Digital Commons Network^™

Predictors Of Goal Attainment Among High School Students In Accelerated Academic Curricula Receiving School-Based Motivational Interviewing Intervention, Camille E. Hanks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs represent a unique group of adolescents given the high demands of their rigorous coursework and the elevated stress they experience compared to peers in the general education (Suldo & Shaunessy-Dedrick, 2013). These students are often missed in traditional screening procedures that tend to identify students struggling academically or exhibiting disruptive behaviors. Fortunately, Shaunessy-Dedrick and colleagues (2021) developed a comprehensive school-based intervention program, including universal (Tier 1) and selective (Tier 2) components, which aims to support the well-being of AP/IB students. The Tier 2 component of this program (i.e., …

Biochar Amended Bioretention Systems For Nutrient And Fecal Indicator Bacteria Removal From Urban And Agricultural Runoffs, Md Yeasir Arif Rahman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Excessive nitrogen and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in stormwater runoff from urban areas or dairy farm operations impair water bodies resulting algal blooms, gastrointestinal illness, and economic losses. Recent advancements in stormwater management, including low impact development (LID) techniques, have provided engineers with a variety of tools to use in place of traditional catch basins and retention ponds. One promising LID technology for runoff management is bioretention, which consists of a shallow depression containing engineered porous media and vegetation. Prior studies have shown that modified bioretention systems that include an internal water storage zone (IWSZ) to promote denitrification can improve …

Investigation Of Polymer-Plasticizer Blends For Btex Detection Using Quartz Crystal Microbalance, Abhijeet Iyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are chemicals that evaporate easily and become gases at ambient temperature and pressure. The EPA has made the monitoring of VOCs mandatory due to their health impacts, which range from headaches and nausea to cancer. The current techniques used for VOC monitoring such as photoionization, gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy, and e-noses sensors are expensive, time-intensive, demand rigorous sample preparation, and cannot quantify the VOCs in the air. Chemical sensors based on piezoelectric transduction like the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) show promising results in terms of providing cost-effective real-time data, robustness, and low power requirements. In this …

Role Of Nhe3 In The Intestine And Thick Ascending Limb Of The Kidneys, Jianxiang Xue

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The sodium-hydrogen exchanger isoform 3 (NHE3, SLC9A3) mediates most Na+/H+ exchange in the gastrointestinal tract and the kidney, where it plays crucial roles in Na+ and fluid absorption as well as acid-base homeostasis. Whole body NHE3 knockout (NHE3-/-) mice show overt absorptive defects in both the intestine and kidneys. Genetic mutations of NHE3 gene in humans are associated with congenital sodium diarrhea (CSD). In the kidneys, NHE3 is expressed in the proximal tubule (PT) and the thick ascending limb (TAL). Whole kidney-specific (PT and TAL) NHE3 knockout (NHE3Pax8cre) mice and PT-specific NHE3 knockout (PT-NHE3-/-) mice have shown the importance of …

Awareness, Advocacy, And Activism: A Self-Study Of Social Justice Supervision Of Secondary Science Teacher Candidates, Stephanie A. Arthur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the demographics of public K-12 schools continue to shift towards a wider representation including students of color and students from low-income households, it is critical for new secondary science teachers entering the field to be prepared to teach science that is culturally responsive to their students’ needs and communities. As teacher candidates continue their pedagogical growth while in their final clinical internships in high-needs schools, there is great potential for the university supervisor to support their development within a social justice framework. By encouraging and supporting teacher candidates to include culturally responsive approaches in the biology, chemistry, physics, and …

Interrelation Of Thermal Stimulation With Haptic Perception, Emotion, And Memory, Mehdi Hojatmadani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Haptics is an interdisciplinary field of science that deals with how humans perceive and respond to different sensory cues perceived through touch. Thermal haptics as a branch deals with how humans perceive the temperature sensation and respond to that. The process in which thermal perception occurs is well known to researchers. What seems missing in the literature is how temperature interacts or sometimes intervenes in other physiological and psychological aspects of our lives. In this research, a series of studies are presented where the main focus was how temperature and brain interact with each other to impede or enhance our …

