Digital Commons Network^™

Navigating Filipino-American Identity Through Philippine Foodways, Jenelle Kirsten De Leon

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the complexity of Filipino-American identity and investigates how Philippine foodways can function as a meaningful pathway for cultural understanding, identity formation, and intergenerational connection. Shaped by colonization, cultural hybridity, generational divides, and limited representation in Western education and media, Filipino-American identity is often difficult to define and navigate, leaving many individuals without accessible entry points to explore their culture, history, traditions, and more.

Through an analysis of existing literature, primary research, and a survey of Filipino-American youth, this study finds that Filipino cuisine operates as a powerful site of cultural and historical knowledge. The narratives embedded within …

Characteristics Of Social Capital In Informal Housing Settlements, Lena Parsons

University Honors Theses

Many cities see growth of informal housing settlements as urban populations rise across the globe. Residents of informal settlements are observed to use robust networks of social capital to support themselves in an environment of resource scarcity and marginalization. This review synthesizes research examining characteristics of social capital in informal housing settlements, finding that (1) social capital influences residents' acquisition of basic needs, (2) the structure of social capital networks depend on the context of the settlement, and (3) the built environment of informal settlements has a cyclical relationship to their social capital networks. This synthesis concludes that formal solutions …

Three Decades Of Digital Marketing: A Systematic Literature Review Of Strategic Shifts, Ethical Issues, And Innovation Paths, Winarto Poernomo, Denny Bernardus, Christina Utami, Liliana Dewi

ASEAN Marketing Journal

Manuscript type: Review Paper.

Research Aims: This study aims to examine the evolution of digital marketing over the past three decades and identify the technological, strategic, and behavioral transformations shaping contemporary digital marketing practices.

Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a systematic literature review (SLR) approach by synthesizing previous academic studies related to digital marketing development, emerging technologies, consumer behavior, and marketing strategies across digital platforms.

Research Findings: The findings reveal three major phases in the evolution of digital marketing: the foundational era of website-based marketing, the expansion of social media and mobile engagement, and the current era characterized by artificial intelligence, …

In Work But Out Of Rights: Migration Governance And The Production Of Precarity Among Third-Country Nationals In Cyprus’ Hotel Sector, Petros Giannoulis, Petros Kosmas, Maria Panagopoulou

Irish Journal of Tourism, Hospitality, Leisure and Event Research

This study aims to examine how migration and labour governance in Cyprus produces and manages precarity among Third-Country Nationals (TCNs) employed in the hotel sector. For the purposes of the present study this category encompasses various groups of people, including Non-EU migrant workers, international students and asylum seekers. Drawing on critical scholarship on migration governance, differential inclusion, and institutional racism, the study analyses key policy instruments regulating the recruitment, employment and residence of migrant workers through qualitative content analysis. The findings demonstrate that precarity is not an unintended by-product of labour market regulation or administrative failure, but a structurally embedded …

Differentiation Of Self As A Therapist Effect In Couple Therapy, Nathan D. Knebel

Theses and Dissertations

Murray Bowen proposed that a therapist's level of differentiation of self influences therapeutic effectiveness, particularly in clinically distressed relational systems. Although existing literature has demonstrated that therapist effects account for a meaningful portion of variance in couple therapy outcomes, differentiation of self has received limited empirical attention as a therapist-level predictor. The present article proposes a framework for empirically examining Bowen's hypothesis by investigating whether therapist differentiation predicts trajectories of couple relationship quality across treatment. Additionally, the article explores theoretical pathways through which therapists may increase their level of differentiation, assuming Bowen's hypothesis is supported.

