Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Synthesis Of Amphiphilic Α- And Γ-Aapeptides For Antimicrobial, Self-Assembly, And Mineralization Studies, Mohamad N. Amin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Seven novel, amphiphilic AApeptides were prepared. Two cationic, lipo-α-AApeptides, NA-75 and NA-77 were found to possess potent antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, with almost no hemolytic activity. In addition to NA-75 and 77, four amphiphilic, γ-AApeptides, NA-133, 135, 137, and 139, and one anionic lipo-α-AApeptide, NA-81, were prepared for molecular self-assembly studies, with several interesting nanostructures observed by TEM. Mineralization of calcium carbonate from gaseous CO2 and Ca2+ in the presence of the 7 AApeptide amphiphiles was also observed by optical microscopy. Several AApeptides were found to be able to influence CaCO3 crystal morphology. Another α-AApeptide, NA-63, was synthesized by …

Bayesian Estimation Of Panel Data Fractional Response Models With Endogeneity: An Application To Standardized Test Rates, Lawrence Kessler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I propose Bayesian estimation of a nonlinear panel data model with a fractional dependent variable (bounded between 0 and 1). Specifically, I estimate a panel data fractional probit model which takes into account the bounded nature of the fractional response variable. I outline estimation under the assumption of strict exogeneity as well as when allowing for potential endogeneity. Furthermore, I illustrate how transitioning from the strictly exogenous case to the case of endogeneity only requires slight adjustments. For comparative purposes I also estimate linear specifications of these models and show how quantities of interest such as marginal …

A Latent Mixture Approach To Modeling Zero-Inflated Bivariate Ordinal Data, Rajendra Kadel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multivariate ordinal response data, such as severity of pain, degree of disability, and satisfaction with a healthcare provider, are prevalent in many areas of research including public health, biomedical, and social science research. Ignoring the multivariate features of the response variables, that is, by not taking the correlation between the errors across models into account, may lead to substantially biased estimates and inference. In addition, such multivariate ordinal outcomes frequently exhibit a high percentage of zeros (zero inflation) at the lower end of the ordinal scales, as compared to what is expected under a multivariate ordinal distribution. Thus, zero inflation …

Agricultural And Domestic Waste Contamination In Chilibre Panama And Potential Low-Cost Best Managament Practices, Christopher Etienne Weekes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Sanitation coverage in the Republic of Panama is 5 to 10 percent below the Millennium Development Goals targets set for the country. Population growth, urbanization, unplanned development and waste mismanagement have resulted in improvised trash sites and waste discharges into river systems that are important components of the biologically diverse natural environment of Panama. The study sought to investigate and estimate the burden of waste from domestic and agricultural sources in three regions of the Chilibre corrigimiento (district). It was hypothesized that the water quality and land cover data would reflect that the most populated region in the study …

The Positive Illusory Bias And Adhd Symptoms: A New Measurement Approach, Sarah A. Fefer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of academic and social competence among adolescents with a continuum of inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms. Past literature suggests that children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) display self-perceptions that are overly positive compared to external indicators of competence, a phenomenon that is referred to as the positive illusory bias (PIB; Owens, Goldfine, Evangelista, Hoza, & Kaiser, 2007). The PIB is well supported among children with ADHD, and recent research suggests that the PIB persists into adolescence. To date, research on the PIB has relied on difference scores (i.e., an indicator of competence is …

Hypogene Speleogenesis In The Cerna River Basin, Sw Romania: A Sedimentological, Mineralogical, And Stable Isotopic Approach, Cristina Montana Puscas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ever since it was identified as a speleogenetic process in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico, USA, hypogene speleogenesis has become the focus of numerous research projects aimed at discerning between classical epigene caves and sulfuric acid or thermal caves. The first distinguishing characteristics that were recognized for hypogene caves were passage and cave morphology. The following step was the identification of rare minerals, specific for processes associated to hypogene speleogenesis. One other important step was the recognition of the importance of stable isotopes - mainly of S - in tracing the source of S and the chemical processes affecting …

Computational Approaches For Structure Based Drug Design And Protein Structure-Function Prediction, Sai Lakshmana Kumar Vankayala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation thesis consists of a series of chapters that are interwoven by solving interesting biological problems, employing various computational methodologies. These techniques provide meaningful physical insights to promote the scientific fields of interest. Focus of chapter 1 concerns, the importance of computational tools like docking studies in advancing structure based drug design processes. This chapter also addresses the prime concerns like scoring functions, sampling algorithms and flexible docking studies that hamper the docking successes. Information about the different kinds of flexible dockings in terms of accuracy, time limitations and success studies are presented. Later the importance of Induced fit …

Modular Answer Set Solving, Yuliya Lierler, Miroslaw Truszczyński

Computer Science Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Modularity is essential for modeling large-scale practical applications.We propose modular logic programs as a modular version of answer set programming and study the relationship of our formalism to an earlier concept of lp-modules.

