Digital Commons Network^™

Uncultivated Environmental Tm7 Model To Study Human Disease-Associated Tm7 Bacteria, David Barton

Master's Theses

The TM7 bacterial phylum has no cultivated species and includes members that span a broad range of environmental and human habitats, some of which are associated with human periodontitis. In this project, activated wastewater TM7 bacteria were analyzed and their relatedness compared to human-associated TM7 bacteria for the long-term goal of using an environmental TM7 to better understand TM7 pathogenesis in humans. DNA was extracted from activated wastewater and PCR amplified using TM7 16S rRNA gene- specific primers. The ~1,170 base pair PCR products were then cloned and sequenced. DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis identified environmental TM7 clones with high …

An Iterated Forcing Extension In Which All Aleph-1 Dense Sets Of Reals Are Isomorphic, Michael Haig Vartanian

Master's Theses

If κ is an infinite cardinal, then a subset X of the reals R is called κ-dense if between any a < b, both in R, there are exactly κ elements of X. In these terms, a famous result of Cantor says that in every model of set theory all aleph-0-dense sets of reals are isomorphic (to the rationals, Q). This result cannot be directly extended, however, since for κ =aleph-1 there exist models of set theory in which not all aleph-1-dense sets are isomorphic. On the other hand, Baumgartner has shown by the method of iterated forcing that assuming the consistency of set theory, there does exist at least one model of set theory in which all aleph-1-dense subsets are isomorphic. We present here a detailed, yet expository, account of Baumgartner's result and discuss its relevance to the Proper Forcing Axiom of contemporary set theory.

Host-Parasite Ecology And Description Of The Louse Fly, Allobosca Crassipes, From Madagascar, Stanley Edmondson Vaughn

Master's Theses

The louse fly, Allobosca crassipes (Diptera: Hippoboscidae), is an obligate ectoparasite exclusive to lemurs in Madagascar. Research in Ranomafana National Park (RNP) in southeastern Madagascar has resulted in the identification of a new association of this fly with the black and white ruffed lemur, Varecia variegata variegata, and a confirmed association with Milne-Edwards' sifaka, Propithecus edwardsi. Previous descriptions of A. crassipes were based on only a few specimens, and the type specimen is presumed destroyed. The specimens of A. crassipes collected by SJSU in 2000-2001 provide the largest collection available for the purpose of describing this species.

Habitat …

Nature And Culture Of Strawberry Farmers On California's Central Coast: A Case Study, James D'Albora

Master's Theses

As United States (US) agriculture continues to experience declines in farms and farmers, the organic sector steadily increases in size. Furthermore, survey data show that almost half of the new organic farmers are not conventional farmers who are transitioning to organic, but urban dwellers who have migrated to a new rural setting. Migration theory is used to look at non-economic influences that may be driving these new organic farmers. Through in-depth interviews with 11 organic and conventional small-to-larger strawberry farmers on California's central coast, this study identifies two distinct cultures that now inhabit the agricultural industry of this area. Two …

Implementation Of Risk Management In The Medical Device Industry, Rachelo Dumbrique

Master's Theses

This study looks at the implementation and effectiveness of risk management (RM) activities in the medical device industry. An online survey was distributed to medical device professionals who were asked to identify RM-related activities performed during the device life cycle. RM activities and techniques included Establishing Risk Acceptance Criteria, Hazard Identification, Human Factors/Usability, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA), Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA), Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), Risk Benefit Analysis, and Risk Assessment of Customer Complaint. Devices were identified by type (therapeutic, surgical/clinical tools, …

Riparian Brush Rabbit Habitat Requirements In Caswell Memorial State Park, Clinton Robert Elsholz

Master's Theses

With the rapid growth of agricultural and urban development in California's Central Valley in the 20th and 21st centuries, many habitats, including riparian forests, have been drastically altered. Along with these habitats, species that are dependent on them have also been fragmented and their long-term survival threatened. The riparian brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani riparius) is one such species that has experienced profound population contraction over the past century. This research was conducted at Caswell Memorial State Park ("the Park"), located in Ripon, California, which is the largest remaining habitat fragment within the rabbit's historical range. One objective of this research …

Comparative Study Of The Practice Of Product Placement In Bollywood And Hollywood Movies, Shruti Vinayak Gokhale

Master's Theses

Product placement, or placing brands in movies, is a widely recognized practice that dates from the 1980s. This study is a content analysis of product placement in 15Bollywoodand 15Hollywoodmovies from 2005 to 2009.

