Digital Commons Network^™

Interrelation Of Thermal Stimulation With Haptic Perception, Emotion, And Memory, Mehdi Hojatmadani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Haptics is an interdisciplinary field of science that deals with how humans perceive and respond to different sensory cues perceived through touch. Thermal haptics as a branch deals with how humans perceive the temperature sensation and respond to that. The process in which thermal perception occurs is well known to researchers. What seems missing in the literature is how temperature interacts or sometimes intervenes in other physiological and psychological aspects of our lives. In this research, a series of studies are presented where the main focus was how temperature and brain interact with each other to impede or enhance our …

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 …

Comparison Of Some Epigean And Troglobiotic Animals Regarding Their Metabolism Intensity. Examination Of A Classical Assertion, Tatjana Simčič, Boris Sket

International Journal of Speleology

This study determines oxygen consumption (R), electron transport system (ETS) activity and R/ETS ratio in two pairs of epigean and hypogean crustacean species or subspecies. To date, metabolic characteristics among the phylogenetic distant epigean and hypogean species (i.e., species of different genera) or the epigean and hypogean populations of the same species have been studied due to little opportunity to compare closely related epigean and hypogean species. To fill this gap, we studied the epigean Niphargus zagrebensis and its troglobiotic relative Niphargus stygius, and the epigean subspecies Asellus aquaticus carniolicus in comparison to the troglobiotic subspecies Asellus aquaticus cavernicolus …

Duty-Cycle Based Physical Unclonable Functions (Pufs) For Hardware Security Applications, Mahmood Javed Azhar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Duty cycle and frequency are important characteristics of periodic signals that are exploited to develop a variety of application circuits in IC design. Controlling the duty cycle and frequency provides a method to develop adaptable circuits for a variety of applications. These applications range from stable on-chip clock generation circuits, on-chip voltage regulation circuits, and Physical unclonable functions for hardware security applications. Ring oscillator circuits that are developed with CMOS inverter circuits provide a simple, versatile flexible method to generated periodic signals on an IC chip. A digitally controlled ring oscillator circuit can be adapted to control its duty cycle …

Caregiver Perception And The Role Of Seasonality In Under-Five Childhood Diarrhea Incidence In Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia, Brian S. Wells

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diarrheal disease has long been known to be a burden to children worldwide. Although child mortality rates as a result of diarrhea have decreased over the past two decades, overall diarrhea incidence has remained relatively stable. In Cambodia, diarrhea was the third most prevalent outpatient diagnosis for children under five in 2012, with a reported incidence rate of 12 per 100 children, up from 7 per 100 children in 2008 (Ministry of Planning Cambodia, 2012). Cambodia is an agricultural country with 80% of the population living in rural areas (National Institute of Statistics Ministry of Planning, 2013). Many are also …

A Study Of Corrosion Monitoring Techniques Used In Urls For Metals, Sirui Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the increasing use of fission-type nuclear power generation, particularly high-levels radioactive nuclear waste are generated, so the safe use of nuclear energy requires proper disposal of high-level radioactive nuclear waste. The selected treatment method is deep geological disposal. Therefore, underground research laboratory (URL) to prepare for deep geological disposal will also be carried out. Corrosion of metallic materials, which are closely related to the safety of URL, is the focus of this research project. This study selected monitoring techniques for URL and developed a rough monitoring scheme for temperature and resistivity in URL. In this study, corrosion-temperature and corrosion-resistivity …

Population Density, Habitat Dynamic And Aerial Survival Of Relict Cave Bivalves From Genus Congeria In The Dinaric Karst, Olga Jovanović Glavaš, Branko Jalžić, Helena Bilandžija

International Journal of Speleology

Caves are some of the least-known ecosystems on Earth and long-term ecological studies and population size estimates are very rare. Genus Congeria is a Tertiary relict that comprises three species from Dinaric karst area; C. kusceri, C. jalzici and C. mulaomerovici, each with very limited distribution. They are the only known cave bivalves and in contrast to many other cave species, they form populations with high densities. We estimated that the population of C. kusceri in Jama u Predolcu is between 72,454 and 72,906 individuals. The highest density occurred between one and three meters depth, and reached maximum …

