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An Analysis Of The Restaurant Industry: A Structure-Conduct-Performance Approach, Richard Corcoran

Theses & ETDs

The restaurant industry is a very large and integral part of the economy in the United States. It aids in employing more than 15 million Americans and brings close to 1 trillion dollars in annual revenue to the United States. Despite the size of the industry, many people take for granted the forces that drive and structure it. In this thesis, we will use the Structure, conduct, and performance model (SCP) to demonstrate and analyze how the restaurant industry is organized, how various business in it compete, and what kinds of outcomes for restaurant owners, employees, and consumers stem from …

Business Management & Airbnb, Fernando Espinal

Theses & ETDs

This thesis looks at property management in the short-term rental industry, with a focus on Airbnb properties in Sarasota, Florida. The information in this paper comes from my internship which for privacy reasons I simply refer to it as The Company, where I helped manage Airbnb rental properties. During my internship, I worked with rental pricing, compared local properties, organized expenses using QuickBooks and Excel, and reviewed how properties performed in the market. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how pricing, location, competition, and seasonal changes can affect the success of an Airbnb property. Through the internship experience, …

The Author Has Granted New College Of Florida The Nonexclusive Right To Archive, Make Accessible, And Distribute For Educational Purposes This Work In Whole Or In Part In All Forms Of Media, Now Or Hereafter Known. The Copyright Of This Work Remains With The Author., Alexandra Diliberti

Theses & ETDs

Indigenous women in Guatemala face disproportionate rates of maternal mortality, malnutrition, and reproductive health disparities compared to non-indigenous women. These disparities persist, even after the signing of the 1996 Peace Accords formally committed the government to indigenous rights and improved healthcare. This thesis argues that this is the result of coloniality, neoliberal privatization, and the epistemological exclusion of Maya health knowledge from the official health system. The theoretical framework is based on coloniality of power and knowledge (Quijano 2000), abyssal thinking and ecology of knowledges (Santos 2014), coloniality of gender (Lugones 2008), structural violence (Farmer 1996), and decolonizing methodologies (Tuhiwai …

Narrative And Video Games: How Mediums Can Expand Our Stories, Erin Hagy

Theses & ETDs

The objective of this paper is to examine the extent to which video games can be conceived as a narrative format, with specific regards to its consideration in the educational and social spheres. The paper outlines a variety of popular games for consideration, as well as some influencing technological factors, in arguments for the growing importance and inclusion of narrative within the field of gaming. It also exhibits a variety of case studies towards this point and concludes that while video games hold great potential in terms of narrative, the notable variation across the medium can make it difficult to …

Free, Civil Legal Aid: An Examination Of Client Access To Free, Civil Legal Services In Tennessee, Laura E. Brown

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Nonprofit law firms and legal aid societies provide free civil legal assistance to low-income individuals who have a civil, legal need and who qualify for the services. However, the provision of such services is not straightforward nor without challenges and barriers. This research study examined the provision of free, civil legal services to eligible citizens of Tennessee to see if there was a difference in the provision of services depending on if the recipient of services resides in a rural, urban, or suburban area. The study also explored if there was a difference in the number of cases closed and …

Bending And Breaking The Boundary Between Horror And Comedy: An Exploration Of The Existentialist Function Of The Abject In The Works Of John Landis And Woody Allen, Alaynna K. Bromley

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis explores the line between comedy and horror in an increasingly postmodern world through the cinema of John Landis and Woody Allen. Chapter One explores the theoretical and historical material that link Landis and Allen, namely in their dealing with (1) Edgar Allan Poe’s effect, (2) Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler’s abject, (3) Sigmund Freud’s “uncanny,” and (4) Mikhail Baktin’s carnivalesque. The chapter will conclude with John Landis’ portions of The Twilight Zone: The Movie, as a linked history that welcomes exploration of Landis alongside Allen. Chapter Two conducts a comparative study of two horror-comedies: John Landis’ An American …

