Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Book Review: Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander To Hitler To The Corporation, Tim Bakken

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The book Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths is a survey of a vast amount of human wrongdoing. It lays bare the motivations of aggressors who wish to subjugate nations or groups of people and corporate executives and government bureaucrats who make discretionary decisions that harm people. Along with cataloging mass killings by despots and soldiers, the book includes stories about Ponzi-schemers and the deaths of automobile drivers and passengers who were killed by vehicle defects known to the manufacturer. The book posits that “[p]owerful, elite forces are trying to force us backward toward a non-democratic state, one where power, wealth, and prerogative …

American Horse Power During The Great War, Hanna K. Lipsey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation charts the significant, if understudied, history of American horses during the era of World War I, from roughly 1914 to 1919. Its chapters trace how the US Army acquired, used, cared for, and ultimately demobilized horses over the course of that conflict. Beginning with their acquisition, via either an Army Horse Breeding Program or a complicated buying process, horses faced a complex introduction into military service. Life for these animals did not get any easier once they reached the European front. Although the US military was beginning to replace horses with motor trucks and tractors, horses remained central …

Functional Gait Asymmetries Achieved Through Modeling And Understanding The Interaction Of Multiple Gait Modulations, Fatemeh Rasouli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Walking is an important determinant of human functionality. Gait disabilities affect millions of people worldwide every year. Investigating the science of walking advances recovery techniques and assistive devices for gait rehabilitation. A functional gait promotes productivity, independence, and quality of life. Human gait, like any other moving mechanism, is a dynamic system. Understanding and analyzing the dynamic aspects of gait improves the recovery methods to fundamentally affect and interact with lower limbs.

This dissertation aims to fill the gaps in mechanical simulations of gait and dynamic analysis of rehabilitation techniques. The solutions consider kinematic, kinetic, and spatiotemporal parameters of gait …

La Ciencia Recreativa, “Un Viaje Al País De Las Larvas” (1879), De José Joaquín Arriaga, Miguel A. Fernández Delgado Mafd

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

Se trata de uno de los últimos capítulos que publicó el científico y divulgador mexicano José Joaquín Arriaga, referente a las hormigas y su mundo, para lo cual se imaginó a sí mismo convertido en hormiga con el fin de describir mejor su vida, en un capítulo en el que predominó la imaginación, pues a veces los insectos parecen vivir en forma muy similar a la de los humanos.

Impacts Of Invasive Rats On Hawaiian Cave Resources, Francis G. Howarth, Fred D. Stone

International Journal of Speleology

Although there are no published studies and limited data documenting damage by rodents in Hawaiian caves, our incidental observations during more than 40 years of surveying caves indicate that introduced rodents, especially the roof rat, Rattus rattus, pose significant threats to vulnerable cave resources. Caves, with their nearly constant and predictable physical environment often house important natural and cultural features including biological, paleontological, geological, climatic, mineralogical, cultural, and archaeological resources. All four invasive rodents in Hawai‘i commonly nest in cave entrances and rock shelters, but only the roof rat (Rattus rattus) habitually enters caves and utilizes areas …

La Ciencia Recreativa, "Historia De Un Pan De Azúcar" (1871), De José Joaquín Arriaga, Miguel A. Fernández Delgado Mafd

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

La "Historia de un pan de azúcar" (1871) es un capítulo de La Ciencia Recreativa, obra de divulgación para el público general creada por el mexicano José Joaquín Arriaga. Por medio de la fábula de los productos de una tienda que cobran vida, el autor describe la industria del azúcar y sus derivados en México.

Complex Tripartite Hydro Politics Of River Ganges, Muttaki Bin Kamal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies if the Flagship Namami Gange program of Cleaning the river Ganges in India aligns with the transcendental discourse on the river. Web contents as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter along with Indian English daily newspaper reports are used here as the source of data. The study shows that the program aligns with the transcendental discourse on river Ganges as the Mother Goddess and reaching out to her devotees.

Do All “Good Mothers” Breastfeed? How African American Mothers’ Values And Experiences Of Early Motherhood Influence Their Infant Feeding Choices, Airia S. Papadopoulos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The food an infant is fed can reflect many things: a source of nutrition, the social and cultural circumstances into which an infant is born, or even a family’s beliefs about the body and breast milk as a source of nutrition. Exclusive breastfeeding, currently the gold standard for infant feeding in the United States (US), is often identified as an expectation in discourses on being a “good mother.” African American mothers in particular are the least likely group in the US to breastfeed in any capacity and many efforts are underway to increase the breastfeeding rates of this population.

