University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida (UCF): STARS (Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship)Not a member yet
166656 research outputs found
Sort by
Burnout In the Workplace- Organizational Influences On Counselor Burnout
No full textThis study is a two-part manuscript dissertation that examined the impact of the six organizational influencers of burnout: Workload, Control, Reward, Community, Fairness, and Values on mental health counselors’ (MHCs) burnout, using Maslach’s three subscales of burnout: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. Additionally, Work Setting and Age were assessed for their influence on MHC burnout, when the six organizational influencers were accounted for. The focus on this topic is crucial as burnout has a detrimental effect on counselors, clients, and organizations. The growing population in need of support surpasses the amount of MHCs that our nation has to offer. Since MHC burnout continues to be an issue, despite research on this topic, a less researched perspective is being taken, focusing on organizational interventions versus individual interventions and small to moderate sized agencies and private practices versus large hospital systems. Regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data. Similar to previous research, the findings indicated that Workload remained significant for Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization. Additional significant impacts include Reward and Work Setting for Emotional Exhaustion and Control for Depersonalization. Reward remained the single influencer for Personal Accomplishment whether or not Work Setting and Age were accounted for. Recommendations for intervention research was made
Exploring The Experience Of Heart Disease Among Burmese Immigrants In The United States
No full textThe ongoing political and military turmoil in Myanmar has resulted in a significant increase in the migration of Burmese individuals to the United States in recent years. This demographic shift has brought attention to the health challenges faced by Burmese immigrants, particularly with regard to heart disease (heart attack). The complexities of the U.S. healthcare system, compounded by legal and social barriers, place immigrants at greater risk for health disparities. This study examines the health challenges of Burmese immigrants in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a specific focus on their perceptions and experiences related to heart disease, as explored through illness narratives. Utilizing qualitative research methods, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews based on the McGill Illness Narrative Interview (MINI), this research investigates how Burmese immigrants understand and manage heart disease. Seven participants, being diagnosed with heart attack or experienced heart attack, provided in-depth illness narratives, offering insights into the manifestation of the condition, treatment choices, and lifestyle adjustments in the context of migration. Burmese immigrants experience structural trauma and vulnerability due to past violence, forced migration, and ongoing social and economic challenges, leading to higher risks of health issues like heart disease such as heart attack. The findings included that to improve health outcomes, it is essential to provide culturally appropriate health education, enhance healthcare access, and address systemic barriers such as language and economic instability
Quality of Service Robots and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The Mediating Roles of State Empathy and Perceived Organizational Support/Obstruction
No full textResearch on service robots is currently more conceptual than it is empirical. This thesis leverages resource allocation and social exchange theories to explain how employees choose to expend their resources depending on the functioning of the service robot. I propose that service robot quality (defined here as an employee’s perception of the usefulness and ease of use of a service robot) is an important consideration for organizations that adopt service robots, and hypothesize that employee state empathy and support (or obstruction) from their organization links service robot quality to employee organizational citizenship behaviors. The study consisted of 166 participants from two samples who were compensated for participation. Results demonstrated significant indirect effects from service robot quality to organizational citizenship behaviors via state empathy and perceived organizational support. However, results did not support perceived organizational obstruction as a mediator. Theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations and future research directions are then discussed
Detonation Morphology for Hypersonic Propulsion
No full textStanding detonations are uniquely stabilized in hypersonic flows. The portion of the detonation containing the stabilized shock front is remotely similar to non-reacting normal and oblique shocks and is uniquely differentiable from the latter by its coupling to a reaction front characterized by intense heat-release rates and fast chemical kinetics. The formation of an inert induction region characterized by slow-evolving chemical kinetics, subsequent development of a transition region within which these rates escalate, and terminal coalescence between shock wave and reaction front define the formation sequence of the standing detonation. Observations of this process are reported across multiple research groups. Methodologies that sub-categorize standing detonations based on precise flow properties and unique features measured during experiment, correlated to numerical approaches resolving detonation structure and conservation equations, and contributing to identification of relationships between detonation and boundary condition remain largely unexplored. This gap is the