Digital Commons Network^™

Comparative Analysis Of Mineral Content In Plant-Based Milk Alternatives: Implications For Renal Patient Education, K. Mitchell, A. Widaman, Ashwini Wagle

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The plant-based milk alternative (PBMA) market is expanding rapidly, offering a diverse range of options. However, the mineral composition of PBMA varies significantly across brands and milk types, posing challenges in educating individuals with renal disease. This study aimed to quantify and compare key minerals of concern for renal patients in commercially available PBMA using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry.

PBMA products available in the San Francisco Bay Area were purchased from chain grocery stores in spring 2023 and early January 2024. A total of 134 unique PBMA products from 28 brands and 11 different milk-alternative sources were analyzed. …

Frameworks And Life Cycle Assessment For Reinforced Concrete Bridges For Sustainability In Transportation, Yu-Fu Ko, Jessica Gonzalez

Mineta Transportation Institute

Bridge structures are critical components of California’s transportation network, with reinforced concrete (RC) bridges being among the most widely used. Extending the lifespan of these structures can lead to significant reductions in environmental impacts. However, California’s frequent seismic activity has repeatedly exposed the vulnerability of existing RC bridges, highlighting the urgent need for seismic retrofitting and maintenance to improve infrastructure resilience against earthquakes and to increase sustainability. This research used detailed computer simulations known as nonlinear finite element models, which are highly detailed computer models, incorporating section damage indices to predict damage and assess structural deficiencies in RC bridges during …

A Holistic Inquiry Of Intelligent Speed-Assist Technology: Safety Impacts, Technology Implementation, And Challenges, Sahar Ghanipoor Machiani, Nusheen Baradaran, Arash Jahangiri

Mineta Transportation Institute

Speeding is a leading contributor to roadway fatalities in the United States, and California consistently ranks among states with the highest number of speed-related crashes. Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology has emerged as a solution aimed at mitigating this issue by notifying drivers of speed limits and, in some cases, intervening and lowering the speed to the posted speed limit. This work presents a comprehensive investigation into ISA system safety benefits, implementation challenges, and public perception, with a focus on California drivers. This study utilized a multi-method approach. A literature review explores the history, regulatory barriers, and international trails of …

Wildfire Emergency Response And Evacuation Framework Using Drones: Phase I, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute

Wildfires are escalating in frequency and severity due to climate change, posing increasing threats to human life, infrastructure,and ecosystems. Traditional wildfire management systems struggle to respond effectively to rapidly evolving fire conditions. This research presents a novel, AI-powered Wildfire Emergency Response and Evacuation Framework that integrates autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, AKA “drones”), multi-sensor data fusion, and machine learning (ML) for real-time fire detection, evacuation planning, and search and rescue (SAR) operations. Central to the system is the Dynamic Wildfire Response Algorithm (DWRA), a hybrid decision-making framework combining AI-driven techniques including reinforcement learning (RL), genetic algorithms (GA), and deep learning …

Enhancing Workplace Nutrition: Development Of A Culturally-Tailored Nutrition Intervention Program To Improve Dietary Patterns, Habits, Nutrition Literacy, And Health Outcomes, J. Ryan, S. Agreda, Ashwini Wagle

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Nutrition intervention programs can improve dietary patterns, habits, and health outcomes in communities, but a long-term, integrative approach is essential for success. Barriers such as limited time, resources, lack of cultural sensitivity, and competing priorities hinder their effectiveness. Research highlights the importance of environmental support, particularly from peers and employers, in improving dietary habits and nutrition literacy.

