Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

This multiple case study explored the lived experiences of LGBTQ educators while they navigated the ongoing disclosure of their sexual orientation and inclusion of LGBTQ curriculum in K-12 public schools. Two main research questions and four sub-research questions guided this study. An electronic questionnaire was used to collect initial information and recruit participants for two rounds of semi structured interviews. The sample population for this study consisted of 8 participants. All eight participants completed the initial questionnaire and the first round of interviews. The first interview focused on the educator’s disclosure and school climate. From the original eight participants, six completed the second round of interviews which focused on inclusive curriculum. Data analysis supported themes and findings which emerged from the coding and are presented according to the research question they address. Research Question 1 found negative and positive experiences LGBTQ educators encountered that are presented according to shareholder groups: (a) administrators, staff, and community, and (b) students. Sub-Research Question 1 had three themes related to the influences school climate had on LGBTQ educators’, and Sub-Research Question 2 findings included the negative, positive, and neutral factors that influence an LGBTQ educator’s disclosure decision. Research Question 2 depicted LGBTQ educators’ experiences with LGBTQ inclusive curriculum. Sub-Research Question 3 identified two themes relating to LGBTQ educators’ feelings toward inclusion. Finally, Sub-Research Question 4 found three shareholder groups: (a) students, (b) school and district, and (c) society. Each group comprised factors that impacted the inclusion of LGBTQ curriculum including (a) barriers, (b) benefits, and (c) support.

Pile foundations are subjected to vertical loads and significantly higher lateral loads due to wind, seismic effects, ocean waves and currents, and floating ice sheets. Applied vertical load on a pile is resisted by the skin friction and base resistance. The base resistance is provided by the soil layer and skin friction develops at the soil-pile interface. The lateral load on the pile is resisted by the soil-pile interaction effect, which is dependent on the pile and soil parameters. Published literature shows that a properly designed Pile-to-Pile Cap (PTPC) connection will offer significant lateral resistance to the applied loads. The soil-pile system behavior is highly non-linear which requires a detailed study on the soil-structure interaction considering multi-layered soil strata and their properties.
This Dissertation is divided into two parts: Evaluation of (A) the behavior and performance of PTPC connections, and (B) the load-displacement responses of a pile embedded in a multi-layered non-linear elastic soil strata subjected to static loads. A comprehensive literature review has been performed to study the factors affecting the PTPC connection performances and the load-displacement behavior of piles subjected to static lateral and axial loads considering soil-pile interactions. The objective of the study in Part A is to develop a PTPC connection design capable of producing adequate moment capacity of the pile by relying only on plain pile embedments without any special connection reinforcement details. The present study evaluates the local and global behavior of the PTPC connections with plain pile embedment through Finite Element Analyses (FEA).

Sponges (Phylum Porifera) are hardy organisms persisting and predicted to become more dominant world-wide under climate change scenarios. However, we lack baseline knowledge on sponge biodiversity in transitional areas (subtropical to warm-temperate) that are more susceptible to climate change such as The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) (estuary) and Saint Lucie Reef (northern most coral reef) ecosystems in south Florida. The aims of this master’s thesis are to 1) evaluate if sponge assemblages reflect the previously defined ecotone between subtropical and warm-temperate biomes in the IRL (Chapter one), 2) determine how porifera communities are associated to their respective environment (temperature, water velocity, photosynthetically active radiation, carbonate chemistry, and nutrients) in the IRL and St. Lucie Reef (Chapter two), and 3) establish a distribution baseline for future studies aiming to assess Porifera range shifts during climate change (Chapter one and two). Porifera biodiversity surveys across the IRL and Saint Lucie reef were carried out at different spatial and time scales. Environmental parameters (ocean acidification, temperature and eutrophication) were obtained and compared for sites in Fort Pierce Inlet and St Lucie Reef. Chapter one results show that sponge assemblages do not reflect the previously defined ecotone between subtropical and warm-temperate biomes in the IRL, instead they structure in relation to the inlets (distance from the inlet). The most diverse sponge assemblages are found in Sebastian, Fort Pierce, and Jupiter Inlets, and are significant different among habitats; oyster reefs host a unique assemblage of excavating sponges.

Exploring the intersection of archeological and artistic visualization and the impact of digital technologies on these disciplines, the author details an endeavor to communicate the essence of the sanctuary of Paliké in Catania, Sicily through digital reconstruction and animation. Emulating the creative process of the famous panoramic artist Yadegar Assisi, and drawing upon first-hand observation and research of the archeological site Rocchicella di Mineo, the author recounts the artistic journey of creating impactful archeological visualizations which, although driven by rapidly evolving technology, can remain relevant. This manuscript chronicles the process and describes the production methods used to convey the essence of the ancient city of Paliké both accurately and expressively.

The presence of artificial intelligence (AI) has incrementally increased in our lives since its introduction in the 1950s and has exponentially increased in the last decade. In medicine, AI holds the promise of providing complete panoramic views of a patient’s medical history, improving medical decision making, avoiding errors such as misdiagnosis and unnecessary procedures, interpretating tests and making treatment recommendations. In this study, I examine the influence of AI on decision-making behaviors and the changes to the professional institution of medicine. This paper links theories of institutional change and professions to further our understanding of the processes of change in response to emergent technology. Recognizing that the autonomy of decision making is central to the model of professional work, this study (1) shows how changes in decision-making processes are a driver of change in the institution of professions and (2) highlights how this impacts the professional role identity of health care providers which has implications for how medicine is taught and how diagnoses are made.

