Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Discrete Positive Emotions On Attitude Change, Jennifer Lee Smith

Master's Theses

This study examines the influence of discrete incidental positive emotions (joy and contentment) on participants' attitudes and cognitive responses. Prior persuasion research has focused almost exclusively on negative emotions or comparisons between positive and negative moods. A 2 (argument strength: weak or strong) x 3 (emotional state: joy, contentment, or neutral) between-participants factorial design was used in this study. Participants (N = 460) were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions. Analyses revealed consistent argument strength effects on attitudes and cognitive responses. Compared to the joy and neutral conditions, participants in the contentment condition tended to generate fewer positive …

Characterization Of Protein Residue Surface Accessibility Using Sequence Homology, Radhika Pallavi Mishra

Master's Theses

Residues present on the surface of the proteins are involved in a number of functions, especially in ligand-protein interactions, that are important for drug design. The residues present in the core of the protein provide stability to the protein and help in maintaining protein structure. Hence, there is a need for a binary characterization of protein residues based on their surface accessibility (surface accessible or buried). Such a classification can aid in the directed study of either residue type.

A number of methods for the prediction of surface accessible protein residues have been proposed in the past. However, most of …

Why Does This Always Happen To Us? An Examination Of Co-Rumination In The Same Sex Friendships Of Emerging Adults, Teresa Michelle Preddy

Master's Theses

Co-rumination, which has been defined as a passive, repetitive form of problem discussion, has been linked to both benefits in terms of positive friendship quality and maladaptive outcomes such as internalizing distress. This study explored the trade-offs associated with co-rumination in emerging adult same-sex friendships both concurrently and longitudinally through the use of self-report questionnaires. Co-rumination was associated with concurrent positive friendship quality. Additionally, co-rumination partially mediated the link between gender and positive friendship quality, and was a marginal predictor of increases in positive friendship quality over time. Although co-rumination was associated with depression, co-rumination did not predict depressive symptoms …

Undo: A System For Neutralizing Nuisance Attacks, Eilbroun Waltin Benjamin

Master's Theses

In recent years, our society has seen a shift towards a reliance on digital means of data storage. This paper considers the problem of digital data integrity protection, which is defined as preventing unauthorized writing of data. Numerous examples of successful attacks against seemingly secure targets are examined to support the assertion of the author that, at least in some circumstances, the integrity of digital data is difficult to preserve.

An approach to securing data is proposed in which a security administrator first assumes that a system will be compromised. This approach limits its focus to a nuisance-type attack, which …

Athletic Trainers' Comfort And Competence In Addressing Psychological Issues Of Athletes, Gina Marie Biviano

Master's Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the frequency with which athletic trainers address certain psychological issues related to injury and non-injury-related psychological issues with their student-athletes, their comfort and competence level with these discussions, and referral patterns to other mental health professionals. An electronic survey was adapted from Mann, Grana, Indelicato, O'Neill, and George (2007) and administered through www.surveymonkey.com ®. A random sample of 1,000 athletic trainers (ATs) who were members of the NATA were invited to participate, which yielded a response rate of 31.1%. More than half (n=170, 55.7%) of all subjects had completed 1-2 psychology …

Aquatic Ecology Of San Felipe Lake, San Benito County, California, Julie Renee Casagrande

Master's Theses

This two-year study examined San Felipe Lake environmental factors and food-web relationships. The lake is shallow, warm, productive, and generally well-mixed. High turbidity resulted from wind mixing of bottom sediments, carp feeding activity, and plankton blooms and excluded submerged aquatic plants. Emergent vegetation was restricted by cattle grazing. Summer temperatures reached 26-28°C throughout the water column, and dissolved oxygen was occasionally low on the bottom overnight and during windless daytime periods. Phytoplankton, fine organic matter, and detritus formed the base of the food web, supporting a zooplankton community dominated by copepods, the water column macroinvertebrate Neomysis, and several open water …

The San Jose Joint Library: The Development Of A Joint City/University Library, Joel Eanes

Master's Theses

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Library is the largest library building west of the Mississippi River, and uses a rare joint library structure, merging the main San Jose Public Library and the library of San Jose State University. Both the decision to construct a new library, and the decision to merge two institutions, caused enormous controversy during the development and construction of the building from 1997 to 2003.

