Digital Commons Network^™

A New Great Game?: Great Powers Content Re-Sharing And Media Influence In The South Caucasus, Emma A. Lowery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the new digital era of geopolitics, competing great powers support internationally oriented state-sponsored media as integral parts of public diplomacy, seeking to reach foreign publics in an increasingly digital age of information sharing. Leveraging local outlets provides an avenue to influence local publics through pre-approved news. Targeted foreign news outlets actively engage with and re-share content from said media. This research focuses on foreign-originated content from the world’s great powers - the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America. The purpose of this project is to provide insight into how the great powers …

Exploiting Chaotic Antenna Arrays For Rf Fingerprint Authentication And Physical Layer Security In Wireless Communications, Joshua K. Thomas Ranstrom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern wireless networks support a wide range of applications including consumer devices, healthcare monitoring, industrial automation, smart grids, and military platforms, in which transmitted information is often highly sensitive and subject to stringent confidentiality and integrity requirements. As wireless communication operates over an open broadcast medium it exposes systems to physical layer (PHY) threats such as eavesdropping, in which an adversary passively intercepts transmitted information, and spoofing, in which a forged transmission misleads the receiver about device identity. Cryptographic defenses address both threats but require computational assumptions and key management infrastructure that may not scale to dense or resource-constrained deployments. …

Geospatial Understanding Of Foundation Models: Self-Supervision, Robustness, And Resource-Constrained Learning, Gilbert Kibet Rotich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on large-scale geospatial understanding from satellite imagery remains relativelyunderexplored. Much of the field still relies on narrow, task-specific pipelines, and there is lim- ited work on developing true foundation models or on systematically evaluating how well these models generalize under domain shift, geographic variation, and real-world scene diversity. This dissertation advances foundation-model pretraining and evaluation for remote sensing along three complementary axes. First, we develop self-supervised multispectral pretrained models for satellite image classification by adapting BYOL, BarlowTwins, DINO, MoCo, and Simsiam to multispectral inputs, addressing the limited amount of curated satellite datasets relative to ImageNet. Pretraining on Eurosat and …

Examining Perceptions Of Minority Underrepresentation Among The United States Special Forces General Officers (O7-O10), Vincent X. Telfare

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the broader Department of Defense (DoD) has implemented important initiatives to advance equitable representation, the United States Army Special Forces (SF) has historically had a different distribution of diversity among General Officers (O7 to O10). This study explored the perceptions underlying this disparity through a qualitative narrative inquiry, using semi-structured interviews with selected retired SF officers of O6 and higher ranks. By examining participants' career experiences and perspectives on the Army's promotion system, this study seeks to illuminate the structural and cultural underpinnings that affect minority promotions to General and senior leadership positions in the Special Forces. Of course, …

Implementing A Brief Dialectical Behavior Therapy-Informed Skills Group In A County Jail: A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding Feasibility And Acceptability, Meaghan E. Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Correctional institutions unintentionally function as one of the largest mental health providers in the country. Short-term facilities, like jails, present an opportunity to provide mental health care to those who will quickly reenter our communities. Despite this, evidence-based practices and treatments in correctional settings have been implemented at slower rates compared to community settings and mental health institutions. Regulating emotions, refraining from impulsive maladaptive behavior, and communicating effectively are considered primary treatment needs among jail inmates. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993) can address these deficits and is commonly implemented in a skills training group format in correctional settings; however, …

Mentoring Mentalities Made Manifest: Toward A Better Understanding Of Secondary Teacher Mentor Professional Learning, Practice, And Self-Efficacy, Maggie L. Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teacher shortages are becoming increasingly problematic nationwide. Teacher mentoring has been found to be an effective method of curbing teacher attrition, but little attention has been addressed to ensuring that teacher mentors are receiving the most relevant professional learning experiences to bolster their self-efficacy and mentoring practice. This qualitative study, drawing on research traditions such as grounded theory and case study, seeks to illuminate the mentor self-efficacy and practice of secondary teacher mentors and to understand the role their professional learning plays in how and how well they enact their mentor roles. Through qualitative interviews, including artifact-based interviews, this study …

Secure Machine Learning In Networking Systems, Wenwei Zhao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid integration of Machine Learning (ML) into networking systems, ensuring the security and trustworthiness of these intelligent frameworks has become a paramount concern. While ML offers unprecedented capabilities in spectrum management and collaborative learning, it also introduces novel vulnerabilities that can be exploited by sophisticated adversaries. This dissertation investigates and addresses critical security challenges across three key dimensions of ML-driven networking: adversarial spectrum sensing, the security of privacy-preserving unlearning processes, and efficient post-attack model recovery.

