22000088 As a culminating experience for the master’s degree program, the thesis

attests to the highest level of the student’s academic, scholarly, and creative abilities. Each student works under the guidance of a faculty thesis chair and committee. The resulting thesis is viewed with pride as a reflection of the scholarly promise of the student and a commitment to excellence for the university. This summer and fall 2008, 66 students completed theses in areas as varied and original as the students themselves. What follows is a complete list of Summer/Fall 2008 theses by college/school and some research highlights.

thesis review Animal Sciences and Agricultural Education

Aaron Highstreet (read ABSTRACT) Effects of Feeding a Slow Rumen Release Encapsulated Urea on Performance of Early and Mid-Lactation Holstein Cows

(Chair: Jon Robison)

John Clay Samper (read ABSTRACT) Effects of Oral Calcium Chloride and Calcium Propionate Boluses on Blood Calcium in Periparturient Dairy Cows (Chair: Jon Robison)

Plant Science

Robert Blattler (read ABSTRACT) Effects of Application Timing and Water Chemistry on Phosphate Uptake Efficiency for Tomatoes Grown on Tulare Clay Soil (Chair: Bruce Roberts)

Vanessa Bremer Blanch (read ABSTRACT) Use of Preharvest Ethephon Applications to Reduce Breba Crop Load and Postharvest Performance Evaluations of Fresh Fig (Ficus carica) Varieties/Selections (Chair: John Bushoven)

Vijayasatya Nagendra Changanti (read ABSTRACT) Reclamation Potential of Amendments for Soils Irrigated with Saline-Sodic Drainage Water (Chair: Sharon Benes)

SUMMER/FALL www.csufresno.edu/gradstudies/thesis

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

�Global food production is greatly impacted by salt in crop lands. Vijay Chaganti examines efficient land management

strategies to improve crop production as more lands are

degraded due to problems like salinization.

�Dairy farming is the leading agricultural commodity in California, producing $7.3 billion in annual sales in 2007.

(California Department of Food and Agriculture)

Viticulture and Enology

Tiffany Cragin (read ABSTRACT) Detection, Quantification and Viability of the Wine Spoilage Bacteria, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, Using Polyclonal Antibodies and Flow Cytometry (Chair: Roy Thornton)

Maureen Frances Qualia (read ABSTRACT) The Evolution of Phenolic Compounds in Red Wine During Post-Fermentation Maturation: Correlation with Perceived Astringency and Bitterness (Chair: Roy Thornton)

Communication

Tiffany Sarkisian Rodriquez (read ABSTRACT) The Rhetoric of the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori: Rhetoric of Reconciliation (Chair: Diane M. Blair)

English

Melanie Sylvia Aron (read ABSTRACT) Hero in Drag: Victorian Gender-Identity and the Fairy Tales of Andrew Lang (Chair: Ruth Jenkins)

Amber Lyn Badasci (read ABSTRACT) Staying on Your Feet: An Examination of Jack London's Social Darwinism (Chair: Ruth Jenkins)

Nicholas Blank-Spadoni (read ABSTRACT) Toward a Genetic Pedagogy: Exploring of the Uses of Texts in First-Year Composition (Chair: Rick Hansen)

Brigitte Bowers (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. Going Home (Chair: John Hales)

Anna Boyle (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. Takataka (Chair: Steve Yarbrough)

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

“For months, unaware of their effect on the human population below, about one hundred

vultures had been dropping the digested remains of road kill all over the shake roofs of houses in a

quiet middle-class section of Merced,…”

B. Bowers, “City of Vultures,” from Going Home

�Tiffany Cragin contributes knowledge regarding the presence, concentration, activity, and interactions of spoilage organisms in wine to aid winemakers in making quality wine.