Adaptive Insole Design To Prevent Foot Ulcers In Diabetic Neuropathy Patients, Ali Ahmed Osman Abuelgasim

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis investigates whether an adaptive multilayer insole can sense high plantar pressure and redistribute load through soft robotic pneumatic actuation to prevent diabetic foot ulcers. The prototype includes a cushioning layer, a 16-zone force-sensitive resistor array, a McKibben pneumatic actuator, and a 3D-printed TPU structural base. Experimental procedures included sensor calibration, passive TPU evaluation, actuator displacement testing, localized pneumatic offloading, and closed-loop sensing-and-actuation testing, all under controlled laboratory conditions. Pressure data was converted to kilopascals and evaluated using heat maps, zone-by-zone comparisons, and measures of actuator deformation and percent change. Most sensor zones showed a pressure decrease due to …

Measuring Administrative Hiring Confidence Of Music Teachers In The Context Of Shallow Hiring Pools, Aaron M. Strum

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and measure the confidence of K-12 administrators in hiring music faculty. This study also aimed to analyze administrators’ perspectives and confidence in key stages of the hiring process, including defining job expectations, posting, advertising, interviewing, and selecting highly specialized music teachers in K-12 settings. Confidence of K-12 administrators can be gauged through their understanding of how well an applicant aligns with the specific needs of the school’s program. Three research questions guided this investigation: (1a) How confident are K-12 administrators in their understanding of music teaching pedagogy when interviewing music teacher candidates …

A Simulation Assessment Of The 'Law Of One Price', Caleb Wilkins

Computational and Data Sciences (MS) Theses

The ‘law of one price’ is an appealing notion regarding pricing of tradeable commodities that are priced in different currencies. It states that the prices of the same good in different markets should be equal after adjustment for exchange rates and that equality should persist through exchange rate fluctuations.

My research simulates the market conditions that should precipitate the ‘law of one price.’ Data was obtained from the simulated trade between algorithmic artificial intelligence agents that operated under induced boundedly rational market behaviors. Trade took place in two initially separate markets, a high-price market with a higher equilibrium price and …

Eusocial Caste Specialization Under Abiotic And Biotic Stress In A Stingless Bee, Tetragonisca Angustula, Kristin M. Robinson

Dissertations

Eusocial insects rely on division of labor to achieve high colony efficiency and provide essential ecosystem services, but specialization may also constrain colony resilience when workers operate near their physiological or behavioral limits under abiotic and biotic stressors. How specialization mediates these responses remains poorly understood, particularly in stingless bees (Tribe: Meliponini). Using the agriculturally relevant stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula, which possesses a specialized soldier subcaste, I investigated how a high degree of worker specialization influences physiological tolerance and predator responses across worker subcastes.

In this dissertation, I quantified variation in thermal tolerance and desiccation resistance among worker subcastes …

Blueprints For Resilience: A Delphi Study Of Architects' Competencies In Gulf Coast States, Richard J. Cantu

Dissertations

This study identifies and defines core competencies for licensed architects practicing in Gulf Coast states, emphasizing their critical role in protecting health, safety, and welfare (HSW) amid the region’s unique environmental challenges. Hurricanes, flooding, climate-induced risks, and other coastal hazards demand specialized expertise that existing architectural competency models do not adequately address. Leveraging Delphi’s research design, this study engaged Gulf Coast experts to develop and refine a region-specific competency framework across four iterative rounds. The findings highlighted the essential knowledge, skills, and abilities required for resilient and sustainable architectural practice. The study advances architecture’s human capital development (HCD) by addressing …

A Trombone Studio Teacher's Guide To Non-Injury-Related Embouchure Changes, Austin A. Handley

Dissertations

This dissertation is a pedagogical guide for trombone studio teachers who will lead students through embouchure changes. These changes and adjustments are normal in brass pedagogy, but there is limited literature that addresses how teachers should identify the need for change, initiate the process, and support students through it. There are a growing number of resources available about embouchure injury and dysfunction, rehabilitation, and long-term prevention. This leaves a gap for teachers who are trying to help students using an inefficient embouchure setup.

