Digital Commons Network^™

Solving The Wrong Problem, Larry Starr, Phd

School of Continuing and Professional Studies Faculty Papers

Over the Memorial weekend, I read editorials and listened to opinions from New York, Philadelphia, and Washington trying to make sense of the senseless mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Each person defined the root cause then argued how to solve the problem by fixing what is broken.

A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of Microalgae On Poultry Production, Taylor Kaitlyn O'Lear Reid

Master's Theses

Research has shown Spirulina to be a viable feedstuff in poultry production. Other species of microalgae are being studied to determine their effects on poultry production. This project compared four microalgaes: Hydrodictyon, Vaucheria, Uronema, and Spirulina and was broken down into three trials. The first experiment investigated the digestibility of an algae species, Spirulina, in broiler chicken diets. Eighty, 25-day-old Ross 708 broiler chicks were sorted into 20 metabolism cages and received one of two diets: Control Diet or Test Diet (75% basal diet + 25% Spirulina). The apparent ileal amino acid digestibility (AIAAD) of lysine, methionine, cysteine, threonine, isoleucine, …

Self-Balancing Bicycle Device, Charles Cole, Raffy Lorenzo, Neil Boyal

Biomedical Engineering

The sponsor, Justin Shaw, is currently developing a bicycle for an athlete who has lost movement in their legs. This athlete can no longer experience the unmatched feeling of naturally banking a bicycle at corners. The Self-Balancing Bike Device Team will create a device that can self-balance an electric recumbent bicycle at low speeds while being almost undetectable while turning. This document will outline the team’s background research into self-balancing vehicles, define the needs that must be solved, and delineate a schedule for future milestones.

Rod Bend Approximator For Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery, Amanda Hansell, Anise Ghandchi, Shervin Moghimi

Biomedical Engineering

This Final Report will go over the project deliverables and future steps in the making of a rod bending approximator tool by the Cal Poly Senior Design team for the client SeaSpine. The latest designs and research done regarding minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is covered including the impediments with the current methods. SeaSpine presented the need to our team for an approximating tool within the MIS procedure. Our team began project planning through task generation and schedule development. Once the product definition was fully understood, competition was evaluated and engineering specifications were created for the project. A conceptual design was …

Mars Prototype Rover Environmental Measurement System, James A. Renick

Computer Engineering

In my senior project, the problem I am trying to solve is how to efficiently design, create, and install an original library onto a Mars prototype rover operating system and to further use that library to integrate a new weather measurement sensor device into the rover system with the necessary software and hardware implementations. This is an important and highly valued problem as many aerospace and other engineering companies utilize rovers and other autonomous systems for important research, explorations, and reconnaissance missions and goals. In solving this problem, I utilized many resources that were available to me such as advisors, …

Researching The Impact Of Cal Poly Classes On Computing Students Perceptions Of Computer Ethics And Social Responsibility, Annie Joss

Computer Engineering

The importance and impact of socio-technical systems are playing an increasing role in the education of computing students. Discussion of ethics and social responsibility has always been a tenant of computer science education; however, research has shown engineering and computer science students lose focus on these values over their engineering education. Cal Poly computing departments have taken steps to emphasize social responsibility and ethics through required and suggested courses. This project focuses on examining the values and beliefs of Cal Poly computing students, who were surveyed over Winter and Spring Quarters in 2022. This project is inspired by Dr. Cech’s …

Unity-Based Platformer, Juan Joel Benjamin

Computer Engineering

This project aims to design a computer-based platformer that entertains its audience. By completing this product, I hope to achieve a good foundation in game design and the tools used in the industry. To confirm that the game has entertainment value, I will use a variety of playtests and compare the results between them. A secondary objective is to find out if seeing multiple versions of a game will affect the playtesters’ feedback. This would allow me to learn more about how different versions of a playtest can change what feedback a game developer will receive

Developing A Miniature Smart Boat For Marine Research, Michael Isaac Eirinberg

Computer Engineering

This project examines the development of a smart boat which could serve as a possible marine research apparatus. The smart boat consists of a miniature vessel containing a low-cost microcontroller to live stream a camera feed, GPS telemetry, and compass data through its own WiFi access point. The smart boat also has the potential for autonomous navigation. My project captivated the interest of several members of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s (Cal Poly SLO) Marine Science Department faculty, who proposed a variety of fascinating and valuable smart boat applications.

