Digital Commons Network^™

Energy Efficient Context-Aware Framework In Mobile Sensing, Ozgur Yurur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ever-increasing technological advances in embedded systems engineering, together with the proliferation of small-size sensor design and deployment, have enabled mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) to recognize daily occurring human based actions, activities and interactions. Therefore, inferring a vast variety of mobile device user based activities from a very diverse context obtained by a series of sensory observations has drawn much interest in the research area of ubiquitous sensing. The existence and awareness of the context provides the capability of being conscious of physical environments or situations around mobile device users, and this allows network services to respond proactively and intelligently …

An Evaluation On The Effects Of Check-In/Check-Out With School-Aged Children Residing In A Mental Health Treatment Facility, Crystal Ann Stuart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (SWPBIS) is an evidence- based application of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to address and prevent problem behaviors from occurring, promote pro-social behaviors, and create a positive learning environment for all students. There are many secondary interventions that have been utilized within the framework of SWPBIS that have high success rates. However, the research conducted on the use of Check-In/Check-Out (CICO), a secondary intervention, has focused its attention more on its effectiveness in public elementary schools. There is a lack of research evaluating the effectiveness of CICO in alternative school settings. This study provides an …

Robotic Swarming Without Inter-Agent Communication, Daniel Jonathan Standish

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many physical and algorithmic swarms utilize inter-agent communication to achieve advanced swarming behaviors. These swarms are inspired by biological swarms that can be seen throughout nature and include bee swarms, ant colonies, fish schools, and bird flocks. These biological swarms do not utilize inter-agent communication like their physical and algorithmic counterparts. Instead, organisms in nature rely on a local awareness of other swarm members that facilitates proper swarm motion and behavior. This research aims to pursue an effective swarm algorithm using only line-of-sight proximity information and no inter-agent communication. It is expected that the swarm performance will be lower than …

Zero Tolerance For Marginal Populations: Examining Neoliberal Social Controls In American Schools, Brian Gregory Sellers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study's purpose is to investigate the expansion of social control efforts in American elementary and secondary school settings, particularly the use of zero-tolerance policies. These policies entail automatic punishments, such as suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to the juvenile and criminal justice systems for a host of school-based infractions. The widespread implementation of zero-tolerance policies and the application of harsh, exclusionary sanctions have intensified over the past decade. Numerous studies have documented this rise; however, there has been little effort to explore the explanation of the expansion of school-based social controls.

A potential explanation is found in the application of …

Exploring The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Everyday Cognitive Function In Older Adults: Within- And Between- Person Variability, Christine Haley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that physical activity may play a role in preserving cognitive function in older adulthood. However, the exact nature, direction, and magnitude of observed associations remain unclear. The current study utilized a microlongitudinal design to repeatedly assess cognitive function and physical activity across five days. Two studies examined relationships between physical activity, physical fitness, and cognitive function among community-dwelling older adults. The first study examined associations between baseline performance in a measure of everyday cognition and multiple measures of physical activity and physical fitness. Bivariate analyses revealed that objectively measured physical activity of moderate-to-vigorous intensity, repeated chair stand time …

Comparison Of Acquisition Rates And Child Preference For Varying Amounts Of Teacher Directedness When Teaching Intraverbals, Victoria Lynn Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The intraverbal is argued to be the most socially significant verbal operant and yet it is the least studied. Heal and Hanley (2011) suggest that different teaching strategies will lead to different rates of acquisition and child-preference with the tacting operant. This study continued this research into the realm of intraverbals, with focus on whether the embedded teaching strategy could be punishing on play or engaging in learning opportunities. The teaching strategies of discovery teaching, embedded prompting, and direct teaching were compared to see which strategy correlated with higher rates of acquisition and higher child preference. The study utilized a …

Assessing The Relationship Between Hotspots Of Lead And Hotspots Of Crime, Kimberly L. Barrett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous medical and environmental toxicology studies have established a link between lead (Pb) exposure, crime, and delinquency. In human environments, lead pollution- like crime- is unequally distributed, creating lead hot spots. In spite of this, studies of crime hotspots have routinely focused on traditional sociological predictors of crime, leaving environmental predictors of crime like lead and other neurotoxins relatively unaddressed. This study attends to this gap in the literature by asking a very straightforward research question: Is there a relationship between hotspots of lead and hotspots of crime? Furthermore, what is the nature and extent of this relationship? Lastly, is …

