Digital Commons Network^™

Environment, Channel, And Interference Awareness For Next Generation Wireless Networks, Serhan Yarkan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wireless communication systems have evolved substantially over the last two decades. The explosive growth of the wireless communications market is expected to continue in the future, as the demand for all types of wireless services is increasing. Beside providing higher data rates, next generation wireless networks (NGWN) are expected to have advanced capabilities such as interoperability, efficient spectrum utilization along with a wide variety of applications over different domains (e.g., public safety and military, aeronautical networks, femtocells, and so on) to the mobile users while serving as many users as possible.

However, these advanced capabilities and services must …

Architectures And Algorithms For Mitigation Of Soft Errors In Nanoscale Vlsi Circuits, Koustav Bhattacharya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The occurrence of transient faults like soft errors in computer circuits poses a significant challenge to the reliability of computer systems. Soft error, which occurs when the energetic neutrons coming from space or the alpha particles arising out of packaging materials hit the transistors, may manifest themselves as a bit flip in the memory element or as a transient glitch generated at any internal node of combinational logic, which may subsequently propagate to and be captured in a latch. Although the problem of soft errors was earlier only a concern for space applications, aggressive technology scaling trends have exacerbated the …

Evaluation Of A Self-Monitoring Program To Increase Treatment Integrity Of Behavior Intervention Plans, Lela E. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing number of school-aged children displaying challenging behavior has increased the need for effective interventions. School-based consultants (SBC) report using behavioral consultation to assist teachers in designing behavior intervention plans (BIP) that help students engage in appropriate behavior in the classroom. Research indicates that direct training methods increase teacher's implementation of the BIP. One commonly used direct training method, performance feedback (PF), is used to assess teachers' treatment integrity. Research also indicates that checklists (non-direct measures) are more cost efficient methods. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate a direct training method used to train teachers to self-monitor …

Theoretical Studies Of Long-Range Interactions In Quasi-One Dimensional Cylindrical Structures, Kevin Tatur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Casimir forces originating from vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic fields are of increasing importance in many scientific and technological areas. The manifestations of these long-range forces at the nanoscale have led to the need of better understanding of their contribution in relation to the stability of different physical systems as well as the operation of various technological components and devices. This dissertation presents mathematical and theoretical methods to calculate the Casimir interaction in various infinitely long cylindrical nanostructures. A dielectric-diamagnetic cylindrical layer immersed in a medium is first considered. The layer has a finite thickness characterized with specific dielectric and …

Portraits Of Online Teaching And Learning: The Experiences Of An Instructor And Six Graduate Students In A Course Entitled Educating Students With Autism, Sarah R. Semon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the last decade (1999-2009) Florida's Bureau of Exceptional Education Student Services, in partnership with Institutions of Higher Education created the Florida Virtual ESE program to develop and deliver online professional development courses. The state also provided tuition support for teachers to participate in online professional development coursework to earn credentials necessary to be considered Highly Qualified. Online course delivery is thought to be a cost-effective approach to the provision of professional development for in-service teachers. However, there is a need to examine what it takes to create meaningful online learning experiences that facilitate the goals and objectives particular to …

The Effects Of Professional Development Efforts On Educator Beliefs And Perceptions Of Competency Within A School-Based Response To Intervention Model, Joshua Nadeau

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and understand relationships between educators' perceived skills, observed practices, and stated beliefs - as well as the impact of evidence-based professional development upon those relationships - during the first year of ongoing school-based implementation for Florida's Statewide Problem- Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) Project. The PS/RtI model is conceptualized as providing a data-based template to drive student service delivery decisions; as providing a tiered framework of assessment and evaluation to maximize efficiency of allocated school funds; and as defining the determination of eligibility for special education services to be based solely upon a …

Development Of Three Dimensional Fluid-Structure Interaction Models For The Design Of Surface Acoustic Wave Devices: Application To Biosensing And Microfluidic Actuation, Reetu Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices find uses in a plethora of applications including

but not limited to chemical, biological sensing, and microfluidic actuation. The primary aim of

this dissertation is to develop a SAW biosensor, capable of simultaneous detection of target

biomarkers in fluid media at concentrations of picogram/ml to nanogram/ml levels and removal

of non-specific proteins from sensor surface using the process of acoustic streaming, for potential

chemical sensing, medical, and clinical diagnostic applications. The focus is on the development

of three dimensional finite element structural and fluid-structure interaction models to study wave

propagation and acoustic actuation of fluids …

Enhanced Co2 Storage In Confined Geologic Formations, Roland Tenjoh Okwen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many geoscientists endorse Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a potential strategy

for mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases. Deep saline aquifers have been reported to

have larger CO

2 storage capacity than other formation types because of their availability

worldwide and less competitive usage. This work proposes an analytical model for screening

potential CO

2 storage sites and investigates injection strategies that can be employed to

enhance CO

2 storage.

