Digital Commons Network^™

A Strategic Communication Plan For The Clemente Center At Florida Tech, Cristiano Bozzolan

Theses and Dissertations

This design project develops a strategic communication plan for the Clemente Center at the Florida Institute of Technology, aimed at enhancing campus engagement. The methodology includes interviews, focus groups, a SWOT analysis, and secondary data analysis, providing insights into the communication dynamics at the center.

Key findings reveal a reliance on outdated communication methods and insufficient use of digital platforms. The proposed communication plan introduces optimized digital signage, targeted email campaigns, community engagement initiatives, and enhanced staff training. These strategies are designed to be cost-effective and actionable, addressing the center's current limitations and leveraging opportunities for improved community interaction.

This …

Characterizing The Quorum Sensing (Qs) System In The Model Eukaryote Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Kirstin Donnette Cutshaw

Theses and Dissertations

Group behaviors in microorganisms are often regulated by low-molecular weight molecules that enable them to sense population density, a signaling system known as quorum sensing (QS). QS in prokaryotes has provided insight into the role ‘social’ behaviors play in the bacterial world and refined our models of virulence, bacterial motility, and more. While less common, similar behaviors are observed in certain fungi, primarily yeasts, in which QS controls cell morphology, biofilm production, and other phenotypes. We have recently pursued the potential for QS to be more broadly distributed among unicellular eukaryotes, which could significantly alter our understanding of social behaviors …

The Influence Of Unhelpful Supervisor Support On Employee Burnout Across Cultures, Charles Blomstrom-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Organizations continue to become increasingly interconnected globally, yet often fail to consider the cultural context of policies. Such failures to account for cultural differences may add to workplace stressors for employees, leading to an increased risk of burnout. Supervisors may attempt to buffer against burnout by providing social support to their employees. However, if the support given by supervisors is considered by the recipient to be unhelpful, these buffering effects may be reversed. Examining samples from the United States and Japan, this study hypothesized that unhelpful supervisor support and burnout would relate significantly to one another, and that culturally based …

Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) To Assess Body Condition Of Common Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus Truncatus) In The Indian River Lagoon, Florida, Jessica Jane Provenzano

Theses and Dissertations

Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus truncatus) in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) have experienced four Unusual Mortality Events (UMEs). This stock is considered immunocompromised and is routinely subjected to persistent anthropogenic stressors such as fishing gear entanglement, vessel strikes, contaminants, and harmful algal blooms. Previous body condition assessments of this stock have involved invasive capture-release examinations or subjective methods using lateral body images. To improve precision, we investigated the use of photogrammetry data collected from noninvasive unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) combined with models developed from capture-release data to estimate morphometric parameters and subsequently determine the body condition of …

Integration Analysis Of Nssm, Winlogon, And P2p Networks: Security Impact And Mitigation Strategies, Maisa Emneina

Theses and Dissertations

In today's digital world, where everything is interconnected, new security threats are constantly emerging. This thesis explores the security risks that come from the combination of three specific technologies: Non-Sucking Service Manager (NSSM), Winlogon Helper DLLs, and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. NSSM is a powerful tool for managing services, but it can also be used by attackers to find and exploit system weaknesses. Winlogon Helper DLLs are essential for the Windows logon process, making them a critical target for attacks. When you add P2P networks into the mix, which many applications use to share data, the potential for security issues increases …

Investigating Microbe-Plant Symbioses In Space, David Handy

Theses and Dissertations

As life has evolved on Earth, gravity has been a constant around which biological processes have developed, rather than a pressure that has been adapted to. As humanity ventures into space, we remove this constant and can observe a variety of changes in biological systems, such as bone loss in humans, stunted plant growth, or increased virulence in pathogens. The growing body of data shows that life adapts to spaceflight and microgravity in unique ways that, due to our limited understanding, can be difficult to predict. A particularly under-studied area is that of host-microbe interactions. Despite efforts to limit their …

