Digital Commons Network^™

Sensi-Train: Context-Aware Sensitive Content Detection Using Transformers And Large Language Models, Nazeefa Muzammil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The detection of sensitive content has become a critical task in natural language processing due to the widespread use of online platforms and the social harm caused by it. Even though current methods have advanced significantly, many of them mainly rely on surface-level text and neglect to take into consideration contextual and cultural elements that are crucial for correctly assessing sensitivity of any content to a particular individual. Due to this, implicit offense, sarcasm, and culturally grounded expressions frequently cause problems for such systems. To enable culturally grounded sensitive content detection, this thesis presents Sensi-Train, a context-rich dataset and modeling …

The Role Of Campus Symbols In College Student Belonging: A Photo-Elicitation And Photovoice Qualitative Study, Abigail W. Bradley-Tyler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the impact of campus symbols on the sense of belonging among second-year students at a public, four-year institution in Florida. This topic is relevant as there is a lack of research about positive or neutral campus symbols. Using sense of belonging and symbolic interactionism as theoretical frameworks, this study investigates how students interpret and emotionally connect with university symbols, including campus mascots, monuments, personnel, and campus traditions and rituals. Using photo-elicitation and photovoice interviews, participants engaged with photographs of official university symbols and captured images representing their campus experience. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, the …

Emotion Differentiation As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Affect And Alcohol Use Among College Students: An Ecological Momentary Assessment, Gaelle El Helou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use remains prevalent among young adults and particularly college students. Research shows a link between affective states and alcohol consumption, although recent findings appear to be unequivocal on the effect of negative and positive emotions on college drinking. While emotion differentiation (ED) has been associated with alcohol use, previous research has focused mostly on clinical treatment adult populations and / or negative emotions, focusing less on the role that positive emotions play in drinking, particularly among college students. The current study explored the moderating role of negative and positive emotion differentiation (NED / PED) in the association between negative …

“It’S Like Being Interrogated For A Crime:” The Job Interview Experiences Of Late Diagnosed Autistic Women, Brianna M. Sandner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autistic adults face disproportionately high unemployment rates, with traditional job interviewsserving as a significant barrier due to their emphasis on social norms and the importance of first impressions. Research on barriers late-diagnosed autistic women—a population historically marginalized in both autism and employment research—encounter during job interviews is nascent. This study examines four key areas through the voices of participants: challenges encountered during interviews, coping mechanisms, masking behaviors, and the impact of receiving a late diagnosis on their understanding of past job-seeking experiences. Women described experiencing difficulties with an inaccessible interview structure, navigating social and professional norms, and answering questions on …

Eye Of The Beholder: Exploring Correlates Of Subjective Cognition In Older Adults With And Without Insomnia, Amy N. Costa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is unclear how subjective cognition is related to current objective cognitive functioning in older adults, but subjective cognitive complaints are a risk factor for future cognitive decline. A lack of awareness of even subtle changes in objective cognitive performance could lead to missed opportunities for early intervention. Given past work and known associations between sleep, cardiac autonomic functioning, and cognition (both subjective and objective), it is plausible to hypothesize these factors may influence subjective cognition. Understanding how and when the subjective and objective cognition relationship diverges may inform clinicians on how to best assess cognitive functioning and factors (i.e., …

An Autoethnographic And Relational Exploration Of Identity Negotiation Within Romantic Relationships Between Nonbinary Partners And Cisgender Women, Maddison L. Russell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how trans and cisgender partners negotiate gender identity, care, and relational well-being through an autoethnographic examination of everyday communication. The study draws from eighteen personal narratives across family, academic, and romantic contexts to trace how gender-based microaggressions and cisnormative expectations become embedded in ordinary talk, gestures, and silences, shaping identity development and relational stability. At its core, this work argues that relationality emerges as a pervasive and constitutive condition that shapes how affirmation, misrecognition, and belonging are experienced within trans/cis relationships and across time. Through examining moments of misunderstanding, minimization, and avoidance, the study reveals how microaggressions …

