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(1 - 13 of 13)
- Title
- Growing pains: investigating satellite tag epoxy attachments on juvenile turtles.
- Author
- Vidal, Alexander
- Abstract/Description
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While nesting behavior of sea turtles is well understood, gaps in knowledge exist for inwater movements. This is especially true for neonate and small juvenile turtles, which are overall data poor at pelagic and early neritic stages. The use of satellite-linked platform terminal transmitters (PTTs) allows scientists to study sea turtle movements; however, long-term tracking of sea turtles comes with a unique set of challenges. Tracking durations can be brief and limited by technical failures....
Show moreWhile nesting behavior of sea turtles is well understood, gaps in knowledge exist for inwater movements. This is especially true for neonate and small juvenile turtles, which are overall data poor at pelagic and early neritic stages. The use of satellite-linked platform terminal transmitters (PTTs) allows scientists to study sea turtle movements; however, long-term tracking of sea turtles comes with a unique set of challenges. Tracking durations can be brief and limited by technical failures. Most PTTs on small juveniles fail within one year. There is a general consensus among many biologists who tag small juvenile turtles that tags are failing due to premature detachment from carapace expansion. I tested this growth-caused detachment hypothesis through a series of controlled experiments. First, using empty red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) shells, I conducted axial load testing with model transmitters attached. Second, using juvenile red-eared sliders with model PTTs, I recreated the stress of shell growth on the epoxied-tag attachment. In both experiments, a suite of epoxies were tested, expansion factors were measured, and data was compared to sea turtle growth rates. This research contributes to the knowledge of how adhesives interact with a growing turtle shell.
Show less - Identifier
- 1294313663, WFE0000769
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Mathematics learning support center visits and college students' mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy.
- Author
- Johnson, Hannah Ada
- Abstract/Description
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College students' inability to complete necessary mathematics coursework due to elevated mathematics anxiety levels can hinder degree completion and affect graduation rates. Institutes of higher education should offer students enrolled in a developmental mathematics course opportunities outside of the classroom that potentially lower mathematics anxiety levels and increase self-efficacy levels. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the correlation between the...
Show moreCollege students' inability to complete necessary mathematics coursework due to elevated mathematics anxiety levels can hinder degree completion and affect graduation rates. Institutes of higher education should offer students enrolled in a developmental mathematics course opportunities outside of the classroom that potentially lower mathematics anxiety levels and increase self-efficacy levels. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the correlation between the frequency of visits to a mathematics learning support center and mathematics anxiety levels and self-efficacy among nontraditional developmental mathematics students at a 2-year college in Florida. The study applied Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory that explains interactions that exist between behavior (mathematics anxiety), personal factors (self-efficacy), and environmental events (learning support centers) as the theoretical framework. I utilized convenience sampling to collect survey data from 16 participants. The data analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between preintervention and postintervention mathematics anxiety levels (p = 0.028) and self-efficacy levels (p = 0.0075). However, a statistically significant correlation did not exist between the frequency of visits to a mathematics learning support center and participant levels of mathematics anxiety (p = 0.241) and self-efficacy (p = 0.850). The study results have implications for current policies by examining the correlation between attendance at learning support centers and developmental mathematics students' mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy levels. Because the sample size was significantly reduced due to COVID-19 restrictions, I suggest future research with a larger sample size should be conducted.
Show less - Identifier
- 1294314080, WFE0000770
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Vergil in the "Wracke" and the "Comming to Virginia": William Strachey's structural, literary, and ideological adaptation of the Aeneid.
- Author
- Scott, Teresa Yates
- Abstract/Description
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This paper investigates William Strachey's A True Reportory, a stylized eyewitness account of Strachey's 1609-1610 voyage to the Jamestown colony, showing how the text utilizes Vergil's Aeneid to set a precedent for the British colonization of the New World. By using the Aeneid as a resource for A True Reportory, I argue that Strachey is committed to creating a new and active history for Jamestown by connecting the ongoing foundation of Jamestown to that of the Roman Empire, an empire...
