Digital Commons Network^™

Isotopic Fingerprints Of The Coastal Margins: Tracing Dissolved Iron Sources From Land To Sea, Hannah R. Hunt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dissolved iron (dFe) is an essential micronutrient for sustaining life in the surface ocean. Nearly four decades of research dedicated to understanding sources, cycling and biogeochemical modifications of Fe sources in the global oceans has generated a significant body of research supporting the idea that the concentration of Fe in the surface ocean exerts significant controls on primary production and carbon uptake in the surface ocean. Creation of the GEOTRACES program greatly increased the spatial and temporal resolution of high-quality trace element and trace element isotope data revealing new insights into the global Fe cycle, especially through the use of …

Changes In Immune-Regulated Gene Methylation Over Time In Women Who Do And Do Not Develop Breast Cancer, Kyle Laney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer survivors face elevated risks of chronic inflammatory conditions and immunedysfunction compared to the general population. These elevated health risks in survivors are well-documented but mechanistically poorly understood. This study aimed to characterize longitudinal changes in DNA methylation patterns of immune-regulatory genes in women who developed breast cancer compared to cancer-free controls. We conducted an EWAS using Sister Study cohort data, analyzing longitudinal changes in DNA methylation by comparing the difference in beta values between pre- and post-diagnosis time points in breast cancer cases versus changes over the same period in cancer-free controls. The analysis included 414 participants: 189 …

Healthy Bodies, Moral Minds, And Rural Ideals: Contextualizing Interwar British Childhood And Citizenship Through Children's Country Holidays Fund Vacations, Paula J. Pack

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uses the Children’s Country Holidays Fund (CCHF) as a critical lens to examine how philanthropy, childhood, class, public health, and rural nostalgia intersected within the broader context of citizen formation in interwar Britain. Founded in 1884 to provide country holidays for poor London schoolchildren, the CCHF evolved from a philanthropic response to Victorian slum life into an informal arm of welfare governance by the end of the interwar period. Through its country holidays, the Fund became an active participant in shaping ideals of health, morality, and civic responsibility in a period marked by heightened concern over national vitality …

The Role Of Langmuir Circulation In Coastal Flows Driven By Wind, Waves And Tides, Thathsarani Dilini Herath Herath Mudiyanselage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Langmuir Circulation (LC) is a wind and wave-driven process and is a key driver of vertical mixing and transport in the ocean. In coastal shelf regions, LC can span the entire water column, linking surface and bottom boundary layers and amplifying turbulent mixing. However, the influence of LC on vertical mixing and cross-shelf transport in shallow, tidally forced coastal waters remains poorly understood. This dissertation addresses this knowledge gap by developing a novel modeling framework based on the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations, offering a computationally efficient alternative to more resource-intensive Large Eddy Simulations (LES).

The proposed RANS-based approach is first …

On Some Hypergraph Coloring Algorithms, Boyoon Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Of a given bipartite graph G = (V, E), it is elementary to construct a bipartition in timeO(|V |+|E|). For a given k-graph H = H(k) with k ≥ 3 fixed, Lovász proved that deciding whether H is bipartite is NP-complete. In this thesis, we consider the average running time of this problem. For that, let B_n = (B^(k))_n be the collection (family) of all bipartite k-graphs H on the fixed vertex set [n] = {1, ...., n}. We construct, of a given H ∈ B_n, a bipartition in time averaging O(n^k) over the class B_n. We provide two proofs …

Algorithms Of Eversion: Contemporary States And Digital Sovereigns, James Libengood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and digitization have pushed digital sovereignty to the top of the governance agenda in the 21st century. This notion is expanded upon in this work through seven chapters encompassing theoretical underpinnings, methodological frameworks, and real-world case studies. It shows how multinational corporations dominate digital coloniality, and how the merge of physical and digital reality or eversion poses challenges. The study compares contrasting governance approaches, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), geared to ethical AI and data protection, versus BRICS nations’ stance on data localization …

The Epistemologization Of Scientific Knowledge: Scientific Textbooks And Education In The 18th And 19th Centuries, Brian P. Bieganski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Philosophy, despite its proclivities towards history and contextualization, often neglects to properly note various characteristics of ideas. In particular, there seems to be a kind of blindness to a key component of how ideas come into being: namely, the role of writing that leads to the preservation and transmission of ideas. Textbooks, for instance, are a key instrument for containing, disseminating, and archiving knowledge of a specific domain that can be used to introduce those complex concepts to newcomers and the unspecialized. As such, a textbook is an epistemic device used for transmitting a condensed constellation of ideas, concepts, formulas, …

Evaluating Behavioral Skills Training To Teach Salsa Dancing Skills To Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder And/Or Intellectual Disabilities, Joshua I. Nieves