Formation Of Trihalomethanes (Thms) As Disinfection By-Products (Dbps) When Treated Municipal Wastewater Is Disinfected With Sodium Hypochlorite, Helene Kassouf

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disinfection is an essential process in the treatment of municipal wastewater before the treated wastewater can be discharged to the environment. Hillsborough County's Northwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility (NWRWRF) in Tampa, Florida, currently uses ultraviolet (UV) light for disinfection. However, this method has proven expensive to implement and maintain, and may not be effective if the light transmission is poor. For these reasons, Hillsborough County is considering switching from UV light to sodium hypochlorite for disinfection. However, hypochlorite (chlorine) disinfection has disadvantages as well, such as the production of disinfection by-products (DBPs) such as trihalomethanes (THM) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), …

Molecular Mechanism Of Protein Kinase Recognition And Sorting By The Hsp90 Kinome-Specific Cochaperone Cdc37, Dimitra Keramisanou, Adam Aboalroub, Ziming Zhang, Wenjun Liu, Devon Marshall, Andrea Diviney, Randy W. Larsen, Ralf Landgraf, Ioannis Gelis

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Despite the essential functions of Hsp90, little is known about the mechanism that controls substrate entry into its chaperone cycle. We show that the role of Cdc37 cochaperone reaches beyond that of an adaptor protein and find that it participates in the selective recruitment of only client kinases. Cdc37 recognizes kinase specificity determinants in both clients and nonclients and acts as a general kinase scanning factor. Kinase sorting within the client-to-nonclient continuum relies on the ability of Cdc37 to challenge the conformational stability of clients by locally unfolding them. This metastable conformational state has high affinity for Cdc37 and forms …

Dynamics And Thermal Sensitivity Of Ballistic And Non-Ballistic Feeding In Salamanders, Stephen M, Deban, Jeffrey A. Scales

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Low temperature reduces the performance of muscle-powered movements, but in movements powered by elastic recoil mechanisms, this effect can be mitigated and performance can be increased. To better understand the morphological basis of high performance and thermal robustness of elastically powered movements, we compared feeding dynamics at a range of temperatures (5-25°C) in two species of terrestrial plethodontid salamanders, Plethodon metcalfi and Ensatina eschscholtzii, which differ in tongue muscle architecture and the mechanism of tongue projection. We found that Ensatina is capable of ballistic projection with a mean muscle mass-specific power of 2100 W kg(-1), revealing an elastic mechanism. Plethodon, …

Natural And Anthropogenic Factors Which Influence Aerosol Distribution In Ingleborough Show Cave, Uk, Andrew C. Smith B.S.C, Peter M. Wynn, Philip A. Barker Professor

International Journal of Speleology

Monitoring in Ingleborough Show Cave (N. Yorkshire, UK) reveals the influence of tourism and cave management techniques on different parameters of the cave atmosphere. Exploratory aerosol monitoring identified a 0.015 ± 0.03 mg/m³ (≈70%) reduction in airborne particulates within the first 75 meters of cave passage and two major aerosol sources within this artificially ventilated show cave. Autogenic aerosol production was identified close to active stream ways (increases of

Metabolism In Corals From Antarctica, The Deep-Sea, And The Shallow Subtropics: Contrasts In Temperature, Depth, And Light, Lara Henry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coral habitats span the range from tropical to polar, extremely shallow to thousands of meters deep. The differences in light and temperature experienced in these varied habitats likely affect the metabolic rates of the corals residing there. The metabolism of three coral species from different habitats have been examined to elucidate the effects of these environmental parameters on metabolism, an under-studied aspect of coral biology. For all three species, measurements of oxygen uptake, ammonium excretion, and activity of the enzymes lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), and citrate synthase (CS) were used to characterize their metabolism. Off Florida's Gulf coast, …

Biochemical Aspects Of The Thermal Sensitivity And Energy Balance Of Polar, Tropical And Subtropical Teleosts, Eloy Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The maintenance of a functional energy balance in ectothermic fauna could be challenging in a thermally disparate environment. Biochemical adaptations at the enzyme and membrane levels allows for a set compensatory mechanism that allow the individual to maintain an energetic surplus, thus allocating energy for growth and reproduction. The present work describes how the energetic machinery in the cell, particularly the mitochondrion, could be affected by temperature changes. More specifically, this work aimed to determine how environmental temperature affects the mitochondria energetic performance of fishes from disparate thermal regimes.

