Digital Commons Network^™

Tuning Degradation And Cell Adhesion In Next Generation Resorbable Implants, Ufuomaroghene Ikoba

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Osteoarthritic and bone degenerative diseases are expected to grow immensely as the aging population, 65 years and older increases. Orthopedic implants are one sub-class of medical devices that are used to treat bone breaks and fractures. Traditionally, internal fixation implants are manufactured using titanium or stainless steel. Magnesium, a bioresorbable and biodegradable material, has been proposed as an alternative to titanium and stainless steel. The goal of this research is to control the degradation behavior of magnesium implants by developing crystallized thin poly(lactic acid) copolymer films as protective coatings. To do this, this work was divided into two aims. Aim …

Communication, Learning And Social Support At The Speaking Center: A Communities Of Practice Perspective, Ann Marie Foley Coats

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In response to increasing demand for public speaking instruction, more institutions are establishing campus speaking centers staffed by student tutors. Peer tutors provide clients with a range of supports in the speech-making process, including suggestions for speech content and organization and for improving delivery during simulated practice sessions. This study investigates patterns of peer interaction in one campus speaking center to understand the dynamics of peer support in a non-classroom setting and how they may create the conditions for student learning. This ethnographic study conceptualized speaking center activities and the practice of oral communication skills development through the lens of …

The Role Of Non-Secular Involvement Towards A Comprehensive Community Approach For Addressing Opioid Use Disorder, Amanda Gene Sharp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the opioid overdose crisis continues to impact individuals, families, and communities across the United States, there is a sense of urgency to identify effective, efficient, and feasible approaches for curbing the death toll. It is clear, however, that without community-level acceptance of treatment and harm reduction approaches shown to be successful, the services available remain underutilized and thus less impactful than clinical evidence demonstrates. To overcome an opioid use disorder (OUD), an overall treatment approach should be tailored to an individual’s needs but might include components of medication, psychosocial support services, community engagement, and the development of healthy social …

Evaluation Of Aging And Genetic Mutation Variants On Tauopathy, Amber M. Tetlow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by amyloid β plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles (NFTs). While research has demonstrated amyloid pathology occurs prior to tau pathology, or tauopathy, tau has proven to be more toxic. Tauopathy is associated with cognitive declines and neurodegeneration. These findings have highlighted the importance of further understanding tauopathy. In the progression of tauopathy, there is an observable immune response that can be measured by glial cells such as microglia. Activated microglia are known to exacerbate tauopathy rather than reducing the pathology. Research has indicated that with increased age there is an increased risk for AD-related tauopathy …

Machine-Based Infants Pain Assessment Tool, Ghadh A. Alzamzmi, Dmitry Goldgof, Yu Sun, Rangachar Kasturi, Terri Ashmeade

USF Patents

A system and method for measuring an infant's pain intensity is presented. The method for assessing an infant's pain intensity based on facial expressions is comprised of three main stages: detection of an infant's face in video sequence followed by preprocessing operations including face alignment; expression segmentation; and expression recognition or classification. Also presented is a multimodal system for assessing an infant's pain intensity using the following classifiers: facial expression classifier; vital sign classifier; crying recognition classifier; body motion classifier and state of arousal classifier. Each classifier generates an individual score, all of which are normalized and weighed to generate …

Compositions And Methods For White To Beige Adipogenesis, Denise Ratzlaff Cooper, Ryan Adam Kirchoffer, Robert Pleasants Sparks, Wayne Charles Guida

USF Patents

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for transitioning or converting a white adipocyte to a beige adipocyte. The compositions and methods may be used in the treatment of obesity. In some embodiments, the compositions include a compound selected from DC677 and DC761.

