Digital Commons Network^™

The Relationship Between Perceived Overqualification And Job Attitudes And Behaviors: The Moderating Role Of Psychological Empowerment, Emily Colleen Meyer

Master's Theses

It has been shown that employees who perceive to be overqualified in their roles are more likely to display negative attitudes and behaviors; however, little attention has been paid to the possible moderators of this relationship. Therefore, the present study proposed that psychological empowerment would moderate the relationship between perceived overqualification and job attitudes (affective commitment and careerist attitudes) and behaviors (counterproductive work behaviors). It was hypothesized that the relationship between perceived overqualification and these job attitudes and behaviors would be weaker for employees with higher levels of psychological empowerment than for employees with lower levels of psychological empowerment. Results …

What Remains: The Practice And Presence Of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jessica Olivia Yee

Master's Theses

Contradiction has been widely used to describe the work of the artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996); however, it does not fully encapsulate the complexity of the artist’s oeuvre. This thesis turns to the German director Bertolt Brecht’s notion of dialectical theater, which highlights the tensions, struggles, and interplay between contrary tendencies as a way to understand Gonzalez-Torres’s work. When the contradiction that marks the artist’s work is thought of in terms of dialectical theater, it can be better understood as layered and intentional. This thesis examines the necessary dialectical relationship presented in his work through the artist’s employment of theatrical devices …

The Baroque In Games: A Case Study Of Remediation, Stephanie Elaine Thornton

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a case study for the remediation of baroque painting by some contemporary video games. Video games such as Horizon Zero Dawn borrow illusionistic techniques, the motif of the labyrinth, and the use of the total work of art as presented in certain baroque paintings. These characteristics are modified and represented within the new medium in an effort to heighten immediacy and create an immersive experience for the audience. This thesis discusses the process of remediation in detail and then analyzes how video games—and Horizon Zero Dawn in particular—remediate illusionistic techniques like linear and atmospheric perspective. Then, the …

Lithology, Structure, Geochronology, And Tectonic Implications Of The Spider Glacier Unit And Holden Assemblage, North Cascades, Washington, Colin Phillips

Master's Theses

To better understand the effects of deeply emplaced sediments on continental magmatic arcs, researchers study crustal cross sections where meta-sediments are exposed at the surface, such as the crystalline core of the North Cascades of Washington. The 8–12 kbar Swakane Biotite Gneiss has been considered the deepest meta-sedimentary unit in the section, but my mapping shows that the adjacent Spider Glacier unit is probably structurally lower. The Spider Glacier unit consists of biotite and hornblende gneisses, quartzites and rare meta-peridotites, all deformed by highly variably oriented folds with a mean moderate west plunge. My U-Pb dating of detrital zircon indicates …

Synthesis And Characterization Of A Novel Verdazyl Spin Probe, Allisa Clemens

Master's Theses

The use of probe molecules has been integral to the understanding of protein structure and dynamics. Spin labels are commonly used as probes on molecules, such as phospholipids, peptides, proteins, or drugs in vivo. The probes enable the precise and quantitative measuring of the movements of these molecules which has led to the elucidation of function. Nitroxides are the most widely studied and employed spin probes, despite being reduced to hydroxylamines by ascorbic acid in vivo in a matter of minutes. Verdazyls provide comparable applications to nitroxide radicals, with the added benefits of having tunable conformation and hydrophobicity by altering …

Methods For Sensitive Detection Of Magneto Optic Kerr Effect, James Creed

Master's Theses

The focus of this project is to numerically model the phenomenon known as the Magneto Optic Kerr Effect, MOKE, where the interaction between light and surface in the presence of a magnetic field, results in a rotation of the polarization axis of the reflected light, and to develop a method by which to experimentally measure the strength of the interaction. The amount of polarization rotation is proportional to the strength of the magnetic field and changes in polarization can be detected using polarizing optics. This thesis project successfully develops a numerical model for MOKE and an experimental method is outlined …

Coast Redwood Stand Composition, Structure, And Fuel Load Following Prescribed Fire In Big Basin Redwoods State Park, David Cowman

Master's Theses

With the prevalence of catastrophic wildfires increasing as a response to a century of widespread fire suppression, shifts in weather patterns, and other external factors, land managers throughout the United States have sought methods to increase the resiliency of landscapes to fire. With a host of adaptations to periodic disturbance, S. sempervirens has a competitive advantage over other species when fire is present. Utilizing sixty 10-meter diameter plots from sites previously burned in 1999, 2007, and 2011, and 60 unburned control sites, data was collected on forest stand composition and structure as well as understory species composition and dominance. Line …

