Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Efficient Forward-Secure And Compact Signatures For The Internet Of Things (Iot), Efe Ulas Akay Seyitoglu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the modern Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the system entities collect security-sensitive information that must be cryptographically protected. In particular, authentication and integrity, as foundational security services, are essential for any IoT applications. Digital signatures provide both authentication and integrity to these applications. Nevertheless, once an IoT device is compromised, its signature private key is leaked to an adversary. Forward-secure digital signatures mitigate the impact of such key compromises by incorporating a key-evolving mechanism into the authentication process. However, existing forward-secure signatures suffer from large signature/key sizes, heavy computational overhead, and some prominent variants that can only sign a …

Psidb: A Framework For Batched Query Processing And Optimization, Mehrad Eslami

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Techniques based on sharing data and computation among queries have been an active research topic in database systems. While work in this area developed algorithms and systems that are shown to be effective, there is a lack of logical foundation for query processing and optimization. In this paper, we present PsiDB, a system model for processing a large number of database queries in a batch. The key idea is to generate a single query expression that returns a global relation containing all the data needed for individual queries. For that, we propose the use of a type of relational operators …

Exploration Of Factors Associated With Perceptions Of Community Safety Among Youth In Hillsborough County, Florida: A Convergent Parallel Mixed-Methods Approach, Yingwei Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Youth perceived safety is not only linked to crime and violence in a neighborhood but is also associated with health risk behaviors and certain neighborhood characteristics. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to measure the co-occurring effects of individual and community risk factors by conducting a secondary data analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) and to explore reasons for youth feeling safe/unsafe in their community using photovoice methodology.

Methods: Syndemic theory/model served as the theoretical framework to guide this mixed-methods study with a convergent parallel design. The quantitative strand (first manuscript) utilized an existing dataset collected from middle …

Shallow Water Seafloor Geodesy: Gps On An Anchored Spar Buoy, Surui Xie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Measuring seafloor motion in shallow coastal water is challenging due to strong and highly variable oceanographic effects. Such measurements are potentially useful for monitoring near-shore coastal subsidence, subsidence due to petroleum withdrawal, strain accumulation/release processes in marine shelves and submerged volcanoes, and certain fresh water applications, such as volcano deformation in caldera-hosted lakes. I participated in a project to develop a seafloor geodetic system for this environment based on an anchored spar buoy topped by high precision GPS. Orientation of the buoy is measured using a digital compass that provides heading, pitch, and roll information. The combined orientation and GPS …

Bayesian Reliability Analysis Of The Power Law Process And Statistical Modeling Of Computer And Network Vulnerabilities With Cybersecurity Application, Freeh N. Alenezi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As most of mankind now lives in an era of high dependence on multiple technologies and complex systems to store and manage sensitive information, researchers are constantly urged to obtain and improve measurements and methodologies that have the ability to evaluate systems reliability and security. The objectives of the present dissertation are to improve the Bayesian reliability estimation of a software package where the Power Law Process, also known as Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process, is the underlying failure model and to develop a set of statistical models evaluating computer operating systems vulnerabilities. Furthermore, we develop a reliability function of a computer …

Non-Associative Algebraic Structures In Knot Theory, Emanuele Zappala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation we investigate self-distributive algebraic structures and their cohomologies, and study their relation to topological problems in knot theory. Self-distributivity is known to be a set-theoretic version of the Yang-Baxter equation (corresponding to Reidemeister move III) and is therefore suitable for producing invariants of knots and knotted surfaces. We explore three different instances of this situation. The main results of this dissertation can be, very concisely, described as follows. We introduce a cohomology theory of topological quandles and determine a class of topological quandles for which the cohomology can be computed, at least in principle, by means of …

Classifying Emotions With Eeg And Peripheral Physiological Data Using 1d Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network, Rupal Agarwal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recognizing emotions is very important while building robust and interactive Affective Brain-Computer Interfaces as it allows the machines to have some degree of emotional intelligence with the help of which they can understand the changing emotional state of users. In the past, emotions have been recognized via unimodal data such as electroencephalography (EEG) signals, speech, facial expressions or peripheral physiological signals. However, emotions are complex as they are a combination of human behavior, thinking and feeling. Therefore, as compared to unimodal methods, multi-modal techniques, recognize emotions with more reliability. This thesis aims to recognize and classify human emotions into high/low …

Advancing Equity Amongst General Chemistry Students With Variable Preparations In Mathematics, Vanessa R. Ralph

