Digital Commons Network^™

What’S The Function? Assessing Correspondence Between Functional Analysis Procedures, Sindy Sanchez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1997, Congress established the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997), which required that schools conduct functional behavior assessments when a student engages in problem behavior that may lead to suspension or expulsion (Ervin et al., 2001; Yell & Katsiyanis, 2010). As a result, research has expanded to include ways to adapt the functional assessment process in school settings. The purpose of this study was to compare the correspondence between functional analysis procedures for students in a private school and validate the assessment outcomes with interventions conducted in the classroom settings. The results indicate that both assessments corresponded in …

Connected Autonomous Vehicles: Capacity Analysis, Trajectory Optimization, And Speed Harmonization, Amir Ghiasi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emerging connected and autonomous vehicle technologies (CAV) provide an opportunity to improve highway capacity and reduce adverse impacts of stop-and-go traffic. To realize the potential benefits of CAV technologies, this study provides insightful methodological and managerial tools in microscopic and macroscopic traffic scales. In the macroscopic scale, this dissertation proposes an analytical method to formulate highway capacity for a mixed traffic environment where a portion of vehicles are CAVs and the remaining are human-driven vehicles (HVs). The proposed analytical mixed traffic highway capacity model is based on a Markov chain representation of spatial distribution of heterogeneous and stochastic headways. This …

A Participatory Action Research Using Photovoice To Explore Well-Being In Young Adults With Autism, Gary Yu Hin Lam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Young adults with autism transitioning from school to adulthood are commonly described as exhibiting poor outcomes. Although there has been research efforts measuring quality of life and life satisfaction in individuals with autism, these conceptualizations of well-being are still predominantly deficit-focused and based on normalizing ideals of the dominant culture. Only by incorporating individuals with autism’s perspectives and involving their meaningful participation in research can we better understand and promote well-being among individuals with autism. The present study aims to explore young adults with autism’s ideas about well-being. I conducted a Photovoice project using a participatory action research approach with …

Opening Wounds And Possibilities: A Critical Examination Of Violence And Monstrosity In Horror Tv, Amanda K. Leblanc

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines contemporary horror TV, dissecting the ways it works both to subvert and uphold contemporary social standards about race, gender, class, and ability. This work attends to the moments in horror TV where graphic displays of violence and monstrous characters open up possibilities for innovative and progressive representation of historically marginalized people, as well as those instances that foreclose such potential. Horror TV shows blur the definitions of monster and human, suggesting that humans can be monstrous and that monsters can have humanity. Horror TV is a platform through which we see the coming together of a traditional …

Investigating Transformation: An Exploratory Study Of Perceptions And Lived Experiences Of Graduate Teaching Assistants, Christina M. Partin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are becoming increasingly responsible for undergraduate instruction in the landscape of higher education. These experiences may serve as a pipeline for career readiness and success in faculty positions. Yet, the experiences of graduate teaching assistants are largely unexplored. This study describes the perceptons and experiences of a selected sample of GTAs, including their perceptions of available support, and the role of that support in navigating potential disorienting dilemmas.

Existing literature suggests that disorienting dilemmas lead to transformative experiences through an internal process of critical self-reflection, but neglects the possibility of differential outcomes to disorienting dilemmas. Further, …

Mathematical And Numerical Modeling Of Hybrid Adsorption And Biological Treatment Systems For Enhanced Nitrogen Removal, Karl A. Payne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High nutrient loading into groundwater and surface water systems has deleterious impacts on the environment, such as eutrophication, decimation of fish populations, and oxygen depletion. Conventional onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) and various waste streams with high ammonium (NH4+) concentrations present a challenge, due the inconsistent performance of environmental biotechnologies aimed at managing nutrients from these sources.

Biological nitrogen removal (BNR) is commonly used in batch or packed-bed reactor configurations for nitrogen removal from various waste streams. In recognition of the need for resource recovery, algal photobioreactors are another type of environmental biotechnology with the potential for simultaneously treating wastewater …

Beyond Replicative Technology: The Digital Practices Of Students With Literacy-Related Learning Difficulties Engaged In Productive Technologies, Aimee Frier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present the findings from a qualitative case study of the digital literacy integration of a teacher and the digital literacy practices of three students with literacy-related learning difficulties within her classroom. As a researcher, I was interested in the ways students with literacy- related learning difficulties navigated digital tools in a technology-infused environment created by a teacher who has experience using digital tools for instructional and student-learning purposes. My research was guided by the following questions: (1) What was the context, content, and structure of the teacher’s technology instruction? (2) In what ways did the students …