Targeting Modern Pathogens With Rational Drug Design, Michael Dominic Sacco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the first living organisms appeared on earth, their very existence was dependent on their ability to contend for resources. To this day, organisms are perpetually competing for resources, and in doing so, have evolved highly effective defense mechanisms and systems for propagation. Although invisible to the eye, we live in a world teeming with microbes and viruses. While many are harmless, others cause widespread disease. One of the key niches for these pathogens, particularly bacteria, are health-care facilities. These health-care facilities have a high concentration of immunocompromised patients and rely heavily on antibiotics, which strongly contributes to antibiotic resistance. …

Development Of A Bipolar Radiofrequency Ablation Device For Renal Denervation, Noel Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The American Heart Association (AHA) reported in March 2020, hypertension (HT) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and heart stroke. Resistant hypertension (RH) is a subset of HT and affects 11-16% of hypertensive patients. RH is diagnosed when a patient cannot achieve blood pressure control despite taking three or more medications and is a serious clinical management challenge.

Renal denervation (RD) using radiofrequency (RF) ablation is an accepted form of RH therapy. RD devices are typically delivered through femoral access into the renal artery with the assistance of a standard guided sheath. In the European Union (EU), the …

Geological And Geochemical Analysis Of Phosphorus Bearing Minerals And Natural Glasses On Earth And In Meteorites: Implications Of The Origin Of Life, Tian Feng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Phosphorus is a key element in biogenic molecules and the mineral schreibersite is a major reactive phosphorus source for organic compounds on the prebiotic Earth. In this dissertation, a suite of reactions of phosphorus species, which originate from schreibersite minerals on chondrite meteorites and on the early Earth, have been studied to determine the intermediate geochemical pathways between phosphides and common minerals on meteorites and on the early earth.

I first investigated a unique blue fulgurite that was studied to clarify if this blue color was caused by rich phosphorus content, as has been reported for impact glasses that also …

Evolution Of Targeted Therapy Resistance In Eml4-Alk Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Robert Vander Velde

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Targeted therapies have emerged as potent treatments that lead to the remission of many tumors. However, they rarely cure cancers in advanced, metastatic settings. This is due to the evolution of resistance, which in turn can be ascribed to the survival of small subpopulations of tolerant and/or resistant cells. Here we investigated the evolution of resistance to EML4-ALK inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and demonstrated that resistance evolves gradually, from unique pre-treatment sub-populations, as multiple resistance mechanisms accumulate in a Darwinian fashion. Despite accumulating multiple changes, cells evolved, in parallel, toward similar inhibitor specific phenotypes. Evolving cells have …

Novel Synthetic Ketogenic Compounds, Michael Scott Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ketogenic diet has grown in popularity in the last decade as a weight loss tool. Research into the diet’s effects on the body have revealed a variety of other health benefits. The use of exogenous ketone supplements to confer the benefits of the diet without strict adherence to it represents an exciting new area of focus. Synthetic ketogenic compounds are of particular interest that has received very little emphasis and is an untapped area of focus for chemical synthesis.

The first chapter of this manuscript provides an overview of the history of the ketogenic diet along with a summary …

Transcriptomic And Functional Investigation Of Bacterial Biofilm Formation, Brooke R. Nemec

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii are two highly successful human pathogens, which have adopted very different, but effective survival strategies. The success of S. aureus is attributed to the tight regulation of an arsenal of virulence factors. Conversely, A. baumannii lacks what would be considered traditional virulence factors and, instead, has developed a high tolerance for environmental stress, which allows it to persist in unforgiving environments, including nosocomial settings and the human body. One common characteristic of these two organisms is their proclivity for biofilm formation. Herein, we discuss the diverse mechanisms governing biofilm formation for A. baumannii and S. …

