Digital Commons Network^™

Do Marketers Need To Know? How Firms' Newfound Quest For Customer Data Is Eroding Firm Performance, Victor Garcia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Firms today spend more than 30 billion dollars on marketing data. This obsession with data has been propelled by a firm's ongoing need to better understand its consumers and, in turn, drive positive firm performance. While the relationship between brand equity and firm performance has been confirmed for the last two decades, this study explores how data collection negatively moderates the existing relationship by testing multiple variables of privacy risk. This theoretical paper with a pilot study explores how the conflicting balance of shareholder theory and stakeholder theory can lead firms towards data collection practices that indirectly diminish the firm’s …

Crowding Out Whistleblower Altruism: Examining The Impact Of Whistleblower Incentives And Recognition On Retaliatory Behaviors, Megan Nicole Hiner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Whistleblowers play an instrumental role in exposing organizational wrongdoing and, thereby, helping to remedy the damage endured by stakeholders. However, whistleblower retaliation is rising, its personal impacts to the whistleblower are severe, and fears of retaliation serve as a strong deterrent to prospective whistleblowers. In this dissertation, I draw on motivation crowding theory, which posits that external interventions can crowd out or crowd in intrinsic motivations for engaging in a behavior. I employ a third-party perspective of motivation crowding theory and utilize a 2x3x2 between-participants experimental design to examine factors that impact employees’ perceptions of whistleblower intent and acts of …

Effects Of Crevice Corrosion On Metal Adhesive Performance And Shear Strength In Marine Environments, Westin Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Corrosion is a leading challenge that engineers and researchers face when working in marine environments. Annually, corrosion costs an estimated $2.5 trillion globally and can lead to environmental damage and pose a threat to public safety. This thesis investigates the effects of crevice corrosion on the performance of different epoxy adhesives when mated with stainless steel to determine if using epoxy is a viable option for the development of systems operating in marine environments. To accomplish this, metal-to-metal lap shear samples were created using Araldite 2015-1, Plexus MA560-1, Plexus MA310, and Plexus MA8120 epoxies and different preparation methods. These samples …

Mapless Autonomous Navigation Using Monocular Vision, Sai Digvijay Neelam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This thesis investigates monocular vision-based navigation for autonomous ground robots in indoor environments. It explores the effectiveness of mapless navigation strategies using image inputs and evaluates both modular and end-to-end deep learning techniques. A comprehensive implementation pipeline was developed on a Clearpath Dingo robot, comparing the approaches: classical optical flow (Farneback), modular deep learning with motion planning, and an end-to-end model.

The modular methods involve predicting region-wise obstacle depths using a ResNet 18 based model trained on a custom indoor dataset, followed by a motion planner. The end-to-end approach leverages a ResNet-18 architecture to jointly predict steering angles and collision …

Veterans In Times Of Crisis: The Impact Of Veteran Status On Unemployment, Lubor Olsovsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of veteran status on unemployment in times of crisis. Driven by the social identity theory, we argue that people’s identity deriving from his or her military background makes them more valuable assets in the work environment, specifically in times of crisis, because of their human capital. We utilize the coronavirus pandemic as the exogenous shock in the labor marketplace, capturing the crisis environment. Due to the veterans’ human capital driven by their leadership and entrepreneurial characteristics from their military experience, we argue that individuals with veteran backgrounds have stronger labor …

Top Management Team Composition And Financial Reporting Quality: A Faultline Perspective, Tyler Ricco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This study examines whether faultlines within top management teams (TMT) influence financial reporting quality (FRQ). Faultlines reflect hypothetical divisions within a group based on team members’ unique demographic characteristics and experiences. Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 2003 to 2020, I construct a faultline measure based on executive gender, age, tenure, education, and board experience. I test whether faultlines negatively associate with FRQ, proxied by measures of restatements and accruals quality. I further investigate faultline type, based on the demographic (gender and age) and task-related (tenure, education, and board experience) components. The main results do not support the …

Personalized Persuasion In The Digital Age: A Data-Driven Approach To Effective Communication, Annye Braca

Doctoral

This thesis investigates the potential of Machine Learning (ML) to personalize persuasive marketing messages. It explores the identification of individuals receptive to specific persuasion techniques based on their psychometric profiles. By developing ML models that incorporate these profiles, the thesis aims to predict the impact of tailored messages and improve the effectiveness of marketing communication.