Smart Bottle Ble Integration, Joshua M. Rizzolo

Electrical Engineering

In 1975, four percent of children aged five to nineteen were categorized as overweight or obese. As of 2016, this figure climbed above 18 percent [1]. Researchers at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) want to investigate the effect of overeating in early childhood on later childhood obesity. This research requires collecting feeding pattern data on infants, which proves challenging. Parents cannot be relied on to regularly collect clean data due to factors including work schedule, multitasking, and general exhaustion. Thus, we have developed a tool to automatically collect data on feeding frequency and duration, as well …

Maximum Trapping Focal Length In Photophoretic Trap For 3d Imaging Systems, Jason M. Childers

Electrical Engineering

This product is a photophoretic trapping system which allows varying focal lengths to test which focal lengths are possible for trapping toner particles. This system establishes that there exists a maximum trapping distance limitation and is the first time the effect of focal length is studied in a photophoretic trapping system. Increasing photophoretic trapping focal length is necessary for improving this technology as a 3D display. The 3D imaging technology is realized by dragging a microscopic (micrometer-scale) particles with a laser beam to trace an image. This technology can display fully colored and high-resolution 3D images visible from almost any …

Signal Adc Converter Simulation On Cadence Virtuoso For Audio Applications, Maxwell Kazuki Fukada

Electrical Engineering

Audio signals are representations of sounds with a mixture of multiple analog signals between the frequency of 20Hz to 20,000Hz. To record snippets of audio data onto a mobile phone or computer, the signal needs to be converted to a digital format. For this purpose, many devices utilize a converter, specifically a sigma-delta modulator with a digital filter. By using a converter, electronics can receive binary data about the audio signal accurately and quickly without losing important signal information. This project aims to simulate a fully functional audio converter with a sigma-delta modulator and decimation filter. The system will receive …

Bicep Muscle Rep Counter With Semg, Matthew Max Garcia

Electrical Engineering

The Bicep Muscle Rep Counter with SEMG is a device that was made to develop three repetition thresholds or difficulty levels from a fully-flexed bicep brachii muscle and signal to the user when consequent bicep muscle contractions pass said thresholds or levels. This device can be used when performing a bicep-focused movement or when generally flexing the bicep muscle. Essentially, this device serves to make sure each repetition of a muscle contraction passes a percentage value calculated from the electrical activity outputted from a max contraction.

The device is not designed for and does not produce data for muscle growth, …

Hum Synthesizer, Daniel Keith Mcfall, Jason Chang

Electrical Engineering

Most modern music, especially the popular and rising genres such as pop music and rap music are more reliant on music synthesizers than ever before. While other instruments are readily used to sample background noises, the main form of sound generation is becoming more digital rather than using acoustic instruments. However, many people that want to make music aren’t familiarized with traditional music theory and would have difficulty using a traditional synthesizer. The Hum Synthesizer aims to allow a wider audience to access the functions of a traditional synthesizer by using voice controls rather than keyboard controls. If the user …

Teaching Intro To Web Development With React, Rey Ortiz

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Throughout the years, the field of computer science has increasingly become in demand and it is projected that in the next decade, job prospects are expected to grow much faster than the average rate for all occupations. With the reliance of technology in our daily lives and technology always evolving, the need for professionals with backgrounds in computer Science has risen dramatically. One of the things that we as educators can do to bridge this gap is to introduce students to web development at the beginning of their college career to get more students interested in the field of computer …

Mental Health Literacy Among University Educators, Danni Ewing

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Mental health literacy is a term originally coined the in 1990s that refers to the recognition, prevention, and management of mental illness. Poor mental health literacy can delay or prevent treatment (Godfrey Born et al., 2019; Tay et al., 2018). Higher mental health literacy increases help-seeking behaviors, positive attitudes towards treatments, and improves health outcomes (Jorm, 2012; Rüsch et al., 2011). The current study aimed to explore the mental health literacy of university educators to support student mental health. The study used an electronic survey to collect demographic data, information related to teaching and mental health experience, and responses to …

Long-Term Outcomes Of Behavior Therapy For Youth With Tourette Disorder, Flint M. Epsil, Douglas W. Woods, Matthew W. Specht, Shannon M. Bennett, John T. Walkup, Emily J. Ricketts, Joseph F. Mcguire, Jordan T. Stiede, Jennifer S. Schild, Susanna W. Chang, Alan L. Peterson, Lawrence Scahill, Sabine Wilhelm, John Piacentini

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Objective

To determine the long-term durability of behavior therapy for tics among youth with Tourette disorder and persistent (chronic) motor or vocal tic disorders.

Method

Of the 126 youth who participated in a randomized controlled trial of behavior therapy 11 years prior, 80 were recruited for this longitudinal follow-up. Consenting participants were interviewed in person or remotely (Web-based video) by trained evaluators to determine the course of tics, current tic severity, and tic-related impairment. Recruitment and data collection occurred between 2014 and 2019, with an average follow-up duration of 11.2 years.

