Digital Commons Network^™

Educational Experiences Of Congolese Refugees In West-Central Florida High Schools, Michaela J. Inks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since 2016, refugees from the Congo Wars (RFCWs) have been one of the largestpopulations of refugees resettled in the United States. High-school aged RFCW students are, however, dropping out of Florida public high schools are alarmingly high rates. This study uses ethnographic methods such as interviews and participant observation to investigate educational challenges experienced by RFCW youth. This study has three objectives: to learn more about refugees with discontinuous education and the barriers to graduating from public high schools after resettlement; to better understand Tampa bay area programs that serve culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students; and to use ethnographic …

The Communicative Constitution Of Environment: Land, Weather, Climate, Leanna K. Smithberger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My project examines the communicative constitution of environment: how we mediate environment in discursive practice, and arrange chaotic and complex timeplaces into organized relationships of agents and objects which act and are acted upon. Climate scholars across disciplines are calling for a paradigm shift in how we understand, study, inhabit, and relate to Earth’s varied environments. In this dissertation, I demonstrate how communication practices do the work of constituting the environment as we know it, and therefore conclude with the hopeful suggestion that these same practices can be used to do the work of a paradigm shift — that is, …

Aspiring To “Make It Work”: Defining Resilience And Agency Amongst Hispanic Youth Living In Low-Income Neighborhoods, Sara Arias-Steele

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored how Hispanic youth (ages 13-21 years) living in low-income neighborhoods of Florida defined resiliency and expressed agency navigating personal challenges and neighborhood adversity in pursuit of success. From the standpoint of the participants, this study focused on how youths: 1) judge the quality of life in their neighborhoods and the opportunities available for them, 2) identify personal aspirations for themselves and 3) identify what resilient factors allowed them to face the challenges and barriers of their daily lives to pursue this aspiration. This study takes into account the structural barriers that create inequities to examine how personal …

Struggling Against The Odds: Social Movements In Pakistan During Authoritarian Regimes, Sajjad Hussain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation extends scholarship on the role of social movements against authoritarian regimes. It argues that movements turn into popular mobilizations and achieve successful outcomes when they occur in the consolidated phases of authoritarian regimes. Using the political opportunity structure framework, the dissertation maintains that a regime’s stability instils confidence in it to substitute coercion with incentives wherein it allows limited but strictly regulated freedoms for oppositional politics. This creates new openings for the challengers, enabling mobilization with an increase in size and scope. Unlike the initial phase, when the regime is consolidating and repressing collective action in a ruthless …

Parent Engagement In An Online Behavioral Parent Training Program: A Case Study, Natalie A. Hofmann Leedy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Behavioral parent training (BPT) is considered a frontline intervention for challenging behaviors in early childhood. Research on outcomes in behavioral parent training include an emphasis on participant engagement, defined as attendance, cognitive readiness, and task completion (Chacko et al., 2016; Gearing et al., 2014; Nock & Ferriter, 2005). Barriers to treatment attendance and engagement include logistical barriers, perceptions that treatment is burdensome or irrelevant, poor therapeutic alliance, and inaccurate or poor expectations for treatment (Kazdin, Holland, & Crowley, 1997; Nock & Kazdin, 2001). This case study examined parent engagement and barriers to treatment in a BPT program called Developing Our …

Peminist Performance In/As Filipina Feminist Praxis: Collaging Stand-Up Comedy And The Narrative Points In Between, Christina-Marie A. Magalona

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project documents the interdependent effort between performers, authors, and texts, through re/theorizing the role of the personal narrator in autoperformance as both an individual, and a part of a political collective. Through a scripted and staged performance, studied as the data, I critically engage with representations of first-generation women of color via comediennes (Ali Wong and Cristela Alonzo) and their personal narratives, and dialogically consider moments of dis/identification as a Filipina American.

Rooted in performance in/and communication studies, the overarching method employed is conspicuous aesthetic performance, via a scripted and staged narrative performance. I join performance and other methods …

High School Students’ Descriptions Of How Smartphones Affect Their Online Learning During Covid-19, Tiffany K. Southwell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In March of 2020, many schools including the high school where I teach in the southwest United States, shut down and moved all students to online learning due to a coronavirus. At the time, this virus (referred to as COVID-19) was just starting to pose a significant threat to the United States, yet had already claimed lives in other parts of the world including Europe and China. In an effort to slow spread of the virus, many school districts in the United States closed school buildings and abruptly shifted to online learning.

