Digital Commons Network^™

Soft Magnetic Composite Substrates For Rf/Microwave Applications, Poonam Lathiya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Novel soft magnetic ferrite materials will play a crucial role in next-generation over one trillion sensors (also known as “trillion sensor economy) related to 5G communications and internet of things, as these materials can achieve improved wireless power and signal transfer efficiency with high operation frequency. In this work, Ni-Cu-Zn and Ni-Co-Zn ferrites with high permeability, high permittivity, and low magnetic and dielectric losses were prepared for RF and microwave device applications. Frequency dispersion of RF complex permeability of Ni-Cu-Zn ferrites prepared under different applied hydraulic pressures and durations have been thoroughly investigated. The Ni0.35Cu0.19Zn0.46Fe2O4 ferrites were prepared by conventional …

Finding Signal In The Noise: High-Fidelity, Quantitative, Optical Blood Perfusion Imaging With Interference, Abdul Mohaimen Safi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For label-free, non-invasive, wide field-of-view (FOV) imaging/monitoring of blood flow, speckle-based approaches are gaining popularity. However, to obtain quantitative flow information, speckle techniques rely on the multi-exposure scheme which requires complex, bulky, and expensive instrumentation, limiting its application to preclinical studies. This dissertation directly addresses these issues. In the first part of this dissertation, we report a novel single shot synthetic multi-exposure speckle imaging (syMESI) method to synthetically produce multi-exposure images from one short single exposure speckle image using spatial binning/averaging. We demonstrate that syMESI can reimagine conventional hardware based MESI, with low-cost single exposure laser speckle imaging (LSCI) instrumentation. …

Who's Got Your Six: A Formative Evaluation Of A Military-Connected Student Cultural Competency Workshop, Wayne N. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of South Florida (USF) ranks as one of the top 50 public universities in the nation. As of Spring 2022, 14% of the student population identify as military-connected students (MCS). MCS comprises Active Duty, National Guard, Reserve, veteran or military dependents. Many student veterans choose not to embrace their veteran identity due to feeling unaccepted or viewed from a deficit mindset by faculty, staff, and other students. Veteran studies research identifies the significant influence faculty and staff possess when addressing MCS retention and graduation rates (Lim et al., 2018; Vacchi, 2012; Vacchi, 2018). USF’s Office of Veteran Success …

Thermochemical Conversion Of Lipid-Extracted Algal Biomass To Value-Added Sustainable Products, Magdalini Tsarpali

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The extensive use of fossil fuels has increased the CO2 emissions, a phenomenon that has increased the demand for renewable energy and resources. Algae, photosynthetic aquatic organisms, have recently caught attention due to their high growth rate and the high CO2 capture ability. Biofuels and bioproducts from algae are considered promising alternatives because of their lower carbon footprint. Lipids are by far the most popular algal product, as they find applications in both fuels, such as biodiesel, and products, such as nutraceuticals and cosmetics. However, after lipid extraction, conversion of the residual algal biomass to value-added products is viewed as …

Informal Communication, Sensemaking, And Relational Precarity: Constituting Resilience In Remote Work During Covid, Tanya R.M. Vomacka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 global pandemic disrupted every corner of the globe, impacting our personal and professional lives with intensity and scope that have yet to be fully comprehended. One such disruption has been to the workplace and organizational culture as businesses, non-governmental agencies, governments, and other organizations worldwide rapidly moved face-to-face operations to remote work. Two years into the pandemic, with vaccines available and the immediate health threat for most healthy individuals waning, businesses still find themselves confronting a changing paradigm as remote work becomes more of a permanent and competitive fixture.

