Digital Commons Network^™

Hydrological Analysis Of Post-Fire Responses Within The Little Creek Watershed Of Swanton Pacific Ranch, Alexander Jeffrey Wiens

Master's Theses

Climate change and a growing wildland-urban interface are associated with an increase in the number and severity of wildfires. While severe wildfires do cause a costly and dangerous impact on the environment and the public, their after-effects comprise important subjects of study. In post-fire hydrologic studies, the reduced infiltration and plant cover that results from wildfires can commonly be associated with increased peakflows and erosion. Phenomena such as the flooding and debris flows in Montecito after the Thomas Fire in late 2017 can have important implications on infrastructure and human lives. Quantifying post-fire peak flows and flooding volumes has therefore …

An Analysis Of Indoor Air Quality At Cal Poly For Sensor Design, Isabella M. Santi

Master's Theses

Prior research has shown that indoor air quality (IAQ) impacts cognitive performance. At Cal Poly, many older buildings are unable to maintain appropriate IAQ because of their outdated ventilation systems and the increasing number of students in the rooms. This work analyzes the IAQ of different buildings at Cal Poly, with a focus on Building 20. Carbon dioxide, temperature, and relative humidity inside classrooms are collected using an integrated circuit sensor and a microcontroller. A total of 38 hours of data was collected, with 22 of those hours in Building 20 specifically. We find that unlike temperature and relative humidity, …

Jorge Ricardo Masetti: Journalist, Guerrilla, Cold Warrior, Brooks C. Martin Mr.

Master's Theses

The following thesis describes the life and activities of Jorge Ricardo Masetti, an Argentinian journalist who was assigned to interview Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista. Masetti was responsible for broadcasting interviews with Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara to the rest of Latin America for the first time, allowing people to understand what was happening in Cuba through the words of the Revolution’s leaders. Masetti returned to Cuba to found the first international Latin American news agency, Prensa Latina, which still exists today. However, ideological factionalism within Prensa Latina drove Masetti to resign in …

Power Flow Modeling And Analysis Of A Green Seaport Power System, Alejandra Zapata

Master's Theses

Indonesia has committed to achieving Net-Zero emissions by 2060, signaling a significant shift towards sustainability, which includes impactful initiatives such as the implementation of Green Seaports. This thesis focuses on designing and developing a model for a proposed Green Seaport power system and the subsequent performance of power flow analysis under various operating conditions. The model, constructed using MATLAB Simulink, underwent extensive testing and analysis, with a specific emphasis on the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) operating modes, including individual charging, discharging, and simultaneous charging and discharging. This comprehensive investigation and analysis, involving 62 separate simulations, evaluated the impact of …

Exploring Gender Disparities In Collaboration Networks: An Analysis Of H-Indices And Collaborator Proximity, Andrew R. Estrada

Master's Theses

Research is crucial for expanding the boundaries of what is known, driving innovation, and solving problems faced by communities. It is carried out across all sectors of society by all matter of institutions. Academic research is one such sector that contributes to a plethora of disciplines. Research often compels collaboration among researchers, and as with any team, the dynamics and outcomes are affected by the individuals who contribute to the research. For instance, researchers can be from different institutions; therefore research teams can differ in collaboration distance -- the geographic distance between the organizations of authors. In a similar vein, …

Development Of A Deep Learning Algorithm Using Electromyography (Emg) And Acceleration To Monitor Upper Extremity Behavior With Application To Individuals Post-Stroke, Nathan Dodd

Master's Theses

Stroke is a chronic illness which often impairs survivors for extended periods of time,

leaving the individual limited in motor function. The ability to perform daily activities

(ADL) is closely linked to motor recovery following a stroke. The objective of

this work is to employ surface electromyography (sEMG) gathered through a novel,

wearable armband sensor to monitor and quantify ADL performance. The first contribution

of this work seeks to develop a relationship between sEMG and and grip

aperture, a metric tied to the success of post-stroke individuals’ functional independence.

