Digital Commons Network^™

Soil Improvement Using Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation And Surfactant Induced Soil Strengthening, Matthew P. Davies

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) has been used for a number of years as a technique for the improvement of various geological materials. MICP has been used in a limited capacity in organic rich soils with varying degrees of success. Investigators hypothesized that microbially-induced cementation could be improved in organic soils by using a surfactant. Varying amounts of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) were added to soils of varying organic content and a mixing procedure was used to treat these soils via MICP. Treated specimens were tested for unconfined compressive strength (UCS). Results appeared to show direct relationships between SDS content …

The Effects Of The Red Tide Producing Dinoflagellate, Karenia Brevis, And Associated Brevetoxins On Viability And Sublethal Stress Responses In Scleractinian Coral: A Potential Regional Stressor To Coral Reefs, David A. Reynolds

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coral cover is in decline on a global scale, with increased mortality events being attributed to a number of global and regional stressors. While the impacts of global stressors (e.g. sea surface temperature rise, ocean acidification) are well documented, there is growing interest in identifying and understanding the impacts of regional stressors. The reason for this change in focus is that regional stressors can often work in combination, sometimes synergistically, with global stressors and that stressors on a regional scale tend to be more easily mitigated by management practices. One regional stressor that impacts a myriad of marine organisms in …

Establishing Relationships Among Environmental Stressors, Host Immune Status, And Wasting Disease Susceptibility In The Dominant Seagrass Species Thalassia Testudinum, Paige Joy Duffin

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of evidence supports the observation that marine disease outbreaks, especially those caused by opportunistic pathogens, are increasing in frequency and severity. One genus of such pathogens, Labyrinthula, has been identified as the causative agent of seagrass wasting disease, an epidemic that has historically plagued seagrass beds around the world. It is suspected that pathogenicity is intimately linked to the ability of the host to initiate defense responses, but a lack of compelling evidence prevents any meaningful application of preliminary observations. This body of work investigated the roles of host genotype, host immune status, and environmental stressors …

Distance Learning For Professional Development In Law Enforcement - What Works, Keith E. Gaston

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online distance learning is an essential element in the continuing education of law enforcement officers across the nation. However, little research has been conducted into the use of learning management systems by law enforcement agencies as a tool for professional development. This study attempts to assess the attitudes, preferences, and influences that impact distance learning for professional development work for state law enforcement officers and their agencies. Law enforcement agencies and law enforcement training centers have failed to utilize or embrace distance-learning technologies, or they have adopted distance-learning technology without knowing the effectiveness of the training or learning. For adult …

Distribution And Community Structure Of First Coast Shark Assemblages And Their Relative Trophic Niche Dynamics, Clark R. Morgan

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nearshore marine environments are known to be highly productive systems with relatively high faunal diversity and abundances, but these systems are particularly vulnerable to negative impacts from anthropogenic disturbances that can result in habitat degradation. Despite these challenges, many shark species of various life stages utilize coastal shelf habitats, inshore estuaries, and bays. The inshore habitats of Cumberland and Nassau Sounds in northeast Florida have been proposed as potential nursery grounds by earlier work, but this suggestion did not satisfy all of the standard criteria of shark nursery designation. It has recently been stated that the combination of surveys inside …

Student Perceptions Of Police, Taylor Leigh Claxton

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Police-community relations are a frequently discussed topic in both academe and the media. Many factors are believed to influence individuals’ perceptions and views of law enforcement, including demographic variables (race and socioeconomic status), experiences with law enforcement, and media consumption. With an emphasis in the news and on social media regarding police misconduct or police brutality, this research seeks to inquire about college students' perceptions of law enforcement and racial injustice within the criminal justice system. While controlling for key demographic variables, this project specifically examines how individuals’ personal experiences with law enforcement and their exposure to news media and …

Vertical Distribution Of Meroplankton And Bivalve Competition In A Well-Mixed Estuary, Jennifer M. Raabe

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

If we want to understand how meroplankton utilize the water column and how their vertical distribution may influence horizontal advection, it is important to study their behavior in the various environments where they exist. In a well-mixed system with physical cues dampened, and no vertical layering, these organisms will have to depend on environmental cues such as light, tidal current, and tide cycle, as well as their own swimming ability to migrate vertically. Plankton and water samples were collected at three depths (near surface, midwater, near bottom) during the summers of 2013 and 2014 from sites within the main channel …

An Integrated Closed Convergent System For Optimal Extraction Of Head-Driven Tidal Energy, Michelle Ann Vieira

