Digital Commons Network^™

The Moderating Effect Of Self-Esteem On The Relationship Between Servant Leadership And Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Whitney Kanavel

Master's Theses

Previous research has shown that servant leadership is related to organizational citizenship behaviors. However, little attention has been paid to the possible moderators of this relationship. Therefore, the present study proposed that a personality characteristic (self-esteem) will moderate the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors. It was hypothesized that the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors would be stronger for employees with low self-esteem than for those with high self-esteem. Results of a self report survey from 204 employed individuals in various industries found that self-esteem moderated the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors. …

Classification Of Hyperspectral Colon Cancer Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Sean Joseph Mobilia

Master's Theses

Hyperspectral images are 3-D images, which contain data in hundreds of spectral bands as opposed to 2-D images, which contain data in at most 3 bands (red, green, and blue). Hyperspectral imagery was initially developed for remote sensing; however, recently, researchers have started to see its potential in medical diagnosis and cancer detection. Hyperspectral images provide massive amounts of data about the objects they are studying, and this causes challenges during information processing. Machine learning tools, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), are known to be successful in extracting features and classifying traditional 2-D images. This thesis proposes CNN architectures …

Zero And Low Energy Thresholds In Quantum Simulation, Yun Xuan Shi

Master's Theses

Quantum simulation is the process of simulating a quantum mechanical system using either a quantum or a classical computer. Because quantum mechanical systems contain a large number of entangled particles, they are hard to simulate on a classical computer. It is the task of computational complexity theorists to estimate the amount of resources to do the same number of operations on either classical or quantum devices. This report first summarizes the state of the art in the field of quantum computing, and gives an example of a model of quantum computer and examples of quantum algorithms that are currently being …

A Systematic Theoretical Study Of Topological Insulator Bi₂Se₃, Thomas Reid

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Understanding Trade-Offs Between Built And Natural Assets In Coastal Management Projects For Inland, Coastal Residents Using Latent Class Modeling Techniques: An Application To The Connecticut Coastline, Julia Dumaine

Master's Theses

Climate change threatens our established communities worldwide through consistently increased average surface temperatures, rising sea levels, and precipitation extremes, and Connecticut is no exception (U.S. Global Change Research Program 2017). As coastal communities in Connecticut increase their focus on mitigating the effects of climate change, they are not always able to incorporate town residents’ preferences and values into their planning; particularly those residents who may not receive a direct benefit from the plan of which they contribute tax dollars towards. Our study attempts to estimate these preferences and values by using a choice experiment survey distributed across the Connecticut coastline …

Non-Destructive Evaluation Of Thermal Barrier Coatings Using Direct Heat Flux Method, Amadeusz Adam Nasuta

Master's Theses

Thermal barrier coatings are essential for reliable and efficient turbine engines. The coatings allow the engine to operate at higher temperatures and protect the super alloy components within the hot section. Turbine hot section components have complex geometries. Complex geometries can lead to inconsistent coatings. It is critical to determine which components have defective coatings because engine manufacturers warranty these parts and under life parts have large costs associated with them. Non-destructive detection of damage progression is useful for accurate part lifetime prediction and also in root cause analysis. The present thesis describes a new, non-destructive approach to test thermal …

Onshore Habitat Use As A Driver Of Diet, Contaminant Exposure, And Immune Function Of Southern Beaufort Sea Polar Bears (Ursus Maritimus), Jennifer Bourque

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of New England Sheep Producers, Arielle L. Halpern

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Predicting Children Missed By An Early Autism Screener, Cara Cordeaux

Master's Theses

Recent clinical best-practice guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that all children be screened for ASD at 18 and 24 months of age (Johnson & Myers, 2007), and those have contributed to an emphasis on early screening and diagnosis. However, no screening instrument can identify all cases at 18-24 months. This study examined profiles of 135 children who participated in validation studies of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (MCHAT, MCHAT-R/F), an ASD specific screening instrument. Participants were screened at 18-24 months (Time 1) and again at 36-48 months (Time 2). Children who screened negative at 18-24 …