My inquiry was designed to discover how my …

Probing The Ground State Magnetism In Materials With Competing Magnetic Interactions, Richa Pokharel Madhogaria

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Materials with competing magnetic interactions provide a unique combination of intriguing physics originating from structural, magnetic, and electronic degrees of freedom, along with their technological applications. The complex oxides and helimagnets also share an interesting physics involving competitive interactions and understanding the behavior of one helps us to yield an insight into the other system. A rigorous understanding about the competing interactions in strongly correlated magnetic systems provide an opportunity to explore the related effects like spin frustration, glassiness, metamagnetism, which play an essential role in manipulating their magnetic properties and functionality. In this dissertation, we combine dc magnetization [M(H,T)], …

Racialized Morality: The Logic Of Anti-Trafficking Advocacy, Sophie Elizabeth James

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How race shapes the lenses that anti-trafficking advocates use to promote client interests is critical to the successful reintegration of survivors and their access to the right resources. Any threat to rapport building can have adverse effects to the recovery of survivors. Cultural oppression (or the denial of racism) when considering micro-level interactions of anti-trafficking advocates and survivors, not only compounds victims’ trauma but creates the reality where black and brown bodies continue to be violated and victimized.

Due to these nuanced tensions at the intersection of race and gender, my thesis research examines whether and to what extent anti-trafficking …

Design, Development, And Evaluation Of An Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Chatbot For Honors College Student Advising In Higher Education, Reginald Saint-Aude Lucien

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Academic advising is seen increasingly as an essential function supporting the educational mission of universities. Institutions have made significant investments supporting academic advisors and student success initiatives by leveraging technology resources such as Canvas and Degreeworks. There is a rising need for technology that can assist academic advisors in their responsibility to guide students along the path to academic success and AI resources that promote more efficient use of human capital are positioned to meet that need. Chatbot applications can serve as a technology-mediated intervention for delivering information and interactive content to support student success.

This study aimed to design, …

Mental Illness Diagnosis And The Construction Of Stigma, Katie Lynn Walkup

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how mental health legislation and related policy documents contribute to identification, diagnosis, and stigmatization. Using a mixed methods approach including content and stylometric text analysis with R as a heuristic for close and critical reading, I demonstrate how these documents normalize mental health concerns as a public threat. To do this work, I analyze how the Florida Mental Health Act (Chapter 394) and the Florida Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act (SB 7026) circulate and sustain dominant narratives about mental illness. I trace where these narratives are distributed into Florida school districts’ mandatory mental health …

Transforming The Ethics Education Curriculum In Dental Hygiene, Musarrat Anjum Shah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was two-fold: to assess the current status of ethics education and to create a model ethics education curriculum for dental hygiene programs to address issues with current thinking in ethics education. To this end, the structure and sequence of randomly selected dental hygiene programs' ethics education curricula were examined to garner insights that could inform designing a model curriculum. Second, a model four-semester instructional program in ethics education using curriculum design theories was constructed. Forty programs were randomly selected from the American Dental Hygienists' Association Entry-Level Dental Hygiene Programs' list, with the goal of receiving …

The Domestic Reality Of Foreign Policy: The 1994 Clinton Administration Response To The Crises In Rwanda And Haiti, Camara Kemanini Silver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Domestic politics steered The 1994 Clinton Administration's response to the violence in Rwanda and Haiti. This dissertation takes a novel approach by employing a case study method to gauge the political capital of domestic variables such as the news media, interest groups, and public opinion. This dissertation argues that domestic variables' presence and absence can explain foreign policy outcomes in a post-Cold War era. The fear of another version of a "Black Hawk Down" forced the Clinton Administration to streamlined its support in foreign policy decisions requiring domestic input. The 1994 crises in Rwanda and Haiti offer two case studies …

Blue Rage: A Critical Cultural Analysis Of Policing, Whiteness, And Racial Surveillance, Wesley T. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an interpretive project deploying critical media analysis and interpretive qualitative methods to examine televisual and cinematic performances of policing. I use interpretive qualitative inquiry to explore blue rage, policing, and whiteness. By highlighting the racial surveillance which undergirds policing, I analyze blue rage as a critical race concept that addresses the affective policing of racial resentment and racial solidarity among law enforcement. My media analyses demonstrate the ways that whiteness is operationalized through law and order and criminal justice. Analyzing cinematic and televisual depictions of the police and racist surveillance, I address policing—as a profession, as a …

Techno-Economic Analysis Of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bio-Upcycling, Benard Nyawanga

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plastics have been used in almost every household appliance and various industrial applications for more than one hundred years. Plastic is among the most used materials in manufacturing worldwide. Plastic is cheap, light, durable, flexible, non-toxic, etc., and these properties make it suitable to use in manufacturing many types of appliances and materials. There has been an excessive reliance on plastic, leading to mass production. Despite being overly produced, there has been very little effort to recycle plastic, leading to massive accumulation of this environment. Plastic wastes are found in large patches in the world's oceans, waterways, and land. In …

