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Comparison Of Conditioning Procedures To Condition Praise As A Reinforcer For Children With Autism, Cynthia P. Livingston

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disability characterized by social, behavioral, and communicative impairments. A primary characteristic of Autism includes impairment in social skills. Along the same lines, praise, defined as approval or admiration, does not always function as a reinforcer for this population. One way to address the absence of a reinforcement effect for praise is to condition praise as a reinforcer. The literature on conditioned reinforcement encompasses many procedural variations that have been shown to increase the reinforcing value of neutral stimuli. One such variation relatively new to the conditioned reinforcement literature includes observational conditioning. With observational conditioning, …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Understanding Predator-Prey Relationships In A Changing Ocean: From System Design To Education, Ileana M. Freytes-Ortiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is ecologically and socially complex, deemed the most important issue of our generation. Through this dissertation I have approached climate change research through an interdisciplinary perspective, investigating how this phenomenon will affect marine ecological systems, how we can better develop experimental systems to answer ecological questions, and how we can effectively educate about this issue.

In Chapter 2, I provided accessible alternatives for researching the effects of climate change (elevated temperatures and pCO2) on marine ecosystems. I designed, built, and troubleshooted two accurate and inexpensive climate-controlled experimental systems capable of maintaining target conditions: a temperature-controlled system and an …

Theory And Application Of Geophysical Geodesy For Studying Earth Surface Deformation, Makan A. Karegar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An interdisciplinary approach at the interface between geodesy and geophysics has recently resolved several Earth science problems at regional and global scales. I use the term “geophysical geodesy” to distinguish the technical and theoretical aspect of geodesy from geophysical applications of geodetic techniques. Using a wide range of Earth observation data, I study the spatio-temporal characteristics of Earth surface deformation in the United States associated with several geophysical processes, including natural and anthropogenic subsidence and uplift, regional relative sea-level rise, and continental hydrological loading. The theoretical portion of this dissertation applies loading theory and develops a new hybrid method to …

The Role Of Pulmonary Stretch Receptor Afferents In Swallow-Breathing Coordination: A Comparison Of Central Respiratory Rhythm Versus Mechanical Ventilation On Swallow In A Decerebrate Feline Model, Kofi-Kermit A. Horton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Swallowing is an essential motor act that coordinates the movement of food or saliva from the mouth through the pharynx and into the esophagus while protecting the upper airways from aspiration of those materials. Disordered swallowing, or dysphagia, results when bolus movement from the oropharyngeal phase into the esophageal phase is uncoordinated. Dysphagia directly causes or increases the risk of aspiration during swallowing in many clinical pathologies including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cerebrovascular incidents (stroke) in addition to being prevalent among the elderly population. The coordination between breathing and swallowing is mediated through the interaction of the swallow and respiratory …

Decreased Visibility: A Narrative Analysis Of Episodic Disability And Contested Illness, Melissa Jane Welch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States alone, disability touches the lives of a tremendous amount of people. An increased prevalence of chronic illness, coupled with an aging population means it is likely and perhaps inevitable that everyone will experience disability in one way or another over the course of their lifetime. However not everyone who is disabled is recognized as such. Culturally, the narrative of “the healthy disabled person,” – or someone who is healthy, permanently, predictably, and visibly disabled renders many people with chronic and episodic pain, fatigue, and illness as unrecognizable as disabled. Even though increasing numbers of disability scholars …

Performing The Black-White Biracial Identity: The Material, Discursive, And Psychological Components Of Subject Formation, Travis M. Marn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this new materialist study was to examine the subject performativity of ‘biracial’ individuals in an interview setting in order to disrupt the humanist assumptions of racial identity in psychological research. I also sought to promote critical resistance to subjectification to examine ‘race’ without reifying participants’ raced subjects. Four research questions guided this study: How does the researcher, researched, and interview intra-activity serve to instantiate the biracial subject? Under what material alterations to the interview process do different subjects come to be? Which subjects come to be or fail to come to be in the interview intra-action? How …

Broadening The Lens: A Systems Approach To Nursing Home Quality Improvement, Kelly M. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The National Quality Award Program, sponsored by the American Healthcare Association National Center for Assisted Living, was implemented to cultivate continuous quality improvement in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Based upon the Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence, the program utilizes a systems-based or Big “Q” approach to quality and requires applicants to examine seven categories of their organizational environment including: 1) leadership, 2) strategy, 3) customers, 4) measurement, analysis, and knowledge management, 5) workforce, 6) operations, and 7) results. The subsequent dissertation examines whether award status is associated with better performance on publicly reported quality measures and financial performance …

