Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

From The River To The Gulf: An Investigation Of Biogeochemical Cycling In Wetland Soils And Coastal Shelf Sediments, Katie Bowes

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana is home to 40% of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48 states, yet accounts for 80% of the coastal wetland loss in this region. This loss is attributed to decreased sediment supply, levee alteration, sea level rise, channelization, and subsidence. The levee system in Louisiana disconnected coastal wetlands from the main stem of the Mississippi River (MSR), reducing the amount of land-building sediment that reaches coastal wetlands. This disconnection also allows a greater percentage of river discharge, including agricultural contaminants and runoff, to flow into the northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM).

The 2012 Coastal Master Plan proposed eight …

Recovery Of Nutrients From Anaerobically Digested Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (Ebpr) Sludge Through Struvite Precipitation, Maraida Balaguer-Barbosa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water resources in Florida have been severely degraded by eutrophic conditions, resulting toxic algae blooms, which negatively affect health and tourism. Eutrophication, or excessive amount of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) in water, overstimulates the production of aquatic plants, depletes dissolved oxygen, and deteriorates the aquatic environment. However, phosphorus is a non-renewable resource essential for all living organisms. In fact, more than half of the total demand for P globally is to supply the food industry, which has concerningly accelerated the depletion rates of phosphate reserves.

In many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) approach has …

Access To Safe Water Supply: Management Of Catchment For The Protection Of Source Water In Ghana, Michael K. Eduful

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates provisions made within institutional and regulatory frameworks of water resources management to enhance multi-stakeholder relationships and the challenges of maintaining those relationships, and implications of water resources management for rural communities in the Densu River basin, Ghana. The primary objectives of this study were four fold, these are to: i) review the existing regulatory framework and how it promotes or hinders multi-stakeholder relationships within the catchment area; ii) examine multi-stakeholder relationships to identify challenges in promoting effective collaboration in water resources management; iii) explore the impacts of catchment management on the livelihoods of rural communities; and iv) …

A Redox Conjugated Polymer-Based All-Solid-State Reference Electrode, Ke Qu, Mingxi Fang, Shuwei Zhang, Haiying Liu, Xiangqun Zeng

Department of Chemistry Publications

This work reports the design, synthesis, and characterization of a novel redox-active conjugated polyaniline containing quinone moiety as a solid state reference electrode. The union of electro-active quinone with π-conjugated polyaniline was created by the first chemical synthesis of para-dimethoxybenzene-functionalized aniline as a monomer using a palladium-mediated coupling. The successful polymerization of the as-prepared monomer was accomplished without acid additives. Its post-polymerization modification with strong Lewis acid boron tribromide furnished unique poly (aniline quinone/hydroquinone) with desired properties for all-solid-state reference electrode (RE) applications. The electrochemical responses from the conjugated polyaniline backbone in this unique polymer have been “suppressed” by the …

Integrating Multiple Genetic Detection Methods To Estimate Population Density Of Social And Territorial Carnivores, Sean M. Murphy, Ben C. Augustine, Jennifer R. Adams, Lisette P. Waits, John J. Cox

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Spatial capture–recapture models can produce unbiased estimates of population density, but sparse detection data often plague studies of social and territorial carnivores. Integrating multiple types of detection data can improve estimation of the spatial scale parameter (σ), activity center locations, and density. Noninvasive genetic sampling is effective for detecting carnivores, but social structure and territoriality could cause differential detectability among population cohorts for different detection methods. Using three observation models, we evaluated the integration of genetic detection data from noninvasive hair and scat sampling of the social and territorial coyote (Canis latrans). Although precision of estimated density was …

Anticoincidence Detector Performance Analysis, Christopher Helmerich, Erik Korzon

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Applications Of Nasa Earth Observations For Monitoring Forest Loss In The Madre De Dios Region Of Peru, Andrea Nicolau, Kelsey Herndon, Africa Flores, Robert Griffin

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Contrasting Patterns In Surface Ice Velocity Of Glaciers In The Nepal Himalayas, Katherine Strattman

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Electrical Characteristics Of A Balloon-Borne Radiation Instrument, Elena Pradhan, Jared Fuchs

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Methods For Identifying And Monitoring Factors In The Puget Sound That Indicate Eutrophication And Hypoxia, Christine Evans, Emily Kinkle, Helen Baldwin, Yu Han, Robert Griffin

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Identifying Optimal Site Location For Wind Energy Farms Considering Ecological And Social Impacts, Joy Marich, Kara Cassano, Franny Senkowsky, Robert Griffin

