Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Flow Generation And Propagation From Headwater Wetlands To Downstream Waters, Leanne Marie Stepchinski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Headwater wetlands are connected to one another and to downstream waters by dynamic hydrologic flowpaths, functioning as integrated hydrologic networks at the watershed scale. Headwater wetlands perform a variety of hydrologic lag, sink, and source functions, including flow generation and propagation, thereby contributing to the natural flow regimes of downgradient waters. The functions of individual wetlands and their contributions to hydrologic connectivity and subsequently to the natural flow regime have been widely studied and are well understood. Comparatively, the functions and hydrologic connectivity within wetland complexes as a whole and their collective subsequent contributions to the natural flow regime of …

Detection Of Subsidence In West-Central Florida Using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry And Near-Surface Geophysics, Tonian R. Robinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three studies that employ Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI, also known as PSInSAR) to better understand how subsidence in west-central Florida relates to underlying geological processes. In the first study, near-surface geophysical methods (Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity (ERT)), terrestrial remote sensing applications (Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Structure from Motion (SfM)), and PSI were used to monitor the spatial and temporal behaviors of a suspected growing sinkhole in the Sandhill Boyscout Reservation, Hernando County, Florida. The survey area was located within and around a topographic low assumed to be the surface of the …

Development Of Antimicrobial Guanidinylate Polycarbonates, Menglin Xue

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified the emergence of antibiotic resistance as one of the top 10 threats to public health. This is exemplified by serious threats such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VREF), and the urgent threat posed by Clostridioides difficile to human health. As part of a multifaceted combat strategy against these pathogenic bacteria, host-defense peptide (HDP)-mimicking polymers have proven to be resourceful and promising. However, a vast majority of antibiotic polymer applications were limited to topical applications due to their potential systematic toxicity. Herein, we report the design and synthesis of a …

Zinc-Mediated Reductive Acylation And Silylation Of Various P-Quinone Derivatives, Katrinah I. Tirado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quinones are compounds containing cyclohexadiene diones and can be found in a variety of biological systems. Quinones participate in redox cycling to initiate the formation of free radicals which contributed to their overall biological activity. When quinones are reduced by either biological or chemical reductants, they can become unstable and undergo autoxidation back to their quinoidal form. One way to avoid autoxidation is the use of protected hydroquinones. Many protected hydroquinones in literature have been shown to be efficient in drug delivery as probes or molecular containers or they can act like prodrugs to be released into active forms to …

Applied Analysis For Learning Architectures, Himanshu Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern data science problems revolves around the Koopman operator Cφ (or Composition operator) approach, which provides the best-fit linear approximator to the dynamical system by which the dynamics can be advanced under the discretization. The solution provided by Koopman in the data driven methods is in the sense of strong operator topology, which is nothing better then the point-wise convergence of data (snapshots) in the underlying Hilbert space. Chapter 2 provides the details about the aforementioned issues with essential counter-examples. Thereafter, provable convergence guarantee phenomena is demonstrated by the Liouville weighted composition operators Af,φ over the Fock space by providing …

Development And Application Of Γ-Aa Peptide On Enzyme Mimetic And Biomolecular Agents, Meng Gu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the multifaceted utility of γ-AA peptides in various biological contexts, highlighting their capability in mimicking bioactive proteins, facilitating novel drug discovery, and obstructing protein-protein interactions. Initially, we introduced the design of an ingenious γ-AA peptide scaffold that replicates the hydrolysis capabilities of natural enzymes, with the intention to overcome their stability limitations. Notably, the designed catalyst exhibited excellent esterase activity with the coordination of Zn2+. Subsequently, optimization of a linear γ-AA peptide compound through a dimeric strategy resulted in P3-1, a potent inhibitor of amyloid-β 42. Evidenced by both in vivo and in vitro experiments, its potential …