Effects Of Response Cards On The Disruptive Behavior Of Students, Leslie S. Singer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This study examined the effects of response cards (RC) on student disruptive behavior, responding, and accuracy of responding during whole-class guided-reading instruction in a first-grade classroom. The authors combined two baseline conditions with an alternating treatments design and then replicated the effects across four teacher-nominated students. The first baseline condition was the teacher's typical instruction format, where one student who raised his/her hand was called upon to respond to the teacher's question. The second baseline condition (BL') was the same as the first baseline with an additional control for the number of teacher-delivered questions to the class per session. …

A Comparison Of A Matrix Programming And Standard Discrete Trial Training Format To Teach Two-Component Tacts, Emily Braff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teaching using matrix programming has been shown to result in recombinative generalization. However, this procedure has not been compared to more standard discrete trial training formats such as DTT. This study compared acquisition and recombinative generalization of two-component tacts using each procedure. Matrix training was found to be more efficient than the DTT format. Half the amount of teaching was required to teach roughly the same number of targets using matrix training as compared to DTT.

A Methodology For Scheduling Operating Rooms Under Uncertainty, Marbelly Paola Davila

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An operating room (OR) is considered to be one of the most costly functional areas within hospitals as well as its major profit center. It is known that managing an OR department is a challenging task, which requires the integration of many actors (e.g., patients, surgeons, nurses, technicians) who may have conflicting interests and priorities.

Considering these aspects, this dissertation focuses on developing a simulation based methodology for scheduling operating rooms under uncertainty, which reflects the complexity, uncertainty and variability associated with surgery.

We split the process of scheduling ORs under uncertainty into two main components. First, we designed a …

The Effects Of Video Self-Evaluation On Skill Acquisition With Yoga Postures, Holly Elizabeth Downs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the use of video self-evaluation and video feedback procedures to enhance the accuracy of yoga poses. In the self-evaluation intervention participants watched their behaviors via video and scored task analyses for feedback for each pose. In the video feedback intervention, the participants and the researcher together scored the task analyses for the behaviors along with practice during video recordings. The interventions were assessed in a multiple baseline across behaviors design. Results showed that both video self-evaluation increased the accuracy of all poses and video feedback further increased the accuracy on one pose for one participant

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Tablet Application To Increase Eye Contact In Children Diagnosed With Autism, Tricia Jeffries

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studies have shown that increasing eye contact can be accomplished by using reinforcement, prompting, shaping, functional movement training, punishment, and self-monitoring. However, there is a lack of research that evaluates the use of technology as a way to increase eye contact. This study tested the effectiveness of a tablet application at increasing eye contact in children diagnosed with autism. The application requires the child to look at a picture of a person's face and identify the number displayed in the person's eyes in order to receive reinforcement. Data was collected immediately after training, one hour after training, and in the …

An Evaluation Of The Family-Centered Prevent-Teach-Reinforce Model With Families Of Young Children With Developmental Disabilities, Kathleen Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Daily routines in the home are typically the most common interactions for children with their siblings and parents. When a child exhibits challenging behavior in these routines, it can cause a strain on the family as well as the child's ability to learn a more appropriate behavior. This study examined the feasibility and potential efficacy of an adapted version of the Prevent-Teach- Reinforce (PTR) intervention with three families of young children with developmental disabilities. The school-based PTR manual was adapted for treatment use in a family context. The study assessed the family adherence to the collaboratively developed PTR intervention, family …

Vapor-Liquid-Solid(Vls) Grown Silica (Siox) Nanowires As The Interface For Biorecognition Molecules In Biosensors, Eduardo Murphy-Pérez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

SiOx nanowires grown through the VLS mechanism were electrophoretically deposited on top of Au electrodes. GOx was immobilized using APTES and the EDC-NHS chemistry. Cyclic Voltammetry was used as the method to characterize the electrodes through their processing steps, and CV was also used to detect glucose in a PBS based solution. Ferro-Ferri Cyanide couple was used as the mediator.

A Life-Course Approach To Sexual Offending: Examining The Continuity Of Juvenile Sexual Offending Into Adulthood And Subsequent Patterns Of Recidivism, Maude Beaudry-Cyr

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current sex offending legislation and public opinion present an image of sexual offenders as specialized predators who are likely to exhibit continued sexually deviant behavior over the life-course. Although sex offending continuity and post-release recidivism has been independently assessed in prior research, the potential link between sex offending continuity and post-release recidivism has yet to be investigated. Using data collected on random samples of sex offenders from a Northeastern state, the present study examines the predictability of sex offender continuity and its potential linkages with general and sex recidivism, as well as identifying distinguishable risk factors related to these outcomes. …

Verbal Operant Transfer With Mands And Tacts Using Multiple Exemplars, Jessica Lauren Shea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on the functional independence of tacts and mands is mixed. The conditions under which tact training transfers to mands are unclear. The current study evaluated whether multiple exemplars of tact training followed by mand training would result in the independent transfer from tacts to mands. It was shown that all three participants started manding for the item independently during tact training after one sequence of tact training followed by mand training.

