Digital Commons Network^™

Outcomes Of A Periodic Exposure Assessment Of Workers At A University Campus, Logan M. Armagast

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Standards promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)are applicable to most businesses in the private sector, however, state and local government entities are not under OSHA’s jurisdiction. Universities that receive public funding fall under the category of state and local government entities and, unless an OSHA-approved State plan explicitly states otherwise, they are not required to demonstrate compliance with OSHA standards and are not subject to OSHA inspections. Without being constrained by federal regulation, those responsible for ensuring the health and safety of employees at publicly funded universities have some leeway in their methods for evaluating the conditions …

"Are We Done?": The Minimization Of Covid-19 And The Individualization Of Health In The United States, Cassidy R. Boe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the death toll from Covid-19 in the United States exceeds 1 million in just over two years, more variants continue to emerge, threatening more waves of Covid-19 and ultimately, more deaths. Despite this, mask use continues to decline, and one third of Americans say that the pandemic is over. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been central in publicly disseminating biomedical knowledge using Twitter. The CDC’s Twitter account (@CDCgov) shares information related to the spread of Covid-19, including mitigation measures such as mask recommendations and vaccine information. I have conducted a narrative analysis of the replies …

New Developments In Statistical Optimal Designs For Physical And Computer Experiments, Damola M. Akinlana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Statistical design of experiments allows for multiple factors influencing a process to be systematically manipulated in an experiment, and their effects on the output of the process to be studied via statistical modeling and analysis. Classical designs offer general nice performance but have limited applications due to restricted design size, region, and randomization structure. Computer generated optimal designs become more popular in recent decades due to the rapid growth in computing power. Most existing work in optimal design of experiments involves designing experiments with optimal performance on a single chosen objective or a single response. However, with the increasing limitation …

Addressing Intersectional Stigma: Lgbtq+ Individuals Living With A Mental Illness, Jennifer T. Tran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The stigma process (i.e., stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination) has profound and lasting effects on individuals within marginalized identities. Research has indicated that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ+) individuals’ experiences of stigma have contributed to the development of mental illness. Therefore, LGBTQ+ individuals living with mental illness experience a unique and challenging type of stigma, intersectional stigma, due to identification within multiple marginalized communities. Populations most vulnerable to stigma include individuals who identify with more than one stigmatized identity, such as LGBTQ+ individuals living with mental illness. Therefore, there is a need to explore strategies to address intersectional …

“That’S What We Call ‘Aesthetics’”: The Social Construction Of Tap Water Mistrust In An Underbounded Community, Abby Vidmar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent research on water insecurity in the United States has revealed that underbounded communities — urban disadvantaged unincorporated neighborhoods characterized by high-poverty and high residential density lying just outside the border of an incorporated municipality — often lack consistent access to clean and safe water. In these settings, poor water quality and inadequate infrastructure shape residents’ risk perceptions often leading to tap water mistrust. However, little is known about the broader social, political, and economic drivers of water quality in these settings and how such drivers inform the social construction of risk across different stakeholder groups. Using an underbounded African-American/Hispanic …

Ceramide-1-Phosphate: A Novel Regulator Of Golgi Fragmentation, Golgi-Er Vesicle Trafficking, And Anaplasma Phagocytophilum Pathogenesis, Anika Nayar Ali

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the etiologic agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), is a tick transmitted obligate intracellular bacterium that infects granulocytes, bone marrow progenitor cells and endothelial cells. HGA exhibits symptoms of febrile illness including fever, chills, headache, malaise, leukopenia and elevated liver enzymes which are treatable by antibiotics. However, elderly and immunocompromised patients are at a greater risk of developing fatal complications. Inside the host cell A.phagocytophilum resides in host cell derived vacuole called A.phagocytophilum occupied vacuole (ApV) where it undergoes its biphasic lifecycle. Being an intracellular pathogen, A.phagocytophilum relies heavily on nutrient acquisition from host cell and to obtain …

High School Teachers’ Perceptions Of Promoting Student Motivation And Creativity Through Career Education, Kyeonghyeon Park

