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Analyzing The Self-Reported Experiences Of Japanese English As A Foreign Language Pre-Service Teachers With Listening Comprehension Skills, Akira Yamamoto Jan 2021

Analyzing The Self-Reported Experiences Of Japanese English As A Foreign Language Pre-Service Teachers With Listening Comprehension Skills, Akira Yamamoto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of the study was to analyze the self-reported experiences of Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) pre-service teachers with listening comprehension skills in their teaching classroom as university students and in their learning classroom as EFL students. Currently, Japanese EFL education is changing rapidly and focusing on developing overall English skills that include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, pre-service teacher EFL education in Japan does not stress the importance of listening comprehension pedagogy. Moreover, there have been few studies about listening pedagogy from the perspective of preservice teachers. Through analyzing pre-service teacher's self-reported listening learning experiences, …

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Index-Based Approach With Remote Sensing For The Assessment Of Extreme Weather Impact On Watershed Vegetation Dynamics, Kushan Bellanthudawage Jan 2021

Index-Based Approach With Remote Sensing For The Assessment Of Extreme Weather Impact On Watershed Vegetation Dynamics, Kushan Bellanthudawage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Spatial technologies such as satellite remote sensing can be used to identify vegetation dynamics over space and time, which play a critical role in earth observations. Biophysical and biochemical features associated with vegetation cover can then be used to elucidate climate change impact such as floods and droughts on ecosystem that may in turn affect watershed-scale water resources management. Unlike single flood or drought event, intermittent extreme weather events may exert more physiological and biological pressures on the canopy vegetation. This study aims to investigate the climate change impacts on canopy vegetation, which occurred from March 2017 to October 2017 …

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Corrective Feedback In L2 Pronunciation: The Learner Lens, Elif Saribas Jan 2021

Corrective Feedback In L2 Pronunciation: The Learner Lens, Elif Saribas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study investigated learner perceptions of correction in L2 (second language) pronunciation. Research indicates that L2 learners have a strong preference toward corrective feedback provided by the teacher and also favor peer feedback (Kaivanpanah et al., 2012). In addition, external feedback is shown to contribute to the development of internal feedback, or self-correction (Huang & Jia, 2016). Learners were also found to carry positive opinions towards explicit error correction, with culture and proficiency level influencing those opinions (Yang, 2016). The current study used a qualitative approach to investigate learner perceptions toward correction in L2 pronunciation and examine real-life correction instances …

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A Drosophila P5b-Type Atpase Is Required For Polyamine Transport, David Brown Jan 2021

A Drosophila P5b-Type Atpase Is Required For Polyamine Transport, David Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In eukaryotes P-type ATPases are represented by a superfamily of membrane ion and lipid transporters divided into five subclasses. Substrates for classes 1-4 have been identified, however little is known about the substrate specificity of the P-type 5A and 5B transporters. Here we show that the Drosophila gene anne boleyn encodes a family of six P5B-type ATPases. Using a combination of RNAi, insertional mutagenesis, and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing we show that some of these isoforms are required for polyamine transport and others are not. In addition, we show that the Drosophila P5A-type ATPase, encoded by CG6230 is not required for …

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Bacterial Association Networks From Healthy And Cancer-Associated Gut Microbiomes, Mark Loftus Jan 2021

Bacterial Association Networks From Healthy And Cancer-Associated Gut Microbiomes, Mark Loftus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The human gastrointestinal tract is colonized by a diverse community of symbiotic microorganisms, mainly bacteria, that are known to play essential roles in maintaining the health of their human host. Disruption of this bacterial community has been associated with numerous diseases, including Colorectal Cancer (CRC). CRC is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. As such, focus has been placed on the modulation of the bacterial community within the cancer-associated gut microbiome as the next step in possible CRC treatment and prevention strategies. To use the bacterial community for these purposes, a better understanding of the associations that …

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Towards Enabling Explanation In Safety-Critical Artificial Intelligence Systems, Andy Michel Jan 2021

Towards Enabling Explanation In Safety-Critical Artificial Intelligence Systems, Andy Michel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

With the advancement of accelerated hardware in recent years, there has been a surge in the development and application of intelligent systems. Deep learning systems, in particular, have shown exciting results in a wide range of tasks: classification, detection, and recognition. Despite these remarkable achievements, there remains an active research area that aims to increase the robustness of those systems in critical domains. Deep learning algorithms have proven to be brittle against adversarial attacks. That is, carefully crafted adversarial inputs can consistently trigger an erroneous prediction from a network model. Hence the motivation of this dissertation, we study prominent adversarial …

