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“So, I Am Back”: Adjudicated Youths’ School Reentry Experiences, Inita S. Knox

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adjudicated youth face a multitude of barriers when reentering school following incarceration. School administrators and educational personnel know very little about how these students perceive their reentry experiences and what the students identify as needed supports, resources, and barriers throughout the process. This qualitative study used in-depth, semi-structured interviews with photo-elicitation to explore and describe how formerly incarcerated youth perceive their high school reentry experiences. Participants were male adolescents ages 16 to 18 years old. who provided rich and in-depth descriptions of their reentry experiences. Recommendations for policy, practice and future research are provided.

Adsorption Of Long And Short Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) Onto Granular Activated Carbon And Porous Organic Polymers, Yan Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made environmental contaminants causing increasing global concern due to their adverse effect on environmental and human health. Conventional treatment methods are ineffective in removing short-chain PFAS because of their hydrophilicity and resistance to degradation. This study is to design an appropriate adsorption system to remove both long- and short-chain PFSA at environmentally relevant concentrations and conditions. Four primary research tasks were designed to evaluate the performance of a structurally-tunable and chemically-stable porous organic polymers (POPs) for PFAS removal under realistic environmental conditions, including the assessment of POPs’ performance without co-contaminants (Chapter 2), the assessment …

Acetate-Encapsulated Linolenic Acid Liposomes Reduce Sars-Cov-2 And Rsv Infection, Andrew R. Mcgill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is an ongoing pandemic-endemic. In the United States, it remains the third leading cause of death in 2022. SARS-CoV-2, an RNA virus, has a genome prone to rapid mutation, generating variant species capable of resisting therapies and vaccination efforts. However, it has been estimated that more than 40% of SARS-CoV-2 infections may be asymptomatic, which calls into question any biological differences between the asymptomatic and afflicted groups. Additionally, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the most significant cause of bronchiolitis and asthma in neonates, with an increasing burden on the …

Exploratory Data-Driven Models For Water Quality: A Case Study For Tampa Bay Water, Sandra Sekyere

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water, a crucial resource for sustaining life, covers approximately 70% of the earth's surface. Nonetheless, the quality of water is deteriorating rapidly due to the rapid growth of urban areas and industries, which is a worrying trend causing harm to human health and the ecosystem. Water quality forecasting has a key role in water resources management by enabling effective pollution control, ecosystem monitoring, and decision-making.

Previously, traditional statistical models were used to forecast water quality, but they were unable to examine the non-linear relationships between water quality parameters, and they assumed that all datasets were distributed normally. This study uses …

Novel Genetic Interactions Of The Sgs1 Helicase In The Maintenance Of Genome Integrity, Sonia Vidushi Gupta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mutagenesis and genome instability are characteristics of cancer cells. People afflictedwith Bloom’s syndrome due to mutations in the BLM gene suffer from reduced life expectancy, accelerated aging, sensitivity to sun exposure, immune system abnormalities and increased risk of cancer. The predisposition to cancer is typically due to abnormal DNA repair that results in chromosome breakage and rearrangements. The homologous recombination factor Sgs1, which is a RecQ-like helicase and an ortholog of the human BLM helicase, functions primarily in DNA repair, but has also been implicated in other cellular functions like replication. Several functions of BLM such as its involvement in …

Exploring Strain Variation And Bacteriophage Predation In The Gut Microbiome Of Ciona Robusta, Celine Grace F. Atkinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current microbiome studies have shown that the maintenance of homeostasis betweenmicrobial populations (e.g. bacteria, viruses) and the host immune system (e.g. innate immune molecules) is necessary for balancing health and disease outcomes within the host. These studies most often utilize vertebrate models; however, research in this field can benefit from diverse model systems that facilitate our ability to conduct experiments to identify phylogenically conserved rules influencing homeostasis in the gut of animals. The Dishaw has developed the use of a filter-feeding marine invertebrate chordate, Ciona robusta, to model such fundamental interactions[1]–[6]. While most biological diversity and functional contribution within microbiomes …

