Digital Commons Network^™

Cold Rivals: The New Era Of Us-China Strategic Competition Ed. Evan S. Medeiros, Georgetown University Press, 2023., Mark T. Peters Ii Ph.D.

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Nuclear War: A Scenario By Annie Jacobson, New York: Dutton, 2024., Edward M. Roche, Ph.D., Jd

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Sustainable Energy Resources In Accommodation Businesses: The Case Of Hakkâri, Murat Tamer

Journal of Mediterranean Tourism Research

This study addresses the utilization of sustainable energy resources. It aims to uncover the initiatives taken by the accommodation businesses in Hakkâri to use sustainable energy resources. To achieve this, a field study was carried out in the Center, Çukurova, and Yüksekova Districts of the city by employing qualitative research methodologies involving interviews. In-depth interviews were conducted with a study group comprised of five managers selected through non-random snowball sampling. The data collected from the field were subjected to descriptive analysis and presented within the thematic framework. The findings revealed that accommodation businesses are not only concentrated on water conservation …

Assessing The Social, Economic, And Environmental Impacts Of A Multifunctional Crop: The Case Of Moringa Oleifera, Yoel Gebrai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multifunctional crops have the potential to support societal goals toward more sustainable production of food, feed, and fuel. The production and processing of multifunctional crops, with their numerous uses and coproducts, is accompanied by social, economic, and environmental impacts that need to be systematically evaluated to avoid unintended consequences from widespread adoption. Complexity emerges in the presence of multifunctionality, and counterintuitive system responses can occur. As a result, this dissertation has sought to enhance and apply frameworks to assess multifunctional crop sustainability holistically. Systems thinking and life cycle approaches are applied to a multifunctional crop case study, Moringa oleifera (MO). …

Tuning Polymer Glass Formation Behavior And Understanding Time-Temperature Superposition Breakdown With Oligomeric Additives, Peijing Yue

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The glass transition of polymer melts has been investigated for over a century. Even so, there are still many unanswered questions about the underlying physics. Countless theories were proposed to explain and define glass transition temperatures. More specifically, both the origins of the glass transition and underlying classification of glass as a state of matter remain unresolved. Time-temperature superposition (TTS) is one of the most widely used techniques to characterize the viscoelastic behavior of a material and the mechanical behavior and is employed to reduce the measuring time during characterization. Despite the widespread use of TTS, many authors have reported …

3d Organ-Scale Models Of Tumor Growth And Treatment, Rafael Ramon Bravo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To understand the dynamics of cancer, mathematical oncologists have developed models of tumor growth and treatment response. Some models are mechanistic and approach tumor growth at the cell-scale, focusing on the evolution of cancerous cells within the ecology of normal tissue, and are often simulated with agent-based modeling. Other models are more clinically motivated and model tumor growth operating at the organ-scale, using patient data to predict treatment response, and are often simulated with partial differential equations. We developed the Hybrid Automata Library which includes both agent-based modeling and partial differential equations for modeling at either of these scales. We …

Ultrasound Based Dynamic Reference Reflection Technique For Simultaneous Specific Gravity And Temperature Estimation, Jose Paul

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work is driven by the need for a noninvasive density estimation device for pipeline infrastructure due to the increased risk of volatility in the high energy density fuels that are available in the market. Ultrasound based techniques have proved to be a viable alternative to traditional u tube resonance or nuclear techniques due to their robustness and safety offering. The major update that this work intends to make to the existing technology is development of a system wherein the transducer or the electronic components remain isolated from the flow field.As a result, this work dives headfirst into the fundamentals …

Development Of Decision-Support Tools For Water Resources Management In Coupled Human-Natural Systems, Edgar J. Guerrón Orejuela

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water is an indispensable resource for all forms of life. Water is a cornerstone for economic development, public health, and social well-being. However, increasing water demand and challenges posed by climate change, pollution, population growth, and land use change underscore the urgent need for effective water management strategies. To address these complexities and ensure the sustainable use of water resources, it is imperative to adopt science-based decision-support tools. These tools leverage data, models, and analytical techniques to provide valuable insights and recommendations that guide decision-makers in formulating evidence-based policies and practices.

