Digital Commons Network^™

I'Ll Make A Man Out Of You: Precarious Manhood Beliefs Among Heterosexual-Cisgender Men And Queer Men, Serena L. Wasilewski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditional masculine gender stereotypes often suggest that men should be strong, assertive, and athletic, and these stereotypes promote men’s dominance in society and gender inequality. Endorsement of masculine stereotypes may also contribute to heterosexual men being more prejudiced against queer men. Queer men experience unique difficulties in their quest to abide by social norms defining manhood. Research using the precarious manhood theory suggests that manhood is difficult to obtain and even more challenging to maintain. Given the emerging nature of precarious manhood studies, little is known about young men’s perceptions of the precarious nature of manhood and how this may …

The Influence Of Covid-19 On Tobacco Racial Health Disparities: Testing The Differential Effects Of Covid-19 On Smoking Motivation Variables Across Black And White Smokers, Patricia F. Calixte-Civil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated persistent racial differences in access and quality of healthcare resources that result in disproportionately poor health outcomes for Black and African Americans, relative to Whites. Given COVID-19’s influence on racial health disparities broadly, examination is warranted on whether the pandemic has more specificallyinfluenced smoking motivation and, subsequently, tobacco-related health disparities. The goal of this study was to test whether COVID-19 related video content differentially primed smoking motivation (cravings, cessation self-efficacy, and motivation to quit) among Black and White smokers. I used an online research platform to host an experiment with a 2x3 between-subjects factorial design …

Diagnosis Of Neurodegenerative Diseases Using Higher Order Statistical Analysis Of Electroencephalography Signals, Seyed Alireza Khoshnevis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The field of signal processing has many applications, one of which is in the field of biomedical engineering where it has improved the performance of biomedical devices and the accuracy of medical diagnosis. One of the areas that have benefited from this field is the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). This disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system. Nearly one million Americans suffer from PD, and this number goes up to over ten million people worldwide. The main symptoms of PD include bradykinesia, rest tremor, rigidity, and impaired balance. There are many types …

Atrial Fibrillation In Aging: Mechanisms And Potential Therapeutics, Mengmeng Chang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common cardiac arrhythmias seen in the clinics, and currently available antiarrhythmic pharmacotherapies in AF are not very effective. Although AF has been recognized as an aging-mediated disease, our understanding of the electrophysiological pathways that link aging and AF remain incomplete, which limits breakthroughs in the development of novel antiarrhythmic treatments for this disease. Studies have shown that aging increases the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the heart, and high levels of ROS have been associated with development of AF in animals and patients. Additionally, in some forms of AF, the …

Population Demography, Spatial Ecology, And Habitat Use Of The Florida Box Turtle (Terrapene Bauri) On A Barrier Island, Michael D. Mills

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Turtles are one the most threatened vertebrate groups in the world due to anthropogenic threats such as habitat loss and overexploitation. In addition to occupying a range that has been vulnerable to major habitat loss, the Florida box turtle (Terrapene bauri) is particularly at risk of overexploitation due to its popularity in the pet trade. Sanibel Island is a barrier island in southwest Florida that has experienced major habitat loss and is the site of a recent poaching event. In response to these threats, studies of both the population demography and spatial ecology were conducted on Sanibel’s Florida box turtle …

Does Time Equal Money? Temporal Discounting And Self-Control: Insight Into The Rationality Of Personal Financial Decision-Making, Joshua Epstein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Exponential and hyperbolic intertemporal choice models have been widely investigated to measure an individual’s degree of impulsivity in behavioral economics. Hyperbolic discounting research identifies subject’s disproportionately high subjective value to immediate rewards, to the extent that it is not in their best interest. Furthermore, preference reversals have shown subjective value demonstrates an inversely relationship proportional to delay.