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate teachers’ perceptions and experiences of career education as to how career education shapes students’ intrinsic motivation and creativity in a high school in South Korea. Career education in South Korea aims to help students discover their interests, skills, aptitudes, and passions, and to help them understand what they need to achieve their goals in the future through the opportunities of various experiences. Career education can help students increase their intrinsic motivation and creativity as well as discover future occupations through various types of activities. This study was informed by two theoretical frameworks, Self-determination theory and …

Glucose Homeostasis In Human Diabetic Adipocytes: Role Of Glp1 In Sortilin Alternative Splicing, Ashley Lui

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic and progressive metabolic disease defined by systemic insulin resistance. The inability of cells to respond to insulin and take up glucose results in elevated blood sugar that is detrimental to the overall health of patients. There is no cure for T2DM. Identification of new targets to alleviate hyperglycemia are crucial for treatment and prevention of metabolic diseases. Adipocytes play a central role in glycemic regulation by insulin stimulated glucose uptake, storage of excess nutrients, and secretion of adipokines. Major glucose transporter-4 (Glut4) is the main transporter responsible for postprandial clearance of glucose …

Microheater Stimulation Platform For Neural Cells, Haley Royce

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electrical stimulation is the basis of many biomedical devices like cochlear implants,pacemakers, and retinal implants. In these systems, current is applied to a desired tissue to effectively stimulate it. Unfortunately, this is not localized as the current will spread through the tissue, limiting the spatial resolution. Thus, alternative forms of stimulation are needed to improve device precision and resolution. This project explores microheaters as a stimulation platform that can be easily integrated with existing biomedical devices. Microheaters produce heat via the Joule heating effect wherein electrical current is run through high resistance materials to output thermal energy. They are highly …

Ethnic-Racial Minoritized Adolescents’ Perceptions Of Cyberhate, School Connectedness, Ethnic-Racial Identity, And Life Satisfaction, Alexis Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to cyberhate has become an increasing trend across social media, with approximately 64% of adolescents reporting that they have seen hate speech (Common Sense, 2018). While social media is used to connect with others via likes, posts, and shares, it also allows for hateful content to spread quickly. Cyberhate is the intentional aggression or threat towards an individual or group based on their societal group association, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion (Wachs et al., 2020). Ethnic-racial minoritized adolescents who experience cyberhate as racial discrimination may be at increased risk of maladaptive psychosocial adjustment (Sellers et …

Healthcare Profession Students Of Color Participating In International Service-Learning, Ellyn Katherine Couillard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative exploratory case study investigated the healthcare profession students’ of color experience and the perceived impact of completing international service-learning (ISL). Before this study, most of the research about healthcare profession students in ISL reported had mainly White participants or reported data and findings in the aggregate. To complete this research, I performed two semi-structured interviews with each of the five participants incorporating photo-elicitation techniques. Then I performed constant comparative methods and communicated with a peer debriefer about my findings. Five participants were selected using max maximum variation based on racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, programs of study, and …

Do Auditors Respond To Changes In Clients’ Analyst Coverage? Evidence From A Natural Experiment, Mohammad Alkhamees

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has established that analysts serve as an important monitor of managementand improve the quality of firms’ financial reporting. In this study, I utilize the natural experiment resulting from the mergers and closures of brokerage houses, to examine whether this exogenous change in firms’ information environment impacts the audit process. Specifically, I examine whether reductions in analyst coverage have an effect on auditor effort proxied by audit fees and audit report lag, as well as financial reporting quality, measured by future restatements. I find that client firms pay significantly higher audit fees following an exogenous reduction in analyst coverage …

Self-Perceptions Of Major Choice And Employability Skill Development In Sophomore Business Students, Melissa A. Kulp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today’s college students expect that an outcome of a college education is to be prepared to secure a well-paying job within their field of study after graduation. Within career services offices, career preparation is typically focused on upperclassmen looking for internships and jobs, leaving sophomore students to make major and career decisions on their own. The purpose of the study is to understand what on-campus experiences sophomore business students had to aid them in their major and career path choices, how they define and interpret three employability skills, and which experiences helped them develop these three employability skills needed to …

Analysis Of Prescription Drug Brand Mentions In Music: Prevalence And Consumer Perceptions, Lisa A. Blake

