Digital Commons Network^™

Industry And Malady: Entanglements Of Power, Culture, And Disease Afflicting Breast Cancer Patients In The Bay Area, Brieann N. Deornellas

Master's Theses

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States and, apart from some forms of skin cancer, is the most common cancer diagnosis for women. In 2021, the U.S Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results reported that approximately 281,550 women were diagnosed with, and 43,600 died of the breast cancer. Despite advancements in testing and treatments, about one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, and breast cancer has the highest cancer death rate for women, excluding lung cancer.Studies have also shown that breast cancer prognosis and mortality is not uniform, and is statistically …

The Relationship Between Goal Types And Job Performance: Exploring The Moderating Effect Of Self-Efficacy, Stefani Ewell

Master's Theses

Motivation to improve performance within the workplace has long been an area of interest for leaders in organizations. While goal setting is often used as a motivational theory to improve performance, further guidelines are needed to ensure the full positive effects of goal setting are realized. The purpose of this study was to understand the effect of four goal types (outcome, performance, process, and personal-best goals) on performance in the workplace. Another purpose of this study was to examine whether the effectiveness of goal types may change as a function of self-efficacy. Performance was measured in two ways: completeness and …

The Effect Of Submarine Volcanism On Foraminifera At Axial Seamount Of Juan De Fuca Ridge, Gabriela Marie Diaz Santana

Master's Theses

Submarine volcanoes contribute more than 75% of global volcanic eruptions annually and have the potential to change the surrounding submarine ecosystems. The species richness, abundance of foraminifera assemblages and the average test size of samples recovered from marine sediment cores are a proxy for past environmental changes on the seafloor and in the water column. This study evaluates the ecosystem impact of multiple eruptions that formed a massive caldera at Axial Seamount between 1300 and 800 years before present (BP). An examination of the diversity, abundance, and size of planktic and benthic foraminifera assemblages recorded in volcanic and hemipelagic sediments …

The Effects Of Disability Status And Employment Level In Shaping Employee Perceptions: A Vignette Study Of Employees Who Are Blind, Raymond Bennett

Master's Theses

This study sought to understand the impact of disability status and level of employment (i.e., supervisor or employee) on ratings of performance outcomes and legitimately earning one’s role. It was hypothesized that leaders with disability (LWD) would be rated as poorer performers compared to non-disabled leaders and that co-workers with disability (CWD) would be rated more favorably than LWD. It was also hypothesized that the perceived legitimacy of disability status would moderate the impact of disability status and employment level on performance outcomes. 102 participants read one of four vignettes describing an organization member they regularly interacted with and responded …

The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And Affective Commitment And Intent To Leave The Organization: The Mediating Role Of Psychological Empowerment, Neiry Lara

Master's Theses

The leadership style of organizational leaders has important implications for organizations and their employees. Transformational leadership has been studied extensively due to the numerous positive outcomes. Unfortunately, not much research has focused on the mediating mechanism between transformational leadership and outcomes. Therefore, the present study explored the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationship between transformational leadership and the outcomes of affective organizational commitment and turnover intentions. It was hypothesized that psychological empowerment would act as a mediator between transformational leadership and affective organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Results of an online survey from 111 employed individuals showed that …

An Initial Study Of Properties Of Monolithic Silicon Dioxide Parts Produced By The Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion Process, Sam Sujit Choppala

Master's Theses

The ceramic on-demand extrusion (CODE) process is an additive manufacturing process for technical ceramics, which features an oil bath and partial drying to print stronger green bodies due to better preservation of the printed specimen structure and reduction of uneven part evaporation. A 3D printer capable of performing the CODE process is built with subsystems including motion, extrusion, and heating, and is controlled through LinuxCNC. The CODE printer and process is tested with silicon dioxide as the technical ceramic. High strength silicon dioxide parts are essential in various present-day industries such as dental, medical, and semiconductor. A 55vol% solids loading …

