Digital Commons Network^™

Mechanism By Which Commensal Bacteria Limit Inflammation, Mallory Paynich

Dissertations

Trillions of bacteria live within the gastrointestinal tract and are critical for maintaining intestinal homeostasis; however, the mechanisms utilized by specific bacterial molecules to contribute to homeostasis are not well understood. We utilize a mouse model in which a single oral dose of the probiotic, Bacillus subtilis, protects mice from acute colitis induced by the enteric pathogen Citrobacter rodentium. Our goal is to elucidate the mechanism by which B. subtilis prevents inflammation.

We identified exopolysaccharides (EPS) to be the active molecule of B. subtilis, and a single dose of EPS protects mice from disease. EPS binds F4/80+CD11b+ peritoneal macrophages, and …

Improving Causal Claims In Observational Research: An Investigation Of Propensity Score Methods In Applied Educational Research, Julie Diane Wren

Dissertations

This study used existing institutional data from a large, urban, public, very high research university to compare sixteen matching schemes, built from three separate datasets, to estimate the propensity score, achieve balance between groups and test the sensitivity of the average treatment effect (ATE). For each PS model, four different conditioning strategies were applied. The first four matching schemes used commonly collected data available within a student information system (referred to as SIS dataset). The next four matching schemes combined the SIS dataset with data from an entering student survey (referred to as ESS dataset). The next four matching schemes, …

Keeping Schools Catholic: Discipleship As Paradigm For Administrators, Teachers, Staff And Students, James (Deporres) Charles Durham

Dissertations

Of the many accomplishments of the Catholic Church in the United States, one of the most known is the Catholic School System. In 1965, over 4.4 million children were educated in the 10,667 Catholic elementary schools, and almost 700,000 in the 1,527 Catholic high schools (Center for Applied Research for the Apostolate, 2013). The mission of the school was embodied, literally, in these skilled male and female religious who taught in these schools. But the number of male and female religious was not sustained, leading to the question of how the religious mission of the school will continue. The number …

Understanding Academic Achievement Among Low-Income, Urban, Black Adolescents: The Role Of Father Involvement, Patrick Henry

Master's Theses

Although the Black-White test score gap has improved over time, it still persists. Furthermore, this academic risk for Black youth is compounded by the disproportionate representation of Blacks among low-income families in the U.S. Thus, the present study aims to shed light on factors related to greater academic success among adolescents in low-income, urban, Black families. Overall, this study addresses the following question. How does the presence of a biological father and positive father involvement impact the academic achievement of their adolescent children? Data from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study (TCS) were analyzed in order to address …

Waiting On You: A Study Of Tipped Minimum Wages' Effects On Job Tenure Among White Restaurant Servers, John Henry Sienkiewicz

Master's Theses

Many restaurant servers do not make adequate earnings under the current tipped wage system in America. On top of this, restaurant servers largely lack benefits such as paid sick days and health insurance. Unsurprisingly, those in the food and accommodation industry exhibit among the highest rates of voluntary turnover. As research has shown that raising the non-tipped, standard minimum wage decreases employee turnover and increases overall job tenure, it follows that increases in the tipped minimum wage may increase job tenure for restaurant servers. Using survey data from nearly 1700 white restaurant servers from 2006, this multiple regression analysis shows …

Dying To Better Themselves: West Indians And The Building Of The Panama Canal, Written By Olive Senior, Michael L. Conniff

Faculty Publications, History

A book review of Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal, by Olive Senior. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2014. xxiii + 416 pp. (Paper US$ 40.00)

Reframing Pictures: Reading The Art Of Appropriation, Liz Linden

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Three Years Of Unmediated Document Delivery: An Analysis And Consideration Of Collection Development Priorities, Emily Chan, Christina Mune, Yiping Wang, Susan Kendall

Faculty and Staff Publications

Like most academic libraries, San José State University Library is struggling to meet users’ rising expectations for immediate information within the financial confines of a flat budget. To address acquisition of nonsubscribed article content, particularly outside of business hours, San José State University Library implemented Copyright Clearance Center’s Get It Now, a document delivery service. Three academic years of analyzed data, which involves more than 10,000 requests, and the subsequent collection development actions taken by the library will be discussed. The value and challenges of patron-driven, unmediated document delivery services in conjunction with traditional document delivery services will be considered.