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"Keep Your Facts, I'M Going With The Truth": Toward An Ethical Perfromance Of Satire In The Age Of Hyper-Polarization And Culture War, Carson Betts Jan 2021

"Keep Your Facts, I'M Going With The Truth": Toward An Ethical Perfromance Of Satire In The Age Of Hyper-Polarization And Culture War, Carson Betts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Satire is having a unique cultural moment. Conversations about what constitutes satire, why it should be performed, and how can it be done ethically are abundant in American popular culture. As with many forms of art and entertainment, satire has become a major subject of discussion in the great American Culture Wars: the conflict between the highly stratified ideological poles of right and left over the dominance of each's closely held social values, political ideals, and aesthetic sensibilities. Divides, real and imagined, in the American public have given popular discourse a sharp and biting edge, driven by growing political polarization …

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The Actor And The Iceberg, Christopher Creane Jan 2021

The Actor And The Iceberg, Christopher Creane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Actors have ingrained vocal, physical, and mental habits they unknowingly use on stage in the form of physical movements, vocalization, and character choices which can inadvertently communicate information to the audience. Rarely, however, are actors asked to play themselves and if their own habits are unconsciously being merged with their intentional character choices, then the audience's perception of the actor's portrayal may be shaped by unintentional behavior. "The Actor and the Iceberg" will be a synthesis of awareness building and control techniques for the mind and body, specifically: meditation, mindfulness, the Feldenkrais Method, and the Alexander Technique. The goal of …

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Braving The Discomfort: An Examination Of Hate Speech And Racially-Motivated Violence Onstage, And How We Should Approach It, Sarah Hubert Jan 2021

Braving The Discomfort: An Examination Of Hate Speech And Racially-Motivated Violence Onstage, And How We Should Approach It, Sarah Hubert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis is an exploration of best practices in regards to creating a safe space within the theatre for artists to feel comfortable creating without risk to their emotional or physical safety. These safe spaces are particularly needed around shows which call for onstage racial violence or racist language. Methodology for these best practices includes theatrical intimacy, safe space creation as utilized by various advocacy groups, Theatre of the Oppressed, and drama therapy. In addition to these best practices that apply to the entire production, ideas for individual practice are explored. As a case study, Theatre UCF's production of Sweat …

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Sympathy For The Devil: A Compassionate Approach To Morally Reprehensible Characters In Drama, Amy Livingston Jan 2021

Sympathy For The Devil: A Compassionate Approach To Morally Reprehensible Characters In Drama, Amy Livingston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Empathy is often heralded as a vital part of the theatrical experience. Generally understood as the experience of feeling what another person is feeling, it is believed to help actors create more honest performances and to help audiences better understand viewpoints different from their own. These empathic experiences are complicated, however, when applied to stories about characters who commit unforgivably evil acts and may lead people to feel manipulated into justifying or sharing the immoral beliefs of these characters. This thesis argues that for theatre practitioners telling stories about morally reprehensible characters, compassion, involving feelings of care and concern for …

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Emotional Availability: A Practice-As-Research Exploration On Acting In Film And Theatre, Janice Munk Jan 2021

Emotional Availability: A Practice-As-Research Exploration On Acting In Film And Theatre, Janice Munk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Actors are frequently required to be emotionally available on the spot, in situations ranging from an early morning acting class, to filming a scene well past midnight after a full day on set. In theatre, there is the expectation to deliver the right emotion every performance, and in film, when the camera and crew are ready, the actor is expected to produce the emotion at that moment. This demand to give emotionally compelling performances can cause an actor to stress under the pressure to deliver. Acting for stage and film have similarities and differences, and an actor needs to learn …

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Group Level Cues And The Use Of Force In Domestic And Foreign Policy Contexts, Zlatin Mitkov Jan 2021

Group Level Cues And The Use Of Force In Domestic And Foreign Policy Contexts, Zlatin Mitkov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

