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Cultivating Belonging: Empowering Hispanic Parents In The U.S. Education System, Kalpana Galagali Jul 2025

Cultivating Belonging: Empowering Hispanic Parents In The U.S. Education System, Kalpana Galagali

Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the experiences of Hispanic families at Bay Area Middle School and the strategies I employed to create a sense of belonging and support for both students and their families. Key strategies included fostering effective communication through Spanish interpreters, celebrating cultural traditions, and organizing inclusive events like the annual cultural fair. Parents expressed gratitude for the personal attention their children received and noted how these initiatives positively impacted their sense of belonging. The findings highlight that cultural integration and community-building efforts significantly enhanced family engagement, transforming perceptions of the school environment from feelings of disconnection to appreciation …

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Healing Circulos(Circles): Putting Our Educator's Mask First, Janet Martinez-Angeles Jul 2025

Healing Circulos(Circles): Putting Our Educator's Mask First, Janet Martinez-Angeles

Dissertations

Educators play a pivotal role in supporting students throughout their educational journeys. In addition to academic instruction, they provide vital guidance for students' social, emotional, and personal development. They work tirelessly to help students navigate the complexities of education and life, often while shouldering multiple responsibilities and roles beyond the classroom. This dynamic contributes to high attrition rates and weakens the educational system. Much like the familiar safety instructions on an airplane, where passengers are reminded to put on their oxygen masks before assisting others, educators must be given the space, resources, and support to tend to their well-being before …

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Engagement Of Secondary History Social Science Teachers With Professional Development: A Phenomenological Study, Suzanne Paulazzo Jul 2025

Engagement Of Secondary History Social Science Teachers With Professional Development: A Phenomenological Study, Suzanne Paulazzo

Dissertations

Secondary social science teachers tend to feel disengaged and frustrated with their professional development (PD) experiences. They also feel that recommended meaningful practices appear to be time-consuming, require extra hours of preparation, and rely heavily on collaboration. Using phenomenological methodology, the dissertation research investigated secondary social science teachers' perceptions of their roles as educators, their professional growth, and their motivations for engaging in professional development opportunities. Nine male and one female teacher participants from a History-Social-Science Department in an urban public school in Northern California participated in an interview. This study addressed the following research questions: How do teachers perceive …

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Teacher Workplace Bullying: Victim And Bystander Perspectives, Abigail R. Smurr Jul 2025

Teacher Workplace Bullying: Victim And Bystander Perspectives, Abigail R. Smurr

Dissertations

Workplace bullying is a phenomenon that is addressed within a broad context. This study focuses on teacher experiences of bullying. The focus will examine the impacts horizontal and vertical bullying can have on teacher victims and bystanders within K-12th within California. The purpose of this study is to give administrators awareness of these issues from the victim and bystanders’ lens. The study implemented a mixed methods design to give insight to teacher perceptions on the impacts it can have on their teacher efficacy, teacher retention, and their emotional well-being. By looking at how often PK-12th grade teachers experience workplace bullying, …

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Exploring Program Participant And Staff Perspectives On Correctional Education Programs, My Ngoc Nguyen Jul 2025

Exploring Program Participant And Staff Perspectives On Correctional Education Programs, My Ngoc Nguyen

Dissertations

In this paper, I explored program participant and staff perspectives on correctional education programs. Prior research measured success of correctional education through recidivism, post-employment opportunities, and post-secondary education. However, few research examined the perspectives of staff, program participants, and alumni of such programs to understand factors that aid in important educational experiences within correctional education programs. In this study, I utilized a mixed-methods approach, where I collected close-ended and open-ended survey responses from 10 staff and 5 program participants on their ratings of program principles and characteristics as well as optional follow-up interviews to elaborate on their survey responses. The …

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Resilience In Crisis: How Bipoc Educators Navigated The Challenges Associated With Covid-19, Racial Awakening, And The Move To Online Learning, Jannet Galicia Castrejon Jul 2025

Resilience In Crisis: How Bipoc Educators Navigated The Challenges Associated With Covid-19, Racial Awakening, And The Move To Online Learning, Jannet Galicia Castrejon

