The False Identity Of A Filmmaker, Cheyanne Miller

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The False Identity of a Filmmaker is a multimedia installation and essay film on imposter syndrome within artists. Starting as an exploration into the topic, The False Identity of a Filmmaker became a personal self-discovery in my creative practice, resulting in an essay film that explores my relationship with imposter syndrome in relation to films that are often recognized as canonical. The multimedia installation places the essay film among a textural design of 16mm film strips to recognize filmmaking as a source of my imposter syndrome.

Women, artists, and those with careers in academia experience imposter syndrome quite often but …

A Chat Analysis Of The Use Of Educational Video Games To Teach Physical Science To Middle School Girls, Stephen G. Petit

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

As students transition into middle school science courses, their interest and engagement in the subject declines. This decline is most significant among girls, particularly for topics in physical science. While several factors have been identified that contribute to the decline, one area that is emerging as a new way to help improve girls' view of science is the use of educational video games to improve engagement and interest in science content, particularly as video games have been steadily rising in popularity with girls. This study used Cultural Historical Activity Theory to understand how middle school girls engage with an educational …

Transcriptomic Underpinnings Of Diversification, Phenotypic Plasticity, And Disease Response In Non-Model Amphibians, Nicholas Christodoulides

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Anurans (frogs) are spectacularly diverse in their life histories, evolutionary trajectories, and morphological features. Advancement of next-generation sequencing techniques has improved knowledge of anuran genetics, but the functional genomic underpinnings of adaptation in most frog species remains uncharacterized. Transcriptomic approaches are some of the most powerful tools available to understand the molecular workings of adaptation among lineages and species. Because anurans face a multitude of anthropogenic threats and are unique in their biphasic life history, a question of particular interest is how gene expression profiles relate to phenotypic variation within and among species. In this dissertation, I tackle this question …

Every Person A Home Every Home A Person, Emily R. Miller

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Every Person a Home Every Home a Person is a collection of poems that explores the meaning of “home” and the places where our homes are made. The collection consists of intertwining thematic threads that delve into what makes a home, including those found in physical houses, cultural identities and regional areas (in this case, Florida/the American South), other people, and personal identity. Through probing poems inspired by the author’s life and experiences as a queer, neurodivergent woman*, Every Person a Home Every Home a Person asks and tries to answer the question: what makes a home, and how do …

A Multimodal Framework For Automated Content Moderation Of Children's Videos, Syed Hammad Ahmed

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Online video platforms receive hundreds of hours of uploads every minute, making manual moderation of inappropriate content impossible. The most vulnerable consumers of malicious video content are children from ages 1-5 whose attention is easily captured by bursts of color and sound. Prominent video hosting platforms like YouTube have taken measures to mitigate malicious content, but these videos often go undetected by current automated content moderation tools that are focused on removing explicit or copyrighted content. Scammers attempting to monetize their content may craft malicious children's videos that are superficially similar to educational videos, but include scary and disgusting characters, …

Rhizophora Mangle (Red Mangrove) Seedling Success In Different Habitats In Mosquito Lagoon, Florida, Usa, Mekail N. Negash

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Mangroves provide many ecosystem services in coastal environments around the world. These include water quality improvement, creating habitats for terrestrial and aquatic species, and stabilizing shorelines. In central Florida, the red mangrove Rhizophora mangle is a common species in coastal wetlands, and recently the number of individuals successfully recruiting to intertidal oyster reefs has greatly increased, possibly because biogeochemical hot spots are present on oyster reefs due to nutrient-rich biodeposits from the live oysters. To understand how well R. mangle responds in terms of survival and growth to the suite of variables associated within these two unique habitats, I tracked …

Spotting The Signs: An Investigation Of The Effectiveness Of A Peer Training Program In Increasing Students' Ability To Detect And Report The Warning Signs Of A Peer School Shooting Plot, Ashley T. Winch

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

To date, there are no evidence-based peer bystander intervention trainings (BIT) aimed at educating peers in school shooting warning behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine an interactive BIT where peers were taught warning behaviors related to someone planning a school shooting and how to report this information. This training was evaluated against a currently available training method (i.e., PowerPoint presentation based) and a control group to determine the best training approach. College students between 18 and 19 years old (N = 57) completed pre, post, and one-month follow-up assessments. At each timepoint accuracy in detection of …

Is This The Real Life, Or Is This Just Fantasy? Assessing Species Distribution Model Realism And Applicability With Virtual And Empirical Species, Hannah R. Bevan

