Arts and Humanities Commons^™

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 …

Bradenton, Fl: A Patchwork City, Rebekah G. Brightbill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The City of Bradenton is a patchwork city, whose neighborhoods vary greatly in quality. While its neighborhoods differ in type based on consumer preference, they vary in quality because of federal, state, and local planning and urban policy. These policies have resulted in inequality of place and race, clustering racial minorities in center city neighborhoods with deteriorated infrastructure and income inequality. This impacts the ability of the City to be competitive with other cities as a metropolitan whole. The City's economically and racially segregated neighborhoods are not the inevitable outcome of market forces, but rather reflect decades of federal, state, …

Modification Of Trophic Links Between An Omnivore And Macroinfaunal Prey From Sandy Beaches Of Differing Physical Regimes, Kristina Joan Morrow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sandy beach ecosystems have been studied worldwide; however, ecological data are sparse for the extensive barrier islands of Florida. Accordingly, I investigated the feeding patterns of the ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata), a dominant omnivore inhabiting beaches along the Floridian coast. Density data was collected for ghost crabs and swash macroinfaunal prey. In addition, I utilized stable isotopes in conjunction with the mixing models IsoSource and SIAR to characterize diets of ghost crabs across three barrier islands in spring and summer 2011. Results showed that ghost crabs at Cayo Costa feed primarily on swash macroinfauna, while those from Anclote Key shifted …

Occurrence, Toxicity, And Diversity Of Pseudo-Nitzschia In Florida Coastal Waters, Sheila O'Dea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Domoic acid (DA), a potent neurotoxin that has the potential to cause amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), is produced by members of the marine diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia. Outbreaks of ASP in humans and of DA poisoning in birds and marine mammals have been reported across the United States and Canada since the late 1980's. Pseudo-nitzschia species can be extremely abundant in Florida waters, with densities often exceeding 10⁶ cells/L, and sometimes exceeding 10⁷ cells/L. Based on preliminary data, it is evident that at least nine species of Pseudo-nitzschia are found in Florida coastal waters. At least six of …

Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Policy Deployment In Select Florida Jurisdictions, Kevin Carl Mccarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2008 the Federal government enacted a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to address the neighborhood effects of the late-2000s foreclosure crisis. Congress subsequently funded a second and third NSP. This research employs mixed methods to examine the effectiveness of the first round of the NSP in three Florida jurisdictions. The results are analyzed within the larger context of substantive housing theory and federal housing policy. The success of the program is evaluated using a mixed-scanning procedural planning theoretical framework.

Aging With Independence And Interaction: An Assisted Living Community, Steven J. Flositz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the U.S. population gets older, there is an increased need for senior housing. However, elderly housing is currently associated with dependence and isolation. There is a great disconnect from the retired community with its surrounding context. Senior housing and nursing homes are becoming more similar to miniature hospitals rather than a residential type. This negative view of nursing homes is becoming clear to the general population. In fact, most seniors fear the idea of living within an aging complex. Also, people generally avoid these places, even while visiting family. Florida is on the frontline for the effects of the …

African American Athletes And The Negotiation Of Public Spaces: An Examination Of Athletic Capital And African American Perceptions Of Success, Keona Lewis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the culture of sport among African American male football players as well as African American perspectives on sport and success. A case study of six African American, Division 1 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) collegiate student athletes was conducted along with seventeen supplemental interviews with community members, parents, coaches and former athletes and fans. The participants answered questions that explored education, success, identity construction, ethnicity and sport. Archival data was also reviewed framing the discussion on football in Florida, links between education and sport participation and African American male academic achievement. While many perspectives varied, there were collective …

Hydrologic Controls On Salinity In Mangroves And Lagoons, Christina Elaine Stringer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the hydrologic controls on salinity within mangroves and lagoons at sites in Florida and Mexico. The main objective of this research is to better understand hydrologic controls on mangrove ecosystem structure and develop ideas that will be useful to land managers attempting to regulate and conserve these critical habitats. This study was conducted at sites in Ft. Pierce, FL and Costalegre on the central Pacific coast of Mexico.

