Digital Commons Network^™

Bird Communities Of Isolated Cypress Wetlands Along An Urban Gradient In Hillsborough County, Florida, Nathaniel L. Goddard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Migratory bird communities are sensitive to landscape alteration. Urban development significantly impacts bird communities on breeding grounds, as well as en-route during migration. One current theory is that Neotropical migratory birds are not limited by breeding or wintering habitat constraints but by food and habitat availability along major migration routes. The eastern flyway is the route taken by neotropical land-birds through eastern North America that follows coastal areas denoted by intense urban development. Coastal areas funnel birds to major departure points along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the western coast of Florida.

Birds were monitored for …

Writing To (Re)New Orleans: The Post-Hurricane Katrina Blogosphere And Its Ability To Inspire Recovery, Daisy Pignetti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nearly every website or software application these days features a feed to subscribe to, a network to join, or a social timeline to track—all of which do their part to influence public opinion, promote products, and bring people closer together. Being a blogger since 2003 exposed me to these user-generated trends, but never did I expect my blog space, or any others, to play such an important role in my emotional well-being; not until Hurricane Katrina hit. Sharing my story as a transplanted New Orleanian watching the disaster unfold from afar in a public forum quickly linked me to other …

Residual Stress Analysis In 3c-Sic Thin Films By Substrate Curvature Method, Jose M. Carballo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Development of thin films has allowed for important improvements in optical, electronic and electromechanical devices within micrometer length scales. In order to grow thin films, there exist a wide variety of deposition techniques, as each technique offers a unique set of advantages. The main challenge of thin film deposition is to reach smallest possible dimensions, while achieving mechanical stability during operating conditions (including extreme temperatures and external forces, complex film structures and device configurations). Silicon carbide (SiC) is attractive for its resistance to harsh environments, and the potential it offers to improve performance in several microelectronic, micro-electromechanical, and optoelectronic applications. …

The Rebirth Of A Semi-Disintegrated Enterprise: Towards The Future Of Composites In Pre-Synthesized Domestic Dwellings; And The Societal Acceptance Of The Anti-In Situ Architectural Movement, Timothy James Keepers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prefabricated home has been said to be the site of innovation, exploration and sometimes spectacular failure since the mid 20th-century (Home Delivery, 8). Despite years of research and advancements in technology, pre-synthesization in the domestic realm has typically remained loyal to past construction methods/materials and banal aesthetic ripostes. As a result, the modern pre-synthesized home suffers in terms of programmatic diversity, spatial feedback, supertemporal expansion (in reference to the supertemporal art movement) and societal acceptance.

Materials and technologies are constantly upgrading in our increasingly technetronic society. Re-marketing the prefabricated home will require a similar modus operandi. Investigating the successes …

System Identification In Automatic Database Memory Tuning, Tiffany Burrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Databases are very complex systems that require database system administrators to perform system tuning in order to achieve optimal performance. Memory tuning is vital to the performance of a database system because when the database workload exceeds its memory capacity, the results of the queries running on a system are delayed and can cause substantial user dissatisfaction. In order to solve this problem, this thesis presents a platform modeled after a closed control feedback loop to control the level of multi-query processing. Utilizing this platform provides two key assets. First, the system identification is acquired, which is one of two …

Application Of Luminescence Sensors In Oxygen Diffusion Measurement And Study Of Luminescence Enhancement/Quenching By Metallic Nanoparticles, Sanchari Chowdhury

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The first part of this dissertation deals with the application of a luminescence quenching method to measure diffusion and permeation coefficients of oxygen in polymers. Most luminescence oxygen sensors do not follow linearity of the Stern-Volmer (SV) equation due to heterogeneity of luminophore in the polymer matrix, thus the complexity of data analysis is increased. To circumvent this limitation, inverted fluorescence microscopy is utilized in this work to investigate the SV response of the sensors at the micron-scale. In these diffusion experiments, oxygen concentration is measured by luminescence changes in regions with high SV constants and good linearity. Thus, we …

Improved Methodologies For Modeling Storage And Water Level Behavior In Wetlands, Kenneth Allan Nilsson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands are important elements of watersheds that influence water storage, surface water runoff, groundwater recharge/discharge processes, and evapotranspiration. To understand the cumulative effect wetlands have on a watershed, one must have a good understanding of the water-level fluctuations and the storage characteristics associated with multiple wetlands across a region. An improved analytical method is presented to describe the storage characteristics of wetlands in the absence of detailed hydrologic and bathymetric data. Also, a probabilistic approach based on frequency analysis is developed to provide insight into surface and groundwater interactions associated with isolated wetlands. The results of the work include: 1) …

Theoretical And Experimental Simulation Of Passive Vacuum Solar Flash Desalination, Mohammad Abutayeh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Experimental and theoretical simulations of a novel sustainable desalination process have been carried out. The simulated process consists of pumping seawater through a solar heater before flashing it under vacuum in an elevated chamber. The vacuum is passively created and then maintained by the hydrostatic balance between pressure inside the elevated flash chamber and outdoor atmospheric pressure.

