Digital Commons Network^™

Sea Surface Temperatures, The Gulf Of Mexico Loop Current, Hurricane Ian, And Their Junction, Alexander K. Nickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first chapter, a climatology was created for the deep Gulf of Mexico, West Florida Shelf, and Tampa Bay. These climatologies were compared to each other and to global temperatures. Seasonal variability is shown to be a product of bathymetry as well as latitude. In Chapter Two, using the self-organizing map neural network, patterns of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current were analyzed to establish phases with necessary and sufficient conditions for translation from one phase to the next. Two separate patterns of evolution were established from these analyses, and empirical arguments are used to confirm the findings from …

Gnsi Decision Brief: Did We Miss The Golden Hour? Foreign Assistance And The Collapse Of Afghanistan, Alexious Butler, Guido Rossi

GNSI Decision Briefs

James Stephenson former country director for Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), explains in his book Losing the Golden Hour that there is a short window of time – usually a year or so – immediately following the cessation of hostilities in a country during which any assistance efforts will prove successful, or not, in the long term. This time frame is known as “the golden hour,” a lease from the medical field referring to the few precious minutes after a traumatic injury when proper first aid can make the difference between life or death.

An argument …

Deep Reinforcement Learning For Adaptive Network Slicing In 5g For Intelligent Vehicular Systems And Smart Cities, Almuthanna Nassar, Yasin Yilmaz

USF Patents

Systems and methods for processing a service request within a network environment can include a first cluster of fog nodes that execute service tasks. The cluster can include a primary fog node and nearest neighbor fog nodes. The primary fog node can receive, from the network, a service request, determine service request resource data that includes a first time, quantity of resource blocks required to serve the request, and a hold time required to serve the request locally. An edge controller, connected to the network and the first cluster, can receive, from the primary fog node, the service request resource …

The Mediating Effect Of Self-Efficacy And Symptom Distress In The Relationship Between Symptom Occurrence And Quality Of Life Among Cancer Patients, Kailei Yan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer symptoms significantly impact the quality of life (QOL) among cancer patients. Self-efficacy plays a key role in managing symptoms and improving QOL. Also, as a suffering from symptom occurrence, symptom distress predicts QOL. However, it is not clear whether self-efficacy and/or symptom distress mediate the effects of symptoms on QOL. This dissertation seeks to explore if and how self-efficacy and symptom distress mediate the relationship between symptom occurrence and QOL among 534 cancer patients. The specific aims were to: 1) test the factor structure and the longitudinal invariance of the Cancer Behavioral Inventory in our sample of cancer patients …

Satellite-Based Mapping Of Seagrass Habitats And Coastal Wetlands In The Us Gulf Of Mexico And Florida: A Remote Sensing Approach For Environmental Conservation And Management, Luis Lizcano-Sandoval

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal wetlands and seagrass meadows provide multiple services to nature and human society, but their spatial and temporal changes are often not well characterized. They are habitats that are threatened by natural and human causes such as changes in water quality, urban development, pollution, and climate change, among others. Coastal ecosystems rely on water quality and sea level variability for survival, and changes in those variables and their potential effects are of concern to many coastal communities. Satellite remote sensing is a powerful tool that has been used for mapping ecosystem distribution on land and in the ocean. Satellite sensors …

Targeting Tumor Microenvironmental Factors In Bladder Cancer To Enhance Responses With Immunotherapy, Sarah Bazargan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bladder cancer is the tenth most common cancer in the world and has one of the highest recurrence rates. Despite the local delivery options and mutational status of bladder tumors, responses with immunotherapies have been limited with low durability. The bladder tumor microenvironment is enriched with highly immunosuppressive populations and harsh conditions that restrict anti-tumor immunity and subsequently attenuate immunotherapy response. We predict that targeting two of these immunosuppressive components, namely acidity and myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), will bolster T cell responses and enhance outcomes with immunotherapy. In Chapter 2, we characterized the effects of acidity on T cell …

A Case Study Of A Large School District’S High School Principals’ Instructional Decision-Making For Students With Disabilities, Laura Meehan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of a large school district and it’s high school principals’ approach to instructional decision making for students with disabilities. This study explores how principals utilize teaching resources and make instructional decisions for students receiving special education services on their campus. Using district-wide quantitative data on special education students in high school, this study offers a comprehensive view of how these students are served. Additionally, five in-depth interviews with high school principals currently serving in the district provide qualitative insights into leadership practices. Findings from this study reveal variation in how students with disabilities are …

