Digital Commons Network^™

Introducing Mindful Micro-Practices To Reduce Job Stress And Turnover Intention In High-Volume Restaurants, Vicki Lavendol

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Employee turnover has long been the most complex problem in the hospitality and tourism industry and Florida is home to over 1 million restaurant and food service jobs. This mixed methods study evaluated the effectiveness of a mindfulness program introduced to reduce job stress and turnover intention at multiple locations of a mid-size restaurant company in Florida. Managers were trained on mindful micro-practices and then introduced those practices to their teams over a four-week intervention. Pre- and post-surveys measured team member job stress, stress-reducing behaviors, turnover intention, self-determination, and mindful awareness. The quantitative data was underpowered and showed no statistically …

Advancing Policy Insights: Opinion Data Analysis And Discourse Structuring Using Llms, Aaditya Bhatia

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The growing volume of opinion data presents a significant challenge for policymakers striving to distill public sentiment into actionable decisions. This study aims to explore the capability of large language models (LLMs) to synthesize public opinion data into coherent policy recommendations. We specifically leverage Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B models for text generation and have developed an architecture to process vast amounts of unstructured information, integrate diverse viewpoints, and extract actionable insights aligned with public opinion. Using a retrospective data analysis of the Polis platform debates published by the Computational Democracy Project, this study examines multiple datasets that span local …

Impact Of Social Support On Turnover Intentions And Burnout Among Hispanic Religious Leaders, Sandra Montenegro

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

In some cases, role stressors force members of the clergy to rely on social support to maintain themselves serving in ministry. In this study, the Job Demands and Resources (JD-R) model is applied to investigate the interaction between vocational demands (role stressors and occupational distress) and resources (social support) in predicting burnout and turnover intentions in Florida clergy. A cross-sectional survey design was used to assess the buffering role of social support systems in mitigating turnover intentions and the overall impact on clergy burnout. The findings suggest that role overload, role conflict, and occupational distress are significantly related to burnout, …

Exploring How Administrative Factors Including Mentoring, Compensation, And Workload Impact The Retention Rates Of Novice Title I Teachers, Danielle Jones

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This study explores the administrative factors impacting the experiences and retention rate of Title I beginning-year teachers that have 1-3 years of experience. Considering Title I schools primarily serve students from marginalized backgrounds, understanding the role of administrative factors becomes crucial. These factors significantly influence both student outcomes and teacher effectiveness, emphasizing the need for further exploration. For this reason, this research seeks to identify and understand the impacts administrative structures have on the performance, satisfaction, and retention of new teachers in Title I schools. This quantitative study will examine the experiences and outcomes of new teachers in Title I …

Combating Cyberbullying On Social Media: A Machine Learning Approach With Text Analysis On Twitter, Amir Alipour Yengejeh

Data Science and Data Mining

The popularity of the electronic mobile devices along with social media as well as networking websites have been tremendously increased in the recent year. Most people around the world daily engage in the variety of cyberspace additives. Even though the users can take most advantages of these system such as exchange the idea and information, being sociable, and enjoyments, they might be faced with such adverse behaviors such as toxicity, bullying, extremism, and cruelty. The recent statistics reports that such mentioned behaviors has been noticeably grown on the cyberspace such that can threaten the individuals and even any community. Thus, …

Diagnostic In Neuroimaging: A Comparative Study Of Deep Learning And Traditional Approaches, Amina Issoufou Anaroua

Data Science and Data Mining

In the realm of medical diagnostics, precise classification of brain tumors is pivotal. This study conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) against traditional machine learning models, Logistic Regression (LR) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) on a dataset of MRI scans for multi-class brain tumor classification. The CNN, tailored for image recognition, is evaluated alongside LR and SVM, which have established benchmarks in classification tasks. The investigation reveals that the traditional models hold their ground in terms of precision and interpretability, with the SVM, in particular, achieving remarkable accuracy. However, the CNN distinguishes itself by demonstrating …

Ucf Pegasus Plan - 2nd Grade - Supply & Demand, Renata Veronica Nunez Saenz, Valeria Bonilla, Julia Buquicchio, Leah Silverman, Mya Buck

Pegasus Plans: Social Studies Unit Plans for Florida Teachers

During this unit, students will explore the fundamental concepts of economics. Through collaborative discussions, multimedia resources, and formative assessments, students will develop a robust understanding of how markets operate in their community and how people provide goods and services based on societal needs. Students will investigate the production process of familiar goods and learn the roles of producers and consumers in economic systems. They will also examine the concept of supply and demand with real-world applications by analyzing how changes in supply and demand affect prices and consumer behavior. The unit includes vocabulary introductions, practical demonstrations, and visual aids to …

