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- Creator:
- Yocum Gaffney, Deann
- Description:
- Few qualitative studies exist about college students with mental health challenges and how they succeed and persist in college. Previous studies of college students with mental health challenges have largely been conducted using quantitative measures. To respond to this gap in the literature, this qualitative study explored how college juniors and seniors with a previously diagnosed mental disorder were able to persist and succeed toward degree completion. This research makes available an increased understanding of the common experiences of academically successful college students with mental health challenges and an emergent theory about their success. This qualitative inquiry, which referenced constructivism and pragmatism as its underpinnings, used grounded theory methodology to develop a deeper understanding of the participants’ experiences. Twenty-four participants were identified through convenience and purposive sampling. Each participant was enrolled in an undergraduate program at a private university in the Western United States, self-identified as having been diagnosed with a mental health challenge, had completed at least 60 academic units, and had maintained a G.P.A. of 2.0. Participants were challenged by varied mental health diagnoses, including anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder, traumatic brain injury, and eating disorders. Participants submitted responses to an on-line survey, were interviewed in person, and were invited to submit post interview journals. The data were collected through all the methods described but predominately through semi-structured interviews. Data analysis generated six themes, which formed an emergent theory that explored the lived experiences of college students with mental health challenges. The six themes were: the common experiences of students with mental health challenge, the role of relationships, campus integration, mental health identity, the role of campus services, and self-care. The grounded theory that emerged from this inquiry offers a model for understanding how college students with mental health challenges are able to persist and succeed. The findings suggest key information about the persistence of college students with mental health challenges and provides vital recommendations for students, faculty, and staff about how to best support student success and create of more inclusive educational communities.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Educational Leadership
- Creator:
- Lopez, Christina
- Description:
- Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, a common etiologic agent of severe nosocomial infections in compromised hosts, usually harbors aac(6’)-Ib. This gene codes for an aminoglycoside acetyltransferase that modifies amikacin and other aminoglycosides of clinical relevance. The goal of this work was to interfere with expression of this resistance gene and induce susceptibility to amikacin in resistant pathogens. In vitro translation assays led to the identification of an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN4) that targets the initiation of translation region of aac(6’)- Ib mRNA. An isosequential nuclease-resistant chimeric oligomer composed of 2’,4’- bridged nucleic acid-NC (BNANC) residues and deoxynucleotides (BNANC -DNA) covalently bound to the cell-penetrating peptide (RXR)4XB (where “X” and “B” stand for 6-aminohexanoic acid and β-alanine, respectively). This compound, called CPPBD4, inhibited translation at similar levels observed with ODN4. Addition of a combination of Amikacin and CPPBD4 to a culture of an Acinetobacter baumannii clinical strain harboring aac(6’)-Ib resulted in growth inhibition indicating that CPPBD4 reached the cytosol and interfere with the expression of the resistance enzyme.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Biological Sciences
- Creator:
- Lynch, Kassandra
- Description:
- Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition that affects 2% to 4% of the population. Many patients with FM report a history of depression and child abuse. Childhood abuse affects both physical and mental health in adulthood. Negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE) are one’s belief that one can alleviate his or her negative moods (Catanzaro & Mearns, 1990). People with higher NMRE experience fewer mental and physical symptoms in adulthood following childhood maltreatment. My study investigated how NMRE, depression, childhood trauma, and FM were related. The study expected to find that more severe child abuse would be associated with lower NMR Scale scores, more depression, and more FM symptoms. NMRE was also expected to mediate the relationships of child abuse with both depression and FM symptoms. Questionnaires were completed by 164 participants with an FM diagnosis (n = 34) or a history of child abuse (n = 130). Participants were sampled from online support groups for FM and child abuse. More severe child abuse was associated with greater depression, but it was unrelated to NMRE and FM symptoms. Higher NMRE were associated with lower depression, but they had no association with FM symptoms. This study did not support past research suggesting that NMRE may influence health symptoms. Limitations include that the current study had few participants and many incomplete responses to the questionnaires. Future research should include non-self-report measures and should collect questionnaire data at multiple sessions to better understand causality among the variables.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Briggerman, Robert Starwalt
