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Feasibility And Acceptability Of A Dance Fundamental Movement Skill Intervention For Symptoms Of Depression And Anxiety In Children, Juanita Patterson-Price

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent mental health conditions in children. Rates of both disorders are rising, surpassing the capacity of available treatment services (albertapatients, 2022; Edwardson, 2022; Statistics Canada, 2020). Lack of treatment can often result in worsening of symptoms towards serious long-term effects (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023). Additional treatment supports must be made available. The goal of this doctoral research is to examine the feasibility and acceptability of genre-inclusive dance as a psychosocial intervention for anxiety and depression in children. The first manuscript of this doctoral work shares lessons learned in a program evaluation using …

Role Of The Glutamine-Polyamine-Hypusine Axis In Cd8+ T Cell Fate And Function, Aya Gamal Aly Sadek Elmarsafawi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

T cells are critical effectors of the immune response against pathogens and malignancies and, given the recent success of T-cell immunotherapies in cancer, there is now an urgent need to enhance the efficacy and durability of T-cell immune responses to improve anti-tumor immunity. Formation of memory T cells is a critical step of a successful immune response as it ensures maintenance of long-term immunity and protection from re-exposure to foreign antigens. Notably, metabolism regulates the fate and function of T cells and is a powerful tool to modulate T-cell activity and memory differentiation. Accordingly, metabolic interventions to augment T-cell memory …

Assessing The Relationship Between True Crime Documentary And Podcast Consumption, Fear Of Crime, And Protective Behaviors, Lauren A. Tremblay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how the consumption of true crime documentaries and podcasts is linked to the fear of crime and the adoption of protective behaviors. Building upon prior research that explores these relationships, this study aims to evaluate the impact of true crime content consumption and fear of crime on individuals’ engagement in protective behaviors. Using a cultivation theory framework with an analytic sample of 665 American adults, three Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions and one structural equation model are used to evaluate the relationship between true crime documentary and podcast consumption, fear of crime, and protective behaviors. Results suggest …

Online Instructional Clarity: A Phenomenological Study Of Students’ Experiences, Erin Cathleen Bryan Sutliff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was a phenomenological exploration of five undergraduate students’ experiences with clear and unclear instructors in online courses at a large southeastern research university. The specific aim was to privilege the voices of undergraduate students about their experiences communicating with their online instructors, particularly with regard to their instructors’ clarity (or lack thereof), and analyze the essence of their experiences using an interpretivist, and specifically, phenomenological perspective. The research was envisioned to address gaps in the instructional clarity literature as well as to respond to calls within both the online learning and the instructional communication literature to explore instructor …

Student Perceptions Of The Nonmedical Use Of Prescription Stimulants And Preferences For Health Education, Ana Gutierrez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) for the purpose of improving academic performance is a growing concern among the college population. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2020, rates of NMUPS were highest among 18–25-year-olds attending college. There are several adverse health outcomes associated with NMUPS, including cardiovascular damage, seizures, psychosis, and dependence. Given the rising rates of NMUPS in this group, and the negative health outcomes associated with NMUPS, it is vital to employ health education that allows students to make informed decisions about behaviors that impact their health. The purpose of this study …

All Quiet On The Digital Front: The Unseen Psychological Impacts On Cybersecurity First Responders, Tammie R. Hollis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Driven by the increasing frequency of cyberattacks and the existing talent gap between industry needs and skilled professionals, this research study focused on the crucial human element in the domain of cybersecurity incident response. The objective of this dissertation was to offer a meaningful exploration of the lived experiences encountered by cybersecurity incident responders and an assessment of the subsequent impacts on their well-being. Additionally, this study sought to draw comparisons between the experiences of cybersecurity incident responders and their counterparts in traditional emergency response roles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a cohort of 22 individuals with first-hand experience working …

Understanding Graduation Rates By Sex By Evaluating The Quality Of Student Interactions With Faculty And Academic Advisors, Michael John Bolen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess whether student satisfaction with faculty and academic advisors varied based on the sex of the student and the students’ academic college at a large public university in the Southeast. With the university aiming to improve its graduation rates, particularly male graduation rates, the Theory of Student Departure was used as a guide in identifying student interactions with faculty and academic advisors as potential factors impacting student persistence to graduation. Previous research suggests that the quality of the interactions that students have with faculty and academic advisors can vary based on the sex …

Synthetic Studies Of Potential New Ketogenic Molecules, Mohammad Nazmus Sakib

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ketogenic diet has gained popularity in the past few decades among people and physicians due to its various health benefits. A significant amount of research has been done for the modification of the original ketogenic diet and investigation of its potential health benefits. However, synthesis of novel ketogenic compounds as a dietary supplement has not received the same level of attention. That is the primary objective of this research project. The first chapter of this manuscript describes the synthesis of various short and medium chain esters of different polyols that have been done so far, and areas of their …