Making Change In The Nickel City: Food Banking And Food Insecurity In Buffalo, Ny During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sarah E. Bradley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In March 2020, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began to spread across the United States. The pandemic disrupted the food system in an unprecedented fashion, exacerbating existing inequalities and contributing to increased rates of food insecurity and charitable food use. This research project considers the food system of Buffalo, New York and seeks to capture the way in which both food insecure households and the food pantries that serve them adapted to the pandemic. Using data from 75 client surveys, 52 qualitative semi-structured interviews with food pantry staff and clients, and 15 participatory GIS mapping interviews, this mixed-methods project describes …

Self-Protection In Cyberspace: Assessing The Processual Relationship Between Thoughtfully Reflective Decision Making, Protection Motivation Theory, Cyber Hygiene, And Victimization, C. Jordan Howell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study, using structural equation modeling, assesses the processual relationship between thoughtfully reflective decision making (TRDM), theoretical constructs derived from protection motivation theory (PMT), cyber hygiene, and online victimization to determine the cognitive decision-making process that leads to the adoption of online self-protective behaviors, which reduces the occurrence of victimization experiences. Findings, derived from a general sample of Internet users in the United States, reveal: (1) engagement in cyber hygiene practices, as a form of target hardening, decreases Internet users’ experiences with online victimization; (2) thoughtfully reflective decision makers, in the face of cyber threats, develop higher threat appraisals …

Investigating The Novel Role Of Dextromethorphan In Mitigating Oxidative Stress Induced Changes In Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells (Rpe), Zeinab A. Mohamed

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oxidative stress contributes to the degeneration of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells and photoreceptors that lead to the dry form of age-related macular degeneration. Activation of N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors contributes to the increase of free radicals that induce oxidative stress-induced changes. Our study investigates if Dextromethorphan, an NMDA receptor antagonist, reverses oxidative stress-induced changes in RPE. We used Paraquat and H2O2 as oxidative stress-inducing agents to induce oxidative damage in human ARPE-19 cells. To illustrate the change in cell viability and measure the apoptosis of ARPE-19 cells from oxidative damage, we performed MTT assay and Annexin V-DAPI flow cytometry analysis. …

"Duck Wars": Examining The Narrative Construction Of A "Problem" Species, Jenna A. Bateman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The problematization of non-human animals occurs through a process of claimsmaking that constructs certain species as “problems”. My thesis examines the news narrative constructions of the Muscovy duck in Florida and Texas. I use a narrative analysis to examine the themes through which news narratives make claims in their construction of the “duck wars” in Florida and Texas. In the “duck wars”, the problematization of the Muscovy occurs through a set of claims made about the species by the reporters and residents in Florida and Texas neighborhoods. There are also sets of claims about other groups associated with the species, …

Building And Characterizing A Lab-Scaled Aquifer Storage And Recovery System, Murat Can Kayabas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To use Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) as a water treatment and storage method, we must understand the fate and behavior of potential contaminants in the system. Knowing more about the aquifer properties such as dispersivity will enable us to assess how the target chemicals behave in the system. Characterizing the aquifer by using a tracer is a good way to estimate dispersivity since the tracer is not adsorbed or degraded. This study aims to build a lab-scale physical model of a confined aquifer to simulate an ASR system, verify its hydraulic functionality, and characterize the hydraulics of the aquifer …

Evaluating The Development And Implementation Of Campus-Based Sexual And Interpersonal Violence Prevention Programming, Robyn Manning-Samuels

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

1 in 5 women in institutions of higher education experience an attempted or completed sexual assault every year. Sexual and interpersonal violence prevention programming is one of the main ways colleges and universities attempt to address this issue. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative pilot study is to evaluate the development and implementation of campus-based sexual and interpersonal violence prevention programming, looking specifically at facilitators and barriers for prevention staff, what they experience as preventionists, and how COVID-19 has impacted these essential programs. Ten preventionists were recruited from the Campus Advocacy and Prevention Professionals Association for 90-minute interviews. Results of …

The Value Of Sleep: Aura And Aesthetics Of Cohabitation In Juha Lilja's Revision Of Warhol, Christopher Costabile

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis positions Juha Lilja’s 2013 digital video work, Sleep, as a prime example of what the author terms an “aesthetics of cohabitation” — a newly suggested method of artistic creation set in opposition to capitalist society’s commodification of both space and time, represented here through the work of Robert Hassan and Jonathan Crary. Lilja’s eight-hour-long video work, which is accessible on YouTube, is a reimagining and re-envisioning of Andy Warhol’s film of the same name. It subverts the intended function of digital streaming platforms while using digital technology to meet aesthetic criteria in shot length and overall duration, which …

A Comparative Study Of Male And Female Undergraduate Computer Science Students’ Educational Pathways, Stephanie Fitzsimmons

