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Methods And Compositions For Diagnosis And Management Of Diabetes And Metabolic Syndrome, Niketa A. Patel

USF Patents

Described herein are assays, methods, and devices for diagnosing/prognosing diabetes, metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetic state and/or the early-onset of diabetes in a subject. The assays, methods, and devices described herein can be configured to detect one or more long-coding RNAs in a sample from a subject.

The Weekly Challenger, July 23, 2020, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The July 23, 2020, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Black Lives Matter In Engineering, Too! An Environmental Justice Approach Towards Equitable Decision-Making For Stormwater Management In African American Communities, Maya Elizabeth Carrasquillo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States and the world have recently been challenged with the disparate effects of COVID-19 and the continual killings of unarmed Black men and women across the nation. A history of anti-black racism has led to systemic structures of inequity that thread throughout institutions and communities across the nation. This environmental engineering research comes at a time when understanding how to effectively engage in, and with Black communities is at the forefront of discourse in academia, utilities and private sector.

In 2018 the Brookings Institute published a report on workforce in the water sector demonstrating the lack of diversity …

Using A Systems Thinking Approach And Health Risk Assessment To Analyze The Food-Energy-Water System Nexus Of Seaweed Farming In Belize, Estenia J. Ortiz Carabantes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Certain macroalgae, commonly referred to as seaweed, have traditionally been used as a food source for many coastal communities around the world. In Belize, residents of the Placencia Peninsula cultivate two seaweed types, Eucheuma isiforme and Gracilaria spp. at Little Water Caye located 19 miles offshore. The dried seaweed is sold at the Placencia Producers Cooperative Society Limited (PPCSL) where community members process it into a variety of value-added products such as soaps, cosmetics, hair products, and food additives.

The overall goal of this research was to understand the existing food-energy-water system (FEWS) infrastructure landscape for seaweed production in Placencia, …

A Chemical Investigation Of Three Antarctic Tunicates Of The Genus Synoicum, Sofia Kokkaliari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marine invertebrates, mainly sponges, tunicates and corals, have in the past few decades attracted the interest of the scientific community in regard to their secondary metabolites and their potential as leads in drug discovery. The genus Synoicum is comprised of multiple organisms found in both deep and shallow waters, tropical and cold environments around the world. The majority of the members of this genus that have been investigated can be found in shallow tropical waters due to the ease of accessing and collecting them. Of the cold environments, Antarctica is a representative of the environments where members of the Synoicum …

Chemical Investigation Of Floridian Mangrove Endophytes And Antarctic Marine Organisms, Bingjie Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nature creates diseases and illnesses for mankind, however, nature also provides therapeutics by making biological systems produce secondary metabolites. Although the secondary metabolites originally play roles in chemical defense or evolution, researchers have been working on them for drug discovery. Plants, fungi and marine organisms have been mostly explored by natural products chemists over the century and contributed most drugs to the market. With the increasing need of new drugs resulting from drug resistance and pathogen evolution, the natural products area has been focused on developing innovative methodologies to achieve higher efficiency of isolating new bioactive compounds.

This dissertation herein …

Ay 2020/2021 Sec Meeting Minutes, 2020-07-15, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Archives

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Nutrient Management Through Technology-Level Evaluation And System-Level Optimization, Xiaofan Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The need for wastewater and stormwater quality control, especially the control of nutrients, has been recognized due to the widespread problem of water eutrophication. Sustainable nutrient management is essential to reduce nutrient-related impacts and supply the growing nutrient demands.

This research focused on the nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in the urban water environment with nitrogen as the nutrient of interest since nitrogen is the primary nutrient responsible for eutrophication in the coastal areas. It aimed to enhance the sustainability of urban nutrient management through technology-level evaluation and system-level optimization of technology implementation with consideration of life cycle environmental impacts and …

Self-Replicating Cell Selective Gene Delivery Compositions, Methods, And Uses Thereof, Hana Totary-Jain

USF Patents

Described herein are cell-selective mRNA constructs that can contain a RNA of interest and one or more miRNA targets. The cell-selective mRNA constructs described herein can be used to express an RNA of interest to a cell in a cell-selective manner.

