Digital Commons Network^™

Examining Student And Teacher Perceptions Of The Classroom Social Environment Across School Context: Effects Of Individual Factors, Keri Stewart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although teachers and students are the primary actors in the classroom environment, they often have different perceptions of the instructional and relational aspects of the classroom. Despite these differences, research indicates perceptions of the quality of the classroom social environment have implications for both student and teacher outcomes. Additionally, research has indicated the differences in perceptions occur not only between students and teachers, but also among individual students within classrooms. The extent and the manner in which these perceptions converge may vary across different class and school contexts. School and class context, as well as individual characteristics and beliefs have …

Development Of A Decentralized And Off-Grid Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (Anmbr) For Urban Sanitation In Developing Countries, Robert Alonso Bair

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization has led to rapid and uncontrolled growth of informal housing settlements in many developing countries. As most slum growth is unplanned, these areas tend to lack basic infrastructure including sanitation. The high user rates, lack of water and electricity infrastructure, space limitations, and scant financial resources make sanitation provision a major challenge in slums. As most decentralized sanitation technologies fail when applied in these environments, better technologies need to be developed that cater to the specific needs of slum dwellers. One promising technology, the membrane bioreactor (MBR) is routinely used in developed countries when a compact and resilient treatment …

Drivers Of Immune Cost And Implications For Host Protection From Parasites, Amber Jasmine Brace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Among species, populations, and individuals, there exists a tremendous amount of variation in how hosts respond to, and are thus protected from parasites. Such variation inevitably affects host-parasite dynamics and ultimately how parasites will move through and evolve in communities. A likely factor in the diversity of immune responses seen in nature are the costs associated with activation of the immune system upon exposure to parasites. Costs can manifest in many ways, including changes in resource usage or metabolism, self-damage from inflammatory reactions, lost opportunities (e.g., foraging reproduction), and often as tradeoffs with other physiological processes. However, we do not …

Rupturing The World Of Elite Athletics: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Suspension Of The 2011 Iaaf Regulations On Hyperandrogenism, Ella Browning

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2011 the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) published the Regulations on Hyperandrogenism, a health policy banning female athletes from track and field competition if their natural levels of testosterone were found to be higher than those of most female athletes. In 2014, Dutee Chand, a sprinter from India, was banned from competition based on these regulations. She appealed her ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and as a result the 2011 IAAF Hyperandrogenism Regulations were suspended for two years. The issues at stake in the suspension of these regulations are, at their core, rhetorical issues …

Monitoring And Mitigation Of Elevated Co2 Impacts Using Microalgae, Terry-Rene Wiesner Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is arguably the greatest environmental and economic challenge of our time. There are considerable documented and projected impacts to both human and natural systems as a result of climate change. These impacts include changes in temperature, sea level, precipitation patterns, and biogeography of ecologically and economically relevant species, including pathogens. One of the main drivers of climate change is elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), a greenhouse gas. Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric CO₂ levels have increased from approximately 280 ppm to over 400 ppm, as a result of fossil fuel combustion, cement production and …

Phenomenology And The Crisis Of Contemporary Psychiatry: Contingency, Naturalism, And Classification, Anthony Vincent Fernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a contribution to the contemporary field of phenomenological psychopathology, or the phenomenological study of psychiatric disorders. The work proceeds with two major aims. The first is to show how a phenomenological approach can clarify and illuminate the nature of psychopathology—specifically those conditions typically labeled as major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. The second is to show how engaging with psychopathological conditions can challenge and undermine many phenomenological presuppositions, especially phenomenology’s status as a transcendental philosophy and its corresponding anti-naturalistic outlook.

In the opening chapter, I articulate the three layers of the subject matter of phenomenological research—what I …

Mechanotransduction Of Matrix Stiffness Regulates Cell Adhesion Strength: An Analysis Using Biomaterial Surfaces With Tunable Mechanical And Chemical Properties, Asma Sharfeddin Sharfeddin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cells have the ability to sense the rigidity of the extracellular matrix which directly affects the control of cellular functions in development, wound healing and malignant transformation. Polydimethylsiloxane elastomers are useful model biomaterials for mechanotransduction studies because they possess several advantages including ease of fabrication, tunable elasticity and modifiable surface chemistry. In this work, we are investigating the influence of matrix stiffness on adhesion strength and the mechanosensory structures that regulate these processes. In addition, the effect of surface modifications to this elastic substrate system on other physical properties such as local stiffness and topography will be analyzed. Based on …

