Digital Commons Network^™

Synthesis And Studies Of Polymers Crosslinked With Electrochemically Degradable Crosslinking Reagents, Raymond Phillip Meury

Master's Theses

Crosslinked polymers have a covalent bridge that connects two polymer strands at multiple points, creating a network or matrix that is very robust. These types of polymers may either be stable indefinitely, or degrade over time; those that degrade over time typically do so at a constant rate. What is not available currently is a polymer that is stable indefinitely, but then can be degraded on command. Being able to create an adhesive that could undergo de-bonding on command would be very useful. We have designed an electrochemically degradable crosslinking reagent (EDCR) composed of a bi-functional polymer crosslinking moiety and …

Exploring Racial Diversity In Caldecott Medal-Winning And Honor Books, Angela Christine Moffett

Master's Theses

The Caldecott Medal, awarded annually by the American Library Association to the illustrator of the “most distinguished American picture book,” is the oldest and most prestigious award for children’s picture books in the United States. While the award winners have occasionally depicted racially diverse characters, it was not known to what extent the chosen winning titles have kept pace with changing racial demographics in the country. Diversity in children’s literature, and the lack thereof, has become a critical issue for our time. The social implications of failing to provide an exemplary collection of picture books and other literature representative of …

Evaluation Of A Silica Hydride Based Diol Stationary Phase For High Pressue Liquid Chromatogrphy, Kathleen Talbott

Master's Theses

The impact of chromatography across many scientific fields and applications is limitless. It is a vital everyday separation, characterization, and purification tool for many scientists worldwide. Innovations in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) stationary phases have led to more diverse separations essential to many fields including the pharmaceutical industry and research. Silica hydride based stationary phases have been shown to display both reverse phase (RP) and aqueous normal phase (ANP) chromatographic behavior. This is a result of both the silica hydride surface and the bonded phase. The goal of this work was to characterize silica hydride based diol stationary phases …

Effects Of Zoledronate During Simulated Weightlessness On Bone Structure And Mechanics, Ryan T. Scott

Master's Theses

Spaceflight causes astronauts to experience an unbalanced level of bone remodeling favoring resorption. The combination of an antiresorptive drug and weightlessness may have negative effects on the mechanical and structural properties of bone by increasing elastic stiffness but diminishing plasticity. At 16 weeks of age, skeletally postpubescent male mice (n = 32, C57BL/6) were evenly divided and subcutaneously given either zoledronate (45 µg/kg) or vehicle (saline, same volume). Three days postinjection, half of each group were divided to undergo 3 weeks of hindlimb unloading or act as a control undergoing normal ambulation (n = 8 for each of the 4 …

Women Business Leaders In Biotech And Hi-Tech, And Related Industry Cluster Factors, Jessica White

Master's Theses

Women entrepreneurs are on the rise and their numbers have grown at one and a half times the rate of small enterprises generally over the last 15 years. In spite of this, women are underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Women face additional barriers when forging careers within these fields and obtaining startup capital. This study examines female business ownership within the fields of hi-tech and biotech, and the factors that support startups by women throughout the state of California. As both of these industry sectors are known to cluster geographically around sources of venture …

Good Grief, Alexandra Deabler

Master's Theses

Good Grief is a novel that follows one family as they move through the five stages of grief. The purpose of the creative work is to focus on the complicated relationships of a blended family, and further complicate that with the added pressure of mourning a loved one, while still fulfilling familial and societal obligations. It is a meditation on the different ways people handle emotional trauma. Grief is a universal concept, but often mistreated or misunderstood. Grief, as a process, takes several different forms, some of which—expressing pain through joviality or sensuality—are shrouded in shame. My thesis challenges the …

Testing Camera Trap Density Estimates From The Spatial Capture Model And Calibrated Capture Rate Indices Against Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys Spp.) Live Trapping Data, Timothy A. Walker

Master's Theses

Camera trapping studies often focus on estimating population density, which is critical for managing wild populations. Density estimators typically require unique markers such as stripe patterns to identify individuals but most animals do not have such markings. The spatial capture model (SC model; Chandler & Royle, 2013) estimates density without individual identification but lacks sufficient field testing. Here, both the SC model and calibrated capture rate indices were compared against ten sessions of live trapping data on kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spp). These camera and live trapping data were combined in a joint-likelihood model to further compare the two methods. From …

Deconstructing Exploitative Systems And Restoring A Balanced Biosphere: An Ecofeminist Posthumanist Reading Of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres And Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, Aubrey A. Laughlin