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) emerged in 2014 and has since spread across Florida’s Coral Reef (FCR) and the Caribbean. This thesis is part of a larger project assessing the efficacy of restoring SCTLD-susceptible corals Montastraea cavernosa, Orbicella faveolata, and Pseudodiploria clivosa in SCTLD endemic areas. As part of Florida’s largest coral restoration experiment to date, 1,152 cement bases with 5,760 coral fragments from 99 source colonies were outplanted across six regions throughout FCR and monitored monthly over two years for survival, disease, and growth. Before outplanting, coral tissue samples were collected for high-resolution 2bRAD and ITS2 sequencing to genotype the corals and characterize their initial algal symbiont communities. Neither host genetic lineages nor algal symbiont types significantly affected SCTLD susceptibility or survival, negating the hypothesis of SCTLD-resistant “super coral” lineages. Results from this study will inform the feasibility and design of future coral restoration efforts in SCTLD endemic zones to maintain or enhance coral biodiversity.

Sexual experiences and freedom are basic human rights that people with disabilities are often denied. Society and those considered to be within the general public, including caregivers, family members, and professionals that work with people with disabilities, contribute to the lack of sexual experiences and opportunities people with disabilities have throughout their lifetime. This study examined the attitudes of males and females from the general public toward sexual lives for people with disabilities. Further, it explored the difference in attitudes based on disability condition, examining attitudes toward a sexual life for those with a physical disability, intellectual disability, and general or non-specified disability.
Results showed that female respondents reported more positive attitudes toward females with disabilities and females without disabilities having a sex life in comparison to the attitudes male respondents reported toward males with disabilities and males without disabilities having a sex life. Additionally, respondents felt the least positive toward adults with intellectual disabilities having a sex life. Limitations of this study and implications for further research are discussed.

In William Faulkner’s the Sound and the Fury, many scholars have debated about Caddy as Eve, the functionality of hermeneutic structure in relation to narrative function, and the use of Edenic scenery as a metaphor for Quentin Compsons’ world coming to an end. However, there is yet to be an analysis of Faulkner’s text in relation to trauma and ecocriticism and its influence on later Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides. It is through the female and the aquatic bodies that widen the interpretation of Faulkner’s exploration of Southern male identity in relation to trauma, water, and memory its reflection onto the Southern environment. In Conroy’s text, he mirrors the way in which trauma is explored through the idea of water and the Faulknerian narrative technique, the stream of consciousness, which is activated only with the remembrance of the sister and her social ruin. Faulkner and Conroy delve into the South and communicate it as a site of decay, ruin, and a liminal space that inevitably exposes one to trauma. The men within Faulkner’s and Conroy’s texts must sift through their memories, both present and past, to define and identify the wound that disrupts their psyche [and its consequences]. This thesis aims to unpack Faulkner’s utilization of the female, terrestrial, and aquatic bodies as spaces that communicate male trauma. This thesis aims to suggest that, as an echo of Faulkner, Conroy’s text expands and further adapts the canon of Southern literature that takes an ecological approach to explore trauma in the form of water and the female body. This analysis aims to propose that the construction of Faulkner’s Southern ecology and its intersection between ecocriticism and trauma studies in relation to water influenced this approach and framework for Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides.

Machine learning (ML) has traditionally been used to make predictive models by training on local data. However, due to concerns regarding privacy, it is not always possible to collect and combine data from different sources. On the other hand, if there are insufficient data available, it might not be possible to construct accurate models to produce meaningful outcomes. This is where Federated Learning comes to the rescue. Federated Learning (FL) represents a sophisticated distributed machine learning strategy that enables multiple devices hosted at different institutions such as hospitals, to collaboratively train a global model while ensuring that their respective data remains securely stored on-premises. It addresses privacy concerns and data protection regulations, because raw data does not need to be shared or centralized
during the training process.
This thesis research studies how two different FL architectures, centralized and decentralized FL, affect medical image classification. To study and validate the findings, skin cancer images dataset is used in a federated learning setting with five sites/clients, and a center for centralized FL. Experimental results show that using both centralized and decentralized (peer to peer) version of FL for classification of skin cancer images outperforms using the traditional ML. In addition, two different FL settings, centralized federated learning (CFL) and decentralized federated learning (DFL), are compared using different data distributions across sites/clients. Our study shows that the best accuracy (95.14%) was achieved with the DFL model when tested on the original dataset (without adding bias to the class distributions). This asserts that class distribution imbalance between sites has a significant impact to the federated learning.

Prior studies examine either CEO, CFO, or audit committee member gender as a determinant of audit quality. In contrast, this study makes the unique contribution of examining the interactive effects between a gender diverse CEO-CFO dyad and a gender diverse audit committee on audit quality. Further, prior studies examine the attribute of gender as a determinant of audit quality in isolation. I examine the effect of gender on audit quality in tandem with the potentially moderating effect of managerial overconfidence. In doing so, this study makes the unique contribution of examining whether the socialized construct of gender, or the cognitive bias of overconfidence, will weigh more heavily on decisions that relate to audit quality. Results supplement social role and role congruity theories which suggest female leaders are socialized to adopt a management style resulting in more transparent financial reporting and higher audit quality. Specifically, I find incrementally higher audit quality associated with a gender diverse CEO-CFO dyad and audit committee. Further, I find firms with overconfident female CFOs are associated with higher audit quality than firms with overconfident male CFOs. This implies the pressure to maintain the socialized gender role appears to constrain the female manager’s overconfident tendencies. Finally, in a subsample of overconfident CFOs, I find gender diverse audit committees temper female more than male overconfidence for effects on audit quality.