Digital Commons Network^™

Breaking The Glass Ceiling From The Ground Floor: Bipoc Women Classified Professionals’ Journey In California Community Colleges, Lusyna Kim Narvaez

Dissertations

This phenomenological study examined how women in classified professional positions navigate institutional barriers and access professional development within California community colleges. Using Critical Liberatory Feminist Pedagogy, Critical Race Feminist Theory, and Challenging Leadership Theory as analytical frameworks, the study explored the lived experiences of 18 participants across five Northern California community colleges through individual interviews and focus groups. Findings revealed three central themes: strategic communication as a survival mechanism, institutionalized exhaustion, and professional development as gatekeeping. Participants described employing calculated communication strategies to navigate workplace dynamics while minimizing personal and professional risk. The study illuminated how institutional structures create systemic …

Understanding The Impact Of Transfer Orientation Leadership: Student Leader Perspectives At A Mid-Sized California University, Kaci Taylor Turpin

Dissertations

Community college transfer students represent a vital source of diversity for public four-year institutions; at the same time, declining enrollments heighten the need for stronger, more functional transfer pathways between community colleges and four-year universities, especially given the significant vertical transfer gap and the unique barriers transfer students face in student leadership roles. This semi-structured interview study explored the experiential knowledge of 14 first-generation transfer student orientation leaders to understand how they navigate institutional barriers in their on-campus employment. Findings reveal that these leaders navigated institutional barriers by relying on peer networks and drawing heavily on their navigational capital. Furthermore, …

Application Of Machine Learning For Correcting Defect-Induced Neuromorphic Circuit Inference Errors, Vedant V. Sawal, Hiu Yung Wong

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper presents a machine learning-based approach to correct inference errors caused by stuck-at faults in fully analog ReRAM-based neuromorphic circuits. Using a Design-Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) simulation framework, the study models and analyzes six spatial defect types - circular, circular-complement, ring, row, column, and checkerboard - across multiple layers of a multi-array neuromorphic architecture for handwritten digit recognition tasks. It is demonstrated that the proposed correction method, which employs a lightweight neural network trained on the circuit's 10 output voltages, can improve inference accuracy from 55% to 90% (+ 35 percentage points) in highly degraded defective scenarios. Results show that …

Prepration And Characterization Of Alginate Biocomposite Films From Natural Seaweed Containing Glycerol And Silica, Bahareh Ebrahimi Mojaveri

Master's Theses

This study focuses on the development of sodium alginate, a seaweed-derived biopolymer, as a sustainable alternative to conventional food packaging films. The alginate is extracted from natural brown seaweed with a yield of 31% and is formed into alginate films by the solution casting method. This study discusses the alginate extraction and film formation techniques as well as the conditions that affect film properties. Additionally, it explores using composite formulations to enhance alginate properties through additives such as glycerol and silica. Glycerol, tested at different concentrations (15, 25, and 50 wt.%), works as a plasticizer to enhance the flexibility of …

Pick Up The Pieces: Multicultural Men’S Experiences Of Represenentation And Belonging In Higher Education, Lucion Armani Fuller

Master's Theses

To examine how multicultural students experience identity, representation, and belonging within U.S. higher education structured around monoracial classification systems, the present study interviewed six self-identified multicultural male college students. Drawing on Frantz Fanon’s concept of identity fragmentation and Critical Multiracial Theory, the study explored how institutional categorization and racialized perception shape lived experiences of identity formation and misrecognition. Using semi-structured interviews and reflexive thematic analysis informed by interpretive phenomenology, participant narratives were analyzed to understand how identity is negotiated within institutional spaces. The study has three themes. The first is experiencing imposed identity and racial misrecognition. The second is navigating …

A Step-By-Step Shor's Algorithm Walkthrough: From Theory To Implementation, Trung Nguyen, Samuel Petruescu, Shrikant Jadhav, Hiu Yung Wong

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Quantum computing is inherently abstract and often counterintuitive from the perspective of classical physics. For learners to develop a deeper understanding, it is useful to study a practical example thoroughly, from its mathematical formalism to quantum circuit implementation. Shor's algorithm for period finding, which can then be used for prime factorization, is demonstrated in this paper due to its practical significance. While numerous publications on Shor's algorithm exist, they tend to focus on advanced theoretical analysis, specific implementation details, or narrowly defined research aspects; consequently, they are often not well-suited for educational purposes for beginning and intermediate learners. This paper …

