Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Student-Led Lactation Education On Self-Efficacy In Clinical Simulation: An Integrative Literature Review, Kaitlyn Flores Yu

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Simulation is a critical component of nursing education. It provides a safe environment to practice and evaluate skills, supplements clinical hours, and removes barriers to a well-rounded education. Nurses are expected to be educators as part of our scope of practice, and simulation can facilitate this. One topic of nursing importance is lactation education, as breastfeeding has been shown to have multiple benefits for both mother and baby. National rates of exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months do not currently meet CDC recommendations. The pedagogy known as the Protégé Effect suggests that learning can be improved through teaching. Breastfeeding …

The Numerical Study Of Aeroacoustics Performance Of Wings With Different Wavelength Leading-Edge Tubercles, Youjie Zhang

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The leading-edge tubercle is a type of airfoil modification that inspired by the humpback whale. It was found that the aerodynamic performance of the wing would increase compared to the wing without tubercles. In the past several years, a lot of numerical and experimental studies have been accomplished to explore this leading-edge modification. Besides the aerodynamic performance change, this research explores the aeroacoustics behavior of airfoils with leading-edge tubercles. A numerical study based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is established, and simulations using Star CCM are accomplished based on reasonable set-ups. The airfoil chosen to create the wing is NACA …

The Effects Of Psychiatric And Physical Cannabis Use Motivational Categories On The Development Of Cannabis Use Disorder, Kassidy B. Jacques

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The legalization of cannabis is increasing across the United States, for both recreational and medical use. This has resulted in a change in public opinion regarding the risks of cannabis use. This is particularly true for the current generation of older adults, which experiences a greater prevalence of cannabis use than previous members of this cohort. Due to decreased perception of risk and medical or emotional issues associated with old age, older adults increasingly use cannabis to cope with their psychiatric and medical symptoms. Current studies provide evidence of an association between using cannabis for medical symptoms and the development …

Sexual Violence, Identity Centrality, And Mental Health Among Racial And Sexual Minoritized Individuals: An Application Of Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory, Brettland D. Coolidge

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Sexual violence (SV) is a pressing concern in the United States. SV (i.e., unwanted sexual contact, coercion, and wanted or unwanted penetration of another). Individuals with minoritized sexual, racial/ethnic, and gender identities experience worse psychosocial outcomes than their majority counterparts. People with multiple marginalized identities have been shown to experience traumatic events at greater rates and with significantly different outcomes compared to those with one minoritized identity. Cultural betrayal trauma theory proposes that these differences in mental health outcomes may be explained in part by a shared cultural identity between a SV perpetrator and victim, which is posited to exacerbate …

Associations Between Perfectionism, Self-Discrepancy, And Loss Of Control Eating, Dalaia Hernandez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

OBJECTIVE: Research has shown a clear relationship between perfectionism and other pathology including eating disorders, typically restrictive and purging disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. However, the relationship between perfectionism and loss of control eating disorder had not been explored. Similarly, we suspect there to be a relationship between perfectionism and self-discrepancy, and that shame might be a mediating variable in the relationship between these constructs and loss of control eating. This study investigated the relationship between these three variables to better understand how shame mediates or moderates the relationship between perfectionism, self-discrepancy, and loss of control eating. …

Prevention Of Perineal Tearing During Childbirth: A Literature Review, Victoria Manzo

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Perineal lacerations can be caused by a variety of risk factors such as a large fetal head circumference, birthing positions that place strain on the sacrum, and first-time births. Preventing perineal tears can be challenging for laboring women. Exploring the possible prevention methods to decrease the severity of perineal tearing or preventing it altogether can be beneficial for laboring women's physical and mental health. The primary purpose of this literature review was to examine which interventions are most likely to prevent perineal tearing during childbirth. The secondary purpose was to evaluate natural perineal tears in comparison to surgical incision, or …

The Mental And Dental Repercussions Of Obstructive Sleep Apnea And Its Treatments, Emily E. Mcgoohan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between dental and mental health. To dive deeper into seeing this connection, patients with sleep apnea will be asked to share their experiences with the treatments for sleep apnea and how it had affected their mental or dental health.