The experimental simulations were carried out using a pilot unit built to depict the proposed desalination system. Theoretical simulations were performed using a detailed computer code employing fundamental physical and thermodynamic laws to describe the separation process, complimented by experimentally based correlations to …

Feral Cats And The People Who Care For Them, Loretta Sue Humphrey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sociologists have described the characteristics of individuals who become involved in social movements, their motivations for becoming involved, and the methods used to recruit participants. One group that has been underrepresented in the existing literature is feral cat caretakers. The purpose of this study is to examine the traits of this group, information which would be valuable to groups dedicated to educating the public about the plight of feral cats, groups which offer information and resources to caretakers, individuals wishing to network with other feral cat caretakers, and policy makers in need of knowing what options exist to deal with …

Development Of Uhf Micromechanical Resonators And Arrays Based On Silicon-Oninsulator (Soi) Technology, Mingke Xiong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A novel micromachining technology on SOI substrates is presented that is capable of producing on-chip high-Q resonators and resonator arrays equipped with high aspect-ratio (30:1) microstructures and nano-gap capacitive transducers filled with high-k dielectrics. The newly developed IC-compatible MEMS microfabrication process consists of merely three standard photolithography steps, which is much simpler than the other SOI-based resonator device technologies. In order to achieve the optimum performance and yield of the resonators and resonator arrays, this SOI-based fabrication process has been carefully designed and investigated step by step.

For capacitively-transduced extensional mode (e.g., radial-contour and wine-glass mode) resonators, formation of …

Tango Panopticon: Developing A Platform For Supporting Live Synchronous Art Events Based In Relational Aesthetics, Michael Edward Stillo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Tango Panopticon project merges art with technology to create a live and synchronous art experience which is just as much about the participants as it is about the observers. The goal of this project is to create a dialogue between observers of the event in the hopes of creating new social connections where there were none before. This goal is achieved by allowing observers to view the event from anywhere around the world on a computer via the internet and participate in a dialogue with other users on the website.

The other objective of this project is to create …

Mercury In The Environment: Field Studies From Tampa, Bolivia, And Guyana, Joniqua A'Ja Howard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tampa (US), Guyana (SA), and Bolivia (SA), are geographically, socially, economically, and politically unique which make them ideal sites to study issues of mercury and sustainability. Mercury’s innate ability to bioaccumulate and biomagnify in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems poses a severe threat to both human and environmental health. The most vulnerable populations affected by mercury consumption include coastal communities, children, women of child-bearing age, the indigenous poor and persons with high environmental/occupational exposure factors. Communities in the regions of Florida, Bolivia, and Guyana whose diets are high in fish and are environmentally/occupationally exposed to mercury may be at a higher …

I Know I Shouldn’T Generalize, But…: A Rhetorical Critique Of Ethnography In Composition Studies, Micheal W. Taber Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at Stephen North's 1987 claim of the limits of ethnography in composition research and looks at modern, published research studies to see how they have heeded North's warnings.

In 1987 Stephen North claimed that the future of ethnographic methodology in composition research was doomed unless those who would adopt this qualitative technique understood its limitations. North argued that each ethnography is only valuable as an individual study, that individual studies are not cumulative towards some absolute and discoverable positivistic model of knowledge. This warning of the problem and limitations of modern qualitative ethnography was issued over 2 …

Probabilistic Error Analysis Models For Nano-Domain Vlsi Circuits, Karthikeyan Lingasubramanian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology scaling to the nanometer levels has paved the way to realize multi-dimensional applications in a single product by increasing the density of the electronic devices on integrated chips. This has naturally attracted a wide variety of industries like medicine, communication, automobile, defense and even house-hold appliance, to use high speed multi-functional computing machines. Apart from the advantages of these nano-domain computing devices, their usage in safety-centric applications like implantable biomedical chips and automobile safety has immensely increased the need for comprehensive error analysis to enhance their reliability. Moreover, these nano-electronic devices have increased propensity to transient errors due to …

