Digital Commons Network^™

Diversifying Homogenous Au(I)-Catalysis Through New Reaction Discovery, Stephen Motika

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homogenous Au(I)-catalysis has become a valuable synthetic tool to activate a host of unsaturated carbon functional groups towards nucleophilic addition. Over the course of the past two decades, many have embarked on new journeys within this field. Notably, the advancements in this field hinge on the development of new ligand systems that impart novel reactivity at the metal. Our group has focused on this area, as we have successfully demonstrated the utility of 1,2,3-triazoles as ligands for gold and a host of other transition metals and Lewis acids. With respect to gold catalysis, these ligands enhance the stability of the …

Bayesian Artificial Neural Networks In Health And Cybersecurity, Hansapani Sarasepa Rodrigo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Being in the era of Big data, the applicability and importance of data-driven models like artificial neural network (ANN) in the modern statistics have increased substantially. In this dissertation, our main goal is to contribute to the development and the expansion of these ANN models by incorporating Bayesian learning techniques. We have demonstrated the applicability of these Bayesian ANN models in interdisciplinary research including health and cybersecurity.

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of deaths among females. Early and accurate diagnosis is a critical component which decides the survival of the patients. Including the well known ``Gail Model", …

How Teachers’ Beliefs About Climate Change Influence Their Instruction, Student Understanding, And Willingness To Take Action., Molly Trendell Nation

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change science is complex and controversial in nature, yet seen by educators and policy makers as an important topic to be taught within secondary science education. This is becoming increasingly evident with the inclusion of climate change into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Earth and Space Sciences as well as Life Science courses (NGSS, 2013). An overwhelming amount of information is available to students; however, it is often misrepresented, politically inflated and falsified, and littered with misconceptions (Dawson & Carson, 2014; Gayford, 2002). It is critical to engage students in discourse that challenges them ethically in order …

Structural Analysis Of Poloidal And Toroidal Plasmons And Fields Of Multilayer Nanorings, Kumar Vijay Garapati

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multilayered metallo-dielectric nanoparticles are increasingly considered in various applications to control the spatial and temporal behavior of electromagnetic fields. In particular, the surface mode excitation by photons or electrons in metal nanorings finds significant applications because of the implied field distribution and electromagnetic energy confinement. However, most solid nanorings that are multilayered and/or embedded in a medium have non-simply connected geometry resulting in surface modes which are not linearly independent. That is, unlike particle plasmon eigenmodes in other geometries, the amplitudes of the eigenmodes of tori exhibit a distinct forward and backward coupling. We investigate the surface modes of such …

Investigating Students’ Basic Needs And Motivation In College Chemistry Courses With The Lens Of Self-Determination Theory, Yujuan Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

More graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathmetics (STEM) fields are needed to keep our nation’s preeminance in the global fields of technology and science. However, fewer than 40% of students who intend to major in STEM fields when entering college complete a STEM degree. Therefore, it is important to explore factors to improve student persistence in STEM fields at the college level as well as to understand the interrelationship between student motivation, academic achievement, and persistence. Motivation is strongly associated with student achievement and persistence; meanwhile, academic achievement can also affect persistence. Self-determination theory (SDT) represents a framework of …

Patterns In Words Related To Dna Rearrangements, Lukas Nabergall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Patterns, sequences of variables, have traditionally only been studied when morphic images of them appear as factors in words. In this thesis, we initiate a study of patterns in words that appear as subwords of words. We say that a pattern appears in a word if each pattern variable can be morphically mapped to a factor in the word. To gain insight into the complexity of, and similarities between, words, we define pattern indices and distances between two words relative a given set of patterns. The distance is defined as the minimum number of pattern insertions and/or removals that transform …

Evaluation Of The Class Pass Intervention (Cpi): An Application To Improve Classroom Behavior In Children With Disabilities, Taylor Narozanick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Class Pass Intervention (CPI) is designed to be implemented within school-wide PBIS to decrease disruptive behavior and teach an appropriate replacement behavior for students needing Tier 2 intervention. The purpose of the present study was to extend the literature on the CPI by further evaluating the impact of the first component of the CPI on disruptive behavior and academic engagement of elementary school children with disabilities engaging in mild to moderate disruptive behavior. Three students and their respective teachers participated in the study. A multiple baseline across participants design with an embedded reversal was used to demonstrate the impact …

Computing The Rectilinear Crossing Number Of K, Soundarya Revoori

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rectilinear crossing number of a graph is the number of crossing edges in a drawing with all straight line edges. The problem of drawing an n-vertex complete graph such that its rectilinear crossing number is minimum is known to be an NP-Hard problem. In this thesis, we present a heuristic that attempts to achieve the theoretical lower bound value of the rectilinear crossing number of a n+1 vertex complete graph from that of n vertices. Our algorithm accepts an optimal or near-optimal rectilinear drawing of K_n graph as input and tries to place a new node such that …