Development Of Holographic Optical Elements For Application In Wound Healing Monitoring, Pamela Stoeva

Doctoral

Growing global healthcare challenges, including the increasing prevalence of chronic wounds, necessitate the development of cost-effective, reusable, and readily accessible sensors for real-time wound monitoring. Such devices could extend basic healthcare to remote areas and support long-term space missions by facilitating on-the-spot wound assessment. Sensors that utilise Holographic Optical Elements (HOEs) are promising candidates due to their diverse sensing capabilities, advantageous physical properties (e.g., lightweight and flexibility), and suitability for mass manufacturing. The fundamental biochemical processes associated with wound healing are typically related to parameters such as oxygen levels, pH, temperature, and lactate concentration. Realtime quantification of these parameters enables …

Highly Sensitive Diffractive Optical Structures For Detection Of Volatile Organic Compounds, Faolan Radford Mcgovern

Doctoral

From aerospace to agriculture, sensors play a fundamental role in many aspects of modern life. Sensors form an integral part of the complex systems and devices required for the continued functioning and development of services and industries across society. The use of sensors is paramount in areas affecting human health, one such area being the monitoring of indoor air quality, in particular the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Human contact with VOCs has been associated with many health complications, including skin and eye irritation, cardiovascular damage, and cancers. Optical, electrical, gravimetric, and chemical sensors have been developed for VOC …

Capacity Building In The Irish Brewing And Distilling Sector For Raw Materials Utilisation, By-Products Management, And Environmental Impact Assessment, Ekene C. Umego

Doctoral

The Irish brewing and distilling sector has shown a consistent increase in number, production output, sales, and export value in the last decade. This has implications for raw materials requirements, assessment, and by-products management for the sustainability of the sector. As a result, the main aim of this research study was to evaluate the status of raw materials use and assessment within the Irish brewing and distilling sector, explore by-products management options and valorisation initiatives, and analyse the environmental impact of Irish whiskey production. The first approach was a survey study to collect data on major raw material inputs use …

Machine Learning Applications In Epigenomics And Its Association With Health And Disease, Trevor Doherty

Doctoral

Epigenetic modifications can lead to altered phenotypes without a change in the DNA sequence itself. Disrupted gene expression regulated by epigenetic processes can result in cancers, autoimmune diseases and various other maladies. Machine learning (ML) involves the use of algorithms and models which are trained to learn patterns in data, and has demonstrated remarkable success in solving diverse, complex challenges. Epigenomic studies, such as those that use DNA methylation (DNAm) data, increasingly make use of ML techniques to process extremely high dimensional data obtained from high throughput platforms e.g., DNAm arrays. These datasets suffer from the curse of dimensionality, increased …

The Detection Of Multiple Human Papillomavirus (Hpv) Types Through The Development Of An Isothermal Dna Amplification Assay, Lauren Powell

Doctoral

Human Papillomaviruses (HPV) belong to the Papillomaviridae family, with over 200 known types classified into high-risk (HR-HPV) and low-risk (LR-HPV) groups based on their carcinogenic potential. While most HPV infections are asymptomatic and transient, persistent infection can lead to health issues, including cervical cancer. Given the high prevalence of HPV and its potential for malignant transformation, nucleic acid amplification assays have become a widely implemented tool for routine HPV testing. This study developed a real-time isothermal DNA amplification assay for the detection and differentiation of multiple HPV types. A universal primer set was designed to target a highly conserved region …