Organizing And Communicating Health: A Culture-Centered And Necrocapitalist Inquiry Of Groundwater Contamination In Rural West Bengal, Parameswari Mukherjee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As a discursive point of praxis, this dissertation project seeks to record knowledge from below around the overlaps between health, water and health interventions emerging from rural communities located in North 24 Parganas and Purulia in West Bengal that are disproportionately impacted by water-insecurity. My dissertation also documents how multiple-stakeholders such as local NGOs, international NGOs, non-profits, and donor agencies organize access to safe water and health interventions for the water-insecure communities located in North 24 Parganas and Purulia. The integration of the CCA and necrocapitalism afford theoretical and methodological guidance in this dissertation to help document the localocentric stories …

Synthesis Of Constrained N-Heterocyclic Peptidomimetics And Development Of Strain-Release Reagents, Kyle P. Pedretty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Part 1:The initial portion of this dissertation delves into the enhancement of β-sheet secondary structure stability through modification of the peptide backbone while examining the conformational characteristics of peptides featuring N-amino substituents. The investigation consists of two major studies, presented in separate sections. The first study outlines various approaches to achieve stable β-hairpin folds by introducing N-amino substituents to peptide strands. A novel method utilizing on-resin Mitsunobu cyclization between α-hydrazino acid residues and a serine or homoserine side chain was utilized to incorporate pyrazolidinone and tetrahydropyridazinone dipeptide constraints. To evaluate the impact of cyclic N-amino peptide building blocks on β-hairpin …

Continuous Time Dynamic Mode Decomposition In The Presence Of Partial Knowledge And Streaming Data, Efrain H. Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is a physically interpretable data driven technique for modeling dynamical systems. The DMD method uses time series data where each data point is referred to as a snapshot and represents the value of the state at a particular moment in time. The important patterns found in the data are extracted and then used to create a model for the system. Once the important pieces have been obtained reduced order modeling can be used to reduce the complexity of the model.

But, DMD has evolved since its inception. After its association with the Koopman operator, DMD has …

Classification Of Finite Topological Quandles And Shelves Via Posets, Hitakshi Lahrani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate finite topological quandles and topological shelves. Precisely, we give a classification of both finite topological quandles and topological shelves using the theory of posets. For quandles with more than one orbit, we prove the following Theorem.

Proposition 0.0.1. Let X be a finite quandle with n orbits X₁, ... , X_n. Then any right continuous poset on X is n-partite with vertex sets X₁, ... , X_n.

For connected quandles, we prove the following Theorem.

Theorem 0.0.2. There is no T …

Exploratory Data-Driven Models For Water Quality: A Case Study For Tampa Bay Water, Sandra Sekyere

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water, a crucial resource for sustaining life, covers approximately 70% of the earth's surface. Nonetheless, the quality of water is deteriorating rapidly due to the rapid growth of urban areas and industries, which is a worrying trend causing harm to human health and the ecosystem. Water quality forecasting has a key role in water resources management by enabling effective pollution control, ecosystem monitoring, and decision-making.

Previously, traditional statistical models were used to forecast water quality, but they were unable to examine the non-linear relationships between water quality parameters, and they assumed that all datasets were distributed normally. This study uses …

Deep Learning Enhancement And Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning: A Data-Centric Approach, Hung S. Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deep Learning and its applications have become attractive to a lot of research recentlybecause of its capability to capture important information from large amounts of data. While most of the work focuses on finding the best model parameters, improving machine learning performance from data perspective still needs more attention. In this work, we propose techniques to enhance the robustness of deep learning classification by tackling data issue. Specifically, our data processing proposals aim to alleviate the impacts of class-imbalanced data and non- IID data in deep learning classification and federated learning scenarios. In addition, data pre-processing strategies such that dimensionality …

Analysis Of Ostds Failure Potential Due To Sea-Level Rise And Other Inundation Factors: An Integrated Geo-Spatial Analysis, Alec Colarusso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While many aspects of climate change are well-studied, the vulnerability of Onsite Sewage Treatment and Disposal Systems (OSTDS) to sea-level rise (SLR) has not been thoroughly examined despite the potentially significant environmental impacts, including nutrient and pathogen loading. Research gaps include the need to determine the suitability of models to predict groundwater inundation due to SLR and the consequent impact on OSTDS. As such, this study aims to compare Bathtub/hydrostatic and physics-based/MODFLOW/3D numerical modeling methods of simulating groundwater inundation from SLR to identify OSTDS vulnerability to failure due to a reduction in the height of the vadose zone (saturation or …

