Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Early-Stage Xai Projects Through Designer-Led Visual Ideation Of Ai Concepts, Helen Sheridan, Dympna O'Sullivan, Emma Murphy

Books/Book chapters

The pervasive use of artificial intelligence (AI) in processing users’ data is well documented with the use of AI believed to profoundly change users’ way of life in the near future. However, there still exists a sense of mistrust among users who engage with AI systems some of this stemming from lack of transparency, including users failing to understand what AI is, what it can do and its impact on society. From this, the emerging discipline of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) has emerged, a method of designing and developing AI where a systems decisions, processes and outputs are explained and …

Assessing The Coherence In Biological And Environmental Drivers Of Young Sea Bass Abundance Across Important Estuarine Nursery Areas Of The Northern European Sea Bass Stock, Joseph W. Watson, Zachary Radford, Hayley Bannister, Robin Bradley, Mary Brown, Benjamin J. Ciotti, Derek Goodwin, Jennifer A. Graham, Richard D.M. Nash, William K. Roche, Ciara Wogerbauer, Kieran Hyder

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Year class strength is an important determinant of fish population size, but the drivers are often unknown. The northern stock of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is an important target species for both commercial and recreational fisheries. Scientific assessments showed a rapid decline in spawning stock biomass from 2010-18 attributed to a combination of fishing mortality and poor year class strength. Recruitment to the adult stock is linked to the abundance and temporal dynamics of young bass in estuarine nursery areas, but little is known about the relative importance of environmental and biological drivers on the survival of these young …

Consistent Patterns Of Common Species Across Tropical Tree Communities, Declan L.M. Cooper, Simon L. Lewis, Martin J.P. Sullivan, Paulo I. Prado, Hans Ter Steege, Nicolas Barbier, Ferry Slik, Bonaventure Sonké, Corneille E.N. Ewango, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Daniel P.P. De Aguiar, Manuel Augusto Ahuite Reategui, Shin Ichiro Aiba, Bianca Weiss Albuquerque, Francisca Dionízia De Almeida Matos, Alfonso Alonso, Christian A. Amani, Dário Dantas Do Amaral, Iêda Leão Do Amaral, Ana Andrade, Ires Paula De Andrade Miranda, Ilondea B. Angoboy, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Nicolás Castaño Arboleda, Luzmila Arroyo, Peter Ashton, Gerardo A. Aymard C, Cláudia Baider, Timothy R. Baker

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations ^1–6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% …

How Genre-Trained Tutors Affect Student Writing And Perceptions Of The Writing Center, Lucy Bryan Malenke, Laura K. Miller, Paul E. Mabrey Iii, Jared Featherstone

The Writing Center Journal

Writing center scholars have long debated whether writers are best served by “generalist” tutors trained in writing center pedagogy or “specialist” tutors with insider knowledge about a course’s content or discipline-specific discourse conventions. A potential compromise that has emerged is training tutors in the purposes and features of specific genres. The writing center literature showcases many different approaches to genre training. However, little empirical research, if any, has explored how tutors’ genre knowledge affects session outcomes. The present study used a mixed-methods approach to compare session outcomes for students who worked with generalist and genre-trained tutors. We analyzed pre-consultation and …

Schools’ Records Management Also Matters: An Information Governance Maturity Model Assessment Of Records Management Practices At Mufakose 4 Secondary School In Harare, Zimbabwe, Patrick Mandizha, Samson Mutsagondo

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

There has been a tendency to focus on universities and colleges each time researchers look at records management within the educational sector. Primary and secondary schools have many times been left behind, yet schools’ records management also matters. Using the ARMA International’s Information Governance Maturity Model, this study assesses how Mufakose 4 Secondary School in Zimbabwe fared in its records management programme with special focus on the eight principles of the ARMA International’s Information Governance Maturity Model, that is, accountability, transparency, integrity, protection, compliance, availability, retention and disposition. Each of these principles were further assessed on a scale of 1 …

The Macrophage Autophagy-Lysosome System In Atherosclerosis Pathogenesis, Astrid Carolina Rodriguez Velez

