Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Enterprise Environment Modeling For Penetration Testing On The Openstack Virtualization Platform, Vincent Karovic Jr., Jakub Bartalos, Vincent Karovic, Michal Gregus

Journal of Global Business Insights

The article presents the design of a model environment for penetration testing of an organization using virtualization. The need for this model was based on the constantly increasing requirements for the security of information systems, both in legal terms and in accordance with international security standards. The model was created based on a specific team from the unnamed company. The virtual working environment offered the same functions as the physical environment. The virtual working environment was created in OpenStack and tested with a Linux distribution Kali Linux. We demonstrated that the virtual environment is functional and its security testable. Virtualizing …

Managing Health Locus Of Control In Patient-Provider Relationships, James Wallace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Patient locus of control is a strong determinant of health outcomes, yet health care professionals do not typically address it in care plans. In fact, management of most medical conditions is hindered because the treating physician has little information about the patient’s locus of control. This research addresses the question “How can locus of control be used to enable health care practitioners to improve medical outcomes?”

Research Methodology. Using an engaged scholarship approach incorporating the Elaborated Action Design Research methodology, the research drives the guided, emergent design of a novel protocol and two separate artifacts for management of health locus …

Geochronological Implications Of 210Pb And 137Cs Mobility In Cave Guano Deposits, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg

International Journal of Speleology

Some recent publications on the paleo- and historical environmental interpretation of bat guano sequences have relied on ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs distribution to establish age-depth models, even when these are at odds with radiocarbon models in the lower parts of the sequence. Here, we present both field and laboratory evidence for the unpredictable mobility of lead and cesium in decomposing bat guano deposits. We suggest that ²¹⁰Pb- and ¹³⁷Cs-based chronologies of bat guano deposits should only be used when independently supported, for example, by a robust radiocarbon age-depth model.

From River To Sea: Improving Carbon System Measurement Methods For Use In Rivers, Estuaries, And Oceans, Ellie Hudson-Heck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last 30 years, spectrophotometric methodologies have been developed, with increasing rigor, to accurately measure all four carbon system parameters: total alkalinity (A_T), total carbon (C_T), partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂), and pH. Spectrophotometric measurements of carbon system parameters rely on quantitative characterizations of the response of sulfonephthalein indicator dyes (e.g., meta-cresol purple (mCP), thymol blue (TB), and bromocresol purple (BCP)) to changing solution pH, as well the response of indicator physical-chemical characteristics to key environmental variables (salinity (S_P), temperature (T), and pressure). Until recently, the physical-chemical properties …

Social Constructivism In Chemistry Peer Leaders And Organic Chemistry Students, Aaron M. Clark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social constructivist learning is a goal in many STEM programs. The goal of this dissertation is to shed light on what that pedagogy looks like in the context of organic chemistry courses and by peer leaders whose job is to implement this pedagogy with general chemistry and organic chemistry students. Learning is complex; the social constructivist ideas presented in this dissertation, however, are a straightforward means for promoting learning. Qualitative and quantitative methods used to explore social constructivist learning are outlined.

Three investigations were conducted: First, approaches to learning by students completing the first semester of a yearlong organic chemistry …

An Introduction To Calling Bullshit: Learning To Think Outside The Black Box, Jevin D. West, Carl T. Bergstrom

Numeracy

Bergstrom, Carl T. and Jevin D. West. 2020. Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. (New York: Random House) 336 pp. ISBN 978-0525509202.

While statistical methods receive greater attention, the art of critically evaluating information in everyday life more commonly depends on thinking outside the black box of the algorithm. In this piece we introduce readers to our book and associated online teaching materials—for readers who want to more capably call “bullshit” or to teach their students to do the same.

Prospective Chemistry Teachers’ Evaluations About The Instruction Of The Graphic Organizers Course, Canan Nakiboglu

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Graphic organizers (GOs) are visual teaching and learning tools that provide an organized expression of knowledge by explaining concepts and events. If the teachers incorporate the GOs into their lessons as instructional material and assessment tools, they can make the teaching period more effective and also help their students' understanding of the chemistry subjects. In this study, the prospective chemistry teachers (PCTs) attended a Graphic Organizers Course, and then their opinions regarding the evaluation of the course were taken. A total of 43 PCTs, 32 female and 11 male, who took the course in four different semesters, participated in this …

Teaching Students How To Code Qualitative Data: An Experiential Activity Sequence For Training Novice Educational Researchers, Jennifer E. Lineback

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Coursework on qualitative research methods is common in many collegiate departments, including psychology, nursing, sociology, and education. Instructors for these courses must identify meaningful activities to support their students’ learning of the domain. This paper presents the components of an experiential activity sequence centered on coding and coding scheme development. Each of the three component activities of this sequence is elaborated, as are the students’ experiences during their participation in the activities. Additionally, the issues concerning coding and coding scheme development that typically emerge from students’ participation in these activities are discussed. Results from implementations of both in-person (face-to-face) and …

