Digital Commons Network^™

Comparison Of Parameter Estimation Approaches For Multi-Unidimensional Pairwise Preference Tests, Naidan Tu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multidimensional forced choice (MFC) testing has been proposed as a way of reducing response biases in noncognitive measurement. Although early item response theory (IRT) research focused on illustrating that trait scores with normative properties could be obtained using various MFC models and formats, more recent attention has been devoted to exploring the processes involved in test construction and how that influences MFC scores. This research compared two approaches for estimating Multi-Unidimensional Pairwise Preference model (MUPP; Stark et al., 2005) parameters based on the Generalized Graded Unfolding Model (GGUM; Roberts et al., 2000). More specifically, we compared the efficacy of statement …

Impacts Of Model Misspecification On Individual-Level Differential Item Functioning Detection In Multilevel Data Using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model, Yue Yin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) has become more and more popular in detecting differential item functioning (DIF) items in multilevel contexts due to its flexibility and efficiency. This dissertation aims to investigate and compare four different HGLM DIF detection models under various DIF conditions with multilevel data. Three studies were conducted in this dissertation. The first two studies were simulation studies and the third one was an empirical study. Simulation Study One compared the performance of two-level HGLM and three-level HGLM with the individual-level covariate (HGLM-IL) on detecting individual-level DIF items with two-level and three-level data structures. Simulation Study Two …

Employees Breaking Bad With Technology: An Exploratory Analysis Of Human Factors That Drive Cyberspace Insider Threats, Marcus L. Green

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As implementation of computer systems has continued to grow in business contexts, employee-driven cyberspace infractions have also grown in number. Employee cyberspace behaviors have continued to have detrimental effects on company computer systems. Actions that violate company cybersecurity policies can be either malicious or unmalicious. Solutions, by and large, have been electronic and centered on hardware and software. Those proposing solutions have begun to shift their focus to human risk vulnerabilities.

This study was novel in that its focus was identification of individual, cultural, and technological risk factors that drive cyberspace insider threat activities. Identifying factors that reduce insider threat …

Development Of Carbon And Silicon Carbide Based Microelectrode Implantable Neural Interfaces, Chenyin Feng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of neural modulation techniques to treat nervous system disorders, as well as neural recording to study brain function, continues to be of intense interest around the world. Due to the need to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s, dementia, depression and return normal function to patients suffering from nervous system damage and trauma, neural implants continue to be developed globally. One of these devices, the microelectrode implantable neural interface (mINI), has been rapidly developed, thanks to advanced semiconductor fabrication processes. However, the long-term reliability of present-day devices has still to be demonstrated and is delaying the application of this …

Retaining And Supporting Graduate Racially Minoritized Students: A Critical Analysis, Patricia Y. Gills

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to critique the racial status quo of a school psychology graduate training program by gaining the perspectives of former and current racially minoritized students from the program. Additionally, this study aimed to utilize this information to provide implications for how to dismantle the racist and oppressive structures within the school psychology program. This study also aimed to analyze the success of research recommendations in helping racially minoritized students defeat the systemic barriers to completing a school psychology program. I conducted one-hour, semi-structured interviews of eight school psychology graduate racially minoritized students from the school psychology program. I …

Public Budgeting As Moral Dilemma, Ben Wroblewski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Government budget managers are responsible for the proper stewardship of public funds and facilitating the business transactions necessary to meet the public’s needs. Sometimes, during these decisions, managers can experience pressure to make an unethical decision. A better understanding of this issue can help organizations prevent misallocation of funds and adverse effects within the community. The problem is that the general pressure model lacks a framework to explain the decision-making process. Moral utility theory can provide insight into how people weigh or score choices with ethical considerations. This study found that government budget managers included their self-interests when experiencing tension …

From River To Sea: Improving Carbon System Measurement Methods For Use In Rivers, Estuaries, And Oceans, Ellie Hudson-Heck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last 30 years, spectrophotometric methodologies have been developed, with increasing rigor, to accurately measure all four carbon system parameters: total alkalinity (A_T), total carbon (C_T), partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂), and pH. Spectrophotometric measurements of carbon system parameters rely on quantitative characterizations of the response of sulfonephthalein indicator dyes (e.g., meta-cresol purple (mCP), thymol blue (TB), and bromocresol purple (BCP)) to changing solution pH, as well the response of indicator physical-chemical characteristics to key environmental variables (salinity (S_P), temperature (T), and pressure). Until recently, the physical-chemical properties …

External And Internal Factors Of Sports Sponsorship Selling Cycles In North American Professional Sports, Dan Kaufmann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In sports sponsorship, sellers and management seek to shorten their sales cycles to renew, upsell, and close new business. This research covers what professional sports organizations can do to help shorten the sales process. The study includes an industry analysis, literature review, and a mixed method survey of 212 people within the North American Sports Sponsorship Industry. The surveyed individuals are C-suite sponsorship salespeople and managers. These individuals work in the following professional sports leagues in North America: The National Football League (NFL), National Basketball League (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and Major League Soccer (MLS). …

