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Fire Protection and Life Safety Analysis Report
No full textThis report evaluates the fire and life safety performance of the proposed building, a two- story, mixed-occupancy facility designed to serve as a civic and cultural hub. The analysis was prepared to assess compliance with the 2021 International Building Code (IBC), NFPA 13, NFPA 72, and related standards, with a particular focus on areas where occupant egress paths challenge prescriptive limitations. The project includes assembly, business, and storage occupancies, and features a large auditorium, classrooms, an exhibition hall, a restaurant, offices, and a double-height atrium. The building is designed as a non-separated mixed-use facility and is classified under Groups A-1, A-2, A-3, B, and S-1. Prescriptive requirements for fire resistance, construction type (Type IIB), means of egress, and suppression systems are applied comprehensively throughout. The non-separated occupancy strategy triggers the most restrictive provisions across the entire floor plate, including for egress and fire protection. Analysis confirms that the building remains within allowable height and area limitations per IBC Chapter 5, utilizing area increases allowed for frontage (IBC 506.3). Occupancy load calculations total 3,528 people, and the corresponding exit capacity is shown to exceed minimum code requirements on all levels, with configuration reviewed in detail in Appendix B. A thorough structural fire protection analysis evaluates the expected fire performance of key spaces using time- temperature boundary conditions and member-specific thermal degradation modeling. Classrooms, offices, and the exhibition hall were selected as representative zones based on load, usage, and fire hazard diversity. Time-to-failure analysis for primary and secondary structural components demonstrates that key elements meet or exceed expected fire resistance periods within the bounds of anticipated evacuation times, supported by material selection and passive protection detailing. Section 4 presents a robust performance-based design approach to assess tenability during fire scenarios that challenge prescriptive egress provisions. The performance-based evaluation was initiated due to anticipated exceedances in common paths of travel and travel distance limitations, particularly in open-plan areas. Two representative design fire scenarios, one originating in the atrium and the other in the auditorium, were modeled using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). The simulations included visibility, gas temperature, and smoke layer height as key tenability metrics. The design’s conservative assumptions regarding occupant travel speeds and fire growth rates further affirm life safety compliance. Results demonstrated the Available Safe Egress Time (ASET) relative to the Required Safe Egress Time (RSET), maintaining tenability for the duration of the evacuation. For Design Fire Scenario 1, the ASET was calculated as 1 minute 40 seconds, limited by visibility. This ASET is shorter than the RSET of 1 minute 56 seconds (100 seconds of egress initiation time of the last person in the office room with fire direct cue + 16 seconds of travel movement time). Although visibility near the exit door has already dropped below 33 feet, occupants would likely still be able to evacuate without being hindered by visibility, toxic gases, or temperature, since they are already close to the exit. However, no safety margin is provided in this scenario. For Design Fire Scenario 2, it was concluded that occupants in the office unit could safely evacuate within 4 minutes 32 seconds (83 sec to sprinkler activation + 90 sec to waterflow switch initiation + 10 sec to notification activation + 60 sec for pre-movement time + 29 sec for travel egress time), which is less than the available safe egress time (ASET) of 4 minutes 50 seconds. The building’s fire suppression system includes a fully sprinklered wet-pipe system designed per NFPA 13, with the Ordinary Hazard Group 2 classification applied to high-risk zones. Hydraulic calculations identified a system demand of 370 GPM at 68 psi, requiring the integration of a 500 GPM fire pump due to limitations of the city’s public water supply (1,200 GPM @ 55 psi residual). A dedicated fire pump room with a 1-hour rated separation is provided. The fire alarm and notification system include a Simplex 4100ES FACP, manual pull stations, horn/strobe devices, smoke detection per NFPA 72, and a voice/alarm communication system serving Group A spaces with occupant loads exceeding 1,000. Pathway survivability and annunciation features meet Level 1 and Level 2 standards where required. In conclusion, the report affirms that both prescriptive and performance-based life safety requirements are satisfied. Areas of performance-based design are well-justified, documented, and exceed minimum safety margins, particularly regarding egress and fire growth modeling. All systems, suppression, detection, compartmentation, and structural resistance work in tandem to mitigate risk and ensure occupant safety
Modeling Battery Energy Storage Systems to Study the Effects of Battery Chemistry and Operation on Power Quality
No full textThis thesis studies the impacts of battery chemistry (specifically lithium-iron phosphate, sodium-ion, and solid-state), AC voltage, battery size, charging mode, state of charge (SOC), active power draw, and power factor on the power quality of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). For harmonic evaluation, the metrics provided by the IEEE Standard 519 are used as a guideline to quantify voltage and current harmonics. A comprehensive MATLAB Simulink using Simscape Electrical is used to develop and simulate the models for the battery, DC-DC converter, AC-DC converter, and the grid. A total of 57 simulation cases varying the BESS factors are performed, and the results show that battery chemistry, SOC, AC voltage level, charging mode, size, active power draw, and power factor have a noticeable effect on power quality. Key findings include sodium-ion chemistry, in particular, showing higher harmonics, especially at higher powers, due to its steep open-circuit voltage and large transient time constants. While charging, the constant voltage charging mode has higher harmonics due to lower fundamental current. Low AC voltages (e.g., 240 V) lead to higher distortion due to low modulation indices. Increasing battery size reduces internal impedance, thus reducing harmonics. Higher active power draw reduces relative harmonics for lithium iron phosphate and solid state. Lower power factors modestly reduce harmonics via reactive power contribution. Overall, the results identify key factors affecting power quality in the operation of BESS
Enhancing Preparedness: A Genetic Study of Sar-CoV-2 and Other Microbial Public Health Threats in Wastewater From a College Town
No full textProblem
The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic revealed both the systemic vulnerabilities of our healthcare system as well as the importance of timely, localized data for informing public health responses. Traditional testing approaches were essential but often failed to capture the full extent of viral spread, especially in those with mild or asymptomatic conditions that relied on at home testing. This underreporting hindered effective allocation of resources and made developing effective intervention strategies difficult. We also realized the potential for wastewater surveillance to be applied to tracking antimicrobial resistance gene markers. Taken together, this approach should have important implications for improving public health.