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Species distribution models (SDMs) can be important tools for proactive conservation management if they are realistic. Unfortunately, achieving and assessing SDM realism is challenging given the general limitations of scientific models and empirical species data. We addressed the issue of achieving realism with high model quality and reproducibility by reviewing 200 SDMs and cataloguing methods for data availability, response and predictor variables, model fitting, and model performance. We addressed the issue of assessing SDM realism by comparing known and predicted distributions of habitat suitability with simulated data for various model fitting choices. Finally, we applied and compared subsequent lessons to …

Breaking Molds: Transformative Processes In Art Making, Materials, And Life, James M. Wysolmierski

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Drawing upon traumatic moments of my past as a catalyst, I pursue understanding and acceptance of physical and emotional pain. In this thesis body of work, I employ the intersection of industrial and body imagery in sculptural forms and installation as a corporeal and allegorical account of my lived experience using visual narratives of trepidation and metamorphosis. In my creative practice, I incorporate various materials that create a reference of specific moments from my past. The artworks draw from principles rooted in Buddhism, affect theory, phenomenology, and materiality; incorporating them as tools to comprehend my position in the world and …

In An Immersive Space, Raising Awareness To Universalize The Concept Of Resistance And Hope, Elaheh Jazemi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Inspired by my Iranian heritage, I symbolize my narrative of the social injustice and suppression prevalent in Iran. Through this thesis, I universalize the concept of resistance and hope for equality by raising awareness and giving a voice to the voiceless despite their significant sacrifices. In my studio practice, I sought to achieve a visual density that would enhance the immersive experiences. I constructed this by overlapping transparent materials such as tulle, resin, silk, and transparent sheets, creating a disorienting atmosphere that invites viewers to grapple with visual metaphors. This overwhelming ambiance, mirroring the despondent nature of the emotions conveyed …

Comical, Familial, Satirical: Exploring Visual Culture Through Portraiture And Graphic Narrative, Matthew D. Dunn

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

My art examines visual culture using a plethora of techniques, formats, and materials. Recent works address family, pop-culture, and politics utilizing portraiture and short-form comics. Much of my art expresses humor through colorful, irreverent imagery, and many works employ satire and parody. Leveraging my experience as a professional illustrator and designer, I tailor my approach to each project, drawing upon divergent styles with an emphasis on polish and accessibility. I frequently adapt well-known images to recontextualize subjects. In my investigation of graphic narrative, I produced political comics, vintage comic book parodies, and experimental, interactive work. This body of work was …

Investigating Emerging Technologies In Civil Structural Health Monitoring: Generative Artificial Intelligence And Virtual Reality, Furkan Luleci

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Condition assessment of civil engineering infrastructure systems is of growing importance as they face aging and degradation due to both human-made activities and environmental factors. Nevertheless, challenges persist in data collection, leading to "data scarcity", and the need for frequent site visits in inspections, presenting significant obstacles in the assessment of the civil infrastructure systems. This dissertation aims to overcome these challenges by exploring the potential of two emerging technologies: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR). In tackling the issue of data scarcity, the research question revolves around how Generative AI can be utilized to mitigate data collection-related …

A Case Study Examining The Implementation Of Multi-Tiered System Of Supports During Mathematics Intervention In Grades 3-5, Sarah Lumpkin

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

ABSTRACT

This case study examined how Multi-Tiered System of Supports were implemented in mathematics at an elementary school, the factors that influenced teachers’ instructional choices, and how school leadership impacted implementation. Participants consisted of four elementary school teachers and four members of the school’s leadership team. The study focused specifically on mathematics teachers in grades 3-5. These three research questions guided the study: (1) How do mathematics teachers implement MTSS in grades 3-5? (2) What influences the teachers’ choices during MTSS implementation? and (3) How does school leadership impact the implementation of MTSS in mathematics intervention? A triangulation of data …

Acausal Modeling And Validation Of Platform Hydrodynamics Of A Floating Offshore Wind Turbine, Doyal Kumar Sarker

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This thesis presents the development of a platform hydrodynamics module for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) within the Control-oriented, Reconfigurable, and Acausal Floating Turbine Simulator (CRAFTS), which is currently being developed in the Hybrid Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory at UCF. The CRAFTS simulator is an acausal modeling and simulation environment developed utilizing the Modelica language. CRAFTS is capable of fully coupled multi-physics simulations of various types of FOWTs and facilitates Control Co-Design (CCD) of FOWTs.

