Digital Commons Network^™

Archaeology For The Living: How Studying The Past Is Helping Native Alaskans’ Future, Madison A. Dapcevich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This professional paper highlights a project in southcentral Alaska in collaboration with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, the US Forest Service, Kenaitze Indian Tribe, Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and Applied Archaeology International. The area is a case study in a relatively new lens of looking at archaeology – a collaborative, community-based approach that helps to better inform the science an benefit affected communities.

At the Crescent Creek Complex near Cooper Landing, Alaska the team discovered various evidences of an ancient Denai’na village complex. What makes this project unique, however, is the collaboration between field school students and Kenaitze interns to …

Ground Fires: Essays On Land And Scouting, Matthew R. Hart

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ground Fires is a collection of creative nonfiction probing the social and environmental complexities that marked the narrator’s long membership in the Boy Scouts of America. I grew up a Scout, part of a quirky, adventurous troop in a New England college town. After earning Eagle and graduating high school, I moved west, working for seven summers and a few more seasons at Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. I led backpacking trips through the mountains and high desert, teaching teenagers about land I knew and loved, land that was changing fast. From bears to wildfire to challenging politics, …

Coupling Biophysical Complexity And Forest Metabolism In A Floodplain Landscape, Peter Davis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Floodplains are biophysically complex systems that are considered among the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. Until recently, quantitative assessment of the relationship between complexity and terrestrial production has been constrained by technological limitation. To address how floodplain biophysical complexity and ecosystem function are related, I employed remote sensing, GIS, and spatial analyses to quantify and couple metrics of complexity and terrestrial production, as well as explore the relationship among complexity, vegetation structural diversity, and terrestrial primary productivity. The study site is a 6.75-km by 1.75-km portion of the Bitterroot River floodplain near Carlton, MT upon which 551 sample …

Estimating The Effects Of Overstory Retention, Vegetative Competition, And Site Quality On The Height Growth Of Small Ponderosa Pine Trees Using Regression Quantiles, Colin P. Kirkmire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson) forests in the Inland Northwestern region of the US are increasingly managed under multi-aged silvicultural systems that provide stand structure for wildlife habitat, timber production, enhanced aesthetic, or restoration of presettlement conditions (O'Hara 2005). Partial retention harvest, where an element of the previous stand's overstory structure is retained, is commonly used to achieve a multi-aged stand structure. However, little is known about how ponderosa pine trees in the understory respond to overstory and understory competitive factors following partial retention harvest. The height growth of small trees was hypothesized to be influenced by site …

Transformational Leadership In Quality Management, Hanan Omar Omar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Businesses of all types seek to combine the most appropriate leadership styles with the best management practices. This paper reviews the principles of Transformational Leadership along with the ideals of Quality Management and evaluates the effects Transformational Leadership can have on a Quality Management system.

Drawing from numerous leadership and management textbooks, journal articles, and online sources, various aspects of Transformational Leadership and how it relates to other leadership styles were examined. Also reviewed was the development and growth of Quality Management, and the various aspects of a quality management program, with a detailed look at three of the major …

A Quantitative Study On The Influence Of Persistence Factors On American Indian Graduate Students, Aislinn Rae Heavy Runner-Rioux

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The underrepresentation of American Indian students continues to exist at the undergraduate and graduate levels of postsecondary education despite increases of American Indian student enrollment. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to identify correlations between academic factors and graduate student persistence, as well as to understand how likely graduate degree completion is based on known academic factors for American Indian students. The analyses of the data included survey results, descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, and multivariate regression. A sample of n=63 American Indian Graduate students represented 41 tribes and villages with over 32 unique tribal languages. The respondents indicated …

Visions Of Sovereignty: Tribal Sovereignty Through The Lenses Of Postcolonialism, Indigenous Film, And Visual Anthropology, Martin I. Lopez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tribal sovereignty has been a topic of discussion since the beginning of colonization in America. Anthropological thought, especially postcolonialism theory, addresses how colonialism can be analyzed to gain a better understanding of Indigenous perspectives on sovereignty. Visual sovereignty, an example of Indigenous Film, is an interdisciplinary approach that can contextualize in specific histories and social interactions all while serving individual tribes, depending on which tribe the filmmaker represents. A film, for instance, can be edited in a way to convey Indigenous ideas of time and space and staged presentations of oral histories that are nearly impossible to display through written …

Descriptive Analysis Of Injuries Sustained By Wildland Firefighters, Taylor Purchio

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Objective: To develop a better understanding of the types of injuries Wildland Firefighters (WLFFs) sustain during Physical Training (PT) and while out on the fire line, and if there are any discernible trends or patterns that can be addressed through the implementation of a more focused PT program.

