Digital Commons Network^™

Origami-Inspired Pneumatic Soft Robotic Gripper, Conor J. Schott

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design and evaluation of a vacuum-actuated, origami-based soft robotic gripper. A custom Sea Urchin crease pattern forms a lightweight folding skeleton that collapses radially under vacuum. The system emphasizes low cost and accessibility through laser cutting, 3D printing, and silicone molding. The Sea Urchin geometry was selected after digital and physical screening of candidate crease patterns for smooth folding, low strain concentration, and uniform inward motion. The folding skeleton is laser cut from 4 mil drafting film and folded into a compliant core. Four membrane configurations were developed: an origami gripper with a 36-inch balloon (Design …

Per- And Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances Fate Across California Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Meta-Analysis Of Formation, Distribution, And Persistence, Elizabeth Reineke

Master's Theses

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent contaminants that move through municipal and industrial wastewater systems with limited attenuation. As a result, they are increasingly detected in drinking water supplies. Despite growing regulatory concern, a systems-level understanding of PFAS behavior across multiple treatment facilities and watershed settings remains incomplete. This study compiled influent, effluent, and biosolids datasets from more than one hundred California wastewater treatment plants to evaluate PFAS occurrence, transformation, and partitioning across diverse treatment configurations. Analytical steps included calculating removal efficiencies, assessing precursor-to-product oxidation, evaluating co-contaminant correlations, and grouping facilities by process design to quantify configuration-specific fate patterns. …

Hallucination Techniques For Self-Supervised Synthetic Datasets For Mobile Robots, Wyatt D. Colburn

Master's Theses

Classical techniques in autonomous navigation struggle in tightly constrained spaces. Machine learning has been shown to perform better in these difficult environments but most techniques require large amounts of navigation experience for training. Using a new machine learning paradigm learning from hallucination (LfH), training data can be collected in a safe environment and not require supervision. Data is collected in real time while an agent performs a random walk in free space, supervision is not required as there are no obstacles for the robot to run into. After a random walk a post processing pipeline will hallucinate a safety corridor …

Serum Concentrations Of Inflammatory Markers And Selected Nutrient Metabolites In Holstein And Jersey Cows Across The Transition Period, Avery Orr

Master's Theses

The transition period, spanning the weeks surrounding parturition, requires dairy cows to undergo synchronized metabolic, endocrine, and immunological adjustments that support the onset of lactation but also heighten disease susceptibility. Although individual inflammatory or metabolic biomarkers have been extensively studied, the integrated immunometabolic dynamics that occur across this period and the difference between breeds is not fully understood. The objective of this study was to characterize longitudinal patterns in key nutrient metabolites and inflammatory markers in Holstein and Jersey cows and assess how these systems interact across the transition period.

A total of 63 Holstein and Jersey cows were sampled …

On Sobolev Spaces And The Existence Of Weak Solutions To Boundary Value Problems, Skye X. Paul

Master's Theses

Many boundary value problems that arise in mathematical models have close connections to second order elliptic partial differential equations. This thesis introduces the idea of weak derivatives and Sobolev Spaces to generalize possible solutions. Using functional analysis centered around the Lax-Milgram theorem, we show the existence of these generalized solutions to boundary value problems including Laplace's Equation, 2nd order linear ODEs, and ultimately a general second order elliptic PDE. The work cumulates with recovering a number of central theorems of functional analysis in the context of Sobolev Spaces, creating a new perspective on the solvability of these boundary value problems.

Enhancing Ad/Adrd Management Through Ihelpcare: A Compliant And Culturally Sensitive Ai-Driven Digital Healthcare Platform, Trisha Bhowmick

Master's Theses

The digital healthcare field is expanding fast, and now it requires platforms that use advanced technology and maintain robust data security and compliance practices. In the present paper, we present the main structure, key methods, and compliance strategies of the digital healthcare system iHelpCare, which, while fully meeting the HIPAA/GDPR requirements, provides health services more accessible, efficient, and inclusive. The proposed platform is powered by AI for personalized care solutions, with the main emphasis on preventive health management and providing tools for people with disabilities.

iHelpCare achieves real-time patient monitoring while securing medical data management and easy communication between patients, …