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Evaluating A New Impact Assessment Method For Agricultural Productivity Treatments In Nepal Using Machine Learning And Space-Borne Data, Ronan Lucey

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Integrating Nasa Earth Observations To Monitor Thunderstorms And Assess Lightning Exposure And Risk In The Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region, Christine Evans, Sisam Shrestha, Essence Raphael, Robert Griffin

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Mission Overview For A Cislunar Gamma-Ray Burst Detector, Chandler Ellis, Jared Fuchs

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Rainbow Horizons: High Altitude Visible Spectrum Analysis, F Gonzalez, N Schragal, E Leiser, A Raney, J Seese

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Simulation Of An X-Ray/Gamma-Ray Polarization Cubesat, Jared Fuchs, Lucas Capps, Jeren Suzuki

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

The Santa Clara, 2018-10-25, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Crustal Seismic Anisotropy Of The Ruby Mountains Core Complex And Surrounding Northern Basin And Range, Justin T. Wilgus

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Metamorphic core complexes (MCC) are distinctive uplifts that expose deeply exhumed and deformed crustal rocks due to localized extensional deformation. Consequently, their detailed structure provide a window into deep crustal mechanics. The North American Cordillera contains numerous MCC, one of which is the Ruby Mountains core complex (RMCC) located in the highly extended northern Basin and Range. To constrain the extent to which anisotropy below the RMCC deviates from the regional Basin and Range average and test the depth dependence of crustal anisotropy we conduct a radial anisotropy investigation below the RMCC and surrounding northern Basin and Range. Data from …

Starch Synthesis In Ostreococcus Tauri: The Starch-Binding Domains Of Starch Synthase Iii-B Are Essential For Catalytic Activity, Julieta Barchiesi, Maria Belen Velazquez, Nicolas Palopoli, Alberto A. Iglesias, Diego F. Gomez-Casati, Miguel A. Ballicora, Maria Victoria Busi

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Starch is the major energy storage carbohydrate in photosynthetic eukaryotes. Several enzymes are involved in building highly organized semi-crystalline starch granules, including starch-synthase III (SSIII), which is widely conserved in photosynthetic organisms. This enzyme catalyzes the extension of the α-1,4 glucan chain and plays a regulatory role in the synthesis of starch. Interestingly, unlike most plants, the unicellular green alga Ostreococcus tauri has three SSIII isoforms. In the present study, we describe the structure and function of OsttaSSIII-B, which has a similar modular organization to SSIII in higher plants, comprising three putative starch-binding domains (SBDs) at the N-terminal region and …

Magnetic Ordering In A Vanadium-Organic Coordination Polymer Using A Pyrrolo[2,3-D:5,4-D']Bis(Thiazole)-Based Ligand, Yulia A. Getmanenko, Christopher S. Mullins, Vladimir N. Nesterov, Stephanie Lake, Chad Risko, Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Here we present the synthesis and characterization of a hybrid vanadium-organic coordination polymer with robust magnetic order, a Curie temperature T_C of ∼110 K, a coercive field of ∼5 Oe at 5 K, and a maximum mass magnetization of about half that of the benchmark ferrimagnetic vanadium(tetracyanoethylene)_~2 (V·(TCNE)_~2). This material was prepared using a new tetracyano-substituted quinoidal organic small molecule 7 based on a tricyclic heterocycle 4-hexyl-4H-pyrrolo[2,3-d:5,4-d′]bis(thiazole) (C₆-PBTz). Single crystal X-ray diffraction of the 2,6-diiodo derivative of the parent C₆-PBTz, showed a disordered hexyl chain and …

Unrefined Humic Substances As A Potential Low-Cost Remediation Method For Groundwater Contaminated With Uranium In Acidic Conditions, Hansell Gonzalez Raymat

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic activities such as uranium mining and milling, nuclear weapons production, and nuclear reprocessing have left a legacy of groundwater and soil contaminated with uranium that needs to be addressed. Therefore, developing new remediation technologies to sequester uranium in situ is crucial. The objective of the study was to determine if low-cost commercially available unrefined humic substances, such as Huma-K, can be used to facilitate uranium sorption to minerals in soil and sediment. Sediments from the saturated zone beneath the F-Area seepage basins at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina were used for the present study. The SRS …

Comparison Of Raman And Broadband Spectroscopy Methods For Material Identification, Jennifer Miller

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Radiation Detection At Ultra-High Altitudes, Samantha Johnson, Christopher Helmerich

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Thermal Moonquake Identification And Localization From Apollo 17’S Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment, Deanna Phillips, Renee Weber

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Emotion Recognition Using Deep Convolutional Neural Network With Large Scale Physiological Data, Astha Sharma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Classification of emotions plays a very important role in affective computing and has real-world applications in fields as diverse as entertainment, medical, defense, retail, and education. These applications include video games, virtual reality, pain recognition, lie detection, classification of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), analysis of stress levels, and determining attention levels. This vast range of applications motivated us to study automatic emotion recognition which can be done by using facial expression, speech, and physiological data.

