Exclusion learning is a term that is coined by behavior analysts to describe the emergence of new conditional discriminations in the absence of direct training. Given the presentation of an unknown sample and two comparison stimuli (e.g., an unknown s . . .

A state observer is a system in which we can model a real system in order to give an estimate of the internal state of the system. In the first part of the thesis, we discuss some of the design techniques and compare three different types of state obs . . .

Having no emission vehicles is not something new. Electric cars have been in the market for few years, but why so many people are afraid of buying them. Although they know that they would save a lot money on gas, they refuse buying a free emission ele . . .

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) Standard 1100-2005 has defined power quality as a concept of powering and grounding sensitive electronic equipment in a manner that is suitable for the operation of that equipment (Institut . . .

There are an estimated half million foster youth in the United States, 71% of which are of school age, according to Gustavsson and McEachron (2012). There are numerous factors that contribute to poor academic performance among fostered youth. Many of . . .

Cerebral palsy is a classification of permanent disorders that concerns the development of human movement and posture. Limitation in activity is primarily attributed to non-progressive damage that occurs during the growth of the fetal / infant brain, . . .

Microgrids are small power systems with diverse distributed generators with high reliability. With recent developments in the area of renewable energies and increasing concerns about environmental issues, microgrids are rising as excellent candidate t . . .

Proteins are the essential component of signal transduction pathways. Dysregulated cellular signaling can lead to diseases including cancer. Therefore, proper regulation of protein expression and cellular signaling is critical for cellular homeostasis . . .

In recent years, quantum dots have been studied across various fields with far reaching applications. Due to their unique electronic properties, they have been applied to such areas as LEDs, solar cells, bio-imaging, and even to the treatment of cance . . .

Semiconductor quantum dots have been studied extensively due to their unique absorption and emission properties. One particularly important topic of interest is their potential for eradicating cancer cells in photodynamic therapy,1 where using quantum . . .

In addition to providing a physical barrier the airway epithelium takes part in the innate immune response through recognition of pathogen associated molecular patterns and subsequent production of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines such as interle . . .

In this thesis, we investigate the Kazhdan constant of groups and generating sets associated with Cayley graphs. In particular, we look at groups and generating sets that yield isomorphic Cayley graphs and compute their Kazhdan constants–in other word . . .

Penetration level of wind units in power systems is increasing rapidly. There are different topologies and configurations of wind units. The most famous configuration is called Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG). In this configuration, the stator o . . .

Malnutrition is a concern facing the children of South Africa's townships that perpetuates due to multiple conjoining factors. Accordingly, understanding one component requires an understanding of them all. With the opportunity to observe a South Afri . . .

This Thesis focuses on the design ARM architecture using Verilog, Vivado Design Suite IDE. There are three types of processors: M- series (microcontroller), R-Series (real-time), and A-series (Application) processor. The focus of research is mainly on . . .

In the United States more than 116 million people suffer from chronic pain, and 25 million chronic pain patients report, “significant pain-related activity limitations and diminished quality of life.” Chronic pain affects more people than heart diseas . . .

Cancer is caused by abnormal cellular proliferation. An increase in proliferation can cause cellular stresses such as metabolic stress due to increased nutrient requirements or redox-related stress due to altered metabolic processes. The AMPK pathway . . .

This project is part of a team effort to create a working and validated finite element model of a full motocross helmet. The helmet incorporates dampers that are used to mitigate rotation based traumatic brain injuries (TBI), such as subdural hematoma . . .

Of the first 250 convicted persons later proven innocent through DNA evidence, 16% had falsely confessed during the police investigation. Law enforcement interrogators' increasingly psychological methods frequently employ deception and manipulation ac . . .

We evaluated two popular training modalities, group instruction and video training, paired with individualized feedback to determine which method of training led to the best implementation of the three-step prompting procedure by parents with their ch . . .

In the United States and around the world, obesity is becoming more prevalent. Many diseases such as metabolic syndrome are associated with obesity. This can potentially cause other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke. Becaus . . .

Due to the limitation of natural resources where conventional energy can be obtained, other energies sources must be found without such limits. For this reason, we are trying to cut down the usage of conventional energy by using renewable energy sourc . . .

The current study investigated the effect of emotional valence and forewarning on the formation of false memories. Participants read standard instructions or were forewarned about the nature of semantic associations. Participants were asked to recall . . .

Analyzing sentiments plays an attractive role on text mining, information retrieval, and natural language processing tasks. In this thesis, we start with a word vector representation and present a cluster-based method to classify Amazon reviews. Our p . . .

Spices were originally used in cooking to add flavor to dishes. Not much research had been conducted about its medicinal properties and the phytochemicals present in it. Every country has its own variation of using spices. In this project five spices . . .

The purpose of this research is to synthesize a molecular shuttle for the transport of small molecules into the cytoplasm of E. coli. The biological hypothesis is that the iron acquisition mechanism of E. coli can actively internalize small molecules . . .

