Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Teacher Data Use: A Validation Study Of The Teacher Data Use Survey (Tdus), Alice Renee Foran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student achievement data have been the cornerstone of state and national accountability efforts for decades, and the focus on data-based decision making and evidence-based practices in education from policymakers, the public, and researchers continues to increase. Underlying the various pressures and incentives on educators to use data is a basic logic model: if teachers use data, their practice will change, and those changes will lead to improved student outcomes. The simplicity of the model belies the complexity of the practice of data use. Many individual- and organizational-level factors, such as attitudes and beliefs, competence, supports, and context play a role. …

Water Quality And Sustainability Assessment Of Rural Water Systems In The Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, Panama, Corbyn Cools

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last four decades significant progress has been made on providing people access to improved drinking water. The Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) estimates that 6.7 billion people have access to at least basic drinking water services. In spite of this great achievement 785 million people still lack even basic services and eighty percent of which live in rural areas. To further complicate matters, those with access to services experience interruptions or non-functionality for handpumps and piped system long before the intended design life of the system. In the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé province in Panama there is very little information on …

Development Of A Benthic Foraminifera Based Marine Biotic Index (Foram-Ambi) For The Gulf Of Mexico: A Decision Support Tool, Bryan O'Malley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is an economically important region (e.g. oil and gas, fisheries) and with the expansion of oil drilling, harmful algal bloom events, oil blowouts, dead zones, anthropogenic eutrophication and contaminant loading, it is important that the ecological quality statuses (EcoQS) of different localities in the Gulf are closely monitored. The EcoQS, as implemented by the European Water Framework Directive, is an effective tool for monitoring ecological health and developing reference conditions. One such index used to define EcoQS is the AZTI Marine Biotic Index (AMBI), which pairs species abundance with environmental stressors. Benthic foraminifera are ideal …

Implementation Of Sr Flip-Flop Based Puf On Fpga For Hardware Security, Sai Praneeth Sagi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) are used for authentication and key generation to obtain a unique signature and are widely used in hardware security applications. In this work, we propose Set-Reset Flip-flop (SRFF) based PUF for FPGAs. We exploit the race around condition of the SRFF to obtain a one-bit signature output which is a function of feedback path delays. In deep sub-micron technology node, delay variations on an FPGA device are significant due to manufacturing process variations. Thus, an SRFF output value is a function of its location on the FPGA device. We implement registers of various bit widths and …

Investigating The Isotope Signatures Of Dissolved Iron In The Southern Atlantic Ocean, Brent A. Summers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Iron (Fe), used as a cofactor in nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis by oceanic microorganisms, has extremely low dissolved concentrations in the surface ocean, leading to widespread limitation of phytoplankton growth. Dissolved Fe isotope ratios (δ56Fe) have been shown to be useful in helping to quantify the sources and cycling of Fe in the oceans if Fe source signatures and fractionation processes are well understood. Here, this thesis presents data from GEOTRACES section GA10W, and investigate the isotopic signature of sediment-derived dissolved Fe from the South Atlantic margins. My results show that there are both shallow (δ56Fe of -0.2‰) and deep …

Rhetorical Roundhouse Kicks: Tae Kwon Do Pumsae Practice And Non-Western Embodied Topoi, Spencer Todd Bennington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Tae Kwon Do practitioner manuals as sites for better understanding the way diverse rhetorics can become embodied through technique. This dissertation understands martial arts in a Foucauldian sense as rhetorical institutions which discipline practitioners both physically and ideologically. A theory of “embodied topoi,” a term coined here to describe the process by which cultural commonplaces are incorporated into a material, carnal, or performed identity is presented alongside a review of how athletic or martial bodies have been previously studied. Seven popular Tae Kwon Do technical manuals are analyzed for moments when 1. Commonplaces are described, 2. “Daoist …

Evaluating Small-Scale Simulation For Teaching Abduction Prevention Skills, Jessica E. Ritzmann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 1,600 attempted kidnappings occurred within 2018 (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2019). In a 2016 report by Wolak, Finkelhor, and Sedlak, of the 105 stereotypical kidnappings that occurred in 2011, many resulted in sexual assault, the children are never found, or death. These dangerous circumstances warrant a method of teaching safety skills to children to avoid abduction. Research has shown that small-scale simulation is effective for teaching firearm safety to 3- to 5-year-olds children (Maxfield, Miltenberger, & Novotny, 2019). This research has not been applied to abduction prevention safety. The current study aimed to address this research …