This study explores the impact of remote work on …

Defining And Modeling Pericyte-Induced Capillary Network Assembly, Capillary Regression Preceding Pericyte-Stimulated Fibrosis, And Lymphatic Capillary Regression, Scott Stephen Kemp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Capillary formation and maturation can only occur through a series of highly orchestrated events that requires the coordinated efforts of both endothelial cells (ECs) and pericytes. While ECs are perfectly capable of creating tube networks on their own, the maturation and stabilization of these tube networks require the presence of a second cell type, pericytes, to create stable capillary networks. Previous studies have identified factors required for pericyte recruitment to EC tube networks, however, we hypothesized that there were still unaccounted for EC-derived molecules that were contributing to pericyte recruitment. In the first part of this study, we used serum-free, …

Re-Centering And De-Centering ‘Race’: An Analysis Of Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing Organizational Websites, Beatriz Nieto-Fernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing technologies become an ever-expanding business in the United States, this dissertation project investigates the ways in which two leading organizations, AncestryDNA and 23andMe, utilize discourses of ‘race’ to connect with their customers. This study is particularly significant because it opens up new avenues of research in the field of organizational communication by engaging with a new genre of organizations and the complexities of biocapitalism, in which genetic data is commodified for consumption. Blending computational scraping of data and manual qualitative analysis of organizational texts and videos available on the corporate websites, while using postcolonial studies …

Black Cemeteries Matter: The Erasure Of Historic Black Cemeteries In Polk County, Florida, Juliana C. Waters

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the past several years, the Tampa Bay area has experienced a reckoning with regard to the intentional erasure, destruction, and abandonment of historic African American cemeteries such as Zion Cemetery in Tampa or St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery in Clearwater. Scholars, journalists, community members, archaeologists, and others have contributed to a growing movement that aims to identify and document these sacred sites in an effort to prevent further destruction. In this vein, this project aimed to identify and record cemeteries in Polk County, examine the processes leading to the erasure of historic Black cemeteries, the history surrounding erasure on …

Development Of Enhanced Algae Strains And Sustainable Cultivation Processes For Production Of Algal Lipids For Biofuels And Bioproducts, Enlin Lo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The establishment of an algae industry is crucial for addressing global biofuel and bioproduct demand that meets the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) worldwide. Photosynthetic microalgae are excellent sources for food, fiber, fuel, feed, and fertilizer, which are the 5Fs of the SDG. However, at present, algae-based materials are not cost-competitive or sufficiently sustainable. Improved productivity, lower cultivation cost, and reduced use of resources are required to transition from lab to industry, necessitating the development of superior strains that have high productivity and can tolerate environmental stress, such as temperature and salinity, so they can be cultivated at large scale outdoors …

Defining The Role Of Oxidized Mitochondrial Dna In Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Grace Anne Ward

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) are heterogeneous bone marrow (BM) failure malignancies characterized by constitutive innate immune activation, NLRP3 inflammasome (IFM) driven pyroptotic cell death, and the induction of interferon-stimulated genes (ISG). MDS often diagnostically resembles other hematologic disorders, as such, additional tools are needed for the discrimination from overlapping disorders. We observed that oxidized mitochondrial DNA (ox-mtDNA) is released upon cytolysis. We hypothesize that levels of ox-mtDNA are high in MDS, allowing us to use it as a diagnostic biomarker; and that cell free ox-mtDNA is contributing to feedforward BM failure.

ROC/AUC analysis demonstrated that ox-mtDNA is a sensitive and specific …

Exploring The Structure And Activity Of Metallo-Tetracyclines, Shahedul Islam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Copper as a key component of electron transport chain of eukaryotes is an essential transition metal ion. Copper homeostasis in mammals complex and tightly regulated. Its strong reactivity together with binding with biologically important chemicals can have important repercussions in human health and overall environment. Tetracycline as one of most abundantly used antibiotic of the world has become abundant in the environment as well. Herein in this dissertation we take the journey to explore the complexation of tetracycline with metals in the environment and the intricate interaction between copper and tetracycline by investigating their oxidative behavior once they are complexed. …