Substantial Inter-Model Variation In Oae Efficiency Between The Cesm2/Marbl And Ecco-Darwin Ocean Biogeochemistry Models, Michael Dominik Tyka, Mengyang Zhou, Elizabeth Yankovsky, Dustin Carroll

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Induction of a CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) deficit in the surface-ocean through ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) or direct ocean removal (DOR) methods has been recognized as a promising approach to meet the projected need for negative CO2 emissions. The difficulty of directly measuring the counterfactual CO2 flux due to rapid spreading of the DIC-deficient plume has put ocean circulation models in the center of the Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) challenge. Confidence in the results of such models is essential for the emerging industry to access carbon credit markets and grow at the required pace, to reach substantial negative emissions …

Visual-Motor Coordination In Automated Driving: Effects Of Temporal Urgency And Motor Demand On Intervention Behavior, Kailin Cui, Jonathan Chiu, Pranav Meda, Gaojian Huang, Yue Luo

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Occupational Applications: This study shows that time-critical automation intervention requests increase drivers’ visual-motor demands, reflected in measurable changes in driving performance and posture (i.e., limb engagement and trunk positioning) during transitions of control. These responses indicate that maneuver urgency and takeover timing can place elevated biomechanical and coordination demands on drivers, particularly in work-based automated driving. For ergonomics and human factors practice, the findings underscore the need to design automated transportation systems (e.g., ridesharing services) that align request timing with operators’ physical and perceptual capabilities. In occupational settings such as automated shuttles and fleet-supervised vehicles, intervention requests should provide adequate …

Sober Curiosity Among Lgbtq+ Women And Non-Binary People In Aotearoa New Zealand, Tonda L. Hughes, Jillian R. Scheer, Lauren Bochicchio, Laurie A. Drabble, Carol Emslie, David Whiteley, Belinda Lunnay, Paul R. Ward, Antonia C. Lyons

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Although global drinking rates are declining, this trend is less evident among women, with LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people at elevated risk for hazardous drinking. In addition to minority stress (e.g., stigma, discrimination), drinking culture and social norms likely shape alcohol use within these groups, yet remain underexplored as potential intervention points. Objective: This study was part of a larger multi-country project on alcohol use among LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary individuals. Because online resources have been found to appeal to stigmatized groups, we aimed to examine LGBTQ+ women’s and nonbinary people’s experiences with alcohol use in Aotearoa New Zealand, …

Safe, Secure, And Affordable? The State Of Household Water Insecurity In California, Melissa Beresford, Wendy Jepson, Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey, Kristin Dobbin, Amanda Fencl, Silvia R. González, Gregory Pierce

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

California's efforts to advance the Human Right to Water are constrained by limited household-level data on water insecurity. Using the 2021 CalSpeaks statewide probability survey (n = 628) this study offers the first representative look at water insecurity across California households. Results reveal significant water-related struggles: approximately 23% of respondents worried about having enough water to meet their household needs, 15% worried about perceived health impacts from water quality, and 7% struggled with affordability. Negative binomial regression models show that water insecurity is not randomly distributed: households with non-white residents, households which rely on private or small water companies for …

Application Of Virtual Reality To Alter Sweetness Perception, Serena Wellbelove, John Gieng, Valerie A. Carr, Kate Mcleod, Xi Feng

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Regular consumption of excess sugar is linked to nutrition-based diseases, including gut problems, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Increasing sweetness perception is a novel technique to decrease sugar consumption. This experiment compared the sweetness perception of sweetened and unsweetened almond milk in response to different virtual environments with music and visuals. Two music types, the classical song Goldberg Variations, BMV. 998-Variation 13 and a jazz song generated by AI were used. Additionally, fall and spring forest backgrounds were generated by the Blockade Labs 3D image generator. Each participant tasted sweetened and unsweetened almond milk in music-only, …

Fostering Collaboration Through Learning Communities: A Case Report On Engaging With All Of Us Data Among Library Professionals, Faculty, And Students, Zachary Mcniece, Dawn Hackman, Nick Szydlowski, Yuqi He