Statistical tests showed that there were a significantly higher number of product placements in Hollywood movies that were integrated into the storylines, verbally referred to by characters in the movies, appropriate to the movie scenes, and containingimplied endorsementsby the actors than product placements in Bollywood movies. However, in terms of duration of the time that brands were onscreen, product placements in Bollywood movies in 2006 and 2007 …

Marketing Latin Alternative Music Through Social Networking Sites, Vanessa Ursala Garcia

Master's Theses

This thesis examined the marketing strategies for Latin alternative music used on MySpace, Facebook, and Al Borde (On the Edge). This study found that the understanding of the target demographic was important for implementing successful marketing strategies to niche audiences. Marketing Latin alternative music has not been successful at a mainstream level; therefore, marketers have targeted niche communities on social networking sites. The most dominant strategy used involved the status update feature on Facebook. It allowed musicians and marketers to communicate information and media to a large network of individuals across the country. Three other major strategies included event invitations, …

Use Of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis With Fuzzy Measures In Historical Gis, Jeanne Marie Jones

Master's Theses

Geographic information systems (GIS) can enhance historical research by providing tools to explore the spatial relationships of locations in historical sources. However, no widespread methods currently exist for translating vaguely defined historical spatial information into GIS data formats and producing a location estimate. Other GIS techniques do exist that can model the necessary process. Multi-criteria decision analysis with fuzzy measures can be applied to vague historical records to approximate location. The Wieslander Vegetation Type Map dataset is used to demonstrate the model effectiveness. Results show that this technique successfully translated written descriptions of location into raster, or grid-based, surfaces within …

Learning Financial Literacy In The Family, Maria Paula Calamato

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between parental involvement and student level of financial literacy. Past studies have established that children's financial behavior and attitudes are shaped by their parents who pass on norms and social values to them. Using a convenience sample of 108 undergraduate students at a local state university, the present research tested whether children who had higher levels of financial literacy had parents who had taught them financial knowledge. The results of the test show that students' level of financial literacy is not significantly related to parental involvement.

Morton Subotnick's Ghost Scores: Interaction And Performance With Music Technology, Jeffrey Hanson

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the ghost works of Morton Subotnick and their contribution to the world of sound art and electronic music technologies. Subotnick's work in this area is an integral part of his outstanding achievements, on which there is little collected research. The discussion focuses on the development of Subotnick's designs and techniques that he applied to the construction of the ghost works. Through an exploration of earlier background details, it is shown that tape recording, voltage-controlled technologies, and the analog sequencer provided Subotnick with the means to follow his vision and begin creating "music as studio art." An examination …

Ask Her To Dance, John Casados

Master's Theses

Ask Her To Dance is a work for Wind Ensemble. It is composed in three sections and is based upon two themes, one rhythmic and one melodic.

The pitch material of this piece is built from various transpositions of a nine-note synthetic scale. This scale is essentially a major scale with two additional notes: the minor second above the tonic and the tri-tone above the tonic.

The first section of the piece, lasting approximately three minutes, features a rhythmically augmented, and somewhat modified form of the main melodic theme. The second section is the largest of the piece and features …

The Art Of Camille Rose Garcia: An Existential Fairy Tale, Jennifer De La Cruz

Master's Theses

Camille Rose Garcia is part of a contemporary underground art movement known as Pop Surrealism. An apparent dream-like and unexpected nature borrows from the oeuvre of Surrealism, while an allusion to the familiar and popular denotes similarities to the comic culture of the 1930s and Pop Art of the 1960s. Garcia's paintings are laced with the personal remnants of childhood memories that recall frequent trips to Disneyland and visits to her grandparent's cabin tucked away in the redwood forests of Northern California. Her artwork, a haunting recipe of sweet and sour, beautiful and grotesque, ominous and nostalgic, travels through Los …

Impacts Of Avian Predation On Juvenile Salmonids In Central California Watersheds, Danielle Frechette

Master's Theses

Central California coho salmon () are endangered and steelhead () are threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. As part of local monitoring efforts, Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT tags) are used in population biology and marine survival studies of these stocks. Since 2006, PIT tags have been recovered on Año Nuevo Island (ANI), an important breeding site for several species of seabirds and marine mammals. The objective of this study was to assess magnitude and effects of avian predation on juvenile salmonids in central California. Objectives were accomplished by 1) identifying predators, timing of predation, and quantifying predation using PIT …

Ecology Of Foothill Yellow-Legged Frogs In Upper Coyote Creek, Santa Clara County, Ca, Thomas Earl Gonsolin

Master's Theses

Visual encounter surveys, mark-recapture technique, and telemetry were used investigate breeding, movement, growth, habitat preferences, and predators of foothill yellow-legged frogs on Coyote Creek in Santa Clara County, California, from March 2004 to March 2006. The main stem and tributaries were intermittent in summer in all three years. Thermal conditions for breeding initiation were alike during 2004, 2005, and 2006. Breeding occurred in the main stem on descending limbs of the hydrograph. No breeding occurred in the middle main stem reach, which is ephemeral. Breeding occurred at less than an order of magnitude greater than base flows. Typically, larger females …