Show moreThis paper investigates William Strachey's A True Reportory, a stylized eyewitness account of Strachey's 1609-1610 voyage to the Jamestown colony, showing how the text utilizes Vergil's Aeneid to set a precedent for the British colonization of the New World. By using the Aeneid as a resource for A True Reportory, I argue that Strachey is committed to creating a new and active history for Jamestown by connecting the ongoing foundation of Jamestown to that of the Roman Empire, an empire destined for greatness, in the attempt to align his account with the promotional goals of the Virginia Company. In particular, I will show that Strachey leverages Rome's greatness to induce the British population to take a more active role in the larger North American colonial project, while also using uniquely Roman paradigms of colonialism to legitimize Britain's possession of Jamestown and place the British experience within a known colonial framework.
Show less - Identifier
- 1296381331, WFE0000779
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Academic achievement of black males in a rural middle school.
- Author
- Bozeman, Tonya Dukes
- Abstract/Description
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Educational statistics have consistently recorded low academic performance for Black male students, particularly those in high-poverty settings. Research studies have documented that very few Black male students can perform at the level of their counterparts from other racial categories. Circumstances such as poverty, deprivation, and lack of mentorship affect Black males' academic achievement and underachievement. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive study was to explore the lived...
Show moreEducational statistics have consistently recorded low academic performance for Black male students, particularly those in high-poverty settings. Research studies have documented that very few Black male students can perform at the level of their counterparts from other racial categories. Circumstances such as poverty, deprivation, and lack of mentorship affect Black males' academic achievement and underachievement. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive study was to explore the lived experiences of select Black male students who have been academically successful at a high-poverty rural middle school in the Southern United States. I used, per Bandura's (1977) social cognitive theory (SCT), the framework of the study, human learning and development occur through personal experiences and examination of the actions of others. I explored how behavioral, personal, and environmental factors interact to affect the selfefficacy of 12 Black male students in the school setting. Findings revealed participants perceived positive family support, positive friend or peer network, positive teacher influence, and positive self-image as supportive factors that contributed to their academic success. This study shifts the focus from Black male deficiencies to emphasizing their achievements and how internal factors such as self-perception, attitude, and self-confidence outweigh external factors such as low socioeconomic factors and lack of mentors that could reduce opportunities for success. Study participants' desires for academic achievement created a transformative bridge between their self-efficacious beliefs and their drive for education. Future research should continue to focus on understanding the contributing factors to young Black males' school success and giving them positive voices.
Show less - Identifier
- 1298604350, WFE0000790
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Side channel attacks and device vulnerabilities: methodologies of attack and prevention.
- Author
- Easley, Ronda Rae
- Abstract/Description
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Side channel attacks are methods by which the encrypted data on a device or network can be obtained through observation and manipulation of the unintended outputs of the device such as power or electromagnetic radiation fluctuations, timing variances, or even discrepancies in sound or acoustic levels while the device is processing cryptographic functions. These attacks have become more prevalent as internet-of-things (IoT) devices have become more commonplace. Often the priorities in the...
Show moreSide channel attacks are methods by which the encrypted data on a device or network can be obtained through observation and manipulation of the unintended outputs of the device such as power or electromagnetic radiation fluctuations, timing variances, or even discrepancies in sound or acoustic levels while the device is processing cryptographic functions. These attacks have become more prevalent as internet-of-things (IoT) devices have become more commonplace. Often the priorities in the manufacture of such devices are compact size and low power consumption. Meeting these design parameters leads builders to insert less security measures into both the device hardware and the encryption software. Prior research details both the attack methods and countermeasure strategies that can be deployed during the design phase to offer higher security to the device. The research within this thesis defines and details the known methods of side channel attacks and identifies the intrinsic vulnerabilities of specific device types and encryption methods. This work further offers a tabular representation of the research which can be utilized by builders to identify vulnerabilities and recognize appropriate countermeasures.
Show less - Identifier
- 1298604408, WFE0000789
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Evaluating critical initiatives related to climate at a high-poverty middle school.