Using the social ecological model framework for food and beverage intake, this program aims to develop a standardized approach to workplace nutrition interventions. The program, approved by the Institutional Review Boards at San Jose State University, will launch in Spring 2025. It incorporates …

Machine Learning For Dissolved Oxygen Prediction In The Manawatu River Catchment, New Zealand, Imokhai T. Tenebe, Eunice O. Babatunde, Nkpa M. Ogarekpe, Egbe Etu Etu, Joshua Emakhu, Kindness E. Etu, Obiora B. Ezeudu, Oluwarotimi S. Oladele

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Uncontrolled anthropogenic activities have increased river pollution, resulting in poor water quality and a growing need for continuous monitoring, which is time-consuming and costly. This study evaluated the accuracy of machine learning (ML) models in predicting dissolved oxygen (DO) levels, aiming to reduce field monitoring efforts and minimize the number of measured parameters. Regression models (Huber, Linear, Ridge), Bagging methods (Extra Trees, Random Forest, Decision Trees), and Boosting techniques (Gradient Boosting, Light Gradient Boosting, AdaBoost) were tested using data from three sites in the Manawatu Catchment, New Zealand. Data spanning 1989–2014 included 12 water quality variables and was split into …

Spartan Daily, September 30, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 16

Between Two Worlds: Nationality And Identity In Korean Immigrants – A Qualitative Exploration Of A Sense Of Belonging In California, The United States, Chulwoo Park, Patricia Angelica

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Korean immigrants are among the top five Asian immigrant groups in California. Many came to the United States with a visa or green card, and later some became U.S. citizens. One’s nationality refers to the country of their legal citizenship, but it is often also the country where they were born. As some people renounce their citizenship from their country of origin, the impact of nationality on identity and the influence of identity on nationality have yet to be studied. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured, in-depth interviews between March 2023 and July 2023. A total of …

Spartan Daily, September 25, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 15

Synthetic Social Engineering Scenario Generation Using Llms For Awareness-Based Attack Resilience, Jade Webb, Faranak Abri, Sayma Akther

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Social engineering is found in a strong majority of cyberattacks today, as it is a powerful manipulation tactic that does not require the technical skills of hacking. Calculated social engineers utilize simple communication to deceive and exploit their victims, all by capitalizing on the vulnerabilities of human nature: trust and fear. When successful, this inconspicuous technique can lead to millions of dollars in losses. Social engineering is not a one-dimensional technique; criminals often leverage a combination of strategies to craft a robust yet subtle attack. In addition, offenders are continually evolving their methods in efforts to surpass preventive measures. A …

Spartan Daily, September 24, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 12

Spartan Daily, September 18, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 12

Spartan Daily, September 23, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 12

Uav-Based Transport Management For Smart Cities Using Machine Learning, Sweekruthi Balivada, Jerry Gao, Yuting Sha, Manisha Lagisetty, Damini Vichare

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Highlights: What are the main findings? A smart transport management system based on UAV data integrating advanced machine learning and deep learning techniques is proposed to enhance road anomaly detection and severity classification. The system employs a comprehensive multi-stage framework, integrating a high-precision obstacle detection model, six specialized severity classification models, and an aggregation model to deliver accurate anomaly assessment, enabling strategic, data-driven road maintenance and enhanced transportation safety. What is the implication of the main finding? A scalable and efficient solution is proposed to enhance road safety and optimize transportation management through intelligent anomaly detection and severity assessment. This …

Gc-Ms-Based Metabolomics For Understanding The Metabolite Profile Of Mopane Worm (Gonimbrasia Belina) And Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor L), Mpho Sebabiki Maleke, Tumisi Beiri Jeremiah Molelekoa, Jonathan Wilkin, Xi Feng, Moira Ledbetter, Oluwafemi Ayodeji Adebo

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Edible insects are nutritious, having high levels of protein, essential amino acids, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. In areas where sorghum is a primary crop, mixing this gluten-free grain with protein-rich insect powder provides a novel approach to making nutrient-rich products. Understanding the sorghum and mopane worm flours' metabolomic changes during bioprocessing can however, enhance their nutritional value and food safety. The research investigated metabolite compounds that are found in raw and processed (fermented, malted (sorghum), and ultrasonicated) mopane worms and sorghum. In the study, sorghum grains were traditionally fermented and malted at 35°C for 48 h and ultrasonicated for …