Individual Differences In Response To Hostile And Benevolent Sexism In A Stem Interview Context: The Moderating Role Of Behavioral Activation, Elizabeth Kiebel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women continue to face sexism in workplace contexts, especially those that are male dominated, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet, women often fail to confront the sexism they experience, despite confrontation being an effective way to cope with and prevent future harassment (Fitzgerald et al., 1995; Magley, 2002). To date, no one has assessed the potential moderating role of personality differences related to approach motivation on women’s confrontation of sexism. In this study, women were exposed to either a hostilely sexist or benevolently sexist question during a mock job interview that was purportedly being conducted as part …

Geothermal Development In Kenya: Gender Based Socio-Cultural And Socio-Economic Implications, Faye N. Ricker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnographic case study that analyzes the gendered socio-cultural and socio-economic implications for a community that was displaced in order to develop a geothermal energy system in Kenya. The implications are rendered particularly interesting because the displaced community is also one of the communities served by the geothermal power grid. The analysis employs a composite framework of Feminist Political Ecology and the Political Ecology of Climate Change Mitigation. This work explores gendered perceptions and control of energy, livelihood activities, place attachment, and the cultural/spiritual significance of geothermal energy.

Geothermal energy is a potentially promising source of low-carbon …

Breast Health Esteem To Motivate Breast Health Behavioral Intentions: An Application Of The Terror Management Health Model, Emily P. Courtney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is a pervasive disease affecting millions of people, and a family history of the disease can put individuals at a significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer over the course of one’s lifetime. In turn, women with a family history often perceive themselves as more susceptible to breast cancer. Further, women who have lost family members to breast cancer likely associate the disease itself with death to a greater extent. In addition to this increased risk perception, women with a family history might intertwine breast health with feelings of esteem. It follows that those feelings of esteem should …

Phenotypic Variability In Ipsc-Induced Cardiomyocytes And Cardiac Fibroblasts Carrying Diverse Lmna Mutations, Jiajia Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mutations in the LMNA gene (encoding lamin A/C) are the second most common cause of familial arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. Diverse LMNA variants in cardiomyocytes have been associated with cardiac phenotypes. Moreover, cardiac fibroblasts make up a large fraction of the myocardium's non-myocyte component, intrinsically linked to extracellular matrix synthesis and turnover as well as secreting large amounts of bioactive metabolites. However, our understanding of how different mutation sites and the non-myocyte niche mediate cardiomyocyte function is limited. To fill this gap, in this thesis I investigated the hypothesis that variable LMNA mutations have significant effects on the genetic, structure and electrophysiological …

Why Don’T They Just Ask?: Barriers To Directly Requesting Affirmative Sexual Consent By Gender And Sexual Orientation, Jessica A. Jordan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most young adults report a discomfort with verbally and explicitly asking for sexual consent from a partner. Social scientists have theorized this discomfort is driven by conformity to rigid gender roles, sexual scripts, and peer norms, although little research has directly examined the relationship between these barriers and consent behaviors. Most consent research has focused on heterosexual individuals, and even fewer studies have compared the sexual consent attitudes and behaviors of heterosexual and sexual minority individuals. Through a series of three studies, I examined the reasons heterosexual and sexual minority young adults hesitate to ask a new partner for sexual …

The Labors Of Professional Wrestling: The Dream, The Drive, And Debility, Brooks Oglesby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study centers and examines the laboring body of the professional wrestler as it moves and works through professional wrestling training. I put forth debility as a theoretical framework to naming and understanding the ways that long-term bodily wear and early death becomes an acceptable cost of doing business for the wrestling industry. Dreams of achieving wealth, fame, and stability while escaping precarity and obscurity draw fans toward joining the industry, and these dreams work to maintain a working culture that takes for granted the ways that the wrestler’s body is marked for disposability, wearing down, and early death. I …

