Digital Commons Network^™

Identifying Significant Factors Affecting The Likelihood And Severity Level Of Shared E-Scooter Crashes, Recep Can Cakici

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

• Objective: To identify significant factors that affect the possibility of shared e-scooter related crashes in Tampa and St. Petersburg, FL, and also to capture determinants contributing to the level of injury of shared e-scooter related crashes in Tampa, FL.
• Background: Over the past few years, shared e-scooters have become a common form of micromobility; however, safety concerns have been raised due to the increased number of injury accidents involving e-scooters.
• Data and data sources: Survey questionnaires were designed to collect data from the general public on e-scooter sharing programs in Tampa and St. Petersburg, FL. The collected data include respondents’ …

A Residents’ Lens To Community Wellbeing, Sarah Combs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite its location just a few miles from the burgeoning University of South Florida, the University Area Community (UAC) is considered a severely economically disadvantaged neighborhood. When compared to its surrounding counties, the UAC experiences heightened unemployment and poverty rates in conjunction with a significantly lower median income and rate of homeownership. This study utilized a research method of Narrative Inquiry as told through Qualitative Research to gain a better understanding of the UAC residents’ lived experiences and of how community change agents could succeed in impacting community wellbeing in areas like affordable housing, resident employment, and resident engagement. The …

Advising Latinx Students For Postsecondary Career And Technical Education (Cte): A Qualitative Study Of High School Counselors In Florida, Adriana C. Magana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gather detailed descriptions of information, resources, and interventions that school counselors use to inform and advise Latinx students of postsecondary CTE options. A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted to understand how Florida school counselors advise Latinx students for postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) options. A three-prong conceptual framework was used, drawing from Bourdieu’s (1986) Theory of Cultural Capital, career development theories, and the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) National Model.

Ten school counselors working in public high schools in Florida participated in semi-structured interviews for this study. Altogether, the study’s …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Student-Level Factors And Perceptions Of Safety In Secondary Schools Implementing Swpbis, Nicholas L. Scheel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Past and recent violent incidents (e.g., shootings, bullying) within schools in the United States have caused great concern among the public about the safety of students. Although research has shed light upon the positive and negative impacts of current crisis prevention initiatives (e.g., federal and state legislation, security cameras, trauma-informed practices) on student perceptions of safety, the breadth of literature focused on the impact multitiered systems of supports (i.e., school-wide positive behavior supports and interventions [SWPBIS]) have on student perceptions of safety is limited (Nowicki, 2020). This exploratory investigation utilized a multivariate analysis of variance to examine perceptions of safety …

The Tesla Brake Failure Protestor Scandal: A Case Study Of Situational Crisis Communication Theory On Chinese Media, Jiajun Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to test how Tesla handles a protestor in Tesla’s booth in Shanghai. This thesis evaluated the effectiveness and acceptance of Tesla’s public relations and crisis communication through analyzing domestic Chinese official news articles and consumers’ attitude on China’s most used social media platform, Weibo. The electric vehicle industry is relatively a newer industry than traditional automobile manufacturing industries. Therefore, the immaturity of the industry could bring different types of crises, and traditional vehicle problems could also be the problems of electric vehicles, such as engine failure, brake failure, safety concerns and security threats, and …

Degradation Performance Modeling And Optimal Maintenance Planning Of Deteriorating Critical Infrastructures, Hung Q. Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Serving as the backbone of the nation’s economy, a large and growing number of deteriorating critical infrastructures, such as transportation and water infrastructures, are underperforming, aging, becoming structurally deficient, and must be repaired or replaced. Due to the influence of a variety of factors (e.g., material structure, design, operation, and environmental conditions) at different phases of lifecycle and the costly data acquisition process, field degradation of deteriorating infrastructures is highly uncertain with limited degradation data. The co-location and spatial proximity between many infrastructures, such as road and water infrastructures, further makes them physically and operationally interdependent. The sheer deterioration of …

Video Anomaly Detection: Practical Challenges For Learning Algorithms, Keval Doshi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anomaly detection in surveillance videos is attracting an increasing amount of attention. Despite the competitive performance of several existing methods, they lack theoretical performance analysis, particularly due to the complex deep neural network architectures used in decision making. Additionally, real-time decision making is an important but mostly neglected factor in this domain. Much of the existing methods that claim to be online, depend on batch or offline processing in practice. Furthermore, several critical tasks such as continual learning, model interpretability and cross-domain adaptability are completely neglected in existing works. Motivated by these research gaps, in this dissertation we discuss our …