The purpose of this study is to provide a practical resource for teachers by examining the experiences …

Why They Stay: A Qualitative Study Of Experiences Of Veteran Low-Incidence Self-Contained Special Education Teachers Who Remain In The Profession, Jessie Leyden

Dissertations

Persistent shortages of special education teachers in the United States have intensified the need to understand not only why some educators leave, but why others choose to stay. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the experiences of veteran special education teachers working in low-incidence, self-contained classrooms who choose to remain in the profession. With a particular focus on the factors that contribute to their retention beyond the first three years, the study involved a sample of ten low-incidence, self-contained teachers from a variety of states across the country. Using semi-structured interviews, the study explored how these …

Black Women Science Teachers’ Contextual Knowledge Shapes Technology Integration To Support Culturally Responsive Teaching In Secondary Science Classrooms, Ashley M. Thomas

Dissertations

The number of Black and Brown high school students entering college to study science and technology majors is declining. Because they encounter shared intersectional experiences in the science and technology fields, Black women have a unique connection with their students that builds on teaching practices grounded in culturally responsive teaching (CRT). The mixed methods study was bounded to one school district that had a CRT initiative and provided training to its teachers. The study used a pre-validated survey regarding the perceptions of CRT in a technology-supported learning environment and identified the tools and practices Black female science teachers (BFSTs) use …

History-Dependent Gain Control In The Paraventricular Thalamus: Neural Substrates Of Stress-Enhanced Fear Learning, Michael Martino

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by hyperarousal and heightened reactivity that generalize beyond the original traumatic event, yet the neural mechanisms by which prior stress experience biases future fear learning remain poorly understood. Stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL) is a well-validated rodent model of this phenomenon, in which a severe stressor produces persistent sensitization of subsequent fear acquisition. This dissertation used a 30-day SEFL paradigm to identify the brain-wide functional signature of stress sensitization and to identify candidate neural substrates.

Whole-brain cFos mapping during acute fear acquisition revealed a predominant pattern of suppressed neural activity in sensitized animals, with limbic …

Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers And World War Ii, Talisa Flores

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most enduring symbols of patriotism, women's empowerment, and gender equality in the United States. Yet this iconic representation has obscured the experiences of many women whose wartime labor remains marginalized in both public memory and historical scholarship, particularly Mexican American defense workers. This thesis reexamines the history of Rosie the Riveter by centering the voices of Mexican American women employed in wartime industries during the Second World War. While the war undoubtedly shaped their lives, this study argues that the conventional Rosie narrative, one that portrays wartime employment as …

Before Urgent Fury: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Grenada During The Ford And Carter Administrations, Nicholas Jake Durell

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

When the United States pulled out of Vietnam in 1973, it experienced a military and psychological defeat unlike any in its modern history. Following President Richard Nixon’s resignation from the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford, the House Minority Leader who had become Vice President, now assumed the presidency of a deeply fractured nation. As the Cold War persisted, Washington struggled to reassert its superpower status globally while desperately avoiding further foreign entanglements. Consequently, the Ford administration adopted a cautiously detached approach to foreign policy, a strategy vividly illustrated by its posture toward the Eastern Caribbean. This calculated ambivalence, continued by the …

The Influence Of Rainfall And Land Cover Change On Streamflow Variability In Eastern Florida Watersheds, Brynn Romberger

Theses and Dissertations

Streamflow in Florida watersheds is influenced by both land cover change and rainfall variability, but separating their contributions is difficult because both have changed over recent decades. This study evaluated rainfall trends and land cover change to determine which better explains flood and drought threshold exceedance across 27 USGS streamflow gauges within the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) from 1985 to 2025. Streamflow was characterized using change-point, trend, and variability analyses with a six-threshold exceedance framework. Land cover was quantified using the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), rainfall characteristics were derived from the Analysis of Records for Calibration …

