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A Mechanized Horseback Riding Simulator As An Aid To Physical Therapy, Jennifer Lott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Equine-assisted therapy is a nontraditional form of physical therapy that involves riding horses as a form of rehabilitation. Limited access to these riding programs justifies a need to develop a horseback riding simulator capable of simulating the gaits, bend, and collection of the horse. Research involving the development of horseback riding simulators is limited, but the available research does show promising results in the ability to aid in physical therapy.

A two-dimensional model and simulation was developed using MATLAB. Using the results from the simulation, a horseback riding simulator was designed, fabricated and tested. The physical simulator was capable of …

Study Of Upward-Facing Spray Cooling With Water At Atmospheric Pressure, Alberto D. Sato

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spray cooling is a high heat removal technique which has been used widely in many industries, especially metallurgical, where the control of the temperatures of metals is an important factor to obtain the desired microstructure; and also in microelectronics where is very important to obtain high heat fluxes at relatively low surface temperatures. In this study, an open loop spray cooling system has been fabricated to provide an upward-facing spray over a 12 mm diameter test surface. A full cone spray nozzle was used to deliver deionized water to the test surface at five pressures (10, 15, 20, 25 and …

Mining Medical Data In A Clinical Environment, Tim V. Ivanovskiy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The availability of new treatments for a disease depends on the success of clinical trials. In order for a clinical trial to be successful and approved, medical researchers must first recruit patients with a specific set of conditions in order to test the effectiveness of the proposed treatment. In the past, the accrual process was tedious and time-consuming. Since accruals rely heavily on the ability of physicians and their staff to be familiar with the protocol eligibility criteria, candidates tend to be missed. This can result and has resulted in unsuccessful trials.A recent project at the University of South Florida …

The Role Of Organizational Culture In The Delivery Of Humanitarian Assistance And Inter-Organizational Collaboration, Jamie Antoinette Wilke Corvin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The international community has seen a dramatic increase in the complexity of aid operations, with increasing numbers of donors participating in humanitarian aid endeavors. Therefore, it is essential to determine factors that contribute to successful aid delivery. In an effort to guide more effective and efficient aid operations, this study investigated organizational culture in three distinct types of humanitarian organizations: (a) the U.S. military, (b) the International Federation of the Red Cross, and (c) a sampling of local and indigenous non-governmental organizations. Being a relatively unexplored area, this study took an exploratory approach, utilizing qualitative methods to analyze humanitarian aid …

Metal-Organic Networks Based Upon Dicarboxylato Ligands, Zhenqiang Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Network structures based upon metal-organic backbones represent a new class of functional materials that can be rationally constructed by employing the concepts of supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering. The modularity of design strategies, the diversity of prototypal structures, and the dynamic features of networks have afforded great advantages over traditional materials syntheses. The research presented in this thesis is primarily concerned with developing an in-depth understanding of the basic principles that govern the supramolecular behaviors of metal-organic networks and gaining an experimental control over the structure and function of these new classes of hybrid materials.

The use of rigid and …

Effect Of Tricalcium Silicate Content On Expansion In Internal Sulfate Attack, Troy T. Whitfield

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the cementitious parameters and placement temperature that impact internal sulfate attack in concrete. Concrete structures make up a large percentage of the infrastructure and multifamily housing. Durability is very important. Cements can be formulated to reduce the impact of external environmental exposure such as high salinity from marine environments or high sulfate levels from soils or surface waters. Concrete is also subject to internal attack such as alkali aggregate reaction, (AAR), and delayed ettringite formation, (DEF). This study focused on some of the cement chemistry issues that determine susceptibility of cement to …

Development Of Models For Understanding Causal Relationships Among Activity And Travel Variables, Xin Ye

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding joint and causal relationships among multiple endogenous variables has been of much interest to researchers in the field of activity and travel behavior modeling. Structural equation models have been widely developed for modeling and analyzing the causal relationships among travel time, activity duration, car ownership, trip frequency and activity frequency. In the model, travel time and activity duration are treated as continuous variables, while car ownership, trip frequency and activity frequency as ordered discrete variables. However, many endogenous variables of interest in travel behavior are not continuous or ordered discrete but unordered discrete in nature, such as mode choice, …

Inorganic Sorption In Polymer Modified Bentonite Clays, Melody Schwartz Nocon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1986, geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) were invented and successfully used as a replacement for the soil layer in composite lining systems. In some applications an additive (polymer) is mixed with the bentonite to increase performance, especially in those that have low concentrations of sodium bentonite (EPA 2001).Studies showing significant increases in hydraulic conductivity values for bentonite in the presence of high salt concentrations are frequently documented and there is a risk of early breakthrough due to performance failure of the GCL clay component. (Ashmawy et al, 2002). It has also been stated that sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium have …