This work describes an acausal approach for modeling the structure and hydrodynamics, and for verifying the control of a semi-submersible floating platform for a 15MW …

Modelling Of The Viscoelastic Relaxation Of A Stowed Telescope Starshade, Rahul Raghu

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The Habitable Worlds Telescope Starshade is an occulting disk that orbits in tandem with a telescope that occludes and diffuses the light from stars to observe the relatively dim exoplanets in orbit around them. It achieves this in part with tailored petals that diffuse light to soften the light from the star. Due to the relative sizes of the star and the planet, NASA considers the shape stability of the Starshade's petals to be a Key Technology Gap. The Starshade is developed to be a deployable composite structure that folds on itself to fit within modern rockets. Due to the …

Characterizing The Material Response Of The Passive Myocardium, Mehlil Ahmed

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Cardiovascular diseases remain a major public health concern worldwide, with heart failure emerging as a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality. Among heart failure cases, Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) presents a substantial clinical challenge due to its poor understanding and diagnostic complexity. Despite its prevalence, HFpEF lacks accurate diagnostic tools, hindering effective prognosis and therapy planning. This study addresses the knowledge gap surrounding HFpEF and diastolic dysfunction by focusing on the passive myocardial response during atrial systole, a critical yet understudied aspect of cardiac function. Current clinical measures, such as left ventricular ejection fraction, have limitations in …

Analyzing The Use Of Plain Language In Brief Summaries On Clinicaltrials.Gov, Megan J. Eddington

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

ClinicalTrials.gov is a database designed to help clinical researchers make their research publicly available. The clinical trials registered on the database each include a brief summary, which is meant to be a short description that the public can easily understand. In September 2022, ClinicalTrials.gov published a "Plain Language Checklist for Lay Brief Summaries" on their website, which identifies plain language best practices intended to help investigators craft summaries that can be readily understood by the public. This thesis assesses the impact of the checklist on the language use in the brief summaries in the year following the checklist's publication. The …

Human Performance In Context: Exploring The Effect Of Social Support On Vigilance, Allison E. Garibaldi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Over many decades, vigilance research has consistently found that performance on vigilance tasks decline over time (i.e., the vigilance decrement; Davies & Parasuraman, 1982), and that performing a vigilance task is both mentally demanding and stressful (Warm et al., 2008). Researchers have subsequently implemented a wide range of interventions to both understand and attempt to attenuate the vigilance decrement and its associated affective effects. Among these efforts, little attention has been devoted to understanding the effects of the social environment on vigilance. Nonetheless, a handful of studies have indeed suggested that the presence of others can affect performance, workload, and …

The Impact Of Well-Designed Graphics And Multimedia On Student Engagement And Learning In Online Classes, Joseph E. Lloyd

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The purpose of this research study was to examine the graphical redesign of an online Psychology course and determine the impact of that redesign on student engagement in the course, and students’ perceptions of the course, and the impact of the redesign elements on their learning. It also examined whether this redesign impacted students’ performance in the course. The results from this study could provide insights for instructors, instructional designers, and graphic designers on how the inclusion of such graphics affects student engagement and learning. In addition, how the students view their own engagement and learning with the addition of …

University Of Central Florida Graduate Catalog, 2024 - 2025, University Of Central Florida

UCF Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Using Lidar Data And Gis Analyses To Understand Looting Patterns In The Maya Biosphere Reserve, Chloe E. Sherwood

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This research examines looting activity at archaeological sites in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala, focusing on areas both inside and outside established national park boundaries. The study covers sites occupied by the ancestral Maya from the Middle Preclassic to Terminal Classic periods (800 BC – AD 900), including El Mirador, Nakbé, and Wakná. This research uses LiDAR data and GIS analyses to identify looting clusters, comparing areas within the park to those outside, and investigates the relationship between looting activity and infrastructure such as trails, camps, and fresh water reservoirs.

Findings reveal that looting is more concentrated outside …

The Influence Of Natural And Anthropogenic Drivers On Estuarine Food Webs At Various Spatio-Temporal Scales And Levels Of Complexity, Michelle Shaffer

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Global coastal ecosystems support human life by providing critical services like food, water purification, and coastal protection, yet these ecosystems are among the most threatened due to natural and human-driven disturbances. The long-term maintenance and restoration of these ecosystems is a complex challenge for resource managers due to the wide range of factors affecting these ecosystems ecological condition over long timespans. Most studies in marine ecology evaluate ecosystem change over relatively short temporal scales (ago), often resulting in shifting baseline syndrome. To effectively manage and restore these ecosystems, resource managers must consider long-term ecosystem baselines.