Defining Replication-Driven Vulnerabilities In High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancers, Natasha Maya Ramakrishnan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

High grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is an aggressive, highly lethal subtype of ovarian cancer. These cancers are typically diagnosed in later stages and are associated with poor patient prognosis. Additionally, HGSOC is characterized by numerous markers of genomic instability and defects in DNA repair pathways, vulnerabilities which have been exploited by the advancement of chemotherapy. Despite these clinical advancements, HGSOC remains a significant therapeutic challenge due to emergence of chemoresistance and limited targeted treatment options. Taken together, these factors highlight an ongoing need to study the development of HGSOC and its progression to identify more effective treatment opportunities. We …

Bap1 Loss Links Myc Activation, Stress Response Vulnerability, And Disease Progression In Kidney Cancer, Ilya Strunilin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

BAP1, a chromatin modifier, is a frequently mutated tumor suppressor in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Mutations in BAP1 are associated with a more aggressive and lethal disease. However, the downstream mediators of BAP1 loss in ccRCC oncogenesis are not well understood. To better understand mechanisms of BAP1-mediated tumor suppression, I have extensively characterized the very early transcriptional mediators of BAP1 loss in a postnatal kidney-specific genetic knockout model. Because VHL loss is the initiating event in ccRCC, we modeled Bap1 loss in a Vhl-deficient background. I have found that Vhl/Bap1 double-knockout cells of PT segment S2 strongly activate …

Structure-Based Discovery Of Malate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors With Efficacy Against C. Parvum Oocysts, Ankita Bharatbhai Kheni

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Cryptosporidium parvum, the etiological agent of Cryptosporidiosis (diarrheal illness) represents a significant global health burden, particularly affecting immunodeficient and pediatric populations. Since the parasite has a highly reduced mitochondrion and relies on glycolysis, enzymes such as C. parvum malate dehydrogenase (CpMDH), which are believed to be indispensable for parasite viability due to their pivotal roles in NAD⁺ regeneration and redox balance, remain largely unexplored as therapeutic targets. The present study employed a multifaceted experimental and computational strategy to evaluate the inhibitory activity of two lead-like and drug-like small molecules, referred to as compound 1.8 and compound 1.5, against the cofactor …

Financial Implications Of Vascular Surgery Conference Fees, Alexandra Kats, Gerard M. Martin, Sanath Patil, Joshua R. Chen, Paul J. Dimuzio, Dawn Salvatore, Michael Nooromid, Babak Abai

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Conferences are an important venue for trainees and students to engage in scholarly activities and networking. However, cost presents a significant consideration for students looking to attend conferences as institutional funding varies. In this study, we analyze the attendance costs of vascular conferences.

METHODS: Thirty-one vascular surgery conferences were identified with 12 regional and 6 national, and 13 international. Invitation-only conferences were excluded from the analysis. Cost of attendance was stratified by early and regular registration timing and attending, trainee, and student status. Additionally, conference websites were queried individually for scholarship opportunities. Data was presented descriptively and compared using …

Shaping Egypt’S Transition To Sustainable Electric Transport: Current Policies And Future Directions, Noha A. Ragab

Theses and Dissertations

Egypt has enacted policies to promote the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in order to reduce their overall carbon footprint. However, the pace of transition remains limited, so the research aims to answer the following question: “How do current policies shape Egypt’s transition towards sustainable electric transport, and what additional measures can support this transition?" The study employs a qualitative analysis methodology, based on diffusion of innovation theory and conceptual framework, to analyze current policies in Egypt and identify challenges and gaps in their implementation. It also analyzes responses from 23 interviews with experts in the field, manufacturers, dealers, EV …

Mapping The Neuroexposome: Integrative Analysis Of Dementia Risk Factors Through Multi-Omics And Environmental Profiling In The Egyptian Population., Mai Ahmed Saadzaghloul Othman

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Dementia represents one of the most pressing public health challenges of the twenty-first century, with the global burden projected to reach 153 million cases by 2050. Egypt, as the most populous Arab nation, faces a corresponding rise in age-related diseases, yet comprehensive data from low- and middle-income countries remain severely limited. The neuroexposome framework, integrating genetic susceptibility, environmental exposures, and metabolic alterations, offers a powerful strategy to characterize the complex interplay between internal and external risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Alzheimer's disease Related Dementias (ADRD).