System Monitoring Of Auto Traffic: Queue Detection And Congestion Impact Assessment, Geza Pesti, Beverly Storey, Robert Brydia

Research Reports

The main objectives of this study were to identify available data sets and explore methodologies for improving the detection of bottlenecks, related congestion, and queue formation, as well as formulate methodologies to determine the extent and rate of spread queues, identify their impact area, and look at potential mitigation strategies. Methodologies are provided that evaluate (a) impacts of single construction projects, (b) combined daily impacts of construction projects and incidents on selected segments of the corridor, and (c) a process to find the most appropriate schedule that minimizes the negative impact of construction, utility work or special events that require …

Exploring The Relationship Between Student Expected Engagement And Referrals To The Behavioral Intervention Team, Makenzie R. Schiemann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher education administrators are tasked with supporting and retaining students with increasing needs. These needs often include emotional and mental health issues but can worsen to include suicidality and violence toward others. Traditional campus approaches for supporting students and intervening for violence, such as counseling and campus safety, have been reactionary rather than proactive. Behavioral Intervention Teams (BITs) have emerged as a mechanism for heading off violence before it occurs while also supporting students who may never engage in violence but need support. These teams were born out of the concept that violence is preventable and have grown into a …

The European Super League (Esl): A Political Economy And Media Framing Analysis, Patrick Sidwell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The European Super League (ESL) offers an opportunity for research as a case study which exemplifies the potential for sports to engender seismic societal events. To try to understand the ESL and the events surrounding it, this thesis examined it through the dual frameworks of political economy and framing theory to comprehend the roles played by corporate owners and working-class fans who support the game. An overview of the political economic processes of English football was conducted to create meaningful insights. From there, using framing as a theoretical guide, a thematic media analysis was performed across 251 news articles from …

“Fast Policy” And “Rule By Aesthetics”: A Preliminary Study Of Water Street Tampa –The “Worlding” Of An Aspiring “Icon Project”, Nousheen Rahman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the age of “global urbanism” (Sheppard et al 2015; Chen and Kanna 2013), we are witnessing a markedly increased preference for mega-gentrification policies and projects by public officials seeking to revitalize deindustrialized and abandoned landscapes within their cities. The goal of this study is to describe how neoliberal public and private actors and institutions in the City of Tampa, specifically along the newly minted “Water Street” near the old Channel District of downtown, have adopted the discourses and practices of “fast policy” (Peck and Theodore 2015), “rule by aesthetics” (Ghertner 2010) and “worlding” (Ong and Roy 2011). To that …

The Weekly Challenger, February 17, 2022, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The February 17, 2022, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

The Weekly Challenger, November 25, 2021, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The November 25, 2021, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Walking The Line: Understanding The History And Development Of The Nhtsa Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, Jon D. Gurney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the early 1980’s within the United States, state legislatures criminalized the practice of driving under the influence of alcohol due to the efforts of moral entrepreneurs such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving that served to vilify the drunk-driver. During the political culture of the early 1980’s, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sought to develop field sobriety tests that would assist law enforcement in the detection and arrest of drunk drivers.

This study provided a brief historical account of the development of the NHTSA Standardized Field Sobriety Test battery, which consisted of the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, the Walk …

The Weekly Challenger, November 11, 2021, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The November 11, 2021, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Cool Under Fire: Psychopathic Traits And Decision-Making In Law Enforcement-Oriented Populations, Sean J. Mckinley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Law enforcement is an occupation that is typically characterized by high stress, physical danger, and potential for use of excessive force to subdue suspects of criminal activity. Compared to other jobs, the law enforcement profession is considered a high-stakes occupation that has the potential to greatly impact public safety, and officers must face daily dangers not experienced in other professions. While much research has focused on traditional models of personality and police performance (i.e., Big Five traits; Schneider, 2002; Twersky-Glasner, 2005), there may be utility in examining police officer performance through the lens of the triarchic psychopathy domains (Patrick, Fowles, …

Mobile Response Teams And The Youth Emergency Behavioral Health System, Paige J. Alitz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: This dissertation includes three separate manuscripts that coalesce under the shared topic of mobile crisis response and the emergency behavioral health system. Method: The first manuscript includes a synthesis of the research on mobile crisis response from the 1960s to present day to assess whether mobile crisis services can improve mental health care access in the U.S. for youth and adults. The second manuscript includes bivariate and multivariate analyses of MRT participant data to characterize participants who receive an involuntary psychiatric evaluation versus those who do not, and to assess factors associated with involuntary psychiatric evaluation or referral to …