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Music is not only a lucrative mass reach media (Stassen, 2021) but also a deeply personal tool for self-expression (Hallam, 2019). Music listeners are exposed to a slew of branded messages within music promoting a variety of product types such as apparel, automotive, and alcohol (Craig, Flynn & Holody, 2017). Promotion in music has been proven to be an effective vehicle for building brand awareness when listeners are interested in the music (Delattre & Colovic, 2009, Hoyer & Brown, 1990; Macdonald & Sharp, 2000; Thoma & Williams, 2013). Brands promoted within music enjoy some of the benefits of promotional tactics …

Transitioning From Face-To-Face To Telehealth Speech And Language Services Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic: Perceptions Of Persons With Aphasia And Their Ehelpers, Emma Logan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the perceptions of the aphasia community, as well as their caregivers, that are provided speech and language services and how their services were affected due to transitions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recency and novelty of the pandemic warrants research of many areas related to health care, including that of speech language pathology.

An online survey was completed by nine persons with aphasia and three eHelpers. Participants were recruited through a university clinic and by informational fliers through social media. Participants with aphasia qualified by having experiences with speech and …

Inaugural Addresses, Framing Theory, And The Impact On American Perceptions Of The Presidency, Kalin Meagan Velez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the inaugural addresses given by both Donald Trump and Joseph Biden as the source texts by which to examine the sentiment portrayed by particular framed messages. Framing theory stands as the central framework in which this study was conducted. The objective was to identify how political speeches like that of the presidential inaugural address frame messages to citizens and inform the audience on what their presidency may look like. This study utilizes a quantitative analysis using LIWC software followed by a qualitative discourse analysis. A thorough examination of the history of inaugural addresses, preceding presidencies, and each …

The Weekly Challenger, June 9, 2022, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The June 9, 2022, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Vulnerable Resistance In Victorian Women’S Writing, Stephanie A. Harper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how socially vulnerable characters, often dismissed as lacking access to agency, create space for resistance in nineteenth-century women’s writing. Central questions the dissertation addresses are, “Why is resistance by vulnerable characters not read?” and “How are women writers encoding resistance?” Working within a comprehensive historical picture of the challenges and concerns women writers of the nineteenth century had to contend with, and informed by feminist scholarship on women writers of the nineteenth century, the dissertation looks at vulnerable characters within Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, and Olive …

Metabolomic Analysis, Identification And Antimicrobial Assay Of Two Mangrove Endophytes, Stephen Thompson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural products have played major roles in drug discovery and provided sources for many new drugs. Secondary metabolites, also called natural products, are organic compounds that are produced from fungi, bacteria, and other living organisms. Secondary metabolites produced by endophytic fungi include alkaloids, phenols, peptides, enzymes, polyketides, and terpenes. Endophytic fungi are rich sources of secondary metabolites and demonstrate bioactivity against many human pathogens including the ESKAPE pathogens. This thesis explores the diverse roles of endophytic fungi and their production of unique secondary metabolites for potential drug discovery and development. Secondary metabolites from two endophytic fungi (EG10-21E-2-HDAC & TAP14-34A-2-HDAC), collected …

Exploring Interaction Through The Online Language Instructor Lens: Perceptions, Strategies, And Challenges, Jessica Krentzman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As our world becomes more interconnected, our learning environment and interactions continue to evolve, moving away from face-to-face meetings, toward online discussions using various forms of interaction. In the online learning environment, instructors now need to swiftly pivot their methods of instruction in order to assure student success in the online learning environment and to achieve this goal, instructors need concrete instructional and design strategies to support student interactions. To this end, I explored how online language instructors currently promote interaction in their courses, how the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework applies to their selection of instructional strategies, the instructors’ …

Valuing The Local Within The Global: A Discourse Analysis Of Professional Development In A U.S.-Kurdish Transnational University Partnership, Thomas A. Highley, Connie Kendall Theado

Journal of Global Education and Research

In an effort to support higher education in developing countries, partnerships between U.S. and international universities have surged, raising questions concerning the social equity of such linkages. Using a New Literacy Studies approach to discourse analysis, online transcripts from one such university partnership were analyzed to determine how language was used to negotiate a more equitable partnership through the adaptation of the social context of professional development activities. Discourse analysis of three relevant linguistic markers in the data suggests that cultural perspectives on professional development influenced the language choices made by university partners, reshaping the power structure toward greater social …

