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Chemical Analysis Of Metabolites From Mangrove Endophytic Fungus, Sefat E Munjerin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural products hold a significant place in drug discovery for their abundant and unique secondary metabolites. These secondary metabolites which encompass a range of organic compounds such as alkaloids, phenols, peptides, flavonoids, polyketides, and terpenoids, can easily be exploited for drug development. Endophytic fungi, residing harmoniously with its host, have emerged as generous producers of bioactive secondary metabolites, displaying efficacy against a wide array of human pathogens, including the challenging ESKAPE pathogens.

The research explores endophytic fungi and their prospective for drug discovery and development through the synthesis of distinctive secondary metabolites. Endophytic fungus, HM13-26C-2B, collected from Honeymoon Island, Florida …

Chemical Analysis Of Metabolites From Mangrove Endophytic Fungus, Sefat E. Munjerin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural products hold a significant place in drug discovery for their abundant and unique secondary metabolites. These secondary metabolites which encompass a range of organic compounds such as alkaloids, phenols, peptides, flavonoids, polyketides, and terpenoids, can easily be exploited for drug development. Endophytic fungi, residing harmoniously with its host, have emerged as generous producers of bioactive secondary metabolites, displaying efficacy against a wide array of human pathogens, including the challenging ESKAPE pathogens.

The research explores endophytic fungi and their prospective for drug discovery and development through the synthesis of distinctive secondary metabolites. Endophytic fungus, HM13-26C-2B, collected from Honeymoon Island, Florida …

Overturning The Turnbull Settlement: Artifact Analysis Of The Old Stone Wharf In New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Tracy R. Lovingood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a report on an internship at the New Smyrna Museum of History, which primarily focused on the analysis of artifacts found at the primary import and export site of the Turnbull Settlement, called the Old Stone Wharf (8VO4298). The Turnbull settlement in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, was a plantation settlement founded by Dr. Andrew Turnbull of England, using the labor force of primarily European indentured servants. The settlement only lasted from 1768 to 1777. After it failed, all the inhabitants moved 75 miles north to St. Augustine and were able to flourish there, leaving a descendent community …

“You’Re On Earth, There’S No Cure For That!” Absurdist Literature As Sociopolitical Commentary And Its Continued Significance, Katherine A. Lachcik

USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

Existentialism and the Theatre of the Absurd delve into some of the bleakest aspects of human cognitions and existence, with particular attention given to suffering and our own struggles with life and death. Perhaps, however, we can look beyond this profound suffering and use it to better understand ourselves, as well as the tumultuous worlds we create for ourselves. This thesis examines three plays that have a foothold in both Existentialism and the Theatre of the Absurd: Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, Endgame by Samuel Beckett, and No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre. It seeks to analyze how these plays might provide …

Queer Authority In Old And Middle English Literature, Elan J. Pavlinich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I argue that select early English texts queer normative authorizing conventions to authorize Old English and Middle English literatures. During the European Middle Ages, Latin cultures and literatures were privileged with authority that extended to and subverted the cultural capital of the inhabitants of England at the edge of the known Western world. I identify four exceptional English texts that employ authorizing conventions to disrupt normative networks of power that traditionally privilege Latin and to authorize English literature instead. The Norman Conquest had altered the English language and social structures; still, these altered networks of power continued to marginalize English …

Producing The Past: Contested Heritage And Tourism In Glastonbury And Tintagel, Vivian Beatrice Gornik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heritage, the “present-centered” use of the past (Ashworth 2007) influences the identities of contemporary citizens (Palmer 2005, Sommer 2009). Grasping the ways in which the production and consumption of heritage takes place is becoming increasingly relevant in a post-Brexit Britain, where the national identity is constantly up for debate. This research asks: what role does heritage tourism play in (re)producing hegemonic national narratives in Glastonbury and Tintagel? And subsequently, what do these narratives say about broader conceptualizations of English identity?

Arthurian legend permeates the historical narrative in both locations. According to the legend, King Arthur was conceived and born in …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Institutional Financial Resources And Global Ranking, Matthew S. Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Global rankings are a popular way for governments, HEI’s, faculty, staff, and students to compare institutions worldwide, therefore it is important to rank well. However, in order to have top-quality research and education programs, HEI’s need to have significant financial resources. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between an institution’s financial resources and its global ranking. The results of this study provide additional insight and a better understanding of global rankings and the nature of the relationship between various financial resources and global rankings.

