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“Principal Component Analysis And The Cumulative Gait Index: Translational Tools To Assess Gait Impairments In Rats With Olivocerebellar Ataxia”, Chase Lambert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies suggest that modulation of the cholinergic system through the use of nicotinic agonists can improve motor function in humans or animals with motor disorders. Specifically, although there are no approved therapeutics for patients with ataxia, the nicotinic receptor agonist varenicline has demonstrated efficacy to improve coordination and gait in several groups of patients with different subtypes of ataxia. Importantly, the mechanism underlying the varenicline’s mechanism of action to improve motor function remains to be elucidated. Thus, the purpose of these experiments was to first quantify gait impairments in rats with olivocerebellar ataxia utilizing an objective treadmill-based system to …

Knowledge Discovery And Predictive Modeling From Brain Tumor Mris, Mu Zhou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantitative cancer imaging is an emerging field that develops computational techniques to acquire a deep understanding of cancer characteristics for cancer diagnosis and clinical decision making. The recent emergence of growing clinical imaging data provides a wealth of opportunity to systematically explore quantitative information to advance cancer diagnosis. Crucial questions arise as to how we can develop specific computational models that are capable of mining meaningful knowledge from a vast quantity of imaging data and how to transform such findings into improved personalized health care?

This dissertation presents a set of computational models in the context of malignant brain tumors— …

The Influence Of Types Of Homework On Opportunity To Learn And Students' Mathematics Achievement: Examples From The University Of Chicago School Mathematics Project, Yiting Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Public views on assigning students mathematics homework have been controversial. Although homework is designed for students to complete during non-school hours (Cooper, 1989), many see homework as excessive pressure on students. Most research placed their focus on the influence of the time spent on homework or the amount of homework on student achievement. Few studies have addressed the impact of types of mathematics homework. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of homework types in influencing opportunity to learn (OTL) on student achievement.

This quantitative study used subsets of a large existing dataset collected by University …

Reliable Power System Planning And Operations Through Robust Optimization, Wei Yuan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we introduce and study robust optimization models and decomposition algorithms in order to deal with the uncertainties such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and uncertain demand that are becoming more and more signicant in power systems operation and planning. An optimal power grid hardening problem is presented as a defender-attacker-defender (DAD) sequential game and solved by an exact decomposition algorithm. Network topology control, which is an eective corrective measure in power systems, is then incorporated into the defender-attacker-defender model as a recourse operation for the power system operator after a terrorist attack. Computational results validate the cost-eectiveness …

Interplays Of Co2, Subnanometer Metal Clusters, And Tio2: Implications For Catalysis And Co2 Photoreduction, Chi-Ta Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is motivated by two significant challenges facing the planet: reducing the emission of CO₂ to the atmosphere and production of sustainable fuels by harnessing solar energy. The main objective of this work is the study of promising photocatalysts for CO₂ reduction. DFT modeling of CO₂, subnanometer Ag&Pt clusters, and anatase TiO2 (101) surface is employed to gain fundamental understanding of the catalytic process, followed by validation using a guided experimental endeavor. The binding mechanism of CO₂ on the surface is investigated in detail to gain insights into the catalytic activity and to assist …

Field Observations And Novel Methodologies For Carbon System Assessments In Coastal Waters, Bo Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal zones receive massive terrestrial inputs of nutrients and organic matter, and play an important role in biogeochemical cycles. The interactions of river inputs, ocean currents, atmospheric exchanges, anthropogenic influences, and biologically active ecosystems make CO₂ system studies in coastal waters highly challenging. This work focuses on improving our understanding of the CO₂ system in coastal waters through (1) development of a new methodology for measurements of CO₂ system parameters in the field; (2) observations of large spatial and temporal CO₂ system variations in coastal waters; and (3) characterization of the influence of organics on CO …

Bio-Photoelectrochemical Solar Cells Incorporating Reaction Center And Reaction Center Plus Light Harvesting Complexes, Houman Yaghoubi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Harvesting solar energy can potentially be a promising solution to the energy crisis now and in the future. However, material and processing costs continue to be the most important limitations for the commercial devices. A key solution to these problems might lie within the development of bio-hybrid solar cells that seeks to mimic photosynthesis to harvest solar energy and to take advantage of the low material costs, negative carbon footprint, and material abundance. The bio-photoelectrochemical cell technologies exploit biomimetic means of energy conversion by utilizing plant-derived photosystems which can be inexpensive and ultimately the most sustainable alternative. Plants and photosynthetic …