Inelastic Analysis Of Steel Moment Resisting Frames In Light-Framed Wood Buildings, Matthew Knutsen

Master's Theses

A preliminary quantitative analysis of steel moment resisting frames as the lateral force-resisting system for light-framed wood buildings was completed to identify issues requiring more advanced study. A two-story prototype building was evaluated. The lateral force-resisting system of the building contains intermediate steel moment frames with reduced beam section (RBS) connections, wood glulam collectors, and wood structural sheathing diaphragms. Building configuration and cross-sectional properties were assumed based on visual observation and typical design standards for local construction. A simplified pushover analysis and a traditional nonlinear pushover analysis were performed on the typical moment frame. It was determined that a total …

Hybrid Rfid-Based System Using Active Two-Way Tags, Girish N. Jadhav

Master's Theses

Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a promising technology that has experienced tremendous growth by revolutionizing a variety of industry sectors and applications, such as automated data management, the tracking of a specified object, highway toll collection, library inventory tracking, multi-level asset tracking, and airport baggage control. For many RFID applications, it is desired to maximize the operating distance or read range.

This thesis proposes a design of an analog front-end architecture and the baseband controller for a Class-4 Active Two-Way (C4-ATW) RFID tag in order to maximize or increase the tracking range by implementing a tag-hopping …

Finding Duplication Events Using Genomevectorizer, Elena Kochetkova

Master's Theses

GenomeVectorizer is a software application designed to extend the functionality of GenomePixelizer, a genome-visualization tool that was developed for the Department of Plant Pathology at University of California, Davis, in 2002. GenomeVectorizer was written using XML, XSLT, and SVG technologies combined with JavaScript scripting to provide the level of flexibility, dynamism, and interactivity not supported by the TCL/TK written application (GenomePixelizer). This new visualization tool was tested with available data from the Arabidopsis NBS-LRR study, and its output was compared to the output of GenomePixelizer. The relationships drawn at the same identity value were identical.

GenomeVectorizer was successfully applied to …

Native Americans In The San Francisco Bay Area: Patterns In Ancient Teeth, Palimpsests Of Behavior, Dave Grant

Master's Theses

NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA:

PATTERNS IN ANCIENT TEETH; PALIMPSESTS OF BEHAVIOR

by Dave Grant

In analyzing burial populations from seven sites in the Santa Clara Valley, patterns on teeth were found that did not conform to the flat normative wear explanation. This study attempts to expand upon the seminal work of Molnar (1968), Hinton (1981), and Keiser (2001a, 2001b) and to propose a definitional refinement of wear patterns found on teeth from populations in Central California. Flat normative wear was present. In addition, four additional distinct wear patterns were found. Wear patterns include slants and scoops …

In Search Of The Creative Scientific Personality, Maya Grosul

Master's Theses

This study investigates whether personality is a valid predictor of creativity in science above and beyond demographic characteristics, such as career age, gender, and scientific discipline. Creativity is an act of making something new, original, and useful. Creative achievement in science is the personal ability to generate original, useful, and adaptive scientific theories, research methods, or empirical findings. Personality characteristics can operate as valid predictors of creative achievement in science. This study surveyed 145 scientists throughout the United States. Total creativity index was computed by standardizing and summing the total number of publications, total number of citations, h-index, and Soler's …

Hip Hip 101: A University Level Course Curriculum For Examining Hip Hop In The Modern World, David Ma

Master's Theses

Hip Hop 101 is a university level course curriculum intended for use by college level educators. It serves as a primer on hip-hop history and includes daily lesson plans that use multi-media tools to scaffold student learning. It was produced under the belief that hip-hop (its music and culture) deserve the time and examination as other longstanding disciplines.

Establishing Community And Research Trust In Public Health Using Service-Oriented Architecture (Soa), Juanita Hun Mah

Master's Theses

One of the major challenges of community-based research is recruitment of community members who will participate in clinical trials, continue for the duration of the trial, and provide accurate sensitive personal information. This challenge can be overcome by establishing greater trust between researchers and communities.

