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Sam-1: An Assistive Robot For Remote Patient Monitoring, Aana Farhana Ahsan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The global aging population has increased the demand for caregiving, while the availability of caregivers has not grown at the same pace. These trends have contributed to disparities in consistent and accessible care for older adults and increased caregiver burden. Geriatric care robots have emerged as a promising solution to support older adults and reduce caregiver burden. Existing systems have been developed for a wide range of applications, including rehabilitation, social support, assistance with activities of daily living, therapy, and caregiver telepresence. This thesis presents the development of SAM-1, an assistive robot designed to support remote monitoring of older adults …

Force-Feedback And Load Sharing Mechanisms In Cardiac Myosin Ii Ensembles Revealed By Motor-Specific Perturbations, Omayma Alazzam, Md. Amzadul Hoque Chowdhury, Heath M. Stevens

Faculty and Student Publications

Myosin II motors within ensembles exhibit emergent force-generating behavior that varies based on ensemble size and makeup. However, the mechanisms by which myosins within ensembles sense and modulate behavior due to local and systemic changes in motor behavior, and concomitantly mechanics, remains unclear. To understand how myosin kinetics alter ensemble-level force generation, we employ myosin inotropes, specifically Mavacamten (MAVA) and Omecamtiv Mecarbil (OM), to pointedly alter myosin behavior in a concentration-dependent manner. MAVA has been shown to reduce the number of active myosin heads participating in crossbridge formation and force generation, while OM is recognized for prolonging motor attachment to …

Teacher Perceptions On Optimizing Instructional Practices For English As A Second Language Instruction, Molly Elizabeth Davis

Student Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth of English learners (ELs) in middle schools across Northwest Arkansas has intensified the need for instructional practices that effectively support English language acquisition while promoting equitable academic outcomes. Despite the presence of district-level English as a Second Language (ESL) policies, inconsistencies remain in how instructional practices are implemented at the classroom level. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to examine middle school teachers’ perceptions of instructional practices that optimize ESL instruction, explore the alignment between teacher practices and district policy, and identify challenges educators face in implementing effective strategies. Guided by Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural …

Ethically Implementing Ai To Maximize The Designer's Workflow, Victoria Lyons

Masters Theses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly advancing technology that has impacted nearly every industry. Graphic design is certainly no exception. AI has provided designers with a multitude of exciting opportunities and new methods to improve their work. At the same time, AI has also created some complex ethical challenges for designers to navigate. AI has the potential to greatly increase workflow efficiency, bring in automation to repetitive tasks, and provide new creative potential, but it also introduces concerns about creative and artistic integrity, intellectual property laws, and transparency with the consumer.

The focus of this thesis research will explore how …

Exploring The Relationship Between Body Composition, Bmi, And Sleep Outcomes Among Nepalese Brick Workers, Zoe C. Peterson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sleep is a critical determinant of metabolic health, with extensive evidence linking insufficient and fragmented sleep to increased adiposity and obesity risk in high-income populations. However, these relationships remain poorly understood in labor-intensive, low-income occupational settings. This study examined associations between objectively measured sleep characteristics using accelerometry and body composition among a population of Nepalese brick workers, a group of people exposed to substantial environmental and occupational stressors.

A secondary cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from 233 adult brick workers in the Nepal Kathmandu valley. Sleep metrics – including total sleep, wake after sleep onset (WASO), and number of …

Design And Development Of Foot Arch Diagnosis Application, Arif Wicaksono, Arta Farmawati, Neni Trilusiana Rahmawati, Herianto Herianto

Folia Medica Indonesiana

The foot is a part of the lower extremity that has several characteristics, namely foot length, width, height, and arch. Foot arch is a characteristic that has not been widely researched in Indonesia, but it plays a crucial role in movement and daily life. A normal foot arch facilitates physical activities, work, and overall human health, whereas an abnormal foot arch can hinder physical activities, work, and negatively affect health. Foot-arch diagnosis is commonly performed using footprint creation and foot-arch determination. Foot arch diagnosis can be established through conventional examinations, which are relatively more time-consuming, and examinations using scanning devices, …

Zinc Biofortification Technologies , Edible Safety , And Physiological Function Regulation In Edible Mushrooms, Wu Bingbing, Shi Nengpai, Su Jianwei, Hou Xuemei, Lin Xiangyang

Food and Machinery

Zinc (Zn) is an essential trace element for humans, and dietary zinc deficiency is an important global public health issue. Edible mushrooms have become highly promising carriers for zinc biofortification due to their natural mineral accumulation ability and the capacity to convert inorganic zinc into organically bound states with higher bioavailability. The enrichment and absorption of zinc, intracellular homeostasis regulation, and subcellular distribution patterns during the cultivation process of edible mushrooms were summarized, and the key factors influencing the efficiency of zinc biofortification, including fungal species, zinc sources (inorganic, organic, or nano forms ),application methods,and cultivation conditions, were evaluated. In …

