Digital Commons Network^™

Implant Annealing Of Al Dopants In Silicon Carbide Using Silane Overpressure, Shailaja P. Rao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to develop a post-implantation annealing process in silicon carbide (SiC). Due to the low diffusivities of dopants in SiC, even at temperatures in excess of 2000°C, diffusion is not a suitable process to achieve selective, planar doping. Ion implantation is therefore the most suitable means for achieving selective doping in SiC crystals. The strong covalent bonding in SiC requires that selective doping be performed via high-energy ion implantation. As a consequence of the high ion energy and flux, there is considerable lattice damage to the crystal surface. To repair the damage caused by the …

Interaction Patterns And Web-Structures Of Resonant Solitons Of The Kadomtsev-Petviashvili Equation, Anupama Tippabhotla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the interaction pattern for a class of soliton solutions of the Kadomtsev- Petviashvili (KP) equation (−4u_t + u_xxx + 6uu_x )_x + 3u_yy = 0 is analyzed. The complete asymptotic properties of the soliton solutions for y → ±∞ are determined. The resonance characteristic of two sub-classes of the soliton solutions, in which N_- incoming line solitons for y → −∞ interact to form N₊ outgoing line solitons for y → ∞, is described. These two specific sub-classes of (N_-,N₊)-soliton solutions are the following:

1) [(2, …

Facial Strain Maps As A Biometric Source, Sangeeta J. Kundu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current two dimensional face recognition methods rely on visible photometric or geometric attributes that are present in the intensity image. In many of these approaches a technique called Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is extensively used. PCA extracts the maximum intensity variations from the set of input images in the form of "eigen" faces which are used as a feature vector. In these approaches the intensity images used were mostly that of the subject's frontal face, which yielded promising results after doing PCA. These approaches however fail in the presence of facial expression, unstable lighting conditions and artifacts such as make-up, …

Effects Of Using Graphing Calculators With A Numerical Approach On Students’ Learning Of Limits And Derivatives In An Applied Calculus Course At A Community College, Arumugam Muhundan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of using graphing calculators with a numerical approach designed by the researcher on students learning of limits and derivatives in an Applied Calculus course at a community college. The purposes of this study were to investigate the following: (1) students achievement in solving limit problems (Skills, Concepts, and Applications) with a numerical approach compared to that of students who solved limit problems with a traditional approach (primarily an algebraic approach); and (2) students achievement in solving derivative problems (Skills, Concepts, and Applications) with a numerical approach compared to that of students who solved derivative problems …

Topology, Morphisms, And Randomness In The Space Of Formal Languages, David E. Kephart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper outlines and implements a systematic approach to the establishment, investigation, and testing of distances and topologies on language spaces. The collection of all languages over a given number of symbols forms a semiring, appropriately termed a language space. Families of languages are defined by interrelations among words. The traditional classification begins with the syntax rules or grammar of the language, that is, the word-transformations by which the entire language can be produced from a single axiom, or starting word. The study of distances between languages as objects and of the topologies induced by language distances upon spaces of …

Multi-Agent Workload Control And Flexible Job Shop Scheduling, Zuobao Wu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the make-to-order (MTO) industry, offering competitive due dates and on-time delivery for customer orders is important to the survival of MTO companies. Workload control is a production planning and control approach designed to meet the need of the MTO companies. In this dissertation, a multi-agent workload control methodology that simultaneously deals with due date setting, job release and scheduling is proposed to discourage job early or tardy completions. The earliness and tardiness objectives are consistent with the just-in-time production philosophy which has attracted significant attention in both industry and academic community. This methodology consists of the order entry agent, …

Robust Algorithms For Property Recovery In Motion Modeling, Medical Imaging And Biometrics, Yong Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The past two decades has witnessed growing interest in physics based techniques in computer vision, computer graphics and medical imaging. The main advantage of a physical model is its mathematical rigor and physical soundness, which makes it an ideal tool to study complex nonrigid motion. However, since a model based on continuum mechanics is computationally demanding, an idealized framework is often adopted where physical motion parameters are significantly simplified, which inevitably affects the accuracy and reliability of modeling results.

In this study, a new modeling approach is developed that features the reconstruction of actual material properties such as the Young's …

Gender And Generational Differences In The Self-Ratings Of Leadership Practices By Elementary School Administrators Within Four Florida Counties, Michele E. Polk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Considerable research has been conducted over time on possible gender differences, with varying results regarding the existence and/or degree of differences. In particular, research on differences in leadership practices of men and women have abounded since the 1970s as women began to make their way into management and supervisory positions.