Ever since Japanese cuisine was first introduced to the United States in the last quarter of the 19th century, public acceptance of Japanese cuisine has steadily improved among the American public. In the past few decades, Japanese foods have gained m . . .

In this thesis, an optimal control strategy to mitigate shock waves in traffic streams consisting of connected and autonomous vehicles is developed and compared against a that of a proportional controller. First, the formation of traffic shock waves i . . .

The nutraceutical and herbal formulas are proposed for metabolic and eye health. The purpose of this project was to design a supplemental nutraceutical and herbal cocktail, taken in addition to a basic balanced diet, to prevent metabolic and eye disea . . .

With the increasing growth of multimedia applications and the traffic load explosion on various network environments, the fidelity of media data has become one of the biggest concerns of producers, users and researchers. Digital watermarking is one of . . .

This study evaluated the pattern interpretation of contact transfer and airborne transfer bloodstains of samples that are submitted for casework analysis where the identity of the pattern type is unknown. It was to determine if a contact transfer coul . . .

With the recent adoption of smartphones and their use in composing emails, general notes, and communicating with friends/family using text messages, users have found creative ways to abbreviate words to speed up typing of messages on said devices. To . . .

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in the kinematic features of writing between baseline (zero BAC) and peak (maximum BAC) intoxication levels during a controlled drinking experiment. Determining the variation i . . .

ABSTRACT Development of Core Curriculum for General Education Chemistry Students By Dianna Kim General Education Chemistry (GE Chemistry) course curricula often mimic that of the General Chemistry course intended for various STEM majors. However, this . . .

Recent research on the biomechanics of brain injuries has demonstrated that rotational head dynamics play a significant role in the mechanism of various types of diffuse brain trauma. In response to these findings, helmet manufacturers have begun to a . . .

The Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve (BWER) is the largest remaining coastal wetlands in Los Angeles County. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) are in the midst of developing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for possible rest . . .

This research investigates the effect of environmental conditions on the proximal end morphology of antemortem anagen head hair and compares those morphologies to ones documented to occur in postmortem subjects. A total of 967 antemortem anagen and te . . .

<italic>Syntrichia caninervis</italic> is a dominant moss in the Mojave Desert, where it plays an important role in the composition of biotic soil crusts. To date, it has been assumed that individual patches of this moss species represent multiple bra . . .

Previous research has explored the development and establishment of perspective-taking. Perspective-taking is a behavior that has tremendous social significance; it impacts social relationships, workplace relationships, and more. Individuals with pers . . .

Histone N-terminal tails are subject to covalent post-translational modifications (PTMs) including methylation and phosphorylation which signal gene activation. Like phosphorylation, methylation affects cellular regulatory mechanisms and its implicati . . .

Candida albicans is a major cause of candidiasis in immunocompromised individuals leading to oral and systemic infections. In response to various environmental changes, C. albicans transitions from yeast to hyphae form making this transition a key vir . . .

Arduino is an open source platform based on user friendly hardware and software. It is able to take inputs from its sensors and affects its surroundings by controlling motors, lights and actuators. This project is describing and producing four differe . . .

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) function to protect organisms from freezing in subzero temperatures. AFPs in insects have been discovered to be the most effective in decreasing the freezing point of water without affecting the melting point, apparently a p . . .

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPc) is a key enzyme in algae, fungi, and plants. It has been established as a crucial regulatory enzyme in photosynthetic metabolism where it is responsible for the irreversible beta-carboxylation of PEP in the mesop . . .

The p53 protein is vital in multicellular organisms, where it functions as a cell cycle regulator and tumor suppressor, preventing cancer. Upon cell stress p53 inhibits cell cycle or promotes apoptosis, p53 is negatively regulated by mouse double minu . . .

This thesis shows the design and performance of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) algorithms on a S32 NXP image processing board. The system was integrated onto a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro and included a monocular camera, two front-facing LIDARs an . . .

Mammoth Mountain, CA is a volcanic region with elevated CO2 emissions from a sub-surface source, which are likely inducing mineral weathering that is leading to varied As concentrations in the surrounding springs. This study examines possible geochemi . . .

The current research investigated factors that influence perceived employability of former offenders: the effects of type of custody (state prison versus county jail versus a CBAC program), type of offense (violent versus N3: non-violent, non-serious, . . .

The purpose of the thesis is to determine the mechanical properties of a soft cohesive soil know as Kaolin (Peerless 2) clay, running a static direct simple shear (DSS) test using the GEOCOMP ShearTrac-II cyclic direct simple shear apparatus. The thes . . .

It is proposed that the high failure rate of novice programmers is due to the absence of pedagogies that teach a programming language as a language, per se. A 2014 fMRI study (Siegmund et al.) demonstrated that comprehension of computer programs utili . . .