Cultural Tightness-Looseness And Optimal Distinctiveness: Examining The Influence Of Culture On The Need To Belong And The Need To Be Different, Hairong Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of cultural tightness-looseness on optimal distinctiveness motives and group identification, examining the moderating roles of self-construal, global orientation, and tightness/looseness match. Participants (N=465) from the United States and China were randomly assigned to tight or loose conditions and numerically majority or minority group conditions. Experimental manipulation of tightness-looseness did not significantly affect optimal distinctiveness needs. Cultural match, operationalized as alignment of tightness/looseness between participants' own culture and experimental condition, significantly moderated the relationship between culture conditions and need to belong. Individuals with high cultural match showed higher need to belong in tight conditions, while those …

Assessing The Gut Content Of Styela Plicata: A Benthic Filter Feeder In The Indian River Lagoon, Honor Lily Triumph Edmands

Theses and Dissertations

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) has experienced declining water quality due to human activities involving nutrient input, leading to Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). The Living Docks program affixes oyster mats to dock pilings to promote the settlement and recruitment of benthic filter feeders for water quality improvement. However, questions remain about filtering efficiencies of organisms that make up the mat communities, and whether organisms remove harmful species from the IRL. The pleated sea squirt, Styela plicata, is a common oyster mat resident. The goal of this thesis was to investigate what phytoplankton and bacteria S. plicata consumes, and if …

Rising To The Top With Strategic Agency: Exploring Antecedents To Leadership In Women And Men, Britton Victoria-Hicks Peters

Theses and Dissertations

In congruence with implicit leadership theory, research shows that individuals value agentic traits in potential leaders more than communal traits. However, traits identified as “preferable” or “more valuable” in leader candidates are not always aligned with traits that are typical of an effective or competent leader. If our industry wants to put effective leadership into practice, we must also know how effective leaders are chosen and encouraged further. Here I have explored one small aspect of this research by looking at gender differences in leader potential and leader effectiveness.

This study investigated the role of self-confidence on leader identification and …

Neurodivergent Employees: The Impact Of The Disclosure Decision And Subsequent Workplace Accommodations, Tamara Farquhar

Theses and Dissertations

A great deal of organizational investments have gone towards diversifying the labor force as of late. However, the same cannot be said for efforts made towards making newly acquired talent feel included. Neurodivergent individuals in particular have not been sufficiently welcomed in organizations, partially explaining their reluctance to disclose their identity along with feeling excluded. Despite researchers framing the characteristics displayed by neurodiverse talent as natural variations found at the tail ends of the bell curve, many people are incapable of viewing them as such. Discrimination and stereotyping have thus resulted, further dampening neurodivergent employees’ work experiences. These two factors …

Bracketed Assessments In Behavioral Gerontology: Evaluating Preference With Present And Absent Stimuli, Flavia Eduarda Del Castillo Troche

Theses and Dissertations

The present study evaluated the use of bracketed assessments to assess the activity preference of three individuals with dementia. The study proposed an alternative method to traditional stimulus preference assessments, to bridge the gap in behavior analytical literature within behavioral gerontology. Thus, bracketed assessments were conducted using two presentation methods, verbal plus visual presentation and verbal-only presentation. Results suggested that while participants showed consistency within low preferred activity selection in the bracketed assessment, variability was observed among participants’ preferences for high and moderate preferred activities. Both presentation methods yield similar selection results for one participant, however, the other two participants …

Cultural Selection Of Ethical Self-Control Toward Sustainability, Michael Jonathan Passage

Theses and Dissertations

This study consisted of three experiments to improve our understanding of the conditions that foster cooperation related to sustainability. In Experiment 1, participants completed a demographic questionnaire and an environmental and social discounting task. Results (a) support the utility of the environmental discounting task; (b) suggest responding to the discounting task is dissimilar; and (c) show that responding to hypothetical consequences on the social discounting task correlates to actual responding. Experiment 2 evaluated whether interlocking behavioral contingencies (by microculture members) associated with sustainable and non-sustainable aggregate products (Condition A & B) could be selected by cultural consequences (i.e., 20¢ toward …