Automatic Multimodal Assessment Of Neonatal Pain, Ghada Zamzmi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For several decades, pediatricians used to believe that neonates do not feel pain. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recognized neonates' sense of pain in 1987. Since then, there have been many studies reporting a strong association between repeated pain exposure (under-treatment) and alterations in brain structure and function. This association has led to the increased use of anesthetic medications. However, recent studies found that the excessive use of analgesic medications (over-treatment) can cause many side effects. The current standard for assessing neonatal pain is discontinuous and suffers from inter-observer variations, which can lead to over- or under-treatment. Therefore, it …

Resisting Essentialism In Cultural Research: A Participatory Action Research Study Of Parent Involvement In Education Among Spanish-Speaking Students And Families, Michael J. Frank

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to investigate a locally-driven action research project to improve connections between Spanish-speaking Latinx parents and the high school that their children attend. Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), the study sought to create a collaborative research agenda that would empower the participants to study their own culture and practices at the school, and how the two combined to create a home-school partnership. Six parents and two members of the school’s bilingual staff comprised the PAR team, with a total of nine members including the principal investigator. The project began with the creation of a public sphere in …

Generalizations Of Quandles And Their Cohomologies, Matthew J. Green

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quandles are distributive algebraic structures originally introduced independently by David Joyce and Sergei Matveev in 1979, motivated by the study of knots. In this dissertation, we discuss a number of generalizations of the notion of quandles. In the first part of this dissertation we discuss biquandles, in the context of augmented biquandles, a representation of biquandles in terms of actions of a set by an augmentation group. Using this representation we are able to develop a homology and cohomology theory for these structures.

We then introduce an n-ary generalization of the notion of quandles. We discuss a number of properties …

Reduce Challenging Behaviors And Enhance Functioning In Youth With An Intellectual Disability: A Meta-Analysis Of Behavioral Interventions Using Single Case Design, Brett A. Stone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 1.8% of students in the public school system have an intellectual disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder. These disabilities cause impairment in multiple domains of functioning. If these students also have challenging behaviors, such as noncompliance, aggression, and stereotypies, these behaviors have been found to cause impairment over and beyond those of the core symptoms associated with the disability. Challenging behaviors in youth with developmental disabilities do not typically subside on their own and need intervention. Thankfully, there are evidence-based behavioral interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities to reduce challenging behaviors and increase more functional behaviors including Applied Behavioral Analysis, …

Lives On The (Story)Line: Group Facilitation With Men In Recovery At The Salvation Army, Lisa Pia Zonni Spinazola

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I seek to examine the effects of purposeful journaling and guided storytelling on past traumas, perception of current lives, and the development of new coping skills among men at The Salvation Army’s residential adult rehabilitation center (ARC). All residents of the ARC must attend Christian-based devotional services, go to Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) meetings, follow the A.A. 12-step program, and sign up for several weekly counseling and educational groups, one of which is the “Guided Journaling and Storytelling” group I lead. The men who attended this group are (1) addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, (2) face homelessness, (3) …

The Uses Of Community In Modern American Rhetoric, Cody Ryan Hawley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the functions of the term “community” in American social and political rhetoric. I contend that community serves as a god-term, or expression of value and order, which rhetors use to motivate actions, endorse values, include/exclude persons, and compensate for modern losses. Informed by the philosophy of Kenneth Burke, I explore the general features of “rhetorics of community,” including community’s ambiguity and status as an automatic good, the relationship between community and modernity, the myth of communal loss, and the uses of community as a site of political unity and contest. I analyze the writings of John Humphrey …

Everything Is Fine: Self-Portrait Of A Caregiver With Chronic Depression And Other Preexisting Conditions, Erin L. Scheffels

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation documents the joys and terrors of caring for my father throughout my twenties and early thirties. The story is autoethnographic and demonstrates the value of narrative research in fostering understandings of self, other, and the world around us. I call this reflexive practice of writing narrative education because as I engaged in it, I learned what it means to care, and how mental health and illness factor into the ways in which care is expressed and provided in my own relationships and beyond. In addition, throughout the story I was a member of the academic community, which makes …

Development And Validation Of The Waiting Assessment Interview Tool (Wait) And Evaluation Of Individualized Waiting Durations In Signaled Reinforcement, Claudia Campos Fleitas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Indirect assessments are widely used to identify environmental factors that may be manipulated or integrated in the development of direct assessments and behavior interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities. To date, there are no indirect assessments that can be used to evaluate the extent to which children who engage in problem behavior wait to receive reinforcement. However, there are effective behavior interventions to increase waiting. A treatment package consisting of functional communication training (FCT) and schedule thinning (i.e., multiple schedules) has been identified as an effective intervention to increase waiting in children who engage in problem behavior maintained by social …