In todays work force, several generations can be found working together within a single work setting. Possibly, differences in leadership may be more generational than gender related; however, little research has considered both gender and generation as variables. This study adds to literature relating to the existence of gender and/or …

Postmodern Narrativity In Absalom, Absalom! And Memento: Examining Telling Similarities In The Techniques Of William Faulkner And Christopher Nolan, Jessica Jain Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper argues that narrative techniques in Absalom, Absalom! demonstrate Faulkners anticipation of postmodern thought and style. Similar techniques in Christopher Nolans film Memento serve to highlight how both writer and director confound the notion of master narrative by disrupting chronology and raising questions about the reliability of the narrators in each work. Nolan orders all events of the film in reverse while threading chronologically ordered events throughout to tell the story of Lennys murder investigation. Faulkner likewise uses "dischronology," such as flashbacks to tell the story of Thomas Sutpen. Both Faulkner and Nolan provide key information through questionable narrators …

Effect Of Age On 11- To 18-Year-Olds’ Discrimination Of Nuances In Instrumental And Speech Phrase Interpretations, Andrew Sioberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation was a continuation of study on a theory of a learning window for the perception of expressive qualities in music and speech. The proposed theory suggested that a practice window must overlap a learning window before it closes around the age of 10. This dissertation sought to determine whether children older than the proposed learning window continued to improve in speech and musical discrimination skill, or leveled off in this ability. It also examined the impact of gender and private lesson experience on discrimination ability.

Instrumental music students (n = 292) attending a public magnet school for visual …

A Game Theoretic Framework For Dynamic Task Scheduling In Distributed Heterogeneous Computing Systems, Vasanth Kumar Ramesh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heterogeneous Computing (HC) systems achieve high performance by networking together computing resources of diverse nature. The issues of task assignment and scheduling are critical in the design and performance of such systems. In this thesis, an auction based game theoretic framework is developed for dynamic task scheduling in HC systems. Based on the proposed game theoretic model, a new dynamic scheduling algorithm is developed that uses auction based strategies. The dynamic scheduling algorithm yields schedules with shorter completion times than static schedulers while incurring higher scheduling overhead. Thus, a second scheduling algorithm is proposed which uses an initial schedule generated …

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Injury Severity Associated With Patient Falls From Bed, Bonnie E. Bowers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The incidence of falls in the elderly population is a growing concern in the healthcare industry as associated morbidity is high, particularly morbidity associated with falls from bed. Bedrails were implemented as a device intended to reduce the incidence of falls from bed; however, recent evidence may indicate that bedrails contribute to adverse events including entrapment and entanglement. As such, efforts have been made to reduce the use of bedrails and implement alternatives including height adjustable beds and floor mats. An instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy was used in the current study to measure the deceleration profiles of the head, thorax, …

Experience And Inquiry In John Dewey’S Contextualism, Christopher C. Kirby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper will focus on two elements, viz. experience and inquiry, which are central to John Deweys philosophy and their relation to the movement known as pragmatism. Although each of these concepts has received extensive treatment by other schools of thought, the pragmatists, and particularly Dewey, did much to redefine each in hopes of alleviating the tension between conflicting philosophical viewpoints. An explication of Deweys view on experience is the first step in understanding his application of the pragmatic method towards reconstructing philosophical thinking. Therefore, this paper will explore the meaning that Dewey gave to each and how that meaning …

Cognitive Load Theory And Programmed Instruction, Michael L. Brazas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Programmed Instruction was a dominant force in educational research during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. During this period a new cognitively oriented psychology of education arose that eventually replaced the behaviorally driven research into programmed instruction. For some reason little work was done on integrating these two approaches. This study was designed to test a programmed instructional system based on the intrinsic programmed instructional technology of Crowder (1961) but incorporating design elements derived from cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988). Specifically, this study tested a multimedia programmed instructional system (CLT-PI) based on work by Mayer (2001) against a text based system …

Creative Performance On The Job: Does Openness To Experience Matter?, Victoria L. Pace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Finding what is alike among the personalities of creative people has been a dream of many researchers. No single personality type has been discovered as prototypical, yet the promise of common attributes among creative people remains enticing. This study examines one of these promising characteristics - Openness to Experience, a personality factor from the Five-Factor Model. This factor has been shown to correlate positively with creativity in past studies. In the present study this relationship was partially confirmed in a sample of employees whose jobs require technical problem solving, by correlating the employees self-rated Work-specific Openness to Experience and NEO …

Strategies For Incident Management In An Urban Street Network, Vikramaditya Bhide

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research the problem of incident congestion on surface street networks is addressed. Microscopic simulation is used to simulate incident scenarios on various corridors in the Tampa Bay area. The effect of the three factors, namely, network, speed and signal strategies on the traffic flow is studied. The network performance is based on Highway Capacity Manual specified measures of effectiveness prepared by the Transportation Research Board.

