Digital Commons Network^™

Nanoscale Morphological Perturbations Of Lipid Membranes Induced By Membrane Active Peptides, Yasith Sandeepa Indigahawela Gamage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Membrane-active peptides (MAPs) are a diverse group of biologically relevant molecules that induce nanoscale modulations during their interactions with cell membranes. Understanding the precise mechanism by which these MAPs perturb or modulate the cell membranes is a cornerstone of membrane biophysics, as it facilitates rational design of useful therapeutics. That is, if we have the knowledge to determine what the peptide can do, how selective it is, or how toxic it might be, we can optimize them and design new peptide therapeutics such as for antimicrobial, anticancer, or drug-delivery applications. In general, MAPs can be categorized into two classes based …

Toward Intelligent Machines: Conscious Learning And Hardware-Accelerated Ai, Pavia Bera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence systems excel at narrow, well-defined tasks but remain brittle at theboundaries of their training distributions: they cannot quantify uncertainty, adapt continuously to non-stationary data, or operate efficiently on energy-constrained hardware. This dissertation addresses these limitations through four coordinated contributions spanning probabilistic learning algorithms, biologically inspired temporal memory, cross-entity warning propagation via distributed associative memory, and spintronic processing-in-memory.

The first contribution introduces Boosted Bayesian Neural Networks (BBNNs), which extend standard mean-field variational inference by iteratively constructing a mixture posterior through Boosting Variational Inference. On five clinical medical classification datasets, BBNNs achieve superior uncertainty calibration—lower Negative Log-Likelihood and Expected Calibration …

Barriers And Enablers Of Integrated E-Learning In Southern Africa: Student Experiences, Vicente A. Halle, Luzaan Schlebusch

Journal of Global Education and Research

Integrated e-learning is increasingly essential for enhancing higher education globally, yet its implementation in resource-constrained regions such as Southern Africa remains uneven. This study explores the technological, organizational, and environmental factors influencing the integration of e-learning in higher education institutions, using the Technological, Organizational, and Environmental framework. A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed, involving semi-structured interviews with 24 students (12 males and 12 females) from universities in South Africa and Mozambique. Thematic analysis revealed key barriers, including poor connectivity, limited digital literacy, inadequate institutional support, and socio-economic constraints such as power cuts and data costs. Despite these challenges, several enablers …

Broadband Diffusion And Digital Preparedness In Tanzania: Harnessing The Role Of Technology In Formal Education, George Matto, John J. Iwata

Journal of Global Education and Research

Broadband, as a high-speed Internet connectivity, is an essential enabler for digital preparedness. However, little is known, in the case of Tanzania, about the nexus between broadband diffusion and digital preparedness, particularly in the facilitation of the teaching and learning process. This study, therefore, aimed at investigating the nexus between broadband diffusion and digital preparedness in Tanzania by focusing on the country’s readiness to leverage the same for formal education. The study employed a systematic review, guided by the PRISMA framework, to obtain the empirical evidence from existing literature. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes, analyze, and interpret qualitative …

Subspace Decomposition For Spatial Parameter Estimation, Arthur Grik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Passive emitter localization is an important capability for wireless sensing, interference detection, and spectrum awareness. Classical timing-based localization methods estimate emitter position from differences in signal arrival time across distributed sensor platforms, but their performance depends on precise receiver synchronization and favorable signal bandwidth characteristics. This thesis investigates subspace-decomposition-based spatial parameter estimation as an alternative approach in which directional information is extracted from coherent antenna-array measurements. This work develops the theoretical foundation and signal-processing framework for angle-of-arrival estimation. Various spatial parameter estimators are presented as supporting array-processing methods before focusing on a well-known subspace-decomposition-based approach called the Multiple SIgnal Classification …

Light-Driven Zonation And Community Structure Of Aerophytic Microalgae In A Tropical Limestone Cave (Gua Tempurung, Malaysia), Wan Maznah Wan Omar, Mohammad Basri Eshak, Luthfiana Aprilianita Sari, Zulaihat Hamza Abdullahi, Yusuf Abdullahi

