Digital Commons Network^™

The Fresno State Transportation Challenge, Christian Wandeler, Steve Hart

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Fresno State Transportation Challenge uses an action civics approach to support K-12 students in developing transportation-related projects that have a positive impact on the community. In 2020 the goal was to expand, refine, and create structures to sustain the implementation of the Transportation Challenge across subsequent years. As a result of the COVID pandemic, the process and goals of the project were adapted. The project was extended into April 2021 and was entirely conducted through remote participation. The focus was on two high schools. The expansion into the high school age bracket was successful and the experience with these …

Drivers’ Response To Scenarios When Driving Connected And Automated Vehicles Compared To Vehicles With And Without Driver Assist Technology, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Raghuveer Gouribhatla

Mineta Transportation Institute

Traffic related crashes cause more than 38,000 fatalities every year in the United States. They are the leading cause of death among drivers up to 54 years in age and incur $871 million in losses each year. Driver errors contribute to about 94% of these crashes. In response, automotive companies have been developing vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that aid in various driving tasks. These features are aimed at enhancing safety by either warning drivers of a potential hazard or picking up certain driving maneuvers like maintaining the lane. These features are already part of vehicles with Driver …

Taming The Data In The Internet Of Vehicles, Shahab Tayeb

Mineta Transportation Institute

As an emerging field, the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has a myriad of security vulnerabilities that must be addressed to protect system integrity. To stay ahead of novel attacks, cybersecurity professionals are developing new software and systems using machine learning techniques. Neural network architectures improve such systems, including Intrusion Detection System (IDSs), by implementing anomaly detection, which differentiates benign data packets from malicious ones. For an IDS to best predict anomalies, the model is trained on data that is typically pre-processed through normalization and feature selection/reduction. These pre-processing techniques play an important role in training a neural network to optimize …

Can Californian Households Save Money On Transportation Costs By Living In Transit-Oriented Developments (Tods)?, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

Many residents in large Californian metropolitan areas are heavily burdened by housing costs. Advocates, researchers, and elected officials in California are debating whether transit-oriented development (TOD) could be an effective tool to mitigate the housing affordability problem by increasing housing supply and reducing transportation costs in transit-rich neighborhoods. This study contributes to this debate by estimating how much Californian families can save on transportation costs by living in transit-oriented developments (TODs). By utilizing the confidential version of the 2010–2012 California Household Travel Survey, this study evaluates the impact of TOD on household transportation expenditures by comparing TOD households with two …

Dietary Magnesium Intake And Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus In Ghanaian Women Of Reproductive Age, Helena Bentil

Open Access Dissertations

In several studies conducted in high-income countries, low magnesium intake has been linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, very no studies have been conducted in Africa, where the prevalence of T2DM is increasing in many countries. Furthermore, few studies have investigated the risk of magnesium deficiency in women of reproductive age, a group where lower levels of dietary magnesium intake have been linked to gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy. The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a pilot cross-sectional study to investigate the dietary magnesium intakes of women of reproductive age in …

I See You!: Centering The Lived Experiences Of Collegiate Black Women Engaged In Activism, Chiquita K. Baylor

Open Access Dissertations

Throughout American history, collegiate Black women have been at the forefront of many social and political movements in the United States. However, their voices, experiences, and perspectives have been erased, gone untold, or been excluded from the history, stories, and research on activism, leaving their experience to be interrupted or relayed by someone else. This qualitative research study illuminates the lived experiences of collegiate Black women who engage in activism. Using Sista Circle methodology, a culturally relevant- qualitative research approach, and Black feminist thought as the theoretical framework, this study seeks to explore how ten collegiate Black women from a …

The Development Of An Inclusive Three-Item Gender Instrument, Angela Astorini

Open Access Dissertations

Existing gender instruments are not inclusive and sensitive to all persons of transgender and/or gender diverse experience (TGDE), individuals whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth according to the heteronormative sociocultural construct of gender (Flores et al. 2016; Meerwijk & Sevelius, 2017). The goal of this study was to use a mixed methods approach to develop a new three-item gender instrument that collects information from participants on their sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and the gender they live as in their day-to-day life (lived gender). This gender instrument would aid researchers and health professionals …

Do Good To Feel Good? Investigating Civic Engagement Among Non-College Young Adults, Natalie Fenn

Open Access Dissertations

Young adulthood is a period of transition during which individuals could greatly benefit from health promotion tools. Civic engagement has been touted as one potential form of health promotion given its association with positive well-being. However, researchers have primarily examined civic engagement as a health promotion tool among older adults and adolescents, and less is known about its mental health implications for young adults. Additionally, findings are more mixed among women and those from lower-socioeconomic populations perhaps because civic engagement is conceived as an extra burden. Less-educated individuals are less likely to civically engage and more likely to demonstrate mental …

