Digital Commons Network^™

Design Of Portable Dc Light Bulb For The Dc House Project, Jan Marvin Perez Macairan

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the design and implementation of the Portable DC Light Bulb system for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s DC House Project. The DC Portable Light Bulb highlights the NiMH battery charging circuit, buck converter, and boost converter. The system is intended as a flashlight adaptor placed in between the dimmable DC light bulb and its screw base. The adaptor adds a portability feature to the DC light bulb to provide lighting wherever the user pleases. The Portable DC Light Bulb system is designed to operate with an input range of 24V-60V and regulate an output voltage of …

Administrative Draft: Sea-Level Rise & Climate Adaptation Plan For The City Of Carpinteria, Jean Long

Master's Theses

Sea-level rise (SLR) is one consequence of global climate change and given Carpinteria's location right along the coast, the City will likely face the threats of sea-level rise and other impacts in greater frequency and intensity. The intent of this administrative draft is to provide a foundation for future development of a Climate Adaptation Plan, a starting point for the City’s climate initiatives. This administrative draft consists of background information on Carpinteria, a preliminary vulnerability assessment, and a list of potential strategies for City-led implementation. An adaptation plan is sound planning that recognizes the community’s vulnerabilities and attempts to minimize …

Seismic Design Manual For Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks, Nicholas Edwards Kennedy

Master's Theses

Seismic Design Manual for Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks

Nicholas Edwards Kennedy

This thesis presents a comprehensive seismic design manual to be used to design and construct simple Interlocking Compressed Earth Block (ICEB) structures in seismically active regions. ICEBs are earth blocks made primarily of soil and stabilized with cement. They have female and male stud mechanisms designed to interlock when stacked, eliminating the need for mortar. The blocks can accept reinforcement and grout after they are placed. While ICEB construction is similar to conventional masonry construction, current design code standards for masonry only partially capture the actual behavior of ICEB …

Early Wildfire Detection Using Temporal Filtering And Multi-Band Infrared Analysis, Ansel John Boynton

Master's Theses

Every year wildfires threaten or destroy ecological habitats, man-made infrastructure and people’s lives. Additionally millions of dollars are spent each year trying to prevent and control these fires. Ideally if a wildfire can be detected before it rages out of control it can be extinguished and avoid large scale devastation. Traditional manned fire lookout towers are neither cost effective nor particularly efficient at detecting wildfire. It is proposed that temporal filtering can be used to isolate the signals created at the beginnings of potential wildfires. Temporal filtering can remove any background image and any periodic signals created by the camera …

A Novel Unit Cell Antenna For Highly Integrated Phased Arrays In The Shf Band, Timothy Bryan Ogilvie

Master's Theses

Phased arrays are electromagnetic antenna systems comprised of many radiating elements and processing electronics. Radiating elements are typically positioned in an orderly grid within the antenna aperture. In the receive mode of operation, radiating elements capture some of the signal energy from incoming radiation and guide these signals to processing electronics. Signals are filtered and amplified to maintain the desired sensitivity and complexly weighted using circuits with reconfigurable amplification gain and phase delay. Finally, all signals are combined. The summation of these complexly weighted spatial samples forms a spatial filter in the same way complexly weighted temporal samples establish a …

Comparison Of Biofilm Media In Reciprocating Biofilters Treating Dairy Flushwater, Kyle Keoki Tatsuo Fooks

Master's Theses

Reciprocating biofilters known as ReCip is a viable technology to manage nutrients, mainly nitrogen, problems at livestock operations such as swine farms and dairies. Past studies have demonstrated that ReCip is more adept at total nitrogen (TN) removal than traditional subsurface flow wetland systems. The traditional substrate used to attach biomass was rock aggregate; this media may be hard to obtain for some agricultural projects, so alternate substrates are tested and compared with the rock aggregate. The purpose of the study was twofold: first, different biofilm media were tested and compared in terms of treatment performance and, second, the long-term …

Settling Performance In Wastewater Fed High Rate Algae Ponds, Elliott Blake Ripley

