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. …

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 …

Developing Culturally-Tailored Diabetes Friendly And Heart Healthy Recipes For South Asians: Sensory Evaluation And Implications For Dietary Interventions, Ashwini Wagle, S. Starr, N. Goudarzi, G. Molina Martinez

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

South Asians have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than manyother racial or ethnic groups. Dietary patterns are a key, modifiable risk factor, and cultural influences strongly shape food choices and lifestyle decisions. Effective, long-term behavior change requires culturally meaningful interventions. This study aimed to develop culturally tailored recipes that comply with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines.

Recipes were selected from the published South Asian Carbohydrate Counting Tool, created by the researcher, and modified to enhance nutrient composition. Adjustments included ingredient substitutions, reduction or elimination of fat, salt, and sugar, and additions …

Effectiveness And Assessment Of A Culturally-Tailored Carbohydrate Counting Tool For South Asians With Diabetes: A Practitioner’S Evaluation, Ashwini Wagle

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

South Asians are at a higher risk for type 2 diabetes compared to many other racial and ethnic groups. Dietary patterns play a significant role and are a modifiable risk factor. This study aimed to evaluate a South Asian carbohydrate counting tool developed by the researcher, assessed by Registered Dietitians Nutritionists and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialists. Using nutrition communication theory and the transtheoretical model, the tool included a comprehensive list of commonly consumed South Asian foods and sample vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals (1800e2100 kcal). Sixty-five participants received the tool and a training slide deck. A 40-item questionnaire assessed …

Robust Hashing For Improved Cnn Performance In Image-Based Malware Detection, Sanket Shekhar Kulkarni, Fabio Di Troia

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper presents a comparative study on the impact of robust hashing in enhancing image-based malware classification. While Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have shown promise when working with image-based malware samples, their performance degrades significantly when obfuscation techniques are taken into consideration to hamper the malware classification or detection. To address this, we apply a robust hashing technique that generates invariant visual representations of malware samples, enabling improved generalization under obfuscation implemented as image salting. Using a custom obfuscation method to simulate polymorphic variants, we evaluate MobileNet, ResNet, and DenseNet architectures across five salting conditions (0% to 40%). The results …

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

The Access Assembly: Learning Together, Building Friendships, And Strengthening Our Leadership Capacities, Chandra Turpen, Brianne Gutmann, Robert P. Dalka, Gina M. Quan, Mackenzie Carlson, Joel C. Corbo, Gabrielle Jones-Hall, Megan Marshall Smith, Devyn E. Shafer

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Founded in 2014, the Access Network brings together nine student-centered, university-based programs that pursue systemic change towards a vision of a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible STEM community. Leaders at the Network-level and program-level are either current students (undergraduate or graduate) or young faculty and professional scientists, many of whom started out as student leaders in Access programs. Over the last 9 years, Access has brought people together (virtually or in-person) for an annual event called the "Assembly." Student leaders who attend the Assembly appreciate community-building and networking opportunities that help them build capacity for leading local site programming. …

The Access Assembly: Sharing Ideas And Enabling Informed Adaptations, Brianne Gutmann, Chandra Turpen, Robert P. Dalka, Mackenzie Carlson, Joel Corbo, Gabrielle Jones-Hall, Megan Marshall Smith, Devyn Shafer

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Founded in 2014, the Access Network brings together nine student-centered, university-based programs that are pursuing systemic change towards a vision of a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible STEM community. Network and program leaders are primarily students (undergraduate and graduate) and early-career faculty, many of whom started out as student leaders in Access programs. Over the last nine years, Access has brought people together (virtually or in-person) for an annual event called the “Assembly.” The environment and structures at the Assembly enable the sharing of ideas, excite people to translate those ideas to their local programs, and create space for …

Spartan Daily, October 1, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 17

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 …

Best Practices In Marketing And Creative Outreach For New Transportation Technologies, William Riggs, Caillou Dasalla, Cayden Rooney, Vaasu Bhartia

Mineta Transportation Institute

Emerging transportation technologies—including electric vehicles (EVs), micromobility solutions, autonomous vehicles (AVs), hyperloop systems, and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) platforms—are rapidly reshaping mobility patterns and urban environments. As these innovations gain traction, it becomes increasingly important to address concerns, communicate advantages, and foster trust across communities. This project examines marketing best practices for promoting emerging mobility solutions, synthesizing insights from scholarly research, industry standards, and case studies of successful campaigns. Emphasis is placed on the shift toward “snackable,” visually engaging content delivered through widely used social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, which are increasingly central to reaching diverse audiences. The …

