Digital Commons Network^™

Applied Species Delimitation In Microbial Taxa And Plants, Austin C. Koontz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Species are a fundamental concept in biology, and many subdisciplines in biology utilize species in aspects of theory and in the communication of results. Given the centrality of species in biological science, it can seem surprising that there is no universal definition amongst biologists of what, strictly speaking, a species is. In fact, there are, by some estimates, over 20 different "species concepts", and this lack of a consensus is termed "the species problem". This problem has theoretical underpinnings, but has become more relevant as advances in sequencing technologies over the past two decades have allowed researchers to probe the …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Among Native Americans Within The State Of Utah, Erica Ficklin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Native Americans are diagnosed with disabilities at a significantly higher rate than the general American population. Due to cultural differences, other factors are likely impacting this difference in diagnosis rates. One possible factor is that Native Americans may have a different definition for ‘disability’ than the general American population. This study aimed to identify whether there is a difference in the definition for ‘disability’ and to learn about the current services available and what changes should be made to better serve Native Americans with disabilities. Native American participants were asked to share their experiences and thoughts about disabilities in sharing …

Analytic Guidance Strategies For Passively Safe Rendezvous And Proximity Operations, Simon Shuster

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A safety ellipse is a type of relative motion trajectory that is commonly used for unmanned rendezvous and proximity operations. As the name suggests, safety ellipses are passively safe relative motion trajectories, which means that their natural motion inherently maintains a low collision risk. The focus of this dissertation is the derivation, analysis, and application of guidance strategies that reconfigure, establish, and exit a safety ellipse. The guidance strategies consist of a set of ∆v vectors and impulse times, all written in closed form. Through applications of optimal control theory and parameter optimization, it is shown that these maneuver …

Using Social Media To Assess The Impact Of Weather And Climate On Visitation To Outdoor Recreation Settings, Emily J. Wilkins

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

When people post photos on social media, these photos often contain information on the location, time, and date the photo was taken; all of this information is stored as metadata and is often never seen or used by the individuals posting the photos. This information can be used by researchers however, to understand the total number of visitors to parks and protected areas, as well as specific places people visit within those parks and protected areas. The first study in this dissertation reviews all the ways social media has been used to understand visitation and visitors’ experiences in parks. Researchers …

Leadership Styles And Barriers To Leadership For Women In Agriculture: A Mixed Methods Study, Erica Ramsey Louder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Women are a growing demographic in agriculture, yet women holding positions in agricultural leadership is limited. This research sought to identify the ways women in agriculture lead by examining their leadership styles and the barriers they face as they strive to advance within their professions.

The results show that women are relationship-based leaders and that there are significant barriers that inhibit women’s advancement in agriculture. Many of these barriers are related to gender bias, self-perception, and life issues such as stress and workload.

Rewriting The Unwritten: Decorum As A Tool For Social Justice In Technical Communication, Jennifer L. Scucchi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the recent turn to social justice in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC), it is important to develop a variety of theories and methods that can address issues of power and oppression within TPC. Additionally, some of these theories and methods should work to engage resistant audiences and persuade them to not only be aware, but to also take meaningful action for change. Social justice efforts should also consider the intersectionality that occurs when multiple marginalizing factors intersect, compounding the experiences of oppression for those who fall into each unique category. In this dissertation, I present a theory and method …

Modulation Of P3 And The Late Positive Potential Erp Components By Standard Stimulus Restorativeness And Naturalness, Salif P. Mahamane

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Tests of attention restoration theory (ART) consistently support that exposure to restorative environments can replenish finite cognitive resources, needed to focus attention, from a depleted state. These environments are usually natural, but the dimensions of naturalness and restorativeness are not one and the same, and yet have not been empirically delineated. The restorative effect has been documented in children and adults. However, neuroscientists have barely begun to test for neural correlates of ART. In this dissertation, I employ electroencephalography (EEG) to record electrophysiological brain activity during an active visual oddball task to capture and analyze p3 elicitation and late positive …

Comparative Plasticity Of Rare Pityopsis Ruthii And Its Common Congener P. Graminifolia, Jared Odell

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The natural world is dynamic, and species must successfully respond to the environmental changes they experience. Pityopsis ruthii (Ruth’s golden aster) is an imperiled endemic perennial confined to boulder crevices along short stretches of the Hiwassee and Ocoee Rivers in Polk County, TN. To investigate plasticity of this species within the context of such change, we used a comparative approach to observe general differences in plasticity between P. ruthii and its widespread congener P. graminifolia by assessing the responses of individuals to experimentally imposed environmental change. Overall, P. ruthii exhibited lower plasticity than P. graminifolia, but these differences were resource-dependent …

