Digital Commons Network^™

Bullying Prevention In A Preschool Setting, Audrey Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on anti-bullying and bullying prevention in early childhood education settings. Bullying is something that plagues schools across America. However, bullying in an early education setting can be difficult to distinguish because it can be misinterpreted as children discovering how to express negative emotions. According to Saracho (2016), preventing bullying in a preschool setting is important because it is a child’s first social environment outside the home. Educating children on bullying and how to prevent it in an early education setting is important because this is their first experience with peers and potential conflicts amongst these peers. …

Addressing Food Insecurity Among College Students, Serena Plares

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In this capstone project, the focal topic was food insecurity and food assistance with the target population being college students attending California State University Monterey Bay. This demographic includes a diverse group of young adults from various socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures. Food insecurity is rampant across our country, county, and college campuses. It impacts families and individuals of all backgrounds and there is a need for knowledge pertaining to this topic and affordable, nutritious food access and resources. One in three children and one in four adults are affected by food scarcity in Monterey County and thirty-four percent of county …

Informing Adolescents About Potential Internet Risks And Tools For Safely Navigating Online Spaces, Rhiannon Jean Elliot

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on digital safety for adolescents who have already been or are accessing online spaces for the first time. Adolescents today have been growing up in the age of technology and are likely to have had access to digital devices, such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and gaming consoles, from a much younger age than previous generations. Today, 96% of teens in the U.S. say they use the internet daily, with about 95% of teens reporting having a smartphone (Faverio & Sidoti, 2024). With adolescents accessing the internet more often, they must understand the risks they may encounter …

Imposter Syndrome: Navigating As A First-Generation College Student, Jessica Hamm

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focal topic of this capstone project is navigating imposter syndrome among first-generation college students. Imposter syndrome is an internal experience in which you believe you are less capable than others judge you to be. It is a mental state in which you doubt your own talents/abilities. In a community jeopardized by an influx of what is called imposter syndrome, there exist students who are high achieving yet fail to recognize their success as being earned or deserved. Imposter syndrome describes an individual who is high achieving yet fails to recognize their success as being earned, but instead attributes it …

Increasing Emergent Literacy In Preschool-Aged Children, Yuliana Morales Santiago

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on teaching preschool-age children from low-income backgrounds about emergent literacy. Emergent literacy is the foundation of learning to read and write. Before children begin learning to read and write, they develop pre-literacy skills such as understanding that print carries meaning, exploring books independently, and letter knowledge. Many preschool children are not taught the fundamental steps of building literacy development at home because of a lack of resources or knowledge due to socioeconomic status. Carroll et al. (2018) found a link between home literacy environment and socioeconomic factors, such as caregivers' education and the type of employment …

Increasing Social-Emotional Development In Early Childhood, Brianna Navarro

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on increasing social-emotional development of 5- to 7-year-old children. Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a methodology that helps students of all ages better comprehend their emotions, feel emotions to the fullest extent, and demonstrate empathy for others. These learned behaviors are then used to help students make positive, responsible decisions, create frameworks to achieve their goals and build positive relationships with others. Researchers indicate that social-emotional learning promotes scholastic achievement, well-being, and positive life outcomes and can be a powerful tool for prevention and resilience when embedded with intentionality in curriculum, instruction, and school climate (Durlak et …

Helping Preschool Students Understand Emotions, Kenia Escobar

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focal topic of my capstone project is preschool-aged children’s social-emotional development. Young children are in the time they learn from experiences. New studies show that adults benefit from social-emotional learning (SEL) when it is implemented during early childhood (Newman & Moroney, 2019). The need for service provides preschool children with tools to help them feel a sense of belonging, express their feelings, and establish relationships. I have developed a series of activities and lessons to help preschoolers learn more about feelings and relationships. First, emotional self-awareness will be covered because when preschoolers become aware of their emotions, their leadership, …

Mental Health Awareness In Adolescents And The Impact Of Social Media, Vanessa Clark