Effective water management requires a comprehensive understanding of the …

An Inference-Centric Approach To Natural Language Processing And Cognitive Modeling, Animesh Nighojkar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reasoning over natural text is highly nuanced, and interpretations can vary widely depending on cultural background, financial status, age, gender, or even mood. This doctoral dissertation seeks to not only mimic human reasoning behaviors but also improve the task used in natural language processing (NLP) to capture naturalistic reasoning, known as the Natural Language Inference (NLI) task. NLI involves determining whether a hypothesis is true (entailment), false (contradiction), or indeterminate (neutral) based on a given premise. Initially, we will investigate the extent to which NLP systems designed to capture semantic equivalence actually measure meaning equivalence. After establishing that they do …

Gone Smishing: An Integration Of Decision-Making And Protection Motivation In The Context Of Identity Theft Victimization, Taylor S. Fisher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Methods of obtaining sensitive information from Internet users have evolved consistently as technology has advanced and millions of mobile device users communicate through text (SMS) messaging daily, making them a target for smishing attacks. Smishing (short for SMS phishing) is a form of cybercrime where an offender will send fraudulent text messages attempting to gather sensitive information or convince the user to click on a malicious link. These messages often appear legitimate and rely on tactics like convincing users that immediate action needs to be taken. Smishing has become so widespread that in 2020, the Texas Attorney General issued a …

Reimagining Web Design: Empowering Agency Of Specialized Audiences Through User-Centered Heuristics, Haley Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks to create an alternative model for website design that interrogates standardized, linear ways of knowing and being by placing the audience at the center of the web design process. This research contributed a reimagined approach to traditional and standardized web design heuristics by considering an audience-centric methodology that was practical and applicable for web design praxis to create equitable user experiences which can empower audiences to recall their own knowledge and experience to make meaning for themselves through a reimagining of knowledge-making processes in a network of digitized information. In perceiving the rhetorical choice in design of …

The Role Of Spontaneous Activity In Maturation Of The Calyx Of Held Nerve Terminal And Its Synaptic Target In The Medial Nucleus Of The Trapezoid Body, Daniel Tatsuo Heller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neural circuit formation is a complex process involving synergistic roles between neurons and glial cells regulated by coordinated genetic and molecular cues and activity-dependent mechanisms. The canonical pathway for synapse formation begins with neurogenesis and migration followed by axonal outgrowth and dendritic arborization allowing for the capture and formation of nascent synapses. These initial synaptic contacts are exuberant in nature ensuring proper neural connectivity and undergo a period of pruning of superfluous inputs followed by maturation and strengthening of the remaining contacts. This maturation includes pre- and postsynaptic specialization of the active zone, localization and clustering of ion channels, and …

The Role Of L-Fucose In Dendritic Cell Antigen Presentation And Polarization, Chase J. Burton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the FDA approval of IL-2 in cancer treatment in the 1980s, immunotherapy has emerged as the standard of care for several tumor types (e.g., melanoma, lung, bladder, colorectal). However, approximately 70 percent of cancer patients, independent of prior treatment or staging, administered immunotherapy will not achieve complete responses and will exhibit disease progression. Several factors have been identified to contribute to treatment failure, including the accumulation of intratumoral immunosuppressive cell populations, insufficient tumor-infiltrating anti-tumor immune populations, or the occurrence of immunoediting on tumor cells. Current strategies to circumvent immunosuppression either lack durable response to new immunosuppressive mechanisms the tumor …

Enhancing The Performance Of Interdependent Stormwater Drainage And Roadway Systems Under Future Conditions, Chao Ye

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Flooding can cause extensive and devastating damage to human properties, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure systems, and personal belongings and it has become a threatening challenge during the past decades due to the massive damage brought to communities, infrastructures, and ecosystems. As climate change intensifies, the frequency and severity of flooding issues are expected to increase, exacerbating the existing flooding risks for vulnerable communities. Various approaches of modeling, optimizing, and designing for multiple levels of flooding problems have been adopted to deal with flooding control studies and research to alleviate the flooding risks on multiple levels of communities. This …

Learning Resilience: Veterans Of Color Learning Positive Coping Strategies., William Carpenter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore how veterans of color learned positive coping strategies to endure the challenges experienced during their transition from active duty. There has been limited research examining the veterans’ of color experiences during their transition from active duty military. The research questions focused on how veterans of color were learning to adjust and cope in response to the adverse experiences they encountered during their transition. The theoretical framework used for this investigation was a combination of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory and adult learning theory.