Should Teamwork-Based Content Be Taught In The Cal Poly Construction Management Curriculum?, Matthew J. Sharman

Construction Management

At California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), in the Construction Management (CM) curriculum, there is a lack of teamwork-based content. This content includes negotiation, conflict resolution, and fundamental skills for working collaboratively with others such as social-emotional intelligence, empathy, and communication. The nature of the Cal Poly CM Program is to teach students about the aspects of the construction process, however what is missed is teaching how to work effectively in teams. They fail to teach this because of the strict curriculum of focusing on learning objectives rather than teaching individuals how to be effective construction managers. …

Blockchain Technology In The Construction Industry, Marco C. Reza

Construction Management

The construction industry has not advanced as quickly as other industries in the aspects of time, cost, and quality; but Blockchain could be the solution. While there have been improvements in the construction sector such as BIM or Prefabrication, nothing compares to those in other industries. This brings the search for a new technology that would boost construction to a new level of productivity. One technology that could potentially do this is Blockchain. Blockchain, defined in a big picture, is like a shared google sheet where anybody could add information but nobody could delete it. This technology could change the …

Virtual Recruiting: The Impact Of Virtual Interviews & Hiring Events On Construction Students, Abram G. Briones-Colman

Construction Management

Recruitment from college construction programs was drastically altered by not being allowed to gather in person in large groups for the majority of 2020. Companies could no longer recruit in person as they had at past college events, and instead connected and communicated with students virtually. The construction management department at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), bridged this gap between recruiting companies and current students, at a virtual career fair using a collaborative hub built on Microsoft Teams. Data was gathered from students via a survey after attending this first departmental virtual fair, to measure impacts …

Organize, Prepare, And Painting Project: Pismo Beach Lions - Club, Luis Badillo

Construction Management

This paper explains the management process and execution of a project based senior project painting for a nonprofit. The main aim of the project was to give back to a charity organization that offers their time and energy to support their local community. This project occurred during the COVID 19 pandemic, and appropriate safety protocols were used including in communicating with the club representatives. The Pismo Beach Lions Club building was weathered and in need of fresh paint. The original color logo of the Lions Club is blue and white and was preferred that the building remain the same colors. …

Analysis Of Working From Home Vs Working At The Office, As A Construction Company In The Bay Area, Kyle M. Ruff

Construction Management

In 2020, working from home has become an increasingly popular trend amongst construction offices across the Bay Area to combat the spread of COVID-19. This meant that employees who used to commute were now able to work from home. This paper analyzes the impacts working from home has on the productivity, work-life-balance, and overall well-being of a Bay Area construction office employees . A survey was issued to the estimating department of a large general contractor in the Bay Area, with the intent of finding the impact working from home had on the three aspects of working life, as previous …

Case Study: Effects Of Covid-19 On A Mid-Size San Francisco Commercial General Construction Company, Andrew G. Maxwell Jr

Construction Management

The Covid-19 pandemic has had an adverse effect on the commercial construction industry. New safety procedures and regulations set by local government and health officials have made it difficult for construction to proceed at the efficiency level it had prior to the pandemic. The San Francisco Bay Area was subject to strict protocols starting in March of 2020 that vastly limited the capability of construction companies to perform work. This case study looks into the ways in which a mid sized commercial general construction contractor from the San Francisco Bay Area was impacted by Covid-19 and the methods they used …

Users Background And Perception Of Robotic Demolition Equipment, Matthew Elston Jones

Construction Management

Robotic demolition equipment or demolition robots are robots that resemble excavators without the cab, that can be controlled by an operator at a safe distance. This equipment can access hazardous environments and provides versatility in the demolition methods possible. Robots have become a popular choice for contractors looking for a competitive advantage. Currently there is little research about the demolition robot market and how the industry views the technology. This research first seeks to answer background questions on the users and their experience with demolition robots. The research also answers perception questions such as the benefits, drawbacks, and reasons for …

Returning To Learn By Doing, Jeremiah W. Miller

Construction Management

The objective of my senior project was to help return the Cal Poly SLO Construction Management Department to their hands-on labs after the COVID-19 Pandemic forced all learning to go virtual. To return to hands-on labs, I needed to create a set of protocols that faculty and staff could use before, during, and after the labs to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These protocols needed to be simple enough that professors could use them every day and effective enough to make students feel safe to continue attending in person labs. If these protocols were to be accepted, they would need …