Objectives: This thesis aimed to: (1) examine the distribution of APOE alleles …

Documenting Death: A Question Of Sovereignty In The Cairo Geniza, Thomas Adkins

Theses and Dissertations

How can death offer a case study for the question of sovereignty in eleventh to thirteenth century Egypt as it was performed by sovereigns, officials, and subjects alike, and, in this context, how can the documentary practices preserved in the Geniza be understood as an instrument to perform sovereignty? This thesis uses death as a case study in the same way that scholars of the medieval Islamic world have studied taxation, administration, and ceremonials to understand sovereignty as it was performed by the state, officials, and subjects. This performance of sovereignty by each implicated actor left a rich documentary trail, …

The Use Of Artificial Intelligence In Enhancing Arabic Regional Tv News Stations, Engy Mohamed Elzakazeky

Theses and Dissertations

Arabic regional TV news stations have started using artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for facilitating journalism work, coping with technology, and engaging audiences, as a result of the digital transformation in the television industry. This study examines how Arab regional TV news stations are incorporating AI into their operations, including its uses, opportunities, and limitations, in its early stages, through in-depth interviews with 14 media professionals in 13 Arab news stations. By reflecting on their own experiences, a purposive sample of news editors, managing editors, and graphic designers employed by news channels were interviewed. These media professionals were able …

Persistent Retinal Tenting In Myopic Traction Maculopathy, Taku Wakabayashi, Bita Momenaei, Allen Chiang

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

No abstract provided.

Safe Medication Administration Practices, Kerisha Gooden-Gordon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

The Good Knight, Elektra Koozer

University Honors Theses

The Good Knight is a comics adaptation of Sir Galahad's story through the lens of a queer retelling. This story focuses on queer relationships, struggling with depression and isolation, and death. It begins at the end of Galahad's life, where he is forced to question his legacy and who he is after completing the quest that has dictated his whole life. The story weaves through time, reflecting upon his past, thinking about his mother's expectations of him, being chosen for the grail quest, confronting his estranged father, and trying to cope with the world on his shoulders. He has to …

Breaking The Silence: A Content And Expert Analysis Of The 2025 Ramadan Series Lam Shamseya's Framing And Subversion Of Child Sexual Abuse Discourse In Egypt, Maya Abouelnasr

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes how the 2025 Egyptian TV series Lam Shamseya served as a sociocultural intervention and awareness platform for reframing and subverting the typical child sexual abuse (CSA) discourse in Egypt. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study triangulates framing theory and two complementary tools of the critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the circuit of culture model through a scene-level content analysis of 304 scenes across all 15 episodes of the series and ten semi-structured interviews with media experts, media practitioners, and psychologists. Key findings include reported corroboration of subversion of traditional tropes and archetypes, as well as reframing of …

The Narrative Legacy Of Shajar Al-Durr In Arabic Literature, Mary Evelyn Quinlan

Theses and Dissertations

The story of the life of Shajar al-Durr (d. 1257) has been retold many times in Arabic literature in a variety of genres and mediums. In the pre-modern era, Shajar al-Durr’s biography appeared in the works of Ibn Wāṣil, Abū al-Fidāʾ, Al-Maqrīzī, and Ibn Taghrībirdī as well as the popular epic Sīrat Baybars. Many others have written about her since the 19th century, including Qadriyya Ḥusayn and Jurjī Zaydān. Writers of her biography used varying degrees of narrativization to create a story that served their needs, whether that was chronicling the history of 13th century Egypt or promoting contemporary ideological …

Bouillean - Ai Recipe Model, George Mouratoff, Hanol Yang, Helen Wang, Sebastian Verbinski

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

AI generated food recipes are the second most desired AI innovation, however relatively few commercial systems exist to fill this niche. This is because while the solution is highly desired, cooking shouldn’t be approached with the same method by most LLMs and standard AIs. The leading models struggle to solve the issue of generating a semantically clear recipe while maintaining memory of the recipe status between steps. This is before we can even attempt to solve the flavor problem.

