Digital Commons Network^™

Anonymized Identity Recognition And Classification Using Privacy Preserving Facial Encoding, Manas Sanjay Pakalapati

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The need for sharing large-scale datasets to train deep neural network models, particularly in healthcare, raises significant data security and privacy concerns. To address these issues, methods such as data encryption or encoding are utilized. These techniques can encrypt the data and make it unreadable to humans, while still retaining its usefulness for training models.

In this study, we investigate various image encoding techniques designed to protect privacy by making images unrecognizable while still retaining their usefulness for model training. Our investigation utilized publicly available facial databases and focused on evaluating the trade-offs inherent in image encoding techniques, with a …

Cues And Identity: Assessing Substance Use Cues, Life Experience, And Context, Katelynn Carlsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project employs Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods alongside semi-structured interviews to examine substance use cues, or “triggers”, in the everyday context. This includes repeated assessment of participants’ behaviors and thoughts over time. EMA allows researchers to sample phenomena the moment they occur within the context. These methods are most used in psychology and clinical science. Current research on substance use relies on lab-based assessments to understand cues and their relationship to consumption (Carter and Tiffany 1999, Conklin and Tiffany 2003, Witteman et al. 2015). This analysis uses data collected by the Cues in the Everyday (CITED) Team. The CITED …

Aligning Clinical Productivity Of Cancer Care Providers: A Simulation-Based Approach, Maile Sinclair-Baxter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing number of cancer patients over the years has presented many challenges and opportunities for improvement in the healthcare system. These challenges and opportunities have demonstrated the need for a tool that can enhance the clinical productivity of healthcare providers, ultimately impacting patients’ overall experience. We studied the clinical Full Time Equivalency (cFTE) for providers at a cancer research center. cFTE is the percentage of time allocated for clinical work. In this cancer research center, the clinical work of each provider is supposed to match a targeted cFTE. The cancer research center’s concern was that the provider’s clinical productivity …

Advancing Adversarial Audio: Human-In-The-Loop Black-Box Attacks, Rui Duan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adversarial audio attacks pose significant security challenges to real-world audio applications. Attackers may manipulate speech to impersonate a speaker, gaining access to smart devices like Amazon Echo. In audio applications, there are two key areas: music and speech. In music, most attackers create a small noise-like perturbation on the original signal to evade copyright detection. However, this method degrades music's perceived quality for human listeners. In the speech, creating an adversarial example often requires many queries to the target model, a process too cumbersome for practical use in real-world scenarios, like interacting with smart devices numerous times.

In this dissertation, …

An Assessment Of A Haptic-Based Ergonomic Intervention At An Aerospace Manufacturing Facility, Chase Mcdonald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of a haptic-based intervention designed to reduce hand motions and, consequently, the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among operators in a manufacturing facility. The intervention involved using ergonomic gloves equipped with haptic feedback, intended to encourage proper hand motion and reduce unnecessary movements.

Over a six-month period, data was collected from operators wearing the haptic gloves, focusing on two key metrics: Duty Cycle and Motion Rate. These metrics were chosen to normalize the data, accounting for the variability in duration for each individual operator who wore the device. …

Incidence Of Reportable Exertional Heat Illness During Deepwater Horizon Cleanup, Fisher R. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between incidence of recordable exertional heat illness (EHI) and daily high wet bulb globe temperature (WBGTmax) or daily high Heat Index (HImax). Additionally, the effect of the previous day’s exposure to heat stress was investigated. Illness and injury records were collected during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. All OSHA recordable EHI cases were extracted for study. The highest estimated WBGT and HI on the day of incident were compared to the prior day. The overall incidence of recordable EHIs was 0.74 cases/100 FTE and the incidence for exposures ≥ …

Specification, Enforcement, And Measurement Of Integrity Policies, Kevin Dennis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The first step to improving an organization's security posture is to define the organization's security goals. At a technical level, these goals are expressed as security policies. Security policies are predicates over programs, that return true or false if the program adheres to the policy. Defining these policies correctly is thus essential to ensuring the overarching security goals are met, but it is often quite difficult to translate human-oriented goals into their technical policy counterparts. In addition, these policies must be specified so that they are enforceable while minimizing false positives and false negatives. Integrity policies, which specify how data …