Applications In Opioid Analysis With Faims Through Control Of Vapor Phase Solvent Modifiers, Nathan Grimes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS), often coupled with mass spectrometry (MS), offers rapid analytical ion filtration, useful in reducing matrix interference and differentiating isomeric compounds. This study focuses on augmenting FAIMS-MS analyses through the incorporation of gas phase solvents, or "modifiers," inducing dynamic microsolvation, a particularly potent method of analysis enhancement.

Initially, the research utilized a bubbler-based system, incorporating a humidity sensor, improving modifier concentration control when using water. Our application in opioid detection and differentiation revealed considerable advancements. Notably, an increased peak capacity in an opioid mixture and successful separation of the isobaric opioid pair, alfentanil and ortho-isopropyl …

Study On Versatile S(Vi) Reagents Towards Synthesis Of S(Iv) And S(Vi) Functional Groups, Shun Teng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation mainly covers the latest methodology development in the field of sulfur-containing functional groups in synthetic chemistry. There are two parts. The first part is the asymmetric synthesis of sulfoximines, sulfonimidamides, sulfonimidoyl fluorides, and sulfinamides enabled by a versatile enantiopure S(VI) reagent. The second part is the Grignard reagent-triggered divergent S-editing synthesis via a bench-stable S(VI) reagent.

In the first part, the asymmetric synthesis of sulfoximines, sulfonimidamides, sulfonimidoyl fluorides, and sulfinamides is reported. This report focuses on the development of a bifunctional S(VI) reagent and its utility in synthesis. It employed the enhanced stability of sulfonimidoyl fluorides and the …

Ice-Core Reveals Flavors Of Hydroclimate Extremes In The American Southwest, Laura Calabrò

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A small number of caves and lava tubes worldwide host perennial ice deposits, which occur at elevations well below those of mountain glaciers and in areas outside the permafrost climatic belt, where no surface glaciation exists. These settings make any of the ice deposits in caves or lava tubes particularly susceptible to the current warming trend, leading to the imminent loss of some untapped cryospheric paleoenvironmental archives.

The present work is the result of a paleoclimate study based on ice deposits accumulated within lava tubes in El Malpais National Monument (ELMA, western New Mexico). The ice cores span from 7,000 …

Environmental Chemical Analysis Method Optimization And Application To Northwest Cuban Marine Sediment, Thea R. Bartlett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A method for gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode has been optimized to quantify 250 compounds of a variety of compound classes such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), oxidized PAHs, organochlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, biomarkers (hopanes, steranes, tri-aromatic steroids, and fecal sterols), aliphatic hydrocarbons, and plastic additives. This method was validated based on available QA/QC standards using several environmental samples, both sediment and biota, and standard reference materials. This contaminant-focused method can be used as a forensic geochemistry tool to evaluate oil contamination and other contaminant histories in future research studies. When applied to …

Stable Isotope Analysis Of Doryteuthis (Amerigo) Pealeii Eye Lenses To Determine Migratory Patterns In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico Using Statoliths For Age Determination, Hannah M. Schwaiger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Doryteuthis (Amerigo) pealeii is a common fisheries squid that occurs in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and along the east coast of the United States. These squid are an important link in the food web, linking higher and lower trophic positions (Madsen et al., 2007), and they are also used for human consumption. The migration patterns of D. pealeii populations in the northwestern North Atlantic have been thoroughly studied when compared to those in the GoM. This research aims to combine statolith aging and stable isotope analysis to enhance the understanding of D. pealeii migration patterns throughout their short, sub-annual …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Separation Of Loaded Liposomes For Drug Delivery, Sandra Khalife

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Liposomes are viable candidates for drug delivery vehicles due to their ability to protect loaded compounds, dampen side effects of drugs, and be delivered to target sites in the body. The amphipathic nature of these lipid vesicles makes them very customizable through careful selection of bilayer and aqueous core components as well as synthetic and downsizing methods. However, synthetic methods may result in unencapsulated compounds remaining present alongside loaded liposomes, which require removal before the liposome suspension can be used.