Borderlands: (Un)Covering The Narratives Of Teacher Candidates Of Color In A Pds Context, Jennifer I. Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to uncover the narratives of teacher candidates of color and their experiences with race and racism while learning to teach in a PDS context, develop an understanding of how state and local policies manifest within these experiences, and explore the roles of pláticas as a context for critical conversations. This research study captured the stories of three teacher candidates of color, Ms. L, Susan, and Amerie, learning to teach in a PDS context. I used the transformative framework of Critical Race Methodologies in conjunction with case study methods to uncover the experiences of the study contributors and …

Learning After Retirement: The Stories Of Three Chinese Senior Citizens, Yanan Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

China, with its vast population, has qualified as an aging society. As a response to this, education and learning have become an important means of improving the quality of life for older people in China. The primary objective of this study is to uncover what stimulates three older Chinese individuals to engage in learning activities by exploring their personal stories. The two research questions guiding the study are: (a) How do three senior Chinese citizens describe their life and learning experiences? and, (b) What factors motivate and influence these three senior Chinese citizens to participate in learning activities? In this …

The Influence Of Psychosocial Factors On Opioid Decision-Making For Cancer-Related Pain Among Breast Cancer Survivors: A Mixed Method Study, Melody Nichole Chavez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most frequently reported malignancy among women in the United States. Cancer-related pain is highly prevalent occurrence and is often the most fearful side effect following curative intent treatment. Opioid pain management is considered a standard of care and can be of great benefit to treat moderate to severe pain. However, undertreatment of pain remains a significant issue affecting the patient’s physical function, psychological well-being, and overall quality of life. Barriers to adequate pain management are multifactorial and often attributed to patients’ beliefs and attitudes revolving around opioid pain management. In addition, the opioid epidemic has …

Lgbtq+ Inclusivity In The Implicit And Explicit Social Studies Curriculum: A Descriptive Exploratory Study In Teacher Self-Efficacy, K. B.F. Francis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive exploratory study describes teacher self-efficacy in providing LGBTQ+ support in the implicit and explicit social studies curriculum in the wake of numerous anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in education in Florida. Four high school social studies teachers from three different Florida public school districts were interviewed to answer three main questions. All participating teachers expressed broad knowledge of their subject matter but could not identify LGBTQ+ inclusivity in their state and district-mandated curriculum. All participants had a great sense of self-efficacy in supporting their LGBTQ+ students but low self-efficacy in educating their colleagues about these issues. All participating teachers expressed a …

The Contextualization Of Socioscientific Issues In An Age Of Accountability, Karrie A. Wikman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overarching aim of this research was to ultimately support global resiliency through science education, preparing citizens to laudably negotiate the contentious socio-cultural science- and technology-based issues of modern times. Correspondingly, this mixed methods study aimed to move a large, diverse school district toward school environments conducive to contextualized socioscientific issues (SSI)-based learning. Of interest to teachers, administrators, and policymakers, the research investigated the effects of subsuming standards-based objectives within the SSI instructional framework on science achievement. Analysis of variance of multilevel assessment and classroom observation protocol data revealed that students experiencing the SSI intervention showed statistically significant gains in …

Big Data Analytics For Healthcare Social Media: New Algorithms And Insights, Negar Maleki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades, there has been a rapid evolution in information and communication technology, including the emergence of social media. Social media has a significant impact on various fields such as politics, business, culture, education, careers, innovation, and especially healthcare. This influence is not a new phenomenon since a survey from ten years ago showed that up to 78\% of American adults used the internet to look for health-related information for themselves or someone else. With the shift towards on-demand services in society, healthcare is also affected by this trend. Instead of waiting for weeks or months to …

Human Vs Machine: Hyper-Realistic Avatars And Their Efficacy As A Communication Channel, Jill S. Schiefelbein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hyper-realistic avatars (HRAs), a form of synthetic media, are custom-created digital embodiments of a human, created by capturing and combining that person’s video and vocal likeness. This is the first known study of the efficacy of videos delivered by hyper-realistic avatars as a communication channel in comparison to videos delivered by their human counterparts. An experiment testing how information retention, engagement, and trust vary between viewers of videos delivered by a real human, videos delivered by the HRA representing that same human, and videos delivered by the HRA that discloses to viewers that it is a hyper-realistic avatar is presented. …