Enhancement Of Polytetrafluoroethylene-Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofibers Triboelectric Effect With Carboxylic Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Coating, Fernando Viesca

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, we fabricated a TENG using Forcespinning® (FS) Polytetrafluoroethylene microfibers (FS-PTFE-MFs) and Electrospun (ES) Polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers (ES-PVA-NFs). The FS-PTFE-MFs were physically linked with functionalized carboxylic multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-COOH) employing water dispersions. MWCNTs-COOH were dispersed using three different surfactants: Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS), Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS), and Triton X-100 (TX-100). Coated FS-PTFE-MFs were then characterized using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) attachment and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). While no significant difference in performance was observed with different surfactants, electrical results of the TENG recorded a notable enhancement of …

Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Urban Lawn Soil Amended With Biochar And Compost Under Contrasting Redox Conditions, Angel Salinas

Theses and Dissertations

Green fields around the world are being converted to urban land uses to cope with population growth and urbanization. The objective of this study was to investigate how urban lawn soils can contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in relation to soil saturation-drainage cycles. We measured carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions as well as redox potential (Eh) from garden soils amended with biochar, compost, or biochar + compost under a mesocosm scale. Bermuda turfgrass seed was seeded in each column (5-gallon bucket) and three water saturation conditions (half-saturated, full-saturated, and unsaturated soils) were maintained for …

Improvement Of Triboelectric Nanogenerator By As-Prepared Lithium Niobate For Energy Harvesting And Sensing Applications, Jahid Inam Chowdhury

Theses and Dissertations

One readily available green energy source that is used to address the small-scale energy requirement is mechanical energy. To harvest mechanical energy, supply energy for upcoming electronic devices, and enable flexible health monitoring, triboelectric nanogenerators composed of perovskite and lightweight polymers have garnered significant interest. A material named lithium niobate (LiNbO3) was produced in two different phases and used to make a flexible triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). Furthermore, lightweight polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), and LiNbO3 nanoparticles were used to produce a small triboelectric nanogenerator that successfully converts mechanical energy into electricity. LiNbO3 nanoparticles were first created and loaded into polydimethylsiloxane …

Fostering Hope In Schools: Behavioral Engagement Mediates The Relationship Between Perceived Social Support For School And Hope In Adolescents, Jackson Whitmire

Theses and Dissertations

Better understanding and fostering positive development within youth has become increasingly popular among psychologists, educators, and parents (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). One aspect of positive adjustment is the development of hopeful thinking, which has been demonstrated to be associated with more positive outcomes in terms of positive development, academic achievement (e.g., Marques et al., 2017), and greater career success later in life (e.g., Hirschi, 2014). However, relatively little is known regarding the development and maintenance of hope in children and adolescents, particularly regarding the effects of their school experiences on hope. Both theory (Snyder et al., 1991; Marques & Lopez, …

The Social Influence Network Model Of Performance Expectations, Jingwen Zhong

Theses and Dissertations

Disagreement among group members on each other’s status and competence has been found to negatively impact group performance. However, in theories, it is oftentimes assumed that group members have common perceptions of each other’s competence, or in other words, have a consensus on performance expectations. Recognizing the importance of disagreement on performance expectations, in this dissertation I argue that individuals are subject to the self-serving bias and can develop different performance expectations based on the same status information. The results of an online experiment show that individuals tend to think highly of themselves in both status-homogeneous and status-heterogenous situations, and …

Calibration And Use Of The Transparency Tube As An Estimate Of Turbidity: An Analysis Of Factors Controlling Light Attenuation In Estuarine Waters, Makenna Leigh Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The transparency tube is low-cost, portable, and easy to use to measure the transparency or clarity of the water. Filling the tube with water creates a small-scale water column where water will be slowly drained out of the bottom until the Secchi disk at the bottom of the tube is visible from the top opening, and the depth of the remaining water in the tube is recorded in centimeters. Unlike traditional Secchi disk measurements, the advantage of this instrument is that sampling depth in highly turbid waters is possible with a centimeter scale resolution. Transparency tube measurement, through careful calibrations, …