An Examination Of Garden-Based Education Impacts On Title 1 Elementary School Students’ Environmental Literacy In San José, California, Alexandra Dahl

Master's Theses

The objective of this research was to assess garden-based pedagogy as an effective strategy to increase environmental literacy in elementary-aged students. With severe environmental issues facing children today and into the future, environmental literacy is a desired outcome of environmental education programs. Such interventions create environmentally responsible citizens who understand how humans impact the natural environment and thereby act sustainably. Currently, little research exists on garden education’s influence on students’ environmental literacy, especially in underrepresented communities. Using a nonequivalent control group study design, this project investigated the impact of a garden education program in Central San José, CA in an …

Noise Pollution, Environmental Justice, And Urban Green Space Accessibility: A Case Study In San José, California, Lauryn Duoto

Master's Theses

Noise pollution is an environmental stressor associated with a number of poor health outcomes. Promisingly, recent studies have identified urban green spaces such as public parks and community gardens as-built environments that can minimize noise pollution in the urban context. The objective of this project was to identify low-income communities of color that lack urban green space accessibility within the city of San José, California, to determine if sound level could be an indicator of urban green space usage and to evaluate whether urban green space can mitigate noise. Neighborhood demographics based on census tract data, including ethnicity and socioeconomic …

Auto-Landing System For Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Dan Dermer

Master's Theses

Unmanned aerial vehicle systems, or any kind or autonomous system, are relevant to many applications today. However, they are complex and sophisticated systems that require a deep understanding of multiple technologies. In addition, the mathematical rigor, computer modelling, and programming applications involved make t¬his a challenging field of study. This thesis explores the possibility of achieving the automated landing of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle. Auto-landing systems can resolve the challenges for the novice user and make aerial vehicle platforms accessible and dependable. A wide spectrum of applications such as agriculture, aerial photography, and security, to name a few, can …

All Things Come To Pass, Brandon Luu

Master's Theses

All Things Come to Pass is a poetry collection consisting of 36 poems that revolve around the themes of impermanence, death, and memory. It is divided into three sections: Crisis, Melancholy, and Acceptance, inspired by the five stages of grief by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. The poems are written primarily in free-verse and include genres such as elegy, pastoral, and narrative. The collection contemplates whether given the finite nature of life, in an existence where nothing lasts forever and everything seems ultimately inconsequential, what is it that should be considered important?

The Influence Of Message And Audio Modalities In Augmented Reality Mobile Advertisements On Consumers' Purchase Intention, Jingyue Tao

Master's Theses

Evidence shows that augmented reality (AR) technology is an effective advertising approach to raise a brand’s awareness, so many big brands implement AR into their marketing strategy. However, the effectiveness of AR mobile advertisements on consumers’ purchase intentions remains unclear. To fill this dearth in the literature, this study examined how message and audio modalities of AR mobile advertisements influenced consumers’ purchase intentions by surveying 120 participants in an online experiment. Based on the uses and gratifications perspective, this experiment manipulated the message type (emotional/factual) and audio-verbal appeal (present/absent) of AR advertisements to investigate their impact on consumers’ attitudes towards …

The Mediating Role Of Work Engagement On The Relationship Between Perceived Supervisor Support And Turnover Intention, Addison Yeosock

Master's Theses

The purpose of the current study was to examine the mediating role of work engagement on the relationship between perceived supervisor support and turnover intention using the Jobs Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and the motivational processes of engagement as the theoretical framework. A total of 954 employees of a healthcare organization participated in an online survey. Results showed that work engagement partially mediated the relationship between perceived supervisor support and turnover intention. Perceived supervisor support was negatively related to turnover intention directly and indirectly through work engagement. Based on these findings, organizations should focus on strategies of increasing the job resource …

Video Synthesis From The Stylegan Latent Space, Lei Zhang

Master's Projects

Generative models have shown impressive results in generating synthetic images. However, video synthesis is still difficult to achieve, even for these generative models. The best videos that generative models can currently create are a few seconds long, distorted, and low resolution. For this project, I propose and implement a model to synthesize videos at 1024x1024x32 resolution that include human facial expressions by using static images generated from a Generative Adversarial Network trained on the human facial images. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first work that generates realistic videos that are larger than 256x256 resolution from single …

Malware Classification Based On Hidden Markov Model And Word2vec Features, Aparna Sunil Kale

Master's Projects

Malware classification is an important and challenging problem in information security. Modern malware classification techniques rely on machine learning models that can be trained on a wide variety of features, including opcode sequences, API calls, and byte ��-grams, among many others. In this research, we implement hybrid machine learning techniques, where we train hidden Markov models (HMM) and compute Word2Vec encodings based on opcode sequences. The resulting trained HMMs and Word2Vec embedding vectors are then used as features for classification algorithms. Specifically, we consider support vector machine (SVM), ��-nearest neighbor