Interdependency Between Water And Road Infrastructures: Cases And Impacts, Shihab Uddin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the interdependency between road and water infrastructures and associated interdependency impact on these two critical infrastructure systems. Critical infrastructures and the interdependency among these infrastructures have gained much attention recently because of its growing complexity, importance, and vulnerability to natural and man-made threats. In response, researchers have spent significant effort to study these infrastructures individually as well as when they are interdependent to understand complex interdependency relationship and to figure out ways to make these infrastructures more reliable, robust, and resilient. However, water and road infrastructure systems have not been studied as vastly as other critical infrastructures …

The Application Of Memes On English Learners' Idiomatics And Motivation, Fatima Azzahraa Raafat

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students nowadays live in a visually rich world where they continually generate meaning and knowledge through images (Romero & Bobkina, 2017). To satisfy two technology-savvy generations, the Millennial and Generation Z, field practitioners had to generate multimodal environments that include written text, visual images, and design elements from various viewpoints. An effective pedagogy of idiomatics can support second language acquisition (SLA) and idiomatic competence development, that is, idiomatic language and figurative language study (Liontas, 2021, p. 3, 32). Idiomatics should be incorporated into educational programs for SL learners as early in their education as possible (Liontas, 2008). For my study, …

Fostering A Sense Of Online Community: Faculty Reflections Through Narratives, Brittany D. Anthony

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study will explore how MSW faculty describe a community in online courses and what strategies they use in fostering a sense of community within courses from an online Master of Social Work program at the University of South Florida. There is an imperative need to ensure online courses provide a sense of community to support students for success. During the timespan of an online course, strategic pedagogical approaches to fostering a community are essential to enriching the overall learning experience for students. Many studies tend to focus on the challenges faced when building an online community. Still, the …

Crossing Schools, Language, And Migration Borders: The Experiences Of Latinx And Caribbean Emergent Multilingual Mothers In K-12 Public Schools, Michelle Angelo-Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anti-immigrant sentiment and "English-only" ideologies have a significant impact on educational policies, practices, and processes. This includes parental engagement, the quality of education and life opportunities offered to immigrant children, and families’ well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine how Latinx and Caribbean mothers in Florida with various immigration statuses (i.e., undocumented, asylum seekers, refugees, international students, and mixed-status) and often with limited financial resources attempt to steward their children through the U.S. educational system. The research question was: How did emergent multilingual immigrant mothers experience the K-12 education system in Florida? The sub-question was: How did schools …

Deciphering Trends And Tactics: Data-Driven Techniques For Forecasting Information Spread And Detecting Coordinated Campaigns In Social Media, Kin Wai Ng Lugo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this dissertation is to develop models that predict and investigate the spread of information in social media over time. In this context, we consider topics of discussions as the information that spreads. Thus, we are interested in forecasting the number of messages per day in a future interval of time. We take a data-driven approach, in which we compare our results with real datasets from a multitude of socio-political contexts and from multiple social media platforms, specifically, Twitter and YouTube.

We identified a number of challenges related to forecasting social media time series per topic. First, …

Coupling Chemical And Genomic Data Of Marine Sediment-Associated Bacteria For Metabolite Profiling, Stephanie P. Suarez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marine sediment-associated bacteria house many new and exciting novel secondary metabolites. These metabolites can be tested for bioactivity against various types of cancer and fungal, bacterial, and viral infections. In this thesis, we investigated the combination of biosynthetic gene cluster information with mass spectra to perform a chemical profiling of sediment- associated bacteria. Furthermore, we utilized a scoring technique to provide an identification and confidence score to each annotated compound. The sediment was collected from east Arthur Harbor, Palmer Station, Antarctica, at depths of 20 ft and 60 ft. After plating on agar, 52 unique bacterial strains were isolated, with …

Brain Metastasis-Associated Fibroblasts Secrete Fucosylated Pvr/Cd155 That Induces Breast Cancer Invasion, Emma Adhikari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer (BC) continues to be the most diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. High mortality, in most cancers, is due to metastasis; BC is the most common source of one of the deadliest forms of metastasis–brain metastasis (BM) in female. Patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) exhibit the highest incidence of BM and poorest survival outcomes upon diagnosis with BM. The prognosis of breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) remains poor because the blood–brain barrier (BBB) prevents the uptake of drug substances, including chemotherapeutic agents, targeted agents, and toxins, from the brain. …

Integrated Periphyton Biofilters In Marine Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, Adam N. Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marine aquaculture is a growing industry that has the potential to reduce eutrophication, overfishing, and loss of biodiversity. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are a type of aquaculture system that decreases discharge, raises biological control, and conserves water; however, RAS are challenged due to high energy cost, low biodiversity, water quality control, and waste nutrients. Periphyton biofilters are a new technology that allows for feed production, water quality control, microbial diversity, and resource recovery in marine aquaculture systems. The overarching question that this dissertation investigates is, how can periphyton biofilters be integrated into RAS to address the challenges of modern sustainable …

