Digital Commons Network^™

Manual Para Una Huerta De Verdura, April 2020, India Fleming-Klink

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

This manual seeks to generate support material for the families of Monteverde in order to strengthen diversification and value the contributions that the orchards generate in the food security of the area. These productive systems provide immediate benefits to the food, health and economy of the families and their communities where they are located. The manual describes the different stages of the preparation, establishment and handling /care of the vegetables that are planted in the garden.

Home Gardens Report, April 2020, India Fleming-Klink

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

Having conducted research on food insecurity in the Monteverde Zone prior to this class, it then became the foundation for a practical approach to help mitigate food insecurity. The purpose of this project is to create a manual on how to build home gardens in the Monteverde Zone.

The Future Of Urbanization And Climate Change, April 2020, Makeyla Hayes

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

Urbanization is an inevitable process that affects all countries and major cities. As societies continue to adapt to urban development, the environment is left defenseless to these changes. Through environmental, economical, and social analysis, this case study of Boston – the capital city of Massachusetts – examines the impact of urban growth and development on climate change. Urban areas are densely populated and constantly experience population growth and overpopulation, making them more vulnerable to climate change. Unsustainable practices and living increases the impact that communities and residents have on the environment. Environmental gentrification has been implemented to resolve the consequences …

Auditory Perception And Neural Encoding Of Spectral Modulation, Sittiprapa Isarangura

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most natural acoustic sounds consist of multiple frequencies. An important auditory perceptual ability to resolve such acoustic properties is referred to as spectral processing and includes frequency resolution, frequency selectivity and spectral envelope perception. Frequency resolution, as demonstrated by masking techniques, indicates that our auditory system functions as an auditory filter bank with overlapping bandpass filters. These filters allow for the effective separation of sounds into different frequency bands or channels. Acoustic components that fall within a given filter or passband are considered to be processed “within channel” and are perceptually resolved using “local” spectral cues, whereas components in different …

Estimation Of Aboveground Biomass Of Robinia Pseudoacacia Forest In The Yellow River Delta Based On Uav And Backpack Lidar Point Clouds, Jinbo Lu, Hong Wang, Shuhong Qin, Lin Cao, Ruiliang Pu, Guilin Li, Jing Sun

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Forest plantations are an important source of terrestrial carbon sequestration. The forest of Robinia pseudoacacia in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) is the largest artificial ecological protection forest in China. However, more than half of the forest has appeared different degrees of dieback and even death since the 1990s. Timely and accurate estimation of the forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is a basis for studying the carbon cycle of forests. Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) has been proved to be one of the most powerful methods for forest biomass estimation. However, because of an irregular and overlapping shape of the broadleaved …

Making Meaning Of A Whole School Transformation Model: A Policy Ethnography Of A Schools Of Hope Legislation Implementation, Adam Charles Rea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cheryl High School (CHS) is a geographically large county in Florida that received funding through the state of Florida's "Schools of Hope” grant. The grant’s parameters called on Carter County Schools (CCS) to partner with an external consultant and a research university to help improve teacher and school administrative capacity. The district chose Scientific Pedagogy Services (SPS) and to continue their existing relationship with Tampa Bay State University (TBS). The consultant’s mission was to improve school performance through a unique form of professional development. TBS was charged with developing an on-site program that funded staff efforts to obtain advanced degrees …

Isis In Their Own Words: Recruitment History, Motivations For Joining, Travel, Experiences In Isis, And Disillusionment Over Time – Analysis Of 220 In-Depth Interviews Of Isis Returnees, Defectors And Prisoners, Anne Speckhard, Molly D. Ellenberg

Journal of Strategic Security

Two hundred and twenty Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) defectors, returnees, and imprisoned ISIS cadres were in-depth interviewed by the author, a research psychologist working for the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) from 2015-2019. These interviews were conducted in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, the Balkans, Europe, and Central Asia with ISIS prisoners, returnees, and defectors. The purpose was to learn about their recruitment history, motivations for joining, travel, experiences inside the group, disillusionment over time, and defection, return or capture. This article reports on a sample of both male and female former ISIS members representing …