(��-NN), random forest (RF), and deep neural network (DNN) classifiers. …

Detection And Analysis Of Malware Evolution, Sunhera Barunkumar Paul

Master's Projects

Malware is a malicious software that causes disruption, allows access to unapproved resources, or performs other unauthorized activity. Developing effective malware detection techniques is a critical aspect of information security. One difficulty that arises is that malware often evolves over time, due to changing goals of malware developers, or to counter advances in detection. This evolution can occur through various modifications in malware code. To maintain effective malware detection, it is necessary to detect and analyze malware evolution so that appropriate countermeasures can be taken. We perform a variety of experiments to detect points in time where a malware family …

Sentiment Analysis For Troll Activity Detection On Sina Weibo, Zidong Jiang

Master's Projects

The impact of social media on the modern world is difficult to overstate. Virtually all companies and public figures have social media accounts on popular platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. In China, the micro-blogging service provider Sina Weibo is the most popular such service. To overcome negative publicity, Weibo trolls the so called Water Army can be hired to post deceptive comments.

In recent years, troll detection and sentiment analysis have been studied, but we are not aware of any research that considers troll detection based on sentiment analysis. In this research, we focus on troll detection via sentiment …

Word Embedding Techniques For Malware Classification, Aniket Chandak

Master's Projects

Word embeddings are often used in natural language processing as a means to quantify relationships between words. More generally, these same word embedding techniques can be used to quantify relationships between features. In this paper, we conduct a series of experiments that are designed to determine the effectiveness of word embedding in the context of malware classification. First, we conduct experiments where hidden Markov models (HMM) are directly applied to opcode sequences. These results serve to establish a baseline for comparison with our subsequent word embedding experiments. We then experiment with word embedding vectors derived from HMMs— a technique that …

Housing Market Crash Prediction Using Machine Learning And Historical Data, Parnika De

Master's Projects

The 2008 housing crisis was caused by faulty banking policies and the use of credit derivatives of mortgages for investment purposes. In this project, we look into datasets that are the markers to a typical housing crisis. Using those data sets we build three machine learning techniques which are, Linear regression, Hidden Markov Model, and Long Short-Term Memory. After building the model we did a comparative study to show the prediction done by each model. The linear regression model did not predict a housing crisis, instead, it showed that house prices would be rising steadily and the R-squared score of …

An Ai For A Modification Of Dou Di Zhu, Xuesong Luo

Master's Projects

We describe our implementation of AIs for the Chinese game Dou Di Zhu. Dou Di Zhu is a three-player game played with a standard 52 card deck together with two jokers. One player acts as a landlord and has the advantage of receiving three extra cards, the other two players play as peasants. We designed and implemented a Deep Q-learning Neural Network (DQN) agent to play the Dou Di Zhu. At the same time, we also designed and made a pure Q-learning based agent as well as a Zhou rule-based agent to compare with our main agent. We show the …

Using Deep Learning And Linguistic Analysis To Predict Fake News Within Text, John Nguyen

Master's Projects

The spread of information about current events is a way for everybody in the world to learn and understand what is happening in the world. In essence, the news is an important and powerful tool that could be used by various groups of people to spread awareness and facts for the good of mankind. However, as information becomes easily and readily available for public access, the rise of deceptive news becomes an increasing concern. The reason is due to the fact that it will cause people to be misled and thus could affect the livelihood of themselves or others. The …

Rehearsal Scheduling Problem, Thuan Bao

Master's Projects

Scheduling is a common task that plays a crucial role in many industries such as manufacturing or servicing. In a competitive environment, effective scheduling is one of the key factors to reduce cost and increase productivity. Therefore, scheduling problems have been studied by many researchers over the past thirty years. Rehearsal scheduling problem (RSP) is similar to the popular resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP); however, it does not have activity precedence constraints and the resources’ availabilities are not fixed during processing time. RSP can be used to schedule rehearsal in theatre industry or to schedule group scheduling when each member …

Yoga Pose Classification Using Deep Learning, Shruti Kothari

Master's Projects

Human pose estimation is a deep-rooted problem in computer vision that has exposed many challenges in the past. Analyzing human activities is beneficial in many fields like video- surveillance, biometrics, assisted living, at-home health monitoring etc. With our fast-paced lives these days, people usually prefer exercising at home but feel the need of an instructor to evaluate their exercise form. As these resources are not always available, human pose recognition can be used to build a self-instruction exercise system that allows people to learn and practice exercises correctly by themselves. This project lays the foundation for building such a system …