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on informing parents of the effects of social media on adolescents’ mental health. Adolescents are frequent users of social media as they are more likely to explore online content and be unaware of the potential dangers that can pose a threat to their mental health (Rapee et al. 2019). Due to social media being difficult to monitor at all times, along with advances in technology through school curriculums, we want to acknowledge its presence and usage. Social media allows the opportunity to connect with others digitally but there needs to be awareness of the potentially harmful …

The Importance Of Nutrition Education In Early Childhood, Alexi Larios

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project aimed to highlight the importance of nutrition education in early childhood. I chose this topic because studies have shown a steady increase over the years in children’s diet-related illnesses (Baker & Bjerregaard, 2023). Many factors have contributed to this increase such as media and marketing. Companies use their marketing strategies to target the interests of children and persuade them to desire their unhealthy products (Taillie et al., 2019). This strategy leads to children purchasing and consuming processed foods, high in sugar and empty calories. Another important component in childhood nutrition is socioeconomic status. People from lower socioeconomic …

Emotional Development Support For Kindergarteners, Miriam Elizabeth Abundis Hernandez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

My project is centered on supporting the emotional growth of kindergarten children. Understanding what emotions are, identifying one's own and other people's feelings, and creating useful coping mechanisms are all parts of emotional growth. It is problematic when kindergarteners are unable to communicate or comprehend their feelings because it makes it difficult for them to self-regulate and obtain the assistance they require. Conflicts with the kids and their peers as they get older could result from this in the future. Instruction on recognizing emotions and expressing them to others is necessary. The majority of kids are aware of the fundamentals …

Increasing Sportsmanship In Middle Childhood Sports, Treya Soriano

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on children’s development of sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is the act of having a good attitude and playing fair. Good sportsmanship can be practiced by players, coaches, and spectators. The problem with sportsmanship in childhood sports is that there is a noticeable lack of sportsmanlike behaviors while participating in athletic competitions. This can include physical education class, a sports team, or just playing tag at recess. An estimation of 57.6% of youth in the United States participate in at least one sport (Bolter et al., 2018) and while they may not stick with it as they grow older, …

Teaching Future Educators How To Support Students With Adhd, Rachel Schweikhard

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The topic of my capstone project is teaching future educators how to support school-age students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is one of the most common mental disorders of children in the United States. According to the CDC (2023), an estimated 9.8% (6 million) of kids ages 3-17 are diagnosed with ADHD. Because of the difficulties that are symptomatic of ADHD, students with the disorder often fall behind and struggle in school. Many of the symptoms deal with difficulties in executive functions. Executive functioning is the cognitive processes related to skills such as planning, regulation, and memory. These …

Nutrition Among 5th Grade Students, Nicholas Villanueva

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on educating 5th grade students about nutrition. Three lessons were presented in a span of two days where students learned terms specified behind a food label. Some terms include Calorie, Carbohydrate, Proteins, Fats, and high sugar foods. Students learned about healthy portion sizes, the five different food groups, and why physical activity is important for your health. With the curriculum presented to the students I hope all students can use these lessons to make healthier decisions when it comes to their food and health. By doing so it can be a start to a healthier lifestyle.

Bullying Behaviors In Middle School Special Education Settings, Maria Teresa Reyes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Middle school students with learning disabilities face a higher risk of being targets of bullying compared to their peers without learning disabilities due to challenges in developing social skills. Bullying behaviors peak at the age of 14, potentially inflicting lasting psychological harm and endangering the student's well being into adulthood. The lack of clearly defining bullying leads to uncertainty amongst students on identifying bullying behaviors thus many bullying incidents being unreported by the victims or their peers. For this study, the participants for this project consisted of middle school students aged 10 to 14 years old, grades 6 to 8, …