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), including Computer Science (CS) are fields that are in great demand globally. This study’s purpose was to explore the nature of the educational pathways, critical factors and commonalities/differences leading to CS undergraduate enrollment through the male and female perspectives focusing on personal/home, academic/attitude and psychological factors underlying the Social Cognitive Career Theory factors. Purposive sampling method was used for this multi-case study, comprised of CS undergraduate upperclassman. Participants shared their perspectives on their CS educational pathway via three interviews and journals. Thematic analysis of narrative for both individual and cumulative group analysis, plus researcher …

Consumerism And Pride: The Fate Of Paris’ Marais “Gayborhood”, Christina M. Csensich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the 1980s the Marais neighborhood in Paris, France, became a haven for queer people, specifically gay, white men, filled with queer-owned and queer-centric businesses. By the year 2020, however, these businesses had been priced out by name-brand international corporations. In the 1990s, French television commercials and programs would not speak the word ‘homosexual,’ even when a character was openly queer. By the 2010s, companies regularly featured queer people and gay pride imagery and slogans in their advertising. The queer community in Paris has a unique relationship with the consumer economy, one that ties aspects of queer identity directly to …

Passive Nitrifying Biofilters For Onsite Treatment Of Saline Domestic Wastewater, Daniel Arnulfo Delgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The infrastructure to support the growing world population has polluted many water bodies with nitrogen from urban and agricultural runoff and failing wastewater systems, such as improperly sited and maintained septic systems. Septic systems present a low energy and maintenance option to treat domestic wastewater and is a treatment option that can be done far from a centralized grid. This further reduces cost, maintenance, and energy as it reduces the need to build and maintaining sewage piping and the infrastructure to move the water longer distances. However, these systems tend to fail when their upkeep is left to homeowners that …

The Influence Of Maternal Body-Shaming Comments And Bodily Shame On Portion Size, Savannah R. Flak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Young adult women are more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies (Wansink et al., 2017) and engage in disordered eating patterns when they have a history of receiving parental comments about their bodies during childhood (Fortesa & Ajete, 2014). Furthermore, high bodily shame mediates the relationship between receiving critical messages about eating from parents during childhood and disordered eating behaviors for young adult women (Oliveira et al., 2019). Altogether, this suggests that bodily shame is a distinct pathway linking parental influence during adolescence to eating disturbances. However, little research has examined the unique roles that bodily shame, internalized weight …

The Mass Is The Medium: Marshall Mcluhan And Roman Catholic Liturgical Change, Ashil D. Manohar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The liturgical changes of Vatican II sought to bring a period of renewal to the Catholic laity by encouraging active participation and making the Mass more simple to understand. However, the time after the Council was characterized by confusion and disengagement by the laity. I will be discussing three significant changes to the liturgy at this time, The change from Latin to the vernacular, the change in the orientation of the altar and priest, and the change in acoustics, sound, and music. I will be examining all of these changes through the media theory of Marshall McLuhan, famous for coining …

Bait-And-Kill: Targeting A Novel Heme Biochemical Pathway In Hundreds Of Cancers, Christopher G. Marinescu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer cells are characterized by their ability to grow and proliferate in rates that far exceed normal cells by modifying their iron/heme metabolisms to levels higher than normal. This imbalance of heme biosynthesis can lead to cancer cells having a flux of heme intermediates to the point where they enter a state called heme-overdrive. Heme-overdrive is a process unique to a variety of cancers but absent in normal tissues. With this enhanced production, heme can act as an epigenic regulator for signaling proliferation (18). Through the novel strategy called ‘bait-and-kill,’ cancer cells will be coerced into a state of heme …

The Dream Act And Daca: A History Of Immigrant Children, Sofia Paschero

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis writes the history of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM ACT) and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Chapter One gives a background history on immigration reforms in the 20th century. Chapter Two focuses on the history of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act). Chapter Three is the immigrant children story. This chapter is an oral history. My main argument is immigrants have always been and still are, easy targets. Politicians create immigrants as scapegoats in order to avoid the social, political, cultural, and economic issues that are affecting people …

Warming Up And Cooling Down: Perceptions And Behaviors Associated With Aerobic Exercise, Balea J. Schumacher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the perceptual and behavioral responses regarding the use of warm-ups and cool-downs in aerobically active adults. There were 79 individuals who volunteered to participate in this study. Respondents were recruited by word of mouth or through social media and the Qualtrics survey link/QR code was on all recruitment materials in order to access the survey. The survey consisted of 47 questions. This study aimed to determine whether age, sex, or exercise location impacted perception or behavior related to warm-up and/or cool- down activities before or after the aerobic training exercise sessions. Primary results indicated the following: 1) …