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the demands for energy increased with the global increase in population, there is a need to create and invest in more clean and renewable energy sources. Energy derived from the movement of the tides is an ancient concept that is currently being harnessed in a handful of large tidal range locations. However, the need to move from fossil fuel driven energy sources to those that are clean and non-polluting is a priority for a sustainable future. Globally, hydropower potential is estimated to be more than 16,400-Terawatt hours annually. Given that the electricity consumption worldwide was at 15,068-Terawatt hours in …

Architectures For Real-Time Automatic Sign Language Recognition On Resource-Constrained Device, James M. Blair

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Powerful, handheld computing devices have proliferated among consumers in recent years. Combined with new cameras and sensors capable of detecting objects in three-dimensional space, new gesture-based paradigms of human computer interaction are becoming available. One possible application of these developments is an automated sign language recognition system. This thesis reviews the existing body of work regarding computer recognition of sign language gestures as well as the design of systems for speech recognition, a similar problem. Little work has been done to apply the well-known architectural patterns of speech recognition systems to the domain of sign language recognition. This work creates …

Towards Designing Energy Efficient Symmetric Key Protocols, Sai Raghu Talluri

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Energy consumption by various modern symmetric key encryption protocols (DES,

3-DES, AES and, Blowfish) is studied from an algorithmic perspective. The work

is directed towards redesigning or modifying the underlying algorithms for these

protocols to make them consume less energy than they currently do. This research

takes the approach of reducing energy consumption by parallelizing the

consecutive memory accesses of symmetric key encryption algorithms. To achieve

parallelization, an existing energy complexity model is applied to symmetric key

encryption algorithms. Inspired by the popular DDR3 architecture, the model assumes

that main memory is divided into multiple banks, each of which can …

Learning Strategies Employed By College Aged Students With Disabilities: The Link Between Metacognition, Motivation, And Working Memory, Michael Rodriguez

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is two-fold. First, we want to understand the levels of metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. Previous research states that recall is the most effective method of studying, but most students prefer to reread their notes or textbook which is ineffective. Second, we want to explore the link between Working Memory and metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. The learning strategies that college students with and without disabilities is examined, we found that students in both groups preferred the usage of the same strategies equally. The most …

On The Effectiveness Of An Iot - Fog - Cloud Architecture For A Real-World Application, Nathan Wheeler

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fog Computing is an emerging computing paradigm that shifts certain processing closer to the Edge of a network, generally within one network hop, where latency is minimized, and results can be obtained the quickest. However, not a lot of research has been done on the effectiveness of Fog in real-world applications. The aim of this research is to show the effectiveness of the Fog Computing paradigm as the middle layer in a 3-tier architecture between the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Cloud. Two applications were developed: one utilizing Fog in a 3-tier architecture and another application using IoT and …

Self-Assembly Of Dna Graphs And Postman Tours, Katie Bakewell

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

DNA graph structures can self-assemble from branched junction molecules to yield solutions to computational problems. Self-assembly of graphs have previously been shown to give polynomial time solutions to hard computational problems such as 3-SAT and k-colorability problems. Jonoska et al. have proposed studying self-assembly of graphs topologically, considering the boundary components of their thickened graphs, which allows for reading the solutions to computational problems through reporter strands. We discuss weighting algorithms and consider applications of self-assembly of graphs and the boundary components of their thickened graphs to problems involving minimal weight Eulerian walks such as the Chinese Postman Problem and …

On Representations Of The Jacobi Group And Differential Equations, Benjamin Webster

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In PDEs with nontrivial Lie symmetry algebras, the Lie symmetry naturally yield Fourier and Laplace transforms of fundamental solutions. Applying this fact we discuss the semidirect product of the metaplectic group and the Heisenberg group, then induce a representation our group and use it to investigate the invariant solutions of a general differential equation of the form .

Parent Perceived Stress And Child Temperament: Qualities That Facilitate Or Impede Child Developmental Outcomes, Rebekah Faith Klempin

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Effective parent-child relationships contribute to the development of well-adjusted children. Taxing personal and situational factors encumber a caregiver’s capacity for responsivity with his or her child. The purpose of the present study was to identify interpersonal factors that impact child outcomes in low socioeconomic status family populations. Data was collected in northeast Florida Head Start centers from 219 low income, at-risk caregivers and their children ages one and a half through almost five. Parents completed questionnaires on parent perceived stress, child temperament, and child developmental outcomes. Hierarchical regression was used to assess the influence of child temperament and parent perceived …

Mobile Cloud Computing: A Comparison Study Of Cuckoo And Aiolos Offloading Frameworks, Inan Kaddour