The Impact Of The Language Of Instruction On Second-Grade Latinx Emergent Bilinguals’ Understanding Of Place Value In Two Spanish-English Transitional Bilingual Classrooms: An Exploratory Study, Angela Maria Rengifo

Dissertations

The relationship between mathematics learning and the language of instruction in bilingual settings has been observed and analyzed widely in educational research. As Latinx Emergent Bilingual students start developing their mathematics knowledge and skills in elementary classrooms, the role that language plays in the process has been studied as a key aspect of classroom practice. A convergent parallel mixed-method approach was used to examine fourteen second-grade Latinx Emergent Bilingual students’ understanding of the concept of place value and whether this process was related to the language of instruction chosen in each of the two Spanish-English transitional bilingual classrooms. Findings from …

Developing Teachers Technological, Pedagogical, And Content Knowledge (Tpack) Through Design Thinking And Community Of Practice, Jennifer Gee Huei Wang

Dissertations

Current professional development programs have been ineffective in developing teachers’ technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPaCK). Development of teachers’ TPaCK is fundamental for 21st-century student-learning. After a series of professional development workshops with the design thinking process, this study examined whether and how the self-selected K-5 teachers in a suburban elementary school in California demonstrated TPaCK in the integration of instructional technologies when they engage in a community of practice (CoP) structured around design thinking. Data was collected by online TPaCK surveys, exit slips after the CoP, audio recordings and field notes from the CoP and focus group interview. This …

Understanding The Barriers, Bridges And Bases To Inclusion Instruction For Secondary Students With Mild To Moderate Disabilities, Angela Renee Lyte Crowther

Dissertations

Inclusion is the practice of educating students with disabilities and students without disabilities in the same learning environment. For secondary students with mild/moderate disabilities, inclusion is rooted in the philosophical mindset of social justice, equity, and legislation. Inclusion is a complex and sometimes controversial topic few educational systems want to tackle. The purpose of this multi-method research was to gather and analyze secondary site administrators' and teachers’ opinions on the barriers, bridges, and bases needed for the furtherance of inclusion practices and the elimination of the segregated classrooms for students with mild-moderate disabilities. A plethora of research on this topic …

Expanding And Improving High-Quality Early Care And Education In California: Is There Alignment Between Policymakers And The Public?, Heidi Schmidt Emberling

Dissertations

Although there is widespread agreement about the life-long benefits of high-quality childcare and preschool, access for all children in California is limited. The negative effects of this inadequate landscape are borne predominantly by children living in poverty, and middle-income families who do not qualify for subsidies and cannot afford full-fee care. This mixed-methods study examines specific factors that impede expansion and improvement of childcare/preschool in California, from the perspective of five diverse policymakers. Findings reveal a variety of policy solutions in the areas of funding, teacher workforce, quality of care, policy development, and public perception of the importance of high-quality …

Examining The Effects Of A Peer-Mediated Social Skills Intervention On The Prosocial Behaviors Of Elementary Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Prabhjot Singh

Dissertations

Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders represent part of the population of students who receive special education services, and the social skill deficits that they present makes it so that they are less likely to pass their classes and more likely to drop out of school than their typical peers. The social skill deficits of these students often lead to a variety of negative factors including poor relationships and academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a peer-mediated social skills intervention on fourth and fifth grade students in a public-school setting. The current study …

Plurality Of Traditions And Metatheories In Information Science, Taufik Asmiyanto, Muhamad Prabu Wibowo

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information science presupposes multi traditions because of its close relationship to the convergence of several fields of science that saw epistemic and practical needs and demands due to the phenomenon of the information revolution and information and communication technology (ICT). The multi traditions in information science are relevant to explain limitless study objects in information science in understanding reality and ways of gaining knowledge throughout the development of science. A previous study on ontology and epistemology shows that there is a limitation on human reasoning on the understanding reality that affects further development of science. The plurality of traditions enables …

E-Learning Research In Asia During 1996-2018 And The Four Country Indicators, Abdul Syahid

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study views the Asian research performance in e-learning during 1996-2018 from the number of documents, citable documents, citations, and self-citations along with the citations per document and Hirsch index. It also measures the correlation between the six research indicators and the four country indicators commonly associated with research performance of some countries, i.e. the Gross Domestic Product per capita, Research and Development expenditure along with the numbers of university and internationally indexed journals. The data on the six research indicators and journals were obtained from the SCImago Journal and Country Rank. Whereas those on the first two country indicators …