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has demonstrated behavioral skills training (BST) to be an effective teaching procedure for acquisition of a variety of skills among both neurotypical and neurodiverse individuals across different ages. Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of BST for enhancing sports performance when training neurotypical children and adults. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of BST for enhancing sports performance, and specifically dance performance, among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or intellectual disabilities (ID). Dance is a recreational activity that can serve as a form of physical activity for children and adults. Salsa is a Latin style …

Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (Hrl) In Multi-Goal Spatial Navigation With Autonomous Mobile Robots, Brendon Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) is hypothesized to be able to take advantage of the inherent hierarchy in robot learning tasks with sparse reward schemes, in contrast to more traditional reinforcement learning algorithms. In this research, hierarchical reinforcement learning is evaluated and contrasted with standard reinforcement learning in complex navigation tasks. We evaluate unique characteristics of HRL, including their ability to create sub-goals and the termination function. We constructed experiments to test the differences between PPO and HRL, different ways of creating sub-goals, manual vs automatic sub-goal creation, and the effects of the frequency of termination on performance. These experiments highlight …

Effect Of Cage Eccentricity On Moment Capacity Of Drilled Shafts, Jason Schaefer Steinbach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the construction of drilled shafts, reinforcement cages can be inadvertently placed eccentrically. Current codes, such as ACI 318 and AASHTO LRFD Bridge Specifications, assume there is little impact from such movements within the drilled shaft or that cage centering provisions are sufficiently robust. This thesis will explore the impact that reinforcement cage eccentricity has on the bending capacity of drilled shafts and propose new strength reduction and resistance factors for tension-controlled failure in drilled shafts.

A total of 208 drilled shafts across eleven counties within the state of Florida were tested using thermal integrity profiling to identify the worst …

Utilization Of Bixin-Loaded Polycaprolactone Nanoparticles To Ameliorate E-Cigarette-Induced Damage To Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells, Sophia R. Claymore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) have increased in popularity and usage over the last few decades. E-cigs are generally composed of a liquid containing nicotine flavoring chemicals, a battery, a vaporization chamber, and a coil that heats the liquid upon inhalation of the mouthpiece. E-cigs were initially introduced as a healthy alternative to cigarette smoking. However, recent research has demonstrated that e-cigs elicit comparable cytotoxic and dangerous effects to conventional cigarettes. Bixin has been introduced in recent research as a candidate for therapeutic applications due to its innate anticancer, antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory characteristics. Nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged over the past few decades …

An Evaluation Of Check-In/Check-Out For Children With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Norma E. Guillen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often display disruptive behavior that can hinder their learning and negatively affect the classroom environment. Check-in/Check-Out (CICO) is a Tier-2, evidence-based intervention designed to support children who have difficulty engaging in classroom activities and are at-risk of developing more severe challenging behavior. The primary goal of the intervention is to prevent the escalation of these behaviors and reduce the need for more intensive individualized interventions. However, limited research exists on the effectiveness of CICO for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). This study examined the effects of CICO on improving on-task behavior …

Bridging Virtual Robots And Physical Tasks Via Augmented Reality, Xiangfei Kong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Entry to human-robot interaction research, e.g., conducting empirical experiments, faces a significant economic barrier due to the high cost of physical robots, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. This cost issue also severely limits the field’s ability to replicate user studies and reproduce the results to verify their reliability, thus offering more confidence to incorporate these findings. Although virtual reality (VR) user studies present a potential solution, it is unclear whether we can confidently transfer the findings to physical robots and physical environments because VR isolates both the physical robot and the physical world where robots operate. To address …

Psychopathy, Emotion, And Mock Juror Decision-Making, Bailey A. Hall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that mock jurors impose harsher sentencing (including death sentencing) when defendants are described as psychopathic, but reasons for this are unclear. This preregistered study investigated the role of juror anger and cognitive biases (predecisional distortion [PDD]) in the relationship between defendant psychopathy descriptions and mock juror decision-making. In an online experiment, participants (undergraduates in a large Southeastern university [n=410] and a US Census-representative online sample [n=384]) reviewed case facts of a murder, were randomized to expert witness testimony of defendant psychopathy or control conditions and read the prosecution and defense arguments before sentencing the defendant to death or …

Food For Thought: Binge Planning Cognitions And Behaviors Within An Online Sample Of Adults With Binge-Type Eating Disorders, Rose H. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has begun exploring the phenomenon of binge planning, wherein individuals who binge eat do so with forethought, rather than impulsively. What specific thought processes and behaviors comprise binge plans remains unexamined. How, or if, the eating disorder presentations of individuals who plan binges ahead of time differ from those who binge impulsively is also still unknown. The present study sought to explore the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors associated with binge planning, and to identify how the motivations, symptomologies, and personality traits (i.e., impulsivity) differ between binge eaters who do or do not plan their binges. An online study using …