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular diseases, particularly atherosclerosis, pose significant health concerns, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of underlying mechanisms for effective therapeutic interventions. In this dissertation, I studied diverse topics, ranging from dietary impacts to intracellular processes, shedding light on novel avenues for atherosclerosis research. It is divided in 4 core projects. In Chapter 2) I studied how dietary protein drives atherosclerosis and lesion complexity. We found that protein ingestion acutely elevates amino acid levels in blood and atherosclerotic plaques, stimulating macrophage mTOR signaling. This is causal in plaque progression as the effects are abrogated in macrophage-specific Raptor-null mice. Mechanistically, we find amino acids …

The Chromatin Landscape Of Healthy And Injured Cell Types In The Human Kidney, Debora L Gisch, Jeannine Basta, Reetika Ghag, Charles Lu, Lisa Stout, Bo Zhang, Amanda Knoten, Shamim Mollah, Sanjay Jain, Michael Rauchman, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

There is a need to define regions of gene activation or repression that control human kidney cells in states of health, injury, and repair to understand the molecular pathogenesis of kidney disease and design therapeutic strategies. Comprehensive integration of gene expression with epigenetic features that define regulatory elements remains a significant challenge. We measure dual single nucleus RNA expression and chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and H3K27ac, H3K4me1, H3K4me3, and H3K27me3 histone modifications to decipher the chromatin landscape and gene regulation of the kidney in reference and adaptive injury states. We establish a spatially-anchored epigenomic atlas to define the kidney's active, …

Temporal Changes In The Surface Chemistry And Topography Of Reactive Ion Plasma-Treated Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Alter Endothelialization Potential, Ryan A. Faase, Novella M. Keeling, Justin S. Plaut, Christian Leycam, Gabriela Acevedo Munares, Monica T. Hinds, Joe E. Baio, Patrick L. Jurney

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Synthetic small-diameter vascular grafts (<6 mm) are used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary artery disease, but fail much more readily than similar grafts made from autologous vascular tissue. A promising approach to improve the patency rates of synthetic vascular grafts is to promote the adhesion of endothelial cells to the luminal surface of the graft. In this study, we characterized the surface chemical and topographic changes imparted on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), an emerging hydrogel vascular graft material, after exposure to various reactive ion plasma (RIP) surface treatments, how these changes dissipate after storage in a sealed environment at standard temperature and pressure, and the effect of these changes on the adhesion of endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs). We showed that RIP treatments including O2, N2, or Ar at two radiofrequency powers, 50 and 100 W, improved ECFC adhesion compared to untreated PVA and to different degrees for each RIP treatment, but that the topographic and chemical changes responsible for the increased cell affinity dissipate in samples treated and allowed to age for 230 days. We characterized the effect of aging on RIP-treated PVA using an assay to quantify ECFCs on RIP-treated PVA 48 h after seeding, atomic force microscopy to probe surface topography, scanning electron microscopy to visualize surface modifications, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate surface chemistry. Our results show that after treatment at higher RF powers, the surface exhibits increased roughness and greater levels of charged nitrogen species across all precursor gases and that these surface modifications are beneficial for the attachment of ECFCs. This study is important for our understanding of the stability of surface modifications used to promote the adhesion of vascular cells such as ECFCs.

Genome-Wide Study Investigating Effector Genes And Polygenic Prediction For Kidney Function In Persons With Ancestry From Africa And The Americas, Odessica Hughes, Amy R Bentley, Charles E Breeze, Francois Aguet, Xiaoguang Xu, Girish Nadkarni, Quan Sun, Bridget M Lin, Thomas Gilliland, Mariah C Meyer, Jiawen Du, Laura M Raffield, Holly Kramer, Robert W Morton, Mateus H Gouveia, Elizabeth G Atkinson, Adan Valladares-Salgado, Niels Wacher-Rodarte, Nicole D Dueker, Xiuqing Guo, Yang Hai, Adebowale Adeyemo, Lyle G Best, Jianwen Cai, Guanjie Chen, Michael Chong, Ayo Doumatey, James Eales, Mark O Goodarzi, Eli Ipp, Marguerite Ryan Irvin, Minzhi Jiang, Alana C Jones, Charles Kooperberg, Jose E Krieger, Ethan M Lange, Matthew B Lanktree, James P Lash, Paulo A Lotufo, Ruth J F Loos, Vy Thi Ha My, Jesús Peralta-Romero, Lihong Qi, Leslie J Raffel, Stephen S Rich, Erik J Rodriquez, Eduardo Tarazona-Santos, Kent D Taylor, Jason G Umans, Jia Wen, Bessie A Young, Zhi Yu, Ying Zhang, Yii-Der Ida Chen, Tanja Rundek, Jerome I Rotter, Miguel Cruz, Myriam Fornage, Maria Fernanda Lima-Costa, Alexandre C Pereira, Guillaume Paré, Pradeep Natarajan, Shelley A Cole, April P Carson, Leslie A Lange, Yun Li, Eliseo J Perez-Stable, Ron Do, Fadi J Charchar, Maciej Tomaszewski, Josyf C Mychaleckyj, Charles Rotimi, Andrew P Morris, Nora Franceschini