This was a quantitative study that used ranking data from the Academic …

Emotional Memory For Affective Words In Manifest And Prodromal Huntington’S Disease, Patricia Lynn Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Huntington’s disease (HD) patients have been found to have specific deficits in emotional processing, most consistently demonstrating impairment recognizing the emotion expressed on a static face. The purpose of this study was to examine emotional memory in HD, which has not yet been investigated, and its relationship with executive functioning, emotional facial recognition, and the disease progression in HD. An emotional memory task with pleasant, neural, and unpleasant words was administered to control (n=26), prodromal HD (n=26), and manifest HD (n=29) participants in addition to executive function measures, an apathy scale, and emotional facial recognition task. Free recall was not …

Historical Simulation In The Secondary Classroom, Emily Arthur

USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

Research in pedagogy concludes that active, engaging, and motivating instruction is effective when teaching social studies in the secondary classroom. A secondary social studies curriculum detailing the Progressive era during the years 1890 to 1930 in American history has been developed in accordance with a national standard produced by the National Council for Social Studies. The curriculum follows a distinct historical narrative that is paired closely with simulation activities. The use of a simulation activity as the primary tool of instruction within the curriculum directly reflects the research findings. The curriculum models the primary and secondary sources used, simulation activities …

Longshoremen's Negotiation Of Masculinity And The Middle Class In 1950s Popular Culture, Tomaro I. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers mid-20^th century portrayals of working-class longshoremen’s masculinity within the context of emerging middle-class gender constructions. I argue that although popular culture presents a roughly standardized depiction of longshoremen as “manly men,” these portrayals are significantly nuanced to demonstrate the difficulties working-class men faced as they attempted to navigate socio-cultural and socio-economic shifts related to class and the performance of their male gender. Specifically, I consider depictions of longshoremen’s disruptive masculinity, male identity formation, and masculine-male growth as reactions to paradigmatic shifts in American masculinity. Using three aspects of longshoremen’s non-work lives presented in A View from …

Hospitable Climates: Representations Of The West Indies In Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Marisa Carmen Iglesias

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

British expansion to the West Indies in the eighteenth-century resulted in vast economic growth for the British Empire and a rise in literature set in the region. Examining the literature allows for an in-depth exploration of how the Caribbean has become associated as a place of relaxation and escape though its early history of colonialism is fraught with violence. My study builds on the understanding of the Caribbean region in the eighteenth-century and utilizes hospitality theory to articulate the role that cultural exchange and physical setting play in the texts and in the formation of national identity, both in the …

The Applicability Of Criminology To Terrorism Studies: An Exploratory Study Of Isis Supporters In The United States, Amanda Marie Sharp Parker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the years following the 11 September 2001 attacks, research in the area of terrorism expanded exponentially. However, the changing nature of terrorism and lack of available data make it a difficult topic for criminologists to study; as academics we do not have access to the governmental data and data that is publicly available is often restricted due to the sensitive nature of national security issues. As first hand data is not available, an alternate data source, court records, may provide insight to the profile of current terrorists/terrorist supporters in the United States. Using court data from 71 cases of …

Tracing The Material: Spaces And Objects In British And Irish Modernist Novels, Mary Allison Wise

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tracing the Material considers how James Joyce’s Ulysses, Virginia Woolf’s The Years, and Samuel Beckett’s Murphy represent material spaces and objects as a way of engaging with the fraught histories of England and Ireland. I argue that these three writers use spaces and objects to think through and critique nineteenth and early twentieth-century conflicts and transitions, particularly in the areas of empire, nationalism, gender, and family. Writing in the 1920s and 1930s, in the decline of British ascendency, the rise of the Irish Free State, and between the World Wars, these writers seek to interpret their history through …

Chosen Champions: Medieval And Early Modern Heroes As Postcolonial Reactions To Tensions Between England And Europe, Jessica Trant Labossiere

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project explores connections between hero and history, text and context. By engaging Postcolonial theories about the roles that invasion and oppression, play in developing national identity and how colonized people respond to such encounters in literature, I examine how experiences of invasion and hostile interaction as represented in medieval and early modern English literature influenced the creation of specific heroic values.

