Digital Commons Network^™

Together | Apart: Printmaking And The Space Between, Monique Bosshard Curby

Theses

In this practice-led creative research, being both artist and identical twin, I examine sameness and difference in the relationships between two people and between multiple objects/creative works. Through the inherent ability of printmaking processes to produce multiples and the attendant installation opportunities created by punctuated space, I unfold and re-tell a doubled and ambiguous understanding of being in the world. Martin Heidegger’s notion of Being-in-the-world (Dasein) underpins and situates my understanding of being in the world, thrown into a world as an individual, and my existence as a double: being in the world with others. I relate his thinking through …

Nurse Escorts’ Perceptions Of Their Ability To Manage Patient Clinical Deterioration During Nurse-Led Inter-Hospital Ambulance Transfer In The Wheatbelt Region Of Western Australia: A Mixed Methods Study, Sinqobizitha Mndebele

Theses

The Western Australia (WA) Country Health Service (WACHS) requires a ward or emergency department registered nurse (RN) to assume the responsibility of conducting inter-hospital nurse-led patient ambulance transfers. In WACHS, these nurses are usually generalist nurses with no specialised training. WACHS has various escalation policies, guidelines and support systems for nurses when they are located within the hospital and wards. However, despite these escalation protocols being clear in this setting, their relevance and practicality during patient transport is uncertain. This research explores how well equipped WACHS RNs in the Wheatbelt region of WA are in managing clinical deterioration of patients …

Challenges On The Mission Field: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Experience And Impact Of Traumatic Events On Christian Missionaries, Julie Nixon

Theses

There is a long and rich, albeit at times complex, history of Australian Christian mission work abroad. Missionaries have been motivated to enter the field by a desire to support the local church and other indigenous communities to attain a range of social, economic, and socio-developmental improvements for individuals and groups alike. However, this work is not without risk for the missionaries, especially when exposed to traumatic events and experiences that may adversely affect their physical, psychological, and or spiritual health and well-being. Understanding the impact of such experiences from the missionaries' perspective is important, particularly in the context of …

Journeying Through Uncharted Territory: The Role Of Humour In Adaption Of Undergraduate Nursing Students In Their First Year Of Study, Marie-Josée Boulianne

Theses

Newly graduated nurses adapting to their professional role have been studied, mainly in their first year of practice. The development of coping strategies, acculturation and other adaptations to the nursing world begin at the onset of the educational journey. Understanding how these manifest early in the formative years can enable educators to tailor nursing programs to assist the future nurse to develop positive coping mechanisms and help pave the way to a successful transition into practice. This research aimed to identify elements conducive to positive adaptation and wellbeing of nursing students during their first year of nursing studies, including the …

Catholic Agency In International Society: An International Relations Analysis Of The Santa Marta Group, Marianne L. Rozario

Theses

This research examines the issue of Catholic agency in the academic discipline of International Relations (IR). Situated in the IR discourse on religion, its investigation is based on a select Catholic initiative in the international anti-slavery realm named the Santa Marta Group (SMG). It is a transnational Catholic-initiated and led coalition of predominantly Catholic and state actors collectively working together to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking. I specifically analyse dimensions of the SMG from April 2014 to May 2018. Methodologically, a mixed-methods approach is adopted, combining a desk review and key informant interviews. This thesis has two interrelated questions …

Martuwarra First Law Multi-Species Justice Declaration Of Interdependence: Wellbeing Of Land, Living Waters, And Indigenous Australian People, Anne Poelina

Theses

The thesis is comprised of experiential research, poetry, film and peer reviewed publications, and book chapters culminating in twelve chapters and two appendices. The study is in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. The study used an Indigenous decolonising research paradigm. It calls for a powerful policy and investment approach to the planning and development of regional governance. The author engaged ‘cooperative participative inquiry’ with leaders from six independent Indigenous Nations. These Nations are connected through Warloongarriy, the First Law for Martuwarra, the Fitzroy River.

