Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Assessing The Equity Implications Of Greenspace Distribution In An Arid Region, Abdelatif Eldeb

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the last few decades, vegetation deterioration is receiving increased attention because of its adverse impacts on societal and human health, environmental sustainability, and quality of life. I have selected two cities in Chihuahua Desert region (El Paso and Juarez) as case study sites to develop a novel and applicable methodology for integrating remotely sensed data of different spectral and spatial resolutions into an analysis of the spatial distribution of an urban amenity. The primary objective of this research is to determine if the spatial distribution of greenspace in 2010 is equitable with respect to socio-demographics in El Paso and …

Developing A Sustainable Ecotourism Foundation In Indonesian National Parks Using Cross-Cultural Adaptation And Communication Framing, Adriana Salas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Previous research on ecotourism in Southeast Asia has focused on its positive and negative effects for conservation. However, the focus in this particular study is to look at what it takes to run a successful ecotourism site in four diverse areas in Indonesia using communication elements like cross-cultural adaptation and communication framing. Communication should be used as a baseline for a successful site and should be used as the most useful tool to address issues and challenges in ecotourism project development.

A successful ecotourism site must carefully look at how their ideas and programs are framed. Ecotourism must also create …

Book Review: Placing The Suspect Behind The Keyboard: Using Digital Forensics And Investigative Techniques To Identify Cybercrime Suspects, Thomas Nash

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In this must read for any aspiring novice cybercrime investigator as well as the seasoned professional computer guru alike, Brett Shaver takes the reader into the ever changing and dynamic world of Cybercrime investigation. Shaver, an experienced criminal investigator, lays out the details and intricacies of a computer related crime investigation in a clear and concise manner in his new easy to read publication, Placing the Suspect behind the Keyboard. Using Digital Forensics and Investigative techniques to Identify Cybercrime Suspects. Shaver takes the reader from start to finish through each step of the investigative process in well organized …

Automating Vendor Fraud Detection In Enterprise Systems, Kishore Singh, Peter Best, Joseph Mula

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow annually. Many organizations are poorly prepared to prevent and detect fraud. Fraud detection strategies are intended to quickly and efficiently identify fraudulent activities that circumvent preventative measures. In this paper, we adopt a DesignScience methodological framework to develop a model for detection of vendor fraud based on analysis of patterns or signatures identified in enterprise system audit trails. The concept is demonstrated by developing prototype software. Verification of the prototype is achieved by performing a series of experiments. Validation is achieved by independent reviews from auditing practitioners. Key findings of …

Book Review: Professional Penetration Testing: Creating And Learning In A Hacking Lab 2e, Joshua Bartolomie

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Organizations often strive for proactive information security programs in an effort to limit occurrence and impact of security breaches. However, traditional security programs run the risk of being unable to provide adequate insight and proactive awareness into real attack vectors that may exist within their organizations. With attack methods and efforts becoming increasingly aggressive, and effective, organizations must take equally assertive measures to protect their critical information and assets. Penetration testing is one of those tools that is often misunderstood, overlooked, and undervalued. A true adversary would not hesitate to exploit every potential to gain entry or cause a disruption …

Technology Corner: Calculating The Number Of Android Lock Patterns: An Unfinished Study In Number Theory, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Although one is unlikely to ever want to brute-force an Android lock pattern, many do wonder about the relative strength of the lock pattern versus a multidigit personal identification number (PIN). It becomes obvious pretty quickly that there are many more lock patterns than the 10,000 possible four-digit PINs.

Science Column: Reconstruction: The Experimental Side Of Digital Forensics, Fred Cohen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Many in digital forensics seem to forget that the science part of digital forensics means experimentation and that implies a whole lot of things that most practitioners never learned.

