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- Creator:
- Kemmerer, Dennis
- Description:
- The number of California voters who are choosing not to register with one of the state's six recognized political parties has increased substantially over the last two decades, first surpassing Republican registration in mid-2018, and then to an all-time high of just over 28 percent of all registered voters in the state as of February 10, 2019. Unlike party-affiliated voters, the ideological leanings and policy preferences of these voters cannot be determined from voter registration rolls. Where campaigns could previously target Democratic- and Republican-registered households with liberal- and conservative-leaning messaging respectively, those campaigns will have to rely on other indicators to determine how to target those voters with messaging that aligns with their particular issue and candidate preferences. A linear regression analysis of the vote choices of party-unaffiliated voters in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential elections shows that racial/ethnic minority status, age, and household income are fairly strong indicators of ideological preference.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Government
- Creator:
- Kennedy, Sean Patrick
- Description:
- Real-time obstacle detection is one of the critical problems in autonomous vehicles. Due to the variety of environments that autonomous vehicles encounter, a more robust method is needed to address detecting objects in a vehicle’s path. One solution to this problem is utilizing a stereo camera system to detect an obstacle in the path of a vehicle. A stereo camera system provides a versatile solution to the problem of object detection, because it offers greater field of vision and range of detection than other sensors. For stereo cameras to find the distance between objects and the cameras, it will need to solve the correspondence problem. The correspondence problem refers to matching points from one image to another. Solving this problem allows for the 3-dimensional reconstruction of a scene, which can provide the distance an object is from the vehicle. For this project, an application was developed that generated a depth map that provided necessary information in a reasonable amount of time for a system to follow a collision avoidance protocol. The first step was to obtain the parameters of the stereo camera system. A depth map was then generated using the block matching algorithm to solve the correspondence problem. Finally, analysis of the depth map with different parameters for the block matching algorithm was performed to evaluate the best configuration for the system.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Computer Engineering
73. Circumstantially fired combustion port geometry: analysis of hybrid rocket motor solid fuel grain
- Creator:
- Kearney, Jeremy
- Description:
- Efficient hybrid rocket engine designs are highly desirable due to the inherent safety of these systems when compared to the premixed solid rocket motor or bi-propellant rocket engines. Hybrid rocket motors use a pressurized tank to impel liquid oxygen or other oxidizers into the solid rocket fuel combustion chamber, where an ignition source is used to start the combustion reaction. An actuated valve can be placed between the oxidizer tank and the solid fuel grain, allowing throttle ability of the hybrid engine designs. Solid fuel grains are inert and will not combust without an oxidizer. The combination of throttle ability and a non-premixed inert solid fuel grain result in the increase safety of the hybrid motor system. Hybrid rocket motors lack the high regression rates that solid or liquid rockets possess and therefore are not as commercially viable. This paper focuses on a complex solid fuel grain geometry that leverages rapid prototyping to increase the effective regression rate of the solid motor. Traditional cylindrical fuel port geometries have long length to diameter aspect ratios that increases the fuel port burn surface area but results in a poor volumetric efficiency. Advanced designs such as triangular wagon wheel configurations or helical fuel ports have been successful at increasing the regression rate of the engine but can result in a decreased volumetric efficiency. In place of the previously mentioned fuel port configurations, it is proposed that by orienting the combustion ports laterally on the circumference of the solid fuel grain that the internal surface burn area and internal flow path of the oxidizer would be increased, resulting in an increased fuel regression rate. Preliminary theoretical analysis shows that there is a slight increase in the time to peak thrust using a circumferentially fired combustion port, but a significant decrease in the volumetric efficiency of solid fuel grain. One initial advantage of the design is an increased number of combustion ports, which allows for a smaller solid fuel grain length to diameter aspect ratio because of the increased internal flow path. The smaller aspect ratio gives more flexibility when tailoring the design to envelope limitations.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Creator:
- Dodi, Eliza Afua Obuamah
- Description:
- The purpose of this research was to examine the factors associated with corporal punishment in Ghanaian homes and schools. This exploratory research design uses two forms of data collection including questionnaires as well as semi-structured interviews to further investigate and show potential areas of intervention for policies and agencies working on reducing corporal punishment. It is also focus on studying the triggers of parents, teachers, and alternative care providers who use corporal punishment as a form of discipline. The survey was created by the researcher and using convenience sampling, 100 Ghanaian parents, teachers and or caregivers who live in the urban areas of Ghana were recruited to participate in this study. Of these, 46 participants completed the surveys. The survey data was coded with SPSS. These findings will help formulate policies, guide programs and projects which will aide in the development of new and alternative ways of disciplining children.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Johnson, Mark H.