- Description:
- This study explored the effectiveness of a unique math intervention program in a local school district in Orange County, California in terms of academic achievement and student perceptions about their math abilities as a result of their experiences in the program. As the predominate instructional approach, the program provided students with constructivist learning strategies to align with the Common Core State Standards and to strengthen their conceptual understanding of mathematics content. Two summative, end of course exams were given to this group and to a comparable group at another middle school that received a more traditional instructional approach as their primary instructional focus. The second group received instruction with emphasis on algorithmic problem solving steps and memorization of rules and mathematical procedures. Exams were administered mid way through the year and at the end of the year. Results were compared between the groups at each admission and on their overall growth from one administration to the next. Results between the groups were non-significant, perhaps due to the small sample size and uneven comparison groups. Although somewhat close, non-parametric measurements did not reveal significant findings. In a second, qualitative phase of the study, six students, three from each program, completed a rich interview protocol. The purpose was to gather student perceptual changes regarding their math ability as a result of the two different intervention programs. Themed responses in the areas of math anxiety, math self-concept, and math self- efficacy revealed improvements in overall student perceptions about their math ability in both intervention programs. A study with a larger, more even sample size might lead to significant findings. Practitioners, researchers, and policy makers might use the findings of this study to explore and implement additional intervention strategies for struggling math students.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Educational Leadership
- Creator:
- Phamvu, Kim
- Description:
- Past research has demonstrated an association between peer victimization and internalizing problems. Nonetheless, there are some children who seem to be undamaged by their experiences of peer victimization. In an effort to understand this resilience, the current study examined negative mood regulation (NMR) expectancies as a potential moderator and mediator of the relationship between peer victimization and internalizing problems of depression and anxiety. Fifty-three students in grades 4 through 6 completed self-report questionnaires: the Negative Mood Regulation Scale for Youth, the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Peer Interaction Primary School Questionnaire. As expected, peer victimization positively correlated with depression and anxiety, while NMR expectancies negatively correlated with depression and anxiety. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed full mediation by NMR expectancies of the relationship between peer victimization and depression. Furthermore, there was evidence for partial mediation by NMR expectancies of the relationship between peer victimization and anxiety. The findings from this study have implications for changing the focus of bullying intervention programs and clinical treatment of children who are affected by peer victimization. Future interventions could focus on changing the expectancies of children who have low NMR expectancies, thus giving them skills to withstand the deleterious effects of peer victimization.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Avina, Jose L.
- Description:
- Infiltration is an important aspect to the hydrologic cycle as it allows for groundwater recharge. In California especially, groundwater is used for agriculture, industrial usage, and as drinking water. This Thesis presents an analytical model for time dependent infiltration through a variably saturated soil. Water is considered to begin infiltrating soil at the ground surface and moves through the vadose zone towards the datum of the system (the water table) where pressure head is constrained to zero. The developed model calculates important soil characteristic parameters such as hydraulic conductivity, K, water content, θ, and pressure head, ψ, as a function of depth. The solution introduces four parameters (ak,ψk,ac, and ψa) to represent K and θ as exponential functions. The proposed model is then compared to existing exponential function solutions for various times. The comparison illustrates the versatility of using a four parameter exponential representation for infiltration. Furthermore, the proposed solution is validated against the numerical solution of HYDRUS-1D, which employs the widely used van Genuchten-Mualem constitutive model. Additionally, once parameters ak and ψk are known, one can obtain van Genuchten parameters α and n. Finally, the constitutive exponential expressions for hydraulic conductivity and water content are compared to the van Genuchten-Mualem expressions.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Creator:
