Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Developing A Compiler For A Regular Expression Based Policy Specification Language, Cory Michael Juhlin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Security policy specification languages are a response to today's complex and vulnerable software climate. These languages allow an individual or organization to restrict and modify the behavior of third-party applications such that they adhere to the rules specified in the policy. As software grows in complexity, so do the security policies that govern them. Existing policy specification languages have not adapted to the growing complexity of the software they govern and as a result do not scale well, often resulting in code that is overly complex or unreadable. Writing small, isolated policies as separate modules and combining them is known …

Saharan Air Layer Dust Loading: Effects On Convective Strength In Tropical Cloud Clusters, Randall J. Hergert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous factors play a role in the development and maintenance of North Atlantic tropical cyclones as they originate and cross the Main Development Region. These factors include sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), relative humidity, vertical wind shear, etc. One key player in many of these factors is the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) which has been a source for study for nearly five decades.

The interplay between dust loading within the SAL and the development of African Easterly Waves (AEWs) has been repeatedly noted in many of the studies in this field. The cumulative indirect effect of the dust on AEWs however remains …

Blindcanseeql: Improved Blind Sql Injection For Db Schema Discovery Using A Predictive Dictionary From Web Scraped Word Based Lists, Ryan Wheeler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

SQL Injections are still a prominent threat on the web. Using a custom built tool, BlindCanSeeQL (BCSQL), we will explore how to automate Blind SQL attacks to discover database schema using fewer requests than the standard methods, thus helping avoid detection from overloading a server with hits. This tool uses a web crawler to discover keywords that assist with autocompleting schema object names, along with improvements in ASCII bisection to lower the number of requests sent to the server. Along with this tool, we will discuss ways to prevent and protect against such attacks.

A Bat-Guano-Derived Δ15N And Δ13C Record Of Paleoenvironmental Change: Zidită Cave, Romania, Daniel Martin Cleary

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because nitrogen isotopes are fractionated along the soil-plant-insect-bat-guano pathway, it may be possible to reconstruct environmental and climatic changes reflected in the nitrogen isotopic composition of guano. A 1.5-m core of bat guano from Zidită Cave (western Romania) provides a record of climatic and anthropogenic influence on the regional nitrogen cycle and paleoenvironmental controls on nitrogen transforming processes. Increasing and decreasing trends of nitrogen isotopic composition (δ¹⁵N values) correspond well with changes in the influence of farming practices, deforestation, and forest expansion. These influences likely had a significant effect on the openness of the nitrogen cycle, resulting in …

Hydrothermal Speleogenesis In Carbonates And Metasomatic Silicites Induced By Subvolcanic Intrusions: A Case Study From The Štiavnické Vrchy Mountains, Slovakia, Pavel Bella, Ľudovít Gaál, Vladimír Šucha, Peter Koděra, Rastislav Milovský

International Journal of Speleology

Several caves of hydrothermal origin in crystalline limestones and metasomatic silicites were investigated in the central zone of the Štiavnica stratovolcano, Štiavnické vrchy Mountains, central Slovakia. Evidence of hydrothermal origin includes irregular spherical cave morphology sculptured by ascending thermal water, occurrence of large calcite crystals and hydrothermal alteration of host rocks, including hydrothermal clays. The early phases of speleogenesis in the crystalline limestone near Sklené Teplice Spa were caused by post-magmatic dissolution linked either to the emplacement of subvolcanic granodiorite intrusions during Late Badenian time or to the spatially associated Late Sarmatian epithermal system. Speleogenesis in metasomatic silicites in the …

Informing The Design And Deployment Of Health Information Technology To Improve Care Coordination, Diego A. Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the health care sector is 20 years behind in the use of information technology to improve the process of health care delivery as compared to other sectors. Patients have to deliver their data over and over again to every health professional they see. Most health care facilities act as data repositories with limited capabilities of data analysis or data exchange. A remaining challenge is, how do we encourage the use of IT in the health care sector that will improve care coordination, save lives, make patients more involved in decision-making, and save money for the American …