Representation Of Adolescent Identity Status Through Facebook Use: A Qualitative Multicase Study Of Adolescent Digital Behaviors, David Valdez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The expanding landscape of social media offers users several platforms to introduce into their lifestyle choices. Facebook continues to be one of the most ubiquitous social media platforms in the United States (Pew Research Center, 2015), and its use in educational contexts has become an area of inquiry. This study examines how a sample of high school seniors in an IB psychology class use social media, specifically, Facebook by inquiring into the interrelationship between social media use, identity formation, and personal teacher pedagogy as part of instruction. The research questions for this study were: Question 1- How are students using …

Influence Of Musical Engagement On Symptoms Of Tourette’S Disorder, William Christopher Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tourette’s is currently considered a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder. Georges Gilles de la Tourette is given primary credit for the diagnoses of the disorder in the late 1800s. Clear answers have been elusive although modern research and improvements to neuroimaging have enabled the causal factors of Tourette’s Disorder (TD) to be examined with greater scrutiny. Currently, there is no known cure or pharmaceutical treatment that has been proven 100% effective for all patients and symptoms of Tourette’s. Anecdotally, there have been recent media and self-reports of people diagnosed with Tourette’s finding relief from their symptoms through involvement in focus-based activities such …

A Caenorhabditis Elegans Model To Detect Developmental Teratogens With Adverse Reproductive And Metabolic Effects, Alexis Ann Killeen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is a current epidemic in the United States. Greater than one third of adults and nearly one fifth of children are classified as obese (Ogden, 2014). Increased awareness of this problem has triggered interest into the potentially causal agents in our environment. These agents, termed obesogens, are a type of teratogen hypothesized to work during embryonic development by programming offspring to store excess fat. A type of teratogen, obesogens are also typically reprotoxic, affecting germline development and embryonic viability. These noxious teratogens span a variety of different chemical classes including estrogen mimics, metals and metalloids, biocides, and even voluntary …

The Concerted Regulation Of Intracellular Signaling By Amyloid Precursor Protein And Aβ Peptide, Lisa Kirouac

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is widely accepted that A-beta (Aβ) generated from amyloid precursor protein (APP) oligomerizes and fibrillizes to form neuritic plaques in the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain, yet little is known about the contribution of APP preceding AD pathogenesis. Our data presented here suggest that APP has a functional role in cell cycle regulation and proliferation. First, we demonstrat that APP is pathologically phosphorylated at Thr₆₆₈ and that P-APP localizes to the centrosomes. Furthermore, P-APP is proteolytically processed in a cell cycle -dependent manner to generate its pathogenic metabolites. Using Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino Acids in Culture (SILAC) and …

Work-Value Profile And Career Success, Chee Wee Koh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Work values, defined as the end states people desire and expect to realize through work, appear to play a role in career success, but the small number of past studies have reported conflicting results, some of which may be attributed to research methodology. Using a person-centered approach to model the conjoint effects of intrinsic and extrinsic work values, the present study inductively investigated the association between work-value profile and career success using a three-panel longitudinal dataset consisting of 905 lawyers from the After the Juris Doctorate (AJD) study. Latent profile analysis identified five work-value profiles: (i) Neither Intrinsic nor Extrinsic …

Just Hospitality: Wage Theft, Grassroots Labor Organizing, And Activist Research In Nashville, Tennessee, Rachel Tyree

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This politically engaged project locally grounds the efforts of low-wage workers in the United States who are addressing the nationwide epidemic of wage theft by focusing on the particular experience of organized hospitality cleaning workers at a worker center in Nashville, Tennessee. While being both collaborative and reflexive, this activist anthropological research utilizes observant participation, in-depth interviews, and organizational and archival research to explore the issues identified by members and organizers at the worker center, illustrate the alternative theories of change being generated from grassroots labor organizing efforts in light of state mechanisms that do not protect all workers, and …

Exploring The Relationship Of Healthy Lifestyle Characteristics With Food Behaviors Of Low-Income, Food Insecure Women In The United States (Us), Kimberly Ann Wollard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) self-reported surveys from 2007-2012, this research explored the relationship between four healthy lifestyle characteristics - healthy weight, adequate daily fruit and vegetable intake, regular moderate to vigorous physical activity and not smoking - with food behaviors of low-income, food insecure women. The study examined three specific food behaviors (the use of SNAP, consumption of fast foods, and the utilization of community emergency food programs) to determine if these behaviors had a significant impact on low-income, food insecure women to follow healthy lifestyle characteristics. A secondary data analysis was conducted …

Differential Association Of Vitronectin And Fibronectin With Glass And Electrospun Fibers Of A Poly (D-Lysine) /Poly (Acrylic Acid), Syed Muhammad Sohaib Zafar Zafar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proteins represent major constituent of the extracellular matrix which plays an important role in the formation, maintenance and remodeling of tissues, this project focuses on adsorption of two specific serum proteins fibronectin (FN) and vitronectin (VTN) responsible for mediating cell matrix interaction through integrin binding, tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence found in these protein features are recognized by αβV₃ integrin which ultimately helps in clot formation.

