Digital Commons Network^™

Human Vs Machine: Hyper-Realistic Avatars And Their Efficacy As A Communication Channel, Jill S. Schiefelbein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hyper-realistic avatars (HRAs), a form of synthetic media, are custom-created digital embodiments of a human, created by capturing and combining that person’s video and vocal likeness. This is the first known study of the efficacy of videos delivered by hyper-realistic avatars as a communication channel in comparison to videos delivered by their human counterparts. An experiment testing how information retention, engagement, and trust vary between viewers of videos delivered by a real human, videos delivered by the HRA representing that same human, and videos delivered by the HRA that discloses to viewers that it is a hyper-realistic avatar is presented. …

Interdependency Between Water And Road Infrastructures: Cases And Impacts, Shihab Uddin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the interdependency between road and water infrastructures and associated interdependency impact on these two critical infrastructure systems. Critical infrastructures and the interdependency among these infrastructures have gained much attention recently because of its growing complexity, importance, and vulnerability to natural and man-made threats. In response, researchers have spent significant effort to study these infrastructures individually as well as when they are interdependent to understand complex interdependency relationship and to figure out ways to make these infrastructures more reliable, robust, and resilient. However, water and road infrastructure systems have not been studied as vastly as other critical infrastructures …

Social Justice Integration In Stem Content With Early Childhood Education Pre-Service Teachers, Elyse D. Ledford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following the social justice education ideal of building from local sources of knowledge the purpose of this multi-case study was to develop describe and explain the ways pre-service teachers examined how pre-service teachers make use of social justice pedagogies in teaching STEM. The study was guided by the following research questions: In what ways do pre-service teachers make us of social justice pedagogies while planning STEM lessons for young children? In what was do pre-service teachers enact social justice pedagogies in STEM instruction for young children? This study explores the experience of three Early Childhood Education pre-service teachers who were …

The Application Of Memes On English Learners' Idiomatics And Motivation, Fatima Azzahraa Raafat

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students nowadays live in a visually rich world where they continually generate meaning and knowledge through images (Romero & Bobkina, 2017). To satisfy two technology-savvy generations, the Millennial and Generation Z, field practitioners had to generate multimodal environments that include written text, visual images, and design elements from various viewpoints. An effective pedagogy of idiomatics can support second language acquisition (SLA) and idiomatic competence development, that is, idiomatic language and figurative language study (Liontas, 2021, p. 3, 32). Idiomatics should be incorporated into educational programs for SL learners as early in their education as possible (Liontas, 2008). For my study, …

Advanced Multiscale Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Amorphous Polymers, Sahar Zenoozi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Polymers are in a wide range of material forms with various resources, including natural to synthetic processes. Polymers consist of covalently bonded monomers to each other. The chain length of polymers varies from a few monomers to thousands of monomers. This wide range of chain length enables polymers with attractive capabilities of chemical and physical properties. Thus, polymers are highly attractive in different scientific and industrial applications such as drug delivery, optical coatings, catalysts, semiconductors and organic photovoltaics. This work has combined updated accurate methods for accurate initial conformations, and modified force field parameters to produce a generalized method for …

Novel Systems Engineering Framework Analysis Of Photovoltaic Models And Equations, Peter R. Michael

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes Photovoltaic PV equations and models for silicon based systems from a Systems Engineering framework. Background information includes an introduction, a summary of the state of PV use, a brief history of photovoltaics, and the detailed derivation of equations that enable the finding of the PV parameters contained in the PV models.The novel inquiry, leveraging systems engineering frameworks, includes three areas useful in analyzing PV equations and models. The first is a statistical verification of common simplifications of PV equations at the primary conditions of short circuit, open circuit, and maximum power. Additional analysis shows other simplifications that …

Deciphering Trends And Tactics: Data-Driven Techniques For Forecasting Information Spread And Detecting Coordinated Campaigns In Social Media, Kin Wai Ng Lugo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this dissertation is to develop models that predict and investigate the spread of information in social media over time. In this context, we consider topics of discussions as the information that spreads. Thus, we are interested in forecasting the number of messages per day in a future interval of time. We take a data-driven approach, in which we compare our results with real datasets from a multitude of socio-political contexts and from multiple social media platforms, specifically, Twitter and YouTube.