Using Constructivist Grounded Theory To Unpack How White Women In Stem Become Committed To Racial Justice, Desiree Forsythe

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation presents findings from a constructivist grounded theory study on the process in which white women in STEM commit to racial justice. The research here captures not only the complexity of racial justice activism in white women, both the participants and my own, but is also grounded in the current events of the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted during a particularly brutal string of murders on Black people by law enforcement in the United States. This dissertation serves to unpack how white supremacy is both rejected and embodied by those attempting to commit to racial justice and to …

Uneasy Lies The Head: Tracking A Loophole In Racial Discrimination Law, Kate E. Britt

Law Librarian Scholarship

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Historically, courts have ruled in favor of workplace grooming policies that prohibit most natural Black hairstyles as not unlawfully discriminatory within the scope of Title VII. This article discusses hair discrimination in workplaces and how federal, state, and local legislators are attempting to close this loophole.

Libraries & Legal Research: Resources For Technological Competency, Virginia Neisler

Law Librarian Scholarship

At the time this article was written, Michigan was one of 39 states that included understanding relevant technologies as a part of the duty of attorney competence. In 2019, the Michigan Supreme Court formally adopted a new comment to MRPC 1.1. With respect to competence as covered under this rule, their comment made explicit that all Michigan attorneys should “engage in continuing study and education, including the knowledge and skills regarding existing and developing technology that are reasonably necessary to provide competent representation for the client in a particular matter” [emphasis added].

In February 2020, the State Bar of Michigan …

Michigan's Groundwater And The Public Trust Doctrine, Shay Elbaum

Law Librarian Scholarship

In March, legislators introduced a package of bills in the Michigan House of Representatives that would apply the public trust doctrine to the state’s groundwater. But what is the public trust doctrine and why does it matter if it applies to Michigan groundwater? This column provides an overview of the public trust doctrine and its application to groundwater, a summary of the bills now being considered, and resources for tracking their progress.

Tax Law Is An Ideal Subject For Advanced Legal Research, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Tax law is an ideal regulatory area for advanced legal research classes when you want to teach a comprehensive research topic putting together all of the various case, regulatory, legislative, and analytical sources that are needed in the real world. Since everyone pays taxes, tax is accessible and a good starting point to expend from the first-year common law focus, especially for those students resistant to regulatory research. Every regulatory area is different in terms of agency practice, resources, and the tools available, but tax law is an ideal example area because the tools used by law firms are great …

Synergistically Employing User Stories And Use Cases In The Practice And Teaching Of Systems Analysis And Design, Gary Spurrier, Heikki Topi

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

Over the past three decades, user stories and use cases have become increasingly dominant requirements techniques. Both support articulating functional requirements for software projects, although they evolved within different software development approaches—user stories from agile development and use cases from traditional software engineering—and differ significantly in the level of requirements detail they can capture. As such, user stories and use cases are neither synonyms nor mutually exclusive alternatives. Rather, they can and should be complementary in the systems requirements process. Unfortunately, this mix of similarities and differences—coupled with a lack of formal standards for either—make understanding and synergistically employing user …

What Is Scholarly Legal Writing? An Introduction To Different Perspectives (On Us Qualified Immunity Doctrine), Samuel Beswick

All Faculty Publications

How do you write a law article? It turns out there is no one ‘right way’. Legal problems can be analysed from different angles. Law journals are full of diverse perspectives on the law.

This document provides an introduction to the different types of legal scholarship that can be found in law journals. It illustrates using scholarship on the American judicial doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields government officials from legal liability for ‘constitutional torts’. Qualified immunity can be analysed from the perspective of doctrine, policy, comparative law, history, economics, empirics, sociology, and philosophy. One issue; many perspectives.

