Digital Commons Network^™

Transpacific Rhizomatic Migration In Kyoung H. Park’S Mina: Settler Desire And Identity Formation In Korean-Latin American Literature In The U.S., Chase Kim

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

The Korean diaspora to the United States is a phenomenon that has long been analyzed for its sociocultural, political, and economic implications. However, generally ignored by scholarship of frameworks such as the transpacific is Korean-Latin American remigration to the United States. Korean migration to Latin America and this group’s subsequent migration to the US was motivated largely by economic factors such as the availability of Latin American agricultural labor in the mid-1960s and the growth of Korean-American professional communities during the 1980s. Situating this migration in a transpacific framework improves our understanding of settler colonial desire and identity formation. I …

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 …

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

Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association (ERFA) Newsletter

Volume 39, No 1

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 …

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

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 15

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 13, No. 2 – Winter 2024

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal’S Interview With Mr. David Forst, Shuang Zhang

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Second Annual Blockchain Tax Conference On January 24, 2025: Legislative Update – Tax And Non–Tax, Shuang Zhang

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Exploring The Use And Misuse Of Large Language Models, Hezekiah Paul D. Valdez, Faranak Abri, Jade Webb, Thomas H. Austin

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Language modeling has evolved from simple rule-based systems into complex assistants capable of tackling a multitude of tasks. State-of-the-art large language models (LLMs) are capable of scoring highly on proficiency benchmarks, and as a result have been deployed across industries to increase productivity and convenience. However, the prolific nature of such tools has provided threat actors with the ability to leverage them for attack development. Our paper describes the current state of LLMs, their availability, and their role in benevolent and malicious applications. In addition, we propose how an LLM can be combined with text-to-speech (TTS) voice cloning to create …

Same Face, Different Name - Colonialism, Colonization, And Capitalism: How To Combat The Insidious Capitalist Individualism That Denies Basic Human Rights To Us Citizens Via Community Centric Bartering, Nadia Loney

McNair Research Journal SJSU

This paper examines the effects of colonialism, colonization, and capitalism

on the social fabric of the United States and how severing key connections

within society has hindered the direct benefits of community. As has been

tested in various cities around the world, intentional bartering can create a

sustainable community and combat the devastating effects that these

systems have had on the environment and the escalation of violence both

internally and globally. Art aimed at community rebuilding and a

decentralization of the US dollar, can help facilitate innovation that heal

various social wounds.

Full Issue

McNair Research Journal SJSU

No abstract provided.

Deep Learning For The Early Detection Of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma In Histopathological Images: Convolutional Neural Network Approach With Transfer Learning, Naga Shreya Chilumukuru, Pragya Priyadarshini, Yawo Ezunkpe

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) is considered the most common form of breast cancer, accounting for a significant percentage of mortality worldwide. Therefore, its early detection is vital to further improve patients’ outcomes and survival rates. However, conventional diagnostic methods in the form of manual histopathological examinations are time-consuming, subjective, and prone to errors. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop automated solutions for accurate IDC detection in histopathology images to assist pathologists in clinical decision-making. Objective: We aim to develop and validate a convolutional neural network (CNN) model for early detection of IDC by analyzing histopathological images. The …

Learning Structure With Multivariate Information Bottleneck And Exploration Of New Methods In Sequential Decision Making, Volodymyr Makarenko

Master's Theses

Research in useful information extraction has been motivated by the increasing demand to extract insights from unstructured data, and by the need to store and transmit great volumes of information, often originating in unstructured data such as videos. Research in rate distortion and information bottleneck paved the path for understanding and guiding the design of lossy encoders, capable of extracting relevant information. Independently, research in deep representation learning has enabled numerous applications for unstructured high-dimensional data such as images. However, the interpretability of the deep learning methods remained limited. Several desired properties of learned representations have been suggested, including disentanglement. …

The Conventional Emptiness Of Human Beings: Reviewing Archer’S Theory Of Agency Through Nagarjuna’S Looking Glass, Federico Podestà