Factors Related To Hearing Aid Use Among Older Adults From Hispanic/Latino Backgrounds: Findings From The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study Of Latinos, Michelle L. Arnold

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand perceived hearing loss and hearing health care use among older adults from Hispanic/Latino backgrounds using the Andersen model of health care utilization as a framework. A cross sectional analysis of audiometric and survey data from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos was used to estimate factors that characterize perceived hearing handicap and hearing aid use, and to determine hearing aid use rates in a large group of older Hispanic/Latino adults. Data came from 6970 adults aged 45 to 76. Results revealed that self-perceived hearing handicap is significantly correlated to measured hearing …

Effects Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury On Ethanol Consumption And The Combined Effects On Neuroinflammation, Cognition, And Behavior In Mice, Jessica L. Hoffman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between alcohol consumption and traumatic brain injury (TBI) often focuses on alcohol consumption increasing the likelihood of incurring a TBI, rather than alcohol use outcomes after TBI. This focus is in part due to the large numbers of TBI patients visiting emergency rooms notable levels of alcohol in their blood. Additionally, increases in alcohol use disorders following TBI can be predicted by previous history of alcohol use. However, studies have also shown patients without a history of an alcohol use disorder can experience increases in problem drinking after single or multiple TBIs. Due to the diffuse impact of …

Machine Learning Methods For Network Intrusion Detection And Intrusion Prevention Systems, Zheni Svetoslavova Stefanova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Given the continuing advancement of networking applications and our increased dependence upon software-based systems, there is a pressing need to develop improved security techniques for defending modern information technology (IT) systems from malicious cyber-attacks. Indeed, anyone can be impacted by such activities, including individuals, corporations, and governments. Furthermore, the sustained expansion of the network user base and its associated set of applications is also introducing additional vulnerabilities which can lead to criminal breaches and loss of critical data. As a result, the broader cybersecurity problem area has emerged as a significant concern, with many solution strategies being proposed for both …

Analytics For Novel Consumer Insights (A Three Essay Dissertation), Utkarsh Shrivastava

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Both literature and practice have investigated how the vast amount of ever increasing customer information can inform marketing strategy and decision making. However, the customer data is often susceptible to modeling bias and misleading findings due to various factors including sample selection and unobservable variables. The available analytics toolkit has continued to develop but in the age of nearly perfect information, the customer decision making has also evolved. The dissertation addresses some of the challenges in deriving valid and useful consumer insights from customer data in the digital age. The first study addresses the limitations of traditional customer purchase measures …

Comparison Of Conditioning Procedures To Condition Praise As A Reinforcer For Children With Autism, Cynthia P. Livingston

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disability characterized by social, behavioral, and communicative impairments. A primary characteristic of Autism includes impairment in social skills. Along the same lines, praise, defined as approval or admiration, does not always function as a reinforcer for this population. One way to address the absence of a reinforcement effect for praise is to condition praise as a reinforcer. The literature on conditioned reinforcement encompasses many procedural variations that have been shown to increase the reinforcing value of neutral stimuli. One such variation relatively new to the conditioned reinforcement literature includes observational conditioning. With observational conditioning, …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Understanding Predator-Prey Relationships In A Changing Ocean: From System Design To Education, Ileana M. Freytes-Ortiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is ecologically and socially complex, deemed the most important issue of our generation. Through this dissertation I have approached climate change research through an interdisciplinary perspective, investigating how this phenomenon will affect marine ecological systems, how we can better develop experimental systems to answer ecological questions, and how we can effectively educate about this issue.

In Chapter 2, I provided accessible alternatives for researching the effects of climate change (elevated temperatures and pCO2) on marine ecosystems. I designed, built, and troubleshooted two accurate and inexpensive climate-controlled experimental systems capable of maintaining target conditions: a temperature-controlled system and an …

Talk Matters: Graduate Students’ Perceptions Of Online Learner-Learner Interaction Design And Experiences, Eraldine Williams-Shakespeare

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the design of learner-learner activities including types of pedagogy and media in online courses and graduate students’ perceptions of social interaction, cognitive learning and overall satisfaction. Data collection and analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative methods following a Sequential Explanatory Model. Data instruments include a modified version of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Survey version 14b (Swan, Shea, Richardson, Ice, Garrison, Cleveland-Innes, & Arbaugh, 2008), a Rubric for Assessing Interactive Qualities of Distance Learning Courses (Roblyer, 2004), and a semi-structured interview protocol.

