USFSP Digital Archive
Not a member yet
132282 research outputs found
Sort by
Development and Implementation of Telemetry Devices to Identify and Characterize Sources of Intraocular Pressure Variability in Rats
No full textEye health depends partially on intraocular pressure (IOP) as abnormal levels can lead to ocular tissue damage. Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nearly 80 million people worldwide [1]. It is associated with elevated IOP, which can lead to irreversible blindness. Relatively little is known about IOP dynamics and the physiological factors that affect it as IOP is typically monitored using tonometry. Tonometry is a common tool used by clinicians and researchers to measure IOP noninvasively. It provides a good estimate of IOP mean but not variance because data collection takes time. Readings can also be influenced by subject stress and tonometer operation. To resolve this issue, our lab has developed a novel telemetry system to monitor IOP continuously in conscious freely moving rats. The device works by conducting pressure from a microcannula implanted in the anterior chamber to a transducer worn as a backpack. To improve our understanding of IOP as a risk factor for glaucoma, we used this system to test the effects of various internal and external factors including stress, anesthetics, temperature, tonometry, light cycle, and locomotor activity. Our results indicate that IOP varies continuously over fast and slow time scales. IOP fluctuations can naturally range over 5 - 10 mmHg, which is quite large considering the resting level is 10 - 15 mmHg and chronic elevation by this amount can cause glaucomatous nerve damage. Physiological mechanisms must therefore exist to slowly and rapidly modulate IOP. Autoregulatory processes that control ocular hemodynamics are one known mechanism, and efferent nerve signals from the brain are another. We conclude that IOP in rats, much like in higher mammals, is a complex time-dependent variable due to internal and external perturbing forces and homeostatic feedback mechanisms
Social Media and Women Empowerment in Nigeria: A Study of the #BreakTheBias Campaign on Facebook
No full textThis paper examines how the March 2022 #BreakTheBias campaign on Facebook was used as an empowerment platform in Nigeria, where women experience gender disparity. Research on the role of social media in women’s empowerment in Nigeria is an area that has not been fully studied. Previous studies have looked at women’s empowerment mainly through an educational or political lens, neglecting how social media have also been effective in empowering women. Other researchers have studied how women utilize social media platforms for leisure, entertainment, and media sharing. In the present study, non-probability sampling was used to identify 20 posts that convey empowering messages on Nigeria’s Facebook feeds during the 2022 #BreakTheBias campaign between the 1st and 31st days of March 2022. Here, I define “empowering” as the process of bringing someone into a state of power or control by increasing their potential, ability, choice, and confidence through the transference of knowledge. I looked for recurrent themes in the exemplar texts, pictures, and videos that illustrate economic and social empowerment messages. The empowerment messages were analyzed using feminist textual analysis. I argue that social media are instrumental for women’s economic and social empowerment in Nigeria through entrepreneurial empowerment, philanthropic initiatives, financial inclusion, online communities, psycho-social support, and Facebook therapy. The over-arching themes of empowerment include feminism, economic empowerment opportunities, resilience, self-confidence, as well as self-awareness, and motivation. In the context of this study, transnational feminism informs an inclusive paradigm for marginalized women and thinking about feminist activism and empowerment campaigns on gender inequality that is intersectional in practice
Motherhood in the Multiverse: Melodrama and Asian American Identity in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
No full textIn what follows, I look to the visual and narrative composition of the multiverse between Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (The Daniels, 2022) and Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (Sam Raimi, 2022) to develop a more precise understanding of the superhero blockbuster as a contemporary expression of sensation melodrama. To do so, I use two depictions of maternity to excavate two very different approaches to the multiverse: one that externalizes social conflict, which it answers with individuated and exculpatory violence, and another that internalizes social conflict, which it answers through collective care. I introduce the blockbuster’s mobilization of the multiverse and the symptoms of its escapist logics through visual composition and action sequences that influence external / internal narrative crises. Everything, Everywhere reconfigures these tropes in order to articulate the pivotal role of maternal care in opening new possibilities, straying away from dominant representations of Asian American women as simple or subservient. It also reshapes an agentive image for the Asian American hero in the immigrant mother, previously reserved for male characters in cinema. The implicit involvement of the larger scale of the world redresses the xenophobic and racial violence against Asian Americans and immigrants in general. Looking to how the film exhibits Asian American identity and interdependency within its narrative suggests a path for progressive politics, I argue, that reshapes collectivity and care as central in departing from the racial stereotypes that dominant media generally maintain
Methadone Patients in Vietnam: Substance Use Patterns, Reasons for Entering Treatment, and Methadone-Related Attitudes
No full textObjectives. Vietnam has high rates of opioid addiction, but methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) only became available in Vietnam in 2008. To date, MMT has expanded nationwide serving about 51,000 patients. As MMT is relatively new in Vietnam, additional research on methadone patients is still needed. This dissertation aims to address two important issues related to MMT that have been understudied: the extent/type of substance use (SU) among MMT patients in Vietnam; and the low utilization of MMT among women.
