Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Bite-Sized Quantitative Reasoning Essays: A Review Of Numbers Don’T Lie: 71 Stories To Help Us Understand The Modern World (2020), By Vaclav Smil, Samuel L. Tunstall

Numeracy

In Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World (2020), Vaclav Smil draws on his interdisciplinary background in science, public policy, and history to provide readers with 71 short essays that help us better understand aspects of the world–including its people, environment, energy consumption, and present crises (among other things). In most of his essays, Smil utilizes both data and reasoning with data to shed light on diverse topics, with issues ranging from happiness rankings and vaccine payoffs to chicken production and diesel engines. Though the book arguably has some flaws, its easy-to-digest essays–many of which …

Synthesis Of Small Molecule Modulators Of Non-Traditional Drug Targets, Jamie Nunziata

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work details the effort toward structure-activity-relationship (SAR) studies and synthesis of the small molecule modulators of two non-traditional drug targets. The first part of this manuscript (chapters 1–2) will discuss the collaborative work and synthesis of an inhibitor of Slingshot Homology 1 (SSH1) with the potential therapeutic application toward Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) treatment. The second part (chapters 3–6) will discuss the synthetic efforts toward modulation of a protein target known as STING, or stimulator of interferon genes, with the therapeutic application toward autoimmune disease or anti-tumor activity.

AD is a progressive and degenerative illness that holds the title of …

Meta-Analysis Of United States Seabird Populations Based On Ocean Biodiversity Information System (Obis) Records (1965–2018), Savannah Hartman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the distribution of organisms is an important priority for society as we live through ecosystem transformations that threaten the well-being of all organisms. I have approached the dynamic and complex issue of studying biodiversity by using open-access seabird data collected along the Americas since the 1960s. I explained how these data have changed over time and space, how certain species populations could have shifted over time, and possible correlations between this potential geographic change and select environmental variables.

In Chapter 2 I evaluated the suitability of the open-access data archive Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) for supporting detailed inquiry …

Exploring The Impact Of Eddies On Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Structure Using Bgc-Argo Float Observations, Nicola J. Guisewhite

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Southern Ocean plays a crucial role in global ocean circulation, and global heat and nutrient transport. However, this region is both distant and dangerous and is therefore largely under-sampled and understudied. Methods to fill in biogeochemical data-gaps include using limited in-situ data in models to output biogeochemical property estimates, but a number of recent studies have raised concerns about how most Southern Ocean models do not resolve eddies. Eddies are known to impact biogeochemistry around the globe but little is known about their impact in the Southern Ocean. This study examines temperature, salinity, oxygen, nitrate, and dissolved inorganic carbon …

Detection Of Subsidence In West-Central Florida Using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry And Near-Surface Geophysics, Tonian R. Robinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three studies that employ Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI, also known as PSInSAR) to better understand how subsidence in west-central Florida relates to underlying geological processes. In the first study, near-surface geophysical methods (Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity (ERT)), terrestrial remote sensing applications (Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Structure from Motion (SfM)), and PSI were used to monitor the spatial and temporal behaviors of a suspected growing sinkhole in the Sandhill Boyscout Reservation, Hernando County, Florida. The survey area was located within and around a topographic low assumed to be the surface of the …

Flow Generation And Propagation From Headwater Wetlands To Downstream Waters, Leanne Marie Stepchinski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Headwater wetlands are connected to one another and to downstream waters by dynamic hydrologic flowpaths, functioning as integrated hydrologic networks at the watershed scale. Headwater wetlands perform a variety of hydrologic lag, sink, and source functions, including flow generation and propagation, thereby contributing to the natural flow regimes of downgradient waters. The functions of individual wetlands and their contributions to hydrologic connectivity and subsequently to the natural flow regime have been widely studied and are well understood. Comparatively, the functions and hydrologic connectivity within wetland complexes as a whole and their collective subsequent contributions to the natural flow regime of …