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, smart mobile devices are used for more than just calling and texting. They can run complex applications such as GPS, antivirus, and photo editor applications. Smart devices today offer mobility, flexibility, and portability, but they have limited resources and a relatively weak battery. As companies began creating mobile resource intensive and power intensive applications, they have realized that cloud computing was one of the solutions that they could utilize to overcome smart device constraints. Cloud computing helps decrease memory usage and improve battery life. Mobile cloud computing is a current and expanding research area focusing on methods that allow …

Automating Ciri Ratings Of Human Rights Reports Using Gate, Joshua M. Joiner

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis involves parsing document-based reports from the United States Human Rights Reports and rating the human practices for various countries based on the CIRI (Cingranelli-Richards) Human Rights Data Project dataset. The United States Human Rights Reports are annual reports that cover internationally recognized human rights practices regarding individual, civil, political, and worker rights. Students, scholars, policymakers, and analysts used the CIRI data for practical and research purposes. CIRI analyzed the annual reports from 1981 to 2011 and then stopped releasing the dataset for any further years, but a possible reason is due to the manual process of scouring the …

The Role Of Wave Self-Similarity In Nearshore Wave Spectra, Morgan M. Smith Mr.

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonlinear wave-wave interactions and wave breaking contribute to nearshore wave energy dissipation. These factors can be analyzed by the principles of wave self-similarity. The equilibrium range can be shown in wind-driven wave spectra that exist in the form ( ) and However, the appropriate methods used to determine this loss of energy are controversial. This study examines an approach that reinvestigates the self-similarity principles. Wave spectra with lower peak periods are dominated by nonlinear wave-wave interactions which produce a scaling in shallow water. This thesis investigates the relative role of spectral similarity in different conditions in the nearshore region of …

A Microscopic Simulation Study Of Applications Of Signal Phasing And Timing Information In A Connected Vehicle Environment, Gwamaka Lameck Njobelo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The connected vehicle technology presents an innovative way of sharing information between vehicles and the transportation infrastructure through wireless communications. The technology can potentially solve safety, mobility, and environmental challenges that face the transportation sector. Signal phasing and timing information is one category of information that can be broadcasted through connected vehicle technology. This thesis presents an in-depth study of possible ways signal phasing and timing information can be beneficial as far as safety and mobility are concerned. In total, three studies describing this research are outlined.

The first study presented herein focuses on data collection and calibration efforts of …

The Distinction Of The Interactions Between The Transmembrane Domains Of Basigin Gene Products And Monocarboxylate Transporters, Joseph D. Fong

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although it was once thought that neurons solely rely on glucose as a substrate for cellular energy production, it is now known that small monocarboxylate molecules, like pyruvate, lactate, and ketone bodies, are also utilized. Monocarboxylates are transported across plasma membranes via facilitated diffusion using a family of transport proteins known as monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs). Four MCTs (MCT1, MCT2, MCT3, and MCT4) are expressed within neural tissues. Expression of the MCTs has been tied to co-expression of a cell adhesion molecule belonging to the Basigin subset of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF). Basigin gene products are known to interact with MCT1 …

Effect Of Vessel-Generated Waves In Near Low Tide Conditions On Shorelines In The Intracoastal Waterways, Mackenzie Lee Sanchez

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Erosion is caused when there is a net loss of sediment in a coastal system, i.e. when the amount of sediment leaving a system is more than the amount of sediment entering that same system. This investigation will focus on vessel-generated waves and their effect on the shorelines of the Jacksonville, Florida Intracoastal Waterways near low tide conditions. The investigation conducted herein examines variations in turbidity and pressure measurements in response to passing vessels at a single site location previously selected in 2016. The primary water/shoreline interaction recorded during this investigation is located below the visible scarp (near low tide …

The Effect Of Friction Stir Processing On The Microstructure And Tensile Behavior Of Aluminum Alloys, Nelson Gomes Affonseca Netto

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Friction Stir Processing (FSP) is a promising thermomechanical technique that is used to modify the microstructure of metals locally, and thereby locally improve mechanical properties of the material. FSP uses a simple and inexpensive tool, and has been shown to eliminate pores and also reduce the sizes of intermetallics in aluminum alloys. This is of great interest for research on solidification, production and performance of aluminum alloy castings because FSP can enhance the structural quality of aluminum casting significantly by minimizing the effect of those structural defects.

In the literature, there is evidence that the effectiveness of FSP can change …

Sedentary Time And The Cumulative Risk Of Preserved And Reduced Ejection Fraction Heart Failure: From The Multi-Ethnic Study Of Atherosclerosis, Brandi Scot Rariden

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between self-reported sedentary time (ST) and the cumulative risk of preserved ejection fraction heart failure (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction heart failure (HFrEF) using a diverse cohort of U.S. adults 45-84 years of age.

