Digital Commons Network^™

Morphology-Property Relationship For Binary Organic Thin Films, Alyssa Lynn Griffin

Master's Theses

Organic thin films can be readily mass-produced through solution-based fabrication methods including ink-printing and solution-casting because their light weight, flexibility, and inexpensive sources. Their applications range from organic field-effect transistors (OFET), organic solar cells (OSC), to organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Compared with pure component films, binary organic thin films (BOTF) allows for novel characteristics and specialized features to handle more demanding tasks. Due to the complex intermolecular interactions in BOTF, various microscopic phases with different morphological and electronic properties may be formed and this information is difficult to extract through conventional bulk measurements.

Organic thin films can be readily …

Biogeochemical Alteration Of Particulate Pyrogenic Organic Carbon (Pyc), Jason Matthew Stuart

Master's Theses

The resistance of plant derived pyrogenic organic carbon (pyC) to abiotic and biotic means of degradation has led to increased interest in the role of pyC as a potential carbon sink, as well as a strategy for sequestering atmospheric CO2 to mitigate excess carbon emissions. Though much research pertaining to the fundamental properties of pyC degradation have been performed in a controlled lab setting, there has been very little work regarding pyC degradation in a field setting where factors such as precipitation and temperature fluctuate seasonally. This work focuses on various degradation characteristics of two …

Naturalists’ Perspectives On The Use Of Mobile Technology During A Nature Hike, Aubin Marishka Radzewicz St. Clair

Master's Theses

Naturalists act as our link between scientific knowledge and the public’s understanding of natural history and conservation efforts. In order for them to succeed, they need access to reference materials as well as up-to-date information (Mankin, Warner, & Anderson, 1999). Incorporating mobile technology (i.e. tablets) into naturalists’ endeavors in natural history and environmental education can be used as supportive and educational tools. My project investigated how newly trained naturalists used tablet technology while leading groups of children on nature hikes. I investigated naturalists’ views on the use of mobile technology as a tool during the hikes. My research was guided …

Evaluation Of The Protein Recognition Properties Of Peptide Nucleic Acids, Crystal Cox Serrano

Master's Theses

The objective is to evaluate the ability of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRS) to recognize the non-standard nucleic acid, PNA (peptide nucleic acid). PNA has immense potential in biomedical applications due to its increased thermostability and nuclease resistance over natural nucleic acids. PNA represents a superior alternative to natural nucleic acids in many biomedical applications due to its specificity, strong binding, and nuclease resistance. This study is the initial data set that indicates PNA are recognized by translation enzymes.

Lorentz Invariant Spacelike Surfaces Of Constant Mean Curvature In Anti-De Sitter 3-Space, Jamie Patrick Lambert

Master's Theses

In this thesis, I studied Lorentz invariant spacelike surfaces with constant mean curvature H = c in the anti-de Sitter 3-space H³₁(−c²) of constant curvature −c². In particular, I construct Lorentz invariant spacelike surfaces of constant mean curvature c and maximal Lorentz invariant spacelike surfaces in H³₁(−c²). I also studied the limit behavior of those constant mean curvature c surfaces in H³₁(−c²). It turns out that they approach a maximal catenoid in Minkowski 3-space E³₁ as c → …

The Informative G-Prior Vs. Common Reference Priors For Binomial Regression With An Application To Hurricane Electrical Utility Asset Damage Prediction, Nathan R. Lally

Master's Theses

Eliciting appropriate prior information from experts for a statistical model is no easy task. Expressing this information in terms of hyperparameters of prior distributions on abstract model parameters can be nearly impossible, especially after data augmentation or transformation. In previous work on logistic and binomial regression models, Hanson et al. (2014) assert that ``experts are confident only in their assessment of the population as a whole'' and propose a version of the g-prior which effectively places a standard beta distributed prior on the overall population probability of success. We explore the efficacy of using the informed g-prior in a real …

Tissue Characterization Using Optical Coherence Tomography, Mina Mahdian

Master's Theses

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging modality, which provides real-time near-histology resolution images. In dentistry, OCT has been used for early detection of carious lesions, malignant changes in the oral tissues and other indications. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no information regarding the ability of this imaging modality in differentiating between different types of tissues in the oral cavity. If OCT proves to be able to render information regarding the properties of tissues, it can be used to detect pathological changes at an early stage, which results in better treatment outcomes. In this study, …

Improvements To Optical Diagnostics Of Thermal Barrier Coatings: Contaminant Identification During Laser Cleaning And Time Gated Photoluminescence Piezospectroscopy, Hyung Nun Kim