System And Method For Automated Stereology Of Cancer, Peter Randolph Mouton, Dmitry Goldgof, Lawrence O. Hall, Baishali Chaudhury

USF Patents

Systems and methods for applying an ensemble of segmentations to microscopy images of a tissue sample to determine if the tissue sample is representative of cancerous tissue. The ensemble of segmentations is applied to a plurality of greyscale or color microscopy images to generate a final image level segmentation and a final blob level segmentation. The final image level segmentation and final blob level segmentation are used to calculate a mean nuclear volume to determine if the tissue sample is representative of cancerous tissue.

A Narrative Inquiry Into A Principal’S Understanding Of School Culture And Its Influences On Principal Leadership, Robert M. Holby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Culture has been discussed and written about at great length from roots in anthropology (e.g., Tylor, 1920; Mead, 1928) to development of the concepts of organizational culture (Schein, 1985, 2010) and school culture (e.g., Bolman & Deal, 2013; Deal & Peterson, 1991, 2009). Societies, organizations and schools as organizations create, develop, and maintain culture—deep-seated assumptions, values, ways of thinking and acting that characterize how we do things, how we live.

In a school the principal is often cast as responsible for influencing or creating a culture and climate for change (Fullan, 2008; Jones et al., 2013). Thus, it is important …

From R0 To The Herd: A Review Of The Rules Of Contagion, By Adam Kucharski, Nathan D. Grawe

Numeracy

Adam Kucharski. 2020. The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread--and Why They Stop; (London: Profile Books, Ltd.). Hardback ISBN 978-17-88-16019-3. E-book ISBN 978-17-82-83430-4.

Kucharski's well-timed Rules of Contagion provides an introduction to the mathematical and epidemiological principles behind contagious phenomenon. While the author's primary expertise stems from work on biological epidemics, the book points to examples from a wide range of fields including finance, psychology, computer science, and criminology. As such, selections of the book could be used by faculty in a wide range of classes to show how our recent experience with a viral epidemic might add to …

Hey Guys, Women Count! A Review Of Invisible Women: Data Bias In A World Designed For Men By Caroline Criado Perez, Cinnamon Hillyard

Numeracy

Criado-Perez, Caroline. 2019. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. (New York: Abrams Press). 304 pp. ISBN: 978-1784706289

The author provides a plethora of examples and data to illustrate how women have been miscounted in many areas including daily life, the work place, design of spaces and technologies, health care, and public systems. Invisible Women provides cited data that could be examined in multiple data literacy courses. This text reminds readers that gender equity still needs attention. The author’s extensive bibliography and examples also provide a basis for exploring data gaps of other invisible populations.

Factors In The Probability Of Covid-19 Transmission In University Classrooms, Charles Connor

Numeracy

University students and faculty members need an effective strategy to evaluate and reduce the probability that an individual will become infected with COVID-19 as a result of classroom interactions. Models are developed here that consider the probability an individual will become infected as a function of: prevalence of the disease in the university community, number of students in class, number of class meetings, and transmission rate in the classroom given the presence of an infected individual. Absolute probabilities that an individual will become infected in a classroom environment cannot be calculated because some of these factors have unknown values. Nevertheless, …

Measuring Numeracy: Validity And The Programme For The International Assessment Of Adult Competencies (Piaac), Samuel L. Tunstall

Numeracy

A tension raised in recent scholarship is that between numeracy as a social practice and numeracy as a functional skill set. Such frameworks for conceptualizing numeracy pose a challenge to assessment because what individuals do with numeracy is not the same as what individuals can do (or express) in an assessment setting. This study builds on work related to numeracy assessment through a validity examination of a portion of a well-known assessment: the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). In following a path set out by standards for assessment, I ask: What does the PIAAC numeracy …

Quantitative Literacy: A Tool For Survival, Gizem Karaali

Numeracy

In the context of a global pandemic, the need for quantitative literacy has become more urgent. QL and QL-adjacent habits of mind, such as awareness of the limitations of data and modeling, are vital tools of survival that can help people understand today's fast-changing world and make decisions about next actions, in particular in relation to the ongoing protests supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement. QL does not provide a final answer to most human questions, but it can be an invaluable guide for each individual decision maker.