Ucf Pegasus Plan - 1st Grade - Maps & Globes, Anna C. Howell, Alejandra Vega-Casillas, Gianna M. Astriab, Georgia De Los Santos, Lindsay Schultz

Pegasus Plans: Social Studies Unit Plans for Florida Teachers

During this unit, students will explore, analyze, and construct maps. The students learn about what a globe is and how they are similar to and different from traditional maps. The daily lessons delve into the elements of maps, including cardinal directions, map symbols, and map keys, in addition to the seven continents and what makes each of these land masses unique. Through developmentally appropriate songs, games, and books, students will be highly engaged throughout this geography unit.

Serving Virtually: The Impact Of Online Organizations, Sierra Hajek

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

Throughout this semester, I had the opportunity to work with Zooniverse, an online organization which helps researchers gather data and complete projects. I worked on one specific project, “Reading Emotions,” and helped complete multiple rounds of this project. By doing this, I was able to grow my leadership skills and revisit my reasoning of why I love to volunteer and serve different organizations. I analyzed my strengths and weaknesses and learned about my different leadership insights.

How To Keep Involved For The​ "Lazy" And The "Scared", Malcolm D. Gambles Ii

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

This presentation is essentially a collection of my own experiences and the strategies that have helped me remain consistent in my service-learning journey. I had a lot of passion when coming up with this presentation because I now have the ability to talk about the struggles I faced when on my service-learning journey and way to maybe help others suffering from the same problems. As someone who has both been considered "lazy," and "scared," when it comes to handling my responsibilities in my early childhood and young adult life, I have picked up many techniques to help me stay involved. …

Reforming Public Institutions To Ensure Fairness And Opportunity, Ryan P. Kaufman, Nolan J. Loch, Kim Nguyen, Katie S. Weinstock, Parnika Chintapalli

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

By creating an issue guide, we are able to express our concerns and suggestions for what opportunities there are to address this issue. With a topic about America impacting almost everyone who views the guide, there is going to be someone that learns about how they can potentially make an impact in their community. As a class, we divided each section of the guide into a different group, this way each group was able to do more focused research. We created research papers and created drats to be assembled into the finished product. We learned that these are experiences that …

What Effect Does Helminth Infection Have On An Adult's Immune System?, Shanzida Toha

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

The research question is, how does the prevalence of helminth infections impact the immune system of adult patients? To clarify this subject: How does the prevalence of helminth infections affect the immune system of adult patients? Specifically, can helminth exposure help individuals reactivate T-cells to improve immunity and mitigate TB while providing preventative benefits for metabolic conditions?

This concept suggests that we could explore helminth-based therapies to treat or even prevent metabolic conditions that are precursors to cardiovascular disease. Such a therapeutic approach could be revolutionary, especially for populations without access to costly medications like insulin or blood pressure drugs. …

Love Serving Autism, Zephaniahn Torres

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

My name is Zephaniahn Torres, I am in the LEAD Scholars Academy where my Service-Learning class 3215 is focused on healthcare in the community. My project encapsulates the volunteer work I did with a non-profit organization called Love Serving Autism. This organization focuses on teaching children and adults with autism how to play tennis. This is very beneficial to the kids as they learn vital life lessons as well as engage in physical activity that's fun. I indulged in this service weekly on Saturdays at the UCF Tennis Courts. In my project I discuss my role as a volunteer and …

Spectacular Shells, Allison Hobson, Jasmine Bjorn, Keilissa Bailey, Ethan Gau

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

For our Marine Conservation and Restoration course, we designed an interactive lesson on marine life for first graders, focusing on animals that use shells. Our project features a presentation introducing shell-bearing animals such as mollusks, hermit crabs, and sea turtles. Students then engage in a game of Simon Says to identify shell adaptations. Following this, we led three hands-on activities: creating a pet oyster, making a sea turtle backpack with paper scutes, and coloring shells to add to a classroom poster. These activities encourage creativity and emphasize the role of shells in marine ecosystems. This immersive approach aims to foster …

The Impact Of Gun Violence: A Study On Mass Killings In The United States, Abigail Wright, Oma Persaud, Tindrew Chen

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

This study examines the impacts of gun violence in the United States from 2006 to October 2024, focusing on factors influencing the casualties in mass shooting incidents. Utilizing the predictors: number of offenders, region, location, incident type, and gun type we employed a Negative Binomial Regression Model due to its suitability for handling high variance and over-dispersion in the response variable. The dataset "Mass Killings in America" reports 1,018 casualties from over 100 incidents in the past four years alone. This research sheds light on correlations between the predictors and response, providing valuable insights to enhance community vigilance and prevention …

Service-Learning Course, Shanzida Toha

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2024

Reflecting on my service-learning experience, I recognize that I used to judge first-generation immigrants who struggled with English. Over time, I realized this was unfair, as I hadn’t considered their individual challenges. This shift in perspective led me to become more open-minded, seek new experiences, and pursue my passion for helping others through direct patient care. I realized that engaging in leadership-based service learning could enhance my empathy and leadership abilities, which has become central to my personal and professional growth.