Tiffany Sarkisian Rodriquez analyzes how Katharine Jefferts Schori rhetorically negotiates her position as leader of the Episcopal Church while seeking to unify the fractured denomination.�

Maureen Elizabeth Edwards (read ABSTRACT) Fall Out of the Gap (Chair: Rick Hansen)

James Espinoza (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. A Boy Not Named Cuauhtémoc (Chair: John Hales)

Cathy Lynn Focarazzo (read ABSTRACT) Visual Rhetoric and Its Representations in Culture: The Complex Web of Desire in Mass Consumerism (Chair: Virginia Crisco)

Nathan Andrew Franklin (read ABSTRACT) The Social Turn in the Mix: Žižek, Electronic Dance Music, and Critical Ethnography of Partiality (Chair: Virginia Crisco)

Joshua Nicholas Geist (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. I Insist That This Is Reasonable: Notes from a Life in Gaming (Chair: Steven Church)

Jaclyn Susan Hardy (read ABSTRACT) Coming to Agency: Community and Critical Consciousness in Peer Workshops (Chair: Rick Hansen)

Steven Eugene Howland (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. Valley Fog, and Other Essays (Chair: John Hales)

Martin Leonard (read ABSTRACT) Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass from the Perspective of Modern Mahayana Buddhism (Chair: Connie Hales)

Eric Thomas Parker (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. Chasing After When (Chair: Steven Church)

Denise Rempel (read ABSTRACT) An Exploration of the Social Networking Site MySpace Using Kenneth Burke’s Theory of Dramatism (Chair: James Walton)

Sallie Pérez Saiz (read ABSTRACT) Nepantla, the Bridging of Female Archetypes Through the Space in-Between (Chair: Kathleen Godfrey)

Students in the university’s English Department have written 117 master’s theses in the last 10

years, which ranks English as the top thesis-producing

program during that time. The M.F.A. in Creative Writing is similarly productive, having

written 93 collections of stories, poems, essays, or stand-alone novels over the same period.* Many of these creative writers have gone on to publish their

work in respected literary magazines and journals.

*Data through AY 2007-2008

�Denise Rempel argues against the notion that the Internet is a creator of true communities by showing how social

networking sites, in particular, MySpace, serve only to engender a crowd of isolated individuals, inhibiting what

Kenneth Burke calls consubstantiality.

“Driving in fog balances me between adult fear of the unknown and my adolescent love of velocity.”

--S. Howland, “Valley Fog”

Julio Cesar Trevino (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. Elegy of Time Well Spent: Poems (Chair: Connie Hales)

Tabitha Villalba (read ABSTRACT) M.F.A. An Evening Without Song Will Not Be Remembered: A Collection of Short Stories (Chair: Alex Espinoza)

Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

María Flores (read ABSTRACT) Pirámide e inteligencia mexicana: La búsqueda por una visión más allá de la máscara (Chair: Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval)

Ana Ponce-Jiménez (read ABSTRACT) La hibridez del yo en la novela de Isabel Allende (Chair: Yolanda Doub)

Kathyria Vicuna (read ABSTRACT) Relaciones de poder, identidades construidas: El México perdido y los neo liberales (Chair: Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval)

Robin E. Dansby (read ABSTRACT) Optimal Linear Control of Inelastic Structures Using an Evolutionary Gain Formulation to Satisfy Performance Objectives (Chair: Thomas Attard)

Chia-Chia Wang (read ABSTRACT) An Accuracy Assessment for Geographic Information Systems Applications (Chair: James Crossfield)

Communicative Sciences and Deaf Studies

Erin Michelle Jang (read ABSTRACT) Lidcombe Program: Effectiveness of Parent Training on Preschool-Aged Children's Stuttering (Chair: Steven Skelton)

COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

�Erin Jang’s thesis is the first study to analyze the different components of the Lidcombe Program, designed to eliminate stuttering in young children.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

�Ana Ponce-Jimenez compares two novels by Isabel Allende (pictured) to show that women have taken advantage of opportunities in order to validate their rights, and even though they have received support from men, it has been minimal at most; women have succeeded mainly on their own effort.

“It was always called “Las Uvas.” The grape fields, where sand lingered in teeth holding on between gritty enamel and gums; always there.”

