Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Macro Analysis Of Illegal Hunting And Fishing Across Texas Counties: Using An Economic Structural Approach, Leo J. Genco Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this disseration is to examine the distribution of illegal hunting and fishing violations across Texas counties in respect to the economic structure. Illegal hunting plays a part in the extraction of resources that are overly withdrawn, and criminologists have ignored this form of deviancy that has large ramifications for the environment. To view this criminal phenomenon, the study uses the Treadmill of Production theory to determine economic structural factors and whether those factors explain the distribution of illegal hunting and fishing. Using regression analyses and SatScan, the findings suggested that while there are significant factors related to …

An Automated Framework For Connected Speech Evaluation Of Neurodegenerative Disease: A Case Study In Parkinson's Disease, Sai Bharadwaj Appakaya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people around the world. The progressive degeneration worsens the symptoms, heavily impacting the quality of life of the patients as well as the caregivers. Speech production is one of the physiological processes affected by neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Speech is the most basic form of communication, and the effect of neurodegeneration degrades speech production, thereby reducing social interaction and mental well-being. PD is the second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting speech production in 90% of the diagnosed individuals. Speech analysis methods for PD in clinical methods …

Investigation Of Hurricane Irma Deposits, Big Pine Key, Florida, Youzhu Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Few paleotempestological studies have focused on coastal sinkholes, a common feature in Florida, which can receive and preserve storm overwash sediments. The major goal of this research is to improve our understanding of the characteristic signatures of storm sediments in sinkholes thereby determining reliability of these environments as proxies for hurricanes. Hurricane Irma as a Category 5 storm provides an excellent case study for characterizing storm deposits in sinkholes on Big Pine Key. I cored at four sinkholes along a 350 m transect normal to the shoreline. Core sediments were characterized using physical description, short-lived radioisotope dating, sediment grain size …

An Astronomer’S Journey Into Quantitative Reasoning, Jeffrey Bennett

Numeracy

The University of Colorado Boulder campus introduced what may have been the world’s first quantitative reasoning (QR) requirement in 1984 and started offering a QR course in 1988. Although I am an astronomer by training, I had the privilege of creating and teaching that course, which led to my co-authorship of the first textbook directed specifically at QR courses. In this “Roots and Seeds” piece, I will discuss how this course and textbook came to be, how I as an astronomer ended up involved in it, and how this work has connected with other aspects of my career.

Looking Back At Quantitative Reasoning, William Briggs

Numeracy

A teacher looks back on three decades of teaching, pondering, and writing about quantitative reasoning (QR) and shares a few lessons learned. The skills that we teach in QR courses are more important than ever in providing students with a sense of civic virtue: the ability to be engaged and informed citizens in an increasingly complex and quantitative world.

Analysis Of Contextual Emotions Using Multimodal Data, Saurabh Hinduja

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Affective computing builds and evaluates systems that can recognize, interpret, and simulate human emotion. It is an interdisciplinary field, which includes computer science, psychology, and many others. For years, human emotion has been studied in psychology but recently has become a prominent field in computer science. Largely, the field of affective computing has been focused on analyzing static facial expressions to recognize human emotions, without taking bias (e.g. gender, data bias), context, or temporal information into account. Psychology has shown the difficulty of analyzing emotions without incorporating this type of information. In this dissertation, we have proposed new approaches to …

The Communicative Constitution Of Environment: Land, Weather, Climate, Leanna K. Smithberger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My project examines the communicative constitution of environment: how we mediate environment in discursive practice, and arrange chaotic and complex timeplaces into organized relationships of agents and objects which act and are acted upon. Climate scholars across disciplines are calling for a paradigm shift in how we understand, study, inhabit, and relate to Earth’s varied environments. In this dissertation, I demonstrate how communication practices do the work of constituting the environment as we know it, and therefore conclude with the hopeful suggestion that these same practices can be used to do the work of a paradigm shift — that is, …

Efficient Post-Quantum And Compact Cryptographic Constructions For The Internet Of Things, Rouzbeh Behnia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

IoT systems often rely on low-end devices to send measurements to other parties and depending on the setting, unauthorized alteration and/or privacy violation of these measures can have catastrophic consequences (e.g., embedded medical sensors). Therefore, providing efficient authentication, integrity, and confidentiality in these settings is vital. While conventional cryptographic measures (e.g., ECDSA) can be used to meet these security requirements, despite their elegant design, they are often too computationally expensive for low-end devices. This is further exacerbated when security against quantum computers is taken into the account.