Dissertations

An unprecedented number of BIPOC teachers exited the profession since June 2020 largely due to the challenges posted by the COVID-19 pandemic (Doan et al., 2024). This study aimed to investigate ways these educators coped with the heavy toll of the converging pandemic(s) by asking what, if anything, sustained them? Participants provided individual and group testimonios and shared snapshots of what it was like to teach and exist during this time via the photovoice methodology and reflected on the challenges and sources of support. BIPOC teachers described the following challenges: difficulty connecting with kids, first-hand and vicarious trauma, increased workload, …

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An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Black Female Swimmers' Experiences Of Belonging, Felicity E. Passon Jul 2025

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Black Female Swimmers' Experiences Of Belonging, Felicity E. Passon

Master's Theses

Although swimming participation has grown in the United States, the experiences of Black female swimmers remain significantly underrepresented in academic literature. This study addresses that gap by exploring the lived experiences of Black women participating in Division 1 (D1) college swimming. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Black feminist thought, the research explored how Black female D1 swimmers experienced belonging in this underrepresented sport. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine D1 Black female swimmers, and six major themes illustrate the varied factors that shaped their experiences of belonging. Even with racially gendered barriers to inclusion, they identified strategies to foster …

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Investigating The Complexity Of Language Acquisition For Linguistically Diverse Children, Krittin Srisajjakul Jul 2025

Investigating The Complexity Of Language Acquisition For Linguistically Diverse Children, Krittin Srisajjakul

Master's Theses

Understanding the natural productions of children's early expressive language development is important to support their development. These natural productions may also be especially complex in children with diverse linguistic backgrounds. A challenge for clinicians is how to assess these natural productions for children’s early expressive language milestones. For example, what does it mean for children to say the same word in two languages and refer to the same concept (e.g., “water” and “agua”)? Or refer to two different concepts, (e.g., “water” and “leche” (milk))? By understanding how children’s expressive language connects to conceptual understanding, clinicians can better support language learning. …

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Sirilla: Predicting Traffic Flow Via Stacked Decentralized Federated Learning, Andrew Selvia Jul 2025

Sirilla: Predicting Traffic Flow Via Stacked Decentralized Federated Learning, Andrew Selvia

Master's Theses

Billions of people today rely on traffic predictions to optimize their travels. Digital mapping services deliver accurate predictions by learning from vast troves of historical data. Impressive as these systems are, their assumptions do not always apply. They depend on an endless flow of sensitive user data to a central authority, a stable Internet connection, and trustworthiness on both sides of the traditional client-server model. This thesis explores a novel architecture which bucks those assumptions. In the proposed model, traffic data remains on edge devices which individually train models via federated learning. Beyond the obvious privacy benefits, this architecture enables …

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Lessons From The 2023 Ieee Autonomous Drone Chase Challenge, Luigi Raphael I. Dy, Kristoffer B. Borgen, John H. Mott, Yung Hsiang Lu, Li Yu Lin, Zhangpeng Yang, James M. Goppert, Jakub Tomczak, Stefano Roccella, Andrea Vannini, Zhiwei Dong Jul 2025

Lessons From The 2023 Ieee Autonomous Drone Chase Challenge, Luigi Raphael I. Dy, Kristoffer B. Borgen, John H. Mott, Yung Hsiang Lu, Li Yu Lin, Zhangpeng Yang, James M. Goppert, Jakub Tomczak, Stefano Roccella, Andrea Vannini, Zhiwei Dong

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

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Advancing The Upper Class E Traffic Management (Etm) Concept: Results Of Nasa’S First Etm Collaborative Evaluation With Industry Partners, Deborah L. Bakowski, Connie L. Brasil, Kevin Christian Garzon Galindo, Abhinay Tiwari, Paul U. Lee, Conrad Dang-Gabriel, Jeffrey Homola, Mark Evans Jul 2025

Advancing The Upper Class E Traffic Management (Etm) Concept: Results Of Nasa’S First Etm Collaborative Evaluation With Industry Partners, Deborah L. Bakowski, Connie L. Brasil, Kevin Christian Garzon Galindo, Abhinay Tiwari, Paul U. Lee, Conrad Dang-Gabriel, Jeffrey Homola, Mark Evans