Master's Theses

Laser ablation has previously been demonstrated as a technique for removal of contaminants from engine-run thermal barrier coatings (TBC). A method for monitoring the concentrations of some of the known constituents of the contaminants is developed for paralleled quantification during laser cleaning. The major constituents of these contaminants, CaO, MgO, Al₂O₃, and SiO₂, also termed CMAS, are prepared in pressed powder samples for which Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is applied. During LIBS, unique spectra characterizing the contents of the ablated material are obtained. LIBS is applied to the individual CMAS constituent pressed powder samples …

Development Of An Interactive Wave Drag Capability For The Openvsp Parametric Geometry Tool, Michael Jon Waddington

Master's Theses

Minimizing wave drag is critical to successful and efficient transonic and supersonic flight. Area-ruling is the process of managing the cross-sectional area of an aircraft to lessen the wave drag experienced in flight. Effectively calculating the necessary areas for a given aircraft can be difficult, and existing tools for conducting a wave drag analysis often carry limitations in both functionality and availability.

In this work, the author utilized an existing parametric geometry tool named OpenVSP to create an interactive design tool for approximating zero-lift wave drag. Here, the wave drag calculation methodology used in industry for decades is combined with …

An Analysis Of Juvenile Chinook Salmon Outmigration Speed And Survival In Response To Habitat Features: Sacramento River From Knights Landing To Sacramento, California, Natalie N. Mcnair

Master's Theses

Outmigration is an important life stage for Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) survival in the Sacramento River, and yet our understanding of their behavior and needs during this time is limited. To gain a better understanding of their survival and movement rates during outmigration, late fall run Chinook salmon smolts were tracked using acoustic telemetry techniques. Habitat features were measured and quantified throughout the study area to evaluate how Chinook salmon respond to key levee features including shade, instream woody material, and aquatic vegetation. The overall average movement speed through the entire study area was 0.77 m/s with an …

Analysis Of The United States Hop Market, Michael W. Dasso

Master's Theses

Hops are one of the four main ingredients used to produce beer. Many studies have been done to analyze the science behind growing and harvesting hops, creating hop hybrids, and how to brew beer with hops. However, there has been little research done revolving around the economic demand and supply model of the hop market. The objectives of this study are to create an econometric model of supply and demand of hops in the United States from 1981 to 2012, and to identify important exogenous variables that explain the supply and demand of hops using the two-stage least squares (2SLS) …

Polymer Transcrystallization Induced By Carbon Nanotube And Graphene Fibers, John Abdou

Master's Theses

Carbon nanomaterials provide applications in a wide variety of roles, including as reinforcing materials, thermal and electrical conductors, and optical absorbers. While their benefits can be applied as bulk materials, their implementation into polymer materials as fillers allows for efficient enhanced properties with a small amount of material. These blended materials, referred to as nanocomposites, integrate the beneficial properties of both the polymer and carbon nanomaterials to create cheap solutions to construction and product development that bulk materials could not accomplish. However, major challenges must be overcome to allow for their adoption in industry. Among these problems is the interfacial …

A Risk Analysis Model For The Maintenance And Rehabilitation Of Pipes In A Water Distribution System: A Statistical Approach, Hernan Cortez

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

The network of pipes in potable water distribution systems (WDS) are comprised of thousands of pipes made of various materials including PVC, concrete, cast iron, and steel, among several others. The pipes are subjected to internal and external conditions that lead to their failure. Stress conditions include, but are not limited to internal pressures, traffic loading, and corrosion. The deterioration of a pipe decreases its mechanical strength which results in an increase of its probability of failure. Failures lead to loss of service which translates to loss of money due to the cost of repairs and buildup of traffic …

Temporal Changes To Fire Risk In Disparate Wildland Urban Interface Communities, Nicola C. Leyshon

Master's Theses

Since 1990, thirteen fires over 100,000 acres in size have burned in California seven of which were recorded to be some of the most destructive wildfires of all time (California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection 2013). To aid the development of policy that reduces the destruction caused by wildfires, it is important to evaluate how risk changes through time in communities that are expanding into fire-prone areas. The objective of this study is to discover how the likelihood of structural loss is changing in WUI as newer; more fire resilient structures replace older structures on the edges of the …

Geospatial Data Modeling To Support Energy Pipeline Integrity Management, Austin Wylie

Master's Theses

Several hundred thousand miles of energy pipelines span the whole of North America -- responsible for carrying the natural gas and liquid petroleum that power the continent's homes and economies. These pipelines, so crucial to everyday goings-on, are closely monitored by various operating companies to ensure they perform safely and smoothly.