A person’s physiological signals such are heart rate, and blood pressure are deeply linked with their emotional states and can be used to identify a …

Modification Of Asphalt Rubber With Nanoclay Towards Enhanced Storage Stability, Song-Yi Park, Minji Kang, Lynne Wilkens, Yurii Shvetsov, Brook Harmon, Nitin Shivappa, Michael Wirth, James R. Hébert, Christopher Haiman, Loïc Le Marchand, Carol Boushey

Faculty Publications

Asphalt rubber (AR), which is prepared by blending crumb rubber and bitumen, provides various advantages, including superior rutting resistance, lower road-tire noise and longer service life. However, contractors have expressed concerns regarding its poor storage stability, which in turn limits its wider application. This study aims to address the storage stability concern by incorporating nano-montmorillonite (nanoclay). Three types of nanoclay were dispersed into hot AR binder by high shear blending. The rheological properties of nanoclay-crumb rubber modifier (CRM)-modified bitumen were evaluated through Superpave performance grade (PG) tests and the storage stability was characterized by measuring the difference in softening points …

Optical Wireless Data Center Networks, Abdelbaset S. Hamza

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bandwidth and computation-intensive Big Data applications in disciplines like social media, bio- and nano-informatics, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and real-time analytics, are pushing existing access and core (backbone) networks as well as Data Center Networks (DCNs) to their limits. Next generation DCNs must support continuously increasing network traffic while satisfying minimum performance requirements of latency, reliability, flexibility and scalability. Therefore, a larger number of cables (i.e., copper-cables and fiber optics) may be required in conventional wired DCNs. In addition to limiting the possible topologies, large number of cables may result into design and development problems related to wire ducting and maintenance, heat …

Cross-Referencing Social Media And Public Surveillance Camera Data For Disaster Response, Chittayong Surakitbanharn,, Calvin Yau, Guizhen Wang, Aniesh Chawla, Yinuo Pan, Zhaoya Sun, Sam Yellin, David Ebert, Yung-Hsiang Lu, George K. Thiruvathukal

George K. Thiruvathukal

Physical media (like surveillance cameras) and social media (like Instagram and Twitter) may both be useful in attaining on-the-ground information during an emergency or disaster situation. However, the intersection and reliability of both surveillance cameras and social media during a natural disaster are not fully understood. To address this gap, we tested whether social media is of utility when physical surveillance cameras went off-line during Hurricane Irma in 2017. Specifically, we collected and compared geo-tagged Instagram and Twitter posts in the state of Florida during times and in areas where public surveillance cameras went off-line. We report social media content …

Signal Flow Graph Approach To Efficient Dst I-Iv Algorithms, Sirani M. Perera

Sirani Mututhanthrige Perera

In this paper, fast and efficient discrete sine transformation (DST) algorithms are presented based on the factorization of sparse, scaled orthogonal, rotation, rotation-reflection, and butterfly matrices. These algorithms are completely recursive and solely based on DST I-IV. The presented algorithms have low arithmetic cost compared to the known fast DST algorithms. Furthermore, the language of signal flow graph representation of digital structures is used to describe these efficient and recursive DST algorithms having (n􀀀1) points signal flow graph for DST-I and n points signal flow graphs for DST II-IV.

Merging The Concepts Of Pseudokarst And Paleoseismicity In Sweden: A Unified Theory On The Formation Of Fractures, Fracture Caves, And Angular Block Heaps, Nils-Axel Mörner, Rabbe Sjöberg

International Journal of Speleology

Sweden has thousands of caves cut into the bedrock, two thirds of which occur in the crystalline bedrock, and hence represent pseudokarst phenomena. The formation of these caves can only be understood in terms of paleoseismics. In this paper, we review the parallel evolution of the concept of pseudokarst caves and of the concept of paleoseismic activity in Sweden, and combine both concepts into a unified theory on the formation of fractures, fracture caves and angular block heaps.