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Incorporating Active Learning Into Breastfeeding Education And Lactation Management Training Of The Future Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Madelyn Sesser

Master's Theses

Background: Breastfeeding has been shown to have multiple benefits for mother and child, yet rates of breastfeeding continue to stay insignificant. Infant nutrition is the base of future health of an individual, yet Registered Dietitians are not provided in depth breastfeeding education during their education.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the active learning component of breastfeeding and lactation education modules meant to increase self-efficacy and confidence in the ability to perform lactation education and to obtain feedback regarding the usefulness of the developed education modules in graduate-level dietetic interns.

Design: This study was part of a …

Effects Of Triptorelin On Global Deoxyribonucleic Acid Methylation In Skeletal Muscle In Male Adolescent Rats, Max Boland

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate how treatment with triptorelin, a gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist, to block puberty in adolescent male rats affects their epigenetic regulation via global DNA methylation changes in skeletal muscle and to determine if physical activity has an effect on DNA methylation status during treatment. Twenty-four male, Sprague-Dewey rats were randomly assigned to different groups: 12 treated with 1 μg of triptorelin daily (PB group) while the other 12 received an equivalent volume of saline as a placebo (control, CON) for four weeks. In order to determine the interaction with physical activity, six PB …

A Meta-Analysis Of Implementation Planning: The Effects On Teachers’ Treatment Adherence And Quality When Implementing Behavioral Interventions, Taylor Ben

Master's Theses

The purpose of the current study was to systematically review the literature investigating the use of Implementation Planning (IP) as a consultation method to improve teacher’s treatment integrity when implementing behavioral interventions. IP consultation is hypothesized to improve treatment implementation adherence as well as the quality of implementation related to the chosen behavior intervention(s). A secondary hypothesis of this review was that cooccurring student behavior would improve as teachers’ level of treatment integrity improved. An initial literature search produced 48 articles from which four studies met the inclusion criteria. Thus, all included studies were single case designs, used IP as …

An Update On The Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale: Current Evidence Of Reliability, Edward Worden

Master's Theses

The psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) are often reassessed not using the population for which it was developed. While the scale was initially created for US undergraduate students, research has focused on testing the reliability of the AMAS within other populations, often modifying and translating them for use with children or speakers of other languages. The “replication crisis” calls into question the reliability and reproducibility of findings from many disciplines, including the social sciences, so in order for researchers to have a high degree of confidence in their data and results, measurement tools must be periodically …

Student Reasonings And Cognitive Biases In Climate Change Predictions, Kaela Clabaugh Howell

Master's Theses

Undergraduate biology educators strive to understand how to best teach students the concepts of climate change. The root of this understanding is the establishment of what students know about climate change. This research aims to describe undergraduate biology students’ conceptions of climate change and their argument practices and associated cognitive biases in how they think about the topic. We used a basic qualitative research design to explore interview data from 26 American biology undergraduate students who predicted how climate change would affect a forested ecosystem after an average of one degree increase in Fahrenheit over 25 years. Overall, the majority …

A Proof Of Concept For Detection Of Palato-Lingual Contact Without Intraoral Electrodes In A Human Participant, Amitava Biswas

Master's Theses

The author of this thesis conceived and investigated an unexpected electrical signal that may not be noticed during regular electroglottography (EGG) when electrodes are conventionally placed on the anterior surface of the throat. It appears that there is a measurable electrical signal from the EGG equipment when electrodes are placed over the frontal cheek (belly of zygomatic muscle), and the tongue is elevated to contact the hard palate, or the tongue is lowered to break the contact. Therefore, this phenomenon is designated as unconventional electroglottography (UEGG, Dr. Steven Cloud, private communication, July 17, 2022).