Save Water Drink Wine: Challenges Of Implementing The Ethnography Of The Temecula Valley Wine Industry Into Food-Energy-Water Nexus Decision-Making, Zaida E. Darley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study demonstrates the interrelationships of people, food, energy, and water associated with Temecula Valley’s wine industry and reveals contradictions and biases in how people view these resources, which ultimately shape management and policies. The FEW (Food, Energy, and Water) Nexus is an approach increasingly used by policy- and decision-makers to understand the interrelationship of several resources. However, a FEW Nexus approach often lacks in social aspects that influence environmentally and economically sustainable outcomes, especially in the wine and wine tourism industry. When quantitative and qualitative data are available, the other challenge is which assessment to use. Two assessments often …

A Framework For Assessing The Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, And Safety (Rams) Of Decentralized Sanitation, Adefunké Adeosun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In established industry sectors, Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety (RAMS) risk assessments are normally used to compare the risks associated with different technologies on process units. Sanitation solutions are split into traditional wastewater treatment which is centralized treatment and can be classified as an established industry, and decentralized treatment such as pit latrines and septic tank systems which are on much smaller scales. Also they can be classified as non-conventional methods such as reinvented advanced decentralized non-sewered sanitation solution techniques exist mainly in two forms as “Single-User Reinvented Toilet (SURT)” systems or “Multiple-User Reinvented Toilet (MURT)” systems. Advanced decentralized non-sewered …

Spilling The Lgbt(Ea)Q: A Study Of Lgbtq Youth Early School Experiences, Nicholas Catania

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this arts-based qualitative study, I explore the experiences of LGBTQ youth regarding inclusion during their early schooling. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of youth participants regarding inclusion during their early school experiences to better assist educators and policy-makers at all levels with information to provide safe and equitable learning environments for LGBTQ youth to succeed. The intent of this study was to uncover the ways schools may marginalize or be inclusive of LGBTQ youth by examining school experiences with a particular focus at the elementary level. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, …

Coral Reef Restoration In The Tropical West Atlantic Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Linden Cheek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is increasing threats to coasts, both from storm surge and sea level rise. Healthy coral reefs provide reduction in storm surges, wave energy, coastal flooding and everyday erosion, and are found across a variety of spatial scales. Given the state of coral reefs worldwide, active Coral Reef Restoration (CRR) in emerging as a necessary component of coastal protection. CRR can be classified as a nature-based solutions (NbS) for coastal protection that also provides a multitude of ecosystem-based services to both humans and other life. Nearly all literature on coral restoration efforts assume a steady-state of human-ecological interactions, but …

Crow's Nest, November 9, 2020, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The November 9, 2020, issue of the Crow's Nest.

A Novel Magnetic Respiratory Sensor For Human Healthcare, Kee Young Hwang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breathing is vital to life. Therefore, the real-time monitoring of a patient’s breathing pattern is crucial to respiratory rehabilitation therapies such as magnetic resonance exams for respiratory-triggered imaging, chronic pulmonary disease treatment, and synchronized functional electrical stimulation. While numerous respiratory devices have been developed, they are often in direct contact with a patient, which can yield inaccurate or limited data. In this study, we developed a novel, non-invasive, and contactless magnetic sensing platform that can precisely monitor a patient’s breathing, movement, or sleep patterns, thus providing efficient monitoring at a clinic or home. A magneto-LC resonance (MLCR) sensor converts the …

Perceptions Of Preservice Teachers Of Students With Autism And Intellectual Disabilities In Their Teacher Preparation Programs In Saudi Arabia, Salman Almughyiri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the male preservice special education teachers’ perceptions in regard to the preservice special education teacher preparation courses, practicum, and evidence-based practices that they have recently completed. The participants of the study included five preservice special education teachers from two universities, Shaqra University and King Saud University, in Riyadh (the capital city of Saudi Arabia). Qualitative interview designs were employed to gather the data, which included conducting fifteen interviews. Each participant was interviewed three times with 45-90 minutes of length for each interview. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, …

The Development Of Aapeptides, Lulu Wei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-natural peptide mimics are referred to as peptidomimetics, which contains unnatural backbones that mimic the primary peptide structure. There are a large number of peptidomimetics that have been developed including α-peptides, β-peptides, peptoids, arylamide oligomers, cationic polymers, and other peptidomimetics in the last decades. Compared to conventional peptides, these peptidomimetics have many advantages such as resistance to proteolysis, improved bioavailability, and reduced immunogenicity. However, the development of peptidomimetics is still far below the expectation due to the limitation of the availability of backbones. It is an urgent need to generate a new diverse library for novel drug discovery, design antimicrobial …

