American Studies Commons^™

Generation And Application Of Antigen-Specific Induced Regulatory T Cells In Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation, Kenrick Semple

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

CD28 co-stimulation is required for the generation of naturally occurring regulatory T cells (nTregs) in the thymus through Lck-signaling. However, high level of CD28 suppresses the generation of induced Tregs (iTregs) from naïve CD4 T cells, although underlying mechanism(s) has not been defined. Here we investigated the role of CD28-mediated signaling pathways in the suppression of Treg generation. We used a series of transgenic (Tg) mice on CD28-deficient background that bears WT CD28 or mutated CD28 in its cytosolic tail incapable of binding to Lck, PI3K or Itk. Regardless of exogenous IL-2, strong CD28 costimulation suppressed iTreg generation through Lck …

Using Stratified Item Selection To Reduce The Number Of Items Rated In Standard Setting, Tiffany Nicole Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of stratified item sampling in order to reduce the number of items needed in Modified Angoff standard setting studies. Representative subsets of items were extracted from a total of 30 full-length tests based upon content weights, item difficulty, and item discrimination. Cut scores obtained from various size subsets of each test were compared to the full-length test cut score as a measure of generalizability. Applied sampling results indicated that 50% of the full-length test is sufficient to obtain cut scores within one standard error of estimate (SEE) of the …

Health-Promoting Behaviors And Subjective Well-Being Among Early Adolescents, Emily J. Shaffer-Hudkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the specific health-promoting behaviors employed by early adolescents (n = 246) and their subjective well-being (SWB) to provide an understanding of how mental and physical wellness relate in teens. Participants self-reported on their dietary habits, physical activity, sleep hygiene, safety habits, and attitudes toward substance use. A comprehensive assessment of SWB was also gathered (i.e., global life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect). The researcher hypothesized that each of the five health-promoting behaviors assessed in the current study would have significant, positive correlations with the SWB of early adolescents, in that youth who reported higher levels of …

Transitioning From Student To Teacher In The Master-Apprentice Model Of Piano Pedagogy: An Exploratory Study Of Challenges, Solutions, Resources, Reflections, And Suggestions For The Future, Melissa Maccarelli Slawsky

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While many music educators learn how to teach through teacher training programs, the standard mode of transmission in which piano teachers learn to teach applied piano is through proficiency of the instrument under the guidance of a master teacher. This tacit development of pedagogical knowledge occurs through the master-apprentice model of pedagogy. The purposes of this study were (a) to explore how piano teachers learn how to teach from, and independent of, piano pedagogy coursework, overcome challenges, and continue to add to their pedagogy knowledge, and (b) to explore topics that would be most useful in a piano pedagogy course …

The Hippocratic Corpus And Soranus Of Ephesus: Discovering Men's Minds Through Women's Bodies, Megan Michelle Slaughter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses what cultural influences and social circumstances shaped the works of the Hippocratic Corpus and Soranus's Gynecology. This thesis will illustrate how these medical texts are representative of how women were viewed by men in Classical Greece and Early Imperial Rome, respectively. It deals additionally with how these gynecological works in turn impacted the way in which society viewed and treated women. In particular, these medical writers' changing views of the act of conception shed light on the differing attitudes of their cultures. Thus far research on these time periods and works has focused too narrowly on one …

Novel Roles For The Transcriptional Repressor Prdm1 In Human Natural Killer Cells And Identification Of An Inhibitor Of Its Interacting Methyltransferase G9a, Matthew Adams Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The studies presented within this dissertation provide the first description of PRDM1 (also known as Blimp-1 or PRDI-BF1) function in natural killer cells. NK cells are major effectors of the innate immune response via antigen-independent cytotoxicity and link to the adaptive immune response through cytokine release. Molecular mechanisms mediating NK activation are relatively well-studied; however, much less is known about the mechanisms that restrain activation.

In the first study, the transcriptional repressor PRDM1 is shown to be a critical negative regulator of NK function. Microarray analysis was used to characterize transcriptional changes associated with cytokine-mediated activation. PRDM1 is expressed at …

Examining The Attitudes And Outcomes Of Students Enrolled In A Developmental Mathematics Course At A Central Florida Community College, Leila Sisson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Examining students' attitudes toward mathematics has become extremely popular. This study examined the attitudes and outcomes of Beginning Algebra students at a central Florida community college. Quantitative methods were used to examine the students' initial composite attitudes toward mathematics. The initial composite attitude was used to examine the relationship between CPT scores and State Competency Exam scores. Further analysis was conducted to examine completers' and non-completers' initial attitudes. The composite change score was determined and quantitative methods were used to examine interactions between class sections, age, gender, and ethnicity.

The study began with 217 students and ended with 158. The …

Late Cretaceous Faunal Dynamics In The Western Interior Seaway: The Record From The Red Bird Section, Eastern Wyoming, Joshua Stephen Slattery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studies examining bioevents (e.g., mass extinctions, faunal turnovers, diversification events) usually only scrutinize a short interval prior to such events, however, understanding their actual paleobiological implications requires a thorough understanding of the background conditions. The objective of this study is to document the background biodiversity dynamics in a single lithofacies of the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale that was deposited in an offshore setting of the Western Interior Seaway (WIS) and to place these changes into an environmental context. To assess the background biodiversity dynamics, the concretionary faunas of the Baculites eliasi through B. clinolobatus biozones of the Pierre Shale in …

Tarnished Golden Years: Older Offenders With Mental Health Problems And Late Life First Time Offenders, Brianne Stanback

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Older offenders (offenders 50 years and older) are a distinct groups within the U.S. correctional system. Studies 1 and 2 were intended to investigate mental health and stressors among jailed older offenders.