Investigating The Impact Of Inverter-Based Resources On Power Grid Dynamics, Ratik Mittal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the stability challenges posed by integrating Inverter-Based Resources (IBR) into power grids, particularly focusing on two major scenarios: IBRs connected to weak grid interconnections and their performance in series-compensated networks. With the increasing dependency on renewable energy sources, ensuring the stability of these grids is crucial. A multilayered investigative approach is employed, utilizing Electromagnetic Transient Simulations that model grid systems interfaced with IBRs. These simulations are pivotal as they emulate real-world stability issues and provide a foundational understanding of grid interactions. In this dissertation two major types of IBR control are modeled and analyzed: Grid Following Control …

Investigation Of Self-Assembly Of Hen Egg White Lysozyme Fibrils, Nabila Bushra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amyloid proteins are a large group of proteins that tend to aggregate and form insoluble fibrils with a characteristic cross-β sheet structure. Intriguingly, this process of “amyloid formation” has been simultaneously linked to devastating human diseases called amyloidoses, ranging from Alzheimer’s Disease, cardiac amyloidoses to type II diabetes, as well as functional biological responses such as hormone storage and sperm quality control. Amyloid fibrils have also attracted significant attention for their unique mechanical, chemical, and optical characteristics, establishing them as promising tough biomaterials. The urgent need to find treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, and the demand for safe and renewable biomaterials …

Evaluation Of Reduced Graphene Oxide For Advanced Thermal Management In Microwave Electronics Packaging, Utkarsh Misra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The continuous push towards making electronic devices smaller and denser, largely driven by the demand for higher power capabilities, has led to a critical need for innovative and comprehensive methods for managing the heat these devices generate. Traditional cooling solutions for electronics often rely on methods such as copper-based layers or channels to distribute and dispel heat. However, these conventional methods and materials are becoming increasingly insufficient, especially for Radio Frequency (RF) and millimeter-wave electronics. These components are becoming ever more compact while requiring more power, thus presenting unique challenges for thermal management in their packaging.

In this thesis we …

Use Of Nanoparticle Additives To Achieve Desirable Properties In Fluorine-Free Firefighting Foams, Annelise Kathleen Curtin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Class B Firefighting foams play a crucial role in protecting equipment and people fromliquid fuel fires but concerns regarding the impacts of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have resulted in bans on the use of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). Fluorine-free replacements are yet to achieve the same level of performance. Nanoparticles including silica and clay have been used to improve foam stability, especially in environments where hydrocarbon fuels are present. These materials have also been used in solid composites to improve fire resistance. The stability of aqueous foams containing silica and Laponite RD nanoparticles along with surfactants of different …

Role Of Hypogenesis In The Evolution Of Karst In The Taurus Mountains Range, Turkey, Serdar C. Bayari, Naciye Nur Özyurt, Lütfi Nazik, Koray A. Törk, Noyan İ. Güner, Emrah Pekkan, Pınar Avcı

International Journal of Speleology

Field observations and laboratory data collected from the Taurus Mountains Range, Turkey during the last two decades provided evidence for the link between the evolution of hypogene karst and the geodynamic history. Major evidence includes; carbonate-hosted secondary ore deposits that are converted from primarily hypogene minerals by epigene, oxygen-rich groundwater circulating at local to intermediate depths. Another piece of evidence of hypogene karst in the Tauride is the Kırkgöz springs’ huge submerged cave/conduit system, which formed the Antalya Travertine Plateau, which is the world’s largest deposit precipitated by cool karst groundwater. The obruks in central Tauride are giant collapse dolines …

High-Performance Computing In Next-Generation Sequencing Read Alignment, Minh H. Pham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advancements in Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) have dramatically reduced the cost and increased the speed of DNA sequencing. However, this rapid influx of data necessitates efficient and robust analysis tools, particularly for the complex task of aligning short NGS reads to reference genomes such as the human genome. We explore groundbreaking computational strategies and hardware acceleration to optimize this critical alignment process. This dissertation is structured around three innovative studies. First, we introduce a novel approach to dynamic memory allocation tailored for massively parallel systems, particularly Graphical Processing Units (GPUs), to support NGS alignment and other applications. Unlike traditional memory allocators …