First, we address the threat of adversarial spectrum attacks in cognitive radio networks, where malicious nodes manipulate sensing reports to disrupt spectrum access. …

Making Sense Of The Body: Cognitive Science, Disability, And Embodiment, Cheyne L. Joslin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to analyze different methodological approaches in the philosophy of cognitive science, with the goal of determining their usefulness for explaining and understanding bodily awareness and skill-acquisition over time. The examples of skill-acquisition are limited to motor control, impaired by various kinds of disability—but then acquired over time, via technological or rehabilitative means. These phenomena of motor learning are then viewed through the lens of two competing theoretical approaches in cognitive science: neuromechanical cognitive science, and radical enactivist cognitive science.

The strengths of the neuromechanical framework are found in its historical pedigree, and in the …

Coloring Outside The (Guide)Lines: Hispanic Race/Ethnicity, District Types, And Sentencing Outcomes In Immigration Offense Cases For Noncitizen Defendants, Paige S. Pagano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines whether sentence length in federal immigration cases varies by Hispanic race/ethnicity, district type, and the intersection of the two among noncitizen defendants sentenced under Chapter 2L of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Prior research has identified disparities in federal sentencing tied to race/ethnicity, citizenship status, and geographic context, but less attention has been given to how these factors are connected within immigration cases. The analysis uses individual-level case data for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 from the United States Sentencing Commission, analyzing 14,354 noncitizen defendants sentenced for immigration-related offenses in federal courts across the contiguous United States. Sentence …

The Dynamic Nature Of Comprehensibility During Itas’ Oral Language Performances, Tania Ferronato

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In U.S. academic settings, everyday oral multilingual interactions can pose communicative challenges (Gass & Varonis, 1984), which can be understood and addressed by looking into communicative dynamics. Exploring the construct of comprehensibility, the perceived ease or difficulty in understanding self and others’ speech (Munro & Derwing, 1995a), through a dynamic lens (Nagle et al., 2019; Trofimovich et al., 2022) helps gaining insights into interlocutors’ subjective experiences to better understand the more social nature of successful real-time communication. This is fundamental in linguistically diverse classroom settings where L2 English speakers can be employed as International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) to teach undergraduate …

Transport And Aging Pathways Of Microplastics In Urban Aquatic Systems, Jessica J. Boyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microplastics are pervasive in urban aquatic systems, which serve as both conduits of particle flow and incubators of microplastics. These aquatic systems transport microplastic particles while simultaneously altering their physical, chemical, and biological properties. Despite their growing environmental relevance, constructed wetlands and riverine systems remain underrepresented in studies of microplastic fate and transport. This dissertation aims to assess the patterns influencing microplastic transport and aging across urban aquatic environments through a combination of field experiments and mechanistic modeling.

Four interconnected studies were conducted to address this objective. The first investigated the horizontal and vertical transport of microplastics within the Se7en …

Understanding And Defending Large-Scale Networked Systems: From Wi-Fi Localization To Provenance- Based Intrusion Detection, Xiao Han

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern networked systems increasingly depend on wireless sensing and large-scale telemetry to provide critical services and maintain security. However, many of these systems function as black boxes or encounter significant scalability limitations, which leave them vulnerable to sophisticated adversaries. In this dissertation, I present my research on enhancing the security and efficiency of networked systems through measurement-driven vulnerability analysis and the design of scalable defense mechanisms.

First, I present my research on the security and privacy risks of Wi-Fi–based localization services. Although location spoofing attacks against Wi-Fi positioning systems have been studied for over a decade, constructing practical attacks in …

Human First: How Journalists Employ Ethics Of Care And Empathy When Covering School Shootings, Grace M. Ficara

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School shootings have become a regular part of the news media cycle in the 21st century. Now, more than ever, journalists are needing to find innovative, yet empathetic, ways to deal with such crises as they navigate their own professional boundaries. Using the Ethics of Care model, this research intends to showcase how journalists have, willingly or unwillingly, utilized an empathetic approach when covering school shootings and how they use these tools to comfort their sources and themselves. Through semi - structured interviews of 9 participants, this study seeks to connect the practice of journalism with the one thing journalists …