Bayesian Inference On Longitudinal Semi-Continuous Substance Abuse/Dependence Symptoms Data, Dongyuan Xing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Substance use data such as alcohol drinking often contain a high proportion of zeros. In studies examining the alcohol consumption in college students, for instance, many students may not drink in the studied period, resulting in a number of zeros. Zero-inflated continuous data, also called semi continuous data, typically consist of a mixture of a degenerate distribution at the origin (zero) and a right-skewed, continuous distribution for the positive values. Ignoring the extreme non-normality in semi-continuous data may lead to substantially biased estimates and inference. Longitudinal or repeated measures of semi-continuous data present special challenges in statistical inference because of …

Photoacoustic Calorimetry Studies Of The Earliest Events In Horse Heart Cytochrome-C Folding, Tarah A. Word

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The protein folding problem involves understanding how the tertiary structure of a protein is related to its primary structure. Hence, understanding the thermodynamics associated with the rate-limiting steps for the formation of the earliest events in folding is most crucial to understanding how proteins adopt native secondary and tertiary structures. In order to elucidate the mechanism and pattern of protein folding, an extensively studied protein, Cytochrome-c (Cc), was chosen as a folding system to obtain detailed time-resolved thermodynamic profiles for the earliest events in the protein folding process. Cytochrome-c is an ideal system for understanding the folding process for several …

Evaluation Of Soil As A Risk Indicator For Human Leptospirosis In Coastal, Rural Ecuador, Chad Allen Weddell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic spirochete bacteria (family Leptospiraceae, genus Leptospira), is endemic in developing tropical regions of the world. It occurs in epidemics and is endemic in Ecuador where environmental conditions are ideal for maintenance. The role of soil as a long term reservoir has been previously been documented. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technology was used in our study to further explore the role of soil as an environmental reservoir and its potential use as a static risk indicator for disease. Red, Green, Blue (RGB) spectral band data from known leptospire …

Radial Versus Othogonal And Minimal Projections Onto Hyperplanes In L_4^3, Richard Alan Warner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we study the relationship between radial projections, and orthogonal and minimal projections in l_4^3. Specifically, we calculate the norm of the maximum radial projection and we prove that the hyperplane constant, with respect to the radial projection, is not achieved by a minimal projection in this space. We will also show our numerical results, obtained using computer software, and use them to approximate the norms of the radial, orthogonal, and minimal projections in l_4^3. Specifically, we show, numerically, that the maximum minimal projection is attained for ker{1,1,1} as well as compute the norms for the maximum radial …

Dual 7-Degree-Of-Freedom Robotic Arm Remote Teleoperation Using Haptic Devices, Yu-Cheng Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A teleoperated system of dual redundant manipulator will be controlled in this thesis. The robot used with the dual redundant manipulator in this thesis is Baxter. Baxter’s redundant robot arms are 7-degree-of-freedom arms. The problem that will be solved in this thesis is optimization of the 7-degree-of-freedom robot arms. The control algorithm of the 7-degree-of-freedom robot arms will be discussed and built. A simulation program will be built to test the control algorithm. Based on the control algorithm, a teleoperation system will be created for Baxter. The controller used is Omni, which is a six-joint haptic device. Omni will also …

Nanomechanical And Nanotribological Characterization Of Sub-Micron Polymeric Spheres, Himanshu Kumar Verma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Friction between nanoscale objects has been a subject of great interest and intense research effort for the last two decades. However, the vast majority of the work done in this area has focused upon the sliding friction between two rigid, atomically smooth surfaces. Thus the parameter most explored has been the corrugation in the atomic potentials and how this affects the force required to slide one object across another. In truth, many nanoscale objects whose translation force is of practical interest are more spherical in nature. We hypothesize that the factors that determine the translation force will be related, not …

Dead/Live Microbial Culture Technique, Michael Veri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New methodology has been utilized to provoke or increase targeted metabolic pathways in microbes. The low hanging fruit of natural products has been discovered over the last 50 years. To continue finding new metabolites to be used as possible drug candidates, methodology development such as those proposed herein are necessary. This methodology uses extracts from known pathogenic bacteria to elicit production of latent biosynthetic pathways from environmental bacterial isolates that may be active against the original pathogenic strains. A new compound, MAV-1 (1) of the diketopiperazine family (Figure 1) was isolated and identified utilizing these techniques. The structure of MAV-1 …

Insights Into The Challenges Of Modeling The Atmospheric Boundary Layer, Esa-Matti Tastula

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work approaches the topic of modeling the atmospheric boundary layer in four research projects, which are summarized below.

i) The diurnal cycles of near-surface meteorological parameters over Antarctic sea ice in six widely used atmospheric reanalyses were validated against observations from Ice Station Weddell. The station drifted from February through May 1992 and provided the most extensive set of meteorological observations ever collected in the Antarctic sea ice zone. For the radiative and turbulent surface fluxes, both the amplitude and shape of the diurnal cycles varied considerably among different reanalyses. Near-surface temperature, specific humidity, and wind speed in the …