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Research data services (RDS) have expanded in academic libraries but can be challenging to develop, particularly in teaching-intensive and less-resourced institutions. Learning communities offer a promising model for building skills, fostering collaboration, and aligning services with local needs. Case Presentation: This case report describes the development and implementation of three learning communities—a library group, a faculty group, and a student group—at a teaching-focused institution. These communities brought together library professionals, faculty, and students from diverse disciplines—including health sciences, education, data science, and engineering—to collaboratively explore the All of Us dataset. By working with the same dataset, participants were able …

Application Of Assistive Technologies And Rendering Assistive Services To Students With Special Needs By Federal University Libraries: A Survey, Emmanuel Chidiadi Onwubiko

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The world as of today, is being said to be witnessing what one may tagged a technological revolution as never before and is transforming for the better, the future of global education in which case, every learner is considered. These newly created technological tools and plans did place librarians as information managers and digital literacy drivers in better position to come up with environments that are inclusive for all learners to achieve their desired goals. The study therefore is a survey on the application of assistive technologies and rendering assistive services to students with special needs by federal universities libraries …

An Automated Surrogate-Assisted Optimization Framework For Rapid Microfluidic Channel Design Of Point-Of-Care Diagnostic Devices, Ronald Jose, Yunjian Qiu, Lin Jiang, Yun Wang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Saliva-based point-of-care diagnostic devices provide accessible, non-invasive health monitoring but face engineering challenges in ensuring reliable, cost-effective performance outside laboratory settings. Traditional design approaches rely heavily on repeated cycles of simulation, design, and prototyping, creating computational bottlenecks that slow innovation. This work introduces an automated surrogate-assisted optimization framework that integrates multiphysics simulation data, surrogate modeling, and multi-objective optimization to accelerate microchannel design. Synthetic datasets generated through multiphysics simulations are used to train a neural network surrogate model capable of predicting flow performance metrics, including the Dean number and pressure drop. This trained model achieved a mean squared error of 0.000012 …

Artificial Intelligence And Challenges Of Sustainable Library Services For Children And Young Adults In Nigeria, Ishioma Nwanapayi Iwegbue, Chigozie Blessing Mba

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

No abstract provided.

Consciousness And Knowledge Organization In Lis: Online And Offline Bubbles Of Experience, Arwa Alsultan

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Knowledge organization (KO) systems such as the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) structure human knowledge primarily through disciplinary subject relationships, leaving the subjective, experiential dimension of knowledge engagement largely unexamined. This conceptual study extends David Gamez's (2018) distinction between "online" (environmentally-coupled) and "offline" (environmentally-decoupled) bubbles of experience into Library and Information Science (LIS), proposing that DDC's ten main classes can be interpreted as differing in the dominant mode of conscious engagement they require. Drawing on Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, and Default Mode Network research, the study maps each DDC class onto this experiential spectrum and examines the cognitive capacities …

The Coupled Hydrology–Human Activity Information (Chhai) Dataset: A Global Benchmark Dataset For Model Comparison And Evaluation, Azara Boschee, Aneseh Alborzi, Augustina Clara Alexander, Berit Arheimer, Salsebil Bel Hadj Ali, Günter Blöschl, Andrea Castelletti, Xi Chen, Aniya Dogra, Erhu Du, Jesse Duku, Aldo Fiori, Margaret Garcia, Salvatore Grimaldi, Naota Hanasaki, Yeonjoo Kim, Heidi Kreibich, Chenyuan Li, Ali Mehran, For Full Author List, See Comments Below

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

To enhance hydrologic modeling, the hydrology community has developed benchmark datasets (e.g. Model Parameter Estimation Experiment, MOPEX), providing standardized data for model evaluation and parameter estimation. However, these datasets primarily focus on modeling natural hydrologic processes, leaving a critical gap in understanding the role of human influences. Here, we introduce the Coupled Hydrology-Human Activity Information (CHHAI) dataset, a benchmark dataset that integrates coupled human–water data from regions across all continents, excluding Antarctica. CHHAI incorporates data from 25 regions that cover various human impacts such as reservoir management, flood protection, river management policies, land use changes, and water use. Each basin …

Research Competence, Technology Skills As Correlates For Job Satisfaction Among Librarians In Universities In Delta State, Oghuvbu Blessing