This work explores the use of model DOPC as well as DOPC and CHOL liposomes and the methods that were …

Characteristics And Hydraulic Behavior Of Adsorptive Media For Use In Permeable Reactive Barriers, Shelby Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Cargill ditch is located on the property of Se7en Wetlands, a 1600-ac treatment wetland system in Lakeland, Polk County, Florida. The Se7en Wetlands property was previously utilized for phosphate mining prior to the construction of the system. Nonpoint nutrient sources derived from remnants of abandoned phosphate mines – known as “legacy phosphorus” – become mobilized by stormwater runoff and impair surface water bodies by promoting harmful algal blooms (HABs). Thus, the Cargill ditch likely conveys nutrient rich flow resulting from legacy phosphorus and is thought to be one contributing factor in the occurrence of HABs within the treatment wetland …

An Empirical Investigation Of Network Topology On Majority Illusion, Behavior Adoption, And Polarization, Sreeja Sreekantan Nair

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social influence plays a significant role in shaping opinions and behaviors both online and inthe physical world. The ways in which we interact with others and the information we receive can significantly influence our beliefs and attitudes towards different issues. While online social media provide platforms for such interactions, the underlying network structure can impact various social influence phenomena, including majority illusion, behavior adoption, and polarization.

This dissertation examines the role of network topology in three social influence processes:majority illusion, behavior adoption, and polarization. The majority illusion refers to a perception bias that occurs when individuals believe that an opinion …

Investigation Of Challenging Transformations In Gold Catalysis, Qi Tang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation mainly contains three parts: 1) Divergent gold catalysis for alkyne trifunctionalization, encompassing three distinct modes to achieve the simultaneous formation of C-N, C-O, and C-C bonds in a single step 2) the study and development of a new method to synthesize azaborine derivatives; and 3) the construction of benzotriazole boranes (BTAB) as stable four-coordinate N-B heterocycles through gold-catalyzed alkyne hydroboration.

In the first part, alkyne trifunctionalization via divergent gold catalysis will be introduced. This novel approach involves a sequence of reactions that combine gold π-activation, vinyl gold nucleophilic addition, and gold (III) reductive elimination. By utilizing this methodology, …

Effect Of Dual Inhibition Of Atypical Pkc Signaling And Pi3k/Akt Signaling On Cell Viability And Apoptosis In Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (Ccrcc)., Khandker M. Khalid

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer (85%); 75% of the cases involve conventional clear cell RCC (ccRCC). The choice of treatments recommended for clear cell carcinoma and non-clear cell carcinoma include partial nephrectomy (Stage I), radical nephrectomy (Stages II and III), and chemotherapy (stage IV). Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors can be a viable candidate in the chemotherapy of ccRCC because the PI3K/Akt pathway is frequently activated in RCC. Hence, PI3K inhibitors like Alpelisib (BYL719) can be chosen as a treatment. In addition, aPKCs (PKC-ί and PKC ζ) are overexpressed in most cancer cells, and they …

Gold-Catalyzed Diyne-Ene Cyclization: Synthesis Of Hetero Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons And 1,2-Dihydropyridines, Jingwen Wei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homogeneous gold catalysts are known as a powerful tool for selectively activating alkynes and are well-developed in the construction of C-C, C-N, and C-O bonds to form complex compounds that are widely used in pharmaceuticals, industries, agriculture, etc. The investigation of gold(I) catalysis on conjugated diyne (compounds having two acetylene groups) enriches the complexity of the bond construction and allows the building of interesting skeletons in organic synthesis. One typical kind of substrate, diyne-ene, has both a conjugated diyne part and a 1,6- enyne part. We developed a new methodology to allow its divergent synthesis to heterocycles.

