Digital Commons Network^™

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.

Conscious Control: A Case Study On Self-Monitoring And Interventions In Maladaptive Daydreaming, Caleb Chan

McNair Research Journal SJSU

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is a persistent mental activity

characterized by immersive, excessive daydreaming that disrupts daily

life. This study examines the effectiveness of self-regulation strategies

in managing MD, including cognitive techniques, behavioral

adjustments, technology-assisted cues, and environmental

modifications. Using a single-subject ABA design, each intervention

phase lasted one week, with MD episodes tracked through self-reported

diaries and EEG monitoring. The results demonstrated that cognitive

reframing and task switching produced the most sustained reductions in

MD episodes, while technology-assisted cues had diminishing

effectiveness over time due to adaptation. Environmental modifications,

particularly workspace reorganization, con- tributed to long-term

improvements, while lighting adjustments …

Confronting The Digital Epidemic: Excessive Social Media Use (Smu) In The Wellbeing Of Young Adult Populations, Joanna Abellera

McNair Research Journal SJSU

This study will investigate the relationship between social media as a

mediator and its effects on depressive symptoms, using Social Comparisons

theory (SCT; Festinger, 1954) as a framework. A series of 8-10 articles,

obtained through the San Jose State Library Database and PsycINFO, will

explore the nature of social media addiction (SMA) and problematic social

media use (PSMU) and its relation to self-esteem of young adult

populations by comparing theoretical perspectives (i.e., cross-sectional and

experimental designs) in the literature. Studies have found that [increased

SMU has been correlated with negative outcomes such as depression,

loneliness, and increased envy]. Future studies …

Front Matter, Maria Cruz

McNair Research Journal SJSU

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

McNair Research Journal SJSU

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Moderating Effect Of Boundary Management Strategy In A Remote Work Environment, Brandon M. Vasquez

Master's Theses

Remote work has evolved significantly, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to influence employee experiences in both positive and negative ways. Managing the separation between work and personal life is of importance. More specifically, using a boundary management strategy of segmentation may be more effective than an integration strategy because those who separate the two domains of work and family/personal life may be less prone to conflict in their lives. The present study aimed to examine the moderating effect of boundary management strategy on the relationship between remote work and job satisfaction, work-life balance, and well-being. Specifically, it was …

Spartan Daily, August 26, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 2

Attention In The Age Of Tiktok: Examining The Cognitive Impact Of Short-Form Video Consumption, Samantha Shannon Sutrisno

Master's Theses

With the rapid growth of popularity among short-form video platforms such as TikTok, media consumption has shifted toward fast-paced and highly engaging formats. This trend raises questions about the potential effects of continuous exposure to brief and repetitive audiovisual stimuli on attention. Research on short-form video’s impact on attention is limited, but prior studies suggest it may influence attention in meaningful ways. This study examined the relationship between short-form video consumption and attention among TikTok users (N = 110) by using the Attention Network Task (ANT), which measures the alerting, orienting, and executive control networks of visual attention. Participants were …

Alameda Song Sparrow Habitat Use Of Salt Pond Restoration Sites In South San Francisco Bay, Bradley A. Speno

Master's Theses

Restoration is acknowledged worldwide as a conservation need to return ecosystem functions. However, projects require monitoring to track system changes and assess restoration progress. In the San Francisco Bay, several large restoration projects are implementing plans to return salt-producing ponds to the historical ecosystem, tidal salt marsh. The Alameda song sparrow (Melospiza melodia pusillula), a California species of special concern, has been documented to use restored and historic marshes, but their use of restored salt ponds is not fully understood. The birds’ use of restored marshes may be a useful measure of restoration progress. This research investigated the relationships comparing …

Dynamics And Lipid Membrane Coupling Of The Ras-Raf Complex Revealed Via Multiscale Simulations, Timothy S. Carpenter, Fikret Aydin, Chris Neale, Que N. Van, Xiaohua Zhang, Harsh Bhatia, Jason W. Sidabras, Peter H. Frank, Konstantia Georgouli, Jeremy O.B. Tempkin, Violeta Burns Casamayor, Gulcin Gulten, Rebika Shrestha, Debanjan Goswami, Francesco Di Natale, Joseph R. Chavez, Liam G. Stanton, For Full Author List, See Comments Below