International Journal of Speleology

Cave ecosystems host specialized phototrophic biofilms structured primarily by light availability, yet quantitative assessments of aerophytic microalgal community organization in tropical limestone caves remain limited. This study investigated spatial variation in the structure of aerophytic microalgal communities across four ecologically distinct zones (entrance, transition, penetration, and low light) of Gua Tempurung, Malaysia. Stratified sampling was conducted during three seasonal periods. Dominant phototrophic morphospecies were identified using microscopy, and community composition was analyzed in relation to key environmental variables. Twenty-three dominant microalgal morphospecies were recorded across the cave gradient. Cyanobacteria constituted the major component of both richness and abundance, followed by …

Autoencoders As Classifiers Trained On Single Sources Of Radiographic Images For Generalizability Across Unseen Sources, Ryan M. Putney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial neural networks trained to classify X-ray images according to disease state will learn to distinguish between technical or procedural variations in the images rather than features relevant to the disease. For example, the model might learn to recognize the machine that captured the image or to distinguish an image taken while the patient is lying supine or standing upright. The present work is aimed at using autoencoders as a generalizable classifier to detect COVID vs pneumonia (PNA) X-ray images. The first experiment was to find an architecture for a fully convolutional autoencoder (CAE) and for a convolutional autoencoder with …

Heritage Without Equity: Afro-Descendant Representation, State Governance, Museums And The Limits Of Cultural Policy In Belize, Sherilyne L. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how heritage governance in Belize shapes the representation, recognition, and participation of Afro-descendant communities within national cultural institutions and policy frameworks. Focusing on Creole/Kriol and Garifuna communities, the study analyses how law, institutional designs, museum practises, tourism development, and community-based heritage work to produce uneven forms of cultural visibility. I argue that Afro-descendant communities are not absent from Belizean heritage. Rather, their cultural presence has not consistently translated into institutional authority, sustained investments, or meaningful participation in decisions about national representation. Drawing on critical heritage theory, critical museology, post-colonial scholarship, and the concept of authorised heritage discourse, …

Multi-Modal Survival Prediction On Breast Cancer Mammograms And Enabling Multi-Institutional Collaborations With Federated Learning, Nikolas Koutsoubis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, and machine learning is well positioned to leverage the large volumes of routinely collected clinical and imaging data to improve patient outcomes. Realizing this potential at scale requires three capabilities that current practice does not yet deliver in combination: models that integrate the multiple data modalities clinicians use, training procedures that respect institutional data-sharing constraints, and tooling that enables sharing of de-identified data when federated approaches are not sufficient. This dissertation develops methods and infrastructure addressing each of these capabilities in the context of breast cancer and oncology more broadly. …

Efficient, Secure Learning And Resource Management For Wireless Networks, Jiahao Xue

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rapid advancement of wireless networks has enabled a wide range of applications such as federated learning (FL) and Internet of Things, with supporting technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID). However, resource management and security challenges in wireless networks remain insufficiently addressed for these representative applications. In this dissertation, we first investigate wireless resource management for FL, then study novel attack and defense mechanisms for RFID systems. Finally, we analyze the performance and security of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled next generation wireless networks.

First, we investigate the client assignment and bandwidth allocation problem for FL in a multi-provider wireless setting. Unlike …

Building Trustworthy Information Systems: A Unified Framework For Comparative Risk Detection, Parisa Momeni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Risk detection in large scale information systems increasingly depends on heterogeneous data generatedby both centralized and distributed ecosystems. While centralized systems provide curated and validated reports, distributed environments produce large-scale and real-time observational evidence. Existing computational approaches analyze these ecosystems in isolation, limiting systematic comparison of risk repre-sentations across heterogeneous sources.