Design Considerations And Imaging Setup For Liquid Fuel Droplet Detonation Wave Experiments, Nicolas Berube

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Initial results, design considerations, and experimental validation of a new detonation tube are presented to further improve detonation wave interaction research. The new structure consists of four independent portions: the deflagration to detonation initiation section, transition expansion section, operating test section, and dump section. The initiation, transition, and test sections are designed to operate within a temperature limit of 150°C and a maximum detonation pressure of 100 bar. The test section is comprised of interchangeable 155 cm stainless steel 316 plates assembled to create a 10x10 cm square hollow structure, sealed with longitudinal O-rings between plates and lateral O-rings between …

Following Faculty Engaging In Collaborative Action Research To Approach Curricular Change In Undergraduate Biochemistry, Christopher Nix

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study engaged in a curricular redesign of an undergraduate biochemistry course undertaken by a collaborative action research group. The initial portion of this study investigated student conceptual understanding of foundational concepts via a rigorously tested concept inventory. the impact of the redesign on the student foundational conceptual understanding was determined by comparison with a baseline data set. Findings suggest that students enter and exit the biochemistry course with little understanding of key foundational concepts. Examination of student performance after the incorporation of creative exercises showed a significant impact of the curricular changes on two of the concepts of interest. …

Responses Of A Pine Flatwoods Specialist Treefrog To Prescribed Fire, Ian Biazzo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Coarse outcomes of prescribed fires are well-understood, but fine scale impacts on many assemblages are still unknown. When fire approaches, animals escape to unburned areas, hide in place, or are killed by fire. Treefrogs are unique in their use of trees for most of their adult nonbreeding activities. This reliance on uplands and three-dimensional landscape composition makes them a great model to study prescribed fire impacts. We focused analyses on an upland flatwoods specialist comprising 99% of our captures, the pinewoods treefrog Dryophytes femoralis. We assessed this species' responses to prescribed fire using two separate before-after-control-impact replicated field experiments in …

Refining The Use Of Stable Isotope Analysis In Detecting Wildlife Laundering, Kevin Guilfoyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The international wildlife trade has caused significant declines in wild populations. Captive breeding can reduce the pressure on wild populations caused by overcollection, but if not properly monitored, wildlife laundering can lead to further population declines. Improving the forensic ability to detect wildlife laundering will assist in monitoring the wildlife trade and enforcing regulations, thereby aiding recovery of wild populations. Stable isotope analysis has grown in importance as a forensic tool, but improvements are needed. Here, stable isotope analysis (δ13C) on eggshells of captive bred and wild sourced island apple snails (Pomacea maculata) distinguished between the two; eggshells of captive …

A Conceptual Model For Quality 4.0 Deployment In U.S. Based Manufacturing Firms, Thomas Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Manufacturing is currently undergoing a fourth industrial revolution, referred to as Industry 4.0, enabled by digital technologies and advances in our ability to collect and use data. Quality 4.0 is the application of Industry 4.0 to enhance the quality function within an organization. Quality practitioners are uniquely positioned within organizations and already possess data application skillsets. Despite a perception that Quality 4.0 will be critical to future success shared by a majority of industry, most companies have not attempted to implement Quality 4.0 strategy, and those that have report very low rates of success. The goal of this study was …

Variation In Genetic Structure And Dispersal Of Juvenile Green Turtles, Gustavo Stahelin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Sea turtles are long-lived, globally distributed animals with a complex life-history. Individuals from different populations often share the same foraging areas (mixed stock aggregations). Understanding patterns of dispersal and connectivity between reproductive populations and mixed stock aggregations is fundamental for the development of effective conservation plans. Recently, green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) populations in several reproductive areas have increased, providing an opportunity to evaluate how demographic changes in reproductive areas impact dispersal to, and the composition of, mixed stock aggregations. In this dissertation, I evaluated how dispersal from reproductive populations in the Greater Caribbean to mixed stock aggregations may have …

Exploring Stakeholder Experiences To Co-Design Policy Alternatives For The Bright Futures Scholarship Program, Sherry Paramore

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Despite decades of research and promising strategies to ensure educational equity for all students, a significant disparity persists between the racial majority and marginalized students in the United States. Attaining educational equity is a complex problem illustrated by state-funded merit-based scholarships, including the State of Florida Bright Futures Scholarship. Since Florida's merit-based Bright Futures Scholarship Program's (BFSP) inception, the average percentage of black scholarship recipients has been minimal compared to other races. The equitable distribution of scholarship funds is critical to investigate since attaining a post-secondary education advances social mobility consequently breaking the cycle of poverty for lower socioeconomic students …

Inclusion And Interpretation: Examining Difficult History Topics At Eighteenth-Century Historic Sites In Southeastern Pennsylvania, Cassidy Michonski