This dissertation mainly …

Applications Of Seismic And Geodetic Data To Earthquake Hazard Research, Mahsa Afra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Being a part of a seismically active zone, including large and crowded cities such asTehran, Qazvin and Semnan, Central Alborz experiences many local earthquakes. Knowl- edge of crustal velocity structure in this area is thus necessary considering its economical and political importance, a large concentration of population, and relatively poor construc- tion practice which increases the earthquake risks in this region. In second chapter of this thesis, we aim at obtaining the 3D crustal velocity structure of the Central Alborz region in northern Iran using local earthquake tomography. We also validate anomalies inferred from our velocity model using an independent …

Insect Classification And Explainability From Image Data Via Deep Learning Techniques, Tanvir Hossain Bhuiyan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, humanity has always tried to make labor more efficient and automated, and this trend is only continuing in the modern digital age. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in the latter part of the 20th century, the speed and scale with which AI has been leveraged to automate tasks defy human imagination. Many people deeply entrenched in the technology field are genuinely intrigued and concerned about how AI may change many of the ways in which humans have been living for millennia. Only time will provide the answers. This dissertation is …

The Applicability Of The Postmortem Submersion Interval Estimation Formula For Human Remains Found In Subtropical Aquatic Environments, Kara L. Dicomo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the past decade, several attempts have been made to standardize a method for estimating postmortem submersion intervals (PMSI); however, the majority of these studies have focused on data from a temperate climate which cannot be taken as representative of large portions of the globe. Thus, there are large portions of the earth in which the methodology from these studies may not be able to accurately estimate PMSI which has the potential to leave investigators in these other climatic zones at a disadvantage. This presentation presents a case study into the applicability of two Total Body Scoring Systems (TADS) utilized …

Supramolecular Architectures Generated By Self-Assembly Of Guanosine And Isoguanosine Derivatives, Mengjia Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is primarily divided into three parts: 1) Anion, solvent-mediated, tunable self-assemblies of isoguanosine (isoG). 2) Post-assembly modification of the non-covalent isoG-pentaplex for Cesium extraction. 3) Supramolecular asymmetric amine catalysis.

The structural conformational design of the isoG decamer was employed for systematic investigations involving various substituted groups at the C8 position of purine and ribose. A series of isoG analogs with C8-phenyl substitutions were synthesized and utilized for Cesium coordination. The proximity between purine and ribose structures limited pentaplex formation for C8-phenyl substituted isoG derivatives. Based on this observation, a deoxy isoG derivative with a modified ribose was employed …

Dynamical Polymer Chain Heterogeneities And Their Impacts On The Glass Transition, William Forrest Drayer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The utilization of polymeric materials has endured since prehistory, at first unknowinglyin the form of natural biopolymers such as wood and leather, culminating and continuing through the development of the plastics industry in the early twentieth century. Polymers, along with other materials including silicate glasses, readily exhibit the glass transition upon quenching: a continuous but rapid change from viscous (liquid) to elastic (solid) behavior. The physics surrounding the glass transition have been studied for over a century; while considerable progress has been made, there remains no universally accepted predictive theory of the glass transition. Modern development of glassy materials consists …

Geoarchaeology Of Estuarine Seascapes In Tampa Bay, Florida., Kendal R. Jackson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the geological, ecological, and archaeological histories of Tampa Bay, Florida’s largest open-water estuary system. Previous geoscientific and archaeological work has studied the evolution of Florida’s estuaries as ‘pre-anthropogenic’ ecosystems and conceptualized Indigenous maritime societies as mostly passive inhabitants of dynamic ‘natural’ environments. Further, the environmental legacies of more recent, industrial-scale estuary modification attending Florida’s 20th-century population boom have been understudied—leading to popular and scientific confusion about historical conditions. The work composing this dissertation research seeks to reconceptualize Tampa Bay as a complex mosaic of cultural seascapes that have been variously altered and modified by human societies across …