Human-Centered Cybersecurity Research — Anthropological Findings From Two Longitudinal Studies, Anwesh Tuladhar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cybersecurity is a pressing issue. Researchers have proposed numerous security solutions over the years in order to combat security issues but it is still common to find known, well understood security issues in production environments. In this thesis, I seek to find the underlying reasons to why existing security solutions and best practices are not consistently applied and how to improve the utilization of secure best practices. To this end, I adopt the anthropological research method of long term participant observation and embed myself in real-world settings in order to understand the existence of security issues and the perception of …

Synthesis Of Small Molecules For The Treatment Of Infectious Diseases, Elena Bray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drug discovery’s impact on modern healthcare cannot be measured. In the past year, the world has watched scientists all around the globe work together to help protect the public from the novel coronavirus pandemic. Although sometimes slow and costly, drug discovery is important for advancing modern society. Drug discovery is at the core of treating diseases and in particular, infectious diseases. In the first chapter an overview of drug discovery will be discussed in a brief manner.

The second chapter will introduce infectious diseases. In modern society, the development of small molecule treatments for treating bacteria, viruses, and fungi has …

The Is Social Continuance Model: Using Conversational Agents To Support Co-Creation, Naif Alawi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rise of Agentic IS Artifact and the increasing integration of this technology within organizations, our understanding of the impact of this technology on individuals remains limited. Although IS use literature provides important guidance for organization to increase employees’ willingness to work with new technology implementations, the utilitarian view of prior IS use limits its application in light of the new evolving social interaction between humans and Agentic IS Artifacts. To that end, we contribute to the IS use literature by implementing a social view to understand the impact of Agentic IS Artifacts on an individual’s perception and behavior. …

Riemann-Hilbert Problems For Nonlocal Reverse-Time Nonlinear Second-Order And Fourth-Order Akns Systems Of Multiple Components And Exact Soliton Solutions, Alle Adjiri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We first investigate the solvability of an integrable nonlinear nonlocal reverse-time six-component fourth-order AKNS system generated from a reduced coupled AKNS hierarchy under a reverse-time reduction. Riemann-Hilbert problems will be formulated by using the associated matrix spectral problems, and exact soliton solutions will be derived from the reflectionless case corresponding to an identity jump matrix. Secondly, we present the inverse scattering transform for solving a class of eight-component AKNS integrable equations obtained by a specific reduction associated with a block matrix spectral problem. The inverse scattering transform based on Riemann-Hilbert problems is presented along with a jump matrix taken to …

Factors Controlling Longshore Variations Of Beach Changes Induced By Tropical Storm Eta Along Pinellas County Beaches, West-Central Florida, Francesca Luisa Toledo Cossu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tropical Storm Eta impacted the coast of west-central Florida from November 11 to 12, 2020, and generated high waves over elevated water levels for over 20 hours. A total of 148 beach and nearshore profiles, spaced about 300 m apart, were surveyed one to two weeks before and one to eight days after the storm to examine the beach changes along four barrier islands, including Sand Key, Treasure Island, Long Key and Mullet Key. Storm waves superimposed on elevated water levels reached the toe of dunes, causing modest dune erosion as well as overwash in some areas. Most of the …

Learning From The Seed: Illuminating Black Girlhood In Sustainable Living Paradigms, Toni Powell Powell Young

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The contemporary image of sustainable living presents a culturally narrow view of its participants and the manner of engaging in sustainable living paradigms. Through crystallization (Ellingson, 2009) I present a mixed methods approach that emphasizes participant observation, visual, mediated, and discursive analyses, as well as demonstrates the efficacy of Culture Centered Black Feminist Auto/Ethnography. This project seeks to highlight and place within historical context, the ways in which African American girls, who are largely left out of the prevailing image of sustainability, perform and articulate sustainability for themselves, in their homes, and throughout their home communities.