Advances In Extraction And Detection Technologies For Veterinary Drug Residues In Food, Luo Qiaoqiao, Yuan Yufeng, Jia Yunzhu, Chen Qingya, Tan Fang, Zhao Xin

Food and Machinery

Veterinary drug residues constitute a global challenge that poses significant threats to food safety and public health. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in detection technologies for veterinary drug residues in food, with a particular focus on the performance characteristics and application status of sample extraction techniques (including liquid-liquid extraction, solid phase extraction, accelerated solvent extraction, QuEChERS, and magnetic solid phase microextraction ),as well as analytical methods (including chromatographic-mass spectrometric techniques, immunoassays, capillary electrophoresis, biosensors, and quantum dots -based approaches ). Comparative analysis reveals that accelerated solvent extraction (ASE ) and QuEChERS have emerged as mainstream pretreatment techniques owing to …

Learning In Infants Using Intrinsically Motivated Goal Conditioned Reinforcement Learning, T I Darsan

Master’s Dissertations

Traditional artificial intelligence models learn by passively digesting large datasets. In contrast, human infants discover skills by actively interacting with their bodies and environments without explicit external rewards. This thesis introduces the Composer Architecture, a machine learning framework designed to mimic this autonomous, open-ended development. The Composer architecture operates in a multi-stage loop, the latent model using Contrastive Learning Through Time (CLTT) to compress high-dimensional raw data from visual, proprioceptive, and touch sensors into a low-dimensional space. To preserve data relationships and prevent topological collapse, a Softmax activation forces these latent representations to lie smoothly on a probability simplex. A …

Design And Evaluation Of A Code-Switching-Aware Multilingual Conversational Ai System Using Advanced Rag Architectures, Ashutosh Juvale

Master’s Dissertations

Conversational artificial intelligence has become the primary interface through which hundreds of millions of users in India seek information and customer support. Yet the way these users actually write and speak is fundamentally at odds with the monolingual assumptions baked into most retrieval and generation systems: they code-switch, fluidly mixing one or more of the twenty-two scheduled languages of India with English, frequently typing Indic words in the Roman script ("mera refund kab tak aayega"). Standard Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines silently fail on such input — the retriever returns off-topic passages because the query and the knowledge base live in …

Parental Perspectives On Their Children’S Mental Health Changes During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic In A Florida Community, Brianna Yumul

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

K–3 General Education Teachers’ Experiences On Their Roles In Supporting English Language Learners, Sylvia Pollard-Ware

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Being Desi At School: Exploring The Racialized School Experiences Of South Asian American Youth, Prabha Kaundinya

Dissertations

Schools in America have been central areas for racialization, and as an immigrant, racial-ethnic minority population, South Asian American (SAA) students have been subjected to a variety of racialization processes (S. J. Lee et al., 2017; Rice, 2017, 2019; Subedi, 2013). However, what is known about SAA educational experiences is often based on celebratory stereotypes that proclaim their uniform success while neglecting attention towards the diversity of their needs (including academic, social-emotional, or mental health needs; Saran, 2015; Ngo & Lee, 2007; P. Patel & Patel, 2017; Pedraza & Guillaume, 2023; N. Sharma et al., 2020). This dissertation uses a …

Antibacterial And Structural Properties Of Chitosan-Gelatin Edible Films Enhanced With Liquid Smoke From Rice Husks And Cajuput Twigs, Muhammad Faisal, Dieni Mansur, Hera Desvita

Baghdad Science Journal

This study developed edible films incorporating liquid smoke derived from rice husks and cajuput twigs as both a chitosan solvent and an active antimicrobial–antioxidant agent. The fabricated films exhibited excellent mechanical integrity in accordance with Japanese Industrial Standards and possessed homogeneous microstructures, as evidenced by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses. Antibacterial tests demonstrated that higher concentrations of chitosan and liquid smoke enhanced inhibition against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, with inhibition zone diameters ranging from 6.08 mm to 11.68 mm for E.coli and 6.05 mm to 9.18 mm for B.subtilis. Antibacterial activity against Bacillus …

Fight With What You Have: The Influence Of Pre-War Cruiser Doctrine On The Guadalcanal Campaign, Dawson Baber

Masters Theses

The Guadalcanal campaign was one of the most important campaigns of the Second World War. It was the first American offensive action and began the rolling back of Japanese forces. Guadalcanal would also be a watershed moment in American naval doctrine. The experiences suffered during the six-month campaign led to significant changes in how the Navy employed its surface forces. Since the outcome of the campaign leads to significant changes in how the Navy fights, it is important to understand what led to the battles and why they went poorly. To be more specific, how did the Navy prepare itself …