Implementing Mindfulness Practices To Support Student Self-Regulation: A Qualitative Study Of Elementary Teacher Experiences, Shana Orr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore elementary teachers’ lived experiences of the implementation of mindfulness practices to support self-regulation in students. Although mindfulness practices have increasingly been incorporated into elementary classrooms, limited qualitative research has examined teachers’ experiences implementing these practices and their lived experiences of student engagement. While there is research on the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) competencies, the focus on schoolwide implementation of mindfulness strategies expand the literature to close a gap on elementary school teachers’ experiences implementing mindfulness practices in Tennessee.

A …

Navigating Dual Standards: Secondary Educators Integrating English Language Standards To Achieve English Proficiency, Calleigh Herrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

English Learners represent one of the fastest-growing student populations in the United States, creating increased demands on secondary educators to support both language development and academic achievement. As accountability expectations continue to emphasize grade-level proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA), educators serving English Learners must navigate the intersection of English language proficiency standards and content-area instructional requirements. While English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA-21) standards are intended to support language acquisition and access to academic content, educators often face challenges integrating language development goals with grade-level ELA expectations. As such, secondary educators play a critical role in …

Effects Of Disorder On The Magnetic And Electronic Structure Of Kagome Alloy Fe2mnsn., Thayne Dean

Theses

Iron-based magnets with the Kagome lattice are a rich set of materials due to their non-trivial topology combined with high magnetic ordering temperature (Tc). Previously, we identified and synthesized Fe2MnSn as a promising material with high magnetic anisotropy characterized by a high Tc. The desirable magnetic properties of ternary alloys are controlled by atomic-level antisite disorder and are sensitive to stoichiometry as well. To illustrate the role of disorder in Fe2MnSn, we performed DFT calculations using 64-atom supercells, which enabled us to probe changes in the density of states and magnetic moments by design. Our data show that substitution of …

Radiometric Dating And Isotope Analysis To Determine The Source And Timing Of Rare Earth Element-Bearing Fluid Mineralization At Hicks Dome, Hardin County, Illinois, Kristina M. Kohl

Theses

The Hicks Dome structure of Hardin County, Illinois, located within the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District (IKFD), is one of the most perplexing geological features in the mid-continental U.S. Composed of uplifted Devonian strata intruded by a Ca-rich magma and ultramafic dikes, the dome is recognized as part of the Wauboukigou Igneous Province (WIP) and has been shown to host an abundance of rare earth element (REE) mineralization, particularly Dy, Y, and Sc. Despite extensive prior studies on REE concentrations and the link between fluorite mineralization in the IKFD and igneous activity at Hicks Dome, the absolute timing and relationship among REE …

Exploring Discretionary Benefits’ Impact On Michigan Public Sector Employees, Sydnie N. Smith

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

Productivity, well-being, and retention are factors that impact organizational success and goal attainment; in the public sector in Michigan, employees are the most valuable asset. This research paper seeks to answer the following question: How does the adoption of unlimited PTO policies shape workforce morale, productivity, and retention in public sector employment? Current research into paid leave policy’s impact on employees is scant, it is further limited in the scope of public sector employees. This paper believes that research is needed to determine the relationship between paid leave benefits and employee productivity, well-being/morale, and retention as it could improve public …

Gamifying The Classroom: An Interactive Literature Curriculum, Ella Mikulecky

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis highlights an interactive literature curriculum that I have created to help youth engage more deeply with classical literary works. It takes inspiration from many existing collegiate-level curricula that fuse historical simulations with literary studies and adapts those teaching methods for high-school-age students. It also utilizes a variety of different teaching philosophies, game mechanics, and literary practices to create an ideal course for fostering engagement. This thesis provides a small sample of the curriculum along with a teacher’s handbook and reports the results of a pilot program conducted in the summer of 2025.