Properties Of Carbon Nanotubes Under External Factors: Adsorption, Mechanical Deformations, Defects, And External Electric Fields, Yaroslav Shtogun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Carbon nanotubes have unique electronic, optical, mechanical, and transport properties which make them an important element of nanoscience and nanotechnology. However, successful application and integration of carbon nanotubes into new nanodevices requires fundamental understanding of their property changes under the influence of many external factors. This dissertation presents qualitative and quantitative theoretical understanding of property changes, while carbon nanotubes are exposed to the deformations, defects, external electric fields, and adsorption. Adsorption mechanisms due to Van der Waals dispersion forces are analyzed first for the interactions of graphitic materials and biological molecules with carbon nanotubes. In particular, the calculations are performed …

Filtration Efficiency Of Surgical Masks, Erin Sanchez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surgical masks are intended to be used to prevent transmission of disease from a health care worker to a patient. Often times, they are relied upon by health care workers for their own protection. In light of recent developments regarding preparation for health care worker response to global infectious diseases such as H1N1 Influenza, health care workers may experience a false sense of security when wearing surgical masks. The goal of this study was to evaluate the filtration efficiency of a double strap tie-on surgical mask. The manufacturer asserts a >95% efficiency with a 0.1 um challenge aerosol under FDA …

Priming Expectancies: Effects On Neurophysiological Indices Of Expectancy Violations And Drinking Behavior, Tyler Brumback

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Investigations of the anticipated effects of alcohol indicate that cognitive frameworks are highly correlated with drinking and other variables associated with alcohol use, explaining up to 50% of the variance in drinking outcomes (Goldman, Darkes, & Del Boca, 1999; Goldman, 2002; Goldman et al., 2006; Goldman, Reich, & Darkes, 2006). Furthermore, alcohol expectancies appear to mediate the relationship between a variety of risk factors, such as sensation seeking, and alcohol outcomes (Darkes, Greenbaum, & Goldman, 2004). The current study examined the relationship of these cognitive networks with a physiological index of expectancy violation

Participants were presented with statements reflecting a …

Topology Control In Wireless Sensor Networks, Pedro Mario Wightman Rojas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) offer a flexible low-cost solution to the problem of event monitoring, especially in places with limited accessibility or that represent danger to humans. WSNs are made of resource-constrained wireless devices, which require energy efficient mechanisms, algorithms and protocols. One of these mechanisms is Topology Control (TC) composed of two mechanisms, Topology Construction and Topology Maintenance.

This dissertation expands the knowledge of TC in many ways. First, it introduces a comprehensive taxonomy for topology construction and maintenance algorithms for the first time. Second, it includes four new topology construction protocols: A3, A3Lite, A3Cov and A3LiteCov. These protocols …

A Generalized Framework For Automatic Code Partitioning And Generation In Distributed Systems, Viswanath Sairaman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In distributed heterogeneous systems the partitioning of application software to be executed in a distributed fashion is a challenge by itself. The task of code partitioning for distributed processing involves partitioning the code into clusters and mapping those code clusters to the individual processing elements interconnected through a high speed network. Code generation is the process of converting the code partitions into individually executable code clusters and satisfying the code dependencies by adding communication primitives to send and receive data between dependent code clusters. In this work, we describe a generalized framework for automatic code partitioning and code generation for …

From Husserl And The Neo-Kantians To Art: Heidegger's Realist Historicist Answer To The Problem Of The Origin Of Meaning, William H. Koch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work I present both a historical and philosophical argument. First, I use Martin Heidegger's early interest in the argument that concepts are furnished to the mind directly by experience, as found in Edmund Husserl's categorial intuition and Emil Lask's principle of the material determination of form, to build an interpretation of Being and Time and "The Origin of the Work of Art" which provides a unified understanding of Heidegger's consistent underlying position throughout his career as one of realist historicism. My interpretation of Heidegger as a realist historicist rejects the reading of Being and Time as a transcendental …

Heat Stress Evaluation Of Protective Clothing Ensembles, Amanda Lee Pease

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clothing directly affects the level of heat stress exposure. Useful measures to express the thermal characteristics are WBGT (wet bulb globe temperature) clothing adjustment factor (CAF) or apparent total evaporative resistance (R_e,T,_a). The CAF is assigned through laboratory wear trials following a heat stress protocol in which the air temperature and humidity are progressively increased until the participant clearly loses the ability to maintain thermal equilibrium. The critical condition is the point of thermal transition and from these conditions both the CAF and Re,T,a are computed. The first objective of this study is to compare the …

Saving Energy In Network Hosts With An Application Layer Proxy: Design And Evaluation Of New Methods That Utilize Improved Bloom Filters, Miguel Jimeno

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century is to investigate new technologies that can enable a transition towards a society with a reduced CO₂ footprint. Information Technology generates about 2% of the global CO₂, which is comparable to the aviation industry. Being connected to the Internet requires active participation in responding to protocol messages. Billions of dollars worth of electricity every year are used to keep network hosts fully powered-on at all times only for the purpose of maintaining network presence. Most network hosts are idle most of the time, thus presenting a huge …

