Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Sea Surface Temperatures, The Gulf Of Mexico Loop Current, Hurricane Ian, And Their Junction, Alexander K. Nickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first chapter, a climatology was created for the deep Gulf of Mexico, West Florida Shelf, and Tampa Bay. These climatologies were compared to each other and to global temperatures. Seasonal variability is shown to be a product of bathymetry as well as latitude. In Chapter Two, using the self-organizing map neural network, patterns of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current were analyzed to establish phases with necessary and sufficient conditions for translation from one phase to the next. Two separate patterns of evolution were established from these analyses, and empirical arguments are used to confirm the findings from …

Ai-Enabled Methodological Frameworks To Enhance The Robustness Of Machine Learning Models In Various Domains And Dynamic Environments, Mohammad Noroozi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores novel approaches to address complex challenges in various domains, focusing on ensuring that machine learning (ML) models can reliably detect both the data they are trained on and unseen data. Reliable detection of unfamiliar inputs is critical for deploying models in real-world applications, where performance can degrade when faced with novel or unexpected information. Each domain addressed in this work introduces a set of contributions aimed at enhancing model performance, broadening generalization through diverse training data, and improving robustness against adversarial attacks. Three sets of contributions are presented, each encapsulated in a chapter.

One of the contributions …

Characterizing The Temporal And Nearshore To Offshore Spatial Scale Of Phytoplankton Assemblages Within The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Sebastian P. Di Geronimo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of phytoplankton communities within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) from 2016 to 2021. Phytoplankton biomass and community composition were analyzed across four seasons and from both Nearshore (within 2 km of shore) and Offshore (8 to 10 km from shore) locations along the Florida Keys from Miami to the Western Sambo Ecological Reserve. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) quantified chlorophyll-a (tchla) as a proxy for bulk biomass, and other pigments. CHEMTAX, a chemotaxonomic identification method, was employed to estimate phytoplankton community composition. Our results revealed significant seasonal variability in bulk biomass, …

Satellite-Based Mapping Of Seagrass Habitats And Coastal Wetlands In The Us Gulf Of Mexico And Florida: A Remote Sensing Approach For Environmental Conservation And Management, Luis Lizcano-Sandoval

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal wetlands and seagrass meadows provide multiple services to nature and human society, but their spatial and temporal changes are often not well characterized. They are habitats that are threatened by natural and human causes such as changes in water quality, urban development, pollution, and climate change, among others. Coastal ecosystems rely on water quality and sea level variability for survival, and changes in those variables and their potential effects are of concern to many coastal communities. Satellite remote sensing is a powerful tool that has been used for mapping ecosystem distribution on land and in the ocean. Satellite sensors …

On The Role Of Prediction In Streaming Hierarchical Learning, Ramy Mounir

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In today's world, AI systems need to make sense of large amounts of data as it unfolds in real-time, whether it's a video from surveillance and monitoring cameras, streams of egocentric footage, or sequences in other domains such as text or audio. The ability to break these continuous data streams into meaningful events, discover nested structures, and predict what might happen next at different levels of abstraction is crucial for applications ranging from passive surveillance systems to sensory-motor autonomous learning. However, most existing models rely heavily on large, annotated datasets with fixed data distributions and offline epoch-based training, which makes …

Zooplankton Abundance, Composition, And Diversity And Associated Environmental Factors Across The Gulf Of Mexico And Along The Northwestern Coast Of Cuba, Shaniqua J. Gladney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My research focused on characterizing the zooplankton community of two regions in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) along two transects, one across the middle of the GOM from Tuxpan, Mexico, to St. Petersburg, FL, and one along the northwestern coast of Cuba. Zooplankton bongo samples and associated environmental and physical processes were examined. These data were collected during two Center for Integrated Modeling and Analysis of Gulf Ecosystems (C-IMAGE) expeditions aboard the R/V Weatherbird II, during September 2015 (GOM) and May 2017 (Cuba). A Zooscan imaging system was used to identify and enumerate zooplankton taxa. Then zooplankton abundance, composition, and …