Decoding And Generating Poetry: Using Feminist Theory And Digital Media To Demonstrate Maya Angelou's Writing As Activism, Emery Beckman

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This thesis will demonstrate how rhetorical strategies can present social change through descriptive elements of persuasion. Using foundational rhetorical concepts, including ethos, logos, and pathos, it will connect concerns of inequality to the work of Maya Angelou, who can validate the impact intersectionality has within the use of rhetoric. Having been a victim of racism, sexual abuse, and economic disadvantages, she used her voice to break the silence for women. This thesis will showcase the impact of rhetorical techniques through digital media by creating a website featuring visual data and mapping by decoding Maya Angelou's work to demonstrate the power …

Fourth And Fifth-Grade Teacher Experiences With Els In The Science Classroom, Kiana Cheverez

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Science classrooms are places where students build knowledge through interacting with others and building new experiences by experimenting (Lee et al., 2009). English Learners (ELs) are students learning English, and the population of ELs has steadily risen in America (Tran, 2015). Although ELs are learning English, they are still expected to participate in conversations, exams, and learning in the Science classroom, regardless of their English abilities. This project focused on understanding teachers’ perspectives and experiences teaching ELs in the Science classroom. To do this, the researcher completed a phenomenological study and interviewed teachers to gain insight into their experiences. Afterward, …

Henry Viii & Rulership: A Contemporary Perspective Of His Reign, 1509-1537, Jeremy M. Rodriguez

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Henry VIII is one of the most infamous monarchs in English history, known by both medievalist and modernists. Historians have spent decades toiling over if Henry was a “good” monarch, attempting to either argue his strength or his weakness as a monarch. Instead of focusing on what he may or may not be in terms of his morality and effectiveness, this thesis looks at Henry’s reign by considering the political landscape he was born into. It considers the political culture in late medieval and early modern England to assess his rulership in the context of contemporary political thought. Using works …

Design And Optimization Of Temperature-Stable Mems Resonators For Timing Applications Based On Thin-Film Lithium Tantalate, Yasaman Majd

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

All radio devices require a highly accurate frequency reference with superb temperature stability. While quartz-based oscillators meet accuracy demands, they cannot be easily miniaturized for higher frequencies. Silicon-based MEMS resonators offer a promising alternative due to their small size, and low power consumption, though they suffer from significant temperature drift.

This research proposes a silicon-based MEMS device that exhibits low-frequency variations across wide temperature ranges, high-quality factors, and low insertion loss, meeting modern communication system requirements. Two main research avenues are explored.

Firstly, the thermal behavior of S₀ Lamb wave X-cut Lithium Tantalate (LT) resonators is investigated, demonstrating a …

Comprehensive Analytics Of Automated Vehicles’ Effectiveness, Benefits, And Crash Severity, Shengxuan Ding

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Automated Vehicles (AV) are increasingly becoming a reality, offering major road safety improvements and advancements through the development of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving Systems (ADS). Although research on AVs is progressing, several key gaps remain. There is a lack of sufficient matched data between AV and HDV crashes to compare their differences, along with a need for more detailed datasets to analyze ADS and ADAS crash severity and assess ADAS safety effectiveness. First, the research investigates overall trends within the AV dataset by utilizing 1,099 ADS, 1,001 ADAS and 35,113 HDV crash data. including ADS (Society …

A Framework For Improving Employee Experience In The Hospitality Industry, Scott Hall

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This dissertation explores the unique aspects of employee experience within the hospitality industry. By conducting in-depth interviews with 40 employees, both within and outside of the hospitality sector, this research aims to identify the factors that distinguish the employee experience in hospitality and to lay the groundwork for future improvements in this field.