Offensive And Defensive Security For Everyday Computer Systems, Ian Markwood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation treats a variety of topics in the computer security domain which have direct impact on everyday life. The first extends false data injection attacks against state estimation in electric power grids and then provides a novel power flow model camouflage method to hamper these attacks. The second deals with automotive theft response, detailing a method for a car to intelligently identify when it has been stolen, based on collected behavioral traits of its driver. The third demonstrates a new attack against the content integrity of the PDF file format, caus- ing humans and computers to see different information …

Assessing Bald Cypress (Taxodium Distichum) Tree Dynamic Change In Usf Forest Preserve Area Using Mixture-Tuned Matched Filtering And Multitemporal Satellite Imagery, Yujia Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands are the most important and valuable ecosystems on Earth. They are called “kidneys of the Earth”. Vegetation change detection is necessary to understand the condition of a wetland and to support ecosystem sustainable management and utilization. It has been a great challenge to estimate vegetation (including bald cypress trees) coverage of the wetland because it is difficult to access directly. Satellite remote sensing technology can be one important feasible method to map and monitor changes of wetland forest vegetation and land cover over large areas. Remote sensing mapping techniques have been applied to detect and map vegetation changes in …

Effects Of Motivation On Prospective Memory Performance In Huntington's Disease, Emily Jane Kellogg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prospective memory (PM) refers to memory for future intentions and involves several cognitive processes including memory, executive functions, and attention. PM has been studied extensively in clinical populations in which these cognitive processes are impaired but has only recently been studied in Huntington’s disease (HD), a neurodegenerative disease of the basal ganglia that is associated with neuropsychiatric, movement, and cognitive changes. The purpose of the present study was to further examine PM in HD, as well as investigate the influence of impulsivity on PM performance and whether a monetary incentive (either reward or loss) would improve PM performance. Results of …

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Analysis Of Behavioral Patterns And Treatment Barriers, Kimberly A. Knap

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties with social communication and restrictive, repetitive, and stereotyped behavior patterns that place them at an increased risk for developing challenging behaviors that warrant early intervention (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These problems are unlikely to decrease without intervention. Research indicates that parents’ involvement in behaviorally based interventions improves the functioning of children with ASD (Horner, Carr, Strain, Todd, & Reid, 2002). . Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (Eyberg & Funderburk, 2011) is an empirically supported intervention for young children with disruptive behaviors. PCIT shares similarities with numerous proven ASD treatments including caregiver involvement, structure …

Ability Of The Iso Predicted Heat Strain Method To Predict A Limiting Heat Stress Exposure, Edgar Prieto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heat stress is one of many physical agents to which thousands of workers are under constant exposure. Oftentimes it is necessary to work above the WBGT-based heat stress exposure limits. It is therefore important to consider alternative measures that include an exposure time limit to manage the heat stress. Predicted Heat Strain (PHS) (ISO7933) is one of those alternatives. PHS uses both personal factors like height and weight and job factors of environment, metabolic rate and clothing. The purpose of this project is to determine whether the PHS is an adequate method to predict short term exposure limits.

The project’s …

Validity Of A Dynamic Spanish Assessment Of Phonological Awareness In Emergent Bilingual Children, Kelsey R. Wyman Chin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the current decade, the number of Hispanic students has doubled so that about 16% of the total student population within the United States are Spanish-speakers (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). With this growing population comes a responsibility to understand and implement best practices for educating these students. Because literacy is a building-block for learning, one integral part of this responsibility consists of developing valid and reliable means of assessing pre-reading skills that are predictive of later reading abilities (Lonigan, Burgess, & Anthony, 2000; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994).

English-language learning children are being identified for having reading difficulties and disabilities …

Toward Verifiable Adaptive Control Systems: High-Performance And Robust Architectures, Benjamin Charles Gruenwald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, new model reference adaptive control architectures are presented with stability, performance, and robustness considerations, to address challenges related to the verification of adaptive control systems.

The challenges associated with the transient performance of adaptive control systems is first addressed using two new approaches that improve the transient performance. Specifically, the first approach is predicated on a novel controller architecture, which involves added terms in the update law entitled artificial basis functions. These terms are constructed through a gradient optimization procedure to minimize the system error between an uncertain dynamical system and a given reference model during the …

Orientation Invariance Methods For Inertial Gait, Ravichandran Subramanian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Intelligent devices such as smart phones, smart watches, virtual reality (VR) headsets and personal exercise devices have become integral elements of accessories used by many people. The ability of these devices to verify or identify the user could be applied for enhanced security and user experience customization among other things. Almost all these devices have built-in inertial sensors such as accelerometer and gyroscope. These inertial sensors respond to the movements made by the user while performing day to day activities like walking, getting up and sitting down. The response depends on the activity being performed and thus can be used …