First law is the spirit that connects all things and promotes multispecies justice through …

Board Ethnic And Racial Diversity: Does It Impact Earnings Quality?, Ann W Nduati Mungai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

I examine whether and how racially/ethnically diverse board impacts the quality of reported earnings. Agency theory suggests that the board of directors acts as a robust governance mechanism to reduce opportunistic managerial behavior that may harm shareholders' wealth. Further, diversity coalesces a variety of attributes from different directors that are valuable in predicting organizational outcomes. The majority of extant literature focuses on gender-diverse boards and various firm outcomes, while little is known about how directors' race/ethnicity affects earnings quality. Using a sample of firms publicly traded in the U.S., I find that increased board racial/ethnic diversity is associated with better …

Calculation And Comparison Of The Flood Risk Potential Due To Rainfall Events And Snow Melt Using Techniques Developed For Flood Risk In Florida, Jared Weaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

CASCADE 2001 is a multi-basin flood routing program used in areas of flat terrain. CASCADE was used for different situational elements including the Florida Keys, Broward County, and Pensacola. The goal for this screening tool was to create flood inundation watershed mapping for the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM). After showing the risks of flooding that could occur in Florida, the thought of how useful CASCADE can be in other environmental conditions. The Rocky Mountains were selected to show the effect of flood inundation that can be mirrored in an opposite condition from prior experimentation. We chose to test …

Colonization, Institutions, And Cross-Border Acquisition Decisions Of Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises, Juliet Oriaifo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This research focuses on cross-border acquisitions of emerging market multinationals (EM MNEs). Opposing theoretical perspectives of colonial ties (i.e., country ties between the acquiring and target firm countries, with the former being a colonized country and the latter being a colonizer country) are argued as predictors of EM MNE equity participation. Colonial tie is discussed as a source of legitimacy that can lower legitimacy threats (i.e., the likelihood of being deemed as illegitimate) via promoting similarities in informal institutions of the home and host countries. On the other hand, colonial tie is argued to be a historical event that can …

Cyber-Physical Systems: Building A Security Reference Architecture For Cargo Ports, Virginia Mendiola Romero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are physical entities whose operations are monitored, coordinated, and controlled by a computing and communication core. These systems are highly heterogeneous and complex. Their numerous components and cross domain complexity make attacks easy to propagate and security difficult to implement. Consequently, to secure these systems, they need to be built in a systematic and holistic way, where security is an integral part of the development lifecycle and not just an activity after development. These systems present a multitude of implementation details in their component units, so it is fundamental to use abstraction in the analysis and construction …

Design & Development Of A Secure Self-Leveling Wireless Recharging Platform For An Aerial Drone On An Unmanned Surface Vessel, Adriana Mckinney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The Design and Development of an automated recharging station for an aerial drone, onboard a small, unmanned surface vessel, is described. Drones require a landing surface that is level within five degrees of the surrounding terrain for repeated reliable landing and takeoff. System constraints and at-sea application necessitate a compact, lightweight, and secure solution. A passive self-leveling platform and an accompanying automated parallel-pusher drone restraint mechanism have been designed and fabricated to aid in achieving a level landing surface and holding the drone in place while it charges. The self-leveling mechanism has been analyzed and subjected to initial laboratory tests. …

Determinants And Outcomes Of Goodwill Impairment Key Audit Matters, Tyler Carlson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The addition of Key Audit Matters (KAM) to standard audit reports is one of the most significant changes to the audit report in decades. However, research on the informativeness of KAMs to investors is mixed. I add to this literature by examining whether variation in how goodwill impairment KAMs (GIKAM) are determined influence their informativeness. I first develop a determinants model to predict when an audit client would receive a GIKAM and find that auditor quality (Big 4) and auditor independence (fee ratio) are negatively associated with the likelihood a client receives a GIKAM. I then use this model to …

