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Amphibian Mortality On Roads: A Case Study In Santa Cruz Long-Toed Salamander Habitat, Michael Thomas Hobbs

Master's Theses

Amphibian populations have been declining at higher rates than bird and mammal populations. Agriculture, urbanization, including roads, and resource extraction continue to put pressure on all species. Roads in particular, are major sources of mortality. The Santa Cruz long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum), one of the most critically endangered species in the US, is one amphibian that is declining as a result of anthropogenic impacts, especially habitat loss and fragmentation due to urban development. Migration across roads puts these salamanders at risk from road-related death. This thesis quantified the rate of road mortality to these salamanders and other common amphibians …

The Impact Of Trajectory Prediction Uncertainty On Reliance Strategy And Trust Attitude In An Automated Air Traffic Management Environment., Sarah Marie Hunt

Master's Theses

Future air traffic environments have the potential to exceed human operator capabilities. In response, air traffic control systems are being modernized to provide automated tools to overcome current-day workload limits. Highly accurate aircraft trajectory predictions are a critical element of the automated tools envisioned as part of the evolution of today's air traffic management system in the United States, known as NextGen. However, automation accuracy is limited due to the effects of external variables: "errors" such as wind forecast uncertainties. The focus of the Trajectory Prediction Uncertainty simulation at NASA Ames Research center were the effects of varied levels of …

Correlation Of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy And Nanoparticle Aggregation With Rhodamine 6g, Christopher Aaron Hoff

Master's Theses

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has fascinated the analytical chemistry field for decades. The SERS phenomenon has progressively leveraged the inherently insensitive Raman phenomenon from a novelty vibrational spectroscopy method into one capable of single molecule detection, with attendant molecular level selectivity and information. Yet, even after 40 years since its discovery, the core mechanism behind this phenomenon is still debated. This thesis presents results from a series of photometric titrations wherein solutions of 30 nm Au@Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were titrated with rhodamine 6G (R6G), spanning five orders of magnitude in R6G concentration, and which elucidate the conditions required for …

California Glacial Till And The Glaciated Valley Landsystem: Engineering Classification And Properties, Matthew Mark Lattin

Master's Theses

The engineering characteristics of glacial tills in the Sierra Nevada are difficult to determine due to the depositional nature of the material; however, testing methods unique to these dense materials can be utilized to obtain good engineering data. A literature review was conducted to determine testing methods and recommendations for engineering in glacial till. Further literature review revealed a significant amount of glacial deposits mapped by the USGS and CGS in the Sierra Nevada geomorphic province in California. Sierra Nevada glacial till field and lab data were obtained from Taber Consultants along with samples for further testing. Consequently, four significant …

Boom And Whoosh: Verbs Of Explosion As A Change-Of-State Class, Antonio De Jesus Hernandez

Master's Theses

Much research has been done on various semantic verb classes, most notably on break-verbs. In this study, a new class of change-of-state verbs is proposed, namely verbs that encode an explode-event. The research presented here not only offers a new organization of certain change-of-state verbs, but also highlights the issues that are ever-present in the classification of verbs.

Eight verbs are investigated as possible members of this class: blast, blow up, burst, erupt, explode, detonate, go supernova, and pop. Using data from three corpora and survey results from 20 participants, this study …

Geometric Algebra: An Introduction With Applications In Euclidean And Conformal Geometry, Richard Alan Miller

Master's Theses

This thesis presents an introduction to geometric algebra for the uninitiated. It contains examples of how some of the more traditional topics of mathematics can be reexpressed in terms of geometric algebra along with proofs of several important theorems from geometry. We introduce the conformal model. This is a current topic among researchers in geometric algebra as it is finding wide applications in computer graphics and robotics. The appendices provide a list of some of the notational conventions used in the literature, a reference list of formulas and identities used in geometric algebra along with some of their derivations, and …

Benthic Invertebrate Response To Habitat Complexity In South Bay Salt Ponds, Jessica Louise Murphey