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

To gain molecular and mechanistic insights into initiation of the RAS-RAF signaling cascade, we developed and used a combination of multiscale simulation and experimental approaches. The influence and impact of the membrane on RAS and RAF proteins is a factor we are just beginning to understand and appreciate in more detail. Molecular simulation is an ideal methodology to further study this complicated relationship between the membrane and associated proteins. Our previous work using Multiscale Machine-learned Modeling Infrastructure investigated different lipid compositions solely around the KRAS4b protein and the interplay between protein behavior and these membrane environments. Multiscale Machine-learned Modeling Infrastructure …

California Utility-Scale Solar Energy Land Use Impacts On Species And Ecosystems, Ingrid Salazar

Master's Theses

Utility-scale solar energy (USSE), defined as projects of at least 1 megawatt, is rapidly expanding in California, which generated 37.5% of its electricity from renewables in 2023, with 24% coming from solar. While USSE supports decarbonization, it can also cause environmental harm, including biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, and land conversion. This study uses ArcGIS Pro 3.4.0 and public environmental data to analyze the spatial distribution of USSE projects, land use changes from 2013 to 2023, and occurrences of at-risk species across California’s bioregions. USSE development is heavily concentrated in the Mojave Desert, San Joaquin Valley, and Colorado Desert, which are …

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 …

Riparian Restoration Increases Soil Microbial Biomass In Marin County Rangelands, But Soil Carbon Stock Is Less Responsive, Sherilyn Kathryn Reinhart

Master's Theses

Land use change has caused the degradation of 70% of the Earth’s soils, directly altering soil microbial communities and carbon cycling. Interest in carbon farming practices is growing, but studies that document the nuances of soil carbon flux in specific bioregions are still too few. In this study, I examined how one practice, riparian restoration, alters soil carbon stock and microbial community structure over time. Using a paired sampling time series design, I collected soil samples from twelve riparian forests and adjacent rangelands near Marin County, California. Young and mature sites ranged from five to 29 years since restoration, and …

High Abundances Of Crustose Coralline Algae Inside Cryptic Coral Habitats Linked To Coral Reef Functioning, Anna Rothstein, Orion S. Mccarthy, Sophie Luu, Emily L.A. Kelly, Philip Heller, Stuart Sandin, Jennifer E. Smith, Maya S. Devries

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Cryptic habitats on coral reefs consist of crevices, tunnels, and holes that are estimated to comprise 30%–75% of the total reef surface area. These large habitats are vastly understudied because they are often difficult to access. Crustose coralline algae (CCA) are thought to perform important ecological functions, including calcium accretion, both inside cryptic habitats and on the exposed (top) reef. Using GoPro cameras, we surveyed 250 coral crevices from 13 reefs on West Maui, Hawai‘i. We compared relative CCA cover between crevice microhabitats and the well-studied top-reef and identified abiotic and biotic factors that correlated with CCA abundance. We found …

Late Holocene Paleodietary Patterns Among The Ancestral Ohlone: Ecogeographic Partitioning Of Resources Along The San Francisco Bay Eastern Shore, Melanie M. Beasley, Eric J. Bartelink, Alan Leventhal, Monica V. Arellano, Richard Massiatt, Charlene Nijmeh

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Objectives: In the San Francisco Bay Area, Late Holocene resource intensification models predict an increase in diet breadth and a reduction in foraging efficiency associated with an increase in population, sedentism, and territoriality among fisher-hunter-gatherer populations. Here we compare bone stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope values of sites along the eastern bay shore to interpret how ecogeographical partitioning of resources by latitude and distance from the bay reflects differential access and control of resources. Materials and Methods: With the support of, and in collaboration with, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay …

Use Of Cigarettes, Cannabis, And Alcohol Among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, And Pacific Islander Adults: Community-Based National Survey Analysis, Vuong Van Do, Van My Ta Park, Nhung Nguyen, Pamela May Ling, Marian Tzuang, Bora Nam, Marcelle M. Dougan, Oanh L. Meyer, Janice Y. Tsoh