Enhancing Post Silicon Visibility Using Language Modelling Techniques, Nathaniel Joseph Fender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The debugging phase is a critical time in the development of a new system on chip product. Specifically, the post-silicon validation phase is one of the most important, as it allows engineers to test the behavior of a device in a real world setting. However, the issue of noisy or incomplete data is a frequent issue when attempting to debug an SoC design during this step. This thesis examines the utility of utilizing machine learning models for the purpose of repairing missing data in a system trace. We trained various models using the transformer architecture to identify missing data in …

Predicting Human Chess Moves With Large Language Models, Benjamin Kreiger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence (AI) surpasses human performance in more tasks, the interest in leveraging and collaborating with this technology for greater productivity continues to grow. However, the black-box nature of current AI can make it difficult to interpret and unsuitable to perform tasks that are more complex and require human intuition. This has led to the pursuit of AI systems that can model individual behavior. Chess offers an ideal environment to explore this task due to its complexity, structure, and the abundance of data containing unique human decision-making examples. Given that a chess game can be fully represented with text, …

Optimizing Hidden Neurons In Multilayer Perceptrons With A Hybrid Feature Selection Approach For Classification Tasks, Susmitha Boyidapu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Identifying the ideal number of hidden neurons in multilayer perceptron (MLP) networks remains an ongoing challenge in the field of machine learning. Our research presents an innovative strategy to address this issue by combining data preprocessing, feature selection by a hybrid method, and a methodical approach to MLP architecture design. The extracted features through feature selection help to construct MLP architecture and implement k-fold cross-validation along with early stopping mechanism for finding optimal number of hidden neurons. Our method's key innovation is its capacity to dynamically adjust the hidden neuron count while optimizing model performance. Through iterative refinement of the …

Side-Channel Analysis Platform For A Hardware Implementation Of Fips 203 (Crystals-Kyber), Mohamed Mossad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2024, NIST selected the Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithm CRYSTALS-Kyber for standardization as a public-key encryption, key establishment scheme. CRYSTALS-Kyber was standardized under the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS), specifically FIPS 203. FIPS standards represent a set of guidelines, developed by NIST, for secure data handling in federal information systems, mandating cryptographic algorithms that protect sensitive information. This highlights the importance of identifying potential vulnerabilities in the algorithm and assessing how CRYSTALS-Kyber implementations react to hardware side channel attacks. Previous research identified several vulnerabilities in implementations of CRYSTALS-Kyber in software, which were addressed in subsequent releases. This thesis focuses on expanding …

Biodegradable And Green Controlled Release Formulations For Fertilizers, Srivalli Sriperambudur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to address environmental concerns associated with conventional fertilizers, and the persistence of synthetic polymers in soils and investigates the use of biodegradable cellulose esters as sustainable coatings for controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs). The focus is mainly on the synthesis of biodegradable cellulose esters as sustainable coatings for CRFs and applied as a coating on urea fertilizer prills to control nutrient release. The synthesized biodegradable coatings aim to provide effective nutrient delivery over time while minimizing environmental impact. Cellulose esters were synthesized using both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, followed by crosslinking using thiols. Characterization techniques like FTIR, DSC, …

Learning Peer Support Interactions Via Bi-Lstm Graph Neural Networks For Suicide Risk Prediction, Harikrishna Marampelly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Suicide prevention through early detection using social media data has been widely studied. However, the critical role of peer support interactions among individuals with similar mental disorders has not been deeply investigated or explored. In this study, we explore peer interactions in online communities for individuals with bipolar disorder and leverage this information to predict suicide risk levels. We propose a model that uses contextualized posts and comments along with their sentiment features. By embedding these features into a peer support network, our model captures peer interactions and predicts suicide risk levels using the bidirectional LSTM Graph Neural Networks (Bi-LSTM …

Vulnerability Discovery On Broadcom Devices With Qemu, Christian Shane Douglas Little

