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- Creator:
- Ishida, Heather
- Description:
- Bisexual individuals historically have been grouped with other sexual minorities, leaving a gap in research about unique bisexual experiences. Bisexual individuals are more likely to experience negative mental health outcomes than other sexual minorities. This research study explored the experiences that bisexual individuals have when searching for authentic community and how bisexual-affirming social support may affect an individual’s willingness to share their sexuality with others or accept their own sexual identity. Eight adults identifying as bisexual were interviewed about their experiences finding connection with others. Themes found among interviews included: stereotypes of bisexuality, caution when sharing one’s sexual orientation, feeling unwelcome in the LGBTQ community, and negative effects due to lack of social support. Social workers should be sensitive to unique experiences of bisexual individuals and advocate for increased community involvement and social support for those that identify as bisexual.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Hoskin, Aarolind
- Description:
- For some foster youth, pursuing post-secondary education becomes the pathway to a better life. While many foster youth face challenges on their academic journey and may lack the supports needed to excel academically, many push through their challenges to succeed. The purpose of this research study was to investigate foster youth’s supportive factors during their pursuit of post-secondary education. This research study is a cross-sectional qualitative study consisting of in-person interviews and received participation from 7 students who were in the Guardian Scholars Program at California State University, Sacramento. This study found that former foster youth attributed their success in higher education to supportive people, financial support, programs, being perseverance and success driven, and their intrinsic motivation. This study also found that foster youth experienced challenges while on their academic journey, provided recommendations to ensure success amongst foster youth, and provided advice to foster youth who are currently interested in higher education. This research study has implications for understanding the supportive factors that have contributed to foster youth’s educational success in order to implement more of these factors at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Hooks, Austin
- Description:
- There is a myriad of data regarding racism, criminal justice, and the school-to-prison pipeline, however more insight is needed to better understand the relationships between these phenomena. This research study explores the following: 1) how do school social workers understand anti-blackness and the school-to-prison pipeline; 2) what factors do school social workers believe contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline: 3) what are the experiences of school social workers in dealing with anti-blackness in education. These questions were explored through an in-depth literature review and eight qualitative interviews with social workers engaged with the Sacramento region public education system. Research participants were recruited via snowball sampling. In addition, this research utilized two theoretical approaches to guide research analysis and the review of relevant literature. The prominent themes, which emerged from interviews, reflected an overwhelming need for changes in school discipline policies and procedures to reduce the pervasiveness of anti-black practices in education. The implications of this research can affect future policy directions and social work practice.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Harris, Chelsea J.
- Description:
- Although there is broad research focusing on recreational therapy and its benefits to various populations, there is limited information about municipal recreation leaders’ knowledge and perceptions of the profession and its practitioners. According to the literature reviewed, authors of various studies suggest that people do not know or fully understand the benefits and difference between recreational therapy and municipal recreation (Widmer, Duerden & Taniguchi, 2013; Witman & Shank, 1987; Walkenhorst et. al., 2015; Meeras, 2010; Martin and Markow, 2006). Moreover, staff directors and staff members are unaware of the needs and accommodations necessary for individuals with disabilities to access to recreation facilities. Municipal recreation leaders who are untrained, unaware, and unknowledgeable of the needs and accommodations necessary to guarantee optimum use and participation are a disservice to populations with disabilities. Furthermore, municipal recreation leaders need further training to increase knowledge of recreational therapy because of the increase of services and revenue that could be provided to serve a growing population of individuals with disabilities (Brault, 2005; Brault, 2010; McNeil, 1993; McNeil, 1997; McNeil, 2001; Steinmetz, 2006; Taylor, 2018). With the increasing number of individuals with disabilities in California, it is a duty of municipal recreation leaders to ensure safety and quality delivery of recreation services and programs. The purpose for this study is to identify the perceptions of municipal leaders on recreational therapy as it relates to their current level of knowledge of the profession and practitioners in the field. A survey was administered to 2,017 recreation professionals who are active members of California Parks & Recreation Society (CPRS). Seventy-one (71) completed the online questionnaire in March and April 2019. The results of this study identified and revealed that a majority of the sample that completed the survey possess poor to average knowledge of the recreational therapy profession and its practitioners. Survey responses also suggested that a majority of the sample population was interested in receiving future training related to various topics in recreational therapy. The findings could serve as the foundation for future research on municipal recreation leaders’ knowledge and perceptions. In addition, the findings add to the existing literature and body of knowledge.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Recreation Administration