The second contribution of this work aims to develop a deep …

A Study On Privacy Over Security And Privacy Enhancing Networks, Everett Lee Conway

Master's Theses

With rapid developments in communication technologies and awareness of security and privacy risks online, Security and Privacy Enhancing Networks (SPENs) have become increasingly popular. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, workplaces encouraged employees to take additional security measures, such as VPNs. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive study on website fingerprinting attacks. A comprehensive system model and threat model based on two types of SPENs (Virtual Private Networks and Tor Networks) are presented. Moreover, we demonstrate a website fingerprinting attack by ethically collecting website fetch data and analyzing the collected data using five different machine learning classification models including k …

Optimal False Data Injection (Fdi) In Simulated Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (Cacc) Systems, Lovro Dukic

Master's Theses

In the rapidly advancing field of autonomous vehicles, ensuring the security and reliability of self-driving systems is crucial. Autonomous vehicle systems, such as cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), must undergo significant research and testing before their integration into commercial intelligent transportation systems. CACC considers multiple vehicles in close proximity as a single entity, or platoon, with each vehicle equipped with a controller that uses sensor-based measurements and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication to control inter-vehicle spacing. While this system offers numerous potential benefits for traffic safety and efficiency, it is also susceptible to False Data Injection (FDI) attacks, which can cause the …

Kgscore-Open: Leveraging Knowledge Graph Semantics For Open-Qa Evaluation, Nicholas Hausman

Master's Theses

Evaluating active Question Answering (QA) systems, as users ask questions outside of the original testing data, has proven to be difficult, due to the difficulty of gauging answer quality without ground truth responses. We propose KGScore-Open, a configurable system capable of scoring questions and answers in Open Domain Question Answering (Open-QA) without ground truth answers present by leveraging DBPedia, a Knowledge Graph (KG) derived from Wikipedia, to score question-answer pairs. The system maps entities from questions and answers to DBPedia nodes, constructs a Knowledge Graph based on these entities, and calculates a relatedness score. Our system is validated on multiple …

Performance Interference Detection For Cloud-Native Applications Using Unsupervised Machine Learning Models, Eli Bakshi

Master's Theses

Contemporary cloud-native applications frequently adopt the microservice architecture, where applications are deployed within multiple containers that run on cloud virtual machines (VMs). These applications are typically hosted on public cloud platforms, where VMs from multiple cloud subscribers compete for the same physical resources on a cloud server. When a cloud subscriber application running on a VM competes for shared physical resources from other applications running on the same VM or from other VMs co-located on the same cloud server, performance interference may occur when the performance of an application degrades due to shared resource contention. Detecting such interference is crucial …

2-Tertbutylfuran At 550 And 700 K: A Multiplexed Photoionization Mass Spectrometric Investigation And Determination Of Cross Sections Of A Carbon- Bromine Bond And Various Brominated Organic Compounds, Ameyali Tapia

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the combustion study of 2-tertbutylfuran (2-TBF) in reaction with atomic oxygen (O(3P)). Data was collected at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, using tunable vacuum ultraviolet radiation coupled with a multiplexed mass spectrometer to acquire the data. These data were taken at low pressures of 7 and 8 torr at temperatures of 550 K and 700 K, respectively. Primary products of the system were identified and characterized, while reaction pathways of the products are currently being studied to ensure thermodynamic feasibility. Branching fractions of the system were also calculated, to view the …

Understanding Parasocial Relationships And The Mental Health Impact, Leslee Lynae Bennett

Master's Theses

Parasocial relationships have recently become a topic of discussion in our society. This is because individuals are still looking for something to connect with after the COVID-19 pandemic. These relationships originally were more common among young people, but due to the constant usage of media, individuals have become more attached to popularity which results in an unrealistic online connection. Parasocial relationships are both a fascination and a danger due to the mental connections an individual makes within themselves. This research is a qualitative study of previous research done on parasocial relationships. Topics discussed in this thesis will cover multiple facets …

