Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Community Participation In Water Production And Management: Lessons From Sustainable Aid In Africa International Sponsored Water Schemes In Kisumu, Kenya, Erick Oniango Ananga

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Few studies have attempted to determine the tenability of Community Participation (CP) theory is explicating Water Production and Management dynamics in Urban Informal Settlements. Consequently, several gaps exist in knowledge of the value of this important theory for efforts to improve water service delivery in such settlements. The main purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts addressed to filling these gaps. Four water schemes established by Sustainable Aid in Africa International in partnership with different communities in the informal neighborhoods of Kisumu Kenya are used as empirical referent. The study is guided by the following three Research Questions; …

Structure Based Drug Design Targeting Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance And Alzheimer's Disease, Eric Michael Lewandowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Structure based drug design is a rapidly advancing discipline that examines how protein targets structurally interact with small molecules, or known inhibitors, and then uses this information to lead inhibitor optimization efforts. In the case of novel inhibitors, protein structural information is first obtained via X-ray crystallography, NMR studies, or a combination of both approaches. Then, computational molecular docking is often used to screen, in silico, millions of small molecules and calculate the potential interactions they may have with the target protein’s binding pocket, in hopes of identifying novel low affinity inhibitors. By examining the interactions these small, low affinity, …

Characterization And Diurnal Measurement Of Oral Inflammation In Association With Glycemic Control, Periodontal Status, & Glucose Stimulation, Melanie N. Kuehl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diabetes has afflicted 8.3%, approximately 25.8 million, of the United States population and is the seventh leading cause of death [1]. Type I diabetes (T1D) accounts for 5 to 10% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes in the United States [2]. If present trends continue, the rate of T1D incidence among children under the age of 14 will increase by 3% globally [3]. T1D is an autoimmune disorder in which the β-cells of the pancreatic islets are destroyed, leading to high blood sugar. Hyperglycemia and loss of immunological tolerance to self-antigens are common associations of T1D [4]. Periodontal disease impacts …

Role Of The Slingshot-Cofilin And Ranbp9 Pathways In Alzheimer's Disease Pathogenesis, Jung A Woo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by two major pathological hallmarks, amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The accumulation of amyloid-β protein (Aβ) is an early event associated with synaptic and mitochondrial damage in AD. Therefore, molecular pathways underlying the neurotoxicity and generation of Aβ represent promising therapeutic targets for AD. Recent studies have shown that actin severing protein, Cofilin plays an important role in synaptic remodeling, mitochondrial dysfunction, and AD pathogenesis. However, whether Cofilin is an essential component of AD pathogenesis and how Aβ induced neurotoxicity impinges its signals to Cofilin are unclear.

In my dissertation studies, we …

Mediated Relationships: An Ethnography Of Family Law Mediation, Elaina Behounek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation, I use multi-ethnographic methods to examine how mediators talk about, manage, and process families going through divorce. I show how a dominant narrative about marriage and the cultural expectations of parenthood provide a framework for mediators to manage the discourse of divorcing parties so assets and care giving can be split 50/50. The dominant P.E.A.C.E. narrative (P=parenting plan, E=equitable distribution, A=alimony, C=child support, E=everything else) restricts available discourse in mediation and guides mediators’ behaviors in ways that homogenize families by providing a linear formula for mediators to follow which results in only certain stories being allowed to …

“Principal Component Analysis And The Cumulative Gait Index: Translational Tools To Assess Gait Impairments In Rats With Olivocerebellar Ataxia”, Chase Lambert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies suggest that modulation of the cholinergic system through the use of nicotinic agonists can improve motor function in humans or animals with motor disorders. Specifically, although there are no approved therapeutics for patients with ataxia, the nicotinic receptor agonist varenicline has demonstrated efficacy to improve coordination and gait in several groups of patients with different subtypes of ataxia. Importantly, the mechanism underlying the varenicline’s mechanism of action to improve motor function remains to be elucidated. Thus, the purpose of these experiments was to first quantify gait impairments in rats with olivocerebellar ataxia utilizing an objective treadmill-based system to …

The Effects Of Parent-Adolescent Communication And Parenting Style On The Physical Activity And Dietary Behaviors Of Latino Adolescents, Dianna Mary Boone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The obesity epidemic among children and adolescents has been growing rapidly over the past 10 years, particularly in Latino children. Multiple researchers have found support for positive associations between parent-child communication and healthy nutrition and exercise behaviors. The present study examined the relations between parent-adolescent communication and parenting style and the dietary and exercise behaviors of Latino adolescents. The study included 79 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 years and their parents (100% are Latino). Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to determine which parenting style and communication variables are significantly associated with adolescents’ dietary and physical …

Knowledge Discovery And Predictive Modeling From Brain Tumor Mris, Mu Zhou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantitative cancer imaging is an emerging field that develops computational techniques to acquire a deep understanding of cancer characteristics for cancer diagnosis and clinical decision making. The recent emergence of growing clinical imaging data provides a wealth of opportunity to systematically explore quantitative information to advance cancer diagnosis. Crucial questions arise as to how we can develop specific computational models that are capable of mining meaningful knowledge from a vast quantity of imaging data and how to transform such findings into improved personalized health care?

