University of South Florida

The Pulse Nightclub: Memorializing a Way Forward, Resisting the Way Back

In this study, we examine memorialization as resistance among minoritized communities following mass violence, focusing on public responses to the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. We analyze 21 handwritten scrolls collected and digitally preserved by Hands On Or...

“At home, I have to be careful what I say”: Navigating family and peer relationships through mobile communication in urban Bangladesh

Mobile communication is embedded in adolescents’ family and peer relationships, yet how these intersecting relationships shape disclosure, trust, monitoring, and reputational concerns remains insufficiently understood in urban Bangladesh. This qualitative study draws on in-depth...

Frailty Measures for Adult Patients and Outcomes for Vestibular Schwannoma Surgeries: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To determine whether preoperative frailty [5-item/11-item modified frailty index (mFI-5/mFI-11)] independently predicts length of stay (LOS) and early facial nerve function after vestibular schwannoma (VS) resection when adjusting for tumor and operativ...

Preoperative Frailty Predicts Mechanical Complications After Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery: A Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery is associated with high rates of mechanical complications, including rod fracture, pseudarthrosis, and implant failure. Although frailty has emerged as a superior predictor of adverse outcomes compared with chronolog...

“Gender-based violence is the last thing they will think about”: a qualitative study on multilevel factors affecting gender-based violence screening and response in HIV care, Uganda, 2023

Uganda’s Ministry of Health (MOH) adopted the World Health Organization’s guidelines to incorporate routine gender-based violence (GBV) screening, counseling, and referrals in health care settings, including HIV care; however, considerable implementation barriers exist. This stud...

GradPlanner: A Deployed Multi-Objective Optimization-Based Decision Support Tool for Student Degree Planning and Timely Graduation

GradPlanner is a deployed multi-objective optimization decision-support tool that generates personalized, feasible semester-by-semester degree plans. Using a staged MILP and Chebyshev refinement, it minimizes time to graduation while balancing alignment with the departmental four...

Age-inclusive AI assessments: testing and refining open-ended prompts with human and LLM-simulated data

As workforces become increasingly age-diverse, organizations are increasingly adopting AI-based tools, such as automated video interviews (AVIs) and chatbots, to evaluate job applicants. Although prior research has documented age-related differences in communication styles, we kn...

The Slow Violence of the Anthropocene: Ecological Degradation, Qualitative Ethics, and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is often presented as immaterial and purely computational, obscuring the infrastructures that sustain it through extraction, accumulation, and waste. Drawing on theories of slow violence, infrastructure, and settler colonialism, we examine how AI repr...

Preoperative Prediction of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ Upstaging Using Machine Learning‐Based Peritumoral Breast MRI Radiomics

BACKGROUND: A subset of biopsy-confirmed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) cases can be upstaged to invasive breast cancer at surgery. Preoperative identification of upstaging risk is essential for treatment planning. PURPOSE: To develop clinical and breast MRI radiomics models to...

Implementing Community-Based Model-Driven Decision Support to Reduce Overdose Deaths: Lessons Learned at Study Midpoint

The overdose crisis continues to be a critical public health challenge in the United States and elsewhere. While funding has been provided at the federal, state, and municipal levels, implementation of strategies to address overdose is accomplished at the county level in most sta...

Leakage-Free Evaluation of Single-Cell Treatment Response Classifiers Reveals Systematic Underpowering in Small Public Cohorts

Background: Machine learning frameworks using single-cell RNA sequencing data are increasingly applied to predict treatment response and identify biomarker signatures. However, a pervasive methodological flaw, performing highly variable gene selection and feature scaling globally...

Unique challenges, unique solutions: end-user designed strategies to improve PTSD treatment initiation in U.S. Special Operations Forces

Abstract Background Despite the effectiveness of evidence-based psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), uptake of treatment remains particularly challenging for some subgroups at high risk for PTSD. United States (U.S.) Special Operations Forces (SOF) Operators/...

Validation of a Frozen LLM-Based Screening Instrument for Clinical Guideline Literature Screening

This preprint examines whether a fixed large language model configuration could safely support title-and-abstract screening in a planned evidence-synthesis workstream on clinical-guideline recommendations. The evaluation used a 1,048-record stratified calibration frame enriched f...

Gut microbiome maturation in early childhood interacts with host genetics to predict type 1 diabetes risk

Prospective evidence linking early-life microbiome development and host genetics with type 1 diabetes (T1D) risk is limited. Here, we describe how gut microbiome maturation and host genetics influence T1D risk in the TEDDY study. We analysed 12,151 longitudinal metagenomes and ho...

Caspase-11–mediated hyperinflammation impairs CD8+ T cell immunity and viral clearance in severe SARS-CoV-2 infection

Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterized by lung hyperinflammation, impaired IFN responses, and defective T cell activation, yet the molecular drivers of these immune dysregulations remain incompletely understood. Caspase-11 (CASP11), a key effector of the noncanonical inflam...

Intellectual Provenance and Research Architecture of the Societal Systems Viability Research Program

This research note reconstructs the intellectual provenance and present architecture of the Societal Systems Viability Research Program. The program originated in systems and information science and received its first formal expression in a 2017 doctoral inquiry into governance a...

Mapping the fascicular morphology and organization of the human sciatic nerve via high-resolution MicroCT imaging

Abstract Implanted neuroprostheses can restore standing and walking after spinal cord injury and somatosensation after limb loss. Yet current approaches often fail to reliably activate hamstring muscles crucial for upright stability and mobility or to target afferent fibers for s...

Artificial Intelligence-Based Hypernasality Diagnosis Using CAPS-A-AM Rated Speech Samples in Pediatric Velopharyngeal Dysfunction

ObjectivePerceptual evaluation by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) is essential for initial evaluation of velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD). Machine learning (ML) offers a promising avenue for developing accessible speech assessment tools when SLP expertise is limited. We aimed...

Disseminated Rhizomucor Miehei With Hemorrhagic Stroke

Disseminated mucormycosis is a rapidly progressive and often fatal infection in immunocompromised patients. We describe a 72-year-old man with acute myeloid leukemia and prolonged neutropenia who developed disseminated Mucorales infection during inpatient chemotherapy. He had con...

A rare right perirenal hemangioma mimicking a retroperitoneal “malignant lesion”: Diagnostic and procedural challenges of an extra-renal vascular mass

Perirenal hemangiomas are rare benign vascular tumors that can present as indeterminate retroperitoneal masses and mimic renal, adrenal, or soft-tissue malignancy. We report the case of a 60-year-old woman who was incidentally found to have a right perirenal mass adjacent to the...