Dissolved Nutrient Distributions In The Gulf Of Mexico Following The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Ashley Ann Parks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) in the spring of 2010 introduced 4.4 million of barrels of oil to the ecosystem. Some biodegradation of the oil occurs when microorganisms, particularly bacteria, metabolize the oil as a carbon source. During this process, the microbes also require nutrients for energy. An introduction of oil at this magnitude has the ability to induce large blooms of microbes, which in turn can affect nutrient concentrations. Microbial petroleum degradation decreases nutrient concentrations, whereas the microbial assimilation and decay of organic matter increase nutrient concentrations. This study assessed whether any …

Ocean Forcing Of Quaternary East Antarctic Ice Sheet Evolution: An Ice-Proximal Sedimentary Perspective, Michelle E. Guitard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean play a critical role in Earth’s climate system. Antarctica’s ice sheets contain enough ice to raise global sea level by ~58 m, and the Southern Ocean distributes climate signals and nutrients to the major ocean basins and the deep ocean. Antarctica’s largest ice sheet, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), was considered stable compared to those in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula because it was thought to be grounded above sea level. However, subglacial topography now reveals vast submarine basins and measurements of ice velocity in the Pacific sector indicate marine-terminating outlet glacier thinning …

Millennial-Scale Variability Of A Major East Antarctic Outlet Glacier During The Last Glaciation, Michelle Guitard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ongoing retreat of Antarctica’s marine-based glaciers is associated with warm (~2° C) modified Circumpolar Deep Water intrusion onto the continental shelf, suggesting that Southern Ocean temperatures may influence Antarctic ice sheet stability. Understanding past cryosphere response to environmental forcing is crucial to modeling future ice sheet behavior. Of particular interest is the response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), which stands to contribute ~20 m to global sea level. However, marine sediment sequences recording timing and variability of EAIS fluctuations through the last major climate shift, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), are either missing from the margin or have …

Evaluation Of First Order Error Induced By Conservative-Tracer Temperature Approximation For Mixing In Karstic Flow, Philippe Machetel, David A. Yuen

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Fluid dynamics in karst systems is complex due to the heterogeneity of hydraulic networks that combine the Porous Fractured Matrix (PFM) and the interconnected drains (CS). These complex dynamic systems often need to be treated as “black boxes” in which only input and output properties are known. In this work, we propose to assess the first-order error induced by considering the temperature as a conservative tracer for flows mixing in karst (fluvio-karst). The fluvio-karstic system is treated as an open thermodynamic system (OTS), which exchanges water and heat with its surrounding. We propose to use a cylindrical PFM drained by …

Numerical Simulation Of Spring Hydrograph Recession Curves For East Yorkshire Chalk Aquifer, Uk, Nozad Hasan Azeez, Landis Jared West, Simon H. Bottrell

Sinkhole Conference 2015

The Cretaceous Chalk aquifer is the most important in the UK for the provision of water to public supply and agriculture. The Chalk has both matrix and fracture porosity and is thus best considered as a dual porosity aquifer system. Although the matrix porosity is large, typically around 0.35 in the study area of East Yorkshire, UK (ESI, 2010), pore diameters are typically very small, and the water contained in them is virtually immobile. The high permeability fracture network is responsible for the ability of water to drain; spatial variations in fracture network properties mean conventional approaches to aquifer characterization …

Accounting For Anomalous Hydraulic Responses During Constant-Rate Pumping Tests In The Prairie Du Chien-Jordan Aquifer System – Towards A More Accurate Assessment Of Leakage, Justin Blum

Sinkhole Conference 2015

The Prairie du Chien-Jordan Aquifer system is an important source of drinking water for residents of southeastern Minnesota. Assessment of the hydraulic properties of this aquifer continues to be of interest for wellhead protection and resource evaluation efforts. When performing constant-rate pumping tests on wells constructed in the karsted Prairie du Chien Aquifer, anomalous hydraulic responses resulting from cavernous flow are frequently observed. Hydraulic response in the adjacent Jordan Sandstone Aquifer is also commonly distorted because of bedding-plane fractures and well development techniques such as blasting and bailing. Resolution of these anomalous responses is important for accurate estimates of leakage …

Cars And Karst: Investigating The National Corvette Museum Sinkhole, Jason S. Polk, Leslie North, Ric Federico, Brian Ham, Dan Nedvidek, Kegan Mcclanahan, Pat Kambesis, Mike Marasa

