Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of Green Supercapacitor For Low Pass Rc Filter Implementation, Ramakrishna Kanneganti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The need for use of sustainable and eco-friendly methods and processes in electronics is the need of the hour. The demand for electronics is growing by the day, consequently the use of passive components such as capacitors, resistors, and inductors is ever growing. It is desirable to manufacture and utilize passive components that are easily disposable and are biodegradable. Our research focuses on evaluating PolyMaterials APP’s supercapacitor in RC filter circuits replacing the conventional capacitor. The evaluated supercapacitor is biodegradable and does not use any heavy or contaminating metals. In this work, we have successfully evaluated various green supercapacitor component …

Self-Doubt: Impostor Phenomenon And The Doctoral Seeking School-Based Leader, Rose Apollon-Simon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative narrative inquiry explores the experiences of school-based administrators in K-12 public school settings within the state of Florida who navigate the challenges of Impostor Phenomenon while concurrently pursuing a doctoral degree. The research draws on the personal stories of four participants—three women and one man—who are currently or previously employed as principals or assistant principals. The study focused on how participants manage the psychological tensions coming from their experiences with Impostor Phenomenon or the persistent self-doubt and the fear of being exposed as a fraud. While most Impostor Phenomenon research has concentrated on fields like business, medicine, and …

Enhancing Post Silicon Visibility Using Language Modelling Techniques, Nathaniel Joseph Fender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The debugging phase is a critical time in the development of a new system on chip product. Specifically, the post-silicon validation phase is one of the most important, as it allows engineers to test the behavior of a device in a real world setting. However, the issue of noisy or incomplete data is a frequent issue when attempting to debug an SoC design during this step. This thesis examines the utility of utilizing machine learning models for the purpose of repairing missing data in a system trace. We trained various models using the transformer architecture to identify missing data in …

Side-Channel Analysis Platform For A Hardware Implementation Of Fips 203 (Crystals-Kyber), Mohamed Mossad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2024, NIST selected the Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithm CRYSTALS-Kyber for standardization as a public-key encryption, key establishment scheme. CRYSTALS-Kyber was standardized under the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS), specifically FIPS 203. FIPS standards represent a set of guidelines, developed by NIST, for secure data handling in federal information systems, mandating cryptographic algorithms that protect sensitive information. This highlights the importance of identifying potential vulnerabilities in the algorithm and assessing how CRYSTALS-Kyber implementations react to hardware side channel attacks. Previous research identified several vulnerabilities in implementations of CRYSTALS-Kyber in software, which were addressed in subsequent releases. This thesis focuses on expanding …

Learning Peer Support Interactions Via Bi-Lstm Graph Neural Networks For Suicide Risk Prediction, Harikrishna Marampelly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Suicide prevention through early detection using social media data has been widely studied. However, the critical role of peer support interactions among individuals with similar mental disorders has not been deeply investigated or explored. In this study, we explore peer interactions in online communities for individuals with bipolar disorder and leverage this information to predict suicide risk levels. We propose a model that uses contextualized posts and comments along with their sentiment features. By embedding these features into a peer support network, our model captures peer interactions and predicts suicide risk levels using the bidirectional LSTM Graph Neural Networks (Bi-LSTM …

The Collapse And Revival Of The Teacher Soul- A Study Of Resilience In Experienced Elementary Teachers, Joadie Durfee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustaining talented teachers has become a challenging worldwide pursuit. Even the most successful teachers are exiting the profession at alarming rates (Clandinin et al., 2012; Mason & Matas, 2015). Although seemingly all teachers experience highly stressful factors in the workplace, some remain and continue to thrive as they inspire and help countless students through their educational pursuits. To better understand this contrast and promote quality teachers to remain in the profession to retirement, I conducted a qualitative study of three passionate, experienced, highly effective teachers who have considered leaving the profession but ultimately decided to stay. Using interview and artifact …

Vulnerability Discovery On Broadcom Devices With Qemu, Christian Shane Douglas Little

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

System-on-chip (SoC) devices in the form of routers, access points, and smart appliances have become an increasingly prevalent aspect of our infrastructure. Performing vulnerability research on these devices may be exceptionally difficult given the on-hardware limitations, inability to guarantee certain aspects of the system, and lack of information when the appliance’s source code is not available.In this thesis, we present Broadfeather, a QEMU-based emulation target, and framework for dynamic analysis and instrumentation. While Broadfeather supports data types shared across many chips under the Broadcom umbrella, it is primarily geared towards the BCM6755 Wi-Fi 6E capable chipset. Broadfeather also features the …

Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Aggregate Formation In The Cystic Fibrosis Airway, Alexa D. Gannon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bacterial aggregates are observed in both natural and artificial environments. In the context of disease, aggregates have been isolated from both chronic and acute infections. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) aggregates contribute significantly to chronic infections, particularly in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis (CF). Unlike the large biofilm structures observed in vitro, Pa in CF sputum forms smaller aggregates (~10-1000 cells), and the mechanisms behind their formation remain underexplored. This study aims to identify genes essential and unique to Pa aggregate formation in a synthetic CF sputum media (SCFM2). We cultured Pa strain PAO1 in SCFM2 and LB, both with …

Chikungunya Pathogenesis In Cardiac Tissues And Its Evaluation In Stem Cell Derived Cardiac Models, Elizabeth M. Traverse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) is a single stranded RNA alphavirus primarily vectored by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos. CHIKV has circulated in tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa and Asia, but outbreaks in the past two decades have seen the virus spread to Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. Disease from CHIKV infection typically results in fever, malaise, and sometimes debilitating arthralgia. However, there are concerning abnormal presentations that affect the human heart, including myocarditis, heart failure, and death. These symptoms are seen in all age groups and sexes and are not connected to particular strains or mutations in the …

Revealing Grounding Zone And Subglacial Processes At Cosgrove Ice Shelf: Seafloor Analogs For The Modern Antarctic Ice Sheet, Rosemary E. Burkhalter-Castro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The future loss of ice in West Antarctica is one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of global sea level rise. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), home to Cosgrove Ice Shelf (CIS), contains enough ice to raise global sea level by more than three meters if it collapsed completely. Accurately predicting how much sea level change may occur from a future collapse of WAIS is of particular interest to low-lying, heavily populated coastal areas such as Florida. For this reason, it is important to understand the processes underpinning rapid changes and retreat at marine-terminating glaciers in the Amundsen Sea. …

Design Of End Bent Piles For Downdrag, Tanna Frye

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Embankments are commonly used for bridge approaches, with mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls being the preferred choice in Florida. However, the construction of embankments leads to the settlement of the underlying soil, regardless of soil type. When piles are driven before embankment construction, the initial settlement of the original soil creates relative movement between the pile and the surrounding soil, introducing frictional forces. When the existing soils move downward relative to the pile, a downward-oriented side shear known as downdrag is introduced. While downdrag is addressed in current codes and textbooks, it is often only briefly mentioned and primarily in …

A Phenotypic Characterization Of Staphylococcus Aureus Bacteremia Clinical Isolates, Sara Dj Daniels

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus is a human pathogen of serious concern because of its ability to cause serious and wide-ranging disease. Of particular concern is the ability of S. aureus to cause bacteremia (SAB), allowing the bacteria to disseminate and spread to various organs. This study addressed this issue through the phenotypic characterization of two methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) clinical isolates taken from patients with sustained complicated bacteremia at Tampa General Hospital, referred to as SA1097 and SA1098. A battery of phenotypic tests was conducted on these strains, including a growth curve, hemolysis and proteolysis screenings, cytotoxicity assays using human neutrophils, blood …

Integrating Risk And Vulnerability: Exploring A Unified Model For Supply Chain Resiliency, William G. Cook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The world has entered an era of retreating globalization, mounting geo-political tensions, rising protectionism, and increasing focus on the fragility of complex supply chains. The negative impacts of supply chain disruptions have been increasingly documented since the turn of the century. Given the global scale of recent disruptions, supply chain resiliency has become a national imperative. The Global Financial Crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other major disruptive events demonstrate the active role of government in mitigating damage, the enduring effects of regulation, and the resultant re-evaluation of supply chain strategies by the private and public sectors. In this environment, supply …

Expert Consensus In A Politically-Charged Environment: Motivated Reasoning In Information Processing, Austin L. Katz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the abundance of information online, what drives news consumption? It has been theorized that there are two distinct conflicting motivations which operate simultaneously when consumers encounter new information: the motivation to reach accurate conclusions and the directional motivation to reach conclusions that are consistent with a person’s preexisting beliefs or predispositions (e.g., Kunda 1990). This experiment tests situations in which both motivations are simultaneously made salient in the context of reading headlines to decide what news to read and how accurate the news is likely to be.

A new fact-check manipulation was used to draw attention to the accuracy …

Thriving Or Surviving In Virtual Sales: The Connection Between Virtual Work And Job Satisfaction Amongst Salespeople In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Amit Garg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The post COVID 19 sales environment for salespeople in pharmaceuticals has shifted to becoming hybridized within a continuum of face-to-face and virtual interactions, when engaging with health care professionals. This dissertation reports on a study investigating the relationship of virtual work with job satisfaction and burnout. There were two questions that were addressed in this study to understand the impact virtual work has had on overall job satisfaction and burnout. First, what is the relationship of virtuality to job satisfaction and burnout in the pharmaceutical sales environment? Second, which facets of job satisfaction and burnout are most strongly related to …