Master's Theses

Although high rate algae ponds (HRAPs) are a proven wastewater treatment technology with numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits, their widespread use has been hindered by inconsistent and unreliable settling performance. Hence, the goal of this thesis is to investigate how specific operational parameters affect the settling performance of HRAPs. Nine HRAPs (30 m² surface area, 0.3 m depth) were operated as three triplicate sets, with each set run on either a 2, 3, or 4 day HRT continuously from January 25, 2012 through April 11, 2013. Settling performance was determined (i) by measuring the TSS of Imhoff cone …

Associations Between Alcohol Consumption And Fasting Blood Glucose In Young Adults, Julie Ann Lucca

Master's Theses

Current research shows moderate alcohol consumption is associated with decreased risk of diabetes and excessive consumption or binge drinking can cause insulin resistance and diabetes. In 2010, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United Statesand was responsible for significant health complications: blindness, kidney failure, and limb amputations, and is a large national economic burden. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) is a tool used to help diagnose diabetes. Abnormally high FBG, ≥100 mg/dl, is indicative of diabetes and pre-diabetes. Few studies have observed diabetic prevalence among young adults or college students. Studying young adults can help provide added …

High School Athletic Directors Perceptions Of Athletic Trainer's Professional Knowledge And Competence Based On Attire, Raechel N. Cunningham

Master's Theses

Very little research is available to identify how attire in the athletic training field impacts perceptions of professional knowledge and competence. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of attire on high school athletic directors’ perceptions of an athletic trainer’s professional knowledge and competence. The researcher emailed a questionnaire to ninety-four high school athletic directors from the state of California. The questionnaire measured the effect of attire on the perceptions of skills, knowledge, approachability, experience, education level, overall competence, and representation of an athletic trainer and focused on the difference between khaki attire, professional attire, and workout …

What Comes After The Boom? Baby Boomers In Santa Maria, California A Market Study For People's Self Help Housing, Elizabeth Anne Brighton

Master's Theses

This Master’s Project is separated into two parts: the introduction and background informing an affordable senior housing market study, and a market study prepared for People’s Self Help Housing (PSHH). The introduction begins by providing current and future trends for seniors at the national and state levels. This includes discussion of the “Baby Boomer” age cohort and their rapid growth and potential impact to the housing market. The introduction then describes challenges facing developers of affordable senior housing. These challenges include the type, location, and funding sources for future senior housing projects. All federal funding sources for affordable senior housing …

Cuda Enhanced Filtering In A Pipelined Video Processing Framework, Austin Aaron Dworaczyk Wiltshire

Master's Theses

The processing of digital video has long been a significant computational task for modern x86 processors. With every video frame composed of one to three planes, each consisting of a two-dimensional array of pixel data, and a video clip comprising of thousands of such frames, the sheer volume of data is significant. With the introduction of new high definition video formats such as 4K or stereoscopic 3D, the volume of uncompressed frame data is growing ever larger.

Modern CPUs offer performance enhancements for processing digital video through SIMD instructions such as SSE2 or AVX. However, even with these instruction sets, …

Planning Sacramento's Cleantech Zone: A Case Of Policy, Practice, And Place Branding, Nicole M. Streegan

Master's Theses

Clean technologies that create a positive impact on global climate change are developed in cities and regions throughout the United States. The City of Sacramento aims to capitalize on this market trend by building partnerships between regional actors such as universities and venture capital groups, as well as identify land, and subsequently specific land uses and development guidance, to support growth in this industry. This research paper uses the single case study methodology to identify the major dynamics working to build and sustain Sacramento’s Cleantech Zone, as well as their relationship between urban planning and economic development tools.