- Author
- Taylor, Douglas Anthony
- Abstract/Description
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McMillan Public Schools (MPS) is a public school system in the southeastern part of the United States that serves approximately 28,000 students. Gregory Middle School (GMS) is one of 52 schools within MPS that serves 985 students. I used MPS and GMS as pseudonyms to anonymize the school system and school. In July 2019, I was appointed as the principal of GMS, and I quickly implemented critical initiatives related to the climate. School climate is defined as the prevailing atmosphere within...
Show moreMcMillan Public Schools (MPS) is a public school system in the southeastern part of the United States that serves approximately 28,000 students. Gregory Middle School (GMS) is one of 52 schools within MPS that serves 985 students. I used MPS and GMS as pseudonyms to anonymize the school system and school. In July 2019, I was appointed as the principal of GMS, and I quickly implemented critical initiatives related to the climate. School climate is defined as the prevailing atmosphere within the school, which encompasses physical, academic, and social dimensions (McGiboney, 2016). Based on data from the 2018-2019 school term, it was clear that the school's climate required immediate attention. All available data sources were reviewed, including student discipline reports (MPS, 2020a), stakeholder surveys (Cognia, 2019), and the school report card (State Department of Education, 2019). Each area of concern contributed to a negative school climate and created an environment that was not conducive for teaching and learning. The leadership team implemented critical initiatives in the areas of (a) human resources, (b) student discipline, (c) student safety, (d) school operations, and (e) school facilities. This program evaluation identified (a) the strengths, (b) the weaknesses, (c) the opportunities, and (d) the threats (SWOT) of the critical initiatives implemented at GMS related to the school's climate during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school terms. After conducting a literature review, I adopted the learning organization evaluation (LOE) conceptual framework paired with SWOT analysis, which provided a formal structure for conducting my program evaluation. The LOE is composed of four major steps, including (a) focusing the evaluative inquiry, (b) carrying out the inquiry, (c) implementing inquiry activities, and (d) applying learning (Preskill & Torres, 1999). Collaborative learning and evaluative inquiry guide the LOE conceptual framework. The LOE model facilitates success for organizations that wish to study internal processes or procedures. The LOE model is a systematic series of steps that should be followed when conducting a program evaluation (Preskill & Torres, 1999). I paired the LOE with a convergent parallel design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). Next, I invited the current faculty and staff employed during the 2019-2020 school term to participate in the program evaluation. A coinvestigator conducted the qualitative focus group interviews on two separate occasions. The coinvestigator ensured employee anonymity. Twenty-one faculty and staff members participated in the focus group interviews. I utilized deductive content analysis to analyze the focus group interviews. Additionally, I distributed the quantitative research instruments via Qualtrics, and I received 31 responses. The small sample size was a limitation. As a result, inferential statistics were not possible. Because qualitative and quantitative research represent data differently, I developed joint display matrices to merge the information from both data sources. To sufficiently answer the evaluation questions, I created four main categories based on the (a) strengths, (b) weaknesses, (c) opportunities, and (d) threats of the critical initiatives related to the change in the school's climate. Based on each main category, I created categories in alignment with the definition of school climate. Despite the recent improvement in the climate of the school, it remains an area of concern. While I noted improvement in many areas, the results revealed a need for further intervention in some areas. To further school improvement efforts, I developed a continuous improvement plan (CIP) based on the results of the SWOT analysis. The CIP will include critical initiatives for each area in order to facilitate success. I will communicate the results to the faculty and staff of GMS and school system administrators in a series of future round table discussions and professional development sessions.
Show less - Identifier
- 1298604390, WFE0000791
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Air traffic control specialists' perceptions of simulation for developing job-related competencies.
- Author
- Harris, Colin Alwin
- Abstract/Description
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Inexperienced and poorly trained Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCSs) contribute to aircraft accidents and other serious aviation mishaps, which negatively impact human safety, the environment, government and personal property, and the efficient and smooth operation of the National Airspace System (NAS). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can help remedy this problem by ensuring that ATCSs receive academic and simulator competency-based training. The purpose of this qualitative...