Cooking represents a unique challenge for AI, since it requires minimal loss in memory alongside already high quality text generation making …

Structure Functions For The Inclusive Semileptonic B-Quark Decay At Nnlo: A Semi-Analytic Calculation, A. Broggio, B. Capdevila, A. Ferroglia, P. Gambino

Publications and Research

We present a study of the inclusive charmless semileptonic b decay, b → X_uℓv at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD, with the primary aim of extracting the hadronic structure functions Wi at NNLO. The analysis is based on a numerical calculation of the relevant kinematic distributions using a phase-space slicing method to handle infrared-sensitive contributions from real gluon emissions. We use known results from Heavy Quark Effective Theory and Soft-Collinear Effective Theory to extract the singular terms and construct a model for the regular contributions to the structure functions at NNLO, then perform a fit to the …

Patterns In Healthcare Access And Utilization And Hpv Vaccine Completion In Uninsured Latinos, Samantha Solis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

A Parallelized Multi-Component Radiation Testing Methodology For Systems-On-Chip, Weston M. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

As the space industry expands, there is an increased reliance on system on chip (SoC) devices in high radiation environments. The reliability of these devices becomes crucial, especially in space applications. The industry's rapid growth has led to a massive expansion in the use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components. Electronic systems are vulnerable to single event upsets (SEUs) and the failure modes caused by SEUs are not fully understood, especially for COTS SoCs. Standard radiation testing techniques of SEUs use a single core of a multi-core processor to monitor bit flips. In this work, we present a parallelized radiation testing …

Identifying Social Determinants Of Health Subgroups And Their Associations With Health Outcomes In A Prospective Us Adult Covid-19 Cohort: An Analysis Of The Inspire Registry, Yohali Burrola-Mendez, Eugene Lin, Canada Parrish, Chialing Hsu, Mandy J. Hill, Michael Gottlieb, Kristin L. Rising, Lauren E. Wisk, Nicole L. Gentile, Rachel E. Geyer, Robert A. Weinstein, Michelle Santangelo, Kristyn Gatling, Jonathan W. Dyal, Joann G. Elmore, Robert M. Rodriguez, Phillip Watts, Ji Chen, Zihan Diao, Erica S. Spatz, Kwun Cg Chan, K A. Stephens, Kelli N. O'Laughlin, Inspire Group

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: To identify subgroups with similar social determinants of health (SDOH) characteristics using latent class analysis (LCA) and examine their associations with physical and mental health, cognitive function and missed workdays at 3 and 6 months post-SARS-CoV-2 infection. We hypothesised that intersecting SDOH factors would differentially influence COVID-19-related health outcomes across subgroups.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study from the Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry (INSPIRE), with longitudinal data collection and cross-sectional analyses at baseline, 3-month and 6-month follow-ups.

SETTING: Multicentre registry across eight US academic medical centres (Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New Haven, Philadelphia, San Francisco and …

Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Implementation In Eswatini Identifies Rifampicin And Bedaquiline Resistance Undetected By Routine Diagnostic Testing, Debrah Vambe, Alexander Kay, Mangaliso Ziyane, Mdigo Thunzini, Sein Sein Thi, Leonardo De Araujo, Viola Dreyer, Tanja Niemann, Busizwe Sibandze, Sijabu Masina, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe, Jennifer Furin, Tafadzwa Mazuruse, Lindokuhle Dlamini, Thulani Jele, Bheki Mamba, Gugu Maphalala, Makhosazana Dlamini, Mbongeni Dube, Nomthandazo Lukhele, Daniela Maria Cirillo, Anna Mandalakas, Christoph Lange, Sphiwe Ngwenya, Christian Utpatel, Sindisiwe Dlamini, Stefan Niemann

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

In Eswatini, multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains harbouring the rifampicin-resistance (RR) rpoB I491F mutation are missed by routine diagnostics, including GeneXpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Xpert Ultra), line probe assays (LPA), and mycobacterium growth indicator tube (MGIT) phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (pDST). To address this diagnostic gap, Eswatini introduced targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS) in 2019. We analysed 234 patient samples enrolled from June 2021 to December 2024 with isoniazid and/or rifampicin resistance detected by routine diagnostics, or suspected treatment failure, and obtained detailed clinical and outcome data from 59 patients. tNGS detected RR in 159 strains, of which 101 (64%) carried …

Students In Motion: How Educators Enact Movement In Elementary Mathematics, Katherine E. Nash

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to examine how elementary mathematics teachers report using physical activity in their instructional practice. The purpose of the study was to develop, provide evidence of validity, and implement a questionnaire to document the types of movement teachers use and when these practices occur in relation to mathematics instruction. In Phase 1, qualitative interviews were conducted with eight elementary mathematics teachers to identify common movement types and inform instrument development. The eight movement types that were identified are non-academic fine-motor, non-academic gross-motor, non-academic music-elicited, non-academic environmental, academic fine-motor, academic gross-motor, academic music-elicited, and …