The Influence Of Sentence Context On Phonetic Recalibration, Sahil Luthra

Master's Theses

Individual talkers vary considerably in how they produce different speech sounds, and a challenge for the listener is to learn the appropriate mapping between acoustics and phonetic categories for an individual talker. Several studies have shown that listeners are able to leverage various sources of context (e.g., coincident visual information, lexical knowledge) to guide this process, sometimes termed perceptual learning of speech. Here, we examine how sentence-level semantic information – specifically, whether preceding sentence context is predictive of an upcoming word – might modulate the size of learning effects. Across a series of perceptual learning experiments, we manipulate how learning …

Reanalysis Of The Usher Syndrome Type 2 Carrier As “Phenotype-Free”, Peter Perrino

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Thermophysical Properties And Characterization Of Diamond Silicon Carbide, Alexandra Merkouriou

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Small Rna Sequencing And Rt-Qpcr Validation Of Forensically Relevant Body Fluids, Karly Johannsen

Master's Theses

Body fluid identification is an important aspect of forensic investigations because it assists with the reconstruction of crime scenes and can refute and/or support witness statements. Currently, there is no universal method for body fluid identification. Each body fluid has several tests for its identification, both presumptive and confirmatory. A universal method for body fluid identification that is sensitive, specific, efficient, and minimally destructive is necessary.

In recent years miRNAs have been heralded as novel biomarkers for the identification of body fluids. Several research groups across the US and internationally have been formed to determine which miRNAs are suitable for …

Naatm1: Examining The Mechanism Of A Heavy-Metal Abc Exporter, Dennis Hicks

Master's Theses

ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) Transporters are a superfamily of integral membrane proteins that have been found embedded in both the cellular membranes and internal organelles of all species yet analyzed (1). This extreme conservation throughout the tree of life is due to their vitally critical and broad task of transporting all manner of things into and out of the cell and related organelles. This broadness of responsibility has led to an abundant diversity of this family, which in turn, has allowed life to adapt to the many environments found on Earth. While the importance and variability of this family is abundantly …

Effect Of Bio-Augmentation Product Biowish® Septic Rescue On The Wastewater Treatment Performance Of Residential Septic Tanks, Kimberly Michelle Lamar Merilles

Master's Theses

Residential septic systems provide reliable wastewater treatment for over 26 million homes and facilities in the United States, and many more worldwide. When properly maintained, these systems are reliable, low-cost, and long-term treatments for residential wastewater. When neglected, septic systems can fail and lead to health concerns and ecological harm to soil and groundwater contamination through the improperly treated wastewater effluent.

This study tested the effect of the bio-augmentation product BiOWiSH® Septic Rescue of BiOWiSH® Technologies International, Inc. (hereafter referred to as BiOWiSH) on the biological treatment of residential septic tanks. BiOWiSH is meant to act as a bio-augmentation product …

Relevance Analysis For Document Retrieval, Eric Labouve

Master's Theses

Document retrieval systems recover documents from a dataset and order them according to their perceived relevance to a user’s search query. This is a difficult task for machines to accomplish because there exists a semantic gap between the meaning of the terms in a user’s literal query and a user’s true intentions. Even with this ambiguity that arises with a lack of context, users still expect that the set of documents returned by a search engine is both highly relevant to their query and properly ordered. The focus of this thesis is on document retrieval systems that explore methods of …

Perturbation Based Decomposition Of Semg Signals, Rachel Huettinger

Master's Theses

Surface electromyography records the motor unit action potential signals in the vicinity of the electrode to reveal information on muscle activation. Decomposition of sEMG signals for characterization of constituent motor unit action potentials in terms of amplitude and firing times is useful for clinical research as well as diagnosis of neurological disorders. Successful decomposition of sEMG signals would allow for pertinent motor unit action potential information to be acquired without discomfort to the subject or the need for a well-trained operator (compared with intramuscular EMG). To determine amplitudes and firing times for motor unit action potentials in an sEMG recording, …

Development Of A Myoelectric Detection Circuit Platform For Computer Interface Applications, Nickolas Andrew Butler