Show moreInexperienced and poorly trained Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCSs) contribute to aircraft accidents and other serious aviation mishaps, which negatively impact human safety, the environment, government and personal property, and the efficient and smooth operation of the National Airspace System (NAS). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can help remedy this problem by ensuring that ATCSs receive academic and simulator competency-based training. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to understand how ATCSs at an air traffic facility in the southeastern region of the United States (U.S.) described their experiences with the ATCoach simulation training (ATCoach) in developing job-related competencies. I employed Bloom et al.'s (1956) taxonomy of the cognitive domain and its six classifications (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) to frame and align the study's research questions and interview questions to determine if five ATCSs perceived simulation as a valuable instructional method. Participants revealed that the ATCoach experiences is a valuable instructional method for enhancing ATC professionals' knowledge and skill levels by preparing them to transfer previous knowledge to practice in dayto-day ATC operations and improve their judgment, critical thinking, and decision-making skills--not their self-confidence. However, the simulator's physical fidelity limitations had an adverse influence on participants' learning experience. The findings, therefore, indicate ATC knowledge does not necessarily occur during the ATCoach but instead during previous classroom learning or experience. Future research should evaluate the entire ATC training program taking a learner from Certified Professional Controllers in Training (CPC-IT) status to Certified Professional Controllers (CPC).
Show less - Identifier
- 1298604671, WFE0000793
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Control of hybrid generation microgrids based on consensus algorithm.
- Author
- Albaz, Rakan Khaled Kamal
- Abstract/Description
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Utility grid companies are currently facing many challenges. These challenges include energy management, efficiency, and power quality issues. It is well known that improving power systems' management, control, and quality results in better economic benefits, increased electronic device lifetime, and reduced power interruptions, leading to the satisfaction of utility and consumer. Many research efforts were done in the past decades focusing on power systems control, quality, and management....
Show moreUtility grid companies are currently facing many challenges. These challenges include energy management, efficiency, and power quality issues. It is well known that improving power systems' management, control, and quality results in better economic benefits, increased electronic device lifetime, and reduced power interruptions, leading to the satisfaction of utility and consumer. Many research efforts were done in the past decades focusing on power systems control, quality, and management. The need for more green energy resources has inspired these researchers to find ways to integrate renewable energy resources into the grid. The current grid is facing issues due to a number of reasons such as increased Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) types and number, increased loads' types and number, and the increased distance between the DERs, loads, and the grid. The study of this thesis aims at finding creative energy management and control solutions through observing and understanding the characteristics of the utility grid and implement these solutions in a simulation software called MATLAB/Simulink. Consensus-based control will be implemented in a hybrid generation microgrid which will support the grid and work on restoring voltage and frequency levels with optimum power sharing between the DER.
Show less - Identifier
- 1295678222, WFE0000777
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Characterizing the effects of atypical antipsychotics on the neutrophil model cell line, PLB-985.
- Author
- Robbs, Emily J.
- Abstract/Description
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Atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) are a class of drug used to treat several mental diseases like bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia. However, these substances are also known to cause a rare, yet severe and sometimes fatal syndrome known as neutropenia. Neutropenia (and its more acute form, agranulocytosis) is characterized by a significant decrease in an individual's circulating neutrophils--the most abundant white blood cell. Neutrophils are essential for proper...
Show moreAtypical antipsychotics (AAPs) are a class of drug used to treat several mental diseases like bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia. However, these substances are also known to cause a rare, yet severe and sometimes fatal syndrome known as neutropenia. Neutropenia (and its more acute form, agranulocytosis) is characterized by a significant decrease in an individual's circulating neutrophils--the most abundant white blood cell. Neutrophils are essential for proper innate immunity, and depletion can result in higher risk of developing life-threatening illnesses. How atypical antipsychotics induce neutropenia is not well-understood, though research is ongoing. In this study, we aim to characterize the effects of four AAPs--clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine and aripiprazole--on PLB-985 cell viability, as assessed by the XTT Cell Viability Assay. We found that only aripiprazole is able to significantly decrease dPLB-985 cell viability after 48-hour treatment. We hypothesized that aripiprazole's negative effect on cell viability is through its unique mechanism of action as a partial dopamine agonist; however, our results suggest that aripiprazole's effects are independent of dopamine receptor agonism.