In my first chapter, I analyze The Battle of Maldon and Beowulf as exemplars of the Anglo-Saxon culture, observing that Byrhtnoth and Beowulf work as fictional embodiments of a fantasy of power: men of super-human strength and exceptional …

Developing Little England: Public Health, Popular Protest, And Colonial Policy In Barbados, 1918-1940, Brittany J. Merritt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes struggles over the development of Barbadian health and sanitation during the period between the world wars. In doing so, it examines how the British Empire tried to use development policies to maintain its power overseas during the interwar years. During this period, British policymakers sought to improve health and sanitation to pacify restive Barbadian laborers influenced by transnational pan-African and socialist ideas following the First World War. However, white Barbadian elites, influenced by ideas of eugenics and population control, opposed metropolitan efforts to develop health and sanitation in the colony. Rather than repairing the colonial relationship, British …

Domestic Spaces In Transition: Modern Representations Of Dwelling In The Texts Of Elizabeth Bowen, Shannon Tivnan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In much of the writing of twentieth century Anglo-Irish author Elizabeth Bowen, houses, and in particular family homes, often reflect the psychological and social status of their inhabitants. They can be understood as the structural embodiments of the vast cultural and economic network taking shape as the forces of urbanization and industrialization changed the landscape. Yet, even as these domestic spaces represent the predominant social relations characterizing the first half of the twentieth century, the family homes also can play a key role in character development and gender identity, defining the lives of those who inhabit them, by perpetuating these …

Engaging-Up: Compromised Spaces And Potential Partners, Jennifer Necole Webb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The anthropology of public policy critically examines policy and its processes and the myriad ways in which power is exercised. To explore these power dynamics, anthropologists studying policy often study up, or study through a particular policy field. This entails the risky work of studying powerful people, whose ability to retaliate against the researcher and others create methodological and ethical dilemmas and contradictions, as well as potentially harmful consequences. Politicians, bureaucrats, employees of powerful non-profits, and, in the public-private neoliberal reality, even the head decision makers within corporations are all prospective research participants--an intimidating prospect for most anthropologists. In contrast, …

Masculinity, After The Apocalypse: Gendered Heroics In Modern Survivalist Cinema, Sean Michael Swenson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emerging out of a tradition of dystopic and apocalyptic cinema, the survivalist film has arisen as a new subgenre owing to a collision of several divergent modes of cinema. While the scholarly discourse has been preoccupied largely with the task of setting up the parameters of this new cinematic line little attention has been paid to unraveling what the new modes of masculine performance within the films mean in the post-9/11 moment in which they have emerged. This paper looks at the ways in which the gendered heroics on the screen are indebted to the slasher and zombie subgenres in …

"They're Our Bosses": Representations Of Clients, Guardians, And Providers In Caregivers' Narratives, Dina Vdovichenko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine how various characters are portrayed within the self-narratives of women who are employed to care for adults with disabilities. This research looks at how these women's personal narratives construct characters-their clients (the individuals they provide services for), clients' guardians, and how these women portray themselves as caregivers. Interviews were conducted with eight women who provide paid care services to physically and/or cognitively impaired adults who receive services through the Florida Developmental Disabilities Home and Community Based Services Waiver Program. This program endorses specific expectations about the nature and purpose of caregiving. According …

Crossover: Race And The Changing Culture Of The Nba, Roger Walker

USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

“The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I've always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It's been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It's a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game”-(Michael Jordan). Basketball has captivated the hearts and minds of people since its creation over 130 years ago. The sport allows players to showcase their natural athletic abilities in a unique and unprecedented way. In contemporary times the pinnacle of the sport of basketball …

Inspiratory Breathing Exercises For Vocal Tremor: A Preliminary Study, Jessica Tayseer Hilo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Essential voice tremor (EVT) is a voice disorder that results from dyscoordination within the laryngeal musculature, which negatively impacts the symmetrical motion of the vocal folds. Several investigators have shown that individuals with EVT experience difficulty speaking and a reduced quality of life (QOL; Cohen, Dupont, & Courey, 2006; Verdonck-de Leeuw & Mahieu, 2004). While traditional voice therapy has been ineffective in lessening the severity of vocal tremor, a current approach (Barkmeier- Kraemer, Lato, & Wiley, 2011) designed to lessen the perception of vocal tremor has resulted in reported patient satisfaction with little actual change in voice quality. The present …

A Dual-Factor Model Of Mental Health In High School Students: Group Characteristics And Social Functioning, Amanda Lynn Thalji

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A dual-factor model of psychological functioning examines the presence of wellness (i.e., subjective well-being; SWB) and psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems) in explaining youth mental health functioning. Using a dual-factor model, previous research has yielded four unique groups of elementary and middle school youth as well as college-age adults with distinct levels of wellness and psychopathology. The present empirical investigation included valid data from 500 adolescents from two high schools (grades 9 to 11). This exploratory study produced four groups of students with unique mental health profiles aligned with previous studies investigating the dual-factor model. Tukey-Kramer comparisons determined …

The Relationship Between The Social Construction Of Race And The Black/White Test Score Gap In, Toriano M. Dempsey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This research is an investigation into the relationship between the resegregation of American

public schools and the social creation of race. This research is based on the popular notion that

American public schools are failing to produce students capable of competing in today's global society.