The analytical model provides of estimates CO

2

storage efficiency, formation pressure

profiles, and CO

2

–brine interface location. The results from the analytical model were

compared to those from …

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Ecological Validity Of A Performance-Based Assessment Of Attention, Eun- Yeop Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Executive functions impact everyday functioning. An individual’s ability to adapt

to and navigate their physical and social environments is largely determined by the ability

to organize oneself, to plan and to coordinate activities. Despite the wide variety of

cognitive tests that assess various aspects of executive function, there has been little work

to validate the use of these measures in predicting real world functioning (Sbordone,

Seyranian, & Ruff, 2000), particularly in children where characterization of executive

function is less specified. Evaluating the ecological validity of neuropsychological tests

has become an increasingly important topic over the past decade (Chaytor & Schmitter- …

Literary Bodies: The Novel As Experience, Britt Dienes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For my MA thesis I propose to examine a series of novels that combine motifs of the body with structural and linguistic experimentation that parallels the state of the bodies within the text. Using Tsitsi Dangarembga's 1988 "bodybildungsroman" Nervous Conditions, Sherley Anne Williams' 1986 neo -slave narrative Dessa Rose, Samuel Beckett's 1938 existential novel Murphy, Vikram Seth's 1986 poetic novel Golden Gate, and Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 poetic novel Pale Fire, I will argue that these texts portray the body as a readable space of culture, a legible site of conflict or creation.

I contend that these novels …

Motion Analysis Of Fluid Flow In A Spinning Disk Reactor, Valentina N. Korzhova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The flow of a liquid film over a rapidly rotating horizontal disk has numerous industrial applications including pharmaceuticals, chemical engineering, bioengineering, etc. The analysis and control of complex fluid flows over a rapidly rotating horizontal disk is an important issue in the experimental fluid mechanics. The spinning disk reactor exploits the benefits of centrifugal force, which produces thin highly sheared films due to radial acceleration. The hydrodynamics of the film results in excellent fluid mixing and high heat or mass transfer rates.

This work focuses on developing a novel approach for fluid flow tracking and analysis. Specifically, the developed algorithm …

Density Functional Theory Studies Of Energetic Materials, Michael W. Conroy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

First-principles calculations employing density functional theory (DFT) were

performed on the energetic materials PETN, HMX, RDX, nitromethane, and a recently

discovered material, nitrate ester 1 (NEST-1). The aims of the study were to accurately

predict the isothermal equation of state for each material, improve the description of these

molecular crystals in DFT by introducing a correction for dispersion interactions, and

perform uniaxial compressions to investigate physical properties that might contribute to

anisotropic sensitivity.

For each system, hydrostatic-compression simulations were performed. Important

properties calculated from the simulations such as the equilibrium structure, isothermal

equation of state, and bulk moduli were compared …

Sustainable Design Analysis Of Waterjet Cutting Through Exergy/Energy And Lca Analysis, Matthew Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A broad scope analysis of waterjet cutting systems has been developed using thermodynamics, life cycle analysis, and biological system comparison. The typical assessments associated with mechanical design include measures for performance and thermodynamic efficiency. Further analysis has been conducted using exergy, which is not typically incorporated into design practices.

Exergy measures the effectiveness of a process with respect to a base state, usually that of the systems surroundings. Comparing Gibbs free energy of biological processes to exergy efficiency has served to illustrate the need for various levels of comparison. Each biological process used in this comparison correlates to a different …

Boundary Profile Representation For Objects And Their Surroundings In Outdoor Videos, Joshua Candamo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A novel approach to represent the profile of objects using Gaussian models is presented. The profile is a representation of the object and its surrounding regions. The object profile can be viewed as a comprehensive feature of that object and its surrounding regions. Different algorithms to estimate the profile are described. Geometric descriptors of the model are also proposed. The profile model is empirically shown to be effective and easily applicable to certain object recognition and segmentation tasks. Application experiments include modeling thin and thick objects as straight-lines, curves, and blobs using different primitives such as gray-level intensities, RGB, and …

How Plastic Is Vendobionta Morphology? A Geometric Morphometric Study Of Two Groups Of Pteridinium From The Latest Neoproterozoic, Michael B. Meyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The analysis and interpretation of Vendobionta morphology is critical to elucidating a range of issues about their ontogeny and evolution, as well as life habits. These analyses, however, are complicated because these organisms are often morphologically enigmatic and defy ready categorization within modern taxonomic schemes. This study delves into the morphology of one of these problematic groups: Pteridinium. Specimens were investigated from two localities, Namibia and North Carolina, using geometric morphometrics. The landmark data, which was analyzed to compare specimens based on locality, taphonomy, and preservation, were subjected to three statistical tests: Principle Components Analysis, Procrustes shape analyses, and …

