Digital Commons Network^™

Looking For Love: Motivations Of Dating App Usage In Millennials, Mel Ekins

Master's Theses

Dating applications (apps) have become a popular method for young adults to make romantic connections. The apps themselves are easy to use and sometimes are created to be “game-like” to entice people to want to utilize them. People can “match” with other users and strike up conversations. Extensive research has been conducted on motivations for dating and using the dating app Tinder. This study looks at users’ reasons for using Bumble, where little research has been done. This study focuses on millennials aged 26-42, whereas most other studies have focused on college students under 23. This study uses a mixed …

Exploring The Relationship Of Social Dominance Orientation, Symbolic Ableism, And Support For Mitigation Implementation With Exposure To A Health Threat, Samantha Chambers

Master's Theses

Social Dominance Theory (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) proposes that groups of individuals in society are organized in social hierarchies that place dominant groups at the top of the hierarchy and subordinate, disadvantaged groups at the bottom. Research on prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup relations has largely focused on sexism and arbitrary-set hierarchies (e.g., race), leaving the idea of a health hierarchy largely neglected. Recently, Raoul (2023) presented the theoretical framework of a health-based social hierarchy, and the present study is an application of this framework. The aims of this study were to a) replicate previous findings by Raoul (2023) that found …

Digimindready: Enhancing Military Readiness Through Edge Ai-Driven Wellness, Education, And Digital Discipline Via Privacy-First Mhealth Innovation, Md Mehedi Hasan

Master's Theses

Military personnel often find themselves in intense situations that require high focus. Successfully engaging in these dangerous missions means they must efficiently control cognitive load, manage overwhelming stress, and stay focused through distractions to perform at their best. Military training significantly focuses on human performance, which benefits military readiness. The 21st century has introduced unanticipated challenges to all, such as the adverse effects of excessive screen time, external distractions, and over-reliance on technology without being aware of digital discipline. Militaries are no exception. These challenges have become an emerging threat to military personnel's cognitive, emotional, and physical well-being. On top …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Substance Abuse Treatment Within The Illinois Prison System And Its Effect On Recidivism, Maria Dimeglio

Master's Theses

The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of two specific substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs within the Illinois State prison system between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2015. This study utilizes a quasi-experimental research design to evaluate the corrections-based Therapeutic Community (TC) programs at the Sheridan and Southwestern Illinois Correctional Centers. These programs are evaluated based on the effects they have on reoffending, specifically highlighting their effect on young individuals. The final sample used in the present study was taken from a population of 72,906 men released from the Illinois state prison system between July 1, 2010, …

Understanding The Relationship Between Teacher Turnover And Student Success Across Ethno-Racial And Socioeconomic Demographics: An Analysis Of Massachusetts Public Schools, Jenna O'Leary

Master's Theses

Teacher turnover in the U.S. has risen over the past decades. Urban districts have faced some of the highest rates of turnover amongst their staff. However, scholars still debate the impacts of teacher turnover on student academic success. This study aims to better understand this relationship across both ethno-racial and socioeconomic student demographics, as well as school region type. To accomplish this, student test scores, across demographics, on the Next Generation MCAS state standardized test are observed in relation to teacher retention across three year cycles (2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019). Using correlation analysis and t-tests, it is found that there is …

Ct-To-Mri Synthesis For High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy Treatment Planning, Rachel Nicole Gordon

Master's Theses

High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a radiation treatment modality that places radioactive sources directly in cancerous regions. Radiation treatment planning for HDR prostate brachytherapy utilizes both CT and MRI to visualize the path of the radioactive source and the prostate gland, respectively. In this work, we propose GAN-CM, a method for conditional CT-to-MRI translation that is based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The proposed method uses the typical generator-discriminator design of GANs with a modified generator that incorporates semantic masks obtained from the domain image. The use of semantic masks allows GAN-CM to better capture the anatomical details and tissue characteristics …