Analytical Methods And Critical Analyses Supporting Thermodynamically Consistent Characterizations Of The Marine Co2 System, Jonathan D. Sharp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical equilibria describing the unique behavior of gaseous and ionic forms of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO₂) in seawater comprise what is known as the marine CO₂ (or carbonate) system. Observations of the marine CO₂ system with high degrees of accuracy, reproducibility, spatial coverage, and temporal resolution are critical for evaluating natural cycles of carbon within the Earth system, as well as chemical and biological responses to anthropogenic CO₂ emissions.

One component of the CO₂ system is the carbonate ion (CO²−₃), a dissolved ion that is produced when carbonic acid (H …

Feasting On Words: What University Students Learn When They Study Food Writing And Food Media, Janet K. Keeler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of food in college curriculum is unique in its ability to create lasting impact because of the keen interest millennial and Generation Z students have in what they eat and drink. Studying media with food at its core is an underutilized mechanism to show how food intersects with the lives of all people thus encouraging students to look beyond their own experiences to consider the wider society. A program evaluation of 10 semesters of food writing and food media courses at a Florida public university reveals the ways in which students make deeper connections to culture and current …

Fostering Success Through Coaching: Perspectives Of Help Seeking Within A Coaching Relationship With Post-Secondary Students From Foster Care, Jamie L. Bennett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coaching, a humanistic approach to growth, has recently been utilized on college campuses as an alternative to standard student service strategies to address the needs of students from foster care. For this dissertation, I have collected interview data from four coaches and five college students who had spent time in the foster care system to explore the perceptions of help-seeking behaviors and coaching within a campus-based university program. The goal was to understand the role of coaching in the students’ help-seeking behaviors. The theories of self-determination and survivalist self-reliance were used to conceptualize my literature review, research design, and data …

The Effect Of Hope On The Relationship Between Personal And Disease Characteristics And Anxiety And Depression In Adolescents And Young Adults With Cancer, Sharon B. Mcneil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer face physical, psychosocial, emotional, and developmental challenges that are unique to their age group. In facing the crisis of a cancer diagnosis, both social support and hope have been shown to be tools utilized by some AYAs. However, AYAs have higher rates of anxiety and depression than in older adults which may have an effect on their levels of hope.

This cross-sectional study examined the mechanistic effects of hope on the relationship between personal characteristics of age, gender, and social support, the disease characteristics of type of cancer and length of time since …

Multifunctional Metal-Organic Frameworks (Mofs) For Applications In Sustainability, Gaurav Verma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change, affordable and clean energy, and responsible consumption and production are some of the important goals to be achieved for sustainable development. The current technologies used to address these challenges are energy and resource intensive. Furthermore, there are various limitations related to cost, storage, scalability and safety.Adsorbent materials are seen as a promising alternative remediation system due to their low energy consumption and minimal chemical waste production. However, most of the traditional adsorbents, such as activated carbon and zeolites lack the structural tunability to have long-term effectiveness and their use is limited. As discussed in Chapter 1, metal organic-frameworks …

Digital Identity: A Human-Centered Risk Awareness Study, Toufic N. Chebib

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cybersecurity threats and compromises have been at the epicenter of media attention; their risk and effect on people’s digital identity is something not to be taken lightly. Though cyber threats have affected a great number of people in all age groups, this study focuses on 55 to 75-year-olds, as this age group is close to retirement or already retired. Therefore, a notable compromise impacting their digital identity can have a major impact on their life.

To help guide this study, the following research question was formulated, “What are the risk perceptions of individuals, between the ages of 55 and 75 …

Review Of Jason Farr's Novel Bodies: Disability And Sexuality In Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Nowell Marshall

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Review of Jason Farr's Novel Bodies: Disability and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century British Literature

Review Of Memoirs Of A Woman Of Pleasure By John Cleland, Edited By Richard Terry And Helen Williams, Bethany E. Qualls

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland, edited by Richard Terry and Helen Williams, by Bethany E. Qualls.