For this study, seven Black Post 9/11 veterans of African …

Advances In Model Reference Adaptive Control: Exploring Gain Scheduling, Scalability, And Time-Varying Command Following, Jesse Jaramillo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Feedback control architectures are fundamental for achieving a desired response in physical systems. A robust and reliable design must account for system uncertainties and exogenous disturbances, which may arise from phenomena such as modeling approximations, nonlinearities, degraded modes of operations, wind gusts, or structural impairments. Two widely recognized methods to mitigate the negative impact of uncertainties and disturbances are robust and adaptive control architectures. Specifically, robust control designs ensure stability by considering a worst-case scenario, which can potentially lead to suboptimal performance or steady-state errors depending on the nature of the uncertainty. In contrast, adaptive control designs offer the capability …

Photodegradation And Microencapsulation Of Organic Thermochromic Material For Application As Building Coating Envelope, Sushant Madhukar Nagare

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to exponential urbanization, residential building electrical loads have increased over the past decades. Also, deforestation has led to increased urban heat island effects, due to which summer has been scorching and winter has become freezing. This further increases the load on generation due to the extensive use of heating and cooling systems. New techniques, such as cool building materials and green building concepts, compensate for the load. The building can be coated with a material that has heat reflectivity capability for summer and heat-trapping capability for winter. One such material is thermochromic, which turns white upon heating and black …

Bibliometric Research Of Postgraduate Theses On Technology Acceptance Model Prepared In The Field Of Tourism, Mustafa Said Kocabıyık, Engin Deniz Eriş

Journal of Mediterranean Tourism Research

Within the scope of the study, 16 postgraduate theses published in the field of tourism between 2000 and 2023 were examined within the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) concept. In line with the study, it is aimed to reveal 23-year research trends in the field of tourism. The investigations were carried out within the scope of "Technology Acceptance Model" in the Thesis Center database of the Presidency of the Higher Education Institution and the data obtained from the studies were classified. Studies obtained; It is presented with parameters according to years, number of publications, thesis type, place where …

From Graph Theory For Robust Deep Networks To Graph Learning For Multimodal Cancer Analysis, Asim Waqas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the intersection of graph theory and deep learning, focusing on enhancing the robustness of deep neural networks (DNNs) and applying these advancements to complex problems like cancer diagnosis and treatment. We investigate the structural properties of graphs and their influence on neural network performance, particularly in multimodal learning. The work delves into the design space of DNN architectures using graph-theoretic measures, transforming graphs into DNN architectures for various tasks, and examining their robustness against noise and adversarial attacks. The study extends to medical imaging, highlighting advanced DNN architectures like U-Net for brain tumor segmentation. It addresses the …

Investigation Of The Use Of Recycled Concrete Aggregates In Porous Asphalt Mixture, Asad Elmagarhe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to address the national need for using recycled concrete in road pavements. This is especially important in the governmental and corporate sectors, where reducing the cost and carbon footprint of construction projects is a priority. The long-term goal is to meet the public demand for environmentally friendly infrastructure and minimize the harmful effects of waste disposal on humans and the environment.

The project focuses on using recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) in porous asphalt pavement to reduce stormwater runoff, a popular environmentally friendly road design. However, compared to regular dense asphalt mixtures, porous asphalt mixtures (PAM) are more …

Evaluation Practices In National Science Foundation Research Experiences For Undergraduates Programs, Aly Busse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess and describe the status of program evaluation within the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites. The National Science Foundation's REU program supports thousands of undergraduates annually in hands-on, immersive research experiences under the mentorship of science professionals. To date, there is a lack of published or accessible evaluation results from these REU programs and it is unknown what evaluation approaches are being used in the REU programs, how they are designed and implemented, how evaluation findings are utilized, and what barriers to evaluation activities exist. A self-administered electronic …

Gender Role Depictions In Arabic Children’S Picture Books, Aljawharah A. Almuqbil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to explore gender role depictions in children's Arabic picture books. The importance of this study emerged from its focus on young children, where the concept of gender begins to be constructed. This study provided insight into the nature of gender roles in children’s picture books, especially under the remarkable changes that Saudi society is witnessing and the lack of Arab studies in this area. Social cognitive theory, gender schema theory, and critical literacy pedagogy guided the study. A sample of 26 picture books was selected from the Child Book Club at King Abdulaziz Public Library and analyzed …

Economic Planning And Operation Of Ev Charging Infrastructure Participating In Electric Power Markets, Diwas Paudel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming more common, there are not enough charging infrastructures to keep up with the projected EV charging demands. This necessitates investment from private enterprises in the charging infrastructure, along with additional government investments, to support the expected EV growth. The profit potential of the EV charging business will be crucial in attracting private enterprises to invest in the infrastructure. The profitability of these infrastructures depends on their location and effective operation. The charging infrastructure needs to be strategically placed and sized in the service area of interest. Once built, they need a robust strategy to …