Socio-Economic Risk Of Rising Compound Precipitation-Wind Extremes In San Francisco Bay Area, Nikhil Kumar, Gregory Brian Pasternack, Yufang Jin, Serena Alexander, Zhihao Wang, Costanza Rampini, Rune Storesund, Chris Lim, Stephanie Moreno, Igor Lacan

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Compound precipitation-wind extremes (CPWEs) pose significant socio-economic challenges in urban areas, with the most severe impacts often felt by vulnerable populations. While CPWE studies have often focused on large-scale assessments, localised urban contexts, at a scale of a city and its suburban surroundings, remain understudied, particularly in terms of how CPWEs might differentially impact different socio-economic communities. This study aims to advance understanding of how CPWEs interact with social vulnerability at a localised scale, using the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA)—a global hotspot for CPWEs with diverse climates, physiography, and socio-economic factors—as a test case. Daily precipitation and wind speed …

Spartan Daily, September 17, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 11

Enhancing Clinical Named Entity Recognition Via Fine-Tuned Bert And Dictionary-Infused Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Soumya Challaru Sreenivas, Saqib Chowdhury, Mohammad Masum

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Clinical notes often contain unstructured text filled with abbreviations, non-standard terminology, and inconsistent phrasing, which pose significant challenges for automated medical information extraction. Named Entity Recognition (NER) plays a crucial role in structuring this data by identifying and categorizing key clinical entities such as symptoms, medications, and diagnoses. However, traditional and even transformer-based NER models often struggle with ambiguity and fail to produce clinically interpretable outputs. In this study, we present a hybrid two-stage framework that enhances medical NER by integrating a fine-tuned BERT model for initial entity extraction with a Dictionary-Infused Retrieval-Augmented Generation (DiRAG) module for terminology normalization. Our …

Spartan Daily, September 16, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 10

Evaluation Of Home Modifications For Individuals With Mobility Impairments Using Virtual Reality And Wearable Sensors, Yue Luo, Jithin Gopinadhan, Nicolas S. Grimaldi, Xiaojie Lu, Sherry Ahrentzen, Ravi Srinivasan, Boyi Hu

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Home repurposing can help enhance accessibility for people with mobility impairments. However, residents may hesitate to implement such changes without clear evidence showing the effectiveness. Purpose: The study integrates virtual reality (VR) systems and wearable technology to provide the effectiveness evidence of home repurposing, reducing residents’ hesitancy. Here, VR allows residents to compare old and new home designs, while wearables offer direct evidence through motion and task analysis. Methods: Twenty-one participants conducted two consecutive activities of daily living (i.e., relocating the robe and going to the bathroom) in original and redesigned bedrooms simulated in the VR system. Participants’ performance …

Scoping Review Of Sexual And Gender Minority Health Research In Ireland, John P. Gilmore, Tonda L. Hughes, Sean Kearns, Laurie A. Drabble, Diarmuid Stokes, Siobhán D. Thomas, Chris Noone, Lauren Bochicchio

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Aim: To map existing sexual and gender minority (SGM) health research in Ireland, identify gaps in literature and outline priorities for future research and healthcare. SGM is an umbrella term that includes people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex and is sometimes abbreviated as LGBTQI+. Design: A scoping review of peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2024. Methods: The review followed Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines and PRISMA-ScR framework for scoping reviews. Articles were identified through systematic database searches and screened independently by reviewers. Data Sources: PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Embase were searched for articles published …

(De)Centralized Water Futures: Key Dimensions Of Infrastructure, Governance, And Operations, Alicia Dailey Cooperman, Jenny Linder Rempel, Ellis Adjei Adams, Alida Cantor, Manuela Muñoz Fuerte, Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey, Nicole J. Wilson, Cassandra L. Workman, Melissa Beresford, Leila M. Harris, Linda E. Méndez-Barrientos, Sameer H. Shah, Amber Wutich, Justin Stoler

