Digital Commons Network^™

Characterization Of Protein Residue Surface Accessibility Using Sequence Homology, Radhika Pallavi Mishra

Master's Theses

Residues present on the surface of the proteins are involved in a number of functions, especially in ligand-protein interactions, that are important for drug design. The residues present in the core of the protein provide stability to the protein and help in maintaining protein structure. Hence, there is a need for a binary characterization of protein residues based on their surface accessibility (surface accessible or buried). Such a classification can aid in the directed study of either residue type.

A number of methods for the prediction of surface accessible protein residues have been proposed in the past. However, most of …

Elliptic Curves And Cryptography, Senorina Ramos Vazquez

Master's Theses

In this expository thesis we study elliptic curves and their role in cryptography. In doing so we examine an intersection of linear algebra, abstract algebra, number theory, and algebraic geometry, all of which combined provide the necessary background. First we present background information on rings, fields, groups, group actions, and linear algebra. Then we delve into the structure and classification of finite fields as well as construction of finite fields and computation in finite fields. We next explore logarithms in finite fields and introduce the Diffie-Hellman key exchange system. Subsequently, we take a look at the projective and affine planes …

Charge Injection And Clock Feedthrough, Jonathan Yu

Master's Theses

Turning off a transistor introduces an error voltage in switched-capacitor circuits. Circuits such as analog-to-digital converters (ADC), digital-to-analog converters (DAC), and CMOS image sensor pixels are limited in performance due to the effects known as charge injection and clock feedthrough. Charge injection occurs in a switched-capacitor circuit when the transistor turns off and disperses channel charge into the source and drain. The source, which is the sampling capacitor, experiences an error in the sampled voltage due to the incoming channel charge. Simultaneously, the coupling due to gate-source overlap capacitance also contributes to the total error voltage, which is known as …

Undo: A System For Neutralizing Nuisance Attacks, Eilbroun Waltin Benjamin

Master's Theses

In recent years, our society has seen a shift towards a reliance on digital means of data storage. This paper considers the problem of digital data integrity protection, which is defined as preventing unauthorized writing of data. Numerous examples of successful attacks against seemingly secure targets are examined to support the assertion of the author that, at least in some circumstances, the integrity of digital data is difficult to preserve.

An approach to securing data is proposed in which a security administrator first assumes that a system will be compromised. This approach limits its focus to a nuisance-type attack, which …

Learning Statistics Using Concept Maps: Effects On Anxiety And Performance, Patrick Francis Cravalho

Master's Theses

The aim of this thesis was to study the use of concept mapping in an

undergraduate statistics course in order to examine the effects on statistics anxiety and

academic performance by means of a two-group quasi-experimental design. Two

undergraduate statistics classes were recruited for this study with one serving as the

treatment (concept map) group and one serving as the control (standard instruction)

group. It was hypothesized that the use of concept mapping would decrease the statistics

anxiety and improve the academic performance of students in the concept map group

when compared with the control group. The statistics anxiety of …

The San Jose Joint Library: The Development Of A Joint City/University Library, Joel Eanes

Master's Theses

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Library is the largest library building west of the Mississippi River, and uses a rare joint library structure, merging the main San Jose Public Library and the library of San Jose State University. Both the decision to construct a new library, and the decision to merge two institutions, caused enormous controversy during the development and construction of the building from 1997 to 2003.

This thesis examines the nature of joint libraries, and why the city of San Jose and San Jose State University decided to pursue the joint library option. An unusual combination of …

Health Information Version 2.0: Female Students In Cyberspace, Sonia Easaw

Master's Theses

The arrival of the Internet, one of the greatest mass media vehicles of our time, has presented a wide platform for the dissemination of health information to the American public. A majority of adults in the United States search online for information about various health and medical topics, yet a particular portion of the general public, namely college students, searches for health information online at a higher rate than the general population. Female college students especially have cause to seek information about particular women's health matters that are relevant to their age group.