Climate Of A Cave Laboratory Representative For Rock Art Caves In The Vézère Area (South-West France), Delphine Lacanette, Léna Bassel, Fabien Salmon, Jean-Christophe Portais, Bruno Bousquet, Rémy Chapoulie, Faten Ammari, Philippe Malaurent, Catherine Ferrier

International Journal of Speleology

Leye Cave (Dordogne, France) is a laboratory cave in the Vézère area, a region that contains some of the most famous rock art caves in the world such as Lascaux, Font-de-Gaume and Combarelles, and is listed as Human World Heritage by UNESCO. Leye Cave was selected because it is representative of painted caves, with respect to parameters such as its geological stage, the presence of water and carbon dioxide, the geological state of its walls, and the size of the cave. These wall states are studied to better understand the conditions of conservation of rock art caves without damaging them. …

Applied Analysis For Learning Architectures, Himanshu Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern data science problems revolves around the Koopman operator Cφ (or Composition operator) approach, which provides the best-fit linear approximator to the dynamical system by which the dynamics can be advanced under the discretization. The solution provided by Koopman in the data driven methods is in the sense of strong operator topology, which is nothing better then the point-wise convergence of data (snapshots) in the underlying Hilbert space. Chapter 2 provides the details about the aforementioned issues with essential counter-examples. Thereafter, provable convergence guarantee phenomena is demonstrated by the Liouville weighted composition operators Af,φ over the Fock space by providing …

Organizing And Communicating Health: A Culture-Centered And Necrocapitalist Inquiry Of Groundwater Contamination In Rural West Bengal, Parameswari Mukherjee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As a discursive point of praxis, this dissertation project seeks to record knowledge from below around the overlaps between health, water and health interventions emerging from rural communities located in North 24 Parganas and Purulia in West Bengal that are disproportionately impacted by water-insecurity. My dissertation also documents how multiple-stakeholders such as local NGOs, international NGOs, non-profits, and donor agencies organize access to safe water and health interventions for the water-insecure communities located in North 24 Parganas and Purulia. The integration of the CCA and necrocapitalism afford theoretical and methodological guidance in this dissertation to help document the localocentric stories …

Exploratory Data-Driven Models For Water Quality: A Case Study For Tampa Bay Water, Sandra Sekyere

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water, a crucial resource for sustaining life, covers approximately 70% of the earth's surface. Nonetheless, the quality of water is deteriorating rapidly due to the rapid growth of urban areas and industries, which is a worrying trend causing harm to human health and the ecosystem. Water quality forecasting has a key role in water resources management by enabling effective pollution control, ecosystem monitoring, and decision-making.

Previously, traditional statistical models were used to forecast water quality, but they were unable to examine the non-linear relationships between water quality parameters, and they assumed that all datasets were distributed normally. This study uses …

Classification Of Finite Topological Quandles And Shelves Via Posets, Hitakshi Lahrani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate finite topological quandles and topological shelves. Precisely, we give a classification of both finite topological quandles and topological shelves using the theory of posets. For quandles with more than one orbit, we prove the following Theorem.

Proposition 0.0.1. Let X be a finite quandle with n orbits X₁, ... , X_n. Then any right continuous poset on X is n-partite with vertex sets X₁, ... , X_n.

For connected quandles, we prove the following Theorem.

Theorem 0.0.2. There is no T …

Deep Learning Enhancement And Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning: A Data-Centric Approach, Hung S. Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deep Learning and its applications have become attractive to a lot of research recentlybecause of its capability to capture important information from large amounts of data. While most of the work focuses on finding the best model parameters, improving machine learning performance from data perspective still needs more attention. In this work, we propose techniques to enhance the robustness of deep learning classification by tackling data issue. Specifically, our data processing proposals aim to alleviate the impacts of class-imbalanced data and non- IID data in deep learning classification and federated learning scenarios. In addition, data pre-processing strategies such that dimensionality …

Applications In Opioid Analysis With Faims Through Control Of Vapor Phase Solvent Modifiers, Nathan Grimes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS), often coupled with mass spectrometry (MS), offers rapid analytical ion filtration, useful in reducing matrix interference and differentiating isomeric compounds. This study focuses on augmenting FAIMS-MS analyses through the incorporation of gas phase solvents, or "modifiers," inducing dynamic microsolvation, a particularly potent method of analysis enhancement.