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

System-on-chip (SoC) devices in the form of routers, access points, and smart appliances have become an increasingly prevalent aspect of our infrastructure. Performing vulnerability research on these devices may be exceptionally difficult given the on-hardware limitations, inability to guarantee certain aspects of the system, and lack of information when the appliance’s source code is not available.In this thesis, we present Broadfeather, a QEMU-based emulation target, and framework for dynamic analysis and instrumentation. While Broadfeather supports data types shared across many chips under the Broadcom umbrella, it is primarily geared towards the BCM6755 Wi-Fi 6E capable chipset. Broadfeather also features the …

Revealing Grounding Zone And Subglacial Processes At Cosgrove Ice Shelf: Seafloor Analogs For The Modern Antarctic Ice Sheet, Rosemary E. Burkhalter-Castro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The future loss of ice in West Antarctica is one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of global sea level rise. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), home to Cosgrove Ice Shelf (CIS), contains enough ice to raise global sea level by more than three meters if it collapsed completely. Accurately predicting how much sea level change may occur from a future collapse of WAIS is of particular interest to low-lying, heavily populated coastal areas such as Florida. For this reason, it is important to understand the processes underpinning rapid changes and retreat at marine-terminating glaciers in the Amundsen Sea. …

Assessing The Impact Of Ai Assisted Software Development And User Experience Of A College Football Simulation Game: A Study Of Player And Industry Professional Perspectives, Augustus J. Scarlato Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the design of video games, specifically the development of a college football simulation game. This study documents the creation of an alpha version college simulation game assisted by Open AI’s Chat GPT 4.0 API, to potentially improve game development, gameplay realism, and user interaction. The study then assesses how both student players and industry professionals perceive AI-enhanced gaming, emphasizing the usability, gameplay experience, and overall quality of the game using a Likert scale survey. The analysis also highlights differences in perceptions between students and industry professionals, with the latter group …

Performance Comparison Of Two Binary Diagnostic Tests With Incomplete Data, Meng Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diagnostic tests are medical examinations essential for patient care, as they help detect the presence of diseases and rule out certain conditions. However, diagnostic tests can make errors, and misdiagnoses resulting from these errors can potentially lead to treatment delays or inappropriate treatments. Therefore, comprehensively evaluating the performance of the diagnostic tests and ensuring test accuracy is a fundamental priority in diagnostic studies. When a new diagnostic test is developed, it is customary to compare it with an existing test in a paired study. However, incomplete test results commonly occur in practice. The maximum likelihood-based method can be used to …

Essays On Information Technology In Healthcare, Gleb Zavadskiy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Information technologies (IT) and information systems (IS) have profound significance across various sectors of society, including healthcare, business, education, government, and beyond. First, IT facilitates instant communication globally through email, messaging apps, video conferencing, and social media, revolutionizing how individuals and organizations interact, collaborate, and share information (Hacker et al. 2020; Tang and Hew 2020).

Secondly, the Internet and digital libraries provide worldwide access to vast amounts of information, what makes knowledge and education available to everyone, empowering individuals to learn and stay informed on diverse topics (Haleem et al. 2022). Another aspect of IT systems in various industries is …

The Association Between Oral Microbiome, Oral Inflammation, Periodontal Disease, And Systemic Metabolism In Individuals With/Without Type 1 Diabetes, Mianli Xiao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the associations between oral microbiomes, periodontal disease (PD), and systemic metabolism in individuals with and without Type 1 diabetes (T1D). Data were obtained from 208 participants (99 with T1D, 109 non-diabetic) in the Coronary Artery Calcification in Type 1 Diabetes (CACTI) pilot study and 283 participants from the Oral Microbiome ancillary cohort study. Both studies included the collection of saliva or subgingival plaque samples. Microbial DNA was extracted, and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Machine learning models, including Random Forest (RF) and Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP), were applied …

Empowering Entrepreneurial Evolution: A Beyond Founder Strategic Approach To Small Business Growth, D. Jared Knisley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Growing a business beyond its founder’s capacities and talents presents a challenging undertaking. When a founder is no longer involved or motivated to grow the business, firm decline is a likely outcome. Small businesses often have a deep and, at times, hindering reliance on their early founders for development. Therefore, a continuous engaging plan to advance entrepreneurial success is needed to grow a small business.