Simulations For Thermodynamic Analyses Of Transcritical Carbon Dioxide Refrigeration Cycle And Reheat Dehumidification Air Conditioning Cycle, Mark Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Carbon dioxide is a natural refrigerant that has been considered for certain refrigeration and air conditioning applications. The coefficient of performance (COP) of carbon dioxide cycles is low compared to classical vapor compression cycles. The aim of this portion of the thesis is to present a thermodynamic analysis of carbon dioxide cycles in order to evaluate the potential performance of a refrigeration cycle using carbon dioxide. A thermodynamic model for the cycle is proposed which can simulate the operation of a carbon dioxide refrigeration cycle. This model takes into account the practical effects of the thermo-physical properties of carbon dioxide …

System Optimization For Micron And Sub-Micron Particle Identification Using Spectroscopy-Based Techniques, Eduardo Zurek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes an approach and a model for the analysis of critical parameters related to the optical and electronic components of spectroscopy systems. The model described herein enables a systematic study of the impact of these parameters on the total performance of the system; therefore, it is a tool for the design and optimization of spectrometers.

Although the physics of the optical and electronic components in spectroscopy systems are known and well established, the systemic approach to the understanding of their interactions is recent and it is an area of active research. The results from this study are at …

Vision And Disease In The Napoleonic Description De L’Egypte (1809-1828): The Constraints Of French Intellectual Imperialism And The Roots Of Egyptian Self-Definition, Elizabeth L. Oliver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the travel conventions manifest in the engravings of the

thirty-volume

Description de l’Egypte produced as a result of the Napoleonic campaign

to Egypt in 1798 and published between 1809 and 1828. The first chapter examines the

discourse established on Egypt in travelogues throughout the eighteenth century prior to

the invasion of the country. I argue that the perceptions developed around the country

did not stem from actual experience, but from political and economic motivations that

cast Egypt in a light favorable for occupation.

I examine how this perception was challenged during the collapse of distance

between the …

Animal Husbandry At Tell El Hesi (Israel): Results From Zooarchaeological And Isotopic Analysis, Shannon Marie Peck-Janssen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Located in today’s southern Israel, Tell el Hesi provides archaeologists with important clues to political and social changes in the ancient Near East. Zooarchaeological and stable isotopic analyses were conducted to evaluate shifts in animal husbandry practices during changing socioeconomic and sociopolitical conditions in the southern Levant.

During the Early Bronze Age, Tell el Hesi thrived as an agricultural grain producing center for the southern Levant. The acropolis served as both a storage and redistribution center for the inhabitants of Tell el Hesi. Coinciding with the collapse of the southern Levant, Tell el Hesi was abandoned throughout the Middle Bronze …

Middle Woodland Mound Distribution And Ceremonialism In The Apalachicola Valley, Northwest Florida, Anya C. Frashuer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

University of South Florida field investigations in northwest Florida’s Apalachicola Valley have resulted in the relocation of some lost mounds from the Middle Woodland period (ca. A.D. 1 to 650) by trekking through the forest and consulting with avocationals and collectors. This thesis project was triggered by a collector’s donation of some Swift Creek pots and the attempt to relocate the mound from which they came. In the 1970s, Gardner and Nidy recorded this site, named Poplar Springs Mound, categorized as Middle Woodland due to its Swift Creek and Weeden Island pottery. The donated collection contained pottery of the Swift …

Modeling The 100-Year Flood Using Gis: A Flood Analysis In The Avon Park Watershed, Alan Stephen Booker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using hydraulic modeling and Geographic Information System (GIS) software, the 100-year flood was delineated for the municipality of Avon Park located in Highlands County, Florida. A detailed and rigorous approach was undertaken to first collect and develop an extensive spatial database to store the data collected that is pertinent to the model. This analysis combined ArcGIS version 8.3 and the Interconnected Channel and Pond Routing (ICPR) model version 3.02 to develop hydraulic models that assigned regulatory flood elevation within the watershed. The model results were post processed and brought into GIS to delineate the 100-year flood.The steps outlined in this …

Video-Based Person Identification Using Facial Strain Maps As A Biometric, Vasant Manohar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on video-based face recognition has started getting increased attention in the past few years. Algorithms developed for video have an advantage from the availability of plentitude of frames in videos to extract information from. Despite this fact, most research in this direction has limited the scope of the problem to the application of still image-based approaches to some selected frames on which 2D algorithms are expected to perform well. It can be realized that such an approach only uses the spatial information contained in video and does not incorporate the temporal structure.Only recently has the intelligence community begun to …

Cicero And St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences On A Christian Idea, Berit Van Neste

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The theology of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and the origin of his theory of Just War are subjects of serious scholarly debate. Just War involved the use of the state army to eliminate heresy by killing heretics who refused to convert to mainstream Christianity. The purpose of this paper is to argue that Augustine primarily based his theory of Just War on Cicero's own theory of Just War.