Examining Risk Factors For Early-Onset Breast Cancer, Jennifer Grace Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: There have been great advancements in screening and in the identifying of risk factors associated with breast cancer, however, there is a lack of information of these factors in women with breast cancer occurring under the age of 45, known as early-onset breast cancer (EOBC). EOBC is often found at later stages, negatively impacting young women’s careers, family planning, and mental health. Additionally, because of the health disparities that exist within the U.S. health care system, women belonging to racial and ethnic groups, specifically young Black women, tend to have poorer outcomes and higher mortality rates of EOBC compared …

Associations Between Neurological Correlates Of Reading And Learning Disability Profiles Among Children, Jessica Luedke

Theses and Dissertations

Early reading skills are vital for child development. Children with specific reading learning disabilities (SLD-R) display persistent difficulties acquiring reading skills. They are at an increased risk for adverse life outcomes, including mental health concerns, low educational attainment, and low academic motivation. Progress in neurobiological research provides opportunities to enhance the assessment and identification of learning disabilities by revealing distinct neurological patterns of learning. However, the integration of this progress with school psychology research is rare. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate brain network connectivity as a biomarker of reading using resting-state quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) coherence. Fronto-central …

Antioxidant And Anti-Inflammatory Potential Of Engineered Ceria Nanoparticles In The Management Of Alzheimer's Disease, Shanshan Shi

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions worldwide. Unfortunately, there are currently no effective therapies available to prevent or cure the disease. While current therapies aim to change AD progression, there is a growing need for novel therapeutic strategies that can effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to target the underlying pathology of the disease. The BBB is a highly selective semipermeable barrier that separates circulating blood from the brain. It plays a crucial role in amyloid-β (Aβ) homeostasis and clearance dynamics, as Aβ accumulation is a key factor in the pathogenesis of AD. Aβ aggregation …

Preregistration And Registration As A New Method For Transparency Of External Validation In Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Applications To Address Overfitting, Underspecification, And Shortcut Learning, Marilyn Elaine Gartley

Theses and Dissertations

Statistics has been defined as the study of how information should be employed to reflect on and give guidance for action in a practical situation involving uncertainty. The essence of uncertainty is that there is more than one possible outcome, and the actual outcome is unknown in advance; it is indeterminate. The goal of statistical methods is inference: namely, statistical inference—reaching conclusions about populations or deriving scientific insights from data which are collected from a representative sample of that population through providing a mathematical understanding of inference, quantifying the degree of support that data offer for assertions of knowledge, as …

Investigating The Effects Of Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide On Heart Failure And The Gut Microbiome, Talia Charlotte Kepniss

Theses and Dissertations

Heart failure affects millions of people worldwide with current available treatments that are limited in their efficacy. The financial burden for care of those with heart failure is over 20 billion dollars in the US alone. Calcitonin gene related peptide has demonstrated cardioprotective and powerful vasodilator effects. In this study our objective is to prevent the onset of heart failure and treat early stages of heart failure with injections of calcitonin gene related peptide in C57BL/6 mice. In order to model heart failure, experimental mice underwent a transverse aortic constriction surgery. Echocardiograms and fecal collections were completed to observe changes …

Initial Evaluation Of A Peer Supervision Program For Health Service Psychology Doctoral Students, William Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical supervision has long been utilized as the primary method of clinical training and evaluation for health service psychology doctoral students. Despite the central role that supervision has played and continues to play in the training of psychologists, little scholarly attention has been given to identifying effective methods for fostering competency in providing supervision. The lack of research in this area is concerning, given the accumulating evidence that negative supervision experiences, such as ineffective or inadequate supervision, are reported by a substantial proportion of trainees (21-92% across studies). Moreover, these experiences are associated with important proximal and distal training outcomes, …