Impacts Of Halophila Stipulacea Invasion On Organic Matter Dynamics In Thalassia Testudinum Dominated Seagrass Meadows, Puerto Rico, Jonathan D. Herald

Master's Theses

Halophila stipulacea (Forsskål & Niebuhr) is a tropical seagrass native to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean. In 2002, invasive populations of H. stipulacea were identified in the Caribbean Sea where it now forms large meadows, displaces native seagrasses, alters invertebrate and fish communities, and potentially affects organic matter dynamics in invaded meadows. This study investigated differences in organic matter dynamics between meadows of H. stipulacea and native Thalassia testudinum within the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (JBNERR) on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. From March 2023-March 2024, sampling was conducted across four sites to investigate …

Effects Of Urbanization On The Population Genetics And Morphology Of The White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus Leucopus) Across An Urban–Rural Gradient, Sydney A. Morton

Master's Theses

Urbanization alters landscapes in ways that can reshape wildlife populations by changing habitat connectivity, resource availability, and selective pressures. To investigate how urbanization influences both genetic differentiation and morphology in small mammals, I examined Peromyscus leucopus (PELE) across an urban–rural gradient in northern Georgia. Using RADseq SNP data from PELE individuals across 13 sites, I quantified pairwise genetic differentiation (F_ST) and tested how various environmental variables, including impervious surface cover, human population density, and tree canopy cover, predict genetic differentiation after accounting for geographic distance. Genetic differentiation increased with geographic distance and, after controlling for isolation by …

Topographic And Upwelling Effects On Surface Lagrangian Coherent Structures Of Cape Mendocino, Basil Martin Darby

Master's Theses

The goal of this study is to investigate fine-scale Lagrangian coherent structure (LCS) generation in a coastal upwelling setting with prominent topography using a high-resolution global-ocean circulation model (LLC4320). I examine LCS properties, spatiotemporal evolution and vertical structure, as well as possible connections to submesoscale variability and chlorophyll. The LLC4320 simulation in the Cape Mendocino region is evaluated using high-resolution satellite and other ocean observations. Additionally, this study uses a novel dynamical systems technique by relating the LCS of flow fields to the physical dynamics of the mesoscale-to-submesesoscale transition. It is found that time series of short timescale LCS yield …

Retrieval Augmented Framework For Deepfake Audio Detection, Avinash Saxena

Master's Theses

The widespread use of AI-based audio deepfakes threatens severely to undermine media integrity and public trust. Speech synthesis techniques have improved dramatically in voice conversion (VC) and text-to-speech (TTS) in recent years, making forgeries sound highly realistic, and concerns are raised about possible malevolent uses. Existing state-of-the-art techniques for identifying fake speech have proven to be effective in some cases but are still limited in application and robustness when faced with novel attacking strategies, different acoustic conditions, or alternative linguistic domains. To address some of these limitations, the current research presents a novel deepfake audio detection system based on personalized …

Digital Neuropsychology And Social Anxiety: The Effect Of Observer Presence And Personality On Stress And Cognition, Ava M. Dixon

Master's Theses

This study examined how observer presence and social anxiety influence stress and cognitive performance during neuropsychological assessments, focusing on the potential benefits of unsupervised digital testing environments. Eighty university students were randomly assigned to observed or unobserved digital neuropsychological conditions and completed assessments of social cognition and executive functioning and questionnaires of social anxiety and personality. Participants also completed measures of state anxiety and heart rate variability at baseline and after cognitive tests. The findings indicated that observation led to higher subjective anxiety, but it did not produce significant interactions with social anxiety on stress or cognitive performance. Post-hoc analyses …

“What Are We And What’S Coming Next?”: Queer People’S Experiences During Sociopolitical Unrest In The Us, Ariana Cristal Morales

Master's Theses

Queer (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or other gender and sexual identities) folx have become a major focal point during political elections. As political climates have projected forced attacks towards queer populations, society has followed suit. Investigation on the impacts of such changes towards queer folx is important to uncover, as sociopolitical climates have shifted within the last 10 years in the US. The present study utilizes a phenomenological framework to understand the lived experiences of queer participants living in the US from 2015-2025 during political and social shifts. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to explore 10 queer participant’s lived experience …