The Cold War And Abba, Samantha Foster

Masters Theses

ABBA was a 1970s Swedish pop group. Spending approximately ten years together as a group, their output included hits such as "Dancing Queen," "Waterloo," and "The Winner Takes it All," among others. During ABBA's time together, though, the Cold War was a known fact in everyday life for people worldwide. The Cold War impacted ABBA in a number of ways, thus making the group an example of the Cold War struggle over popular culture. The band was acceptable to the Soviet Union because they hailed from neutral Sweden and their music was unlike Western rock music of the 1960s and …

The Things That Keep Me Up At Night, Kaitlyn Grace Wilson

Masters Theses

This creative nonfiction manuscript is a collection of reflective personal essays centered on ordinary experiences, curiosities, anxieties, and observations that gradually expand into larger questions about identity, memory, adulthood, faith, and human behavior. Rather than relying on dramatic plot or chronological structure, the essays move associatively through thought, humor, research, and reflection. Subjects throughout the manuscript range from fireworks, sourdough starter, dreams, and Facebook Marketplace to art history, floating the Chattahoochee River, weddings, music performances, and irrational fears. Through these seemingly small topics, the manuscript explores the emotional weight and philosophical questions hidden within everyday life.

Much of the project …

Midweek Memo, Georgia Southern University

Midweek Memo

• Applaud 
• Remember 
• Share 
• Experience 
• Around the Nest

Exploring Teacher Experiences And Readiness In Supporting Twice-Exceptional Students: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study, Jennifer D B Melvin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the perceived preparedness for the responsibility for the educational experiences of twice-exceptional students at public schools in Western Georgia. Twice-exceptional students, who are gifted and have disabilities, face unique challenges in academic achievement and social-emotional well-being due to asynchronous profiles and unmet needs. While evidence-based strategies exist to support twice-exceptional learners, appropriate training for teachers is imperative to ensure these approaches are implemented effectively. The theory guiding this study was Bandura’s social cognitive theory, as it posits that there is a connection between personal factors, behavioral patterns, and the environment …

The Effects Of Miscarriage On African American Men, Serita E. Baysmore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to describe the lived experience of African American men who have endured the loss of a child through miscarriage. Schlossberg’s transition theory, developed in 1981, was used to identify how men work through their grief by focusing on how they enter into, move through, and move out of the transition. By centering the descriptions on lived experiences, semi-structured interviews were utilized with African American men from a North Texas church, which boasts a predominantly African American population, and by word of mouth. After completion of the interviews, the data were analyzed according …

Predicting Employee Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence Technology: The Roles Of Job Embeddedness & Grit On Military Veterans In The U.S. Workforce, Ajay Joseph Koovackal

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) technology demands are growing rapidly to aid organizations in innovation, improving efficiency, increasing profits, and staying competitive within their respective markets. However, the irresponsible implementation of AI tools may cause organizations to suffer significantly by negatively affecting employee attitudes, perseverance, affiliation, and retention. This research is a cross-sectional quantitative study investigating the relationship between attitudes toward artificial intelligence (ATAI), job embeddedness (JE), and grit (GT). The study participants are 132 adult military veterans employed full-time in the United States. The researcher collected data through a self-report survey deployed on the SurveyMonkey online platform. After which, the …

How Are Depression And Anxiety In Biracial Black–White Adults Related To Monoracial Familial Connectedness Throughout Life?, Cary M. Steffey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The multiracial population is the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, yet their mental health and familial experiences are insufficiently studied. Due to their complex racial backgrounds, unique life experiences, and diverse social connections, multiracial individuals endure mental health issues that differ from those of many other populations, including their family relationships. Some of these differences include how these relationships affect life experiences and mental health status. This quantitative study examined psychological well-being among multiracial individuals, with a focus on relationships with monoracial family members. This study hypothesized that greater familial support predicts improved mental health outcomes. The study …

Assessment Of Artificial Oyster Reef Health Based On Water Quality, Oyster Recruitment, And Perkinsosis Infection In Tampa Bay, Christian J. Goldman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Providing nursey habitat, regulating nutrients, stabilizing shorelines, increasing biological diversity, improving water quality, and creating three-dimensional environments are some of the ecosystem services of oyster reefs. Oyster reefs are threatened by overharvesting, changes in water quality, pollution, and disease. The Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is the primary oyster species along Florida’s Gulf coast. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between multiple parameters on artificial reefs and how they influence the health of these reefs. Here, young (less than five years old) artificial oyster reefs were monitored for one year across three sites in Tampa Bay, FL: Lassing Park (LAS), …

