Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Religion In Mitigating Cancer Disparities Among Black Americans, Samar Hennawi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The long history of racism has created cultural barriers that prevent some Black Americans from seeking cancer treatment. Fatalism, physician mistrust, low levels of social support and self-efficacy, are the most cited cultural barriers in the literature. Black Americans’ religious beliefs and church involvement have historically helped them in their struggle against racism. A quantitative and a qualitative comparison studies examine the role of Black cancer survivors’ religious beliefs in their fight against cancer. The quantitative comparison study finds no difference in the cultural attitudes between Black and White cancer survivors. However, the qualitative comparison study between the same two …

The Guilty But Mentally Ill Verdict: Assessing The Impact Of Informing Jurors Of Verdict Consequences, Erin Elizabeth Cotrone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In response to public opposition to the insanity defense, the Guilty But Mentally Ill(GBMI) verdict was enacted with the intention of limiting the number of insanity acquittals and alleviating the public’s concerns. Prior research suggests, however, that many jurors are making verdict decisions with limited knowledge of the dispositional consequences of the GBMI and NGRI verdicts. Further, jurors may erroneously assume that the GBMI verdict is a compromise between a NGRI and guilty verdict, which mitigates punishment. In reality, the dispositional consequences of a GBMI verdict are equivalent to or more restrictive than a guilty verdict. The current study examined …

An Early Paleogene Palynological Assemblage From The Sabrina Coast, East Antarctica: New Species And Implications For Depositional History, Catherine Davies Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Palynological analyses of 13 samples from two sediment cores retrieved from the Sabrina Coast, East Antarctica, provide the first information regarding the paleovegetation within the Aurora Subglacial Basin. The assemblages, hereafter referred to as the Sabrina Flora, are dominated by angiosperms, with complexes of Gambierina (G.) rudata and G. edwardsii representing 38–66% of the assemblage and an abundant and diverse Proteaceae component. The Sabrina Flora also includes Battenipollis sectilis, Forcipites sp. and Nothofagidites spp. (mostly belonging to the N. cf. rocaensis-flemingii complex), along with a few fern spores, including Laevigatosporites ovatus, a moderate presence of conifers, and …

Phasor Measurement Unit Data-Based States And Parameters Estimation In Power System, Hossein Ghassempour Aghamolki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation research investigates estimating of power system static and dynamic states (e.g. rotor angle, rotor speed, mechanical power, voltage magnitude, voltage phase angle, mechanical reference point) as well as identification of synchronous generator parameters. The research has two focuses:

i. Synchronous generator dynamic model states and parameters estimation using real-time PMU data.

ii.Integrate PMU data and conventional measurements to carry out static state estimation.

The first part of the work focuses on Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) data-based synchronous generator states and parameters estimation. In completed work, PMU data-based synchronous generator model identification is carried out using Unscented Kalman Filter …

Effective Post-Tensioned Splicing System For Prestressed Concrete Piles, Zhongxin Wu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Precast prestressed concrete piles are widely used in deep foundation construction. Due to unexpected site soil conditions and difficulties associated with transportation and handling long precast piles, splicing is sometimes necessary at the construction site.

Available splicing methods utilize steel type connections that are more suitable for reinforced concrete construction and result in limited tensile capacity at the splice. This dissertation describes studies associated with the development of a new post-tensioned splicing system using staggered, embedded anchorages. The new system has the potential to provide the same tensile capacity as a one piece prestressed pile.

To develop the post-tensioned splicing …

Experimental And Computational Study On Fracture Mechanics Of Multilayered Structures, Hai Thanh Tran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many devices in electronics are in the form of multilayered structures. These structures can fail catastrophically if they contain defects or cracks. Enhancing their fracture properties is therefore critical to improve the reliability of the systems. The interface-dominated fracture mechanics of multilayered structure was studied using experiments and finite element (FE) modeling by considering two examples: thin films on polymer substrates in flexible electronics and Cu leadframe/epoxy molding compound (EMC) in micro-electronics packaging.

