Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Probabilistic Approach To Modeling Lava Flow Inundation: A Lava Flow Hazard Assessment For A Nuclear Facility In Armenia, Laura J. Connor, Charles B. Connor, Khachatur Meliksetian, Ivan Savov

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Probabilistic modeling of lava flow hazard is a two-stage process. The first step is an estimation of the possible locations of future eruptive vents followed by an estimation of probable areas of inundation by lava flows issuing from these vents. We present a methodology using this two-stage approach to estimate lava flow hazard at a nuclear power plant site near Aragats, a Quaternary volcano in Armenia.

Combating Forced Labour And Human Trafficking In Africa: The Role Of Endogenous And Exogenous Forces, Ambe J. Njoh, Elizabeth N.M. Ayuk-Etang

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

It is widely believed that indigenous culture and tradition are at the root of the human trafficking and forced labour problem in Africa. Adherents to this viewpoint also claim that endogenous as opposed to exogenous forces impede efforts to eradicate the problem. This study employed a loglinear regression model to test the tenability of this claim. It hypothesized an inverse association between indigenous culture/tradition and efforts to combat human trafficking. The hypothesis was rejected. It is shown that anti-trafficking initiatives are less successful where indigenous tradition is dominated, or has been usurped, by imported cultural practices.

Emerging Technology Monitors Ice-Sea Interface At Outlet Glaciers, Timothy H. Dixon, Denis Voytenko, Chad Lembke, Santiago De La Pena, Ian Howat, Noel Gourmelen, Charles Werner, Björn Oddsson

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Recent melting in Greenland and Antarctica has led to concerns about the long-term stability of these ice sheets and their potential contributions to future sea level rise. Marine-terminating outlet glaciers play a key role in the dynamics of these ice sheets; recent mass losses are likely related to increased influx of warmer water to the base of outlet glaciers, as evidenced by the fact that changes in ocean currents, calving front retreats, glacial thinning, mass redistribution based on satellite gravity data, and accelerating coastal uplift are roughly concurrent [e.g., Holland et al., 2008; Wouters et al., 2008; Jiang …

Evidence For Low-Angle Normal Faulting In The Pumqu-Xianza Rift, Tibet, Patrick W. Monigle, John Nabelek, Jochen Braunmiller, N. Seth Carpenter

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Low-angle normal faulting is widely discussed as a possible mechanism for continental extension, however, unambiguous evidence for seismogenic low-angle normal faulting is lacking. Here, we investigate seismicity along a short segment of the Pumqu-Xianza Rift (PXR) in southern Tibet, where the HiCLIMB seismic array recorded over 500 earthquakes between 2004 July and 2005 August. Hypocentres of the 40 best recorded earthquakes are approximately 20–25 km west of the rift and tightly clustered at about 10 km depth, consistent with moment tensor depths of the 11 largest (3.4 ≤M_w≤ 4.5) earthquakes. Events in this group have N-S striking …

The Effects Of Fractures On The Occurrence And Distribution Of Arsenic In The Upper Floridan Aquifer During Aquifer Storage And Recovery, William Charles Hutchings

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is used world-wide to supplement available water supplies by storing surplus water in aquifers and recovering it during periods of drought and increased demand. The use of ASR as an option for increasing available municipal irrigation and fresh water supplies is threatened as a result of the mobilization of arsenic in some aquifers during ASR. Arsenic is liberated from arsenic-bearing sulfide minerals as a result of the mixing of oxidizing injected water with reducing insitu groundwater. Fracture networks can have significant influence on the migration and distribution of arsenic in the Upper Floridan Aquifer …

Design, Synthesis, Processing, And Thermal Analysis Of Nanocomposites With Tunable Properties, Mu Seong Kim

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Polymer composites containing nanosized fillers have generated explosive interest since the early 1980's. Many recent studies have been conducted incorporating nano-fillers into polymer matrices to design and synthesize materials with tunable mechanical, thermal, and optical properties. Conventional filled polymers, where the reinforcement is on the order of microns, have been replaced by composites with discrete nanosized fillers. Gradually, theories that predicted that composite properties are independent of particle size in the micron range were challenged by nanocomposites. Rather, nanocomposite properties are greatly influenced by the surface area of the. All of this is complicated by the fact that nanoparticles are …