Asking The Experts: Perception Of The Relative Importance Of Antecedents Of Optimal Financial Behavior, Chad M. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although there is ample research on financial behavior, the inclusion of financial planners in the sample frames of such research is rare. This study used certified financial planners (CFPs) as the sole sample population to identify antecedents of optimal financial behavior and their relative importance. Data from a nationally representative sample of 167 CFPs indicated that (a) financial literacy lost relative importance as CFP tenure increased, (b) romantic partnership closely rivaled financial literacy in importance, (c) financial literacy was more weakly correlated with romantic partnership than with the other antecedents investigated, and (d) romantic partnership was universally accepted as a …

Social Constructivism In Chemistry Peer Leaders And Organic Chemistry Students, Aaron M. Clark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social constructivist learning is a goal in many STEM programs. The goal of this dissertation is to shed light on what that pedagogy looks like in the context of organic chemistry courses and by peer leaders whose job is to implement this pedagogy with general chemistry and organic chemistry students. Learning is complex; the social constructivist ideas presented in this dissertation, however, are a straightforward means for promoting learning. Qualitative and quantitative methods used to explore social constructivist learning are outlined.

Three investigations were conducted: First, approaches to learning by students completing the first semester of a yearlong organic chemistry …

Synthesis Of Small Molecules For The Treatment Of Infectious Diseases, Elena Bray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drug discovery’s impact on modern healthcare cannot be measured. In the past year, the world has watched scientists all around the globe work together to help protect the public from the novel coronavirus pandemic. Although sometimes slow and costly, drug discovery is important for advancing modern society. Drug discovery is at the core of treating diseases and in particular, infectious diseases. In the first chapter an overview of drug discovery will be discussed in a brief manner.

The second chapter will introduce infectious diseases. In modern society, the development of small molecule treatments for treating bacteria, viruses, and fungi has …

Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Analysis Of The Hydraulic Performance And Bio-Kinetics In A Full-Scale Oxidation Ditch, Kiesha C. Pierre

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An oxidation ditch is a biological wastewater treatment unit process where microorganisms are utilized to transform organic matter, and nitrogen from wastewater to meet the desirable effluent concentrations. Mechanical aerators are part of these biological reactors facilitating oxygen transfer for the aerobic microorganisms, while agitating and circulating the phase constituents within the ditch. Modeling the performance of an oxidation ditch involves combining hydrodynamics, oxygen mass transfer, and bio-kinetics and is one of the grand challenges that is of paramount importance in optimization of design and operations of these facilities in an energy efficient way while meeting the targeted effluent concentrations. …

Development And Validation Of A Scale To Measure Songwriting Self-Efficacy (Sses) With Secondary Music Students, Patrick K. Cooper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social cognitive theory was developed to explain how individuals learn, in part, by witnessing the behavior of others. Self-efficacy is a construct within social cognitive theory which indicates the beliefs that an individual can be successful at a task under specific situational demands. The sources of self-efficacy include self-evaluating past experiences to predict future success, comparing our abilities to those around us, the verbal and social feedback we get from others, and the physiological feelings we experience when engaged in or thinking about the task. Measures of self-efficacy have been shown to be accurate predictors of successful learning outcomes, achievement, …

Security Attacks And Defenses In Cyber Systems: From An Ai Perspective, Zhengping Luo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Security of real-world cyber systems has drawn a lot of attention in recent years, especially when machine learning techniques are widely deployed into different layers of cyber systems. With the technology of machine learning, especially adversarial machine learning techniques, the attacks and defenses in cyber systems have shown a lot of new characteristics. In this dissertation, two major works regarding the attacks and defenses in real world cyber systems including dynamic spectrum sensing systems and High Performance Computing (HPC) systems and software systems are discussed.

In the first work, we revisit this security vulnerability of cooperative spectrum sensing as an …

Design, Deployment, And Validation Of Computer Vision Techniques For Societal Scale Applications, Arup Kanti Dey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence techniques have ensued a significant impact on our daily lives. Numerous applications in so many diverse fields have been made possible by AI algorithms today, and there are many more yet to come. In this dissertation, we design, deploy and validate computer vision algorithms for innovative and high-impact societal scale applications.We specifically focus on two applications in this dissertation: Detection of distracted driving and Detection of breeding habitats of mosquito vectors.

