Digital Commons Network^™

Untapped Potential Of Gorgonian Octocorals For Detecting Environmental Change In Biscayne National Park, Florida, Usa, Selena A. Kupfner Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One consequence of dramatic stony-coral loss has been recognition that gorgonian octocorals (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) have emerged among the dominant reef fauna. However, gorgonians are notoriously difficult to field-identify and consequently have been underrepresented in most monitoring efforts resulting in a lack of long-term data. The rich diversity of habitats, close proximity to the urban center of Miami, and connectivity to other areas of Florida have made Biscayne National Park an active location for reef research since its establishment in 1968. As such, a plethora of data (e.g., museum specimen and species abundance data) has been collected and stored in archives …

Self-Assembly Of 2d And 3d Metallo-Supramolecules With Increasing Complexity, Bo Song

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic organic chemistry played a crucial role in the construction of molecules through the formation and dissociation of covalent bonds. However, the laborious synthetic procedures as well as the low yield after multiple steps have restricted the pursuit of complicated giant molecules with high efficiency. Being complementary to organic synthesis, self-assembly provided an alternative route to achieving the giant architectures using weak non-covalent interactions in high efficiency, which is in analog to natural systems such as DNA, peptide, and protein. Among the various interactions, coordination has shown unique advantages in terms of directionality, reversibility and strength. Serving as a bottom-up …

Novel Macroscopic And Microscopic Concepts In Thermoelectricity, Troy Stedman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thermoelectric phenomena have been observed for the past two centuries while still being an interesting source of new research because of the countless unknowns governing thermoelectric transport in a host of materials. Novel materials and material structures continue to be discovered, providing enhanced thermoelectric effects that can be used in thermoelectric devices for power generation and refrigeration. With the increasing demand for reusable and renewable energy sources, the importance and usefulness of thermoelectric phenomena grows. It is therefore important to understand thermoelectric transport on both the larger macroscale of devices that serve to define material properties and the smaller microscale …

Amphiphilic Block Copolymer Micelles In Selective Solvents: The Effect Of Solvent Selectivity On Micelle Formation, Labeesh Kumar, Andriy Horechyy, Eva Bittrich, Bhanu Nandan, Petra Uhlmann, Andreas Fery

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Publications

We investigated the micellar behavior of a series of asymmetric polystyrene-block-poly (4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) block copolymers in different P4VP-selective alcoholic solvents. The micellar behavior was further correlated with the spectroscopic ellipsometry results obtained on swelling of PS and P4VP polymer films in the corresponding solvent vapors. The time-resolved (in situ) dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements, in combination with (ex situ) electron microscopy imaging, revealed information about the aggregation state of PS-b-P4VP BCP in different alcohols and the effect of heat treatment. The ellipsometry measurements allowed us to estimate the difference in solvent selectivity toward PS/P4VP pair. Both DLS and ellipsometric studies …

Evolution Of A Relativistic Electron Beam For Tracing Magnetospheric Field Lines, Andrew T. Powis, Peter Porazik, Michael Greklek-Mckeon, Kailas Amin, David Shaw, Igor D. Kaganovich, Jay R. Johnson, Ennio Sanchez

Faculty Publications

Tracing magnetic field-lines of the Earth's magnetosphere using beams of relativistic electrons will open up new insights into space weather and magnetospheric physics. Analytic models and a single-particle-motion code were used to explore the dynamics of an electron beam emitted from an orbiting satellite and propagating until impact with the Earth. The impact location of the beam on the upper atmosphere is strongly influenced by magnetospheric conditions, shifting up to several degrees in latitude between different phases of a simulated storm. The beam density cross-section evolves due to cyclotron motion of the beam centroid and oscillations of the beam envelope. …

Integrated Chirped-Grating Spectrometer-On-A-Chip, Shima Nezhadbadeh

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

In this dissertation we demonstrate a new structure based on waveguide coupling atop a silicon wafer using a chirped grating to provide the dispersion that leads to a high-resolution, compact, fully integrable and CMOS-compatible spectrometer. Light is both analyzed and detected in a single, completely monolithic component which enables realizing a high-resolution portable spectrometer with an extremely compact footprint. The structure is comprised of a SiO₂/Si₃N₄/SiO₂ waveguide on top of a silicon wafer. Grating regions are fabricated on the top cladding of the waveguide. The input light is incident on a chirped grating …