Potential Impacts Of Accelerated Sea-Level Rise And Hurricane-Induced Storm Surge In Western Pasco County, Florida, Kittiya Harris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sea levels have risen approximately 20 cm since the beginning of the 20th century and more than 3 cm in the past 20 years, suggesting that global sea level rise is accelerating. As sea levels continue to rise and storms become more intense, coastal property and populations become more susceptible to damage. Florida is especially vulnerable to hurricane-induced storm surge (HSS) and the onset of accelerated sea-level rise (ASLR) due to its extensive coastline and high population density along the coast. The main purpose of this research is to assess the potential economic impacts of ASLR and HSS for two …

Tensions Between Democracy And Expertise In The Florida Keys, Elizabeth A. Loyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The proposed release of genetically modified mosquitoes (GMM) in the Florida Keys to combat the spread of diseases such as Zika prompted heated local debate, turning a seemingly routine mosquito control policy into a public scientific controversy. Arguments about the GMM derive from inventional commonplaces where the historical conflict between democratic systems of civic deliberation and the epistemic authority of expertise is instantiated. This project analyzes the topoi that Keys participants gather around to generate their argumentative positions as published in public, local print and digital news articles, blog posts, and letters to the editor between 2011 and 2016. Investigating …

Space-Time Transportation System Modelling: From Traveler’S Characteristics To The Network Design Problem, Mohsen Parsafard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditional network design problems only consider the long-term stationary travel patterns (e.g., fixed OD demand) and short-term variations of human mobility are ignored. This study aims to integrate human mobility characteristics and travel patterns into network design problems using a space-time network structure. Emerging technologies such as location-based social network platforms provide a unique opportunity for understanding human mobility patterns that can lead to advanced modeling techniques. To reach our goal, at first multimodal network design problems are investigated by considering safety and flow interactions between different modes of transport. We develop a network reconstruction method to expand a single-modal …

Lump, Complexiton And Algebro-Geometric Solutions To Soliton Equations, Yuan Zhou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In chapter 2, we study two Kaup-Newell-type matrix spectral problems, derive their soliton hierarchies within the zero curvature formulation, and furnish their bi-Hamiltonian structures by the trace identity to show that they are integrable in the Liouville sense. In chapter 5, we obtain the Riemann theta function representation of solutions for the first hierarchy of generalized Kaup-Newell systems.

In chapter 3, using Hirota bilinear forms, we discuss positive quadratic polynomial solutions to generalized bilinear equations, which generate lump or lump-type solutions to nonlinear evolution equations, and propose an algorithm for computing higher-order lump or lump-type solutions. In chapter 4, we …

Prevalence Of Typical Images In High School Geometry Textbooks, Megan N. Cannon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Visualization in mathematics can be discussed in many ways; it is a broad term that references physical visualization objects as well as the process in which we picture images and manipulate them in our minds. Research suggests that visualization can be a powerful tool in mathematics for intuitive understanding, providing and/or supporting proof and reasoning, and assisting in comprehension. The literature also reveals some difficulties related to the use of visualization, particularly how illustrations can mislead students if they are not comfortable seeing concepts represented in varied ways. However, despite the extensive research on the benefits and challenges of visualization …

Spatial And Temporal Variation In Mangrove Distribution (1950-2014) In Tampa, Florida Usa, Carolyn Cheatham Rhodes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I carried out an observational study of historic high resolution aerial imagery spanning six decades (1950-2014) to identify recent and historic spatial extent of mangrove forests, within the municipal boundaries of the City of Tampa, Florida USA. My objectives were to map mangrove distribution and spatial extent and any change or patterns of change discernable. I observed variable patterns of change and rates of expansion varied between sites spatially as well as within sites between time intervals. I found notable changes in mangrove extent in the Tampa from historic and modern aerial imagery for the ~64-year period between 1950 and …

Toward The Synthesis Of Naphthalene-Bridged Bis-Triazole Bimetallic Complexes, Sean M. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bimetallic complexes are known to have unique electronic properties and are used in a variety of organic transformations as catalysts. The use of naphthalene-bridged bis- triazoles (NBT) for bimetallic complexes is unknown. NBTs have the unique property of being fluorescent stemming from a twisted intramolecular charge transfer. With the non- coplanar geometry and the distance between the 1,2,3-triazole rings, we hypothesized that 1,8-bis(4-phenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazol-2-yl)naphthalene (12) would be a suitable ligand to synthesize a bimetallic complex. The synthesis of 12 was optimized for large scale synthesis and was synthesized on a 78 mmol scale in 15% total yield. Metal complexation …

