Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

Since 2010, aquaculture practices have produced 70% of global seafood consumption. However, this fast-growing sector of agriculture has yet to see the adoption of advanced technologies to improve farm operations. The Hybrid Aerial Underwater robotiCs System (HAUCS) is an Internet of Things (IoT) framework that aims to bring transformative changes to pond aquaculture.
This project focuses on the latest developments in the HAUCS mobile sensing platform and field deployment. A novel rigid Kirigami-based robotic extension subsystem was created to expand the functionality of the HAUCS platform. The primary objective of this design was to limit the surface area of an extender arm on the drone during flight operations and minimize the in-flight drag. By utilizing a novel combination of shape memory polymer (SMP) and nitinol to extend and retrieve the sensing arm, the structure was able to conserve energy while operating under varying environmental conditions.

While students are the center of dual enrollment programs, high school counseling professionals, often called guidance counselors, and college/university administrators are vital to the success of these programs. High school guidance counselors coordinate schedules and ensure student awareness, registration, and participation in the program. College/University administrators facilitate dual enrollment partnerships between the school district and the post-secondary institution, guided by formal articulation agreements. COVID-19 has impacted both secondary and post-secondary school systems. Since dual enrollment is a formal bridge program between these systems, the pandemic may have long-term effects on access, equity, and the learning environment associated with dual enrollment.
This case study focused on high school guidance counselors and school district administrators in Broward County, Florida schools as well as the college/university staff and administrators who oversee dual enrollment programs at three post-secondary institutions that offer classes for Broward County students. By collecting the participants’ perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on dual enrollment programs, this study found out what worked, what did not work, and the lessons learned.

Research indicates that opioid use disorder (OUD) is the most fatal and rapidly growing substance use disorder (SUD) in the United States, affecting over three million Americans with nearly a million overdose deaths since 1999 (Azadfard et al., 2021; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2023). Despite the pervasiveness of this diagnosis, research fails to evaluate counselors’ efficacy beliefs regarding the clinical treatment of the OUD client population. Similarly, despite the support that exists for affiliation with 12-step recovery groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous improving recovery outcomes for those diagnosed with OUD (Costello et al., 2019; Humphreys et al., 2020; Kelly et al., 2020), studies assessing counselors’ knowledge of 12-step recovery are scarce in the counseling literature. The present study targeted these two under-represented constructs by examining the relationship between counselors’ knowledge of 12-step recovery and their opioid use disorder counseling self-efficacy (OUDCSE). Counselors’ addiction beliefs and personal substance use experience (PSUE) were chosen as variables in this study, as both have a clinically significant influence on the counseling process and efficacy beliefs (Bawden, 2020; Cronin et al., 2014; Nielson, 2016). The researcher obtained approval from the university’s Institutional Review Board and used convenience and snowball sampling to recruit 161 licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and certified clinical rehabilitation counselors for participation.

Cercopithecus ascanius is an African primate species encompassing five geographic types with unresolved taxonomy. Recent publications have analyzed C. ascanius genetic diversity and taxonomy; however, few publications have addressed the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of C. ascanius from wild populations. My objectives for this thesis were to determine mtDNA diversity within the C. Ascanius species and investigate C. ascanius genetic structure. Results from this thesis support findings from previous studies wherein C. ascanius depicted high mitochondrial diversity and all C. ascanius subspecies form a monophyletic clade within the Cercopithecus genus. Analyzing additional samples of C. ascanius monkeys will strengthen molecular diversity estimation and clarify genetic structure within the C. ascanius lineage.

For more than two decades Congress has failed to pass the DREAM Act, a legislation intended to secure a pathway to legal status for undocumented youth brought to the United States as children. Within the broader U.S. immigration domain, the case of the DREAMers (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) is particularly apt for exploring the dynamics of the policymaking process. Bringing together the theoretical framework of the Multiple Streams (MSF) and the methodology of the Narrative Policy Analysis (NPA) this research illuminates how narrative construction affects policy action. This dissertation integrates the two frameworks through collection and analysis of opposing policy narratives of legislators and other stakeholders involved in immigration policy debates over a twelve-year period.
To advance this research objective, this study sought to understand how problem framing affects policy making, how competing policy coalitions construct policy narratives regarding immigration, and how immigration policy narratives affect the enactment of legislation. In addition, extending the critical examination of the narratives of opposing coalitions illuminates how political and professional elites use language to reinforce existing power structures and advance divergent views of immigration.