Brands In The Metaverse: An Examination & Taxonomy Of Marketing Strategy, Paige L. Bridges

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are many definitions of the Metaverse depending on the context. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the Metaverse as a (hypothetical) virtual reality environment in which users interact with one another's avatars and their surroundings in an immersive way, sometimes posited as a potential extension of or replacement for the Internet, World Wide Web, and social media (Lea & Bradbery, 2020). Corporations have increasingly started to launch brand marketing in the Metaverse to capitalize on its 400 million monthly active users and estimated value of approximately $5 trillion by 2030 (McKinsey, 2022). As an emerging area, research on the Metaverse …

Challenging Vocabulary Words In Graphic Novels: A Multimodal Content Analysis, Karyn Z. Mendez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recreational reading is in a decline for upper elementary aged readers, and along with this decline comes consequent declines in students’ ability to make meaning from what they read and their acquisition of different language forms, including the acquisition of new vocabulary words. However, one reading format is increasing in popularity: graphic novels. As graphic novels, along with other texts with both textual and visual elements, become an increasingly prevalent way of reading in the 21st century, it is important to look at the possibilities multimodal texts have for foundational literacy skills, such as vocabulary acquisition. To date, however, the …

Deep Learning-Based Automatic Stereology For High- And Low-Magnification Images, Hunter Morera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantification of the true number of stained cells in specific brain regions is an important metric in many fields of biomedical research involving cell degeneration, cytotoxicology, cellular inflammation, and drug development for a wide range of neurological disorders and mental illnesses. Unbiased stereology is the current state-of-the-art method for collecting the cell count data from tissue sections. These studies require trained experts to manually focus through a z-stack of microscopy images and count (click) on a hundred or more cells per case, making this approach time consuming (~1 hour per case) and prone to human error (i.e., inter-rater variability). Thus, …

Reading Rent: Interracial Relationships And Racial Hierarchies, Susanna A. Perez-Field

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In examining the musical Rent by Jonathan Larson (1995) and its film adaptation by Chris Columbus (2005), most scholarly work and analyses have focused on the work’s identity as a queer text. I assert that elements of this musical have been overlooked for its depth of racial and class hierarchies. Utilizing sociological theory and interracial relationships, I will examine characters and musical numbers to explore diversity and class positioning.

I will explore Rent for themes of racial, gender, and sexual identities and how they are presented through the friendships and romantic relationships of the eight principal characters (alphabetically): Angel, Benny, …

Water Chemistry Variability In Peacock Springs Cave System And Spring Basin: Impacts On Continuous Monitoring Of Karst Aquifers, Mahnoor Kamal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Upper Floridan Aquifer (UFA) is a highly transmissive and heterogeneous karst aquifer that makes it acutely susceptible to pollution. Rapid and extensive water quality changes in nutrients at springs draining the UFA have prompted intensive monitoring at several priority springs, including continuous and discrete water quality sampling. Springs, however, are a discrete discharge point of an often-expansive phreatic cave network that can intersect different land uses and thus drain distinct geographic areas of a springshed. The extensive network contains convergent passages from deep and shallow aquifer regions and may contribute to varying water chemistry across passages resulting in water …

Neuroendocrine Regulation Of Chemokine Receptor-Mediated Leukocyte Migration Via Heteromeric G Protein-Coupled Receptor Complexes, Garrett Enten

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neuroendocrine regulation of the innate immune system is a well-documentedphenomenon. The underlying mechanisms, however, are not well understood. Here we show that at least 20 members of the human chemokine receptor (CR) family heteromerize with one or more members of the α1-adrenergic receptor (AR) family and that all CRs, apart from CXCR1, heteromerize with arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A) in recombinant systems. These heteromeric complexes are detectable in human monocytes and the monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1. Though currently technical limitations prevent the direct visualization of endogenously expressed higher-order hetero-oligomeric receptor complexes, we provide evidence through functional analysis and proximity-based …

Wastewater Treatment Using Encapsulated Chabazite In Polyvinyl Alcohol-Sodium Alginate Hydrogel Biofilm Carriers, Susieanna Nevada Persaud

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen discharge from wastewater is a global issue and with increased urbanization as well as industrialization, it has become even more essential to develop more efficient wastewater treatment systems. The dominant form of nitrogen in wastewater is ammonium. Biological oxidation of ammonium to nitrite and nitrate is the first step in biological nitrogen removal processes. If left untreated, nitrogen can cause toxicity to aquatic life, unsafe changes in water quality, and eutrophication.

Biofilm carriers can help to improve the efficiency of traditional activated sludge wastewater treatment systems by reducing operating costs and reducing hydraulic retention time. Biofilm carriers also promote …