In the first example, aluminum-manganese (Al-Mn) thin films with Mn concentration up to 20.5 at.% were deposited on polyimide (PI) substrates. A variety of phases, including supersaturated …

Behavioral Modeling And Fpga Synthesis Of Ieee 802.11n Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (Ofdm) Scheme, Ragahv Sharma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the field of communications, a high data rate and low multi-path fading is required for efficient information exchange. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a widely accepted IEEE 802.11n (and many others) standard for usage in communication systems operating in fading dispersive channels. In this thesis, we modeled the OFDM algorithm at the behavioral level in VHDL/Verilog that was successfully synthesized/verified on an FPGA. Due to rapid technology scaling, FPGAs have become popular and are low-cost and high performance alternatives to (semi-) custom ASICs. Further, due to reprogramming flexibility, FPGAs are useful in rapid prototyping. As per the IEEE …

Functional Analysis And Treatment Of Bruxism In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Morgan Scarff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bruxism, the gnashing or grinding of one’s teeth, is a significant dental concern that can lead to severe damage of the tooth and gum structures and has been suggested to occur at higher rates in the developmentally disabled population. Very little research has been conducted in this area and of those articles, none of which utilized function based treatments nor conducted functional analyses. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of a function based stimulation intervention on audible diurnal bruxism with two adolescent boys diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Functional analyses were conducted for both participants and …

Development Of A Forecast Process For Meteotsunami Events In The Gulf Of Mexico, Leilani D. Paxton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to provide a better understanding of meteotsunamis over the eastern Gulf of Mexico along the west coast of Florida and to develop a process for forecasting those events. Meteotsunami waves develop from resonant effects of strong pressure perturbations greater than 1 hPa, moving in excess of 10 m s^-1, over water areas up to around 100 m in depth. Meteotsunami events over 0.3 m in height, as measured by three primary NOAA coastal tide gauges at Cedar Key, Clearwater Beach, and Naples, from 2007-2015, impact the Florida Gulf coastline several times per …

Simulation And Verification Of Fluid Jet Polishing, Senmiao Hu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fluid jet polishing (FJP) is a new advanced polishing technology that finds applications in many industries, especially in the optics industry. With the broad application of various surfaces in optics, the sub-micrometric scale and the nanometric surface roughness accuracy are major challenges. Fluid jet polishing is a technology developed from abrasive water jet machining. This technology is a water jet cutting technology, which uses high-pressure flow to cut/remove materials.

In this thesis, the working principle, and simulations, as well as verification of fluid jet polishing are thoroughly investigated. The verification of fluid jet polishing in this thesis includes velocity distribution …

Teaching Culinary Skills Using Video Modeling To Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury, Sarah Castro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) often need to be taught independent living skills in order to reintegrate into community settings. This study examined the use of video modeling to teach culinary skills to three individuals with TBI. Video modeling is easily accessible, inexpensive, and not reliant on an additional person to directly teach skills. For all three participants, video modeling resulted in increases in cooking skills using a task analysis created for each food item prepared. For one participant, the skills maintained over two weeks and generalized to a novel food. For another participant video modeling was insufficient in …

Encoding Style Of Positive Autobiographical Memories: Relationship To Mood Repair, Memory Functioning, And Depression, Ena Begovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The recall of positive autobiographical memories is an effective strategy for improving negative mood among healthy persons, yet individuals with a history of depression often fail to derive emotional benefits. Depressed and depression-vulnerable individuals also exhibit deficits in their autobiographical memory characteristics. Scholars have implicated deficits during autobiographical memory retrieval as a cause of mood repair and memory impairments, however the role of memory encoding has largely been overlooked. The current study manipulated encoding style to examine subsequent effects on mood repair efficacy, memory characteristics, and memory accuracy. Fifty-five formerly depressed and 68 never-depressed participants were assigned to employ either …

A Habitat Analysis Of Estuarine Fishes And Invertebrates, With Observations On The Effects Of Habitat-Factor Resolution, Brianna Michaud

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Between 1988 and 2014, otter trawls, seine nets, and plankton nets were deployed along the salinity gradients of 18 estuaries by the University of South Florida and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI, a research branch of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). The purpose of these surveys was to document the responses of aquatic estuarine biota to variation in the quantity and quality of freshwater inflows that were being managed by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD).

In the present analyses, four community types collected by these gears were compared with a diversity of habitat …

Corporate Social Responsibility Communication: Beliefs In Motives, First- And Third-Person Effects And Behavioral Consequences, Nianyuan Cheng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a competitive corporate marketing strategy and gained increasingly more attention among organizations. Drawing from attribution theory, persuasion knowledge model and the first- and third-person effects, this study outlined a survey study designed to examine the relationships among consumers’ beliefs in CSR motives, perceived effects of CSR communication on self and others, and behavioral consequences. Also described is a structural equation model which allows for the testing of the research hypotheses. Data was collected from 202 college students via survey. The results supported that when consumers believe the motives of CSR are other-serving, perceived …

The Impact Of Emojis And Emoticons On Online Consumer Reviews, Perceived Company Response Quality, Brand Relationship, And Purchase Intent., Jayme Hill Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several studies have examined the use of emoji and emoticons in computer mediated communication among peers and colleges but there is yet academic research on the impact of businesses using these paralinguistic cues when responding to online consumer reviews. This research is examining the influence these paralinguistic cues have on the consumers perception of the companies quality of the response to an online consumer review, brand relationship, purchase intent.