Two distinctive patterns of waveforms were …

Hydrothermal Fluid Transport Pathways Along Fractures And Veins At Brothers Volcano, Southern Kermadec Arc, Robert Atnip

Master's Theses

Hydrothermal fluid flow in fractures and veins is a key component in the mineralization of economic metals within calderas. But there are several methods by which fractures can form. Regional extension, episodic caldera collapse, and fluid overpressure all have the potential to create brittle features. Current studies focus on the formation of fractures and veins by these methods, but do not focus on the preferred movement of hydrothermal fluids through brittle features, nor which features are more dominant in active hydrothermal systems. This thesis introduces multiple studies to better understand which method of fracture creation dominates Brothers volcano. Data from …

Estimation Of Mortality Rates For The Gulf Menhaden Stock And Reference Point Implementation For The Fishery, Catherine Wilhelm

Master's Theses

The Gulf menhaden stock is the target of a large commercial fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. To address the needs of both the stock and fishery, I performed two studies. I first addressed the natural mortality rates currently used in the Gulf menhaden stock assessment. To update these rates, I used data from a tagging study conducted from 1970 to 1988. Adult and juvenile menhaden were tagged, released, and recovered in fish processing plants. To evaluate the data, I built a Bayesian model using the negative binomial distribution to estimate natural mortality, catchability, and the overdispersion factor parameters. I …

Introspective Accuracy For Social Cognition Across The Psychosis Spectrum: Influence Of Sleep Disturbance, Cassi Springfield

Master's Theses

People with schizophrenia-spectrum and bipolar disorders can have impairments in introspective accuracy (IA; ability to accurately estimate one’s own abilities). Research suggests that positive, negative, and depressive symptoms may be related to IA, but findings are mixed. Examining sleep disturbance as a determinant of IA may help explain these mixed findings. The current study aimed to explore the relationships between sleep disturbance, symptoms, and IA in participants across the psychosis spectrum. Participants completed diagnostic, symptom, and sleep disturbance assessments. Participants also completed social cognitive tasks, estimated their performance on the tasks (used to calculate IA), and indicated their confidence in …

Multispecies Use Of Various Habitats In The Mississippi Sound With An Emphasis On Future Oyster Reef Construction, Austin Draper

Master's Theses

Transient fish have high economic value and effective restoration projects must consider the variable impacts they may have on these fish in addition to the target organism or habitat being restored. Globally, oyster reef construction is common and will continue but data on their impacts to transient fish is lacking. This study used acoustic telemetry to provide baseline data on the potential for interaction between five transient fish species, and oyster reef construction activities. Overall, I noted that habitat preferences are hierarchical with sandy habitats nearest to bay or river mouths having high transient fish use. Oyster reef construction in …

Development Of Mirror Flexures For Use In The Muvi Instrument, Colin W. Harrop

Master's Theses

The Miniaturized Ultraviolet Imager (MUVI), is a compact wide field UV imaging instrument in development at UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. MUVI is designed to fit in a 2U CubeSat form factor and provide wide field, high resolution images of the ionosphere at far ultraviolet wavelengths. This thesis details the design and analyses of MUVI’s deployable cover mirror mounting flexures. Three different flexure geometries were evaluated, an optimal candidate was determined based on a number of criteria including isolation of vibration and stress to the mirrors, manufacturability and cost. The design of the flexure …

Habitat Use Of Gulf Sturgeon (Acipenser Oxyrinchus Desotoi) In Pascagoula River Holding Areas And In Estuarine And Marine Environments Including Ship Island, Mississippi And Mobile Bay, Alabama, Elizabeth M. Greenheck

Master's Theses

Gulf Sturgeon (GS) are a federally threatened, anadromous species that inhabit coastal rivers in the northern Gulf of Mexico and make annual migrations between riverine and marine habitats. They are divided into western or an eastern river systems based on the location of their natal river relative to Mobile Bay. Tracking of GS movements using acoustic telemetry has occurred since the late 1990s but has increased in use since 2015 for monitoring important habitats that GS rely on throughout their lifetime. For this study, tagged GS were monitored in three areas throughout the central Gulf of Mexico: the Mobile Bay …