Understanding The Effect Of Affective Context On Conflict Monitoring Through Erp And Behavioral Indices Of Cognitive Control, Amanda Holbrook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding cognitive control in response to conflict requires examining how control-related processes are modulated by affect. This study tested the negative-affective signaling hypothesis, which posits that negative affect elicited by conflict enhances cognitive control. Undergraduate participants (n=73) completed an affective-flanker task in which affective images preceded flanker stimuli. Cognitive control was indexed by the error-related negativity (ERN), conflict N2, response times (RTs), and accuracy, and late positive potential (LPP) to images indexed motivated attention. Across hypotheses, adding event-related potential (ERP) coupling terms did not improve the predictive accuracy of multilevel models, providing no evidence for the predicted trial-to-trial affect-control coupling. …

Microplastic Contamination In Longfin Squid (Doryteuthis Pealeii) From The Florida Gulf Coast: Evidence Of Marine Based Pollution, Jordan Kleinschmidt Dilena

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microplastic contamination is a pervasive global issue, yet its impact on ecologically significant cephalopod populations remains poorly understood. This study quantified microplastic prevalence and distribution in longfin squid (Doryteuthis pealeii), a key trophic link in the Gulf of Mexico. Following hydrogen peroxide digestion of digestive tract and mantle tissues, microplastics were isolated via vacuum filtration and characterized using microscopy. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed polymer identities. Microplastic contamination was exceptionally high, with 96.4% of individuals containing particles (mean = 36.6 ± 20.0 particles per individual, range = 0–94, n = 110 squid). From 4,072 total particles analyzed, fragments dominated (98.3%), …

Exploring Enacted Active Learning Practices In Postsecondary Chemistry Lecture And Laboratory Courses, Kendall M. Zammit

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The work in this thesis begins to explore the enacted active learning practices in postsecondary chemistry lecture and laboratory courses. Chapter 1 explores the level of inquiry in postsecondary laboratories. Chapter 2 explores instructional and assessment practices at two-year institutions.

Chemistry postsecondary laboratories offer a unique opportunity to engage students in inquiry-based instruction. Inquiry-based instruction was categorized by the asking faculty members at four-institutions about six characteristics of laboratory design: choosing a problem, background research, designing procedures, analyzing data, communicating results, and interpreting results. As students have the freedom to make decisions on more characteristics of inquiry learning, the closer …

Adaptive Multi-Agent Intelligence: A Dynamic Data Management System For Enhanced Data Quality And Reconciliation, Anthony Taeyang Vigil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizations struggle with data quality problems that cost them millions of dollars annually. Manual data cleanup and standardizing, also known as reconciliation, can take skilled analysts days to complete and can still contain human errors. This dissertation addresses this challenge by developing and validating the Origin Data Management System, which automates processes that traditionally require days of manual work. The system achieved up to 100% accuracy in standardizing vendor names and identifying CEO information across real-world test datasets from Jefferson County Public Schools, Forbes, and Fortune Magazines. Processing time dropped from days to minutes—a 96-fold improvement over manual methods. These …

Hard Hats And Second Chances: A Phenomenological Study Of Employer Support In Construction-Based Reintegration, Christofer M. Pacheco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study examines how formerly incarcerated individuals perceive and experience employer support during workplace reintegration in the construction industry. Although employment is widely recognized as a protective factor against recidivism, post-hire experiences from the perspective of justice-involved employees remain underexplored. Grounded in an interpretivist paradigm and informed by Social Support, Social Learning, and Identity perspectives, the study investigated how structure, self, and environment interact to influence retention, growth, and desistance.

Nineteen interviews were completed with six construction workers in New Mexico who had maintained employment for at least one year following incarceration. Through the use of Seidman’s three-interview …

Psychiatric Symptom Severity And Performance Monitoring: Intraindividual Variability In Neural Responses And Behavioral Adjustments To Errors, Bohyun Park

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Performance monitoring is a cognitive process that involves evaluating one’s own performance and adjusting behavior accordingly. Atypical neural and behavioral indices of performance monitoring are commonly observed in individuals with psychopathology and have led to hypotheses that perturbed performance monitoring may contribute to functional impairment. However, neural and behavioral indices of performance monitoring are often examined in isolation, so it remains unclear how error-related neural activity relates to subsequent behavioral adaptation on a trial-by-trial basis, and whether this coupling varies across different levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The present study examined trial-level relationships between error monitoring event-related brain potentials …