Quantitative Measurement Of Cerebral Hemodynamics During Activation Of Auditory Cortex With Single- And Multi-Distance Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Penaz Parveen Sultana Mohammad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a safe, low-cost, non-invasive opti-cal technique to monitor focal changes in brain activity using neurovascular coupling and measurements of local tissue oxygenation, i.e., changes in concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HbR)[42]. This thesis utilizes two fNIRS approaches to measure hemodynamic changes associated with functional stimulation of the human auditory cortex. The first approach, single-distance continuous wave NIRS (CW-NIRS) utilizes relatively simple instrumentation and the Modified-Beer Lambert (MBL) law to estimate activation induced changes in tissue oxygenation (∆CHbO and ∆CHbR)[17]. The second more complex approach, frequency domain NIRS (FD-NIRS), employs a photon …

Early Literacy Abilities In Spanish-English Emergent Bilingual Children From Varied Dialectal Backgrounds, Antonietta Mastrota

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Hispanic population within the United States has grown to a considerable amount. The state of Florida’s population is 25% Hispanic, with projected estimates of this population continuing to grow in the coming years (Ortman & Shin, 2011). Statistics show that 28.3% of the state’s population, over the age of five, speak a language other than English at home. With this considerable number of Spanish-speakers comes the responsibility to adjust certain educational practices to best meet their needs. Literacy is an essential part of learning, and therefore assessing early literacy is an essential part to any child’s academic development.

Phonological …

Towards Fundamental Understanding Of Thermoelectric Properties In Novel Materials Using First Principles Simulations, Artem R. Khabibullin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thermoelectric materials play an important role in energy conversion as they represent environmentally safe and solid state devices with a great potential towards enhancing their efficiency. The ability to generate electric power in a reliable way without using non-renewable resources motivates many experimentalists as well as computational physicists to search and design new thermoelectric materials. Several classes of materials have been identified as good candidates for high efficient thermoelectrics because of their inherently low thermal conductivity. The complex study of the crystal and electronic structures of such materials helps to reveal hidden properties and give fundamental understanding, necessary for the …

Evaluating A Peer-Implemented Intervention For Increasing Physical Activity During School Recess, Carolina E. Luque

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Physical inactivity is a significant issue in the United States that has been linked to multiple health concerns. Few studies have used behavioral interventions during opportunities available in school, such as recess. There is a need for low effort and accessible interventions to increase children’s physical activity during these opportunities. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of a peer-implemented recess intervention that uses student pairing and feedback to increase physical activity. Step count was recorded by a pedometer. Peer leaders were trained in a group using behavioral skills training. A new leader performed the task-analyzed …

Using Contingency Maps To Teach Requests For Information, Roberto Andrade-Plaza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder characterized by social, behavioral, and communicative deficits. Although there is no known cure for autism, there are many research-based interventions that aid in strengthening such deficits, especially those associated with failures of stimulus control One way to address such failures is to provide additional stimuli that enhance or override information provided by naturally occurring stimuli. Contingency maps are one such example. This study uses an observing response (i.e., hand-raising) to allow the subjects to request contingency maps. The purpose of this study is to identify if contingency maps function as reinforcers and if …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Shape Characteristics Of Marine Snow Particles With Interactive Visualization: Validation Of Assumptions In Coagulation Models, Palak P. Dave

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill that started on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. There was an unexpected and prolonged sedimentation event of oil-associated marine snow to the seafloor due to the oil spill. The sedimentation event occurred because of the coagulation process among oil associated marine particles. Marine scientists are developing models for the coagulation process of marine particles and oil, in order to estimate the amount of oil that may reach the seafloor along with marine particles. These models, used certain assumptions regarding …

Chemical Investigation Of Bioactive Marine Extracts, Selam Hagos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural products have been a fundamental source of medicinal scaffolds for decades; with sixty percent of marketed drugs. Many synthetic chemists are focused on synthesizing potent and nontoxic compounds for pharmaceutical targets, however, nature is still proving to be a source of new bioactive compounds. Produced by the host organism for defense, reproduction and communication, secondary metabolites also demonstrate promising bioactivity against human pathogens. Hence, natural product chemists continue their quest for new leads.