Initially, the research utilized a bubbler-based system, incorporating a humidity sensor, improving modifier concentration control when using water. Our application in opioid detection and differentiation revealed considerable advancements. Notably, an increased peak capacity in an opioid mixture and successful separation of the isobaric opioid pair, alfentanil and ortho-isopropyl …

Analysis Of Ostds Failure Potential Due To Sea-Level Rise And Other Inundation Factors: An Integrated Geo-Spatial Analysis, Alec Colarusso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While many aspects of climate change are well-studied, the vulnerability of Onsite Sewage Treatment and Disposal Systems (OSTDS) to sea-level rise (SLR) has not been thoroughly examined despite the potentially significant environmental impacts, including nutrient and pathogen loading. Research gaps include the need to determine the suitability of models to predict groundwater inundation due to SLR and the consequent impact on OSTDS. As such, this study aims to compare Bathtub/hydrostatic and physics-based/MODFLOW/3D numerical modeling methods of simulating groundwater inundation from SLR to identify OSTDS vulnerability to failure due to a reduction in the height of the vadose zone (saturation or …

Characteristics And Hydraulic Behavior Of Adsorptive Media For Use In Permeable Reactive Barriers, Shelby Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Cargill ditch is located on the property of Se7en Wetlands, a 1600-ac treatment wetland system in Lakeland, Polk County, Florida. The Se7en Wetlands property was previously utilized for phosphate mining prior to the construction of the system. Nonpoint nutrient sources derived from remnants of abandoned phosphate mines – known as “legacy phosphorus” – become mobilized by stormwater runoff and impair surface water bodies by promoting harmful algal blooms (HABs). Thus, the Cargill ditch likely conveys nutrient rich flow resulting from legacy phosphorus and is thought to be one contributing factor in the occurrence of HABs within the treatment wetland …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Separation Of Loaded Liposomes For Drug Delivery, Sandra Khalife

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Liposomes are viable candidates for drug delivery vehicles due to their ability to protect loaded compounds, dampen side effects of drugs, and be delivered to target sites in the body. The amphipathic nature of these lipid vesicles makes them very customizable through careful selection of bilayer and aqueous core components as well as synthetic and downsizing methods. However, synthetic methods may result in unencapsulated compounds remaining present alongside loaded liposomes, which require removal before the liposome suspension can be used.

This work explores the use of model DOPC as well as DOPC and CHOL liposomes and the methods that were …

Environmental Chemical Analysis Method Optimization And Application To Northwest Cuban Marine Sediment, Thea R. Bartlett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A method for gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode has been optimized to quantify 250 compounds of a variety of compound classes such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), oxidized PAHs, organochlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, biomarkers (hopanes, steranes, tri-aromatic steroids, and fecal sterols), aliphatic hydrocarbons, and plastic additives. This method was validated based on available QA/QC standards using several environmental samples, both sediment and biota, and standard reference materials. This contaminant-focused method can be used as a forensic geochemistry tool to evaluate oil contamination and other contaminant histories in future research studies. When applied to …

Stable Isotope Analysis Of Doryteuthis (Amerigo) Pealeii Eye Lenses To Determine Migratory Patterns In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico Using Statoliths For Age Determination, Hannah M. Schwaiger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Doryteuthis (Amerigo) pealeii is a common fisheries squid that occurs in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and along the east coast of the United States. These squid are an important link in the food web, linking higher and lower trophic positions (Madsen et al., 2007), and they are also used for human consumption. The migration patterns of D. pealeii populations in the northwestern North Atlantic have been thoroughly studied when compared to those in the GoM. This research aims to combine statolith aging and stable isotope analysis to enhance the understanding of D. pealeii migration patterns throughout their short, sub-annual …

Investigation Of Challenging Transformations In Gold Catalysis, Qi Tang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation mainly contains three parts: 1) Divergent gold catalysis for alkyne trifunctionalization, encompassing three distinct modes to achieve the simultaneous formation of C-N, C-O, and C-C bonds in a single step 2) the study and development of a new method to synthesize azaborine derivatives; and 3) the construction of benzotriazole boranes (BTAB) as stable four-coordinate N-B heterocycles through gold-catalyzed alkyne hydroboration.