We examined controls on water levels and salinity in a mangrove on a carbonate barrier island along the Indian River Lagoon, east-central Florida. Spectral analysis of water levels showed …

Constructed Wetland/Filter Basin System As A Prospective Pre-Treatment Option For Aquifer Storage And Recovery And A Potential Remedy For Elevated Arsenic, Olesya Lazareva

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The efficiency to improve the water quality of industrial and municipal wastewater in a constructed wetland/filter basin treatment system was investigated. The wetland system was constructed in a closed phosphate mine used for clay settling and sand tailings in Polk County, Florida. During 18-months of monitoring the chemical/microbiological composition of treated wetland water remained relatively constant, despite significant seasonal variations in temperature, rainfall and humidity. The following changes in water quality between input and output were observed: substantial decrease of water temperature (up to 10°C), reduction of As, SO₄, F, Cl, NO₃, NO₂, Br, …

A Comparative Study Of The Plants Used For Medicinal Purposes By The Creek And Seminoles Tribes, Kimberly Hutton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies in Native American ethnobotany on the shared use of medicinal and cultural plants between communities fail to clearly reveal if these shared uses are part of changing culture or remain a stabilizing connection between old and new tribes. During the late 1700's to early 1800's, various factions of the Creek tribes of Georgia migrated into Florida, forming a new tribe called the Seminoles. This event provides the unique opportunity to study the changing cultural and medicinal uses of plants by a new tribe in a new geographic location, revealing if cultural purposes were passed from one group to …

University And Community College Administrators’ Perceptions Of The Transfer Process For Underrepresented Students: Analysis Of Policy And Practice, Ruth C. Slotnick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study describes and explains purposefully selected university and community college administrators' perceptions of the Florida statewide articulation agreement and the resulting institutional practices as they pertain to underrepresented transfer students. The theoretical framework that undergirds this dissertation is three-fold: social constructivism, philosophical hermeneutics, and interpretive policy analysis (Yanow, 2000). In particular, the local level knowledge consisting of six university and six community college administrators (also referred to as policy implementers), was assessed through face-to-face interviews, document analysis, and field notes. The researcher reflective journal (Janesick, 2004) is asserted as a crucial link to analyzing the three frames as way …

Spatial And Temporal Trends In Water Quality In The Alafia River Watershed, Jennifer M. Aragon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water quality data and land use information were analyzed within the Alafia River watershed in Florida to determine spatial and temporal trends in these variables over a 16 year time period from 1991-2006. Monthly water quality data (for dissolved oxygen, turbidity, fecal coliform, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen) were statistically analyzed using the modified seasonal Kendall nonparametric test for trends that accounts for serial correlation. The statistical trend analysis was conducted for the entire study period, but monthly, seasonal, and land use trends were also examined. Land use information was examined using Geographic Information Systems to determine the percent change …

Tracing Anthropogenic Wastes: Detection Of Fluorescent Optical Brighteners In A Gradient Of Natural Organic Matter Fluorescence, Laura Kellie Dixon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A dual wavelength method was developed for the field detection of optical brighteners

(OBs), fluorescent laundry additives used as indicators of anthropogenic wastes. The

method was quantitative for OBs under variable levels of fluorescent colored dissolved

organic matter (CDOM). Based on excitation at 300-400 nm and 440 and 550 nm

emission, the method assumed a constant ratio of fluorescence due to CDOM alone, even

if absolute amplitude varied. Concentrations of OBs were computed as the difference

between the observed 440 nm emission and the expected CDOM fluorescence at 440 nm,

as extrapolated from the 550 nm fluorescence and established CDOM …

Living With Sugar: Socioeconomic Status And Cultural Beliefs About Type 2 Diabetes Among Afro-Caribbean Women, Chrystal A.S Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the U.S., individuals of Afro-Caribbean and Latino descent are two to three times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than non-Hispanic whites. Caribbean and Latin America migrants, particularly minority women bear a disproportionate burden of type 2 diabetes and its risk factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate if Afro-Caribbean women share a cultural belief model about type 2 diabetes and how this belief model, along with structural barriers to health care, influence disease risk and management.