Master's Theses

Personal computers and portable electronics continue to rapidly advance and integrate into our lives as tools that facilitate efficient communication and interaction with the outside world. Now with a multitude of different devices available, personal computers are accessible to a wider audience than ever before. To continue to expand and reach new users, novel user interface technologies have been developed, such as touch input and gyroscopic motion, in which enhanced control fidelity can be achieved. For users with limited-to-no use of their hands, or for those who seek additional means to intuitively use and command a computer, novel sensory systems …

Wastewater Treatment And Nitrogen Removal In Bench-Scale Photobioreactors Operated With Solids Recycling, Erik Hoffnagle

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the effect of solids recycling on nitrification, organic carbon removal, and algal-bacterial productivity in bench-scale photobioreactors (PBRs) simulating winter pond conditions in San Luis Obispo, California and a 6-acre raceway system in Delhi, California. Two sets of duplicate photobioreactors operated with or without solids recycling were fed primary clarifier effluent (1^oEff) for the first experiment, and facultative pond effluent (FAC) for the second experiment.

In both experiments mean productivity was lower in solids recycled PBRs (3.67 and 2.3 g/m²-day), than in controls without solids recycling (4.15 and 3.9 g/m²-day). When fed …

Supported Programming For Beginning Developers, Andrew Gilbert

Master's Theses

Testing code is important, but writing test cases can be time consuming, particularly for beginning programmers who are already struggling to write an implementation. We present TestBuilder, a system for test case generation which uses an SMT solver to generate inputs to reach specified lines in a function, and asks the user what the expected outputs would be for those inputs. The resulting test cases check the correctness of the output, rather than merely ensuring the code does not crash. Further, by querying the user for expectations, TestBuilder encourages the programmer to think about what their code ought to do, …

Avian Use Of A Bottomland Hardwood Afforestation Site In The Red River Alluvial Valley, Colby W. Sharp

Master's Theses

Bottomland hardwood forests (BHF) cover about 2.8 million hectares of the original 10 million hectares that once existed in the southeastern United States. These losses have led to an emphasis on afforestation of retired agricultural land. Research was needed to evaluate changes in wildlife communities as these afforested stands progress through succession. To assess the avian community at this 25-year-old afforested BHF, I conducted point count surveys at 28 point locations across seven forest types, six times during the 2016–2018 avian breeding seasons. My research objectives were to determine: (1) if avian density and diversity varied among the dominant forest …

Real-Time Ray Traced Global Illumination Using Fast Sphere Intersection Approximation For Dynamic Objects, Reed Phillip Garmsen

Master's Theses

Realistic lighting models are an important component of modern computer generated, interactive 3D applications. One of the more difficult to emulate aspects of real-world lighting is the concept of indirect lighting, often referred to as global illumination in computer graphics. Balancing speed and accuracy requires carefully considered trade-offs to achieve plausible results and acceptable framerates.

We present a novel technique of supporting global illumination within the constraints of the new DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API used with DirectX 12. By pre-computing spherical textures to approximate the diffuse color of dynamic objects, we build a smaller set of approximate geometry used for …

A Higher-Order Method Implemented In An Unstructured Panel Code To Model Linearized Supersonic Flows, Jake Daniel Davis

Master's Theses

Since their conception in the 1960s, panel codes have remained a critical tool in the design and development of air vehicles. With continued advancement in computational technologies, today's codes are able to solve flow fields around arbitrary bodies more quickly and with higher fidelity than those that preceded them. Panel codes prove most useful during the conceptual design phase of an air vehicle, allowing engineers to iterate designs, and generate full solutions of the flow field around a vehicle in a matter of seconds to minutes instead of hours to days using traditional CFD methods. There have been relatively few …

Effectiveness Of Windrow Composting Methodology In Killing A Thermo-Tolerant Species Of Salmonella During Mortality Composting, Spencer Gabriel Myers

Master's Theses

In a large agricultural operation, such as the one at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, disposal of deceased animals is an immense issue. The cost of transporting and rendering every dead animal is inhibitory to the general function of the agricultural operations and their thin budget. Therefore, we propose that composting mortalities could be an economical alternative. Composting is a recognized method for taking animal waste products along with carbon waste and turning it into a pathogen-free, nutrient-rich topsoil. Carcass composting is in fact performed in other countries and states to varying degrees of success. However, the California EPA limits …