An Investigation On The Band Gap And Band Edge Of Semi-Conducting Lanthanum Transition Metal Perovskites For Photocatalytic Applications, Divya Suresh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For the past few decades, a frenzy of attention has been given towards the development of an assortment of photocatalysts as a solution for various environmental problems. TiO2 is the most widely used photocatalyst. TiO2 is biocompatible, chemically and thermally stable but TiO2 and a vast majority other photocatalysts have large band gaps, and hence they find applicability only in the UV region of the solar spectrum. These large band gap photocatalysts suffer a severe limitation with regard to their overall process efficiency as the UV region contributes to about 3 to 4 % of the solar spectrum in terms …

Authentication Via Multiple Associated Devices, Jean-Baptiste Subils

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a practical method of authentication utilizing multiple devices. The factors contributing to the practicality of the method are: the utilization of devices already commonly possessed by users and the amenability to being implemented on a wide variety of devices. The term “device” refers to anything able to perform cryptographic operations, store data, and communicate with another such device.

In the method presented herein, multiple devices need to be associated with a single user to provide this user an identity in the system. A public key infrastructure is used to provide this identity. Each of the devices associated …

Technology Literacy Skills Needed In Further Education And/Or Work: A Delphi Study Of High School Graduates’ Perspectives, Christina Louise Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology and the importance of computers in education have been recognized since the educational reform movement of the 1980’s. Change that acknowledged a need for high school students to: understand the computer as an information, computation, and communication device; use computers for personal and work-related purposes; and understand the world of computers, electronics, and related technologies (A Nation at Risk, 1983, p. 26). The study, A Nation at Risk recognized our nation’s lack of computer technology skills and since, the standards in education have changed to design curriculum and integrate technology to better prepare high school students with necessary ready …

Information Technology & Sustainability: An Empirical Study Of The Value Of The Building Automation System, Daphne Marie Simmonds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the environmental and economic effects of green information technology (IT). Green IT describes two sets of IT innovations: one set includes innovations that are implemented to reduce the environmental impact of IT services in organizations; and the other IT to reduce the environmental impact of other organizational processes. The two sets respond to the call for more environmentally friendly or “greener” organizational processes.

I developed and tested a preliminary model. The model applied the resource based view (RBV) of the firm (Wernerfelt 1984) the stakeholder theory (Freeman 1984) and included four constructs: (1) BAS implementation; environmental …

The Effect Of Urbanization On The Embodied Energy Of Drinking Water In Tampa, Florida, Mark Vincent Eli Santana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing urbanization has serious implications for resource and energy use. One of these resources is drinking water. The increased amount of impervious surfaces associated with urban development is responsible for increased runoff during rain events, which may have a negative impact on the quality of nearby bodies of water, including drinking water sources. The growing populations associated with urbanization require a higher water demand. In addition, urban drinking water systems use energy to collect, treat, and distribute a safe reliable effluent to users. Therefore, this study focuses on the degree to which urbanization influences the embodied energy of drinking water …

Optimization And Control For Microgrid And Power Electronic Converters, Vahid Rasouli Disfani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The proposed dissertation research investigates Optimization and Control for Microgrid and Power Electronic Converters. The research has two major parts:

i- Microgrid Operation and Control,

ii- Power Electronic Converter Control and Optimization.

In the first part, three focuses are investigated. First, a completely distributed algorithm is developed for dc optimal power flow problem for power distribution systems as one of the necessary functions considered in unit-commitment problem in day-ahead markets. This method is derived based upon the partial primal-dual representation of the economic dispatch problem, which is finally translated to DC-OPF problem. Second, the optimal interaction between the utility and …

Investigаtiоn Оf 3d Structures Оf Γ-Aaрeрtide Bаsed Peрtidоmimetics, Qiao Qiao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oligomers which have a tendency to form well-defined secondary structures are called foldamers. They offer an attractive opportunity for the design of novel molecules that mimic the structures and functions of proteins and enzymes including biocatalysis and biomolecular recognition. Herein a new class of non-natural γ-AApeptides and their derivatives are synthesized and studied in our lab. Previous studies of γ-AApeptides have revealed that they are highly resistant to proteolysis, and have virtually limitless potential in functional group diversity. However, to improve the bio-activity and explore new bio-applications, the understanding of the folding conformation of γ-AApeptides are necessary. Thus, NMR spectroscopy …

Spatiotemporal Sensing And Informatics For Complex Systems Monitoring, Fault Identification And Root Cause Diagnostics, Gang Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In order to cope with system complexity and dynamic environments, modern industries are investing in a variety of sensor networks and data acquisition systems to increase information visibility. Multi-sensor systems bring the proliferation of high-dimensional functional Big Data that capture rich information on the evolving dynamics of natural and engineered processes. With spatially and temporally dense data readily available, there is an urgent need to develop advanced methodologies and associated tools that will enable and assist (i) the handling of the big data communicated by the contemporary complex systems, (ii) the extraction and identification of pertinent knowledge about the environmental …