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Chronic kidney disease is a leading cause of death and disability globally and impacts individuals of African ancestry (AFR) or with ancestry in the Americas (AMS) who are under-represented in genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of kidney function. To address this bias, we conducted a large meta-analysis of GWASs of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in 145,732 AFR and AMS individuals. We identified 41 loci at genome-wide significance (p < 5 × 10−8), of which two have not been previously reported in any ancestry group. We integrated fine-mapped loci with epigenomic and transcriptomic resources to highlight potential effector genes relevant to kidney physiology and disease, and reveal key regulatory elements and pathways involved in renal function and development. We demonstrate the varying but increased predictive power offered by a multi-ancestry polygenic score for eGFR and highlight the importance of population diversity in GWASs and multi-omics resources to enhance opportunities for clinical translation for all.

A Structurally Precise Mechanism Links An Epilepsy-Associated Kcnc2 Potassium Channel Mutation To Interneuron Dysfunction, Jerome Clatot, Christopher B. Currin, Qiansheng Liang, Tanadet Pipatpolkai, Shavonne L. Massey, Ingo Helbig, Lucie Delemotte, Tim P. Vogels, Manuel Covarrubias, Ethan M. Goldberg

Farber Institute for Neuroscience Staff Papers and Presentations

De novo heterozygous variants in KCNC2 encoding the voltage-gated potassium (K+) channel subunit Kv3.2 are a recently described cause of developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE). A de novo variant in KCNC2 c.374G > A (p.Cys125Tyr) was identified via exome sequencing in a patient with DEE. Relative to wild-type Kv3.2, Kv3.2-p.Cys125Tyr induces K+ currents exhibiting a large hyperpolarizing shift in the voltage dependence of activation, accelerated activation, and delayed deactivation consistent with a relative stabilization of the open conformation, along with increased current density. Leveraging the cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of Kv3.1, molecular dynamic simulations suggest that a strong π-π stacking …

Editorial: Care During Pregnancy And Early Childhood For Growth And Development In Low- And Middle- Income Countries, Ranadip Chowdhury, Ravi Prakash Upadhyay, Bireshwar Sinha, Nita Bhandari, Sunita Taneja, Jai K. Das

Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health

No abstract provided.

My Journey With Faith, Jocelyn Rodriguez

Masters Theses

A memoir of my life and my faith. I was able to recollect moments when my faith was tested, doubted, and its growth. It's a story of truth, understanding, and wonder of my life was molded not just by my surroundings but by my growing relationship with my faith.

Naturalism, Christian Molinism, And The Problem Of Evil, Caleb Blackman

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to create a Christian theodicy by forming an abductive argument showing that Christian Molinism can provide reasons for the existence of evil, and compared to naturalism, it provides the best explanation. This is accomplished by considering the naturalistic explanation of evil and building upon defenses and concepts such as the Free Will Defense and Molinism.

Curated Zones: Musical Possession And Colonial Identity Expression In Early 20th Century Cairo Through “The Sphinx: English Illustrated Weekly 1892-1947”, Gabriel Donnelly

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

“As If I Were Buried Beneath These Words”: An Exploration Of Power, Voice, And The Female Corpus, Grace Lukens

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Electric Avenue Why The Marxist Revolution Hasn’T Happened Yet., Maya Ordóñez Landsberg

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Apkc Inhibitors And Methods Of Treating A Neurodegenerative Disease Or Disorder, Robert Vito Farese, Mini Paliyath Sajan, Margaret Genevieve Higgs

USF Patents

Provided herein are formulations effective for and methods of treating or preventing a neurodegenerative disorder in a subject in need thereof that can include administering an amount of an aPKC inhibitor to a subject in need thereof.