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Innovative aircraft design and emerging technologies are enabling new types of uncrewed, high-altitude long endurance (HALE) vehicles, including fixed-wing HALE vehicles and stratospheric balloons to operate above 60,000 feet. However, due to a variety of factors including the diverse performance characteristics and extended mission duration of these new vehicles, the Air Traffic Management system faces challenges in meeting the needs of this high-altitude environment. To address these challenges, the Higher Airspace (HA)/Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) concept proposes using a scalable, cooperative approach tailored for high-altitude operations. To evaluate the feasibility of the HA/ETM concept, NASA Ames Research Center …

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Navigating Multiple Virtual Teams: How Variety In Communication Rules Affects Knowledge Sharing, Valerio Incerti, Kelly J. Fadel, Elisa Mattarelli, Fabiola Bertolotti, Francesca Bellesia, Paula Ungureanu, Katherine M. Chudoba Jul 2025

Navigating Multiple Virtual Teams: How Variety In Communication Rules Affects Knowledge Sharing, Valerio Incerti, Kelly J. Fadel, Elisa Mattarelli, Fabiola Bertolotti, Francesca Bellesia, Paula Ungureanu, Katherine M. Chudoba

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In contemporary workplaces, individuals are often members of more than one virtual team at a time, that is, they experience multiple virtual team membership (MVTM), and they are subjected to context variety due to different rules across their teams. The aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between context variety related to communication rules and knowledge sharing in situations of MVTM. We propose that context variety and switching between teams negatively affect the individual capability to acquire and provide knowledge resources in a team, due in part to an increased perception of role overload. Through an experimental study, …

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Sjsu Erfa News, Summer 2025, San Jose State University, Emeritus And Retired Faculty Association Jul 2025

Sjsu Erfa News, Summer 2025, San Jose State University, Emeritus And Retired Faculty Association

Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association (ERFA) Newsletter

Volume 38, No 4

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A Simple Model Of Spiral Galaxies From Geometric Optics, Bogdan Szafraniec, James N. Blake Jul 2025

A Simple Model Of Spiral Galaxies From Geometric Optics, Bogdan Szafraniec, James N. Blake

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

We propose a simple model of spiral galaxies based on the interference of gravitational waves. The interference is deduced from geometric optics analysis of the refractive index profiles that mimic the behavior of gravitational potentials −1/r and r2. We analyze the refractive index profiles, n(r)2 = a + b/r and n(r)2 = a + br2, because they are realistically shaped and yield closed form solutions. The two profiles yield similar physical results, showing that the physical interpretation is not dependent on the exact details of the profile. The first profile yields trajectories that can …

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Explainable Use Of Foundation Models For Job Hiring, Vishnu S. Pendyala, Neha Bais Thakur, Radhika Agarwal Jul 2025

Explainable Use Of Foundation Models For Job Hiring, Vishnu S. Pendyala, Neha Bais Thakur, Radhika Agarwal

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Automating candidate shortlisting is a non-trivial task that stands to benefit substantially from advances in artificial intelligence. We evaluate a suite of foundation models such as Llama 2, Llama 3, Mixtral, Gemma-2b, Gemma-7b, Phi-3 Small, Phi-3 Mini, Zephyr, and Mistral-7b for their ability to predict hiring outcomes in both zero-shot and few-shot settings. Using only features extracted from applicants’ submissions, these models, on average, achieved an AUC above 0.5 in zero-shot settings. Providing a few examples similar to the job applicants based on a nearest neighbor search improved the prediction rate marginally, indicating that the models perform competently even without …

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Co-Designed Resources To Improve Sleep Health In Young Shiftworkers: A Qualitative Study, Alexandra E. Shriane, Grace E. Vincent, Sally A. Ferguson, Charlotte C. Gupta, Tracy Kolbe-Alexander, Madeline Sprajcer, Cassie J. Hilditch, Robert Stanton, Matthew J.W. Thomas, Jessica L. Paterson, Jamie Marino, Gabrielle Rigney Jul 2025