We identified a number of challenges related to forecasting social media time series per topic. First, …

Coupling Chemical And Genomic Data Of Marine Sediment-Associated Bacteria For Metabolite Profiling, Stephanie P. Suarez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marine sediment-associated bacteria house many new and exciting novel secondary metabolites. These metabolites can be tested for bioactivity against various types of cancer and fungal, bacterial, and viral infections. In this thesis, we investigated the combination of biosynthetic gene cluster information with mass spectra to perform a chemical profiling of sediment- associated bacteria. Furthermore, we utilized a scoring technique to provide an identification and confidence score to each annotated compound. The sediment was collected from east Arthur Harbor, Palmer Station, Antarctica, at depths of 20 ft and 60 ft. After plating on agar, 52 unique bacterial strains were isolated, with …

Examining Paleoshorelines In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico: Insights On Sea Level History And Potential Areas Of Interest For Habitat Management, Catalina Rubiano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An inventory of multibeam bathymetry containing relict drowned and lithified paleoshorelines has been compiled and analyzed in the first ever shelf-wide investigation of paleo sea level indicators on the west Florida shelf (WFS). On the largest scale, the WFS is a wide and gently sloping terrain that is characterized by a carbonate-rich sediment regime. This framework coupled with the region’s tectonic stability provided a setting in which sea level changes since ~ 20 ka have been recorded to a remarkable degree of resolution in the form of paleoshorelines which formed at sea level and were subsequently drowned and preserved in …

Integrated Periphyton Biofilters In Marine Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, Adam N. Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marine aquaculture is a growing industry that has the potential to reduce eutrophication, overfishing, and loss of biodiversity. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are a type of aquaculture system that decreases discharge, raises biological control, and conserves water; however, RAS are challenged due to high energy cost, low biodiversity, water quality control, and waste nutrients. Periphyton biofilters are a new technology that allows for feed production, water quality control, microbial diversity, and resource recovery in marine aquaculture systems. The overarching question that this dissertation investigates is, how can periphyton biofilters be integrated into RAS to address the challenges of modern sustainable …

Deep Learning-Based Automatic Stereology For High- And Low-Magnification Images, Hunter Morera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantification of the true number of stained cells in specific brain regions is an important metric in many fields of biomedical research involving cell degeneration, cytotoxicology, cellular inflammation, and drug development for a wide range of neurological disorders and mental illnesses. Unbiased stereology is the current state-of-the-art method for collecting the cell count data from tissue sections. These studies require trained experts to manually focus through a z-stack of microscopy images and count (click) on a hundred or more cells per case, making this approach time consuming (~1 hour per case) and prone to human error (i.e., inter-rater variability). Thus, …

Top-Down Nanomanufacturing Of Anisotropic Two-Dimensional Metals, Md Rubayat-E Tanjil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have introduced a transformative era in materials science with extensive research being performed to gain a fundamental understanding of their diverse properties and applications. Amongst the broader 2D material family, 2D metals or 2D metallic nanosheets (2DMNSs) typically denotes the nanometer-scale thin elemental metals, compound, or alloys, which shows superlative chemical and physical properties compared to bulk counterparts due to the reduced dimensionality. 2D materials’ widespread direct physical or chemical isolation techniques have been facilitated due to their intrinsic van der Waals layered morphology, whereas 3D close-packed bulk metals with isotropic bonding hinder their facile isolation in …

Harnessing Multimodal Sensory Feedback: An Exploration Of Rhythmic Asymmetric Cues In Gait Rehabilitation, Scott J. Bartlett Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stroke remains a leading cause of long-term disability, with survivors often facing challenges in mobility, particularly gait asymmetry. This adversity not only diminishes the quality of life but also imposes substantial socioeconomic burdens. Current rehabilitation methods are somewhat effective yet exhibit a dire need for augmentation to better address gait abnormalities. The novel introduction of Auditory Rhythmic Asymmetric Cues, Tactile Rhythmic Asymmetric Cues, and their simultaneous combination (A-RAC, T-RAC, and AT) offers a fresh perspective toward gait rehabilitation, aimed at taking steps to alleviate the adversities borne by stroke survivors. This study provides a thorough investigation of these asymmetric cues, …

Wastewater Treatment Using Encapsulated Chabazite In Polyvinyl Alcohol-Sodium Alginate Hydrogel Biofilm Carriers, Susieanna Nevada Persaud

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen discharge from wastewater is a global issue and with increased urbanization as well as industrialization, it has become even more essential to develop more efficient wastewater treatment systems. The dominant form of nitrogen in wastewater is ammonium. Biological oxidation of ammonium to nitrite and nitrate is the first step in biological nitrogen removal processes. If left untreated, nitrogen can cause toxicity to aquatic life, unsafe changes in water quality, and eutrophication.