Optimizing Cybersecurity Operations Using Data-Driven Intelligence, Jalal Ghadermazi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cybersecurity operations centers (CSOCs) play a crucial role in safeguarding organizations from cyber threats. CSOC operations are divided into two main areas: Intrusion detection systems (IDS) and security response team (SRT) operations. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) advancements have significantly improved IDSs. IDS can be either flow-based, suitable for offline analysis, or packet-based, which analyze traffic in real-time. However, packet-based IDS often treat packets independently, ignoring the sequential nature of network communication. Additionally, recent ML/DL approaches also struggle with capturing global and structural information and novel attack detection due to their reliance on labeled data. The SRT within …

Transforming Organizational Cyber Security With Artificial Intelligence And Data-Driven Optimization, Soumyadeep Hore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a comprehensive framework for enhancing organizational cybersecurity through data-driven intelligence. The research integrates multiple methodologies to tackle challenges in network intrusion detection and vulnerability management within cybersecurity operations centers (CSOCs). First, the research investigates vulnerability prioritization and mitigation techniques currently employed by CSOCs. To further streamline the vulnerability prioritization and mitigation process a machine learning (ML)-based Vulnerability Priority Scoring System (VPSS) is introduced, significantly improving the prioritization and mitigation of context-sensitive vulnerabilities. The VPSS outperforms traditional methods, reducing the cumulative vulnerability exposure score by up to 30% by considering both organizational context and vulnerability severity. Next, the …

A Robust Data-Driven Framework For Artificial Intelligent Systems, Quoc H. Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems have demonstrated remarkable performance across various domains. However, their robustness remains a critical concern, particularly in terms of data and model reliability. This dissertation aims to address the challenges associated with building robust AI systems by focusing on two key aspects: data robustness and model robustness. Data robustness poses significant challenges, including data shift, concept shifting, limited and imbalanced datasets, and interoperability issues in IoT systems for data collection. Existing methods fall short in handling dynamic business objectives and evolving data landscapes effectively. To bridge these gaps, we propose an IoT framework that ensures interoperability, seamless …

Black Holes In Time: The Effect Of Grid Radiation On The Tumor Immune Microenvironment, Rebecca A. Bekker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tumor-immune interactions shape a developing tumor and its tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) resulting in either well-infiltrated, immunologically inflamed ‘hot’ tumor beds, or ‘cold’ immune deserts with low levels of infiltration. The pre-treatment immune state of the TIME is associated with treatment outcome; immunologically hot tumors generally exhibit better responses to radio- and immunotherapy than cold tumors. However, radiotherapy is known to induce opposing immunological consequences, resulting in both immunostimulatory and inhibitory responses. In fact, it is thought that the radiation induced tumoricidal immune response is curtailed by subsequent applications of radiation. Thus, I hypothesize that spatially fractionated radiotherapy (SFRT), administered …

Model-Based Systems Engineering For Engineering Education Systems Simulation, Pallavi Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the engineering education system continuously evolves to meet the demands of modern industry and society, there is a need for a methodology that would manage and resolve the complexities inherent in engineering educational systems. Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is a structured approach to system design that utilizes models across all stages of the system's life cycle and supports requirements management, design, analysis, verification, and validation processes. While MBSE has been applied successfully in industries like defense, aerospace, and automotive, its application in engineering educational systems remains unexplored. This dissertation develops a dynamic model of the university-level engineering education system …

‘The Overheated World’: Crisis Politics And Neoliberal Inertia, Shomik Chakrabarti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers were forced to balance the maintenance of ongoing economic activity alongside the measures advised by epidemiologists and other public health officials to contain the viral spread. The magnitude of the pandemic forced major conduits of the global economy to come to a sudden halt through incidents such as border closures, supply chain disruptions, lockdowns and calls for individuals to distance themselves from one another. Like the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, COVID-19 was thought to signal an inflection point for neoliberal political economy where a possible post-neoliberal era would develop in the aftermath …

Reaching New Generations: Exploring Museums' Social Media Strategies For Engaging Younger Audiences In The Post-Covid-19 Era, Lauren Parker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the evolving landscape of museum communication and marketing strategies on social media, particularly focusing on engaging younger audiences in the post-COVID-19 era. Through qualitative interviews with marketing managers and social media coordinators from ten American museums, this research identifies strategic communication goals, changes in social media strategies post-pandemic, and specific tactics for engaging younger audiences, especially on TikTok. The study revealed that museums have key strategic communication goals for their use of social media: increasing visibility and awareness, fostering community engagement, and providing educational outreach. Post-pandemic, museums significantly enhanced their digital presence by increasing digital programming, utilizing …