Can You Travel Too Much? The Emotional Numbness Effect Of Travel Frequency, Lujun Su, Liqin Gong, Yinghua Huang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Based on hedonic adaptation theory, this research explores how travel frequency impacts emotional numbness. Across one pilot study and five studies using secondary data and experimental data, we find travel frequency has an inverted U-shaped effect on emotional intensity. That is tourists’ emotional intensity at first rises and then falls as travel frequency increases. It introduces tourist expertise as a measurable resource and demonstrates that it plays a mediating role in this effect. Furthermore, mystery can moderate these effects. Specifically, high mystery can alleviate emotional numbness caused by excessive travel frequency. These new findings offer valuable insights for tourism professionals …

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 …

Seasonal Variation And Response Of Surf Zone Fish Assemblages To Environmental Variables In The Northeast Pacific, Gammon N. Koval, Jenifer E. Dugan, Scott L. Hamilton

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Located at the land-sea interface, the highly dynamic sandy beach and surf zone ecosystem is one of the coastal zones used most intensely by humans (e.g., recreation, fishing, tourism). Surf zones are also important as fish habitat; however, the factors structuring fish assemblages in the surf zone are relatively understudied due to challenges associated with sampling this dynamic environment. To investigate temporal influences on surf zone fish communities, we evaluated seasonal trends in the fish assemblage and associations with environmental conditions using baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVS) at four beaches on the Northeast Pacific coast (California, USA) from July …

Avengers Assemble! When Digital Piracy Increases Box Office Demand, Klaus Ackermann, Wendy A. Bradley, Jack Francis Cameron

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

We show how the content of information goods changes the substitutability or complementarity effects of copyright infringement. Leveraging the quasi-random timing of the appearance of a high-quality pirated movie after its release in-theaters, alongside an instrumental-variables approach, we find that digital piracy complements box-office revenue for “spectacle”-oriented films, where the value of the good is linked to in-theater viewing. For “story”-oriented films, where the value is inherent—unenhanced by in-theater viewing—piracy displaces sales. Our findings suggest the value of creative content is linked to its distribution context, with relevance for commercialization and value capture strategies in creative industries with experience-goods properties.

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 …

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 …

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

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 15

Novel Biological Prompting Technology: Automatic Directional Control By Eye-Tracking Sensor, Guannan Liu, Justin Wang, Hsiao Chun Wu, Gaojian Huang, Anil Kumar, Yiyan Wu, Shih Yu Chang, Yue Luo

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Biological prompting or human teleoperation have been appealing to many researchers lately. Hands-free and voice-free command or control of vehicles, aircraft, machines, robots, etc. would provide huge convenience to users and allow them for multi-tasking. In this work, we would like to dedicate to a new biological prompting function, namely automatic directional control using instantaneous eye gaze data. In this work, we would like to investigate how to apply advanced machine-learning models to design novel automatic gaze-direction identification techniques. We explore the difficulty, namely infliction with outliers and variations, in dealing with eye-tracking data and propose to transform the original …

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

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 12

The Effects Of College Students’ Online Experiences With Racial/Ethnic Discrimination, Alysha Ramirez Hall, Diana J. Meter, Demi Culianos, Aubrey Uresti, Michael Medina, Adrienne Nishina

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Time online involves the risk of direct and vicarious online racial/ethnic discrimination. This study examined the day-to-day associations between online racial/ethnic discrimination and positive and negative affect, somatic symptoms, and anxiety. Participants were 208 fourth-year college students (25% men, 72.1% women, 2.9% not reporting gender; 36.1% Asian, 30.3% White, 17.3% Latinx, 7.7% Multiethnic, 8.7% Other; M age = 22 years). The sample resided in the U.S. Data were collected in 2020. Longitudinal data were collected via online surveys using a daily report approach. The prevalence of online discrimination experiences was generally low but impactful. Main effects analyses showed direct online …

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.

Understanding Section 1202: The Qualified Small Business Stock Exemption, Myra Sutanto Shen

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Key Changes In The Final And Proposed Digital Content And Cloud Computing Regulations, David Forst, Kris Hatch

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.

The Second Annual Blockchain Tax Conference On January 24, 2025: What’S New With Staking And Mining?, Yamilette Gonzalez

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.