- Creator:
- Harris, Ayesha and Robinson, Rochelle
- Description:
- Families living in poverty are overly represented in the child welfare system. Risk factors that include but are not limited to, inadequate housing, emotional and social challenges, and domestic violence cause families living in poverty to be more likely to have CPS involvement. It is important to determine if families in poverty are overly represented in the child welfare system due to child welfare workers’ perception of poverty to ensure families living in poverty are not overly represented. The researchers present literature regarding child abuse and neglect, case substantiation, and perception of poverty, focusing on risk factors associated with poverty, and the child welfare system. This research aims to determine if perception of poverty influences a person’s decision to substantiate reports of alleged child abuse and neglect. The researchers in this study developed two sets of vignettes, one set depicting a family living in poverty and another set depicting a wealthy family. Each set of vignettes consisted of one vignette regarding a domestic violence incident, and another vignette regarding lack of supervision. In each vignette participants were asked to determine if the abuse occurred, or if neglect occurred using the California Department of Child Adult and Family Services definitions of Substantiated, Inconclusive, or Unfounded. The respondents were asked to provide a written explanation to defend their decision. Each respondent was also given the Feagin Poverty Scale (Feagin, 1972; Viljoen & Maseko, 2013) to measure their perception of poverty, and a demographic questionnaire. After analyzing the data using our hypothesis Master of Social Work student’s perception of poverty and case substantiation, we found that our hypothesis was partly substantiated with significance. Participants response to the Feagin Poverty Scale (Feagin, 1972; Viljoen & Maseko, 2013) and their decision to find child abuse and neglect allegations substantiated, unfounded or inconclusive suggest that there is a statistically significant correlation found between a person’s perception of poverty and their decision to determine child abuse and neglect allegations to be inconclusive, unfounded, or substantiated. Findings from this study suggest it would be beneficial for further research to be conducted to study perception of poverty and how this impacts caseworkers’ decision making in the child welfare system.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Hanna, Sherif
- Description:
- Using a Venturi to Capture and increase wind velocity are carried out to enhance the performance of wind turbines, the Idea of Ducted Wind Turbines has been an interest because of the ability to increase the velocity through them, the results of multi physics simulations involving Computational Fluid Dynamics, used to evaluate a highly acclaimed innovative wind power generation system known as INVELOX, are presented. This patented technology significantly outperforms traditional wind turbines, and it delivers superior power output, reflecting an idea of wind power plant in the urban Areas where wind velocity is low, so increased wind velocities throughout the INVELOX System and the Venturi resulted in significant improvement in the Kinetic Energy hence power output of Turbine. In addition, INVELOX technology brought an idea of retrofitting the traditional horizontal axis windmills to adapt the Innovative INVELOX design at reduced cost. Furthermore, the new design claiming the ability of solving all the major issues, such as low turbine reliability, intermittency issues, adverse environmental and radar impact that have so far undermined the wind industry. The goal in this thesis divided into two sections, section one I will try to examine the possibility to capture, accelerate and concentrate the wind by creating a simple prototype of a ducted wind turbine with a ratio of 1:20 with the new INVELOX design system to validate the feasibility of retrofit those traditional wind turbines. Second is test results will be measured from a fielded unit, the results will be compared with those obtained by using the bare INVELOX technology, both velocities at Intake and Venturi positions will be compared in this analysis. In more studies that are recent and in other thesis work the Actual concentration was on the INVELOX technology, the studies used computational fluid dynamics but never measured from a fielded unit, the performance of the system was validated by recent measured field data by the company itself. My Field test of a simple prototype Ducted Wind Turbine showed that the increase in wind speed maintained even with speeds as low as 2.5 m/s, and thereby energy production can be significantly improved. This measured data shown to be consistent with that obtained through full-scale computational fluid dynamics models and other research work. Further lab testing is recommended to confirm the velocity developing with an actual turbine being inserted.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Creator:
- Galvez, Angela Marie
- Description:
- Dual-slope analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are known for their high accuracy, but slow conversion times. The objective of this project was to design a 12-bit dual-slope analog-to-digital converter in a 0.5 µm CMOS process which rejects 60 Hz noise and employs fully-differential circuits. Each circuit within the ADC was designed and simulated using the Mentor Graphics computer-aided design (CAD) integrated circuit (IC) design tools in order to meet a set of target specifications.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Creator:
- Galante, Guy Frederick
- Description:
- The author posits that an environmentally focused place-based pedagogy will lead to increased nature relatedness, inclusion of nature in self, and overall love and care for a regional park that borders a Northern Californian university. This study represents a basic tool kit to get the seeds of connection to germinate in a particular place. Despite being literally just on the other side of the levee that separates the campus and the 23-mile park and river corridor, a considerable number of the university’s students do not seem to know that a regional park exists. College level outdoor recreation courses and science-based experiments that lead students to the regional park are often times students’ first ever, and maybe only, contact with it. Connecting the university’s students with the park more intentionally has the potential to foster environmental stewardship in a generation of young people who would then be equipped to handle the socio-political, socio-cultural, and environmental pressures that impact the park. Even if students do not engage in park policy matters in the future, they may spend their lives living near it and still can become perpetually responsible users and protectors of the cultural, environmental and recreational resources of the regional park. Not to mention that the river supplies a generous portion of the region’s water supply. This study is designed to gain an understanding of students’ connectedness to nature levels, and to get a sense of what they know about the regional park that borders their campus. The knowledge gained from the study will help guide the formulation of place-based curriculum to be offered to higher education students in the Sacramento, CA region.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Recreation Administration
- Creator:
- Fkiaras, Vasiliki Maria
- Description:
- The purpose of this study was to examine how exercise order affects lower body jump power in collegiate athletes. There is still a disparity in knowledge on the effects of exercise order of resistance training on lower body jump power. Therefore, there is a need to learn more about the effect of exercise order on lower body jump power. The sample size was thirty-eight, 26 males (age: 21.346 ± 2.591, height: 70.846 ± 2.935 and weight: 149 ± 32.714) and 12 females (age: 20.364 ± 3.529, height: 66.364 ± 2.656 and weight: 149 ± 32.714) collegiate athletes were recruited for this study. Subjects were divided into three separate groups. Group A (GA; performing exercise order 1-5), Group B (GB; performing reverse order of GA, 5-1) and Group C (GC; the control group was asked to not perform any form of resistance training in and out of the facility during the duration of the study). The data collected was of the lower body power: Vertical Jump (VJ) and Standing Broad Jump (SBJ) to compare before and after results. Subjects were asked to train two days per week for six weeks during their off-season period. The exercises used for this study were solely lower body extremity exercises (back squat, bulgarian squat, lateral lunge, valslides and seated leg raises). A single factor ANOVA was used for comparing the differences amongst the three groups for the VJ and SBJ. A Scheffe post-hoc was used to determine whether there were any significant differences. Alpha level was set at P < 0.05. Data was also reported as means ± SD. The results showed that there was a significant main effect found. After post-hoc analysis, there were no significant differences found. There are other variables to consider when knowing that more studies are needed to state a firm answer to exercise order affecting athletic performance. To summarize, in this study there was no 1-RM back squat test done. If there was a 1-RM test done, then percentages could have been prescribed to elicit a higher stimulus in training sessions. Incorporating a plyometric exercise or sprint test could possibly lead to a significant increase in lower body jump power tests. Lastly, conducting the study longer than six weeks or increasing the number sessions per week could lead to greater stimulus.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Kinesiology (Movement Studies)
- Creator:
- Everett, Heather Leann
- Description:
- This mixed methods study was designed to investigate the barriers to participation for individuals with disabilities with regards to non-motorized boating on California waterways. Barriers regarding accessibility were researched and data were analyzed from a sample of 1,746 self-administered online survey respondents. Reported barriers to participation for individuals with disabilities from the perspective of individuals with and without disabilities included: accessible parking, accessible docks, cost, accessible trails, lack of published information about accessibility, accessible restrooms and/ or concessions, adaptive rental equipment, staff knowledge regarding disabilities, program availability, transportation, unclear signage, effective communication from on-site staff, and accessible boat ramps. Data were collected from both the perspectives of individuals with and without disabilities in order to gain a variety of perspectives regarding barriers to accessibility. Individuals with disabilities participating in non-motorized boating on California waterways do experience many barriers to participation, and the data from this study may be utilized by practitioners in order to provide more inclusive opportunities for individuals of all abilities.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Recreation Administration