Is There No Such Thing As Bad Pr? A Case Study Analysis Of Influencer Pseudo-Events, Authentic Crises, And Crises As Opportunity, And Paracrisis, Sofia Aparicio-Gallagher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There's no such thing as bad PR, and any publicity is good publicity are phrases coined by 19th-century P.T. Barnum, a showman and businessman known for his circus hoaxes (Hiergesell, 2025). The idea implies that all media attention, whether negative or positive, is beneficial to the organization or individual. The purpose of this study is to evaluate three brands; Tarte, Poppi, and Shein during a brand event to determine whether it was a pseudo-event created to gain awareness, or a genuine, unplanned crisis. Another purpose of the study was to determine if the event was used as an opportunity for …

Spin Pumping And Interfacial Anisotropy In Ultrathin Cobalt Heterostructures, Ibrahim Almuhanna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interfaces dominate the behavior of ultrathin ferromagnets, where interfacial spin-orbit coupling(SOC) can strongly influence both magnetic anisotropy and magnetization dynamics. This thesis compares how a heavy-metal interface (Pt) and a semiconducting two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) interface (MoSe2) modify the static and dynamic magnetic properties of ultrathin Co. To isolate interface-driven effects, the heterostructure architecture is kept fixed (sapphire substrate and Si3N4 cap) while only the seeding/interface layer beneath Co is varied. MoSe2 is studied in two thickness conditions (monolayer and bilayer) to test layer-dependent trends.

Layer thicknesses are determined by X-ray reflectivity. Static magnetic properties are measured by in-plane vibrating …

Examining The Effect Of Household Socioeconomic Status And Maternal Characteristics On Child Developmental Delay In The United States, Samuel Ilori

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Child developmental delay remains a pressing public health issue with lifelong implications. This study examines the association between household socioeconomic status, maternal characteristics, and child developmental delay using data from the 2023 National Survey of Children's Health (N = 35,399 female respondents). Bivariate analyses using Chi-square tests and binary logistic regression with sequential modeling were conducted. Results revealed that economic hardship, employment status, maternal mental health, maternal physical health, marital status, and race were significantly associated with child developmental delay (p<0.001). Educational level and poverty level showed no significant associations. Among mothers reporting poor mental health, 90.0% had a child with a delay, compared to 6.6% among those with good mental health. Every mother reporting poor physical health had a child with a delay, while virtually none with good or better physical health did. In the fully adjusted regression model, maternal mental and physical health remained the most powerful predictors, while economic hardship and employment status became non-significant once health was introduced, suggesting mediation. Maternal mental and physical health are the factors most strongly correlated with child developmental delay. Economic hardship matters primarily because it undermines maternal well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic likely intensified these dynamics by disrupting healthcare access and increasing economic instability. Supporting maternal health must be recognized as a fundamental strategy for promoting child development. Universal screening for maternal depression and physical health problems, integrated into pediatric and obstetric care, can identify at-risk mothers early. Policies that reduce economic hardship alleviate the chronic stress that undermines maternal health. Children thrive when their mothers are healthy.

The Development And Validation Of A Portable Monitoring System For Real-World Prosthetic And Orthotic Performance Assessment, Emily Wyatt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Laboratory-based motion capture systems are widely used for gait analysis but are limited by high cost, infrastructure requirements, and restricted external validity. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) offer a portable and low-cost alternative for assessing gait in both controlled and real-world environments; however, their accuracy and clinical utility require validation. The purpose of this thesis was to develop and evaluate a portable monitoring system using IMUs to quantify spatiotemporal gait parameters and gait asymmetry in both laboratory and community settings, with a focus on prosthetic and orthotic users.