Investigation into whether visual representations influence conservative personal finance savings behavior was demonstrated in this study by presenting a multitude of visualizations before allocation of limited monetary resources. Evaluation of the neighbor effect was tested to determine whether comparing individuals to their peers …

Frequency Domain Diffuse Optics Spectroscopies For Quantitative Measurement Of Tissue Optical Properties, Sadhu Moka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tissue oxygen saturation, blood flow and blood volume are physiological bio-markers of tissue health. Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy(DOS) and Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy (DCS) are two complementary approaches to measure tissue oxygen saturation and blood flow respectively. Quantitative Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy (DOS) uses multi-spectral intensities of near-infrared light that have been modulated at RF frequencies to estimate static tissue optical properties and hence concentrations of oxygenated and de-oxygenated hemoglobin. Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy estimates tissue dynamics - i.e., blood flow, by measuring temporal intensity auto-correlation function of backscattered light diffusing through the tissue. Conventionally, DCS instruments use coherent light sources with constant intensity. …

Reducing Instrumentation Barriers Of Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy For Low-Cost Deep Tissue Blood Flow Monitoring, Arindam Biswas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is a good indicator of brain health as blood carries necessary nutrients, oxygen, and metabolic byproducts. Quantitative blood flow information can be used in several clinical and therapeutic applications such as stroke detection, measuring autoregulation, evaluating brain injury, or determining neuronal activity. Over the past few decades, light-based deep tissue hemodynamic detection modalities have become popular for non-invasive CBF measurements. In particular, noninvasive Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy (DCS), has become a tool of choice for research and clinical applications due to its depth sensitivity (>1 cm), portability, validity against other technologies such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging …

Information Dissemination And Perpetual Network, Harshit Srivastava

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social networks have attracted increasing attention from both physical and social scientists. Social networks are essential elements in societies, serving as channels for exchanging various benefits, such as innovation, information, and social support. Moreover, research in social networks helps explain macro-level social phenomena, such as social polarization and social contagion. An understanding of social networks has significant implications, such as improving social welfare and political participation. Modeling social network formation has typically employed game theory or agent-based modeling. These studies typically propose simple and tractable micro-level rules for link formation mechanisms and show that these rules have implications for known …

Data Driven Approaches For Understanding And Improving Urban Mobility, Yujie Guo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the adoption of advanced information technologies, the transportation system keep innovating. It now offers more travel options, becomes smarter, but meanwhile gets more complicated and imposes more challenges to researchers and practitioners. For example, demand responsive public transit operates according to user demand instead of traditional timetable-based and fixed route services, which brings a lot of convenience to users. These emerging services also reshapes the way people travel. With the popularity of ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, people are more accessible to vehicle use without an ownership. Given the increasing popularity of emerging services, it is …

Neroimaging Of Brain Activaion Using Diffuse Optical Tomography, Jingyu Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research has two parts. The first part focuses on the use of non-invasive imaging technique, diffuse optical tomography (DOT), to study the brain activation during the stimulation in the clinical room. It further extends the application of DOT by using it to monitor the hemodynamic response during the TMS stimulation in different parameters. Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is based on NIR light that exploits the relative transparency of biological tissue. The part two and three extends the application in the hospital for delirium patient study and arm muscle dystrophy by adding the sources and detectors to monitor the brain …

Data-Driven State Estimation For Improved Wide Area Situational Awareness In Smart Grids, Md Jakir Hossain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wide area situational awareness (WASA) in smart grids includes automatic monitoring, perception and detection of anomalies in these systems. The goal of WASA is to make smart grids aware of their physical and operational state for more effective operational decisions and control. As such, tracking the system's state or state estimation is one of the key objectives of WASA. The extensive integration of cyber elements into smart grids, such as large deployment of various monitoring and measurement devices, provides new opportunities to improve WASA. However, the tight coupling of power grids with cyber components introduces vulnerabilities to cyber and physical …

A Multiple Input Multiple Output Framework For The Automatic Optical Fractionator-Based Cell Counting In Z-Stacks Using Deep Learning, Palak Dave