Discovery And Investigation Of Survivin-Targeting Marine Natural Products From Ellisella Paraplexauroides And Eudistoma Olivaceum, Kirstie Tandberg Francis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

In 2020, the National Institute of Health reported that more than 1.8 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with cancer and over half a million died from those diseases. There is an urgent need for innovative and effective new treatments which stem from novel cancer drug targets. Survivin, the smallest member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family, is highly expressed during development and in cancer cells but not in differentiated tissues, making it a tumor-selective target for new drug therapies. At only 16.5 kDa, it consists of a single Baculovirus IAP Repeat (BIR) domain and an α-helical …

Effects Of Saltwater Intrusion On The Compressibility Behavior Of The Everglades Soils, Camila Ribeiro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The Florida Everglades is considered as a vulnerable wetland composed primary of organic rich peat soils, experiencing saltwater intrusion. Impact of increasing salinity on the strength and deformation properties of peat is unknown. A laboratory study was undertaken to evaluate how the growing salinity level due to sea level rise may alter the compressibility behavior of the Everglades soils. Sixteen 1-dimensional oedometer tests were conducted on undisturbed Everglades peat soils in two phases. Phase I included samples from Site 1 (saltwater) and Site 3 (freshwater) without any salinity addition. Phase II consisted of soil from Site 3 (freshwater) saturated in …

Emergence Of Close Relationship Construals: An Action Identification Approach, Morgan A. Cope

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The current study examined the emergent nature of close relationship construals from the perspective of Action Identification Theory. Specifically, participants were induced to think about the actions of a romantic partner or close friend at a high- (i.e., overall meaning) or low- (concrete details) level, and then instructed to rate the validity of false feedback regarding the nature of their relationship (i.e., spontaneous, or predictable). Marginal support was found for the main prediction that focusing on low level details rather than high-level meaning would lead individuals to rate false high-level relational construals as more valid, although this effect was found …

Emotional Intelligence And Its Impact On Community Association Managers As Transformational Leaders, Sharon Faithlyn Dianne Mcknight

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Community Association Managers (CAMs) are managers licensed by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to manage planned communities, such as condominiums, homeowner associations, and cooperatives. The purpose of this research focused entirely on licensed CAMs in the State of Florida. CAMs are expected to be transformational leaders of community associations amidst emotionally charged environments with judicial dictates and strict rules and regulations. The impact of emotional intelligence on transformational leadership in CAMs has been under-researched and virtually ignored despite their critical role in community management. Two main theoretic lenses were used to guide this study of CAMs, Goleman’s focus …

Fixing The Game: The Desegregation Of College Football And The Continued Fight For Equality, Zachary Link

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

College football has long served as an apparatus for advancing racial equality, but the process by which it did so has been muddled and oversimplified. Popular histories have often reduced college football’s desegregation down to a singular event, the 1970 USC-Alabama game. Although the game was significant in its own right, it contributed very little to the desegregation of college football. Instead, the USC-Bama game gained exposure due to prominence of the teams involved rather than its historical significance. The game propagated numerous myths, including the idea that the South was not ready to desegregate until Alabama lost to the …

Freeway Operations In The Era Of Automated Vehicles: Impact Of Commercially Available Acc On Freeways, Md Tausif Murshed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) vehicles have a longer reaction time, and the on-board sensors have a limited detection range that adversely affects the freeway bottleneck capacity. These limitations can cause small speed fluctuations into larger stop-and-go waves at typical freeway bottlenecks. Microsimulation results revealed that flow instability increases with the increase in ACC market penetration for a single lane freeway. The ACC car following model was developed for higher speed ranges only; thus, it could not capture rapid deceleration to lower speeds, let alone complete stops. The algorithm applies collision avoidance and brake relatively late in those instances, which leads …

Genetic Screens Identify Novel Regulators Of Sleep And Metabolism In Drosophila Melanogaster, Kazuma N. Murakami