Master's Theses

Although many scholarly articles have provided ecofeminist insights and

critiques of A Thousand Acres that connect the abuse of women to the abuse of the land, few have dealt specifically with the link between the treatment of women and the treatment of nonhuman animals. In the first chapter of this paper, I argue that associations between women and nonhuman animals in A Thousand Acres sustain the constructed reality of patriarchal communities. Similarly, Prodigal Summer’s narratives center around females and nonhuman animals, but also provide a broader focus that emphasizes the interconnectivity of the entire biotic pyramid and optimistically holds that …

Evaluation Of A Silica Hydride-Based Undecynoic Acid Stationary Phase For High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Veena Menon Kozhikote

Master's Theses

Undecynoic acid (UDA) attached to a silica hydride surface has been found to exhibit weak cationic exchange properties and an aqueous normal phase (ANP) type of retention. ANP is a mechanism similar to normal phase chromatographic retention, except for the use of a polar solvent such as water in the mobile phase. In ANP, the retention of a polar molecule is increased with a higher concentration of the non-polar mobile phase solvent (usually acetonitrile). Non-polar molecules exhibit retention behavior as in reverse phase (RP) chromatography. The goal of this research was to characterize the chromatographic retention pattern of an undecynoic …

Design And Analysis Of A Low-Power 8-Bit 500 Ks/S Sar Adc For Bio-Medical Implant Devices, Ehsan Mazidi

Master's Theses

This thesis project involves the design and analysis of an 8-bit Successive Approximation Register (SAR) Analog to Digital Convertor (ADC), designed for low- power applications such as bio-medical implants. The sampling rate for this ADC is 500 KS/s. The power consumption for the whole SAR ADC system was measured to be 2.1 uW. The novelty of this project is the proposal of an extremely energy efficient comparator architecture. The result is the design of a final ADC with reasonable sampling speed, accuracy and low power consumption. In this project, all the different subsystems have been designed at the transistor level …

Structure-Function Relationship Between Quercetin, Its Methylated Derivatives And Cytotoxicity In Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells, Jyoti Phatak

Master's Theses

Quercetin is a member of the flavonoid family, found in fruits and vegetables, and has

shown cytotoxic effects on many cancers, including breast cancer. Quercetin’s methylated derivatives, 3-O-methyl quercetin, pentamethyl quercetin, isorhamnetin, and tamarixetin, differ in their substitution patterns of the methyl capping at the 5-hydroxyl groups. Cell death assays performed on MDA-MB-231 cells showed increased cytotoxicity with quercetin and all its methylated derivatives, except pentamethyl quercetin, after 72 hours of treatment. Loss of the mitochondrial outer membrane potential (MOMP) was seen using a JC-1 assay after 15 min incubation with compounds, except for pentamethyl quercetin. We saw no change …

Egg Turning Behavior And Egg Temperature In Relation To Mercury Contamination Of Forster's Terns (Sterna Forsteri), Gregory T. Taylor

Master's Theses

Several avian species exhibit reduced hatching success as a result of mercury contamination, but the mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. We examined egg turning rates and egg temperatures, two important determinants of egg hatchability, in relation to egg mercury contamination of Forster’s terns (Sterna forsteri) in San Francisco Bay. Here, we used artificial eggs containing a data logger with a 3-D accelerometer, a magnetometer, and a temperature thermistor to monitor parental incubation behavior (sampled at 1 Hz) of 186 tern nests. Overall, adults turned their eggs an average of 3.8 ± 0.8 SD turns h^(-1), which is nearly …

A Framing Analysis Of Latinos In The Facebook Pages Of News Organizations, Juliana Zapata Acosta

Master's Theses

This study of the Facebook pages of six legacy media organizations extended framing theory to apply to social media. In the study of 557 articles, four new frames and 10 new subframes were identified. The immigration frame and its two subframes, deportation and undocumented, dominated the coverage of Latinos during the period of the study. The politics frame was the second most dominant frame. This study updated the old data and found that no progress has been made, with the exception of a lesser use of the criminal frame. This improvement could be because the study included six months of …

Exploring The Relationship Between Commuting Stress, Job Strain And Safety Behaviors While Commuting: The Dual Role Of Work-Related Rumination, Katrina A. Burch

Master's Theses

For those who commute to and from work on a daily basis, this is an activity that requires attention to both what one is doing and the environment, in order for the commute to be done safely. Although research has shown that work can spill over into home and other non-work domains, very little attention has been paid to the impact that work may have on the transition time between one’s work and home domains. The present study sought to examine the impact of daily commuting stress and end-of-day job strain on the safety of one’s commute through the experience …

Learning Delays In A Mouse Model Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Amanda R. Rendall

Master's Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder with core symptoms of atypical social interactions and repetitive behaviors. It has also been reported that individuals with ASD have difficulty with multisensory integration, and this may disrupt higher-order cognitive abilities such as learning and social communication. Impairments in the integration of sensory information could in turn reflect diminished cross-modal white matter connectivity. Moreover, the genetic contribution in ASD appears to be strong, with heritability estimates as high as 90%. However, no single gene has been identified, and over 100 risk genes have been reported. One of these genes -- contactin-associated-like-protein …