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantifying cells in a defined region of biological tissue is critical for many clinical and preclinical studies, especially in pathology, toxicology, cancer, and behavior. Unbiased stereology is the state-of-art method for quantification of the total number and other morphometric parameters of stained objects in a defined region of biological tissue. As part of a program to develop accurate, precise, and more efficient automatic approaches for quantifying morphometric changes in biological tissue, our group has shown that both deep learning-based and hand-crafted algorithms can estimate the total number of histologically stained cells at their maximal profile of focus in extended depth …

Stochastic Models For Resilience Assessment And Improvement, Weimar Ardila Rueda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resilience refers to the ability of a system to absorb and mitigate the impact of potential disruptions and return to normal operational conditions. The above notion of resilience allows us to distinguish two stages in a system's post-disruption response, the absorptive dimension and the recovery dimension. The absorptive dimension is related to a system's robustness and capacity to mitigate initial loss posterior to a disruption. Meanwhile, the recovery dimension is the system's rapidity to return and reach an acceptable level of functionality after the disruption occurrence.

A social-physical (SP) system's post-disruption response is related to its resilience capacity so building …

Aldosterone Treatment Protects Connexin 30 And 43 Expression For Age-Related Hearing Loss, Jennifer A. Pineros Valencia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL), also known as presbycusis, is the number one communication disorder affecting our aged population. Connexin proteins are essential for intercellular communication throughout the human body. Mutations in connexin genes have been linked to human syndromic and nonsyndromic deafness; thus, we hypothesize changes in connexin gene and protein expression with age may be involved in the development of ARHL. In our current study, connexin mRNA gene expression for CBA/CaJ mice at different age points were examined and correlations were analyzed between the changes in gene expression and functional hearing measures, such as ABRs and DPOAEs. Moreover, we …

Quantifying Environmental Sensitivity Of Marine Resources To Oil Well Blowouts In The Gulf Of Mexico, Emily Chancellor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focused on oil spill risk assessment techniques historically utilized for coastal resources (e.g., environmental sensitivity indices (ESIs), vulnerability assessments, species-specific vulnerability frameworks) and their application and expansion to offshore resources found in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Additional included techniques (e.g., multi-sector trade-off analysis, marine spatial planning (MSP) software) provide support in decision making processes regarding the potential siting of oil production sites and/or the withdrawal of areas from oil and natural gas production. Chapter 1 included an overview and justification for this study. Chapter 2 demonstrated an initial methodology for the creation of offshore ESIs and how …

Relationship Between Individual Characteristics And Received Social Support Among People With Serious Mental Illness, Samantha Dicorte

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Past research on social support has mainly focused on perceived social support. Relatively less research has been done on received social support and how it can promote positive behavior outcomes. This study examines the importance of received social support, including background on social support, social support outcomes, and a theoretical foundation overview of the social stress model. In addition to a literature review, this study investigates the association between individual characteristics (i.e., diagnosis and substance abuse including alcohol, race/ethnicity, gender, age, and marital status) and different types of received social support (i.e., daily, mental health, and adherence support). Simple linear …

Theoretical And Experimental Analyses Of Acoustofluidic Phenomena For Biosensing Applications, Pradipta Kr. Das

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Acoustofluidics is a well-proven tweezer serving various applications such as particle manipulation, cell trapping and separations, fluid mixing, and bio-sensing. In this thesis, we explored several aspects of acoustofluidics such as acoustic streaming, acoustothermal heating and acoustophoretic manipulations of micron sized objects, in the context of biosensing applications.