Near-Field And Far-Field Microscopic And Spectroscopic Characterizations Of Coupled Plasmonic, Excitonic And Polymeric Materials, Chih-Feng Wang

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

The properties of localized surface plasmons (LSP) have been broadly utilized for chemical sensing, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, biomedical imaging and photothermal treatments. By exploiting well-established plasmonic effects, the spectroscopic investigation of intriguing quantum phenomena, such as excitonic interband and intersubband (ISB) transitions in semiconductor heterostructures, was examined and extended in both far- and near-field optical measurements. For far-field characterization, we used colloidal plasmonic Au nanorods (AuNRs) to increase the quantum efficiency of InGaAs/GaAs single quantum well. By analyzing the temperature-dependent photoluminescence enhancement as a function of GaAs capping layer thickness, we attributed the mechanism of the LSP enhancement to …

Realistic Sensitivity Curves For Pulsar Timing Arrays, ‪Jeffrey S. Hazboun, Joseph D. Romano, Tristan L. Smith

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We construct realistic sensitivity curves for pulsar timing array searches for gravitational waves, incorporating both red and white noise contributions to individual pulsar noise spectra, and the effect of fitting to a pulsar timing model. We demonstrate the method on both simulated pulsars and a realistic array consisting of a subset of NANOGrav pulsars used in recent analyses. A comparison between the results presented here and measured upper limit curves from actual analyses shows agreement to tens of percent. The resulting sensitivity curves can be used to assess the detectability of predicted gravitational-wave signals in the nanohertz frequency band in …

True To The Task, Sarah Moss

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Athletic Teams Reach Scholarly Milestone, Mike Byker

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Broadening The Stem Identity, Sarah Moss

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Getting Stuck On Math 291, Sarah Moss

The Voice

No abstract provided.

California Expert Principals’ Identification Of The Best Strategies For The Implementation Of A Transition From A Traditional Grading And Reporting System To A Standards-Based Grading And Reporting System: A Delphi Study, Sean Redmond

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this policy Delphi study was to identify the strategies California K-12 expert principals deem necessary for the implementation of a transition from a traditional grading and reporting system to a standards-based grading and reporting system, utilizing a panel of expert principals to rate the importance of the identified strategies and to recommend the best methods of implementing the five most important strategies.

Methodology: The Delphi method was utilized in this study. An expert panel of California K-12 principals was assembled, and three rounds of electronic surveys were administered. The first-round results identified strategies for implementing a …

Undergraduate Marine Technical Certificate, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

College Ready At A Cost: Underrepresented Students Overwhelmed, Scared, Increasingly Stressed, And Coping, Melissa A. Martinez, Katherine Lewis, Jocabed Marquez

Education | Faculty Scholarship

As the push and expectation to attend college continues to increase, making the process of getting into college more competitive than ever before, there is a need to interrogate whether and how efforts to create a college-going culture and increase college readiness among students, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, might have an adverse impact on students. This study illuminates 59 students’ voices who participated in a multisite descriptive case study examining the strong college-going culture and college readiness efforts at three racially and economically diverse urban public high schools in different regions of Texas. Although students revealed positive aspects …

Pink Tooth Of Mummery In The Maxillary Left Canine After Fixed Partial Denture (Fpd) Preparation, Eger V. Korolevsky, Takashi Komabayashi, Denise Foran

Dental Medicine Faculty Publications

Pink tooth of Mummery is typically found after trauma. However, this case report describes an unusual occurrence of pink tooth in a 67-year-old Caucasian male after fixed partial denture (FPD) tooth preparation. Pink tooth in this case may be due to one or more factors: tooth reduction and heat generation during tooth preparation; heat generation during polymerization of provisional material; and hyperocclusion of a provisional FPD. This case highlights the importance of choosing the appropriate materials and techniques to avoid pulpal complications after dental prosthesis work.