Increasing Social-Emotional Competence In Preschoolers, Loralai Xiong

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focused on the enhancement of social-emotional competence in preschool-aged children, typically ages 3 to 5 years old. Preschool children often struggle to express their feelings and solve social problems in stressful situations. According to Stein and Steed (2022), children with social-emotional challenges may struggle with several behaviors, including self-regulation, conflict resolution, and peer interaction. Furthermore, these social-emotional challenges are linked to an increased risk for later academic problems and mental health issues (Stein & Steed, 2022). Preschoolers need social-emotional skills to regulate their attention, emotions, and behavior. Because of this need, I developed a set of three …

Emotional Regulation In Preschool Age Children, Esmeralda Mendez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone focuses on teaching preschool students about emotional regulation and emotional understanding. Many preschool students have not developed the appropriate language to express their emotions making it difficult to regulate emotions. Poor emotional regulation at a young age can have negative effects on a child's life. For example, it can affect their behavior at school, their ability to deal with transitions during the school day, and their social relationships (Loomis, 2023). Young children have a difficult time regulating emotions because they are not sure of the feelings that they have and have not developed the skills to control their …

Preventing Homeless Provider Burnout, Airam Gutierrez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For my capstone project, I focused on bringing awareness to College Corps fellows, ages 20-30, about the causes of homelessness, the costs of burnout, and a few mindfulness practices to prevent burnout. College Corps is a first-of-its-kind initiative launched in partnership with California colleges and universities deploying over 10,000 College Corps Fellows to work in K-12 education, climate action, and food insecurity. These fellows are at high risk for burnout since they are attending college full-time and tackling some issues related to homelessness. I experienced burnout firsthand as a part of the first-ever College Corps cohort 2022-2023. I faced feelings …

Teaching 6-7 Year Old Children The Importance Of Being Kind, Jazmin Mendez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Kindness is an ongoing issue seen in elementary schools. Children ages 6 to 7 years old have a hard time displaying their kindness to their peers. My paper focuses on teaching children ages 6 to 7 years old how to be kind to one another. The children are also shown examples of what it looks like to be kind vs. unkind. The overall purpose, is for the children to learn the benefits of being kind, what are kind vs unkind words, and what are kind vs unkind actions/behaviors.

A Revisionist Case Study Of Women’S Capability Approach: Critiquing The U.S. Afghanistan Intervention, Helene Marie Kristensen

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper explores the impact the United States has as a superpower country with its military intervention in Afghanistan, focusing on the actions taken and the impact it had on women and their status in Afghan society. This article aims to analyse the challenges women face in Afghanistan, ranging from the traditional gender norms to the suppression faced through the Taliban laws and the conflict through enforcement of Western values through intervention. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach, the paper also analyses women’s agency and well-being in Afghanistan in addition to considering critiques of the capability approach in a non-Western …

The Viral Spread Of Xenophobia: Analyzing The Influence Of Far-Right Politics On Anti-Asian Sentiment Expressed On Social Media During Covid-19., Robert F. Arnold Iii

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Throughout history, viral outbreaks have frequently led to the emergence of biased and discriminatory attitudes, often targeting populations that deviate from Western norms. These sentiments commonly manifest as xenophobia and racism (Chen, 2020; Chou, 2021). This report serves as an in-depth analysis of the role far-right political phrasing of Covid-19 as the “Chinese Virus,” played in the proliferation of anti-Asian and xenophobic attitudes, expressed on the social media platform X (Twitter). This study also aims to better understand the various different factors that cause followers of far-right politics to engage and believe in anti-Asian sentiment online. Using Integrated Threat Theory …

Emotional Self-Regulation In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Evan Moring

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this project is teaching 2nd and 3rd-grade children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) how to develop emotional regulation skills. Emotion regulation is the ability to evaluate and change one’s emotional state in the moment. The problem is that these students have difficulty with emotion regulation and frequently experience emotional outbursts. An emotional outburst could be a child throwing a toy across the classroom because the teacher asked them to stay seated at their desk over three times. The child does not realize they cannot throw toys across the classroom. This happens because children with ASD cannot always …