Methods. This dissertation contains three separate, but related studies. Study 1 systematically reviewed 20 studies and summarized the literature on the types and extent of SU among Vietnamese MMT patients. Study 2 employed quantitative methods to identify gender differences in SU patterns, reasons for treatment entry, and attitudes toward MMT among 199 patients. Study 3 qualitatively described SU patterns, reasons for treatment entry, and attitudes toward MMT among 40 patients.
Results. SU was prevalent among Vietnamese MMT patients with a high rate of polydrug use. The most prevalent substances included heroin, tobacco, alcohol, and methamphetamine. Patients used heroin mostly to cope with withdrawal symptoms, boredom, and replace methadone on missing-dose days. Overall, gender differences were rarely found in terms of how patients used SU, reasons for entering treatment, and attitudes toward MMT.
Conclusion. SU is an active issue among MMT patients. Future research should further investigate SU patterns, and associated factors with decreased/increased SU while in MMT as well as further explore reasons for the low number of women in MMT. MMT providers should consider providing treatment for substances other than opioids. Findings suggest that patients might benefit from interventions such as case management, talk therapy, and emotional/social support. Additionally, employment enhancement such as vocational training and social networking programs should also be offered
Spatial Mismatch between Electric Vehicles (EVs) and EV charging stations in Florida
No full textCarbon emission is a key contributor to global warming and climate change. Reducing carbon emissions has posed as a challenge for several decades, prompting a rising alliance of nations, municipalities, corporations, and other establishments to commit to achieving net-zero emissions. One of the trends in many countries is to replace traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles, especially electric vehicles (EVs). The Global EV Outlook 2021 report by IEA reveals that there was a 41% surge in the registration of electric cars in 2020, resulting in the sale of approximately 3 million electric cars worldwide. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the study of EVs has gradually accelerated due to environmental pollution and energy-related issues.
One critical issue that has not been fully addressed is the spatial mismatch between the growing number of EVs and the public charging facilities on a local scale. On the one hand, some regions lack sufficient public charging stations, which results in inconvenience for EV owners who have limited access to charging at home or workplace. On the other hand, we’ve seen some other regions with excessive charging capacity due to severe competition among different EV charging station companies. Besides the mismatch between charging demand and supply that is geographically heterogeneous, there also exists inequality issue, i.e., the socioeconomically disadvantaged groups receive disproportionally fewer opportunities to own or charge EVs.
In this thesis, I plan to investigate this issue with a case study in Florida. With a population of over 21 million, Florida is the third most populous state in the United States and is home to more than 16 million motor vehicles, according to the US Department of Transportation (2021). The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy states that EV sales in Florida increased by 20% between 2018 and 2019 and sales of EVs jumped 53% in 2021. A series of laws, incentives and funding opportunities have been initiated to encourage and regulate EVs in Florida. This thesis takes counties in Florida as analytical units to explore whether there is a spatial mismatch between EVs and their matched charging stations and compare the results with the number of registered ICE vehicles and gas stations in Florida. Registered EVs data was provided by Florida Power & Light Company. Location data of EV charging station was downloaded from U.S. Department of Energy website.