This dissertation presents a set of computational models in the context of malignant brain tumors— …

The Influence Of Types Of Homework On Opportunity To Learn And Students' Mathematics Achievement: Examples From The University Of Chicago School Mathematics Project, Yiting Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Public views on assigning students mathematics homework have been controversial. Although homework is designed for students to complete during non-school hours (Cooper, 1989), many see homework as excessive pressure on students. Most research placed their focus on the influence of the time spent on homework or the amount of homework on student achievement. Few studies have addressed the impact of types of mathematics homework. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of homework types in influencing opportunity to learn (OTL) on student achievement.

This quantitative study used subsets of a large existing dataset collected by University …

Reliable Power System Planning And Operations Through Robust Optimization, Wei Yuan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we introduce and study robust optimization models and decomposition algorithms in order to deal with the uncertainties such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and uncertain demand that are becoming more and more signicant in power systems operation and planning. An optimal power grid hardening problem is presented as a defender-attacker-defender (DAD) sequential game and solved by an exact decomposition algorithm. Network topology control, which is an eective corrective measure in power systems, is then incorporated into the defender-attacker-defender model as a recourse operation for the power system operator after a terrorist attack. Computational results validate the cost-eectiveness …

The Durational Effects Of A Free Operant Condition On Automatically Maintained Stereotypic Behavior And Discrete Trial Task Responding, Shikika Sade Young

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of three fixed-duration free operant access conditions on rates of automatically maintained stereotypic behavior and correct task responding during discrete trial training (DTT) with two children diagnosed with autism. Following a functional analysis, confirming automatic function, interviews/observations were conducted to identify behavioral indicators of satiation and an average satiation level. In this endeavor, participants were exposed to a free operant condition to validate satiation of stereotypic responding. Once satiation level was averaged, two durational conditions were computed: Long (75% access) and Short (25% access). A third condition, Deprivation, involved blocking all attempts at the stereotypic …

Field Observations And Novel Methodologies For Carbon System Assessments In Coastal Waters, Bo Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal zones receive massive terrestrial inputs of nutrients and organic matter, and play an important role in biogeochemical cycles. The interactions of river inputs, ocean currents, atmospheric exchanges, anthropogenic influences, and biologically active ecosystems make CO₂ system studies in coastal waters highly challenging. This work focuses on improving our understanding of the CO₂ system in coastal waters through (1) development of a new methodology for measurements of CO₂ system parameters in the field; (2) observations of large spatial and temporal CO₂ system variations in coastal waters; and (3) characterization of the influence of organics on CO …

Bayesian Inference On Longitudinal Semi-Continuous Substance Abuse/Dependence Symptoms Data, Dongyuan Xing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Substance use data such as alcohol drinking often contain a high proportion of zeros. In studies examining the alcohol consumption in college students, for instance, many students may not drink in the studied period, resulting in a number of zeros. Zero-inflated continuous data, also called semi continuous data, typically consist of a mixture of a degenerate distribution at the origin (zero) and a right-skewed, continuous distribution for the positive values. Ignoring the extreme non-normality in semi-continuous data may lead to substantially biased estimates and inference. Longitudinal or repeated measures of semi-continuous data present special challenges in statistical inference because of …

Photoacoustic Calorimetry Studies Of The Earliest Events In Horse Heart Cytochrome-C Folding, Tarah A. Word

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The protein folding problem involves understanding how the tertiary structure of a protein is related to its primary structure. Hence, understanding the thermodynamics associated with the rate-limiting steps for the formation of the earliest events in folding is most crucial to understanding how proteins adopt native secondary and tertiary structures. In order to elucidate the mechanism and pattern of protein folding, an extensively studied protein, Cytochrome-c (Cc), was chosen as a folding system to obtain detailed time-resolved thermodynamic profiles for the earliest events in the protein folding process. Cytochrome-c is an ideal system for understanding the folding process for several …

Assessing The Occupational Nosie Exposure Of Bartenders, Adrianna J. Woltman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that each year, approximately 30 million people are occupationally exposed to hazardous noise. While many are aware of the noise exposure associated with industrial occupations, there has been little research conducted on bartenders who often work in environments that have high levels of noise. The majority of current published research on occupational noise exposure of bartenders has only evaluated noise levels on one night of business. Bartenders often work multiple days per week, which vary in the amount of patrons and entertainment provided, this variation in business leads to variation in the amount …