This thesis examines the nature of joint libraries, and why the city of San Jose and San Jose State University decided to pursue the joint library option. An unusual combination of …

Learning Statistics Using Concept Maps: Effects On Anxiety And Performance, Patrick Francis Cravalho

Master's Theses

The aim of this thesis was to study the use of concept mapping in an

undergraduate statistics course in order to examine the effects on statistics anxiety and

academic performance by means of a two-group quasi-experimental design. Two

undergraduate statistics classes were recruited for this study with one serving as the

treatment (concept map) group and one serving as the control (standard instruction)

group. It was hypothesized that the use of concept mapping would decrease the statistics

anxiety and improve the academic performance of students in the concept map group

when compared with the control group. The statistics anxiety of …

An Investigation Of Co-Rumination On Stress Levels And Mood, Anthony Thomas Holguin

Master's Theses

A recently defined type of social support known as co-rumination, the process of sharing negative thoughts, feelings, or ideas with a supporter that triggers the supporter to share similar thoughts and feelings of negativity, is believed to generate both a sense of bonding and an exacerbated stress response. The present study examined the impact of co-rumination on stress levels and mood states in men and women. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions (a control condition, a stress condition without a co-ruminator, or a stress condition with a co-ruminator), which depended on both the timeslot for which a participant …

A Qualitative Study Of The Motivations Of Runners In A Cause-Based Marathon-Training Program, Karin Ann Jeffery

Master's Theses

In the late 1980s, the nonprofit sector within the United States introduced a new philanthropic paradigm, the cause-based fundraising endurance-training program. Participants in such programs raise funds for a charitable cause and, in return, are coached to complete a marathon or other endurance event.

Cause-based training programs frequently use recruitment messages implying that the cause provides a guaranteed motivation to exercise. However, little research has examined this assumption. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively research the motivations of runners in a charitable cause-based marathon-training program, particularly the relationship between the cause and the participants' motivations to train …

Phenomenological Examination Of Depression In Female Collegiate Athletes, Alyson Jones

Master's Theses

Collegiate athletes may be at an increased risk of depression due to the pressure and stress they face. This risk is of great concern because their health, safety, and sport performance may all be affected. In addition, collegiate athletes are more likely to turn to maladaptive coping behaviors and less likely to seek help for mental health struggles than other populations. It has been suggested that a greater understanding of personal experiences would be helpful in increasing awareness and improving treatment. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore the lived experience of depression in female collegiate athletes. …

Deception: Analysis Of The Lying Cues Observed By Men, Women, The Self, And Others, Alysha Khavarian Kadva

Master's Theses

Lying cues observed by men and women were investigated by a combination of a 2x2 mixed subjects design and a correlational design. Fifty-nine male and 68 female fluent English-speaking college students older than 18 years of age were tasked with completing a 64-item questionnaire and observing two video clips. The participants completed the questionnaire for a self-assessment of the perception of their own lying cues, observed the video clips, and then completed the questionnaire for an assessment of the lying cues observed in the videos. Independent sample t-test results indicated that, for self-assessment of lying cues, there was a statistically …

Health Information Version 2.0: Female Students In Cyberspace, Sonia Easaw

Master's Theses

The arrival of the Internet, one of the greatest mass media vehicles of our time, has presented a wide platform for the dissemination of health information to the American public. A majority of adults in the United States search online for information about various health and medical topics, yet a particular portion of the general public, namely college students, searches for health information online at a higher rate than the general population. Female college students especially have cause to seek information about particular women's health matters that are relevant to their age group.

This study reveals new details about the …

Does Nighttime Television Influence Attitudes Toward Drinking?, Mike Mchone

Master's Theses

Alcoholism is a problem in the United States. Television portrays individuals drinking alcohol. Is television influencing attitudes toward drinking? An experiment was performed with students from San Josè State University in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications to discover if television would indeed influence them to drink.

Two groups, both Mass Communication classes, participated in an initial survey, and then the test group class viewed a dramatized program in which the main character was depicted drinking glamorously. Both classes then took the same survey again. Results were analyzed via a t-test. Although there was a change in attitude regarding …

Modeling Particle Transport Distances As A Function Of Slope And Surface Roughness, Morgan K. Mendoza

Master's Theses

Significant effort has been put into modeling the evolution of hillslope profiles through time. The models use a continuum approach and are commonly deterministic. Early models assumed a linear relationship between hillslope angle and sediment flux. This relationship produces hillslope profiles that increase in steepness from crest to base. However, hillslopes observed in the field are commonly planar downslope of their convex crests. Recently, non-linear sediment transport equations have been developed that produce hillslope profiles closer to those which are observed in nature, yet the mid-slope sections are not entirely planar. Currently, there is interest in using a non-deterministic approach …