Grey’S Anatomy And End Of Life Ethics, Sean Micheal Swenson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this qualitative study, I analyze three episodes of the prime-time television medical drama Grey’s Anatomy to explore how the show stages conversations of end of life. I extend the work of end of life ethicists with attention to the ways that media may/should/could be used to teach and reflect issues of dying in America. Performing a close textual analysis, I identified two modes of storytelling within the structure of these episodes: Documentary Realism and Melodrama. I argue that if we are to understand medical dramas as a tool for the dissemination of information about end of life ethics, we …

A Macro Social Examination Of The Relationship Between Disabilities And Crime Using Neighborhood And County Level Data, Natasha A. Baloch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades, there has been a consistent increase in mental illnesses in the US population. This has also lead to increased interactions of those with mental illnesses and/or disabilities with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Despite these instances, there is limited research on the relationship between disabilities, mental health issues and crime in the large body of criminological research. Further, the current extant research is a) outside the field of Criminology, b) primarily focuses on those with only intellectual or developmental disabilities and/or c) does not examine this relationship at the macro level, despite evidence …

Testing The Protest Paradigm And Racial Threat: Analyzing Articles Of Blm Protests In 2014 And 2020, Rebecca Angela Ruiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study examines the media coverage of Black Lives Matter protest in years 2014 & 2020. I collected a sample of articles (n=120) from 6 national-level media outlets that varied in political leans. Using the Protest Paradigm and Racial Threat theoretical frameworks to analyze the results, findings suggest that the articles do reflect upon the Protest Paradigm through overall negative sentiment and significant references to looting. I also argue that articles may also reflect racial threat due to a lack of transparency of protesters’ racial makeup or diversity attending demonstrations.

Stitched Together: What We Learn From Secret Stories In Public Media, Sara D. Rocks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Where do you go to divulge your deepest secrets? Some may turn to journals and diaries; some turn to family and friends; some turn to religious confessionals; some turn to Twitter; and still, some take their secrets to the grave. There is at least one other way people share their secrets that has thus far received limited scholarly attention: the crowdsourced confessional. In the new media landscape, intimate stories and personal disclosures with strangers can be (and are) produced as content for a vast pool of additional strangers to consume as media. Yet, little is known about the personal narratives …

Antimicrobial Activity Of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Compared To Silver Nanoparticles Administered Towards Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Biofilms, Kevin Núño

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and chitosan nanoparticles have strong antibacterial activity as a broad-spectrum antibiotic against multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. MDR bacteria have a mechanism that increases antibiotic resistance through biofilm formations. MDR methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus BAA-1720 was chosen for an in vitro assessment to calculate the biofilm reduction rate and the median effective dose (ED50) by performing biofilm quantification. Dynamic light scattering was chosen to determine the physiochemical characteristics of ZnO NPs, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and chitosan NPs. Transmission electron microscopy was conducted to verify each treatment’s physiochemical characteristics. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of broad-spectrum and …

_Las Vidas Negras_: Examining Identity Among Afro-Latinos In The Us In The Twilight Of Black Lives Matter, Victor Garcia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work seeks to name how the Black Lives Matter movement, and related movements for Black liberation and justice, has had an effect on the self-perception and identities of US-based Afrolatinos. Using survey and interview data, I tease out issues of ethnoracial dissonance, social identity, and the ways that Afrolatinos have used the context of Black Lives Matter to make sense of the antiblackness they have faced. This is a significant investigation because it speaks to the potential for a richer tradition of pan-Africanism taking root in Latin America and among Latin Americans of African descent.

The European Super League (Esl): A Political Economy And Media Framing Analysis, Patrick Sidwell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The European Super League (ESL) offers an opportunity for research as a case study which exemplifies the potential for sports to engender seismic societal events. To try to understand the ESL and the events surrounding it, this thesis examined it through the dual frameworks of political economy and framing theory to comprehend the roles played by corporate owners and working-class fans who support the game. An overview of the political economic processes of English football was conducted to create meaningful insights. From there, using framing as a theoretical guide, a thematic media analysis was performed across 251 news articles from …