Biofilm carriers can help to improve the efficiency of traditional activated sludge wastewater treatment systems by reducing operating costs and reducing hydraulic retention time. Biofilm carriers also promote …

Cellulose Ester As Membranes For Controlled Release Fertilizer’S, Muhammed Salman Fajis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Growing environmental pollution and non-sustainable materials has escalated the need for research in sustainable practices for many areas including crop production and fertilization. The conventional coating for the controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs) is non-biodegradable. Hence, the development of novel biodegradable coatings for fertilizer prills has emerged as an important area of study. In this thesis, conducting synthesis and application of cellulose esters (biomass membrane) as an encapsulation for the controlled release fertilizers. Therefore, the coating would be effective for a controlled release of nutrients to the crops by sustaining nature. Here, synthesized biodegradable cellulose esters by 8 and 16-carbon fatty acids …

Iot Architecture For Enhancing Wayfinding And Accessibility In Smart Cities, Myles Keller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) in enhancing urban wayfinding, particularly for the blind and visually impaired (BVI). Utilizing IoT's multi-layered architecture, smart cities deploy integrated sensors and devices to address urban challenges, with wayfinding as a key focus. While various accessible wayfinding methods have been explored, there exists a gap for more efficient solutions. Within this context, a collision warning system was developed for the BVI, integrated within a broader body sensor network (BSN) framework. Building on this, the study presents AWayNet, an RFID-based network, as a transformative solution. Simulations in the CARLA Simulator …

Online News Portrayal During The Covid-19 Health Crisis And Journalism's Role In Misinformation In The U.S., Michou Ducilon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a wealth of new information regarding the virus's origin and treatment. Regrettably, the vast amount of online information has resulted in the proliferation of misinformation, as the World Health Organization reported. To investigate whether journalists may have contributed to this problem, a qualitative analysis was conducted on 15 news articles from top-tier media outlets. Using NVivo software, the articles were analyzed to identify linguistic words and visuals that fell into coding categories based on Behrendt's (2008) contextual analysis for evaluating text. Each article was then coded again to identify common themes. During this process, new …

Hurricanes And Tropical Storms’ Impact On Water Quality In Lake Okeechobee, Florida, Daniela Vasquez Diaz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hurricanes are natural events with catastrophic outcomes, while climate change's effects on their intensity and frequency remain discussed. However, it is crucial to analyze these through models and statistics to understand their behavior and impact on the basins. Particularly in lakes on tropical coasts since disruptive events such as hurricanes tend to be highly affected. Lake Okeechobee is a unique lake located in Florida and one of the largest freshwater lakes. The lake and some of its significant stations are the locations chosen to perform the investigation. The main focus of the investigation is determining the effect that hurricanes have …

Patterns In Biodiversity And Community Assemblage In Macrofaunal Fouling Communities On Tampa Bay Floating Docks, Cassidy C. Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding biodiversity trends of highly disturbed urban landscapes is essential as anthropogenic factors continue to drive global biodiversity loss. Within marine ecosystems, macrofaunal fouling communities, aggregations of epibenthic invertebrates that colonize human-made structures, represent an ecologically important subset of urban coastlines. Tampa Bay is a highly urbanized estuary in Florida, USA, and is home to the state’s largest port, Port Tampa Bay. This makes the bay a prime site for the introduction of new species, with many organisms either considered invasive or cryptogenic, their origins left unclear. Many factors may contribute to the communities that form on urban structures including …

Mining Multibeam Transit Data For Deep Ocean Polymetallic Nodules: Case Study In Se Pacific Ocean, Mark E. Mussett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Occurrences of nodules on the seafloor represent benthic habitats and present potential deposits of economically important metals. Better understanding their extent throughout Earth’s oceans will aid in resource management and determining different factors which influence their formative factors and respective local characteristics. Multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data, along with auxiliary data suggest an area of seafloor near the Foundation Seamount chain in the southern Pacific Ocean, centered around -36.84° latitude, -119.75° longitude, contains a previously uncharted polymetallic nodule occurrence. Our analysis of Simrad EM12 DUAL (12 kHz) multibeam data, collected during a 1997 transit, shows an area of strong backscatter …

Discovery Of Small-Molecule Inhibitors For The Β-Catenin/B-Cell Lymphoma 9 Protein-Protein Interaction., Zilu Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is associated with activating genes that support cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival. Excessive activation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling has been associated with development of several types of cancer and activation of stem-like cancer cells. Direct targeting of β‐catenin, the central hub in this signaling pathway, is a promising strategy to suppress the hyperactive β‐catenin signaling but has proven to be highlychallenging. Substantial efforts have been made to discover compounds that bind with β‐catenin, block β‐catenin mediated protein–protein interactions (PPIs) and suppress β‐catenin signaling. β‐catenin/BCL9 PPI has a smaller contacting area (1450 Å2) and a moderate binding affinity …