Volume 57, Number 14: November 13, 2019, University Of North Dakota

University Letter Archive

No abstract provided.

Residential Household Yard Care Practices Along Urban-Exurban Gradients In Six Climatically-Diverse U.S. Metropolitan Areas, Dexter H. Locke, Colin Polsky, J. Morgan Grove, Peter M. Groffman, Kristen C. Nelson, Kelli L. Larson, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, James B. Heffernan, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Sarah E. Hobbie, Neil D. Bettez, Sharon J. Hall, Christopher Neill, Laura Ogden, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne

Publications and Research

Residential land is expanding in the United States, and lawn now covers more area than the country’s leading irrigated crop by area. Given that lawns are widespread across diverse climatic regions and there is rising concern about the environmental impacts associated with their management, there is a clear need to understand the geographic variation, drivers, and outcomes of common yard care practices. We hypothesized that 1) income, age, and the number of neighbors known by name will be positively associated with the odds of having irrigated, fertilized, or applied pesticides in the last year, 2) irrigation, fertilization, and pesticide application …

Cooperation In Indefinitely Repeated Helping Games: Existence And Characterization, Gabriele Camera, Alessandro Gioffré

ESI Working Papers

Experiments that investigate the spontaneous emergence of money in laboratory societies rely on indefinitely repeated helping games with random matching (Camera et al., 2013; Camera and Casari, 2014). An important open issue is the lack of a general proof of existence of an equilibrium capable of supporting the efficient allocation under private monitoring, without money. Here, we fill this gap by offering a general proof, as well as by characterizing the efficient non-monetary equilibrium. This technique can be extended to study games with simultaneous actions.

Secondary Infall In The Seyfert's Sextet: A Plausible Way Out Of The Short Crossing Time Paradox, Omar López-Cruz, Héctor Javier Ibarra-Medel, Sebastián F. Sánchez, Mark Birkinshaw, Christopher Añorve, Jorge K. Barrera-Ballesteros, Jesús Falcon-Barroso, Wayne A. Barkhouse, Juan P. Torres-Papaqui

Physics Faculty Publications

We used integral field spectroscopy from CALIFA DR3 and multiwavelength publicly available data to investigate the star formation histories of galaxies in the Seyfert's Sextet (SS; HCG 79). The galaxies H79a, H79b, H79c, and H79f have low star formation rates despite showing strong signs of interaction. By exploring their individual specific star formation histories, we identified three earlier episodes of strong star formation common to these four galaxies. We use the last two episodes as markers of the epochs when the galaxies were crossing. We suggest that after the first turnaround, initially gas-rich galaxies crossed for the first time, consuming …

Loss Of Vimentin Enhances Cell Motility Through Small Confining Spaces, Alison E. Patteson, Katarzyna Pogoda, Fitzroy J. Byfield, Kalpana Mandal, Zofia Ostrowska-Podhorodecka, Elisabeth E. Charrier, Peter A. Galie, Piotr Deptuła, Robert Bucki, Christopher A. Mcculloch, Paul A. Janmey

Physics - All Scholarship

The migration of cells through constricting spaces or along fibrous tracks in tissues is important for many biological processes and depends on the mechanical properties of a cytoskeleton made up of three different filaments: F-actin, microtubules, and intermediate filaments. The signaling pathways and cytoskeletal structures that control cell motility on 2D are often very different from those that control motility in 3D. Previous studies have shown that intermediate filaments can promote actin-driven protrusions at the cell edge, but have little effect on overall motility of cells on flat surfaces. They are however important for cells to maintain resistance to repeated …

Um Student Serves On World Food Security Committee, Edwin B. Smith

University of Mississippi News

Rohan Agrawal was one of four U.S. college students selected for meeting in Rome

Design And Applications Of Charge-Separated Metal-Organic Frameworks, Sheela Thapa

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Ionic tetrapodal ligands with colinear coordinating arms are very effective for designing hybrid porous materials with unusual structure and properties. The novelty of this research work lies in the utilization of a unique borate ligand that leads to charge-separated MOF structure with tailor designed properties. Borate ligands being tetrahedral afford 3D materials and the negative charge of borate anion can compensate the positive charge of metal ion in the framework. The borate ligands designed in this research consists of quaternary ammonium cation and anionic borate with four pyridine arms. These ligands upon coordination with Cu(I), Cu(II), Ag(I) and Co(II) metal …