The proof most often used to assert the failure of American public schools is the Black/White Test Score

Gap. For the purposes of this research the Black/White Test Score Gap is defined as the gap between

the scores on academic standardized tests between Black public school students and White public school

students regardless of …

The Jewish Trail Of Tears The Evian Conference Of July 1938, Dennis Ross Laffer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the origins, formulation, course and outcome of the Intergovernmental Committee for Political Refugees meeting (better known as the Evian Conference) of July 1938. Special emphasis was placed on contemporary and later historical assessments of this assembly which represented the first international cooperative attempt to solve an acute refugee crisis. A general review followed by a more detailed evaluation was made of existing official and un-official accounts of the meeting utilizing both public records, private diaries, books, newspapers, journals and other periodicals for the period of January 1, 1938 through December 31, 1939. …

"Show Me The Money!": A Pecuniary Explication Of William Makepeace Thackeray's Critical Journalism, Gary Simons

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have heretofore under-examined William Makepeace Thackeray's early critical essays despite their potential for illuminating Victorian manners and life. Further, these essays' treatments of aesthetics, class, society, history, and politics are all influenced by the pecuniary aspects of periodical journalism and frequently expose socio-economic attitudes and realities. This study explicates the circumstances, contents, and cultural implications of Thackeray's critical essays. Compensatory payments Thackeray received are reconciled with his bibliographic record, questions regarding Thackeray's interactions with periodicals such as Punch and Fraser's Magazine answered, and a database of the payment practices of early Victorian periodicals established.

Thackeray's contributions to leading London …

The Ports Of Tampa And Hamburg And The Qualitative Impacts On Their Communities, Gerhard Becker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study researches the past, present and future role of ports, specifically the Ports of Tampa and Hamburg linked to their cities. It examines the legal structures of port authorities which play a major role in their economic priorities and impact their cities’ social, environmental and cultural quality of life. From a humanistic perspective, one can look at a port as a place or space. By animating ports, they may provide “ fields of care” over time, and a home with character for the region’s residents. In this case, their success needs to transcend economics, adding qualitative attributes to the …

More Than Bows And Arrows: Subversion And Double-Consciousness In Native American Storytelling, Anastacia M. Schulhoff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

W. E. B. Du Bois‘ legendary reflections on the ―peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one‘s self through the eyes of others‖ has been applied almost exclusively to the souls of African American people (Du Bois 1903). This thesis shows how the concept of double-consciousness is alive in the stories told by Native Americans. I draw upon data from two websites that have recorded the stories told by ―exemplary indigenous elders, historians, storytellers and song carriers‖ and their oral traditions that serve the ―purpose of cultural preservation, education, and race reconciliation‖ (Wisdom of the Elders, 2009). …

Gender Trouble In Northern Ireland: An Examination Of Gender And Bodies Within The 1970s And 1980s Provisional Irish Republican Army In Northern Ireland, Jennifer Earles

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With this thesis, I will utilize both feminist and queer theory to highlight the gendered and bodily tactics used by the women of the 1970s/1980s Provisional Irish Republican Army. I will explore how women can both manipulate gender and use their bodies as a response to gender, ethnic, class, and colonial power relations and conflict discourses, the limitations of these approaches, and how these actions can work to reconfigure political movements, local cultures, and create a space for social change and a future beyond conflict which includes women. My methods will include a feminist content analysis of interviews, written records, …

Yeats, Eliot, And Apocalyptic Poetry, Nancy Helen Fletcher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Yeats and Eliot merit comparison because they wrote poetry that has been described as apocalyptic in the same historical period and in the same general geographic area but described entirely different visions. These particular works of Yeats and Eliot are appropriate because they represent two widely varying viewpoints on the causes, nature and desirability of what each author felt would be the coming apocalypse. Therefore, more can be learned by comparing the very different outlooks of the poems than by considering each poem separately.

Yeats sees humanity as both the victim and the beneficiary of a series of inescapable historical …

Communication For Planetary Transformation And The Drag Of Public Conversations: The Case Of Landmark Education Corporation, Patrick Owen Cannon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study employs qualitative methods to: (1) compare and contrast public conversations about a complex social phenomenon with my experience of that phenomenon, and (2) explore the nature of those public conversations and their impact on planetary transformation.

This study is divided into two parts.

Part One of this dissertation compares my personal experience with Landmark Education Corporation, a private personal development company, with how it is characterized in public conversations. The public conversations chosen for analysis include: (1) an episode of the television show, Law and Order: Criminal Intent (Balcer, et al., 2003), (2) a Time Magazine article about …