Characterization Of The Effects Of A Sun-Synchronous Orbit Slot Architecture On The Earth's Orbital Debris Environment, Connor David Noyes

Master's Theses

Low Earth orbit represents a valuable limited natural resource. Of particular interest are sun-synchronous orbits; it is estimated that approximately 44% of low Earth satellites are sun-synchronous. A previously developed sun-synchronous orbit slot architecture is considered. An in-depth analysis of the relative motion between satellites and their corresponding slots is performed. The long-term evolution of Earth's orbital environment is modeled by a set of coupled ordinary differential equations. A metric for quantifying the benefit, if any, of implementing a sun-synchronous architecture is developed. The results indicate that the proposed slot architecture would reduce the frequency of collisions between satellites in …

Synthetic Aperture Radar Rapid Detection Of Range And Azimuth Velocities Implemented In Matlab, Cheuk Yu David So

Master's Theses

The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) algorithm processes multiple radar returns from the target space to generate a single high-resolution image. Targets moving through the target space during the capture sequence will appear distorted on the final image. In addition, there is no velocity information that is calculated as part of the processing. The objective of this thesis is to develop techniques to determine the azimuth and range velocities of moving objects in the target space in the early stages of SAR processing. The typical SAR processing steps are Range Compressed, Range Doppler, and final image generation. The range velocity of …

Root Kinematics In Relation To Temperature And Genome Size In Wild And Domesticated Zea., Avery B. Cromwell

Master's Theses

We studied root kinematics in relation to temperature and genome size variation in teosinte (Zea mays subspecies parviglumis) and corn (Zea mays subspecies mays). Corn had significantly faster radicle growth than teosinte when grown at a constant temperature. Both species exhibited variation in seed size and for each species larger seeds had faster root growth. Genome size was not significantly correlated with faster radicle growth rates across multiple land races of corn. To examine temperature dependent growth in corn and teosinte, a germinated seedling was grown at multiple temperatures. Growth rates at these temperatures were used …

Uav Formation Flight Utilizing A Low Cost, Open Source Configuration, Christian W. Lopez

Master's Theses

The control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a swarm or cooperative team scenario has been a topic of great interest for well over a decade, growing steadily with the advancements in UAV technologies. In the academic community, a majority of the studies conducted rely on simulation to test developed control strategies, with only a few institutions known to have nurtured the infrastructure required to propel multiple UAV control studies beyond simulation and into experimental testing. With the Cal Poly UAV FLOC Project, such an infrastructure was created, paving the way for future experimentation with multiple UAV control systems. …

Early Forest Fire Heat Plume Detection Using Neural Network Classification Of Spectral Differences Between Long-Wave And Mid-Wave Infrared Regions, Raul-Alexander Aldama

Master's Theses

It is difficult to capture the early signs of a forest fire at night using current visible-spectrum sensor technology. Infrared (IR) light sensors, on the other hand, can detect heat plumes expelled at the initial stages of a forest fire around the clock. Long-wave IR (LWIR) is commonly referred to as the “thermal infrared” region where thermal emissions are captured without the need of, or reflections from, external radiation sources. Mid‑wave IR (MWIR) bands lie between the “thermal infrared” and “reflected infrared” (i.e. short-wave IR) regions. Both LWIR and MWIR spectral regions are able to detect thermal radiation; however, they …

Addressing The Administration Of Planned Developments: The Case Of Arroyo Grande, California, Matthew J. Downing

Master's Theses

The City of Arroyo Grande, California has a problem administering the

regulations of five Planned Developments in the City. This problem arises

from these regulations being included in a 167-page appendix at the back of

the City’s Development Code. This appendix includes the original approvals

for the Developments. It also includes amendments to those approvals.