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations have diverse cultural, immigra-tion, and sociodemographic characteristics. Aggregated data could mask substantial differences in substance use between cultural subgroups in this population. Yet, studies examining substance use among the AANHPI population are limited. Objective: This study aimed to describe cigarette, cannabis, and alcohol use among AANHPI adults by cultural subgroup and sex. Methods: We analyzed data from 3411 AANHPI respondents of a multilingual national survey “COMPASS” during December 2021-May 2022. Primary outcomes were self-report current (every day or some days) use of cigarettes, cannabis, and alcohol. Cultural subgroups included Asian …

A Closer Look At The Relationship Between Cultural Intelligence And Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Lesli B. Quiroz

Master's Theses

As organizations—particularly in the United States—become more multicultural due to globalization, they increasingly rely on individuals' ability to succeed in complex, cross?cultural environments. Cultural intelligence (CQ), or the ability to successfully adapt to unfamiliar cultural settings, has been previously related to expatriate cross-cultural adjustment, group effectiveness, and more recently, to organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), which are voluntary extra-role workplace behaviors that lead to positive employee and organizational outcomes. This study mainly sought to theoretically expand the limited research on the relationship between CQ and OCB with some research questions. In a sample of 93 participants based in California, results found …

Spartan Daily, August 20, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 1

The Strategic Impact Of Emerging Artificial Intelligence In The Ethical Realm Of Theenterprise Landscape, Vishnu S. Pendyala

Open Educational Resources

Presentation made at the IEEE Computer Society Enterprise GenAI Summit, Hotel Signia by Hilton San Jose, 170 South Market Street, San Jose, CA, on August 20, 2025.

Correlations Of Intersectional Identity Cohesion And Growth In Queer And Transgender Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color, Zoha T. Qader

Master's Theses

Past research has found that identity cohesion (how integrated multiple identities are) is a protective factor that moderates the relationship between intersectional microaggressions and mental health outcomes. Individuals with higher identity conflict (multiple identities clashing) had anxiety and depression symptoms that could be predicted by the distress they experienced from intersectional microaggressions. For those with high identity cohesion, this was not the case. While compelling, the question remains, what are the factors that contribute to identity integration versus identity conflict? The present study will utilize existing data of 417 QTBIPOC individuals. Ratings of LGBTQ+ community belonging and engagement, and LGBTQ+ …

The Sketches Of Infinite Data And Algorithms For Real-Time Data Insights, Vishnu S. Pendyala

Open Educational Resources

How are machine learning algorithms able to answer questions from any nook and corner of the World Wide Web? How are trending hashtags from the near infinite microblog posts, unique visitors and other distinct counts in the near infinite website traffic determined? How do blogging websites avoid recommending articles a user has previously read? In general, how can we answer complex queries about enormous data streams without storing them entirely, in real-time? The answer often lies in clever approximation algorithms and data "sketches" that capture essential properties using vastly reduced space. The relentless flow of data in modern systems indeed …

Modeling Lensed Quasars With Neural Posterior Estimation: Complex Mass Models, Logan C. O’Brien

Master's Theses

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to discover ∼ 103 galaxy-scale strongly lensed AGN systems during its 10 year operation conducting the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). I use a machine learning neural posterior estimation method to automatically model these systems with the intention of using them for time-delay cosmography, to constrain the Hubble constant and, ultimately, the properties of Dark Energy. In the work shown here, the neural network that I utilize is trained on simulated lens systems with simple mass distributions that consist of a single main deflecting galaxy. I am testing the robustness of …

Multimodal Emotion Detection And Analysis From Conversational Data, Abhinay Jatoth, Faranak Abri, Tien Nguyen

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

—Emotion recognition in conversations has become increasingly relevant due to its potential applications across various fields such as customer service, social media, and mental health. In this work, we explore multimodal emotion detection using both textual and audio data. Our models leverage deep learning architectures, including Transformer-based models such as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), Robustly optimized BERT approach (RoBERTa), Audio Spectrogram Transformer (AST), Wav2Vec2), Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiL-STM), and four fusion strategies that combine features from multiple modalities. We evaluate our approaches using two widely used emotion datasets, IEMOCAP and EMOV. Experimental results show that fusion models …