Comparative Philosophy

Margaret Archer is probably the critical realist who has most significantly affected the debate around the relationship between social structure and agency. In the volume, Being Human: The Problem of Agency, she aims to better define what is meant by the properties and causal powers of agency itself, i.e., self-consciousness and reflexivity. In this paper, this theoretical attempt is reviewed through the critical standpoint of Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna’s philosophy appears to be a particularly compelling tool for criticizing Archer’s theory. Claiming the emptiness of everything, the founder of the Buddhist Madhyamaka school provides a critical perspective for revising the distinctiveness of …

A Constructive Engagement Between Oxford Ordinary Language Philosophy And Latin American & Latine Liberatory Philosophy, Alessandro R. Moscaritolo Palacio

Comparative Philosophy

In this paper, I bring into dialogue a movement in Latin American social and political philosophy – which I have named Latin American and Latine Liberatory Philosophy – and a Western, or more precisely global North, philosophical movement sometimes called Ordinary Language Philosophy. By ‘Latin American and Latine Liberatory Philosophy’, I refer to a movement, adumbrated at the dawn of the 19^th century and developed during the 20^th century, whose guiding theme is the political, social, and cultural liberation of Latin America (and global South peoples more generally). By ‘Ordinary Language Philosophy’, on the other hand, I refer …

Reassessing The Deontological Undercurrents In Mo Zi’S Ethical Thought, Nuno Miranda

Comparative Philosophy

This article reexamines Mo Zi’s ethical philosophy, challenging the dominant interpretation of Mohism as a purely consequentialist or proto-utilitarian system. While Mo Zi’s emphasis on social utility—such as material welfare, population growth, and aversion to warfare—aligns with outcome-oriented reasoning, I argue that his invocation of the will of Heaven introduces a deontological dimension. Heaven’s will serves not merely as a heuristic for maximizing benefits but as an absolute moral standard, demanding adherence to duties like universal love and non-aggression, irrespective of immediate practical gains. Through a close reading of the Mo-Zi corpus, this study reveals a hybrid ethical framework that …

Is The Mahāyāna Buddhist Doctrine Of Mutual Dependence A Case Of Begging The Question?, A. K. Jayesh

Comparative Philosophy

This paper employs a number of argumentative strategies that the Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna employs in his Yukti-corpus to demonstrate that the Mahāyāna Buddhist doctrine of mutual dependence is not a case of begging the question. More precisely, this paper demonstrates that to say that A and B are mutually dependent is not to say that what grounds B is grounded in what it itself grounds; it is to say that both A and B lack ontological independence, and that they are a part of a changing, interdependent whole. Mutual dependence thus is a case of dynamic holism, and not of …

How Theravāda Buddhism Enriches The Language Of Thought Hypothesis: Beyond Syntax, Juanjuan Cheng, Sumanasara Sandamadulle

Comparative Philosophy

The Language of Thought Hypothesis (LOTH) posits that mental states operate through a language-like representational system physically implemented in the brain. However, this purely symbolic approach faces a significant limitation: certain mental phenomena—such as intuitions, emotions, and intentions—lack the syntactically compositional structure required by LOTH and therefore cannot be adequately explained within its symbolic framework. To address this theoretical challenge, we turn to Theravāda Buddhism (TB), an early Buddhist tradition that integrates rigorous philosophical inquiry with meditative practice. Remarkably, TB began to prefigure a solution to LOTH’s limitations over 2,300 years ago. Although LOTH and TB differ …

International Collaboration To Explore Elements For An Effective Residential Childcare Workforce, Justyna Siemionow, Patrick M. Tyler, W. Alex Mason, Deogratias Musoke, Maia Ordonez, Jaime A. Gomez-Blaya, Joseph G. Grzywacz

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Residential childcare workers provide critical support to vulnerable children around the world. Building and maintaining a qualified residential childcare workforce is challenged by myriad forces, the foremost of which is recruiting and retaining staff for valuable work often misaligned with available compensation; making individual qualifications at hiring; ongoing training; supervision; and data support systems to monitor performance critical for quality care. This study explored the similarities and differences among these essential elements of staffing across distinct programs: Youth Education Centers (YEC) in Poland, CiudadEscuela Muchachos (CEMU) in Spain, and the Boys Town Family Home Program (BTFHP) in the United States. …

Evaluating Demand-Responsive Scheduling In Public Transportation Service Offerings To Retirement Communities, Steven D. Silver