Results

Treatment responders to both conditions in the original …

Educating With Captain America: Metabolic And Nutritional Considerations, Ffion Price, Johneric William Smith, Stanley P. Brown

Publications

Captain America can bring more than entertainment value to the public. The pop icon can also be used effectively in the science classroom, encouraging students to more effectively learn the content. How Captain America uses nutrients and how often he eats are novel ways to communicate real science. The point is to make a connection using science to explain how the superhero can run faster, jump higher, or lift more than is humanly possible. In this way fun, teachable moments are available for the educator.

Stressors And Coping Of Mexican American College Undergraduates, Jeanette Calvario Perales

Dissertations

Empirical literature indicates that current mental health practices with Mexican American college students are lacking. Mexican American undergraduates have unique challenges that need to be addressed by counselors within the university context and in community settings. This study addressed the dearth of empirical literature on stressors and coping strategies by exploring the experiences of Mexican American students at a predominately White institution (PWI) in the Midwest region of the United States. Through grounded theory, a theory was generated from multiple in-depth interviews using a comparative analysis process to enhance understanding of how Mexican American college undergraduates at PWIs cope with …

Mixture Of Functional Graphical Models, Qihai Liu

Dissertations

With the development of data collection technologies that use powerful monitoring devices and computational tools, many scientific fields are now obtaining more detailed and more complicatedly structured data, e.g., functional data. This leads to increasing challenges of extracting information from the large complex data. Making use of these data to gain insight into complex phenomena requires characterizing the relationships among a large number of functional variables. Functional data analysis (FDA) is a rapidly developing area of statistics for data which can be naturally viewed as a smooth curve or function. It is a method that changes the frame of data …

Historical Memory And Feminist Consciousness In Almudena Grandes’ Episodios De Una Guerra Interminable, Alba Fernández-Fernández

Dissertations

General Francisco Franco’s brutal dictatorship (1939-1975) was one of the darkest periods in Spain’s recent history. During this dictatorial regime, political detractors were mercilessly persecuted, tortured and massacred. In 1975, Franco died leaving the legacy of nearly four decades of repression and over 150,000 victims on his back. Spain then cautiously headed into a process of democratization, with fear and horror still etched on the country’s memory. While politicians promised a smooth transition to democracy, their insistence to look ahead meant Spaniards were asked to neglect the country’s painful past. No legal action was taken against those responsible for mass …

Oncolytic Tanapoxvirus Variants Expressing Mil-2 And Mccl-2 Regress Human Pancreatic Cancer Xenografts In Immunocompromised And Immunocompetent Cann.Cg-Foxn1Nu/Crl Nude Mice, Scott David Haller

Dissertations

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in Western countries. The incidence of PDAC has increased over the last 40 years and is projected to be the second leading cause of cancer death by 2030. Despite aggressive treatment regimens, prognosis for patients diagnosed with PDAC is very poor; PDAC has the lowest 5-year survival rate for any form of cancer in the United States (US). PDAC cases are rarely detected in early stage when surgical resection can be performed and few, approximately 20%, are suitable for surgical resection which remains the only curative treatment when …

From Young To Old: The Effects Of Sedentary-Aging And Exercise Interventions On Structural Plasticity Of Lumbar Motor Neurons, Nmj, And Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression, Alberto Felipe Cintron-Colon

Dissertations

Neuromuscular weakness has been associated with age progression. A possible reason is a disconnection between muscle and neuron, causing components from both the central and peripheral nervous systems to deteriorate. Exercise, however, has beneficial effects for both muscle and nervous tissue, inducing neuroprotection. Neurotrophic factors are powerful regulators of neuronal maintenance and synaptic strength. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a neurotrophic factor that has been shown to be a potent survival factor for somatic motor neurons that innervate skeletal muscle.

This study aims to evaluate changes in structural plasticity of motor neurons in the lumbar spinal cord and …

Mid To Late Neogene (5.9-3.7 Ma) Epeirogenic Uplift And Associated Ultramafic Volcanism, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand, Katherine Anne Dvorak

Dissertations

Cored marine sediments from Canterbury Basin Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 317 shelf sites U1351, U1353, and upper slope Site U1352 have been resampled with emphasis on benthic foraminifera from the Late Eocene to Late Pliocene. These new data coupled with paleo water-depth and age data from the nearby Clipper-1 petroleum exploration well, are used to develop a 1-dimensional basin subsidence model for the Canterbury Basin. Our model indicates there was widespread epeirogenic uplift of 890  350m, in the mid-Neogene (5.9-3.7 million years ago), which took place during concomitant ultramafic volcanism. Close association of uplift and volcanism could …