My research objective aims to find methods and designs, through academic literature and practitioner interviews, that transition leadership responsibilities and increase team empowerment within a small business, enabling these firms to continue growing as the …

Business Failure Mode And Effects Analysis: A Risk Based Holistic Strategy To Improve Success Rates Of Small Technology Businesses, Krishnakumar R. Nair

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multiple US and global statistics show that small businesses are vital to economic development but fail at a startling rate. Small technology businesses (STBs) are around 35% of this small business segment. The central problem addressed in this research is to reduce their short lives and enable growth and stability. The solution is a significant business management strategy iteratively developed by working with business owners and practitioners. A holistic approach to view the business as a whole to address premature failures is not available, and this research presents a comprehensive approach to solving that problem. The study developed a novel …

Development Of Peptidomimetics Based On Γ-Aapeptide Molecular Scaffolds To Modulate Amyloid Peptide Aggregation, Heng Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many proteins contain fragments that become structured upon binding to specific targets or through self-association. Notable examples of such disorder-to-order transitions include amyloidogenic proteins like amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) and tau peptide in Alzheimer's disease, α-Synuclein in Parkinson's disease, and hIAPP in type 2 diabetes, and so on. These regions can aggregate into amyloid fibrils through β -sheet stacking, contributing to amyloidosis and related diseases. Although direct link between amyloid formation and neurodegenerative disease development is not fully understood, developing effective inhibitors of these amyloid peptides remains promising both for fundamental research and therapeutical advance.

We have developed a new class …

Presence Of Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products In Sinkhole Lakes In West-Central Florida, Elzbieta Bialkowska-Jelinska

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are essential for human health, improving quality of life, and extending life expectancy. However, many of these chemicals have become significant environmental pollutants, particularly in lentic (lake) environments. One unintended source of PPCPs in natural environments is onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS), commonly known as septic tanks.

This study examines whether the seasonal variability of rainfall and soil saturation affects the assemblages and concentrations of PPCPs in a residential lake. The general premise of the dissertation was that with the onset of the wet season, PPCPs that had collected in the drainfields of the …

Improvements In Computational Techniques For Determining Ideal Class Groups And Class Numbers, Muhammed Rashad Erukulangara

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ideal class group is a fundamental concept in algebraic number theory, providing insights into the structure and factorization properties of the ring of integers of a number field. It measures the extent to which unique factorization fails in the ring of integers. Efficiently computing the ideal class group is crucial for exploring unproved heuristics in number theory and solving Diophantine equations. Additionally, the computation of the ideal class group has several cryptographic applications, such as schemes based on the Discrete Logarithm Problem (DLP), the computation of isogenies, and groups of unknown order. Despite its importance, much about the ideal …

Regioselective Hydroamination Of Unactivated Olefins With Diazirine And Total Synthesis Of Nostodione A And Scytonemin, Qingyu Xing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As an atom-economic way of carbon-nitrogen bond formation, hydroaminations are great tool for make amines, hydrazines, and other nitrogen-containing heterocycles. Specifically, radical hydroamination is a useful approach for functionalization of unactivated olefins, especially in sterically hindered environments. Diversification remains a challenge for radical hydroaminated products, since the nitrogen sources are carefully designed. In the first chapter of this dissertation, we report a highly diversifiable radical hydroamination reaction with diazirine as a nitrogen source and its potential applications in synthesis of several pharmaceutical interested compounds. Cobalt catalyzed regioselective hydroamination with diazirine shows wide function group tolerance, like phenyl thioether, ketones, esters, …