A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Early Algebra Education Ios Apps For Primary Children, Lissa S. Ledbetter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Educational software applications (apps) on multi-touch, mobile devices provide a promising space to help learners work toward long-term educational goals, like learning with understanding (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). Such goals are particularly relevant in supporting a learner’s efforts to become more mathematically literate. Yet, a number of current apps do not appear to be living up to this potential. As such, this study drew upon the theoretical framework of Learning Science and the conceptual framework of TPACK theory (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) to define curricular characteristics that ideally support primary children’s potential to learn early algebra concepts with understanding, …

Cybersecurity: Probabilistic Behavior Of Vulnerability And Life Cycle, Sasith Maduranga Rajasooriya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Analysis on Vulnerabilities and Vulnerability Life Cycle is at the core of Cybersecurity related studies. Vulnerability Life Cycle discussed by S. Frei and studies by several other scholars have noted the importance of this approach. Application of Statistical Methodologies in Cybersecurity related studies call for a greater deal of new information. Using currently available data from National Vulnerability Database this study develops and presents a set of useful Statistical tools to be applied in Cybersecurity related decision making processes.

In the present study, the concept of Vulnerability Space is defined as a probability space. Relevant theoretical analyses are conducted and …

Time Series Online Empirical Bayesian Kernel Density Segmentation: Applications In Real Time Activity Recognition Using Smartphone Accelerometer, Shuang Na

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Time series analysis has been explored by the researchers in many areas such, as statistical research, engineering applications, medical analysis, and finance study. To represent the data more efficiently, the mining process is supported by time series segmentation. Time series segmentation algorithm looks for the change points between two different patterns and develops a suitable model, depending on the data observed in such segment. Based on the issue of limited computing and storage capability, it is necessary to consider an adaptive and incremental online segmentation method. In this study, we propose an Online Empirical Bayesian Kernel Segmentation (OBKS), which combines …

Assessment And Modeling Of Three Decentralized Resource Recovery Systems In The Cayes Of The Belize Barrier Reef, Mark D. Kalivoda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Three wastewater treatment systems (WWTS) situated on Cayes in the Belize Barrier Reef System were assessed in terms of the unique public health and environmental circumstances of being a tourist destination surrounded by fragile coral reef. Laughing Bird Caye, Silk Caye, and Little Water Caye are three small cayes that are the staging points for local diving, fishing, and other recreational tourism. All three systems are based upon pour-flush toilets, semi-anaerobic biodigesters and drainage fields. Limitations in cost, available resources, useable area, high infiltration rates of the sand, and salinity of the water have played a major factor in the …

Carbon And Nutrient Balances In Microalgal Bioenergy System, Eunyoung Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated life cycle environmental impacts and benefits of an integrated microalgae system with wastewater treatment system using an integrated process modeling approach combined with experimentation. The overall goal of this research is to understand energy, carbon and nutrient balances in the integrated system and to evaluate the environmental impacts and benefits of the integrated system from a carbon, nutrient, and energy perspective. In this study, four major research tasks were designed to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the environmental and economic sustainability of the integrated system, which included development of an integrated co-limitation kinetic model for microalgae …

Flexible And Feasible Support Measures For Mining Frequent Patterns In Large Labeled Graphs, Jinghan Meng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the popularity of graph databases has grown rapidly. This paper focuses on single-graph as an effective model to represent information and its related graph mining techniques. In frequent pattern mining in a single-graph setting, there are two main problems: support measure and search scheme. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for constructing support measures that brings together existing minimum-image-based and overlap-graph-based support measures. Our framework is built on the concept of occurrence / instance hypergraphs. Based on that, we present two new support measures: minimum instance (MI) measure and minimum vertex cover (MVC) measure, that …

Cybersecurity: Stochastic Analysis And Modelling Of Vulnerabilities To Determine The Network Security And Attackers Behavior, Pubudu Kalpani Kaluarachchi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Development of Cybersecurity processes and strategies should take two main approaches. One is to develop an efficient and effective set of methodologies to identify software vulnerabilities and patch them before being exploited. Second is to develop a set of methodologies to predict the behavior of attackers and execute defending techniques based on attacking behavior. Managing of Vulnerabilities and analyzing them is directly related to the first approach. Developing of methodologies and models to predict the behavior of attackers is related to the second approach. Both these approaches are inseparably interconnected. Our effort in this study mainly focuses on developing useful …