Self-Doubt: Impostor Phenomenon And The Doctoral Seeking School-Based Leader, Rose Apollon-Simon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative narrative inquiry explores the experiences of school-based administrators in K-12 public school settings within the state of Florida who navigate the challenges of Impostor Phenomenon while concurrently pursuing a doctoral degree. The research draws on the personal stories of four participants—three women and one man—who are currently or previously employed as principals or assistant principals. The study focused on how participants manage the psychological tensions coming from their experiences with Impostor Phenomenon or the persistent self-doubt and the fear of being exposed as a fraud. While most Impostor Phenomenon research has concentrated on fields like business, medicine, and …

Zooplankton Abundance, Composition, And Diversity And Associated Environmental Factors Across The Gulf Of Mexico And Along The Northwestern Coast Of Cuba, Shaniqua J. Gladney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My research focused on characterizing the zooplankton community of two regions in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) along two transects, one across the middle of the GOM from Tuxpan, Mexico, to St. Petersburg, FL, and one along the northwestern coast of Cuba. Zooplankton bongo samples and associated environmental and physical processes were examined. These data were collected during two Center for Integrated Modeling and Analysis of Gulf Ecosystems (C-IMAGE) expeditions aboard the R/V Weatherbird II, during September 2015 (GOM) and May 2017 (Cuba). A Zooscan imaging system was used to identify and enumerate zooplankton taxa. Then zooplankton abundance, composition, and …

Side-Channel Analysis Platform For A Hardware Implementation Of Fips 203 (Crystals-Kyber), Mohamed Mossad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2024, NIST selected the Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithm CRYSTALS-Kyber for standardization as a public-key encryption, key establishment scheme. CRYSTALS-Kyber was standardized under the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS), specifically FIPS 203. FIPS standards represent a set of guidelines, developed by NIST, for secure data handling in federal information systems, mandating cryptographic algorithms that protect sensitive information. This highlights the importance of identifying potential vulnerabilities in the algorithm and assessing how CRYSTALS-Kyber implementations react to hardware side channel attacks. Previous research identified several vulnerabilities in implementations of CRYSTALS-Kyber in software, which were addressed in subsequent releases. This thesis focuses on expanding …

Learning Peer Support Interactions Via Bi-Lstm Graph Neural Networks For Suicide Risk Prediction, Harikrishna Marampelly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Suicide prevention through early detection using social media data has been widely studied. However, the critical role of peer support interactions among individuals with similar mental disorders has not been deeply investigated or explored. In this study, we explore peer interactions in online communities for individuals with bipolar disorder and leverage this information to predict suicide risk levels. We propose a model that uses contextualized posts and comments along with their sentiment features. By embedding these features into a peer support network, our model captures peer interactions and predicts suicide risk levels using the bidirectional LSTM Graph Neural Networks (Bi-LSTM …

Chikungunya Pathogenesis In Cardiac Tissues And Its Evaluation In Stem Cell Derived Cardiac Models, Elizabeth M. Traverse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) is a single stranded RNA alphavirus primarily vectored by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos. CHIKV has circulated in tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa and Asia, but outbreaks in the past two decades have seen the virus spread to Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. Disease from CHIKV infection typically results in fever, malaise, and sometimes debilitating arthralgia. However, there are concerning abnormal presentations that affect the human heart, including myocarditis, heart failure, and death. These symptoms are seen in all age groups and sexes and are not connected to particular strains or mutations in the …

Integrating Risk And Vulnerability: Exploring A Unified Model For Supply Chain Resiliency, William G. Cook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The world has entered an era of retreating globalization, mounting geo-political tensions, rising protectionism, and increasing focus on the fragility of complex supply chains. The negative impacts of supply chain disruptions have been increasingly documented since the turn of the century. Given the global scale of recent disruptions, supply chain resiliency has become a national imperative. The Global Financial Crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other major disruptive events demonstrate the active role of government in mitigating damage, the enduring effects of regulation, and the resultant re-evaluation of supply chain strategies by the private and public sectors. In this environment, supply …

Manifestations Of Sulfuric Acid Speleogenesis In The Mulapampa Travertine, Central Andes Of Peru: Evidence From The Gruta Con Lago, Andrzej Tyc, Krzysztof Gaidzik, Justyna Ciesielczuk, Katarzyna Wątor