Faculty, Students, And Perceptions Of Library Value, Ann Agee, Bernd Becker

Faculty and Staff Publications

“What do you value most about the library?” A single open-ended question on a recent San José State University survey of faculty and students revealed a world of difference between what these two groups want from a library. Students valued the library for the quiet space it offered. They commented less on the library collection and more on library services. Faculty, however, valued the variety and quality of the library resources. Their responses focused on the collection, with an emphasis on the print collection’s breadth and depth. Not only did student and faculty responses differ, but among the faculty, different …

Effectiveness Of Library Staff Training On Use Of Gimlet In Reference Statistics Recording, Emily Chan, Jennifer Dinalo

Faculty and Staff Publications

This study focuses on library employees’ reference question coding accuracy. Employees were asked to code questions using the Warner Scale both before and after a library-wide training session on reference question coding. Initial results indicate that the training session had little impact on overall accuracy, but improvements were seen in specific employee demographic groups and for coding between specific question levels. Future efforts will focus on developing a more effective training model for all library employees.

Defining Success In Scholarly Communications: A Survey Of California Librarians, Emily Chan

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Critical Literacy For Information Professionals, Ann Agee

Faculty and Staff Publications

A review of the book Critical Literacy for Information Professionals edited by Sarah McNicol. “Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information,” wrote Paulo Freire in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed(Herder and Herder 1970, 79). Freire argued that rather than viewing students as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge—termed the “banking model” of education—teachers should recognize and value students’ individual perspectives and life experiences. Today’s critical literacy movement has its roots in Freire’s philosophy. When taught critical literacy methods, students begin from the viewpoint that there can be no single “correct” way to interpret information. Instead, …

Library News, Winter 2016, San Jose State University Library

Library News

No abstract provided.

Adenovirus Evasion Of Cell-Intrinsic Immunity, Andrew Michael Burrage

Dissertations

Virus cell entry represents one of the earliest opportunities for a host to respond to infection. Understanding the processes of pathogen detection and restriction employed by the host, as well as strategies utilized by the virus itself to evade such processes, is critical in developing therapeutics to counter pathogenesis. Adenovirus (Ad) infections are self-limiting in healthy populations, but can be devastating to individuals with compromised immune systems. Currently, no specific antiviral treatments exist to combat Ad infections in susceptible populations. However, because Ad infections are not severe in healthy individuals, employing replication-defective Ads as vaccine vectors is generally regarded as …

Atomic Oxygen Adsorption And Absorption On Rh(111) And Ag(111), Jonathan Derouin

Dissertations

A central question in the field of heterogeneous catalysis is how surface structure and subsurface species influence catalytic behavior. One key to answering that question is determining which surface structures and subsurface species are present under catalytically relevant conditions. This dissertation presents results of Auger electron spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, temperature programmed desorption, and scanning tunneling microscopy experiments on oxidized Rh(111) and Ag(111) crystals. Exposing Rh(111) to O2 produced a predominately (2 × 1) adlayer, but even after extended dosing, (2 × 2) domains were also present. Exposing Rh(111) to atomic oxygen yielded O coverages greater than 0.5 ML …

United States Foreign Policy Toward Hiv/Aids In Africa: The Role Of Pharmaceutical Companies In The Formulation And Implementation Of The President’S Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (Pepfar) 2003-2008, Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula

Dissertations

During his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and asked Congress, over the next five years, to authorize the appropriation of $15 billion to provide treatment, prevention and care to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the existing pattern of neglect and indifference in U.S.-Africa relations and the Bush campaign’s statement in 2000 dismissing Africa from his foreign policy priorities, what then justifies his administration’s undertaking of this massive foreign policy change?