Master's Theses

Wetlands are unique ecosystems that support specific flora, fauna, hydrology, and geology. These ecosystems increase groundwater availability, improve water quality, decrease flood water impacts, and help decrease shoreline erosion. In the south San Francisco Bay, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is restoring over 6,000 hectares of former salt ponds to tidal marshes and managed pond habitats. These habitats will support endangered species as well as migratory birds, diving ducks, invertebrates, and algal species. Benthic invertebrates are a vital piece of the South Bay food web as they provide the sustenance for other invertebrates, fish, shorebirds, and waterfowl. Improving …

An Apartment In Paris - Travel Stories, Colette O'Connor

Master's Theses

This thesis is a first person narrative work of creative nonfiction. It is a series of travel essays, set frequently in Paris, that blend the elements of craft of the journalist, essayist, memoirist and humorist in stories designed to entertain, amuse and delight. Using an informal voice, conveying a lighthearted tone, the narrator tells of her travel adventures and discoveries in France, New Zealand and other destinations. Rich in those narrative elements that characterize the genre of travel writing, among them, memorable characters, vividly drawn settings, colorful dialogue, and a singular, personal point of view, these stories concern themselves, above …

Metabolic Network Construction Based On The Genome Of The Marine Diatom Thalassiosira Pseudonana And The Analysis Of Genome-Wide Transcriptome Data To Investigate Triacylglyceride Accumulation, Karen Parker

Master's Theses

Algal lipids called triacylglycerols (TAGs) are essential compounds in marine ecology and are also used as the basis for commercial production of algal biofuels and omega-3 nutraceuticals. The goal of this thesis was to elucidate the biochemical processes associated with algal lipid accumulation in diatoms under different environmental conditions. The approach made use of the Mock et al. whole genome tiling microarray gene expression database for Thalassiosira pseudonana and gene annotations derived from the whole genome sequencing work of Armbrust et al. The analytical approach used bioinformatic tools, including Stanford Research Institute's (SRI) BioCyc Pathway tool and the Joint Genome …

Attention Restoration Theory In Gaming As It Pertains To Subsequent Academic Learning, Joseph Daniel Zoland

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses how attention restoration pertains to subsequent academic learning and whether natural video game settings facilitate attention restoration like physical environments. The researcher hypothesized that participants who played in a virtual nature setting of a video game would perform better on a comprehension test and obtain greater improvements on the SART from pretest to posttest than the simulated urban group. In addition, the experimenter expected the nature group to perform better on both of the aforementioned measures when given 15 min to play rather than 5 min. Finally, it was hypothesized that improvement on the SART would be …

Transient Hillslope Response To An Incision Wave Sweeping Up A Watershed: A Case Study From The Salmon River, Ryan Wood

Master's Theses

Base level lowering often leads to the migration of knickpoints up the fluvial network as the channel profile adjusts to the new lower boundary condition. In steep terrain, the passage of a knickpoint can oversteepen valley walls and trigger a wave of erosion up the hillslopes. As soil is stripped from hillslopes, the previously diffusive hillslopes are transformed to landslide-dominated. Soils in diffusive landscapes are well developed until erosion exposes the underlying saprolite by shortening the soil residence times. During base level adjustments, the erosion of hillslopes can leave relict patches of the original landscape juxtaposed with the newly evolving …

Discovering Pattern Using Automata, Ahmad Marzdasht Yazdankhah

Master's Theses

Most documents written by humans are not just a collection of words, sentences and paragraphs combined at random. It is believed that there is a pattern hidden behind those piles of characters that represents the author's style of writing. In the previous works and in this thesis, we assumed that the aforementioned belief was a true statement and tried to discover and represent the pattern by automata machines. We used the Alergia algorithm to form an automaton from a prefix-tree-accepter. By testing, we verified that the Alergia algorithm was correctly implemented in our software. Our tests showed that we captured …

Strain Measurement Validation Using 3d Photogrammetry Techniques, Tori Chinn

Master's Theses

This project was conducted to validate the measurement of static strain and dynamic frequency in an aluminum beam using 3D photogrammetry technology against analytic modeling and conventional strain measurements. A review of the 3D photogrammetry literature was conducted and a summary is presented here. Static load displacement and strain were compared between analytical calculations, photogrammetric data, strain gauges, experimental measurements, and an FEA model. First mode forced vibration was validated between analytical work, FEA, accelerometers, and photogrammetric measures. Results yielded positive and repeatable correlations between photogrammetric data and analytical computations with most reliable results for displacement.