Sinkhole Conference 2015

On February 12th, 2014, a sinkhole occurred at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The collapse happened inside part of the building known as the Skydome and eight Corvettes on display were lost into the void that opened in the concrete floor. In this region of Kentucky, known as the Pennyroyal sinkhole plain, subsidence and cover collapse sinkholes are commonly found throughout the landscape. This iconic karst region in the United States is also home to Mammoth Cave, the longest cave in the world, and thousands of other caves and karst features. Investigation of the sinkhole collapse began …

Building Codes To Minimize Cover Collapses In Sinkhole-Prone Areas, George Veni, Connie Campbell Brashear, Andrew Glasbrenner

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Cover- collapse sinkholes are forming with increasing frequency under buildings. Analyses of sinkhole distribution in Beacon Woods, Florida, preliminarily indicate their occurrence is an order of magnitude greater in urban versus undeveloped areas, suggesting the structures themselves are enhancing the collapse process. The most likely causes are induced recharge via at least one of two sources. First, runoff and drainage from roads, structures, and impoundments that is not adequately dispersed will promote sinkhole development. Second, leaking water, sewer, and septic systems beneath or adjacent to a structure will also promote collapse. The process of cover-collapse from induced recharge is well …

Evaporite Geo-Hazard In The Sauris Area (Friuli Venezia Giulia Region - Ne Italy), Chiara Calligaris, Stefano Devoto, Luca Zini, Franco Cucchi

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Evaporite sinkholes represent a severe threat to many European countries, including Italy. Among the Italian regions, of the area most affected is the northern sector of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (NE Italy). Here chalks had two main depositional periods first in the Late Permian and then during the Late Carnian (Late Triassic). Evaporites outcrop mainly in the Alpine valleys or are partially mantled by Quaternary deposits, as occur along the Tagliamento River Valley. Furthermore, evaporites make up some portions of mountains and Alpine slopes, generating hundreds of karst depressions. This paper presents the preliminary results of the research activities carried …

The Cost Of Karst Subsidence And Sinkhole Collapse In The United States Compared With Other Natural Hazards, David J. Weary

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Rocks with potential for karst formation are found in all 50 states. Damage due to karst subsidence and sinkhole collapse is a natural hazard of national scope. Repair of damage to buildings, highways, and other infrastructure represents a significant national cost. Sparse and incomplete data show that the average cost of karst-related damages in the United States over the last 15 years is estimated to be at least $300,000,000 per year and the actual total is probably much higher. This estimate is lower than the estimated annual costs for other natural hazards; flooding, hurricanes and cyclonic storms, tornadoes, landslides, earthquakes, …

Hydrochemical Characteristics And Formation Mechanism Of Groundwater In The Liulin Karst System, Min Yang, Feng'e Zhang, Sheng Zhang, Miying Yin, Guoqing Wu

Sinkhole Conference 2015

The Liulin karst system is typical of hydrogeological systems in northwestern China, with a group of springs as the dominant mechanism for regional groundwater discharge. To reveal the hydrochemical formation mechanism of the Liulin karst groundwater system, we studied the hydrogeochemical processes of karst groundwater in aquifers at the base of the hydrogeological investigation. Then starting from the chemical composition of karst groundwater together with the recharge-runoff - discharge process of groundwater systems, we analyzed the solutes origin and the dissolved mineral facies of the groundwater chemical composition. The results showed that the anionic and cationic compositions of karst water …

Dye Tracing Through The Vadose Zone Above Wind Cave, Custer County, South Dakota, James Nepstad

Sinkhole Conference 2015

During the 1990s, in an attempt to better understand threats posed by surface developments overlying the cave, National Park Service staff at Wind Cave National Park in Custer County, South Dakota carried out a series of dye traces through portions of the vadose zone overlying the cave. Wind Cave is located within the 100m-thick Madison formation (limestone and dolomite), which in most locations is capped by varying thicknesses of the basal units of the Minnelusa formation (intermingled beds of sandstone, limestone, and shale). A variety of cave locations with dripping or pooled water were monitored for up to five years …