foundation of the first textual component and scientific contribution of the current work. In the context of hypersonic air-breathing propulsion, standing detonations offer a unique benefit to high-speed vehicles through their distinct stability at high velocities, compact form factor, and initiation simplicity. However, they have never been experimentally investigated under atmospheric conditions representative of intended operational regimes. The rationale for such an experiment lies in identifying scientific objectives warranting risk mitigation via flight testing, due to their potential to advance the hypersonic applicability of standing detonations. The inductive formulation and development of such an experiment comprise the second textual component and scientific contribution. The bridge between fundamental explorations of standing detonations and flight experiment is built by multi-dimensional optimization (MDO) of quantifiable characteristics modeled through parameterization of hypersonic reactant mixtures whose oxidizing and reducing constituents are described by thermophysical properties and reaction rates acquired through empirical methods and boundary conditions. This methodology is the third contribution
Ethical Concerns And Consumer Perceptions Of Fairness In Gamified Customer Loyalty Programs
No full textBusiness organizations use customer loyalty programs as marketing tools by providing incentives for consumer behaviors, which generate customer engagement value for the business. Customer loyalty programs typically use game mechanics common to digital gaming in order to motivate behavior, often referred to as gamification. While studies of gamified programs used for education and training purposes appear frequently in the literature, a gap exists in exploring gamified programs used in a marketing context. This dissertation seeks to understand how consumers view the use of gamified customer loyalty programs as fair under the frameworks of justice. This exploratory study employed a mixed methods approach, beginning with a content analysis of a sample of customer loyalty programs to create a categorization of gamified customer loyalty programs based upon the stated goals of the company sponsoring the program and the use of specific game mechanics by the program to motivate consumer behavior rhetorically. Results of the content analysis informed a survey seeking consumer perspectives on the use of specific game mechanics and questions of digital ethics including privacy, transparency, digital literacy, and potential for harm. Results of the study suggest no presumption of unfairness exists among consumers in the use of gamified customer loyalty programs to motivate their behavior. However, the findings did highlight areas of concern for future research, notably issues related to conceptual and procedural literacy among consumers in their understanding of program rules and embedded procedural rhetoric. The study also highlighted a need for further research regarding the impact of the imbalanced power structure between businesses and consumers in the use of levels of status as a game mechanic, specifically within the partnerships between travel and financial services industries’ customer loyalty programs
Effects Of Changes In Strouhal And Reynolds Numbers On Beetle Wing Aerodynamics
No full textInsect flight has long been a subject of interest across the scientific community, largely due to the exceptional aerodynamic performance insects demonstrate relative to their size. Insects tend to have very high aerodynamic performance characteristics like thrust and lift generation compared to their size. This has many potential applications in improving aircraft performance, however the flow phenomena concerning insect wing aerodynamics is still an area of ongoing research. This study aims to investigate how variations in key nondimensional flow parameters—specifically the Reynolds number and Strouhal number—affect the aerodynamic performance of beetle wings. Strouhal numbers ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 were tested using wing-mounted force sensors to directly measure aerodynamic forces
STEM vs. non-STEM students’ stimulant misuse for academic advantages
No full textThis study aimed to explore the relationship between academic discipline, caffeine consumption, reported perception of stimulant misuse behaviors, and reported academic stress at the University of Central Florida. Participants were categorized as either STEM or non-STEM majors and reported whether they had misused stimulants in the past 12 months and their daily average caffeine consumption. Due to the low number of participants who reported stimulant misuse, caffeine consumption was incorporated, grouping participants as either “above median” caffeine consumption or “below median” caffeine consumption. Two 2 (Caffeine Consumption: High vs. Low) x 2 (Major: STEM vs. Non-STEM) between-subjects ANOVAs were conducted to examine the two DVs: Reported academic stress and perception of stimulant misuse behaviors. It was hypothesized that participants who identified as STEM majors and reported higher caffeine consumption would have higher academic stress scores and perceive stimulant misuse as more acceptable. The results showed that only students who reported caffeine consumption above the median reported significantly higher levels of stress. Limitations include that the intended variable could not be analyzed due to insufficient data, which resulted in caffeine being included as a variable. Understanding these relationships may help inform college campus drug informational programs. Having well-informed programs can help by spreading information regarding stimulant misuse prevention to the student population in a more effective manner
Prompted by Me. Generated by ChatGPT