Co-Designed Resources To Improve Sleep Health In Young Shiftworkers: A Qualitative Study, Alexandra E. Shriane, Grace E. Vincent, Sally A. Ferguson, Charlotte C. Gupta, Tracy Kolbe-Alexander, Madeline Sprajcer, Cassie J. Hilditch, Robert Stanton, Matthew J.W. Thomas, Jessica L. Paterson, Jamie Marino, Gabrielle Rigney

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Introduction: Shiftwork contributes to poor sleep and circadian disruption, leading to adverse health outcomes. With a high number of young adults (18–25 years) engaging in shiftwork, exposure to these health challenges can occur from early adulthood. Therefore, there is an urgent need for age- and career-stage-appropriate resources focused on sleep health to mitigate poor health outcomes as early as possible. Given the absence of such resources, this study aimed to develop tailored, evidence-based sleep health materials for young shiftworkers. Methods: A participatory approach was employed, with co-designers (n = 48) attending 1–2 online workshops to develop sleep health resources for …

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Telling The Library’S Story: A Step-By-Step Tutorial For Using Data Visualization To Show Impact On Teaching And Learning, David Vickers Loertscher, Michelle Young Jun 2025

Telling The Library’S Story: A Step-By-Step Tutorial For Using Data Visualization To Show Impact On Teaching And Learning, David Vickers Loertscher, Michelle Young

Learning Hub

This tutorial introduces school librarians to the use of data visualization tools for documenting and communicating their impact on teaching and learning. By leveraging accessible platforms like Google Forms and Google Sheets, the authors demonstrate how librarians can build dashboards and real-time visual reports to showcase co-teaching, instructional collaboration, and student engagement. The tutorial features real-world examples, highlights common data sources already available to librarians, and argues that dynamic visual storytelling is a powerful alternative to traditional library statistics.

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The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Ecojustice And Ethics, Vishnu S. Pendyala Jun 2025

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Ecojustice And Ethics, Vishnu S. Pendyala

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has attained human-level performance in tasks like text summarization, machine translation, and code generation while handling multimodal data. Despite these advances, AI poses challenges such as generating false or biased outputs, causing discrimination, and exhibiting opaque decision-making processes that hinder bias mitigation. Additionally, training large language models (LLMs) for AI consumes substantial energy and can enable autonomous warfare, posing a threat to eco-justice, and raising sustainability concerns. Their ability to create realistic content poses the risk of misuse and perpetuating misinformation. This article addresses these ethical issues and presents solutions through regulation and technology, with examples of …

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Orientation-Independent Bubble Trap With Internal Partition For Robust Operation Of Microfluidic Systems, Bhavagyna Vegunta, Charmaine Lui, Max Kim, Joshua Tran, Maya Papez, Anand K. Ramasubramanian, Sang Joon John Lee Jun 2025

Orientation-Independent Bubble Trap With Internal Partition For Robust Operation Of Microfluidic Systems, Bhavagyna Vegunta, Charmaine Lui, Max Kim, Joshua Tran, Maya Papez, Anand K. Ramasubramanian, Sang Joon John Lee

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

A new monolithic bubble trap has been developed with a unique, orientation-independent design. The bubble trap has a spherical cavity and a central partition with internal passages that eliminate air bubbles effectively for extended periods of time. Flow testing was performed in a closed-loop microfluidic system to demonstrate effectiveness and robustness of the bubble trap. Flow rate was continually monitored on a stationary benchtop and also in simulated microgravity conditions on a 3-D random positioning machine. Data collected from flow sensors placed fore and aft of the bubble trap confirmed that randomly occurring bubbles were effectively eliminated by the trap …

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Contributions Of California Teacher Librarians To Student Achievement, Keith Curry Lance, Caitlin Gerrity Jun 2025

Contributions Of California Teacher Librarians To Student Achievement, Keith Curry Lance, Caitlin Gerrity