Modulating Angiogenesis By Proteomimetics Of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, Jianfeng Cai, Sami Abdulkadir

USF Patents

Provided herein are novel VEGF mimics, pharmaceutical compositions thereof, and methods of their use in increasing or reducing angiogenesis.

Machine Learning-Based Soybean Yield Prediction And Optimizing Lidar-Mounted Uav Efficiency, Leticia Santos

LSU Master's Theses

The first chapter of this thesis explores the predictive capabilities of random forests algorithm on datasets obtained from field plot experiments on crop management systems in soybean. Furthermore, the chapter presents a complementary analysis of model performance according to dataset sizes and two techniques on how to impute and deal with missing data. Random forests are being compared with standard statistical techniques such as linear regression on a well-structured, information-rich agronomic experiment. The key findings of this chapter includes the best hyperparameters adjustment and the identification of the dataset threshold for optimal algorithms performance. The second chapter has a research …

Coded Social Control: China’S Normalization Of Biometric Surveillance In The Post Covid-19 Era, Michelle Miao

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article investigates the longevity of health QR codes, a digital instrument of pandemic surveillance, in post-COVID China. From 2020 to 2022, China widely used this tri-color tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. A commonly held assumption is that health QR codes have become obsolete in post-pandemic China. This study challenges such an assumption. It reveals their persistence and integration - through mobile apps and online platforms - beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency. A prolonged, expanded and normalized use of tools which were originally intended for contact tracing and pandemic surveillance raises critical legal and ethical concerns. Moreover, their …

Indigenous Peoples And Local Communities Report Ongoing And Widespread Climate Change Impacts On Local Social-Ecological Systems, Victoria Sharakhmatova, Victoria Reyes-García, David García-Del-Amo, Santiago Álvarez-Fernández, Petra Benyei, Laura Calvet-Mir, André B. Junqueira, Vanesse Labeyrie, Xiaoyue Li, Sara Miñarro, Vincent Porcher, Anna Porcuna-Ferrer, Anna Schlingmann, Christoph Schunko, Ramin Soleymani, Adrien Tofighi-Niaki, Mariam Abazeri, Emmanuel M.N.A.N. Attoh, Ayansina Ayanlade, Julia Vieira Da Cunha Ávila, Daniel Babai, Rodrigo C. Bulamah, Joao Campos-Silva, Rosario Carmona, Julián Caviedes, Rumbidzayi Chakauya, Mouna Chambon, Zhuo Chen, Fasco Chengula, Esther Conde, Aida Cuní-Sanchez

Faculty Publications

The effects of climate change depend on specific local circumstances, posing a challenge for worldwide research to comprehensively encompass the diverse impacts on various local social-ecological systems. Here we use a place-specific but cross-culturally comparable protocol to document climate change indicators and impacts as locally experienced and analyze their distribution. We collected first-hand data in 48 sites inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities and covering all climate zones and nature-dependent livelihoods. We documented 1,661 site-agreed reports of change corresponding to 369 indicators. Reports of change vary according to climate zone and livelihood activity. We provide compelling evidence that climate …

Common Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction Animal Models Yield Disparate Myofibril Mechanics, Axel J. Fenwick, Vivek P. Jani, D. Brian Foster, Thomas E. Sharp, Traci T. Goodchild, Kyle Lapenna, Jake E. Doiron, David J. Lefer, Joseph A. Hill, David A. Kass, Anthony Cammarato

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Improves Intrusion Detection Performance Inwireless Sensor Networks Through Machine Learning, Enhanced By An Accelerated Deep Learning Model With Advanced Feature Selection, Hadeel M. Saleh, Hend Marouane, Ahmed Fakhfakh

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been securing a big position in the new aspect of security network attacks, where these suffer from various serious cyber threats that can play with their data integrity and reliability. Due to the key importance of WSN in a wide spectrum range of applications such as environmental monitoring and military field, building reliable, robust and efficient intrusion detection systems (IDS) is necessary. Although traditional machine learning approaches have been intended to detect these threats, they often lack high accuracy due to the complexity and dimensionality of WSN data.To address these limitations, the study introduces an …