Three inherently different city corridors, high, medium and low volume, are used to test the strategies developed. The strategies investigated include varying speed limits during incidents and using pre-timed and semi-actuated signals that …

Usfkad: An Expert System For Partial Differential Equations, Sami M. Kadamani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

USFKAD is an encoded expert system for the eigenfunction expansion of solutions to the wave, diffusion, and Laplace equations: both homogeneous and nonhomogenous; one, two, or three dimensions; Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates; Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin, or singular boundary conditions; in time, frequency, or Laplace domain. The user follows a menu to enter his/her choices and the output is a LaTeX file containing the formula for the solution together with the transcendental equation for the eigenvalues (if necessary) and the projection formulas for the coefficients. The file is suitable for insertion into a book or journal article, and as a …

Integrated Scheduling And Information Support System For Transit Maintenance Departments, Paula Andrea Lopez Alvarado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The projected increase of population in the United States and particularly in the state of Florida shows a clear need of improvement in mass transportation systems. To provide outstanding service to rides, well maintained fleet that ensures safety for riders and other people on the streets is imperative.

This research presents an information support system that assists maintenance managers to review and analyze data and evaluate alternatives in order to make better decisions that maximize efficiency in operations at transportation organizations. A system that consists of a mathematical scheduling model that interacts with a forecasting model and repair time standards …

Generation Of Carbon Dioxide And Mobilization Of Antimony Trioxide By Fungal Decomposition Of Building Materials, John D. Krause

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fungal contamination of buildings poses numerous challenges to researchers, building owners and occupants. Public health agencies promote prevention and remediation of mold and water damage, but lack sensitive methods to detect hidden mold growth and a complete understanding of the biological mechanisms that make occupying moldy buildings a hazard. The wide spread use of the fire retardant antimony trioxide (Sb₂O₃) on building materials and furnishings makes it inevitable that mold growth on treated materials will occur in some buildings with water damage. Several authors have speculation that microbial growth on materials treated with antimony trioxide could …

Study Of Tin Oxide For Hydrogen Gas Sensor Applications, Manoj Anand

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tin oxide (SnO₂) has been investigated and used as a gas sensing material for numerous applications from the very start of the sensor industry. Most of these sensors use semiconductors (mostly SnO₂) as the sensing material.

In this work, SnO₂ was prepared using 2 techniques: firstly the MOCVD where we dope the sample with fluorine and secondly sputtering technique where samples are undoped in our case. These samples were tested at different conditions of temperature varying from room temperature to 150 degrees C, in ambient gas atmosphere of 200 CC Nitrogen (N₂).

The …

Music Integration: Educators’ Perceptions Of Implementation And Student Achievement In Public School Elementary Education, Cynthia Marie Shuck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigated the levels and frequency of music integration being implemented at a public elementary school in central Florida, what key issues affect the successful implementation of effective music integration, and if music integration has an influence on academic achievement.

This study focused on 14 elementary school educators actively involved with music integration at one public elementary school. The multiple formats of data collection and analysis provided triangulation and increased the viability and transferability of the results. The five data collection formats that were used consisted of surveys, observations, lesson plans, interviews, and student achievement documents. Data …

An Implementation Of The Usf/ Calvo Model In Verilog-A To Enforce Charge Conservation In Applicable Fet Models, Joshua Nicodemus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of this research is to put into code a unique approach to addressing problems apparent with nonlinear FET models which were exposed by Calvo in her work in 1994. Since that time, the simulation software for which her model was appropriate underwent a significant update, necessitating the rewriting of her model code for a few applicable FET models in a Verilog-A, making it more compatible with the new versions of software and simulators.