A Triple Bottom Line Analysis Of Food Waste-To-Bioenergy At California University Campuses: Social Enablers Break Down Economic Barriers, Anjali Sharma

Master's Theses

Greenhouse gas emissions from food waste (FW) and energy generation are two major hurdles to the climate crisis. Previous research shows that waste-to-energy systems may provide a solution to both these challenges, particularly at university campuses, due to their high FW generation and high energy needs. Despite this, few academic institutions in California, US, have adopted waste-to-energy systems, and campus-specific challenges and opportunities associated with these systems remain underexplored. For this study, I use an Environmental, Economic, and Social (EES) lens to document the current landscape of FW management and implementation of food waste-to-bioenergy at campuses in each of the …

The Initial User Experience Of A Gamified Mental Health App, Angill Lynae Oliva

Master's Theses

Despite the availability of mobile mental health apps, high dropout rates due to low user engagement and attitudes about their effectiveness remain significant challenges. The present study examined the relationship between digital therapeutic alliance (i.e., the efficacy of therapeutic quality for digitalized mental health interventions) and college students’ engagement and perceptions of use with a gamified mental health app, SuperBetter. Digital therapeutic alliance was measured using the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR), while engagement was assessed by the total number of completed activities in the SuperBetter app. Students’ intrinsic motivation was measured using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI); and perceptions …

An Exploration Of Image Segmentation Techniques For Real-Time Product Detection, Andrew C. Dunton

Master's Theses

Recent progress in LLMs enables advanced multimodal understanding, but their high computational cost necessitates monetization strategies like interactive advertising. While bounding boxes show promise for this concept, they can lack precision and visual appeal. Image segmentation offers a superior solution but faces a dual problem: traditional models demand scarce, costly training data, and open-vocabulary segmentation models like SAM are class-agnostic, unable to semantically identify a "consumer product" object class. In this research, we address these limitations by: 1) developing the Prompt-Guided Inpainting Framework (PGIF), which injects negative prompts to generate robustly annotated synthetic segmented product images; 2) investigating the Class-Agnostic …

Climatology Of Northeast Winds In Northern And Central California: A New Characterization Of The Diablo Wind, Alana R. Macken

Master's Theses

Diablo winds in northern California are known for driving some of the most destructive wildfires in state history. The Camp Fire of 2018, which caused at least 85 civilian fatalities, is just one example of the devastating outcomes associated with these rapidly developing downslope windstorms. While they are known to occur most frequently from fall through spring, much about the structure, evolution, and full spatial extent of these events remains poorly understood. Most previous studies have focused on a limited number of high-impact cases or have defined events using humidity-based thresholds in isolated regions such as the North Bay. As …

Development Of New Design Criteria For Coastal Highway Embankment Under Wave-Induced Loading, Udaya Bilas Panta

Master's Theses

In the face of intensifying hurricanes and rising sea levels, Louisiana’s coastal highways, lifelines for communities and commerce, stand increasingly vulnerable. This thesis introduces a pioneering methodology for designing geosynthetic-reinforced highway embankments capable of withstanding wave-induced loading and rapid drawdown scenarios, the most critical failure condition identified in coastal environments. By integrating statistical wave modeling, advanced numerical simulations using SEEP/W and SLOPE/W, and a comprehensive parametric analysis, the study develops a novel hybrid regression formula that accurately predicts optimal reinforcement lengths based on site-specific geotechnical and hydraulic parameters. Validated against Hurricane Katrina data and real-world soil profiles from Cameron Parish, …

The Potential Co-Occurrence Of Perfectionism, Food Insecurity, And Gpa With Orthorexia Nervosa Risk, Samantha Kay Gould

Master's Theses

There are indeterminate risk, prevalence, and correlation data on orthorexia nervosa (ON) as shown by current literature on disordered eating (Rodgers et al., 2021). As a roughly defined disordered eating pattern, ON may be better understood after identifying associations among other attributes in a college student sample (Abdullah et al., 2020; Mavrandrea & Gonidakis, 2023; Parra-Fernández, 2019; Rogowska et al., 2021). A cooccurrence and influence of perfectionism, food insecurity, and grade point average (GPA) with ON risk was hypothesized since current literature suggests college students exhibit each of these characteristics independently (Abdullah et al., 2020; Ambwani et al., 2019; Caferoglu …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Virtual Reality Learning Through Use Of Visual Eye-Tracking Analytics (Veta) And Biological Measurements, Mckinley Anne Sherman