Performance Comparison Of Two Binary Diagnostic Tests With Incomplete Data, Meng Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diagnostic tests are medical examinations essential for patient care, as they help detect the presence of diseases and rule out certain conditions. However, diagnostic tests can make errors, and misdiagnoses resulting from these errors can potentially lead to treatment delays or inappropriate treatments. Therefore, comprehensively evaluating the performance of the diagnostic tests and ensuring test accuracy is a fundamental priority in diagnostic studies. When a new diagnostic test is developed, it is customary to compare it with an existing test in a paired study. However, incomplete test results commonly occur in practice. The maximum likelihood-based method can be used to …

Revision Strategies And Academic Socialization Of Multilingual Graduate Students, Sean E. Farrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that revision is a complex practice guided by a variety of factors; however, the nature of the relationship between these factors and the revisions themselves, along with how the revision process contributes to academic socialization, remains understudied. A more comprehensive understanding of revision can lead to a deeper understanding of the support that will be most effective for multilingual graduate students. This study thus aims to determine (1) what revision strategies multilingual graduate students use, (2) what factors mediate these strategies, and (3) the extent to which these revisions index a shift in academic socialization. To answer these …

Exploring Saudi Arabian Teachers' Perceptions Of Smartboard Instruction For Students With Communication Disorders, Mohammed Alqahtani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using smartboards with students with communication needs in the classroom is one way to apply technology in educational settings. Research has shown the benefits of using the smartboard with students with disabilities (SWDs) and second-language learners. There is still a need to understand further teachers’ perceptions towards using the smartboard in their classrooms with students with communication needs. Therefore, I conducted an exploratory qualitative study to explore Saudi teachers' perceptions regarding the use of smartboards with students with communication needs in the classroom. I collected data via in-depth interviews, smartboard screen recordings, and audio recordings of teachers’ lessons taught using …

Perceived Workplace Obstacles And Compensatory Strategies Used By School Psychologists With Disabilities, Gary E. Schaffer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite efforts to recruit and retain school psychologists from diverse backgrounds, there has been little focus on school psychologists with disabilities. This oversight is concerning given that school psychologists deliver extensive support to students with disabilities yet simultaneously remain largely absent from diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The current study sought to learn about school psychologists with disabilities by providing much-needed demographic information on this population while also focusing on their workplace experiences. Two-hundred-fifty-five participants were asked about their perceptions regarding the systemic challenges they encountered, personal challenges they faced, reasons they disclosed or did not disclose their disability, and …

Essays On Information Technology In Healthcare, Gleb Zavadskiy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Information technologies (IT) and information systems (IS) have profound significance across various sectors of society, including healthcare, business, education, government, and beyond. First, IT facilitates instant communication globally through email, messaging apps, video conferencing, and social media, revolutionizing how individuals and organizations interact, collaborate, and share information (Hacker et al. 2020; Tang and Hew 2020).

Secondly, the Internet and digital libraries provide worldwide access to vast amounts of information, what makes knowledge and education available to everyone, empowering individuals to learn and stay informed on diverse topics (Haleem et al. 2022). Another aspect of IT systems in various industries is …

The Association Between Oral Microbiome, Oral Inflammation, Periodontal Disease, And Systemic Metabolism In Individuals With/Without Type 1 Diabetes, Mianli Xiao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the associations between oral microbiomes, periodontal disease (PD), and systemic metabolism in individuals with and without Type 1 diabetes (T1D). Data were obtained from 208 participants (99 with T1D, 109 non-diabetic) in the Coronary Artery Calcification in Type 1 Diabetes (CACTI) pilot study and 283 participants from the Oral Microbiome ancillary cohort study. Both studies included the collection of saliva or subgingival plaque samples. Microbial DNA was extracted, and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Machine learning models, including Random Forest (RF) and Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP), were applied …

The Pilling Process: Significance Quest, Self-Verification, And Fusion In Online Incel Forums, Gregory J. Rousis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incels (short for “involuntary celibates) are an online community of men who blame women for their reputed sexual and romantic failures. The misogyny of their worldview, called the blackpill, has inspired multiple instances of real-world violence against women. Alarmingly, we know little about the temporal processes whereby an incel goes from joining an online community to becoming deeply aligned (i.e., “fused”) with the group. This project sought to address this by scraping incels’ most popular web forum and using text analysis to identify psychological mechanisms that could be responsible for incels’ fusion. The resulting dataset consisted of 1,097,841 unique discussion …

Perceptions Of Rural America: Exploring College Students' Views And Career Priorities Post-Graduation, Tom Hall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The problems facing rural America are wide ranging and multilayered. Perceptions can often be reality for those unfamiliar with rural life, which can pose a hurdle for businesses to overcome. With an in-depth literature review and research study, this dissertation aims to provide context and understanding to the problems and misconceptions of rural America. Without context, it is easy to interpret rural America as a dying, outdated part of the country, but the reality is far more complex. A research study was conducted that surveyed 400 actively enrolled college students from schools in 19 American states on three things: 1) …

