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Empirical And Modeled Δ13c And Δ15n Isoscapes In The Gulf Of Mexico And Their Application To Fish Eye Lens Migration Studies, Brianna Michaud

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Isoscapes are depictions of the spatial patterns of isotopic values in a given area. Isoscapes can be created using measurements form samples (empirical isoscapes) or using statistical models of spatial isotopic variation (modeled isoscapes). Isoscapes have a wide variety of potential applications though, in the realm of marine ecology, they are most often used infer ecological processes, food web linkages, the origin of samples, and the movements of marine organisms.

However, to use isoscapes for these applications, it is necessary to have isoscapes at spatial scales relevant to the application in question. It is also necessary to have isoscapes that …

Self-Perceived Assessment Of Undergraduate Leaders Competencies Through A Leadership Development Program, Ryan D. Newton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This ex-post facto research study identified changes in participants’ self-perceptions of their competence in six key leadership competencies, as reported from a pre-training and post-training self-assessment. This study also identified the relationship between the participants’ self-reported changes and their persistence in enrollment at the University upon completion of the leadership training program. This quantitative study analyzed secondary data (N=201) from a large, four-year, public research institution in the southeast United States. Paired samples t-tests were used to determine that the self-reported change among participants was statistically significant (p<.05) from the pre- to the post-training self-assessment. Further, this study then examined the relationship between participants’ self-reported mean change and their persistence at the institution, defined as having graduated or continuing enrollment one year after completion of the leadership training program. A logistic regression was utilized to identify a negative predictive relationship between participants’ mean change and their likelihood of persistence. Implications for competency-based learning were discussed in relationship to student affairs practice.

The Boy Scouts Of America Merit Badge Program And Career Development, Todd R. Van Auken

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to determine whether a youth’s career development, as defined by the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI Form C), is associated with motivation, student grade level, and number of merit badges earned as a result of participation as Boy Scouts. For close to three decades there has been a call to improve career counseling for middle and high school youth. However, due to a shortage of school counselors in middle and high schools, counselors are inundated with heavy workloads of various responsibilities and do not always have the ability to focus on youth career development. Thus, …

Exploring The Relationship Between Student Expected Engagement And Referrals To The Behavioral Intervention Team, Makenzie R. Schiemann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher education administrators are tasked with supporting and retaining students with increasing needs. These needs often include emotional and mental health issues but can worsen to include suicidality and violence toward others. Traditional campus approaches for supporting students and intervening for violence, such as counseling and campus safety, have been reactionary rather than proactive. Behavioral Intervention Teams (BITs) have emerged as a mechanism for heading off violence before it occurs while also supporting students who may never engage in violence but need support. These teams were born out of the concept that violence is preventable and have grown into a …

Passion To Purpose: An Autobiographical Narrative Inquiry Into The Development Of The Summer Ace Program, Owen Hooper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students transitioning from high school to college are met with many challenges beyond academics including social acclimation, campus culture integration, and holistic wellness. Researchers agree that a successful and purposeful transition for incoming college students requires involvement and engagement with peers to help students adapt and increase their likelihood to graduate (Astin, 1999; Kuh, 2009; Tinto, 1998). This autobiographical narrative inquiry reflects on past experiences in assessing the needs of transitioning students at the University of South Florida and developing a purposeful programming model to support students. I aim to help the reader understand my personal commitment to these programs …

Torn Between Two Worlds: Role And Identity In Hybrid Teacher Leadership, Lauriann Marie Messier-Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roles of Hybrid Teacher Leadership (HTL), positions which involve classroom teaching for part of the day and academic coaching, curriculum planning, department chair, or professional development responsibilities for the remainder of the day, are becoming more prevalent due to budgetary concerns and teacher shortages. This autoethnography analyzes the first year of my experience as a Hybrid Teacher Leader in a school district in the Southeastern United States to gain knowledge of my enactment of the role, the ways in which I can learn more about myself as an educator and an academic coach from my experiences in the role, and …

Light-Controlled Magnetism And Magnetic Sensing In Two-Dimensional Vanadium Dichalcogenides And Related Semiconductors, Valery Ortiz Jimenez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors hold enormous potential for modern optoelectronic devices, magnetic sensing, and quantum computing applications. By inducing long-range ferromagnetism (FM) in these semiconductors by stacking them with other magnetic TMDs or through the introduction of small amounts of a magnetic dopant, it is possible to extend their potential in emerging spintronic applications. In this dissertation, we aim to demonstrate two important applications of these materials: magnetic sensing and light-mediated, room temperature (RT) FM in V-doped WS2 (V-WS2) and V-WSe2 monolayers and in ML VSe2/TS2 (T = Mo and W) heterostructures. In this work, we developed …