Using an online survey, participants are asked to answer general questions about the brand, the quality of the response, brand relationship, and purchase intent after seeing a random condition of both …

Comparing Game Simulation To Concept Models For Student-Centered Learning In Biology, Margaurete Romero

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Science education research continues to demonstrate improved learning with active-learning techniques compared to lectures. However, the question of which active-learning methods are the most effective for learning complex scientific principles in various context still remains. Models are commonly used in activities that allow students to simplify complex systems and understand how components interact. I investigated the outcomes for student learning and engagement of two model-based activities - concept models and game simulations. The activities were conducted in an introductory biology course in sixteen discussion sections. Eight sections were assigned to the concept model activity and eight to the simulation activity. …

Using Auditory Feedback To Improve Striking For Mixed Martial Artists, Frank Krukauskas Krukauskas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate, auditory feedback as a training procedure to increase the effectiveness of throwing a "right cross.” Auditory feedback was evaluated in multiple baselines across behaviors design with 4 mixed martial arts students, two males and two females, 25-54 years old. The percentage of correct steps of the right crosses.” was stable .during baseline for all participants improved substantially following the introduction of the auditory feedback, and maintained at 90 percent or more for all participants during follow-up.

Biomarker Detection At Risk Forecasting Level Using Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence Combined With Surface Acoustic Wave, Jun Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) technique is used to lower the detection limit of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) which is able to be utilized in forecasting the risk of having certain kinds of cancers, especially colon and rectal cancer. By incubating silver nanocubes (Ag NCs) on the surface of the chips, the detection limit goes down to below 1ng/mL of CEA. Also, when combining MEF with surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, the incubation time between antigen and antibody will decrease significantly with the fluorescence signal keeping similar or higher level.

Whiting Events Off Southwest Florida: Remote Sensing And Field Observations, Jacqueline Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Whiting” is a term used to describe a sharply defined patch of water that contains high levels of suspended, fine-grained calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). These features are named for their bright (at times white) appearance when compared to surrounding waters, and have been found to occur globally, persisting for multiple consecutive days. Although whitings have been widely studied using chemical, biological, geological, and physical techniques, there has been little effort to document their spatio-temporal distributions in a systematic way, not to mention the lack of consensus on what generates whitings and allows them to persist for days to weeks …

An Exploratory Analysis Of Media Reporting Of Police Involved Shootings In Florida, John L. Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this study is on media reporting of police involved shootings in Florida. Given that knowledge of killings committed by law enforcement are frequently restricted to what people get from news sources, it is important to investigate the way these messages are being communicated. An exploratory analysis of 199 articles and transcripts covering 86 cases relevant to deadly use of force by police officers as reported from 2013 to 2015 provided the primary data source. The analysis engaged a critical examination of media content and goodness of fit models to identify commonalities used by the media when reporting …

Automatic Pain Assessment From Infants’ Crying Sounds, Chih-Yun Pai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Crying is infants utilize to express their emotional state. It provides the parents and the nurses a criterion to understand infants’ physiology state. Many researchers have analyzed infants’ crying sounds to diagnose specific diseases or define the reasons for crying. This thesis presents an automatic crying level assessment system to classify infants’ crying sounds that have been recorded under realistic conditions in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) as whimpering or vigorous crying. To analyze the crying signal, Welch’s method and Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) are used to extract spectral features; the average and the standard deviation of the frequency …

Hidden Markov Chain Analysis: Impact Of Misclassification On Effect Of Covariates In Disease Progression And Regression, Haritha Polisetti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most of the chronic diseases have a well-known natural staging system through which the disease progression is interpreted. It is well established that the transition rates from one stage of disease to other stage can be modeled by multi state Markov models. But, it is also well known that the screening systems used to diagnose disease states may subject to error some times. In this study, a simulation study is conducted to illustrate the importance of addressing for misclassification in multi-state Markov models by evaluating and comparing the estimates for the disease progression Markov model with misclassification opposed to disease …

Threshold Voltage Defined Switches And Gates To Prevent Reverse Engineering, Ithihasa Reddy Nirmala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