Local Adaptation Of Two Cryptic Species, Lasthenia Californica And Lasthenia Gracilis, To Distinct Regions Within A Serpentine Outcrop, Teri Barry

Master's Theses

Intraspecific variation providing tolerance to specific edaphic conditions may contribute to population differentiation, speciation, and species coexistence. This process is often examined using reciprocal transplant experiments of closely related species in contrasting edaphic conditions. The two cryptic species Lasthenia californica and L. gracilis occur on a serpentine outcrop in parapatry at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. I hypothesized that each species would demonstrate greater fitness in its home range. A reciprocal transplant experiment was conducted in the field to determine home site advantage. Seedlings from each species were planted in both home ranges and in the transition zone where both species …

Enso Effects On Land Surface-Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions: A Global Study From Satellite Remote Sensing And Ncep/Ncar Reanalysis Data, Henry Bartholomew

Master's Theses

Two mechanisms are examined to reveal the impact of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on land surface, biosphere, and atmosphere interactions. One mechanism is large-scale dynamics--namely, changes in circulation patterns and the jet stream. Another mechanism is local land cover effects, in particular, vegetation and skin temperature. Non-lag and lag correlation coefficients between Niño 3 indices derived from sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies and land surface variables from satellite based moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, as well as National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) Reanalysis data are analyzed for 2001-2010.

Strong positive correlations between January Niño 3 …

Made Marian: Myth And Reality In The Redondo Beach Public Library, 1895-1924, Lisa Blank

Master's Theses

Librarians have been depicted in the literature as missionaries, apostles, and crusaders, militant maid Marians spreading the gospel of the library spirit. This thesis examines the historical depiction of the "typical" early librarian by posing two key questions. First, to what extent was the work of librarianship different or unique compared to that of other middle-class female occupations? And second, in what way was the librarian herself distinct from other middle-class women; that is, what defining characteristics or life events brought her to and kept her in librarianship?

Utilizing local newspapers, official reports, and census and vital statistics data, this …

The Intergenerational Transmission Of Attitudes On Divorce And Marriage, Rebecca Elizabeth Bivona-Guttadauro

Master's Theses

The present study shed light on the process of intergenerational transmission of attitudes as it occurs for women from divorced and intact families. Taking into account how women from divorced and intact homes view their parents' relationship, this study examined how attitudes of marriage and divorce are transmitted from parents to children. This study utilized quantitative survey methods including surveys to gather data and nested multiple linear regression to analyze the data to determine how the process of intergenerational transmission of attitudes was occurring, if at all, for the women in the sample. Utilizing sample data from a large public …

System Level Modeling And Circuit Design For Low Voltage Cmos Equalizer For Coaxial Cable For Video Application, Han Zhang

Master's Theses

A new method of modeling coaxial cable frequency response with genetic algorithm was introduced. A system-level multi-stages adaptive equalizer model with QFB block was generated and tested with multiple cable models, pathological PRBS-23 data with data rate 1.5 GHz was used. This thesis also provided analysis of influences on output by using different parameters in simulations. Two adaptive equalizer circuits with different pre-amplifiers were implemented in GPDK 45 nm CMOS technology. Related simulations about adaptive ability, single stage compensation ability, and cascade stages compensation ability were completed. A tradeoff between output eye height and peak-to-peak jitter was discussed based on …

Le Déchirement Et Le Châtiment De Soi Dans Épaves De Julien Green Et La Chute D'Albert Camus, Imene Aggoun

Master's Theses

This thesis explores how the paths of Julien Green and Albert Camus cross through Épaves and La Chute, when their characters question who they are and what they have become. This study analyzes not only existentialist philosophy, but various other factors such as the authors' biography, literary criticism, and psychoanalysis to understand how Philippe in Épaves and Clamence in La Chute suffer the consequences of an absurd world. Based on the authors' biographies highlighting the common link with other nineteenth century writers, one can confirm Green's saying that the work arises from a "domestic crisis." The study exposes an absurd …