Autonomous Vehicle Testing Using A Model-Based Approach, Muslim Razi

Master's Theses

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) offer advantages in many different industries which isleading to an increase in their adoption. Testing and conducting quality assurance on the complex systems are crucial in ensuring safety and reliability. The main challenges with AV testing include modeling diverse scenarios which an AV can encounter in the real world. Compared to real-world testing, simulators provide an efficient and versatile alternative for AV testing. SVL Simulator is one such simulator that integrates with Baidu’s Apollo AV platform. In this paper, a model-based testing framework utilizing semantic trees and 3D test tables is used to model driving scenarios into …

An Empirical Assessment Of Environmental Variable Combinations For Use In Fire Weather Forecasts, Daniel Sunvold

Master's Theses

Predicting high fire danger conditions is paramount to mitigating the impacts caused by wildfires. Such warning systems as red flag warnings (RFWs) and the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) utilize atmospheric and fuel moisture properties to warn public and government entities about conditions that may lead to the ignition or rapid growth of wildfires. In this study, we use high-resolution reanalysis and wildfire growth data from 2003-2020 in California to test a variety of different variables to determine if a more viable variable combination exists that could be used to create a better warning index which would allow for …

Amplifying Testimonios Of Latino Male Student Success, Jilian Gómez

Master's Theses

The purpose of this qualitative counternarrative ethnographic study was to explore the success stories and lived experiences of six Latino male students, utilizing an asset-based approach and consideration of intersectional identity, cultural wealth, and contextual settings. This asset-based theoretical framework, the Latino Male Student Success Paradigm, was developed and used to contextualize the Latino male students' testimonios of their experiences and how they advanced their academic success. A semi-structured interview protocol was used to invite testimonios from the research participants, which included discussions about their academic success. The testimonios provided insight into what facilitated their resiliency when facing adversity within …

Black, Green, And Young: A Case Study Assessing Implementation And Outcomes Of An Environmental Science, Technology, Engineering And Math Curriculum For Youth In West Oakland, California, Ashari A. Taylor-Watson

Master's Theses

Environmental racism plagues low-income communities of color through exposure to environmental hazards, and the youth are most vulnerable. Environmental science, technology, engineering, and math (E-STEM) curriculums promoted as tools for corrective justice. Using a West Oakland, California Boys and Girls Club as a case study, I first describe the environmental awareness, attitudes, and actions of a group of six- to 13-year-old, predominantly African - American, children from this low-income community. I then examine the possible impacts of an E-STEM curriculum on participants, and I identify staff- and researcher-identified challenges to its implementation. During the study, the cohort experienced a heightened …

Co-Composted Biochar Improves Dry-Farmed Tomato Productivity In The Santa Clara Valley, Ca, With No Change In Soil Microbiology, Duncan A. Keller

Master's Theses

California is a globally important site for agricultural production, but the state is currently suffering from an unprecedented drought. One strategy to conserve water is dry farming, where growers cache moisture in the soil from off-season rain or early-season irrigation for crops to use throughout the growing season. Some California growers have dry-farmed tomatoes for decades. Recently, some have begun adding co-composted biochar (COMBI) to boost productivity and stimulate soil microbiology, particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. To the best of my knowledge, no field research on dry-farmed tomato systems currently exists, let alone on the effects of COMBI amendments on yield, …

A Risc-V Matrix Multiplier Using Systolic Arrays, Miao Wang

Master's Theses

Many modern day applications can be solved with the usage of machine learning, which involves training a computer to learn on large amounts of data without direct programmer guidance. Conventional computers typically use normal general purpose central processing units, though more specialized tasks may take advantage of more parallel hardware such as graphics processing units. In the pursuit of increased performance to facilitate increasingly more complex machine learning models, researchers in both academia and industry look towards field-programmable gate arrays and application specific integrated circuits for their needs. Various implementations, both theoretical and practical, exist across a wide variety of …

Examining Communibiology During Adrenal Stress Scenario Training In Feminist Self-Defense: An Experimental Study, Daniel A. Van Hook