To what extent do elite and social group cues affect the public's willingness to embrace their leader's actions during domestic and international security crises? Studies traditionally have focused on top-down elite cue-driven models to study how the public's attitudes are influenced during international and domestic security crises, largely disregarding the bottom-up effects social peer groups can have on individuals' attitudes. This is problematic as the public is regularly exposed to cue messages from elites and social peer groups, both of which are expected to help determine how successful leaders will be in mobilizing public support on a tactical level. To …

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Victim Blame Of Missing People Based On Race And Media Framing, Ciara Peebles Jan 2021

Victim Blame Of Missing People Based On Race And Media Framing, Ciara Peebles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study examined the effects of a missing person's race and framing of their personal characteristics on participants' attribution of victim blame. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 428) and completed a 2x3 between-subjects experimental study. The victim's race (Black vs. White) and news media framing of the victim's personal characteristics (positive vs. mixed vs. negative) were manipulated, and victim blame was assessed through reactions to a mock news article about the missing person's case. A two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted (with the participants' race and Modern Racism Scale score as covariates), and results indicated …

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Spatio-Temporal Representation For Reasoning With Action Genome, Kesar Tumkur Narasimhamurthy Jan 2021

Spatio-Temporal Representation For Reasoning With Action Genome, Kesar Tumkur Narasimhamurthy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Representing Spatio-temporal information in videos has proven to be a difficult task compared to action recognition in videos involving multiple actions. A single activity consists many smaller actions that can provide a better understanding of the activity. This paper tries to represent the varying information in a scene-graph format in order to answer temporal questions to obtain improved insights for the video, resulting in a directed temporal information graph. This project will use the Action Genome dataset, which is a variation of the charades dataset, to capture pairwise relationships in a graph. The model performs significantly better than the benchmark …

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Easy Money: Examining Social Disorganization, Urbanization, Healthcare Fraud, And Community Health In America., Wilmer Alvarez Irizarry Jan 2021

Easy Money: Examining Social Disorganization, Urbanization, Healthcare Fraud, And Community Health In America., Wilmer Alvarez Irizarry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In the past 40 years, the health of citizens in the United States has changed significantly. The population of the United States managed to get sicker and die slower across the prior four decades. Adding to this complexity is the fact that illnesses and health behaviors in the United States are also not equally distributed by race, class, gender, or other social factors. These facts do not only reflect level of the disease and illness in the United States, but also the disparities that exist within them and the sociomedical factors that impact health. Despite costing American taxpayers between $120 …

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Model-Form Uncertainty Quantification In Prognosis And Fleet Management With Physics-Informed Neural Networks, Arinan De Piemonte Dourado Jan 2021

Model-Form Uncertainty Quantification In Prognosis And Fleet Management With Physics-Informed Neural Networks, Arinan De Piemonte Dourado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Prognosis and health management play an important role in the control of costs associated with the operation of large industrial equipment. By properly comprehending hardware degradation and accurately predicting the remaining useful life of such equipment, we can significantly lower operational costs by reducing asset downtime and maintenance interventions. However, complex interactions between operational conditions and component capability make accurately modeling damage accumulation for large fleets a daunting task. Unforeseen factors such as aggressive missions introduced by operators, exposure to harsh environments, manufacturing issues, amongst many others, can lead to large discrepancies between predicted and observed useful life. Motivated by …

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Solid Materia And Multiphase Detonations Wave Dynamics In A Rotating Detonation Engine, Ian Dunn Jan 2021

Solid Materia And Multiphase Detonations Wave Dynamics In A Rotating Detonation Engine, Ian Dunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Coal dust explosions can be hazardous; however, they can also generate a significant rise in stagnation pressure if adequately harnessed. Rotating detonation engine combustors seek to take advantage of the stagnation pressure rise phenomenon in a more sustained and controlled manner via confinement to a physical annulus, leading to increased overall thermodynamic efficiency. This investigation presents an analysis of detonations fueled by Carbon Black, a solid particulate consisting of virtually pure carbon molecules and lean Hydrogen-Air mixtures. As was previously realized with the addition of Carbon Black, an increase of operability limits and detonation velocities over that of a pure …

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Novel Liquid Crystal Photonic Devices Enabled By Liquid Crystal Alignment Engineering, Ziqian He Jan 2021

Novel Liquid Crystal Photonic Devices Enabled By Liquid Crystal Alignment Engineering, Ziqian He