Book Review: Iphone And Ios Forensic: Investigation, Analysis And Mobile Security For Apple Iphone, Ipad And Ios Devices, Simson Garfinkel

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In April 2011 news outlets around the world revealed shocking news about Apple’s iPhone: for reasons that were not apparently clear, every iPhone contained a small SQLite database that logged where and when the user had been whenever the phone was turned on, and those records went back for pretty much as long as the user had owned their phone. Apple eventually declared that the data cache was the result of a bug and issued a software update to prune the database (it had previously grown without limit). Privacy activists rejoiced that their beloved iPhones were once again trustworthy. But …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Toward A Phen(Omen)Ology Of The Seasons: The Emergence Of The Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project (Iwkp), John Charles Ryan

Research outputs 2013

Since European settlement, the Western calendar has insufficiently accounted for the seasonal nuances and multiple temporalities of Australia. Beginning with Tim Entwistle’s recent proposal to revise the four-season Australian norm, this article traces the emergence of the Western calendar in Europe and its institutionalization ‘Down Under.’ With its emphasis on land-based calendars, the Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project (IWKP) is a partnership between Aboriginal communities and the Bureau of Meteorology aimed at preserving and promoting knowledge of the endemic seasons of Australian regions. As the most recent addition to the IWKP, the six-season Nyoongar calendar of the South-West of Western Australia …

Applications Of Agent Based Approaches In Business: A Three Essay Dissertation, Shankar Prawesh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the enabling role that agent based simulation plays in business and policy. The aforementioned issue has been addressed in this dissertation through three distinct, but related essays. The first essay is a literature review of different research applications of agent based simulation in various business disciplines, such as finance, economics, information systems, management, marketing and accounting. Various agent based simulation tools to develop computational models are discussed. The second essay uses an agent-based simulation approach to study important properties of the widely used most popular news recommender systems (NRS). This essay highlights …

Agricultural And Domestic Waste Contamination In Chilibre Panama And Potential Low-Cost Best Managament Practices, Christopher Etienne Weekes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Sanitation coverage in the Republic of Panama is 5 to 10 percent below the Millennium Development Goals targets set for the country. Population growth, urbanization, unplanned development and waste mismanagement have resulted in improvised trash sites and waste discharges into river systems that are important components of the biologically diverse natural environment of Panama. The study sought to investigate and estimate the burden of waste from domestic and agricultural sources in three regions of the Chilibre corrigimiento (district). It was hypothesized that the water quality and land cover data would reflect that the most populated region in the study …

Spatial Distribution Of Nitrogen Oxides, Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, And Xylenes In Hillsborough County, Florida: An Investigation Of Impacts Of Urban Forests On Ambient Concentrations Of Air Pollutants Associated With Traffic, Jill Sears

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban air pollution is responsible for high levels of morbidity and mortality in exposed populations due to its effects on cardiovascular and respiratory function. Transportation-related air pollutants account for the majority of harmful air pollution in urban areas. Forests are known to reduce air pollution through their ability to facilitate dry deposition and atmospheric gas exchange. This work characterizes the interactions between transportation air pollutants and urban forests in Hillsborough County, Florida. A highly spatially resolved passive air sampling campaign was conducted to characterize local concentrations of nitrogen oxides, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) in Hillsborough County, Florida. Sampling …

The Positive Illusory Bias And Adhd Symptoms: A New Measurement Approach, Sarah A. Fefer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of academic and social competence among adolescents with a continuum of inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms. Past literature suggests that children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) display self-perceptions that are overly positive compared to external indicators of competence, a phenomenon that is referred to as the positive illusory bias (PIB; Owens, Goldfine, Evangelista, Hoza, & Kaiser, 2007). The PIB is well supported among children with ADHD, and recent research suggests that the PIB persists into adolescence. To date, research on the PIB has relied on difference scores (i.e., an indicator of competence is …

Measuring Technical Efficiency Of The Japanese Professional Football (Soccer) League (J1 And J2), Dan Zhao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is the first paper to measure the efficiency of the Japan Professional Football League clubs both the first and the second divisions. In Chapter 1, a non-parametric method Data Envelopment Development (DEA) is used and the data covers six seasons from 2005 to 2010. The input variables are payroll, cost besides payroll, and total assets. The output variables are attendance, revenue, and points awarded. I use different output combinations in order to check the sensitivity of the efficiency of the clubs after the original composition. This is also the first research to include more than one division of the …

Variable Selection In Nonparametric And Semiparametric Regression Models, Liangjun Su, Yonghui Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This chapter reviews the literature on variable selection in nonparametric and semiparametric regression models via shrinkage. We highlight recent developments on simultaneous variable selection and estimation through the methods of least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso), smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) or their variants, but restrict our attention to nonparametric and semiparametric regression models. In particular, we consider variable selection in additive models, partially linear models, functional/varying coefficient models, single index models, general nonparametric regression models, and semiparametric/nonparametric quantile regression models.