Trust In Governance System (Tgs) In The Hotel Context: Scale Development And Validation, Swechchha Subedi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to conceptualize trust in governance systems (TGS) within the hotel context, develop a scale to measure it, and validate its effects on hotel investment decisions. The study focused on the perspectives of hotel leadership which includes the owners, operators, and investors in the United States. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, exploratory sequential research design. Initially, the governance system within the hotel industry was conceptualized, and trust in governance was defined. The scale development phase involved generating items and dimensions through literature review, expert review, and pilot testing. The final scale included multiple dimensions …

Quantifying Extreme Events: Applications Of Probabilistic Methods To Quantify Riverine And Coastal Flood Dynamics In South Carolina And Neighboring Coastal Communities, Ryne Phillips

Theses and Dissertations

Extreme flood events have been persistent throughout history and have challenged human populations around the globe. Over time, scientists and engineers have developed tools and technology to support flood risk management. Most, if not all, of these tools rely on some form of the field of stochastic hydrology. Stochastic hydrology is a broad discipline, but the overarching principle is to use statistical and data-driven techniques to develop an understanding of one or more hydrologic variables (e.g., flood flow or peak storm tide). However, the need for large sample sizes of data that offer insight into all possible combinations of outcomes …

“Finally Somebody Wants To Hear Us”: Soviet Women And Political Violence In Svetlana Alexievich’S Narratives, Liubov Kartashova

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the emotional and social impact of significant Soviet historical events, including World War II, the Soviet-Afghan War, and the Chornobyl disaster, on collective memory. Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian Nobel Prize laureate, employs a polyphonic narrative technique to challenge official histories of these events and foreground the voices of ordinary people, particularly women. Focusing on her works – The Unwomanly Face of War, Zinky Boys, and Chernobyl Prayer – the study delves into the gendered experiences and narratives of women involved in these events. Integrating feminist scholarship on international relations and security, this research analyzes women’s roles in …

Improving Drug Repurposing Success: Integrating Large Database Claims Analysis In Drug Discovery, Joseph Magagnoli

Theses and Dissertations

Drug repurposing has emerged as an innovative strategy to identify new therapeutic uses for existing medications. However, with few notable exceptions, repurposing existing drugs has limited overall success, often failing in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) due to inadequate treatment efficacy in new clinical settings. To improve success rates, I propose a framework titled REMIDY: Retrospective and Experimental Methods Integration for Drug DiscoverY. The REMIDY framework incorporates retrospective claims analysis into the drug discovery process. I demonstrate that retrospective analysis can leverage extensive administrative and clinical data to address translational gaps between pre-clinical experimental models and RCTs. For example, pre-clinical experimental …

Nonverbal Iq Test Performance In Preschool-Age Children With Varying Language, Sandra Danelle Irvin

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the impact of two types of factors on IQ test performance in children with variation in language ability. The two types of factors studied here are: a) test characteristics (i.e., complexity of test directions) and test-taker characteristics (i.e., language ability). Method – Four participants, ages 4-7, completed norm referenced assessments for language and intelligence. Results – Descriptive results suggest no discernable trends between performance on language assessments and nonverbal IQ measures. The results demonstrated a discernable negative trend between performance on nonverbal IQ measures and linguistic complexity of instructions. Implications – While the …

Measuring Evidence Application In Routine Mental Health Settings: Testing A Coding System And Providing A Proof Of Concept, Eleanor Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 25 years, there have been increasing calls to advance the application of evidence in routine mental health settings for youth and families. Methods in the field for characterizing evidence application have played a critical role in shaping these efforts, which, to-date, have largely focused on measuring providers’ adherence to practices from evidence-based programs in treatment sessions. While this program-centric paradigm for characterizing evidence application has supported the widespread implementation of evidence-based programs in public mental health settings, it is limited in scope and applicability for characterizing all the ways that evidence may be applied across a service …