Energy Production And Effluent Quality In Tubular Digesters Treating Livestock Waste In Rural Costa Rica, Maureen Njoki Kinyua

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Use of tubular anaerobic digesters to treat livestock waste in developing countries has energy, agricultural, health, social and environmental benefits. However, careful use of digester effluent as a soil amendment is required due to the potential presence of protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia. This research investigated the performance of four tubular digesters in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. High (>75%) volatile solids and BOD5 removal efficiencies were observed, which was attributed to the formation of a biologically active floccular sludge layer. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and bioprocess models were developed to evaluate the transport and transformation …

Environmental Sustainability Of Wastewater Treatment Plants Integrated With Resource Recovery: The Impact Of Context And Scale, Pablo K. Cornejo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an urgent need for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to adapt to a rise in water and energy demands, prolonged periods of drought, climate variability, and resource scarcity. As population increases, minimizing the carbon and energy footprints of wastewater treatment, while properly managing nutrients is crucial to improving the sustainability WWTPs. Integrated resource recovery can mitigate the environmental impact of wastewater treatment systems; however, the mitigation potential depends on various factors such as treatment technology, resource recovery strategy, and system size.

Amidst these challenges, this research seeks to investigate the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) integrating resource …

Effects Of Disorder And Low Dimensionality On Frozen Dynamics In Ca3co2-Xmnxo6, Brian Wesley Casas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Complex oxides represent an intersection of play grounds for the existence of exciting new fundamental physics and materials with potential technological implications. The realization of many exciting properties of these systems rely on the coupling of electronic, structural and magnetic degrees of freedom. Additionally, competing interactions within each type of coupling discussed previously lead to theoretically diverse ground states, which under the application of an external perturbation, can be tuned and probed.

Ca3Co¬2-xMnxO6 represent a quasi-one dimensional Ising spin chain system oriented in an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice. The exotic behavior of the undoped compound Ca3Co2O6 has inspired work on continuing …

Reconstructing Paleoenvironments Of The Plio-Pleistocene Tamiami Formation Of Florida With Benthic Foraminifera, Heather Bender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is general agreement that a range of paleodepths and environments are represented in the individual shell units of the middle Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene Tamiami Formation of southwest Florida, but maximum depths remain poorly constrained. Here, benthic Foraminifera abundances are used as a paleoenvironmental proxy to compare the upper Tamiami from quarries in Sarasota, Florida to Recent modern coastal, bay, and reef habitats of Florida, the Grand Cayman Islands, and Puerto Rico, ranging in depth from 0 to 55 meters. I used: (1) ordination techniques, including detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and cluster analysis, to compare upper Tamiami foraminiferal assemblages …

Sarah Sze's "Triple Point": Modeling A Phenomenological Experience Of Contemporary Life, Amanda J. Preuss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, the 55th Venice Biennale, the world's oldest bi-annual international contemporary art exhibition, opened under the title The Encyclopedic Palace, organized by Italian curator Massimiliano Gioni. The international exhibition section is always flanked by an amalgamation of distinct national spaces, a dual exhibition model that has been the hallmark of the Biennale since 1998. In 2013, the United States pavilion was devoted to American artist Sarah Sze's work Triple Point and her signature arrangement of everyday objects and materials, such as Q-tips, water bottles, painter's tape, and desk lamps. The title of Sze's multi-room installation, culled from earlier works …

Development And Application Of Web-Based Open Source Drug Discovery Platforms, Yuri Pevzner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Computational modeling approaches have lately been earning their place as viable tools in drug discovery. Research efforts more often include computational component and the usage of the scientific software is commonplace at more stages of the drug discovery pipeline. However, as software takes on more responsibility and the computational methods grow more involved, the gap grows between research entities that have the means to maintain the necessary computational infrastructure and those that lack the technical expertise or financial means to obtain and include computational component in their scientific efforts. To fill this gap and to meet the need of many, …

Application And Development Of Computational Methods In Conformational Studies Of Bio-Molecules, Aleksandra Karolak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The work presented in my dissertation focuses on the conformational studies of bio-molecules including proteins and DNA using computational approaches. Conformational changes are important in numerous molecular bioprocesses such as recognition, transcription, replication and repair, etc. Proteins recognize specific DNA sequences and upon binding undergo partial or complete folding or partial unfolding in order to find the optimal conformational fit between molecules involved in the complex. In addition to sequence specific recognition, proteins are able to distinguish between subtle differences in local geometry and flexibility associated with DNA that may further affect their binding affinities. Experimental techniques provide high-resolution details …