Integrating Motivational Traits Into The Approach-Avoidance Distinction, Wesley D. Gardiner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the potential for integrating motivational traits into the established approach-avoidance motivational framework, which describes individuals’ general tendencies to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Although various theories and empirical studies have advanced our understanding of approach-avoidance motivation, critical constructs such as achievement motivation and trait anxiety have often been overlooked or misoperationalized. Addressing these gaps, the current study integrates Kanfer and Heggestad’s (1997) motivational trait taxonomy with constructs from achievement goal orientation, regulatory focus theory, and reinforcement sensitivity theory. This research evaluated a hypothesized two-factor model of approach and avoidance motivation using confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses with …

An Evaluation Of The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce Secondary (Ptr-Sec) Model For Middle School Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Kevin R. Ochoa Casas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) may encounter a wide range of challenges in academic settings. Despite several initiatives aiming to address these challenges in the school setting, research indicates that school-based professionals are still struggling to adequately support this population, using the individualized functional behavior assessment and behavior intervention plan (FBA-BIP) process. The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) model utilizes a manualized, team-based approach to streamline the individualized FBA-BIP process. However, more research is needed to assess the effectiveness of the PTR model to better support middle school students with EBD, particularly, in the areas of generalization and maintenance effects. This …

Effects Of Antecedent Choice On Academic Engagement And Disruptive Behavior In The Classroom, Ivy Grace E. Morgan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The number of students enrolled in public school systems receiving special education services continues to increase. Students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those classified with emotional disturbance (ED) often engage in challenging behaviors such as inappropriate outbursts, disruptive behaviors, and off-task behavior that distract other students from learning. These behaviors can negatively impact educational outcomes for both the student and their classmates. Unfortunately, teachers often lack adequate training in addressing disruptive behavior in the classroom and have limited access to feasible interventions. Across-activity choice is a feasible antecedent intervention teachers can use in the classroom. It allows students …

Do Emotion Malleability Beliefs Buffer Social Ostracism? An Experimental Investigation, Bingjie Tong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social ostracism is linked to adverse psychological outcomes, including increased suicide risk among college students. This study examined a manipulation targeting emotion malleability beliefs and its effect on psychological outcomes after a lab-induced social ostracism task (Cyberball). Psychache, a well-established predictor for suicide risk, was examined as a potential moderator variable. College students (N = 243) were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition, which presented information stating that emotions are malleable, or a neutral control condition. Participants in the experimental condition reported a greater increase in beliefs about emotional malleability, greater use of cognitive reappraisal, and less perceived burdensomeness …

Evaluating A Web-Based Training To Teach Behavioral Analysis Students To Implement Behavioral Skills Training, Kate N. Gray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found that behavioral skills training (BST) is often an effective strategy when teaching safety skills to children and adults with and without developmental disabilities. Despite BST being an effective intervention to teach safety skills, it requires substantial time from trained behavior analysts to implement with fidelity. Trainee-implemented BST may allow many children to access high-quality safety skills training while not requiring the presence of a behavior analyst. A web-based module may be a cost-effective and easily accessible option for parents, teachers, or Registered Behavior Technicians to teach children these safety skills. The researcher used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline …

Increasing Behavior-Specific Praise Use And Variability With Secondary Education Teachers Using Behavioral Skills Training, Tactile Prompts, And Multiple Exemplars, Cecilia Pannone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers often receive minimal training in classroom management strategies, leading to punitive-based teacher-student interactions. Negative interactions (e.g., reprimands) may decrease behaviors momentarily but do not yield lasting behavior change. Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is a low-response effort classroom management strategy that positively impacts students’ behaviors and academic performance. However, training does not guarantee that BSP will be used throughout the academic years or across student cohorts, leading teachers to revert to negative interactions to manage classroom behaviors. Limited research has investigated the components of praise that increase effectiveness and saliency. This study aimed to increase teachers’ use of BSP using tactile …

A Combined Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Social Skill Intervention For Autistic Youth With Symptoms Of Anxiety, Ashley Dreiss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety is one of the most prevalent co-occurring diagnoses in autistic youth, often exacerbating challenges in social functioning and quality of friendships. While social skills interventions and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) have demonstrated efficacy in addressing these difficulties separately, limited research has examined the integration of these approaches within an individualized format, while including measures of self-report and generalization of skills. This study investigates the development, implementation, and efficacy of a combined CBT/social skill intervention for autistic youth with symptoms of anxiety. Utilizing a single-case multiple baseline design, the study evaluates outcomes across levels of anxiety symptoms and social competence …

