Digital Commons Network^™

Construction Of Bacterial Strains Containing A Plasmid Producing An Opossum-Based Anti-Venom Peptide For Low Cost Production Of The Peptide, Angela Cifelli

Master's Theses

A cost-effective therapy for snake bites and other biological toxins could save thousands of lives each year. A low-cost therapy can be achieved using a bacterial host that expresses a peptide that prevents death when administered after exposure to these toxins. A protein expressed in opossums, lethal toxin neutralizing factor (LTNF), provides the animal’s resistance to venom and a variety of other toxins. A small peptide fragment of this protein provides the same lifesaving properties as the full protein sequence. A synthetic copy of this peptide was tested in mice exposed to rattlesnake venom and showed lifesaving potential. The peptide …

Isolated Incidents: A Short Story Collection, Justin Bryant

Master's Theses

In my collection titled Isolated Incidents: A Short Story Collection, I explore the themes of isolation and loneliness while using dark humor and a satirical voice as an undercurrent to move the narratives. Isolation and loneliness intrigue me, because they are triggered and motivated by contradictory emotions inside of us. Fear, love, hate, and even nonchalant attitude and happiness can all mix to make us feel isolated even when we are not alone. People can be isolated when surrounded by others at a dinner table, or in a crowed bar, or even a small office filled with co-workers. Loneliness is …

Crafting Autonomy: A Reevaluation Of The Pedestal In The Sculpture Of Arlene Shechet, Nicole Cherubini, And Francesca Dimattio, Sara Morris Morris

Master's Theses

New York-based contemporary artists Arlene Shechet, Nicole Cherubini, and Francesca DiMattio have each developed a sculptural style that integrates the pedestal within their sculptures. Primarily made from clay, unconventional craft materials, and commonplace objects, these sculptures formally and conceptually blur the lines between craft and fine art, décor and sculpture, as well as private and institutional space. With a renewed interest in craft and feminism, these artists test the material hierarchies that have historically determined the categorization of art inside institutional spaces. This study investigates how these sculptures gain autonomy when exhibited inside museums in light of contemporary theories on …

Taxonomic Revision Of The Short Nose Chimaeras (Genus Hydrolagus) From The Southern African Region, Kristin Walovich

Master's Theses

Short-nose chimaeras are an enigmatic and understudied group of deep-sea Chondrichthyan fishes. To resolve decades of confusion and misidentification in the southern African region, morphometric and genetic data were utilized to resolve taxonomic confusion for the genus Hydrolagus. Nearly 100 chimaeroid specimens were examined from numerous national and international museum ichthyology collections. A series of 96 measurements per specimen were recorded and analyzed with multivariate statistics to determine differences among species. Tissue was collected from various southern African species for analysis of the mitochondrial gene NADH2. The resulting genetic information was compared to morphologically similar species and those within the …

Illegal Dumping As An Indicator For Community Social Disorganization And Crime, Amory Anne Brandt

Master's Theses

Illegal dumping of household waste in and around city streets results in many negative health, economic, and environmental effects. This goal of this study was to understand the systemic causes of illegal dumping within San José, California. Illegal dump sites were identified, quantified, characterized, and mapped within urban census block groups at a range of median family income levels. Results showed that commonly dumped debris types were furniture, and garbage. The most illegal dumping occurred within census block groups with low median family incomes, high percentages of non-English speaking individuals, and high percentages of renters. Factors such as social disorganization, …

Evolutionary Dynamics Of Tree Invasions: Complementing The Unified Framework For Biological Invasions, Rafael D. Zenni, Ian A. Dickie, Michael J. Wingfield, Heidi Hirsch, Casparus J. Crous, Laura A. Meyerson, Treena I. Burgess, Thalita G. Zimmermann, Metha M. Klock, Evan Siemann, Alexandra Erfmeier, Roxana Aragon, Lia Montti, Johannes J. Le Roux

Faculty Publications, Environmental Studies

Evolutionary processes greatly impact the outcomes of biological invasions. An extensive body of research suggests that invasive populations often undergo phenotypic and ecological divergence from their native sources. Evolution also operates at different and distinct stages during the invasion process. Thus, it is important to incorporate evolutionary change into frameworks of biological invasions because it allows us to conceptualize how these processes may facilitate or hinder invasion success. Here, we review such processes, with an emphasis on tree invasions, and place them in the context of the unified framework for biological invasions. The processes and mechanisms described are pre-introduction evolutionary …

Estuarine Habitat Use By The California Sea Otter (Enhydra Lutris Nereis), Jacqueline Kimberly Lindsey

Master's Theses

As the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) range expands into northern and southern California, it will encounter estuaries that have been historically occupied by sea otters. Understanding how otters use re-colonized estuarine environments will inform how estuaries might be managed to encourage future sea otter range expansion. This project addressed the question: how do southern sea otters use space in the unique estuarine habitats of Elkhorn Slough? I compared the locations and behaviors of 25 individual sea otters of different status (male, female, and female with pup) among eelgrass, saltmud, saltmarsh, tidal creek, and main channel habitats in Elkhorn …