Using Observations From The Uaw-Ford Ergonomic Assessment Tool To Predict Low Back Musculoskeletal Disorders, Colins Nwafor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Musculoskeletal disorders of the low back are common injuries found in many work environments. Some of the risk factors that workers experience include the weight of object being lifted during a task, frequency, duration, posture, distance the object is lifted, how well the worker can grasp the object, and the degree to which the worker may have to twist and turn their body during a lift. There are many tools that have been developed that are used to assess risk of a worker developing low back pain. The purpose of this study is to determine if the UAW-Ford Ergonomic Surveillance …

Developing Design Elements For A Parkinson’S Disease Informative Website: A Social Marketing Approach, Emilie R. Madsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease with no known cause or cure. No two cases are identical, meaning that every individual will present different symptoms and will have a different progression of the disease. Me Over PD is an initiative created to aid newly diagnosed PD patients and care partners in navigating the complexities surrounding the disease and live a more informed life with PD. Considering Me Over PD, the present research works to understand the experiences of PD patients and care partners upon diagnosis and after, and gauge what elements and information would be most beneficial to these individuals …

Training Observers In Class-Wide Behavior Data Collection Using Behavior Skills Training, Nicholas L. Scheel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Training individuals to conduct classroom observations typically requires practice in an analogue setting using one or a combination of strategies, including behavior vignettes, role-play, or video clips of target behaviors (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007; Hartmann & Wood, 1990; Bass, 1987). However, researchers have yet to determine if these strategies are effective and to develop a standard approach to training observers. This investigation was a part of a larger study that looked at the effectiveness of tiered teacher training to facilitate implementation of an interdependent group contingency in the classroom. For this study, I utilized a concurrent multiple-baseline design to …

Sentiment Analysis In Peer Review, Zachariah J. Beasley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sentiment analysis, a widely popular subfield of natural language processing, has recently been used in the classroom to predict student attrition or to determine the mood of students, teacher strengths and weaknesses, or student perception of internship experience. These are all helpful indicators for the enhancement of students' academic experience but none improve the information gathered from or the reliability of peer review. This is particularly important in large courses with complex assignments (e.g., essays, software projects, and presentations) where scalable grading is requisite. In this dissertation, we apply sentiment analysis not on an assignment itself, but on the meaningful …

Action Recognition Using The Motion Taxonomy, Maxat Alibayev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last years, modern action recognition frameworks with deep architectures have achieved impressive results on the large-scale activity datasets. All state-of-the-art models share one common attribute: two-stream architectures. One deep model takes RGB frames, while the other model is fed with pre-computed optical flow vectors. The outputs of both models are combined to be used as a final probability distribution for the action classes. When comparing the results of individual models with the fused model, it is common to see that that latter method is more superior. Researchers explain that phenomena with the fact that optical flow vectors serve …

Automating The Classification Of Mosquito Specimens Using Image Processing Techniques, Mona Minakshi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to WHO (World Health Organization) reports, among all animals, mosquitoes are responsible for the most deaths worldwide. Mosquito borne diseases continue to pose grave dangers to global health. In 2015 alone, 214 million cases of malaria were registered worldwide. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report published in 2016, 62,500 suspected case of Zika were reported to the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH) out of which 29,345 cases were found positive. The year 2019 was recorded as the worst for dengue in South East Asia. There are close to 4,500 species of mosquitoes (spread across …

Assessing The Impacts Of Sensorimotor Stimuli And Nicotine Content On Cravings And Other Outcomes Of E-Cigarette Use, Amanda M. Palmer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As use rates of e-cigarettes continue to rise, especially among cigarette smokers, there remains concern that “dual use” may lead to increased dependence and hinder smoking cessation efforts. At the same time, emerging evidence suggests clinical efficacy of e-cigarettes. The role of nicotine must be considered, in addition to non-pharmacologic influences, such as expectancies or conditioned reinforcers. Sensorimotor stimuli associated with drug delivery have been demonstrated to produce cigarette and e-cigarette craving reduction, even without the nicotine. The purpose of the present study was to parse the influences of nicotine and sensorimotor delivery on various outcomes of e-cigarette use, including …

The Immediate Effect Of A Brief Mindfulness Intervention On Attention And Acceptance, Xiaoqian Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Given the increased popularity of mindfulness in both the clinical settings and the general public, it is important to understand the active mechanisms of mindfulness. Mindfulness practice (MP) involves two active components, attention regulation and acceptance of experience, being aware of the current experience as it is without evaluating the experience as positive or negative. Much research has evaluated the attention regulation component and found that MP improves high-level (effortful) attention with few reported effects on low-level (automatic) attention. It is unclear whether MP affects merely low- or high-level attention, or both, because little empirical research has examined both low- …