Phase 1 of this study evaluated the agreement between IMU-derived gait metrics and …

Remotely Training Applied Behavior Analysis Practitioners To Conduct A Repeated Latency Functional Analysis, W. Daniel Oliver-Wong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has established functional analyses (Iwata et al., 1982/1994) as valuable tools for ABA practitioners. Despite previous findings, behavior analysts often default to other methods when identifying the maintaining variables of problem behavior. Several studies have examined training methods and variations of traditional functional analyses to increase clinical applications. The Repeated Latency Functional Analysis (RLFA) is a newly developed adaptation to the functional analysis (Han et. al., 2023). This study used video modeling to train three ABA practitioners in RLFA procedures through online role-play scenarios. The findings suggested that online video modeling is a promising training modality for ABA …

Amplicon Sequencing Reveals Shifts In Microbial Community Composition In Response To Nutrient-Dense Piney Point Emergency Discharges, Christa A. Baranowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to a leak in the lining of a phosphogypsum pond at the former Piney Point phosphate-processing facility in Tampa Bay (Florida, U.S.A.), experienced a large influx of nutrient-dense waters in the early summer of 2021. As an emergency response effort, water samples were collected by researchers at the University of South Florida, College of Marine Science (USF CMS), covering the lower and middle regions of Tampa Bay (TB), over the span of three months (April – June). Illumina amplicon sequencing was performed on DNA from water samples, targeting bacterial and eukaryotic ribosomal rRNA genes, and processed into Amplicon Sequence …

Assessing Capability, Opportunity, And Motivation In Relation To Guideline Adherence For Inherited Cancer Risk, Cecilia L. Delisanti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Although National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines provide cancer screening or risk reduction recommendations for individuals with germline pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants (GPVs) in actionable hereditary cancer genes, guideline adherence remains inconsistent, and the behavioral contributors to this gap remain understudied. To identify behavioral factors related to adherence across inherited cancer risk genes, this study used the COM-B model, which posits that capability, opportunity, and motivation shape health behaviors.

Methods: IMPACT study participants, all with GPVs in a variety of actionable genes, completed surveys (N=575). Minimal adherence was based on gene-specific NCCN guidelines. COM-B constructs (capability, opportunity, motivation) …

Understanding Math-Anxious Teachers' Stories Of Comfort, Competence, And Confidence With Learning And Teaching Mathematics, Deborah Peart Crayton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Math anxiety is a complex issue that affects students and teachers. It has been researched for decades, but the focus has often been on addressing math anxiety in students, while finding solutions to support elementary teachers experiencing math anxiety has been overlooked. This study fills a gap in existing research by shedding light on math anxiety in elementary education and highlighting ways to address it by leveraging existing structures that support professional development. This qualitative narrative inquiry explores the experiences of four elementary educators who identify as math-anxious and how they report that math anxiety impacts their confidence in teaching …

Analysis Of The Yeast Surface Display Platform As A Tool For Tyrosine Kinase Phosphorylation Assays, Alexandra Maritza Tang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Developing and optimizing platforms to study complex protein-protein interactions is important to maintain fidelity of the modeled activity. Yeast surface display has been used as a high-throughput platform to model substrate phosphorylation by tyrosine kinases, a key enzymatic process that is essential for most cell signaling pathways. However, existing characteristics of the yeast surface display platform limit the ease-of-use, reproducibility, and feasibility of screening enzymatic modification processes like tyrosine phosphorylation. The cytoplasmic domain of T cell costimulatory receptor CD28 and lymphocyte kinase (LCK) were used as a model enzyme-substrate pair to showcase molecular cloning issues that can hinder reproducibility and …

Lightweight And Resilient Cryptographic Protocols For Next-Generation Networking Systems, Saif Eddine Nouma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The security of our increasingly interconnected world is strongly dependent on the strength and practicality of the cryptographic tools we deploy. As billions of embedded devices join the Internet of Things (IoT) and interact with remote cloud infrastructures for data processing, analysis, and actuation, they evolve into so-called digital twins. This rapid expansion introduces numerous attack vectors, particularly targeting constrained IoT devices, which greatly increase the attack surface and often become the root cause of large-scale infrastructure compromises. At the same time, the rise of quantum computing threatens the hardness of today’s intractability assumptions that underpin cryptographic primitives currently deployed. …

Understanding How Single Mothers In Southwest Nigeria Navigate Mental Health Challenges And Financial Hardships: A Culture-Centered Approach, Zulykha B. Akinjobi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Single motherhood is a growing yet stigmatized family structure in Southwest Nigeria, where patriarchal norms, cultural expectations, and structural inequalities converge to produce unique mental health and financial challenges for women. This qualitative study examines how single mothers in Southwest Nigeria navigate mental health challenges and financial hardships through the lens of the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA). Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 single mothers residing in the Yoruba-speaking region of Southwest Nigeria, this study foregrounds locally situated narratives to understand how these women construct and reconstruct meanings of single motherhood within their cultural and structural contexts. Findings reveal that …

Human-Ai Collaboration In Marketing Brainstorming: A Meta-Analytic Investigation Of Implementation Approaches And Creative Outcomes, Michael Michaels

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marketing organizations face intensifying pressure to sustain creative output while managing constrained resources and accelerating digital content cycles. The integration of artificial intelligence into marketing brainstorming processes presents a promising response to this challenge; however, prior to this investigation, no comprehensive quantitative synthesis had established the overall effectiveness of human-AI collaboration in marketing creativity contexts or identified optimal implementation strategies.