Strategies To Help Young Children Obtain Healthy Social-Emotional Development, Alma Fuerte-Jauregui

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focal topic of this capstone project is the healthy social-emotional development of low-income preschool and kindergarten children. One of the school districts in East Salinas is the Alisal District, which has a 100% minority enrollment, and a little over 89% of those students are economically disadvantaged (“Overview of Alisal Union,” 2019). A focus on the social-emotional well-being of the students in this age group and community is needed because some of these children have difficulty integrating socially into the school system and struggle to express their feelings or emotions healthily and safely. Strengthening children's capacity to manage emotions and …

Helping Kindergarteners Understand Their Emotions And Their Peers, Marelin Guadalupe Cruz Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The social-emotional development is described in this study. This study examines children who lack pro-social-emotional abilities and find it difficult to build meaningful interactions with others. In my work, I discuss how research and the lessons I taught my participants can help children gain greater social-emotional abilities and an understanding of different emotions. I work with kindergarteners who are five to six years old because I want to support them in developing deep connections with their peers and in learning about their feelings. The issue I will be bringing up is that kids struggle to build positive relationships with their …

The Constitutively Active Form Of A Key Cholesterol Synthesis Enzyme Is Lipid Droplet-Localized And Upregulated In Endometrial Cancer Tissues, Hudson W Coates, Tina B Nguyen, Ximing Du, Ellen M Olzomer, Rhonda Farrell, Frances L Byrne, Hongyuan Yang, Andrew J Brown

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cholesterol is essential for both normal cell viability and cancer cell proliferation. Aberrant activity of squalene monooxygenase (SM, also known as squalene epoxidase), the rate-limiting enzyme of the committed cholesterol synthesis pathway, is accordingly implicated in a growing list of cancers. We previously reported that hypoxia triggers the truncation of SM to a constitutively active form, thus preserving sterol synthesis during oxygen shortfalls. Here, we show SM truncation is upregulated and correlates with the magnitude of hypoxia in endometrial cancer tissues, supporting the in vivo relevance of our earlier work. To further investigate the pathophysiological consequences of SM truncation, we …

Profiling The Activity Of The Para-Caspase Malt1 In B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia For Potential Targeted Therapeutic Application, Firas M Safa, Terri Rasmussen, Lorena Fontan, Min Xia, Ari Melnick, Adrian Wiestner, Patricia Lobelle-Rich, Jan A Burger, Yara Mouawad, Hana Safah, Erik K Flemington, Nakhle S Saba

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) remains a hard-to-treat disease with a poor prognosis in adults. Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1) is a para-caspase required for B-cell receptor (BCR)-mediated NF-κB activation. Inhibition of MALT1 in preclinical models has proven efficacious in many B-cell malignancies including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. We sought to examine the role of MALT1 in B-ALL and determine the biological consequences of its inhibition. Targeting MALT1 with both Z-VRPR-fmk and MI-2 efficiently kills B-ALL cells independent of the cell-of-origin (pro, pre, mature) or the presence of the Philadelphia …

Dlk-Mapk Signaling Coupled With Dna Damage Promotes Intrinsic Neurotoxicity Associated With Non-Mutated Tau, Sanming Li, Ethan R Roy, Yanyu Wang, Trent Watkins, Wei Cao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of neurodegeneration. Despite the well-established link between tau aggregation and clinical progression, the major pathways driven by this protein to intrinsically damage neurons are incompletely understood. To model AD-relevant neurodegeneration driven by tau, we overexpressed non-mutated human tau in primary mouse neurons and observed substantial axonal degeneration and cell death, a process accompanied by activated caspase 3. Mechanistically, we detected deformation of the nuclear envelope and increased DNA damage response in tau-expressing neurons. Gene profiling analysis further revealed significant alterations in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway; moreover, inhibitors of dual leucine …

Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy For Nsclc: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Mark Sorin, Connor Prosty, Louis Ghaleb, Kathy Nie, Khaled Katergi, Muhammad H Shahzad, Laurie-Rose Dubé, Aline Atallah, Anikka Swaby, Matthew Dankner, Trafford Crump, Logan A Walsh, Pierre O Fiset, Boris Sepesi, Patrick M Forde, Tina Cascone, Mariano Provencio, Jonathan D Spicer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: To date, no meta-analyses have comprehensively assessed the association of neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy with clinical outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in randomized and nonrandomized settings. In addition, there exists controversy concerning the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy for patients with NSCLC with programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) levels less than 1%.

OBJECTIVE: To compare neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy with chemotherapy by adverse events and surgical, pathological, and efficacy outcomes using recently published randomized clinical trials and nonrandomized trials.

DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE and Embase were systematically searched from January 1, 2013, to October 25, 2023, for all clinical trials of …

Natural Language Processing Of Clinical Notes Enables Early Inborn Error Of Immunity Risk Ascertainment, Kirk Roberts, Aaron T Chin, Klaus Loewy, Lisa Pompeii, Harold Shin, Nicholas L Rider

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: There are now approximately 450 discrete inborn errors of immunity (IEI) described; however, diagnostic rates remain suboptimal. Use of structured health record data has proven useful for patient detection but may be augmented by natural language processing (NLP). Here we present a machine learning model that can distinguish patients from controls significantly in advance of ultimate diagnosis date.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to create an NLP machine learning algorithm that could identify IEI patients early during the disease course and shorten the diagnostic odyssey.

METHODS: Our approach involved extracting a large corpus of IEI patient clinical-note text from a major …

Improvements In Appropriate Placement Of Dental Sealants After Implementation Of A Clinical Decision Support System, Joanna Mullins, Ryan Brandon, Nicholas Skourtes, Elsbeth Kalenderian, Muhammad Walji

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Dental sealants are effective for the prevention of caries in children at elevated risk levels, and increasing the proportion of children and adolescents who have dental sealants on 1 or more molars is a Healthy People 2030 objective. Electronic health record (EHR)-based clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have the ability to improve patient care. A dental quality measure related to dental sealant placement for children at elevated risk of caries was targeted for improvement using a CDSS.

METHODS: A validated dental quality measure was adapted to assess a patient's need for dental sealant placement. A CDSS was implemented to …

The Intrinsic Substrate Specificity Of The Human Tyrosine Kinome, Tomer M Yaron-Barir, Brian A Joughin, Emily M Huntsman, Alexander Kerelsky, Daniel M Cizin, Benjamin M Cohen, Amit Regev, Junho Song, Neil Vasan, Ting-Yu Lin, Jose M Orozco, Christina Schoenherr, Cari Sagum, Mark T Bedford, R Max Wynn, Shih-Chia Tso, David T Chuang, Lei Li, Shawn S-C Li, Pau Creixell, Konstantin Krismer, Mina Takegami, Harin Lee, Bin Zhang, Jingyi Lu, Ian Cossentino, Sean D Landry, Mohamed Uduman, John Blenis, Olivier Elemento, Margaret C Frame, Peter V Hornbeck, Lewis C Cantley, Benjamin E Turk, Michael B Yaffe, Jared L Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Phosphorylation of proteins on tyrosine (Tyr) residues evolved in metazoan organisms as a mechanism of coordinating tissue growth1. Multicellular eukaryotes typically have more than 50 distinct protein Tyr kinases that catalyse the phosphorylation of thousands of Tyr residues throughout the proteome1-3. How a given Tyr kinase can phosphorylate a specific subset of proteins at unique Tyr sites is only partially understood4-7. Here we used combinatorial peptide arrays to profile the substrate sequence specificity of all human Tyr kinases. Globally, the Tyr kinases demonstrate considerable diversity in optimal patterns of residues surrounding the site of phosphorylation, revealing the functional organization of …