Mineta Transportation Institute

This project addresses alternatives to fixed schedule local transportation service offerings to members of retirement communities. The project design measures the effects of the contrast between fixed schedule (Fixed) service and demand-responsive services (DRT) in retirement communities in Santa Clara County that are closely matched in demographic profiles and geographic location. The research team investigates the effects of scheduling alternatives in a diary format with a within-person variable of four recent trips. The measure of public transportation usage under the Fixed schedule and DRT service offerings is supplemented by a measure of subjective well-being (STS) for each trip—in other words, …

Understanding Residential Development In A High-Quality Transit Area (Hqta): An Application Of Deep Learning, Dohyung Kim

Mineta Transportation Institute

Considerable research addresses the dynamics between land use and public transportation, including the impacts of transit systems on urban development and vice versa. However, this research has underestimated the heterogeneity of contributing factors to urban developments near transit by property type: vacant lot and occupied property. That is, what drives development in vacant lots differs from what drives development in already-occupied property. A lack of comprehensive data that differentiates development records based on the type of property is one explanation for this research gap. This project fills this research gap by employing a deep learning algorithm and separately examining the …

Developing An Integrated Risk Assessment Framework To Quantify The Resilience Of Critical Railway Infrastructure: Characterization Of Risks And Hazards To The U.S. Rail Network Through Empirical Data And Past Events, Haizhong Wang, Brian M. Staes, Benyamin Ghoreishi

Mineta Transportation Institute

To improve understanding of the impact of natural hazards on the U.S. railway system, this project developed a comprehensive, geospatially precise dataset that maps historical hazard events to specific rail segments. The project provides insight into when, where, and how much damage natural hazards have inflicted on rail infrastructure across the country. While a rail-specific hazard database did not previously exist, this research combines data from the Geological Survey (USGS) Flood Events Database, Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC), the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast zones. …

Anticolonialism And Qualitative Methods For Culture-Centered Interventions, Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Ambar Basu, Satveer Kaur-Gill, Debalina Dutta, Mahuya Pal, Iccha Basnyat, Selina Metuamate, Venessa Pokaia, Phoebe Elers, Indranil Mandal, Rabindranath Mandi, Pankaj Baskey, Devalina Mookerjee, Shaunak Sastry, Jaime Robb, Andrew Carter

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In this essay, we a collective of Indigenous, Black, and migrant Global South scholars engaged in experiments with the culture-centered approach (CCA) draw on our lived experiences amidst struggles against land grab, neoliberal extractivism, and capitalist exploitation to outline a framework for qualitative methods as anticolonial politics. We begin by exploring the interplays of colonialism, imperialism, and racial capitalism that have shaped the origins and uses of qualitative methods toward serving extractive agendas of global capital. This critique serves as the basis for outlining the key principles of the CCA, turning to voice, storytelling, and embodied action as the basis …

Roadside Asset Extraction From Mobile Lidar Point Cloud, Yushin Ahn, Riadh Munjy, Stephen Choi

Mineta Transportation Institute

Mobile LiDAR systems are powerful tools that help us map roads and their surroundings in 3D with great speed and precision. The data provided by these systems support urban planning efforts, digital mapping, transportation infrastructure maintenance, and more. This report presents a comprehensive workflow for roadside asset extraction using Mobile Terrestrial Laser Scanning (MTLS) data, focusing on road lane detection, cross-section slope analysis, and point cloud classification. Roadside asset extraction is the identification and classification of roadside features like signs and poles. The dataset, acquired using a high-resolution mobile LiDAR system, contains over 5.7 billion points (pieces of data) across …

Experienced Latinx Urban Gardeners In San Jose, Ca, Offer Strategies For Climate Justice And Resilience, Claudia S. Damiani Fontana

Master's Theses

Low-income and underinvested communities will be disproportionately affected by climate change due to limited resources, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient support systems. Urban gardeners are responding to the need to adapt to new climate conditions while sustaining their food sources and cultural practices. Many have adapted thanks to local interventions led by the government and non-profit agencies. For this study, I partnered with La Mesa Verde (LMV), a gardening and food justice program that works with low-income Latinx families in San José, and I documented the contributions of experienced Latinx gardeners, especially those with agricultural backgrounds, to climate-resilient gardening in San …