Utilization Of Detonation Nanodiamonds: Nanocarrier For Gene Therapy In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Allan E. Gutierrez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent and high mortality cancers in the world. Two different categories of lung cancer are non-small cell lung cancer which makes up 85% of cases, and small cell lung cancer which makes up the remaining 15% of cases. A significant risk factor that can lead to lung cancer is cigarette smoking (CS) however non-smoking cases i.e., secondhand CS, exposure to certain toxins and family history are on the rise. Both the main types of lung cancer have different system of stages, different ranges of treatment, and consequently low survival rates. Unfortunately, detection and …

Evaluation Of The Humoral Immune Responses To Plasmodium Vivax Circumsporozoite Protein (Csp)-Based Pre-Erythrocytic Vaccine Candidates, Jack Esquenazi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Malaria, caused by the apicomplexan Plasmodium spp. , is a major public health issue that impacts over one-third of the world’s population ,with Plasmodium vivax accounting for over 130 million clinical cases annually. The circumsporozoite protein (CSP) is the most abundant molecule on the surface of Plasmodium sporozoites and is considered a leading pre-erythrocytic stage vaccine candidate. CSP is essential for sporozoite maturation, migration, and invasion. Anti-CSP antibodies interrupt sporozoite migration and infection of hepatocytes thus reducing liver-stage burden. P. vivax CSP is composed of three subdomains: a highly polymorphic immunodominant central repeat region (CRR), conserved N-terminal ,and C-terminal subdomains. …

Resource Recovery From Crew Metabolic Wastes In Lunar And Martian Habitats: Reuse Of Effluent From An Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Treating Fecal Organic Matter As Fertilizer Source For Plants, Alexandra A. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As humans set their sights on exploration of the Moon and Mars human focused challenges like providing potable water, supplying nutritious food to the astronaut crew, and managing their waste present themselves. There are no readily available resources on the Moon and Mars, therefore nothing should be considered unusable including the organic wastes (i.e., feces and urine) produced by the crew. Fecal matter is not currently recycled and is treated as solid waste. After collection, it is discarded out of the International Space Station where it is incinerated upon re-entry. This approach will not work on the Moon’s surface. There …

Anaerobic Digestion Of Brewery Waste Including Spent Yeast And Hops, Dhanashree Rawalgaonkar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida is home to more than 300 craft breweries, that brew over a million barrels of beer annually. Brewing is an energy intensive process and produces large quantities of high strength waste including spent grains, yeast, hops, and high strength wastewater. Brewery wastewater, and spent yeast have high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) concentrations between 5000 mg/L – 10,000 mg/L, and 200,000 mg/L – 300,000 mg/L respectively. Brewery effluent wastewater is sent to Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) which implement high surcharges based on the strength of brewery effluent (COD concentration). While some of the spent yeast and hops can be …

Ice-Core Reveals Flavors Of Hydroclimate Extremes In The American Southwest, Laura Calabrò

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A small number of caves and lava tubes worldwide host perennial ice deposits, which occur at elevations well below those of mountain glaciers and in areas outside the permafrost climatic belt, where no surface glaciation exists. These settings make any of the ice deposits in caves or lava tubes particularly susceptible to the current warming trend, leading to the imminent loss of some untapped cryospheric paleoenvironmental archives.

The present work is the result of a paleoclimate study based on ice deposits accumulated within lava tubes in El Malpais National Monument (ELMA, western New Mexico). The ice cores span from 7,000 …

Environmental Chemical Analysis Method Optimization And Application To Northwest Cuban Marine Sediment, Thea R. Bartlett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A method for gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode has been optimized to quantify 250 compounds of a variety of compound classes such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), oxidized PAHs, organochlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, biomarkers (hopanes, steranes, tri-aromatic steroids, and fecal sterols), aliphatic hydrocarbons, and plastic additives. This method was validated based on available QA/QC standards using several environmental samples, both sediment and biota, and standard reference materials. This contaminant-focused method can be used as a forensic geochemistry tool to evaluate oil contamination and other contaminant histories in future research studies. When applied to …

