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Student Community Detection And Recommendation Of Customized Paths To Reinforce Academic Success, Yuan Shao May 2019

Student Community Detection And Recommendation Of Customized Paths To Reinforce Academic Success, Yuan Shao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational Data Mining (EDM) is a research area that analyzes educational data and extracts interesting and unique information to address education issues. EDM implements computational methods to explore data for the purpose of studying questions related to educational achievements. A common task in an educational environment is the grouping of students and the identification of communities that have common features. Then, these communities of students may be studied by a course developer to build a personalized learning system, promote effective group learning, provide adaptive contents, etc. The objective of this thesis is to find an approach to detect student communities …


A Mixed-Methods Approach To Understanding The Relationship Between Mental Toughness And The Effect Of Music On Exercise Performance, Kayla Baker May 2019

A Mixed-Methods Approach To Understanding The Relationship Between Mental Toughness And The Effect Of Music On Exercise Performance, Kayla Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has investigated the use of music as an ergogenic aid for exercise performance; however, the effect of music on exercise may differ between individuals of varying levels of mental toughness (MT). Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of MT on the effect of listening to music during exercise. Methods: The current study used a counter-balanced design, utilizing a mixed-methods approach. Thirty-one recreationally-active individuals (22.13 ± 2.11 yrs, 1.73 ± .10 m, 75.68 ± 14.67 kg, 42.89 ± 5.31 mL·kg·min-1; 65.5% males) were recruited for this study. Participants completed an initial visit to …


Investigating A Mental Health Literacy Intervention Among Economically Disadvantaged Youth, Jayna Mumbauer May 2019

Investigating A Mental Health Literacy Intervention Among Economically Disadvantaged Youth, Jayna Mumbauer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health is a critical and pervasive issue for children and adolescents in the United States, with one in five youth living with a diagnosable mental health condition (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Despite the increasing rates of mental health disorders, barriers to treatment are abundant and most young people do not receive appropriate treatment (Merikangas, 2009). Mental health literacy is the knowledge and beliefs surrounding mental health that guide recognition, management, and prevention (Jorm, 1997, p. 143). Mental health literacy is a particularly important framework for youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds as they face increased vulnerabilities to …


Describing Images By Semantic Modeling Using Attributes And Tags, Mahdi Mahmoudkalayeh May 2019

Describing Images By Semantic Modeling Using Attributes And Tags, Mahdi Mahmoudkalayeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the problem of describing images using visual attributes and textual tags, a fundamental task that narrows down the semantic gap between the visual reasoning of humans and machines. Automatic image annotation assigns relevant textual tags to the images. In this dissertation, we propose a query-specific formulation based on Weighted Multi-view Non-negative Matrix Factorization to perform automatic image annotation. Our proposed technique seamlessly adapt to the changes in training data, naturally solves the problem of feature fusion and handles the challenge of the rare tags. Unlike tags, attributes are category-agnostic, hence their combination models an exponential number of …


The Impact Of The Community Partnership Schools Model Community School On Graduation And Attendance Rates In One Florida High School., Amy Ellis May 2019

The Impact Of The Community Partnership Schools Model Community School On Graduation And Attendance Rates In One Florida High School., Amy Ellis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify and describe the nature and extent of the relationships, if any, that existed between a Community Partnership Schools™ (CPS) model community school and the outcomes of graduation and attendance rates at one public high school in Florida. An evaluation study utilizing an interrupted time series (ITS) design addressed this problem by identifying and describing the relationship between the CPS model and the key outcome measures using visual analysis and descriptive statistics. Graduation and attendance rates for seven years before the CPS model was introduced (2003-2010) and seven years after the CPS …


The Elite Meroitic Experience On Sai Island, Sudan: Using Stable Isotope Analysis To Identify Patterns Related To Sex And Age For The Interpretation Of Social Identity, Alexandria Brock May 2019

The Elite Meroitic Experience On Sai Island, Sudan: Using Stable Isotope Analysis To Identify Patterns Related To Sex And Age For The Interpretation Of Social Identity, Alexandria Brock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research conducted for this thesis utilized stable isotope analysis to reconstruct the diet of 35 individuals from an elite Meroitic (350 BC – 300 AD) cemetery (site 8.B.5A) located on Sai Island, Sudan, with a focus on adult age categories and biological sex, to understand intraclass variation in diet. Stable carbon and nitrogen values from human bone collagen were used to understand elite social organization, social practice, and gender roles in the Meroitic period through the lens of social identity and post-processual theories. The samples were grouped based on biological sex, median age, and assigned age categories (young, middle, …