Development Of Flexible Hybrid Electronics For Sterilization And Structural Health Monitoring Applications, Arnesh Kumar Bose

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Model Predictive Controller Design For Internal Combustion Engines Based On The Second Law Of Thermodynamics, Muataz Abotabik

Dissertations

Energy resources depletion and worldwide strict emissions policies pose challenges that automotive manufacturers try to overcome through researching advanced powertrain technologies such as lean-burn gasoline, direct injection, homogeneous charge compression ignition engines, powertrain electrification, etc. Most of these developments have been focused on conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) emissions and performance enhancements. Most ICE control strategies are built based on the First Law of Thermodynamics (FLT) i.e., to deliver a specific load requirement, enhancing thermal efficiency, etc. The FLT doesn’t account for in-cylinder high temperature thermodynamics process irreversibilities that cause losses in the work potential; up to 25% of the …

Identifying Gait Pathology After Acl Reconstruction Using Temporal Characteristics Of Kinetics And Electromyography, Naoaki Ito, Jacob J. Capin, Ashutosh Khandha, Thomas S. Buchanan, Lynn Snyder-Mackler

Physical Therapy Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

Asymmetrical gait mechanics after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) are associated with the development of posttraumatic knee osteoarthritis. Current measures of gait mechanics have focused heavily on peak magnitudes of knee kinematics, kinetics, and joint contact forces but have seldom considered the rate of knee loading, cumulative knee load, or the timing of motor input surrounding peaks. The purpose of this study was to introduce and describe novel metrics of gait using temporal characteristics of kinetics and EMG to identify neuromuscular deficits of the quadriceps in patients after ACLR.

Methods

Gait mechanics were assessed 6 months (n = …

Total Knee Arthroplasty Assessments Should Include Strength And Performance-Based Functional Tests To Complement Range-Of-Motion And Patient-Reported Outcome Measures, Jacob J. Capin, Michael J. Bade, Jason M. Jennings, Lynn Snyder-Mackler, Jennifer E. Stevens-Lapsley

Physical Therapy Faculty Research and Publications

Range of motion (ROM) and pain often define successful recovery after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), but these routine clinical outcomes correlate poorly or not at all to functional capacity after TKA. The purpose of this Perspective is to underscore the importance of muscle strength and performance-based functional tests in addition to knee ROM and patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures to evaluate outcomes after TKA. Specifically: (1) muscle strength is the rate-limiting step for recovery of function after TKA; (2) progressive rehabilitation targeting early quadriceps muscle strengthening improves outcomes and does not compromise ROM after TKA; (3) ROM and PROs fail to …

The Long And Short Of Mistress Relationships: Sex-Differentiated Mate Preferences Reflect A Compromise Of Mating Ideals, Bryan K. C. Choy, Norman P. Li, Kenneth Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The mate preferences literature has been fairly muted on mate preferences for extrapair partners. In four studies, we examined mate preferences for mistress relationships--the traits that men prioritize in a mistress and that mistresses prioritize in their male partners--and compared these preferences to those of short- and long-term relationships. In studies 1a and 1b, (N = 104 and 191 respectively), we derived dimensions of mate preferences for mistress relationships through factor analyses. In studies 2 and 3 (N = 219 and 101 respectively) we employed the budget allocation paradigm to compare people's priorities for different traits for a mistress relationship …

Deep One-Class Classification Via Interpolated Gaussian Descriptor, Yuanhong Chen, Yu Tian, Guansong Pang, Gustavo Carneiro

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

One-class classification (OCC) aims to learn an effective data description to enclose all normal training samples and detect anomalies based on the deviation from the data description. Current state-of-the-art OCC models learn a compact normality description by hyper-sphere minimisation, but they often suffer from overfitting the training data, especially when the training set is small or contaminated with anomalous samples. To address this issue, we introduce the interpolated Gaussian descriptor (IGD) method, a novel OCC model that learns a one-class Gaussian anomaly classifier trained with adversarially interpolated training samples. The Gaussian anomaly classifier differentiates the training samples based on their …

Desire: An Efficient Dynamic Cluster-Based Forest Indexing For Similarity Search In Multi-Metric Spaces, Yifan Zhu, Lu Chen, Yunjun Gao, Baihua Zheng, Pengfei Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Similarity search fnds similar objects for a given query object based on a certain similarity metric. Similarity search in metric spaces has attracted increasing attention, as the metric space can accommodate any type of data and support fexible distance metrics. However, a metric space only models a single data type with a specifc similarity metric. In contrast, a multi-metric space combines multiple metric spaces to simultaneously model a variety of data types and a collection of associated similarity metrics. Thus, a multi-metric space is capable of performing similarity search over any combination of metric spaces. Many studies focus on indexing …