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) …

Anticipating Combustion: Suffering's Potential For Finding Meaning, Perseverance, And Transcendence, Alexander Alvarez

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Arising from the complications of an underprivileged and impoverished background this thesis focuses on exposing the grotesque consequences of conflicting ideologies through personal and societal suffering while in search of universal connections to showcase the need for compassion and understanding. My artistic practice is utilized as an entry point to have difficult discussions, a tool for teaching themes of injustice, inequality, and mistreatment. The traumatizing experience of poverty or corruption has the potential to be transmuted into something beneficial. I utilize discarded, low valued, unwanted, and damaged materials in my artmaking to symbolize transfiguration, an advanced state of former self. …

Lucas' Gift: Exploring The Importance Of Self-Care, Kevaun L. Gayle

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Lucas' Gift is a traditionally animated short film focusing on themes of selflessness and self-care. In an alternate world where magic exists, lives a young boy from a small community experiencing a drought. After being gifted a magical plant growing necklace from the Good Witch, Lucas works diligently to feed his community. After working himself to exhaustion, he learns the importance of self-care. The artistic direction is influenced by works such as Steven Universe and Craig of the Creek.

Campbell & The Cryptid: Mindfulness And Mediality, Elaina Buffkin

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Campbell & The Cryptid is a short film that intertwines the bittersweet intensity of imagination with the nostalgic medium of hand drawn two-dimensional animation. Campbell is an eleven-year-old girl who loves adventure and spending time with her brother. But when he moves away, she carries on her explorations on her own. This leads her to discover a strange friend in the woods. The experience helps her understand that the unknown is not always as bad as imagined. Influences on the artistic direction include irreverent media such as Calvin & Hobbes, as well as more speculative works such as Over …

From The Slime And Mud: Rumination As Fuel For Artistic Process, Olivia Van Natta

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This thesis examines my work to harness ruminative thinking as a driving force for my art practice. With a combination of drawing and painting in watercolor pencil, I activate and engage with rumination through the act of sublimation as defined in clinical psychology. Repetition of process and hand-rendered detail serve as outward channels for my obsessive cyclical thoughts. Based on my experience living with the physical effects of a hyperactive mind, I depict botanical life symbolically in an effort to communicate impressions of the bodily sensations associated with rumination, such as palpable tension, anxiety, or dread. In my research, I …

Spatial Distribution And Significance Of Burdens To Environmental Justice In Parramore, Florida: An Urban Resilience Perspective, Lex Tracton

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In response to climate change, economic instability, and rapid urbanization, the notion of urban resilience has gained prominence in city planning and governance. Urban resilience is the ability of a system to adapt to new baseline conditions developing as a result of disturbances. This study is focused on one of urban resilience’s sub-tenets, ecological resilience. Ecological resilience is the ability of a system to sustain ecosystem services following a disturbance (i.e. droughts, flooding, heat waves). The health of the environment prior to a disturbance informs post-disturbance ecological resilience. An already stressed and unbalanced system, or an ecosystem with degraded health, …

The Influence Of Genes On The Migratory Timing Of Great Reed Warblers, Emily Fackler

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Many organisms migrate; however, there is a lack of knowledge on the mechanisms that drive migration timing, including which genes play a role. The great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus), a migratory bird that breeds in Eurasia and overwinters in sub-Saharan Africa, is an excellent model to study the genetics of migration. Each season, some individuals migrate early, whereas others migrate later in the season. In other words, they exhibit differences in their migratory chronotypes. Past research has identified three candidate genes (TOP1, PEAK1, and CPNE4) that influence the migratory chronotypes of another avian species, …

The Nebulous Binaries Of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, Amantia Menalla

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Much of C.S. Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces can be examined through one of two binaries. The tension between rationality, or reason, and spirituality, or religion, is one of the core facets of both the text and its main character, Orual. Orual feels the pull of both ideas and thus spends most of the novel in a nebulous space between them. This tension is further complicated by the space between the feminine and the masculine which she also inhabits. By covering her face and body, Orual de-emphasizes her feminine identity and takes on a masculine role, dressing as a …

The Association Between Patient Race/Ethnicity/Culture, Physician-Patient Communication, And Patient Outcomes: A Systematic Review, Maazen Khan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Research shows that health disparities exist among patients of varying races, ethnicities, and cultures in the United States. Numerous studies have suggested that these disparities may be partly associated with physician-patient communication. The larger project that this thesis is a part of is a mixed-methods analysis of physician-patient communication across patient race, ethnicity, and culture. This thesis specifically excluded qualitative studies and focused on how such communication can affect health outcomes. Sixty-nine studies were identified and appraised for quality. Of these, only four associated physician-patient communication with the health outcomes of patients. These studies had inconsistent results, highlighting the gap …