Success Rate Of Student Accessibility Services Determined By Students Cumulative Grade Point Average, Christine Brown May 2019

Success Rate Of Student Accessibility Services Determined By Students Cumulative Grade Point Average, Christine Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: National studies have previously found that those within the disabled population are underserved in regard to healthcare, education, employment and medical access. Historically, the majority of those who are disabled due to this engrained inequality receive government assistance. Multiple laws have been enacted to protect those who fall into this minority such as ADA, section 504 and IDEA. These laws ensure the disabled equal access to employment, public services, education, public accommodations and telecommunications. Federally funded departments called student disability services (SDS) are on college/university campuses to ensure equal access and treatment throughout a student's college career. Under the …


Pine, Aphids, And Parasitoid Wasps: Patterns Of Cospeciation And Host Switches In A Tri-Trophic System, Amber Bass May 2019

Pine, Aphids, And Parasitoid Wasps: Patterns Of Cospeciation And Host Switches In A Tri-Trophic System, Amber Bass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological interactions may drive speciation events, and the processes that drive these speciation events can leave behind patterns in the phylogenies of interacting taxa. These patterns have been studied extensively in herbivores and host plants, as well as parasites and their hosts, but rarely in tri-trophic systems. Here, we examine three closely related groups of interacting taxa, including parasitoid wasps (Pauesia), aphid herbivores (Cinara), and pine trees (Pinus) to determine if the patterns between each interacting taxa indicate that cospeciation or host switches are more dominant. We create phylogenies of Cinara and Pauesia in the southeastern United States using ddRADseq …


Do Per-Capita Impact Or Abundance Dominate The Impact Of An Invader? Interactions Among Neighboring Species In Context-Dependent Competition, Haoyu Li May 2019

Do Per-Capita Impact Or Abundance Dominate The Impact Of An Invader? Interactions Among Neighboring Species In Context-Dependent Competition, Haoyu Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Evaluating relative species competitive strength is a central question in community ecology, with strong implications for invasion ecology. Models assessing invader success consider three components: distribution, abundance and per-capita impact. However, relative strength and interactions among these factors remain unclear when applying to specific invasion scenarios. We hypothesized that performance of native and non-native species will vary as a function of direct and indirect effects at different abundances and scales. We conducted a replacement experiment between two dominant grasses in subtropical grasslands (the native Axonopus fissifolius and the non-native Paspalum notatum) in central Florida, USA. Thirty fenced plots (1 m …


Energy Expenditure And Stability During Self-Paced Walking On Different Slopes, Alanna Raffaelli May 2019

Energy Expenditure And Stability During Self-Paced Walking On Different Slopes, Alanna Raffaelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metabolic power and cost of transport (COT) are common quantifiers for effort when performing tasks including walking and running. Most studies focus on using a range of normal walking speeds over level ground or varied slopes. However, these studies use fixed-speed conditions. Fatigue, stability, metabolic expenditure, heart rate, and many other factors contribute to normal walking speed varying over time. This study aimed to show that allowing a subject to walk with a self-paced speed should correlate to a minimum COT at a given slope. This study also aimed to determine if a preferred slope exists based on minimizing metabolic …


Conceptualization And Fabrication Of A Bioinspired Mobile Robot Actuated By Shape Memory Alloy Springs, Lietsel Richardson May 2019

Conceptualization And Fabrication Of A Bioinspired Mobile Robot Actuated By Shape Memory Alloy Springs, Lietsel Richardson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work is an experimental study and fabrication of design concepts to validate the feasibility of smart materials and their applications in bio-inspired robotics. Shape-Memory Alloy (SMA) springs are selected as the smart material actuators of interest to achieve locomotion in the proposed mobile robot. Based on a previous design of the robot, this work focuses on both implementing a new locomotion concept and reducing size and weight of the previous design, both using SMA based actuators. Objectives are met in consideration of the conceptual mechanics of circular robot locomotion. The first prototype is a variation of the original design. …


Factors Contributing To Low Adequate Prenatal Care Rates In Orange County, Florida, Lauren Daniel May 2019