Spatial And Temporal Use Of Early Successional Habitat Patches By A Community Of Mammals In The Northeastern United States, Kelly M. O'Connor

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Community Water Fluoridation, Jessica Marie Seyfried

Master's Theses

There is a bourgeoning controversy unknown to many surrounding one of the CDC’s top ten public health achievements of the 20^th century. After more than 50 years of implementation, community water fluoridation may not have achieved the declines in caries rates we once thought or hoped for, especially in light of alternative approaches to preventing caries including but not limited to other sources of fluoride supplementation, changes in diet, and tooth brushing behavior.

In fact, a survey of past research highlights the fact that this policy decision may be based on out of date and/or a lack of research …

Dislocation And Adjustment Of International Student-Athletes, Thiago Brito Lopes

Master's Theses

One reason that attracts international student-athletes to American universities could be the interest in earning high quality education with the possibility of playing high performance sports. However, when compared to other international students, differences are seen: Other foreign students who look for a degree in the US desire not only an international education, but also potentially staying in the country. The University of San Francisco, where a cosmopolitan city meets education, fits it best. At USF, 82 countries are represented, reaching a number of 1708 students. Approximately ¼ of the whole student population is international. The ratio with student-athletes is …

Photooxidation Reactions Of Small-Chain Methyl Esters, Aerosol Photoelectron Spectroscopy, And The Photodissociation Of Ethylenediamine, Giel Muller

Master's Theses

Research conducted at the University of San Francisco is presented within this masters thesis, including the Cl-initiated photooxidation reactions of methyl propanoate, methyl butanoate, and methyl valerate (pentanoate), the aerosol photoelectron spectroscopy of isoprene and gamma-valerolactone, and the TPEPICO investigation of ethylenediamine. Experiments were conducted at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Advanced Light Source (ALS), the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center in Hsinchu City (NSRRC), and the University of Stockton in California, respectively.

The German Army At A Crossroads Of Modernization, Sarah E. Liebig

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the German civil-military relationship and the challenges the country is facing amidst modernizing reforms to the German armed forces. Over the last quarter of a century, new international security threats have manifested and continue to transform requiring Germany to adapt its military and defense policies in order to effectively protect itself and serve as a capable ally to other member states of international organizations such as NATO and the EU. The adaptations and reforms required of Germany have led to concern that the cornerstone civil-military relationship concepts are at risk. In this thesis I identify the major …

The Ecological Importance Of Brachiopods Versus Bivalves In The Paleozoic: Taphonomy, Biomass, And Energy Use, Shannon (Shin-Nan) Hsieh

Master's Theses

Brachiopods have commonly been considered more important than bivalves in Paleozoic ecosystems due to their greater global diversity and greater abundance in many fossil assemblages. New sampling-standardized diversity curves verify that brachiopods were more diverse than bivalves at the global level in the Paleozoic; they declined in the Permian-Triassic extinction, largely recovered, then faded away later in the Mesozoic. However, the subordinate ecological status of bivalves within local Paleozoic ecosystems has been challenged on two fronts. First, bivalve abundance may be underestimated due to preferential dissolution of aragonitic shells. Second, bivalve contribution to ecosystem function may be underestimated by abundance …

Predictors Of Improvement In Risk Reduction Skills Among Hiv Infected Drug Users, Rashmi Dahal

Master's Theses

Background and Objective: Unsafe needle use and unprotected sex are behaviors that have been associated with HIV transmission. Evidence-based behavioral intervention approaches are widely available for preventing HIV transmission, but neurocognitive impairment (NCI) may impede many intervention participants’ capacity to fully benefit from such interventions, leaving them vulnerable to HIV transmission risk. This study examines the impact of NCI on specific intervention outcomes expected to be enhanced through intervention participation.

Methods: Participants were 74 HIV+ opioid-dependent persons participating in methadone maintenance drug treatment and who reported drug- or sex- related HIV risk behavior. Using regression analyses, NCI, HIV knowledge (information), …

Density-Based Clustering Of High-Dimensional Dna Fingerprints For Library-Dependent Microbial Source Tracking, Eric Johnson

Master's Theses

As part of an ongoing multidisciplinary effort at California Polytechnic State University, biologists and computer scientists have developed a new Library-Dependent Microbial Source Tracking method for identifying the host animals causing fecal contamination in local water sources. The Cal Poly Library of Pyroprints (CPLOP) is a database which stores E. coli representations of fecal samples from known hosts acquired from a novel method developed by the biologists called Pyroprinting. The research group considers E. coli samples whose Pyroprints match above a certain threshold to be part of the same bacterial strain. If an environmental sample from an unknown host animal …