International Journal of Speleology

Sulfuric acid speleogenesis (SAS) is a form of hypogene speleogenesis characterized by the formation of caves in carbonate rocks due to the presence of sulfuric acid. This study focuses on the Gruta con Lago, one of three caves identified in the Mulapampa travertine, located in the central Andes of Peru. These caves are accessed through collapse sinkholes, and much of their morphology results from roof breakdown. The bottom of the studied cave is situated at the current water table. Despite the absence of typical solutional features associated with SAS caves, mineralogical and geochemical evidence of speleogenesis involving H₂SO …

Revision Strategies And Academic Socialization Of Multilingual Graduate Students, Sean E. Farrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that revision is a complex practice guided by a variety of factors; however, the nature of the relationship between these factors and the revisions themselves, along with how the revision process contributes to academic socialization, remains understudied. A more comprehensive understanding of revision can lead to a deeper understanding of the support that will be most effective for multilingual graduate students. This study thus aims to determine (1) what revision strategies multilingual graduate students use, (2) what factors mediate these strategies, and (3) the extent to which these revisions index a shift in academic socialization. To answer these …

Essays On Information Technology In Healthcare, Gleb Zavadskiy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Information technologies (IT) and information systems (IS) have profound significance across various sectors of society, including healthcare, business, education, government, and beyond. First, IT facilitates instant communication globally through email, messaging apps, video conferencing, and social media, revolutionizing how individuals and organizations interact, collaborate, and share information (Hacker et al. 2020; Tang and Hew 2020).

Secondly, the Internet and digital libraries provide worldwide access to vast amounts of information, what makes knowledge and education available to everyone, empowering individuals to learn and stay informed on diverse topics (Haleem et al. 2022). Another aspect of IT systems in various industries is …

A Disparate Disaster: Spatial Patterns Of Building Damage Caused By Hurricane Ian And Associated Socio-Economic Factors, Md Zakaria Salim, Yi Qiang, Barnali Dixon, Jennifer Collins

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The literature shows that communities under different socio-economic conditions suffer different levels of damage in disasters. In addition to the physical intensity of hazards, such differences are also related to the varying abilities of communities to prepare for and respond to disasters. This study analyzes the spatial patterns of building damage in Hurricane Ian in 2022 and investigates the socio-economic disparities related to the damage. Specifically, this study employs NASA’s Damage Proxy Map (DPM2) to analyze spatial patterns of building damage caused by the hurricane. Then, it uses statistical analysis to assess the relationships between building damage and hurricane intensity, …

Computer Networking With Security Features, Mohamed Rahouti, Kaiqi Xiong

USF Patents

Described herein relates to a system and method for the prevention of a malicious attack on a computing resource. In embodiments, the system may comprise the following, including but not limited to: (1) at least one processor; and (2) computer memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations including: (a) observing traffic flow of a network; (b) altering a SYN threshold value based on the observing of the traffic flow of the network; (c) comparing a metric of SYN messages submitted to the network; and (d) based …

Superhydrophobic Covalent Organic Framework Materials, Shengqian Ma, Qi Sun

USF Patents

A variety of superhyrdophobic porous materials are provided including a covalent organic framework having a plurality of perfluoroalkyl or perfluorheteroalkyl moieties covalently attached thereto. The materials can include a polymeric foam matrix made of a three-dimensional network of polymer fibers, and the covalent organic framework can be made encasing at least a portion of the polymer fibers. The covalent organic framework can be intertwined within the polymeric foam matrix such that the covalent organic framework encasing the portion of the polymer fibers is stable to mechanical compression of the polymeric foam matrix. Surfaces and other articles are provided including the …

Back Matter, Maryland Birdlife

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Maryland Birdlife

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Corrigendum: Maryland Christmas Bird Counts (118th Cbc) December 2017 Through January 2018, Maryland Birdlife

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Osprey (Pandion Haliaetus) Nest Success In Central Chesapeake Bay During 1975-1980, Jan G. Reese

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus) Mortalities In Maryland, 1988–2017, Glenn D. Therres

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Near Catastrophe To Recovery: A Northern Bobwhite (Colinus Virginianus) Success Story In Maryland, Daniel M. Small, C. Robert Long

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Maryland Birdlife

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Pelagic Bird Species Chronologies And Distributions For Chesapeake Bay And Its Tributaries, Jan G. Reese, Jeffery D. Sullivan

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Maryland Pelagic Records From The Royal Navy Birdwatching Society, Phillip C. Davis

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Maryland Birdlife

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Maryland Birdlife

Maryland Birdlife

No abstract provided.