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This thesis explores four distinct eighteenth-century historic sites in southeastern Pennsylvania and how they interpret difficult history topics. Difficult history, the parts of our nation's past that may be uncomfortable to discuss and learn about, should be included in historic site narratives to ensure that all people who lived at these sites are represented. Telling the stories of enslaved people, Indigenous groups, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community often means addressing difficult topics. Four sites—Elfreth's Alley, Stenton, the Daniel Boone Homestead, and the 1719 Museum—were examined for this study. A review of their staff training and institutional investment in …

The Stench Of Miasma And The Fragrance Of Daffodils: Reconstructing Historical Scentscapes In Mesopotamia, Samantha N. Levy

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

My thesis interrogates the role that the sense of smell plays in the experience of place, arguing that scent has been virtually ignored in public history contexts. The thesis will review the foundational scholarship on the history of the senses and relate the findings of interdisciplinary research that demonstrates how the senses alter one's understanding of the environment and even the formation of memories. This work is relevant to the field of public history since smell can be used to captivate the public in a memorable—and potentially more authentic—engagement with the Mesopotamian past. To address gaps in the present scholarship, …

Physical Properties And Chemical Composition Of Comets, Olga Harrington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Comets and Centaurs are icy remnants from the formation of the solar system. Analyzing the physical properties of their nuclei and their production rates can serve as powerful tools for tracing primitive solar system material. The four research projects in this dissertation examine these properties in comets and Centaurs. The first project focuses on observations of main belt comet 176P/LINEAR that were obtained with the Kepler space telescope. Optical lightcurves were used to constrain models of the nucleus's spin pole axis, shape and activity level. The second project used millimeter-wavelength spectra from the Arizona Radio Observatory Submillimeter Telescope and infrared …

A Holistic Work System Approach To Creating Flow During Transactional Work, Steven Clapp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Psychological flow is a positive mental state where one is so fully concentrated in a challenging task that self-consciousness falls away, time seems to stand still, and the reward is the experience of meeting the challenge. Previous research on flow in the workplace has been performed on how to create conditions to promote its occurrence in workers, to describe its attendant individual and organizational benefits, and to measure it through self-reported means and physiologically. Such research has been focused on creative endeavors (such as the arts, sports, medicine, teaching), where individuals have high agency over the execution of activities needed …

Clay As A Control Technique For Karenia Brevis: Water Chemistry Dynamics And Physiological Impacts On Benthic Invertebrates, Victoria Devillier

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Clay-based compounds are globally the most advanced and widely used method of direct suppression of marine harmful algal blooms, and are currently undergoing investigation as an option to control Karenia brevis blooms in Florida. Before clay may be accepted for widespread use, there are multiple concerns and challenges that must be addressed regarding the environmental safety of this method, such as effects on water quality, the fate of toxins, and potential impacts of clay treatment to non-target organisms. To contribute to ongoing assessments of clay as a potential control method for K. brevis blooms, we conducted experiments with a formulation …

Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Probing Of Structures Of The Rous Sarcoma Virus Capsid, Amyloid Beta, And Reflectin Proteins, Tyrone Thames

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy can be a powerful tool for investigating the atomic-level structures and dynamics of biological macromolecules, including proteins. In this dissertation, I present an ssNMR study of three diverse proteins, revealing insights into their respective secondary structures, conformational variations, and intermolecular interactions. Additionally, I introduce novel computational methods to facilitate the assignment of chemical shifts of ssNMR spectra. The first of the proteins is the capsid protein of the Rous Sarcoma Virus. In previous research, the structure of the hexameric lattice of the in-vitro tubular assembly of the capsid protein was determined. In this …

Erasing The Past For Marketability: The Effects Of Selling National Myth In Ybor City's Public Historical Narrative, Janine A. Galindo

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Ybor City is a historical neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, and a tourist attraction known for its immigrant roots and once-thriving cigar industry. This thesis places Ybor City into the context of the burgeoning heritage tourism market, examining how cities financially reliant on tourism often sanitize their public historical narrative. I identify the main actors involved in Ybor City's marketing and preservation by investigating contemporary newspaper articles and multiple National Park Service documents, thereby uncovering the motivations and decisions that led to Ybor's cultural image of a bustling, relatively peaceful early 20th-century "Latin" community. To correlate Ybor's aestheticized public image with …

The Successful Characteristics That Contribute To Black Male Students Matriculating Into Medical School, Cedric Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In 2019, individuals that identified as Black represented 13.4% of the U.S. population, 12.5% of the undergraduate student enrollment population and 7.1% of the medical school population. Subsequently, this has yielded a 5% Black physician population and workforce consisting of just 2.3% Black male physicians (AAMC, 2018). The disproportionately low Black physician representation contributes to greater healthcare disparity outcomes within the U.S. Black population. This study is centered on the post-positive characteristics of Black male medical students that have successfully overcome barriers to entry and matriculated into medical school. The phenomenological post-positive study was conducted through the lens of Self-Efficacy …