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Liquid crystals (LCs) are self-assembled soft materials composed of certain anisotropic molecules with orientational orders. Their widespread applications include information displays and photonic devices, such as spatial light modulators for laser beam steering and tunable-focus lens, where achieving desired LC alignment is pivotal. In general, LC alignment is influenced by several factors, including chemical bonding, dipolar interactions, van der Waals interactions, surface topographies, and steric factors. Here, we focus on three alignment techniques for aligning rod-like LC molecules and highlights the photonic devices enabled by these techniques: 1) Two-photon polymerization direct-laser writing-induced alignment, 2) Weigert effect-based reversible photoalignment, and 3) …

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"I Have My Coven Now": Transgender Experience In The Central Florida Pagan Community, Alison Whitmore Jan 2021

"I Have My Coven Now": Transgender Experience In The Central Florida Pagan Community, Alison Whitmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis analyzes Transgender experience and dynamics in the Pagan community of Central Florida. Religion plays an important role as part of social structure for many people in the United States. It can also be a source of strife and conflict between culture groups and within cultures. In the US, predominant religious traditions stem from monotheistic Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam); however, Wicca, a Neo-Pagan polytheistic religion, is practiced by a small but growing number of people. Based on nearly one year of ethnographic engagement with the Central Florida Wiccan community, this study presents an analysis of participants experiences …

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Robust Acceleration Of Data-Centric Applications Using Resistive Computing Systems, Baogang Zhang Jan 2021

Robust Acceleration Of Data-Centric Applications Using Resistive Computing Systems, Baogang Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

With the accessible data reaching zettabyte level, CMOS technology is reaching its limit for the data hungry applications. Moore's law has been reaching its depletion in recent studies. On the other hand, von Neumann architecture is approaching the bottleneck due to the data movement between the computing and memory units. With data movement and power budgets becoming the limiting factors of today's computing systems, in-memory computing using emerging non-volatile resistive devices has attracted an increasing amount of attention. A non-volatile resistive device may be realized using memristor, resistive random access memory (ReRAM), phase change memory (PCM), or spin-transfer torque magnetic …

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Biophysical Analysis Of The Structure And Aggregation Of Amyloid Beta Peptide, Faisal Abedin Jan 2021

Biophysical Analysis Of The Structure And Aggregation Of Amyloid Beta Peptide, Faisal Abedin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the major cause of dementia and is characterized by neuronal death and brain atrophy. The amyloid ß (Aß) peptide is tightly associated with neuronal dysfunction during AD, but the molecular mechanism underlying the neurotoxic effect of Aß is poorly understood. Extracellular fibrillar deposits (plaques) of Aß were initially believed to be the cause of AD, but currently there is overwhelming evidence that the prefibrillar Aß oligomers are the major toxic entities. Structural characterization of Aß oligomers and fibrils is important for understanding the structural features determining the toxic potency of the peptide. This project has studied …

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The Bikini Line: Race, Gender, And Embodiment In Texas Beauty Pageants, Chelsea Belanger Jan 2021

The Bikini Line: Race, Gender, And Embodiment In Texas Beauty Pageants, Chelsea Belanger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In 2019, for the first time in history, Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe were all Black women. However, in Texas pageantry, where 12 former state titleholders have become Miss America or Miss USA are from, racial representation is scant. Since their inception in 1937 and 1952, only three Black women have won title of Miss Texas America and two Black women have been crowned Miss Texas USA. This study analyzes the motives for competing in Texas beauty pageants, experiences of preparing and competing, and the perceptions of race and racial inequalities among racially and ethnically …

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Past, Present, And How To Proceed: Creating My Actor Tool Kit, Joshua Kimball Jan 2021

Past, Present, And How To Proceed: Creating My Actor Tool Kit, Joshua Kimball

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

As theatre graduates walk across the stage and receive their diplomas, the message they hold close to their hearts is "Go forth and act." The next day, week, or month the question becomes very clear, "HOW?" This thesis focuses on a practical problem facing theatre graduates whose goals are pursuing the field of acting professionally. Theatre students are given the basic tools for honing their skills but are unequipped to create a viable, sustainable career in the field. The objectives in this paper are to outline problems actors encounter when attempting to build a career and offer practical advice for …

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Memoria: Re(Member)Ing How To Heal, Vilma E. Portocarrero Jan 2021

Memoria: Re(Member)Ing How To Heal, Vilma E. Portocarrero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This serves as a contextualization of my family history and a reflection of my lived experience as a first-generation Nicaraguan American woman living in the United States. In my writing, I explore displacement caused by political unrest and the intergenerational impact of war on families. This work is multi-genre, incorporating elements of creative nonfiction, memoir, poetry, and oral history.