Master's Theses

In communication episodes featuring heightened stress, interactions that are perceived as threatening and evoke a sense of powerlessness often predict a cycle of victimization. Meanwhile, social interactions which affirm safety and agency amidst stress foster empowerment. This study utilized Hoplology, which studies stress inoculation against aggression and posttraumatic stress, and Communibiology, the study of neurobiology as an antecedent and outcome of communication, to explore (a) whether Adrenal Stress Scenario Training in Feminist Self-Defense (ASST-FSD) produces a physiological response to promote stress inoculation, (b) how anxiety impacts physiological response, and (c) reports of mental toughness. A 4-day ASST-FSD training pilot study …

A Comparison Of Impa2 & Isyna1 Gene Expression And Intracelular Myo-Inositol Levels In Bipolar And Non-Bipolar Disorder Derived Human Lymphoblasts, Christina Rosette

Master's Theses

The thesis objective was to determine if myo-inositol concentration levels and the gene expression of IMPA2 & ISYNA1 differ among bipolar disorder types 1 and 2 compared to healthy controls (non-bipolar disorder). Previous studies have correlated different myo-inositol concentration levels with specific phases of bipolar and pharmaceutical treatments. Two genes, inositol monophosphatase 2 (IMPA2) and inositol-3-phosphate synthase 1 (ISYNA1), involved in de novo myo-inositol biosynthesis have been implicated in the pathophysiology of bipolar. In this study, differences in myo-inositol concentration and IMPA2 & ISYNA1 gene expression in lymphoblasts derived from subjects with bipolar types 1, 2, and healthy control were …

Factors That Influence The Believers In Monze Central Seventh-Day Adventist Church Of South Zambia Conference To Consult Diviners, Ian Chiinya

Master's Theses

Problem

Studies have shown that even after becoming Christians, African Christians maintain their traditional religious practices. Non-Christian studies in Zambia reveal that both Christian and non-Christian Zambians still combine biomedicine with sacred African traditional medicine. The goal of the current study is to identify the variables that lead Monze Central Church Seventh-day Adventist members to consult diviners.

Method

Sections one and two of a questionnaire were created to collect information on the variables that affect going to a diviner. To assess the role and self-efficacy of local church elders in assisting members who have been impacted by demonic spiritual forces, …

Three Miles Per Hour: Shifting From Performance To Heart Orientation Among Seventh-Day Adventist Pastors, Royce A. V. Odiyar

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the presence and impact of performance orientation among Seventh-day Adventist pastors. It identifies multiple factors involved in perpetuating performance orientation and includes strategies to shift from performance to heart orientation in life and pastoral ministry. Using a mixed-method design, this research collected qualitative data via focus groups and quantitative data via an online survey. There was a total of eight focus groups with thirty-three participants, and the online survey gathered fifty-one responses. Focus group participants and survey respondents included both men and women from North America who were ethnically diverse. The research revealed significant concerns regarding pastoral …

Randomness Distillation To Improve Key Quality For Context-Based Authentication Schemes, Jackson West

Master's Theses

Context-based authentication is a method for transparently validating another device’slegitimacy to join a network based on location. Devices can pair with one another by continuously harvesting environmental noise to generate a random key with no user involvement. However, there are gaps in our understanding of the theoretical limitations of environmental noise harvesting, making it difficult for researchers to build efficient algorithms for sampling environmental noise and distilling keys from that noise. This work explores the information-theoretic capacity of context-based authentication mechanisms to generate random bit strings from environmental noise sources with known properties. Using only mild assumptions about the source …

Abolition Is Not Abstract: Zines And The Transmission Of Revolutionary Cultural Capital, Austin Wonder

Master's Theses

Abolition as a theory and practice-whether in relation to the institution of the prison, systems of policing, or the carceral state as a whole-has received relatively little attention or serious appreciation within the discipline of Sociology. Calls for the abolition of policing and prisons are often taken for granted as naïve and radical demands, perceived as being disassociated from the material conditions of reality. Nonetheless, abolitionist analyses provide a unique and critical perspective from which to explore alternatives to addressing pervasive police violence and mass incarceration through strategies which do not rely upon, or increase the power of, the criminal …