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Librarians perform academic and professional functions in universities, which require them to have job satisfaction for effective job performance. This study worked at the intersection of research competencies, technological skills and job satisfaction among librarians in universities in Delta State, Nigeria. The population of the study was the entire 81 librarians in universities in the state. A total population sampling was adopted. Data collected using a structured questionnaire was analysed using mean and standard deviation. The study found a high level of research competence, technology skills, and job satisfaction among the librarians in the universities. Conclusion the study found that …

Smart-Twin: Systematic Modeling And Real-Time Transportation With Digital Twins, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute

Urban transportation networks are increasingly affected by everyday congestion, non-recurring disruptions, and limited real-time visibility into what is happening on the road. Transportation agencies require advanced tools that support faster, proactive management and data-driven infrastructure decisions rather than passive monitoring. This report presents SMART-TWIN, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)–driven Digital Twin framework designed for real-time traffic operations, disruption detection, and performance-based decision-making support. The SMART-TWIN architecture integrates microscopic traffic simulation (detailed traffic modeling), long-horizon synthetic demand generation simulating real travel patterns, supervised machine learning, and performance analysis within a unified and reproducible workflow. A corridor-scale Digital Twin was developed for the …

Sjsu Erfa News, Summer 2026, San Jose State University, Emeritus And Retired Faculty Association

Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association (ERFA) Newsletter

Volume 39, No 39

Video Games As An Advertising Media: A Comparative Analysis Between Portuguese And Spanish University Students, Alejandro Tapia-Frade, Gema Bonales-Daimiel, Belén Moreno-Albarracín

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Changes in leisure consumption are causing transformations in the relationships between young people and brands. A reflection of this is found in video games, whose predominant user profile is that of young people between 18 and 30 years old. They invest more and more time in digital universes: they play, socialize and even buy, and income from the video game sector has increased year after year in Spain and in the world, surpassing those generated jointly by cinema and music. A review of previous literature indicates the relevance as an object of study of video games that are used as …

Evolution, Structuration Theory, And New Research On Free Will, James Lull

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Classic structuration theory explains how social actors use their personal and collective agency to contend with the structural forces they encounter in everyday life. The antonimous interface between structure and agency is analyzed from an evolutionary communication perspective as it applies to structuration theory generally and to media audiences specifically. The explanatory power of structuration theory is then reconsidered in light of new research on an eternally profound question: Is the power of human agency restricted, if not entirely eliminated, by a lack of free will that can be exercised in human endeavors? Although the nature of structural influence is …

Preparing Today’S Workforce For Tomorrow’S Autonomous Transportation: Bridging Electrical And Civil Engineering Disciplines, Masoud Ghodrat Abadi, Rohollah Moghadam

Mineta Transportation Institute

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to transform transportation systems and reshape workforce needs across engineering and related fields. Although existing AV workforce development efforts often emphasize electrical engineering, computer science, and mechanical engineering, transportation engineering remains underrepresented despite its importance to infrastructure, traffic operations, safety, and mobility integration. This study addresses that gap through the development, implementation, and evaluation of an interdisciplinary certificate program, Workforce for Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (WAVE), at California State University, Sacramento. The program was designed to bridge transportation engineering and electrical engineering through a two-step curriculum model consisting of theoretical educational modules and hands-on laboratory activities. …

Mitigating Negative Consequences Of New Urban Growth In Disadvantaged Communities, Shishir Mathur, Christopher E. Ferrell, Cindy Adrian

Mineta Transportation Institute

New housing and development in California are often planned in communities that already face economic hardship, environmental burdens, and limited access to reliable transportation. Recent research finds specifically that in the San Francisco (S.F.) Bay Area and Southern California (SoCal) metropolitan regions, there is a high propensity to plan new urban development in socially, economically, and environmentally disadvantaged communities (DACs) with poor transit accessibility and limited personal mobility. This project first reviews the literature to identify potential unintended negative impacts of high concentrations of new urban growth in DACs across social, economic, educational, environmental, and transportation dimensions. It then identifies …

Semantic-Geometric Decoupling For Universal Spatial Anchoring In Extended Reality, Danila Kharitonenkov, Haichao Miao, Vuthea Chheang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The Vision Language Models (VLMs) demonstrate remarkable performance in semantic reasoning tasks. However, it is still challenging for them to fully understand 3D spatial environment. Trained on 2D data, the model does not understand the relationship between positions and the first-person viewpoint, leading to viewpoint confusion, which is especially evident during egocentric tasks. The VLMs use 2D image Red-Green-Blue channel (RGB) pattern matching instead of actual point cloud coordinates for distance calculations. This modality could prevent the model’s 3D space geometry understanding, and leads to metric hallucination, as the model guesses the distance without mathematical calculations. In addition, the industrial …