Design, Synthesis And Testing Of Bioactive Peptidomimetics, Sami Abdulkadir

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proteins are complex macromolecules that are responsible for almost all biochemical processes and play vital roles in signaling pathways, metabolic pathways, and all other cellular functions. Proteins accomplish this by interacting with other proteins and macromolecules like DNA and RNA, for instance, as transcription factors. As such, we can find protein interactions behind every cellular action or inaction, and it is easy to see how protein interactions are crucial in understanding disease processes. Advance in proteomics has particularly provided a wealth of insights into molecular mechanisms of disease processes of cancers and other rare diseases, which has helped identify key …

Alternative Approaches To Protect Sensory Inner Ear Tissue Against Cisplatin-Induced Ototoxicity, Nicole K. Febles

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder often involving permanent damage and loss to the inner ear’s mechano-sensory hair cells and spiral ganglion neuron fibers. Significant causes of SNHL are ototoxic drugs, environmental factors, loud noises, and continuous wear with age. A successful but ototoxic chemotherapeutic known as Cisplatin often damages auditory hair cells via mitochondria dysfunction, DNA fragmentation, and cellular death through apoptosis. Despite the high prevalence of SNHL, there currently is no FDA-approved prevention or cure. Thus, auditory and cancer researchers have investigated various individual otoprotective agent preventions with limited success. This dissertation used a novel …

The Effects Of Agrochemical Pesticide Applications On Target And Off-Target Species In Aquatic Ecosystems, Bryan K. Delius

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increase in the global human population is driving agricultural expansion, which increases the likelihood and degree by which agrochemicals impact aquatic systems. It is projected that by 2100 the global human population will exceed 11 billion, and to feed the increased human population, the necessary increase in agricultural infrastructure is estimated to double irrigation, nearly triple fertilizer applications, and increase pesticide applications by tenfold. It stands to reason that wetlands impacts from agriculture are also likely to increase as the industry expands its operation to meet the globally growing demand for food.

Wetlands are highly productive habitats that not …

A Multi-Faceted Approach To Understanding Acceptability Of Docs K-5: A Qualitative Analysis, Andrea Guarnieri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated the acceptability of DOCS K-5, a behavior parenting program adapted for parents of elementary aged children. Despite proven efficacy in preventing maladaptive behaviors, parenting programs have historically suffered from low attendance and engagement. Participants (N = 13) attending the pilot DOCS K-5 program took part in six group interviews while enrolled in the program to examine the facilitators and barriers to attendance, perceived effectiveness, and collateral benefits received from participation in the program. This study considered possible cognitive, affective, instructional, and pragmatic facilitators or barriers to attendance and engagement. Participants described motivations to learn various types …

High Speed Switching For Plasma Based Electroporation, Shivangi Sharma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ever since mankind has started identifying the diseases, extensive work has been done, and pathologies are written identifying the cure for them. As technology progressed, the development in the field of pathologies also did. Thus, finding innovative and efficient ways to get the ‘cure’. With the advancement in drugs, the delivery methods for these drugs also have advanced. One such delivery method is gene therapy. This method is beneficial when genes are to be used to prevent diseases.

Gene therapy has been proven effective for treating a wide range of conditions, such as cancer, heart diseases, and diabetes. Gene therapy …

Career Development And Workforce Experiences Of Trans People In Their Workplaces, Rene Ragmett Alvarez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Existing research concerning trans people is sparse, and even less research exists regarding their career development and workforce experiences. Hence, I explored the career development and workforce experience stories of trans people. I used a conceptual and theoretical framework in this study to inform my general approach to trans scholarship leading to the specific examination of the career development and workforce experiences of trans persons. The conceptual and theoretical framework included Hale's (1997) suggested guidelines for non-trans people writing about trans people, constructivism, social cognitive career theory, and minority stress theory and informed the qualitative vehicle of this study to …