Finding Springs In The File Cabinet, Mason Johnson, Ashley Ignatius

Sinkhole Conference 2015

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), in partnership with other agencies, is currently undertaking comprehensive sub-basin assessments statewide over a ten-year period. Southeast Minnesota has over 17,500 kilometers of perennial and intermittent streams, making the task of comprehensive sub-basin assessment challenging; the task is further complicated by karst geology. In the summer of 2014, a pilot project began between the MPCA and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to digitally preserve paper documents which capture qualitative and quantitative data about the hydrology, water chemistry, geomorphology, biology, land use and karst features of southeast Minnesota streams. The paper documents in file …

A Method Of Mapping Sinkhole Susceptibility Using A Geographic Information System: A Case Study For Interstates In The Karst Counties Of Virginia, Alexandra L. Todd, Lindsay Ivey-Burden

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Karst terrain is landscape underlain by limestone that has been chemically dissolved by acidic groundwater, producing subsurface voids that pose risks for sinkholes if the overlaying soils can no longer support their own weight and collapse. The western counties of Virginia are heavy in karst due to their natural, geographic boundary of the western Ridge Province and the eastern Blue Ridge Mountain Range. As a result, the Commonwealth of Virginia Hazard Mitigation Plan recommends that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) develop a method to determine the roadways and regions most susceptible to experiencing sinkholes, in an effort to reduce …

Legacy Data In The Minnesota Spring Inventory, Greg Brick

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Past spring inventories have covered certain parts of Minnesota reasonably well, notably, the springs of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and the southeastern Minnesota karst. But hitherto, there has not been a systematic effort to create a uniform statewide inventory. The first step, before hunting down new springs, was to compile existing data and the most fruitful source of hydrological legacy data for the Minnesota spring inventory was the DNR Fisheries files. Once entered into a GIS-capable database, these spring locations can help “seed the ground” so that when crews finally do take to the field to map more springs, …

History And Future Of The Minnesota Karst Feature Database, Robert Tipping, Mathew Rantala, E. Calvin Alexander Jr., Yongli Gao, Jeffrey Green

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Since the 1990s, the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have maintained a karst features database that is used to conduct research on karst processes and inventory karst features. Originally designed as a tabular database only, the karst features database developed into a spatial database in 2002, with tabular data stored in Microsoft Access and a spatial component managed in ESRI ArcView. In 2012, the database was converted to a single, relational database platform, PostgreSQL, with both tabular and spatial components edited in ESRI ArcMap. Custom editing forms are written in Visual Basic and are accessed …

A Semi-Automated Tool For Reducing The Creation Of False Closed Depressions From A Filled Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Model, John Wall, Daniel H. Doctor, Silvia Terziotti

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Closed depressions on the land surface can be identified by ‘filling’ a digital elevation model (DEM) and subtracting the filled model from the original DEM. However, automated methods suffer from artificial ‘dams’ where surface streams cross under bridges and through culverts. Removal of these false depressions from an elevation model is difficult due to the lack of bridge and culvert inventories; thus, another method is needed to breach these artificial dams. Here, we present a semi-automated workflow and toolbox to remove falsely detected closed depressions created by artificial dams in a DEM. The approach finds the intersections between transportation routes …

Sinkhole Vulnerability Mapping: Results From A Pilot Study In North Central Florida, Clint Kromhout, Alan E. Baker

Sinkhole Conference 2015

At the end of June in 2012, Tropical Storm Debby dropped a record amount of rainfall across Florida which triggered hundreds, if not thousands, of sinkholes to form which resulted in tremendous damage to property. The Florida Division of Emergency Management contracted with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Geological Survey to produce a map depicting the state’s vulnerability to sinkhole formation. The three-year project began with a pilot study in three northern Florida counties: Columbia, Hamilton and Suwannee. Utilizing the statistical modeling method Weights of Evidence, results from the pilot study yielded a 93 percent success rate of …

Shallow Depressions In The Florida Coastal Plain: Karst And Pseudokarst, Sam B. Upchurch, Thomas M. Scott, Michael C. Alfieri, Thomas L. Dobecki

Sinkhole Conference 2015

In Florida, shallow depressions (i.e., depressions <1-2 m in depth) on the land surface are often attributed to sinkhole development. However, it has become evident that there are at least six different mechanisms through which these depressions can form in geologically young cover sediments. These mechanisms include: 1. Cover-subsidence sinkholes over shallow limestone; 2. Suffosion sinkholes over shallow limestone; 3. Cover settlement over shallow shell beds; 4. Large, aeolian deflation areas that resemble “Carolina bays;” 5. Depressions that mimic landforms developed on a shallow paleosol; and 6. Depressions created by pedodiagenesis (i.e., conversion of smectite to kaolinite) in a soil-forming environment. Of these, only the first two appear to represent traditional mechanisms for sinkhole development in eogenetic karst. Cover settlement over shell beds is poorly understood and incorrectly attributed to sinkhole development processes. This type of depression has serious limitations in terms of cover thickness and shell content of the substrate. The last three mechanisms are pseudokarst created by aeolian and soil-forming processes. In this paper we present examples of each and discuss their constraints and evidence.