As a continuation of these efforts, this thesis attempts to explore fungi and sponges for new chemistry, and ultimately, new drug candidates. Antarctica is largely untapped; …

An Evaluation Of Marsh Shoreline Erosion And Sediment Deposition In The Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Mississippi, Usa, Joseph Terrano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal marshes serve important ecologic and economic functions, such as providing habitat, absorbing floodwaters and storm surges, and sequestering carbon. Throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico, coastal marshes are disappearing due to wave attack, sea-level rise, sediment export, and subsidence. Marsh area increases when sediments accumulate at the marsh shoreline, accrete vertically, and when non-marsh areas are colonized by marsh vegetation. Marsh shoreline erosion results in net marsh loss when transgression rates at the marsh-water edge exceed upland-marsh migration. The balance between marsh destroying and marsh creating processes determines the long-term survivability of a marsh system. Thus, processes of shoreline …

Defect Laden Metal Oxides And Oxynitrides For Sustainable Low Temperature Carbon Dioxide Conversion To Fuel Feedstocks, Debtanu Maiti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current energy and environmental scenario in the world demands acute attention on sustainable repurposing of waste CO2 to high value hydrocarbons that not only addresses the CO2 mitigation problem, but also provides pathways for a closed loop synthetic carbon cycle. Difference in the scales of global CO2 emissions (about 40 Gtpa, 2017) and the carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) facilities (estimated cumulative 40 Mtpa, 2018) provokes active research on this topic. Solar thermochemical (STC) and visible light photocatalysis are two of the most promising routes that have garnered attention for this purpose. While STC has the advantages of high …

The Role Of Fathers In Behavioral Parent Training: An Exploration Of Parent-Related Factors In Parent And Child Treatment Outcomes, Brittany L. Jordan-Arthur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite a well-documented need for parent training in the treatment and prevention of child behavior problems, as well as the well-documented benefit of including fathers in preventative and treatment interventions, surprisingly little clinical intervention research examines the role of fathers in such trainings. This research examined the role of father involvement in behavioral parent training by examining parent-related characteristics in relation to treatment outcomes for both mothers and fathers, examining differences between mothers and fathers, and examining the additive benefit of including fathers in treatment across two studies. Both studies utilized archival data obtained from a university- and community-based parent …

Channel Camouflage And Manipulation Techniques In Wireless Networks, Song Fang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The security of wireless networks and systems is becoming increasingly important as wireless devices are more and more ubiquitous nowadays. The wireless channel exhibits the spatial uncorrelation property, which is that the characteristics of a wireless channel become uncorrelated every half carrier wavelength over distance. This property has prompted an emerging research area that utilizes wireless channel characteristics to achieve location distinction, to detect location changes or facilitate authentication of wireless users, and to establish shared secret key between legitimate communicators. This dissertation includes two work toward the security improvement of existing wireless networks and systems. With the discovered channel …

Evaluating Video Modeling To Teach Job Seeking Skills: Composing A Professional Email, Scott A. Fontechia Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the disabilities community, individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis consistently have some of the most detrimental employment related statistics. To address this issue, this study evaluated video modeling, an evidence-based procedure, in teaching professional emailing skills to individuals diagnosed with ASD when applying for a job. Results of the study support video modeling research as an effective teaching tool. Significant skill acquisition, in composing a professional email, occurred across all participants. Seventy-five percent of participants concluded the study at mastery level. Implications of this study are immediately impactful on the ASD community as a new evidence-based transition …

Expediting The Consolidation Of Clayey Soils Utilizing Microwaves, Thilini Jayatissa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Post-construction settlement has been an issue in the field of construction due to the excessive time taken for the dissipation of pore water pressure. This is significant for construction carried out on clayey soils primarily due to the low permeability of clayey soils. Therefore, attention has been directed at finding means of increasing the rate of pre-consolidation. Recent research has focused on the effects of temperature on consolidation. It has been shown that elevated temperature increases the hydraulic conductivity of pore water due to both the reduction of viscosity and differential volumetric expansion of soil and water. This results in …

Relationship Between Intelligibility And Response Accuracy Of The Amazon Echo In Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Exhibiting Mild-Moderate Dysarthria, Caroline A. Layden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an ever-growing and increasing amount of technology options that use speech recognition software. Currently, the market includes smartphones, computers, and individual smart home personal assistants that allow for hands-free access to this technology. Research studies have explored the utility of these assistive devices for the completion of activities of daily living; however, there is limited research looking at the accuracy of voice recognition software within smart home personal assistants in populations with disordered speech. In persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), symptoms include changes to motor functions, speech in particular, and it is unknown how some of these …

The Impact Of Vocabulary Knowledge On Nonword Judgments In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Marisa E. Leyden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis suggests that the range of vocabulary in an individual’s lexicon has an influence on in their assessment of nonword wordlikeness. The study included thirteen Spanish-English bilinguals who participated in a language dominance questionnaire, standardized assessments of Spanish and English vocabulary knowledge, and Spanish and English wordlikeness judgment tasks. Resulting data demonstrated moderate correlations between vocabulary knowledge and performance on nonword wordlikeness judgement tasks in Spanish and English. Participants with larger lexicons appeared more tolerant of less probable nonwords, those with low phonotactic probability, while those with smaller lexicons were less accepting of nonwords with low phonotactic probability. The …