Exploring Alternative Electron Donors For Heterotrophic Denitrification At A Water Reclamation Facility In Tampa Bay, Tejas Athavale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An excess of nitrogen in water can pose problems, ranging from algal blooms to creating toxic environments for marine life. Therefore, wastewater treatment plants need to remove nitrogen from wastewater during the treatment process. Biological nitrogen removal is one process these plants may use, which commonly involves nitrification and denitrification, converting nitrogen in the form of ammonia to nitrate, and then ultimately nitrogen gas. The process of denitrification often requires an electron donor, and methanol is a common choice. However, it is flammable, and therefore there is a need to explore alternative electron donors. Alternative donors can include manufactured chemicals …

Autonomous Professional Learning Through Practitioner Inquiry: A Study Of Growth Plan System Experiences, Daina Kelly Gaputis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The need for quality science education has long been established, but despite reform after reform, it remains a current concern. What we know as good teaching is not happening, perhaps because there is an increase in science teachers using alternative certification programs to enter the field. This lack of formal training causes teachers to have a reliance on professional learning opportunities to learn about reform-based science education. Unfortunately, traditional forms of professional learning are often inadequate, so newer professional learning designs have been established. Some of these newer designs, such as practitioner inquiry, offer teachers autonomy over how they assess …

Stable Isotope Analysis Of Doryteuthis (Amerigo) Pealeii Eye Lenses To Determine Migratory Patterns In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico Using Statoliths For Age Determination, Hannah M. Schwaiger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Doryteuthis (Amerigo) pealeii is a common fisheries squid that occurs in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and along the east coast of the United States. These squid are an important link in the food web, linking higher and lower trophic positions (Madsen et al., 2007), and they are also used for human consumption. The migration patterns of D. pealeii populations in the northwestern North Atlantic have been thoroughly studied when compared to those in the GoM. This research aims to combine statolith aging and stable isotope analysis to enhance the understanding of D. pealeii migration patterns throughout their short, sub-annual …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Separation Of Loaded Liposomes For Drug Delivery, Sandra Khalife

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Liposomes are viable candidates for drug delivery vehicles due to their ability to protect loaded compounds, dampen side effects of drugs, and be delivered to target sites in the body. The amphipathic nature of these lipid vesicles makes them very customizable through careful selection of bilayer and aqueous core components as well as synthetic and downsizing methods. However, synthetic methods may result in unencapsulated compounds remaining present alongside loaded liposomes, which require removal before the liposome suspension can be used.

This work explores the use of model DOPC as well as DOPC and CHOL liposomes and the methods that were …

Examination Of Microplastics And Organic Contaminants In Tampa Bay’S Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Through Visual And Chemical Analysis, Andrea Murray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microplastic pollution is an increasingly alarming concern with widespread global distribution in aquatic environments. Filter feeding organisms such as bivalves, have a heightened risk of microplastic ingestion through free floating particulates in the water. This can lead to bioaccumulation moving up through trophic levels to apex predators and humans. Spatial and temporal differences in microplastic abundance were evaluated in the Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea virginica, at six sites within Tampa Bay. Oyster tissue was digested using 30% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and microplastics were quantified using Nile Red dye and fluorescent particle excitement. A total of 3025 microplastics were found throughout six …

Effect Of Dual Inhibition Of Atypical Pkc Signaling And Pi3k/Akt Signaling On Cell Viability And Apoptosis In Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (Ccrcc)., Khandker M. Khalid

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer (85%); 75% of the cases involve conventional clear cell RCC (ccRCC). The choice of treatments recommended for clear cell carcinoma and non-clear cell carcinoma include partial nephrectomy (Stage I), radical nephrectomy (Stages II and III), and chemotherapy (stage IV). Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors can be a viable candidate in the chemotherapy of ccRCC because the PI3K/Akt pathway is frequently activated in RCC. Hence, PI3K inhibitors like Alpelisib (BYL719) can be chosen as a treatment. In addition, aPKCs (PKC-ί and PKC ζ) are overexpressed in most cancer cells, and they …