Show less - Identifier
- 1294639220, WFE0000774
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Professional industry certifications as the guiding factor for cybersecurity course content delivery.
- Author
- Arenas, Victor RamoĢn
- Abstract/Description
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Cybersecurity faculty do not have the time to respond to the rapid and pervasive cybersecurity academic landscape. For faculty to respond to this challenge, they are expected to continuously adapt to remain competitive. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the cybersecurity faculty's perceptions of their need to embark on an ongoing and sustained professional development to transfer commercial content in the form of professional certifications to the course...
Show moreCybersecurity faculty do not have the time to respond to the rapid and pervasive cybersecurity academic landscape. For faculty to respond to this challenge, they are expected to continuously adapt to remain competitive. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the cybersecurity faculty's perceptions of their need to embark on an ongoing and sustained professional development to transfer commercial content in the form of professional certifications to the course content delivery at the Opportunity Learning Center (referred to hereafter as O.L.C.) in South Florida. This study's methods aligned with a qualitative descriptive phenomenological process supported by Carroll's (1963) degree of learning based on the concepts of opportunity to learn, quality of instruction, perseverance, and aptitude. The data I collected via interview described faculty's perceptions regarding these concepts to learn a pervasively changing subject. Five participants at O.L.C. perceived professional certifications as beneficial. Most professional certifications are valuable; besides, Florida's state's Department of Education encourages state colleges to include them. The data revealed that despite the likelihood of obtaining a certification, increases in faculty receiving high-level instruction, learning experience, and quality of teaching resources, faculty face a significant challenge in preparing and getting ready to obtain professional certifications. Despite the challenge, the study showed that faculty have no other option but to leverage various open educational resources to remain competitive. The study recommends expanding research to determine the correlation between the absence of professional development in the cybersecurity academic context and faculty's motivation to self-train to remain competitive.
Show less - Identifier
- 1294536245, WFE0000772
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Exploring elementary teachers' efficacy experiences with using a reading workshop instructional method.
- Author
- Rio, Hayley Harrison
- Abstract/Description
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Many teachers encounter low efficacy resulting in difficulty providing effective instruction, low levels of job satisfaction, and a greater chance of depression (Bandura, 1993; Cansoy & Parlar, 2018; Chung & Chen, 2018). The purpose of this qualitative interpretive phenomenological study was to explore the efficacy experiences of elementary reading teachers who use a reading workshop instructional method at selected schools in the Southeast of the United States. Five elementary reading...
Show moreMany teachers encounter low efficacy resulting in difficulty providing effective instruction, low levels of job satisfaction, and a greater chance of depression (Bandura, 1993; Cansoy & Parlar, 2018; Chung & Chen, 2018). The purpose of this qualitative interpretive phenomenological study was to explore the efficacy experiences of elementary reading teachers who use a reading workshop instructional method at selected schools in the Southeast of the United States. Five elementary reading teachers from three different schools shared their experiences through semistructured one-on-one interviews and a focus group session. The interview questions targeted the constructs of Bandura's (1993, 1997) self-efficacy theory, which was developed to explain human behavior. The interview questions explored mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion experiences, and elementary reading teachers' physiological and affective states while using a reading workshop instructional method. Themes of professional growth, student growth and motivation, mentors, collaboration, feedback, and enjoyment and fulfillment emerged. The study concludes that (a) teachers are willing to work hard and persevere with challenging instructional methods if they perceive them to be beneficial, (b) efficacy for teaching reading through a reading workshop instructional approach grows over time, (c) teachers push themselves to continue to learn when their administrators respect them as professionals, (d) teachers can gain vicarious experiences through conversation, and (e) teachers' attitudes and feelings may transfer to their students. Future research could explore teachers' efficacy experiences in other content areas such as math and science in secondary schools, and investigate the intersection of instructional methods and teacher efficacy.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2021
- Identifier
- 1298723737, WFE0000796
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Machine learning guided by linguistic and behavioral knowledge.