Developing A Physics-Informed Deep Learning Paradigm For Traffic State Estimation, Jiheng Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The traffic delay due to congestion cost the U.S. economy $ 81 billion in 2022, and on average, each worker lost 97 hours each year during commute due to longer wait time. Traffic management and control strategies that serve as a potent solution to the congestion problem require accurate information on prevailing traffic conditions. However, due to the cost of sensor installation and maintenance, associated sensor noise, and outages, the key traffic metrics are often observed partially, making the task of estimating traffic states (TSE) critical. The challenge of TSE lies in the sparsity of observed traffic data and the …

Understanding Outgroup Aversion Effects On Innovation Adoption And Polarization In Network Environments, Bruce G. Miller

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Individuals' decisions to adopt an innovation can be influenced by the group identity of previous adopters or non-adopters in their social network. Previous research in innovation diffusion considered initial innovators and word-of-mouth imitator effects using analytical models. Simulations and agent-based models have been developed to address the heterogeneity of decision makers and the non-linearity of the process. A further refinement modeled adoption based on networks of social relationships between potential decision makers, analogous to the spread of disease on networks. In addition, adoption or non-adoption of some innovations has been characterized as a means of signaling identification with or aversion …

Student Perceptions Of Campus Crime And Victim Services, Tracy Gulliford

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Few would argue that college campus crime is a serious problem across the United States. Debate arises, however, regarding why the problem is so pervasive and how best to address it. This dissertation addresses that gap by exploring the nature and magnitude of the college campus crime problem followed by a rationale for studying student perceptions regarding knowledge about and use of victim services resources offered on the University of Central Florida (UCF) campus. Doing so is particularly important in light of the fact that five years have now passed since UCF launched the "Let's Be Clear" campaign designed to …

Diamond's Hidden Gems - Stars, Diamond Williams, Ucf Libraries

Libraries' Documents

Publishing student work through journals and magazines is a difficult feat, often requiring rounds upon rounds of revisions. UCF has a way for you to share your work while providing you with tools to assist with the publication process. Continue below to read about UCF's own digital repository. UCF's Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship (STARS) provides access to works by, for, and about UCF as broadly as possible, and for as long as possible. The intention is to provide free, open access to a worldwide audience. It is an institution-wide digital repository managed by the UCF Libraries.

STARS …

Orange Groves And Timber Stands: The Shaping Of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings As Woman And Writer, Ginger Clark

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature

No abstract provided.

Project Nur: Illuminating Lives Through Islamic Society's Community Service In Central Florida, Adam Bawatneh

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

This poster presents an in-depth exploration of my service experience at the Islamic Society of Central Florida (ISCF), where I have been serving as the head chef for the Family Night event. It delves into the challenges and triumphs encountered during my service, particularly in light of the recent conflict in Palestine. The poster also reflects on the personal growth and leadership development I have experienced throughout this journey.

The Cypress Dome 2023, Issue 34, The Cypress Dome Society

The Cypress Dome

Featuring the work of Regan Adre, C.J. Allen, Gian Arellano, Rose Avelo, Ian Biazzo, Cheyanne Blue Sitten, Marie Burdett, Veronica Cano, Isabella Ciraco, Roberto Gonzalez, Emily J., Kinou Louis-Charles, Jonas Ludka, Amalia Maria, Sandy Maria Ford, Ariana Martinez, Austin (AJ) Mogul, Paige Mulac, Nathaniel Ratón, Adriana Rivera, Rosalind E. Rohrbaugh, Megan Valese, and Vivian Yang.

Founded in 1989 and named after a natural feature of our campus, The Cypress Dome is the University of Central Florida’s undergraduate literary journal. It is edited, designed, and produced by a selected editorial team of students from our literary organization, The Cypress Dome Society, …

Utilizing Bloodless Medicine To Decrease Infection Rates In Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A Literature Review, Samantha Saint Fort

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Aim: To determine if a significant relationship exists between bloodless medicine practices and decreased infection rates in oncology patients following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation by performing a literature review.

Background: It is not uncommon for healthcare professionals to encounter Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) seeking medical treatment in the acute care hospital setting and outpatient clinics alike. However, JW's pose a unique challenge to healthcare providers. Their refusal of blood transfusions makes them a population of interest within the medical community. The refusal of blood transfusions also poses a serious challenge to successful treatment in oncology JW patients, and many hospitals will …