Who's Got Your Six: A Formative Evaluation Of A Military-Connected Student Cultural Competency Workshop, Wayne N. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of South Florida (USF) ranks as one of the top 50 public universities in the nation. As of Spring 2022, 14% of the student population identify as military-connected students (MCS). MCS comprises Active Duty, National Guard, Reserve, veteran or military dependents. Many student veterans choose not to embrace their veteran identity due to feeling unaccepted or viewed from a deficit mindset by faculty, staff, and other students. Veteran studies research identifies the significant influence faculty and staff possess when addressing MCS retention and graduation rates (Lim et al., 2018; Vacchi, 2012; Vacchi, 2018). USF’s Office of Veteran Success …

Meditation And Mindfulness Practice: Mitigating Burnout And Promoting Wellbeing Among Faculty, Billy E. Thomas Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this autoethnography was to explore meditation and mindfulness to mitigate burnout and promote wellbeing among faculty. I explored how meditation and mindfulness shaped me personally and professionally as an educator. I explored the methods I used to promote my own wellbeing and to deal with my experiences of burnout, anxiety, and depression. Self Determination Theory and Flow helped to inform this autoethnography, as well as mindfulness and meditation as tools for promoting faculty wellbeing. By telling my personal and professional story and how I have benefited from meditation and mindfulness practices, I hope to provide a road …

Informal Communication, Sensemaking, And Relational Precarity: Constituting Resilience In Remote Work During Covid, Tanya R.M. Vomacka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 global pandemic disrupted every corner of the globe, impacting our personal and professional lives with intensity and scope that have yet to be fully comprehended. One such disruption has been to the workplace and organizational culture as businesses, non-governmental agencies, governments, and other organizations worldwide rapidly moved face-to-face operations to remote work. Two years into the pandemic, with vaccines available and the immediate health threat for most healthy individuals waning, businesses still find themselves confronting a changing paradigm as remote work becomes more of a permanent and competitive fixture.

This study explores the impact of remote work on …

High-Risk Traffic Crash Pattern Recognition And Identification Using Econometric Models And Machine Learning Models, Runan Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadway crashes have become a major cause of human deaths and injuries and caused much economic damage. According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.35 million people died in traffic crashes and over 50 million people injured from traffic crashes in the year of 2016 (World Health Organization, 2020). Nationally, in the U.S., the latest decade witnessed an increase of over 10% in traffic fatalities (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2019). Similarly, in state of Florida, the fatal crashes increased by 4.62% from 2019 to 2020 (Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, 2021). To prevent injuries and …

Training Board Certified Behavior Analysts Via Telehealth To Conduct The Trial-Based Functional Analysis, Karie S. John

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although many behavior analysts recognize the value of conducting a functional analysis (FA), some report being hesitant to conduct the assessment (Oliver et al., 2015). Two potential barriers to conducting FAs include setting limitations (Roscoe et al., 2015) and lack of trained staff (Deochand et al., 2020). Researchers have addressed these limitations by developing variations of the traditional FA and demonstrating that those procedures could be taught across various populations. Perhaps the issue related to training has less to do with the ability to train FA procedures, and more to do with the accessibility of such trainings. Study 1 addressed …

Re-Centering And De-Centering ‘Race’: An Analysis Of Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing Organizational Websites, Beatriz Nieto-Fernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing technologies become an ever-expanding business in the United States, this dissertation project investigates the ways in which two leading organizations, AncestryDNA and 23andMe, utilize discourses of ‘race’ to connect with their customers. This study is particularly significant because it opens up new avenues of research in the field of organizational communication by engaging with a new genre of organizations and the complexities of biocapitalism, in which genetic data is commodified for consumption. Blending computational scraping of data and manual qualitative analysis of organizational texts and videos available on the corporate websites, while using postcolonial studies …

Using An Appreciative Inquiry Summit To Improve Support For First Year Experience Community College Instructors, Elise G. Zornow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This evaluation study had three main aims: 1) to examine how an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Summit can be used to promote First Year Experience (FYE) instructors’ sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness within the context of the FYE program at a community college; 2) to examine how an AI Summit might guide FYE program development; and 3) to examine how and in what ways an AI Summit might influence FYE instructors’ intent to act on the recommendations that result from this approach to program development. Instructors teaching the FYE course at a community college in the Southeastern United States were …

Qualitative Examination Of Sex Therapists' Perspectives Regarding Women With Low Sexual Desire, Tatiana C. Bryan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Female sexual desire disorder is often discussed in the literature, but there is a paucity of data on how sex therapists conceptualize and treat this disorder. To address a gap in the current literature, this study collected the perspectives and attitudes of clinicians working with patients presenting with low sexual desire. This qualitative study aimed to understand how sex therapists’ conceptualization of female sexual desire disorder is used to make decisions about diagnosis, treatment, and assessing patient progress. Grounded theory methodology was used to examine the attitudes and beliefs held by sex therapists. Results were used to generate a framework …