Assessment Of Georgia’S Royal Catchfly (Silene Regia) Along A Forest-Edge Gradient In A Remnant Prairie Community, Megan Brooks

Master's Theses

Royal catchfly (Silene regia) is a perennial prairie forb known to grow in rocky, alkaline soils within tallgrass prairies of the eastern United States. S. regia is recorded from twelve states, including Georgia, and is now confined to fragmented habitats due to the loss of 95% of its natural environment. The species is now listed as critically imperiled in the state of Georgia. Attempts at reintroduction via outplanting have only shown limited success, necessitating more research on the environmental conditions in which this plant survives in its southern-most distribution. This study investigated the local ecological factors influencing the …

Fleeing Towards Healing: How Cam Can Heal Refugee Communities, Sarah B. Shaalan

Master's Theses

Alternative methods of healing can be found across the globe and are used by all kinds of people including refugees. This thesis will explore the potential benefits of Complementary and Alternative Medicine otherwise known as “CAM” as a supplementary strategy for helping refugees to deal with stress, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other harmful effects sustained on their journey and lives as displaced peoples. I will do so by first situating my project in the literature on Eurocentrism in healing practices and the emergence of CAM as an alternative. Then, using extensive primary and secondary sources, supplemented by an …

Neuroinflammation And Gut Barrier Function Post Traumatic Brain Injury, Anne Sullivan

Master's Theses

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality that afflicts millions of people in the United States annually. TBI mice had significantly increased expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and decreased expression of tight junction proteins CLDN5, CLDN12, and OCLD in brain lesion tissue. TBI mice exhibited a significant accumulation of FITC in the middle and distal part of the small intestine compared to sham mice. TBI mice exhibited an increase in pathogenic bacteria Enterobacteriaceae and a decrease in beneficial bacteria lactobacillus. TBI mice exhibited a trend toward an increase in permeability compared to no treatment. These …

The Role Of Micrornas In Lung Inflammation After Alcohol And Burn Injury, Connor O'Neal Guzior

Master's Theses

Acute lung injury (ALI) and the subsequent development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are among the leading causes of post-burn morbidity and mortality. MiRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules that are known to regulate gene expression and help regulate lung homeostasis. In this study, we profiled four anti-inflammatory miRNAs (miR-146a, miR-150, miR-194, and miR-671) in lung tissue following an alcohol and burn injury. We found that miR-146a and miR-671 were significantly downregulated in lungs one day after combined injury, leading to increased lung inflammation and pathology. Biological sex did not have an effect on this pathophysiological process. We also …

Fine-Tuning Gene Expression: A Novel Therapeutic Approach For Rett Syndrome, Yewon Rhee

Master's Theses

Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by a myriad of debilitating symptoms impacting nearly every aspect of life, including motor and gait impairment, social and cognitive deficits, as well as seizures and breathing abnormalities. RTT is caused by X-linked de novo loss-of-function mutations in the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 gene (MECP2), which is an essential epigenetic modulator. Any cure for RTT must directly target MECP2, a highly dosage-sensitive gene. This thesis developed a novel MECP2-targeted therapeutic approach using site-blocking antisense oligonucleotides to prevent microRNA-induced repression of MECP2, allowing fine-tuned control of gene expression. Here we report …

Investigating Car T Cell Persistence, Functional Phenotype, And The Associations With Clinical Response In Cd19 Car T Cell Treated Patients, Oliwia Bochnacka

Master's Theses

CAR T cell therapy is the adoptive transfer of autologous T cells genetically engineered to express an artificial T cell receptor. In the clinic, CAR T cells have been most effective in treating hematological malignancies and there have been many efforts to continue improving both the safety and efficacy of CAR T cells. Using patient blood samples from the Loyola CD19 CAR T clinical trial, we studied CD19 CAR T persistence and the cell surface phenotype to identify how CD19 CAR T cells change over time in the blood of treated patients and determine whether there were trends associated with …