In Chapter 2, inner acoustic streaming for second-order fluids has been studied analytically by employing asymptotic expansions for thin Stokes layer and low acoustic Mach number. In addition, a multiple-time-scale approach has been adopted to separate the primary oscillatory flow and the steady acoustic streaming. The study considers two sample cases: (i) …

Reproduction In Relation To Heavy-Metal Contamination Along An Urbanization Gradient In Aninvasive Florida Lizard Species (Anolis Sagrei), Elizabeth Hauck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental contamination is accumulating rapidly worldwide due to increasing urbanization rates. Heavy metals are known to be particularly toxic to organisms, to accumulate in biological systems, and to be found in higher concentrations in animals located in areas of high urban levels. However, the physiological impacts of these toxic heavy metals in wildlife remain largely unknown. Lizards are excellent bioindicator species for environmental contaminants due to their trophic level as mesopredators and their susceptibility of exposure via air, water, diet, and soil through egg deposition. To assess the impacts heavy-metal contamination has on reproductive parameters in lizards and how these …

Optimizing Lake Okeechobee Watershed Management And Reservoir Operations For Water Quality Improvement, Osama Mahrous Mossad Tarabih

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rivers around the globe have been altered as people have constructed water resources infrastructure to store water for different human needs, causing negative impacts on ecosystem processes and functions. Environmental flows have been introduced to restore deteriorated riverine ecosystems; however, environmental flows have not always been practical or adequate to restore environment conditions in rivers globally. Lake Okeechobee is a large subtropical lake that plays a pivotal role in South Florida water system providing various water demands for the surrounding communities as well as providing crucial services to the ecosystem of South Florida. However, hydrologic alterations and nutrient (phosphorus and …

L-Ergothioneine Treatment In Old Cba/Caj Male Mice Slows The Progression Of Age-Related Hearing Loss, Mark A. Bauer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The naturally occurring amino acid, L-Ergothioneine (EGT), has immense potential as a therapeutic, having shown promise in the treatment of other disease models, including neurological disorders. EGT is naturally uptaken into cells via its specific receptor, OCTN1, suggesting that it is highly conserved, to be utilized by cells as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, particularly under stressed conditions. In our current study, EGT was administered over a period of 6 months to 25-26 month old CBA/CaJ mice as a possible treatment for age-related hearing loss (ARHL), since presbycusis has been linked to higher levels of cochlear oxidative stress, apoptosis and chronic …

Evaluating The Effect Of Public Health Governance Structure And Public Opinion On Covid-19 Disease Control Interventions, Daniel Chacreton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background

Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the responses to the pandemic varied greatly from nation to nation. In the US, state-level variance in responses has likely contributed to the disparate COVID-19 infection-related state-level outcomes such as incidence and case fatality rates. The large variances in national and sub-national responses to COVID-19 when combined with the abundance of factors that influence disease transmission rates has created a number of important research opportunities.

Methods

In this vain, this research study aims to describe the relationship that exists between public health governance structure and public sentiment and COVID-19 control measure effectiveness …

Community Heritage: A Source Of Health/Medical Aspirational Capital For Black Males, Lafrance Clarke Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a recognized need for more Black male healers who pursue careers in medical fields.Thus, the purpose of this study was twofold: to explore historical documents to tell the histories of men of African descent who practiced healing in Florida and, from those histories, create a virtual heritage tour to support teaching about leadership through African American history and narratives of healing. The research questions were: How does the heritage curriculum history about Black men healers of FL provide a historical counter-narrative about Black men and their leadership in connection to health/medicine?How do historical counter-narratives about Black men support …

Orthogonal Saw Biosensor Fem Simulation Based On St-Quartz With Crystalline Zno Guiding Layer, Saurabh Patwardhan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Detection of trace amounts of biomarkers is a critical requirement in sensing the presence of conditions such as early-stage cancer. The ST cut of the Quartz crystal (ST-Quartz) supports two fundamental surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in mutually perpendicular, or orthogonal, directions: the Rayleigh wave and the shear-horizontal wave (RSAW and SH-SAW, respectively). The orthogonality enables the use of ST-Quartz in biofouling removal by the RSAW and mass sensing via the SH-SAW simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to find an ideal guiding layer and wavelength configuration that can enhance the sensing capability without sacrificing the biofouling removal ability for …