This …

La Ciencia Recreativa, "Confidencias De Una Mariposa" (1873) De José Joaquín Arriaga, Miguel A. Fernández Delgado Mafd

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

En este capítulo de La Ciencia Recreativa, su autor explica el mundo de los lepidópteros para el público general, e inventa una historia, inspirada por el poema "The Raven" de Edgar Allan Poe, en el que una mariposa cuenta su vida a una persona, para que le perdone la vida.

Pollen Forecasting In Sarasota, Florida, Daniel J. Gessman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current predictions of pollen levels rely strictly on historical Averages, regardless of environmental factors that might affect the timing of pollen release by different plants. For this thesis, the goal was to develop a statistical model that will accurately forecast pollen levels by correlating those daily counts to atmospheric and meteorological conditions. This project used ARIMA modeling on IBM’s SPSS Statistics 24 of daily pollen count information for multiple allergenic pollens in the Sarasota County, Florida area over a 11-year period. The pollen species in question for this project are oak and cypress trees, grass, and ragweed pollens; and Alternaria …

Playing-With The World: Toy Story's Aesthetics And Metaphysics Of Play, Jonathan Hendricks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pixar’s Toy Story (John Lassiter, 1995) is not just a story about toys and the children that play with them, but a demonstration of how we interact with the world. This thesis looks at the way in which both main children, Andy and Sid, interact with their toys and how this interaction is one that is structured by way of what Martin Heidegger calls “Enframing.” In this modality of playing, toys and other things and entities in the world, and the world itself, appear to the children as on-hand resources for use at any time and can be molded, as …

Diversity And Biocide Susceptibility Of Fungal Assemblages Dwelling In The Art Gallery Of Magura Cave, Bulgaria, Milena M. Mitova, Mihail Iliev, Alena Nováková, Anna A. Gorbushina, Veneta I. Groudeva, Pedro M. Martin-Sanchez

International Journal of Speleology

Magura Cave, north-western Bulgaria, possesses valuable rock-art paintings made with bat guano and dated from the period between the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages. Since 2008, the Art Gallery is closed to the general public in order to protect the paintings from vandalism, microclimatic changes caused by visitors and artificial illumination, and the consequent growth of fungi and phototrophs. Nevertheless, some tourist visits are allowed under the supervision of cave managers. This study provides the first scientific report on cultivable fungal assemblages dwelling different substrata in the Art Gallery. A total of 78 strains, belonging to 37 OTUs (Ascomycota 81%, Zygomycota …

How Random Noise And A Graphical Convention Subverted Behavioral Scientists' Explanations Of Self-Assessment Data: Numeracy Underlies Better Alternatives, Edward Nuhfer, Steven Fleisher, Christopher Cogan, Karl Wirth, Eric Gaze

Numeracy

Despite nearly two decades of research, researchers have not resolved whether people generally perceive their skills accurately or inaccurately. In this paper, we trace this lack of resolution to numeracy, specifically to the frequently overlooked complications that arise from the noisy data produced by the paired measures that researchers employ to determine self-assessment accuracy. To illustrate the complications and ways to resolve them, we employ a large dataset (N = 1154) obtained from paired measures of documented reliability to study self-assessed proficiency in science literacy. We collected demographic information that allowed both criterion-referenced and normative-based analyses of self-assessment data. …

Responding To Modern Flooding: Old English Place-Names As A Repository Of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Richard L.C. Jones

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Place-names are used to communicate Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) by all indigenous, aboriginal and First Nations people. Here and for the first time, English place-names are examined through a TEK lens. Specifically, place-names formed in Old English—the language of the Anglo-Saxon—and coined between c. 550 and c. 1100 A.D., are explored. This naming horizon provides the basic name stock for the majority of English towns and villages still occupied today. While modern English place-names now simply function as convenient geographical tags Old English toponymy is shown here to exhibit close semantic parallels with many other indigenous place-names around the world. …

The Archaeopalynology Of Crystal River Site (8ci1), Citrus County, Florida, Kendal Jackson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Woodland-period (ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1050) fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Crystal River drainage on Florida’s Big Bend Coast are well known among southeastern archaeologists for their elaborate shell mound architecture, maritime lifeway, and exotic exchange goods. Recent archaeological investigations at the Crystal River site have employed high-resolution topographic mapping, geophysical surveys, trench excavations, and coring to model the temporality of mound construction and occupation at the site; this work has set the stage for subsequent research focusing on community structure, resource extraction, and human-ecosystem dynamics. However, like many central and north peninsular Gulf Coast sites, our understanding of Crystal …