--JC Trevino, “Las Uvas: To my Mother in the Grape Fields”

�With the great personal and financial loss attributed to seismic events, structural protective systems designed

to lessen the effects of excitations on structures have become a topic of

interest recently, one that Robin Dansby addresses in

her thesis.

Maya Linda Rodriguez (read ABSTRACT) Before-School Home Literacy Environments and Acquisition of Literacy Skills Regarding Students Who Are Deaf (Chair: David Smith)

Health Science

Lourdes Heras Delva (read ABSTRACT) Exploratory Study of Breastfeeding Latina Women at Sequoia Community Health Centers (Chair: Suzanne Kotkin-Jaszi)

Brittany Leigh Growdon (read ABSTRACT) Occupational Factors That Lead to Obesity (Chair: Vickie Krenz)

Rebeca Adriana Lopez (read ABSTRACT) Prenatal HIV Testing Experiences Among Postpartum Women in a Fresno County, California Birthing Hospital (Chair: Miguel Perez)

Jill Martine Russom (read ABSTRACT) Weight Loss and Herbal Supplement Use in College Students (Chair: Vickie Krenz)

Diana Traje (read ABSTRACT) Exposure to Social Norms Messages Among a Sample of California State University, Fresno Students (Chair: Gerald Davoli)

Eulalia Witrago (read ABSTRACT) Pandemic Influenza: Level of Preparedness and Preferred Method of Learning Among Spanish-Speaking Adults in Fresno County, California (Chair: Miguel Perez)

Kinesiology

Kyle Sunderland (read ABSTRACT) Effect of Chronic L-Arginine Supplementation on Oxygen Uptake and Ventilatory Threshold in Trained Cyclists (Chair: Felicia Greer)

�Brittany Growdon examined the differences between professional job workers and manual laborers to determine the amount of leisure-time

physical activity each was receiving. Her results are intended to encourage employers to provide proper health education and wellness

programs for those in both fields of employment.

�The next pandemic influenza in the United States could have an attack rate of 30% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2005). This

rate would cause approximately 90 million cases, and of those cases, 50% would seek medical care with and

anticipated 209,000 to 1.9 million deaths.

College students

social norms

High-Risk

�Drinking

Biology

Hasan Alhaddad (read ABSTRACT) Salivary Secretions of Homalodisca vitripennis and Their Relation to Xylella fastidiosa Inoculation (Chair: Fred Schreiber)

Catherine Jean Bettis (read ABSTRACT) Distribution and Abundance of the Fauna Living in Two Grimmia Moss Morphotypes at the McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve, Fresno County, California (Chair: Fred Schreiber)

Nicholas Evan Blanchard (read ABSTRACT) A Molecular Linkage Map of Avirulence Loci in the Plant Pathogenic Oomycete Phytophthora capsici (Chair: Jim Prince)

Stephanie Wong (read ABSTRACT) The Bidirectional Effects of Hormones on Aggressive Behavior in the Convict Cichlid Fish (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) (Chair: Larry Riley)

Chemistry

Melissa Gushiken (read ABSTRACT) The Anti-Angiogenic Effects of Naturally Occurring Tannins in Cancer (Chair: Zhi Wang) (Chair: K.P. Wong)

Katie Hua Heredia (read ABSTRACT) Rapid Screening and Isolation of Single Molecules by Laser-Induced Fluorescence Spectroscopy in Microdroplets (Chair: Kin Ng)

Julie Christina Lyon (read ABSTRACT) The Toxicity of Quinones in Particulate Matter Through the Production of Hydroperoxides Under Lung-Like Conditions (Chair: Alam Hasson)

Jessica Anne Savopolos (read ABSTRACT) The Effect of Hematocrit Concentration on Forensic Blood Alcohol Analysis (Chair: Eric Person)

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

�Hasan Alhaddad’s thesis is part of a larger effort to understand the transmission mechanisms of the disease-causing bacterium X. fastidiosa by the

glassy-winged sharpshooter

� “In the next 50 years, it is projected the number of Americans diagnosed with

cancer will double from 1.3 million to 2.6 million. With the increasing number of

people afflicted by cancer, there is a need for novel approaches for cancer therapies.”