Depression, Music Choice, And Affective Outcomes In Daily Life, Sunkyung Yoon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Persons with depression consistently report a preference for sad music. Are such preferences maladaptive or beneficial? We tested this question in a 3-part study that examined 77 participants’ (39 with and 38 without clinical depression) music choice in daily life, affective outcomes, and the reasons for music choice. During a 3-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA), participants chose a song from a pre-set music library of happy and sad songs and rated their affect before and after hearing the chosen song. In addition, we analyzed the characteristics (e.g., tempo) of participants’ free song choices over 7 days (from participants’ Spotfiy music …

Anorexia Nervosa And Bulimia Nervosa As Expressions Of Shame In A Post-Feminist, Emily Kearns

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anorexia nervosa and Bulimia nervosa are heavily gendered conditions affecting women to a far greater degree than men in a post-millennium Western setting. The psychologistic and medicalized approaches to studying and treating these disorders do not account for socio-cultural and epistemic preferences. This paper draws a connection between shame (as emotion and affect) and these gendered disorders. Further, this work analyzes neo-liberalism, post-feminism, and consumerism as predatory elements of Western culture especially affecting women.

Editing The Self Away: The Effects Of Photo Manipulation On Perceptions Of The Self, Roxanne N. Felig

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of editing applications to manipulate photos of one’s self prior to sharing them on social media has skyrocketed over the past decade, particularly among women. However, there is little research examining the consequences of such behavior. In this research, we experimentally examined the consequences of editing a photo of one’s self on self-objectification and self-concept clarity in a sample of 231 women. A correlational Pilot Study provided preliminary evidence for a relationship between self-objectification, self-concept clarity, and photo manipulation, and my Thesis was conducted to further explore this relationship. We anticipated that when women were exposed to objectifying …

Breakthroughs In Obtaining Qm/Mm Free Energies, Phillip S. Hudson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The computation of free energy is pivotal to understanding the fundamental nature of chemical phenomena. That is, whether a specific molecular outcome occurs spontaneously or is inherently unfavorable. The need to do this with consistent accuracy begs for the use of quantum mechanical (QM) methods. However, techniques for directly computing free energy differences with QM or mixed QM/MM methods are untenable, as the computational expense is quite exorbitant. At present, the most feasible approach for obtaining QM/MM free energies is employing the so-called indirect cycle, which relies on accurately computing free energy differences between low (e.g., molecular mechanical, MM) and …

How The Use Of Learner-Generated Images And Authentic Materials Affects The Comprehension And Production Of Vivid Phrasal Idioms In L2 English Learners, Melissa Larsen-Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vivid Phrasal Idioms (VP Idioms) are non-compositional, figurative phrases that have limited flexibility, such as “once in a blue moon.” Research suggests that facility with idioms is an integral part of communicative competence in an L2 (Liontas, 2017; Sinclair, 1992). Despite the fact that they are ubiquitous throughout informal, spoken language (Karlsson, 2013; Liu, 2008), and occur less frequently in other registers of usage, newscasters and politicians employ VP Idioms for communication in what Myers (1996) has called the presentational mode. They also appeari in academic discourse (Liontas, 2008). Nevertheless, research suggests that the English language learners in formal educational …

Atomistic Simulations Of Novel Materials At Ambient And High Pressures, Joseph M. Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Propelled by the emergence of new fundamental physical phenomena in a new class of two-dimensional (2D) atomically thin materials, graphene and other novel two-dimensional (2D) materials are being intensively investigated over the past two decades. In many cases, the single layer compounds have outstanding mechanical and electronic properties compared to those in the bulk crystals. Graphene is the prototypical atomically thin material, however the influence point and extended defects on its fundamental properties is not well understood at the atomic scale. The structural, electronic and vibrational properties of other 2D materials, including chalcogenides beyond transition metal containing systems (e.g. SnS_{2} …

Climate Change And Liberation In Latin America, Ernesto O. Hernández

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to propose the liberation movements in Latin America as alternative philosophical frameworks to the crisis of climate change. These movements have provided the grounds to identify inequities and injustices and have practiced ethical methodologies to overcome them. Additionally, the movements seek to represent and reflect the value of non-traditional philosophical agents in Latin America. The work focuses on four major Latin American ecological liberation movements; theology, philosophy, pedagogy, and feminism. Eco-Theology advances the role of Religion as the practice of Religação, reexamination, and resetting our relationship with nature by reconnecting with it. Eco-Philosophy of …

Identity, Breakdown, And The Production Of Knowledge: Intersectionality, Phenomenology, And The Project Of Post-Marxist Standpoint Theory, Zachary James Purdue

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

After breaking with the Marxist tradition, feminist standpoint theory operated without a backing framework and explanation for the privileged perspective of the oppressed. This project investigates phenomenology and breakdown as an alternative framework and explanatory mechanism for standpoint theory. I attempt to show how certain phenomenological programs are able to "back up" the claims of standpoint theory, and I argue that such a phenomenological standpoint theory can be coherent with intersectionality.