A Biocompatible Sic Rf Antenna For In-Vivo Sensing Applications, Shamima Afroz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A continuous glucose sensor employing radio frequency (RF) signals is presented using the biocompatible material Silicon Carbide (SiC). Unlike biosensors that require direct contact with interstitial fluids to trigger chemical reactions to operate, this biocompatible SiC sensor does not require a direct interface. The sensing mechanism for this SiC sensor is based upon a shift in resonant frequency, as a function of change in glucose levels, which electrically manifests itself as a change in blood permittivity and

conductivity. For in vivo applications the antenna sensor needs to operate inside the body environment, and it has been found that the best …

Efficient And Private Processing Of Analytical Queries In Scientific Datasets, Anand Kumar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Large amount of data is generated by applications used in basic-science research and development applications. The size of data introduces great challenges in storage, analysis and preserving privacy. This dissertation proposes novel techniques to efficiently analyze the data and reduce storage space requirements through a data compression technique while preserving privacy and providing data security.

We present an efficient technique to compute an analytical query called spatial distance histogram (SDH) using spatiotemporal properties of the data. Special spatiotemporal properties present in the data are exploited to process SDH efficiently on the fly. General purpose graphics processing units (GPGPU or just …

An Evaluation Of Staff Reactivity Following Performance Feedback And Self-Monitoring Procedures In A Group Home Setting, Samantha Lynn Fuesy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has investigated staff management procedures that produce treatment adherence and maintenance over time. Treatment integrity is one of the most important aspects of staff management; without adequate treatment adherence, behavior analysts are unable to determine whether treatment is effective, function has been identified, or intervention revisions are needed. The literature on staff management procedures has demonstrated that performance feedback and self-monitoring are effective procedures for increasing treatment integrity of behavior plans in the presence of the observer, however, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of these procedures when the observer is absent. This study evaluated the effectiveness of performance …

An Evaluation Of Self Management To Increase On Task Behavior With Individuals Diagnosed With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder, Lindsey C. Slattery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the leading diagnoses for children. Children diagnosed with ADHD often have difficulty in many settings including at school as well as in the home. Medication is often a common treatment for these children, however, it has been often shown ineffective when used alone. A review of behavioral interventions, including various self-regulation interventions has been studied. Self-regulation interventions have been shown to be effective for children diagnosed with ADHD primarily in school or academic settings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a self-management intervention on the on-task behavior of children …

The Effects Of The A Matter Of Balance Program On Falls, Physical Risks Of Falls, And Psychological Consequences Of Falling Among Older Adults, Tuo Yu Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effectiveness of the A Matter of Balance (MOB) program, a multifactorial falls prevention intervention, is uncertain. Although targeting multiple risk factors of falling at the same time seems reasonable and desirable, in that falls are often caused by several risk factors, results from previous studies investigating the effects of multifactorial falls prevention interventions are inconsistent. In addition, research shows that single factor interventions (e.g., exercise) can produce the same effects. The cost-effectiveness of multifactorial falls prevention interventions has varied across studies (e.g., Jenkyn, Hoch, & Speechley, 2012; Tinetti, Baker, et al., 1994). Despite the fact that the American Geriatrics …

Long-Range, Passive Wireless Monitoring Using Energy-Efficient, Electrically-Small Sensor Nodes And Harmonic Radar Interrogator, Ibrahim Nassar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the use of the harmonic radar technique for passive wireless sensing applications. Issues of DC power consumption, high RF activation power, large node size, and short communication range associated with the existing passive wireless sensing technologies are addressed by the development of novel, completely passive, high efficiency, compact 3-D harmonic sensor nodes. The node transceiver employs a passive frequency doubler to return the second harmonic of the interrogation signal, and electrically-small 3-D antennas to achieve the compactness and high efficiency. The developed nodes fit inside a sphere with a diameter < 3 cm and achieve communication range > 60 m using a 43 dBm EIRP …