Mitochondrial ATP production efficiency was evaluated in fishes from polar, tropical …

A Ctd Biotag For Mid-Sized Marine Predators, Heather Broadbent

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biologging tools for investigating the study of fine-scale linkages between animal behavior and the physical microstructure of the marine habitat are technically limited by substantial size, high cost or low sensor resolution. However, recent advances in electronic technologies and process techniques present attractive alternatives to current tag designs. Motivated by the need for a low-cost, compact CTD biotag for medium-sized marine animals, the University of South Florida Center for Ocean Technology developed a multi-sensor biotag for quantitative measurements of ocean salinity. This dissertation describes the development and performance of a novel CTD biotag used for animal-borne measurements of the physical …

Thermal Determinants Of Nest Site Selection In Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Caretta Caretta, At Casey Key, Florida, Lindsey Nicole Flynn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many environmental cues are thought to influence nest site selection by loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta, and much debate exists over the possible influence of sand temperature. This study had two primary objectives: (1) to measure thermal differences across transects of a major nesting beach of Casey Key (28.7 N, 82.3 W), Florida and (2) to evaluate thermal pattern variation that influenced nesting patterns of adult female loggerhead sea turtles. A secondary objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of infrared thermometers to collect sand surface temperatures in the field.

Temperature data were collected from 145 nest …

Influence Of Temperature On Yolk Resorption By Centropomus Undecimalis Larvae, Claudia Catalina Baron-Aguilar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to determine the optimal temperature for rearing Centropomus undecimalis larvae during the yolk resorption period, larval development was measured under four different temperature regimes (23, 25, 28 and 31 °C). The eggs were incubated at 28 °C until hatching, which occurred at about 17 hours post-fertilization. After hatching, temperatures were adjusted to the respective treatment levels. Measurements were collected from 25 individual larvae across rearing temperatures at the following pre-determined time intervals: at hatching, 24 hours post hatch (hph), 48 hph, and 72 hph. Morphometric measurements were obtained from photomicrographs, including yolk sac length and height, oil …

Effect Of Ground Temperature And Nest Differences On Productivity And Worker Size In Atta Cephalotes (Hymenoptera Formicidae), May 2010, Hannah Fried-Petersen

Tropical Ecology and Conservation [Monteverde Institute]

Atta cephalotes is one of the few species that does better in grassy pastures and secondary growth and their abundance, persistent foraging, and that they collect from a lot of different tree species has earned them the reputation of huge agricultural pests. A. cephalotes are poikilotherms meaning their internal body temperature fluctuates greatly with temperature. For this reason, it has been purported that these leaf-cutter ants will only collect leaf fragments at certain temperatures and that different sized workers have different temperature tolerances. The objective of this study was to look for relationships between temperature, productivity, and worker size in …

Diffuse Degassing And The Hydrothermal System At Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua, Sophie C. P Pearson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hydrothermal systems change in response to volcanic activity, and in turn may be sensitive indicators of volcanic activity. Fumaroles are a surface manifestation of this interaction. We use time series of soil temperature data and numerical models of the hydrothermal system to investigate volcanic, hydrologic and geologic controls on this diffuse degassing.