Investigation Of Challenging Transformations In Gold Catalysis, Qi Tang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation mainly contains three parts: 1) Divergent gold catalysis for alkyne trifunctionalization, encompassing three distinct modes to achieve the simultaneous formation of C-N, C-O, and C-C bonds in a single step 2) the study and development of a new method to synthesize azaborine derivatives; and 3) the construction of benzotriazole boranes (BTAB) as stable four-coordinate N-B heterocycles through gold-catalyzed alkyne hydroboration.

In the first part, alkyne trifunctionalization via divergent gold catalysis will be introduced. This novel approach involves a sequence of reactions that combine gold π-activation, vinyl gold nucleophilic addition, and gold (III) reductive elimination. By utilizing this methodology, …

Development Of A Ddpcr Multiplex To Measure The Immune Response To Borrelia Burgdorferi., Kailey Marie Mccain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Zoonotic diseases account for a significant proportion of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), with their dynamics being heavily influenced by the environment. While the effects of the environment on population-level disease dynamics have been extensively studied, there is limited research investigating the impact of the environment on individual-level disease susceptibility and transmission. This study aims to fill this gap by creating a tool to examine the variation in immune response to Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme Disease, in two competent host species, Peromyscus leucopus and Peromyscus maniculatus. Two triplex droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) assays were developed to …

Institutional And Individual Approaches To Change In Undergraduate Stem Education: Two Framework Analyses, Stephanie B. Feola

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine institutional change initiatives in STEM and to understand the impact of engaging with a specific change strategy on a biochemistry educator’s instructional practice. Institutional change initiatives involve executing an intentional strategy to influence teaching practices within a specific institution. This research investigates NSF-funded change initiatives at three public research universities that were focused on encouraging the adoption of evidenced-based instructional practices (EBIPs) by STEM faculty. As part of an effort to understand how the three institutions approached this task, framework analysis was performed using the initiative’s annual reports to NSF. Further …

Metachronal Locomotion: Swimming, Scaling, And Schooling, Kuvvat Garayev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation deals with one type of underwater locomotion called metachronal swimming in which the organism sequentially beats its multiple appendages allowing phase lag between adjacent neighbors. Metachronally swimming species are widespread and include copepods, shrimp, ctenophores, and tomopterid worms to name few. First, using the high-speed recording and planar particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement, I report on kinematics of fast metachronal swimmer and constructive vortex interactions among its appendages and discuss its implications for improved performance regarding the swimming. Second, I show how hydrodynamic performance of all metachronal swimmers (paramecia, copepods, tomopterid worms, krill etc.) can be scaled by …

Gold-Catalyzed Diyne-Ene Cyclization: Synthesis Of Hetero Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons And 1,2-Dihydropyridines, Jingwen Wei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homogeneous gold catalysts are known as a powerful tool for selectively activating alkynes and are well-developed in the construction of C-C, C-N, and C-O bonds to form complex compounds that are widely used in pharmaceuticals, industries, agriculture, etc. The investigation of gold(I) catalysis on conjugated diyne (compounds having two acetylene groups) enriches the complexity of the bond construction and allows the building of interesting skeletons in organic synthesis. One typical kind of substrate, diyne-ene, has both a conjugated diyne part and a 1,6- enyne part. We developed a new methodology to allow its divergent synthesis to heterocycles.