Design, Synthesis And Evaluation Of Novel Diazirine Photolabels With Improved Ambient Light Stability And Fluorous-Based Enrichment Capacity, Arun Babu Kumar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Photoaffinity labeling is a quintessential technique in studying and analyzing the interaction between a ligand and receptor. Diazirines are one of the important photo-labile moieties used in photoaffinity labeling due to their superior photo labeling characteristics. Herein, we report the investigations we conducted with diazirine photolabels on (a) photochemical aspects leading to enhancement of their ambient light stability and (b) equipping them with fluorous tags to enable fluorous enrichment of labeled proteins. Furthermore, we report a pilot study to develop BACE-1 inhibitors, which have potential to be developed into photoaffinity probes.

3-Trifluoromethyl-3-phenyldiazirine offers good selectivity and protection against pseudolabeling but …

Assessment Of Student Achievement In Introductory Physical Geology: A Three -Year Study On Delivery Method And Term Length, Marianne O'Neal Caldwell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Physical Geology is a popular general education course at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) as at many other colleges and universities. Unlike many science courses, most students taking Physical Geology are not majoring in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) discipline. Typically most students enrolled in Physical Geology are majoring in business, education, or pursuing a general A.A degree for transfer to a four-year university. The class is likely to be one of the few, if not the only, physical science classes that many of these students will take in their academic career. Therefore, this class takes on increased importance, …

A Geochemical Analysis Of Fulgurites: From The Inner Glass To The Outer Crust, Michael L. Joseph

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes produce natural glasses on the surface of the Earth, called fulgurites. These natural glasses are tubular in shape with a central void surrounded by an inner glass, and the inner glass is surrounded by an outer crust or toasted region. Previous studies report different kinds of melts existing in several different types of fulgurites; however, little to no chemical data has been collected that tracks chemical variations from the inner glass to the outer crust of a fulgurite. This study uses microprobe and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer analytical techniques to collect transects of chemical …

Sediment Transport And Distribution Over Continental Shelves: A Glimpse At Two Different River-Influenced Systems, The Cariaco Basin And The Amazon Shelf., Laura Lorenzoni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation was to understand lithogenic suspended sediment transport mechanisms and distribution in two river-influenced margins: The Cariaco Basin, Venezuela, and the Amazon Shelf, Brazil. Lithogenic sediment input in the Cariaco Basin is controlled by small mountainous rivers (SMR), while in the Amazon Shelf it is dominated by the Amazon River, the largest river in the world in terms of freshwater discharge (~20% of global riverine discharge). Optical transmissometer measurements were coupled with particulate organic matter (POM) observations to understand changes in the geochemical composition of suspended sediment and spatial/temporal distributions over the two regions of interest. …

N-Acyl Ciprofloxacins: Synthesis, Antibacterial Activity And Effects On Molecular Loading Of Poly(Vinyl Benzoate) Nanoparticles, Ryan Cormier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bacterial infections are becoming progressively more difficult to treat due to antibiotic resistance and the decreasing rate at which new antibiotics are brought to market. The Turos laboratory has attempted to tackle this problem for the last 15 years with the discovery of N-thiolated β-lactams leading to the design of polyacrylate nanoparticles to deliver these and other drugs. Chapter 1 discusses many reported instances of utilizing different types of polymeric nanoparticles to deliver antibiotics. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), poly(alkyl cyanoacrylate) (PACA), poly(styrene-co-butylacrylate), and chitosan are the main polymers used to make nanoparticles. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis, antibacterial activity, and mechanism …

Production Of Bioactive Secondary Metabolites By Florida Harmful Bloom Dinoflagellates Karenia Brevis And Pyrodinium Bahamense, Cheska Burleson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the critical role algae serve as primary producers, increases or accumulation of certain algae may result in Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). Algal toxins from these blooms contribute significantly to incidences of food borne illness, and evidence suggests HABs are expanding in frequency and distribution. Mitigation of these HABs without knowledge of the ecological purpose and biochemical regulation of their toxins is highly unlikely. The production, function, and potential of secondary metabolites produced by the dinoflagellates Karenia brevis and Pyrodinium bahamense, were investigated.