Soil temperatures were measured in a low-temperature fumarole field located 3.5 km from the summit of Masaya volcano, Nicaragua. They respond rapidly, on a time scale of minutes, to changes in volcanic activity also manifested at the summit vent. The soil temperature response is repetitive and complex, and …

Analysis Of Mangrove Structure And Latitudinal Relationships On The Gulf Coast Of Peninsular Florida, Peter Novitzky

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The coastline of Florida has been formed by geomorphic processes which have created suitable habitats for certain vegetation and organisms. One type of vegetation is the mangrove; this plant has a latitudinal range of 24° to 32° N latitude which is associated with local climatic changes (Mitsch 2000). There are three species of mangrove found in Florida: red (Rhizophora), black (Avicennia), and white (Languncularia) (USGS 2006). Mangroves have adapted overtime to live in different ecosystems which cause mangroves, along the Florida coast, of the same species not be the same.

Climatic variation causes individual mangrove trees have structural differences such …

Effects Of Geomorphic Setting On Shallow-Groundwater Exchange And Water Temperature Of Salmon-Bearing Headwater Streams Of The Lower Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, Jason C. Bellino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Temperature is an important physical characteristic of headwater streams that controls the presence and health of juvenile salmonids. Surface water temperature is controlled by many factors including exchanges with groundwater. A study of the hydrology of wetlands associated with headwater streams on the Lower Kenai Peninsula was conducted to determine the effect of geomorphic setting on groundwater discharge to streams and ultimately on in-stream water temperature. Attention was focused on drainage-way and discharge slope wetlands as two end-members of the geomorphic settings of the study area.

Data were collected at 18 study reaches spanning four major watersheds in the study …

Forecasting Models For Economic And Environmental Applications, Shou Hsing Shih

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The object of the present study is to introduce three analytical time series models for the purpose of developing more effective economic and environmental forecasting models, among others. Given a stochastic realization, stationary or nonstationary in nature, one can utilize exciting methodology to develop an autoregressive, moving average or a combination of both for short and long term forecasting. In the present study we analytically modify the stochastic realization utilizing (a) a k-th moving average, (b) a k-th weighted moving average and (c) a k-th exponential weighted moving average processes. Thus, we proceed in developing the appropriate …

Process Optimization And Consumable Development For Chemical Mechanical Planarization (Cmp) Processes, Subrahmanya R. Mudhivarthi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) is one of the most critical processing steps that enables fabrication of multilevel interconnects. The success of CMP process is limited by the implementation of an optimized process and reduction of process generated defects along with post CMP surface characteristics such as dishing and erosion. This thesis investigates to identify various sources of defects and studies the effect of factors that can be used to optimize the process. The major contributions of this work are: Understanding the effect of temperature rise on surface tribology, electrochemistry and post CMP pattern effects during the CMP process; investigating the …

Improved Techniques For Nonlinear Electrothermal Fet Modeling And Measurement Validation, Charles Passant Baylis Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accurate transistor models are important in wireless and microwave circuit design. Large-signal field-effect transistor (FET) models are generally extracted from current-voltage (IV) characteristics, small-signal S-parameters, and large-signal measurements. This dissertation describes improved characterization and measurement validation techniques for FET models that correctly account for thermal and trapping effects.

Demonstration of a customized pulsed-bias, pulsed-RF S-parameter system constructed by the author using a traditional vector network analyzer is presented, along with the design of special bias tees to allow pulsing of the bias voltages. Pulsed IV and pulsed-bias S-parameter measurements can provide results that are electrodynamically accurate; that is, thermal and …

Satellite-Derived Surface Current Divergence In Relation To Tropical Atlantic Sst And Wind, Robert W. Helber, Robert H. Weisberg, Fabrice Bonjean, Eric S. Johnson, Gary S. Lagerloef

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The relationships between tropical Atlantic Ocean surface currents and horizontal (mass) divergence, sea surface temperature (SST), and winds on monthly-to-annual time scales are described for the time period from 1993 through 2003. Surface horizontal mass divergence (upwelling) is calculated using surface currents estimated from satellite sea surface height, surface vector wind, and SST data with a quasi-linear, steady-state model. Geostrophic and Ekman dynamical contributions are considered. The satellite-derived surface currents match climatological drifter and ship-drift currents well, and divergence patterns are consistent with the annual north–south movement of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and equatorial cold tongue evolution. While the …

The Influence Of Habitat Features On Selection And Use Of A Winter Refuge By Manatees (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris) In Charlotte Harbor, Florida, Sheri L. Barton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Investigating alternate winter refuges for Florida manatees is increasingly important

as sustained warm-water discharges from industrial and some natural sites becomes more

uncertain. This study examined habitat features of possible importance to manatees by

comparing a winter refuge in Charlotte Harbor, FL (the Matlacha Isles canal system) to

two nearby, seemingly similar sites that are not frequented by manatees during winter.