In their everyday lives, …

Do Different Relevance Attributes Indicate The Same Conservation Priorities? A Case Study In Caves Of Southeastern Brazil, Maysa F.V.R. Souza, Denizar A. Alvarenga, Marconi Souza-Silva, Rodrigo L. Ferreira

International Journal of Speleology

In the last decade, the scientific community brought to the debate gaps that slow down the advance of knowledge regarding global biodiversity. More recently, this discussion has reached subterranean environments, where these gaps are even more dramatic due to the relict and vulnerable nature of their species. In this context, we tested ecological metrics related to some of these gaps, checking if the biological relevance of the caves would change depending on ecological attributes related to each metric. The study was carried out in caves from southeastern Brazil, located in a region presenting a high richness of troglobitic species restricted …

Be Careful! That Is Probably Bullshit! Review Of Calling Bullshit: The Art Of Skepticism In A Data-Driven World By Carl T. Bergstrom And Jevin D. West, James B. Schreiber

Numeracy

Bergstrom, C. T., & West, J. D. 2021. Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. NY: Random House. 336 pp. ISBN 978-0525509189

The authors provide a journey through the numerical bullshit that surrounds our daily lives. Each chapter has multiple examples of specific types of bullshit that each of us experience on any given day. Most importantly, information on how to identify bullshit and refute it are provided so that reader finishes the book with a set of skills to be a more engaged and critical interpreter of information. The writing has a quick and lively …

Fiber-Based Supercapacitor For Wearable Electronics, Rohit Lallansingh Yadav

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Supercapacitors are significant devices that are used for energy storage and also have the capability of delivering energy at a faster rate than batteries. The increase in the significance of portable and wearable electronic equipment giving rise to pace in the development of flexible supercapacitor and flexible electrodes in recent years. A fiber-based supercapacitor (FSCs) is one of the most significant devices which have even helped us give pace knowing the properties of supercapacitor. These FSCs are said to have excellent electrochemical properties and flexibility. This did make function it in different forms of individual fibers or integrated textiles which …

Development And Validation Of A Scale To Measure Songwriting Self-Efficacy (Sses) With Secondary Music Students, Patrick K. Cooper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social cognitive theory was developed to explain how individuals learn, in part, by witnessing the behavior of others. Self-efficacy is a construct within social cognitive theory which indicates the beliefs that an individual can be successful at a task under specific situational demands. The sources of self-efficacy include self-evaluating past experiences to predict future success, comparing our abilities to those around us, the verbal and social feedback we get from others, and the physiological feelings we experience when engaged in or thinking about the task. Measures of self-efficacy have been shown to be accurate predictors of successful learning outcomes, achievement, …

Preparation And Characterization Of Single Layer Conducting Polymer Electrochromic And Touchchromic Devices, Sharan Kumar Indrakar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electrochromic devices (ECDs) have triggered great interest because of their potential applicability in energy-efficient buildings and low power display systems, including reflective type smart windows/mirrors and wearable-flexible devices. In the past decades, electrochromic technologies with different device structures and materials have been proposed. The idea of employing a simple device structure with a durable, cost effective electrolyte is crucial to designing and manufacturing high-performance ECDs. With this idea in mind, this thesis describes the various efforts to develop a simple ECD comprising of a composite single active layer gel electrolyte, sandwiched between two transparent conducting electrodes, lasting over 10,000 cycles …

Design, Deployment, And Validation Of Computer Vision Techniques For Societal Scale Applications, Arup Kanti Dey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence techniques have ensued a significant impact on our daily lives. Numerous applications in so many diverse fields have been made possible by AI algorithms today, and there are many more yet to come. In this dissertation, we design, deploy and validate computer vision algorithms for innovative and high-impact societal scale applications.We specifically focus on two applications in this dissertation: Detection of distracted driving and Detection of breeding habitats of mosquito vectors.

Distracted driving on roads is a major problem around the world. Distracted driving is the case where a driver diverts his/her focus from the road and engages …

Automated Wound Segmentation And Dimension Measurement Using Rgb-D Image, Chih-Yun Pai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accurate pressure ulcer (PrU) measurement is critical in assessing the effectiveness of PrU treatment. The traditional measurement process is manual, subjective, and requires frequent contact with the wound. The manual measurement relies on human observation which makes the measurement inconsistent, and the frequent contact with the wound increases risk of contamination or infection. The purpose of this research was to develop an automatic Pressure Ulcer Monitoring System (PrUMS) using a depth camera to provide automated, non-contact wound measurement. In this dissertation, 1) a wound segmentation with traditional machine learning method, which combines the color classification using K-Nearest Neighbors and the …

Knowledge Extraction And Inference Based On Visual Understanding Of Cooking Contents, Ahmad Babaeian Babaeian Jelodar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we discuss our work on analyzing cooking content for the ultimate goal ofautomatic robotic manipulation. For a robot to perform a cooking task, it will need to both have an understanding of the scene and utilize prior knowledge. We will explore two main sub-problems: knowledge extraction and inference, and visual understanding of the scene in this dissertation. Visual understanding of a scene, requires algorithms that can visually infer information from a single image or video. Many algorithms in the area of image classification, object detection, or activity recognition can be used in this area. Although great advances …

Novel Synthetic Ketogenic Compounds, Michael Scott Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ketogenic diet has grown in popularity in the last decade as a weight loss tool. Research into the diet’s effects on the body have revealed a variety of other health benefits. The use of exogenous ketone supplements to confer the benefits of the diet without strict adherence to it represents an exciting new area of focus. Synthetic ketogenic compounds are of particular interest that has received very little emphasis and is an untapped area of focus for chemical synthesis.