When Shame Leads To Silence: Leadership Style Moderates Shame, Silence, And Job Satisfaction, Andrew M. Lyman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT Shame is a fundamental self-conscious emotion that shapes behavior and communication in the workplace. This study examined how shame interacts with leadership styles to influence employee silence and job satisfaction. Survey data were collected from 1,500 professionals across diverse industries, and statistical analyses were conducted to test nine hypotheses. Three hypotheses were assessed through direct linear regression while six moderation hypotheses were evaluated using moderated multiple linear regression models to capture leadership style as a contextual influence.

Findings indicated that shame significantly predicted higher levels of silence and lower levels of job satisfaction. Silence was also negatively associated with …

“For Haitian Culture, Being Older [Is] A Blessing”: Perceptions Of Aging, Elderhood, And Dementia In A Haitian Born Sample, Melissa K. Eustache

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how first-generation Haitian immigrants in the United States understand and interpret dementia within the intersecting contexts of culture, migration, and biomedicine. While dementia is constructed as a pathological “loss of self” and a public health epidemic, in American biomedical and popular discourse, this study examines how Haitian-born individuals—socialized within a non-Western cultural and spiritual framework—make sense of cognitive decline and impairment in ways that diverge from Western biomedical narratives. Guided by theoretical orientations from medical anthropology, including Mark Nichter’s idioms of distress, Margaret Lock’s local biologies, and neuroanthropology, this research explores how cultural models of illness, aging, …

Joint Action (In)Action: A Communicatively Constituted Examination Of Shared Governance, Organizational Sustainability, And The Future Of Liberal Arts In Institutions Of Higher Education, Rebecca R. Todd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are at least two versions of higher education today. One is that universities and curriculum need to be reformed to suit contemporary exigencies, particularly market-driven logics and direct paths to desirable job and career outcomes. The other is the story in this dissertation, namely, that the liberal arts hold value for the creation of new knowledge, critical thinking, and empowerment. With this admittedly one-sided corrective to the dominant narrative of higher education, this abstract and dissertation begin.

In the contemporary landscape of American higher education, the liberal arts are under siege. Once heralded as the cornerstone of democratic citizenship …

Reducing Data Requirements In Polymer Science: Deep Neural Networks For Predicting Surface Tension Of Copolymer Compatibilizers, Md Mushfiqul Islam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In polymer chemistry, compatibilization involves adding a substance often a block or graft copolymerto stabilize polymer blends that would otherwise not mix well, leading to rough structures and weak me- chanical properties. Compatibilizers improve miscibility and reduce interfacial tension, which is critical for applications such as mixed-waste polymer recycling. Sequence-controlled polymers offer unique potential by combining the tunable chemistry of synthetic polymers with the precise, function-driven design of biological macromolecules, but unlike proteins, they lack large, evolution-shaped datasets to guide discovery. This research develops a deep learning framework to predict the surface tension of sequence-controlled copolymer compatibilizers across varying concentrations. …

Evaluation Of Functional Communication Training With Sign Mands For Non-Vocal Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Hayley Margaret Mcmanus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often experience difficulties in both vocal and non-vocal communication, which can lead to problem behavior as a means of expressing needs and wants. Functional communication training (FCT) has been shown to be effective in teaching functional communicative responses (FCRs) and decreasing problem behavior. However, studies on the use of sign language as a communicative response or modality in FCT have been limited, despite its benefits, including feasibility and low response effort, compared to other modalities, such as picture cards and augmentative and alternative communication devices. This study evaluated FCT using sign language mands for …

Role Conflict And Burnout: How Can Employed Graduate Students Thrive, Not Just Survive?, Eric M. Douthirt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates several of the multifaceted challenges faced by employed graduate students, a growing demographic within U.S. higher education. Against a backdrop of intensifying technological change, evolving labor market dynamics, and increased educational attainment, these individuals encounter pronounced school-work-family conflict (SWFC), resulting in a heightened risk for personal burnout (PB).