This dissertation presents a unified computational framework for comparative risk detection across centralized and distributed information systems. The framework provides a domain independent methodology for transforming heterogeneous risk reporting data into comparable multidimensional representations. To enable interpretable comparison of heterogeneous risk distributions, this work introduces the Geometric Overlap Score …

Seeing Around Corners: An Indirect Light Transport Decomposition Framework For Fusing Physics And Learned Priors, Fadlullah Raji

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging, or seeing around corners, is the ability to recover information about objects hidden from direct view and remains one of the most compelling challenges in computational imaging. Existing approaches fall broadly into two categories: active and passive. Active time-resolved methods achieve impressive performance but require specialized pulsed laser hardware and ultrafast detectors, making them expensive and limited by slow measurement acquisition. Passive NLOS methods, which instead exploit the subtle soft shadows (penumbrae) cast by a hidden scene onto a visible matte surface, have recently emerged as a practical alternative. However, existing passive approaches are largely limited to …

Language Models For Oncology Clinical Text: How Model Architecture And Data Strategies Shape Tumor Phenotype Extraction And Disease Progression Detection, Thanh Duong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth of electronic health records (EHRs) has created new opportunities to apply machine learning to clinical data.However, a large portion of important clinical information is still stored in unstructured text, such as pathology reports, radiology reports, and longitudinal clinical notes.These documents contain key details about tumor characteristics, diagnoses, treatments, and patient outcomes.Extracting structured and useful information from this text is challenging due to complex medical language, varied document formats, and the need to combine information across multiple reports over time.This dissertation studies how language models can be designed and adapted to better extract and use oncology-specific information from …

Mapping Seafloor Habitats And Characterizing Demersal Reef Fish Communities On The West Florida Shelf Across Multiple Spatial Scales Using Multibeam Sonar And Underwater Video, Alexander R. Ilich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the role of spatial scale in deriving seafloor terrain attributes, modeling benthic habitat, and analyzing ecological patterns of the demersal reef fish communities on the West Florida Shelf (WFS), with implications for improving predictive habitat mapping and understanding fish-environment relationships. Spatial scale plays a central role in benthic habitat mapping and ecological inference, influencing how terrain attributes are derived, how habitats are modeled, and how ecological responses are manifested. This work integrates multiscale terrain analysis, acoustic remote sensing, and community ecology to evaluate how spatial scale influences both physical habitat representation and ecological analysis.

Chapter …

Association Of Social Isolation, Loneliness, Social Strain And Support With Cancer Onset, And Frailty And All-Cause Mortality In People With Cancer, Joanne Elayoubi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is the second leading cause of death both in the United States and globally and for individuals over sixty-five. In 2026, approximately 2,114,850 new cancer cases are projected to emerge according to the National Center for Health Statistics (Siegel et al., 2026). Cancer incidence is increasing, making older adults sixty-five and older at risk of frailty and mortality following cancer. Although social isolation, loneliness, lack of social support, and social strain have been found to be risk factors for poor health and mortality, it is not clear the extent to which social relationships are associated with incident cancer, and …

Examining The Referral Pathway For Black Families Evaluated Through The Early Steps Program, Zelda Fleming

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research indicates that for children with or at risk for developmental delays, early intervention services are associated with improvements in academic and cognitive skills by the time they reach kindergarten (Atkins et al., 2020; Litt et al., 2017). Untreated developmental delays are linked to early school failure and social and emotional problems (Sher et al., 2020). Black children are 5 times less likely to receive early intervention services when compared to their White peers (Barnard-Brak et al., 2021; Feinberg et al.,2011). Thus, they often do not have the opportunity to receive early intervention services. The literature in this area suggests …

Portable Trace Gas Analysis With Multipass Cavity Raman Scattering, Charuka Muktha Arachchige

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The continual increase in the production and utilization of chemicals across a growing range of industrial, environmental, and medical applications necessitates accurate and efficient measurement of molecular composition. Trace gas detection is particularly critical in industrialized settings, where the identification of colorless and odorless gases is essential for ensuring operational safety and regulatory compliance. Recent advances in optical instrumentation have positioned spontaneous Raman scattering as a promising analytical technique for trace gas analysis, with multipass cavity enhancement providing a cost-effective pathway to high detection sensitivity. However, existing implementations remain confined to laboratory-scale optical table setups, limiting their applicability in field …

Photoluminescent Studies Of Metal-Organic Frameworks For Small Molecule Sensing, Julia T. Dematteo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly tunable nanoporous materials with broad applications in gas separation, drug delivery, light harvesting, and chemical sensing. The incorporation of photoactive components into MOFs enables the development of optical sensors capable of detecting a wide range of analytes. Porphyrins and metalloporphyrins are particularly attractive for such applications due to their high molar absorptivity, strong emission quantum yields, and versatile interactions with chemical species.