--M. Gushiken

�Jessica Savopolos concludes from her thesis research that an individual’s hematocrit concentration—the

proportion of blood volume that is occupied by red blood cells—does not affect forensic blood alcohol analysis, a

new finding critical to those charged with legislating

alcohol-impaired driving.

Bao Vue (read ABSTRACT) Ruthenium(II)-Catalyzed Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation of Aromatic Ketones Using New Ferrocene-Based Amino-Phosphine Ligands Featuring Planar Chirality (Chair: Saeed Attar)

Earth and Environmental Sciences

Rosenelsy Marrero-Cuebas (read ABSTRACT) Nitrate Loading in Ground Water from Eastern San Joaquin Valley, California Using Delta Nitrogen-15 and Delta Oxygen-18 Isotopic Ratios (Chair: C. John Suen)

Christopher Milton Smart (read ABSTRACT) Hot and Deep: Rock Record of Subduction Initiation and Exhumation of High-Temperature, High-Pressure Metamorphic Rocks, Feather River Ultramafic Belt, California (Chair: John Wakabayashi)

Physics

Takako Kurimoto (read ABSTRACT) Radiation Effects on Arabidopsis thaliana (Chair: Amir Huda)

Psychology

Carlos Cabrera (read ABSTRACT) Curriculum-Based Measurements As a Predictor for California Standards Tests (Chair: Karen Carey)

Brooke Allison Dawson (read ABSTRACT) Parental Perceptions of the Parenting Partners Program (Chair: Karen Carey)

Ashley Layne Jensen (read ABSTRACT) Discrimination Learning in Grasshoppers with Rewards Differing in Macronutrients (Chair: Martin Shapiro)

David Elwin Lewis (read ABSTRACT) The Effects of Lawful Multisensory Concordance on Visuo-Spatial Adaptation (Chair: Lorin Lachs)

Julia Diane Linder (read ABSTRACT) Maintenance of Social Skills Training of Early Elementary Students (Chair: Karen Carey)

�Takako Kurimoto explored the effects of ionizing

radiation on a plant—Arabidopsis thaliana—in her original and noteworthy contribution to the field of

genetic research.

�Julia Linder examined whether children in a social skills training program located maintained and generalized prosocial behaviors over time.

Karly Marriott (read ABSTRACT) Increasing Intraverbal Communication in Children with Autism (Chair: Amanda Adams)

Mackenzie Fitz Rickard (read ABSTRACT) Investigating Associative Connectivity of Extralist Cues for Unrelated Word Lists (Chair: Karl Oswald)

Stephanie Ann Van Arsdall (read ABSTRACT) Psychological Processes in Perceived Paranormal Phenomena (Chair: Matthew Sharps)

Lisa June Winter (read ABSTRACT) Knowledge and Opinions of Response to Intervention: A Survey of Professionals (Chair: Marilyn Wilson)

Lingyuan Wong (read ABSTRACT) Assessing the Generality of Behavioral Explanations of Gambling: Using Illusion of Control as an Exemplar (Chair: Amanda Adams)

Interdisciplinary Studies

Gregg Deslauriers (read ABSTRACT) The Role of Selective Attention in Foreign Accented Speech Perception (Chair: Lorin Lachs)

Michael Allan Eissinger (read ABSTRACT) African Americans in the Rural San Joaquin Valley, California: Colonization Efforts and Townships (Chair: Daniel Cady)

Adelita Licon (read ABSTRACT) Guerrilla Groups Involvement in Women's and Feminist Movements (Chair: William Skuban)

Elvia Rodríguez (read ABSTRACT) “Por la guerra de marinos y pachucos”: The Zoot Suit Riots in the Spanish-Language Press (Chair: Daniel Cady)

� “Thus, an individual with depressive tendencies will

be more likely to misinterpret a strange mist

as a ghost.”

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

�In his thesis, Michael Eissinger explores the development of rural African American communities in

California’s San Joaquin Valley.