Partition Noise Extraction Using Tcad Simulations, Carol Cui Lan Lin

Master's Theses

As Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology scales down,

partition noise may start to play a bigger role in reducing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)

in sample-and-hold circuits and other capacitive sensing circuits that reset the voltage

across a capacitor. Previous studies on partition noise lack a reliable and accurate

measurement method to quantify partition noise. In our study, we have developed a

method using Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulations to estimate

partition noise. Through simulation, we determined the transistor dimensions and sense

capacitance required to measure partition noise. Furthermore, we designed a test circuit

based on our simulation results …

A Framing Study Of Media Coverage On Climate Change From 1989 To 2009, Marie Mccann

Master's Theses

This thesis examined how climate change has been framed in four major news magazines--Maclean's, Newsweek, The Economist, and U.S. News and World Report--over the past 20 years. We looked at a number of framing elements, including primary frames, depth of coverage, framing the science, sources of information, section placement, and verbiage. A content analysis of 476 articles was performed. Articles included in the sample appeared in one of the four news magazines during the years 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, and 2009 and included at least one sentence devoted to climate change. We found that the most predominant …

Interspecific Variation In Morphology And Swimming Performance Within Surfperches (Embiotocidae) From California, Benjamin Michael Perlman

Master's Theses

Surfperches are marine fishes that occupy nearshore habitats along the California coast. Morphology was analyzed to determine if there were differences among 19 preserved species. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality of the data. Morphological differences occurred among the 19 species. ANOVA revealed a habitat effect on PC2, which described the angle of attachment of the pectoral fin. Pearson correlation revealed that genetic relatedness decreased with increasing morphological differences on PC1, which described aspect ratio and body ratio. Based on PC2, four species were selected to conduct experiments on their swimming performance. U_crit and fin …

Stress And Coping Due To Global Virtual Teamwork, Irina Alexandra Shargo

Master's Theses

Global virtual teams (GVTs), project teams composed of individuals working across time and space via electronic platforms, are becoming increasingly commonplace in most organizations today and in global organizations specifically. The aim of this study was to explore issues employees experienced when working virtually in GVTs in order to develop recommendations for addressing those issues and encouraging solutions to benefit the employees, teams, and organizations as a whole. This paper presents findings from 27 interviews on coping and strain reactions to participation in intercultural computer-mediated communication (CMC). Analyses of the qualitative data suggest that intercultural training were helpful in reducing …

Queering Hegemonies Of Gender And Cultural Identity Through A Critical Adaptation Of Maxine Hong Kingston's Novel The Woman Warrior, Julia Valentina Salvador

Master's Theses

This thesis explores hegemonic discourses associated with the constructs of gender, culture, and transglobal migration from China to the United States and how these discourses might be made visible, resisted, internalized, reappropriated, and queered through live performance. This thesis used the methodology of critical adaptation and adapted Maxine Hong Kingston's novel The Woman Warrior (1976) into a one-woman performance that explored hegemonic social structures of gender, culture, and transglobal migration and the ways in which identity is constructed and performed. Through a critical adaptation and performance of literature, this thesis reflects, expands, and raises some of the nuanced issues of …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Motivation Of Elite Female Triathletes, Alexis Smith

Master's Theses

The multidimensional theoretical framework of Self-Determination

Theory (SDT) has gained prominence in the sport and exercise field to assist in

understanding human motivation. While there is extensive research on motivation

of recreational athletes, no study has qualitatively examined the motivation of elite

female triathletes. The primary purpose of this research was to determine how

motivation to train and compete is maintained at the elite level using the Basic

Needs Theory. The participants were eight elite female triathletes who competed

in International Triathlon Union (ITU) draft-legal Olympic distance, Half-

Ironman, and Ironman triathlons. Results from the semi-structured interviews

revealed that challenges, …

A Framing Analysis Of Weblogs And Online Newspapers, Maria Carolina Janssen

Master's Theses

The thesis examined possible differences in framing of information in news weblogs and professional news articles. A frame analysis was conducted to answer the main question: Is news framed differently in online newspapers as compared to weblogs? Articles from four blogs and four online newspapers were gathered over a period of 30 days. A total of 43 frames were identified in the selected blogs. A total of 92 frames were identified in the selected online newspapers. The most commonly identified frame in both blogs and online newspapers was the progress frame with 51 appearances. The critical frame was used 47 …

The Russian Émigré In America: Translating And Transcending Exile In Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin And Pale Fire, Yelena N. Severina

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates how Vladimir Nabokov's experience as an exiled writer in America serves as a model for the protagonists of Pnin(1957) and Pale Fire(1962), two of Nabokov's English-language novels in which exile is a central theme. Although the protagonists, Pnin and Kinbote, are both true exiles, they illustrate markedly different responses to their dislocations; read in tandem, the novels constitute Nabokov's analysis of exile, his lament over its painfulness, and his transcendence of exile through art. Chapter One looks at Nabokov through the lens of exile while establishing fundamental theoretical concepts and terminology. Chapters Two and Three …