This dissertation presents a systematic meta-analytic investigation of AI-enhanced brainstorming effectiveness in marketing contexts. Following PRISMA guidelines, 42 independent empirical studies (N = 2,166 participants) published between 2018 and 2025 were identified across four primary academic databases, coded for implementation …

Aging In The Shadows: Szekler Cemeteries And The Case For Recognizing Elderly Populations In Bioarchaeology, Katie M. Mcgrath

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study of aging in past populations lies at the intersection of bioarchaeology and paleodemography, offering insight into both biological processes and lived social experience. Despite this potential, older adults are often rendered “invisible” in skeletal assemblages due to methodological and cultural biases. This thesis addresses this gap through a rare, community-based study of aging among the Székely population of Transylvania. By integrating osteological analysis of individuals (11th–19th centuries) from the archaeological Papdomb church cemetery with demographic data derived from the modern cemetery headstones (ca.1850–present), this research examines patterns of aging, longevity, and elder visibility across a culturally and spatially …

Behind The Bar: How Bartenders And Regulars Co-Produce Guardianship In Neighborhood Bars, Jack I. Wexler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although bars are commonly conceptualized as sites of disorder and violence, they are also spaces where social order is routinely produced and maintained. Bars are frequent targets of crime prevention efforts because they tend to concentrate aggression, disorder, and crime; yet little is known about how barroom actors—owners, bartenders, and regular patrons—actively maintain order. Explanations typically emphasize (a) physical features of bars (layout, lighting, crowding, door policies), (b) individual and situational predictors (clientele mix, intoxication levels), and (c) the actions of formal controllers—owners, bartenders, and bouncers. I consider an additional, and overlooked informal controller: the bar regular. This qualitative, exploratory …

Growth Mindset And Practice Strategy In Expert Pianists, Yiling Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Growth mindset is often theorized to support persistence, strategic learning, and reflective regulation, yet little is known about whether growth mindset differentiates how expert pianists organize and evaluate their practice strategies. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine whether expert pianists’ growth mindset beliefs relate to multidimensional practice strategy effectiveness and usage and to metacognitive indicators of adaptive regulation, including strategy adaptability, self-monitoring effectiveness, confidence in strategy selection, and the illusion of fluency (feeling well prepared in practice yet underperforming in performance). Participants were 90 expert pianists (piano faculty members at North American universities classified as Research 1) who …

Exploring Graduate Nursing Students’ Learning Experiences, Perceived Cognitive Loads, And Attitudes Toward Immersive Virtual Reality (Ivr) In Clinical Training Environments, Pranam Parsanlal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Simulation-based education (SBE) is a widely used learning method in nursing education to develop clinical skills, while in recent years, immersive virtual reality (IVR) has become a sought-after SBE method. There is a significant need to understand how to support IVR integration. Previous research suggests exploring students’ perceptions and experiences toward IVR holistically and comprehensively to understand how to integrate IVR into nursing educational practices. This explanatory sequential mixed methods research study aimed to explore the learning experiences, perceived cognitive loads, and attitudes toward IVR of 11 graduate nursing students in an IVR clinical training environment. To explore perceptions, students …

Bridging The Intention-Implementation Divide In Generative Ai Adoption: An Integrated Model Of Psychological, Behavioral And Social Drivers, Mohamed Walid Mohamed Lotfy Abdallah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the gap between professionals’ intentions to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their actual adoption behavior in workplace settings. Although Generative AI offers substantial potential to improve efficiency and performance, concerns about control, misuse and organizational risk have led to inconsistencies between intended and enacted use. Motivated by this misalignment, the study investigates the psychological, behavioral and social mechanisms that shape the intention-implementation divide. Drawing on an integrated framework combining the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Technology Acceptance Model, alongside personality traits, the research conceptualizes adoption as a phase-specific process involving evaluative, motivational and volitional components. …