Synthesis Of Geopolymer Using Coal Fly Ash And Corn Stover, Anu Paneru

Master's Theses

The development of each nation is dependent on its infrastructure, and nations are competing with others in infrastructure, especially in the construction of roadways, since they play a vital role in the economic and social development of the nation. The conventional materials used for road construction are cement and asphalt, which pose significant environmental challenges. This thesis explores the potential of fly ash (FA) and corn stover (CS) in synthesizing geopolymer, as an alternative material for the construction of roads. The study examines the impact of FA and CS percentages and the particle sizes of CS on the compressive strength, …

Barriers To Gluten-Free Diet Adherence And How They Relate To Quality Of Life And Self-Efficacy In College Students With Celiac Disease, Caitlin Elizabeth Wall

Master's Theses

Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic, autoimmune disorder with an increasing global prevalence. As the only current treatment is a strict gluten-free diet (GFD), adherence is imperative to maintain optimal health in individuals with the disease. There are many potential barriers to GFD adherence, including social, mental, and financial difficulties. College also presents a unique set of challenges for students with CD that may not be experienced by those without the disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the potential barriers to GFD adherence experienced by college students with celiac disease in the United States. This study also …

Reports Of Autosomal Recessive Disease And Consanguineous Mating Within The Human Population, Johnathon L. Schluter

Master's Theses

It is anecdotally evident when investigating published reports of autosomal recessive disease that a substantial number of cases are the result of related (consanguineous) mating. This research seeks to quantify the percent of manuscripts describing autosomal recessive diseases published between 2000 and 2020 in which consanguineous mating is indicated. We analyzed 602 peer-reviewed manuscripts to identify the percentage of cases presented in which consanguineous mating was indicated, the underlying genes (novel gene or new mutation) and geographical region. These papers were accessed through a specific set of parameters on the free access PubMed Central (PMC) database. A total of 552 …

Shaping Of News Values And Frames During War: A Content Analysis Of Israeli And Palestinian Short-Form Video, Madison K. Remrey

Master's Theses

This research looks at the use of short-form video as it pertains to wartime journalism. Specifically, Instagram reels posted by both Palestinian and Israeli journalists are assessed for news values (victim, perpetrator, horse race) and news frames (straight news, conjecture, human interest). Much research has been done on news reporting and even news reporting particularly as it pertains to war. However, with recent growth of short-form video and the use of such to report on war, the landscape of digital warfare is changing. This research aims to assess how short-form video is used to report on Israel and Palestine, two …

Buddhism In Thailand: Why Don’T The Youth Believe In Buddhism?, Nutnicha Teekatanasuk

Master's Theses

In Thailand, Buddhism is now known as a Buddhist country. Almost 96% of people in Thailand believe in Buddhism but it is declining every single day. Technology has made many people change their minds and not believe in Buddhism. Surprisingly, people who have been involved in Buddhism since they were born don’t believe, especially the young generation. The number of believers is declining every single day and many people have changed their minds and don’t believe in Buddhism. Surprisingly, people who have been involved in Buddhism since they were born don’t believe anymore. This might be because of Thai monks’ …

The Impact Of Refractive Error Correction On Harvest Productivity In The Guatemalan Coffee Sector, Bryce C. Everett

Master's Theses

Providing refractive error correction has the potential to bolster productivity within developing countries. Current literature is in agreement that interventions targeting those with uncorrected visual impairment can realize benefits in various sectors, with particular regard to agriculture. The design of this experiment attempts to derive the intent-to-treat (ITT) effect stemming from the provision of glasses to coffee harvesters in Guatemala. Methodology incorporates two distinct approaches: an ANCOVA model with basic controls and a fixed effects model with a control for farm-specific harvest trends. With daily harvest weight observations serving as a proxy for productivity, and a sample of 321 participants …

Does Trust Influence Being Generous? An Empirical Study Across Five Countries, Andrew Hall