Towards A Tight Integration Of Syntactic Parsing With Semantic Disambiguation By Means Of Declarative Programming, Yuliya Lierler, Peter Schüller

Computer Science Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

We propose and advocate the use of an advanced declarative programming paradigm – answer set programming – as a uniform platform for integrated approach towards syntax-semantic processing in natural language. We illustrate that (a) the parsing technology based on answer set programming implementation reaches performance sufficient for being a useful NLP tool, and (b) the proposed method for incorporating semantic information from FRAMENET into syntactic parsing may prove to be useful in allowing semantic-based disambiguation of syntactic structures.

Hybrid Automated Reasoning Tools: From Black-Box To Clear-Box Integration, Marcello Balduccini, Yuliya Lierler

Computer Science Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Recently, researchers in answer set programming and constraint programming spent significant efforts in the development of hybrid languages and solving algorithms combining the strengths of these traditionally separate fields. These efforts resulted in a new research area: constraint answer set programming (CASP). CASP languages and systems proved to be largely successful at providing efficient solutions to problems involving hybrid reasoning tasks, such as scheduling problems with elements of planning. Yet, the development of CASP systems is difficult, requiring non-trivial expertise in multiple areas. This suggests a need for a study identifying general development principles of hybrid systems. Once these principles …

Abstract Modular Systems And Solvers, Yuliya Lierler, Miroslaw Truszczyński

Computer Science Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Integrating diverse formalisms into modular knowledge representation systems offers increased expressivity, modeling convenience and computational benefits. We introduce concepts of abstract modules and abstract modular systems to study general principles behind the design and analysis of modelfinding programs, or solvers, for integrated heterogeneous multi-logic systems. We show how abstract modules and abstract modular systems give rise to transition systems, which are a natural and convenient representation of solvers pioneered by the SAT community. We illustrate our approach by showing how it applies to answer set programming and propositional logic, and to multi-logic systems based on these two formalisms.

Women Authors Of Technical Writing Textbooks From 1923 To 1973, Melissa Nicole Wampler

Masters Theses

"The published histories of technical writing textbooks do not usually include many women-authored textbooks. To find out why women-authored textbooks have been marginalized in these pedagogical histories, I selected seven women-authored textbooks and four men-authored textbooks published from 1923 to 1973, investigated the backgrounds of the authors and key features of their textbooks, and used the collected data to compare the women-authored textbooks to the men-authored textbooks. I was not able to find any reason why the women-authored textbooks have been or should be marginalized in histories of technical writing textbooks; however, my study had several limitations. My thesis begins …

Stratigraphic Constraints On Groundwater Flow: Examples From York College, Cuny Campus In Queens, New York City, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Ezazul Haque, Coreyn Goddard, Shirley Jackson

Publications and Research

Surficial geology of the York College campus is dominated by recent glacial deposits dating back to late Wisconsinan event. Several shallow excavation-type trenches reaching a depth of approximately 6 to 10 feet were dug in the wide greeneries adjacent to the parking lot to determine soil texture and collect in-situ permeability data. Based on these shallow pits, an apparent subsurface stratigraphy has been constructed. In general, the uppermost 8 to 18 inches is mostly clayey-and-silty sand and organic-rich top soil overlying stratified drift. The uppermost horizons are observed to also contain fill materials such as bricks, concretes, broken glasses, and …

Provenance Framework For Mhealth, Aarathi Prasad, Ronald Peterson, Shrirang Mare, Jacob Sorber, Kolin Paul, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

Mobile health technologies allow patients to collect their health information outside the hospital and share this information with others. But how can data consumers know whether to trust the sensor-collected and human-entered data they receive? Data consumers might be able to verify the accuracy and authenticity of the data if they have information about its origin and about changes made to it, i.e., the \emphprovenance\/ of the data. We propose a provenance framework for mHealth devices, to collect and share provenance metadata and help the data consumer verify whether certain provenance properties are satisfied by the data they receive. This …

A Hybrid Intelligent Model For Software Cost Estimation, Wei Lin Du, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Ali Bou Nassif, Danny Ho

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Accurate software development effort estimation is critical to the success of software projects. Although many techniques and algorithmic models have been developed and implemented by practitioners, accurate software development effort prediction is still a challenging endeavor in the field of software engineering, especially in handling uncertain and imprecise inputs and collinear characteristics. In this paper, a hybrid intelligent model combining a neural network model integrated with fuzzy model (neuro-fuzzy model) has been used to improve the accuracy of estimating software cost. The performance of the proposed model is assessed by designing and conducting evaluation with published project and industrial data. …

Obesity And Preference-Weighted Quality Of Life Of Ethnically Diverse Middle School Children: The Healthy Study, Roberto P. Trevino, Trang H. Pham, Sharon Edelstein

GW Biostatistics Center

No abstract provided.