Photic Stress In Symbiont-Bearing Reef Organisms: Analyses Of Photosynthetic Performance, Natasha Mendez-Ferrer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Photo-oxidative stress is one of the key factors that can induce bleaching in reef organisms. With the decline of coral reefs and recurrent bleaching events, many studies have focused on understanding the mechanism behind this phenomenon. Two of the hypotheses that explain how the photosynthetic performance of the symbiont is affected and influences bleaching are: (1) disruption of the photosynthetic pathway by direct damage to the photosystem II (PSII), and (2) by inhibition of the Calvin-Benson cycle. In this dissertation I examine different aspects of photosynthetic performance in symbiont-bearing reef organisms and how this is influenced by symbiont loss and …

White Teachers’ Experiences Of Working With Black Students Within A Response To Intervention Framework: The Role Of Racialized Deficit Thinking, Sujay Sabnis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a data-based decision-making framework of service delivery that has the potential to improve educational outcomes for all students. Preliminary data appear to bolster this claim. However, it is as yet unclear whether RTI will be able to close the gap in educational outcomes that exists between students of different racial groups. Drawing on theories such as culture of policy (Stein, 2004) and deficit thinking (Valencia, 2010), this study explored the experiences of six White elementary teachers using RTI while working with Black students receiving Tier 2 or Tier 3 instructional supports. Using theoretically driven constant-comparative …

Authentication In Wireless Body Area Networks (Wban), Nagalaxmi Yenuganti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the advancements in technology and computing environment capabilities, the number of devices that people carry has increased exponentially. This increase initially occurred as a result of necessity to monitor the human body condition due to chronic diseases, heart problems etc. Later, individuals’ interest was drawn towards self-monitoring their physiology and health care. This is achieved by implanting various sensors that can proactively monitor the human body based on medical necessity and the health condition of the user. Sensors connected on a human body perceive phenomena such as locomotion or heartbeat, and act accordingly to form a Body Area Network. …

Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Infected Mesenchymal Stem Cells Regulate Immunity Via Interferon-Beta And Indoleamine-2,3-Dioxygenase, Michael B. Cheung

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection in young children worldwide, accounting for an estimated 33.8 million cases of respiratory disease, over 3 million of which require hospitalization, and between 66,000 and 199,000 deaths in this susceptible population. Additionally, severe RSV infection early in life is associated with an increased risk of wheeze and other airway disorders later in life. Despite this, there is currently no vaccine or economically reasonable prophylactic regimen to prevent infection. While disease is typically more severe in infancy RSV can infect throughout the lifespan repeatedly as the …

Assessment Of Prolonged Occupational Exposure To Heat Stress, Ximena Garzon-Villalba Garzon-Villalba

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heat stress is a recognized occupational hazard present in many work environments. Its effects increase with increasing environmental heat loads. There is good evidence that exertional heat illness is associated with ambient thermal conditions in outdoor environments. Further, there is reason to believe that risk of acute injury may also increase with the ambient environment. For these reasons, the assessment of heat stress, which can be done through the characterization of the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), is designed to limit exposures to those that could be sustained for an 8-h day. The ACGIH Threshold Limit Value (TLV) for heat …

Relationship Between Teacher Characteristics And Accuracy In Identifying Middle School Students With Symptoms Of Anxiety And Depression, Elizabeth Storey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As a universal screening method, teacher nominations have been found to both miss and misidentify a substantial proportion of students with internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression (Cunningham & Suldo, 2014; Gelley, 2014; Moor et al., 2007). Although some research has explored the accuracy of teacher nominations when used to identify students with anxiety and depression, no research examined the teacher characteristics that are potentially related to accuracy. The current study conducted a secondary analysis of an archival dataset (Gelley, 2014) to determine which characteristics of teachers (N= 19) are more closely related to accuracy in identifying …

The Influence Of Motivational Salience On Attention Selection: An Erp Investigation, Constanza De Dios

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how motivational salience in the form of expectation violation influences spatial attention. The medial frontal negativity (MFN) ERP indexes expected value, being negative to unexpected punishments and positive to unexpected rewards. The P1 and N1 ERPs index spatial attention, being larger to stimuli in attended locations. This design attached motivational value to locations by making one visual hemifield economically rewarding (greater probability of a rewarding outcome) and the other punishing (greater probability of a punishing outcome). Keypresses to a dot probe following a reward-signifying stimulus were awarded money if correct, and …

Polymer Characteristics Of Polyelectrolyte Polypeptides, Jorge Monreal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Polypeptides are polymerized chains of amino acids linked covalently through peptide bonds. Polyelectrolyte polypeptides are polypeptides with electrolyte repeating groups. Several amino acids contain ionizable side chains which result in charge distributions when dissolved in aqueous solutions. This dissertation is motivated by a desire to gain knowledge of polyelectrolyte polypeptides as recent advances in chemical synthesis of polypeptides have made possible the fabrication of designed polypeptides that do not naturally occur in nature. Potential applications of newly designed polypeptides span the range from medical to clothing and energy even to robotics.