Moving On Up? A Virtual School, Student Mobility, And Achievement, James D. Paul, Patrick Wolf

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Virtual charter schools provide full-time, tuition-free K-12 education through internet-based instruction. Although virtual schools offer a personalized learning experience, most research suggests these schools are negatively associated with achievement. Few studies account for differential rates of student mobility, which may produce biased estimates if mobility is jointly associated with virtual school enrollment and subsequent test scores. We evaluate the effects of a single, large, anonymous virtual charter school on student achievement using a hybrid of exact and nearest-neighbor propensity score matching. Relative to their matched peers, we estimate that virtual students produce marginally worse ELA scores and significantly worse math …

Motivation Purity Bias: Expression Of Extrinsic Motivation Undermines Perceived Intrinsic Motivation And Engenders Bias In Selection Decisions, Rellie Derfler-Rozin, Marko Pitesa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Organizational selection decisions often involve an exchange of information between candidates and decision makers as to why candidates are motivated to work in the given position. Drawing on popular management myths as our overarching framework, we theorize that candidates’ expressions of extrinsic motivation lead decision makers to infer that the candidate is less intrinsically motivated, leading to bias against such candidates. We term this effect motivation purity bias, and argue that it emerges despite ample evidence, which we review, showing that penalizing expressed extrinsic motivation is not only unfair to candidates but also counterproductive from the standpoint of maximizing future …

Predicting Counterproductive Work Behavior: Do Implicit Motives Have Incremental Validity Beyond Explicit Traits?, J. Malte Runge, Jonas W. B. Lang, Ingo Zettler, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study extends research on the link between personality and Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB) by investigating whether the implicit Affiliation, Achievement, and Power motives contribute to the prediction of CWB beyond basic personality traits. Employees high in Affiliation, Achievement, and Power motives may disengage from CWB because it is not rewarding and thwarts goal attainment. In Study 1 (N = 263), we found that Affiliation predicted self-rated CWB beyond traits. In Study 2 (N = 121), we found that Affiliation and Power predicted supervisor-rated CWB. Our findings thus suggest to also consider implicit motives as personality determinants of CWB.

Wide Unroofed Coronary Sinus And Cryptogenic Stroke: A Case Report., Savalan Babapoor-Farrokhran, Aditi Kalla, Behnam Bozorgnia, Aman Amanullah

Division of Cardiology Faculty Papers

Background : Unroofed coronary sinus (UCS) is a rare congenital cardiac anomaly in which there is complete or partial absence of the roof of the coronary sinus (CS) resulting in a communication between the right and left atria. There are four types of UCS described in the literature. While usually asymptomatic and discovered incidentally on imaging, UCS can be the source of a brain abscess or paradoxical embolism.

Case summary : A 62-year-old gentleman presented to the emergency department with sudden onset of right-sided weakness and subsequent unresponsiveness. His brain computed tomography (CT) was consistent with left-sided stroke. Transthoracic echocardiography …

Inflammatory Myopathies: Update On Diagnosis, Pathogenesis And Therapies, And Covid-19-Related Implications., Marinos C. Dalakas

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

The inflammatory myopathies constitute a heterogeneous group of acquired myopathies that have in common the presence of endomysial inflammation. Based on steadily evolved clinical, histological and immunopathological features and some autoantibody associations, these disorders can now be classified in five characteristic subsets: Dermatomyositis (DM) Polymyositis (PM), Necrotizing Autoimmune Myositis (NAM), Anti-synthetase syndrome-overlap myositis (Anti-SS-OM), and Inclusion-Body-Myositis (IBM). Each inflammatory myopathy subset has distinct immunopathogenesis, prognosis and response to immunotherapies, necessitating the need to correctly identify each subtype from the outset to avoid disease mimics and proceed to early therapy initiation. The review presents the main clinicopathologic characteristics of each subset …

J Mich Dent Assoc December 2020

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Every month, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists!

In this issue, the reader will find the following original content:

• A cover story on “The Dentist’s Role in Recognizing Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders: A Two-Part Series”.
• The “2020 Author/Title Index to the Journal of the Michigan Dental Association”.
• News you need, Editorial and regular department articles on MDA Foundation activities, Dentistry and the Law, Staff Matters, and component news.