Evaluating The Effects Of Guided Notes And Response Cards In Student Performance, Viviana Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Guided notes and response cards have individually been found effective at increasing student performance and active participation, however, no known studies have compared the effects of response cards with the effects of guided notes to determine if one is more effective than the other at increasing student performance and on-task behavior. In order to evaluate the efficacy of these two teaching methods, two different teaching conditions were examined: guided notes and response cards for in-lecture review. An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of these two conditions on post-lecture quiz scores, competing academic behaviors and academic …

Reconfigurable Low Profile Antennas Using Tunable High Impedance Surfaces, David Cure

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation shows a detailed investigation on reconfigurable low profile antennas using tunable high impedance surfaces (HIS). The specific class of HIS used in this dissertation is called a frequency selective surface (FSS). This type of periodic structure is fabricated to create artificial magnetic conductors (AMCs) that exhibit properties similar to perfect magnetic conductors (PMCs). The antennas are intended for radiometric sensing applications in the biomedical field. For the particular sensing application of interest in this dissertation, the performance of the antenna sub-system is the most critical aspect of the radiometer design where characteristics such as small size, light weight, …

Evaluation Of Multiple Treatments To Impact Hand Washing In A Human Service Organization, Tamika Nicole Rickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hand washing has been proven to be effective in preventing many serious diseases World Health Organization (WHO, 2009). Nonetheless, both the general public and many healthcare professionals fail to wash their hands. Very little research has been conducted outside of healthcare settings to evaluate the adherence of hand-washing procedures. This study investigated if hand washing adherence in a residential setting can be improved with the use of verbal and graphical feedback a probabilistic bonus. Results suggested that the probabilistic bonus had a substantial impact on hand washing performance: more so than signs, educational in-service, and verbal-graphical feedback alone. Reactivity data …

An Evaluation Of Check-In/Check-Out With Accountability Tracking For At-Risk Students In A High-Need Elementary School, Ashley Lauren Barber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A multi-tiered system of supports offers a comprehensive model for the prevention of academic and behavior problems in schools. To date, research has emphasized the impact of universal and intensive interventions. However, the need for research on secondary or targeted group interventions (Tier 2) for those students who do not respond to the universal level of support is growing. This study evaluated CICO, a Tier 2 intervention, in improving student behavior when it is used with three elementary students from a high-need population and in conjunction with student accountability tracking, designed to promote parental involvement. Functional assessments indicated that all …

Supply Chain Optimization Of Blood Products, Serkan Gunpinar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Major challenges in the management of blood supply chain are related to the shortage and wastage of the blood products. Given the perishability characteristics of blood which can be stored up to a limited number of days, if hospitals and blood centers keep an excessive number of blood units on inventory, wastages may occur. On the other hand, if sufficient number of blood units are not stored on inventory, shortages of this resource may cause the cancellations of important activities and increase the fatality rates at hospitals. Three mathematical models have been developed with the goal to improve the efficiency …

Utilizing Tagteach To Enhance Proficiency In Dance Movements, Mallory Joanne Quinn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate TAGteach as a training procedure to increase the fluency of three dance movements in a multiple baseline across behaviors design with 4 students of dance. Target behaviors included a pirouette/turn, kick, and a leap/jump, respective of the level of the class. A dance instructor was trained to implement the TAGteach procedure by the primary researcher. The targeted dance movements remained at a stable level during baseline and improved sequentially for each participant following the introduction of the TAGteach training. Implications for future research are discussed.

Classification Models In Clinical Decision Making, Eleazar Gil-Herrera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we present a collection of manuscripts describing the development of prognostic models designed to assist clinical decision making. This work is motivated by limitations of commonly used techniques to produce accessible prognostic models with easily interpretable and clinically credible results. Such limitations hinder prognostic model widespread utilization in medical practice.

Our methodology is based on Rough Set Theory (RST) as a mathematical tool for clinical data anal- ysis. We focus on developing rule-based prognostic models for end-of life care decision making in an effort to improve the hospice referral process. The development of the prognostic models is …

An Evaluation Of A Parent Implemented In- Situ Pedestrian Safety Skills Intervention For Individuals With Autism, Bethany Ann Harriage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated a parent implemented in-situ pedestrian safety skills intervention for three individuals with autism. Specifically, this study examined the utility of using a behavioral skills training (BST) to help parents implement the most-to-least prompting procedures in training their children with autism pedestrian safety skills in community settings. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to assess parent implementation of in-situ pedestrian training as well as child participants' independently performed correct skills. Results indicated that parents implemented most-to-least prompting procedures with high levels of accuracy across streets during intervention and fading of BST. All child participants improved their …