Creative Climates: The Impact Of Different Environmental Exposure On Group And Individual Creativity, Michael P. Hopkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the influence of indoor versus outdoor environmental exposure and individual versus group participation on verbal creativity performance. Guided primarily by Attention Restoration Theory (ART; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989), it was predicted that outdoor natural settings would enhance creativity through restorative cognitive processes. Additionally, it was hypothesized that groups would outperform individuals due to the cognitive advantages of collective induction and information pooling. Participants (N = 256) completed verbal creativity tasks—Remote Associates Task (RAT; convergent creativity) and Alternate Uses Task (AUT; divergent creativity)—following a 30-minute exposure period in either an indoor student center or outdoor botanical garden setting, …

Unveiling Success: A Qualitative Exploration Of Job Offer Attainment Among International Female Master's Graduates In Technology, Anna Bahvala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the job search experiences of international female graduates from a Master of Science in Business Analytics and Information Systems (MS BAIS) program in the United States. I focus on the job search and preparation strategies that differentiate graduates, earning $100,000 and above from their peers. Using an Appreciative Inquiry framework and attribution theory as a foundation, the research examines the intersection of gender, mindset, risk-taking, negotiation skills, and self-efficacy in job attainment outcomes. Nine participants were interviewed, with data analyzed using Saldaña’s coding techniques to identify common themes and behaviors. Findings indicate that high earners demonstrated …

Evaluating The Protective Role Of Epo-R76e In Oxidative Stress-Induced Cell Death In Retinal Pigment Epithelium, Jemima Alam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) causes dysfunction and loss of Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The degeneration and death of RPE cells causes irreversible visual impairment. Oxidative stress is a widely accepted triggering factor for RPE dysfunction. A hormone called Erythropoietin (EPO) is responsible to facilitate the erythropoiesis process, prevents progenitor cells from apoptosis and protects photoreceptors downregulating retinal degeneration. In this study, we aim to elucidate the role of EPO in downregulating oxidative stress in RPE. It is hypothesized that EPO will have a positive impact on suppressing oxidative stress and ferroptosis-mediated RPE degeneration due to its vital role in apoptosis …

Motivations To Learn English Among First-Year Undergraduate Chinese Students, Yunyu Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the motivations to learn English among first-year Chinese undergraduates enrolled at an American university in the southeastern United States and it is essentially grounded in theories such as Self-Determination Theory and Achievement Goal Theory. It addresses a central research question about how is motivations to learn English shaped by external and internal factors among the first-year undergraduate Chinese students? Recognizing that many Chinese students experience low levels of interest and confidence in English, the study explores internal and external factors that shape motivations, including emotional engagement, cultural and academic expectations, and supportive roles played by teachers and …

The Organizing Role Of Function Knowledge In Scene Schemas, Teresa P. Pham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Schemata, or schemas, are conceptualized as “building blocks” of cognition that guide human information processing, object recognition, retrieval of memory, and more. Major work on schema theory was done in the 1970s, conceptualizing it as a useful framework for understanding how individuals organize knowledge and apply it to understand the world (e.g., Rumelhart, 1980). Research on schema theory has continued to have implications for reading comprehension, visual processing, and encoding and retrieval of memories. Despite the vast literature, the concept of schema itself remains loosely defined, with little consensus on how schemas are organized. This study explores whether function acts …

Enhancing State-Of-The-Art Motor Imagery Classification With Reinforcement Learning, Anton Shepelev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the key obstacles to the rapid adoption of non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) for Motor Imagery (MI) is the low signal-to-noise ratio, and the substantial data requirements which can be mentally taxing for users. EEGNet, a compact Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), has long been considered the state-of-the-art (SOTA) for MI classification, demonstrating strong performance even with limited data. However, recent studies advocate for integrating Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) to further enhance classification accuracy by dynamically optimizing feature extraction and decision-making processes. Despite this potential, practical implementations remain scarce due to challenges in stabilizing RL training and adapting it to …

Corruption And Foreign Influence: A Cross-National Analysis Of Environmental Violence, Jamilah D. Christiansen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

World systems theory argues that wealthier nations exploit less developed nations, exerting their power and influence to take advantage of resources, often with little pushback. However, there is an ever-growing number of conflicts organized by citizens and activists alike that seek to push-back against the exploitation of their homes and labor, working to resist the political corruption and foreign manipulation within their governments. This dissertation examines the factors that contribute to the rise in environmentally-related conflicts, the impacts of those conflicts, and finally the resolutions of those conflicts using data that includes 1370 instances of conflict across 101 nations from …

Integrative Multi-Omics And Clinical Data Analysis For Predicting Recurrence And Survival In Uterine Cancer, Varun Sai Raigir

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prediction of uterine cancer recurrence is very important for assisting women in reducing the cancer risks and also for the growing field of personalized medicine. The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate the integration of various omics data alongside clinical and therapeutic information to predict survival in uterine cancer. The combination is very important for understanding the risk factors, including clinical aspects, genetics, and the treatment schedule, in order to prescribe the appropriate way to reduce the risk of recurrence, make clinical interactions easier, and enhance personalized patient care. This study utilizes the publicly accessible TCGA dataset, …