Development Of An Advanced Step Counting Algorithm With Integrated Activity Detection For Free Living Environments, Paige M. Dolan

Master's Theses

Physical activity plays a crucial role in maintaining overall health and reducing the risk of various chronic diseases. Step counting has emerged as a popular method for assessing physical activity levels, given its simplicity and ease of use. However, accurately measuring step counts in free-living environments presents significant challenges, with most activity trackers exhibiting a percent error above 20%. This study aims to address these challenges by creating a machine learning algorithm that leverages activity labels to improve step count accuracy in real-world conditions. Two approaches to balancing data were used: one employed a simpler oversampling technique, while the other …

A Screening Life Cycle Analysis Of One-Way And Reusable Crate Designs – Estimating Environmental Impacts Via Lca Software, Nicolas R. Corona

Master's Theses

A comparison analysis conducted via COMPASS life cycle analysis software has indicated that a one-way crate design, rather than a reusable crate design, is in fact the more environmentally friendly packaging system. These results can be interpreted differently, however, as the manufacturer of said crate designs must confirm what impact indicators they would like to reference as environmental goalposts. The conducted analysis provides insight into what the environmental impacts of each packaging system look like as packaging at all three system levels has been identified as a means of reducing environmental impacts globally. As such, the manufacturer of said crate …

Engineering An Injectable Hydrogel With Self-Assembling 3d Vasculature, Kendyl Cohn

Master's Theses

This research developed methods for culturing self-assembling capillaries in an injectable gel as a potential method for vascularizing tissue-on-a-chip models to mimic physiological drug delivery. Additionally, a mathematical model was developed as a tool for understanding nutrient delivery and comparison of potential delivery systems. Organs-on-a-chip provide novel platforms for studying biology and physiology in 3D, allow exploration of tissue engineering on a manageable scale, and serve as models for drug screening and drug-delivery testing.

Methods were first developed for co-culture of endothelial cells and fibroblasts (3T3s or HDFs) in 2D, evaluating culture time, seeding density and ratio of HUVECs and …

Thermal Preconditioning Effects On Perforation Propensity Of Transvenous Implantable Cardiac Leads Used For Pacing And Defibrillation, Diane Muff

Master's Theses

Thermal preconditioning to simulate shipping, handling and storage conditions did not affect distal tip stiffness values for permanently implantable cardiac leads used for pacing and defibrillation. Leads that were subjected to extreme temperatures and temperature cycling did not show changes in buckle force values compared with control specimens which were maintained at ambient room conditions. Absolute differences between all measurements were small, generally under 0.05 N and were attributable to measurement variability.

Buckle force values are used to assess the propensity of leads to perforate the heart, a rare but potentially serious complication of implantable pacing and defibrillation systems. Since …

San Luis Obispo In A Box: Damage Accumulation And Combined Stressor Matching In Accelerated Uv Testing, Cameron N. Causey

Master's Theses

The goal of service life prediction is to accurately predict the useful lifetime of a coating system in a typical service environment. Field testing is the most true-to-life form of service life testing but requires long exposure times, often not quick enough to readily aid redesign in the product development cycle. As an alternative, accelerated weathering chambers are used to speed up coating failure in a laboratory setting. These devices do indeed accelerate failure but often produce failure modes that are not seen in actual service or produce material rankings that are not reproducible. This work explores the principle of …

Sustaining Sustainable Farming: An Evaluation Of The Reasoned Action And Comprehensive Action Determination Frameworks For Persistence, Jet J. Tan

Master's Theses

This paper investigates the persistence of agricultural practices funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation (CDFA OEFI). The central inquiry revolves around determining the most effective behavior model for analyzing persistence, comparing the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA), Comprehensive Action Determination Model (CADM), and CADM augmented with structural variables. The study's methodology integrates literature review, analysis of OEFI-funded practices, and statistical modeling to assess persistence levels. Contrary to existing literature, our findings reveal significantly higher levels of persistence than anticipated. Moreover, through model comparison, CADM augmented with political economic variables emerges as the …