Methods: Using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), we identified 6,814 subjects (52.9% female). All were free of baseline cardiovascular disease. Cox regression was used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) associated with baseline ST and risk of overall heart failure (HF), HFpEF, and HFrEF. Weekly self-reported ST was dichotomized …

The Perceptions Of Nonprofit Arts And Culture Organization Leaders Regarding Their Role In K-12 Arts Education, Alarie A. Gibbs

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study posed two research questions. Because of limited research regarding leadership in arts and culture organizations, the background question to contextualize the study was: How do nonprofit arts and culture leaders in the Jacksonville, Florida, metropolitan area perceive their roles within their organizations? The foreground question was: How do leaders of nonprofit arts and culture organizations in the Jacksonville, Florida, metropolitan area understand their roles in providing underserved K-12 students access to and opportunity for arts education? The research questions warranted a qualitative research design using semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The review of the literature documented the importance of …

Estimating The Heritability Of Thermal Tolerance In Acropora Cervicornis And The Physiological Basis Of Adaptation That Correlates To Survival At Elevated Temperatures, Kelsey L. Yetsko

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human activities have substantially increased the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, resulting in warmer ocean temperatures that are having a negative impact on reef corals, which are highly susceptible to changes in temperature. Understanding the degree to which species vary in their tolerance to elevated temperatures and whether this variation is heritable is important in determining their ability to adapt to climate change. In order to address this, Acropora cervicornis fragments from 20 genetically distinct colonies were kept at either ambient or elevated temperatures, and mortality was monitored for 26 days. Heritability of thermal tolerance was estimated using a clonal …

Associations Between Parenting, Neurobiological Variables, And Adolescent And Young Adult Risk-Taking, Sarah Meghan Mcclanahan

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Evidence suggests that adolescence and young adulthood is a transitional stage whereby unique contextual factors may increase the likelihood for certain individuals to engage in risk-taking compared to their peers. In addition to influential environmental aspects (i.e. parenting, societal affiliations, peer influence) an adolescent’s and young adult’s underdeveloped cognitive control system is unable to successfully inhibit early maturing tendencies such as sensation seeking and reward sensitivity. However, previous research indicates that certain parental mechanisms may serve as protective/promotive agents for stabilizing this neurobiological imbalance. Therefore, the focus of the current research was to examine how parenting behaviors and styles moderate …

Impressions Of A Female Political Candidate Based On Political Party Affiliation, Candice J. Veilleux

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a gender gap in United States politics; men are over represented, and prioritize issues/policies differently compared with women. Stereotypes may be associated depending on group memberships. Stereotypes of men (competent) are consistent and stereotypes of women (warm) are inconsistent with politicians (competent). I examined stereotypes of major/non-major political parties, and how party affiliation affects whether stereotypes about men/male politicians/women/female politicians predict female politicians’ traits. Stereotype valence ascribed to political parties is important because people vote for a positively viewed party/representative. I assessed the strength and valence of stereotypes associated with political parties, and found major parties were viewed …

"Contra Haereticos Accingantur": The Union Of Crusading And Anti-Heresy Propaganda, Bryan E. Peterson

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study assesses the intersection of crusading and heresy repression in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The event that encapsulates this intersection was the Albigensian Crusade, a two-decades long conflict that befell the south of France, or Occitania. The papacy, aligned with northern lords and other willing Christians, took up arms to defend the Church from the Cathar heresy’s corrupting influence. This conflict marked a new development in Christian acts of violence. While the Church had crusaded against many different enemies—even branding some as heretics—before 1209, the Church had never called a crusade for the explicit purpose of …

Individual And Organizational Culture Predictors Of Participation In Training And Development Activities Among Student Affairs Professionals, Andrea Adams-Manning

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizational culture substantially impacts employee motivation, employee behavior, and employee participation in professional development activities. In the field of Student Affairs, it is critical for employees to regularly participate in professional development activities to stay up-to-date with understanding today’s students’ needs and meeting federal and state demands. This study examined what individual and organizational culture factors predict participation in professional development activities among student affairs professionals at higher education institutions. For this study, 354 participants from various public and private institutions were emailed an anonymous web-based survey. Field theory served as the theoretical foundation giving perspective as to how external …

The Effect Of Modality On Student Achievement And Course Completion In A Developmental Mathematics Course, Robert Allan Greene

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students taking courses in developmental mathematics do so in one of three modalities - some take the classes face-to-face in a classroom with a professor who is physically present, others take the classes in what is known as a blended or hybrid mode in which the professor uses a combination of classroom and online time to teach the course, and another group takes the classes completely online. Increasingly, a growing number of students are taking these courses in a hybrid mode or completely online, and this phenomenon is causing educators to redesign their programs, offering more courses in these two …