The Relations Between Rumination, Thought Control, And Suicidal Thinking, Morgan Buerke

Master's Theses

Despite the far-reaching impact of suicide on our communities, we need more research to understand how suicidal thoughts develop, and what leads to their maintenance. As suggested by the depression distress-amplification model (Capron et al., 2013), emotion-regulation strategies such as rumination may cause or worsen suicidal ideation by amplifying the distress associated with negative thoughts. In addition, ruminative thoughts are often described as difficult to control, which may lead people to think about suicide as an escape from these uncontrollable thoughts. The current study examined the relationship between certain forms of rumination (i.e., brooding, reflection, anger rumination, and suicidal rumination) …

Shelfaware: Accelerating Collaborative Awareness With Shelf Crdt, John C. Waidhofer

Master's Theses

Collaboration has become a key feature of modern software, allowing teams to work together effectively in real-time while in different locations. In order for a user to communicate their intention to several distributed peers, computing devices must exchange high-frequency updates with transient metadata like mouse position, text range highlights, and temporary comments. Current peer-to-peer awareness solutions have high time and space complexity due to the ever-expanding logs that each client must maintain in order to ensure robust collaboration in eventually consistent environments. This paper proposes an awareness Conflict-Free Replicated Data Type (CRDT) library that provides the tooling to support an …

Time-Domain Evaluation Of Atmospheric Ducting Effects On X-Band Propagation Over Water, Jack A. Gallegos

Master's Theses

The marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) is the region of atmosphere that interacts with the ocean surface. The atmospheric variability (i.e. temperature and relative humidity) in this region can result in rapid changes in the refractive index with increasing height from the sea surface. The complex region can result in non-standard propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves beyond the horizon under atmospheric ducting conditions. However, when ducting layers are not present, EM waves are limited to line-of-sight transmission. Atmospheric ducting research is typically conducted using radio frequencies in the X-band (around 8-12 GHz) due to its impact on performance of marine …

Reinforcement Learning Framework For The Unreal Engine, Justin B. Wheeler

Master's Theses

This dissertation addresses the need for using machine learning-based methods rather than traditional rule-based methods for controlling non-playable characters (NPCs). The goal of the Reinforcement Learning Framework for the Unreal Engine is to enable game development studios to create, train, and more easily implement smarter, more compelling AI characters in major video game releases. The framework contains three distinct software libraries: an Unreal Engine reinforcement learning library whose purpose is to enable Unreal Engine levels to act as reinforcement learning environments, a python library which provides convenient abstractions and implementations to the reinforcement learning process, and a flexible connection system …

Racketframes: A Dataframe Implementation For The Racket Programming Language, Shubham Kahal

Master's Theses

The DataFrame is a powerful table-like data structure used frequently in Data Science, the in-demand and innovative field focused on the extraction of valuable insights from data. Typically, datasets are not perfect upon collection and need to be prepared so that the resulting dataset is useful for statistical analysis. A DataFrame API supports optimized methods such as, selecting, aggregating and filtering rows, columns, and cells as well as renaming row and column labels. It also supports methods for normalizing data, merging data, adding new columns and labelling missing data among numerous other features. An API to work with tabular data …

Exploration Of Semi-Supervised Learning For Convolutional Neural Networks, Nicholas Sheffler

Master's Theses

Training a neural network requires a large amount of labeled data that has to be created by either human annotation or by very specifically created methods. Currently, there is a vast abundance of unlabeled data that is neglected sitting on servers, hard drives, websites, etc. These untapped data sources serve as the inspiration for this paper.