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reducing the inequities propagating the lack of representation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers has become a national imperative made increasingly complex given the inequitable preparations in science and mathematics students experience before college. A common institutional-level approach to promoting equity is the use of math and science prerequisites to prepare students who seek to enroll in lower-level STEM coursework. However, the literature does not support the efficacy of this approach, finding no substantive improvement to student performance despite considerable financial and time costs to students, instructors, and universities alike. Set in first-semester General Chemistry courses taken early …

Quantifying Rates Of “Rifting While Drifting” In The Southern Gulf Of California: The Role Of The Southern Baja California Microplate And Its Eastern Boundary Zone, Paul J. Umhoefer, C. Plattner, Rocco Malservisi

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The southern Baja California (Mexico) microplate has been rapidly moving away from the North America plate since ca. 12 Ma. This relative motion toward the northwest developed an oblique-divergent plate boundary that formed the Gulf of California. The rift-drift hypothesis postulates that when a continent ruptures and seafloor spreading commences, rifting on the plate margins ceases, and the margins start to drift, subside, and accumulate postrift sediments, eventually becoming a passive margin. In contrast to this hypothesis, the southern part of the Baja California microplate (BCM), and in particular its actively deforming eastern boundary zone, has continued significant rifting for …

Differential Mobility Spectrometry-Mass Spectrometry (Dms-Ms) For Forensic And Nuclear-Forensic Applications, Ifeoluwa Ayodeji

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In forensics and nuclear-forensics, the current lab-based analytical technique employed can be laborious, time consuming, and less suitable for in-situ and real time screening. However, it is important to develop fast and fieldable instrumental technique, without a tradeoff for its high throughput, for drug screening and radionuclear analysis. The underlying factors to be considered in the instrument development ranges from: high potency of samples, even at very low concentration; complex nature of samples in the surrounding environment; real-time chemical composition variation; and instrument size, weight and power (SWAP) consideration. Differential mobility spectrometry (DMS), also known as field asymmetric waveform ion …

Uncertainties Associated With The Use Of Erosional Cave Scallop Lengths To Calculate Stream Discharges, Gregory S. Springer, Andrew Hall

International Journal of Speleology

Scallops are extremely valuable indicators of past water flows in caves because they often record events that cannot be safely witnessed nor measured. Qualitatively, the inverse relationship between their lengths and formative water velocities is useful for determining how flow changes along a cave passage, but they are most valuable because they can be used to directly estimate actual water velocities and discharges. We explore the effects of sample size, measurement choices, and other methods commonly applied to the use of cave scallops in estimating cave stream velocities and discharges. We measured 100 scallops on a cave wall and find …

Rainfall, Precipitation, And Drought Patterns Associated With Wintertime Transmission Of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus (Eeev) In Florida, Bestami Cevher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Eastern Equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) is a highly pathogenic alphavirus that causes disease in humans and horses. EEEV cases are common in the eastern North America, especially in horses in the State of Florida. EEEV cases are most common in Florida during May to August but also occur year-round, unlike most other locations. According to the Florida Department of Health, 65 EEEV horse cases were documented in the winter months between 2005 and 2018. This study investigates the meteorological activities that affect the wintertime transmission of the EEEV virus to horses. In this, we examined meteorological data up to a …

Active Growth Of Non-Hydrothermal Subaqueous And Subaerial Barite (Baso4) Speleothems In Lechuguilla Cave (New Mexico, Usa), Max Wisshak, Hazel A. Barton, Katey E. Bender, Harvey R. Duchene

International Journal of Speleology

Barite (BaSO₄) speleothems have been reported from caves around the globe and interpreted to have chiefly formed in phreatic, hypogene, hydrothermal settings. Here we report two contrasting types of barite speleothems (bluish tabular crystals in a shallow pool and actively dripping greenish stalactites), which today form at lower temperatures in the non-hydrothermal and vadose environment of Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico, USA. Scanning electron microscopy analysis, along with energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS, WDS), as well as X-ray diffraction (XRD), characterize the habit and chemical composition as barite. Fractionation of the minor element calcium is related to growth …

Art, Artfulness, Or Artifice?: A Review Of The Art Of Statistics: How To Learn From Data, By David Spiegelhalter, Jason Makansi

Numeracy

David Spiegelhalter. 2019. The Art of Statistics: How to Learn From Data. (London: The Penguin Group). 444 pp. ISBN 978-1541618510

The author successfully eases the reader away from the rigor of statistical methods and calculations and into the realm of statistical thinking. Despite an engaging style and attention-grabbing examples, the reader of The Art of Statistics will need more than a casual grounding in statistics to get what Spiegelhalter, I believe, intends from his book. It should be viewed as a companion to a more rigorous textbook on statistical methods but not necessarily a book that makes statistics any …

The Author’S Reflections On No B.S. (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe In Black People Enough Not To Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear About Black People, Ivory A. Toldson

Numeracy

Toldson, Ivory. A. 2019. No BS (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe in Black People Enough Not to Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear About Black People (Boston, MA: Brill-Sense) 194 pp. ISBN 978-9004397026.