Sustainable Production Of Swine: Putting Lipstick On A Pig?, Michelle B. Nowlin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ice Sheet Record Of Recent Sea-Ice Behavior And Polynya Variability In The Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica, Alison S. Criscitiello, Sarah B. Das, Matthew J. Evans, Karen E. Frey, Howard Conway, Ian Joughin, Brooke Medley, Eric J. Steig

Geography

[1] Our understanding of past sea-ice variability is limited by the short length of satellite and instrumental records. Proxy records can extend these observations but require further development and validation. We compare methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and chloride (Cl-) concentrations from a new firn core from coastal West Antarctica with satellite-derived observations of regional sea-ice concentration (SIC) in the Amundsen Sea (AS) to evaluate spatial and temporal correlations from 2002-2010. The high accumulation rate (∼39 g·cm-2·yr-1) provides monthly resolved records of MSA and Cl-, allowing detailed investigation of how regional SIC is recorded in the ice-sheet stratigraphy. Over the period 2002-2010 …

Engagingness And Responsiveness Behavior Models On The Enron Email Network And Its Application To Email Reply Order Prediction, Byung-Won On, Ee Peng Lim, Jing Jiang, Loo Nin Teow

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In email networks, user behaviors affect the way emails are sent and replied. While knowing these user behaviors can help to create more intelligent email services, there has not been much research into mining these behaviors. In this paper, we investigate user engagingness and responsiveness as two interaction behaviors that give us useful insights into how users email one another. Engaging users are those who can effectively solicit responses from other users. Responsive users are those who are willing to respond to other users. By modeling such behaviors, we are able to mine them and to identify engaging or responsive …

Natural Disaster-Risk Assessment Hinesville Georgia, Assana Magagi-Alio

Georgia Municipal Association Practicum (2013-2022)

No abstract provided.

Do Non-Response Follow-Ups Improve Or Reduce Data Quality?: A Review Of The Existing Literature, Kristen Olson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The paper systematically reviews existing literature on the relationship between the level of effort to recruit a sampled person and the measurement quality of survey data. Hypotheses proposed for this relationship are reviewed. Empirical findings for the relationship between level of effort as measured by paradata (the number of follow-up attempts, refusal conversion and time in the field) and question-specific item non-response rates, aggregate measures of item non-response rates, response accuracy and various measurement errors on attitudinal questions are examined through a qualitative review.

The Impact Of Smartphone Adoption On Consumers’ Switching Behavior In Broadband And Cable Tv Services, Gwangjae Jung

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The emergence of smartphones has brought a technology disruption to the telecom business. Due to the various services offered in association with smartphones, people can surf the web or watch TV. This research is related to telecom services overall, and has the goal of finding the impact of smartphone adoption to consumers’ switching behavior in broadband and cable TV services. This research adopts a quasi-experimental design and investigates the causal effect of smartphone service adoption on broadband and cable TV service choices. The data collection involves five years of consumer service subscriptions in a Singaporean telecommunications company. I tested for …

Decomposition Of Ireland’S Carbon Emissions From 1990-2010: An Extended Kaya Identity, Tadhg O'Mahony

Articles

In recent decades, Ireland has been an important example of a development pathway where rapid economic growth was accompanied by rising energy demand and increasing carbon emissions. Understanding the driving forces of carbon emissions is necessary for policy formulation and decomposition analysis is widely used for this purpose. This study uses an extended Kaya identity as the scheme and applies the log mean Divisia index (LMDI I) as the decomposition technique. Change in carbon emissions is decomposed from 1990 – 2010 and includes a measure of the effect of renewable energy penetration. Results illustrate that scale effects of affluence and …