Brevetoxins were demonstrated by two different methods to localize within the cytosol of Karenia brevis. …

Introducing Geoscience Students To Numerical Modeling Of Volcanic Hazards: The Example Of Tephra2 On Vhub.Org, Leah M. Courtland, Charles Connor, Laura Connor, Costanza Bonadonna

Numeracy

The Tephra2 numerical model for tephra fallout from explosive volcanic eruptions is specifically designed to enable students to probe ideas in model literacy, including code validation and verification, the role of simplifying assumptions, and the concepts of uncertainty and forecasting. This numerical model is implemented on the VHub.org website, a venture in cyberinfrastructure that brings together volcanological models and educational materials. The VHub.org resource provides students with the ability to explore and execute sophisticated numerical models like Tephra2. We present a strategy for using this model to introduce university students to key concepts in the use and evaluation of Tephra2 …

Spreadsheets Across The Curriculum, 4: Evidence Of Student Learning And Attitudes About Spreadsheets In A Physical Geology Course, Heather L. Lehto, H. L. Vacher

Numeracy

Spreadsheets have been used in education for teaching math concepts for years. However, when faculty at the University of South Florida began using a new set of spreadsheet-based modules to help teach students math and geology concepts the students were not receptive. The complaint most often heard was that students spent more time learning how to use Excel than they did learning the concepts presented in the modules. We began to wonder if the learning curve for Excel was so great that it prevented our students from attaining the level of learning for the math and geology concepts that we …

Quantitative Reasoning And Sustainability, Corrine H. Taylor

Numeracy

Quantitative Reasoning and Sustainability have much in common. Both are complex, nuanced concepts with rather long definitions that have evolved over time. Both subjects are “everybody’s business” on college campuses, and must be approached in courses across the curriculum, not merely in one course on QR or in one course on Sustainability. The growing, wider presence of both QR and Sustainability on college campuses is due to their applicability in individuals’ personal, professional, and public lives. Moreover, QR and Sustainability support and enhance each other in and out of the classroom. Sustainability is an important, authentic, relevant context for lessons …

A Study Of The Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica, In Tampa Bay: Effects Of Perkinsus Marinus On Reproduction And Condition, Bridgit Melora Mccrickard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Five sites in Tampa Bay, Florida, were sampled monthly from February 2006 to January 2007. These sites were located at the mouth of the Alafia River, in an inlet of Cross Bayou, on the easement of Gandy Bridge, near mangrove in Manatee County, and an inlet of Salt Creek, off Bayboro Harbor. Standard methods were used to determine shell height and Condition Index (CI). Intensity and prevalence of Perkinsus marinus were analyzed using Ray's Thioglycollate medium test, while Haplosporidium nelsoni was studied by histological examination. Histological methods were also used to determine sex ratios, reproductive phases, and egg diameters. …

Investigation Of Stress Changes At Mount St. Helens, Washington, And Receiver Functions At The Katmai Volcanic Group, Alaska, With An Additional Section On The Assessment Of Spreadsheet-Based Modules., Heather L. Lehto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Forecasting eruptions using volcano seismology is a subject that affects the lives and property of millions of people around the world. However, there is still much to learn about the inner workings of volcanoes and how this relates to the chance of eruption. This dissertation attempts to increase the breadth of knowledge aimed at helping to understand when a volcano is likely to erupt and how large that eruption might be. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on a technique that uses changes in the local stress field beneath a volcano to determine the source of these changes and help forecast …

Design And Synthesis Of Protein-Protein Interaction Inhibitor Scaffolds, David B. Badger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many currently relevant diseases such as cancer arise from altered biological pathways that rely on protein-protein interactions. The proteins involved in these interactions contain certain functional domains that are responsible for the protein's biological activities. These domains consist of secondary structural elements such as α-helices and Β-sheets which are at the heart of the protein's biological activity. Therefore, designing drugs that inhibit protein-protein interactions by binding to these key secondary structural elements should provide an effective treatment for many diseases. Presented in this dissertation are the designs, syntheses, and biological evaluations for both novel α-helix and novel Β-sheet mimics.