- Tran, Duc Tan
- Description:
- Landslides, which have been existing around the world, are considered as environmental hazards. The number of landslide hazard is increasing every year. Although there are different causes of landslides, two major causes are rainfall and earthquake. Rainfall increases pore water pressure, changes the degree of saturation and causes a loss of strength in the soil. Therefore, the equilibrium can no longer be maintained in the slope, and a failure occurs. Likewise, when an earthquake occurs, the seismic force associated with the earthquake triggers mass movement such as rock fall, debris flow, and others forms of mass movement. In an attempt to evaluate the effect of rainfall in triggering landslides, a series of physical slope models were prepared in laboratory at different soil void ratios, and slope inclinations. Slope stability and deformation analyses were carried out in order to not only further understand the effect of rainfall on slope stability, but also obtain a relationship between void ratio, intensity and duration of rainfall, and slope inclination on soil slope stability. Collected soil samples from a compacted fill area in Mission Viejo, CA were placed into the Plexiglas container and compacted to the desired void ratios to form physical models at the inclinations of 40 and 45 degrees to introduce targeted rainfall with a rain simulation system in order to measure the seepage rate, moisture content, degree of saturation and surface erosion with time. After these static slope experiments, another experimental model was prepared and shaken on the shake table to determine the relationship between void ratio, seismic acceleration, seepage velocity and slope stability. The soil sample was placed into the same Plexiglas container and compacted to a void ratio of 1.2 to form the same 60 cm thick model, which was later cut into a 40 degree slope. Accelerometers were then placed on the slope to measure the amplification of seismic acceleration at different depths during shaking. Tensiometers were also installed on the slope at different locations to measure the variation of pore water pressure with time. The slope was shaken with different accelerations and frequencies for multiple cycles. Rainfall stimulator device was then placed on the top of the slope immediately after the shaking event. The targeted rainfall was introduced to evaluate the stability of the slope after shaking event. The results were used to perform slope stability and finite element analyses in Geo-Studio 2012- Slope/W, Seep/W, Sigma/W and Quake/W. Overall, the results of static slope stability modeling showed that pore water pressure and the velocity of wetting front of the slope do not increase uniformly over the entire slope during the rainfall period. Time required to saturate the soil decreases with an increase in the void ratio for the same intensity of rainfall. The velocity of movement of wetting front decreased for the slopes prepared at larger angle of inclination compared to the one prepared at smaller angle of inclination when subjected to same intensity and duration of rainfall. The values of factor of safety of the slope for the same intensity and duration of rainfall dropped with an increase in void ratio. In addition, a slope having smaller angle of inclination is more stable than the one having lager angle of inclination for same void ratio, and intensity and duration of rainfall. The results of seismic slope stability analysis subjected to post-seismic rainfall event showed that there was no significant change in pore water pressure during shaking and no catastrophic failure occurred during post-shaking rainfall event. The velocity of movement of wetting front decreased for the post-shaking rainfallinduced slopes compared to the static condition. Besides, the slope subjected to rainfall without shaking event exhibited 10% lower factor of safety compared to the slope subjected to post-seismic rainfall event. The deformation obtained from numerical analysis for both of static and seismic slopes were larger than that obtained from the laboratory experiments. Moreover, the numerical analyses for the case study matched well for the results obtained from the laboratory experiments.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Creator:
- Papac, Anthony
- Description:
- The union wage premium has been a topic of heated debate among labor economists for over 50 years. Researchers have attempted to account for selection of workers into unions by employing numerous, often creative econometric strategies to remove unobservable characteristics of individuals that are correlated with both wages and union membership. These methods have been largely inconclusive in determining whether OLS estimates of the union wage premium are positively or negatively biased. This study is the first to directly include measures of individuals’ personalities, characteristics formerly thought of as “unobservables,” in analyses of the union wage premium for three different countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Overall, the present study finds little evidence supporting the notion that including personality traits is important when estimating the union wage premium. In particular, OLS wage regressions, propensity score matching, and quantile wage regressions reveal that including personality traits does not significantly alter the size of the union wage premium estimated in each of the three models. Finally, fixed effect estimates of the union wage premium suggest that researchers should control for all possible time-invariant unobservable heterogeneity of individuals, not just personality, when estimating the union wage premium.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Economics