Distracted driving on roads is a major problem around the world. Distracted driving is the case where a driver diverts his/her focus from the road and engages …

Secure Vlsi Hardware Design Against Intellectual Property (Ip) Theft And Cryptographic Vulnerabilities, Matthew Dean Lewandowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades or so, VLSI hardware is increasingly subject to sophisticated attacks on both the supply chain and design fronts. There is no explicit trust that the manufacturers/providers are not producing counterfeit designs or that cryptographic algorithms we know to be secure in software are also secure in hardware. The novelty and key contributions of this work are as follows: 1) a continually refined method for Intellectual Property (IP) Protection that provides an approach for verification of IP ownership, 2) demonstrate how to break the PRESENT-80 cryptographic algorithm with significantly limited resources, and 3) provide a multitude …

Advanced Organic Polymers For The Nanoscale Fabrication Of Fiber-Based Electronics Using The Electrospinning Technique, William Serrano Garcia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electrospinning has become one of the most interesting techniques for fabricating nanofibers for multiple applications. The high surface-to-volume ratio nanofibers offer make the perfect structure for filters, sensors, and fiber-based electronics that could lead to a wide range of flexible electronics applications. This technique makes organic semiconducting polymers a promising alternative for single fiber electronics structures. Indeed, a wide variety of structures can be fabricated using electrostatic techniques for polymer manipulation from droplets, fibers, and coaxial structures. Although techniques such as electrospinning led the use of electrostatic forces to generate fibers of a precursor solution, electrospinning requires large enough polymer …

Healthcare Data Analytics For Predicting Health Outcomes Of Older Adults And Emergency Responses Of Aged Care Facilities, Nazmus Sakib

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States (US) is experiencing rapid growth in its older adult population, who may suffer from multiple chronic diseases, injuries, and impairments. To meet with the excess demand without compromising the quality of care for older adults, the current aged care systems, such as nursing home systems, will face unprecedented challenges of healthcare resource shortage with rising costs. Accurate prediction of health outcomes of individual older adults will facilitate the aged care professionals to better prioritize healthcare resources for the most at-risk individuals with more focused care and provide more proactive and individualized treatment and care delivery. In addition, …

Development And Testing Of The Performance Diagnostic Checklist For Instructors, Jesse Depaolo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Behavior analysts have been studying behavior related to academic instruction for decades (Dunlap et al., 2001). Instruction has focused primarily on K-12 teachers with much less emphasis on college level instructors (Baum & McPherson, 2019). Additionally, studies related to improving instruction often lack information related to why a particular intervention was chosen. Creating an assessment tool to assist in determining interventions that would be most effective for improving classroom or virtual instruction could be beneficial. Therefore, the purpose of study one was to develop the Performance Diagnostic Checklist for Instructors (PDC-I) which will help guide supervisors of college instructors into …

Automated Wound Segmentation And Dimension Measurement Using Rgb-D Image, Chih-Yun Pai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accurate pressure ulcer (PrU) measurement is critical in assessing the effectiveness of PrU treatment. The traditional measurement process is manual, subjective, and requires frequent contact with the wound. The manual measurement relies on human observation which makes the measurement inconsistent, and the frequent contact with the wound increases risk of contamination or infection. The purpose of this research was to develop an automatic Pressure Ulcer Monitoring System (PrUMS) using a depth camera to provide automated, non-contact wound measurement. In this dissertation, 1) a wound segmentation with traditional machine learning method, which combines the color classification using K-Nearest Neighbors and the …

Data-Oriented Approaches Towards Mobile, Network And Secure Systems, Shangqing Zhao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid evolvement of information science, data-oriented research has solicited a new philosophy for the future mobile network and security design, since it can not only encourage new designs achieving more efficient and reliable networks, but also pose new challenges towards security designs. In this dissertation, we propose four novel data-oriented designs or frameworks to prompt or calibrate the performance with respect to efficiency, reliability, and security.

In the wireless domain, packet corruption and packet collision are two major threats that jeopardize the performance of a mobile network. To cope with the packet corruption, we propose the STAteful inter-Packet …

Knowledge Extraction And Inference Based On Visual Understanding Of Cooking Contents, Ahmad Babaeian Babaeian Jelodar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we discuss our work on analyzing cooking content for the ultimate goal ofautomatic robotic manipulation. For a robot to perform a cooking task, it will need to both have an understanding of the scene and utilize prior knowledge. We will explore two main sub-problems: knowledge extraction and inference, and visual understanding of the scene in this dissertation. Visual understanding of a scene, requires algorithms that can visually infer information from a single image or video. Many algorithms in the area of image classification, object detection, or activity recognition can be used in this area. Although great advances …

Poetic Justice: A Counter-Narrative Of The First Black Male Principal In A Coastal Community Since The Desegregation Era, Adrian Anthony

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Entering a new school as a new principal, and the first black male administrator in a community since the desegregation era, was fraught with challenges that have a universal cadence. Additionally, the three-year school turnaround initiative I entered had its own unique barriers. My voice quivers, my head sinks low, my eyes averted but this no more, for I uphold the mantle of men of bronze, for I will lead within this challenge and my voice will go on (Anthony, 2020). Using critical race theory as a framework with counter-storytelling I examined leadership and different forms of racial and gender …