Teachers' Perspectives Of Implementing Restorative Justice, Antonio G. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of restorative justice in the school system is an emerging philosophy for handling student discipline that seeks alternative methods for solving problematic behavior than traditional or retributive approaches that are detrimental to the education and well-being of students. Student discipline is a controversial topic in education circles, resulting in many school districts looking to implement restorative practice program initiatives. Responses that are restorative, largely decrease the chances of recidivism. Zero-tolerance policies that were originally enforced to keep schools safe, have proven to not have the desired effect as intended, most arguably making schools less safe. There is a …

Usf School Of Architecture And Community Design, Wimauma Community Plan, October 2021, Taryn Sabia, Maggie Winter

School of Architecture and Community Design

The Hillsborough County and the Planning Commission launched the Wimauma long-range community design process to update the 2008 Community Plan. The initiative emphasizes participatory design and consensus building while aiming to guide future growth, coordinate investments, and provide a policy framework for revitalizing Wimauma Village Residential-2 with a clear, shared community vision.

Crow's Nest, September 27, 2021, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The September 27, 2021, issue of the Crow's Nest.

Corridor-Wide Surveillance Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Benjamín Colucci-Ríos, Ivette Cruzado, David González-Barreto, Alberto M. Figueroa-Medina, Didier M. Valdés-Díaz, Yu Zhang, Achilleas Kourtellis, Joseph Post, Hualong Tang

Research Reports

The motivation for this research was the lack of a protocol to apply an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform for traffic data collection and effectively analyze and evaluate incidents in high-speed multi-lane and freeway corridors. The ultimate purpose of this research study was to integrate the use of drones into real-time incident detection to assist in reducing congestion and delay, improve traffic operations, and enhance overall safety in the corridor and contiguous surface transportation networks. Phase I of the research project consisted of a comprehensive literature review, selection and acquisition of drones and drone training to develop the protocol, data …

The Weekly Challenger, July 8, 2021, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The July 8, 2021, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

The Weekly Challenger, June 24, 2021, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The June 24, 2021, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Adaptive Network Slicing In Fog Ran For Iot With Heterogeneous Latency And Computing Requirements: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach, Almuthanna Nassar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In view of the recent advances in Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the emerging new breed of smart city applications and intelligent vehicular systems driven by artificial intelligence, fog radio access network (F-RAN) has been recently introduced for the next generation wireless communications. The capability of F-RAN has emerged to overcome the latency limitations of cloud-RAN (C-RAN) and assure the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of the ultra-reliable-low-latency-communication (URLLC) for IoT applications. To this end, fog nodes (FNs) are equipped with computing, signal processing and storage capabilities to extend the inherent operations and services of the cloud to the edge. However, …

The Weekly Challenger, May 27, 2021, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The May 27, 2021, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

An Affordable Education And Research Platform For Multi-Robot Autonomy, Rutledge Detyens, Andrew Gunn, Christopher Furmanick, Ryan Integlia

Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Industry is continuously exploring new methods to enhance automation, as a way to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Multi-robot communication and cooperation is expected to become a vital aspect of these automated systems. There are many important applications in public safety, such as search and rescue operations, or performance of other dangerous tasks, such as fighting fires. Coordinated groups of people traditionally perform these tasks in large-scale cooperative efforts. Implementing cooperative efforts in teams of autonomous robots can be done in a variety of ways, utilizing many different systems and networked architectures. While there is much interest in this field, …

Usft 2020-2021 Usf Libraries Annual Report, Usf Libraries

Library Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

The Weekly Challenger, April 15, 2021, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The April 15, 2021, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Agenda And Supplementary Materials, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus Board Orientation, April 7, 2021, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus Board

Campus Board Agendas, Minutes, and Supporting Documents

The agenda and supplementary materials for the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus Board orientation held on April 7, 2021.

Analytical Standards In The Intelligence Community: Are Standards Professionalized Enough?, Derek Reinhold, Charles M. Russo, Beth Eisenfeld

Journal of Strategic Security

Analytical standards and its impact is a topic compelling the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) toward a discipline of proficiency and structure comparable to other professional fields is an evolutionary process. Following the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Community Directives (ICDs) became the feature through which guidance and a consensus on a topic became methods of aligning entities within the IC. The research questions about the usefulness of ODNI’s ICDs on the individual analyst and IC member agencies as the intelligence profession emerges are intriguing. Therefore, practitioners should consider several approaches and criteria to …