Gender, Othering, And Loki 2015, Amanda Munson

Master's Theses

With many enigmatic characters and engaging stories, Norse literature and mythology have had a formative impact on English literature from the early Middle Ages in poetry like the Edda and many Icelandic sagas. A lot of scholarship has been done on Nordic myth and literature, including character studies on many figures, especially Odin and Thor. However, it is difficult to find studies of the figures who make up the "other" in Nordic tales, such as the trickster Loki. While Loki plays a significant role in many tales, his position as the "other" in general Norse mythology and folklore is perhaps …

Medical Image Registration Using Artificial Neural Network, Hyunjong Choi

Master's Theses

Image registration is the transformation of different sets of images into one coordinate system in order to align and overlay multiple images. Image registration is used in many fields such as medical imaging, remote sensing, and computer vision. It is very important in medical research, where multiple images are acquired from different sensors at various points in time. This allows doctors to monitor the effects of treatments on patients in a certain region of interest over time. In this thesis, artificial neural networks with curvelet keypoints are used to estimate the parameters of registration. Simulations show that the curvelet keypoints …

Una Legua Cuadrada: Exploring The History Of Swanton Pacific Ranch And Environs, Jeanine Marie Scaramozzino

Master's Theses

Swanton Pacific Ranch is an educational and research facility owned by the Cal Poly Corporation and managed by the Cal Poly State University (Cal Poly) College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. Located about 180 miles north of campus and just 14 miles north of Santa Cruz, California on Highway 1, the property was first leased to and then donated to Cal Poly by the late Albert E. Smith in 1993. The rancho’s original inhabitants included Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, as well as various European immigrants and their descendants; currently, the staff, faculty, and students of Cal Poly occupy the …

An Evaluation Of The Disposition Of R941000, A Tetrazolone-Telmisartan Analog: A Case Study Of The Suitability Of Tetrazolone As A Carboxylic Acid Bioisostere, Ryan Brant Murray

Master's Theses

Carboxylic acids are ubiquitous in medicinal compounds, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, statins, hypertensives, and anticoagulants. Despite their prolific use, unfavorable characteristics such as metabolic instability, poor membrane permeability, and toxicity have been associated with this moiety in some instances. Bioisosteres have been employed to attenuate these issues. However, bioisostere use can alter drug potency and disposition. Recently, our company demonstrated the feasibility of the tetrazolone moiety as a carboxylic acid bioisostere for the angiotensin II antagonist telmisartan. R941000 (telmisartan-tetrazolone analog) was a potent in vitro inhibitor of angiotensin II and possessed a similar disposition to telmisartan. To the best of …

Production And Harvest Of Microalgae In Wastewater Raceways With Resource Recycling, Alexander Colin Roberts

Master's Theses

Microalgae can be grown on municipal wastewater media to both treat the wastewater and produce feedstock for algae biofuel production. However the reliability of treatment must be demonstrated, as well as high areal algae productivity on recycled wastewater media and efficient sedimentation harvesting. This processes was studied at pilot scale in the present research.

A pilot facility was operated with nine CO₂-supplemented raceway ponds, each with a 33-m² surface area and a 0.3-m depth, continuously from March 6, 2013 through September 24, 2014. The ponds were operated as three sets of triplicates with two sets continuously fed …

Structural Damage Assessment Using Artificial Neural Networks And Artificial Immune Systems, Arthur Q.X. Shi

Master's Theses

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have been technologically advancing over the past few years. Improvements in fabrication and microelectronics allow the development of highly sophisticated sensor arrays, capable of detecting and transmitting an unprecedented amount of data. As the complexity of the hardware increases, research has been performed in developing the means to best utilize and effectively process the data. Algorithms from other computational fields are being introduced for the first time into SHM systems. Among them, the artificial neural network (ANN) and artificial immune systems (AIS) show great potential. In this thesis, features are extracted out of the acceleration …

Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization Suite (Stops): Optimization Of Multiple Gravity Assist Spacecraft Trajectories Using Modern Optimization Techniques, Timothy J. Fitzgerald

Master's Theses

In trajectory optimization, a common objective is to minimize propellant mass via multiple gravity assist maneuvers (MGAs). Some computer programs have been developed to analyze MGA trajectories. One of these programs, Parallel Global Multiobjective Optimization (PaGMO), uses an interesting technique known as the Island Model Paradigm. This work provides the community with a MATLAB optimizer, STOpS, that utilizes this same Island Model Paradigm with five different optimization algorithms. STOpS allows optimization of a weighted combination of many parameters. This work contains a study on optimization algorithm performance and how each algorithm is affected by its available settings.

STOpS successfully found …