Methods: This study is a web-based cross-sectional questionnaire titled Injury Surveillance of Wildland Firefighters (ISWLFF). We utilized a snowball sampling technique to reach seasonal and fulltime WLFFs of the US Forest Service. 360 WLFFs responded to the questionnaire, but were not required to answer every question. While 112 of the respondents did …

A Miniaturized Spectrophotometric In Situ Ph Sensor For Seawater, Reuben C. Darlington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since the Industrial Revolution, the world's oceans have absorbed increasing amounts of CO2 and the resultant changes to the marine carbonate chemical system have reduced the pH by > 0.1 units (~ 30%) in surface waters. This acidification of the oceans has many far reaching impacts on marine life and there is great need of quality instrumentation to assess and follow the changing carbonate system. This MIS project aims to develop a low cost pH sensor with high precision and accuracy for open sea measurements with special emphasis on reduced size and cost. Design effort is based on the commercially available …

Assessing Stream Channel Restoration: The Phased Recovery Framework, Jacob M. Dyste

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Channel reconfiguration projects command a large portion of stream restoration resources, while long-term monitoring and research is severely underfunded and rarely implemented. This has led to a limited knowledge base about ecological response and efficacy. Although channel reconfiguration projects are being implemented to restore biological function to lotic systems, the document responses are highly variable and little evidence has shown these projects are reaching their target goals. I predicted the inconsistent response to these projects is the result of disturbance-induced successional processes and catchment-scale water quality impairment. To address how these endogenous and exogenous factors influence stream response to channel …

Are Maximum Ground Forces And Leg Compression In Phase? A Test Of The Classical Spring Mass Model Of Running Gaits, Seth Donahue

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The mechanical understanding of human running has classically been described as a spring-mass system, with subsequent models predicting the movements of the body’s center of mass and the forces applied by the leg against the ground. A central requirement of any spring system is the phasic relationship between the length of the elastic elements and the forces applied to these structures. Specifically, elastic elements compress under load and extend as the load is released. We tested whether this model applies to individuals with specialization for extreme performance in human gait. Recent work from elite level sprint runners suggest that their …

Cationic Latex Nanoparticles In Electrokinetic Chromatography: Synthesis, Characterization, And Application To The Separation Of Explosives, Julie Rebecca Mcgettrick

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) is a powerful analytical technique that uses the instrumentation of capillary electrophoresis (CE) and the principles of chromatography to separate ionic and neutral analytes. A capillary is filled with background electrolyte (BGE), and when a voltage is applied ionic species migrate to the electrodes. Neutral compounds have no mobility, so a pseudo-stationary phase (PSP) is added to the BGE that consists of an ionic group to provide mobility and a hydrophobic group to interact with analytes. Analytes interact with the PSP which changes their apparent mobilities, leading to a separation. It is possible to coat the negatively …

Subjective Experience Of Empathy In Schizotypy Elicited By Literary Fictional Narrative, Christa "Anahata" Neuman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The elaborate and multidimensional systems that are involved in the personal and subjective experience of empathy are largely unexplored. Nevertheless, when empathy is measured as a static trait there is considerable evidence that individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizotypy demonstrate altered and reduced empathic abilities respectively (Thirioux, 2014). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect that the context of reading literary fiction has on a portion of the process of empathic responding in relation to schizotypal traits, taking into consideration personal factors including current mood. A new measure for the use of momentary assessment of empathy was …

Violence, Catastrophe, And Agency In Nepal: A Deeper Understanding Of The 2015 Earthquakes And Border Blockade, Kassandra D. Viers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2015, Nepal was struck by two catastrophes. First, on April 25, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, struck in Gorkha. Then, in September, a blockade was formed that prevented goods from passing through trade checkpoints between India and Nepal. Both of these events highlight social suffering, a form of suffering that refers to the systems of oppression, unequal distribution of resources, and broad social structures that serve to keep certain people impoverished and subjugate. The earthquake caused the most damage to vulnerable people, people already suffering the effects of structural violence. The blockade was created by …

Enhancing Conservation With High Resolution Productivity Datasets For The Conterminous United States, Nathaniel Paul Robinson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human driven alteration of the earth’s terrestrial surface is accelerating through land use changes, intensification of human activity, climate change, and other anthropogenic pressures. These changes occur at broad spatio-temporal scales, challenging our ability to effectively monitor and assess the impacts and subsequent conservation strategies. While satellite remote sensing (SRS) products enable monitoring of the earth’s terrestrial surface continuously across space and time, the practical applications for conservation and management of these products are limited. Often the processes driving ecological change occur at fine spatial resolutions and are undetectable given the resolution of available datasets. Additionally, the links between SRS …