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Proper regulation of sleep and metabolism are critical to the survival of all organisms. In humans, dysregulation of sleep is linked to metabolic syndrome, including hypertension, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. However, the mechanisms regulating interactions between sleep and metabolism are poorly understood. Although the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, bears little anatomical resemblance to humans, it shares similar genetics essential in understanding normal development and disease in humans. From humans to flies, many disease-related genes and pathways are highly conserved, rendering the fruit fly ideal to understanding the interactions between sleep and metabolism. Therefore, using the fruit fly provides a framework for …

Hiding In Floodplain Sight: How Does Flood Risk Information Affect Flood Risk Perceptions And Mitigation Behaviors?, Ryan Amato

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Florida has 906,465 residential properties facing substantial flood risk, making it imperative to understand how the public may perceive and respond to this risk. Providing people with scientific information may not be enough to impact behavior and decrease losses from flood events. We show participants (n = 20) scientific flood risk graphics and ask behavioral questions to evaluate responses based on the rational actor paradigm (RAP), psychometric paradigm, and cultural theory. We find results consistent with the RAP in 48% of cases, primarily in low risk scenarios. Participants from high income households are more likely to make rational decisions (80%) …

Functional Brain Connectivity Associated With Repetitive Behavior In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Kenton Hayes Macdowell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The high prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) results in large costs to individuals, families, and society. Among diagnosed individuals, restrictive and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) correlate with functional impairments substantially impacting wellbeing but remain less studied than social and communication deficits. Brain resting-state functional connectivity (fc) measures intrinsic, potentially RRB-associated neural dynamics. Here, whole-brain (WB), and iterated seed-based (SB)fc guided by the preceding WBfc and a priori hypotheses was performed. Combined results were used to model a brain network beginning with qualitative assessment of its potential functional association with RRBs. Once rigorously defined, the network was used to inform construction …

Illuminating Cyber Threats For Smart Cities: A Data-Driven Approach For Cyber Attack Detection With Visual Capabilities, Nataliia Neshenko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

A modern urban infrastructure no longer operates in isolation but instead leverages the latest technologies to collect, process, and distribute aggregated knowledge to improve the quality of the provided services and promote the efficiency of resource consumption. However, the ambiguity of ever-evolving cyber threats and their debilitating consequences introduce new barriers for decision-makers. Numerous techniques have been proposed to address the cyber misdemeanors against such critical realms and increase the accuracy of attack inference; however, they remain limited to detection algorithms omitting attack attribution and impact interpretation. The lack of the latter prompts the transition of these methods to operation …

Implementation And Assessment Of The Reputation-Based Mining Paradigm By A Comprehensive Simulation, Pouya Pourtahmasbi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Since the introduction of Bitcoin, numerous studies on Bitcoin mining attacks have been conducted, and as a result, many countermeasures to these attacks have been proposed. The reputation-based mining paradigm is a comprehensive countermeasure solution to this problem with the goal of regulating the mining process and preventing mining attacks. This is accomplished by incentivizing miners to avoid dishonest mining strategies using reward and punishment mechanisms. This model was validated solely based on game theoretical analyses and the real-world implications of this model are not known due to the lack of empirical data. To shed light on this issue, we …

Infants’ Sensitivity To Gestures By Humans And Anthropomorphic Robots, Jacqueline Stotler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Robotics have advanced to include highly anthropomorphic (human-like) entities. A novel eye-tracking paradigm was developed to assess infants’ sensitivity to communicative gestures by human and robotic informants. Infants from two age groups (5-9 months, n = 25; 10-15 months, n = 9) viewed a robotic or human informant pointing to locations where events would occur during experimental trials. Trials consisted of three phases: gesture, prediction, and event. Duration of looking (ms) to two areas of interest, target location and non-target location, was extracted. A series of paired t-tests revealed that only older infants in the human condition looked significantly longer …