Orally Administered Nanoscale Drug Delivery System For Colorectal Cancer, Bhavya Shah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mithramycin-A (Mit-A) is a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved chemotherapeutic agent that is used for the treatment of testicular cancer. According to previous studies, Mit-A has shown promising results in targeting colorectal cancer (CRC) and cancer stem cells (CSCs) which are responsible for a highly invasive and metastatic forms of CRC. The use of Mit-A as chemotherapy is limited in CRC due to its toxicity. To minimize its toxicity, we have developed an orally delivered nanoscale drug delivery system by which Mit-A can be delivered using biocompatible and biodegradable materials. Mit-A nanoparticles were prepared using Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) as …

Compositions, Methods Of Use, And Methods Of Treatment, Yu Chen, Derek Nichols, Adam R. Renslo, Priyadarshini Jaishankar, Erica M. W. Lauterwasser

USF Patents

Embodiments of the present disclosure, in one aspect, relate to a beta-lactamase inhibitor, pharmaceutical compositions including a beta-lactamase inhibitor, methods of treatment of a condition (e.g., infection) or disease, methods of treatment using compositions or pharmaceutical compositions, and the like.

Toxic Colonialism And Green Victimization Of Native Americans: An Examination Of The Genocidal Impacts Of Uranium Mining, Averi R. Fegadel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the field of criminology has delved into environmental justice issues in Black communities through the exploration of urban exposure to toxins, it has failed to expand this research orientation to examine issues affecting peoples in different locations, which in the U.S. draws attention to the green victimization of Native Americans. In short, existing criminological research has largely ignored the social, economic, and environmental injustices experienced by Native Americans. This study addresses this research gap by exploring environmental justice issues as they relate to the ways toxic colonialism affects Native Americans. Specifically, this study confronts historic and current struggles endured …

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure, Hepatic Accumulation, And Associated Health Impacts In Gulf Of Mexico Tilefish (Lopholatilus Chamaeleonticeps), Susan M. Snyder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, systematic demersal longline surveys were conducted throughout the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) continental shelf to evaluate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure, hepatic accumulation, and health indices in demersal fishes. Tilefish (Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps) were chosen as a target species due to high vulnerability to environmental disturbance, commercial importance, Gulf-wide distribution, and documented high exposure to PAHs post-Deepwater Horizon. Over 200 Tilefish were sampled in the north central GoM at repeat stations from 2012 to 2017, and from the northwest GoM, southwest GoM, Bay of Campeche, and Yucatán Shelf over years 2015 and 2016. Tilefish …

Governmentality, Biopower, And Sexual Citizenship: A Feminist Examination Of Sexual And Reproductive Healthcare Experiences Of 18-24 Year-Olds In The U.S. Southeast, Melina K. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual and reproductive healthcare in the U.S. is a contentious and often stigmatized topic. Conservative politics and Christian religious ideology guide laws and policies that inform narratives of sexual citizenship that promote white, heterosexual, procreative, cis-gendered relationships as the ideal. For young people, exposure to sexuality education greatly influences their self-identity as sexual citizens and guides how they form intimate relationships. While sexual and reproductive healthcare has been included marginally in the discipline of anthropology, almost no research has focused on young people’s sexual and reproductive healthcare within the U.S.

This dissertation examines the viewpoints and experiences of 18-24 year-old …

Investigating Mechanisms Of Immune Suppression Secondary To An Inflammatory Microenvironment, Wendy Michelle Kandell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The immune system plays a dynamic role in cancer progression. The theory of immunoediting suggests that the relationship between the tumor cell and the immune cell is one that is in flux: initially highly active and responsive to tumor antigen to one that has escaped immune responsiveness. Once the tumor has formed and effectively “escaped”, there are multiple mechanisms that work against a conventional immune response. The tumor cell clones that have escaped the elimination phase are those that are less immunogenic. These clones downregulate MHC, have increased apoptosis through DAMP-driven mechanisms, and suppressive cell phenotypes are driven through cytokine-driven …

Fields Brook Superfund Site: Race, Class, And Environmental Justice In A Blasted Landscape, Richard C. Bargielski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1980, the United States Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This federal law provided the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the legal tools necessary to pursue polluters who had improperly stored or disposed hazardous wastes. Since its passage, more than a thousand sites have been added to the National Priorities List (NPL), but only a fraction have been cleaned up. Proponents of neoliberalism argue that aggressive environmental policies such as CERCLA harm workers by making it impossible for businesses to operate profitably. This coincides with a drop of nearly 50% in the U.S. …