Master's Theses

Virtual Reality (VR) offers an immersive and interactive platform for experiential learning. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the relationship between physiological responses and cognitive workload within a VR learning environment and to explore VR as an effective instructional tool. This research compared participant engagement, stress, and learning performance within a 6th-grade science module developed in VR by incorporating biometric data collected via Polar H10 heart rate monitor and Varjo Areo VR headset eye-tracking. Thirty-three participants completed a pre-lesson demographic survey, post-lesson survey, VR sickness questionnaire, and the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). While completing the lesson, the …

Food Neophobia And Its Prevalence Among College Students In The United States, Joanne Mwendi Ponnappa

Master's Theses

Food neophobia “the reluctance to try unfamiliar foods” may influence diet variety and cultural food acceptance among young adults. College students represent a critical group for studying this behavior, as they are developing independent eating habits that can persist into adulthood. This study examined the prevalence of food neophobia among U.S. college students and evaluated how academic background, travel, cultural exposure, and demographic factors influence openness to trying unfamiliar foods. A cross-sectional online survey was administered via Qualtrics to 264 college students across the United States. The Food Neophobia Scale (FNS; Pliner & Hobden, 1992) was used to assess reluctance …

Early Visual Predictors Of Progression To Alzheimer’S Disease And Dementia With Lewy Bodies, Abril Baez

Master's Theses

We examined whether specific visual cognitive skills predict progression from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). The Benson Complex Figure Task (BCFT) was used to measure visual perception and construction (copy), and visual memory (recall). National Alzheimer Coordination Center longitudinal dataset included participants who remained stable (MCI-stable; n =2630), progressed to AD (MCI-AD; n =798), or progressed to DLB (MCI-DLB; n =59). Baseline BCFT scores were entered into logistic regression models predicting diagnostic outcome. Impaired copy performance was significantly associated with MCI-DLB (B = 0.79, OR = 2.21, BCa CI [0.26, 1.36], …

Phylogenetic Comparative Vocal Evolution, Casper W. Buchanan

Master's Theses

Vocal learning is a trait unique to humans, bats, cetaceans, primates, and birds (Jarvis & Nottebohm, 1997; McComb & Semple, 2005; Wilbrecht & Nottebohm, 2003). Although there has been extensive research on vocal learning in songbirds, parrots are an even closer proxy to human learning, as they are social, intelligent, and lifelong learners, with some having repertoires of over 300 sounds (Benedict et al., 2022; Péron et al., 2011; Thomsen et al., 2019; Toft & Wright, 2015). Elevated vocal learning can be attributed to the need for parrots to have strong communication skills through the sharing of information over foraging, …

Towards Automated And Explainable Insider Threat Response In Electronic Health Records: A Role-Aware Machine Learning Framework, Luca Lippi Ornstil

Master's Theses

Healthcare remains a prime target for cyberattacks, with insider misuse and credential compromise posing major risks to Electronic Health Records (EHRs). This thesis introduces a role-aware, explainable anomaly detection and response framework integrated with OpenEMR to address post-authentication threats. Four models—Local Outlier Factor (LOF), Isolation Forest, Autoencoder, and Graph Neural Network (GNN)—detect behavioral deviations across temporal, device, and role-based features, with LOF serving as the primary runtime detector. A configurable policy engine maps anomaly severity to proportional actions, from email alerts to read-only restrictions or account suspension, all reversible and auditable. Evaluation on real EHR logs shows the system’s operational …

Dietary Intake And Changes In Body Composition Over The Course Of One Season In Ncaa Division 1 Football Players, Blayke W. Harrison

Master's Theses

Energy intake and macronutrient composition of an athlete’s diet is highly important when considering performance. Additionally, having a favorable body composition (i.e. low levels of fat mass and high levels of lean body mass) is crucial in high-level athletes.The role of nutrition-related support personnel is highly needed by many collegiate athletics programs to achieve these outcomes, yet this resource seems to be undervalued and underused in many settings. The present thesis investigates the effects of providing nutritional support to improve dietary habits and compare changes in specific body composition metrics over the course of one season (pre- and post-season) among …

Building A Novel Question-Answering System Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation For The California Fair Political Practices Commission, Saanvi Dua

Master's Theses

The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) receives a high volume of inquiries via email from public officials, the general public, and other agencies, which currently requires staff to manually search through informational documents and manuals to provide timely responses. This process is both labor- and time-intensive.