In this work, two porphyrinic MOFs, PCN-222 and MOF1(Cd), are investigated. Both frameworks utilize tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) as the organic linker, imparting optical functionality to the materials. Integration of TCPP into the framework induces …

Reading Echoes Of Homer In Plato: Finding Philosophical Insights By Reading Plato's Dialogues As Poiēsis, Stephen R. Lasse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reading Echoes of Homer in Plato: Assessing the legitimacy of the macro-level thesis that approaching Plato from the poetic tradition starting with Homer generates philosophical insights not available when reading his dialogues as the first installments in the Western tradition of philosophy. It begins by identifying equivocal nuances in the dramatic content of Plato’s dialogues that are left unexplored by the current standard approach that attributes a progressive developmentalist approach to Plato’s authorial intent before suggesting an alternative unitarian approach to Plato as an author who maintains an unchanged point of view throughout his corpus of work. It then identifies …

Van Der Waals Interactions Through The Lens Of 2d Materials With Emphasis On Many-Body Effects, Thi Xuan Diem Dang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the long-standing challenge of accurately and efficiently modeling long-range electron correlations, with a particular focus on van der Waals (vdW) interactions. These interactions play an essential role in predicting the structure, stability, and functionality of molecular systems and condensed matter materials. Although Density Functional Theory (DFT) has become a robust cornerstone of computational materials science, traditional formulations of the theory frequently fail to capture dispersive interactions, leading to significant errors in determining interlayer distances, binding energies, and stacking configurations. These limitations become particularly pronounced in layered materials and vdW heterostructures (HSTs), where weak long-range correlations are sensitive …

Transformative Leadership In Community Schools: Building Equitable Cultures And Sustainable Community Partnerships For Student Success, Latiecea Janie Hailey-Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This qualitative autoethnographic inquiry explored how transformative and relational leadership were enacted and evolved during the creation, development, and sustainability of a community partnership school, and how these leadership experiences shaped my understanding of leadership and influenced my development and identity as a leader. Grounded in a constructivist paradigm and framed within a scholarly practitioner orientation, I critically examined my leadership experiences as assistant principal and principal of Havenwood: A Community Partnership School, the first community school in Rosewood County, Florida. Through reflective analysis of leadership practices, relationships, and decision-making processes, I illuminated how my leadership contributed to student …

A Portable Device To Elicit Sensory Trick And Monitor Forearm Muscle Activity In Pianists With Musician’S Dystonia, Josef Franczak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Musician’s Dystonia (MD) is a condition that can be acquired in professional musicians,causing involuntary contractions and the loss of fine motor control. The most common pharmaceutical treatment, botulinum toxin injections, has been shown to have side effects of muscle weakness and atrophy. The sensory trick, shown to temporarily relieve symptoms of dystonia, has potential to be used as an alternative or alongside current therapies, allowing patients with MD to return to playing music professionally. To systematically deploy the sensory trick and monitor forearm muscle activity, the first prototype of the Wearable Sensorimotor Integrator (wSMI) has been developed.

The wSMI is …

Development Of A Coupled Hydrological-Nitrogen Modeling Framework For Urban Stormwater Pond Analysis, Tione Grant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization impacts the hydrological and biogeochemical processes that regulate water quality in downstream ecosystems, leading to increased stormwater volume and nitrogen loads in receiving aquatic environments. Although stormwater ponds are designed as simple hydraulic storage basins, they function more like managed ecosystems within urban drainage systems, offering both hydraulic attenuation and passive nutrient treatment. However, nitrogen removal efficiency varies significantly and depends on interactions between hydrological and biogeochemical factors. This thesis details the development, calibration, validation, and sensitivity analysis of a coupled hydrological-nitrogen model framework for Aaran’s Pond, an urban stormwater pond in Hillsborough County, Florida.