The Newgeneratortm Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System For Non-Sewered Sanitation: Technology Advancement Through Field Evaluation And Modeling, Hsiang-Yang Shyu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS) offer innovative solutions to sanitation challenges in areas lacking basic facilities, utilizing advanced treatment technologies for on-site water reuse. The NEWgenerator (NG), an advanced NSSS developed at the University of South Florida under the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reinventing the Toilet Challenge, integrates an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), an ion exchange-based nutrient capture system (NCS), and an electrochlorinator for final disinfection. This study builds on previous field trials of the NG system, focusing on developing, evaluating, and optimizing its water reuse capabilities through field trials, system dynamics modeling, and advanced monitoring techniques.

In the first …

Assessing Users’ Attention Classification Accuracy From Eeg Data, Gil Olenscki Neto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Determining whether a person is attentive while performing a task is a key factor for understanding why they are achieving specific results. In addition, tracking these results is an important aspect to improving them. Quantified self is a field that consists of self-monitoring to gain a better understanding of your habits, health, and overall well-being. Examples of this method include tracking sleep patterns, daily steps, mood swings, and food intake.

This thesis aims to explore the potential of using an innovative self-quantification method that utilizes a mobile application that leverages alpha, beta, and theta waves to assess college students' attention …

Artificial Intelligence Modeling Of Alzheimer's Disease And Environmental Science, Mohamed Abu Sheha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A data-driven statistical model operates as a mathematical illustration of a tangible issuefaced in reality, enabling the creation of predictions or decisions based on data. The process of utilizing probability and statistical principles in statistical models is essential for deriving meaningful conclusions from the data. The research conducted in this dissertation utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) models to integrate findings across health and environmental sci- ence.

The first research study in this dissertation, Alzheimer’s disease is a mental health issue and a brain aging dilemma that makes it difficult for older people to complete daily tasks without assistance. The physician uses …

Identification And Characterization Of Intrinsically Disordered Protein Regions, Guy Wayne Dayhoff Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates protein intrinsic disorder and intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs) through the development and application of advanced computational and experimental techniques. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to protein intrinsic disorder, outlining the historical context and fundamental concepts that highlight the importance of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and IDPRs in various biological processes. Chapter 2 focuses on the rapid prediction and analysis of protein intrinsic disorder. We introduce RIDAO (Rapid Intrinsic Disorder Analysis Online), a high-efficiency web-based tool that integrates multiple disorder predictors. RIDAO significantly outperforms existing predictors in computational efficiency, making it suitable for large-scale proteomic studies. We …

The Influence Of Recycled Water On Microbial Source Tracking Techniques That Aim To Identify Untreated Sewage In Surface Waters, Aldo E. Lobos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fecal pollution in recreational waters can introduce pathogens that cause increased human health risk, where exposure can occur during recreational activities such as swimming, diving, surfing, and fishing. Furthermore, human fecal pollution (i.e., sewage) can introduce nutrients and other harmful chemicals that may negatively affect the environment and aquatic species. Generally, sewage is considered the highest risk to human health compared to animal fecal pollution because it typically contains a high diversity of pathogens (including human specific viruses), antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes associated with antibiotic resistance. However, pathogens are difficult to detect due to their low concentrations in the …

The Discovery Of First Ret Protac With In Vivo Activity, Yafeng Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This report mainly discusses the development of RET Proteolysis targeting chimera PROTAC molecules based on Selpercatinib (LOXO-292) and Sulfono-γ-AApeptide PROTAC. A PROTAC molecule is a bifunctional molecule composed of two active domains and a linker. It works by inducing selective protein intracellular degradation. This technology was first discussed by Kathleen Sakamoto, Ray Deshaies and Craig Crews in 2001. Using various E3 Ligase, such as CRBN, pVHL, beta-TrCP1, Mdm2, DCAF15, DCAF16, RNF114, and c-IAP1, the PROTAC technology has been applied to several novel drug development,. Yale University licensed the PROTAC technology to Arvinas in 2013–14. For my research, Chapter one summarizes …