Exploring The Ant: How Well Do Three Attention Networks Predict Road Hazard Perception, Xander Philip Martinez

Master's Theses

Hazard perception is the ability of a driver to anticipate emerging dangers. Driving is a complex activity requiring attention to various stimuli to prevent accidents. Prior studies have shown that older, experienced drivers detect more cues and perceive hazards better than younger, inexperienced drivers. Attention is multifaceted, and three visual attention networks were focused on in the study: alerting (readiness), orienting (spatial focus), and executive control (distraction inhibition). A sample of 95 participants completed two tasks: The Attention Network Test was used to assess these three attention networks, and to measure road hazard awareness, participants viewed short dashcam videos (~233 …

The Effectiveness Of Kolmogorov–Arnold Networks In The Healthcare Domain, Vishnu S. Pendyala, Nivedita Venkatachalam

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Kolmogorov–Arnold Networks (KANs) have recently emerged as a powerful alternative to traditional Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), offering superior accuracy and interpretability, which are two critical requirements in healthcare applications. This study investigates the effectiveness of KANs across a range of clinical tasks by applying them to diverse medical datasets, including structured clinical data and time-series physiological signals. Compared with conventional ANNs, KANs demonstrate significantly improved performance, achieving higher predictive accuracy even with smaller network architectures. Beyond performance gains, KANs offer a unique advantage: the ability to extract symbolic expressions from learned functions, enabling transparent, human-interpretable models—a key factor in clinical …

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. …

Seasonality In Terminus Ablation Rates For The Glaciers In Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), K. C. Aman, Ellyn M. Enderlin, Dominik Fahrner, Twila Moon, Dustin Carroll

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Marine-terminating glaciers of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) have been losing mass since the 1990s, with a substantial portion caused by the effects of dynamic change. Conventional assessments of dynamic mass loss, however, often ignore the influence of terminus advance or retreat on the timing of mass loss. Here, we construct and analyze a decade (2013-2023) of monthly ice flux driven both by temporal variability in ice flow (i.e., discharge) and terminus position change - collectively called terminus ablation - for 49 marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland. We calculate terminus ablation rates using open-source datasets, including terminus position, ice surface elevation, ice thickness, …

Solving A Nonhomogeneous Differential Equation And Error Analysis, Tayler Braga, Maryam Khazaei Pool

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Linear nonhomogeneous differential equations appear in many physical, biological, and engineering systems where input or forcing terms act on otherwisse linerar dynamics. Solving such equations helps model real-world phenomena, ranging from population growth under external influencse to the otion of damped systems with external forcing. The ability to compare exact olutions with numerical and matrix-based approximations is crucial for understanding th accuracy and limitations of each approach.

Post-Fire Succession In An Old-Growth Coast Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) Forest In The Santa Cruz Mountain Bioregion, Mojgan Mahdizadeh

Master's Theses

Fire is a common disturbance in the western United States, and variation in its frequency and intensity can significantly impact species recovery and distribution across ecosystems. While fire frequency and intensity are increasing in coast redwood forests, little is known about how this forest type responds to high-intensity wildfires. In 2020, a high-intensity wildfire burned large portions of the coast redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains, including over 1,700 ha of old-growth. This event created a unique opportunity to evaluate post-fire succession. This research assessed vegetation recovery across high and low to moderate severity burned areas using random sampling …

Post-Fire Succession In An Old-Growth Coast Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) Forest, Mojgan Mahdizadeh, Will Russell

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In 2020, a high-intensity wildfire burned over 35,000 ha in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, including over 1700 ha of old-growth coast redwood forest. This event created a unique opportunity to evaluate post-fire succession. We compared vegetation recovery in high versus low/moderate severity burned areas using data collected one year and four years following the fire. Random plot sampling was conducted at Big Basin Redwoods State Park to assess the regeneration of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used to assess recovery over time and across burn severities. Results indicate significant increases in shrub …