Inductive And Model-Tree-Based Approaches For Forecasting Temperature, Alexis Schauer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Inductive and model-tree (MT) approach-based models are developed and evaluated for forecasting mean, minimum and maximum monthly temperature in this study. The models are developed and tested using long-term historical temperature time series data derived from U.S. Historical Climatology Network at 22 sites located in the state of Florida. Inductive models developed include conceptually simple naïve models to multiple regression models utilizing lagged temperature values, sea surface temperatures (SSTs), correction factors derived using historical data. A global model using data from all the sites is also developed. The performances of the models were evaluated using observed temperature records and several …

Instagram’S Liminal Spaces For Online Impression Management: An Investigation Of Finsta Account Usage, Joshua Amaral

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This thesis examines the multifarious presentation of one’s identity on a singular social network site through their usage of both “finsta” and “rinsta” accounts on Instagram. A rinsta is one’s primary and more public Instagram account. A finsta is a highly privatized secondary Instagram account that functions as a liminal space for users’ impression management engagements. In-depth interviews were conducted with participants who identified as having created a finsta account and thematic analysis was subsequently employed to understand how they conceptualized their motivations and behaviors within their constructed networks. It was found that users were motivated to create and maintain …

Investigations Of Distractor Strength On Attentional Processing In A Mixed Block Design, Joshua Conniff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

In everyday life, we come across visual distractors such as crossing the street or driving down the highway, but what properties of distractors determine whether they will affect cognitive processing? Relatively little is known about how the strength of a distractor or changing it over time affects the ability to deploy attention. Previous studies have shown that suprathreshold stimuli interfere more in the Simon Effect than near threshold stimuli. However, it is unknown whether this effect is due simply to motor inhibition or generalizes to tasks without a motor component. To test the generalizability of this effect, an attentional blink …

It’S All Just In Your Head: How Does A Person’S Cultural Identity Affect Their Flood Risk Perceptions And Mitigation Behaviors?, Glen E. Oglesby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

As flood risk rises in the U.S., technology and insights rise too, but even with these advances we still see the consequences of flood risk. Together, the rational actor paradigm (“RAP”), psychometrics, and cultural theory help to explain risk perceptions and behaviors of 20 respondents. Results from the mixed-methods approach found the RAP insufficient, less accurate than a coin toss (48%), when explaining respondent behaviors. Rather, risk perceptions and behaviors of the RAP explain the behaviors of lower risk portrayal groups (66%) and higher income groups (80%), with higher risk portrayals being relying on respondents’ trust in flood experts (45%) …

Movement Ecology And Hematology Of The Florida East Coast Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys Terrapin Tequesta) In The Central Indian River Lagoon, Jeffrey Swersie Herr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are an exclusively brackish water turtle found along the east coast of the United States. Very little is known about the Florida east coast diamondback terrapin (M. t. tequesta). This study examined wild terrapins in the central Indian River Lagoon to establish baseline population parameters for the species in this region. Morphometrics were assessed for the sampled animals, reinforcing findings of sexual dimorphism for the species. Acoustic monitoring was used to investigate terrapin occupancy and habitat use. Occupancy differed seasonally, with the highest occupancy in the summer and fall, lower occupancy in the spring, and the …

Neuroprotection Against Oxidative Stress Using Resveratrol-Inspired Analogs, Alec Jordan Simonson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Synaptic transmission is a mechanism that makes life possible for many organisms. Damaging this crucial process, such as with a buildup of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), is extremely detrimental for the entire organism. Previously, the Dawson-Scully lab has determined that exposure of the Drosophila melanogaster neuromuscular junction (NMJ) to ROS accumulation can result in synaptic failure at a faster rate than saline controls (Caplan et al., 2013). To combat such effects, novel three-dimensional Resveramorph compounds were created to act as a neuroprotective agent against the harmful effects of acute oxidative stress (Bollinger et al., 2019; Sial et al., 2019). With …