Gis Data: York County, Virginia Tidal Marsh Inventory, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Carl Hershner, Kory Angstadt, David Stanhope, David Weiss, Karen Duhring, Christine Tombleson

Data

The 2013 Tidal Marsh Inventory update for York County, Virginia was generated using on-screen digitizing techniques in the most recent version of ArcGIS® - ArcMap while viewing conditions observed in the most recent imagery from the Virginia Base Mapping Program (VBMP). Dominant plant community types were primarily determined during field surveys from shallow-draft boats moving along the shoreline. Land-based surveys were performed in some locations. One shapefile is developed that portrays tidal marsh areas represented as polygons. A metadata file accompanies the shapefile to define attribute accuracy, data development, and any use restrictions that pertain to the data.

Gis Data: Charles City County, Virginia Tidal Marsh Inventory, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Kory Angstadt, Julie Bradshaw, David Weiss, Carl H. Hershner

Data

The 2013 Tidal Marsh Inventory update for Charles City County, Virginia was generated using on-screen digitizing techniques in the most recent version of ArcGIS® - ArcMap while viewing conditions observed in the most recent imagery from the Virginia Base Mapping Program (VBMP). Dominant plant community types were primarily determined during field surveys from shallow-draft boats moving along the shoreline. Land-based surveys were performed in some locations. One shapefile is developed that portrays tidal marsh areas represented as polygons. A metadata file accompanies the shapefile to define attribute accuracy, data development, and any use restrictions that pertain to the data.

Gis Data: Charles City County, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Kory Angstadt, Julie Bradshaw, David Weiss, Carl Hershner

Data

The data inventory developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three tiered shoreline assessment approach. In most cases this assessment characterizes conditions that can be observed from a small boat navigating along the shoreline. The three tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions:

1) the immediate riparian zone, evaluated for land use; 2) the bank, evaluated for height, stability, cover and natural protection; and 3) the shoreline, describing the presence of shoreline structures for shore protection and recreational purposes. GPS registered videography was used to collect data on conditions observed in the field.

Three GIS …

Gis Data: York County, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Carl Hershner, Kory Angstadt, David Stanhope, David Weiss, Karen Duhring, Christine Tombleson

Data

The data inventory developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three tiered shoreline assessment approach. In most cases this assessment characterizes conditions that can be observed from a small boat navigating along the shoreline. The three tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions: 1) the immediate riparian zone, evaluated for land use; 2) the bank, evaluated for height, stability, cover and natural protection; and 3) the shoreline, describing the presence of shoreline structures for shore protection and recreational purposes.

The 2009 Inventory for York County was updated using on-screen, digitizing techniques in ArcMap v10.0 while …

New Matrix Completion Models For Social Information Retrieval Application, Jin Huang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Many popular social web sites have emerged during the past decade and completely changed many users' everyday live. Recently, social information retrieval models, where conventional information retrieval meets the social context of search and recommendation, have become the central topic in machine learning, data mining, information retrieval and many other areas.A particular application of social information retrieval is the recommendation. Such recommendation ranges from classic recommendation movie rating recommendation in user-item matrices, trust and reputation modeling between members in any social network. If we model such recommendation in the form of matrices, then such recommendation can be formulated as recovering …

Exploratory Mining Of Collaborative Social Content, Mahashweta Das

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

The widespread use and growing popularity of online collaborative content sites (e.g., Yelp, Amazon, IMDB) has created rich resources for consumers to consult in order to make purchasing decisions on various items such as restaurants, e-commerce products, movies, etc. It has also created new opportunities for producers of such items to improve business by designing better products, composing succinct advertisement snippets, building more effective personalized recommendation systems, etc. This motivates us to develop a framework for exploratory mining of user feedback on items in collaborative social content sites. Typically, the amount of user feedback (e.g., ratings, reviews) associated with an …

Adaptive Dialogue Systems For Assistive Living Environments, Alexandros Papangelis

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Adaptive Dialogue Systems (ADS) are intelligent systems, able to interact with users via multiple modalities, such as speech, gestures, facial expressions and others. Such systems are able to make conversation with their users, usually on a specific, narrow topic. Assistive Living Environments are environments where the users are by definition not competent with technology, due to various factors, such as mental or physical disabilities, age and others. While technology that helps improve these people's quality of life exists, many times they cannot access it due to inflexible interfaces. ADS, therefore, have the potential to bridge users and technology by acting …