Factors Contributing To Low Adequate Prenatal Care Rates In Orange County, Florida, Lauren Daniel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2017, only 56% of births in Orange County, Florida, received adequate prenatal care - care that has been shown to prevent maternal and infant death. The Florida Department of Health uses the Kotelchuck Index to determine care adequacy. This index rates care adequacy based on when the mother first receives care, and how many recommended appointments she attends. Prenatal care is rated "inadequate" if it starts after the fourth month of pregnancy, and/or if less than half of the recommended appointments are attended. Receiving earlier and consistent prenatal care has been shown to be an effective way to improve …


Applications Of Deep Learning Models For Traffic Prediction Problems, Rezaur Rahman May 2019

Applications Of Deep Learning Models For Traffic Prediction Problems, Rezaur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning coupled with existing sensors based multiresolution traffic data and future connected technologies has immense potential to improve traffic operation and management. But to deal with complex transportation problems, we need efficient modeling frameworks for deep learning models. In this study, we propose two different modeling frameworks using Deep Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM NN) model to predict future traffic state (speed and signal queue length). In our first problem, we present a modeling framework using deep LSTM NN model to predict traffic speeds in freeways during regular traffic condition as well as under extreme traffic demand, such …


Readability Of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures For Persons With Aphasia, Sara Gray May 2019

Readability Of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures For Persons With Aphasia, Sara Gray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between positive health outcomes in persons with aphasia (PWA) and personcentered care is highlighted by personally relevant information obtained directly from the PWA. Such is often facilitated via patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). In order to provide accurate responses to PROMs, PWAs must to read, comprehend, formulate and generate answers to a variety of questions. PROMs designed for other clinical populations assessed/treated by speech-language pathologists have been found to be largely unreadable. Despite the significant role of PROMs in assessment and management of aphasia, no study to date has examined the readability of these measures. Four readability formulae …


Point Cloud Technology For Analysis Of Existing Structures, Jacob Cano May 2019

Point Cloud Technology For Analysis Of Existing Structures, Jacob Cano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For this thesis, a study was completed on two different structures on the UCF Orlando campus through the use of both structural plans and point cloud technology. The results sought to understand the viability of point cloud technology as an accurate tool for the static and dynamic modal analysis of existing structures. For static analysis, a portion of the framing of Spectrum Stadium was rendered, modeled, analyzed and compared to a previous case study. The results emphasized how different users can render dissimilar member sizes and lengths due to human judgment on point cloud visuals. The study also found that …


Engineering Noble-Metal Nanostructures For Biosensing Applications, Haihang Ye May 2019

Engineering Noble-Metal Nanostructures For Biosensing Applications, Haihang Ye

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to engineer noble-metal nanostructures (NMNSs) in a controllable manner and to understand the structure-dependent properties greatly boost our knowledge in rational design of biosensing technologies. In particular, as a type of highly efficient peroxidase mimics, NMNSs hold promising potential to break through the bottleneck of conventional enzyme-based in vitro diagnostics. During the time of my Ph.D. study, I have successfully: 1) directed a two-step method involving seed-mediated growth and chemical etching for the synthesis of Ru nanoframes (RuNFs) with face-centered cubic crystal phase and enhanced catalytic activities; 2) demonstrated, for the first time, the inherent peroxidase-like activity of …


Implementation Of The Roles And Responsibilities Of Speech Language Pathologists In The Schools, Tamar Nir May 2019

Implementation Of The Roles And Responsibilities Of Speech Language Pathologists In The Schools, Tamar Nir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how the roles and responsibilities of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in schools are being implemented, whether speech-language pathologists in schools feel comfortable with their roles, and whether they are willing to engage in professional learning activities to hone knowledge and skills in role areas in order to inform pre-service and in-service learning This study utilized an online survey to collect responses. The survey included questions related to the rate of implementation, comfort level, and desire for further professional learning with regards to the roles and responsibilities prescribed by American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) …


The Religious Classroom: Analyzing The Cross-Application Of Instructional Communication Pedagogy To Youth Ministries, Lakelyn Taylor May 2019

The Religious Classroom: Analyzing The Cross-Application Of Instructional Communication Pedagogy To Youth Ministries, Lakelyn Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Instructional communication literature suggests that, to achieve optimal student learning outcomes, an instructor must completely engage in all aspects of experiential learning. It follows, then, that youth ministers should also employ experiential learning in their youth ministries to achieve their learning outcome goals among the youth they teach. This research project examined three research questions: 1.) What pedagogical strategies do youth ministers use during large group class sessions? 2.) In what ways do youth ministers employ instructional communication best practices within their pedagogical strategies? 3.) What strategies do former students remember their youth minister using the most? The analysis revealed …