An Assessment Of Constructed Wetland Treatment System Cells: Removal Of Excess Nutrients And Pollutants From Municipal Wastewater In Lakeland, Florida, Molly Klinepeter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wastewater treatment wetlands are proven valuable alternatives to the treatment of wastewater in a more natural environment. These wetlands can be natural or constructed, and come in a variety of types and sizes. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of water treatment for nutrients and pollutants utilized by the City of Lakeland in treating their municipal wastewater by wetland treatment system cells. This study is important in order to ensure the successful use of the wetland, as well as to determine the impacts previous phosphorus mining use may have on the effectiveness of treatment. Following FDEP …

The Rhetoric Of Scientific Authority: A Rhetorical Examination Of _An Inconvenient Truth_, Alexander W. Morales

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project examines how scientific authority is produced through rhetorical practices instead of the “information deficit” model of science communication. By conducting a rhetorical analysis of the science documentary An Inconvenient Truth, this project demonstrates how the documentary format itself and the film’s leading agent, former United States Vice President Al Gore, attempt to persuade audiences through building degrees of scientific authority by employing multiple rhetorics or narrative themes of science to bolster the scientific facts supporting anthropogenic climate change. Additionally, I demonstrate how these narrative themes parallel three scholarly themes within the rhetoric of science literature: science …

Perceptual Learning Styles Modalities Utilizing The Multimodal Paired Associates Learning Test: An Analysis Of Latinos Born In Central And South America, Matias Ramirez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Businesses and Human Resources professionals face the ongoing challenge of continuously upskilling and developing employees. Changes to processes or procedures, changes in technology, changes in job functions, and updates or changes to compliance laws or regulations are all reasons that employees must attend and complete employer-developed training. This study utilized the updated Multimodal Paired Associates Learning Test, version four (MMPALT-IV) instrument to determine perceptual learning styles and to determine if there exists a measureable difference in Latinos perceptual learning styles.

The purpose of this study was to measure the perceptual learning styles of Latino adults from Central and South America …

Pollen Forecasting In Sarasota, Florida, Daniel J. Gessman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current predictions of pollen levels rely strictly on historical Averages, regardless of environmental factors that might affect the timing of pollen release by different plants. For this thesis, the goal was to develop a statistical model that will accurately forecast pollen levels by correlating those daily counts to atmospheric and meteorological conditions. This project used ARIMA modeling on IBM’s SPSS Statistics 24 of daily pollen count information for multiple allergenic pollens in the Sarasota County, Florida area over a 11-year period. The pollen species in question for this project are oak and cypress trees, grass, and ragweed pollens; and Alternaria …

High Performance Digitally Manufactured Microwave And Millimeter-Wave Circuits And Antennas, Eduardo A. Rojas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for microwave and mm-wave applications is increasingly being revealed thanks to recent advancements in research. AM empowers engineers with new capabilities to manufacture complex conformal geometries quicker and at lower costs. It allows, for instance, the embedding of RF front ends into functional structures. In this dissertation, two aspects of AM are explored: (a) The development and characterization of techniques that improve the performance of AM microwave circuits and antennas, and (b) study of complex geometries, such as meshed structures, as an alternative to reduce material usage, cost, and weight of the components.

Micro-dispensing …

(Dis)Enchanted: (Re)Constructing Love And Creating Community In The, Shannon A. Suddeth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a queer fan community for the television show Once Upon a Time (OUAT) that utilizes the social networking site Tumblr as their primary base of fan activity. The Swan Queen fan community is comprised of individuals that collectively support and celebrate a non-canon romantic relationship between two of the female lead characters of the show rather than the canonic, heterocentric relationships that occur between the two women and their respective male love interests. I answer two research questions in this study: First, how are members of the Swan Queen fan community developing counter narratives of …

Analysis Of A Potential A(H7n9) Influenza Pandemic Outbreak In The U.S., Walter A. Silva Sotillo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a collection of manuscripts that describe development of models and model implementation to analyze impact of potential A(H7N9) pandemic influenza outbreak in the U.S. Though this virus is still only animal-to-human transmittable, it has potential to become human-to-human transmittable and trigger a pandemic. This work is motivated by the negative impact on human lives that this virus has already caused in China, and is intended to support public health officials in preparing to protect U.S. population from a potential outbreak of pandemic scale.

An agent-based (AB) simulation model is used to replicate the social dynamics of the …

Estimation Of Human Poses Categories And Physical Object Properties From Motion Trajectories, Mona Fathollahi Ghezelghieh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the impressive advancements in people detection and tracking, safety is still a key barrier to the deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban environments [1]. For example, in non-autonomous technology, there is an implicit communication between the people crossing the street and the driver to make sure they have communicated their intent to the driver. Therefore, it is crucial for the autonomous car to infer the future intent of the pedestrian quickly. We believe that human body orientation with respect to the camera can help the intelligent unit of the car to anticipate the future movement of the pedestrians. To …