Building upon the job demands-resources theory, this research explores whether school-work facilitation (SWF) and student emotional engagement (EE) might attenuate the deleterious relationship between school-work-family conflict (SWFC) and personal burnout (PB), with gender and number of children included as controls.

Data from 489 participants, collected via a single cross-sectional …

Development And Initial Validation Of An Instrument To Measure Teachers’ Socioscientific Issues Instruction Perceptions, Michael Edward Mitchell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Little is known about how high school science teachers perceive Socioscientific Issues (SSI) on a broad scale, including what factors shape their views of a pedagogical shift to adopt SSI. To address this critical gap, I constructed the Teachers’ Socioscientific Issues (SSI) Perceptions Survey (TSPS), the first instrument specifically designed and initially validated to measure teacher perceptions of SSI integration. This study presents the development and validation of the TSPS, offering robust evidence for its reliability, fairness, and construct validity.

Survey development adhered to gold-standard psychometric protocols (Bandalos, 2018; Crocker & Algina, 1986; DeVellis, 2012; McCoach et al., 2013) and …

Saudi Early Childhood Teacher Educators’ And Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives Of Early Field Experiences, Amani M. Alodwani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative descriptive study explores how teacher educators perceive the integration of field experiences within the curriculum and their perspectives on the preservice early childhood education (ECE) teachers they supervise. It also examines preservice teachers’ views regarding their field experiences and how these experiences contribute to their professional preparation. The Ministry of Education (MOE) emphasizes that teacher preparation programs should provide extended field experiences that connect theoretical coursework with practical application. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three Saudi teacher educators and four preservice teachers from Kingdom University. Thematic analysis using inductive coding was employed to identify recurring themes and differences …

Sound Practices In Human Resources: A Critical Analysis Of How Ai Applicant Screening Tools Are Used With Deaf Individuals In The Hospitality And Tourism Sector, Sherry L. Gaynor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the intersection of Career and Workforce Education, Deaf Education, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies used in hiring practices. The purpose of this research is to identify potential barriers to equitable employment for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) individuals and to propose effective methods for evaluating and assessing AI and machine learning applications utilized in recruitment and selection processes. Although AI is increasingly embedded in human resource management (HRM), there remains a significant lack of research addressing its use with special populations. In particular, no prior studies have examined how voice recognition software, facial analysis, psychometric testing, and virtual …

Statistical Challenges And Simulation Results For Pilot Clinical Trials, Weiliang Cen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: The effect size estimated from a pilot trial is often an inaccurate reflection of the true effect size observed in a large trial, leading to either underestimation or overestimation. Published data suggest that effect sizes from large trials are typically smaller than those reported in their corresponding pilot trials. To address this discrepancy, conservative or discount adjustment methods are widely recommended to modify pilot trial effect sizes when calculating sample sizes, thereby maintaining adequate statistical power. This study aims to assess effect sizes from both pilot and large trials and to evaluate the performance of existing adjustment methods.

Methods: …

Spatio-Temporal Characterization Of Trace Metals Across The West Florida Shelf And During The Decline Of The North Atlantic Spring Bloom, Delfina Paola Navarro-Estrada

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Phytoplankton in the marine environment require the trace metals manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and cadmium (Cd) to catalyze cellular processes driving photosynthesis, including macronutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon) acquisition, light harvesting, and protection from oxidative stress. The high biological demand for these elements, coupled with their low concentrations in the ocean, can limit primary production and shape community composition in marine ecosystems, highlighting the need to understand the drivers behind trace metal distributions and their interplay with phytoplankton growth across biogeochemical regimes. This dissertation characterizes the spatial and temporal distributions of dissolved …

Parameterizing Ion–Lipid Interactions From Local Clusters To Reproduce Experimental Bulk Properties Of Lipid Bilayers, W. Matthew Saunders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Phospholipids are the main component of cell membranes, providing a delimiting boundary for cells from their environments or from their organelles from the cytosol. Thiscompartmentalization allows cells to maintain quite different solutions within their cells and organelles, including different mixtures dissolved ions. Consequently, these membranes are constantly flanked by complex mixtures of salts at varied concentrations. To study membrane structure, one cannot neglect the contribution of the salts in the local solution. Ions perturb bilayer structure via specific interaction with the phospholipids, primarily with the headgroups. Experimental studies of these systems are somewhat at odds — scattering experiments with different …