Mamma Mia: A Study Of Catholicism, Secularization, And Their Influences On Modern Italian, Lara Zanotti

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study explores the relationship between religion and language by examining how Catholicism and secularization have shaped modern Italian. While the historical influence of the Catholic Church on Italian is well established, less attention has been given to how recent secularizing trends have transformed the language at lexical, discursive, and sociolinguistic levels. Addressing this gap, the study asks: how have Italy’s deep-rooted Catholic traditions and its more recent shift toward secularization influenced the meanings, frequency, and use of religiously rooted expressions in modern Italian?

Using a mixed-methods approach, this project combines corpus-based linguistic analysis with qualitative analysis. Diachronic data from …

The Black Student Union At Northern Michigan University: Leadership, Community, And Institutional Change Through Student Activism, Marlanaysia Rosser

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

This paper explores how the Black Student Union (BSU) at Northern Michigan University (NMU) has influenced and contributed to the development of support systems for Black students in alignment with broader historical movements. Through archival records and four interviews with former BSU leaders, this study examines the impact of student activism on institutional change, leadership development, and community. The findings revealed that student activism at NMU reflected many of the concerns and strategies occurring across the nation during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. While the experiences of BSU members and institutional support shifted across generations, BSU remained a …

Id-More Vision: Real-Data Machine-Learning Assessment For A Digital-Twin-Inspired, Xr-Ready Rehabilitation Prototype, Rickey L. Clark

Master's Theses

Rehabilitation assessment often relies on periodic observation, while many XR prototypes show scripted rather than recorded-motion evidence. iD-MORE Vision is an offline pipeline trained on KIMORE and IRDS and linked through JSON packets to a two-mode Unity desktop prototype. Both datasets include controls and rehabilitation participants with neurologic, musculoskeletal, or mobility impairments. This improves relevance but does not clinically validate the system.

Under fixed subject-wise splits, the primary five-seed Random Forest predicted KIMORE clinician scores with MAE 6.087 ± 0.044 cTS and R² 0.568 ± 0.006; the subject-level R² interval crossed zero. The primary IRDS five-run CUDA GRU averaged 0.877 …

The Role Of Public Spaces In Facilitating Social Interactions On Summer Weekends, Sierra R. Murray

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Public spaces such as parks, plazas, and pedestrian areas are important places where people meet, relax, and interact with others. While these spaces are intended to bring communities together, their design does not always support social interaction. This study explored how everyday design features influence how people use public spaces and engage with one another. Features such as seating, trees and plants, shade, water elements, and the way spaces are shaped were examined. The goal was to better understand how design choices affect social life in shared outdoor environments. 

The research involved observing how people naturally behaved in different public …

Modular Verification For Network-On-Chip Designs Using Probabilistic Verification And Assume-Guarantee Reasoning, Nicholas Waddoups

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

To satisfy increasing demands for computer chip performance in personal computing, mobile devices, and commercial server computing, a modern computer chip is constructed with tens (or hundreds) of small individual computing modules. Each of these modules must communicate with one other to share information about the running state of a computer. Historically, when chips were a few modules a simple communication method sufficied. However, as the number of modules in a chip grew, a more effecient method was needed in order to maintain performance across the system as a whole. A Network-on-Chip (NoC) design is the de-facto communication method for …

Reciprocal Teaching With Emergent Bilingual Students: Promoting Academic Reading Strategies And Fostering Hope, Lorissa K. Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Many students struggle with reading comprehension, and research shows that low literacy skills in a student’s first language can unfortunately lead to lower rates of university program completion, regardless of the language of instruction. When students feel empowered and confident in their ability to achieve their academic goals, they are much more likely to take ownership of their learning. In fact, students who actively demonstrate hopeful thinking and behaviors are consistently more successful in their academic journeys.

My research explores how we can better support these high school students— specifically concurrent enrollment (CE) students—by examining the impact of Reciprocal Teaching. …