To Cross The Ocean In Full View Of The Sun: The Chinese Government’S Grand Strategy To Influence Academic Freedom And American University Culture, Chris Crandall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation will explore the Chinese government's attempt to influence the American higher education system through a host of soft power methods. The importance of why academic freedom is a keystone within the American academic system, as well as why, how and what can be done to arrest the Chinese government's influence will be researched in the following pages.

The Participation Of Children With Multiple Disabilities In The Florida State Alternate Assessment: Parent Perspectives, Lora Reese

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The perspectives of parents of children with multiple disabilities regarding their understanding and involvement in their child’s participation in the Florida State Alternate Assessment (FSAA) Performance Task and Datafolio are explored in this study. In the United States, federal policies require all students to participate in state-wide formal assessments, including students with multiple disabilities. Current research literature examines the perspectives of teachers and other education professionals regarding the many facets of formalized assessment. However, the perspective of parents of children with multiple disabilities and their child’s participation in formal alternate assessment is scant. Throughout this study, the reflections of six …

"Courage Drives Us": Narrative Construction Of Organizational Identity In A Cancer-Specific Health Non-Profit Organization, Katie J. Hilderbrand

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Health care organization’s functioning and operating within the complex and shifting landscape of the U.S. health care system develop and publicize narratives that inform audience members about the organization, such as who is being served (clients/patients), what problems the clients are facing, what the clients need, and how they should be morally evaluated. For this study, I am focusing on the research questions: (1) What kinds of images of organizational work are promoted by publicly broadcasted stories of “typical clients”? (2) What types of work do these narratives do? I employ a narrative perspective to analyze publicly broadcasted stories featured …

Effects Of The 340b Drug Pricing Program On Hospitals’ Prescribing Behavior, Patient Mix, And Quality Of Care, Yilu Dong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1992, Congress created the 340B Drug Pricing Program that requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to participating hospitals with substantial discounts. Although the intent of the program is to allow covered entities to increase access to care for more vulnerable patients, hospitals are not required by law to pass on the discounts. Therefore, a concern is that hospitals might over-prescribe. This dissertation includes three chapters to study the effects of the 340B program on hospitals’ behavior changes:

Chapter 1 uses state aggregate hospital service spending data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to study the …

Deep Learning Predictive Modeling With Data Challenges (Small, Big, Or Imbalanced), Renhao Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the real world, data used to build machine learning models always has different sizes and characteristics. These size and characteristic features, including small datasets, big datasets, imbalanced datasets, often lead to different challenges when training machine learning models. Models trained on a small number of observations tend to overfit the training data and produce inaccurate results. When it comes to big data, efficiently learning from "huge" size data in a short time becomes important. With an imbalanced dataset, learning is usually biased towards the majority class in the data and appropriate measurements are needed to check model performance.

As …

An Ethnography Of Wash Infrastructures And Governance In Sulphur Springs, Florida, Mathews Jackon Wakhungu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes the forces that shape the perceptions and practices in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) services in the community of Sulphur Springs, Tampa, Florida. It also explores how these forces, perceptions, and practices produce adverse experiences and inequalities in water, sewer, drainage, and laundry services. This ethnographic study combines participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, freelisting, oral history, and GIS to uncover the context, experiences, and perceptions about WaSH in Sulphur Springs. The study finds that the present conditions and perceptions about WaSH are embedded into the historical contexts—especially racial segregation, the construction of the interstate, and multiple economic downturns …

The Weekly Challenger, July 9, 2020, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The July 9, 2020, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Facilitators And Barriers To Treatment Engagement In A Behavioral Parent Training Program, Holland Hayford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study sought to analyze caregivers’ perspectives regarding facilitators of, and barriers to, attending the behavioral parent training programs (BPTs) known as Helping Our Toddlers, Developing Our Children’s Skills (HOT DOCS) and Developing Our Children’s Skills K-5 (DOCS K-5). Participants included 43 caregivers who successfully completed their respective DOCS program. These caregivers answered two questionnaires which contained items addressing demographic variables (i.e., gender, race, ethnicity, household income, level of education, number of children, and program attendance) and logistic factors of the DOCS programs (i.e., course location, class length, time of day, course duration, availability of transportation, availability of childcare). …