To address this challenge, we design a question-answering (QA) system that drafts responses to emailed questions by retrieving relevant information from the FPPC’s manuals using a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework. Although the current implementation focuses on a single manual, the system is designed to be adaptable to the broader set of FPPC documents. …

Deep Learning Framework For Option Pricing, Kyle Rytand Bistrain

Master's Theses

Accurately pricing American options with market data presents a significant challenge, as foundational models like the Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) model rely on assumptions that deviate from real-world financial data -- such as log-normal returns, constant volatility, and no dividends -- and fail to account for the key early exercise feature of American options. While parametric models can adjust for these features, the complexity of the resulting models renders them prohibitively difficult to apply in practice for nonspecialists. In response, modern machine learning (ML) techniques provide a set of flexible and powerful alternatives, and recent research has explored the application of ML …

Alpine Plants And Climate Change: Tracking Community Shifts In Yosemite National, Brooke L. Wallasch

Master's Theses

As climate change progresses, alpine plant communities are predicted to shift upslope as they track temperature over time. Relative to lowland environments, alpine areas are experiencing a faster rate of temperature change due to a phenomenon referred to as elevation-dependent warming. A common approach for tracking plant communities shifts over time, is to conduct resurveys of the same area at several time points, as the Global Observational Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) has done on mountain summits around the world since 2001. In 2011-2013, GLORIA developed a supplemental survey method whereby belt transects were established downslope of summits in …

Using Hydraulic Simulations To Determine The Effects Of Tidal Behavior And Riparian Restoration On Chorro Creek, Jonathan L. Maas

Master's Theses

This thesis examines how tidal backwater effects and riparian restoration influence flooding in the Chorro Creek watershed, a major tributary to the Morro Bay Estuary on California’s Central Coast. Restoration efforts, including levee removal, floodplain reconnection, and revegetation have attempted to improve ecological function and reduce sediment transport. However, recent flood events suggest that these changes may also affect local hydraulics in ways not fully anticipated, particularly under the influence of tides and sea level rise. To analyze these dynamics, a two-dimensional HEC-RAS model was developed using LiDAR terrain, historical imagery, and field data collected from pressure and ultrasonic gauges. …

Experimental Study Of Gas-Dynamic Heating In Hartmann-Sprenger Tubes For Rocket Engine Ignition, Jacob T. Huff

Master's Theses

Ignition systems for chemical rocket engines typically rely on hypergolic propellants or auxiliary electrical hardware to supply the energy required to initiate combustion. The resonance igniter is a simple and robust alternative to these conventional methods, capable of inducing autoignition of non-hypergolic propellants without an external ignition source. At the core of this concept is the Hartmann-Sprenger Tube (HST), a device in which a high-velocity jet of gas impinges on a resonance cavity. This interaction establishes self-sustaining gas oscillations within the cavity that heat the propellants to their autoignition temperature. To facilitate the development of a functional resonance igniter at …

Adjoint Enhanced Panel Methods, Christopher Sheehan

Master's Theses

This thesis describes the development, implementation, and validation of an adjoint-enhanced panel method for two-dimensional airfoil analysis. While conventional panel methods are computationally efficient for flow analysis, they typically rely on relatively computationally expensive finite differencing for gradient calculation in design optimization or sensitivity studies, a limitation addressed by employing the discrete adjoint method. The core of this work involves integrating the discrete adjoint method with a Hess-Smith panel code utilizing Class-Shape Transformation (CST) for airfoil parameterization, which requires the analytical derivation of sensitivities for panel geometry, boundary conditions, and the aerodynamic influence matrix with respect to the CST design …