- Creator:
- Ahj Obaid, Zahraa Tawfeeq
- Description:
- Large amounts of waste materials such as waste tires, rubbers, etc. are discarded into our surrounding environment. Thus, they are a major cause of contamination and pollution, which, as a result, could eventually lead to many problems including health hazards and fire. Therefore, engineers, environment scientists and researchers face a challenge of how to deal with discarded tires. Undoubtedly, the best solution to not only get rid of waste tires but also make use of them through recycling. Thus, recycling tires would ultimately yield a cleaner environment and prevent public health degradation. Moreover, shredded tires have been used in many geotechnical as well civil engineering applications such as highway embankments, bridge abutments and backfills behind retaining structures. Shredded tire material has also been used to modify soils. Certain clay properties such as poor drainage, high compressibility, and low shear strength make it unfavorable for civil engineering applications. Modifications can be made in these properties by mixing clay with shredded tires. This study focuses on improvements obtained in clay properties by using different sizes of shredded rubber tire. Granular kaolin and a mixture of 50% montmorillonite with 50% granular kaolin were modified using different sizes and percentage of shredded rubber tire. Laboratory experiments were carried out to evaluate the changes in unit weight, permeability and unconfined compressive strength characteristics of the modified clay. The results presented in this thesis include the properties of granular kaolin and a mixture of 50% montmorillonite with 50% granular kaolin mixed with shredded rubber tires. According to the test results, the maximum dry unit weight occurs at 2 to 4% of shredded rubber tires are added to the clay soil samples for all sizes of shredded rubber tire. The highest strength for the mixture of granular kaolin and tire was obtained at when 3 to 4% shredded rubber tire was added into the soil. The maximum unconfined compressive strength for a mixture of 50% montmorillonite with 50% granular kaolin was obtained at approximately 4% shredded rubber tire for all sizes. Moreover, when less than 10% shredded rubber tire was added to granular kaolin, little changes in the coefficient of permeability were observed. When more than 10% shredded rubber tire was added, the coefficient of permeability increased as the percentage of shredded rubber added increased.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Creator:
- Alsemaan, Mohammad
- Description:
- Solar energy is probably the most abundant renewable energy which is of great importance to fundamentally solve the energy crisis problem if can be harvested extensively and efficiently. This dissertation reviews the solar energy conversion systems and focuses on analyzing and developing high efficiency single-stage three-phase solar inverter system. Firstly, the recently developed material for solar cell is reviewed, and the solar model is derived, as well as solar string model. Based on the output put characteristic of solar string, the current state-of-art MPPT technologies are discussed and the P&O method is adopted for simplification purpose. Then the system design of solar inverter is fully is performed. The hardware design provides the detail design guidelines for most key components and provide suggested component in the market for prototype construction. The latest GaN device is adopted to improve efficiency and six-channel compact driving chip is used to reduce converter size. After that, the control loop design for three-phase inverter is detailed, with current loop and voltage loop illustrated respectively. Finally, the simulation results for control loop design and MPPT control are provide to verify the feasibility of the previous design. Based on the structure of selected system and new semiconductor device adopted, potential high efficiency solar conversion system can be expected.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Electrical Engineering
- Creator:
- Nassruldin, Lafa Taher
- Description:
- Soil is unlike other construction materials such as steel and concrete for which humans can control their properties. Therefore, it is important to investigate and test soil in order to predict its response to the construction loading. The coefficient of consolidation (Cv) and coefficient of permeability (k) are two of the dominant and fundamental geotechnical parameters that are used in many applications within the civil engineering discipline. These coefficients are used in dam construction on soft bedrock, erection of retaining walls in weak bearing soil and foundation design on poorly compaction soil. In this study, four types of minerals montmorillonite, kaolinite, illite and quartz were mixed in different proportions, and used to conduct one- dimensional consolidation tests, as summarized in Tiwari and Ajmera (2011). Seven different vertical pressures 3.47 psi, 6.94 psi, 13.89 psi, 27.78 psi, 55.56 psi, 111.11 psi and 222.22 psi were applied. In order to examine the influence of pore fluid chemistry, the soil samples were prepared with distilled water as well as with saline water as the pore fluid. Casagrande’s Logarithm of Time Method were used to estimate the coefficient of consolidation values for forty – two samples with distilled water as the pore fluid and twenty – four samples with saline water as the pore fluid. Also, Terzaghi’s equation was used to determine the coefficient of permeability for the mineral mixtures. The variations of the Cv and k with consolidation pressure and index properties for all mixtures with distilled water and saline water as the pore fluids were examined. It is observed that Cv for kaolinite and illite mixtures with distilled water and saline water as the pore fluids increases with an increase in the consolidation pressure. On the other hand, Cv values for the montmorillonite mixtures with distilled water as the pore fluid decrease with an increase in the consolidation pressure. The Cv values for the montmorillonite mixtures with saline water as the pore fluid increase with an increase in the consolidation pressure. All the soil mixtures with distilled water and saline water as the pore fluids experienced reduction in the values of the coefficient of permeability with the increase in the consolidation pressure. The coefficient of consolidation decreases with an increase in the liquid limit for the kaolinite, illite and montmorillonite mixtures with distilled water and saline water as the pore fluids. The relationship between the coefficient of consolidation and plasticity index for the mineral mixtures with distilled water and saline water as the pore fluids has the same trend as that with the liquid limit. Specifically, the coefficient of permeability decreases with an increase in the liquid limit and plasticity index for the kaolinite mixtures with distilled water and saline water as the pore fluids. Finally, the coefficient of permeability decreases with an increase in the liquid limit and plasticity index for the montmorillonite mixtures with distilled water and saline water as the pore fluids.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Creator:
- Mozaffarpour Noori, Mohammad
- Description:
- The aim of this thesis is to provide a tool for contractors to select optimal equipment for projects, which will increase cost efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. The target geographic area for this research is the state of California, and the considered type of machinery is heavy construction equipment. In part, this research presents a modified mathematical model, as a decision-making tool, to minimize cost and emission of construction equipment, while meeting project requirements. The optimization model facilitates construction companies in selecting more efficient and sustainable equipment, while also avoiding penalties associated with non-compliance with the state’s environmental regulations. Such approach may lead to more profit by increasing the number of projects due to growing public sentiment towards environmentally friendly businesses. This model uses particular types of fleet data and project data. Construction equipment related data includes fleet size, equipment type, number, model, and year. Project related data includes project’s volumes, schedule, resources, and technical issues described by the contractors. Once this information was collected from equipment rental agencies throughout different geographic locations in California, a spreadsheet incorporated this information, along with mathematical calculations for estimated emissions, as well as the capacity for each type of equipment.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Creator:
- Dang, Tristin Salazar
- Description:
- The goal of my research is to examine the ways women construct their sexuality within the socio-sexual spaces of bars and nightclubs. By using ethnographic qualitative methods, such as observations and in-depth interviewing, I attempt to understand how women construct their sexuality while navigating social constructions and masculine heteronormative controls. I look at women’s experiences with the sexual self, confidence, sexual scripts, and masculine sexual hegemony. My analysis of these themes, which elaborates women’s roles and interactions with men, offers a deeper understanding of how women come to present their sexual selves under the male hegemonic order of women’s sexuality. I also examine the ways in which women are cognizant of the expectations that exist in the socio sexual spaces such as bars and clubs. Their practical knowledge reveals the agency that exists within their performativity and desire by using clothing, dancing, drinking, socializing, kissing, and one- night stands to display sexual empowerment.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Smith, Melinda
- Description:
- Gymnastics is a complex and progressive sport that is popular all over the world. Risk of injury is high due to the demands of training year round and increasing the difficulty of skills year after year. Research has focused on injury rates, but has not identified specific methods to identify risk and prevent injury in gymnastics. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a tool that has shown efficacy in predicting injury in various populations. However, no research has used the FMS to predict injuries in gymnasts. This study performed the FMS on gymnasts training levels 7-10. Thirty-one gymnasts, ages 10-18, agreed to participate in this study and were screened with the FMS. Participants were tracked for 4.5 months. Two left the study during the first month and were not included in the data. Injuries were tracked during the participant’s pre and regular season. No significant differences were found between injured and non-injured gymnasts in relation to the overall and individual FMS tests. Surprisingly, injured gymnasts scored better on the FMS (mean = 15.00±3.25) compared to the non-injured gymnasts (mean = 13.61±1.97). Differences were found between level 7 and level 9 gymnasts for mean overall FMS score (level 7 = 16.17±1.33, level 9 = 12.37±2.77, p<0.05) and the trunk stability push up between levels 7 (2.67±0.82) and 9 (0.75±1.34) and levels 8 (2.62±1.06) and 9 (0.75±1.34). The results from this study suggest that the FMS cannot predict injury in gymnastics. However, it may be a useful tool to track changes in functional movement as gymnasts progress through the levels of gymnastics. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Kinesiology
- Creator:
- Elliott, Daniel A.
- Description:
- This study explored an application of Social Judgment Involvement Theory in the higher education classroom. To accomplish this, an investigation of how highly sensitive issues that trigger high ego involvement was conducted to observe the effect upon the credibility of the instructor. The experiment explored how a student audience reacted to a politically charged message that fell within their latitudes of rejection. The first step was to identify the participants’ ego involvement with the politically sensitive issue. They then read a potentially disagreeable scenario and recorded their perception of the instructor’s credibility. There was a significant difference between the disagreement with the message evoking ego involvement and negative perceptions of instructor credibility. The study also measured which construct of credibility was affected the most by the disagreement. Students recorded a lower rating of perceived goodwill than trustworthiness or competence. However, the magnitude of that difference was minimal though still statistically significant. This study can inform instructors about that when discussing sensitive issues, there is a risk to credibility.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Communications
- Creator:
- Quick, Donald Delliemer
- Description:
- Much of Southern California experiences a Mediterranean climate, with long, hot summers and cool, wet winters. Characteristic plants include the deeply-rooted shrubs collectively known as chaparral. Such species, including Malosma laurina (Laurel Sumac, Family Anacardiaciae) and Heteromeles arbutifolia (Toyon, Family Rosaceae), have the ability to tap cool, deep waters. Chaparral species face severe drought stress during the summer, which can be quantified in measurements of water status. Measuring water status continuously in situ can prove challenging, partially because some instruments are extremely sensitive to the extreme temperature gradients experienced by chaparral shrubs during the summer, and often require complex protocols for installation and maintenance. This study was conducted to develop two methods, stem psychrometry and measuring air flow into xylem, for using plant water status sensors on deeply-rooted chaparral shrubs. It was found that temperature gradients in large basal stems caused by ascent of cool xylem sap from deep soil layers can lead stem psychrometers to report overly-negative water potential readings midday. Attempts to correct for these temperature effects turned out to be unsuccessful, leading to a recommendation to install psychrometers on smaller branches up high. Air flow into xylem occurs during embolism spread or repair, possibly as stable nanobubbles are pulled through pit membranes, driven by the pressure gradient between air and xylem sap, and subsequently dissolved into the iii xylem sap. Using a liquid flow gauge to measure air flow into xylem, one set of measurements out of many attempts was completed, demonstrating the validity of the approach.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Biological Sciences
- Creator:
- Ulloa, James
- Description:
- Bullying exists throughout the education system, though focus in research and discussions of bullying among students within public education are mostly placed on such interactions within the context of traditional K-12 education. While extant research examines the negative impacts that bullying produces for victims and bullies in the traditional school settings, there is a gap in literature examining bullying that occurs in continuation high schools. Additionally, there is a lack of information regarding how teachers may understand, view, and/or respond to bullying within the classroom. The current research draws on 10 in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with teachers at continuation high schools to better understand their experiences with intrastudent bullying. Findings suggest that bullying occurs to achieve power and social status among students. Teachers situate bullying within a gendered context and, as a result, perceive incidents differently among male and female students. The results confirm extant research suggesting that teachers may become normalized to bullying interactions; however, findings expand on this literature by demonstrating how teacher intervention in bullying varies depending on how teachers define bullying, view the context of bullying, and whether they perceive their role as being both an educator and an interventionist.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Salamanca, Jenny
- Description:
- This study focuses on the analysis of rainwater runoff from an extensive green roof system. Over time, space that was formally available for rainwater to properly infiltrate to the ground is being taken up by impervious built surfaces. Green roof technologies could be very beneficial in urban development, therefore the evaluation of the runoff quality is necessary to know if green roof systems act as a source of pollutants to receiving water bodies, or if they help mitigate contaminants that are washed off from the atmosphere and transfer to water bodies during rain events. The performance of green roof systems is highly dependent upon the season, temperature, wind condition, humidity, duration, and intensity of rainfall. The design of the green roof also plays an important part in the performance of the green roof, for which, material type, soil thickness, and maintenance influence the runoff quality. The green roof was analyzed for nutrients concentrations, pH, and conductivity of rainwater runoff. It was found that the green roof’s runoff had concentrations of nitrate, phosphate, and chloride ions. To investigate the amount of nutrients found in rainwater collected from different types of roofs, the green roof’s runoff nutrient concentrations were compared to those of a shingled roof. The pH and electrical conductivity of the rainwater runoff of the green roof were compared to those measured on a shingled roof as well.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Creator:
- Rathod, Priyank Jayantilal
- Description:
- Recently there is a growing trend towards the emotional information to be used in the human-computer interaction. In order to get the correct interaction from the computer, a human has to provide the appropriate inputs. Inputs are recorded by various bio-medical sensors and processed for generating the appropriate data. For examples, Skin conductance is used to measure the skin potential between two nodes in the human body whereas heart rate as the name suggests is used to measure the variation in heart rate. Biomedical signals are generated using a neural network in a human body and used to estimate the emotions. As these signals are generated using the neural network, it is not possible to control it artificially. Due to this reason, it is the reliable source of the estimation of such information. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Galvanic Skin Response/Conductance (GSR) is changed when any type of emotion is induced in the human body. This change in signals represents certain characteristics which are used to estimate the emotions. Mainly there are two types of emotions which are negative emotions and positive emotions. Positive emotion includes happiness and normal behavior whereas negative emotion includes fear, anger and sadness. The current study investigated five different types of emotions. This research consists of measurement procedures for the emotion detection using biomedical signals.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Computer Science
- Creator:
- Wen, Chiaokai
- Description:
- LH14E is a novel small molecule, which may induce cell cycle arrest by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. The canonical Wnt signaling pathway is important in cancer, developmental biology, and normal cellular functions. Despite extensive efforts, the field has yet to successfully develop effective small-molecule that can inhibit progression of β-catenin-related cancers in the clinic. In this study, I demonstrate a new cell cycle arrest compound which acts on the β-catenin signaling pathway. The small-molecule LH14E reduced β-catenin protein levels by 60% and inhibited β-catenin transcriptional activity by 37% in HeLa human cervical cancer cells. Under treatment with LH14E, CCND1 gene expression was reduced by 39%. LH14E also reduced cell numbers to 60% of control, indicating a reducing in the rate of cell proliferation. The effects of LH14E on the cell growth rate in serum-free medium was comparable to Cisplatin and Mitomycin C, two well-studied first-line chemotherapy drugs. I also found evidence that LH14E reduced mitochondrial activity in HeLa cells. The evidence presented here supports LH14E’s potential as a cancer therapeutic and prompts further investigation of LH14E in vivo.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Biological Sciences