The study employs a thematic analysis to uncover key themes that define the hospitality employee experience. The findings reveal that job satisfaction in hospitality is significantly influenced by factors such as workplace culture, career development opportunities, and the intrinsic satisfaction derived from serving guests. Moreover, the research …

Using Electroencephalography To Predict Metabolic Cost, Jordan Grubb

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a technique used to non-invasively record electrical signals from the brain that can be used to understand how the brain functions and controls movements. EEG, however, is susceptible to recording electrical artifact signals that do not originate from brain activity. Common artifacts that come up in EEG data are generated by eye movements, heart contractions, muscle contractions, motion artifacts, electromagnetic interference signals, and powerline noise. These artifacts are often filtered out of EEG data or reduced to clean the signals and preserve the information from the brain. However, some of these signals may provide useful information about …

Agile Healthcare: The Effects Of Information Technology Ambidexterity And Human Resource Practices On Workforce Agility And Job Performance, Jorge Flavio Sarmiento Falla

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Healthcare organizations grapple with uncertainties and rapid changes, necessitating agility within their workforce. However, empirical studies on healthcare agility are notably scarce, impeding efforts to foster an agile workforce. Through a systematic literature review, human-related dimensions and information technology aspects were found to be relevant to healthcare agility. This study addresses the impact of Information Technology Ambidexterity (ITA) and Human Resource Practices (HRP) on establishing Workforce Agility (WA). Subsequently, the study also addresses the importance of WA for the job performance of healthcare professionals. Lastly, it evaluates the mediation effect of WA on the impact of both ITA and HRP …

Bridging Data And Theory: A Gray-Box Approach To Traffic Flow Dynamics, Shakib Mustavee

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The dissertation demonstrates the applicability of the data-driven dynamical systems (DDS) approach at both macroscopic and microscopic scales to extract mathematical structures from observed traffic data. Firstly, a novel DDS model is developed to capture the evolution of queue lengths in a signalized arterial corridor, dividing the dynamics into quasiperiodic and chaotic components. The proposed model effectively captures nonlinear dynamics from time series data. The Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS) method is employed to estimate mathematically guaranteed Koopman eigenvalues and functions of the system, providing valuable insights into the periodic and chaotic behaviors of the system. Secondly, to further characterize …

Robust Machine Learning Based Frameworks For Localization And Mmwave Beam Prediction In Massive Mimo Systems, Katarina Vuckovic

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The primary focus of this doctoral dissertation is the investigation of robust massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) communication systems. The study centers on two closely related issues: i) single-site user localization, and ii) millimeter Wave (mmWave) beam prediction. The motivation is to develop a system that simultaneously offers users reliable communication and precise localization using a single infrastructure. This dissertation specifically addresses three key challenges in data-driven solution: i) the limited availability of position-labeled training datasets, ii) robustness in time-varying dynamic environments, and iii) the generalization of models to unseen scenarios. The study introduces three localization and two beam …

Effective And Efficient Use Of Diffusion Models For Editing In Computer Vision, Umar Khalid

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This doctoral dissertation explores efficient applications of diffusion models in video and 3D scene editing, addressing the high computational demands traditionally associated with these tasks. The research introduces several innovative methods to make diffusion models more practical in real-world video and 3D scenarios while preserving high output quality.

The dissertation first presents parametric efficiency techniques for video understanding, followed by SAVE, a novel approach that leverages Text-to-Image (T2I) diffusion models for video editing, minimizing resource requirements. Building on this, the study introduces LatentEditor, a method that performs fine-grained, localized 3D scene editing in a latent space, thus enhancing Neural Radiance …

Evaluating Sexual Dimorphism In Occipital Morphological Shape Through Modern Human Ontogenetic Changes, Jennifer S. Barritt

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Sex estimation is vital to building the biological profile in forensic anthropology. Cranial nonmetric traits are often used in adult sex estimation due to their sexually dimorphic nature. However, only one nonmetric trait is assessed on the occipital despite the bone’s postmortem durability. While these sex estimation methods were developed for use on adult crania, juvenile sex estimation is less accurate due to differences in the age at which individuals reach sexual maturity. The aim of this study was to improve upon existing sex estimation methods by accounting for shape differences that exist within the occipital. This study used computed …

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 …

Silencing Stemness Genes In Glioblastoma Cancer Stem Cells Improve Anticancer Drug Efficacy, Jonhoi C. Smith

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive and incurable primary brain tumor characterized by therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs). Due to the limited effectiveness of conventional chemotherapies and radiation treatments against cancer stem cells (CSCs), there is a critical need for the development of innovative therapeutic approaches. Our previous research revealed the significant expression of embryonic stemness genes, NANOG and OCT4, in CSCs, suggesting their role in enhancing cancer-specific stemness and drug resistance. By suppressing the expression of these genes, we observed increased susceptibility of CSCs to the anticancer drug, Temozolomide (TMZ). Furthermore, suppression of NANOG expression led to an accumulation of …