This essay provides an introduction to No BS (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe in Black People Enough Not to Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear About Black People. In the essay, the author discusses how cynical views about the educational potential of Black children motivated him to write a book that challenges negative statistics. The essay also outlines the harmful …

Effects Of Quantitative Literacy On Healthcare Decision-Making: An Aural Context, Robert G. Root, Sonia Bhala

Numeracy

We propose a relationship between sensory modality, numerical formatting, and performance on a survey simulating healthcare decision-making. We examine the current literature on aural health literacy, and specifically aural literacy coupled with health numeracy. We then create a survey instrument called the Bhala test for this purpose and demonstrate that it is moderately internally consistent and provides results that correlate with the NUMi assessment, a widely accepted measure of health numeracy. The quantitative information provided in the Bhala test has two treatments, percentage and natural frequency formats, in an effort to determine which format is easier for subjects to use …

Gradient Boosting For Survival Analysis With Applications In Oncology, Nam Phuong Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases that the world has been fighting against over decades. An enormous number of research has been conducted, via a wide scale of approaches, raging from genetic analysis to mathematical modeling. Survival analysis is a well-performed methodology frequently used to estimate the survival probability of a patient. Although there has been a large number of methods for survival analysis, efficient exploration of a high-dimensional feature space has been challenging due to its computational cost and complexity. This thesis adapts the component-wise gradient boosting algorithms for cancer survival analysis, and also proposes a new …

Crystal Structure Of Thermus Thermophilus Methylenetetrahydrofolate Dehydrogenase And Determinants Of Thermostability, Fernando Maiello, Gloria Gallo, Camila Coelho, Fernanda Sucharski, Leon Hardy, Martin Würtele

USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications

The elucidation of mechanisms behind the thermostability of proteins is extremely important both from the theoretical and applied perspective. Here we report the crystal structure of methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (MTHFD) from Thermus thermophilus HB8, a thermophilic model organism. Molecular dynamics trajectory analysis of this protein at different temperatures (303 K, 333 K and 363 K) was compared with homologous proteins from the less temperature resistant organism Thermoplasma acidophilum and the mesophilic organism Acinetobacter baumannii using several data reduction techniques like principal component analysis (PCA), residue interaction network (RIN) analysis and rotamer analysis. These methods enabled the determination of important residues for …

Role Of Paleomagnetism In The Construction Of Earth’S Geographic Past, Stephanie Robinson

Undergraduate Journal of Mathematical Modeling: One + Two

Rocks have the ability to preserve magnetic information used in determining past geographic formations. The purpose of this report is to determine the past location of a site from a given data set’s magnetic information and the calculations found through their application to paleomagnetism. Magnetic information includes the rock sample’s location and concentration of trace magnetic particles which were used to find declination and inclination on site. The sample’s paleolatitude and paleolongitude are calculated using trigonometric equations that are derived using calculus. After a statistical analysis, these results are compared to the present day’s magnetic poles to determine the past …

A Hydrologic Landscapes Perspective On Groundwater Connectivity Of Depressional Wetlands, Brian P. Neff, Donald O. Rosenberry, Scott G. Leibowitz, Dave M. Mushet, Heather E. Golden, Mark C. Rains, J. R. Brooks, Charles R. Lane

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Research into processes governing the hydrologic connectivity of depressional wetlands has advanced rapidly in recent years. Nevertheless, a need persists for broadly applicable, non-site-specific guidance to facilitate further research. Here, we explicitly use the hydrologic landscapes theoretical framework to develop broadly applicable conceptual knowledge of depressional-wetland hydrologic connectivity. We used a numerical model to simulate the groundwater flow through five generic hydrologic landscapes. Next, we inserted depressional wetlands into the generic landscapes and repeated the modeling exercise. The results strongly characterize groundwater connectivity from uplands to lowlands as being predominantly indirect. Groundwater flowed from uplands and most of it was …