I Threw My Pie For You: Engagement And Loyalty On Tv Show Facebook Pages, Tracy M. Wisneski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Facebook boasts an audience approximately three times as large as the next most popular social media networks, so it comes as no surprise that brands are devoting substantial resources to engage with their fans on the world’s most widely used social networking site. Television shows are among those brands using Facebook as a platform to connect with consumers, and their potential for fan relationships is unique from those of other brands, but there are, as of yet, no published scholarly articles for driving Facebook fan engagement and loyalty for a television show. This mixed methods study uses an ethnographic content …

Rape, Race, And Capital Punishment In North Carolina: A Qualitative Approach To Examining An Enduring Cultural Legacy, Douglas Wholl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite positive steps toward the suppression of racial discrimination in the United States capital punishment process, the enduring effects of a cultural legacy of Black oppression (e.g., slavery; segregation; lynching) and historic and systemic racial discrimination in the criminal justice system have persisted to the present day. The purpose of the current study is to explore whether this enduring cultural legacy still exists by examining whether juries in rape-involved capital murder trials in North Carolina are more likely to recommend a sentence of death when the defendant is a Black male and the victim is a White female (compared to …

Ductility And Use Of Titanium Alloy And Stainless Steel Aerospace Fasteners, Jarrod Talbott Whittaker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the ductility and application of titanium alloys, like titanium 6Al-4V, when used in aerospace fasteners compared to more conventional stainless steel aerospace fasteners such as A286. There have been concerns raised about the safe usability of titanium 6-4 in the aerospace industry due to its lack of strain hardening. However, there is a lack of data pertaining to this concern of safe usage which this thesis aims to address. Tensile tests were conducted to find the ductility indexes of these fasteners which quantify the amount of plastic to elastic elongation. From …

Dual 7-Degree-Of-Freedom Robotic Arm Remote Teleoperation Using Haptic Devices, Yu-Cheng Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A teleoperated system of dual redundant manipulator will be controlled in this thesis. The robot used with the dual redundant manipulator in this thesis is Baxter. Baxter’s redundant robot arms are 7-degree-of-freedom arms. The problem that will be solved in this thesis is optimization of the 7-degree-of-freedom robot arms. The control algorithm of the 7-degree-of-freedom robot arms will be discussed and built. A simulation program will be built to test the control algorithm. Based on the control algorithm, a teleoperation system will be created for Baxter. The controller used is Omni, which is a six-joint haptic device. Omni will also …

Dead/Live Microbial Culture Technique, Michael Veri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New methodology has been utilized to provoke or increase targeted metabolic pathways in microbes. The low hanging fruit of natural products has been discovered over the last 50 years. To continue finding new metabolites to be used as possible drug candidates, methodology development such as those proposed herein are necessary. This methodology uses extracts from known pathogenic bacteria to elicit production of latent biosynthetic pathways from environmental bacterial isolates that may be active against the original pathogenic strains. A new compound, MAV-1 (1) of the diketopiperazine family (Figure 1) was isolated and identified utilizing these techniques. The structure of MAV-1 …

Insights Into The Challenges Of Modeling The Atmospheric Boundary Layer, Esa-Matti Tastula

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work approaches the topic of modeling the atmospheric boundary layer in four research projects, which are summarized below.

i) The diurnal cycles of near-surface meteorological parameters over Antarctic sea ice in six widely used atmospheric reanalyses were validated against observations from Ice Station Weddell. The station drifted from February through May 1992 and provided the most extensive set of meteorological observations ever collected in the Antarctic sea ice zone. For the radiative and turbulent surface fluxes, both the amplitude and shape of the diurnal cycles varied considerably among different reanalyses. Near-surface temperature, specific humidity, and wind speed in the …

Authentication Via Multiple Associated Devices, Jean-Baptiste Subils

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a practical method of authentication utilizing multiple devices. The factors contributing to the practicality of the method are: the utilization of devices already commonly possessed by users and the amenability to being implemented on a wide variety of devices. The term “device” refers to anything able to perform cryptographic operations, store data, and communicate with another such device.