Bond Life Of Structural Epoxy-Concrete Systems Under Accelerated Hygrothermal Aging, Philip W. Hopkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A laboratory study was conducted to investigate possible quantitative and qualitative methods for determining the bond life of structural epoxies externally bonded to concrete substrates. Three concrete mixtures, two surface preparation methods, and three structural epoxies were used creating eighteen combinations of bonded systems. Direct tension (pull-off) specimens were prepared from which a subset was submerged in heated water per a prescribed accelerated aging protocol for up to 200 days. A novel test fixture was designed to facilitate controlled-rate testing of the pull-off specimens. A total of 324 specimens were intermittently removed from submersion exposure and tested without replacement. An …

Large Thecosome Pteropods Of The Northern Gulf Of Mexico: Species Abundance, Spatial And Vertical Distribution With A Temporal Comparison Of Shell Thickness, Sarah M. Shedler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Large thecosome pteropods have a significant role in the pelagic ecosystem of the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). This research analyzed species abundances, vertical and horizontal distributions, and trends in shell thickness between 2011 and 2015. Pteropod samples were collected following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill by two midwater sampling programs: the Offshore Nekton Sampling and Analysis Program (ONSAP, 2011) and the Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics of the Gulf of Mexico (DEEPEND, 2015). All samples were collected using a 10-m2 Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOC10) midwater trawl, with 3-mm mesh size. This gear sampled five discrete …

The Geopolitics Of Juan Perón: A New Order For An Imperfect World, Robert D. Koch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1973, Juan Domingo Perón (1895-1974) proposed a new world order to the Non-Aligned Movement, shortly before returning to the Argentine presidency after eighteen years in exile. He was Argentina’s most important modern figure but divisive. The military toppled Perón in 1955, and then outlawed him and Peronism. They considered his nationalism and authoritarian methods fascist nightmares, and United States officials passed similar judgments despite his victories in democratic elections. Today, his ideas continue to influence Argentina, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Vatican, yet, his authoritarianism and origins in a dictatorship taint his legacy. Influential media and scholars use him …

Mass Spectrometry Discovery-Based Proteomics To Examine Anti-Aging Effects Of The Nutraceutical Nt-020 In Rat Serum, Samantha M. Portis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Aging is a complex physiological process that leads to the deterioration of all cells and tissues throughout the body. Aging is a major risk factor for the onset of many degenerative diseases in both the central nervous system (CNS) and the periphery, but even nonpathological aging (“normal” aging) is associated with chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and decreased stem cell proliferation and regenerative capacity. This decreased regenerative capacity in stem cell niches is thought to be a key component underlying the aging process and many disease states associated with aging.

While the exact biological mechanisms underlying impaired stem cell proliferation and …

The Weekly Challenger, March 26, 2020, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The March 26, 2020, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

The Gentle Artist: Empowering Warrior-Scholars Through The Physical Feminism Of Jiu-Jitsu, E. Emily Mahoney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an autoethnography about the socialization of people in various cultural contexts, in particular, women in the embodied role of the academic researcher. Being a researcher and enduring an experience of sexual assault right in the middle of my first research interview left me in a state of shock and survival. One out of every six American women will survive attempted or completed rape during her lifetime, with college-aged women being three to four times at increased risk compared to all women, yet the odds that this would take place during a project which had major implications for …

Deepwater Horizon And The Rise Of The Omics, Joel E. Kostka, Samantha Joye, Rita Collwell

C-IMAGE Publications

Microbial genomics techniques came of age following the Deepwater Horizon spill, offering researchers unparalleled insights into how ecosystems respond to such environmental disasters.

Addressing The Student Loan Crisis: Nudging Borrowers To Lower Their Repayment Costs, Genevieve O. Dobson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Purpose of Research is to determine why student loan borrowers are making poor decisions regarding their repayment plan selection and how we could use the theory of nudge to get them to make better choices. This study evaluates three main biases found in decision making to determine which one is most likely to be utilized in making decisions. It also investigates ways a tool can be created to allow borrowers to make better choices.

I use the Elaborated Action Design Research Methodology to diagnose, design and implement an effective tool. In my study, I create an artifact that allows …

Report, Student Affairs, Effective 2019, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg

Administrative Unit Reports

A report with outcomes and objectives, means of assessment, findings, and use of findings for the various units within Student Affairs at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Units include Campus Recreation; Campus Visitation, Orientation, and Onboarding, Enrollment Marketing; Career Services; Compass; Dean of Students: Housing and Residence Life, Veterans Services, Student Conduct, Students of Concern Assistance Team (SOCAT); Enrollment Management and Planning; Financial Aid and Scholarships; the Registrar; Student Life and Engagement; and Wellness Center/Disability Services.