Educators' Perceptions Of Students' Academic And Social Growth In A Collegiate High School Program., John Matthew Legg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine educators’ perceptions of high school students’ academic and social growth in a collegiate college program. Collegiate high school programs afford opportunities to minorities and the economically disadvantaged, as well as first-generation college students (Aviles-Reyes, 2007). This research used a qualitative case study framework to collect information about educators’ perceptions of the academic and social integration of students in a collegiate college program. Data were collected in phases—educator focus group interviews and individual interviews—and subsequently coded and reviewed using thematic comparative analysis. The guiding question was as follows: What are educators’ perceptions of …

Past Climate And Sea-Level Reconstruction Using Cave Deposits From Mallorca, Spain, Oana-Alexandra Dumitru

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The potential impacts of the increasing temperature on the water resources, as well as the hazards associated with the sea-level rise in the low-elevation coastal zones of the Mediterranean Sea, makes this region vulnerable to current climate change due to global warming. Hence, accurate projections of the future hydroclimate scenarios in this area are crucial. Long-term information on climate and sea-level variability cannot be obtained by direct observations or using short instrumental records. However, various geological archives may provide valuable data that can be then used to assess the models used for future predictions.

This thesis presents results on past …

Development Of Α-Aa Peptides As Peptidomimetics For Antimicrobial Therapeutics And The Discovery Of Nanostructures, Sylvia E. Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For decades it has been convention to use antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infections. Due to the overuse and misuse of these drugs, bacteria are becoming resistant to these treatments. This phenomenon has led to the search for alternative antibiotics, and in the study of Host Defense Peptides (HDPs). HDPs are the body’s innate immune response to infection. They are known to modulate immune system response and kills bacterial using various methods causing them to be less susceptible to bacterial resistance. The method by which we can mimic these biological peptides is called peptidomimetics. Various research shows the use …

The Potential Of Radium-224 As A Tracer Of Timescales Of Gulf Of Mexico Crude Oil Exposure To The Marine Environment, Matthew T. Kurpiel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Petroleum pollution in the marine environment can be deleterious to coastal and marine ecosystems and can have sustained effects for years. While oil slicks on the surface of the ocean are tracked with relative ease using satellite-based technology, deep sea, neutrally-buoyant hydrocarbon plumes remain exceedingly difficult to track. We provide evidence for the utility of Ra-224 as a potential hydrocarbon tracer to determine the marine exposure time of crude oil. We employed time course incubations to constrain a time dependent Ra-224 release signature and tested a variety of timescales, temporal resolutions, oil sources, seawater, and experimental treatments to determine potential …

High Power And Optomechanics In Advanced Ligo Detectors, Terra Christine Hardwick

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In September 2015, a new era of astronomy began with the first direct detection of grav- itational waves from a binary black hole coalescence. The event was captured by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, comprised of two long-baseline interferometers, one in Livingston, LA and one in Hanford, WA. At the time of the first detection, the interferometers were part way through an upgrade to an advanced configuration and were operating with a strain sensitivity of just better than 10⁻²³/Hz^1/2 around 100Hz. The full Advanced LIGO design calls for sensitivity of a few parts in 10⁻²⁴/Hz …

Bio-Mechanical Characterization Of Adherent Cell Layers With A Pdms Cantilever, Merrel Truly Holley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the last few decades, the mechanical characteristics of human cells has been linked to many physiological processes and pathological conditions, illustrating the importance as effective biomarkers. Mounting research has shown the mechanical force between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a vital role in cellular processes such as tissue homeostasis, wound healing, cancer metastasis, and the progression of various diseases. This mechanical force, or the force that a cell produces on its surroundings, is termed as the cellular traction force (CTF). Precise characterization of the CTF can expand our knowledge of these important cellular processes as well as …

The Ethics Of Outdoor Education: Increasing Access While Minimizing Environmental Impacts, Steven Sassaman

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

No abstract provided.