Potentially Dangerous Enemy Aliens: Experiences At Fort Missoula And Transformative Immigration Policy In The United States, Daniel Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this paper, I attempt to comprehend the experiences of Italian and Japanese internees who were detained at Fort Missoula’s Alien Detention Center during World War II. Furthermore, I draw upon historical patterns of United States’ immigration policies that greatly affected perspectives and social values between various ethnic groups. Simultaneously, national immigration policies shifted across space and time reflecting ethnocentric ideals and discriminatory campaigns that altered past cultural, political, and economic landscapes. The events that produced the internment of Italian and Japanese men at Fort Missoula varied greatly and are critical to examine through historical records. Such records pertain to …

Separation Of Powers Metatheory, Aziz Huq

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Scholarship and jurisprudence concerning the Constitution’s separation of powers today is characterized by sharp disagreement about general theory and specific outcomes. The leading theories diverge on how to model the motives of institutional actors; on how to weigh text, history, doctrine, and norms; and on whether to characterize the separation-of-powers system as abiding in a stable equilibrium or as enthralled in convulsively transformative paroxysms. Congress’s Constitution—a major contribution to theorizing on the separation of powers—provides a platform to step back and isolate these important, if not always candidly recognized, disputes about the empirical and normative predicates of separation-of-powers theory—predicates that …

Intelligent Design, Christopher Buccafusco, Mark A. Lemley, Jonathan S. Masur

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

When designers obtain exclusive intellectual property (IP) rights in the functional aspects of their creations, they can wield these rights to increase both the costs to their competitors and the prices that consumers must pay for their goods. IP rights and the costs they entail are justified when they create incentives for designers to invest in new, socially valuable designs. But the law must be wary of allowing rights to be misused. Accordingly, IP law has employed a series of doctrinal and costly screens to channel designs into the appropriate regime— copyright law, design patent law, or utility patent law—depending …

A Conceptual Framework On Self-Employment In Later Life: Toward A Research Agenda, Cal J. Halvorsen, Nancy Morrow-Howell

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

Older adults consistently have a higher rate of self-employment than their younger counterparts, and the rates of self-employment among workers continue to rise as age increases from the “young old” to the “old old.” However, we know relatively little about why older adults decide to pursue self-employment in later life, the self-employment experience itself, and the individual and societal outcomes of this growing type of work. Additionally, we know very little about how age itself is a factor in the decision to pursue this type of work in later life, how age impacts the type of self-employment pursued and its …

Unm Strategic Plan 2017 Refresh, Office Of The President

UNM HLC 2018-19 Assurance Argument Evidence

This document represents the university's reflection on the strategic goals of UNM2020 in the 2017 academic year. In its general overview of the progress the university has made in the seven goals of its long term strategic plan, it mentions among other initiatives recent capital investments such as the Smith Plaza Renovation (5).

Interpreting A Private Ancestral Pueblo Artifact Collection From Montezuma County, Colorado: A Case Study In Identifying Collector Bias And Cultural Heritage Value, Ryan C. Dudgeon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Through a case study, this research examines the ethical issues and potential value of private artifact collections that are made available to professional archaeologists. The context of this study is the Mesa Verde Region in the Four Corners of the United States. Specifically, it considers the Ancestral Pueblo archaeology of Montezuma (MT) County, the core area of the Mesa Verde Region, generally considered the most archaeologically dense region in the U.S. These archaeological resources benefit the local and global community by promoting research, education, tourism and cultural heritage. For example, Mesa Verde National Park draws hundreds of thousands of tourists …

Real-Time Internal Temperature Estimation And Health Monitoring For Igbt Modules, Ze Wang

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Field experiences have demonstrated that power semiconductor devices, such as insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), are among the most fragile components of power electronic converters. Thermomechanical stresses produced by temperature variations during operational and environmental loads are the major causes of IGBT degradation. As the devices are often operated under complex working conditions, temperature variations and the associated damage are difficult to predict during the converter design stage. A promising approach—online health monitoring and prognosis for power semiconductor devices—that can avoid device failure and effectively schedule maintenance has attracted much interest.