Condominium: A Transformative Innovation In Property And Local Government, Douglas C. Harris

All Faculty Publications

Condominium is a form of ownership that produces separate parcels of land and a structure of local government within multi-unit developments. As one form of common interest community, condominium packages private property with a co-ownership interest in common property and rights to participate in the governing organisation. A statutory innovation, the condominium form has been adopted in jurisdictions around the world and has quickly become the dominant form of land ownership for new-build housing in many cities. As an increasingly prominent feature of urban real estate, condominium is changing the nature of ownership and of local government, and is one …

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Opioid Use After In-Patient Detoxification, Megan M. Drohan

Open Access Dissertations

Objective: To identify risk and protective factors for return to opioid use post inpatient detoxification in a sample of persons with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Design and Methods: This study used data from a larger randomized controlled study following 206 eligible individuals who entered in-patient detoxification for OUD. Participants entered the study as part of the observation arm and were assessed for six months following in-patient detoxification. Timeline follow-back assessment was used to identify if and when participants returned to opioid use post-detoxification. A series of bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify risk and protective …

Environmental Context And Expectancy Of Alcohol Use On Changes In Reflection-Impulsivity And Craving, Christina T. Schulz

Open Access Dissertations

The present study primarily aimed to (a) determine the effects of environmental context and the expectancy of alcohol consumption on changes in reflection-impulsivity (R-I), a state behavioral aspect of impulsivity and (b) test R-I as a mediator of the association between environment, expectancy of alcohol consumption, and subjective craving for alcohol in a sample of college-aged heavy drinkers. Participants were 81 (76.5% female) college students between the ages of 21 and 29 (M = 21.86, SD = 1.87) who were classified as heavy drinkers. Participants first completed measures of alcohol use, trait impulsivity, behavioral R-I, and subjective craving for …

Msw Graduates Process Of Readiness For The Social Work Field, Karin L. Capobianco

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study is to inquire from a total of 25 faculty, field supervisors, and recent alumni their formal and informal observations of Master level Social Work graduates’ process of readiness for the profession. Through the methodology of constructivist grounded theory and the methods of focus groups and individual interviews, this study seeks to explore the process of readiness for recent MSW graduates by examining the participants’ perceptions of the students’ readiness for the field. This perception of readiness is different than the benchmarks of the traditional components used for MSW graduate level students. The findings revealed …

Learning To Visualize: Middle-Level Learners Analyzing And Designing Science Infographics, Mark Davis

Open Access Dissertations

Infographics are part of daily life because of the rise of digital media and technology, as learners now encounter a barrage of images carefully designed to convey data and information through social media. But what happens in the classroom when young learners first encounter this expressive genre? This case study examined a unit of instruction on analyzing and creating infographics in a content-area middle school classroom. Data included classroom observations through video and audio recording, examination of a student graphic organizer and student-designed infographics, and semi-structured interviews with students and the facilitating teacher. Results show that students learned how to …

Exploring The Experiences And Motivations Of Women Who Lead And Engage In Change Work At Their Home Institution, Maria Muccio-Raposo

Open Access Dissertations

Higher education has the power to facilitate social and economic mobility, as well as academic and personal growth for individuals, families, and communities. The problem is not located in the potential of institutions, but rather in some of the economic and social forces that influence the operations and actions in higher education, such as Academic Capitalism (Slaughter & Rhoades, 1997) and neoliberal ideology (Harvey, 2006; Giroux, 2002). This study sought to understand the forces at play that draw institutions away from the free thinking and transformative power of higher education and how participants recognize and respond to systemic issues in …

Broken Dozer, Haunted Vale: The Ecopoetics Of Ambient Language, Andrew Merecicky

Open Access Dissertations

Broken Dozer, Haunted Vale is a collection of poetry that explores the principles of ambient language poetics as articulated in its critical introduction. Rather than a poetic focused on a set of thematic concerns, ambient language poetics is an ecopoetic that addresses the writing process itself and proposes an alternative to the internal/external spatial metaphor that inspires creative writing pedagogy premised on the urgency of self-expression. The poems within the collection are an experimental inquiry into what might be possible in making poems if the activity of reading/writing is not motivated primarily by representational and mimetic aims that are described …

The Impacts Of The Invasive Green Iguana (Iguana Iguana) On Agricultural Production And The Communities Of Puerto Rico — An Interdisciplinary Assessment, Christina N. De Jesus Villanueva

Open Access Dissertations

Invasive species are one of the most pressing threats to the conservation of biodiversity, to human health, and the economy today. Agricultural production and invasive species are often entangled in a complex web of interactions that ultimately decrease agricultural yield and lead to billions of dollars in losses. With no indicators of slowing globalization, it is imperative that we monitor the movement of potential pest species, prevent new introductions, and mitigate the impacts of invasive species. Comprehensive monitoring of potential invasions is not always possible, however, since it is often after a species is established that wildlife management and agricultural …

Development Of Fragility Curves For Reinforced Dunes To Improve The Resiliency Of Coastal Communities, Brian Maggi

Open Access Dissertations

This body of work consists of four manuscripts regarding coastal vulnerability assessment methods, the use of geosynthetics to reinforce coastal systems including case studies, and the development of fragility curves to quantify the resilience of reinforced coastal systems.

Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Methods

Recurring hazards have the potential to continually degrade natural and constructed

coastal protection systems especially if the time between subsequent hazards is shorter than a natural recovery cycle or an assess-scope-fund-construct recovery project timeline. The natural recovery process cannot be changed, so the efficiency of assessing hazard impacts and implementing resilient recovery efforts needs improvement to minimize the …

Parallelization Of Vectorized Self-Organizing Maps In Hardware Accelerator Architectures, Omar X. Rivera Morales

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation presents the culmination of research performed over six years into developing a parallel and stochastic implementation to the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) Computer Science Department Vectorized Self Organizing Maps (VSOM) algorithm. The Parallel VSOM (Par-VSOM) and the High-Level Synthesis VSOM (HLS-VSOM) algorithms are inspired by ideas from tensor algebra and are implemented using parallel kernels and vectorization in modern hardware accelerators.

The map quality generated by the algorithm is of significant importance since higher quality maps provide in-depth knowledge that allows the researcher to identify clusters of information within the datasets. Furthermore, of importance is developing a …

To Scale Dragons: Comprising Things Lost And Two Essays On Fantasy, André V. Katkov

Open Access Dissertations

To Scale Dragons comprises two essays on fantasy and a fantasy manuscript, which together form a critical-creative study of fantasy as a cross-media genre of art. In the first essay, “Fantasy as Hypernatural Art: A Look at the Genre’s Chthulucentric Coalescence,” I provide a theoretical foundation for fantasy as art, looking to key developments in the history of fantasy and fantasy criticism to propose a new set of core properties for fantasy as a fuzzy set, à la Brian Attebery, and defend an understanding of fantasy as the art of constructing and conveying immersive hypernature. In particular, I argue that …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness And Safety Of Direct Oral Anticoagulants Versus Warfarin In Chronic Liver Disease, And After Anticoagulant-Related Major Bleeding, Oluwadolapo D. Lawal

Open Access Dissertations

The introduction of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in the last decade have greatly expanded available treatment options for the management of thromboembolic diseases. Based on their non-inferiority in efficacy and safety, and more convenient dose monitoring and adjustment compared to warfarin, DOACs are now considered the first-line treatment option in the management and prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). While the use of DOACs continues to increase in the general population, limited evidence exists to support its use in chronic liver disease (CLD). Of note, individuals with elevated liver enzymes, liver cirrhosis or CLD were excluded …

Black Feminist Autoethnography: How Identity Can Affect Peer Review Practices In The College Writing Classroom, Eileen M. James

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores the importance of embodied teaching pedagogy as it relates to peer review practices in the college writing classroom. This work uses autoethnography as a research method, exploring issues of (dis)embodiment and experiences with collaborative learning in classrooms. In addition to a review of applicable literature focused on peer review practices, writing pedagogy, and Black Feminist Autoethnography, this dissertation contains narrative sections from the viewpoint of the subject--a Black woman--as a student, an instructor, and a researcher working to examine her experiences and how they demonstrate the need for embodied approaches in the classroom. The purpose of this …

Protein Pairing And Lipid Linking: Physicochemical Properties Of Poly- And Perfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) Influence Their Interactions With Macromolecules, Jessica Alesio

Open Access Dissertations

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a growing class of synthetic compounds used in a wide variety commercial and residential applications due to their hydrophobic and oleophobic properties. Since this body of work began, the list of the number of PFAS has grown from 1,000 to over 4,200. As this number increases, there is a pressing need to quickly understand a) if certain PFAS are harmful to humans and the environment and b) how harmful each compound is. The objective of this work was to characterize PFAS binding to proteins and lipid bilayers. Better understanding of these mechanisms aids in …

The Mechanistic And Etiological Link Between Bile Acid Dysregulation And Preterm Birth, Syed Fayaz Ul Haq Hashmi

Open Access Dissertations

Preterm birth (PTB) is the major determinant of perinatal morbidity and mortality, and accounts for the second most common cause of neonatal death across the world. Approximately, one in every ten newborns is born prematurely (before 37 completed weeks of gestation) amounting to an estimated global 15 million premature births every year. Preterm neonates are vulnerable to a wide range of short and long term metabolic, infectious, neurological, and respiratory morbidities. PTB is characterized by different complex multifactorial process manifested by diverse pathogenetic mechanisms. Despite many efforts to understand the timing of parturition, the molecular mechanisms through which PTB is …