This thesis investigates whether there is a spatial mismatch between the number of EVs and EV charging stations in Florida. The study found that areas in the northern Panama City, Tallahassee, and Gainesville regions exhibit a significant spatial mismatch due to a lower number of EVs and public charging stations per capita and a higher number of gasoline stations per capita. In contrast, the Miami area has a developed Tesla EV charging network and a significant number of Tesla EV owners, indicating the need for more non-Tesla charging stations to meet the demand for future EV development. Although the Tampa and Orlando areas do not show a significant spatial mismatch, they still require more investment in EV charging infrastructure. Overall, the results of the study suggest the need for more EV charging stations to facilitate the replacement of ICE vehicles with EVs and can guide urban planning for site selection of EV charging stations in the future
Guarding The Firewall: How Political Journalists Distance Themselves From The Editorial Endorsement Process
No full textThrough a lens of boundary work and role conception, this study seeks to understand how political journalists discursively construct the role of the newspaper editorial endorsement. Researchers conducted long-form interviews with political journalists in the United States (n = 64) to understand how journalists conducted boundary work relative to endorsements. Journalists argued that the 2016 election was a decisive event in which political news endorsements lost their original objective. Political journalists described laboring to discursively distance themselves from the endorsement process and viewed political endorsements not only as ineffective, but also as jeopardizing their news organizations’ independence
System and method for multimodal spatiotemporal pain assessment
No full textA computer-based system and method for generating a current pain assessment of a neonate using facial expressions along with crying sounds, body movement, and vital signs changes and for using the current pain objective assessment to predict future pain objective assessment and assign a future pain probability score by incorporation spatiotemporal data into the multimodal assessment
Cascode common source transimpedance amplifiers for analyte monitoring systems
No full textA biosensor for an analyte monitoring system. In one embodiment, the biosensor includes a cascode common source transimpedance amplifier circuit, an analog to digital converter, and an output circuit. The cascode common source transimpedance amplifier circuit is configured to receive an electrical current generated by an electrochemical reaction of an analyte on a test strip. The cascode common source transimpedance amplifier circuit is also configured to convert the electrical current to an analog voltage signal. The analog to digital converter is configured to convert the analog voltage signal to a digital voltage signal. The output circuit is configured to transmit a signal indicating a measured level of the analyte based on the digital voltage signal
Catalyzing Change for Equitable Participation
No full textThis manuscript discusses the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles designed to help math teacher-researchers (TRs) create more equitable discourse patterns in their classrooms. Before the first cycle, TRs were asked to complete gender and race implicit assessment tests (IATs). Then, TRs planned and recorded a video of themselves facilitating a math discussion. Next, math teacher educators (MTEs) used the Equity QUantified In Participation (EQUIP) classroom observation instrument to code and analyze the discussion. Subsequently, TRs had an opportunity to reflect on the EQUIP and IAT results and set goals for making their teaching practices more equitable. MTEs provided guidance and resources to help the TRs develop a plan to achieve their equitable teaching goals. The implications for PK-12 practicing teachers from two PDSA cycles with three TRs are shared here. We hope this work will inspire and guide other TRs to implement similar PDSA cycles
Grades or No Grades? Promoting Deeper Learning in a Middle Level Mathematics Methods Course
No full textThis action research investigated pre-service teachers (PSTs) experiences with ungrading practices in a mathematics methods course designed for middle level PSTs (grades 4-8). This study analyzed archival data through the lenses of pedagogical content knowledge, growth mindset, and self-efficacy to investigate how PSTs’ experiences with the process of ungrading supported their development of pedagogical content knowledge. Throughout the course, verbal feedback was provided during class discourse and the interactive lectures and written feedback was provided for all submitted assignments. The feedback provided was both positive and constructive in nature. Based on the assignment or activity, constructive feedback was either provided to improve future work submissions or for a revise and resubmit of the current assignment. The findings provide evidence that the process of ungrading can be beneficial to learning. Ungrading supported PSTs by teaching them how to grow from the feedback provided and to reflect on their learning throughout the semester. The PSTs developed and improved their pedagogical content knowledge through the processes of revision and reflection. Ungrading is a process that takes more planning, support, and time, but the outcome is well worth the effort