On The Reliability Of Wearable Sensors For Assessing Movement Disorder-Related Gait Quality And Imbalance: A Case Study Of Multiple Sclerosis, Steven Díaz Hernández

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 33 million American adults had a movement disorder associated with medication use, ear infections, injury, or neurological disorders in 2008, with over 18 million people affected by neurological disorders worldwide. Physical therapists assist people with movement disorders by providing interventions to reduce pain, improve mobility, avoid surgeries, and prevent falls and secondary complications of neurodegenerative disorders. Current gait assessments used by physical therapists, such as the Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale, provide only semi-quantitative data, and cannot assess walking quality in detail or describe how one’s walking quality changes over time. As a result, quantitative systems have grownas useful tools …

Small Heat Shock Protein 22 Preserves Neuronal Function In A Murine Model Of Tauopathy, Santiago Rodriguez Ospina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proteinopathies is a family of diseases associated with the pathological aggregation of protein. There are a multitude of proteinopathies, like tauopathy and synucleinopathy that contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Pick’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Currently, one focus of research in the field is mitigating aggregation-prone proteins contributing to disease state. One method of targeting aggregation is the use of chaperones. Chaperones are molecular machinery that help maintain homeostasis in the cells, through various roles and mechanisms, one of those methods is to regulate protein aggregation. Chaperones can achieve this by affecting protein-protein interactions, …

Black Cemeteries Matter: The Erasure Of Historic Black Cemeteries In Polk County, Florida, Juliana C. Waters

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the past several years, the Tampa Bay area has experienced a reckoning with regard to the intentional erasure, destruction, and abandonment of historic African American cemeteries such as Zion Cemetery in Tampa or St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery in Clearwater. Scholars, journalists, community members, archaeologists, and others have contributed to a growing movement that aims to identify and document these sacred sites in an effort to prevent further destruction. In this vein, this project aimed to identify and record cemeteries in Polk County, examine the processes leading to the erasure of historic Black cemeteries, the history surrounding erasure on …

Exploring The Structure And Activity Of Metallo-Tetracyclines, Shahedul Islam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Copper as a key component of electron transport chain of eukaryotes is an essential transition metal ion. Copper homeostasis in mammals complex and tightly regulated. Its strong reactivity together with binding with biologically important chemicals can have important repercussions in human health and overall environment. Tetracycline as one of most abundantly used antibiotic of the world has become abundant in the environment as well. Herein in this dissertation we take the journey to explore the complexation of tetracycline with metals in the environment and the intricate interaction between copper and tetracycline by investigating their oxidative behavior once they are complexed. …

Individual Differences In Response To Hostile And Benevolent Sexism In A Stem Interview Context: The Moderating Role Of Behavioral Activation, Elizabeth Kiebel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women continue to face sexism in workplace contexts, especially those that are male dominated, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet, women often fail to confront the sexism they experience, despite confrontation being an effective way to cope with and prevent future harassment (Fitzgerald et al., 1995; Magley, 2002). To date, no one has assessed the potential moderating role of personality differences related to approach motivation on women’s confrontation of sexism. In this study, women were exposed to either a hostilely sexist or benevolently sexist question during a mock job interview that was purportedly being conducted as part …

Improving Robustness Of Deep Learning Models And Privacy-Preserving Image Denoising, Hadi Zanddizari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Applications of deep learning models and convolutional neural networks have been rapidly increased. Although state-of-the-art CNNs provide high accuracy in many applications, recent investigations show that such networks are highly vulnerable to adversarial attacks. The black-box adversarial attack is one type of attack that the attacker does not have any knowledge about the model or the training dataset, but it has some input data set and theirlabels.

In this chapter, we propose a novel approach to generate a black-box attack in a sparse domain, whereas the most critical information of an image can be observed. Our investigation shows that large …

Breast Health Esteem To Motivate Breast Health Behavioral Intentions: An Application Of The Terror Management Health Model, Emily P. Courtney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is a pervasive disease affecting millions of people, and a family history of the disease can put individuals at a significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer over the course of one’s lifetime. In turn, women with a family history often perceive themselves as more susceptible to breast cancer. Further, women who have lost family members to breast cancer likely associate the disease itself with death to a greater extent. In addition to this increased risk perception, women with a family history might intertwine breast health with feelings of esteem. It follows that those feelings of esteem should …

Medication-Assisted Treatment Versus 12-Step Group Therapy: A Comparative Analysis Of Adherence And Abstinence In Patients With Opioid Use Disorder, Derrick C. Glymph

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to do a comparative analysis of the effects of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and 12-step group therapy on adherence and abstinence in adult patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). The specific aims were (1) to compare treatment adherence and illicit opioid abstinence of adult OUD patients enrolled in MAT and adult OUD patients enrolled in 12-step group therapy at three months and six months after initiation of treatment, and (2) to compare treatment adherence and illicit opioid abstinence of adult OUD patients enrolled in MAT to the treatment adherence and illicit opioid abstinence of adult …