In this dissertation, we propose a series of new efficient conventional and post-quantum …

Probing The Ground State Magnetism In Materials With Competing Magnetic Interactions, Richa Pokharel Madhogaria

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Materials with competing magnetic interactions provide a unique combination of intriguing physics originating from structural, magnetic, and electronic degrees of freedom, along with their technological applications. The complex oxides and helimagnets also share an interesting physics involving competitive interactions and understanding the behavior of one helps us to yield an insight into the other system. A rigorous understanding about the competing interactions in strongly correlated magnetic systems provide an opportunity to explore the related effects like spin frustration, glassiness, metamagnetism, which play an essential role in manipulating their magnetic properties and functionality. In this dissertation, we combine dc magnetization [M(H,T)], …

Automatic Detection Of Vehicles In Satellite Images For Economic Monitoring, Cole Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the growing supply of satellites capturing images of the planet, governments andinvestors are looking for ways in which these new images may be used to determine which businesses are struggling and thriving. Recent works have shown that parking lot fill rates can provide valuable information about businesses’ earnings, however, the task of manually annotating the number of vehicles in a parking lot is expensive and time-consuming. Systems which can automate this process are therefore valuable as they are faster and cheaper than human labor. In this thesis, the problem of detection of small objects in large low-resolution images is …

Impacts Of Experiential Learning On The Affective Domain: Gaining Insight Into How To Broaden Participation In The Geosciences, Meghan Lindsey Cook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Experiential learning exercises, such as field trips, are a common pedagogical practice in geoscience curriculums. Their purpose is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge gained in a classroom or lab setting into a field setting, but can be considered a barrier for entry into the geosciences for those with disabilities, caregiver/employment responsibilities, or financial constraints. Educators have begun turned to other modalities, such as virtual field experiences (VFEs), to create a more inclusive environment in the geosciences. However, the validity of VFEs as a replacement for, or augmentation to traditional field trips has yet to be established. The cognitive domain …

A Comparative Study Of Male And Female Undergraduate Computer Science Students’ Educational Pathways, Stephanie Fitzsimmons

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), including Computer Science (CS) are fields that are in great demand globally. This study’s purpose was to explore the nature of the educational pathways, critical factors and commonalities/differences leading to CS undergraduate enrollment through the male and female perspectives focusing on personal/home, academic/attitude and psychological factors underlying the Social Cognitive Career Theory factors. Purposive sampling method was used for this multi-case study, comprised of CS undergraduate upperclassman. Participants shared their perspectives on their CS educational pathway via three interviews and journals. Thematic analysis of narrative for both individual and cumulative group analysis, plus researcher …

Seismic Attenuation, Time Delays And Raypath Bending Of Teleseisms Beneath Uturuncu Volcano, Bolivia, Alexandra K. Farrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A set of 14 teleseismic earthquakes was studied to determine how wave propagation was affected by a presumed magma body beneath Uturuncu volcano, Bolivia. Teleseisms are suitable for study because they are relatively long period, contain purely P waves, and have near-vertical incidence angles. The number of events is small but the events have good signal-to-noise ratios and very similar waveforms for each event so that reliable measurements could be made of arrival times and amplitudes. Attenuation of amplitudes occurs in a NW-SE trend beneath the volcano, 14 by 34 km (long axis NW-SE). Calculated values of the quality factor …

Building And Characterizing A Lab-Scaled Aquifer Storage And Recovery System, Murat Can Kayabas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To use Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) as a water treatment and storage method, we must understand the fate and behavior of potential contaminants in the system. Knowing more about the aquifer properties such as dispersivity will enable us to assess how the target chemicals behave in the system. Characterizing the aquifer by using a tracer is a good way to estimate dispersivity since the tracer is not adsorbed or degraded. This study aims to build a lab-scale physical model of a confined aquifer to simulate an ASR system, verify its hydraulic functionality, and characterize the hydraulics of the aquifer …

Efficient Hardware Constructions For Error Detection Of Post-Quantum Cryptographic Schemes, Alvaro Cintas Canto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantum computers are presumed to be able to break nearly all public-key encryption algorithms used today. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) started the process of soliciting and standardizing one or more quantum computer resistant public-key cryptographic algorithms in late 2017. It is estimated that the current and last phase of the standardization process will last till 2022-2024. Among those candidates, code-based and multivariate-based cryptography are a promising solution for thwarting attacks based on quantum computers. Nevertheless, although code-based and multivariate-based cryptography, e.g., McEliece, Niederreiter, and Luov cryptosystems, have good error correction capabilities, research has shown their hardware …

Recognizing Emotion In The Wild Using Multimodal Data, Shivam Srivastava

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work, I will present our approach of using multi-modal data for recognizing human emotion and behavior in the wild. The study is divided into four tasks: group emotion recognition, driver gaze prediction, student engagement prediction, and emotion recognition using physiological signals. We explore multiple approaches including classical machine learning tools such as random forests, state-of-the-art deep neural networks, and multiple fusion and ensemble-based approaches. We also show that similar approaches can be used across tracks as many of the features generalize well to the different problems (e.g. facial features).