A total of 106 graduate students participated in the survey. Twelve of the participants were …

Decreased Visibility: A Narrative Analysis Of Episodic Disability And Contested Illness, Melissa Jane Welch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States alone, disability touches the lives of a tremendous amount of people. An increased prevalence of chronic illness, coupled with an aging population means it is likely and perhaps inevitable that everyone will experience disability in one way or another over the course of their lifetime. However not everyone who is disabled is recognized as such. Culturally, the narrative of “the healthy disabled person,” – or someone who is healthy, permanently, predictably, and visibly disabled renders many people with chronic and episodic pain, fatigue, and illness as unrecognizable as disabled. Even though increasing numbers of disability scholars …

Performing The Black-White Biracial Identity: The Material, Discursive, And Psychological Components Of Subject Formation, Travis M. Marn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this new materialist study was to examine the subject performativity of ‘biracial’ individuals in an interview setting in order to disrupt the humanist assumptions of racial identity in psychological research. I also sought to promote critical resistance to subjectification to examine ‘race’ without reifying participants’ raced subjects. Four research questions guided this study: How does the researcher, researched, and interview intra-activity serve to instantiate the biracial subject? Under what material alterations to the interview process do different subjects come to be? Which subjects come to be or fail to come to be in the interview intra-action? How …

Offensive And Defensive Security For Everyday Computer Systems, Ian Markwood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation treats a variety of topics in the computer security domain which have direct impact on everyday life. The first extends false data injection attacks against state estimation in electric power grids and then provides a novel power flow model camouflage method to hamper these attacks. The second deals with automotive theft response, detailing a method for a car to intelligently identify when it has been stolen, based on collected behavioral traits of its driver. The third demonstrates a new attack against the content integrity of the PDF file format, caus- ing humans and computers to see different information …

Additively Manufactured On-Package Multipolar Antenna Systems For Harsh Communication Channels, Ramiro A. Ramirez-Hernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Four main aspects are studied and explored throughout this dissertation: (1) On-Package Multipolar antenna system design for integration with commercial wireless sensor nodes for machine-to-machine communication applications; (2) Development of a novel MMIC packaging process and subsequent antenna integration for chip-to-chip communication applications, (3) Design and characterization of additively manufactured lumped passive elements for integration with MMIC and hybrid circuits, (4) Design and characterization of antennas for on- and off-metal radio frequency identification (RFID) applications.

This work presents the design of different 3-D printed tripolar antenna systems operating at 2.4 GHz. The antennas are designed for integration with commercial wireless …

Group Contingency Game Comparison: Examining The Role Of Group Sizes, Chelsea Carr

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Problem behavior, such as disruption or property destruction, is commonly observed in classrooms, and interferes with student education. The purpose of this study was to examine effects of group size within a well-studied class-wide behavior management intervention, the GBG. Consistent with previous research, the GBG was effective in decreasing disruptive behavior but there was no clear differentiation between GBG big and GBG small. The students and the teacher showed high social validity for the GBG.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Analysis Of Behavioral Patterns And Treatment Barriers, Kimberly A. Knap

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties with social communication and restrictive, repetitive, and stereotyped behavior patterns that place them at an increased risk for developing challenging behaviors that warrant early intervention (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These problems are unlikely to decrease without intervention. Research indicates that parents’ involvement in behaviorally based interventions improves the functioning of children with ASD (Horner, Carr, Strain, Todd, & Reid, 2002). . Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (Eyberg & Funderburk, 2011) is an empirically supported intervention for young children with disruptive behaviors. PCIT shares similarities with numerous proven ASD treatments including caregiver involvement, structure …

Validity Of A Dynamic Spanish Assessment Of Phonological Awareness In Emergent Bilingual Children, Kelsey R. Wyman Chin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the current decade, the number of Hispanic students has doubled so that about 16% of the total student population within the United States are Spanish-speakers (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). With this growing population comes a responsibility to understand and implement best practices for educating these students. Because literacy is a building-block for learning, one integral part of this responsibility consists of developing valid and reliable means of assessing pre-reading skills that are predictive of later reading abilities (Lonigan, Burgess, & Anthony, 2000; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994).

English-language learning children are being identified for having reading difficulties and disabilities …

Toward Verifiable Adaptive Control Systems: High-Performance And Robust Architectures, Benjamin Charles Gruenwald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, new model reference adaptive control architectures are presented with stability, performance, and robustness considerations, to address challenges related to the verification of adaptive control systems.

The challenges associated with the transient performance of adaptive control systems is first addressed using two new approaches that improve the transient performance. Specifically, the first approach is predicated on a novel controller architecture, which involves added terms in the update law entitled artificial basis functions. These terms are constructed through a gradient optimization procedure to minimize the system error between an uncertain dynamical system and a given reference model during the …