In the first part, alkyne trifunctionalization via divergent gold catalysis will be introduced. This novel approach involves a sequence of reactions that combine gold π-activation, vinyl gold nucleophilic addition, and gold (III) reductive elimination. By utilizing this methodology, …

Gold-Catalyzed Diyne-Ene Cyclization: Synthesis Of Hetero Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons And 1,2-Dihydropyridines, Jingwen Wei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homogeneous gold catalysts are known as a powerful tool for selectively activating alkynes and are well-developed in the construction of C-C, C-N, and C-O bonds to form complex compounds that are widely used in pharmaceuticals, industries, agriculture, etc. The investigation of gold(I) catalysis on conjugated diyne (compounds having two acetylene groups) enriches the complexity of the bond construction and allows the building of interesting skeletons in organic synthesis. One typical kind of substrate, diyne-ene, has both a conjugated diyne part and a 1,6- enyne part. We developed a new methodology to allow its divergent synthesis to heterocycles.

This dissertation mainly …

Applications Of Seismic And Geodetic Data To Earthquake Hazard Research, Mahsa Afra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Being a part of a seismically active zone, including large and crowded cities such asTehran, Qazvin and Semnan, Central Alborz experiences many local earthquakes. Knowl- edge of crustal velocity structure in this area is thus necessary considering its economical and political importance, a large concentration of population, and relatively poor construc- tion practice which increases the earthquake risks in this region. In second chapter of this thesis, we aim at obtaining the 3D crustal velocity structure of the Central Alborz region in northern Iran using local earthquake tomography. We also validate anomalies inferred from our velocity model using an independent …

The Applicability Of The Postmortem Submersion Interval Estimation Formula For Human Remains Found In Subtropical Aquatic Environments, Kara L. Dicomo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the past decade, several attempts have been made to standardize a method for estimating postmortem submersion intervals (PMSI); however, the majority of these studies have focused on data from a temperate climate which cannot be taken as representative of large portions of the globe. Thus, there are large portions of the earth in which the methodology from these studies may not be able to accurately estimate PMSI which has the potential to leave investigators in these other climatic zones at a disadvantage. This presentation presents a case study into the applicability of two Total Body Scoring Systems (TADS) utilized …

Supramolecular Architectures Generated By Self-Assembly Of Guanosine And Isoguanosine Derivatives, Mengjia Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is primarily divided into three parts: 1) Anion, solvent-mediated, tunable self-assemblies of isoguanosine (isoG). 2) Post-assembly modification of the non-covalent isoG-pentaplex for Cesium extraction. 3) Supramolecular asymmetric amine catalysis.

The structural conformational design of the isoG decamer was employed for systematic investigations involving various substituted groups at the C8 position of purine and ribose. A series of isoG analogs with C8-phenyl substitutions were synthesized and utilized for Cesium coordination. The proximity between purine and ribose structures limited pentaplex formation for C8-phenyl substituted isoG derivatives. Based on this observation, a deoxy isoG derivative with a modified ribose was employed …

Insect Classification And Explainability From Image Data Via Deep Learning Techniques, Tanvir Hossain Bhuiyan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, humanity has always tried to make labor more efficient and automated, and this trend is only continuing in the modern digital age. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in the latter part of the 20th century, the speed and scale with which AI has been leveraged to automate tasks defy human imagination. Many people deeply entrenched in the technology field are genuinely intrigued and concerned about how AI may change many of the ways in which humans have been living for millennia. Only time will provide the answers. This dissertation is …

Preliminary Data Of Potentially Hazardous Radon Concentrations In Modrič Cave (Croatia), Robert Lončarić, Vanja Radolić, Maša Surić, Igor Miklavčić, Matea Šatalić, Dalibor Paar, Lukrecija Obšivač

