This research examines the relationship of two archeological populations in Southeastern Florida from the Middle Woodland Period. The two sites chosen include the Belle Glade site in the Belle Glade Cultural Area and the Highland Beach Mound site in the East Okeechobee Cultural Area. The determination of relationships was done through an analysis of nonmetric dental traits. A series of traits were recorded in an ordinal scale and later dichotomized into present or absent, in order to conduct a biological distance analysis. The statistical method chosen for this analysis was the Smith’s Mean Measure of Divergence. Results indicate that both populations have a minimal degree of divergence. These results corroborate the evidence gathered from past archeological investigations. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of Florida Senate Bill 1720 on student performance in Mathematics. Prior to its enactment, placement testing was mandatory in the State of Florida. The results determined if a student was required to enroll in any developmental courses prior to enrolling in college-level Mathematics courses. For many students, particularly those at the State College level, this extended the number of required courses, lengthening the path to completion for a volume of students. The results over time proved a costly burden on institutions that serve populations of students not prepared to perform at the college-level, as well as a major obstacle for student degree completion. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Gravitational N-body problems are central in classical mathematical physics. Studying their long time behavior raises subtle questions about the interplay between regular and irregular motions and the boundary between integrable and chaotic dynamics. Over the last hundred years, concepts from the qualitative theory of dynamical systems such as stable/unstable manifolds, homoclinic and heteroclinic tangles, KAM theory, and whiskered invariant tori, have come to play an increasingly important role in the discussion. In the last fty years the study of numerical methods for computing invariant objects has matured into a thriving sub-discipline. This growth is driven at least in part by the needs of the world's space programs. Recent work on validated numerical methods has begun to unify the computational and analytical perspectives, enriching both aspects of the subject. Many of these results use computer assisted proofs, a tool which has become increasingly popular in recent years. This thesis presents a proof that the circular restricted four body problem is non-integrable. The proof of this result is obtained as an application of more general rigorous numerical methods in nonlinear analysis. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