Morphodynamic Evolution Of Midnight Pass, West-Central Florida, Sydney C. Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study takes advantage of a rare opportunity provided by the reopening of Midnight Pass due to two consecutive hurricanes in 2024, to examine the morphologic evolution of a newly reopened inlet and subsequent beach-inlet interactions. Historical aerial photos since the 1940s were collected and analyzed to understand the last closure of Midnight Pass, and to gain knowledge on the future of the newly reopened inlet. Time-series topography and bathymetry survey of the beach-inlet system were conducted bimonthly to quarterly for the first year and a half after the reopening, with the goals of quantifying the morphologic changes and understanding …

Psycho-Behavioral And Psychosocial Factors Influencing Childhood Obesity In The United States, Nadia Ntori Nkansah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Novel Engineering Of Nickel Oxide And Chromium Oxide Nanocomposites For Anti-Corrosion Studies, Sahar Ismael Imran

Baghdad Science Journal

Mixed nickel oxide/chromium oxide nanocomposites NCs (NiO/Cr₂O₃ NCs) have been synthesized via two distinct routes, the first: a green direct calcination-microwave-assisted route (sample B1) of nickel and chromium salts in a crucible within an enclosed oven chamber, which provides an environmentally friendly approach free of gaseous and fluid waste. The second is a conventional co-precipitation-microwave-assisted technique (sample B2). Both methods produced a novel bio-inspired hierarchical micro-lobed architecture pattern. The corrosion resistance effects of both samples have been studied. NiO/Cr₂O₃ NCs were characterized using a field emission scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, EDX-ray spectroscope, and …

Molecular Origins For Thermoplastic Elasticity Of Highly Branched Polyethlene As Revealed By Solid-State Nmr Spectroscopy, Toshikazu Miyoshi, James Eagan, Walter G. Romano, Keaton M. Turney

University Research

Highly branched polyethylenes (HBPEs) synthesized via α-diimine nickel catalysis exhibit excellent thermoplastic elasticity due to the unique combination of long and short branching structures. It is, however, challenging to analyze the crystalline structure, crystallinity, and crystal size distribution of HBPEs due to their low crystallinity. Therefore, the relationship between the branching structure, solid structure, and mechanical properties has not been established. In this work, we provide a detailed structural characterization of various HBPEs by using solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy combined with magnetic relaxation measurements. The combination of two 13C spin–lattice relaxation methods quantitatively analyzes the crystallinity, as well as size …

High-Throughput Optical Analysis To Inform Design Of Electrochemical Biosensors, Nathan J. Ricks, Michael A. Pence, Monica Brachi, Shelley D. Minteer

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electrochemical biosensors are central to wearable diagnostics, point-of-care testing, and continuous health monitoring due to their low power requirements, compatibility with miniaturized electronics, and proven clinical impact. Despite these advantages, the development of new electrochemical biosensors remains slow, constrained by limited throughput, complex electrode–biomolecule interfaces, and challenges associated with selectivity and performance in chemically complex environments. This perspective outlines how the next generation of electrochemical biosensors can be enabled by decoupling high-throughput front-end discovery and optimization from electrochemical readouts using nonelectrochemical surrogate assays. Optical, affinity, and cell-sorting platforms, including SELEX, fluorescence-activated cell sorting, and chemically coupled fluorescence assays, allow orders-of-magnitude …

Data-Driven Electrochemistry Reveals The Impact Of Hydrophobicity On Aptamer Cross-Reactivity, Emily Carroll, Michael A. Pence, Elizabeth Winterholler, Taylor D. Sparks, Shelley D. Minteer

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electrochemical aptamer-based (E-AB) biosensors offer a promising platform for reagentless detection of molecular targets, yet aptamer recognition can be limited by cross-reactivity, particularly for hydrophobic analytes such as steroid hormones. To investigate how cross-reactivity influences E-AB sensor performance, we use automation and machine learning to screen a library of possible interferent molecules against a steroid-binding aptamer, with progesterone serving as a physiologically relevant test case. Here, we develop a label-free E-AB sensor for progesterone detection using a methylene blue-modified aptamer anchored with a hexanethiol linker. We then used an automated electrochemistry platform to perform reproducible and high-throughput characterization of our …

Bridging The Visibility Gap: Advancing Radio Frequency Identification Integration For Customer-Facing Supply Chain Transparency And Operational Efficiency, Henry Steven Groulx

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined a persistent challenge in operations management, the gap between the internal capabilities of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems and their limited external application in customer-facing and supply network contexts. Grounded in a constructivist-pragmatic perspective and guided by adaptive structuration theory, the research employed an exploratory qualitative multiple-case study design across six manufacturing and logistics organizations. Data were collected through 24 semi-structured interviews, organizational documents, and operational artifacts, which were triangulated to support robust analysis. Findings indicated that RFID systems effectively supported internal operations, including inventory accuracy, process control, and exception management. However, their value diminished when extended …