Statewide Multi-Year Wastewater Sequencing Reveals Dual Origins Of Hiv-1 Signal, Justin R Clark, Dylan Chirman, Harihara Prakash, Austen Terwilliger, Marlene Mcneese, Matt Ross, Mike Tisza, Sara J Javornik Cregeen, Loren Hopkins, Jennifer Deegan, Catherine L Troisi, Eric Boerwinkle, Kristina Mena, Fuqing Wu, Jason T Kimata, Marc Johnson, Devon Gregory, Faith E Fletcher, Thomas P Giordano, Anthony W Maresso

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) is a retrovirus which has infected 90 million people and resulted in over 40 million deaths. Despite advances in diagnostics, treatment, and prophylaxis, HIV-1 continues to spread due to undiagnosed and untreated infections. Traditional monitoring methods are ineffective when access to testing is limited or people do not seek care, particularly given the long period between infection and symptom onset, allowing undetected transmission to continue. Here, we use a hybrid-capture sequencing approach to track HIV-1 signal in municipal wastewater in 15 different cities over nearly 3 years. We obtain near-complete genomic coverage of HIV-1, enabling …

"What About Me?": Explaining Voting Patterns Among Young Men In The 2024 Election, Camille Moore

University Honors Theses

This study analyzes the recent rightward shift in voting patterns among Gen Z men in the 2024 election cycle and beyond. Drawing on procedural justice theory, it argues that deterrence from the Democratic party, rather than appeals from the opposition, was the primary driver of the shift, and that this deterrence reflects perceptions of procedural unfairness and exclusion from Democratic party agendas and policymaking platforms. A qualitative empirical analysis, including interviews with a politically and demographically diverse sample of men aged 21-26 in Oregon, supports this argument. Participants felt unjustly excluded from the left based largely on identity-related concerns and …

Uniform Stability Of Katyusha In Strongly-Convex Settings, Don Li

University Honors Theses

Acceleration of convergence and reduction of variance constitute a trade-off in the design of stochastic optimization machine learning algorithms. Katyusha was introduced to address this trade-off, synthesizing Nesterov Accelerated Gradient (NAG) and Stochastic Variance-Reduced Gradient (SVRG) into a single first-order optimizer with promising empirical performance. However, the generalization properties of Katyusha remain largely unexplored. We conjecture that, in the smooth quadratic regime (i.e., under assumptions of strong convexity and smoothness of the loss function, and boundedness of gradients), Katyusha is uniformly stable in the sense of Bousquet and Elisseeff. Instantiating our framework for NAG, we extend the use of Lyapunov …

Seeing A Future Where I Exist As Myself: An Exploration Of Suicidality As A Response To Sociopolitical Oppression In Transgender And Gender Expansive Populations, Alexander Ray Sequoia

University Honors Theses

Suicide is often considered a mental health issue alone. For Transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people, suicide can be a response to erasure of self and living under oppression conditions. The sociopolitical climate in the United States (U.S.), has become more hostile for TGNC people, along with legislative action that criminalizes their existence. This project explores the intersections of identity and nuances of suicide and death. The present study consists of 14 semi-structured interviews. This study examined the intersections of gender and culture on suicide responses, highlighting the importance of culturally relevant and community-led support for Transgender and gender expansive …

Understanding Moral Injury In Emergency Department Clinicians: Predictors, Outcomes, And Evidence Gaps, Rose Doering Lightspeed

University Honors Theses

Moral injury (MI) is an emerging construct for understanding clinician distress in high-acuity healthcare settings, yet its application to Emergency Department (ED) clinicians remains limited. MI refers to psychological distress resulting from exposure to, or participation in, situations that conflict with deeply held moral or ethical standards, often due to systemic or organizational constraints. Although prior research has examined MI in heterogeneous healthcare samples, the ED remains underexamined despite its unique combination of high patient acuity, throughput pressure, and resource limitations.

This review synthesizes literature on MI among healthcare workers with a focus on ED clinicians, drawing on Industrial-Organizational psychology …