A sample of 40 women, primarily Jamaican and Trinidadian, 35 to 90 years of age previously diagnosed with type …

Proxy Records Of Climate Change In Subtropical And Tropical Karst Environments, Jason Samuel Polk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the paleoclimate of a region is important, especially when trying to determine the extent of natural climate variability within the context of anthropogenic impacts. Recent anomalous periods of climate change in the Late Holocene, including the Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period, could possibly repeat in the future, having significant worldwide consequences. This holds especially true for tropical and subtropical karst environments, where limited paleoclimate proxies provide minimal data regarding past climate change. An investigation into past climate change in Belize using fulvic acids from cave sediments shows periods of drought during the collapse of the Maya society …

Age, Growth, And Reproduction Of Calamus Proridens The Littlehead Porgy, From The Northeast Gulf Of Mexico, Amanda J. Tyler-Jedlund

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A total of 1814 Calamus proridens ranging from 76 mm - 361mm fork length (FL) were collected and processed along the central and northwest coasts of Florida between 2000 and 2007 to determine size, sex, age, and reproductive condition. Females ranged from 76-297 mm FL (mean FL=156 mm, n=1420), males ranged from 141-361 mm FL (mean FL=244 mm, n=297), and transitionals ranged from 131-307 mm FL (mean FL=207 mm, n=42). Sex ratios sorted by length class, age, and overall were significantly different from the 1:1 ratio for gonochoristic species (P is less than 0.0001). Sagittal otoliths (sectioned and whole) from …

Great Apes And Other Stories, Ryan Zimmerman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thoreau said that, "in wildness is the preservation of the world." The characters in the following collection of stories might be tempted to rephrase that statement to read, "in wildness is the preservation of the criminal world." These stories feature wild places where the natural world often is not as dangerous as the people who seek refuge in the borderlands between wilderness and civilization.

Many crime stories take place in cities-for good reason. More people usually equates with more crime. However, anywhere that people choose to live, crime is sure to follow-crime against each other, crime against themselves, and even …

Daughter Of The Moon And Other Stories, Shannon Zimmerman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

All of the protagonists in this collection of stories are starving. The world around them buzzes with the electric hum of modern society, a siren song that tempts these girls and women with the promise of love, opportunity, affluence, and dreams. Instead, they find themselves lost somehow, left behind, victims of circumstance, confused by dysfunctional families, and romanced by the media. They no longer know themselves, and stumble in their quest for happiness. They are lured into competitions with imaginary adversaries, and sometimes lose. The less control they have in their own lives, the more desperate they become, often going …

The Builders Versus The Birds: Wetlands, People And Public Policy In The United States, Florida And Hillsborough County, Allyson R. Bennett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an interdisciplinary analysis of humans' relationship to the natural environment, specifically how wetlands are reflected in our legislative decisions. Our perceptions of wetlands and our relationship to the environment are influenced by our locality, history, and inter-generational relationships. These perceptions shape decision-making within a community. Our relationship to the natural environment and the way we interact with it can be explained through psychological and geographical theories. Historical trends reveal our consistently negative perspectives of wetlands in the United States and a rapid decline in wetlands acreage. At the federal, state, and local level, Americans have attempted to …

Eco_Urbanism Restitching Clearwater's Urban Fabric Through Transit And Nature, Daniel P. Uebler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Downtown Clearwater has grown to be disconnected from its surroundings due to an adjacent buffer area and the lack of a transit system to bring people into the city. The downtown core is also separated from its neighboring residential areas by an area of vacant land that holds in it the potential to become a gateway into the city. On a macro scale the city has grown to be separated from the Tampa Bay area due to the lack of a mass transit system.

The goal of this project is to create a new "new urbanism" in which transit and …

Indian Agent Gad Humphreys And The Politics Of Slave Claims On The Florida Frontier, 1822-1830, Kevin D. Kokomoor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the intimate role slave claims played in the animosities which quickly developed from the acquisition of the Florida territory to the outbreak of the Second Seminole Indian War. By focusing on the Indian Agency and its first administrator, Gad Humphreys, this connection is made by suggesting that the territory's legislators were unwilling to allow the coexistence of Seminoles and blacks on the Florida frontier. The presence of these communities threatened developing Middle Florida plantations with significantly increased risks of both slave runaways and insurrection. In response, settlers and government officials pressed Humphreys to see not only that …

The Relationship Between Technology Integration And Achievement Using Multi-Level Modeling, Tina N. Hohlfeld

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the relationship between technology integration indicators and school level achievement. Four years of school level secondary data from publicly available databases maintained by the Florida Department of Education were combined for all public elementary, middle, and high schools in the state. This study examined approximately 2300 schools that participated each year in the Florida Innovates Survey about technology integration between 2003-04 and 2006-07. Complexity theory supported the use of multi-level modeling to examine the relationships between technology integration and outcomes. Three achievement outcomes (reading, mathematics, and writing) and two mediating behavioral …

American Odyssey, Bernadette Kafwimbi Cogswell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

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 …

Academic Capitalism In The Social Sciences: Faculty Responses To The Entrepreneurial University, Deanna Barcelona Bullard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how faculty in the social sciences experience and respond to academic capitalism. Academic capitalism is about market and market-like activity at the university and professorial efforts to secure external money. This research expands existing literature which has focused on the hard or natural sciences, and other areas more closely aligned with the market.