The Prebiotic Provenance Of Semi-Aqueous Solvents, Jennifer L. Lago, Bradley T. Burcar, Nicholas V. Hud, Rio Febrian, Christopher A. Mehta, Paul J. Bracher, Zachary D. Atlas, Matthew A. Pasek

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The numerous and varied roles of phosphorylated organic molecules in biochemistry suggest they may have been important to the origin of life. The prominence of phosphorylated molecules presents a conundrum given that phosphorylation is a thermodynamically unfavorable, endergonic process in water, and most natural sources of phosphate are poorly soluble. We recently demonstrated that a semi-aqueous solvent consisting of urea, ammonium formate, and water (UAFW) supports the dissolution of phosphate and the phosphorylation of nucleosides. However, the prebiotic feasibility and robustness of the UAFW system are unclear. Here, we study the UAFW system as a medium in which phosphate minerals …

Geoscience Videos And Animations: How To Make Them With Your Students, And How To Use Them In The Classroom, Robert J. Stern, Jeff Ryan, Ning Wang, Victor J. Ricchezza, Siloa Willis

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

We are in the midst of a “tectonic shift” in the way that undergraduate students want to learn. They will attend lectures and read assignments if they must, but they are especially interested in information that they can receive as videos on their cell phones and other mobile devices (Prensky, 2001; Thomas, 2011). The geosciences are uniquely well-suited to presentation via well-crafted, scientifically robust videos and animations. Geologic processes often take place over thousands to hundreds of millions of years and occur deep under water or within the Earth, where direct observation is not possible. Geology is synonymous with travel: …

Serpentinization As A Route To Liberating Phosphorus On Habitable Worlds, Matthew Pasek, Arthur Omran, Carolyn Lang, Maheen Gull, Josh Abbatiello, Tian Feng, Lyle Garong, Heather Abbott-Lyon

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Planetary habitability is in part governed by nutrient availability, including the availability of the element phosphorus. The nutrient phosphorus plays roles in various necessary biochemical functions, and its biogeochemical cycling has been proposed to be extremely slow due to a strong coupling to the rock cycle via mineral weathering. Here we show a route to P liberation from water-rock reactions that are thought to be common throughout the Solar System. We report the speciation of phosphorus in serpentinite rocks to include the ion phosphite (HPO32- with P3+) and show that reduction of phosphate to phosphite is predicted from thermodynamic models …

F1.1 Permanent Upland Streams, R. T. Kingsford, R. Mac Nally, P. S. Giller, Mark C. Rains, M. Kelly-Quinn, A. H. Arthington, D. A. Keith

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

F1.2 Permanent Lowland Rivers, R. T. Kingsford, R. Mac Nally, G. S. Giller, Mark C. Rains, A. H. Arthington, D. A. Keith

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

A Trace Bound For Integer-Diagonal Positive Semidefinite Matrices, Lon Mitchell

USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications

We prove that an n-by-n complex positive semidefinite matrix of rank r whose graph is connected, whose diagonal entries are integers, and whose non-zero off-diagonal entries have modulus at least one, has trace at least n + r-1.

Bioaccumulation And Biomagnification Of Potential Toxic Elements (Ptes): An Avicennia Germinans–Uca Rapax Trophic Transfer Story From Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico, Michael Martinez-Colon, Henry Alegria, Hatice Kubra-Gul, Ashley Huber, Perihan Kurt-Karakus

USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications

In southern Puerto Rico along the coastline bordering the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, environmental encroachment has exposed mangrove forest to different sources of pollution. Potentially toxic element concentrations from the F1Tess (exchangeable), F4Tess (oxidizable), mangrove leaf litter (MLL), and fiddler crab whole body soft tissue were analyzed to assess the fate and transport of pollutants from the environment and its transition into flora-fauna via trophic transfer. Geo-accumulation factor values suggest the bay has experienced limited to no pollution when combining the concentrations of potentially toxic elements extracted from the F1Tess and F4Tess sediment fractions. These geochemical sedimentary compartments …

Agua Para El Futuro: Estrategia De Seguridad Hídrica Para América Latina Y El Caribe, Fernando Bretas, Guillermo Casanova, Thomas L. Crisman, Antonio Embid, Liber Martin, Fernando Miralles

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Tf1.3 Permanent Marshes, R. T. Kingsford, J. A. Catford, Mark C. Rains, B. J. Robson, D. A. Keith

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.