From Deficit To Dialogue: Reassessing The Role Of Institutional Data In Library Resource Deployment, Rebecca Bryant Penrose, Geoff Walton, Kirsty Fife, Mary K. Bolin

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Universities increasingly foreground institutional research (IR) dashboards to steer ‘student success’ agendas, yet much of the library’s contribution operates through relationships that IR cannot readily capture. As a result, the library’s engagement with IR efforts remains underexplored in library and information science scholarship. Drawing on descriptive survey data from 66 academic librarians and library administrators, together with nine semi-structured interviews conducted across the California State University system, this study examines how library resources are allocated at course level and whether IR data inform those decisions. Findings indicate that librarians rely far more on local relationships, timing within the academic calendar …

New Measurements Of Distances To Galaxies In The Ngc 1052 Field With The Hubble And James Webb Space Telescopes: Testing The Bullet-Dwarf Origin Of The Trail, Yimeng Tang, Gagandeep S. Anand, Aaron J. Romanowsky, Pieter G. Van Dokkum, Kevin A. Bundy

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

NGC 1052-DF2 and DF4 are two ultradiffuse galaxies deficient in dark matter (DM) and reported as part of a remarkable linear trail of dwarf galaxies in the NGC 1052 field. Recently, NGC 1052-DF9 has been identified as the third galaxy missing DM along the trail. This structure may have been formed in a high-velocity head-on collision between two gas-rich dwarfs, known as the “bullet-dwarf” scenario. However, the trail overlaps in projection with a foreground system, the NGC 1035 group at ∼13 Mpc, raising suspicions that the trail is an artifact of this superposition. DF2 and DF4 have been found to …

Different Dimensions Of Social Support On Social Media And Leisure-Time Physical Activity Intentions Among Chinese College Students Applying The Theory Of Planned Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study, Ni Zhang, Carolyn Madison Chang, Yu Zhang, Lu Guo, Qizhi Xu

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background:

Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) participation among Chinese college students remains insufficient despite growing public health concerns regarding sedentary lifestyles and obesity. Social media platforms have increasingly become important channels for delivering social support related to physical activity (PA); however, different dimensions of social support on social media may exert distinct psychological influences on exercise intentions.

Objective:

Guided by the theory of planned behavior, this study aimed to examine the direct and indirect relationships between different dimensions of social support on social media and Chinese college students’ intentions to engage in LTPA.

Methods:

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among …

Dark-Matter-Deficient Twins: Fcc 224 And Fcc 240 As Possible Analogs Of Ngc 1052-Df2 And Df4, Maria Luísa Buzzo, Pieter Van Dokkum, Michael Hilker, Duncan A. Forbes, Aaron J. Romanowsky, Yimeng Tang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The recent “bullet-dwarf” model proposes that high-velocity collisions between dwarf galaxies can produce stellar systems with overluminous globular clusters (GCs) and a deficiency of dark matter, as observed in the NGC 1052 group galaxies NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1052-DF4. We present a possible analog system in the outskirts of the Fornax cluster: the ultradiffuse galaxy FCC 224 and its close companion FCC 240. Using deep Very Large Telescope/MUSE integral field spectroscopy, we characterize their stellar populations, internal kinematics, and GC systems to test this formation scenario. Both galaxies exhibit low velocity dispersions. Interpreted with a standard mass estimator at the …

Branding, Catalogs, And Institutional Identity: The Libraries Of Edfu And Alexandria In Historical Perspective, Patrick Roughen

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article examines library catalogs as brand artifacts in the context of two ancient libraries: the Library of Alexandria and the library of the Temple of Horus at Edfu, Egypt. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic capital and brand theory, this research argues that the catalogs of these two institutions functioned as early branding instruments. The Pinakes, the catalog of the Library of Alexandria, projected a brand of universal knowledge and intellectual prestige, and the inscribed wall catalog at Edfu reflected a brand focused on sacred authority and the sustaining of cosmic order (Ma'at).  Together, they illustrate two opposing …