The goal of this thesis is to explore and test various methods of semi-supervised learning (SSL) for convolutional neural networks (CNN). These methods will be analyzed and evaluated based on their accuracy on a test set of data. Since this particular neural network will …

Psf Sampling In Fluorescence Image Deconvolution, Eric A. Inman

Master's Theses

All microscope imaging is largely affected by inherent resolution limitations because of out-of-focus light and diffraction effects. The traditional approach to restoring the image resolution is to use a deconvolution algorithm to “invert” the effect of convolving the volume with the point spread function. However, these algorithms fall short in several areas such as noise amplification and stopping criterion. In this paper, we try to reconstruct an explicit volumetric representation of the fluorescence density in the sample and fit a neural network to the target z-stack to properly minimize a reconstruction cost function for an optimal result. Additionally, we do …

Analysis And Usage Of Natural Language Features In Success Prediction Of Legislative Testimonies, Marine Cossoul

Master's Theses

Committee meetings are a fundamental part of the legislative process in which
constituents, lobbyists, and legislators alike can speak on proposed bills at the
local and state level. Oftentimes, unspoken “rules” or standards are at play in
political processes that can influence the trajectory of a bill, leaving constituents
without a political background at an inherent disadvantage when engaging with
the legislative process. The work done in this thesis aims to explore the extent to
which the language and phraseology of a general public testimony can influence a
vote, and examine how this information can be used to promote civic …

Trajectory-Tracking Control Of The Ball-And-Plate System, Dominic E. Riccoboni

Master's Theses

The Mechatronics group in the Mechanical Engineering department of Cal Poly is interested in creating a demonstration of a ball-and-plate trajectory tracking controller on hardware. The display piece will serve to inspire engineering students to pursue Mechatronics and control theory as an area of study. The ball-and-plate system is open-loop unstable, underactuated, and has complicated, nonlinear equations of motion. These features present substantial challenges for control - especially if the objective is trajectory tracking. Because the system is underactuated, common nonlinear trajectory tracking control techniques are ineffective. This thesis lays out a theoretical foundation for controlling the hardware.

Several important …

Simple Open-Source Formal Verification Of Industrial Programs, Christopher Disney Peterson

Master's Theses

Industrial programs written on Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) have become an essential component of many modern industries, including automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, infrastructure, and even amusement parks. As these safety-critical systems become larger and more complex, ensuring their continuous error-free operation has become a significant and important challenge. Formal methods are a potential solution to this issue but have traditionally required substantial time and expertise to deploy. This usability issue is compounded by the fact that PLCs are highly proprietary and have substantial licensing costs, making it difficult to learn about or deploy formal methods on them.

This thesis presents the …

The Vertic Clay Flora Of The San Joaquin Desert: Niche, Competition & Floral Mosaics On A Novel Substrate, Emma R. Fryer

Master's Theses

Plant communities that occur on edaphically heterogeneous landscapes are ideal systems for exploring questions of niche and community assembly. Species with affinity for harsh substrates often have well-defined edaphic niches and are ideal models for testing ecological and evolutionary theory. While plants on substrates such as serpentine and gypsum have received much attention, those on other harsh substrates, including on vertic clay soils, have gone unstudied. Vertic clay soils are both chemically and physically challenging to plant establishment and productivity. Plant communities associated with vertic clay soils of the San Joaquin Desert appear to have a distinctive mosaic pattern of …

Structural Design, Modeling, And Analysis Of The Wing For A World Speed Record-Breaking Turbo-Prop Racing Airplane, Joseph C. Hammond

Master's Theses

The Cal Poly SLO Turbo-Prop Racer (TP Racer) is a vehicle in development with the goal to break the world record for fastest turbo-prop aircraft measured over a 3-kilometer strip. This thesis presents the structural design, modeling, and analysis of the wing of Cal Poly SLO TP Racer. Methodology behind analyzing the wing is presented through finite element modeling elements and a mesh study. This is followed by development of structure through geometry and laminate estimations. The wing structure estimates and loading conditions are then modeled in FEMAP. Initial estimates are analyzed and reviewed – overbuilt, underbuilt, and incorrectly modeled …

Finding The Middle Zone; Redefining Spirituality Through Contemporary American Literature, Mickey Mcpoland