Working With The Remains In Cambodia: Skeletal Analysis And Human Rights After Atrocity, Julie M. Fleischman

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This essay will discuss the research being conducted on Khmer Rouge-era human skeletal remains in Cambodia, and the implications of this work. First, the Cambodian project to conserve and analyze the remains at the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (Choeung Ek) will be briefly discussed. This exceptional undertaking was the first complete scientific analysis of human remains from a Cambodian mass gravesite. Second, the author’s independent research at Choeung Ek and a collaborative project at another mass gravesite will be reviewed. The author’s research focuses on the traumatic injuries and demographics of the remains at Choeung Ek, while also incorporating cultural …

Identifying Humanized Ecosystems: Anthropogenic Impacts, Intentionality, And Resource Acquisition At Crystal River (8ci1) And Roberts Island (8ci41), Charles Trevor Duke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The impact of human activity on ecosystems is an issue at the forefront of global concern. Marine ecosystems are a particular concern, given their importance for human sustenance. Through the removal of species that are highly susceptible to the effects of overfishing, global fisheries have been driven to near collapse in recent decades. The long-term effects of such practices has resulted in declines in mean trophic level of aggregate fish catches over time, as well as decreasing diversity of species available for regular harvest (Jackson et al. 2001; Pauly et al. 1998). These supposedly “modern” problems have been recently identified …

Un Cuento Satírico En Medio Del Debate Sobre El Darwinismo En México, Miguel A. Fernández Delgado Mafd

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

Charles Darwin's theory of biological evolution of species was accepted or rejected by Mexican scientists, including Gabino Barreda, representative of Comte's philosophy. It was also included by Justo Sierra in a history book for the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, a decision which raised a lot of criticism from conservative groups. It is also discussed the implications of social Darwinism in the early Twentieth Century Mexico. The document we offer is a satire published in those years, which resembles the tone of Swift's Gulliver Travels.

Developing An In-Season Predictor Of Commercial Landings For Quota Monitoring In The U.S. Virgin Islands, Mary Janine Vara

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The lack of timely reporting of commercial fisheries landings interferes with effective management of fisheries in United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Federal law requires that landings be limited to prevent annual catch limits (ACLs) from being exceeded. Previous attempts to predict total landings have used historic data from prior fishing seasons to predict future landings rather than leveraging available in-season data to provide a more real-time prediction of landings. This study presents an in-season model that predicts total landings using partial reports from the current fishing year. This estimate of total landings, including error bounds around that estimate, can then …

Now That You Have Created A Great Video, How Do You Know If Anyone Is Learning From It?, Claudia J. Dold

Claudia J. Dold

Video offers a wide range of benefits a useful teaching tool, and librarians are using it to make all kinds of information available. I have created two series of videos at my university library concerning library and research skills: one for undergraduates and the other for graduates. This past year, I undertook four studies to determine whether students use the videos and under what circumstances.

First Steps In Planning A College Department Curriculum To Incorporate Information Fluency, Claudia J. Dold

Claudia J. Dold

Creating an information fluency curriculum for a specific discipline requires preliminary work: assessing what students already know in their discipline; what they need to learn to be successful in their current course; and then what they will need to be functional in the field when they complete the remaining classes in their discipline, when they start working in their field, and/or when they move on to graduate school. This session addresses how one librarian approached faculty in a particular discipline, assessed the current teaching agenda, and planned to determine the information fluency demands of the courses.

La Serreta Endokarst (Se Spain): A Sustainable Value?, Antonia D. Asencio, Teodoro Espinosa

International Journal of Speleology

La Serreta endokarst (SE Spain), which UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site in 1998, was considered a sanctuary with cave art and one of the most important archaeological sites in the Mediterranean region for both the remains it hosts and the spectacular karstic landscape at the site.