An Investigation Into Teaching Sports Analytics, Josh Havstad

Master's Theses

Sports analytics arrived in the mainstream media through the novel and film Moneyball. However, its origins date back to operations researchers following World War II. Often considered a subdiscipline of statistics, sports analytics draws from statistics but also includes concepts from data science, communication, and marketing. As a passionate fan of sports, I have pursued statistics in my undergraduate and graduate education with the dream of working in sports for my career. However, educational opportunities in sports analytics are limited nationwide, and more specifically, there is no educational opportunity at my university, California Polytechnic State University in San Luis …

A Comparative Study Of The Npm, Pypi, Maven, And Rubygems Open-Source Communities, Saurav Gupta

Master's Theses

Open-source software (OSS) ecosystems, defined as environments composed of package managers and programming languages (e.g., NPM for JavaScript), are essential for software development and foster collaboration and innovation. Although their significance is acknowledged, understanding what makes OSS communities healthy and sustainable requires further exploration. This thesis quantitatively assesses the health of OSS projects and communities within the NPM, PyPI, Maven, and RubyGems ecosystems. We explore five research questions addressing project standards, community responsiveness, contribution distribution, contributor retention, and newcomer integration strategies. Our analysis shows varied documentation practices, insider engagement levels, and contribution patterns. Our findings highlight both strengths and different …

Design And Implementation Of A Vision-Based Deep-Learning Protocol For Kinematic Feature Extraction With Application To Stroke Rehabilitation, Juan Diego Luna Inga

Master's Theses

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability, affecting thousands of individuals annually and significantly impairing their mobility, independence, and quality of life. Traditional methods for assessing motor impairments are often costly and invasive, creating substantial barriers to effective rehabilitation. This thesis explores the use of DeepLabCut (DLC), a deep-learning-based pose estimation tool, to extract clinically meaningful kinematic features from video data of stroke survivors with upper-extremity (UE) impairments.

To conduct this investigation, a specialized protocol was developed to tailor DLC for analyzing movements characteristic of UE impairments in stroke survivors. This protocol was validated through comparative analysis using peak …

The Effect Of Watts-Strogatz And Barabási-Albert Graphs On Memory Formation, Ethan Irick Wolfe

Master's Theses

Understanding higher level cognitive processes is a central problem in neuroscience. The Neuroidal model provides a useful framework for posing these problems in a computer science context. There has been significant recent work trying to understand memory capacity in the Neuroidal model but this work was done assuming that the network of neurons was an Erdos-Renyi random graph. However the network of neurons in the brain has been shown to exhibit small-world properties, which are not present in Erdos-Renyi graphs. In this research we explore replacing Erdos-Renyi graphs with Watts-Strogatz and Barabasi-Albert graphs in order to more accurately model the …

Filter: Framework For Integrated Legislative Transparency And Exploratory Research, Kenny Lau

Master's Theses

Digital Democracy, established at Cal Poly's Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, initially provided users access to a distinctive dataset, including state legislative committee hearings, transcripts, videos, and more. However, the discontinuation of funding ended operations for the project and emphasized the need for a streamlined application independent of third-party dependencies and capable of offering real-time and organized access to the invaluable Digital Democracy dataset. We introduce FILTER, a cloud-hosted API designed for read access to the Digital Democracy dataset through twelve distinct endpoints. The system contains two databases: the Digital Democracy Database (DDDB) and the Digital Democracy Knowledge …

Automatic Mass Balancing Of A Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator With Six Sliding Masses, Amelia J. Gilman

Master's Theses

The goal of this thesis is to investigate automatic mass balancing methods for spacecraft attitude dynamics simulators, create a hardware design for a mass balancing system, and assemble the hardware on the Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator (SADS). Spacecraft attitude dynamics simulators replicate the torque-free environment of space with ground-based hardware. The SADS is mounted on a spherical air bearing, and includes a pyramid of four reaction wheels. The air bearing allows frictionless, unbounded rotation about the vertical axis, and 30 degrees about the horizontal axes. The torque-free configuration of the SADS can be used to test spacecraft attitude …