Do Household Cable Tv Viewing Patterns Demonstrate Efficiency And Concentration?, Rae Chang, Pulak Ghosh, Gwangjae Jung, Robert J. Kauffman, Peiran Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Traditional Activities In The Exit Glacier Area Of Kenai Fjords National Park, Douglas Deur, Karen Brewster, Rachel Mason

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ) occupies roughly 1,760 square miles on the Kenai Peninsula in southcentral Alaska. Sitting adjacent to the community of Seward, the park was established in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA). The central portion of the park contains the Harding Icefield, from which no fewer than 38 active glaciers exit into valleys and tidewater locations surrounding the park. Of these glaciers, Exit Glacier is the most publicly accessible, and the only park glacier with road access from the town of Seward. A number of individuals and families from the Seward …

Turning Water Into Wine: The Political Economy Of The Environment In Southern California's Wine Country, Jason Simms

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines questions of water sustainability in contexts of wine production and state-led neoliberal development in the Temecula Valley, southern California, where wine tourism is at present being harnessed as an engine of economic growth. Natural and anthropogenic forces, such as global climate change, desertification, urban development, and the marketization and commodification of natural resources, affect the distribution and availability of water throughout the globe. As a result, the use of water, and associated political and environmental processes and consequences, in the production of global commodities, including wheat, citrus, and coffee, recently have come under increased scrutiny. Given wine's …

Exploring Local Food System Practices And Perceptions: Insights From Florida's Snap-Authorized Farmers' Markets, Leslie Babiak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite heightened interest in creating local food systems that enhance health of ecologies, economies, and all members of communities, the public space of farmers' markets is far less than inherently equitable. This is particularly concerning given America's unprecedented crisis of food hardship and related disease, which disproportionately affects lower income populations. This research addresses the social justice implications of SNAP (food stamp) operations for locally oriented food systems. Pioneering practices of three of Florida's SNAP-authorized farmers' markets, and the attitudes and behaviors of one-hundred-seventy-six market patrons, were explored through customer surveys, market manager interviews, and environmental assessments. Qualitative and quantitative …

Cultivating Local: Building A Local Food System In Western North Carolina, Allison S. Perrett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines a movement in Western North Carolina to build a local food system, one grounded in the conditions and relationships of place. In 2000, Mountain Family Farms launched the Local Food Campaign to raise public awareness about the region's farms and farming heritage, to educate consumers about the benefits of buying food grown by local farms, and, ultimately, to build markets for locally grown food to sustain the region's farms. The campaign sparked a social movement and over a decade later local farms and locally grown food are a palpable feature of life in the mountains of Western …

Evaluating Habitat Vulnerability And Sustainability Of Urban Seagrass Resources To Sea Level Rise, Cynthia A. Meyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The seagrass resource provides essential ecosystem functions for many marine species. This research evaluated the vulnerability and sustainability of the seagrass resource in an urbanized area to the effects of sea level rise. The assessment required analysis of information regarding the biogeography of the seagrass resource, and developing a method to model the spatial extent of the suitable habitat for seagrass, and applying the model to predict the implications of simulated sea level rise scenarios on the seagrass resource.

Examining the biogeography of the seagrass resource required the development of a seagrass monitoring and assessment field survey and a comprehensive …

Bayesian Estimation Of Panel Data Fractional Response Models With Endogeneity: An Application To Standardized Test Rates, Lawrence Kessler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I propose Bayesian estimation of a nonlinear panel data model with a fractional dependent variable (bounded between 0 and 1). Specifically, I estimate a panel data fractional probit model which takes into account the bounded nature of the fractional response variable. I outline estimation under the assumption of strict exogeneity as well as when allowing for potential endogeneity. Furthermore, I illustrate how transitioning from the strictly exogenous case to the case of endogeneity only requires slight adjustments. For comparative purposes I also estimate linear specifications of these models and show how quantities of interest such as marginal …