Master's Theses

This study examines whether social trust, a key aspect of social capital, influences individual generosity behaviors. Previous research has explored the relationship between social capital and philanthropic actions, but comprehensive analyses remain sparse. To address this gap, we employed a dictator game together with trust-related survey questions, collecting data from participants across five countries globally. We categorized trust into four distinct areas: social trust, ingroup trust, outgroup trust, and general trust. Similarly, we divided our dependent variable, generosity, into two types: costly generous and costless generous behaviors. Our findings were mixed and varied by location. Overall, general trust positively influenced …

“Bad Hombres”: Trump Era Politics And Media In Shaping The Perceptions Of The Mexican Diaspora In The United States, Angelica Soria

Master's Theses

My research delves into the anti-Mexican immigrant rhetoric spread throughout the United States under Donald Trump’s presidency by himself, mainstream media news outlet Fox News, and the U.S. government. Furthermore, examining the social identity of ethnic Mexicans in the United States in response to and as a consequence of the negative rhetoric. This thesis analyzes discourse including the harmful rhetoric and its impact on policy formulation, public perception, and the lived experiences of Mexican immigrants and ethnic Mexican communities. By looking at existing discourse, this research provides a critical discourse analysis of political speeches, media coverage, and ethnic Mexican testimonios. …

Impacting Queer Trans-Migrations In Mexico: A Case Study Of Civil Society Organization Casa Frida Refugio Lgbt+, Leticia Morales

Master's Theses

Mexico has historically been known as an emigration or transit country. In this context, civil society organizations have played pivotal roles in addressing the voids in support for migrants. Among these organizations, Casa Frida Refugio LGBT stands out as a significant service provider, specifically for LGBT+ migrants. This study engages in a qualitative case study analysis of the organization Casa Frida, drawing from interviews conducted with nine LGBTQ+ migrants and refugees, personal observations, and Casa Frida’s website and social media accounts. The research seeks to answer two central questions: Firstly, what role does an LGBT+ specific service provider like Casa …

Lgbtqia+ Immigrant Healing: Ulysses Syndrome & Community-Based Organizing, Tay Villaseñor-Ingersoll

Master's Theses

The aim of this study is to validate that LGBTQIA+ migrants experience the Ulysses Syndrome, also referred to as the Immigrant Syndrome of Chronic and Multiple Stress, which was developed in 2002 by Psychiatrist and Professor of the University of Barcelona, Dr. Joseba Achotegui. This is an impermanent and complex grieving process which exposes one to symptoms such as depression, anxiety and dissociative somatic symptoms which result from extreme levels of stress from the processes of modern migration. This syndrome manifests as a natural reaction to intense migratory pressures for those who are otherwise healthy.

Furthermore, this project highlights how …

The Cost Of Prosperity In China, Comparison Of Early Development Differences Between Left-Behind Children And Non-Left-Behind Children In Rural China, Yuchen Zhu

Master's Theses

This study aims to explore the cognitive development differences between left-behind and non-left-behind children in rural China, specifically in the rural villages of Ya'an City, Sichuan Province. Utilizing cross-sectional data from 570 children aged 0-3 years, the children were categorized based on parental presence into four groups: non-left-behind children (both parents present), left-behind children (both parents absent), left-behind children (mother present), and left-behind children (father present). The cognitive development of these children was assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development's cognitive subscale. Regression analyses were conducted, adjusting for village-level clustering, and controlling for demographic variables such as age in …

Impact Of Temperature On Children’S Nutrition: A Comparative Study Of Three Ecological Regions Of Nepal, Prakriti Shakya

Master's Theses

Nutrition obtained during the growth period of childhood significantly influences long-term well-being and overall productivity, ultimately contributing to the economy of a society. However, weather shocks can wreak havoc by damaging crops, changing yields of important crops and disrupting market access, which directly impacts the food intake of both adults and children. When these adverse events occur during childhood, short term and long term inadequacy in nutrition as well as disease incidence can cause malnutrition leading to stunted growth and cognitive impairment that may persist into adulthood, affecting the labor market and increasing health expenditure. To address this issue, we …