Metabolic Rate, Critical Oxygen Partial Pressure, And Oxygen Supply Capacity Of Farfantepenaeus Duorarum At Their Lower Thermal Limit, Alexandra L. Burns

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Temperature and environmental oxygen availability affect oxygen supply and demand in ectotherms, which are hypothesized to control the geographic limits of many marine species. The oxygen supply capacity (α) is calculated from commonly measured metabolic traits, including the standard metabolic rate (SMR) and critical oxygen partial pressure at SMR (Pcrit). It may be used to estimate the metabolic capacity and aerobic scope across changes in temperature and oxygen partial pressures as α reflects adaptations of the cardiorespiratory system to meet maximum energy demands at a given oxygen partial pressure (PO2). In this study, α was measured for the Tampa Bay …

Analysis Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Gene Expression Profiles In A Prospective, Community-Based Cohort, Jan Dahrendorff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and debilitating psychiatric disorder that may occur in individuals exposed to traumatic events such as accidents, interpersonal violence, war, combat-exposures or natural disasters. PTSD is a significant public health issue with a high disease burden associated with substantial health care costs and several comorbidities negatively affecting an individual’s quality of life. The biological underpinnings of the disorder are not well understood. Gene expression studies can shed light into the complex physiology of PTSD. However, to date, studies employing a hypothesis-free approach examining the whole transcriptome are scarce and are limited to assessment of …

A Review Of Marine Turtle Orientation And Artificial Lighting Impacts With Novel Results From Florida’S Gulf Coast, Andrea M. Fisher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial light (i.e. unnatural light emitting from a human-made source) is one of the most extensively distributed, and least managed, type of anthropogenic pollution. Due to the disproportionally high rates of urbanization in critical coastal ecosystems, species, like marine turtles that use beach habitat for nesting activities, are especially vulnerable. Marine turtles employ the use of multiple visual cues (e.g. wavelength, intensity, background illumination, and dark silhouettes) to conduct sea-finding behavior and different variations in cue usage exist across species and geographic location. During nesting and emergence activities, orientation can be interrupted and manipulated by artificial lighting resulting in lower …

Examining The Presence Of A Possible Species Complex Of Octopus Joubini (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae) In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico, Haley Holloway

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Pygmy Octopus Octopus joubini (Robson, 1929) is a small, shallow water species found throughout the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), western Atlantic Ocean and the northeastern Caribbean Sea (Mather, 1982; Jereb & Roper, 2014; Judkins, 2009). This species is believed to belong to a complex based upon morphological features including arm length, web depth, sucker size, egg size, hatchling ecology, and chromatophore coloration. It has been proposed that Octopus mercatoris, another pygmy species found in the GoM, may belong in this complex; however, no analyses have been performed to verify this claim. The present study incorporated morphological comparisons with …

Successful Aging In Adults Who Stutter: Exploring Predictors Of Physical And Mental Health-Related Quality Of Life, Amanda Kelly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to investigate predictors of physical and mental health quality of life in aging adults who stutter (AWS). Our goal was to identify factors contributing to successful aging in this talker group. The aging population is expected to increase exponentially over the next twenty years. Factors influencing self-perceived health-related quality of life have yet to be investigated in aging AWS.

An online survey was completed by a total of 40 AWS, age 50 years and older, recruited from the Greater Tampa Bay region and nationally. The survey comprised multiple measures that probed for information regarding self-perceived health …

Native And Non-Native English-Speaking Doctoral Students' Strategies To Understand Idiomatics In Comics And Comic Strips, Himelhoch Luz-Aydé

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Everyday language consists of many idiomatic and figurative expressions. For non-native English speakers to achieve native fluency, control of idiomatics—native speech that includes the use of both idiomatic and figurative language—is paramount. In this study, I aimed to explore the use of comics and comic strips in the learning and comprehension of L2 (second language) idiomatics. Seldom has the topic of comics and comic strips been addressed as it applies to idiomatics learning in second language acquisition (SLA). I employed a descriptive and exploratory approach in this study to address this gap in SLA pedagogy. A total of 21 doctoral …