An Investigation Of Quaternary Metal Chalcogenide Semiconductors Possessing Intrinsically Low Thermal Conductivity, Oluwagbemiga P. Ojo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Inorganic materials with unique physical properties are vital components of modern technology, from electronic devices to energy storage and conversion systems. Recent advancements in materials research and development have garnered significant interest, particularly in the realm of sustainable energy applications like thermoelectrics and photovoltaics. The development of novel materials with enhanced electronic and thermal properties has emerged as a focal point in advancing these critical applications. Furthermore, low thermal conductivity materials are sought after for technologically significant applications such as thermal barrier coatings, rewriteable data storage utilizing phase change materials and thermoelectrics. However, the current efficiency levels of materials used …

Emergent Magnetism And Hyperthermia In Phase- And Size-Tunable Iron Oxide Nanostructures, K Mudiyanselage Tharindu Supun Bandara Attanayake

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) hold immense potential across diverse fields, from spintronics, magnetic hyperthermia to drug delivery, biodetection, and magnetic resonance imaging. Unlocking these applications hinges on our ability to tailor the magnetic properties of IONPs, and this dissertation presents novel and powerful approaches for enhancing magnetic and hyperthermic responses of multiphase iron oxide nanostructures. This is achieved by manipulating their phase volume fraction, size, and shape with a focus on the magnetic tunability of nanostructures via strategic control over structural and environmental parameters. The aforementioned has been achieved by the following three key approaches: (i) phase-tunability of iron oxide …

A Speleogenetic History Of Novoafonskaya Cave In The Western Caucasus, Olga Chervyatsova, Sergey Potapov, Jonathan Baker, Dmitry Gavryushkin, Victor Polyak, Matt Heizler, Sergey Tokarev, Sergey Sadykov, Roman Dbar, Yuri Dublyansky

International Journal of Speleology

Speleogenesis in hypogene karst settings may be closely tied to regional tectonic dynamics and concomitant hydrochemical evolution of karst waters. However, placing temporal constraints on these processes can require a wider array of field observations and techniques than for typical karst systems. Herein, we present a comprehensive study of Novoafonskaya Cave (Western Caucasus, Abkhazia). The updated speleogenetic history of the cave comprises four stages: (1) the most ancient, a low-T hydrothermal (ca. 40–50°C) priming stage; (2) the main stage enabled by mixing of upwelling thermomineral and locally recharged common karst waters; (3) the late sulfuric-acid speleogenesis (SAS) stage, which left …

Monitoring Air Fluxes In Caves Using Digital Flow Metres, Claudio Pastore, Amir Sedaghatkish, Eric Weber, Nicolas Schmid, Pierre-Yves Jeannin, Marc Luetscher

International Journal of Speleology

Precise measurements of airflow within caves are increasingly demanded to assess heat and mass transfers and their impacts on the karst environment, including subsurface ecosystems, hydrochemistry of karst water and secondary mineral precipitates. In this study, we introduce a new, low-cost and lightweight device adapted to monitoring air fluxes in caves which addresses the need for reliable measurements, low power consumption, durability and affordability. The device was calibrated in a wind tunnel, showing the high accuracy and precision of the device. Field-related uncertainties were further investigated in a ventilated cave to determine the effect of local airflow conditions on the …

Winter Return Rates, Patch Fidelity, And Response To Prescribed Fire For Grasshopper And Savannah Sparrows In Southwestern Florida, Bob Altman, Kathleen N. Smith, Joseph Bozzo, Robert T. Meyer

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Habitat Associations For Eastern Black Rail (Laterallus Jamaicensis Jamaicensis) In South Florida, Chance Hines, Laura Duval, Bryan Watts

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

American Banding Directory Ii L-Z, Kenneth W. Prescott

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

American Banding Directory (A-K), Frederick S. Schaeffer

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

An Airboat-Scoop Technique Used To Capture Birds Roosting In A Cattail Marsh, Noel J. Cutright

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

Twenty-Four Eaglets: A Banding Odyssey, John B. Holt Jr.

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

Evening Grosbeaks In New Burnswick- Chapter V, Hapgood Parks

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

1968- A Hawkman's Year, John B. Holt Jr.

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

A Radio-Controlled Trap For Bluebirds And Other Hole-Nesting Birds, Lewis F. Kibler

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

Still Another Experience With Evening Grosbeaks In Canada, G. Hapgood Parks

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

Thick-Billed Murre, Frederick S. Schaeffer

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

Another Experience With Evening Grosbeaks In Canada, G. Hapgood Parks

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.

A New Twist Iin Net-Setting, Constance R. Katholi

Eastern Bird Banding Association News

No abstract provided.