Learning Hub

This article assesses the contributions of California Teacher Librarians (TLs) to student achievement, specifically in the area of English Language Arts and Literacy. This comparison-of-means analysis employed two major datasets: the California Department of Education (CDE) school library evaluation survey and California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) data, both for the 2022-23 school year. This study found that students who met or exceeded ELA standards were more likely to be in schools with: a full-time, certified TL rather than a part-time TL or no TL; a TL–full- or part-time–rather than no TL; a TL staffing a single library …

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Large Language Models For Quantitative Analysis Of Statutory Stringency And Its Correlation With Sexual Assault Crime Rates, Samhita Konduri, Vishnu S. Pendyala Jun 2025

Large Language Models For Quantitative Analysis Of Statutory Stringency And Its Correlation With Sexual Assault Crime Rates, Samhita Konduri, Vishnu S. Pendyala

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Sexual assault (SA) crimes are among the most important issues for our current society to solve, with these crimes in particular having long-term consequences on victims and their communities. To solve this issue, one approach is to make laws and penalties for these crimes stricter. However, there have not been any studies on the relationship between stricter penalties and lower crime rates, especially about SA crimes, in a quantitative manner. The biggest barrier to conducting a quantitative study on the strictness of laws and statutes is the lack of a standardized measure of how strict a legal text is. This …

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Unraveling The Enigma Of Classification Of Synthetic And Genuine Information Using Machine Learning And Explainable Ai, Vishnu S. Pendyala Jun 2025

Unraveling The Enigma Of Classification Of Synthetic And Genuine Information Using Machine Learning And Explainable Ai, Vishnu S. Pendyala

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

There is a preponderance of AI-generated text everywhere today. Literature shows that there has been considerable success in detecting such text. This paper uses explainable AI (XAI) techniques to get insights into the workings of the machine learning models used to classify synthetic text. In detecting such text, this work analyzes synthetic and genuine information from visualization and explainability perspectives. The text is converted into vector embeddings using Robustly Optimized BERT Pretraining Approach (RoBERTa). Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) are used for visualization and Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used for classification. Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME), SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), and …

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Addressing Urban Traffic Congestion: A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Approach, Tairan Liu Jun 2025

Addressing Urban Traffic Congestion: A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Approach, Tairan Liu

Mineta Transportation Institute

In an innovative venture, the research team embarked on a mission to redefine urban traffic flow by introducing an automated way to manage traffic light timings. This project integrates two critical technologies, Deep Q-Networks (DQN) and Auto-encoders, into reinforcement learning, with the goal of making traffic smoother and reducing the all-too-common road congestion in simulated city environments. Deep Q-Networks (DQN) are a form of reinforcement learning algorithms that learns the best actions to take in various situations through trial and error. Auto-encoders, on the other hand, are tools that help simplify complex data, making it easier for the DQN to …

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The ‘Double-Exposure’ Of Riverine Communities In Northeast India To Dams And Climate Change, Costanza Rampini Jun 2025

The ‘Double-Exposure’ Of Riverine Communities In Northeast India To Dams And Climate Change, Costanza Rampini

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

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Using Presence Circles To Identify Strategies To Enhance Nurse Presence At Discharge: A Focus Group Study With Nursing Students, Marie C. Haverfield, Sara Nayeem, Meaghan Sterk, Stacy Demertzis, Deborah Szeto, Robin Whitney Jun 2025

Using Presence Circles To Identify Strategies To Enhance Nurse Presence At Discharge: A Focus Group Study With Nursing Students, Marie C. Haverfield, Sara Nayeem, Meaghan Sterk, Stacy Demertzis, Deborah Szeto, Robin Whitney

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Nurse communication of patient needs at discharge is critical to ongoing care, but system-level demands often prohibit comprehensive discharge conversations. Caregivers of discharged patients frequently report feeling underprepared to meet patient needs. Meaningful interpersonal encounters, or presence, are known to enhance clinical interactions amidst system-level demands, which could help improve caregiver preparedness and patient care. Purpose: To explore and synthesize examples of nurse presence during discharge conversations through Presence Circles (structured focus groups) to provide recommendations for enhancing high-quality information at discharge. Methods: In a secondary analysis of data from a larger study based on the Nurse Presence Framework, …

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‘Making A Positive Environmental Impact’: Exploring The Role Of Volunteering At A Campus Community Garden, Dina Izenstark, Barbara Ann Boone Jun 2025