Visions Of Entanglement And Escape: In-Visible Voice In The Films Of Terrence Malick And George Lucas, Michael Lee Taber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis juxtaposes the unexpectedly parallel careers of the filmmakers George Lucas and Terrence Malick. Both popularly and academically, Lucas and Malick are typically conceived as divergent practitioners and are framed in oppositional terms. The goal of this thesis is – in part – to break down this oppositional understanding of Lucas and Malick as filmmakers. This traditional understanding of Malick and Lucas collapses when we consider their respective relationships to sensation and abstraction. Affirmations of sensation and Malick abound, as do critiques of abstraction and Lucas – all the while it is Malick who is aligned with abstraction and …

Carbon Diversion, Partial Nitritation/Anammox Enrichment, And Ammonium Capture As Initial Stages For Mainstream Ion Exchange-Deammonification Process, Sheyla Chero-Osorio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Eutrophication is a concerning environmental problem worldwide that results in algae blooms, oxygen depletion, damages to aquatic life and public health, water quality issues, and loss of aesthetics in water reservoirs. Nutrient (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) discharges from wastewater, agricultural, urban, and residential runoff promote eutrophication in receiving water bodies. In terms of nitrogen removal, conventional biological nitrogen removal (BNR) is a common technique used in many wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). However, BNR requires aeration for nitrification and organic carbon input for denitrification. In WWTP, the aeration represents a considerable investment in terms of energy costs. Recent technologies involve applying …

Racial Differences In Perceptions Of Sanction Severity, Sarah L. Franklin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has consistently found an association between race and relative perceptions of incarceration severity. Black people view incarceration as less severe than an equivalent period of probation. However, few studies have examined why this relationship exists. The present study surveys a large sample of young adults to examine whether the observed relationship between race and incarceration severity can be replicated. In doing so, the study then considers whether constructs related to socioeconomic status, criminal system experiences, perceptions of legitimacy, and sanction attitudes explain the racial divide. Results indicate a significant relationship between race and incarceration severity, such that Black people, …

Assessing Reported Use Of Clinical Genetic Counseling Skills, Nicole M. Wright

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Genetic Counseling (GC) is striving to become a more evidence-based field, but the absence of a clearly defined taxonomy of clinical skills is impeding efforts to systematically study and compare GC processes. Several frameworks such as the Reciprocal Engagement Model (REM) and FOCUS-GC have outlined strategies and behaviors used to meet patient needs, but neither include comprehensive descriptions of existing skills or delineate which are actually being used most commonly in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to compile a large list of demonstrable genetic counseling skills and determine how often clinical genetic counselors (GCs) report using them …

Development Of Membrane Assisted Recovery Of Solids (Mars) Technology For Nutrient Management In Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems, Itzé Alejandra Kenney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing global populations will result in a rise of eutrophic wastewater and an increased need in food supply. Both problems share a commonality: nutrients. Not all communities are equipped to handle one or both of those challenges, considering that typical solutions require large and energy intensive technologies. Wastewater treatment in most major cities is done through centralized treatment plants, which is not feasible for places with limited resources. Decentralized wastewater treatment systems (DWTS) have been developed as an alternative solution for those communities, but they still struggle to sustainably treat nutrients such as ammonium (NH4) and phosphate (PO4^(3-)). Zeolite has …

Using Fine-Scale Aquatic Habitat Data To Construct Dreissenid Sdms In The Laurentian Great Lakes, Grace C. Henderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The invasion of the Laurentian Great Lakes by aquatic invasive species (AIS) has been the subject of investigation for decades, due to their dramatic alterations to the ecosystem and high economic costs. Two AIS with the largest impacts are dreissenid zebra and quagga mussels, and though these species have been studied extensively, questions remain about what factors control their distributions, and whether lake warming will alter these distributions. Species distribution models (SDMs) offer a powerful tool to examine the relationship between species presences and environmental variables, which are typically bioclimactic data. The creation of the Aquatic Habitat (AqHab) dataset containing …