Strategies In Botnet Detection And Privacy Preserving Machine Learning, Di Zhuang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Peer-to-peer (P2P) botnets have become one of the major threats in network security for serving as the infrastructure that responsible for various of cyber-crimes. Though a few existing work claimed to detect traditional botnets effectively, the problem of detecting P2P botnets involves more challenges. In this dissertation, we present two P2P botnet detection systems, PeerHunter and Enhanced PeerHunter. PeerHunter starts from a P2P hosts detection component. Then, it uses mutual contacts as the main feature to cluster bots into communities. Finally, it uses community behavior analysis to detect potential botnet communities and further identify bot candidates. Enhanced PeerHunter is an …

The Little Things That Count: Mapping Diversity Of West Florida’S Shelf, Nicole L. Seiden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biodiversity is essential to the ecosystem functions responsible for generating the multi-billion-dollar industries that the US relies on for food, storm mitigation, tourism and recreation, but is facing increasing natural and anthropogenic threats. High-resolution diversity data covering large spatial areas would enhance current ecology knowledge and better address conservation concerns in the Gulf of Mexico. However, acquiring and handling data of this nature is resource intensive and has not yet been established. In this study, high spatial resolution data was collected from gastropod living and death assemblages collected over 10 years from the West Florida Shelf (WFS). A multivariate regression …

Comparison Of The Effectiveness Of Disinfectant-Impregnated Wipes Versus Detergent Wipes For Surface Decontamination, Jacob Amadin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over time, there is an increased need to adopt more advanced and effective ways of disinfection. The emergence of the coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic reminded the world on the importance of disinfection. Disinfection has been a routine in the healthcare setting. However, with the current pandemic problem, it is more prominently and persistently done in the domestic setting and other business settings beyond healthcare. As such, the use of most disinfectants and detergent wipes to achieve a near sanitized environment has become a common practice around the globe. This research presents the efficacy of disinfectant impregnated versus detergents wipes through comparison. …

Fabrication And Characterization Methods Of Self-Cleaning Coatings For Solar Panels Application, Mohammed Khaleel M Alhussain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Transparent self-cleaning coatings with superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic behavior are of great interest in a wide range of industrial applications such as automotive, solar panels, windows, and optical devices. Each has its uses, properties, and characteristics. For the use of these coatings on solar panels, certain features are important in maintaining the efficiency of the panels in different weather conditions and reducing the operation and maintenance cost, such as self-cleaning, high transparency, antifouling, anti-fogging, and anti-icing. Herein, we have investigated the fabrication of self-cleaning coatings using two simple methods and ways to improve their characteristics. In the first method, a hydrophobic …

Exploring The Use Of Neural Transformers For Psycholinguistics, Antonio Laverghetta Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning has the potential to help solve numerous problems in cognitive science andeducation, by providing us a way to model the cognitive profiles of individual people. If this were possible, it would allow us to design targeted tests and suggest specific remediation based on each individual’s needs. On the flip side, employing techniques from psychology can give us insight into the underlying skillsets neural networks have acquired during training, addressing the interpretability concern. This thesis explores these ideas in the context of transformer language models, which have achieved state-of-the-art results on virtually every natural language processing (NLP) task. First, …

Microbiological Study In A Gneissic Cave From Sri Lanka, With Special Focus On Potential Antimicrobial Activities, Ethige Isuru P. Silva, Pathmakumara Jayasingha, Saman Senanayake, Anura Dandeniya, Dona Helani Munasinghe

International Journal of Speleology

The emergence of antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis, thus the search for novel antimicrobial compounds has become a continuous necessity. Underexplored and extreme environments, such as cave ecosystems, have been identified as a promising potential source for the discovery of novel microorganisms with novel antimicrobial compounds (AMC). This study presents the first cave microbiological investigation in Sri Lanka, with a special preference for bioprospecting of novel AMC. The cave sediment characterization demonstrated the presence of close to strong acidic conditions (pH 3.1 – 3.3) and thus indicates the possibility of isolating acidophilic microorganisms. Eight cave wall/ceiling fungal strains …