This study reveals new details about the …

Phenomenological Examination Of Depression In Female Collegiate Athletes, Alyson Jones

Master's Theses

Collegiate athletes may be at an increased risk of depression due to the pressure and stress they face. This risk is of great concern because their health, safety, and sport performance may all be affected. In addition, collegiate athletes are more likely to turn to maladaptive coping behaviors and less likely to seek help for mental health struggles than other populations. It has been suggested that a greater understanding of personal experiences would be helpful in increasing awareness and improving treatment. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore the lived experience of depression in female collegiate athletes. …

Deception: Analysis Of The Lying Cues Observed By Men, Women, The Self, And Others, Alysha Khavarian Kadva

Master's Theses

Lying cues observed by men and women were investigated by a combination of a 2x2 mixed subjects design and a correlational design. Fifty-nine male and 68 female fluent English-speaking college students older than 18 years of age were tasked with completing a 64-item questionnaire and observing two video clips. The participants completed the questionnaire for a self-assessment of the perception of their own lying cues, observed the video clips, and then completed the questionnaire for an assessment of the lying cues observed in the videos. Independent sample t-test results indicated that, for self-assessment of lying cues, there was a statistically …

Does Nighttime Television Influence Attitudes Toward Drinking?, Mike Mchone

Master's Theses

Alcoholism is a problem in the United States. Television portrays individuals drinking alcohol. Is television influencing attitudes toward drinking? An experiment was performed with students from San Josè State University in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications to discover if television would indeed influence them to drink.

Two groups, both Mass Communication classes, participated in an initial survey, and then the test group class viewed a dramatized program in which the main character was depicted drinking glamorously. Both classes then took the same survey again. Results were analyzed via a t-test. Although there was a change in attitude regarding …

Interspecific Variation In Morphology And Swimming Performance Within Surfperches (Embiotocidae) From California, Benjamin Michael Perlman

Master's Theses

Surfperches are marine fishes that occupy nearshore habitats along the California coast. Morphology was analyzed to determine if there were differences among 19 preserved species. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality of the data. Morphological differences occurred among the 19 species. ANOVA revealed a habitat effect on PC2, which described the angle of attachment of the pectoral fin. Pearson correlation revealed that genetic relatedness decreased with increasing morphological differences on PC1, which described aspect ratio and body ratio. Based on PC2, four species were selected to conduct experiments on their swimming performance. U_crit and fin …

The Russian Émigré In America: Translating And Transcending Exile In Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin And Pale Fire, Yelena N. Severina

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates how Vladimir Nabokov's experience as an exiled writer in America serves as a model for the protagonists of Pnin(1957) and Pale Fire(1962), two of Nabokov's English-language novels in which exile is a central theme. Although the protagonists, Pnin and Kinbote, are both true exiles, they illustrate markedly different responses to their dislocations; read in tandem, the novels constitute Nabokov's analysis of exile, his lament over its painfulness, and his transcendence of exile through art. Chapter One looks at Nabokov through the lens of exile while establishing fundamental theoretical concepts and terminology. Chapters Two and Three …

Stress And Coping Due To Global Virtual Teamwork, Irina Alexandra Shargo

Master's Theses

Global virtual teams (GVTs), project teams composed of individuals working across time and space via electronic platforms, are becoming increasingly commonplace in most organizations today and in global organizations specifically. The aim of this study was to explore issues employees experienced when working virtually in GVTs in order to develop recommendations for addressing those issues and encouraging solutions to benefit the employees, teams, and organizations as a whole. This paper presents findings from 27 interviews on coping and strain reactions to participation in intercultural computer-mediated communication (CMC). Analyses of the qualitative data suggest that intercultural training were helpful in reducing …

Host-Parasite Ecology And Description Of The Louse Fly, Allobosca Crassipes, From Madagascar, Stanley Edmondson Vaughn

Master's Theses

The louse fly, Allobosca crassipes (Diptera: Hippoboscidae), is an obligate ectoparasite exclusive to lemurs in Madagascar. Research in Ranomafana National Park (RNP) in southeastern Madagascar has resulted in the identification of a new association of this fly with the black and white ruffed lemur, Varecia variegata variegata, and a confirmed association with Milne-Edwards' sifaka, Propithecus edwardsi. Previous descriptions of A. crassipes were based on only a few specimens, and the type specimen is presumed destroyed. The specimens of A. crassipes collected by SJSU in 2000-2001 provide the largest collection available for the purpose of describing this species.