A Pilot Program To Evaluate The Effect Of Training Table-Based Nutrition Education And Menu Modification On The Nutrition Knowledge And Dietary Intake Of Collegiate Football Players At A Ncaa Division I University, Rida Wali

Master's Theses

Since collegiate football is a revenue generating sport for many institutions, it is likely that these athletes are under pressure to maximize performance and thus may resort to unsafe or unproven nutritional practices. Athletes lacking nutrition knowledge may not be able to adequately nourish themselves, which may negatively impact their performance and overall health. In the literature, it is indicated that the athletic staff is a source of nutrition knowledge for athletes. However, the training table - which is a meal provided by the athletic staff, has previously not been explored as an avenue for nutrition education and intervention. This …

The Pittsburgh Courier: Advocate For Integration Of The U.S. Armed Forces (1934-1940), Shelly Lynette Watson

Master's Theses

This study is a quantitative and qualitative content analysis designed to determine how the Pittsburgh Courier reported the issue of African-American military participation and integration of the U.S. Armed Forces prior to World War II and how that news coverage changed over time. The researcher analyzed 368 news items from 312 weekly editions of the Courier published between September 1, 1934, and September 21, 1940. The researcher compared news content across two periods within the time range specified for the study. The researcher found that the Courier consistently and extensively reported on the issue during the time period. The Courier …

The Evolution Of An Image: An Analysis Of Defining Depictions Of Native Americans In Popular Cinema 1913-1970, Gerald Theodore Olson

Master's Theses

Native Americans have been depicted in the movies since the birth of the medium. In this thesis, the depiction of Native Americans in seven exemplary films is analyzed. The films chosen illustrate the evolution of Native American depiction from the silent era through the classic studio era of the 1930s and 1940s, the post WWII era, and the 1960s Civil Rights period to 1970 when the Native American Civil Rights movement was at its most public. Classic tropes such as the Indian Princess/Squaw, the Screaming Savage, and the Noble Savage/Vanishing American that were defined in 19th Century literature and by …

Classification Of Web Pages In Yioop With Active Learning, Shawn Cameron Tice

Master's Theses

This thesis project augments the Yioop search engine with a general facility for automatically assigning "class" meta words (e.g., "class:advertising") to web pages based on the output of a logistic regression text classifier. Users can create multiple classifers using Yioop's web-based interface, each trained first on a small set of labeled documents drawn from previous crawls then improved over repeated rounds of active learning using density-weighted pool-based sampling.

The classification system's accuracy when classifying new documents was found to be comparable to published results for a common dataset, approaching 82% for a corpus of advertisements to be filtered from content-providers' …

Foraging Behavior, Habitat, Health, And Survival Of Resident And Translocated Hawaiian Monk Seals At Nihoa Island, Hawaii, Tenaya A. Norris

Master's Theses

Translocations aimed at promoting population recovery for threatened and endangered species also can function as forced dispersals. To assess the efficacy of translocating Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi) and examine post-dispersal effects on monk seals, in 2008-2009, 12 weanling seals were translocated from French Frigate Shoals (FFS) to Nihoa Island (NIH). In addition, nine adult and eight weanling resident seals were captured at NIH. Satellite instrument attachment, biological sampling, and morphometry were conducted on seals at capture. Focal video camera drops also were conducted at 45 sites around NIH (< 100 m) in 2010-2011. Translocated and resident weanlings primarily dove to 40-60 m and used sandy-bottomed habitat < 13 km from NIH. In contrast, resident adults had greater variability in foraging behavior and habitat use. There also was a low prevalence of infectious disease in translocated and resident seals, excluding Chlamydophila abortus and enteric bacteria. First-year survival was greater for …

Basking Western Pond Turtle Response To Trail Use In Mountain View, California, Paul Eric Nyhof

Master's Theses

The western pond turtle (Emys marmorata) is the only native freshwater turtle in California, and it is listed as a California Species of Special Concern. One population near Moffett Naval Air Station in Northern California uses a highly altered water channel along a recently opened section of the Bay Trail, exposing western pond turtles (WPT) to high rates of human activity through recreational trail use. This research assessed whether human recreational trail use had a measurable effect on WPT basking behavior. WPTs were also trapped and marked to collect data on the structure and stability of the current population.