Using Gis-Based Land Use Strategies To Minimize The Impacts Of Urbanization On Agricultural Land And Forest Cover: Case Study Of The City Of Limbe, Cameroon, Lucy Ebude Deba Enomah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization is one of the most dominant phenomena of the 21st century; it is propelled by natural growth and rural-to-urban migration. This latter is typically a product of rural residents moving to urban centres in search of economic opportunities. This phenomenon is accompanied by immense land use and cover changes – predominantly agricultural and forest lands to urban land uses such as buildings and infrastructure. The goal of this research was to contribute to efforts to minimize the impacts of urbanization on agricultural land and forest cover in Limbe, Cameroon, and to develop GIS-based strategies to allocate suitable land for …

Structural And Biochemical Characterization Of Epigenetic And Fusion Tyrosine Kinase Cancer Targets For Drug Development, Melissa Bikowitz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is a significant global health burden, as ~40% of the human population is diagnosed with cancer over a lifetime, half of which succumb to the disease. To develop novel compounds as potential cancer therapeutics, an in-depth structural and biochemical understanding of proteins involved in oncogenesis is key. This dissertation centers around the comprehensive structural and biochemical characterization of two classes of proteins critical for cancer cell survival: bromodomain-containing proteins (BRDs) and fusion tyrosine kinases (FTKs).In 2010, small molecule inhibitors targeting bromodomains (epigenetic reader proteins) became heavily popularized due to the druggability and potent anticancer effects of BET inhibitors. …

Development Of Lipidated Antimicrobial Polycarbonates, Ruixuan Gao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Antimicrobial resistance is a global challenge owing to the lack of discovering effective antibiotic agents. Antimicrobial polymers containing the cationic groups and hydrophobic groups which mimic natural host-defense peptides (HDPs) show great promise in combating bacteria. Herein, we report the synthesis of lipidated polycarbonates bearing primary amino groups and hydrophobic moieties (including both the terminal lipid alkyl chain and hydrophobic groups in the sequences) by ring-opening polymerization. The hydrophobic/hydrophilic group ratios were adjusted deliberately and the lengths of the lipid tails at the end of the polymers were modified to achieve the optimized combination for the lead polymers, which exhibited …

Low-Pressure Plasma Surface Treatment Of Polycarbonate And Polyacrylic Plates With Different Plasmas And Their Characterization, Suleyman Gorkem Gizer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, polycarbonate (PC) and acrylic (PMMA) surfaces were treated with carbon tetrafluoride (CF4), oxygen (O2), and air plasmas with a low-pressure plasma method in order to change their surface properties such as surface free energy and wettability. Moreover, different pattern sized, line, triangular and square shaped surface patterns were used to determine the shape and size-dependent changes. The characteristics of untreated and plasma treated surfaces were examined via contact angle (CA) measurements with distilled (DI) water, against plasma treatment number. Moreover, surface free energy (SFE) calculations of the PC and PMMA surfaces were carried out from sessile drop …

Assisted Living Administrators’ Perspectives Of How Covid-19 Affected Direct Care Staff, Carlyn E. Vogel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presented many new challenges within assisted living communities (ALCs) and exacerbated preexisting challenges. With high quality of care in ALCs as the continuous goal to achieve, it is important to recognize challenges faced in these communities, especially those related to staffing and COVID-19.

Objective: The objective was to investigate issues related to staffing and the effect of COVID-19 in ALCs, including staff absence, leadership, impacts on staff, and impacts on staff retention.

Methods: Participants were ALC administrators from the NIA-funded parent study titled Strategic Approach to Facilitating Evacuation by Health Assessment of Vulnerable Elderly in …

Standardization Of Care For Transition-Age Youth At Emancipation: An Analysis Of Service Provision, Sarah K. Sheffield

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida Department of Children and Families notes community-based care (CBC) agencies are competent entities who present with their own method of service delivery and design. Recent evaluations show concerns in service selection to include a tendency to choose programming based on face validity, a lack of capacity and availability of services by geographical location, and a failure to systematically encompass stakeholder voice. The purpose of this study was to gain insight on how agencies make decisions regarding the selection of services for transition-age youth at emancipation.

A set of direct care providers from CBC and non-profit agencies participated in …