Water temperature, salinity, boat traffic, canal depth, and tidal flushing were assessed at

these sites. Additionally, this study examined when and how manatees use the Matlacha

Isles refuge by documenting movements, habitat use, and behaviors of manatees during

the …

Development Of A Ctd System For Environmental Measurements Using Novel Pcb Mems Fabrication Techniques, Heather Allison Broadbent

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of environmental continuous monitoring of physicochemical parameters via portable small and inexpensive instrumentation is an active field of research as it presents distinct challenges. The development of a PCB MEMS-based inexpensive CTD system intended for the measurement of environmental parameters in natural waters, is presented in this work. Novel PCB MEMS fabrication techniques have also been developed to construct the conductivity and temperature transducers. The design and fabrication processes are based on PCB MEMS technology that combines Cu-clad liquid crystal polymer (LCP) thin-film material with a direct write photolithography tool, chemical etching and metallization of layers of electroless …

Improved Current-Voltage Methods For Rf Transistor Characterization, Charles Passant Baylis Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the development of a nonlinear transistor model, several measurements are used to extract equivalent circuit parameters. The current-voltage (IV) characteristic of a transistor is one of the measurement data sets that allows the nonlinear model parameters to be extracted. The accuracy of the IV measurement greatly influences the accuracy of the large-signal model.

Numerous works have reported the inadequacy of traditional static DC IV measurements to accurately predict radio-frequency (RF) behavior for many devices. This inaccuracy results from slow processes in the device that do not have time to completely respond to the quick changes in terminal conditions when …

Temperature Distribution In Karst Systems: The Role Of Air And Water Fluxes, Marc Luetscher, Pierre-Yves Jeannin

KIP Articles

A better understanding of heat fluxes and temperature distribution in continental rocks is of great importance for many engineering aspects (tunnelling, mining, geothermal research,…). This paper aims at providing a conceptual model of temperature distribution in karst environments which display thermal “anomalies” when compared to other rocks. In temperate regions, water circulations are usually high enough to completely “drain out” the geothermal heat flux at the bottom of karst systems (phreatic zone). A theoretical approach based on temperature measurements carried out in deep caves and boreholes demonstrates however that air circulations can largely dominate water infiltrations in the karst vadose …

Transport And Survival Of Water Quality Indicator Microorganisms In The Ground Water Environment Of Florida: Implications For Aquifer Storage And Waste Disposal, David E. John

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ground water resources are heavily used for drinking water supply and often as a receptacle for waste water. One concern is the possible contamination of wetland areas by ground water receiving septic system infiltration. To investigate this, two tracer studies were performed using the bacteriophage PRD-1 by seeding septic systems adjacent to wetlands with the phage and monitoring migration towards wetland areas. Transport velocities were evaluated based on appearance of tracer in sampling wells at various distances from the injection point. Velocities were estimated to be 0.25 m/d and 0.4 m/d at the two sites. Some retardation with respect to …

The Influence Of Cave Tourism On Co2 And Temperature In Baiyun Cave, Hebei, China, Linhua Song, Wei Xiaoning, Liang Fuyuan

International Journal of Speleology

Baiyun Cave in Hebei Province is one of the main show caves in North China. The speleothem landscape is wonderful, but strongly weathered. In order to set up the relationship between visitor flow and CO₂ content and temperature, these parameters were measured at observation sites No. 1 and No. 2 in the tourist peak period of May Day Holiday from May 1 to May 7, 2000. and general tourist season August and October, 2000. The results show that visitor flow strongly affects the fluctuations of cave CO₂ content and temperature, that the cave topography and dimensions affect the …