The first chapter of this manuscript provides an overview of the history of the ketogenic diet along with a summary …

Geological And Geochemical Analysis Of Phosphorus Bearing Minerals And Natural Glasses On Earth And In Meteorites: Implications Of The Origin Of Life, Tian Feng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Phosphorus is a key element in biogenic molecules and the mineral schreibersite is a major reactive phosphorus source for organic compounds on the prebiotic Earth. In this dissertation, a suite of reactions of phosphorus species, which originate from schreibersite minerals on chondrite meteorites and on the early Earth, have been studied to determine the intermediate geochemical pathways between phosphides and common minerals on meteorites and on the early earth.

I first investigated a unique blue fulgurite that was studied to clarify if this blue color was caused by rich phosphorus content, as has been reported for impact glasses that also …

Design, Synthesis And Testing Of Bioactive Peptidomimetics, Sami Abdulkadir

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proteins are complex macromolecules that are responsible for almost all biochemical processes and play vital roles in signaling pathways, metabolic pathways, and all other cellular functions. Proteins accomplish this by interacting with other proteins and macromolecules like DNA and RNA, for instance, as transcription factors. As such, we can find protein interactions behind every cellular action or inaction, and it is easy to see how protein interactions are crucial in understanding disease processes. Advance in proteomics has particularly provided a wealth of insights into molecular mechanisms of disease processes of cancers and other rare diseases, which has helped identify key …

Designing A Health Coach-Augmented Mhealth System For The Secondary Prevention Of Coronary Heart Disease, Avijit Sengupta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents research that employs design science research (DSR) methodology to develop and evaluate a high-fidelity prototype of a home-based cardiac rehabilitation (HBCR) system to support self-management of chronic cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart disease (CHD) and to offer secondary prevention against other chronic diseases with similar risk factors. While the population of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients requiring cardiac rehabilitation (CR) continues to expand, lack of access and other barriers to center based cardiac rehabilitation (CBCR) presents a huge challenge. A mobile phone and wearable device based technological system can offer an HBCR program for CHD. By following …

Data-Driven Studies On Social Networks: Privacy And Simulation, Yasanka Sameera Horawalavithana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social media datasets are fundamental to understanding a variety of phenomena, such as epidemics, adoption of behavior, crowd management, and political uprisings. At the same time, many such datasets capturing computer-mediated social interactions are recorded nowadays by individual researchers or by organizations. However, while the need for real social graphs and the supply of such datasets are well established, the flow of data from data owners to researchers is significantly hampered by privacy risks: even when humans’ identities are removed, or data is anonymized to some extent, studies have proven repeatedly that re-identifying anonymized user identities (i.e., de-anonymization) is doable …

Designing Targeted Mobile Advertising Campaigns, Kimia Keshanian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the proliferation of smart, handheld devices, there has been a multifold increase in the ability of firms to target and engage with customers through mobile advertising. Therefore, not surprisingly, mobile advertising campaigns have become an integral aspect of firms’ brand building activities, such as improving the awareness and overall visibility of firms' brands. In addition, retailers are increasingly using mobile advertising for targeted promotional activities that increase in-store visits and eventual sales conversions. However, in recent years, mobile or in general online advertising campaigns have been facing one major challenge and one major threat that can negatively impact the …

Recognizing Patterns From Vital Signs Using Spectrograms, Sidharth Srivatsav Sribhashyam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spectrograms extract frequency components from a signal. Spectrograms have beenin use for a long time mainly to analyze frequency components in audio signals. Typically, these audio signals have a very high sampling rate, various frequency components and high frequency variability with time. Vital signs on other hand have very low sampling rate with no frequency variability. This work explores if spectrograms can be used to analyze and recognize patterns from vital signs signals.

As mentioned above, spectrograms deal with frequencies. More the variability of frequency, better the patterns emerge when spectrograms are applied on the signals. As vital signs lack …

Improving Environmental Protection: One Imagined Touch At A Time, Luke Ingalls Liska

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Can imagined touch of flora and fauna (i.e., the plants and animals of the natural world) make you more willing to support environmental protection efforts? Across seven studies, I demonstrate that by asking consumers to imagine touching fauna, marketers can encourage consumers to become more engaged in environmental protection efforts. This effect occurs because imagined touch generates haptic imagery, which enhances a consumer’s emotional attachment to fauna. I demonstrate that emotional attachment to fauna induced via imagined touch enhances individual’s willingness to share Facebook posts, improves their willingness to support increased fines for environment-related offenses, and increases the number of …