Happenings like earthquakes, erosion, and extreme weather, however -- and human factors like vehicle traffic and construction -- all pose threats to pipeline integrity. As such, there is a tremendous need to measure and indicate useful, actionable data for each region of interest, and operators often use computer-based decision …

Early Forest Fire Detection Via Principal Component Analysis Of Spectral And Temporal Smoke Signature, David Casimir Garges

Master's Theses

The goal of this study is to develop a smoke detecting algorithm using digital image processing techniques on multi-spectral (visible & infrared) video. By utilizing principal component analysis (PCA) followed by spatial filtering of principal component images the location of smoke can be accurately identified over a period of exposure time with a given frame capture rate. This result can be further analyzed with consideration of wind factor and fire detection range to determine if a fire is present within a scene. Infrared spectral data is shown to contribute little information concerning the smoke signature. Moreover, finalized processing techniques are …

Calculating Staircase Slope From A Single Image, Nicholas Joseph Clarke

Master's Theses

Realistic modeling of a 3D environment has grown in popularity due to the increasing realm of practical applications. Whether for practical navigation purposes, entertainment value, or architectural standardization, the ability to determine the dimensions of a room is becoming more and more important. One of the trickier, but critical, features within any multistory environment is the staircase. Staircases are difficult to model because of their uneven surface and various depth aspects. Coupling this need is a variety of ways to reach this goal. Unfortunately, many such methods rely upon specialized sensory equipment, multiple calibrated cameras, or other such impractical setups. …

Mathematical Model Validation Of A Center Of Gravity Measuring Platform Using Experimental Tests And Fea, Michael Lashore

Master's Theses

This thesis sets out to derive an analytical model for a center of gravity (CG) measuring platform and examines its validity through experimental testing and Finite Element Modeling. The method uses a two-stage platform tilting process to first locate the planar CG coordinates and then find the third CG coordinate normal to the platform. An uncertainty model of the measuring platform was also developed, both CG and uncertainty models were implemented in the form of a MATLAB code. A load cell sizing task was also added to the code to assist the Integration Engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in selecting …

Moxel Dags: Connecting Material Information To High Resolution Sparse Voxel Dags, Brent Robert Williams

Master's Theses

As time goes on, the demand for higher resolution and more visually rich images only increases. Unfortunately, creating these more realistic computer graphics is pushing our computational resources to their limits.

In realistic rendering, one of the common ways 3D objects are represented is as volumetric elements called voxels. Traditionally, voxel data structures are known for their high memory requirements. One of the standard ways these requirements are minimized is by storing the voxels in a sparse voxel octree (SVO). Very recently, a method called High Resolution Sparse Voxel DAGs was presented that can store binary voxel data orders of …

A Customer Value Assessment Process (Cvap) For Ballistic Missile Defense, Alex Hernandez

Master's Theses

A systematic customer value assessment process (CVAP) was developed to give system engineering teams the capability to qualitatively and quantitatively assess customer values. It also provides processes and techniques used to create and identify alternatives, evaluate alternatives in terms of effectiveness, cost, and risk. The ultimate goal is to provide customers (or decision makers) with objective and traceable procurement recommendations. The creation of CVAP was driven by an industry need to provide ballistic missile defense (BMD) customers with a value proposition of contractors’ BMD systems. The information that outputs from CVAP can be used to guide BMD contractors in formulating …

An Investigation To Detect Delamination In Composite Laminated Plates Under Dynamic Loading, Jason Christopher Starnes

Master's Theses

In recent years composites have progressively been used for large-scale structures such as aircraft, ships, ground vehicles, and wind turbine blades. Traditional Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques have various limitations in assessing the performance of the large-scale composite structures. For instance, many techniques have the ability to measure either global or local properties but cannot measure both simultaneously. Nondestructive vibration detection techniques present a potential solution for evaluating both local and global large-scale composite structures, which are largely based on the fact that damage in a structure influences its dynamic characteristics such as modal parameters and Frequency Response Functions (FRF).

This …

Inlet Shape Considerations For Split-Wing Electric Distributed Propulsion, Kurt Vonderhaar Papathakis

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to uncover preliminary design relationships for an inlet of a split-wing electric distributed propulsion regional airliner. Several aspects of the inlet design were investigated, including: the overall thickness of the airfoil section with respect to the chord, inlet throat area, and lip radius. These parameters were investigated using several angles of attack and mass flow rates through the fan. Computational fluid dynamics, with a 2^nd Order turbulence model was used and validated against World War II era data from NACA, as those studies were the most pertinent wind tunnel data available. Additionally, other works by Boeing, …

Toward The Systematization Of Active Authentication Research, Daniel Fleming Gerrity