The Role Of Ly49 Receptors In Maintaining Healthy Murine Pregnancy, Michelle Belmont

Master's Theses

Natural Killer (NK) cells are abundant in pregnancy and contribute to the health of the fetus. Uterine NK (uNK) cells provide less cytotoxic function than their conventional NK (cNK) cell counterparts. Various combinations of Killer Immunoglobulin Receptor (KIR)- Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) on maternal NK and fetally derived cells, respectively, can have different effects on the health of pregnancy in humans. Murine NK cells contain Ly49 receptors, an equivalent to KIRs. Therefore, Ly49 receptor interactions with fetally-derived MHC-I molecules can be a valuable model for studying the role of NK cells in pregnancy. The process of spiral artery remodeling can …

The Effect Of Group Identification And Emotion On Participation In Collective Action, Iryna Chaban

Master's Theses

In the last few years, the number of collective actions in the United States started to increase. These events have been ranging from peaceful to violent. The present research aims to understand what is causing groups to participate in collective action and become aggressive. It will expand understanding of group identification, emotion, and participation in collective action. The researcher hypothesizes that individuals who hold higher identification with a group are more likely to experience anger and participate in a protest. Data collection involved an online survey. Introductory psychology students read a passage describing a protest and respond to several short …

Three-Dimensional Staging Series Of Anolis Sagrei, Lilian Epperlein

Master's Theses

With the rapid rise of Evo-devo and the concurrent development of new imaging techniques, comparative studies of development have accelerated over the last decade. Squamates, lizards and snakes, lack a traditional experimental model species for developmental investigations, yet are important for understanding fundamental evolutionary questions because of their remarkable diversity. However, several squamate species have growing communities of biologists building new resources for comparative and experimental studies of lizard development. Creation of detailed embryological atlases for these species will help promote their advancement. In the past, scientists have had to rely on destructive methods to take apart biological samples which …

Assessing The Discriminant Validity Between Integrative Complexity And Open-Minded Cognition, Madeleine Louise Kindler

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity between integrative complexity and open-minded cognition (OMC). That is, the aim of this study was to show that integrative complexity and OMC are conceptually distinct constructs. This online study randomly assigned 198 Loyola University Chicago undergraduate psychology students to read either six tenable, homogeneous written communication remarks or six untenable, heterogeneous written communication remarks, made during a hypothetical conversation about the inclusion of prayer/moments of silence in high school curriculums. Participants then listed their cognitive thoughts and responses to the communication in a free response format (integrative complexity measure) …

Elucidating The Function Of An Evolutionarily Conserved Col2Α1 Isoform During Vertebrate Development, Charles Lantz H. Ingersoll

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Formation of skeletal structural elements during vertebrate embryogenesis is largely a

conserved evolutionary process that employs numerous conserved genes and pathways. One

critical gene in this process is the highly conserved vertebrate Type II Collagen alpha 1 (col2α1).

It produces multiple splice isoforms that have different functions and expression patterns during

skeletogenesis. Two of the primary isoforms are of great interest; variant 1, the primary

embryonic isoform, and variant 2, a post embryonic isoform. While the more commonly known

post-embryonic isoform has been well studied over the last 30 years, identification of a unique

role for the evolutionarily conserved …

Development And Characterization Of A Tissue-Specific Reporter Line For Monitoring Circadian Clock Transcriptional Activity, Lilyan Mather

Master's Theses

Daily rhythms in physiology and behavior are produced by a circadian system consisting of a central clock located in the brain and peripheral clocks located in various peripheral tissues. Circadian clocks track time of day through the presence of a molecular clock that functions as a transcriptional-translational feedback loop. In the nucleus, the transcription factors CLOCK (CLK) and CYCLE (CYC) activate transcription of clock genes period (per) and timeless (tim). PER and TIM proteins slowly accumulate in the cytoplasm before entering the nucleus, where they inhibit CLK and CYC, and therefore repress their own transcription. Degradation of nuclear PER and …

