescents who have dropped out of high school and is intended to address various needs of at-risk youth. As a result, individuals are motivated to enroll for an array of reasons. Though prior research on the Youth ChalleNGe Program has sought to identify individual factors that determine program outcomes, no study has considered motivation for enrollment as a predictor of program success. Further, personality traits related to goal setting and self-regulation may impact the relationship between motivation and program outcome. Archival data was gathered from 710 participants in the Youth ChalleNGe …

An Interdisciplinary Approach: Schizophrenia Derails Heteronormative Expectations In Psychological Narratives 2021, Bobbie Jo Weaver

Master's Theses

Required introductory psychology courses teach students a general and oversimplified version of the immense number of subfields within Psychology studies, much like introductory literature classes compress different genera throughout history into a miniscule number of “representative” texts. Nevertheless, these footholds generate an entryway into a whole new world of (specialized) exploration. Reading a text such as The Quiet Room: A Journey out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett provides a window for many students to crawl into one of Psychology’s darkest shadows, the field of abnormal psychology. Schiller’s non-fictional memoir, The Quiet Room, tells readers …

Design Of An Ultra-Wideband Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave Short Range Radar System For Extending Independent Living, Toai-Chi Nguyen

Master's Theses

Falls in the disabled and elderly people have been a cause of concern as they can be immobilized by the fall and have no way to contact others and seek assistance. The proposed frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) short range radar (SRR) system, which uses ultra-wideband (UWB) signals can provide immediate assistance by monitoring and detecting fall events. The unique characteristics of this system allow for a frequency-based modulation system to carry out triangulation and sense the location of the fall through the usage of a continuous chirp signal that linearly sweeps frequency. This project focuses on the development, design …

Study Of Fragility Functions For Assessing Damage To Water Pipe Networks Caused By Earthquake Loading, Dylan Joseph Merlo

Master's Theses

The performance of water lifelines during seismic events is an area of ongoing research. In this study we evaluate eight (8) different seismic events and the impact that ground shaking and ground deformations had on water pipeline systems. The overall goal of this work is to provide municipalities and utility providers with tools for mitigating the consequences of seismic hazards on water lifeline systems by analyzing the accuracy of damage estimation models. Three (3) different repair rate models are evaluated using data collected from the seismic events and compared to observed repair rate data. Results are analyzed to examine the …

The Relation Of Physical Activity To Quality Of Life, Balance, And Cognition In Adults With Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study, Alexandra Ziepke

Master's Theses

As the 2nd most common neurodegenerative disorder, Parkinson’s disease (PD) is compiled of motor and nonmotor symptoms (Dashtipour et al., 2015). Motor symptoms include bradykinesia (slow movement), resting tremor, rigidity, and postural instability, and nonmotor symptoms include cognitive delays (Steib et al., 2018). Many studies have found positive results using exercise as therapy, but few have inspected daily levels of physical activity on balance, cognition, and quality of life in adults with PD. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to examine the relationship between physical activity level and progressive symptoms of PD - specifically bradykinesia, balance, cognitive function, and …

Relationship Between Calcium Consumption From Dairy And Non-Dairy Sources On Bone Mineral Density Of College Students, Andrew M. Pescovitz

Master's Theses

Dairy product consumption has been on the decline for decades in the US and worldwide, and the increase in plant-based substitutes has grown substantially. Osteoporosis and the risk of bone fractures are serious public health issues. To date, little scientific-based studies have compared the relationship between calcium intake from dairy sources vs non-dairy sources and bone mineral density. The purpose of this study is to compare the relationships between calcium consumption from dairy vs. non-dairy sources and bone mineral density among college students. There was a total of 66 participants in the study including 15 (23%) males and 51 (77%) …

Condition Monitoring And Fault Detection Of Blade Damage In Small Wind Turbines Using Time-Series And Frequency Analyses, Luke H. Costello

Master's Theses

Condition monitoring systems are critical for autonomous detection of damage when operating remote wind turbines. These systems continually monitor the turbine’s operating parameters and detect damage before the turbine fails. Although common in utility-scale turbines, these systems are mostly undeveloped in distributed, small-scale turbines due to their high cost and need for specialized equipment. The Cal Poly Wind Power Research Center is developing a low-cost, modular solution known as the LifeLine system. The previous version contained monitoring equipment, but lacked decision-making capabilities.