Decreasing Food Waste In Home Kitchens By Increasing Food Literacy, Thao Rich

Student Publications

In a world that produces enough food for all of its occupants, a staggering amount of it bypasses empty stomachs and goes into landfills every day. There it sits in a plastic bag, which delays decomposition and increases the harmful greenhouse gas emissions. There are numerous reasons for the inequitable distribution of food ranging from politics to logistics, but the fact is that each person can make a dent in reducing their carbon footprint by simply reducing the amount of food they place in the trash each week. Food waste reduction is a small goal that requires no additional spending, …

"We'll Never Get This Opportunity Again": Lived Experiences Of Platform-Based Gig Workers, Catey Hoehn

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Platform-based gig work has rapidly expanded in the United States, leading to growing concerns about economic precarity, algorithmic management, and the sustainability of labor performed through apps. Gig work has been accused of fostering exploitative conditions, masking control through the language of flexibility, and deepening cycles of debt and insecurity for workers. However, the lived experiences of gig workers often reveal complexities that differ from public narratives and company portrayals. This thesis builds on sociological studies of labor precarity to examine how platform-based gig workers experience, internalize, and resist algorithmic control. Utilizing qualitative semi-structured interviews, fifteen rideshare and delivery drivers …

Twice-Exceptionalism And The Complexity Of Supporting Students Who Are Both Gifted And Disabled, River Johnathon Taylor

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Drawing on ideas from disabilities studies about compulsory able-bodiedness as well as experiences of disability being fluid and context dependent, this study posits that giftedness, just like disability, is a complex multidimensional form of identity that is both context and temporally dependent. Twice-exceptionalism is defined as an identity in which an individual is gifted in at least one domain of human productivity and manifests at least one disability. Students with unique learning needs (students with disabilities, students with giftedness, and students with twice-exceptionalism) face many complex challenges within Humboldt County, California. Twenty-five educators from Humboldt County working across all grade …

"Gen Z Climate Being": Podcast Series On Youth, Climate Emotions, And Affective Climate Justice, Rachel Wynne Moszkowicz

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

My project is a co-created 6 part podcast series with youth and the program lead from the Climate Mental Health Network’s Gen Z Advisory Board informed by affective climate justice, youth, mental health and education. This work foregrounds the embodied climate knowing and being of youth climate activists, offers ideas for a different relationship to climate change and climate education futures. In this podcast, Gen Zers speak to the youth mental health crisis as it relates to climate. My thesis project engages with and invites conversations that reflect the climate itself, which is non-linear, complex, porous, creative, expansive, and woven …

Resource Guide To Evidence Based Practices For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Guadalupe Cruz

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project seeks to support new teachers who are in their first five years of teaching in the special education field using engaging and visually stimulating infographic tools. Through the analysis and review of evidence-based practices literature and NPDC training. This series of teacher-accessible resources compiles introductory information about 10 most commonly seen Evidence Based practices in the elementary special education settings. Through these resources, the goal is to increase informed decision-making among the IEP team, strengthen teacher confidence, and facilitate EBP implementation in the real-world setting.

An Assessment Of The California Logging Workforce, Kendra Jean Gerstenberg

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

There is limited literature describing the capacity and capabilities of the logging workforce in California. This study examines the logging workforce in California to quantify the number of logging crews, assess demographic diversity, and evaluate capacity and capabilities. The target population was California Licensed Timber Operators (LTOs) who have the legal right to harvest timber. A survey was developed and distributed to LTOs on the CAL FIRE database. Surveys were also distributed at regional logging conferences or collected by phone. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and emergent coding for follow-up interviews was conducted. There …

An Exploratory Attempt To Incorporate Social Criteria Into Spent Nuclear Fuel Site Screening And Relocation, Julie M. Sorfleet