Minimally Invasive Laparoscopic Tissue Removal Device, Stuart Richard Hart, Erik James Esinhart, Adam Thomas Lytle, Daniel Ryan Kamsler, Charles William Drake, Iii, Yasin Ahamed Junaideen, Mario Alves Simoes

USF Patents

A minimally invasive laparoscopic tissue removal device, namely a morcellator. The device includes, from proximal end to distal end, a handle, handle guard, elongate sheath, and mouth, finally terminating in a safety tip. The elongate sheath and mouth are concentric, such that two elongate, rotating cutting/shredding blades/teeth and one elongate auger feed screw can be positioned along the length of the sheath and mouth. The teeth are opposingly disposed and staggered, such that contact with tissue mass grabs and pulls tissue inwards toward the auger, which transports the tissue proximally toward the outside of the patient's body. A motor unit …

Lithium Ion Extraction Methods, Dean F. Martin, Kirpal Singh Bisht

USF Patents

Described herein are compositions for non-aqueous lithium ion extraction and methods of non-aqueous lithium ion extraction. In some embodiments, Octolig® or a methyl derivative thereof can be used to extract lithium and/or other ions from a non-aqueous substrate.

Women In Water: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Women's Lived Experience As Water And Wastewater Professionals, Pamela Murawski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to explore the lived experiences of women water and wastewater professionals in California. A qualitative methodology and semi-structured interviews provided detail and a rich understanding of women’s occupational choices, pursuits, and roles as told from their own perspectives. The results revealed that while working in water promoted a sense of pride, accomplishment, and empowerment, women continued to fight for equal access and full participation in lucrative water treatment careers. Key issues the women indicated were lack of knowledge of the industry, the necessity of mentorship, access to technical information, and the male-centered …

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy For Elemental Analysis In Bioarchaeology And Forensic Anthropology, Kelsi N. Kuehn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology, the current processes of differentiating between individual human skeletal remains are imprecise, costly, and inefficient. A novel analytical technique within anthropology, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) can aid in the identification of human remains using rapid laser ablation occurring at the micro-scale, making the technique virtually non-destructive to the sample. Considering this, LIBS could offer a superior method for materials discrimination and human identification. This research sought to examine whether LIBS can be used to obtain elemental signatures within bones to distinguish individuals from one another in a rapid, non-destructive manner. Seven human skeletal donors and …

Enhancement Of 5g Network Performance Using Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (Noma), Faeik Tayseer Al Rabee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of two parts. The first presents several approaches to enhance the performance of 5G wireless systems by using NOMA (Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access) as the multiple access technique under different scenarios and performance metrics. The second investigates the performance of a wireless system network using a mobility model to evaluate the channel capacity taking into account motion. Both studies are directed towards improving the system performance in wireless communication systems.

In the first part, the optimum received power level for uplink power-domain NOMA with ideal Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) reception is derived for any number of transmitters. …

Voices Of Success: Exploring Black Male Students’ Perspectives On Their Academic Success, Carmen Goldsmith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher education enables individuals to be prepared to make an impact in the global society through enhanced skills and the ability to understand their community and the world in which they reside. According to EVERFI (2019), studies showed that diversity in education, specifically on college campuses, improve a student’s intellectual engagement, motivation, citizenship, and cultural engagement, while enhancing their critical thinking, problem-solving, and writing skills. It is advantageous for students to work with people from other races, ethnicities, and varying socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. These differences prepare students to succeed in a diverse world and broaden their understanding and awareness …

Luciferase Reporter Crc Cell Line For Bioluminescence Imaging In Orthotopic Tumor Model, Pratik Chopade

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

CRC is the second most common type of cancer in women and the third most common type of cancer in men. It accounts for 9.7% of all cancers in terms of people diagnosed. Measuring the real-time effect of chemotherapeutic drugs has been a major obstacle in developing a tumor model mouse. Tracking the regression of cancer cells after chemotherapy could be an effective way to resolve this issue. Therefore, cancer cells expressing the constitutive luciferase reporter gene can be a potential solution. The biggest advantage of the luciferase (Luc) reporter is that it is detectable at very low concentrations in …