Third-Order Frequency-Resolved Photon Correlations From A Single Quantum Dot's Resonance Fluorescence, Yamil A. Nieves González

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ability to control the photon emission from light sources has sparked an increasing interest in the field of quantum optics due to potential applications in the development of quantum technologies. Motivated by such applications, photon statistics have been a powerful investigative tool used to characterize the properties of light sources capable of emitting a bundle of N photons. As such, the first-order and second-order photon correlations continue to be researched extensively providing invaluable information about the light and the mechanism underlying its generation. Meanwhile, third-order photon correlations have remained majorly unexplored due to the high degree of experimental challenges …

Shorebird Response To Human-Induced Changes At Three Pinellas County Beaches, Rebecca J. Ruthberg-Campagna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Worldwide, shorebird habitat is being destroyed and degraded by development and sea level rise. Shorebirds depend on availability of pristine, undisturbed coastal habitats for resting and feeding during migration as well as for reproduction. Migratory shorebirds using the East Atlantic Flyway visit the Gulf of Mexico Beaches of Pinellas County, Florida as a stopover site during Fall and Spring migration. In addition to hosting migratory species, Pinellas County beaches are home to several year-round resident species that breed during Summer. Pinellas County is the most densely populated county in Florida, and its Gulf Coast is heavily developed with commercial and …

Full Issue 49(3)

International Journal of Speleology

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

International Journal of Speleology

No abstract provided.

The General Psychopathology Factor (P) From Adolescence To Adulthood: Disentangling The Developmental Trajectories Of P Using A Multi-Method Approach, Alexandria M. Choate

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Considerable attention is directed towards studying co-occurring psychopathology through the lens of a general factor (p-factor). However, the developmental trajectories and stability of the p-factor have yet to be fully understood. Study 1 first examined the explanatory power of dynamic mutualism theory — an alternative framework positing the p-factor to be a product of lower-level symptom interactions rather than the inherent cause of them. Predictions of dynamic mutualism were tested using three distinct statistical approaches including: longitudinal bifactor models, random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs), and network models. Next, given prior suggestions that borderline personality disorder (BPD) could be a marker …

Synthesizing Laccol Based Polymers/Copolymers And Polyurethanes; Characterization And Their Applications, Imalka Marasinghe Arachchilage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In modern world research scopes are highly favored the areas of developing new polymer materials which are more integrated with the environment. Synthesizing eco-friendly, bio degradable polymer materials to replace petroleum based synthetic polymers to utilize in radiation hard applications is one of the main objectives of this study. 'Laccol' extracted from Vietnamese lacquer tree (Toxicodendron succedanea) polymerized with other monomers namely styrene and d-limonene (from citrus waste) respectively to develop copolymers via cationic polymerization. Laccol contains hydroxyl phenyl groups that act as radical scavengers, enhancing radiation resistance via their ability to convert excitation energy into non-chemistry inducing energy in …

On The Genesis Of Aluminum-Rich Speleothems In A Granite Cave Of Nw Spain, Jorge Sanjurjo-Sanchez, Carlos Arce Chamorro, Juan Ramón Vidal Romaní, Marcos Vaqueiro-Rodríguez, Victor Barrientos, Joeri Kaal

International Journal of Speleology

Granite massifs often contain caves, with dimensions ranging from a few meters up to 1,000 m, also referred to as pseudokarst. The speleothems in such caves are mostly composed of either Si-rich (commonly opal-A) or Al-rich authigenic mineraloids. Whereas the formation and geochemical composition of opal-A biospeleothems have been studied and are fairly well understood, knowledge on the Al-rich analogues is scarce. This work reports for the first time a study on the composition, accretion process, age and growth rate of an Al-rich speleothem type flowstone from the A Trapa Cave System (Galicia, NW Spain), developed in a granite cave. …

Plastic Pollution In Urban Rivers: Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Plastic Release And Transport, Charlotte Juliane Haberstroh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates plastic release and transport in urban rivers with a focus on the driving spatial and temporal factors. Plastic is a key pollutant of this century that affects humans and the environment around the world. Rivers are a focal point of release and management, as they concentrate and accumulate plastics from urban watersheds and convey them to the world’s oceans.

This research assessed cross-sectional, longitudinal, and seasonal patterns of plastics in rivers, and evaluated the role of urban pollution and watershed hydrology. A detailed background is provided in the literature review. This work is built on two case …