In the method presented herein, multiple devices need to be associated with a single user to provide this user an identity in the system. A public key infrastructure is used to provide this identity. Each of the devices associated …

From White City To Green Acres: Bertha Palmer And The Gendering Of Space In The Gilded Age, Barbara Peters Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout an adult life that witnessed drastic cultural upheaval between the Civil War and World War I, Bertha Honoré Palmer (1849-1918) was continually called on to deploy her Victorian values in response to modern events. Being a woman only complicated this negotiation. But being a child of the American frontier granted her a latitude and mobility that were rare for women of her class and era – allowing her to challenge gender boundaries and occupy more than one cultural space at a time. Most of what has been written about Bertha Palmer’s life has been exceptionalist in approach and tone, …

Essays On The Impact Of Ceo Gender On Corporate Policies And Outcomes, Nilesh Sah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay I examine the cash policies of female-led firms. Recent research finds that female CEOs eschew riskier corporate policies, but it makes contradicting claims whether this is due to risk aversion. Benchmarking risk aversion by the management of firms’ cash, I find that female CEOs are risk averse relative to male CEOs. Specifically, they hold significantly (18%) more cash, even for the same level of dividend payout as male CEOs. Further, they have significantly higher speed of adjustment for cash deficits, are more likely to use excess cash to increase dividends, but are equally likely to use …

Health Infor[M-Ed]: Black College Females Discuss A Virtual Reality (Vr) Platform For Sexual Health Education And Training, Henry Arnett Ross

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: College settings are likely environments for Black women to contract STIs (including HIV) or experience unintentional/unwanted pregnancies. Effective prevention strategies for this population include dialogue and activities that focus on gender, maturity, cultural barriers, personal strength, and information needs. However, technological advancements (including virtual reality) and innovation are limited in prevention efforts.

Methods: Four 90-minute focus group sessions were conducted in a convenience sample of Black college females (ages 18 years or older) and a research-intensive public institution in the southeast. A series of surveys were distributed during each audio-recorded focus group session. A mixed-method approach to data analysis …

Effects Of Nicotine On A Translational Model Of Working Memory, David Alderson Macqueen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive research with human non-smokers has demonstrated that nicotine generally enhances performance on tasks of attention but, working memory does not appear to be affected. In contrast, nicotine has been shown to produce robust enhancements of working memory in non-human animals. To address this disparity, the present study investigated the effects of nicotine (2mg, 4mg nicotine gum, and placebo) on the performance of 30 non-smokers (15 male) completing a working memory task developed for rodents (the odor span task, OST). Nicotine has been reported to enhance OST performance in rodents and the present study sought to determine whether the effect …

Validity Of A Nonspeech Dynamic Assessment Of Phonological Awareness In Children From Spanish-Speaking Backgrounds, Bianca Angelica Loreti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Literacy development in Spanish-speaking children is a growing concern in the United States (Invernizzi, 2009). Phonological awareness is a predictor of literacy achievement in most alphabetic languages (Anthony et al., 2011; Davison & Brea-Spahn, 2012; Durgunoğlu, Nagy, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993; Goikoetxea, 2005). Bilingual children with complex communication needs (CCN) demonstrate increased difficulties in speaking, reading, and writing, making learning two languages a difficult task (Toppelberg, Snow, & Tager-Flusberg, 1999). Literacy attainment in bilingual individuals who have CCN is important to improve their overall language development and communication interaction skills (Harrison-Harris, 2002). A valid and reliable phonological awareness assessment that does …

Spatiotemporal Sensing And Informatics For Complex Systems Monitoring, Fault Identification And Root Cause Diagnostics, Gang Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In order to cope with system complexity and dynamic environments, modern industries are investing in a variety of sensor networks and data acquisition systems to increase information visibility. Multi-sensor systems bring the proliferation of high-dimensional functional Big Data that capture rich information on the evolving dynamics of natural and engineered processes. With spatially and temporally dense data readily available, there is an urgent need to develop advanced methodologies and associated tools that will enable and assist (i) the handling of the big data communicated by the contemporary complex systems, (ii) the extraction and identification of pertinent knowledge about the environmental …

Energy Production And Effluent Quality In Tubular Digesters Treating Livestock Waste In Rural Costa Rica, Maureen Njoki Kinyua

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Use of tubular anaerobic digesters to treat livestock waste in developing countries has energy, agricultural, health, social and environmental benefits. However, careful use of digester effluent as a soil amendment is required due to the potential presence of protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia. This research investigated the performance of four tubular digesters in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. High (>75%) volatile solids and BOD5 removal efficiencies were observed, which was attributed to the formation of a biologically active floccular sludge layer. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and bioprocess models were developed to evaluate the transport and transformation …

Effects Of Disorder And Low Dimensionality On Frozen Dynamics In Ca3co2-Xmnxo6, Brian Wesley Casas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Complex oxides represent an intersection of play grounds for the existence of exciting new fundamental physics and materials with potential technological implications. The realization of many exciting properties of these systems rely on the coupling of electronic, structural and magnetic degrees of freedom. Additionally, competing interactions within each type of coupling discussed previously lead to theoretically diverse ground states, which under the application of an external perturbation, can be tuned and probed.

Ca3Co¬2-xMnxO6 represent a quasi-one dimensional Ising spin chain system oriented in an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice. The exotic behavior of the undoped compound Ca3Co2O6 has inspired work on continuing …