Morphology, Mechanisms, And Processes For The Formation Of A Non-Bifurcating Fluvial-Deltaic Channel Prograding Into Grapevine Reservoir, Texas, Gary D. Tomanka

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Non-bifurcating channels in modern reservoirs, tie channels, and the Mississippi River Bird-Foot Delta share a common morphology that is likely due to an underlying common mechanism. Data analysis indicates that the Denton Creek Delta has prograded into Grapevine Reservoir for 56 years, adhering to the buried pre-impoundment channel without alteration. The hydrodynamic mechanism that controls this adherence is that of a turbulent jet. The properties of the turbulent jet create a dynamic two-phase process, whereby prodelta clays and rare mouth bar sands are eroded while the jet contemporaneously builds sandy levees. An upward tapering channel acts to focus and intensify …

Chemostratigraphy And Paleoenvironment Of The Haynesville Formation, Harrison County, Texas, Nidal R. Jabri

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

The Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Haynesville formation consist of post rift siliciclastics, carbonate, and evaporite deposits that accumulated in continental to deeper marine environments on an asymmetrical basin where topography was modified by salt and basement tectonics. The Haynesville stretches from East Texas to West Louisiana, deposited on the Smackover lime and overlayed by the slightly coarser grained Bossier Formation and the interbedded sands of the Cotton Valley Formation in some places. Complex basin morphology and later stage salt tectonics have played an important role in the development of the sediment fill. The evacuation of salt from overburden increased accommodation space. …

Predicting Fracture Density In The Eagle Ford (Boquillas) Formation, Val Verde Basin, Texas, Sean Kimiagar

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Fracture density in hydrocarbon reservoirs is an important variable for efficient production of oil and gas in tight reservoirs. Fracture density is the fracture surface area per unit of volume, and the higher the reservoir fracture density, the higher its recovery factor. Being able to estimate the induced fracture density in advance of hydraulic fracturing will therefore help increase the knowledge of the reservoir and production efficiency. Theoretical considerations indicate that fracture density is related to strain energy. The purpose of this study is to verify the hypothesis that fracture density can be predicted under constant strain conditions using the …

Major, Minor And Trace Element Geochemistry Of The Eagle Ford Formation, South Texas, Shariva T.R. Darmaoen

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Major, minor and trace element concentrations analyzed through hand-held ED-XRF and several laboratory techniques characterize geochemical heterogeneity in strata that appear homogeneous within the Eagle Ford Formation. Two major facies were discovered in the study area; one that is rich in carbonates toward the southwest and another that increases in clay minerals toward the northeast. Both facies are enriched in proxies of micronutrients for planktonic organisms. Nutrients precipitated by two possible mechanisms; volcanic input or nutrient cycling from Large Igneous Provinces through upwelling of bottom waters. The provenance indicating rare earth element pattern for both facies deviate from average shale …

Predicting Esherichia Coli Levels In The Trinity River For Issuing Contact Recreation Warnings In The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Angela Jo Kilpatrick

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

E. coli is an indicator for the potential of waterborne illness. However, tests for E. coli take 18 to 24 hours to produce results. During this time, citizens may be exposed to high levels of bacteria. As contact recreation increases in the Trinity River through the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, methods to predict E. coli levels from instantaneously measured water quality parameters may provide a better way to protect public health than the current standard methods.Predictive models were created using multiple linear least-squares regression for the three segments of the Trinity River that flow through the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Initial results …

Depositional Environments, Diagenesis, And Reservoir Delineation Of The Fcu 1947 Upper Clear Fork Cored Interval - An Sem Image Analysis Approach To Pore System Characterization, Tore Ray Wiksveen

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Delineating reservoir facies in heterogeneous tidal flat carbonates is a challenge which requires analysis at greater resolutions than wireline logs can provide. Such depositional environments are documented in the upper Clear Fork deposits of Fullerton Field in West Texas. This study examined lithofacies and depositional facies of core to gain understanding of the best reservoir facies. Whole-core examination, Core Laboratories and wireline log analysis, thin section microscopy and SEM image analysis were used to delineate reservoirs.Subtidal facies were deemed the poorest of reservoirs because compaction, anhydrite plugging, and burial diagenesis obliterated pore space. Intertidal facies were determined as the best …

Gauge Field Preheating At The End Of Inflation, J. Tate Deskins, John T. Giblin Jr., Robert R. Caldwell

Dartmouth Scholarship

Here we consider the possibility of preheating the Universe via the parametric amplification of a massless, U(1) abelian gauge field. We assume that the gauge field is coupled to the inflaton via a conformal factor with one free parameter. We present the results of high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of this model and show this mechanism efficiently preheats the Universe to a radiation-dominated final state.