No full textThis essay—which is not only about human-machine collaboration but is a performance in human-machine collaboration—interrogates the shifting terrain of authorship and creativity in the age of generative artificial intelligence (GAI). Challenging both the instrumentalist view of technology and the romantic myth of the singular genius, it argues for a reconceptualization of creative production as distributed, dialogical, and co-constituted. Drawing on both theoretical innovations in poststructuralism and the practices of pre- and post-modern content creators, the essay repositions the algorithm not as a mere tool but as an active participant in the generation of meaning. In doing so, it exposes and disrupts—in both content and form—the metaphysical assumptions that continue to underwrite our understanding of writing, agency, and communication
Pedestrian Monitoring and Crossing Intention Prediction at Intersections Using Computer Vision and Deep Learning
No full textEnsuring the safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), including pedestrians, bicyclists, and E-scooter riders, at intersections is crucial for sustainable and efficient urban mobility. Despite recent advancements in transportation technologies, accurately understanding and predicting human behavior at intersections remains challenging, resulting in unsafe interactions, crossing violations, and diminished trust in traffic systems. This dissertation presents an integrated approach comprising three novel frameworks: VRUCrossSafe, VRU-CIPI, and the Video-to-Text Pedestrian Monitoring (VTPM) system, collectively addressing critical gaps in intersection safety, VRU behavior prediction, and privacy-preserving traffic monitoring. First, VRUCrossSafe introduces a real-time intersection safety solution utilizing computer vision and ensemble machine learning techniques to predict VRU crossing intentions. Evaluated on a dataset containing 589 VRUs under various visibility conditions, VRUCrossSafe achieved a high prediction accuracy of 94.67%, processing at 33 frames per second, enabling automated pedestrian signal activation with real-world implementation is addressed providing real processing. Building upon these findings, the VRU Crossing Intention Prediction at Intersection (VRU-CIPI) model is developed to capture complex temporal dynamics of VRU behavior. VRU-CIPI integrates Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) with Transformer-based multi-head self-attention, achieving state-of-the-art crossing intention prediction accuracy of 96.45%. Moreover, it integrates cross-camera person Reidentification methods to identify the same crossing VRUs across cameras to confirm their safe crossing with precision of 88.48%. Addressing pedestrian privacy and storage efficiency, VTPM framework employs a lightweight Large Language Model (LLM) to transform pedestrian activity from video formats into concise real-time textual narratives. VTPM efficiently detects crossing violations and vehicle-pedestrian conflicts with minimal latency (0.05 sec/frame for monitoring, 0.33 sec/report generation), significantly reducing data storage requirements while enhancing privacy and enabling rapid, reliable safety analyses. Collectively, the proposed frameworks advance intersection safety through accurate VRU behavior prediction, enhanced privacy protection, and efficient real-time safety analysis, supporting safer and more sustainable urban transportation systems
Continuously Variable Series Reactor Modeling and Application
No full textIn today\u27s rapidly evolving energy landscape, the Continuously Variable Series Reactor (CVSR) emerges as a vital tool for enhancing the stability and efficiency of power systems. This proposal presents a detailed investigation into the operational characteristics and performance optimization of CVSR through advanced modeling techniques. The Continuously Variable Series Reactor (CVSR) offers a unique capability to regulate the reactance of an AC circuit through the magnetizing characteristic of its ferromagnetic core. By utilizing both AC and DC windings, the CVSR effectively controls power flow, dampens oscillations, and balancing the voltage within the power grid. To effectively integrate CVSR into grid operations, a comprehensive understanding of its operational characteristics is crucial.
Utilizing the gyrator-capacitor approach, electromagnetic coupling between the controlled AC circuit and the controlling DC circuit of the CVSR can be accurately modeled. This proposal delves into an investigation of various aspects of CVSR behavior, including the induced voltage across the DC winding, flux density within the core\u27s branches, and the power exchange between the two circuits. These analyses, providing valuable insights into the performance and potential applications of CVSR technology within power systems. Additionally, different DC control circuit configurations to optimize AC reactance modulation efficiency is explored. By understanding the implications of various control strategies on system stability, we aim to identify the best operational approaches for real-world grid applications.
The primary contribution of this proposal lies in the improved modeling of a CVSR. While the past approach involved the utilization of MEC, certain limitations were encountered. The adoption of the specific G-C approach enables the consideration of power exchange between circuits. Additionally, the incorporation of hysteresis modeling enhances the accuracy of the model.
Furthermore, while the original purpose of the CVSR was power flow control, this proposal extends its application to include voltage balancing as well.
In summary, this proposal seeks to advance our understanding of CVSR technology and its potential impact on modern energy systems. By clarifying the relationships between magnetic flux dynamics, induced voltages, and power exchange, we seek to pave the way for significant improvements in grid management and infrastructure resilienc