These amendments are only added to the appendix. Therefore, changes to

the regulations governing the Planned Developments are not tracked. It

takes City staff considerable amounts of time to research answers when

members of the public have questions regarding development in one of these

Developments. …

Designing Anti-Islanding Detection Using The Synchrophasor Vector Processor, Ruth Christiana Huang

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Designing Anti-Islanding Detection Using the Synchrophasor Vector Processor

Ruth Huang

The need for distributed generation (DG) has become more and more popular because of the adverse effects of fossil fuels and the fear of running out of fossil fuels. By having DG, there are less transmission losses, voltage support, controllability of the system, decreased costs in transmission and distribution, power quality improvement, energy efficiency, and reduced reserve margin. The adverse effects of DG are voltage flicker, harmonics, and islanding. Islanding occurs when the DG continues to energize the power system when the main utility is disconnected. Detecting islanding is …

Photoionization Mass Spectrometry And Photoelectron-Photoion Coincidence (Pepico) Spectroscopy Studies Of Select Biofuel Molecules, Joseph G. Czekner

Master's Theses

This thesis is the culmination of numerous experiments, performed on two different continents, investigating the spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties of several biofuels and fuel additives. It will start with an introduction about the motivation behind these experiments. The second chapter will outline the experimental details of the apparatus at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in Berkeley, CA, followed by the Swiss Light Source (SLS) in Villigen, Switzerland. Third, the theoretical concepts and data analysis methods will be discussed in detail.

Chapter 4 will be the start of the newly obtained data. It presents some photoionization mass spectrometry studies on γ-valerolactone …

An Investigation Into The Efficacy Of Alarm Fatigue Reduction Strategies, Jeffrey Thomas Peterson

Master's Theses

Modern hospitals are plagued by excessive alarms generated by patient monitoring technologies with very high sensitivity and low selectivity leading to high rates of false and clinically irrelevant alarms. Multiple studies have shown that these false and clinically irrelevant alarm rates can negatively impact patient care and lead to "alarm fatigue". Alarm hazards have been named the number one health technology hazard by ECRI Institute for 2012 and 2013. A review by the FDA revealed 566 alarm related deaths in a recent four year period.

At a large, teaching hospital in Massachusetts, a quantitative, database driven approach to alarm management …

Surface Tethered Pamam Dendrimers On Controlled Pore Glass As Color Release Sensors For Phosphates, Chang Liu

Master's Theses

Poly(amidoamine) dendrimer (PAMAM) are highly branched macromolecules with reactive amine groups in their interior and exterior. PAMAM dendrimers were attached to controlled pore glass (CPG) surfaces in order to create new functionalized surfaces and used as platforms for UV-vis and fluorescent sensing of phosphate substrates via indicator displacement assays (IDA).

CPG surfaces were first modified with different sized PAMAM dendrimers (generation 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0), then reacted with two strong metal-chelators: aminofunctionalized terpyridine (synthesized from 2,2’:6’,2’’-terpyridine) and Nα-Nα-bis(carboxymethyl)-L-lysine (Lys-NTA). First of all, Cu(II) metal ion binding capacities were measured on the surfaces. Second, two terminal group density tests, amine assay …

Response Of Phragmites Australis To Black Plastic Treatment, Jeremy D. Willcox

Master's Theses

Physiological responses of Phragmites australis (Phragmites) to the covering of black plastic were studied from 2011 to 2013 in Schoolhouse Brook Park, Mansfield, Connecticut. Nine 6 x 6 m plots were randomly established as either control, early-mid season covered, or late season covered within a monotypic Phragmites stand. Black plastic was applied from March to July 2011 and again from June to September 2012 (early-mid season). Another treatment was in place from September to November 2011 (late season). Rhizomes were sampled for their concentration of total non-structural carbohydrates (TNC) within each plot. Monthly rhizome samples were taken from a control …

Effects Of Shoe Donations On Children’S Time Allocation Toms Shoes In El Salvador, Flor Calvo

Master's Theses

What are the impacts of TOMS shoe donations in rural El Salvador? This paper tries to answer the question by studying the changes in time allocation among children age 6 to 12 years in El Salvador. By taking advantage of a Randomized Control Trial performed between January 15, 2012 and February 21, 2013 I study time allocation differences between baseline and follow-up periods among treatment and control groups. The primary findings of the study show that children part of treatment communities reduced the time spent on school related activities by approximately 0.657 hours per day while increasing the time spent …