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The Technical World Of Warcraft, Derek Hampton Jan 2021

The Technical World Of Warcraft, Derek Hampton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The Technical World of Warcraft explores the various technical instruction elements of World of Warcraft, more specifically observing issues faced by players who take on content at the highest level. The thesis raises the problem of the in-game technical documentation being utterly ineffective for the aforementioned players, causing them to create their own technical documents. While observing the environment found exclusively within the game, research from Jennifer DeWinter and Ryan Moeller, Mark Chen, Sarah Bishop, and more, is used to analyze the game's instructional elements from a critical angle. Several job listings from other major game development companies are also …

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Toward In-Situ Nanoscale Imaging And Spectroscopy: Applications In Growth And Catalysis Of Two-Dimensional Materials, Fernand Torres-Davila Jan 2021

Toward In-Situ Nanoscale Imaging And Spectroscopy: Applications In Growth And Catalysis Of Two-Dimensional Materials, Fernand Torres-Davila

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

New challenges arise with advances in our understanding of two dimensional (2D) materials and their functionalities. The reactivity of defects engineered to drive targeted reactions, such as those relevant to sustainability, or to shape the electronic properties of the host material locally for new applications, such as in nanoelectronics or quantum computing, brings about the need to control the environment of the material and the defect. This is particularly important to advance fundamental studies of catalytic processes to mimic the reaction pathways taking place in large scale reactors at various defect sites. With atomic defects, this constitutes an outstanding challenge …

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A Spectroscopic Survey Of Primitive Main Belt Asteroid Populations, Anicia Arredondo-Guerrero Jan 2021

A Spectroscopic Survey Of Primitive Main Belt Asteroid Populations, Anicia Arredondo-Guerrero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Primitive asteroids have remained mostly unprocessed since their formation, and the study of these populations has implications about the conditions of the early solar system and the evolution of the asteroid belt. This spectroscopic study of inner main-belt (IMB) primitive asteroids addresses three central objectives: 1) determine the origin and composition of objects in the near-Earth object population, particularly spacecraft targets; 2) test theories of how processes such as space weathering and aqueous alteration affect surface properties of small, low-albedo bodies; and 3) explore how primitive objects in the background population (i.e., asteroids not belonging to dynamical families) relate to …

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An Exploratory Study Of The Use Of Social Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) For Public University Facilities, Ashley Connors Jan 2021

An Exploratory Study Of The Use Of Social Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) For Public University Facilities, Ashley Connors

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Public universities in the United States have experienced continual state budget reductions since 2008. These cuts have forced public universities to defer maintenance on existing facilities and delay new facility construction. Consequently, public university administrators have sought alternative financing approaches to meet their facility needs. Several public universities have turned to social infrastructure public-private partnerships (P3s). Using a multiple case study approach, this exploratory, descriptive research study examines the use of social infrastructure P3 projects by public universities to determine: (1) what public university facility needs are being addressed, (2) what types of P3s are being utilized, and (3) what …

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An Evaluation Of The Performance Of Proc Arima's Identify Statement: A Data-Driven Approach Using Covid-19 Cases And Deaths In Florida, Fahmida Akter Shahela Jan 2021

An Evaluation Of The Performance Of Proc Arima's Identify Statement: A Data-Driven Approach Using Covid-19 Cases And Deaths In Florida, Fahmida Akter Shahela

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Understanding data on novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and modeling such data over time are crucial for decision making at managing, fighting, and controlling the spread of this emerging disease. This thesis work looks at some aspects of exploratory analysis and modeling of COVID-19 data obtained from the Florida Department of Health (FDOH). In particular, the present work is devoted to data collection, preparation, description, and modeling of COVID-19 cases and deaths reported by FDOH between March 12, 2020, and April 30, 2021. For modeling data on both cases and deaths, this thesis utilized an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) times …

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University Of Central Florida Libraries, Annual Report 2020-2021, University Libraries Jan 2021

University Of Central Florida Libraries, Annual Report 2020-2021, University Libraries

Libraries' Documents

No abstract provided.

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