The Sleeper Stretch: Effects On Range Of Motion And Injury In Baseball Players, Kendall Grow

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to provide information concerning the effects of a posterior capsule stretching program on the internal range of motion (R–O–M) of overhead athletes as well as to determine if there was any impact on the number of players experiencing shoulder injuries. Thirty–five Division I collegiate baseball players had the degree of shoulder internal rotation (IROT) assessed in both their dominant and nondominant arms (pretest) and were subsequently divided into those who exhibited GIRD (glenohumeral internal rotation deficit; n=27) and those who did not (n=8). Then the Sleeper Stretch was taught to each player and utilized …

Teaching Artists In The High School: A Creative Approach To Student Self-Esteem, Jennifer Nye Walsh

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the effect of teaching artists' (TAs) classroom instruction in the arts on student self-esteem at Downtown College Preparatory (DCP) High School, an at-risk high school in San Jose, California, over the course of two semesters. The data collected and used to analyze these effects were student observations, student art work, student journal entries, student surveys, and data provided by a third party consulting company. The purpose of this study was to determine if having teaching artists working in an at-risk high school classroom environment could positively affect their students' self-esteem through their arts programming. The results showed …

Electroless Deposition Of Plasmonic Nanostructures On Star Polymer Templates, Melia Tjio

Master's Theses

As an alternative technique, electroless deposition is gaining interest due to its simplicity (solution-based process, no complex instrumentation), economical aspect, and effectiveness to form certain desired film thicknesses and morphologies on a wide variety of substrates. This work describes the use of water-soluble, polyvalent star polymer templates to form spontaneous self-limiting monolayers on complimentary functionalized substrates that act as efficient adhesion layers for the electroless deposition of thin gold films. The resulting gold films display outstanding thickness control, uniformity, reproducibility, and plasmon resonance generation, as evaluated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy …

The Effects Of Bordetella Pertussis On Dendritic Cell Imprinting Of Cd4+ T Cells, Sana Waheed

Master's Theses

Bordetella pertussis is an aerobic gram-negative bacterial pathogen that causes the human respiratory disease whooping cough. Despite widespread vaccination, whooping cough is reemerging due to decreased vaccine efficacy. One of the hallmarks of infection is lymphocytosis, which is induced by the pertussis toxin. Lymphocytes such as CD4+ T cells navigate to infected tissues through surface-trafficking molecules, which are imprinted during their interaction with tissue-associated dendritic cells. We hypothesized that the pertussis toxin affects the imprinting process resulting in altered expression of trafficking molecules on CD4+ T cells. We tested this hypothesis using a mouse model of infection. Imprinting levels on …

Planet Building: A Case Study Of Corporate Sustainability For A Globalized World, Darci L. Arnold

Master's Theses

With the increasing complexities of a globalized 21st-century world, the growing power of industry clusters makes corporations important actors in designing sustainable development strategies. This thesis presents an applied case study at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) as the company designed and launched its award-winning Sensible Sustainability platform. The research was conducted to determine how a large multinational company could create a business case for sustainability, and the results illustrate that value exists for firms engaged in sustainability initiatives.

CBRE's initial no-cost and low-cost activities resulted in increased operational efficiencies and lower costs. Over the course of the research period, the …

Framing Corporate Social Responsibility On The Websites Of Fortune 10 Green Giants, Kriti Ashok

Master's Theses

This thesis reports a framing study of corporate social responsibility on the Internet. The study explores how Fortune 10 Green Giants frame corporate social responsibility on their websites. The Green Giants are Honda, Continental, Suncor, Tesco, Alcan, PG&E, S.C. Johnson, Goldman Sachs, Swiss Re, and Hewlett-Packard. According to Fortune magazine, these 10 companies have gone beyond what the law requires to operate in an environmentally responsible way. The study is focused on the textual content of these 10 corporation websites. The study involves identification of frames, determination of the most used and the least used frames, and identification of patterns …

Effects Of Competition And Dispersal On The Recruitment Of The Annual Kelp Nereocystis Luetkeana, Matthew Suskiewicz

Master's Theses

In central California, the role of algal assemblages on the recruitment of the canopy producing annual kelp Nereocystis luetkeana was examined by experimentally manipulating canopy and understory algae within 1) a Macrocysits bed and 2) a Nereocystis bed. Nereocystis reproductive material was introduced in some plots to examine the role of dispersal distance on recruitment. Nereocystis recruitment at both sites was significantly higher during spring compared to recruitment observed later in the study. Recruitment continued throughout the fall, however, suggesting a broad recruitment window. Recruitment success increased dramatically when understory algae were removed. Presence of a canopy (Nereocystis or …