Enhancing Nature Of Science Understanding, Reflective Judgment, And Argumentation Through Socioscientific Issues, Brendan E. Callahan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a distinct divide between theory and practice in American science education. Research indicates that a constructivist philosophy, in which students construct their own knowledge, is conductive to learning, while in many cases teachers continue to present science in a more traditional manner. This study sought to explore possible relationships between a socioscientific issues based curriculum and three outcome variables: nature of science understanding, reflective judgment, and argumentation skill. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to examine both whole class differences as well as individual differences between the beginning and end of a semester of high school Biology …

College Students' Use Of Science Content During Socioscientific Issues Negotiation: Impact Of Evolution Understanding And Acceptance, Samantha R. Fowler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the evolution science content used during college students' negotiation of biology-based socioscientific issues (SSI) and examine how it related to students' conceptual understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. Specific research questions were, (1a) what specific evolutionary science content do college students evoke during SSI negotiation, (1b) what is the depth of the evolutionary science content reflected in college students' SSI negotiation, and (2) what is the nature of the interaction between evolution understanding and evolution acceptance as they relate to depth of use of evolution content during SSI negotiation? The Socioscientific Issues …

Physical And Statistical Analysis Of Functional Process Variables For Process Control In Semiconductor Manufacturing, Xi Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research aims at modeling and analyzing the interactions among functional process variables (FPVs) for process control in semiconductor manufacturing. Interaction is a universal phenomenon and different interaction patterns among system components might characterize the system conditions. To monitor and control the system, process variables are normally collected for observation which could vary with time and present in a functional form. These FPVs interact with each other and contain rich information regarding the process conditions. As an example in one of the semiconductor manufacturing processes, changes of interactions among FPVs like temperature and coefficient of friction (COF) might characterize different …

Speech Recognition Software For Language Learning: Toward An Evaluation Of Validity And Student Perceptions, Deborah Cordier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A renewed focus on foreign language (FL) learning and speech for communication has resulted in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software developed with Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). ASR features for FL pronunciation (Lafford, 2004) are functional components of CALL designs used for FL teaching and learning. The ASR features available with the TeLL me More French software provides pronunciation, intonation and speaking practice and feedback. ASR features are examined quantitatively through French student performance of recorded ASR-scored speech and compared with human raters of the same produced speech samples. A comparison of ASR scores to human raters considers the validity of …

Improving Ad-Hoc Team Performance Using Video Games, Jeff David Craighead

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined the effects of distributed, multiplayer training video games on the performance of distributed teams of robot operators. Two hypotheses were tested, the first hypothesis stated that online, game-based team training will improve the performance of an ad-hoc team versus an ad-hoc team formed of individually trained teammates. The second hypothesis stated that the fractal dimension of a robot's path can be used as an indicator of its operator's skill. Forty-one volunteers participated in an experiment in which they played a distributed, online training game which showed them the basics of operating an Inuktun Extreme VGTV for a …

Removing Arsenic From Landfill Leachate In Batch Reactors With Kemiron Adsorbent, A Commercially Available Iron Oxide, Douglas Oti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research evaluated the effectiveness of a commercially available adsorbent, Kemiron, to remove arsenic from conditions representative of landfill leachate. Kemiron was identified as an iron oxide of 39.8 m

^{2/g surface area, 44 % of which resided in the less than 3 nm pore size range. Batch experiments of As(V) and As(III) were conducted with particle sizes either ≤38 μm and in the range 500 – 600 μm with equilibrium being reached in the smaller particles in ~ 36 hours and estimated at 374 hrs for the larger particles. Ionic strength did not affect the mass loadings of As(V) …}

Power-Performance Tradeoffs In Database Systems, Zichen Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the total energy consumption of computing systems increasing at a steep rate, much attention had been paid to the design of energy-efficient computing systems and applications. So far, database system design has focused on improving the performance of query processing. The objective of this study is to explore the potential of energy conservation in relational database management systems. The hypothesis is: by modifying the query optimizer in a Database management system (DBMS) to take the energy cost of query plans into consideration, we will be able to reduce the energy usage of database servers and control the tradeoffs between …

Gulliver’S Travels To The Screen, Giant And Tiny, Mark Dekle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, has captured readers' imaginations for almost three hundred years, spawning countless adaptations over several different mediums. As different means of communicating and transforming art have been invented, these adaptations have grown to fill the new mediums and make use of the various possibilities each form has created. Film in particular has created an enormous opportunity to re-imagine Gulliver's Travels, since it can directly show the audience the fictional foreign locations in which Gulliver finds himself.