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of its discovery, the La Serreta cave-chasm was adapted for public use with the intention of showing visitors the remains, which date back to prehistoric times. The solution included attempts to minimize contact with the valuables in the cave in order to alter the existing remains as …

Analysis Of Variable Effects On Presence Of Cryptosporidium Oocysts And Giardia Cysts In Effluent Water From Wastewater Treatment Utilities In Florida From 1998 To 2010, Katherine Jane Barkan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concern of a Cryptosporidium or Giardia waterborne outbreak due to treated wastewater has had water treatment utilities using some of the highest water cleansing technologies available. Cryptosporidiosis and Giardiasis are severe diarrheal diseases which can lead to death, thus it is important that appropriate steps are taken to assure these parasites are not present in the effluent of treated wastewater. This study examined the results of 863 assays for Giardia and Cryptosporidium on the effluent of wastewater treatment facilities and found that county of collection, watershed of collection, and laboratory analyzing the sample have the most significant impact on …

Effects Of Short Shoot Number And Presence Of An Apical Meristem On Rhizome Elongation, New Short Shoot Production, And New Rhizome Meristem Production Of Thalassia Testudinum Banks And Solander Ex König Planting Units In Tampa Bay., Michael Vearl Meads

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thalassia testudinum Banks and Solander ex König is the dominant seagrass in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and the West Coast of Florida, yet little rhizome elongation, new short shoot production, or new rhizome meristem production data has been collected via direct measurement. A study of the rhizome growth of T. testudinum was completed in December 2004 in southern Tampa Bay that determined growth after 26.5 months. Two PVC planting frames each containing four rhizomes with 2 short shoots, two rhizomes with 4 short shoots, and two rhizomes with 8 short shoots were planted next to existing T. testudinum beds …

Reproductive Biology Of The Southern Dwarf Siren, Pseudobranchus Axanthus, In Southern Florida, Zachary Cole Adcock

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The salamander family Sirenidae is composed of two extant genera, Siren and Pseudobranchus, each with two known species. Several questions regarding Sirenidae life history persist, and much of the available life history data for Pseudobranchus are attributed to studies of P. axanthus in northern Florida. Information on the reproductive biology of P. axanthus is limited, and historical references often suggest contradictory results. This study was undertaken to clarify information and expand on the limited data regarding P. axanthus reproductive biology, specifically for southern Florida populations. The study population was most likely the P. a. belli subspecies. P. axanthus in southern …

Systematic Review Of Core Muscle Electromyographic Activity During Physical Fitness Exercises, Jason Martuscello

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Activating the core muscles through exercise training programs is believed to be important for athletic performance. Considerable attention has been credited to the lumbar multifidus, transverse abdominis, and quadratus lumborum in designing exercise training programs. Numerous core exercise claims and recommendations abound in the fitness and physical therapy communities touting a superior core challenge for these muscles. The plethora of core activation literature with conflicting outcomes has convoluted the process of choosing exercises for an optimal core training approach. Although an abundance of research studies have quantified the muscle activity, collectively, a consensus on the type of exercise that elicits …

Availability And Quality Of Vegetation Affects Reproduction Of The Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus Polyphemus) In Improved Pastures, Anna Louise Hathaway

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As part of a state-funded Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus Daudin) translocation project, I monitored actively grazed improved pastures to determine if they could serve as suitable recipient sites for the threatened Gopher Tortoise displaced by human development. For cattle ranches to be considered suitable recipient sites females must be able to acquire sufficient energy to produce a clutch of viable eggs, and sufficiently high quality vegetation must be available to support juvenile recruitment into the population. Vegetation surveys were conducted to determine the composition and percent cover of plant species, especially those containing high amounts of nutrients, specifically nitrogen. Resident …

The Role And Regulation Of Nsars: A Cell-Envelope Stress Sensing Two-Component System In Staphylococcus Aureus, Stacey Lynn Kolar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

S. aureus has 16 predicted two-component systems (TCS) that respond to a range of environmental stimuli, and allow for adaptation to stresses. Of these 16, three have no known function, and are not homologous to any other TCS found in closely related organisms. NsaRS is one such element, and belongs to the intramembrane-sensing histidine kinase (IM-HK) family, which is conserved within the Firmicutes. The regulators are defined by a small sensing domain within their histidine kinase, suggesting that they do not sense external signals, but stress in or at the membrane. Our characterization of NsaRS in this work reveals …

The Role Of Argininosuccinate Synthase Serine 328 Phosphorylation In Nitric Oxide Production, Ricci Haines

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, the main mechanism of argininosuccinate synthase (AS) regulation was described to exist mainly at the level of transcription. Transcriptional regulation of AS has been shown to be coordinate with eNOS in response to shear stress, hypoxia, tumor necrosis factor á (TNF-á), and PPAR ã agonist troglitizone. However, it is now understood that one level of NO regulation is cellular control of arginine availability to eNOS via post-translational modifications of AS such as phosphorylation. The purpose of this investigation was to determine under what conditions AS is phosphorylated at S328, identify the pathway that AS phosphorylation at S328 plays …

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

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

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