Master's Theses

Authentication is the vital link between your real self and your digital self. As our digital selves become ever more powerful, the price of failing authentication grows. The most common authentication protocols are static data and employed only once at login. This allows for authentication to be spoofed just once to gain access to an entire user session. Behaviometric protocols continuously consume a user’s behavior as a token of authentication and can be applied throughout a session, thereby eliminating a fixed token to spoof. Research into these protocols as viable forms of authentication is relatively recent and is being conducted …

Hydrologic Response To Conifer Removal From An Encroached Mountain Meadow, Gregory F. Van Oosbree

Master's Theses

Meadows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are an important ecological resource that have degraded in quality and distribution due to several environmental and anthropogenic stressors. The encroachment of conifers beyond forest meadow ecotones is largely responsible for the decline of meadow habitat throughout the past century. Currently, there is little research that quantifies the hydrologic response to removal of conifers encroaching meadows in terms of implicating successful meadow restoration. This study has implemented a before after control intervention (BACI) study design to determine the hydrologic response associated with the removal of conifers from a historic meadow encroached by conifers. The …

Increasing Isentropic Efficiency With Hydrostatic Head And Venturi Ejection In A Rankine Power Cycle, Nathan Daniel Ruiz

Master's Theses

This thesis describes the modifications made to the Cal Poly Thermal Science Laboratory’s steam turbine experiment. While the use of superheating or reheating is commonly used to increase efficiency in a Rankine cycle the methods prove unfeasible in a small scale project. For this reason, a mathematical model and proof of concept design using hydrostatic head generated by elevation and venturi ejection for use by the condenser is developed along with the equations needed to predict the changes to the system. These equations were used to create software to predict efficiency as well as lay down the foundation for future …

Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prediction Through Heart Rate Variability Analysis, Luke Joseph Plewa

Master's Theses

The increase in popularity for wearable technologies (see: Apple Watch and Microsoft Band) has opened the door for an Internet of Things solution to healthcare. One of the most prevalent healthcare problems today is the poor survival rate of out-of hospital sudden cardiac arrests (9.5% on 360,000 cases in the USA in 2013). It has been proven that heart rate derived features can give an early indicator of sudden cardiac arrest, and that providing an early warning has the potential to save many lives. Many of these new wearable devices are capable of providing this warning through their heart rate …

Validation Of A Cfd Approach For Gas Turbine Internal Cooling Passage Heat Transfer Prediction, Daniel G. Wilde

Master's Theses

This report describes the development and application of a validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling approach for internal cooling passages in rotating turbomachinery. A CFD Modelling approach and accompanying assumptions are tuned and validated against academically available experimental results for various serpentine passages. Criteria of the CFD modelling approach selected for investigation into advanced internal cooling flows include accuracy, robustness, industry familiarity, and computational cost.

Experimental data from NASA HOST (HOt Section Technology), Texas A&M, and University of Manchester tests are compared to RANS CFD results generated using Fluent v14.5 in order to benchmark a CFD modelling approach.

Capability of …

Virulence Gene Expression Of Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In The Viable But Nonculturable State, Tiffany Pui-Yun Tse

Master's Theses

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a food-borne pathogen commonly associated with the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood resulting in primary infections of the human gastrointestinal tract. It is estimated to cause about 4500 illnesses each year in the United States. However, infection from this food-borne pathogen can be avoided if this organism is detected in the implicated food, prior to consumption. Current standard methods of detecting this organism are dependent on the culturability of the bacteria. Detection based on an organism’s culturability may be problematic as V. parahaemolyticus has been known to exist in a viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state. Bacteria …

Ecg Classification With An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System, Brad Thomas Funsten

Master's Theses

Heart signals allow for a comprehensive analysis of the heart. Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) uses electrodes to measure the electrical activity of the heart. Extracting ECG signals is a non-invasive process that opens the door to new possibilities for the application of advanced signal processing and data analysis techniques in the diagnosis of heart diseases. With the help of today’s large database of ECG signals, a computationally intelligent system can learn and take the place of a cardiologist. Detection of various abnormalities in the patient’s heart to identify various heart diseases can be made through an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System …

Telepresence: Design, Implementation And Study Of An Hmd-Controlled Avatar With A Mechatronic Approach, Darren Michael Chan

Master's Theses

Telepresence describes technologies that allow users to remotely experience the sensation of being present at an event without being physically present. An avatar exists to represent the user whilst in a remote location and is tasked to collect stimuli from its immediate surroundings to be delivered to the user for consumption. With the advent of recent developments in Virtual Reality technology, viz., head-mounted displays (HMDs), new possibilities have been enabled in the field of Telepresence. The main focus of this thesis is to develop a solution for visual Telepresence, where an HMD is used to control the direction of a …