Thirty-seven qualitative research interviews were conducted between March and July of 2006 with professors of sociology, criminology, economics at the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida. Results reveal academic capitalism in the social sciences is mostly about grant …

Confronting College: Foster Care Youth Deciding Whether To Participate In Higher Education Programs, Linda K. Herlocker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study's purpose was to explore the college choice process for foster care youth who are aging out of Florida's protective services system. The research methodology included three components. First, a survey of the Independent Living Coordinators throughout the state of Florida solicited data regarding participation rates and enrollment patterns among foster care youth. Next, in a meeting setting, a survey was administered to foster care youth, probing the extent to which they considered certain college choice decision factors. Finally, upon completion of the survey, participants remained for a guided focus group discussion to further explore their decision criteria.The results …

The Science And Policy That Compels The Wetland Mitigation Of Phosphate-Mined Lands, Nejma Danielle Piagentini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The State of Florida ranks fifth in the world's production of phosphate. The phosphate industry relies on surface mining to withdraw the phosphate ore, and this process can devastate the natural environment. One of the most impacted natural resources is wetlands. Federal laws permit the legal destruction of wetlands providing their loss is compensated by the mitigation (i.e., the restoration, creation, or enhancement) of other wetlands, but the complexity of wetland ecosystems makes the mitigation process difficult. One of the goals of this thesis is to review the established Federal, State and non-regulatory guidelines for the development and maintenance of …

Tampa's Lafayette Street Bridge: Building A New South City, Lucy D. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The late nineteenth and early twentieth century was a time of dynamic social and political change for Tampa, a growing city on Florida's west coast. These changes led Tampa's commercial-civic elite to look beyond the law, the militia, and the church for ways to maintain their sense of order. This thesis illustrates non-violent enforcement of the status quo via public works, specifically bridge construction over the Hillsborough River. Over a period of three decades, three different bridges were built at the same place, at Lafayette Street. Each time the bridge was built or replaced, it was ostensibly for a different …

Genetic Variation In The Chloroplast Genome Of A Newly Described Aster Species, Chrysopsis Delaneyi, Justine Ann Clark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The genus Chrysopsis (Asteraceae) contains eleven species native to Florida, including the newly described species, Chrysopsis delaneyi. Populations of this endemic plant species inhabit the Lake Wales Ridge (LWR) and the Atlantic Ridge (AR) of the Florida peninsula. Differences in morphology have been demonstrated within C. delaneyi, based on their locations. My objective was to determine the relationships between the LWR and the AR populations by analysis of chloroplast sequence and nuclear sequence variation. Approximately 160 samples of C. delaneyi and its sister species C. scabrella have been collected from fifteen sites throughout Florida. Six single base differences were detected, …

Viva Wallace Tampa Latins, The Politics Of Americanization, And The Progressive Party Campaign Of 1948, Jared G. Toney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research deals with the presidential election of 1948 and the questions it

raises concerning issues of ethnic identity and the experiences of working-class migrants

in the U.S. South. Central to the discussion is the unprecedented success of third-party

challenger Henry Wallace and his Progressive campaign in the immigrant enclaves of

Tampa, Florida. Stigmatized by controversial foreign and domestic programs which drew

disabling connections between Wallace and the Communist Party, the Progressive Party

campaign hardly got its proverbial feet off the ground before falling victim to virulent

criticism and widespread opposition. Carrying just over two percent of the votes

nationwide, …

Detailed Geochemical And Mineralogical Analyses Of Naturally Occurring Arsenic In The Hawthorn Group, Olesya Lazareva

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In order to understand the mineralogical association and distribution of arsenic (As) in the Hawthorn Group in central Florida, I examined in detail the chemical and mineralogical composition of 361 samples that were collected from 16 cores. Geochemical analyses were performed by hydride generation - atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The identification of discrete minerals was aided by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and chemical compositions were obtained by electron-probe microanalyses (EMPA).

Arsenic concentrations for all Hawthorn samples vary from 0.1 to 69.0 ppm with a mean of 5.6 ppm. Average As concentrations for …