Probing The Low Temperature Oxidation Of Furanic Biofuels, 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran And 2,5-Dimethylfuran, Utilizing Orthogonal Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Coupled To Synchrotron Radiation, Matthew Mcmanus

Master's Theses

Concern over natural resources and global climate shifts has increased the focus of sourcing transportation fuels from depleting oil wells to regenerative, biological based solutions. One avenue of biologically sourced fuel involves the extraction of C5 and C6 sugars from the woody, fibrous, and inedible plant materials, otherwise known as lignocellulosic biomass. These cellulosic sugars can be converted to target biofuels and biofuel additives like the furanic compounds, 2,5-dimethylfuran and 2-methylfuran. In this thesis, the low temperature oxidation of two compounds, 2,5-dimethylfuran and 2-methylfuran, are explored. These reactions were conducted at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, CA and used …

Cash-In-Hand, Wives-In-Power: An Exploratory Analysis Of Microfinance In Jordan, Lauren Pugh

Master's Theses

Microfinance is an economic policy complimentary to advancing female empowerment. Empowerment is particularly relevant in patriarchic Islamic contexts in the Middle East, however little research exists. Due to counterfactual creation and inconsistent empowerment measurement, the true impact is debated. This research proposes intra-spousal decision-making outcomes as the appropriate proxy to empowerment and uses a nuanced approach of counterfactual creation by utilizing responses from previous microfinance borrowers. Survey data from a Jordanian MFI is used to examine the endogeneity story and cash-in-hand effects on intra-spousal decision-making outcomes. An instrumental variable estimation technique finds a weak link between microfinance and empowerment.

The Effects Of Child Sponsorship On Younger Sibling Confidence, Teddi Auker

Master's Theses

Do spillover effects occur between siblings in sponsored families? With both the approach of human figure drawings and a survey, this paper aims at identifying the possible spillover effects to non-sponsored, younger siblings of sponsored children with regards to the child’s confidence. Using the summary index method to create indices from the elements quantified in the child’s drawings and an instrumental variable OLS with clustered standard errors, children from both families with sponsored children and families with waitlisted children are interviewed. The spillover effects are then tested by taking the difference between the younger and older siblings of the sponsored …

Risk, Religion, And Islamic Microfinance, Dunia Aburish

Master's Theses

This research design creates a framework in which the risk preferences and Islamic religiosity of Jordanian borrowers can be estimated. Specifically, this study highlights the different characteristics of conventional and Islamic microfinance borrowers. Although there is extensive literature on the topics of conventional microfinance and Islamic finance individually, few studies characterize borrowers who choose between these financial products. For this study, field research was conducted in conjunction with the National Microfinance Bank (NMB) and the Development and Employment Fund (DEF) in Jordan. Overall, 143 conventional and 78 Islamic borrowers were surveyed for a total sample of 221 borrowers. To estimate …

The Fii Model As An Investment In Patience: Exploring Time Preferences In Medellin, Colombia, Jennifer Graham

Master's Theses

The motivation for this research is to explore the success behind the Oakland based Family Independence Initiative (FII) as a model for poverty alleviation. During the period of June-December 2012, nearly 200 small business owners in Medellin, Colombia participated in a field experiment intended to replicate the FII model by randomizing the treatments of setting goals, receiving conditional payments, and participating in self-help groups, as well as the combinations thereof. The data shows that the subjects in the full FII treatment group achieve more goals and have significantly higher monthly sales than those subjects in any other treatment or control …

Different Uses Of Microfinance Among Conventional And Islamic Borrowers: Evidence From Jordan, Ngan Bui

Master's Theses

The paper focuses on investment decisions made by microfinance borrowers in Jordan. While there has been a lot of literature concentrating on the level of investment after credit access was made available, there has been very limited research on the impact of Islamic microfinance. The amount of literature comparing Islamic financing and its conventional counterpart is even more uncommon. This study will look at how conventional and Islamic borrowers differ in their decisions pertaining to business investments, home improvement projects and consumer durable goods. Results show that microfinance loan take-ups do lead to a higher probability of business investments. In …