Sex-Specific Diet And Rockfish Consumption In California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus): Insights From Molecular Scatology, Keith Michael Hernandez

Master's Theses

Molecular diet analysis has the potential to overcome the limitations of traditional methods. I used prey hard parts and molecular methods to examine sex-specific diet trends and rockfish consumption of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus, CSL). Fresh scat samples (n=219) were collected from Año Nuevo Island, CA (ANI), during the summers of 2013 and 2014. Prey taxa were identified from fish otoliths and cephalopod beaks recovered from cleaned scats. Sex of the CSL depositing the scat was assigned via multiplex PCR of a CSL microsatellite and a carnivore Y chromosome marker. Prey species also were identified using multiple loci in …

Variation In Organismic Rna And Dna Content: Analysis And Application To The Assessment Of Living Planktonic Biomass, Elizabeth Lam Gagneron

Master's Theses

Modern analysis of DNA and RNA nucleic acid sequences has yielded profound changes in our understanding of the genetic biodiversity of planktonic organisms within the microbial food web of aquatic ecosystems. However, the bulk environmental concentrations of DNA and RNA, and their relative ratios, also potentially provide important information on the biomass and metabolic activity of planktonic organisms. Currently, there is a need to quantify the relative living biomass levels of natural water contained in ships’ ballast tanks to regulate the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) resulting from ballast water discharge practices within the international shipping industry. Ultraviolet (UV) …

Cryptanalysis Of Homophonic Substitution Cipher Using Hidden Markov Models, Guannan Zhong

Master's Projects

We investigate the effectiveness of a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with random restarts as a mean of breaking a homophonic substitution cipher. Based on extensive experiments, we find that such an HMM-based attack outperforms a previously de- veloped nested hill climb approach, particularly when the ciphertext message is short. We then consider a combination cipher, consisting of a homophonic substitution and a column transposition. We develop and analyze an attack on such a cipher. This attack employs an HMM (with random restarts), together with a hill climb to recover the column permutation. We show that this attack can succeed on …

Stress Physiology And Weapon Integrity Of Intertidal Mantis Shrimp Under Future Ocean Conditions, Maya Devries, Summer Webb, Jenny Tu, Esther Cory, Victoria Morgan, Robert Sah, Dimitri Deheyn, Jennifer Taylor

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Calcified marine organisms typically experience increased oxidative stress and changes in mineralization in response to ocean acidification and warming conditions. These effects could hinder the potency of animal weapons, such as the mantis shrimp’s raptorial appendage. The mechanical properties of this calcified weapon enable extremely powerful punches to be delivered to prey and aggressors. We examined oxidative stress and exoskeleton structure, mineral content, and mechanical properties of the raptorial appendage and the carapace under long-term ocean acidification and warming conditions. The predatory appendage had significantly higher % Mg under ocean acidification conditions, while oxidative stress levels as well as the …

Spartan Daily, November 30, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 37

Reflections On Censorship, Brian Martin

Secrecy and Society

No abstract provided.

Spartan Daily, November 17, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 34

Spartan Daily, November 16, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 33

Spartan Daily, November 10, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 31

Spartan Daily, November 8, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 29

Sjsu Erfa Board Minutes, November 4, 2016, San Jose State University, Emeritus And Retired Faculty Association

SJSU ERFA Minutes

SJSU ERFA Executive Board Minutes November 4, 2016

The Effect Of Stress On Professional Librarians Job Performance In Nigerian University Libraries, Toyin Dina

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract:

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of stress on professional librarian’s job performance in University of Lagos, Akoka and Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos.

The descriptive survey design was employed in this study. The sample size of this research study comprised of fifty (50), Lagos State University, Ojo and University of Lagos, Akoka both in Lagos, Simple random sampling technical was adopted. A well-structured questionnaire with up to fifteen items based on 5 – point likert scale.

The findings showed that Professional librarian’s quality in terms of job performance in relation to their job demand and …

Spartan Daily, November 2, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 27

Spartan Daily, October 27, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 25

Spartan Daily, October 26, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 24

Slis Student Research Journal, Vol.3, Iss.2

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Slis Student Research Journal, Vol.3, Iss.1

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Spartan Daily, October 20, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 22

Spartan Daily, October 18, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 20

System Branding In Three Public Libraries: Live Oak Public Libraries, Charlotte Mecklenberg Library, And Richland Library, Patrick Roughen

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This research examines the development of the system brands of three public libraries: Live Oak Public Libraries, Richland Library, and Charlotte Mecklenberg Library. A system brand may be defined as the overall brand of a library system, as opposed to any of its sub-brands, such as those associated with individual library services, branches, departments, and events. Using a descriptive, case study approach, this research characterizes the efforts behind branding in these library systems.

Spartan Daily, October 6, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 16

Spartan Daily, October 5, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 15

Spartan Daily, October 4, 2016, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2016

Volume 147, Issue 14