A process-based water budget …

Development And Evaluation Of The East Florida Coastal Ocean Model (Efcom), Orion B. Scharton-Witmer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida’s Atlantic coast has abundant resources in beaches, state parks, aquatic preserves, and wildlife refuges as well as densely populated coastal cities in low lying areas that are all subjected to natural disaster threats from the oceans. There is an urgent need for a high-resolution coastal ocean circulation model for this region. Based on the application of the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), an East Florida Coastal Ocean Model (EFCOM) is developed, downscaling from the deep ocean, across the continental shelf, and into the estuaries. It employs an unstructured grid with horizontal resolution varying from 3 kilometers at the …

A System Dynamics Perspective Of User Adaptation: The Case Of Exoskeleton Technology, Enzo Novi Migliano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology implementation is a common occurrence in organizations to which workers must adapt. Although research on workers' technology acceptance is widely spread, research on the workers' technology adaptation process is less represented in the literature. The discrepancy in the literature permeates research on new technologies currently being implemented in organizations, such as occupational exoskeletons. As in other technologies, the variance research perspective dominates the literature on exoskeleton implementations. The current thesis aims to foster process research by formalizing the coping model of user adaptation (Beaudry & Pinsonneault, 2005) and exploring research questions regarding workers' adaptation to general technology and exoskeletons. …

“He’S Got The Whole World In His Hands”: Seed Sovereignty And Agricultural Decision Making In Southeastern Kenya, Caroline Stahley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing corporate control of the global seed supply and restrictions to local exchange threaten the autonomy of smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities. This project contributes to agricultural sovereignty movements by examining the decisions farmers make to address climate uncertainty, market volatility, and development agendas. Specifically, how is seed saving practiced and understood in relation to sovereignty? It reimagines what global food systems might look like if investment were directed to producers rather than intermediaries, arguing that cultivators lack support, not knowledge or capacity. Across these domains, seeds act as a motif to describe the concerns, innovations, and visions of farmers.

Amending Planting Media With Typha-Derived Biochar For Sustainable Horticulture, Elissa Touma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Constructed wetlands are widely used to improve water quality by removing excess nutrients from wastewater and stormwater. Nutrients are stored within wetland vegetation, particularly in fast-growing plants such as Typha. Harvesting vegetation provides an opportunity to permanently remove these nutrients while generating biomass suitable for beneficial reuse. Converting harvested biomass into value-added products such as compost and biochar can support nutrient recovery and sustainable biomass management. In addition, increasing concerns regarding the environmental impacts of peat extraction have created interest in renewable alternatives for horticultural growing media. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of harvested …

Exploring Culturally Responsive Leadership Practices Among Female Leaders In Title I Schools: Strategies For Enhancing Student Success, Tara K. Indar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The academic achievement gap between White students and diverse student populations remains a persistent and prominent disparity in schools across the United States. While this issue affects schools nationwide, it is particularly significant in Title I schools, where many students from diverse, lower-socioeconomic-status backgrounds are served. Although a substantial body of literature examines this gap and highlights the positive impact of culturally responsive leadership, there remains a limited understanding of which specific practices are most effective in improving students’ academic outcomes. This study explores the perceptions of female school leaders in Title I schools regarding the strategies they believe contribute …

Modeling And Mitigating Stale Hardcoded Secrets In Version Control History, Katarina Valentine Capalbo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hardcoded secret vulnerabilities remain a growing and persistent problem that can be difficult to mitigate once exposed. While there has been significant research and advancements in identifying and preventing hardcoded secrets, less attention has been given to understanding the risks of leaving these secrets behind in version control history, as well as analyzing the sanitization of hardcoded secrets. These challenges present a growing gap between the risk and ability to mitigate and sanitize existing secret exposures. This thesis begins to address this gap by formalizing a threat model for hardcoded secrets that persist in Git version control history after the …

Sam-1: An Assistive Robot For Remote Patient Monitoring, Aana Farhana Ahsan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The global aging population has increased the demand for caregiving, while the availability of caregivers has not grown at the same pace. These trends have contributed to disparities in consistent and accessible care for older adults and increased caregiver burden. Geriatric care robots have emerged as a promising solution to support older adults and reduce caregiver burden. Existing systems have been developed for a wide range of applications, including rehabilitation, social support, assistance with activities of daily living, therapy, and caregiver telepresence. This thesis presents the development of SAM-1, an assistive robot designed to support remote monitoring of older adults …