The present work builds on the LifeLine by developing software-based detection of blade damage. Detection is done by …

The Effects Of Wort Oxygenation Scenarios On Fermentation Performance, Volatile Flavor Compound Development, And Flavor Stability In High Gravity Brewing, Ben Jabson

Master's Theses

High gravity (HG) brewing has become the most used strategy for maximizing fermenter productivity in commercial brewing. While HG brewing has many benefits, the additional stress placed on the yeast due to the higher concentration of fermentable sugars in the wort can negatively impact fermentation performance and flavor compound formation. A proper dissolved oxygen (DO) level is vital to guarantee adequate yeast performance during HG fermentations. Dissolved oxygen is vital to yeast viability throughout the fermentation process, as yeast requires oxygen to synthesize vital cell membrane components needed for continued anaerobic growth and cell division. Previous research has demonstrated the …

Development Of An Infrared Thermography System To Measure Boundary Layer Transition In A Low Speed Wind Tunnel Testing Environment, Damien Horton

Master's Theses

The use of infrared thermography for boundary layer detection was evaluated for use in the Cal Poly Low Speed Wind Tunnel (LSWT) and recommendations for the successful use of this technique were developed. In cooperation with Joby Aviation, an infinite wing model was designed, manufactured and tested for use in the LSWT. The wing was designed around a custom airfoil profile specific for this project, where the nearly-flat pressure gradient at a zero pitch angle would delay the chordwise onset of boundary layer transition. Steady-state, RANS numerical simulations predicted the onset of transition to occur at 0.75 x/c for the …

Computational Bone Mechanics Modeling With Frequency Dependent Rheological Properties And Crosslinking, Timothy G. Moreno

Master's Theses

Bone is a largely bipartite viscoelastic composite. Its mechanical behavior is determined by strain rate and the relative proportions of its principal constituent elements, hydroxyapatite and collagen, but is also largely dictated by their geometry and topology. Collagen fibrils include many segments of tropocollagen in staggered, parallel sequences. The physical staggering of this tropocollagen allows for gaps known as hole-zones, which serve as nucleation points for apatite mineral. The distance between adjacent repeat units of tropocollagen is known as D-Spacing and can be measured by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). This D-Spacing can vary in length slightly within a bundle, but …

Clustering Web Users By Mouse Movement To Detect Bots And Botnet Attacks, Justin L. Morgan

Master's Theses

The need for website administrators to efficiently and accurately detect the presence of web bots has shown to be a challenging problem. As the sophistication of modern web bots increases, specifically their ability to more closely mimic the behavior of humans, web bot detection schemes are more quickly becoming obsolete by failing to maintain effectiveness. Though machine learning-based detection schemes have been a successful approach to recent implementations, web bots are able to apply similar machine learning tactics to mimic human users, thus bypassing such detection schemes. This work seeks to address the issue of machine learning based bots bypassing …

Adaptive Laboratory Evolution Of Scenedesmus Obliquus For Increased Carbohydrate Content And Biomass Productivity, Nahel Ali

Master's Theses

The economics of microalgal bioproduct commercialization would benefit from increased accumulation of energy storage compounds, such as carbohydrates and lipids, and increased biomass productivity. This thesis explores two adaptive laboratory evolution strategies for improving Scenedesmus obliquus: single UV-mutagenesis and low light cultivation at a high dilution rate to produce cultigens with greater carbohydrate content and iterative UV-mutagenesis and selection under outdoor conditions in a raceway pond at a high dilution rate to increase biomass productivity.

Two cultigens were generated with the goal of increased carbohydrate content: K5 and K7. Both were mutagenized for 5 seconds and cultivated in 50-mL …

Machine Learning Approaches To Historic Music Restoration, Quinn Coleman

Master's Theses

In 1889, a representative of Thomas Edison recorded Johannes Brahms playing a piano arrangement of his piece titled “Hungarian Dance No. 1”. This recording acts as a window into how musical masters played in the 19th century. Yet, due to years of damage on the original recording medium of a wax cylinder, it was un-listenable by the time it was digitized into WAV format. This thesis presents machine learning approaches to an audio restoration system for historic music, which aims to convert this poor-quality Brahms piano recording into a higher quality one. Digital signal processing is paired with two machine …

The Effect Of Focused Ultrasound On Altering The Diameter Class Of Nerve Fibers Contributing To A Compound Evoked Potential, Analyzed Using A Perturbative Decomposition Technique., Megan Wurden

Master's Theses

Peripheral neuropathies are disorders that involve the damage of peripheral nerve fibers, affecting the ability of different parts of the body to communicate. A differentiating factor in diagnosis between various clinical conditions can be which size class of nerve fibers are affected. A nerve conduction velocity test can be used to assess the viability of the nerve but is a single-parameter test and gives no information about the population characteristics of the remaining active fibers. A method developed and previously reported by Szlavik (2016) utilizes a mathematical perturbed decomposition to determine the normalized frequency of each size class of fiber …