The problems addressed are the inconsistencies between the small-signal model and the corresponding large-signal models due to a factor called transcapacitance. It has been …

Computation Of Fluid Circulation In A Cryogenic Storage Tank And Heat Transfer Analysis During Jet Impingement, Santosh Kumar Mukka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study presents a systematic single and two-phase analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer in a liquid hydrogen storage vessel for both earth and space applications.The study considered a cylindrical tank with elliptical top and bottom. The tank wall ismade of aluminum and a multi-layered blanket of cryogenic insulation (MLI) has been attached on the top of the aluminum. The tank is connected to a cryocooler to dissipate the heat leak through the insulation and tank wall into the fluid within the tank. The cryocooler has not been modeled; only the flow in and out of the tank to …

The Impact Of Peer Tutoring And Self-Monitoring On Oral Reading Fluency For Children Who Exhibit Symptoms Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Shannon M. Leis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of peer tutoring and self-monitoring interventions on the oral reading performance of students exhibiting symptoms of AttentionDeficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Predominantly Inattentive Type. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the peer tutoring and self-monitoring interventions with four second grade students who were tutored by fourth grade students. Results indicated that the median number of words read correct per minute as measured by curriculum-based measurement reading probes increased from baseline to intervention phases for three of the four tutee participants. In addition, the median number of errors from baseline to intervention …

Developing An Anthropology Curriculum For High School: A Case Study From Durant High School, Hillsborough County, Florida, Kory Mcneil Bennett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It has become increasingly apparent that anthropology has much to offer when it comes to educating our youth. This is true for all grade levels, kindergarten through senior level studies in high school. Here, this idea will be explored further by focusing on the students of Durant High School (DHS) of Plant City, Florida.

This project was designed to explore the idea of combining widely accepted pedagogical theories (Gardner 1983, 1993, 1999; Geraci 2000; Silver, Strong and Perini 1997) with anthropological theory and methods in order to devise effective curricula for high school archaeology and other anthropology courses. More essentially, …

Process Monitoring And Feedback Control Using Multiresolution Analysis And Machine Learning, Rajesh Ganesan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online process monitoring and feedback control are two widely researched aspects that can impact the performance of a myriad of process applications. Semiconductor manufacturing is one such application that due to the ever increasing demands placed on its quality and speed holds tremendous potentials for further research and development in the areas of monitoring and control. One of the key areas of semiconductor manufacturing that has received significant attention among researchers and practitioners in recent years is the online sensor based monitoring and feedback control of its nanoscale wafer fabrication process.

Monitoring and feedback control strategies of nanomanufacturing processes often …

Hybrid Model For Characterization Of Submicron Particles Using Multiwavelength Spectroscopy, Alicia Garcia-Lopez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The area of particle characterization is expansive; it contains many technologies and methods of analysis. Light spectroscopy techniques yield information on the joint property distribution of particles, comprising the chemical composition, size, shape, and orientation of the particles. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a hybrid scattering-absorption model incorporating Mie and Rayleigh-Debye-Gans theory to characterize submicron particles in suspension with multiwavelength spectroscopy.

Rayleigh-Debye-Gans theory (RDG) was chosen as a model to relate the particles joint property distribution to the light scattering and absorption phenomena for submicron particles. A correction model to instrument parameters of relevance was implemented to …

Multichannel Functional Data Decomposition And Monitoring, Hani Kababji

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With current advances in sensors and information technology, online measurements of process variables become increasingly accessible for process control and monitoring. Such measurements may take the shape of curves rather than scalar values. The term Multichannel Functional Data (MFD) is used to represent the observations of multiple process variables in the shape of curves. Generally MFD contains rich information about processes. The challenge of process control in MFD is that Statistical Process Control (SPC) is not directly applicable. Furthermore, there is no systematic approach to interpret the complex variation in MFD. In this research, our objective is to develop an …

Rational Fraction Approximations For Passive Network Functions, William Joel Dietmar Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In electrical engineering, the designer is often presented with the problem of synthesizing a circuit for which the mathematical specifications are unsuitable for physical realization. Hence, the engineer must approximate as well as possible the prescribed network function by another function which is realizable. This paper describes a new approximation method for solving the problem of realizing passive network transfer functions, where the realization is carried out through the use of passive, reciprocal, lumped, linear, and time-invariant elements.

Optical Response Of Polycrystalline Mercuric Iodide Photoconductive Detectors, Prashant Chegoor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mercuric Iodide in its tetragonal form has received a lot of attention for many years as a prospective room temperature X-ray and y-ray detector. Its basic properties are well suited for this purpose. Its wide band gap of 2.1eV contributes to a high dark resistivity of 10¹²ohm-cm or higher. A high atomic number of its constituent atoms (Hg-80, I -53) and a density of 6.3g/cm³ result in its efficient interaction with incident X-ray or y-ray radiation. Single crystalline mercuric iodide has been thoroughly studied and successfully utilized in commercial radiation detectors. But with the urgent need for …