E-Learning is transforming the delivery of education. Today, millions of students take selfpaced online courses. However, the content and language complexity often hinders comprehension, and that with lack of immediate help from the instructor leads to weaker learning outcomes. Ability to predict difficult content in real time enables eLearning systems to adapt content as per students' level of learning. The recent introduction of lowcost eye trackers has opened a new class of applications based on eye response. Eye tracking devices can record eye response on the visual element or concept in real time. The response and the variations in eye response to the same concept over time may be indicative of the levels of learning. In this study, we have analyzed reading patterns using eye tracker and derived 12 eye response features based on psycholinguistics, contextual information processing, anticipatory behavior analysis, recurrence fixation analysis, and pupils' response. We use eye responses to predict the level of learning for a term/concept. One of the main contribution is the spatio-temporal analysis of the eye response on a term/concept to derive relevant first pass (spatial) and reanalysis (temporal) eye response features. A spatiotemporal model, built using these derived features, analyses slide images, extracts words (terms), maps the subject's eye response to words, and prepares a term-response map. A parametric baseline classifier, trained with labeled data (term-response maps) classifies a term/concept as a novel (positive class) or familiar (negative class), using majority voting method. On using, only first pass features for prediction, the baseline classifier shows 61% prediction accuracy, but on adding reanalysis features, baseline achieves 66.92% accuracy for predicting difficult terms. However, all proposed features do not have the same response to learning difficulties for all subjects, as we consider reading as an individual characteristic. Hence, we developed a non-parametric, feature weighted linguistics classifier (FWLC), which assigns weight to features based on their relevance. The FWLC classifier achieves a prediction accuracy of 90.54% an increase of 23.62% over baseline and 29.54% over the first-pass variant of baseline. Predicting novel terms as familiar is more expensive because content adapts by using this information. Hence, our primary goal is to increase the prediction rate of novel terms by minimizing the cost of false predictions. On comparing the performance of FWLC with other frequently used machine learning classifiers, FWLC achieves highest true positive rate (TPR) and lowest ratio of false negative rate (FNR) to false positive rate (FPR). The higher prediction performance of proposed spatio-temporal eye response model to predict levels of learning builds a strong foundation for eye response driven adaptive e-Learning. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Research indicates that there are numerous factors related to dual language proficiency. Furthermore, research suggests that the language skills of bilingual children are very heterogeneous. In this study, we will focus on four outcomes for those receiving dual language input. Those four patterns of outcome are as follows: bilingual children can have high levels of skills in English and Spanish, high skills in English and low skills in the Spanish or vice versa, or low levels of skills in English and Spanish. The present study focused on the prevalence of these four patterns and their concurrent correlates amongst 30 month old (N = 87, 48 females) and 48 month old (N = 74, 40 females) simultaneous English-Spanish bilinguals with special emphasis on the distinguishing factors for those with high dual language skills. Overall, for those with high dual scores, the findings reveal that gender, birth-order, and maternal level of education are predictive of high dual language scores so that members of this group are largely first-born females of mothers with an average 15.8 years of education. English dominant scores were predicted by percent English input in the home and birth-order so that children in this group were mostly later-born children with 65% English input in the home. Spanish dominant scores were predicted by percent English input in the home and Spanish bookreading behaviors as children in this group received 23% of their in-home input in English and were read to for more than one hour per week in Spanish. Low dual scores were marginally predicted by gender and Spanish book-reading behaviors, children in this group were mostly male and received less than an in hour of Spanish reading per week. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Toni Morrison’s later novels Love and Home bring forth an issue of identity anxiety for those involved in the narrative: author, narrators, and readers. Featuring both first-person and third-person narrators, these works offer conflicting narratives in which the writer, Morrison, allows her characters to question her own authorial voice. Greater agency is given to the first-person narrators through which they deconstruct the traditional objectivity of third-person narratives. As such, this thesis argues, the structures of Love and Home extend their inside conversations to the real world of readers who must reconsider where their narrative trust has been. Moreover, Morrison’s challenge to her authorial voice becomes the means through which she questions the hegemony of U.S. historical narratives. In the end, it is the subjective voices of the first-person narrators which offer a more reliable, counter narrative of not only Morrison’s fictional stories, but that of the nation’s historical past. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Real-time eye tracking systems with human-computer interaction mechanism are being adopted to advance user experience in smart devices and consumer electronic systems. Eye tracking systems measure eye gaze and pupil response non-intrusively. This research presents an analysis of eye pupil and gaze response to video structure and content. The set of experiments for this study involved presenting different video content to subjects and measuring eye response with an eye tracker. Results show significant changes in video and scene cuts led to sharp constrictions. User response to videos can provide insights that can improve subjective quality assessment metrics. This research also presents an analysis of the pupil and gaze response to quality changes in videos. The results show pupil constrictions for noticeable changes in perceived quality and higher fixations/saccades ratios with lower quality. Using real-time eye tracking systems for video analysis and quality evaluation can open a new class of applications for consumer electronic systems. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis consists of the two opening chapters of American Odyssey, a nouveau plantation novel that has its roots in two American fiction traditions---the nineteenth-century plantation novel and the twentieth-century neo-slave narrative. It is 1855 and Charles DeCoeur's only motivation to remain Riverwood's owner and master is that his widowed mother and sickly sister rely on the profits of the estate. Charles chafes under the responsibility and physicality of plantation life, unable to reconcile himself to the role of master of a cotton estate in the forgotten heart of East Florida. Then a female Negro, Hellcat, wanders onto the Riverwood estate. Attracted to the woman's unusual appearance and disposition, Charles readily claims her as his property. It is not long before Charles channels his ennui into a renewed interest in Riverwood's workings, a thinly-veiled attempt to hide his growing obsession with the mysterious slave woman. However, tensions are mounting all around Charles. The estate is approaching bankruptcy, the overseer and slaves believe Hellcat has dark intentions, and Charles' mother believes the slave is a bastard child from her husband's scandalous past. But Charles refuses to listen to those around him and continues to let his desires guide his actions, while Hellcat's presence at Riverwood opens new wounds that threaten everyone around her.

This thesis analyzes some of the effects of urbanization in Pinellas County, Florida on the karst landscape. Many sinkholes have been obscured and/or modified for storm water retention by urbanization in Pinellas County, with a few sinkholes still identifiable by characteristic zoning of vegetation, soil moisture, and circular shape. Using aerial photos from 1926 and 2000, karst features were identified by circularity,vegetation, and moisture conditions. Mapping karst surface features using historic aerial photos and maps is a useful exercise that will assist our scientific understanding of karstification in Florida and the nature and extent of karst processes that have acted in the pre-urbanized past. The final product of this research is a digital spatial database and metadata of karst features discernable on the 1926 and 2000 aerial photos; a description of the karst landscape mapped for each time period; and a morphometric description (including sinkhole area, density, and topography) of the karst landscape mapped for each time period. A total of 2,703 sinkholes were identified on the 1926 aerial photos. By 2000 only 900 sinkholes were still visible, a loss of 87.31%. Most of the loss of these sinkholes was due to the rapid urbanization that happened between 1926 and 2000. A total of 499 sinkholes that had been identified in 1926 have now been modified into storm water retention ponds.

Methods used to process raw Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data can sometimes obscure the digital signatures indicative of an archaeological site. This thesis explains the negative effects that certain LiDAR data processing procedures can have on the preservation of an archaeological site. This thesis also presents methods for effectively integrating LiDAR with other forms of mapping data in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment in order to improve LiDAR archaeological signatures by examining several pre-Columbian Native American shell middens located in Canaveral National Seashore Park (CANA).