Improving Aerospace System Robustness Integration Of Singular Value Decomposition And Network Centrality, Ricardo S. Contreras

Master's Theses

This thesis presents an approach to understanding and enhancing the robustness of aerospace systems through the integration of network analysis, Design Structure Matrix (DSM), Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), and robustness simulation techniques. This methodology called the Importance Hierarchy method, provides a comprehensive framework for decomposing the interactions of aerospace systems, focusing on identifying and evaluating critical components and interactions.

The Importance Hierarchy method was used to study the Autonomous Flight Termination Unit (AFTU) by analyzing its components and interdependencies. The AFTU was selected because it recently completed a Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and its design and operational functions were well-known. …

Harmonic Flow Modeling And Analysis Of A Green Hybrid Ac/Dc Seaport Power System, Krishan Kaushal Ram, Taufik, Helen Yu, Siddharth Vyas

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to design and develop a model for a proposed Green Seaport power system and perform harmonic analysis. The model was developed using MATLAB Simulink and tests were performed by dividing the system into several Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) operating modes such as simultaneous charging and discharging, simultaneous charging, and simultaneous discharging. For each mode, BESS state of charge and other factors such as solar irradiance for the PV system, load levels and power factor were varied to observe the impact on system’s voltage Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) level and current Total Demand Distortion (TDD). 62 separate …

Matrix Approximation And Image Compression, Isabella R. Padavana

Master's Theses

This thesis concerns the mathematics and application of various methods for approximating matrices, with a particular eye towards the role that such methods play in image compression. An image is stored as a matrix of values with each entry containing a value recording the intensity of a corresponding pixel, so image compression is essentially equivalent to matrix approximation. First, we look at the singular value decomposition, one of the central tools for analyzing a matrix. We show that, in a sense, the singular value decomposition is the best low-rank approximation of any matrix. However, the singular value decomposition has some …

Accessible Real-Time Eye-Gaze Tracking For Neurocognitive Health Assessments, A Multimodal Web-Based Approach, Daniel C. Tisdale

Master's Theses

We introduce a novel integration of real-time, predictive eye-gaze tracking models into a multimodal dialogue system tailored for remote health assessments. This system is designed to be highly accessible requiring only a conventional webcam for video input along with minimal cursor interaction and utilizes engaging gaze-based tasks that can be performed directly in a web browser. We have crafted dynamic subsystems that capture high-quality data efficiently and maintain quality through instances of user attrition and incomplete calls. Additionally, these subsystems are designed with the foresight to allow for future re-analysis using improved predictive models, as well as enable the creation …

A User-Centric Continuous Authentication Modality Evaluation And Selection Scheme, Bharath R. Senthilkumar

Master's Theses

One of one-time authentication’s most prominent vulnerabilities is the possibility of lunchtime attacks. In such scenarios, an adversary could exploit an unattended device with an active session and no measures are taken to prevent them from committing malicious acts. To address this issue, continuous authentication is utilized by continuously verifying whether an individual is a device’s rightful owner through various modalities, with data sourced from sensors. In the current body of research within this rising domain, various single-modal and multi-modal continuous authentication systems exist, that focus on employing unique combinations of modalities and improving existing supervised learning models used to …

Causal Inference Using Bayesian Network For Search And Rescue, Amanda Belden

Master's Theses

People who are considered missing have much higher probabilities of being found dead compared to those who are not considered missing in terms of Search and Rescue (SAR) missions. Dementia patients are incredibly likely to be declared missing, and in fact after removing those with dementia the probability of the mission being regarded as missing person case is only about 10%. Additionally, those who go missing are much more likely to be on private land than on protected areas such as forests and parks. These and similar associations can be represented and investigated using a Bayesian network that has been …