This study focuses on a system to address trust issues between the San Jose Hispanic community and clinical researchers. It describes a methodology for translating non-functional wants and needs into technical requirements that are used as input to a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach to design a solution. Unlike a typical SOA that is derived from …

Psychological And Behavioral Correlates Of Freshman Bmi Change, Rebecca Kathleen Jackl

Master's Theses

This observational research examines body-mass-index (BMI) changes in multicultural freshmen attending a large public urban university. It explores psychological and behavioral factors associated with gains and loss in BMI. The study utilizes an online survey distributed in September 2008 and again in December 2008. All3,509 freshmen were eligible to participate. Initial survey response rate was 29%; in December, 40% of initial respondents completed both surveys (n = 355). A subset of respondents (n = 65) had height, weight, and body composition measured to compare to self-reported data. Mean BMI change was a gain of 0.23 units, but those who gained …

Absence Of Keratin 8 Is Associated With Marked Colon Mast Cell Infiltration, Diana El Bezri Nasser

Master's Theses

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have increased numbers of numbers of intestinal mast cells (MCs). Chymases and tryptases are mast-cell-specific proteases (MCPs) that are reliable indicators of MC degranulation. The role of MCs in the pathophysiology of IBD is poorly understood, and it is unclear whether MCs play a role in patients or in experimental models of IBD. Furthermore, MCs have been characterized only in chemically induced models of colitis. In this study, we characterize MCs in inflamed colons of keratin 8 knock-out mice (K8-/-), a spontaneous model of colitis with primarily an epithelial cell defect. We used histologic, …

Reproductive Den Habitat Characterization Of American Badgers (Taxidea Taxus) In Central California, Katrina Louise Huck

Master's Theses

The American badger (Taxidea taxus) is a species of special concern in California, and, as such, conservation measures are necessary. The goal of this study was to identify potential reproductive den habitat characteristics in order to more accurately predict critical reproductive habitat in central California grasslands. A paired study design was used to examine differences between reproductive and non-reproductive sites, and logistical regression was used to analyze the variables and produce two predictive models, one with biotic factors and one with abiotic factors. Badgers in central Californian grasslands appear to rely on both biotic and abiotic factors when …

Applications Of Boundary Value Problems, Annie Nguyen

Master's Theses

In this thesis, we solved the Saint-Venant's torsion problem for beams with different cross sections bounded by simple closed curves using various methods. In addition, we solved the flexure problem of beams with certain curvilinear cross sections. The first method was derived by Bassali and Obaid. We focused on cross sections bounded by hyperbolas, circular groves, lemniscate of Booth, and sectorial cross sections. The second method used Tchebycheff polynomials to solve the torsion problem corresponding to the circle and ellipse. The third method used conformal mapping to derive the solution of different cross sections bounded by curvilinear edges. The flexure …

An Abridged History Of The Orange, Robert Aho

Master's Theses

The orange is more than a fruit that one can purchase at a supermarket or pick from the tree in the yard. The fruit started as an object of exoticism. It was later transformed into a symbol of purity. Eventually the orange became a vehicle for humanity to demonstrate its mastery over nature. In modern society, oranges are the foundation of enterprises, ones that sustain entire regions of the world. This thesis presents a series of essays, each using aspects of art history and geography, to describe the history of the orange. The intention of this thesis is to introduce …

Numerical Simulation Of Capsule Dissolution In The Usp Apparatus Ii, Jasmine Han

Master's Theses

The capsule is the second most common type of drug dosage form, yet detailed research of capsule dissolution in the USP Apparatus II (a paddle dissolution apparatus that mimics the drug dissolution process in an in vivo environment) is not well reported. In this work, a mathematical model was developed that incorporates both the dissolution of the capsule shell and the slug within the capsule shell. Capsule shell dissolution was modeled with the assumption that the shell undergoes an erosion process only. The capsule slug dissolution model incorporated mass transfer principles, Markov chain theory, and the influence of hydrodynamics on …

Outcomes Of Dialogic Communication Training On A City Government Management Team, Minna Johanna Holopainen

Master's Theses

Managing diversity in today's organizational environments can challenge many organizations. This action research study addresses that challenge by investigating the outcomes of dialogic communication training on a city government management team experiencing organizational diversity. The study consisted of four phases: (1) individual interviews for needs assessment, (2) focus group meeting for training design, (3) dialogic communication training, and (4) individual interviews for assessment of the outcomes. The results of this study indicate that dialogic communication and the development of dialogic style of leadership through dialogic communication training provide a valuable and practical approach for work teams. Specifically, management team members' …

Organocatalytic Decomposition Of Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate) Using Triazabicyclodecene Proposal, Julien Matsumoto Lecuyer

Master's Theses

This study focuses on the organocatalytic decomposition of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD) to form a diverse library of aromatic amides. The reaction scheme was specifically designed to use low reaction temperatures (>150oC) and avoid using solvents during the reaction to provide a more environmentally friendly process. Of all the amines tested, PET aminolysis with aliphatic and aromatic amines demonstrated the best performance with yields higher than 72%. PET aminolysis with click functionalized and non-symmetric reagents facilitated attack on certain sites on the basis of reactivity. Finally, the performance of the PET degradation reactions with secondary amine and …