Queering The Care Chain & Migration Discourse, Duun O'Hara

Master's Theses

Abstract

This thesis seeks to fill the gaps between migration and domestic labor discourses that lack a queer, decolonial conception of the queer migrant community in the US. Dominant conceptualizations of care work exclude LGBTQ+ migrant individuals who are forced into the “informal” sector of labor as a by-product of the settler-colonial state, neoliberalism, and globalization. Centering queer migration approaches and decolonial practices will help to illuminate how gender, race, and sexuality are consistently excluded in discussions of migrant domestic workers. To investigate how migration discourse and understandings of care work continue to impose Western heteronormative perceptions of migrants, I …

The Impact Of Female Political Leadership On Intimate Partner Violence In India, Khushboo Patel

Master's Theses

Abstract:

This study employs an instrumental variable approach to examine the impact of female political leadership on women’s experiences of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). It finds that in rural areas with more female leaders, incidents of sexual and psychological IPV increase. The analysis investigates the drivers behind this impact, revealing that entrenched gender norms and expectations, such as a husband’s preference for more sons, may exacerbate IPV. Additionally, despite the increase in female leaders, attitudes toward violence remain largely unchanged. These findings highlight the need for research and policy initiatives that not only encourage female political participation but also specifically …

Assesing Electronic Waste Management Strategies In Ghana, Valere Daphne Ossie

Master's Theses

In an era of rapid technological innovation, managing electronic waste (E-waste) is an increasing challenge globally. African countries are increasingly becoming the key destination of electronic waste due to two primaries factors which are the emergence of unregulated private markets from international and domestic recycling loopholes and stricter regulations on E-waste import and recycling methods in Asian countries like China and India. This study focuses on the complexities surrounding electronic waste (E-waste) in Ghana and provides management recommendations to mitigate the environmental health consequences. Using a qualitative method and peer-reviewed journals, this study investigates the current state of E-waste management …

Evaluating Climate Migration Through Discourse Analysis Of International Policy Framework And “El Progreso” Community Blog, Olusola Akanni

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Environmental changes are driven by global warming, such as rising temperatures, melting ice, and increased natural disasters which directly affect the living conditions of huma thereby driving migration. This study highlights the inadequacies of current migration management policies as the United States is seeing a significant influx of migrants from Central America. The focus of this discourse analysis is on the role of inadequate policies and the failure of international efforts like the Paris Climate Agreement in addressing the issue of climate-induced migration effectively. Despite the goals set by such international agreements to mitigate the effects of climate change …

Human Trafficking: Foreign National Adolescent Survivors In The United States, A Call To Expand Otip Eligibility Letters, Ailleene L. Maldonado

Master's Theses

The Office of Trafficking in Persons grants child eligibility letters to foreign national minors who have been confirmed victims of trafficking. These OTIP Eligibility Letters provide recipients with public benefits to the same extent as a refugee but do not grant protection from removal or pathways towards legal permanent residence. Additionally, many OTIP recipients have unaccompanied minor status in the United States. In order to capture the experience of OTIP recipients, this research explores existing literature on trafficking trauma and migration stressors/ trauma. Additionally, this research identifies international and national legal frameworks to define trafficking and acknowledge the responsibility that …

To Burn Or Not To Burn: Causal Effect Of Farm Stubble Burning On Air Quality., Chaitanya Pasupala

Master's Theses

National Capital Region of India (NCR) experiences adverse air quality during winters with Air Quality Index (AQI) at hazardous levels. Though various factors like industrial and automobile emissions, biomass burning, and firecrackers during festive season contribute to NCR’s adverse air quality, farm stubble burning in neighbouring agricultural regions of Punjab and Haryana is considered a prominent one. The motivation and consequences of farm-stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana have been extensively studied but the causal effect of this burning on air quality of Delhi has neither been rigorously analyzed nor the effects quantified. This study aims to bridge this gap …