International Journal of Speleology

Instigated by relatively high cave-air CO₂ concentrations in Modrič Cave (Croatia) recorded for the purpose of speleothem-based paleoclimate research, we established preliminary monitoring of radon (²²²Rn) concentrations within the cave for a 4.5-year period (2018–2022). As radioactive geogenic gas, radon, which often correlates with cave-air CO₂ concentrations, presents a potential health hazard in cases of longer exposure time in high concentration conditions. Since the Modrič Cave is open to tourists and long-term scientific research has been performed within, a safety assessment for radon concentrations was essential. The integrated measurements of radon concentrations were performed by passive …

Enhanced Methods In Forensic Mass Spectrometry For Targeted And Untargeted Drug Analysis, Dina M. Swanson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Forensic science has long used mass spectrometry for the analysis of drugsand metabolites. Traditionally, screening methods consisted of color tests or immunoassay and confirmation methods used gas chromatography with mass spectrometry, which was considered the gold standard for identification. In the last several decades, advances in liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LCMS) have brought this technology to the forefront of forensic drug identification. Drug identification in forensic drug chemistry and forensic toxicology has become increasingly challenging due to the rapid increase in illicit drug analogs including novel opioids such as fentanyl analogs. Traditional screening methodologies are often unable to identify …

Automated Approaches To Enable Innovative Civic Applications From Citizen Generated Imagery, Hye Seon Yi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Smart governance is an area, that is increasingly becoming important, not only in advanced countries, but all across the globe. Thanks to global scale network connectivity, permeance of smart-devices of various form-factors, and overall improvement in digital literary, we are now seeing "smartness" everywhere, or if not, the general public is expecting the same. Ultimately, the goal of smart governance is to facilitate state-of-the-art technologies to improve citizens’ lives. With the ubiquity of smart phone technologies today, citizens more readily participate in collaboration with public officials for improved quality of life and their communities. By utilizing optimal tools, public officials …

4d Flow Pattern Of The Longest Cave In The Eastern Alps (Schönberg-Höhlensystem, Totes Gebirge), Lukas Plan, Eva Kaminsky, Pauline Oberender, Clemens Tenreiter, Maximilian Wimmer

International Journal of Speleology

The Schönberg-Höhlensystem (SBH) is not only the longest cave system in the Eastern Alps (length 156 km, depth 1061 m), but a significant proportion of the passages have developed on or just below two surfaces that dip 1.7° to the NE. These so-called "speleogenetic phases" are rarely developed in caves of the Northern Calcareous Alps and have not yet been confirmed by detailed morphological mapping. Furthermore, the deep parts of the cave offer the possibility to study the active epiphreatic zone for a distance of 1.6 km. Detailed morphological mapping shows that the main level at about 1500 m a.s.l. …

What Senior U.S. Leaders Say We Should Know About Cyber, Dr. Joseph H. Schafer

Military Cyber Affairs

On April 6, 2023, the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative hosted a panel discussion on the new National Cybersecurity Strategy. The panel featured four senior officials from the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), the Department of State (DoS), the Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The author attended and asked each official to identify the most important elements that policymakers and strategists must understand about cyber. This article highlights historical and recent struggles to express cyber policy, the responses from these officials, and the author’s ongoing research to improve national security cyber policy.

Combining Frameworks To Improve Military Health System Quality And Cybersecurity, Dr. Maureen L. Schafer, Dr. Joseph H. Schafer

Military Cyber Affairs

Existing conceptual frameworks and commercially available technology could be considered to rapidly operationalize the use of Quality Measures (QM) within military health systems (Costantino et al. 2020). Purchased healthcare as well as digital healthcare services have paved the way for data collection from multiple information systems thus offering stakeholders actionable intelligence to both guide and measure healthcare outcomes. However, the collection of data secondary to Smart Devices, disparate information systems, cloud services, and the Internet of Medical Things (IOMT) is a complication for security experts that also affect clients, stakeholders, organizations, and businesses delivering patient care. We have combined three …