Chapter 1 focuses on intersectionality and standpoint theory, and surveys the controversy over their demarcation. This discussion allows me to develop several desiderata for theory of identity and knowledge, …

Growth And Characterization Of 2d Layered Materials, Algene Fryer Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

2D layered materials are becoming an important area of research due to their exceptional electrical and optical properties. Specifically, 2D layered monochalcogenides are known for their high carrier motilities, whereas layered metal halides have been shown to have noteworthy photoresponsivity. Despite the assortment of 2D layered materials, the search for reliable and scalable synthesis methods is still a challenge in this family of materials. Often a certain growth technique will compromise a desirable trait needed for further fabrication, such as the quality of the crystal or its coverage on a substrate. In this study, two growth techniques that incorporate changeable …

Mental Health And In-Prison Experiences: Examining Socioeconomic And Sex Differences In The Effect Of Mental Illness On Institutional Misconduct And Disciplinary Segregation, Rachel E. Severson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mental health problems have become a common occurrence in American correctional settings. This occurrence is not equally distributed in terms of gender; incarcerated women have higher rates of mental illness incarcerated men (Bronson & Berzofsky, 2017; James & Glaze, 2006). This phenomenon is problematic as research suggests that American correctional institutions are ill equipped to treat and manage inmates with mental health problems (Arrigo & Bullock, 2008; Bennion, 2015; Clark, 2018). This is also true in women’s prisons as they are often tasked to deal with strict budgetary restrictions and have fewer resources compared to men’s prisons (Holsinger, 2014; Stephan, …

Keyless Anti-Jamming Communication Via Randomized Dsss, Ahmad Alagil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, wireless networking is ubiquitous. In wireless communication systems, multiple nodes exchange data during the transmission time. Due to the natural use of the communication channel, it is crucial to protect the physical layer to make wireless channels between nodes more reliable. Jamming attacks consider one of the most significant threats on wireless communication. Spread spectrum techniques have been widely used to mitigate the effects of the jammer. Traditional anti-jamming approaches like Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) require a sender and a receiver to share a secret key prior to their communication. If this …

The Evolution Of Esea: A Language And Four-Dimension Analysis, Ann M. Meggs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Title I of ESEA was and continues to be the largest single funding source to support our nation’s most struggling students (Davis, 1999). The purpose of this study was to draw on policy and language analysis perspectives to examine changes in ESEA, specifically in Title I Part A, through its reauthorizations as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). A language analysis of the texts of these acts found changes in key specific language between each reauthorization, affecting the intent and scope of the original ESEA (1965) legislation. Four dimensions of a conceptual …

Post-Overlay Flexible Pavement Performance Modeling And Its Application In Sustainable Asphalt Overlay Policy Making, Chunfu Xin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Highway pavement is a critical component of the highway transportation infrastructure. After the construction of a pavement system, pavement condition will deteriorate over time due to a combination effect of material aging, traffic loading, and environmental impact. To restore the pavement performance and to reduce its adverse effects on public users and environment, asphalt overlay activities are conducted frequently during the service life of a pavement. As a key component that bridges the overlay policies with future pavement performance, economic cost and environmental impact, the forecast accuracy of post-overlay pavement performance model is extremely important. However, most of previous studies …

Rapid Cross-Section Imaging With Magnetic And Impedance Sensors For Grout Anomaly Detection In External Post-Tensioned Tendons, Hani Freij

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Post-tensioned (PT) bridges have had severe corrosion issues with tendons that fail suddenly without prior notice. The corrosion of external post-tensioned tendons has been associated with grout deficiencies/anomalies from inadequate grouting. Deficiencies include voids, regions of chalky low strength grout, and regions where excessive water content or even free water is present. In those zones mechanical bonding of strand to the grout is degraded and, of more concern, the strand steel risks corrosion failure reducing the expected lifespan of the structure. As tendons are critical structural components, it is important to detect those deficiencies during inspection preferably by a cross …

New Synthetic Methodology Using Base-Assisted Diazonium Salts Activation And Gold Redox Catalysis, Abiola Azeez Jimoh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past two decades, homogeneous Au(I) catalysis has been a valuable synthetic tool for activating a series of unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds towards nucleophilic attack. Despite this progress, Au(I/III) redox chemistry has not been well explored. This is largely due to the challenges associated with the high oxidation potential of gold. Hence, the need for an efficient and safe method for Au oxidation.

Herein, a base-assisted diazonium salt activation has been used to facilitate Au redox reactions under mild reaction conditions. This oxidative coupling method afforded functional isoxazolines with good to excellent yields, while the alternative photoactivation method provided trace …