Media, Sinkholes And The Uk National Karst Database, Vanessa J. Banks Dr, Helen J. Reeves, Emma K. Ward, Emma R. Raycraft, Hannah V. Gow, David J R Morgan, Donald G. Cameron

Sinkhole Conference 2015

The British Geological Survey (BGS) maintains a number of databases that feed into hazard susceptibility assessments, including karst, landslide and mining susceptibility. The winter period from December 2013 to January 2014 was one of, if not the most, exceptional periods of winter rainfall in the last 248 years for England and Wales. During this period the Jet Stream diverted easterly tracking cyclones along a more southerly route than is usual across the United Kingdom (UK). This resulted in south-east and central-southern England experiencing total rainfall values of 372.2 mm for this period, which was the wettest two-month period since 1910. …

Creation Of A Map Of Paleozoic Bedrock Springsheds In Southeast Minnesota, Jeffrey A. Green, E. Calvin Alexander Jr.

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Springs are groundwater discharge points that serve as vital coldwater sources for streams in southeast Minnesota. The springs generally emanate from Paleozoic carbonate and siliciclastic bedrock aquifers. Use of systematic dye tracing began in the 1970s and continues through the present as a standard method for investigating karst hydrology and to map springsheds,. The work was accelerated in 2007 because of increased funding from the State of Minnesota’s Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. A compilation springshed map of dye traces conducted over the last several decades has been assembled for the region. In southeast Minnesota, the springs are the …

Using Electrical Resistivity Imaging To Characterize Karst Hazards In Southeastern Minnesota Agricultural Settings, Toby Dogwiler, Blake Lea

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Much of the Driftless Area of southeastern Minnesota is underlain by karstified carbonate bedrock. Land use in this karst terrain is dominated by agriculture, including row crop and dairy operations. The karst in this region is often mantled with up to 15 m of soil and unconsolidated sediments. As a result, underlying karst hazards such as incipient sinkholes are often hidden until they are suddenly revealed by the collapse of subsurface voids. Regionally, the economics of the dairy industry is causing a trend toward the consolidation and expansion of existing operations. As concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) or feedlots expand, …

The Application Of Passive Seismic Techniques To The Detection Of Buried Hollows, Michael G. Raines, Vanessa J. Banks, Jonathan E. Chambers, Philip E.F. Collins, Peter F. Jones, Dave J.R. Morgan, James B. Riding, Katherine Royse

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Pilot studies involving the use of passive seismic techniques in a range of geological settings and applications (e.g., mapping bedrock, studies of soil erosion and Quaternary surficial mapping) have shown that it is a versatile, non-invasive and economic technique. This paper presents the findings of three case studies that used passive seismic techniques for the detection and characterization of buried hollows in carbonate rocks: 1) a buried hollow in the Cretaceous chalk at Ashford Hill in the Kennet Valley, a tributary of the River Thames, UK; 2) buried karst in the foundation excavations for wind turbines in Carboniferous limestone at …

Pre-Event And Post-Formation Ground Movement Associated With The Bayou Corne Sinkhole, Cathleen E. Jones, Ronald Blom

Sinkhole Conference 2015

We discuss measurements of the precursory and post-formation ground displacement in the vicinity of the Bayou Corne, Louisiana, sinkhole made using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and data from the L-band UAVSAR instrument. Large precursory movement was observed at the sinkhole site and shown to be predominantly horizontal in direction, in contrast to sinkhole precursors previously detected with InSAR, all of which indicated vertical deformation. Here we discuss how two opposing imaging directions were used to determine the precursory horizontal movement, and use the same technique to look at the progression of post-formation ground displacement around the expanding sinkhole during …