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Spent nuclear fuel, also known as nuclear waste, is the byproduct of nuclear power generation. The need for safe and responsible long-term storage and disposal of radioactive fuel presents significant technical and social challenges. These challenges are compounded by several factors, including the emerging nuclear renaissance in the United States, climate and coastal hazards, and the lack of consolidated interim or permanent storage. This research explores perceptions of risk, relocation, and siting spent nuclear fuel, predominantly focusing on Humboldt County, California. I used online surveys, the Analytic Hierarchy Process, and geographic information systems (GIS) analysis to inform how social and …

An Evaluation Of Fuel Model Accuracy And Multi-Scale Mitigation Strategies In The Wildland-Urban Interface Of Southern Humboldt County, Julia I. Cavalli

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Strategic placement of fuel treatments is critical for mitigating wildfire risk and reducing potential structure losses in wildland-urban interface (WUI) communities. As wildfire activity accelerates across the western United States, the need to identify high-impact fuel treatment locations grows increasingly urgent. Concurrently, housing development in the WUI is expanding, intensifying the exposure of homes and infrastructure to wildfire threats. In response, many communities are looking to mitigate the likelihood and severity of losses during wildfire events. The success of these efforts depends, in part, on robust data to support strategic placement of effective treatments that reduce fuel availability.

This study …

Comparison Of The Division And Fairness Of Household Labor Between The 1980s And Early 2000s, Madeline Rose Provins

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The purpose of this thesis is to examine change in the gendered division of household labor between the 1980s and early 2000s. The division of household labor has historically been inequitable reflecting parallel social hierarchies, power imbalances, and systemic inequalities outside the home.

I used a cohort sample of 1,157 respondents combined from the 1988 Wave 1 of the National Survey of Family and Households (NSFH) and the 2003 Wave 3 to test four hypotheses related to gender and household labor. I found that between 1988 and 2003, the gender gap closed in mean hours a week devoted to indoor …

Factors Influencing Elk Road Crossing Behavior, Brielle Christine Jaglowski

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Highways fragment habitat and can impose barriers to wildlife. Installing wildlife crossing systems creates opportunities for safe animal movement, improved human safety, and reduced property damage. Research identifying key zones of connectivity can aid in providing recommendations for locations of these systems and other tools to improve highway safety. Although elk-vehicle collisions occur broadly across northwestern California, factors associated with these highway crossing zones have not been studied in this region. To address this gap in research, the objective of this study was to evaluate how environmental and structural factors influence the probability of elk (Cervus canadensis) crossing US-101 in …

Housing Cal Poly Humboldt Students, Andrea Santamaria

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Student Housing & Residence Life at Cal Poly Humboldt has been consistently critiqued for the shortage of spaces available and unsuitable student placements. Student input from a 2024 survey is used to call for affordable and equity-based housing accommodations. Results showed that the first factor students consider when selecting between housing options is Cost. More incentives are needed to recruit a higher number of students living on campus. 33.88% (41 students) prefer to live on campus regardless of obstacles or challenges. 66.12% (80 students) would rather live off-campus. Improving housing experiences can decrease low retention, graduation, and recruitment rates, as …

Exploring The Influence Of Ethnic Studies On Latinx Students In Rural Northern California, Georgina C. Salvarrey

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Latinx students have historically encountered a traditional education system that often neglects their perspectives, histories, and epistemologies through curricula and pedagogical practices that favor hegemonic narratives. This marginalization has led to the obscuration of significant aspects of the histories of non-dominant racial and ethnic groups, effectively diminishing students’ ability to engage with both their local and global realities critically. Ethnic Studies, as an academic field, proposes an interdisciplinary educational approach that challenges the colonizing methods inherent in the Western educational paradigm by centering the narratives and experiences of People of Color. This ethnographic study investigates the experiences of Latinx high …

Snag Failure And Fuel Recovery Following Stand-Replacing Fire In The Klamath Mountains, Joseph R. Nicholas