Shaping The Future Of Global Access To Safe, Effective, Appropriate And Quality Health Products, Raffaella Ravinetto, Rodrigo Henriquez, Prashant N Srinivas, Hazel Bradley, Renier Coetzee, Theresa J Ochoa, Jean Claude Semuto Ngabonziza, Jean-Baptiste Mazarati, Wim Van Damme, Remco Van De Pas, Nico Vandaele, Els Torreele

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of Emotionally Focused Therapy (Eft) With Chinese Couple Clients: From The Chinese Eft Therapists' Cultural Lens, Yifan Wang

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand the Chinese EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) therapists’ experiences of working with Chinese couples in EFT sessions, as well as to discover how the cultural factors play a role in the effectiveness of EFT use with Chinese couples. This study was conducted by finding out 10 EFT-oriented therapists and analyzing via online interviews their experiences of working with Chinese couples. The theories guiding this study are based on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). One of the founding therapists of this approach is Dr. Sue Johnson. EFT is heavily influenced by attachment theory, which …

The Effects Of High School Instrumental Music Performance Anxiety On The Accelerated Recovery Of Social Anxiety, Staci Leigh Hatmaker

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative correlational study aims to examine the challenges secondary students encounter in sustaining positive mental health and how the benefits of music performance anxiety in secondary school students can aid in the accelerated recovery of social anxiety. There is a present gap in the research exploring the benefits of situational anxiety on clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders and noting that this situational anxiety is a standard expectation and volunteered for when participating in performing arts environments. The objective is to understand the therapeutic benefits of micro-dosing the brain with music performance anxiety in a controlled environment and its potential uses …

The Unprecedented Stressors Of Early Childhood Educators During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Post-Pandemic Restoration: A Case Study, Ida Mae Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study was to describe the unprecedented stressors of early childhood educators (ECE) during the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-pandemic restoration at two early childhood education centers (ECEC) in a midwestern state. The central research question was: How did the COVID-19 pandemic’s unprecedented stressors impact ECE in the post-pandemic era? Data collection included structured interviews with open-ended questions, focus groups, and documents. The three data sources were triangulated for themes, perspectives, and interpretations, and coding was used to help gain a deep understanding of the stressors experienced by early childhood educators. The conceptual framework guiding this …

Differences In Out-Of-School Suspensions Between Black And White High School Students When Controlling For Student Factors, School Factors, And Delinquency, Steven Craig Davidson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative, correlational study aims to determine how accurately out-of-school suspensions can be predicted from a linear combination of student delinquency, in-school delinquency, and prior suspensions for Black and White high school students. Further, a causal-comparative design is used to determine if there is a statically significant difference in out-of-school suspensions between Black and White high school students when controlling for student factors, school factors, and student delinquency factors. The study consists of five guiding theories that inform two general hypotheses. The first hypothesis, referred to as the differential selection hypothesis, is guided by critical race theory (CRT) and implicit …

Effects Of Kras Genetic Interactions On Outcomes In Cancers Of The Lung, Pancreas, And Colorectum, Isabella N Grabski, John V Heymach, Kenneth L Kehl, Scott Kopetz, Ken S Lau, Gregory J Riely, Deborah Schrag, Rona Yaeger, Rafael A Irizarry, Kevin M Haigis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: KRAS is among the most commonly mutated oncogenes in cancer, and previous studies have shown associations with survival in many cancer contexts. Evidence from both clinical observations and mouse experiments further suggests that these associations are allele- and tissue-specific. These findings motivate using clinical data to understand gene interactions and clinical covariates within different alleles and tissues.

Methods: We analyze genomic and clinical data from the AACR Project GENIE Biopharma Collaborative for samples from lung, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers. For each of these cancer types, we report epidemiological associations for different KRAS alleles, apply principal component analysis (PCA) to …

An Existential-Phenomenological Exploration Of The Experience Of Being A White Undergraduate Psychology Student In A Multicultural Counseling Course, Mona Lynnette Swallow

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This existential-phenomenological study sought to explore the experiences of White undergraduate psychology students enrolled in a multicultural counseling course to gain an understanding of how White students described their lived experiences while enrolled in the course. This was accomplished by conducting virtual interviews with nine participants recruited through an online university announcement. Three key experiential constituents emerged from the data supporting previous research of the conflicts White students experience as they process understanding their racialized identities as members of the dominant ethnic-racial group in U.S. society in context to the topics discussed in the course. This lack of understanding was …