A Process Evaluation Of Aunt Mary’S Storybook: Seeking To Improve The Relationship Between Incarcerated Parents And Their Children Through Literacy, Scott Charles Mcwilliams

Master's Theses

In response to the rise of incarceration in jails and prisons, and the number of children adversely impacted by their parents’ incarceration, in 1993, a nonprofit organized called Companions Journeying Together (“CJT”), created the Aunt Mary’s Storybook (AMS) program to foster positive connections between incarcerated parents to their children. What began as a Christmastime program for mothers in the Cook County Jail has grown into a year-round program operating in prisons and jails throughout Illinois. AMS provides those incarcerated with an opportunity to record themselves reading a book to their children, and AMS then mails/transmits the recording along with a …

Influences Of Latino Caregivers’ Input And Acculturation On Children’S Bilingual Development: A Speech Sample Analysis, Jordan Sierra Perry

Master's Theses

Interactions with caregivers are important for children’s development. In particular, the language input that young dual language learners (DLLs) receive from their primary caregivers affects their cultural knowledge and their bilingual language outcomes. However, relatively little research has been conducted to investigate the cultural contexts that influence Latino caregivers’ bilingual language use at home, including their acculturation level. Thus, the present study examined the relation between caregivers’ acculturation and their children’s bilingual (Spanish and English) language use, and whether this relation varied as a function of caregivers’ bilingual language use. Parent-report measures of bilingual language use, in addition to video …

How Black Are You?: The Influence Of Racial Centrality On Stereotype Threat In The Courtroom, Kendall Cathleen Redwood

Master's Theses

The current study explores whether stereotype threat, or fear of confirming negativestereotypes about one’s in-group, might manifest in the criminal justice system. This study specifically asks whether the threat of confirming stereotypes connecting race and crime manifest, among Black defendants, in nonverbal behaviors that might be perceived by observers as guilt. This research further explores whether racial centrality, the degree to which one identifies with one’s race, moderates effects of stereotype threat. Black female-identifying college students, who rated their degree of racial centrality, were randomly assigned to experience the activation of the race-crime stereotype or to a control condition. They …

The Role Of Identification In Black Individuals' Goals To Challenge Racism Through Confrontation And Collective Action, Efrata Sasahulih

Master's Theses

Anti-Black racism continues to harm Black individuals in the United States and throughout the world (e.g., police brutality, medical racism: Hoffman, Trawalter, Axt, & Oliver, 2016; Smiley & Fakunle, 2016; Stuber, Meyer, & Link, 2008). Psychological research has investigated the roots of prejudice and strategies to mitigate its negative consequences, including confrontation and collective action. However, research in this area has largely focused on ways that these strategies pose additional risk for targets of prejudice. This research determined if Black people who endorse individual-benefiting or group-benefiting goals following an instance of anti-Black racism use confrontation and collective action, respectively, to …

The World Health Organization, The Trump Administration, American Public Opinion, And China: A Principal-Agent Problem, Megan Patrice Larson

Master's Theses

Why did the United States perceive the World Health Organization as ineffective during the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, this research delves into current principal-agent model literature to reproduce mechanisms present by the WHO and the United States. Current research fails to explain the WHO's effectiveness. By borrowing from realist theory and political psychology and analyzing various declarations made by the United States, this analysis found preliminary evidence that the idea of WHO's ineffectiveness was primarily shaped by the Trump Administration and American public opinion. Moreover, because of the disinformation and misinformation spread by the Trump Administration, the WHO …

Modeling The Impact Of Peer Mentorship To Support First-Year Student Well-Being, Sarah Broner

Master's Theses

The transition to college is characterized by instability in a variety of life domains, with some students experiencing sharp declines in well-being across the first year of college (Conley et al., 2014). Well-established in the literature is the link between this life transition and increased rates of mental illness, including depression, anxiety, stress, and relationship problems (Auerbach et al., 2018). The adjustment to higher education can be particularly difficult for underserved students (Carter et al., 2013; Kalsner & Pistole, 2003), who may not have access to the same types of knowledge, resources, and privileges as their White counterparts on campus. …