Implementing Global Citizenship Education Policy: The Bargaining Process Of Ngos In Some European Countries, Massimiliano Tarozzi

Journal of Global Education and Research

This research looked at the growing space that Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is gaining in educational policy worldwide, and at the role Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) played in GCE agenda setting and policy implementation. Based on a comparative policy analysis carried out in 10 European countries, the political agency of NGOs was explored, underlining opportunities, tensions, and challenges, especially in their contribution to national strategies to integrate GCE into national educational systems.

Self-Segregation, Sense Of Belonging, And Social Support: An Inquiry Into The Practices And Perceptions Of Chinese Graduate Students At An American Mid-Atlantic University, P. J. Moore-Jones

Journal of Global Education and Research

Chinese students studying in the United States face great challenges when adapting to cultural, linguistic, and pedagogical differences. Although discouraged in the literature, self-segregation is a practice common among some international students and is especially prevalent in the Chinese community. This qualitative study explored the motivation and frequency of this practice vis-à-vis social support, and its effect on the participants’ sense of belonging. Insider status was employed to conduct focus groups of mainland Chinese students currently enrolled in graduate programs at a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States. Findings from the study explore how administrators, educators, and the students themselves …

Genealib Archive 2022-06, Genealib

GENEALIB Archive

No abstract provided.

Outside The Boundaries Of Biomedicine: A Culture-Centered Approach To Female Patients Living Undiagnosed And Chronically Ill, Bianca Siegenthaler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As a community who voices feeling misunderstood, unheard, and uncared for by the medical system, female patients who live undiagnosed and chronically ill and their health narratives lie beyond biomedical boundaries. To examine how chronically ill and undiagnosed female patients narrate their experiences in and with the biomedical system and how these narratives resist biomedical health standards, I employ semi-structured interviews with 20 female patients living undiagnosed and chronically ill as well as engage in critical autoethnography to recount my own health experiences living a part of this community. In utilizing the culture-centered approach to health communication as a theoretical …

Ebba’S Annual Meeting March 2022, Andy Thiede

North American Bird Bander

No abstract provided.

Integration Of Sustainability Into Higher Education Policies: A Case Study Of The University Of South Florida, Mehmet Z. Apaydin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not new notions for higher education institutions (HEIs). However, well-organized efforts to make campuses "sustainable" are not common, and the efforts are modest compared to the institutional capabilities. This thesis, a case study of the University of South Florida (USF), was designed to explore how sustainability values and SDGs are incorporated into higher education policies. To accomplish this, the study employed a mixed method design that includes a literature review, an overview of policies and implementations, document content analysis, a program and course inventory, a keyword analysis, and semi-structured interviews. …

Dual Ligand Sol-Gel Sorbent Combining Superhydrophobicity And Î -Î Interaction, Abdul John Malik, Emre Seyyal

USF Patents

A method of coating at least one silica capillary using a novel dual ligand sol-gel sorbent and method of manufacture of such sorbent is provided herein. The dual ligand sol-gel sorbent provides superior enrichment effects through simultaneous exploitation of superhydrophobicity of one of the ligands and the ability of the other ligand to undergo π-π interaction with hydrophobic aromatic analytes. Sorbent performance is enhanced both in terms of analyte enrichment and sorbent stability, such as pH stability and solvent stability.

The Weekly Challenger, May 26, 2022, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The May 26, 2022, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Nanoparticle Delivery System For Diseases Associated With Major Basement Membrane Components Of Blood Vessels Accessible From Blood Stream, Ruisheng Liu, Samuel A. Wickline, Jin Wei, Hua Pan, Jie Zhang

USF Patents

A targeting nanoparticle composition and method of treatment for diseases associated with major basement membrane components of blood vessels accessible from blood stream is presented. The composition includes pegylated perfluorocarbon nanoparticles having a targeting ligand attached that targets the basement membrane components, specifically collagen IV. The targeted nanoparticles may contain at least one pharmaceutically active agent capable of treating a glomerular disease such as lupus nephritis.