In Post-Extubated Patients What Are The Preferred Methods Of Communication During Their Experience Of Endotracheal Intubation With Mechanical Ventilation, Lanette Dumas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To date, communication between mechanically intubated patients and nurses is laden with negative psychological and physiological impacts. Research has focused more on what patients want to communicate, and how nurses communicate with intubated patients. There is limited research identifying the communication methods preferred by these patients. The purpose of this study was to identify communication preferences of mechanically intubated patients using a phenomenological approach.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants in their hospital rooms. The interview questions focused on the period of mechanical intubation when the participants were unable to speak. A total of 27 participants were interviewed at a …

Novel Long Non-Coding Rna Cdlinc Promotes Nsclc Progression, Christina J. Moss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide with a low 5-year survival rate of only around 21%. This low 5-year survival rate is due to two main reasons. First, NSCLC is often diagnosed at the later stages when it has already metastasized. Second, NSCLC is an incredibly diverse, heterogenous disease making it very hard to target the true molecular oncogenic drivers. New targets for personalized therapeutics are needed based on the expression status of each individual lung cancer tumor.

One way of looking for these new therapeutics is to begin by identifying the oncogenotype …

K–12 Teachers’ Experiences “With Or Without” Breastfeeding/Pumping Policy In The School Workplace, Michelle Mae Phillips

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the experiences of classroom teachers who are lactating and expressing milk in a situation with or without school/district policies related to lactation and breastmilk expression. As there is little in the published literature that describes postpartum K–12 teachers' experiences while pumping breastmilk in the workplace. There is a need for studies that highlight these experiences and explore how policies impact breastfeeding teachers. The study was guided by three research questions: (1) How do classroom teachers who are, or have been, lactating and expressing milk during their workday experience school/district policies related to lactation and breastmilk expression? (2) …

The Culture Of Learning Disabilities, Race And Athletics: An Examination Of Student-Athlete Experiences In Predominantly White Institutions Of Higher Education’S Division One College Football Programs, Ashley L. White

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students’ educational experiences vary. The differences in these experiences can be attributed to a variety of factors, including but not limited to geographic location, socio-economic status, age, gender, race, ability, and individual experiences before and during schooling. In this study, the researcher examined the intersectionality of race and disability in the context of postsecondary education and student-athletes through the experiences of participants who identified themselves within select categories, namely as Black/African American and student-athlete. Of equal importance, participants struggled to meet normalized standards of learning during their P-12 educational experiences and/or were identified with a categorical learning disability. As will …

The Effects Of The Use Of Task Clarification And Self-Monitoring In The Form Of Feedback To Increase On-Time Billing In Behavior Analysts, Christopher Sugiarto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The implications of untimely billing in an independent contractor model can be costly for both the contractor and the employer in terms of unpaid work hours and total income loss. Beyond these issues, both Medicaid and the Behavior Analysis Certification Board discuss the possible ethical dilemmas created by delayed billing. Due to the importance of the billing process, several studies have evaluated increasing job performance and on-time billing for a variety of professions using treatment packages including self-monitoring, task clarification, and feedback. However, prior to this study, none have evaluated self-management, in the form of self-generated feedback on increasing the …

Using Optimization Methods For Solving Problems In Sustainable Urban Mobility And Conservation Planning, Zulqarnain Haider

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers three separate optimization problems related to sustainable urban and environmental systems. The first problem relates to the nightly relocation and recharging operations for Free-floating electric vehicle sharing (FFEVS) systems. Such operations involve a crew of drivers to move the shared electric vehicles (EVs), and a fleet of shuttles to transport those drivers. Mixed integer programs are used to model the relocation and recharging operations. Two approaches are devised: sequential and synchronized approaches. In the sequential approach, the movement of EVs is first decided, then the routing of shuttles and drivers is determined. In the synchronized approach, all …