The animated screendance presents a meaningful experience through the medium of cinema as seen emerging from Mickey Mouse’s early cartoons, Silly Symphony’s experiments, and Fantasia (1940). The core focus of this research investigates the emotional and affective identifications of the audience engendered through the qualities of animation and the screendance. Drawing from the theories of the animated screendance, a term that shows how cinema can construct affective characters across the artistry of their inherent dance, I argue that these films elicit new understandings of the choreographed body. This is derived through the lens of artistic cartoon animation along with the emotional experience of the spectator by examining the critical body, dance, and film practices that form these bonds. Taking a qualitative approach by analyzing the many films in question through robust textual analysis while including theory on mythological narrative and physiognomy brings us to associate the elements of the body and screendance that influence culture and society. The reason for this approach leads us to recognize the importance of the animated dancing body as an imaginative form that can be controlled and manipulated by the pre-conceived ideas of the animators and human labor dictating these images. The screendance also provides additional layers of signification by including the construction of narrative and psychology through the processes of cinematography and editing, which is further placed onto these characters to increase their believability and emotional connection. All the bodies in question have similar elements that refer back to the human referent and focus on the choreographies that create meaning for these beings. The findings indicate that audiences are emotionally connected to the animated dancing characters on the screen through the importance placed on the representation of human form and cinematic structure to create memories and magic.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between licensed clinical social workers' (LCSWs) skepticism and knowledge about dissociative identity disorder (DID) and their accurate diagnosis of the disorder as moderated by specialized training about DID and/or postmaster’s experience with diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. The following research questions guided the study.
• RQ1a. Is there a relationship between LCSWs’ level of skepticism and level of knowledge about DID.
• RQ1b. Is there a relationship between LCSWs’ level of skepticism and accurate diagnosis of the disorder?
• RQ1c. Is there a relationship between LCSWs’ level of knowledge about DID and accurate diagnosis of the disorder?
• RQ2a. Does specialized training about DID affect the diagnostic accuracy of the disorder?
• RQ2b. Does post-master’s clinical experience with diagnosing and treating DID affect the diagnostic accuracy of the disorder?
Using a cross-sectional research design and informed by philosophical underpinnings of epistemology and skepticism and Kahneman’s model of diagnostic reasoning (Kahneman, 2011), the data for this study were collected via an online survey of randomly selected LCSWs (N=85) in Florida. The survey consisted of a diagnostic vignette with a very short answer (VSA) response, the Skepticism and Knowledge Scales (SKS) comprising 11 items that assess skepticism, six items that assess knowledge, and 13 distractor items (Hayes & Mitchell, 1994), and a demographic questionnaire with 12 items, two of which quantified specialized training about and clinical experience with DID.

The perception and interpretation of faces provides individuals with a wealth of knowledge that enables them to navigate their social environments more successfully. Prior research has hypothesized that the decreased facial expression recognition (FER) abilities observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be better explained by comorbid alexithymia, the alexithymia hypothesis. The present study sought to further examine the alexithymia hypothesis by collecting data from 59 participants and examining FER performance and eye movement patterns for ASD and neurotypical (NT) individuals while controlling for alexithymia severity. Eye movement-related differences and similarities were examined via eye tracking in conjunction with statistical and machine-learning-based pattern classification analysis. In multiple different classifying conditions, where the classifier was fed 1,718 scanpath images (either at spatial, spatial-temporal, or spatial temporal-ordinal levels) for high-alexithymic ASD, high-alexithymicvi NT, low-alexithymic ASD, and low-alexithymic NT, we could accurately decode significantly above chance level. Additionally, in the cross-decoding analysis where the classifier was fed 1,718 scanpath images for high- and low alexithymic ASD individuals and tested on high- and low-alexithymic NT individuals, results showed that classification accuracy was significantly above chance level when using spatial images of eye movement patterns. Regarding FER performance results, we found that ASD and NT groups performed similarly, but at lower intensities of expressions, ASD individuals performed significantly worse than NT individuals. Together, these findings suggest that there may be eye-movement related differences between ASD and NT individuals, which may interact with alexithymia traits.

Background: Almost seven million persons in Saudi Arabia are diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Lack of knowledge regarding T2DM among Saudi caregivers may impact T2DM management and disease outcomes, yet established educational programs for their caregivers are scant. There is a need to discover T2DM informal caregivers’ knowledge and its relation to patients' T2DM management, prior to designing educational interventions.
Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to measure disease knowledge among informal caregivers for patients with T2DM in Saudi Arabia, and to compare findings to the patient-health status presented by HbA1C level. This study was conceptualized within nursing caring science, using Nursing as Caring Theory (Boykin & Schoenhofer, 2001), and the Individual and Family Self-Management Theory (Ryan & Sawin, 2009).

This empirical study examines the impact of a homeowners association (HOA) mandatory membership fee on residential real estate prices, a topic that has not been empirically addressed in the real estate literature. A mandatory membership fee is defined as an initiation fee charged by HOAs that grants homeowners country club access. Many studies have examined the impact of the presence of homeowners associations on price but only a few studies have examined the impact of homeowners associations on price by estimating the impact of homeowners association fees. This research expands the HOA literature by examining the specific HOA fee characteristics of a mandatory membership fee. In this analysis, hedonic price models (HPM) are used to estimate the impact of mandatory membership fee on price by analyzing 31,704 observations of single family home sales between 2018 and 2019 in Palm Beach County, Florida using data from a local multiple listing service. Specifically, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models using two dependent variables, sold price and natural log of sold price, with mandatory membership fee as the independent variable of interest are used to estimate the relationship between mandatory membership fee and sales price. By controlling for property, neighborhood, and market characteristics, the hypothesis I investigate states that the impact of the presence of a mandatory membership fee on sales price is negative.