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

High-severity wildfires can produce extensive patches of standing dead trees (snags), which later contribute to surface fuel loading and present a hazard as they decay and fall. In the Klamath Mountains of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon, recent increases in the occurrence of large stand-replacing wildfires have raised concerns about fuel and vegetation recovery trajectories, the likelihood of future fires, and resulting impacts to local communities. Nevertheless, the post-fire environment may offer opportunities to enhance ecological and community resilience. Estimates of snag failure and fuel loading can support land management planning and risk assessment following wildfire, though such work is …

Physiological Conditions Of Barn Owl (Tyto Furcata) Nestlings As Indicators Of Habitat Quality Within The Wine-Growing Region Of Napa Valley, Christian Cortez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The global environmental impacts of increasing agricultural demand a transition to sustainable farming practices, including the use of integrated pest management to decrease reliance on harmful pesticides. Vineyard managers in Napa Valley, California, have implemented this strategy by establishing nest boxes that attract barn owls (Tyto furcata) which, in turn, provide an ecosystem service by removing rodent pests. Studies in this system have found uncultivated landcover to be positively associated with distributional and demographic measures of habitat quality for barn owls, but individual measures have not been thoroughly explored. I examined three physiological conditions of barn owl nestlings …

Patterns Of Tree Damage And Fuels Around Powerlines In Northern California, Zoe J. Ziegler

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Rural powerlines are critical for delivering electricity to communities far from urban areas but present a significant hazard when located in forested regions. During strong wind events, tree failure (i.e., broken branches, snapped stems, and windthrow) can bring combustible material in contact with high-voltage lines, causing electrical outages or setting fire to vegetation below the powerline. Additionally, elevated forest fuel loading can increase wildfire rate of spread and intensity, potentially increasing negative ecosystem impacts and decreasing containment capacity during powerline- ignited wildfires. The risks associated with rural electrical infrastructure, tree failure, and elevated fuel loading emphasize the need for improved …

Groundwater Pumping Impacts On Stream Depletion In Humboldt County, Ca: Integrating Analytical Models And Field Data, Andy Hans Heise

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This study addresses the significant concern of stream depletion from groundwater pumping in Humboldt County, CA. The objective of this study is to develop an analytical model for estimating stream depletion and integrating field data into model parameters.

The methodology involved conducting a field study near three operating wells by a stream, installing stream gages upstream and downstream of the wells, and recording pumping rates and schedules for two of the wells. The third well’s pumping data was synthetically generated, for privacy concerns of the well owner. The StreamDepletR package was used for estimating depletion rates in a stream in …

Exploring Coastal Spaces Of Tribal Sovereignty And Self-Determination In Ancestral Waters Proposed For Offshore Wind Development, Alyssa Suarez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Proposed offshore wind development off California’s North Coast raises novel questions about Tribal sovereignty offshore. This project specifically engages claims, assuming the Yurok Tribe’s framing that offshore wind development poses a coastal hazard. The research followed a co-production framework. The research questions were co-designed with the Yurok Tribe and the research itself governed by a Data Sharing Agreement. The work presents findings from 13 semi-structured interviews with individuals and experts navigating sovereignty in the offshore wind space, including government representatives; lawyers; legal researchers; academics; foundation staff; journalists; and Humboldt Bay community members. Participants identified several key tensions surrounding claims of …

Investigating The Role Of Motivation In Open-Label Placebo Responses, Joshua Worthington

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Placebo effects occur when an individual receives an inactive treatment that should be unable to provide therapeutic benefits but still demonstrates meaningful improvements in health. Open-label placebos extend this phenomenon by providing full disclosure to individuals that they are receiving a placebo, as opposed to traditional placebo treatments that utilize deception. The role of expectancy as a mechanism of change in placebo has received some mixed results in open-label placebo studies. To the author’s knowledge, motivation for change has not been examined in open-label placebo. The current study examined the role of motivation as a mechanism of placebo responses. To …