‘Making A Positive Environmental Impact’: Exploring The Role Of Volunteering At A Campus Community Garden, Dina Izenstark, Barbara Ann Boone

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Promoting sustainability in higher education is a social and environmental imperative. This paper explores how and why volunteering at a campus community garden (CCG) can serve as a unique context for promoting sustainability. Twenty-five undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 27, who had volunteered at a campus garden, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. A majority of participants identified as female (80%) and Asian American (52%). Using reflexive thematic analysis, we first found students were motivated to volunteer for personal and academic reasons as well as to learn more about gardening. Childhood gardening experiences influenced participants’ re-engagement as adults. …

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San Jose Urban Forest – An Open-Source Tree Canopy Surveying And Assessment Tool, Martin Alvarez Lopez, Manan Choksi, Sai Yaaminie Ganda, Vaibhavi Hiteshkumar Savani, Bernardo Flores May 2025

San Jose Urban Forest – An Open-Source Tree Canopy Surveying And Assessment Tool, Martin Alvarez Lopez, Manan Choksi, Sai Yaaminie Ganda, Vaibhavi Hiteshkumar Savani, Bernardo Flores

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The accurate monitoring of tree canopy coverage is crucial for social and environmental studies as well as city planning. Our goal is to provide a solution that utilizes available resources like yearly aerial imagery to generate tree data to track all tree canopy within a city such as San Jose, CA. By utilizing open-source software and publicly available data, we streamlined the process by eliminating the need for expensive equipment and time-consuming manual efforts associated with traditional methods. The methodology involves the conversion of aerial imagery datasets into geo-referenced TIFF format through a resampling process. To optimize efficiency, we strategically …

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The Effectiveness Of Empowerment Versus Fear Messaging On Sugary Beverage Consumption Intentions Among Young Adult Latinas, Mi Zhou, A. Susana Ramírez, Dean Schillinger, Sandie Ha, Deepti Chittamuru May 2025

The Effectiveness Of Empowerment Versus Fear Messaging On Sugary Beverage Consumption Intentions Among Young Adult Latinas, Mi Zhou, A. Susana Ramírez, Dean Schillinger, Sandie Ha, Deepti Chittamuru

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Excessive sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption poses a significant public health concern, particularly among historically marginalized populations targeted by industry marketing. This study compares the effectiveness of empowerment-based versus fear-based messaging on individual sugary beverage consumption intention and critical health literacy among Latinas aged 18 to 29 years (N = 231). Participants were randomized online to view either an empowerment-based video highlighting the risks of sugary beverage consumption and the beverage industry’s manipulative practices or a usual care fear-based video centering on individual behaviors and risks. Between- and within-subject analyses were conducted using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and repeated ANOVA. Results …

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Human Trafficking: An Examination Of Policies And The Impact Of Trafficking On Victims, Hannah Lyons May 2025

Human Trafficking: An Examination Of Policies And The Impact Of Trafficking On Victims, Hannah Lyons

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Human trafficking is a pervasive and complex global issue that involves the exploitation of individuals. While there is also the trafficking of objects, this study solely focuses on sexual exploitation and forced labor of humans. This paper defines trafficking and examines the impact that trafficking has on victims’ physical and mental health. This paper also examines the intersection of human trafficking and policies designed to combat it, focusing on the effectiveness of legal frameworks and enforcement mechanisms. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of current anti-trafficking laws and initiatives, the paper explores how policies can be improved to better address …

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The Rape Kit Backlog: Problems And Solutions, Tracey Cao May 2025

The Rape Kit Backlog: Problems And Solutions, Tracey Cao

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This literature review examines the ongoing issue of rape kit backlog in the United States. Rape kits are a means of evidence collection from victims of sexual assault that can be used in court. Across the nation, many state jurisdictions have hundreds and thousands of rape kits left untested and locked away in storage facilities. Consent for testing, police bias, and funding issues are the main issues that will be addressed. Many victims choose not to have their kits tested. Other kits never get tested due to police choosing not to submit a kit due to their bias against some …

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