This dissertation mainly …

Preliminary Characterization And Functional Validation Of Pre-Erythrocytic Vaccine Candidates For The Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Vivax, Justin Lee Nicholas Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

RTS,S/AS01, vaccine targeting malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum, used in moderate to high malaria transmission, provides hope for pre-erythrocytic (PE) subunit malaria vaccine development. Despite this vaccine advance, efforts to develop an efficacious vaccine against the neglected parasite Plasmodium vivax have lagged. In addition, there exists a gap in our understanding of PE antigens that can induce broadly-neutralizing antibodies. In this dissertation, we provide the preliminary characterization of vaccine candidates targeting the PE of P. vivax. Through transcriptomic profiling data and a target product profile, we identified critical P. vivax antigens (SSP3, SPECT-1, and M2-MAEBL) that can potentially be targets …

The Impacts Of Disability Policy And Its Implementation On Deaf University Students: An Applied Anthropological Approach, Tailyn Marie Osorio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) has provided legal requirement for universities to provide accommodations for all disabled students, including deaf students. The ADA is intentionally vague to allow flexibility for how institutions implement accommodations provisions. This leads to high variability across universities. Using ethnographic data from policy analysis, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with accommodations coordinators and deaf students from a large-public university, this applied anthropological study aims to investigate the impacts of policy and policy practices on the experiences of deaf students while proposing interventions informed by the coordinators and deaf students themselves.

This study is …

An Analysis Of State Sex Education Policies To Explore The Inclusiveness Of School Based Sex Education, Amarah Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze state policies related to sex education proposed between 2018 and 2022 to determine the extent to which sex education needs of LGBTQ youth were being addressed. Previous research has shown that, on average, both abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education curricula do not include information that is relevant to LGBTQ youth. Much of the information included in sex education curricula such as pregnancy prevention and the benefits and disadvantages of condoms are most relevant to youth who identify as heterosexual. Not receiving relevant and accurate sex education puts LGBTQ youth at risk for …

Insect Classification And Explainability From Image Data Via Deep Learning Techniques, Tanvir Hossain Bhuiyan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, humanity has always tried to make labor more efficient and automated, and this trend is only continuing in the modern digital age. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in the latter part of the 20th century, the speed and scale with which AI has been leveraged to automate tasks defy human imagination. Many people deeply entrenched in the technology field are genuinely intrigued and concerned about how AI may change many of the ways in which humans have been living for millennia. Only time will provide the answers. This dissertation is …

The Applicability Of The Postmortem Submersion Interval Estimation Formula For Human Remains Found In Subtropical Aquatic Environments, Kara L. Dicomo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the past decade, several attempts have been made to standardize a method for estimating postmortem submersion intervals (PMSI); however, the majority of these studies have focused on data from a temperate climate which cannot be taken as representative of large portions of the globe. Thus, there are large portions of the earth in which the methodology from these studies may not be able to accurately estimate PMSI which has the potential to leave investigators in these other climatic zones at a disadvantage. This presentation presents a case study into the applicability of two Total Body Scoring Systems (TADS) utilized …

Variability Of Air Sampling Results Using Air-O-Cell Cassettes, Christina M. Haworth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

No current federal or state standards for mold exposure exist, partly due to the lack of accurate methods for assessing fungal exposure. Exposure to airborne fungal spores can result in several symptoms such as allergic rhinitis, coughing, and fatigue. Non-industrial occupational settings are common and fungal exposures may occur in these environments. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the meaningfulness of fungal spore trap results from samples collected in both a corporate office and a university classroom. Air-O-Cell cassettes with a Zefon Bio-Pump were used to collect one outdoor and three indoor samples at each location on three …

Supramolecular Architectures Generated By Self-Assembly Of Guanosine And Isoguanosine Derivatives, Mengjia Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is primarily divided into three parts: 1) Anion, solvent-mediated, tunable self-assemblies of isoguanosine (isoG). 2) Post-assembly modification of the non-covalent isoG-pentaplex for Cesium extraction. 3) Supramolecular asymmetric amine catalysis.

The structural conformational design of the isoG decamer was employed for systematic investigations involving various substituted groups at the C8 position of purine and ribose. A series of isoG analogs with C8-phenyl substitutions were synthesized and utilized for Cesium coordination. The proximity between purine and ribose structures limited pentaplex formation for C8-phenyl substituted isoG derivatives. Based on this observation, a deoxy isoG derivative with a modified ribose was employed …