Framework For Modeling Attacker Capabilities With Deception, Sharif Hassan May 2019

Framework For Modeling Attacker Capabilities With Deception, Sharif Hassan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this research we built a custom experimental range using opensource emulated and custom pure honeypots designed to detect or capture attacker activity. The focus is to test the effectiveness of a deception in its ability to evade detection coupled with attacker skill levels. The range consists of three zones accessible via virtual private networking. The first zone houses varying configurations of opensource emulated honeypots, custom built pure honeypots, and real SSH servers. The second zone acts as a point of presence for attackers. The third zone is for administration and monitoring. Using the range, both a control and participant-based …


Mediated Physicality: Inducing Illusory Physicality Of Virtual Humans Via Their Interactions With Physical Objects, Myungho Lee May 2019

Mediated Physicality: Inducing Illusory Physicality Of Virtual Humans Via Their Interactions With Physical Objects, Myungho Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term virtual human (VH) generally refers to a human-like entity comprised of computer graphics and/or physical body. In the associated research literature, a VH can be further classified as an avatar - a human-controlled VH, or an agent - a computer-controlled VH. Because of the resemblance with humans, people naturally distinguish them from non-human objects, and often treat them in ways similar to real humans. Sometimes people develop a sense of co-presence or social presence with the VH - a phenomenon that is often exploited for training simulations where the VH assumes the role of a human. Prior research …


Machine Learning From Casual Conversation, Awrad Mohammed Ali May 2019

Machine Learning From Casual Conversation, Awrad Mohammed Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human social learning is an effective process that has inspired many existing machine learning techniques, such as learning from observation and learning by demonstration. In this dissertation, we introduce another form of social learning, Learning from a Casual Conversation (LCC). LCC is an open-ended machine learning system in which an artificially intelligent agent learns from an extended dialog with a human. Our system enables the agent to incorporate changes into its knowledge base, based on the human's conversational text input. This system emulates how humans learn from each other through a dialog. LCC closes the gap in the current research …


Quality Diversity: Harnessing Evolution To Generate A Diversity Of High-Performing Solutions, Justin Pugh May 2019

Quality Diversity: Harnessing Evolution To Generate A Diversity Of High-Performing Solutions, Justin Pugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Evolution in nature has designed countless solutions to innumerable interconnected problems, giving birth to the impressive array of complex modern life observed today. Inspired by this success, the practice of evolutionary computation (EC) abstracts evolution artificially as a search operator to find solutions to problems of interest primarily through the adaptive mechanism of survival of the fittest, where stronger candidates are pursued at the expense of weaker ones until a solution of satisfying quality emerges. At the same time, research in open-ended evolution (OEE) draws different lessons from nature, seeking to identify and recreate processes that lead to the type …


A Deep Learning Approach To Diagnosing Schizophrenia, Justin Barry May 2019

A Deep Learning Approach To Diagnosing Schizophrenia, Justin Barry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this article, the investigators present a new method using a deep learning approach to diagnose schizophrenia. In the experiment presented, the investigators have used a secondary dataset provided by National Institutes of Health. The aforementioned experimentation involves analyzing this dataset for existence of schizophrenia using traditional machine learning approaches such as logistic regression, support vector machine, and random forest. This is followed by application of deep learning techniques using three hidden layers in the model. The results obtained indicate that deep learning provides state-of-the-art accuracy in diagnosing schizophrenia. Based on these observations, there is a possibility that deep learning …


Group Composition Characteristics As Predictors Of Shared Leadership: An Exploration Of Competing Models Of Shared Leadership Emergence, Richard Currie May 2019

Group Composition Characteristics As Predictors Of Shared Leadership: An Exploration Of Competing Models Of Shared Leadership Emergence, Richard Currie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of leadership in organizations has received much research attention over the past several decades. However, most of this research has examined hierarchical structures of leadership wherein one individual leads, or is perceived to lead, several other individuals. With a growing number of organizations structuring employees within teams or work groups, researchers have begun studying the ways in which leadership operates in groups. One alternative to the traditional hierarchical structure is for leadership to be distributed or shared in groups such that multiple group members contribute to the overall leadership function of the group. As a result, researchers have …