Augustine was quite heavily influenced by Cicero. He credited Cicero with his own conversion to Christianity. He drew heavily from Cicero's works as a basis for many of his own writings, …

Control Of Hydrogen Sulfide From Groundwater Using Packed-Bed Anion Exchange And Other Technologies, Camilo Romero Cotrino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogen sulfide imparts odors and taste to drinking water and can be corrosive to distribution systems. Groundwater sources used to produce drinking water tend to have sulfide concentrations ranging from below 0.1 to over 3 mg/L. Under anaerobic conditions, hydrogen sulfide can be formed from reduction of sulfate and elemental sulfur through chemical or biological reactions. Therefore, to decrease the potential for hydrogen sulfide in water systems, control of all forms of sulfur should be consistent.

Hydrogen sulfide in groundwater can be controlled through conversion or removal mechanisms. Conversion reactions result from chemical or biological reactions that oxidize hydrogen sulfide …

An Evaluation Of The Along Track Reef Imaging System (Atris) For Efficient Reef Monitoring And Rapid Groundtruthing Of Eaarl Lidar, Nicole O. Caesar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Along-Track Reef-Imaging System (ATRIS) is a vessel-mounted, digital camera, depth sounder and Global Positioning System (GPS) package that facilitates the rapid capture of underwater images in shallow-water benthic environments. This technology has the potential to collect ecologically significant data, particularly in benthic habitats less than 10 m in depth, with better location referencing and in less time than is required for surveys carried out by Scuba divers. In October 2004, ATRIS was tested coincidently with SCUBA-assisted video along transects on five patch reefs in Biscayne National Park. Images from both data sets were subsampled, viewed, and benthic cover under …

Chemo-Enzymatic Route To Synthesis Of Biodegradable Polymers And Glycolipid Analogs, Surbhi Bhatt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New catalytic synthetic methods in organic chemistry that satisfy increasingly stringent environmental constraints are in great demand by the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Studies over last 15 years have revealed that activity of enzymes can be increased in organic solvents rather than their natural aqueous environment. Because of their ease of use, high selectivity and environment friendliness, enzymes are enjoying increasing popularity in today's synthesis world.

Chapter 1 describes chemo-enzymatic synthesis of various glycolipid analogs. A highly regioselective macrolactonization was achieved using lipase from Candida antarctica as a catalyst. It also describes evaluation of lipases from different source and their …

The Characterization Of Non-Ionic Surfactant Vesicles: A Release Rate Study For Drug Delivery, Kristina Ok-Hee Dearborn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drug delivery methods for the treatment of brain tumor cells have been both inefficient and potentially dangerous for cancer patients. Drug delivery must be done in a controlled manner so that the effective amount of medication is delivered to the patient and ensure over-dosage does not cause adverse side reactions in the patient. The focus of this investigation is to design a drug delivery system that would allow for site-specific administration of the drug, protection of the drug from the surrounding environment, and controlled sustained release of the drug. We have proposed a model that incorporates a niosome, which is …

The Mucilage Of Opuntia Ficus Indica: A Natural, Sustainable, And Viable Water Treatment Technology For Use In Rural Mexico For Reducing Turbidity And Arsenic Contamination In Drinking Water, Kevin Andrew Young

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of natural environmentally benign agents in the treatment of drinking water is rapidly gaining interest due to their inherently renewable character and low toxicity. We show that the common Mexican cactus produces a gum-like substance, cactus mucilage, which shows excellent flocculating abilities and is an economically viable alternative for low-income communities. Cactus mucilage is a neutral mixture of approximately 55 high-molecular weight sugar residues composed basically of arabinose, galactose, rhamnose, xylose, and galacturonic acid. We show how this natural product was characterized for its use as a flocculating agent. Our results show the mucilage efficiency for reducing arsenic …

The Effect Of Dem Resolution On The Computation Of Hydrologically Significant Topographic Attributes, David Alexander Crosby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrain attributes computed from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are widely used in hydrology and hydrologic modeling. It is important to consider that the values of the attributes can be different depending on the resolution of the DEM from which they are derived. The question arises as to how much exactly the high-resolution DEMs created through LIDAR remote sensing techniques change the values of the terrain attributes when compared to lower resolution DEMs.In this thesis a LIDAR-derived DEM of 20 feet resolution was resampled using a nearest-neighbour algorithm to various coarser resolutions to examine and quantify the effect of DEM resolution …