Development Of A Numerical Process Model For Adsorbent-Amended Constructed Wetlands, Lillian Mulligan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a need for alternative methods for municipal landfill leachate treatment as the high concentrations of pollutants in leachate interfere with processes at publicly owned treatment works (POTWs). Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been shown to be a sustainable alternative with good removal efficiencies for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH4+). The addition of an adsorbent media, such as zeolite and biochar, to CWs to further enhance removal efficiencies has been investigated in recent years. However, the long-term effects of zeolite and biochar addition to CWs is not well known. A model could be a useful tool to …

Depression During Adolescence: An Examination Of Treatment Outcomes Through An Intersectional Lens, Myesha Morgan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Major Depressive Disorder is a common mental health disorder, with studies suggesting its potential to lead to academic and social-emotional impairment in youth (Alegria, Vallas, & Pumariega, 2011). Although psychological treatments for this disorder have been studied for decades, prior to recent years little was known about the generalizability of treatment effectiveness to non-European samples (Bernal, Bonila, & Bellido, 1995; Bernal & Scharron-Del-Rio, 2001). Data suggest that racial/ethnic minority youth experience more severe depression when diagnosed with the disorder and are less likely to access mental health services. Behavior Activation (BA) is a treatment approach found to be effective for …

Flow Visualization And Aerosol Characterization Of Respiratory Jets Exhaled From A Mannequin Simulator, Sindhu Reddy Mutra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is important to understand the airborne transmission of infectious diseases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical experiments were conducted to understand the dispersion of aerosols emitted from a mannequin simulator replicating human tidal breathing through the nose and mouth with and without a protective face mask in an enclosed space. Flow patterns are observed via high-speed visualization, and the concentration and size distribution of the particles is measured as a function of distance from the mannequin using an optical particle sizer. Masks were shown to effectively reduce the horizontal dispersion of aerosol for both mouth and nose breathing. Further, …

Phenotypic Diversity And Costs Of Early Hatching In Lizards, Zachary Winstead

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Early hatching is a form of environmentally cued hatching in which embryos can emerge early to improve chances of survival and is considered a means of antipredator defense. Early hatching as a response to predation has been well documented in amphibians, but its prevalence among other animal groups is unknown. Moreover, any trade-offs between early hatching and other traits, and thus survival, are not well understood. There is anecdotal evidence that lizards exhibit early hatching behavior, but quantitative evidence is limited to one study. In the present study, I tested for the presence of early hatching in six species of …

Sustainability Assessment Of A Pressure Retarded Osmosis System, Samar Al Mashrafi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Desalination has the potential to provide a stable supply of clean fresh water and meet the increasing water demands; however, this process does come with a few challenges such as high energy consumption, high energy cost, and a discharge of a highly concentrated brine. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a technology that could work as an efficient energy recovery technology for desalination since it can significantly reduce the energy consumption and dilute the brine before discharge. Studies have assessed the economic feasibility of PRO systems; however, these studies have not addressed the environmental sustainability of the systems. Thus, there is …

Exploring Prokaryotic And Viral Communities Within Florida’S Freshwater Springs, Kema Saydoon Malki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida’s freshwater springs serve as a crucial ecosystem for the state, having both ecological and economic importance. Springs occur where there is an opening where aquifers discharge groundwater. Florida’s springs are fed by the Floridan aquifer system (FAS), which underlies the entire state and extends into several neighboring states. The FAS provides potable water to over 10 million people. The constant flow of groundwater through the springs feeds major river systems and creates unique freshwater systems that support numerous plants and animals. The combination of natural beauty and charismatic fauna attract tourism and generate millions of dollars in revenue for …