My dissertation offers insight into the role played by private US pharmaceutical companies …

Emature: Intergenerational Networks In Digital Media Spaces, Andras Lukacs

Dissertations

While the literature on adolescent usage of the Internet and mobile communication technology is burgeoning, the technological affordance of increased intergenerational contacts and intergenerational friendships received less attention. This project documents how intergenerational virtual networks operate in one particular massively multiplayer online game (World of Warcraft) from the standpoint of adolescent players. Online social worlds are similar to offline settings in a lot of ways. Users must obey certain behavioral standards and follow established rules and moral codes to participate. Despite accounts of online democracy and networked individualism, control and authority is central to the functioning of these environments. Power-relationships …

Scribal Harmonization In Greek Manuscripts Of The Synoptic Gospels From The Second To The Fifth Century, Cambry Pardee

Dissertations

Harmonization in manuscripts of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) has been recognized as a textual phenomenon since at least the late second century. This dissertation constitutes the first major catalogue of assimilated readings and provides evidence for the nature of harmonization in the earliest period of the development of the text of the New Testament.

Harmonization occurs whenever a scribe copying a Gospel by hand introduces a textual variant that reflects the influence of parallel material from another Gospel or gospel tradition. The body of this dissertation is a text-critical analysis of every harmonizing variant in the forty-four …

Development Of "Inside-Out" Pegylated Crosslinked Hemoglobin Polymers: Novel Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carriers (Hboc), Kyle Douglas Webster

Dissertations

The development of an effective blood substitute is urgent due to increasingly common blood shortages, the need to type-match donated blood, and communicable diseases (e.g. HIV) posing risks for blood transfusions around the world. There have been many attempts at creating hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOC) using a variety of techniques centered around the use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) conjugated to hemoglobin (Hb) tetramers. A novel method, “Inside-Out” PEGylation, has been developed by our lab to produce a polyethylene glycol crosslinked hemoglobin (PEG XL-Hb) polymer. This method utilizes a single PEG backbone that is surrounded by multiple proteins, instead of covering …

Expectations And Quality Of Life During The Antepartum And Postpartum Period, Mary Kathryn Adams

Dissertations

During pregnancy, women frequently anticipate birth and motherhood with unrealistic images and expectations which are formed by personal experience and society’s portrayal of motherhood (e.g., books and movies). How these expectations impact the postpartum period for women has not been well studied. However, research has identified a link between maternal expectations, reality, and negative emotional responses. When expectations are met, the experience of motherhood may be a positive one. However, when these expectations are not met, the potential for negative emotional responses may be greater. The postpartum period is a significant period of adjustment, and depression occurs in about 13%–19% …

Performance Of Individuals And Teams On Cryptographic Tasks: Factors That Affect The Consideration Of Alternative Strategies, Joseph Bihary

Dissertations

The two studies presented here examined factors that might affect teams’ and individuals’ tendency to follow outside advice when attempting to solve a complex problem known as letters-to-numbers. Past research on group dynamics suggests that a lack of group consensus or homogeneity reduces group members’ confidence in their group’s abilities, and may lead members both to seek and accept advice from outside the group. Study 1 experimentally manipulated group diversity in task performance strategies in order to investigate whether dyads whose members have divergent perspectives are more likely than homogeneous dyads to consider and use a problem-solving strategy presented from …

Cardiac Calcium Atpase Dimerization Measured By Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer And Chemical Cross-Linking, Daniel Blackwell

Dissertations

The cardiac sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (SERCA) establishes the intracellular calcium gradient across the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane. It has been proposed that SERCA forms homo-oligomers that increase the catalytic rate of calcium transport. We investigated SERCA oligomerization in rabbit left ventricular myocytes using a photoactivatable cross-linker. Western blotting of cross-linked SERCA revealed higher molecular weight species consistent with SERCA oligomerization. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements in cells transiently transfected with fluorescently-labeled SERCA2a revealed that SERCA readily forms homo-dimers. These dimers formed in the absence or presence of the SERCA regulatory partner, phospholamban (PLB) and were unaltered by PLB phosphorylation …

Earthly Destruction: Catholic Social Teaching, War, And The Environment, Daniel Cosacchi

Dissertations

For more than 1700 years in Christian theology, there has been a chasm between just war thinking and pacifism. Advocates of these two ideological positions have attempted to bridge this divide in a number of ways through the centuries. Some, such as Glen Stassen, have brought together thinkers on both sides of the divide to propose a just peacemaking theory. Others, such as Michael Schuck, Mark Allman, and Tobias Winright, have added new stages to just war thinking in order to make that existing tradition more robust. Some groups may identify as contingent pacifists. These would generally accept the criteria …