Interrelation Of Thermal Stimulation With Haptic Perception, Emotion, And Memory, Mehdi Hojatmadani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Haptics is an interdisciplinary field of science that deals with how humans perceive and respond to different sensory cues perceived through touch. Thermal haptics as a branch deals with how humans perceive the temperature sensation and respond to that. The process in which thermal perception occurs is well known to researchers. What seems missing in the literature is how temperature interacts or sometimes intervenes in other physiological and psychological aspects of our lives. In this research, a series of studies are presented where the main focus was how temperature and brain interact with each other to impede or enhance our …

Investigation Of Polymer-Plasticizer Blends For Btex Detection Using Quartz Crystal Microbalance, Abhijeet Iyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are chemicals that evaporate easily and become gases at ambient temperature and pressure. The EPA has made the monitoring of VOCs mandatory due to their health impacts, which range from headaches and nausea to cancer. The current techniques used for VOC monitoring such as photoionization, gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy, and e-noses sensors are expensive, time-intensive, demand rigorous sample preparation, and cannot quantify the VOCs in the air. Chemical sensors based on piezoelectric transduction like the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) show promising results in terms of providing cost-effective real-time data, robustness, and low power requirements. In this …

Event-Triggered Control Architectures For Scheduling Information Exchange In Uncertain And Multiagent Systems, Stefan Ristevski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the numerous advantages that networked controlled systems provide, potential network overload in these systems can severely degrade their performance and even cause catastrophic failures. To this end, the work presented in this dissertation provides a neat solution on reducing network utilization in uncertain networked controlled systems using an adaptive event-triggered control approach predicated on a novel dynamical threshold and information exchange methodology while guaranteeing closed-loop system stability.

In particular, consider a system consisting of an operator (e.g, a ground station) and an uncertain controlled dynamical system (e.g., a vehicle equipped with feedback control algorithm), where the aim of the …

"They Say We're Expendable:" Race, Nation, And Citizenship In The Dominican Republic., Edlin Veras

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, new Dominican legislation left approximately a quarter-million Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent at risk of being undocumented and/or stateless in the Dominican Republic. While the histories of racial and ethnic tensions between the Dominican Republic are well-studied, few qualitative works have explored how these harsh migration policies impact Haitians’ everyday experiences. In my dissertation, I sought to understand: 1) How day-to-day experiences of racialization practices shape the lives of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent, and 2) investigate how migration policies impact Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent’s quality of life. I tend to these questions by …

Role Of Nhe3 In The Intestine And Thick Ascending Limb Of The Kidneys, Jianxiang Xue

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The sodium-hydrogen exchanger isoform 3 (NHE3, SLC9A3) mediates most Na+/H+ exchange in the gastrointestinal tract and the kidney, where it plays crucial roles in Na+ and fluid absorption as well as acid-base homeostasis. Whole body NHE3 knockout (NHE3-/-) mice show overt absorptive defects in both the intestine and kidneys. Genetic mutations of NHE3 gene in humans are associated with congenital sodium diarrhea (CSD). In the kidneys, NHE3 is expressed in the proximal tubule (PT) and the thick ascending limb (TAL). Whole kidney-specific (PT and TAL) NHE3 knockout (NHE3Pax8cre) mice and PT-specific NHE3 knockout (PT-NHE3-/-) mice have shown the importance of …

An Evaluation Of Distributed And Accumulated Reinforcer Arrangements On Skill Acquisition And Preference, Natalie R. Mandel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Discrete trial training (DTT), an evidence-based instructional procedure (Wong et al., 2015), is often used to teach skills to individuals with autism. Manipulations to the reinforcement component of DTT have increased its instructional efficiency, resulting in acquisition of skills in less time (e.g., Cividini-Motta & Ahearn, 2013). Results of previous studies (e.g., DeLeon et al., 2014) indicate that some individuals prefer to complete larger work requirements that result in a larger amount of a reinforcer (i.e., accumulated arrangement), rather than receiving access to small amounts of a reinforcer dispersed throughout the work requirement (i.e., distributed arrangement). In addition, accumulated reinforcer …

Metal Oxide Sensor Array Test Bed Prototype For Diagnostic Breath Analysis, Tiffany C. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Detection of specific target biomarkers is a critical step for electronic nose technologies in breath analysis. Electronic nose technologies have been successfully demonstrated in the air quality, meat processing, and the citrus industries, as well as cancer clinical trials. The novel design, assembly, and implementation of a test bed prototype of an electronic nose system is introduced in this Dissertation. To verify the feasibility of a test bed prototype design, a Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) breath simulation mixture of alcohol, acetone, and carbon monoxide was presented to the test bed prototype in the laboratory. The COVID-19 breath simulation mixture …