“Yield It Up Cheerfully”: Teaching Consent, Violence, And Coercion In Samuel Richardson’S Pamela, Leah Grisham

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Drawn from the author’s experience teaching Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela during the #Metoo movement, this essay argues that bringing current discourses of consent and gender-based violence into conversation with the novel deepens students’ engagement with and interest in the eighteenth century. While students identify specters of Pamela and Mr. B’s relationship in their own worlds, the novel is also a helpful tool in revealing the many ways in which consent can be coerced.

#Metoo Or "Me Too"?: Defining Our Terms, Caitlin L. Kelly

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

How we talk about misogyny and sexual violence in literary texts matters—to our students, to our colleagues, and to the future of the humanities and of higher education—and the “Me Too” movement has revived with new urgency debates about how to do that. In this essay, I explore the ethical implications of invoking the “Me Too” movement in the classroom, and I offer a model for designing a course that does not simply present women’s narratives as objects of study but rather uses those narratives to give students opportunities and tools to participate in the “Me Too” movement themselves. To …

A Novel Moment For #Writewithaphra, Laura Runge, Tonya Howe

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Introduction to the Fall 2020 issue that describes our summer 2020 writing camp #WriteWithAphra.

The Use Of Spanish Moss As A Biological Indicator To Examine Relationships Between Metal Air Pollution, Vegetation Cover, And Environmental Equity In Tampa, Florida, Yousif Abdullah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studies of inequality in exposure to less common air pollutants, like metals, are often limited by the costs of high spatial resolution measurements. Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is a promising bioindicator for measuring air pollution due to its lower cost, enabling capture of time-average environmental concentrations at high spatial resolution. This study had three major aims. First, I aimed to use Spanish moss as a bioindicator to characterize ambient concentrations of selected metals (Ti, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cd, Hg, Pb, As, and Sb) in Tampa, Florida. My second goal was to determine the impact of vegetation cover on metals …

Cutr Connections [November 2020], Cutr

CUTR Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Impact Assessment Of Full And Partial Stay-At-Home Orders, Face Mask Usage, And Contact Tracing: An Agent-Based Simulation Study Of Covid-19 For An Urban Region, Hanisha Tatapudi, Rachita Das, Tapas K Das

All publications

Purpose: Social intervention strategies to mitigate COVID-19 are examined using an agent-based simulation model. Outbreak in a large urban region, Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA is used as a case study. Results are intended to serve as a planning guide for decision makers.

Methods: The simulation model mimics daily social mixing behavior of the susceptible and infected generating the spread. Data representing demographics of the region, virus epidemiology, and social interventions shapes model behavior. Results include daily values of infected, reported, hospitalized, and dead.

Results: Results show that early implementation of complete stay-at-home order is effective in flattening and reversing the …

Chinese International Students’ Narratives Of Their Experiences In A Graduate Pathway Program: An Exploratory Study, Lu Norstrand

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because of the tremendous growth of Chinese international students’ enrollment in American higher education and the rapid rise and development of Pathway programs in American universities, I determined the main purpose of this research was to determine the experiences of three Chinese international students in a Graduate Pathway program at a public four-year university in the Southeastern U.S. Three research questions were addressed:

1. How do three Chinese international students describe their academic experiences in a Graduate Pathway program in the U.S.?
2. How do these students describe differences in their learning experiences between the U.S. and China?
3. How do these students …

The Efficiency And Accuracy Of Yolo For Neonate Face Detection In The Clinical Setting, Jacqueline Hausmann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are many face detection classification models available for download and use in the modern technological world. Based in the field of deep neural networks, these off-the-shelf solutions are generally inadequate to solve real world challenges. This work presents how current approaches biased towards detecting adult human faces must be modified in order to better accommodate face detection of the neonate in a NICU setting.

YOLO is a powerful object detection algorithm. Due to optimizations such as Cross mini-batch Normalization, Modified Spatial Attention Modules, Modified Path Aggregation Networks, Self-Adversarial Training, Mosaic Data Augmentation, DropBox Regularization, Multi-Input Weighted Residual Connections and …