Desertification Assessment Using Medalus Method And Gis Techniques In North America Arid Environments, Essdik Bashir Habashi

Master's Theses

Desertification is a massive issue that affects many countries that have dry climates. The impacts of this phenomenon threaten the sustainability of natural resources, as well as agricultural, water, and food resources. Several factors that affect directly or indirectly desertification and making it worse are population growth, climate change, deforestation, overgrazing, natural disaster, and urbanization and other types of land development. This thesis research evaluated the desertification index in three counties in California State and three counties in New Mexico State by using the MEDALUS model (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use) within a geographic information system (GIS). The model includes …

That They May All Be One: Historical And Contemporary Ideologies Of Regional Conferences In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Debbie-Ann Francis

Master's Theses

The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church has been known for its wide diversity along with its struggles in racial relations within the Black SDA community in the United States. The SDA Church established regional conferences for Black SDA leaders as an alternative to full integration within the denomination. For this analysis, an ideological criticism was performed on two videos that focused on the topic of regional conferences. The hegemonic ideology that surfaced was that separation within the church organization based on race is necessary in order to fulfill the mission of the SDA Church and that issues such as racism will …

The Impact Of Environmental Degradation On The Analysis Of Manufactured Fibers, Alexis R. Weber

Master's Theses

The analysis of fiber evidence involves the ability to link a questioned fiber back to its known source. But before the collection and analysis of questioned fibers, they could be potentially exposed to various environmental conditions for an extended period of time. There has been little research on how manufactured fibers are affected by various environments and if this interaction affects the ability to link a questioned fiber back to its known source. Changes to the manufactured fibers are essential to be aware of, in order to avoid the possibility of erroneous exclusions when performing fiber comparisons. A six-month time …

Assay Development For The Identification Of Species And Bioactive Compounds Of Morinda Citrifolia (Noni) In Dietary Supplements By Rt-Qpcr, Dna Sanger Sequencing And Spectroscopy (Uv-Vis/Ftir), Ricardo L. Fernandez Walker

Master's Theses

Regulation standards for dietary supplements lack greatly. Due to this, fraud during the manufacturing of these products might be committed. Previous investigations on herbal dietary supplements have shown that the main ingredient was not present in most of the herbal supplements tested and that these products also contained other substances not stated in the label The purpose of this study was to develop a fluorescent qPCR assay for the identification of Morinda citrifolia herbal species in dietary supplements. Primers for genetic regions rbcL and matK of M. citrifolia were designed. The potential of novel matK primer showed discrimination potential …

Infection Control In Total Knee Replacement Prosthesis Using Nitric Oxide Releasing Biomaterials, Ashley Widing

Master's Theses

Replacing a weight-bearing joint is accompanied by long procedures, even longer recovery times, and intensive monitoring. This burden increases after infection; a complication requiring revision surgeries and therefore extensive additional recovery time. Infection can present itself at any time during the process, making it hard to predict. Currently, a two-part revision surgery is completed by removing all infected tissue and implanting an antibiotic spacer. The spacer fills the joint gap and is removed prior to the revision total knee replacement. A revision total knee replacement follows the same procedure as the initial surgery. Not only is this detrimental to patient …

Mllt3 Regulates Expression Of Genes Critical To Liver Metabolic Homeostasis, Jonathan Richard Dixit

Master's Theses

Hepatic steatosis (fatty liver) is increasingly prevalent in the US, and is characterized by triglyceride accumulation within hepatocytes. This is a direct result of an imbalance between lipid import, export, de novo lipogenesis, and beta oxidation. Hepatic steatosis can also progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which is characterized by increased hepatocyte damage, inflammation, and fibrosis. Further progression can lead to liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma, requiring liver transplant or causing death. Our lab recently created Mllt3 conditional whole body knockout mice. These mice developed hepatic steatosis and NASH following Mllt3 deletion. MLLT3 is a master gene regulator that is part …