Methods
Wastewater-based epidemiology has emerged as a promising tool to monitor community infection trends without relying on individual testing compliance. This study explored the use of wastewater surveillance to retrospectively track the prevalence and genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 in San Luis Obispo, a region characterized by its dynamic college-town population. By analyzing nucleic acids in wastewater through qRT-PCR and next generation sequencing, this research was looking to show that these methods can accurately monitor public health threats that are circulating in college towns.
Results
The quantification of wastewater in this study revealed six major spikes of SARS-CoV-2 RNA that corresponded closely with the coming and going of students on breaks, as well as the emergence of the Omicron variant surge. Three samples were sequenced and, although there was high quality data, no COVID-19 sequence data was detected. This suggests that there are limitations of the RPIP kit in capturing viral RNA from wastewater under certain conditions. However, genetic markers of many pathogenic bacteria that pose serious threats to public health were successfully sequenced. In addition, genetic markers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that help these pathogens withstand our most relied upon medications were also successfully identified in the sequencing data.
Conclusion
This study confirmed the value of wastewater surveillance for tracking outbreak patterns and AMR gene prevalence in dynamic, high risk-communities. Overall, quantification effectively reflected outbreak trends and sequencing highlighted microbial diversity and persistent antibiotic resistance. These findings support the integration of wastewater surveillance into public health infrastructure and stress the need for optimized molecular tools to enhance detection of public health threats in environmental samples
Riding for the Brand: Advancing Leadership Development in the Poly Royal Rodeo Program
No full textWhile the Poly Royal Leadership Class provides a valuable platform for student involvement in large scale event planning, the structure lacked consistency in leadership development methods, project management tools, and hands-on training simulations, resulting in uneven engagement, limited collaboration efficiency, and varied preparedness levels among student leaders and committee members
Sparse-Data Orbit Estimation in Low Earth Orbit Using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo Ensemble Gaussian Mixture Filter
No full textThe number of space objects (SOs) in low Earth orbit (LEO) continues to increase rapidly, creating challenges for the current ground-based tracking network, which cannot accommodate the projected growth in SOs. Catalog maintenance relies on frequent observations for reliable reacquisition, with Two-Line Element (TLE) sets typically generated daily to mitigate rapid error growth from poor TLE accuracy. This constraint limits the ability to track more objects with existing infrastructure. This work evaluates the Markov Chain Monte Carlo Ensemble Gaussian Mixture Filter (MCMC EnGMF), a nonlinear, non-Gaussian filter well-suited for sparse tracking scenarios where higher post-update accuracy is needed to reduce propagation error and enable longer gaps between observation arcs. The focus is on extending this gap to three days, enabling the current sensor network to track a greater number of SOs. Using precise ephemeris data from the Swarm constellation, the filter’s performance is assessed under sparse, angles-only measurement tracks. The MCMC EnGMF consistently achieves post-update position errors below 100 m, keeps pre-update angular errors within a 2 degree field of view, and remains robust to degraded initial conditions. With measurement noise of 4.41 arc-seconds, position errors drop below 7 m after three-day propagation, and further improvements are seen with longer arcs, additional tracks, and radar-based measurements. Additional test cases across varying orbital elements confirm the filter’s effectiveness for sparse, angles-only orbit estimation. These results demonstrate that the MCMC EnGMF enables accurate, sustained orbit estimation with significantly fewer observations, providing a viable approach to expanding tracking capacity in a congested LEO environment
Viewing AI from the bottom: A feminist political economic critique of a technocentric pedagogy
No full textA feminist political economic (FPE) perspective has a more profound concern than cheating: it argues that AI is not a neutral tool. AI constitutes social relations that prevent certain populations from fully participating in political, economic, and civic lives while obscuring unbalanced power relations produced and reproduced in a capitalistic society. This commentary first points out how AI may reinforce gender- and race-biased job stratification in the high-tech industry; and how AI disempowers women of color by locking them in a passive position. It offers some advice of what feminist educators could do to empower students