Streamflow Prediction In Ungauged Basins Located Within Data-Scarce Regions, Mohammadhossein Alipour May 2019

Streamflow Prediction In Ungauged Basins Located Within Data-Scarce Regions, Mohammadhossein Alipour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Preservation and or restoration of riverine ecosystem requires quantification of alterations inflicted by water resources development projects. Long records of streamflow data are the first piece of information required in order to enable this analysis. Ungauged catchments located within data-scarce regions lack long records of streamflow data. In this dissertation, a multi-objective framework named Streamflow Prediction under Extreme Data-scarcity (SPED) is proposed for streamflow prediction in ungauged catchments located within large-scale regions of minimal hydrometeorologic observation. Multi-objective nature of SPED allows for balancing runoff efficiency with selection of parameter values that resemble catchment physical characteristics. Uncertain and low-resolution information are …


Realtime Editing In Virtual Reality For Room Scale Scans, Charles Greenwood May 2019

Realtime Editing In Virtual Reality For Room Scale Scans, Charles Greenwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a system for the design and implementation of tools that support the editing of room-scale scans within a virtual reality environment, in real time. The moniker REVRRSS ("reverse") thus stands for Real-time Editing (in) Virtual Reality (of) Room Scale Scans. The tools were evaluated for usefulness based upon whether they meet the criterion of real time usability. Users evaluated the editing experience with traditional keyboard-video-mouse compared to a head mounted display and hand-held controllers for Virtual Reality. Results show that users prefer the VR approach. The quality of the finished product when using VR is comparable to …


A Comparative Analysis Of Public School Collective Bargaining Agreements In Florida, Aliza Berk May 2019

A Comparative Analysis Of Public School Collective Bargaining Agreements In Florida, Aliza Berk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the terms and conditions found in the 67 Florida public school collective bargaining agreements. Such collective bargaining agreements are negotiated between two parties, the teacher unions and their employers, under Florida Statute 447. The purpose of this mixed-methods study, conducted using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, is as follows: 1) to determine the extent to which CBA provisions exist within the master contracts of Florida teachers (2016-2017) and; 2) to determine the extent to which, if any, collective bargaining provisions vary among school districts (i.e. district size, district performance, district locale). The study finds that none …


Noninvasive Myographical Assessments Following Unaccustomed Resistance Exercise, Carleigh Boone May 2019

Noninvasive Myographical Assessments Following Unaccustomed Resistance Exercise, Carleigh Boone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditionally, post-exercise muscular alterations have been examined using invasive techniques that lack the ability to single out individual muscle groups. Sonomyography, tensiomyography, and electrical impedance myography allow for noninvasive skeletal muscle assessment. This project aimed to examine changes in muscle contractility and composition that occur in the early stages of recovery following unaccustomed exercise. METHODS: Twenty-one untrained adults (21.9 ± 1.9 y) performed exercise – 10 × 10 maximal eccentric knee extensions – with their nondominant leg. For each repetition, participants moved through 90° range of motion at 90°•s-1 with a passive return to the start position. Each set was …


Suspensions And Referrals To Law Enforcement Of African American Students Pre And Post Restorative Justice, Adrienne Brown May 2019

Suspensions And Referrals To Law Enforcement Of African American Students Pre And Post Restorative Justice, Adrienne Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the number of suspensions and referrals to law enforcement from traditional consequences administered to students in a large urban school district in southeastern United States for the school year 2013 to 2014 to the number of suspensions and referrals to law enforcement from consequences rendered after the implementation of restorative justice practices in the 2015 to 2016 school year, as reported to the Civil Rights Office of Data Collection (CRDC, 2016). There was statistical evidence that schools had policies and/or practices in place that had a discriminatory bias towards racial groups when …


Characterization Of Florida Landfills With Elevated Temperatures, Ryan Joslyn May 2019

Characterization Of Florida Landfills With Elevated Temperatures, Ryan Joslyn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The occurrence of elevated temperatures within landfills is a very challenging issue for landfill operators to detect and correct. Little is known regarding the causes of elevated temperatures (ETs) and the number of landfills currently operating under such conditions. Therefore, the goal of this research was to determine which landfills within Florida have been impacted by ETs, and to develop a more complete understanding of the factors that may lead to these landfills becoming elevated temperature landfills (ETLFs). Historical landfill gas wellhead data, waste deposition reports, and landfill site geometry were collected for 27 landfill cells through the FDEP OCULUS …