Knowledge Integration In Domain-Informed Machine Learning And Multi-Scale Modeling Of Nonlinear Dynamics In Complex Systems, Phat K. Huynh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonlinear dynamical systems have been extensively used to model various phenomena in the changing world around us, especially in science and engineering fields. Thanks to breakthrough advancements in sensing technologies, an increasingly high volume of multi-modal sensor data has been collected, which enables us gain better insights into complex systems dynamics and build sophisticated data-driven machine-learning-based dynamic models without having the access to the underlying governing equations. However, integrating domain-specific knowledge in machine learning algorithms remains pivotal for various reasons: it promises enhanced predictive accuracy, better model interpretability, and increased generalizability. This dissertation delves into three core research questions, each …

Analyzing Multi-Robot Leader-Follower Formations In Obstacle-Laden Environments, Zachary J. Hinnen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Observations in biological formation from nature likes flocks of birds, herds of mammals and packs of wolves have inspired the innovation of robotic architectures. This thesis presents an approach that aims to use robotic systems to mimic leader-follower behaviors in the navigation and formation of sparse and dense environments. The goal of this work is to extend and further analyze the original work of Weitzenfeld et al [3] to evaluate new swarm and pack based multi-robot architectures with the inclusion of obstacle avoidance and variations in group formations. The multiple robot architecture is based off a wolf pack with a …

Evaluating Video Feedback To Improve Esports Performance In Street Fighter V, Romel C. White

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

eSports is a newly rising field with rapidly increasing cultural validity. Despite the wide array of similarities between eSports and traditional sports, behavioral skill acquisition interventions have yet to be applied to video game skills. Feedback-based behavioral interventions in particular have been commonly used and implemented for effective skill acquisition for traditional sports. Although video feedback has been established as effective in conjunction with video modeling for traditional sports, further research is needed to validate its efficacy as a standalone intervention. In this study, the effects of video feedback were analyzed with three participants in a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across …

Novel Fpga Speed Grade Authentication Method For Counterfeit Identification, Ana Maria Camacho Negrete

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today's society runs on modern microelectronics. Whether it is our computers, smartphones and tablets, navigation systems, and even automobiles, the impact of inferior components on our society's functioning is a well-known and serious challenge.Inferior components, in this context, refer to non-specification compliant parts that are known to enter the global supply chain either due to manufacturing/quality control errors or intentional component counterfeiting by non-OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sources. This thesis discusses the latter, which is a well-documented and growing challenge that poses a serious risk to every sector of our society. This has been further exacerbated by the global pandemic-driven …

Evaluating Methods For Improving Dnn Robustness Against Adversarial Attacks, Laureano Griffin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning has become more widespread as advances in the field continue. As aresult, making sure deep learning is safe has become a priority. A seemingly normal image with intentional pixel changes can cause a well-trained model to misclassify the image with high confidence. Those kinds of images are called adversarial attacks. Adversarial training has been developed to defend against adversarial attacks. This thesis evaluates different adversarial training methods against a variety of adversarial attacks. The key metrics for evaluation are classification accuracy and training time. This thesis also experiments with an improvement on an existing adversarial training method, the …

Effects Of Downdrag On Pile Performance, Ruthvik Pendyala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The behavior of piles under varying load conditions has sparked significant interest and research within the geotechnical engineering field. Specifically, in the context of MSE wall-type embankments, piles are installed before embankment construction commences. In these scenarios, soil settlement beneath the embankment initiates following pile installation, consequently generating downward lateral shear loads on the piles, known as downdrag.

Research pertaining to the downdrag phenomenon in cohesionless granular soils is limited. Hence, the primary focus of this study revolves around examining the impact of downdrag on pile performance in sandy soils using numerical modeling as the investigative approach. To accomplish this, …

The Development Of A General Watershed - Highway Mathematical Model, Robert W. Higgins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Use Of Silica Dust And Lunar Simulants For Assessing Lunar Regolith Exposure, Layzamarie Irizarry-Colon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The utilization of the lunar regolith holds immense potential for future space exploration, but the potential health risks associated with lunar regolith are a significant concern. This literature review seeks to critically assess the use of silica and lunar simulants standards and permissible exposure limits (PELs) to evaluate the adverse health effects of lunar regolith. The literature review covers an extensive analysis of existing research, health risks, toxicological properties, and physical and chemical composition associated with silica, lunar simulants, and lunar regolith by using three main sources: regulations, scholarly articles, and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) discussion. This comprehensive analysis forms …

The Aging Workforce: How It Relates To Incident Rates Within A Distribution Warehouse And A Chemical Manufacturing Building, Elisabeth V. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 20 years or so, the average age of the global population has slowly increased. This is due to low birth rates as well as increased life expectancy. With this global population aging, there has also been a shift in the global labor market causing a trend termed the “aging workforce.” However, with the aging workforce comes a new set of issues for the health and safety professional because they create new hazards. This is due mostly because of the body undergoing physical, psychological, and cognitive decline as someone ages which causes decreased capabilities. Thus, the purpose of …