- Author
- Rahgooy, Taher
- Abstract/Description
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The recent success of AI has been primarily driven by the extraordinary progress in the field of machine learning. The ultimate goal of machine learning is to develop algorithms capable of making accurate predictions in an explainable way by learning efficiently from a small amount of training data. Despite an exceptionally fast-paced growth, machine learning has been exceedingly successful in achieving accurate predictions, at the cost of sacrificing most of, if not all, explainability and...
Show moreThe recent success of AI has been primarily driven by the extraordinary progress in the field of machine learning. The ultimate goal of machine learning is to develop algorithms capable of making accurate predictions in an explainable way by learning efficiently from a small amount of training data. Despite an exceptionally fast-paced growth, machine learning has been exceedingly successful in achieving accurate predictions, at the cost of sacrificing most of, if not all, explainability and by relying on huge amount of training data. Recent work has, on the other hand, shown that domain knowledge, when properly incorporated in learning algorithms, can facilitate learning from small data sets and provide various forms of explainability. In this dissertation, I propose novel ways of incorporating linguistic and behavioral knowledge into machine learning models for achieving different goals such as improving prediction accuracy, using less data, increase explainability, and evaluating cognitive biases. We exemplify our novel approaches on some challenging tasks that require special treatment either due to lack of data and/or need for explainable predictions. We first consider extracting spatial relations from language, which is a complex task due to the ambiguity of spatial relations and scarcity of available training data. To this end, we use linguistic knowledge to define various constraints imposed on classifiers to infer the correct classifications holistically. Human choice prediction is the other domain that we consider because of the fundamental role it plays in the understanding of human behavior and in the design of intelligent systems. We propose novel methods to leverage procedural knowledge, in the form of psychological models of decision making, in combination with machine learning, to achieve better predictions, understand the underlying deliberation processes, and elicit user preferences. Finally, we extend our work to the domain of sequential decision making by designing agents that learn constraints from demonstrations and then use cognitive models as orchestrators to exploit these learned constraints for making choices between conflicting goals. We use various real world and synthetic data to evaluate our proposed methods throughout this dissertation. Our experimental results show the efficacy of our methods which significantly improves upon the state-of-the-art in all of the considered tasks.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2021
- Identifier
- 1298723050, WFE0000795
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Shipwreck Tagging Archaeological Management Program (STAMP): a model for coastal heritage management based on community engagement and Citizen Science.
- Author
- Burkhard, Austin Leonard
- Abstract/Description
-
The Florida Public Archaeological Network began the Shipwreck Tagging Archaeological Management Program (STAMP) in 2019 and utilizes citizen scientists to assist archaeologists in tracking the movement and degradation of beached/coastal shipwreck sites and disarticulated timbers. Historically Florida's coastal regions have been some of the most treacherous navigable waterways for mariners due to high wave turbidity, oceanic currents, and meteorological phenomena. As such, thousands of ships...
Show moreThe Florida Public Archaeological Network began the Shipwreck Tagging Archaeological Management Program (STAMP) in 2019 and utilizes citizen scientists to assist archaeologists in tracking the movement and degradation of beached/coastal shipwreck sites and disarticulated timbers. Historically Florida's coastal regions have been some of the most treacherous navigable waterways for mariners due to high wave turbidity, oceanic currents, and meteorological phenomena. As such, thousands of ships have ultimately met their demise along Florida coasts. The program, partnering with the National Park Service at Gulf Islands National Seashore, has collected data in the continued enhancement of public archaeological programs.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2020, 2020
- Identifier
- 1233072902, WFE0000746
- Format
- Document (PDF)