The …

Hierarchy Of Supramolecular Synthons In The Of Design Multi-Component Crystals, Padmini Kavuru

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most of the biological systems in nature are sustained by molecular self-assemblies which are the finest examples of supramolecular architectures. Non-covalent interactions are key concepts which govern these molecular assemblies. Inspired by these examples crystal engineering emerged as an important tool in supramolecular chemistry which aids in the invention of new molecular structures with desired properties. Understanding of how the molecules interact at the molecular levels enables one to rationally design novel solid forms with modulated physicochemical properties. This feature of crystal engineering has heightened its position in materials chemistry and is currently one of the most well studied fields …

Assessment Of The Oxbow Morphology Of The Caloosahatchee River And Its Evolution Over Time: A Case Study In South Florida, Chloe Delhomme

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Caloosahatchee River, located in Southern Florida, was originally a meandering and relatively shallow river. During the 1920s, the Caloosahatchee River was channelized and became the C-43 canal. The channelization has significantly impacted the river ecosystem, particularly the oxbows. The oxbows are the U-shaped water bodies on each side of the river channel, which are the remnant bends of the original river. To understand how anthropogenic influence affects hydrologic systems, the proposed case study was designed to assess the geomorphic changes of the oxbows of the Caloosahatchee River, Florida. Understanding and documenting the evolution of river morphology is becoming increasingly …

On The Automatic Recognition Of Human Activities Using Heterogeneous Wearable Sensors, Oscar David Lara Yejas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Delivering accurate and opportune information on people's activities and behaviors has become one of the most important tasks within pervasive computing. Its wide spectrum of potential applications in medical, entertainment, and tactical scenarios, motivates further

research and development of new strategies to improve accuracy, pervasiveness, and eciency.

This dissertation addresses the recognition of human activities (HAR) with wearable sensors in three main regards: In the rst place, physiological signals have been incorporated as a new source of information to improve the recognition accuracy achieved by conventional approaches, which rely on accelerometer signals solely. A new HAR system, Centinela, was born …

A Location-Aware Architecture Supporting Intelligent Real-Time Mobile Applications, Sean J. Barbeau

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents LAISYC, a modular location-aware architecture for intelligent real-time mobile applications that is fully-implementable by third party mobile app developers and supports high-precision and high-accuracy positioning systems such as GPS. LAISYC significantly improves device battery life, provides location data authenticity, ensures security of location data, and significantly reduces the amount of data transferred between the phone and server. The design, implementation, and evaluation of LAISYC using real mobile phones include the following modules: the GPS Auto-Sleep module saves battery energy when using GPS, maintaining acceptable movement tracking (approximately 89% accuracy) with an approximate average doubling of battery life. …

Active Deformation Near The Nicoya Peninsula, Northwestern Costa Rica, Between 1996 And 2010: Interseismic Megathrust Coupling, Lujia Feng, Andrew V. Newman, Marino Protti, Victor Gonzalez, Yan Jiang, Timothy H. Dixon

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

We use campaign and continuous GPS measurements at 49 sites between 1996 and 2010 to describe the long-term active deformation in and near the Nicoya Peninsula, northwestern Costa Rica. The observed deformation reveals partial partitioning of the Cocos-Caribbean oblique convergence into trench-parallel forearc sliver motion and less oblique thrusting on the subduction interface. The northern Costa Rican forearc translates northwestward as a whole ridge block at 11 ± 1 mm/yr relative to the stable Caribbean. The transition from the forearc to the stable Caribbean occurs in a narrow deforming zone of ∼16 km wide. Subduction thrust earthquakes take 2/3 of …

New Insights Into Troglotella Incrustans Wernli & Fookes, 1992, A Fascinating Upper Jurassic-Upper Cretaceous Foraminifer, Felix Schlagintweit

Studia UBB Geologia

New data about the highly variable test morphology of the benthic foraminifer Troglotella incrustans WERNLI & FOOKES (Oxfordian-Lower Cenomanian) are presented, permitting an emended species/genus diagnosis. This concerns mainly the existence of a large final chamber with fistulose extensions that may follow the uniserial or the irregular-branching test part. The way of life of T. incrustans (cryptoendolithic vs. euendolithic) is discussed against the background of different existing models in the literature. The study is based on material (thin-sections and provided photographs) mainly from the Upper Jurassic of Austria, Italy, Romania, Ukraine, and also the type-locality of France.