Transition Aged Youth Substance Use At Electric Dance Music Events In The Tampa Bay Area: A Qualitative Study Of Awareness And Prevention, Danielle Vinciguerra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study investigates substance use among Transitional Aged Youth (TAY), particularly focusing on Electronic Dance Music (EDM) events in the Tampa Bay area. TAY, defined as individuals aged 18-29, experience significant psychological, biological, and developmental changes, which can lead to increased vulnerability to substance use. The study examines the prevalence and patterns of substance use, specifically ketamine and cocaine, among TAY at EDM events. Exploratory qualitative data collection method was utilized for the study. Applying Social Learning Theory as a framework, the research explores the beliefs, attitudes, experiences, and community influences that contribute to substance use within this demographic. Data …

Unravelling The Impact Of Blood Metabolites, And Lifestyle Factors On Periodontal Disease Using Mendelian Randomization, Rhea Charles

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Periodontal disease remains a global public health concern. Despite the availability of preventive and therapeutic strategies, the multifactorial nature of periodontitis complicates its understanding and management. Periodontal disease is associated with an increased risk of chronic conditions, including ischemic heart disease (IHD), gestational hypertension, respiratory diseases such as COPD and bronchitis, and various cancers, including kidney and pancreatic cancers. Moreover, individuals with diabetes, autoimmune diseases like lupus and Crohn’s disease, and osteoporosis are more likely to develop periodontitis. The ambiguity in the direction of causality between periodontal disease and its associated conditions poses challenges for effective treatment. Mendelian randomization offers …

Empowering Entrepreneurial Evolution: A Beyond Founder Strategic Approach To Small Business Growth, D. Jared Knisley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Growing a business beyond its founder’s capacities and talents presents a challenging undertaking. When a founder is no longer involved or motivated to grow the business, firm decline is a likely outcome. Small businesses often have a deep and, at times, hindering reliance on their early founders for development. Therefore, a continuous engaging plan to advance entrepreneurial success is needed to grow a small business.

My research objective aims to find methods and designs, through academic literature and practitioner interviews, that transition leadership responsibilities and increase team empowerment within a small business, enabling these firms to continue growing as the …

Integrating Multiple Biodiversity Metrics To Assess Diatom Diversity And Diatom/Macrophyte Host Specificity In Four Florida Benchmark Lakes, Alana Jade Bronk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biodiversity is declining across all natural environments, however, freshwater systems are thought to be among the most threatened. Quantifying and understanding trends in freshwater biodiversity has become more urgent as rapid biodiversity loss continues. To provide a robust ecological assessment, more than one bioindicator should be used, along with multiple biodiversity metrics. Macrophytes and diatoms are important components of aquatic systems, especially in shallow lakes. The relationship between macrophytes and epiphytic diatoms, though, is not clearly understood, and has not been well-studied, particularly in Florida, which has the largest abundance of natural freshwater lakes in the southeastern U.S This study …

The Use Of Developmental Program Evaluation For State Continued Approval In Educator Preparation, Suzanne L. Roberts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Working as a teacher educator today means working under an ever-present regulatory gaze. Accountability mechanisms, including state program approval processes, have been layered resulting in complexity. External assessments have failed to provide the data needed to support continuous improvement. There have been calls for combining external and internal evaluation processes to better drive continuous improvement. Developmental Program Evaluation (DPE) is an approach that claims to support program development in the middle space between top-down and bottom-up forces. This study examines the use of DPE in the middle space between mandated state approval processes and a small educator preparation program’s effort …

A School Leader’S Experiences With Ableism In An Educational System, Scottie Basham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current organizational autoethnographic study aims to problematize ableism as an ideology that permeates and contributes to the inequities students with disabilities face in education. I share how I came to see ableism as an ideology that permeates and contributes to recursive practices in special education and share experiences that illustrate to school leaders ableist assumptions that are ingrained in leading a Special Education Center. Using organizational autoethnography, I share my experience as a first-year principal to provide a first-hand account of recursive practices within the educational organization, rooted in ableism, and discuss how those practices affected both myself, as …

Childbirth, Later-Life Cardiovascular Disease, Mortality, And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Postmenopausal Women, Zailing Xing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: The associations between childbirth and future maternal cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality have been inconclusive. Limited studies have focused on the association between childbirth and HRQoL. Objective: We aimed to examine the long-term effects of parity and age at childbirth on women's CVD and mortality based on propensity score matching. Methods: This study used data from the Women’s Health Initiative study (1993-2022). We used propensity score matching to produce matched samples, then employed multilevel Cox proportional hazard models for hazard ratios (HRs) to estimate the associations of parity and age at childbirth with CVD and mortality. We used mixed-effects …