- Description:
- For this thesis, I explore how Local Control Action Plans (LCAPs), under the Local Control Funding Formula, follow established administrative theory on strategic planning while also raising questions about how districts develop LCAPs. To explore these case studies, I develop an exploratory framework derived from literature on the topic, including synoptic and periodic strategic planning, executive-led versus worker-led strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement. In order to conduct this analysis, I selected the following four school districts from different locales: Folsom Cordova Unified, Dixon Unified, San Juan Unified, and Amador County Unified to identify any themes in the district LCAPs. After applying my exploratory framework to analyze my district findings, I found three different themes within the districts sampled: (a) districts’ planning committees tend to specialize in their roles, (b) human resource and material resource conditions within districts could have an impact on the development of LCAPs, and (c) districts tend to act creatively when developing their LCAPs. Finally, I conclude with a hypothesis about local control and advise on further research.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Kang, Serim
- Description:
- There is a significant gap in the current research showing the correlation between both social isolation and loneliness with the social functioning in elderly. In order to fill such a gap, the current study explored the question what is the relationship between objective social isolation and perceived isolation, loneliness, on the social functioning and health outcomes in elderly? A secondary analysis of the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging showed there is a statistically significant negative relationship between one’s level of social isolation and loneliness and their overall social functioning and health outcomes. Social isolation and loneliness both have a negative impact in similar and different ways on the overall social functioning and health outcomes in the elderly. Such findings provide direction for future policies aimed to help the elderly, which should focus on reducing both social isolation and loneliness.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Young, Jennifer Hall and Jones, Yesenia Fuentes
- Description:
- This project aims to bring increased awareness to the needs of the vulnerable population of older adults. This study explored whether education level and specialized training correlated with how competent and ready California State University, Sacramento social work students are to work with the older adult population. The researchers predicted the Master of Social Work students in the Health and Aging specialization would be more competent and ready as opposed to their peers in the Children and Families and Behavioral Health specializations. The researcher’s prediction was based on the assumption that the Health and Aging specialization provides more specialized training geared towards working with older adults. The researchers hypothesized that higher education levels would yield better preparation for students to work with a broad demographic of clients. Therefore, the researchers predicted that the Bachelor of Social Work students would be least competent and ready to work with the older adult population compared to the Master of Social Work students from all three areas of specialization. The participants for this study consisted of 33 Bachelor of Social Work students, 18 Master of Social Work students in Health and Aging specialization, 17 Master of Social Work students in Children and Families specialization, and 15 Master of Social Work students in Behavioral Health. A total of 83 students participated in the questionnaire survey. The findings revealed the Master of Social Work Behavioral Health students were most competent and ready, while the Bachelor of Social Work students were least competent and ready. The overall scores of all students in each category of knowledge, attitude, and skill were unsatisfactory, as the average total score from all students ranges from 62 to 68%. These scores are concerning as it is expected the average individual completing a survey questionnaire would score at least at a 50% by just randomized guessing. The students did not score much higher even though the expectation is that they would have been provided a more robust preparation and training through the social work program. It is recommended that the California State University, Sacramento Division of Social Work, further expand on their gerontological training. Some ways in which this can be done is by offering training on Sacramento County’s Adult Protective Services, adding more micro, mezzo and macro gerontological field placements, and expanding gerontological course offerings. Further research will be needed to assess the most effective way to integrate these recommendations into the existing California State University, Sacramento Division of Social Work.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Jiang, Brenden
- Description:
- Domoic acid is a potent neurotoxin produced by the genus Pseudo-nitzschia. It is responsible for causing amnesic shellfish poisoning, a condition capable of devastating marine wildlife and humans with severe neurological complications once ingested. Much of the biosynthetic pathway, its regulation, and the biological function of domoic acid remains to be elucidated. Recent research has found N-geranyl-L-glutamic acid as the true precursor to domoic acid. This is formed by the condensation of two metabolites, geranyl diphosphate and glutamate. The former, geranyl diphosphate, is synthesized through a condensation of isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. This initial step is catalyzed by a geranyl diphosphate synthase, a member of the prenyltransferase family. Here, expression of three prenyltransferase genes (Psemu2, Psemu3, and Psemu4) was analyzed through quantitative polymerase chain reaction in three strains of P. multiseries isolated from different growth phases to correlate relative abundance with domoic acid accumulation. Of the three transcripts, Psemu3 and Psemu4 were previously identified as potential geranyl diphosphate synthases in homology modeling studies. Psemu2 and Psemu3 consistently had higher relative expression over Psemu4 in all three strains. Prenyltransferase expression also decreased as domoic acid concentration reached an apparent maximum in late-log and stationary phase. This demonstrates that prenyltransferase transcripts Psemu2 and Psemu3 are highly expressed in log phase, and possibly may play a role in domoic acid biosynthesis.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Chemistry (Biochemistry)
- Creator:
- Jauregui, Aaron
- Description:
- Inclusive education is an educational setting where students of all learning levels receive instruction in a general education classroom (Alquraini & Gut, 2012). The review of research indicates that general education (G.E) teachers are now more likely to be the principal providers of educational instruction for students with disabilities (SWD). Studies suggest that many G.E teachers are overwhelmed by making this effort, lacking confidence in their ability to adapt their curriculum for SWD. Concerns are more profound at the secondary level, where the complexity of content and pace of instruction pose challenges for both SWD and the G.E. teacher (Gerhke et al., 2014). The aim of this explorative, phenomenological and qualitative study is to examine how participants viewed and understood the challenges they faced, and the strategies employed to mitigate those challenges. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 7 secondary G.E teachers who currently teach in inclusive settings. The most significant finding indicated that participants had a high level of both self-efficacy and teaching efficacy when it to teaching or managing SWD. Participants reported that they became more confident teaching in inclusive settings over an extended period of time, and that the strategy employed was a trial and error method. The following successful inclusion strategies were also discovered: 1) making an effort to understand all obstacles a student may be facing; and 2) collaboration with the child’s core IEP team. Lastly, it was suggested by the participants that inclusion-based training be improved at both the preservice and in-service levels to help ensure successful inclusion practices are being implemented in public schools.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Jain, Anshul
- Description:
- Indoor localization has become one of the most talked about services in today’s technology. We have observed that there have been huge demand of Indoor Location services due to increase in smartphone market in last few years. GPS is widely used to find the real time location information of different mobile users mainly in outdoors. This is the main reason there is a large demand for real time location prediction of various mobile users. However, GPS is not effective in indoor buildings due to its weak signal strength and has been found in the research that GPS does not work properly in indoor environment. Wi-Fi access points are widely used in indoor localization techniques which are based on Wi-Fi fingerprint data. Many research papers have been proposed on Wi-Fi fingerprinting based methods using its signal strength generated from Wi-Fi access points. They have proposed that Wi-Fi fingerprinting can increase indoor localization accuracy using different methods like collected Wi-Fi signal strength in various locations. Indoor localization using machine learning techniques is still an open area in which so much research is still going on to find out the best indoor localization. Our goal in this project is to do the comparative analysis of indoor localization using the different machine learning models. We will collect Wi-Fi fingerprinting data which has different Wi-Fi signal strength, and access points on different locations using android application in an android smartphone Motorola G4. After then, we will implement and evaluate the indoor positioning accuracy, time complexity and test error on different machine learning/ neural network models. We will present the comparative analysis of best model out of them to use for indoor localization technique in various closed environment. This project will be implemented on the third floor of California state university- Sacramento, Department of computer science after collecting the Wi-Fi fingerprinting data and will perform different test results. We have also found there has not been much research and comparative analysis happened in indoor localization field using the different machine learning algorithms in different scenarios like time duration, accuracy, error and overall performance. Implementation will be done in both the environments CPU and GPU using python programming language and different related libraries.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Computer Science