Master's Theses

In this essay, I investigate the intersection of post-postmodern literature and postsecular thought. I examine Jonathan Franzen’s novel Crossroads (2022) as a means to examine a religious conception of goodness and how goodness becomes rooted in what we worship. I also look to Infinite Jest and “Good People” by David Foster Wallace. The latter illuminates the conflict between traditional forms of worship and contemporary calls to worship one’s own desires, which results in stagnation, frigidity, and indecisiveness. Characters follow their internal compass, which leads them only further away from a sense of stability. Franzen’s work shows what replaces traditional religious …

Disability Identity In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Letters, Jackson Fields

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on letters written by British Romantic author Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote about his chronic illness during the period of emerging modern ideas of disability. Coleridge’s letters are valuable to readers in the twenty-first century because they enable us to track the formation and negotiation of Coleridge’s disability identity. As one of the most important thinkers and authors in the English language, Coleridge has a lot to teach us about how one can understand their illnesses, medical authority, and the influences of disability on friendships and social roles. This thesis considers Coleridge’s letters to his loved ones …

The U.S. Invasion Of The Dominican Republic: From Cooperation To Conquest, Andrew Defabio

Master's Theses

This paper explores the political and military relationship between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic from the Eisenhower administration to the Johnson administration’s invasion in 1965. The U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic was a military operation that had been planned and prepared for by administrations prior and not simply a reactive decision to prevent a Communist takeover. Analysis of multiple administrations places the invasion of the Dominican Republic in a larger context of U.S. – Dominican relations. The U.S.’s desire to dominate military and political aspects of the Dominican Republic is consistent with U.S. Cold War Latin American policy.

Qualifying Quantifiers: A Usage-Based, Diachronic Analysis Of Quantifier Constructions, Danielle Miles Angier

Master's Theses

Adnominal quantifiers have been a source of contention in existing research, owing to their unique distributional patterns that do not match those of adjectives or determiners. Traditional accounts have typically focused on one aspect of quantifier behavior without looking at the group as a whole, and existing theories are disparate and inconsistent. This study tackles the problem of quantifier variation from a diachronic, usage-based, constructionist perspective. The goal of this paper is to identify patterns of change that can explain the variation exhibited by quantifiers today, focused on whether they are best classified as adjectives, determiners, or both; why every …

A New Fire Initialization Method For Operational Coupled Fire-Atmosphere Models: Assimilation Of Infrared Perimeters And Satellite Detections, Kathleen Nicole Clough

Master's Theses

For coupled fire-atmosphere forecast models, such as WRF-SFIRE, the method used to initialize wildfire within the model can greatly impact meteorological, fire, and smoke extent forecasts. A well-constructed ignition process must be integrated within models to assure the atmospheric component of the model is not destabilized by excessive heat flux released during ignition and realistic fire-induced atmospheric circulation is established. Two ignition methods are tested on the 2020 Creek fire. Analyses indicate a gradual perimeter ignition with selective “masking”, fuel removal, provides the best results in terms of resolving the fire-induced vertical circulation and fire spread, and is thus preferred …

Phosphate And Silicate Analysis In Seawater Using Programmable Flow Injection: Optimization And Applications Of Benchtop And In Situ Methodologies, Marine A. Lebrec

Master's Theses

Oceanographic nutrient monitoring efforts still largely rely on discrete sampling at irregular intervals, hindering the advancement of high-resolution biogeochemical observations and models. Benchtop analytical instrumentation for macronutrient analysis is expensive, complex, and requires large reagent volumes and highly trained operators. This thesis describes the development and optimization of a novel and commercially available class of automated nutrient analyzers called programmable Flow Injection (pFI) for benchtop and unattended in situ operations with a focus on phosphate and silicate analysis. While pFI is an ideal candidate for unattended deployments due to its compact size, low reagent volume requirements, and ability measure multiple …