In this study, I examine seven screen adaptations of Swift's novel to determine what our current culture views as …

Quest Towards The Design And Synthesis Of Functional Metal-Organic Materials: A Molecular Building Block Approach, Dorina F. Sava

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The design of functional materials for specific applications has been an ongoing challenge for scientists aiming to resolve present and future societal needs. A burgeoning interest was awarded to developing methods for the design and synthesis of hybrid materials, which encompass superior functionality via their multi-component system. In this context, Metal-Organic Materials (MOMs) are nominated as a new generation of crystalline solid-state materials, proven to provide attractive features in terms of tunability and versatility in the synthesis process. In strong correlation with their structure, their functions are related to numerous attractive features, with emphasis on gas storage related applications.

Throughout …

Software Automation For Measurement-Based Behavioral Models Of Microwave, Daniel Sosa Martin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a study and implementation of several measurement procedures used to efficiently generate non-linear measurement-based behavioral models primary for microwave amplifiers. Behavioral models are a solution for representing devices that can present linear and/or non-linear behavior when little or no information about the internal structure is known. Measurement-based behavioral models are an advantage since they can be extracted from a direct measurement of the device. This work addresses some of the challenges of these types of measurements. A set of software modules has been produced that combine several modern techniques to efficiently generate practical models using equipment commonly …

Evaluation Of Advanced Materials To Protect Against Fall-Related Head Injuries, Michael V. Kerrigan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Falls among the elderly population continue to be a growing concern in the healthcare industry and are marked by staggeringly high social and economic costs. The incidence of falls is known to increase with age, and currently the elderly population is growing at an astounding rate as baby-boomers are now entering this age group. Also, recovery following fall-related injuries decreases with increased age. These confounding factors currently make falls a very important area of research. Of the injuries typically seen in falls among the elderly, head injuries are one of the most debilitating. Death due to head trauma among the …

Evaluation Of The First Year Of A Statewide Problem Solving/Response To Intervention Initiative: Preliminary Findings, Jose Michael Castillo Educational Specialist

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This program evaluation study examined the relationship between Problem Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) training and technical assistance and educator and implementation outcomes following the first year of a 3-year project. Educators from 40 pilot schools in eight districts participating in the study received ongoing professional development targeting the rationale for the initiative, systems change issues, and the steps of the PS/RtI model. Data on educator beliefs, educator perceived and demonstrated PS/RtI skills, and PS/RtI implementation were collected throughout the year from the 40 pilot schools as well as 33 comparison schools. To examine the relationships between PS/RtI training and technical …

Automatic Red Tide Detection Using Modis Satellite Images, Wijian Cheng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Red tides pose a significant economic and environmental threat in the Gulf of Mexico. Detecting red tide is important for understanding this phenomenon. In this thesis, machine learning approaches based on Random Forests, Support Vector Machines and K-Nearest Neighbors have been evaluated for red tide detection from MODIS satellite images. Detection results using machine learning algorithms were compared to ship collected ground truth red tide data. This work has three major contributions. First, machine learning approaches outperformed two of the latest thresholding red tide detection algorithms based on bio-optical characterization by more than 10% in terms of F measure and …

Toward Understanding Low Surface Friction On Quasiperiodic Surfaces, Keith Mclaughlin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a 2005 article in Science [45], Park et al. measured in vacuum the friction between a coated atomic-force-microscope tip and the clean two-fold surface of an AlNiCo quasicrystal. Because the two-fold surface is periodic in one direction and aperiodic (with a quasiperiodicity related to the Fibonacci sequence) in the perpendicular direction, frictional anisotropy is not unexpected; however, the magnitude of that anisotropy in the Park experiment, a factor of eight, is unprecedented. By eliminating chemistry as a variable, the experiment also demonstrated that the low friction of quasicrystals must be tied in some way to their quasiperiodicity. Through various …

Algorithms For Simple Stochastic Games, Elena Valkanova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A simple stochastic game (SSG) is a game defined on a directed multigraph and played between players MAX and MIN. Both players have control over disjoint subsets of vertices: player MAX controls a subset V_MAX and player MIN controls a subset V_MIN of vertices. The remaining vertices fall into either V_AVE, a subset of vertices that support stochastic transitions, or SINK, a subset of vertices that have zero outdegree and are associated with a payoff in the range [0, 1]. The game starts by placing a token on a designated start vertex. The token is moved …