Origin, Evolutionary Classification, And Biostratigraphic Significance Of The Late Cretaceous Planktic Foraminiferal Directional Lineage Bollitruncana O.A. Korchagin, 2001, Marius Dan Georgescu

Studia UBB Geologia

Taxonomic revision of the genus Bollitruncana O.A. Korchagin, 2001 shows that it accommodates a directional lineage, which consists of two species: B. carpathica (Scheibnerová, 1963) and B. posthelvetica (Hanzliková, 1963). Bollitruncana directional lineage is restricted to Turonian. A new planktic foraminiferal biozone is recognized in the Turonian, namely the Bollitruncana carpathica Biozone.

Citizen Action, Power Relations And Wetland Management In The Tampa Bay Urban Socio-Ecosystem, Cornelius Owusu Adjei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands are vital ecosystems that provide ecological, economic and social benefits to societies. In the Tampa Bay region in West Central Florida, a growing population has put immense pressure on wetlands. The situation has not gone unnoticed in the public domain with concerns raised about the need to formulate policies that would protect them. However, it has been difficult to ascertain the level of citizen involvement in the decision making process.

This study aimed at investigating whether the perceptions and concerns of citizens drove them to influence local water policy. Questionnaires were used to collect data from residents living in …

Spectacular Lightning Revealed In 2009 Mount Redoubt Eruption, Sonja A. Behnke, Ronald J. Thomas, Paul R. Krehbiel, Stephen R. Mcnutt

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The explosive eruption of Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano in March and April 2009 provided a superb opportunity for studying volcanic lightning. The energetic explosions produced powerful volcanic lightning storms, the largest of which rivaled the intensity of the massive supercell thunderstorms that frequent the midwestern Great Plains. Although lightning often has been observed in the plumes of explosive volcanic eruptions, only a handful of detailed studies have delved into the origins of volcanic lightning. Active volcanoes tend to be situated in remote locations, where they are difficult to observe, and often have sudden, unpredicted eruptions. Even when the eruptions are …

A Location-Based Incentive Mechanism For Participatory Sensing Systems With Budget Constraints, Luis Gabriel Jaimes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Participatory Sensing (PS) systems rely on the willingness of mobile users to participate in the collection and reporting of data using a variety of sensors either embedded or integrated in their

cellular phones. Users agree to use their cellular phone resources to sense and transmit the data of interest because these data will be used to address a collective problem that otherwise would

be very difficult to assess and solve. However, this new data collection paradigm has not been very successful yet mainly because of the lack of incentives for participation and privacy concerns. Without adequate incentive and privacy guaranteeing …

A Framework For Participatory Sensing Systems, Diego Mendez Chaves

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Participatory sensing (PS) systems are a new emerging sensing paradigm based on the participation of cellular users in a cooperative way. Due to the spatio-temporal granularity that a PS system can provide, it is now possible to detect and analyze events that occur at different scales, at a low cost. While PS systems present interesting characteristics, they also create new problems. Since the measuring devices are cheaper and they are in the hands of the users, PS systems face several design challenges related to the poor accuracy and high failure rate of the sensors, the possibility of malicious users tampering …

On Algorithmic Fractional Packings Of Hypergraphs, Jill Dizona

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Let F₀ be a fixed k-uniform hypergraph, and let H be a given k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices. An F₀-packing of H is a family F of edge-disjoint copies of F₀ which are subhypergraphs in H. Let n_F0(H) denote the maximum size |F| of an F₀-packing F of H. It is well-known that computing n_F0(H) is NP-hard for nearly any choice of F₀.

In this thesis, we consider the special case when F₀ is a linear hypergraph, that is, when no two edges …