¹Semiconductor supply chain is increasingly getting exposed to variety of security attacks such as Trojan insertion, cloning, counterfeiting, reverse engineering (RE), piracy of Intellectual Property (IP) or Integrated Circuit (IC) and side-channel analysis due to involvement of untrusted parties. In this thesis, we use threshold voltage-defined switches to design a logic gate that will camouflage the conventional logic gates both logically and physically to resist RE and IP piracy. The proposed gate can function as NAND, AND, NOR, OR, XOR, and XNOR robustly using threshold defined switches. We also propose a flavor of camouflaged gate that represents reduced functionality …

Time Dependent Effect Of Drilling Slurries On Side Shear Resistance Of Drilled Shafts, Warren Allen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drilled shafts are cylindrical deep foundations constructed by casting fluid concrete into an excavated hole. These elements rely largely on side shear resistance generated by their substantial diameters and lengths to effectively transfer loads. Therefore, an exceptional concrete to soil interface is essential for proper performance of these structures. The FDOT preferred stabilization fluid, bentonite slurry, has been proven to degrade this interface with increased exposure time due to filter cake formation. For this reason, slurry exposure time has been limited to 36 hours by FDOT. Alternately, polymer slurries do not form a filter cake but rather stabilize excavations through …

Designing The Haptic Interface For Morse Code, Michael Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two siblings have a muscular degenerative condition that has rendered them mostly blind, deaf and paraplegic. Currently, the siblings receive communication by close range sign language several feet in front of their vision. Due to the degenerative nature of their condition, it is believed that the siblings will eventually become completely blind and unable to communicate in this fashion. There are no augmented communication devices on the market that allow communication reception for individuals who cannot see, hear or possess hand dexterity (such as braille reading). To help the siblings communicate, the proposed communication device will transmit Morse code information …

The Cross-National Generalizability Of Biographical Data: An Examination Within A Multinational Organization, Adam J. Ducey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In an increasingly interconnected economy, organizations are frequently operating beyond national borders. International partnerships, joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions have expanded the labor market from a domestic to an international perspective. In this environment, multinational organizations demand cost-effective personnel selection tools to help them identify top talent from different countries, geographical regions, and cultures.

The purpose of the current research was to evaluate the global utility of biographical data inventories, a standardized self-report selection method that asks job applicants questions about prior behaviors and experiences. Results from two studies involving participants from 7 country clusters, across four continents, and two …

Why Consumers Disclose Their Tourism Experiences On Tourism Social Networking Sites: Multiple Theoretical Perspectives, Junshu Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tourism social networking sites (SNSs) are websites that provide users with templates for describing their travel experiences and an infrastructure to share such travel posts with a network of like-minded individuals. Tourism SNSs represent an important advertising channel for the tourism industry, as they may assist travelers in selecting destinations and planning vacations on the basis of other travelers’ experiences, which may further stimulate travel and generate income for the tourism industry (Yazdanifard & Yee, 2014). User-generated content (UGC) in the form of travel posts is the core offering and key success factor of tourism SNSs. Travel posts constitute a …

Voltage Droop Analysis And Mitigation In Sttram-Based Last Level Cache, Radha Krishna Aluru

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Preferred especially for a Last Level Cache (LLC) due to its high retention and tolerance capabilities, Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STTRAM) is an emerging and a promising Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) technology. To switch the magnetization of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ), the amount of current needed is very high (~100μA per bit). For a full cache line (512-bit) write, this extremely high current results in a voltage droop in the conventional cache architecture. Due to this droop, the write operation fails especially when the farthest bank of the cache is accessed. In this thesis, we perform an analysis of …

Cardiovascular Regulation By Kvβ1.1 Subunit, Jared Tur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heterologous expression systems such as COS-7 cells have demonstrated the profound effects of KCNAB1-3 or Kvβ1-3 proteins on voltage gated potassium channels (Kv) channels. Indeed, in the presence of these β-subunits transiently expressed Kv channels are often modulated in multiple ways. Kv channel membrane expression is often increased in the presence of β-subunits. In addition, non-inactivating Kv currents suddenly become fast-inactivating and fast-inactivating channels become even faster. While much research has demonstrated the profound effects the β-subunits in particular the Kvβ1 subunit have on transiently expressed Kv currents little to date is known of the physiological role it may play. …

Scalable Clustering Using The Dempster-Shafer Theory Of Evidence, Alireza Chakeri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clustering large data sets has become very important as the amount of available unlabeled data increases. Single Pass Fuzzy C-Means (SPFCM) is useful when memory is too limited to load the whole data set. The main idea is to divide dataset into several chunks and to apply fuzzy c-means (FCM) to each chunk. SPFCM uses the weighted cluster centers of the previous chunk in the next data chunks. However, when the number of chunks is increased, the algorithm shows sensitivity to the order in which the data is processed. Hence, we improved SPFCM by recognizing boundary and noisy data in …