The …

Reviving Student Interest In Classic Literature: A Field-Experimental Study Of New Edition And Shelf Display As Promoting Strategies, Maggie Huff

Master's Theses

Librarians often keep classic books in school libraries because the books have educational merits, yet they are rarely checked out for recreational reading. Current research on low circulation of classic literature in school libraries is limited to anecdotal evidence from school and young adult librarians suggesting that lack of promotion and especially the inferior condition of old editions contribute to low circulation. This research fills the gap by examining the effect of new editions and display on circulation in a field experimental study at a middle school library in 2011.

Set up as 2 X 2 factorial design, the field …

Novel Systematic Phase Noise Reduction Techniques For Phase Interpolator Clock And Data Recovery, Yu Feng

Master's Theses

This work focused on high-speed source-synchronous clock and multi-channel data receivers for inter-chip communications. Designs of inter-chip communication are becoming increasingly difficult with the rise in clock rates and the reduction in voltage supplies. Data transmissions at rates of gigabits per second require a fast and accurate clock and data recovery system on the front end of receivers.

Many designs allow for source-synchronous clocking architectures, but this work focused on a dual-loop with a phase-locked loop for frequency tracking and phase integrators for tracking each individual data lane. Limitations with the phase interpolator architecture cause systematic jitter, reducing the data …

Spatiotemporal Patterns In Diet And Habitat Use Of Black-Legged Kittiwakes (Rissa Tridactyla) And Thick-Billed Murres (Uria Lomvia) In The Bering Sea, Nathan M. Jones

Master's Theses

This study quantified the multi-trophic influence and spatial structure of a cross-shelf δ15N gradient in the Bering Sea and used it to contrast foraging patterns and seasonal changes in niche width between thick-billed murres and black-legged kittiwakes during July and August, 2008 and 2009. Gut contents of collected seabirds were characterized and stable isotope analyses (δ13C, δ15N) were conducted on whole prey tissues and seabird cheek feathers, pectoral muscle, and liver tissues. Gut contents of both seabird species were spatially auto correlated and varied with habitat type. Feather and muscle tissues indicated that murres underwent a trophic niche contraction with …

Trends In 1970-2010 Southern California Surface Maximum Temperatures: Extremes And Heat Waves, Amanuel Tewolde Ghebreegziabher

Master's Theses

Daily maximum temperatures from 1970-2010 were obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for 28 South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) Cooperative Network (COOP) sites. Analyses were carried out on the entire data set, as well as on the 1970-1974 and 2006-2010 sub-periods, including construction of spatial distributions and time-series trends of both summer-average and annual-maximum values and of the frequency of two and four consecutive "daytime" heat wave events. Spatial patterns of average and extreme values showed three areas consistent with climatological SoCAB flow patterns: cold coastal, warm inland low-elevation, and cool further-inland mountain top. Difference (2006-2010 minus 1970-1974) …

Structure, Construction, And Emplacement Of The Yosemite Valley Intrusive Suite And The Yosemite Creek Granodiorite In The Central Sierra Nevada Batholith, Brendon L. Johnson

Master's Theses

The 103-98 Ma El Capitan and Taft granites and the ~97 Ma Yosemite Creek Granodiorite intrude plutonic and metasedimentary rocks in the central Sierra Nevada batholith. The El Capitan Granite and Yosemite Creek Granodiorite are divided in this study into several texturally and compositionally distinct units, whereas the Taft Granite is relatively homogeneous. Injection of a few large increments of magma or many increments intruded close in time probably formed small (2 km3) to large (≥20 km3 for Taft Granite) chambers in the Yosemite Valley Suite and parts of the Yosemite Creek Granodiorite. Units of the Yosemite Creek Granodiorite that …