This issue also includes three articles reprinted …

Private Law, Public Law, And The Production Of American Virtue, Cristina Carmody Tilley

NULR Online

No abstract provided.

A Model Of Sequential Crisis Management, Fei Li, Jidong Zhou

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We propose a model of how multiple societies respond to a common crisis. A government faces a "damned-either-way" policymaking dilemma: aggressive intervention contains the crisis, but the resulting good outcome makes people skeptical about the costly response; light intervention worsens the crisis and causes the government to be faulted for not doing enough. When multiple societies encounter the crisis sequentially, due to this policymaking dilemma, late societies may underperform despite having more information, while early societies can benefit from a dynamic counterfactual effect.

Development Of A Statistical Model To Predict Materials’ Unit Prices For Future Maintenance And Rehabilitation In Highway Life Cycle Cost Analysis, Changmo Kim, Ghazan Khan, Brent Nguyen, Emily L. Hoang

Mineta Transportation Institute

The main objectives of this study are to investigate the trends in primary pavement materials’ unit price over time and to develop statistical models and guidelines for using predictive unit prices of pavement materials instead of uniform unit prices in life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) for future maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) projects. Various socio-economic data were collected for the past 20 years (1997–2018) in California, including oil price, population, government expenditure in transportation, vehicle registration, and other key variables, in order to identify factors affecting pavement materials’ unit price. Additionally, the unit price records of the popular pavement materials were …

A Rivalry Of Necessity: An Analysis Of Mechanisms Of Contention Between The Islamic Republic Of Iran And The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Aras Syahmanssuri

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution that extremely concerned the Saudis leaders culminated after the overthrow of a monarchical regime of the Iranian Shah and the power rise of a theocratic Shia government led by Ayatollah Khomeini. From the early days of this revolution, Khomeini raised a unique slogan, which was “exporting the revolution” to neighboring countries. Through targeting the Shia minority in neighboring countries, this slogan highly concerned the Gulf countries including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Examining four decades of hostility, which starts from the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran, this study indicates that the rivalry between the Islamic …

A Fast And Exact Motif Enumeration Algorithm For Dynamic Networks, Abbas Al-Thaedan

Theses and Dissertations

From social to biological networks, prior research in complex networks have demonstrated the importance of the frequency and distribution of different types of motifs to important network functions and properties. A network motif (or graphlet) is defined as a small connected sub-pattern which is over-represented in a network. Network motifs have been widely applied in a wide range of applications, namely biological, social, and technical networks. The counting of the network motif involves expensive enumeration of graph sub-patterns along with the detection of graph isomorphism. In general, network motif detection algorithms are computationally expensive and often designed to operate over …

Efficient Edge Analytics: Addressing Cyber-Physical Masint With Machine Learning On Audio At The Edge, David Elliott

Theses and Dissertations

With the growth of the Internet of Things and the rise of Big Data, data processing and machine learning applications are being moved to cheap and low size, weight, and power (SWaP) devices at the edge, often in the form of mobile phones, embedded systems, or microcontrollers. The field of Cyber-Physical Measurements and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) makes use of these devices to analyze and exploit data in ways not otherwise possible, which results in increased data quality, increased security, and decreased bandwidth. However, methods to train and deploy models at the edge are limited, and models with sufficient accuracy are …

A Study Of The Purple Star School Designation Program: Summary Report, Center For Public Research And Leadership, Military Child Education Coalition (Mcec)

Center for Public Research and Leadership

Military-connected (MC) families are tough and agile. Moving three times more often, on average, than their civilian counterparts, parents and students quickly learn to become fierce advocates for themselves, lobbying schools to provide the basic educational services and social-emotional supports to which all American children are entitled. But this advocacy becomes exhausting and draws time away from the other pressing demands of relocation and family life. What relief might parents feel if they did not have to constantly put on their armor to fight these battles? And what more could students accomplish if they did not have to settle for …

“It’S A Hoax!” A Practical Guide For Understanding And Surviving Weird Internet Phenomena, Camille S. Price

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project dives into some of the darkest of online spaces, as I seek to uncover the legends, narratives, and beliefs that encourage and popularize culture surrounding self-harm. Building on the extensive research that has been conducted on folk antagonists born on the internet such as the Slenderman, I will discuss another character named Momo who, according to legend, lead their primarily young followers through a series of self-inflicted, harmful acts, each increasing in severity, with the final act ultimately being the taking of one’s life. Research will examine social media threads, YouTube videos, film/television, and fan fiction to unpack …