This dissertation research focused on real-time accurate internal temperature estimation …

The Discrete Spring Transform: An Innovative Steganographic Attack, Aaron T. Sharp

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Digital Steganography continues to evolve today, where steganographers are constantly discovering new methodologies to hide information effectively. Despite this, steganographic attacks, which seek to defeat these techniques, have continually lagged behind. The reason for this is simple: it is exceptionally difficult to defeat the unknown. Most attacks require prior knowledge or study of existing techniques in order to defeat them, and are often highly specific to certain cover media. These constraints are impractical and unrealistic to defeat steganography in modern communication networks. It follows, an effective steganographic attack must not require prior knowledge or study of techniques, and must be …

Multicultural Literature: Changes In Perceptions And Attitudes In Fourth Graders, Luis A. Pelayo Zepeda

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In 1954, the Supreme Court voted to end segregation in American public schools. However, this landmark decision did not end racism, discrimination, and inequality. Students of color continue to be invisible across the curriculum. This study is a qualitative teacher action research. The purpose of the study was to assess school personnel perceptions and attitudes toward multicultural education in a rural northern California district, and how the implementation of multicultural literature changes perceptions and attitudes in fourth grade students. The setting for the study took place in Steelhead Elementary, located in a rural section of Northern California. Participants included K-8 …

Technical And Economic Potential Of Microgrids In California, Pramod Singh

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Microgrids are being investigated across the U.S. as a solution to support greater reliability, resiliency, and security of electricity supply. This thesis evaluates the potential of developing technically feasible and economically viable microgrids for selected customer categories in California.

Customer categories selected for this study are deemed suitable for microgrid applications by previous studies. For a customer to be technically suitable for microgrid adoption, this study defined a minimum energy requirement threshold. In order to determine the economically viable potential, a benefit-cost analysis was done to assess microgrid benefits compared to the base case of exclusive reliance on grid electricity. …

Habitat Use And Movement Patterns Of Two Redwood Forest Salamanders, Aneides Vagrans And Ensatina Eschscholtzii, With An Examination Of The Efficacy Of Pit Tags For Marking Small Plethodontids, Christian Brown

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The habitat use and movements of small, secretive salamanders are generally poorly understood, in part due to the difficulty associated with marking and recapturing such animals. This study was designed to test the efficacy, both in the laboratory and in the field, of using passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags to mark and track two small-bodied plethodontid salamander species native to coastal northwestern California, Aneides vagrans, the Wandering Salamander, and Ensatina eschscholtzii, the Ensatina Salamander.

Aneides vagrans inhabits tree crowns. Using cover objects and visual encounter surveys, I searched for A. vagrans in the angiosperm understory canopy at least twice …

The Effects Of Bicycling Exercise On The Metabolic Cost Of Walking In Older Adults, Daniel Hugo Aslan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Impaired walking performance is a key determinant of morbidity among older adults. A distinctive characteristic of impaired walking performance among older adults is a greater metabolic cost compared to young adults. Specifically, healthy older adults have been shown to have a 15-20% greater metabolic cost of walking compared to young adults. However, a recent study suggests that older adults who routinely run for exercise have a lower metabolic cost of walking compared to older adults who walk for exercise. Yet, it remains unclear if other aerobic exercises such as bicycling elicits similar improvements on walking metabolic cost among older adults. …

An Investigation Of The Hydraulics In A Prototype Pool-And-Chute, Vortex Weir Fishway For Anadromous Fish Passage., Brendan Foster

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis presents the hydraulic characteristics and simulated passage efficiency of a hybrid pool-and-chute, vortex weir fishway designed by Michael Love & Associates. A physical 1:15 scale model was constructed and evaluated at an 8% slope over three prototype flow rates representing high and medium fish passage flows. The highest velocities and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) values were concentrated along the fishway centerline at the high and medium flow rate and the pool sides showed lower velocities and TKE. Large eddies spin laterally and longitudinally throughout each pool. The velocity vector directions at the lowest flow rate measured differed from …

Economic Analysis For Residential Solar Pv Systems With Battery Storage In Pg&E Territory, Jayati Thakor

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Electricity storage can be used as a tool to help with a variety of issues related to electric grid management. Declining costs and state incentives could allow fast penetration of battery storage. Distributed PV systems are now widely used, and battery storage has potential to address issues related to generation intermittency. This thesis assesses the financial potential of PV systems with behind-the-meter battery storage in two communities in Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) territory. An analysis is performed to calculate annual savings for four cases. The batteries are used to avoid peak period charges under a time-of-use (TOU) rate plan. …

Retrospective Analysis Of Contact Sport Participation On Cognitive Function In Healthy Athletes, Lisa C. Martinez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This study explored the effects of contact and limited contact sport participation on neurocognitive function in non-concussed collegiate and adolescent athletes over time. Athletes participating in contact and limited contact sports have an increased risk of sustaining neurocognitive injuries, known as subconcussive blows, compared to non-contact sport athletes. We hypothesized that athletes participating in contact and limited contact sports, would exhibit a deficit in neurocognitive function following multiple seasons of play when compared to athletes participating in non-contact sports. Using a mixed repeated measures MANOVA statistical design, we analyzed computerized neurocognitive baseline ImPACT composite scores (verbal memory, visual memory, visual …