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Water system centralization and decentralization have variously been promoted as key to achieving household water security and Sustainable Development Goal 6.1. We argue that the lack of specificity with which scholars and practitioners use the terms centralization and decentralization limits our understanding of different water system configurations and their impacts. In this Primer, we provide a framework for thinking about levels of (de)centralization across three linked system dimensions: infrastructure, governance, and operations and maintenance. We encourage those analyzing water systems to characterize (de)centralization with respect to these multiple dimensions, as well as the system's broader political-economic and hydro-climatic contexts. Emphasizing …

Transcultural Competence And Empathy In Language Education: Imagining The Unimaginable, Michiko Uryu

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The 2007 MLA report offered guidelines and competencies for foreign language majors at American universities in the age of globalization. The notion of translingual and transcultural competence suggests that today’s foreign language education is not merely a matter of language acquisition, but humanistic learning. The ultimate goal for foreign language learners should be to gain alternative ways of seeing the world, namely, “imagining the unimaginable” (Ozick, 1987). This underscores the central importance of empathy in foreign language education. Yet the true challenge lies in how to assess such an abstract concept. Even eighteen years since its initial publication, the report …

Temperature And Pressure Shaped The Evolution Of Antifreeze Proteins In Polar And Deep Sea Zoarcoid Fishes, Samuel N. Bogan, Nathan Surendran, Scott Hotaling, Thomas Desvignes, Iliana Bista, Luana S.F. Lins, Mari H. Eilertsen, Nathalie R. Le François, Tait Algayer, Scott L. Hamilton, Paul B. Frandsen, Federico G. Hoffmann, Joanna L. Kelley

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) have enabled teleost fishes to repeatedly colonize polar seas. Four AFP types have convergently evolved in several fish lineages. AFPs inhibit ice crystal growth and lower tissue freezing point. In lineages with AFPs, species inhabiting colder environments may possess more AFP copies. Elucidating how differences in AFP copy number evolve is challenging due to the genes' tandem array structure and consequently poor resolution of these repetitive regions. Here, we explore the evolution of type III AFPs (AFP III) in the globally distributed suborder Zoarcoidei, leveraging six new long-read genome assemblies. Zoarcoidei has fewer genomic resources relative to …

Spartan Daily, September 11, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 9

Spartan Daily, September 10, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 8

Sjsu Erfa Board Minutes, May 5, 2025, San Jose State University, Emeritus And Retired Faculty Association

SJSU ERFA Minutes

SJSU ERFA Executive Board Minutes

May 5, 2025

Spartan Daily, September 9, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 7

Climate Change-Related Threats To Railroads: Implications For Threat, Hazard And Risk Assessment, Frances L. Edwards, Daniel C. Goodrich

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Climate change has created new challenges for railroads around the world. The rail systems operate in open environments, subjecting them to increased heat, changing locations of heavy rains, developing sea level rise and storm surge, and a longer and stronger wildfire season. This research investigates how an updated threat and hazard identification and risk assessment (THIRA) can lead to the development of climate adaptation strategies that limit damage and disruption to the railroad enterprise. The THIRA analyzes which threats are of most concern in a specific rail segment, and which climate change adaptation strategies give a beneficial return on investment.

Prevalence Of Exposures And Moral Injury In First Responders, Shira Maguen, Soma De Bourbon, Adam Batten, Michael Mason, April Sloan, Daniel Nazzareta, Joseph Graterol, Simon Pang, Miranda Worthen

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Objectives: Workers in high-stakes occupations, such as first responders, are at risk of exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) and moral injury, yet research with first responders has been scarce. This study aimed to assess the frequency of exposure to PMIEs, the prevalence of moral injury, and the correlation between moral injury and other mental health symptoms. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and paramedics working for a large urban Fire Department in California were invited to complete an online, confidential survey using validated scales to assess exposure to PMIEs, moral injury symptoms, and symptoms …