Temporal And Spatial Distribution Of Chlorophyll On The West Florida Shelf, Danylle N. Ault

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The West Florida Shelf (WFS), typically characterized as being oligotrophic, is one of the most productive continental shelves in the United States. In addition to supporting a large fishing industry, the WFS also supports high biomass blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. Because of the large ecological and economic impacts these blooms have on the area, the ECOHAB: Florida program was developed to gain a better understanding of red tides and their initiation, maintenance, and dispersal. This interdisciplinary program consisted of monthly cruises from June 1998 through December 2001, with a hiatus from January through March of 2001. Hydrography, …

Precipitative Softening And Ultrafiltration Treatment Of Beverage Water, Jorge T. Aguinaldo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lime softening, chlorination, clarification and filtration have been long recognized treatment processes for beverage water specifically the carbonated soft drink (CSD) because it provides consistent water quality required for bottling plants, however these processes are becoming uneconomical and causes more problems than the benefits they offer. These processes require very large foot print, occupy large plant volume, and generate large volume of sludge which causes disposal problems. Chlorination produces trihalomethanes (THMs) and other by-products which are detrimental to health and imparts tastes to the final products. Using the newly developed submerged spiral wound ultrafiltration membranes in conjunction with lime softening …

The Influence Of Roads On The Florida Panther, Autumn C. Schwab

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) is a relatively well studied species, but some aspects of its habitat requirements remain poorly understood. While it has been well established that the most important threat to panthers include limited habitat area and continued habitat loss and fragmentation, the importance of roads in this context has not been determined. The goal of this research is to determine the influence of roads on the movement patterns of the Florida panther. Panther telemetry data from 1981 until 2003 was used, as well as detailed road networks and vegetation maps. The influence of roads on individual …

Evaluation Of Geophysical And Thermal Methods For Detecting Submarine Groundwater Discharge (Sgd) In The Suwannee River Estuary, Florida, Matthew Weiss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) represents a significant portion of the total discharge from coastal aquifers through diffuse seepage and point source springs, but can be difficult to locate. SGD is important as it can be a source of nutrients to estuaries and other coastal ecosystems. In an effort to evaluate geophysical and thermal methods for detecting SGD on the Florida Gulf coast, a suite of water-borne surveys were run in conjunction with aerial thermal imagery over the lower Suwannee River and estuary in March and September 2005. Thermal imagery exploits temperature differences between discharging groundwater and surface water. Thermal images …

Modeling The Throughput Performance Of The Sf-Sack Protocol, Laura M. Voicu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Besides the two classical techniques used to evaluate the performance of a protocol, computer simulation and experimental measurements, mathematical modeling has been used to study the performance of the TCP protocol. This technique gives an elegant way to gain insights when studying the behavior of a protocol, while providing useful information about its performance.

This thesis presents an analytical model for the SF-SACK protocol, a TCP SACK based protocol conceived to be appropriate for data and streaming applications. SF-Sack modifies the multiplicative part of the Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease of TCP to provide good performance for data and streaming applications, …

Development Of A Gis Based Infrastructure Replacement Prioritization System; A Case Study, Brian D. Pickard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maintenance, repair, and replacement of transmission mains and distribution system piping is expected to cost approximately $75 billion over the next two decades to ensure that public water systems are capable of providing the United States with safe drinking water. However, there is a significant gap between the funds available and the projected costs of infrastructure replacement or rehabilitation. Infrastructure Management Systems (IMS) have been developed to assist utilities and decision-makers in determining how to allocate resources for infrastructure. This project utilizes theTampa Water Department (TWD) as a case study to develop a tool for prioritizing infrastructure replacement.

TWD is …

Association Of Sound To Motion In Video Using Perceptual Organization, Sunil Babu Ravulapalli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technological developments and innovations of the first forty years of the digital era have primarily addressed either the audio or the visual senses. Consequently, designers have primarily focused on the audio or the visual aspects of design. In the perspective of video surveillance, the data under consideration has always been visual. However, in light of the new behavioral and physiological studies which established a proof of cross modality in human perception i.e. humans do not process audio and visual stimulus separately, but percieve a scene based on all stimulus available, similar cues are being used to develop a surveillance system …

Detection Of Cracks In Single-Crystalline Silicon Wafers Using Impact Testing, Christina Hilmersson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is about detection of cracks in single-crystalline silicon wafers by using a vibration method in the form of an impact test. The goal to detect cracks from vibration measurements introduced by striking the silicon wafer with an impact hammer. Such a method would reduce costs in the production of solar cells. It is an inexpensive, relatively simple method which if commercialized could be used as an efficient in-line production quality test.

A hammer is used as the actuator and a microphone as the response sensor. A signal analyzer is used to collect the data and to compute frequency …