Investigating Whether Giving Or Receiving Support Impacts Caregivers Who Were Maltreated Or Not Maltreated Differently, Tara D. Matta-Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Caregivers can experience higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression compared to non-caregivers. However, a growing body of literature is beginning to show that while caregiving may be stressful, there may also be benefits to the caregiver, such as feeling closer to the care recipient, a sense of purpose or personal growth. Further, research now demonstrates that giving support to others can be more beneficial than receiving support from others in terms of mental health and even mortality. While these are important advances in the literature, understanding the impacts of giving and receiving support on individuals who were maltreated by …

Surveying Secondary Ela Teachers’ Engagement With Ai-Powered Tools For Classroom Assessment, Mona Alrashidi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents profound challenges andpossibilities for educational assessment, particularly in English Language Arts (ELA), where AI- powered tools can generate the very linguistic products traditionally used as evidence of student learning. While scholarship has primarily explored theoretical frameworks and broad perceptions, a critical gap remains in understanding how secondary ELA teachers navigate and report AI integration within formative assessment workflows. This understanding is essential: formative assessment has been recommended as a strategy to mitigate AI-related challenges by prioritizing learning processes over products. Yet empirical evidence of teachers’ practices remains limited.

This exploratory study surveyed 102 …

Communicating The Truth-Telling And Space-Making Of Black Women In Higher Education: A Trap Feminist Study, Chazman Deira Mckoy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation adopts a “for Black women, by Black women” approach to examine how Black women’s lived experiences and performances of racialized gender become communicative acts of agency as they navigate the intersecting challenges of race and gender within pedagogical contexts.

Grounded in Black Feminist Pedagogy and expanded through Trap Feminism, this study celebrates the complexity of racialized gender performances and theorizes them as intentional communicative acts of resistance. These acts not only confront dominant ideologies but also create ongoing spaces for truth-telling, spaces where Black women can reframe how their stories, labor, and brilliance are recognized in academic contexts …

Mathematics And Growth Mindset: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Interventions At The Post-Secondary Level, Sean E. Murphy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Growth mindset interventions have been implemented in academic settings for over three decades (C. S. Dweck et al., 1995a). One academic field where growth mindset may be most needed is mathematics, as it is not unusual for a student to claim, “I’m not a math person.” Notably, no meta-analysis of mindset interventions in post-secondary mathematics classrooms existed prior to the current study. To close this gap in the literature, the present study included a systematic review and meta-analysis, drawing on two search methods: Boolean and snowballing. The results from both methods were screened using inclusion/exclusion criteria. Snowballing search was hypothesized …

Geographic Patterns Of Educational Achievement: A Methodological Case Study Of Regression Modeling Approaches, Leokadia Lipien

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This methodological case study introduces a novel approach to investigate the impact of student, teacher, and geographic factors on the academic achievement of virtual school students in Florida. Traditional linear regression models, and even multilevel models, often overlook spatial dependencies, which can lead to biased estimates and incomplete inferences. This research addresses this limitation by comparing a cross-classified multilevel model (CCMM) with a novel cross-classified spatial model (CCSM) that incorporates coefficients from geographically weighted regression (GWR). Utilizing secondary data from a statewide virtual school, including student demographics, teacher characteristics, and standardized test scores, along with U.S. Census Bureau data, the …

Separating Memory And Attention In Secondary Tasks, Anne Olsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Memory and attention are intricately intertwined throughout life. How these processes interact and effect the encoding process shows to be just as complex and intricate. A recent study by Sahakyan and Malmberg (2018) revealed that when cognitive resources are strained during encoding, long-established retrieval patterns in both recall and recognition alter. These patterns found were suggested to be the result of an altered mechanism in strengthening processes that eliminated trace strengthening when cognitive resources were strained. This work investigates those claims through a direct replication of the original experiment (Experiment 1) as well as investigating the components of the secondary …