Habitat …

The Effects Of Bordetella Pertussis On Dendritic Cell Imprinting Of Cd4+ T Cells, Sana Waheed

Master's Theses

Bordetella pertussis is an aerobic gram-negative bacterial pathogen that causes the human respiratory disease whooping cough. Despite widespread vaccination, whooping cough is reemerging due to decreased vaccine efficacy. One of the hallmarks of infection is lymphocytosis, which is induced by the pertussis toxin. Lymphocytes such as CD4+ T cells navigate to infected tissues through surface-trafficking molecules, which are imprinted during their interaction with tissue-associated dendritic cells. We hypothesized that the pertussis toxin affects the imprinting process resulting in altered expression of trafficking molecules on CD4+ T cells. We tested this hypothesis using a mouse model of infection. Imprinting levels on …

Teaching Artists In The High School: A Creative Approach To Student Self-Esteem, Jennifer Nye Walsh

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the effect of teaching artists' (TAs) classroom instruction in the arts on student self-esteem at Downtown College Preparatory (DCP) High School, an at-risk high school in San Jose, California, over the course of two semesters. The data collected and used to analyze these effects were student observations, student art work, student journal entries, student surveys, and data provided by a third party consulting company. The purpose of this study was to determine if having teaching artists working in an at-risk high school classroom environment could positively affect their students' self-esteem through their arts programming. The results showed …

Learning Financial Literacy In The Family, Maria Paula Calamato

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between parental involvement and student level of financial literacy. Past studies have established that children's financial behavior and attitudes are shaped by their parents who pass on norms and social values to them. Using a convenience sample of 108 undergraduate students at a local state university, the present research tested whether children who had higher levels of financial literacy had parents who had taught them financial knowledge. The results of the test show that students' level of financial literacy is not significantly related to parental involvement.

The Art Of Camille Rose Garcia: An Existential Fairy Tale, Jennifer De La Cruz

Master's Theses

Camille Rose Garcia is part of a contemporary underground art movement known as Pop Surrealism. An apparent dream-like and unexpected nature borrows from the oeuvre of Surrealism, while an allusion to the familiar and popular denotes similarities to the comic culture of the 1930s and Pop Art of the 1960s. Garcia's paintings are laced with the personal remnants of childhood memories that recall frequent trips to Disneyland and visits to her grandparent's cabin tucked away in the redwood forests of Northern California. Her artwork, a haunting recipe of sweet and sour, beautiful and grotesque, ominous and nostalgic, travels through Los …

Marketing Latin Alternative Music Through Social Networking Sites, Vanessa Ursala Garcia

Master's Theses

This thesis examined the marketing strategies for Latin alternative music used on MySpace, Facebook, and Al Borde (On the Edge). This study found that the understanding of the target demographic was important for implementing successful marketing strategies to niche audiences. Marketing Latin alternative music has not been successful at a mainstream level; therefore, marketers have targeted niche communities on social networking sites. The most dominant strategy used involved the status update feature on Facebook. It allowed musicians and marketers to communicate information and media to a large network of individuals across the country. Three other major strategies included event invitations, …

In Search Of The Creative Scientific Personality, Maya Grosul

Master's Theses

This study investigates whether personality is a valid predictor of creativity in science above and beyond demographic characteristics, such as career age, gender, and scientific discipline. Creativity is an act of making something new, original, and useful. Creative achievement in science is the personal ability to generate original, useful, and adaptive scientific theories, research methods, or empirical findings. Personality characteristics can operate as valid predictors of creative achievement in science. This study surveyed 145 scientists throughout the United States. Total creativity index was computed by standardizing and summing the total number of publications, total number of citations, h-index, and Soler's …

Reproductive Den Habitat Characterization Of American Badgers (Taxidea Taxus) In Central California, Katrina Louise Huck

Master's Theses

The American badger (Taxidea taxus) is a species of special concern in California, and, as such, conservation measures are necessary. The goal of this study was to identify potential reproductive den habitat characteristics in order to more accurately predict critical reproductive habitat in central California grasslands. A paired study design was used to examine differences between reproductive and non-reproductive sites, and logistical regression was used to analyze the variables and produce two predictive models, one with biotic factors and one with abiotic factors. Badgers in central Californian grasslands appear to rely on both biotic and abiotic factors when …