Synthesis Of Local Thermo-Physical Models Using Genetic Programming, Ying Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Local thermodynamic models are practical alternatives to computationally expensive rigorous models that involve implicit computational procedures and often complement them to accelerate computation for real-time optimization and control. Human-centered strategies for development of these models are based on approximation of theoretical models. Genetic Programming (GP) system can extract knowledge from the given data in the form of symbolic expressions. This research describes a fully data driven automatic self-evolving algorithm that builds appropriate approximating formulae for local models using genetic programming. No a-priori information on the type of mixture (ideal/non ideal etc.) or assumptions are necessary.

The approach involves synthesis of …

Filtration Performance Of A Niosh-Approved N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirator With Stapled Head Straps, Daniel E. Medina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Certain models of NIOSH-approved filtering facepiece air purifying respirators are manufactured with stapled head straps. Depending on the manufacturer, these head straps may be stapled to the filter media itself. This may cause leakage through the filter media of the respirator, potentially exposing the user to an unacceptable level of contaminant. In this study, monodisperse polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres were generated to challenge four replicates of a N95 single use respirator model made by the same manufacturer.

Nominal particle sizes of the PSL spheres used to challenge the respirators were 0.5, 1, and 2 micrometers in diameter. All respirators were …

Linear And Nonlinear Control Of Unmanned Rotorcraft, Ioannis A. Raptis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main characteristic attribute of the rotorcraft is the use of rotary wings to produce the thrust force necessary for motion. Therefore, rotorcraft have an advantage relative to fixed wing aircraft because they do not require any relative velocity to produce aerodynamic forces. Rotorcraft have been used in a wide range of missions of civilian and military applications. Particular interest has been concentrated in applications related to search and rescue in environments that impose restrictions to human presence and interference.

The main representative of the rotorcraft family is the helicopter. Small scale helicopters retain all the flight characteristics and physical …

Promoting Cultural Experiences Through Responsive Architecture, Shabonni Olivia Elkanah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dance, costume, and music are all reflective of a heritage that has been intact over three hundred years. The street activities during carnival season on the island of St. Kitts can be described as dynamic excitement between the onlookers, the Masqueraders, a local folklore group, and other carnival players. The interactive play amongst group members of the Masqueraders is one that tells a story of the colonization and perseverance of a nation influenced by Indian, European and African past. There is often, however a disconnection between an outsider, 'the audience', and the culture of the island. Only when the interactive …

Relife: Transitional Housing For Victims Of Natural Disaster, Alexander B. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent natural disasters around the globe have left individuals without shelter. Governments have shown slow response for these victims with examples seen from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People are still living in structures that are hazardous to their health, insufficient for normal day activity, and socially unacceptable. With the rising numbers of victims and the slow response of governments to provide solutions, a new typology must be designed.

This thesis proposes a new typology that will create a responsive design that is efficient, aesthetic, environmentally conscious, and ready for implementation. Transitional housing can be defined as housing that is …

Aquatecture: Architectural Adaptation To Rising Sea Levels, Erica Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Our world is drastically changing. Temperatures are rising, skies over cities are blanketed with smoke, and melting glaciers are raising sea levels at alarming rates. Although the destruction we face is already threatening the quality of life for billions around the world, it could just be the beginning. What is projected to come in the future could be catastrophic.

It is crucial to realize that climate change is already happening. One of the main concerns relating to climate change is that as the polar ice caps continue to melt, rising water will invade our coastal cities around the world. In …

Community Service Through Architecture: Social Housing With Identity, Karina Cabernite Cigagna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite reasonable advances in public policies for housing in the last two decades, Brazil's current housing deficit is 5.6 million housing units. In São Paulo, Brazil's largest city, an estimated one fifth of the population of 17.5 million is currently living in inadequate housing conditions, like the "favelas" (Shanty Towns) (IBGE). The favelas' houses are made from scrap materials such as wood and metal sheeting, they do not have services such as sanitation, water or electricity, and the settlements are usually very overcrowded. The gigantic rate of illegal occupation of urban land has lead to disastrous consequences not only to …

Dyna-Mod Constructing The Modern Adaptable Home, Sarah Deardorff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The modern home has become a static fixture in society that is not reflected in the growing populous that is becoming an ever increasing mobile society. Many are not able to stay to the same place that they call home for long periods of time. Changing jobs, markets and neighborhoods force those to continue their movement around leaving what it is that they call their home to try and reproduce it within another location. The home finds itself lost in this transition and must now function on a greater adaptability than ever before and reflect the growing demand placed upon …