Development Of A Hybrid Particle Continuum Solver, Anthony J. Gay

Master's Theses

When simulating complex flows, there are some physical situations that exhibit large fluctuations in particle density such as: planetary reentry, ablation due to arcing, rocket exhaust plumes, etc. When simulating these events, a high level of physical accuracy can be achieved with kinetic methods otherwise known as particle methods. However, this high level of physical accuracy requires large amounts of computation time. If the simulated flow is in collisional equilibrium, then less computationally intensive continuum methods, otherwise known as fluid methods, can be utilized. Hybrid Particle-Continuum (HPC) codes attempt to blend particle and fluid solutions in order to reduce computation …

Towards A Complete Formal Semantics Of Rust, Alexa White

Master's Theses

Rust is a relatively new programming language with a unique memory model designed to provide the ease of use of a high-level language as well as the power and control of a low-level language while preserving memory safety. In order to prove the safety and correctness of Rust and to provide analysis tools for its use cases, it is necessary to construct a formal semantics of the language. Existing efforts to construct such a semantic model are limited in their scope and none to date have successfully captured the complete functionality of the language. This thesis focuses on the K-Rust …

Early Wildfire Detection With Line Sensors, Virginia Yan

Master's Theses

Over the last few years, wildfires have become more devastating to communities as the fires are inevitably destructive to many homes, businesses, and ecosystems. Frequent wildfires also pose a significant threat to power grids and nearby residents as they can damage transmission lines and other electrical equipment, which in turn can cause major power shutdowns. Especially in western U.S., severe drought conditions and weather variability cause residents to become more vulnerable to wildfire disasters as their safety is threatened. We are incompetent to control the wildfires effectively despite existing advanced technologies. Hence, an algorithm based on energy conservation and heat …

Development Of A Robust Methodology To Obtain And Assess Myogenic Precursor Cells For Their Use In Regenerative Therapies, Ricardo Lasa

Master's Theses

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) is characterized by buildup of atherosclerotic plaque in peripheral arteries that leads to an occlusion that can interrupt the supply of blood to the peripheral tissue, causing downstream tissue ischemia/hypoxia. PAOD is estimated to affect over 200 million patients worldwide. Current surgical revascularization treatments can be effective in about half of the patient population, leading to a significant number of patients with no treatment options beyond pharmacological intervention and lifestyle modification. The decrease in blood flow downstream of the occlusion leads to increased blood pressure gradient in the microvasculature, specifically in vessels that connect arterial …

Brain Tumor Detection And Classification From Mri Images, Anjaneya Teja Sarma Kalvakolanu

Master's Theses

A brain tumor is detected and classified by biopsy that is conducted after the brain surgery. Advancement in technology and machine learning techniques could help radiologists in the diagnosis of tumors without any invasive measures. We utilized a deep learning-based approach to detect and classify the tumor into Meningioma, Glioma, Pituitary tumors. We used registration and segmentation-based skull stripping mechanism to remove the skull from the MRI images and the grab cut method to verify whether the skull stripped MRI masks retained the features of the tumor for accurate classification. In this research, we proposed a transfer learning based approach …

Ram Air-Turbine Of Minimum Drag, Raymond Akagi

Master's Theses

The primary motivation for this work was to predict the conditions that would yield minimum drag for a small Ram-Air Turbine used to provide a specified power requirement for a small flight test instrument called the Boundary Layer Data System. Actuator Disk Theory was used to provide an analytical model for this work.

Classic Actuator Disk Theory (CADT) or Froude’s Momentum Theory was initially established for quasi-one-dimensional flows and inviscid fluids to predict the power output, drag, and efficiency of energy-extracting devices as a function of wake and freestream velocities using the laws of Conservations of Mass, Momentum, and Energy. …

Controller Modeling And Stability Analysis Of Multiple Input Single Output Dc-Dc Converter, Astha Adhikari

Master's Theses

This thesis entails the stability analysis of the Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) DC-DC converter developed for the DC House Project at Cal Poly. A frequency domain control system model of the MISO converter was designed and constructed using MATLAB Simulink. Transfer functions were derived and modeled for each stage of the converter to best fit the converter circuit system used in the original MISO circuit. Stability metrics such as overshoot, undershoot, rise time, phase margin and gain margin were measured to evaluate and analyze the stability of the converter. These metrics were measured with the original model including the …