Kant, The Natural Law, And The Question Of Normativity In Catholic Ethics, John Robert Crowley-Buck

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the question of normativity in 21st century Catholic ethical reflection. While, today, the natural law tradition frames and founds the normative question in Catholic ethics in terms of the imago Dei, this project explores the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant and the challenge it presents to the natural law's claim to normativity. Specifically, this dissertation argues that in Kant's ethics, the normative question is answered in terms of the dignity of humanity, rather than the imago Dei, and that the dignity of humanity is a more relevant, shareable, and normative grounding for ethical reflection. To this end, …

Dating Violence Prevention Through A Change In Gender Norms, Katie Doud

Dissertations

Gender norms that promote male dominance and control lead to greater violence against females and deleterious health effects for males (Reed, Raj, Miller & Silverman, 2010). A strict adherence to female gender roles is associated with a greater likelihood to be in an abusive relationship and a greater length of time to leave an abusive relationship (Molidar & Tollman, 1998). Adolescence is a developmental time where boys and girls rigidly follow gender stereotypes (Alfieri, Ruble, & Higgins, 1996). Three-fourths of adolescents have been in a dating relationship by their senior year in high school (Carver et al., 2003). The combination …

Evaluating The Impact Of Integrative Mental Health Treatment In Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bella Etingen

Dissertations

High numbers of US Veterans experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but, many do not subsequently seek mental healthcare. Integrated mental health (IMH) models of treatment bring mental health professionals into the primary care setting, allowing Veterans to receive comprehensive treatment during primary care visits. The IMH treatment model may bridge the gap for Veterans with PTSD who need care and those who actually receive it. This study examined the impact that IMH has on Veterans with PTSD receiving care from VA. Using several methods of data collection (medical chart reviews, VA administrative databases, a mailed survey of patient perception of …

A Higher Law: Transatlantic Revolution And Antislavery Radicalism In Early America, 1760-1800, Anthony Di Lorenzo

Dissertations

During the Age of Revolution, abolitionist ideas interacted with notions of liberty, independence, and equality. Although slavery often served as a metaphor, in opposition to freedom, it also had tangible meanings for the enslaved. This study traces the development of revolutionary beliefs that connected reformers and abolitionists across the Atlantic world, as well as the rise of conservative ideologies that divided them. Democratic politics, religious enthusiasm, and abolitionism converged in the late eighteenth century, with significant implications for antislavery efforts. The French Revolution, in particular, represented the culmination of radical Enlightenment ideals and emboldened democrats in the United States, contributing …

Remains To Be Seen: Execution And Embodiment In The Early English Atlantic World, Erin M. Feichtinger

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the development of capitalism in the early English Atlantic World (1580 - 1752) and the manipulation of the legal system to criminalize the laboring body in order to more fully exploit the productive output of labor.

Dreamers And The College Dream: A Case Study Analysis Examining The Influences Of High Schools And High School Agents, Aliza Joy Gilbert

Dissertations

This dissertation study contributes to a nascent field of research on undocumented students and college access. Rooted in a conceptual framework of models of college choice, this study utilizes case study methodology to examine how a high school and its agents influence an undocumented student’s college choice process. The unit of analysis is a suburban public high school located in the Midwest.

Data collection included semi-structured interviews of students, teachers, counselors, and college counselors, observation of college counseling programs, and document review of college related materials. The constant comparative method was the primary system of data analysis. The coding process …

Social Skills In Youth With Spina Bifida: A Longitudinal Multimethod Investigation Of Bio-Neuropsychosocial Predictors, Christina Ehrman Holbein

Dissertations

Objective: Despite research documenting social dysfunction in youth with spina bifida (SB), little is known about the etiology of these social difficulties; most investigations identifying predictors of social deficits have concentrated exclusively on one domain. This longitudinal study examines the relative predictive power of neurocognitive (attention and executive function), family (cohesion and conflict), and health-related (body mass index, condition severity) variables on later social skills in youth with SB.

Methods: 112 youth with SB (T1 mean age = 11.19 years) and their families participated in study visits two years apart. Study variables were assessed by multiple methods (questionnaire, medical chart …