First-Principles-Based Modeling Of Energy Converting Properties Of Conventional And Emerging Ferroelectrics, Maggie Kingsland

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ferroelectric materials are a type of multifunctional material that exhibit spontaneous polarization reversable by the application of an electric field. They are used in many technologies such as ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), piezoelectric devices, RFID chips, and capacitors. However, the most commonly used ferroelectrics are often made with rare, expensive elements and are not environmentally friendly. For example, many prototypical ferroelectrics contain elements such as lead, zirconium, and titanium. As technology grows more advanced, there is a need to discover or manufacture cheaper ferroelectrics and to make them less impactful on human health and the earth as a whole. We set …

Comparing Participants In Discipline And Non-Discipline Specific First-Year Seminars: A Study On Student Characteristics, Expectations, And Changes In Major, Caroline Kaufmann Twachtman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

First-year seminar (FYS) courses tend to focus on preparing students for successful academic and social integration into the college environment. Many of the studies on FYS courses focus on measuring outcomes such as college grades, retention, and graduation rates. While there is notable documentation of several different types of FYS courses, relatively few studies compare the different types of FYS courses. What, if any, differences might there be in the profiles of students who take either type of course? Is there a certain type of student that enrolls in the discipline-specific course, or a certain type of student that enrolls …

Oral Narrative Interventions Implemented By Teachers, Speech-Language Pathologists, And Parents, Megan S. Kirby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children’s oral language skills in preschool through early elementary grades can predict reading, writing, and social outcomes ten years into the future. Oral narrative language, which includes storytelling, is a long-established cultural practice in communities around the world. Narratives are the monologic re/telling of a real of fictitious event and people have used them for centuries to entertain, make sense of current and past events, and provide instruction. Oral storytelling does not require physical materials and can be tailored to the cultural and linguistic values of the community in which they are used. Thus, the portability, utility, and ubiquitous nature …

Study On New Reactivity Of Vinyl Gold And Its Sequential Transformations, Teng Yuan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation mainly contains three parts: 1) the study of new reactivity of vinyl gold(I) and synergistic gold-iron catalyzed regioselective crossed aldol reaction. 2) synergistic gold-iron catalyzed amide crossed aldol reaction by using ynamides as ‘masked’ amides. 3) alkyne trifunctionalization via divergent gold catalysis: combining three modes of gold catalysis: π activation, nucleophilic addition of vinyl gold and gold redox catalysis. This novel method affords access to constructing C-N, C-O and C-C bond in one step at mild condition.

In the first part, a new reaction mode in gold catalysis will be introduced. Due to the protodeauration of vinyl gold …

Phenotypic Variability In Ipsc-Induced Cardiomyocytes And Cardiac Fibroblasts Carrying Diverse Lmna Mutations, Jiajia Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mutations in the LMNA gene (encoding lamin A/C) are the second most common cause of familial arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. Diverse LMNA variants in cardiomyocytes have been associated with cardiac phenotypes. Moreover, cardiac fibroblasts make up a large fraction of the myocardium's non-myocyte component, intrinsically linked to extracellular matrix synthesis and turnover as well as secreting large amounts of bioactive metabolites. However, our understanding of how different mutation sites and the non-myocyte niche mediate cardiomyocyte function is limited. To fill this gap, in this thesis I investigated the hypothesis that variable LMNA mutations have significant effects on the genetic, structure and electrophysiological …

Why Don’T They Just Ask?: Barriers To Directly Requesting Affirmative Sexual Consent By Gender And Sexual Orientation, Jessica A. Jordan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most young adults report a discomfort with verbally and explicitly asking for sexual consent from a partner. Social scientists have theorized this discomfort is driven by conformity to rigid gender roles, sexual scripts, and peer norms, although little research has directly examined the relationship between these barriers and consent behaviors. Most consent research has focused on heterosexual individuals, and even fewer studies have compared the sexual consent attitudes and behaviors of heterosexual and sexual minority individuals. Through a series of three studies, I examined the reasons heterosexual and sexual minority young adults hesitate to ask a new partner for sexual …

Distributed Leadership: Formal Leadership, Barriers, And Facilitators For Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support, Joseph D. Latimer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, educators are exposed to an increased environment of accountability, which prioritizes student academic achievement. That environment of accountability is reinforced by multiple pieces of legislation that also call attention to the implementation of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). Even with these federal mandates, educators are continuously overwhelmed implementing MTSS and often leverage distributed leadership practices such as school leadership teams to carry out school improvement tasks. Both distributed leadership practices and MTSS are directly impacted by the practices of formal leadership (i.e., principals). In addition, enablers of and barriers to distributed leadership for MTSS should be investigated. This current …