In this dissertation we compare the characteristic behavior of …

Applications Of Molecular Modelling And Structure Based Drug Design In Drug Discovery, Sreya Mukherjee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Calcium ions have important roles in cellular processes including intracellular signaling, protein folding, enzyme activation and initiation of programmed cell death. Cells maintain low levels of calcium in their cytosol in order to regulate these processes. When activation of calcium-dependent processes is needed, cells can release calcium stored in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) into the cytosol to initiate the processes. This can also initiate formation of plasma membrane channels that allow entry of additional calcium from the extracellular milieu. The change in calcium levels is referred to as calcium flux. A key protein involved in initiation of calcium flux is …

Cell Cycle Arrest By Tgfß1 Is Dependent On The Inhibition Of Cmg Helicase Assembly And Activation, Brook Samuel Nepon-Sixt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tumorigenesis is a multifaceted set of events consisting of the deregulation of several cell-autonomous and tissue microenvironmental processes that ultimately leads to the acquisition of malignant disease. Transforming growth factor beta (TGFß) and its family members are regulatory cytokines that function to ensure proper organismal development and the maintenance of homeostasis by controlling cellular differentiation, proliferation, adhesion, and survival, as well as by modulating components of the cellular microenvironment and immune system. The pleiotropic control by TGFß of these cell intrinsic and extrinsic factors is intimately linked to the prevention of tumor formation, the specifics of which are dependent on …

Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Homopolymer And Monomer Exposure Assessment And Characterization At An Automobile Manufacturer In The United States, Karthik Reguram Sivaraman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A variety of paint products are used for their aesthetic and anti-corrosive properties. Isocyanates are consistently found in automobile paint products, particularly in clear coat polyurethane products. Clear coat is typically sprayed via pressurized air by means of an auto-spray robot. In clear coat repair situations, manual, air-powered spray guns are used, and manual spray Operators administer the clear coat material. The isocyanates are a primary anti-corrosive agent in polyurethane products. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has not established a Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL). The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and American Conference of Governmental …

The Effects Of Personal And Family History Of Cancer On The Development Of Dementia In Japanese Americans: The Kame Project, Adam Lee Slotnick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of studies have shown an inverse association between a personal history of cancer (PHC) and dementia/Alzheimer’s disease (AD), both in those using dementia/AD as the outcome or cancer as the outcome. This is the first study to examine this potential association in Japanese Americans; and to examine family history of cancer and its association with incident dementia. Also, the association between these two diseases in the parents of participants were analyzed.

The Kame Project, conducted from 1992 through 2001 in King County, Washington was a population-based, prospective cohort study of older Japanese Americans. Conversion to incident dementia …

Digital Integration, Jacob C. Boccio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence is an emerging technology; something far beyond smartphones, cloud integration, or surgical microchip implantation. Utilizing the work of Ray Kurzweil, Nick Bostrom, and Steven Shaviro, this thesis investigates technology and artificial intelligence through the lens of the cinema. It does this by mapping contemporary concepts and the imagined worlds in film as an intersection of reality and fiction that examines issues of individual identity and alienation. I look at a non-linear timeline of films involving machine advancement, machine intelligence, and stages of post-human development; Elysium (2013) and Surrogates (2009) are about technology as an extension of the self, …

Decision Support Systems For Water Management: Investigating Stakeholder Perceptions Of System Use, Gabriella Balsam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water resources are becoming increasingly important to protect, but doing so has proven challenging due to the complex nature of resource management. Many researchers have been trying to develop “usable science” to aid in this endeavor, and one method of this is the development of decision support systems. This has led to the employment of this method as a potential tool for decision makers, scientists, and the interested public to use; yet little literature is available on the success of their implementation. This study attempted to fill the gaps by gathering data through surveys and interviews from stakeholders who are …

Sialylation And Cardiomyocyte Complex N -Glycosylation Protect Against Dilated Cardiomyopathy And Heart Failure, Wei Deng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the third most common cause of heart failure, often associated with arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death if not controlled. Metabolic and/or environmental factors, such as alcohol abuse, obesity, diabetes and Chagas disease, alter glycoprotein glycosylation, can lead to DCM. Inherited genetic disease, such as the human congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG), causes multi-system manifestations including DCM. Non-congenital changes in glycosylation are also occurred in humans with and in animal models of DCM and heart failure. However, mechanisms responsible for glyco-dependent DCM are not understood. Here we sought to investigate the impact of sialylation and N-glycosylation …