Study 1 examined the prevalence rates of mental health disorders and explored the relationship between mental health disorders and stressors. Participants 50 years and older (N=330) from the 2002 wave of the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ) were studied via descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and a logistic regression to determine which variables were related to the probability of having a mental health problem. 65.8% of participants …

Modeling And Parameter Study Of Bistable Spherical Compliant Mechanisms, Chester Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The bistable spherical compliant mechanism (BSCM) is a novel device capable of large, repeatable, out-of-plane motion, characteristics that are somewhat difficult to achieve with surface micromachined microelectromechanical systems. An improved pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM) to predict the behavior of the BSCM is presented. The new model was used to analyze seven different versions of the device, each with a different compliant joint length. The new model, which adds torsion, is compared with a finite element analysis (FEA) beam model. The new model more closely approximates the results yielded by FEA than previous models used to analyze the BSCM. Future work is …

Evolution/Creationism Controversy: Analysis Of Past And Current Policies In Public Schools And The Practice Of Allowing Students To Opt-Out Of Learning Evolution Concepts, Jacquelyn Hoffmann Speake

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent anti-evolution legislation, in the form of Academic Freedom bills, has been introduced in many state legislatures over the last three years. The language in the proposed Academic Freedom bills may allow different interpretations of what can be taught in the science classrooms, and possibly spur parents to take advantage of their perceived parental rights to request their child be opted-out of class when the scientific theory of evolution is taught. Five research questions guided the analysis of participant responses to questions and perception statements focusing on secondary school administrators' actions, perceptions, and awareness as they relate to their decision …

Perspective Shifting In Relative Clauses By Elementary-Aged Spanish-English Bilinguals: A Cross-Linguistic Study, Xigrid Tayri Soto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Language-specific theories of sentence processing suggest that individuals interpret sentences based on the characteristics of their native language (e.g., Bates & MacWhinney, 1989). As such, competing linguistic cues are taken into account (including word order, morphology, and animacy) and the cue selected is most likely to yield a correct interpretation in the native language. However, research in this area has produced conflicting results. MacWhinney (2005) has proposed that examining the role of perspective shifting in sentence comprehension may demonstrate how cognitive and syntactic factors work together to facilitate sentence comprehension. The aim of the current study is to investigate the …

Food Deserts' And 'Food Swamps' In Hillsborough County, Florida: Unequal Access To Supermarkets And Fast-Food Restaurants, Dana Beth Stein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that the suburbanization of supermarkets has created `food deserts', defined as areas where socially disadvantaged individuals lack access to nutritious food outlets. Additionally, the growing presence of fast-food restaurants has created `food swamps', or areas where socially disadvantaged individuals encounter an overabundance of unhealthy food outlets. While previous studies have analyzed either `food deserts' or `food swamps' using conventional statistical techniques, a more comprehensive approach that includes samples of both healthy and unhealthy entities and considers the variety of available food options is necessary to improve our understanding of the local food environment and related disparities.

This …

El Poder / The Power: Latino/A Literature Inclusion In The Florida High School Language Arts Classroom As A Contributing Deterrent To The Latino/A Dropout Rate, Monica Adriana Sleeter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Curricula throughout the country, specifically in the School District of Hillsborough County (SDHC), do not encompass diverse subject matter as it relates to Latino/a students. The primary argument posed in this thesis is that consistent engagement to Latino/a writings in the English language arts classroom can be a positive force that contributes to an increased rate of retention of Latino/a youths in high school and a higher percentage of Latino/a high school graduates. This Latino/a literature can be in the form of supplementary reading material that teachers will have access to that will include Latino/a literature from various authors that …

Pilot Assessment Of Novel Membrane Bioreactor Processes - Improvements In Biological Nutrient Removal And Membrane Operation, Shaleena Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing water reuse applications and upcoming stringent regulations for treated wastewater effluent discharge, wastewater plants need to consider alternative technologies beyond conventional treatment processes. The new regulations, Numeric Nutrient Criteria (NNC), may regulate discharge nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations to as low as 0.5 mg/L as N and 10 μg/L as P respectively. To meet these target requirements, system retrofitting to incorporate chemical or advanced nutrient removal systems possibly with membrane technology will most likely be required. Although microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes coupled with biological processes, otherwise known as membrane bioreactors (MBR), remove contaminants and suspended solids, nutrient removal is minimal to …

An Archaeological And Archival Appraisal Of "Spanish Indians" On The West Coast Of Florida In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries, Margaret Stack

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spanish Indian is a generic term that has been used repeatedly in written documents over the past three centuries to describe a range of different social, ethnic, and economic groups in the southeastern United States. In this thesis, a comparative analysis of the material culture from Cuban fishing ranchos of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on the west coast of Florida addresses the ways in which specific Spanish Indian artifact assemblages fit into the archaeological record. Three archaeological assemblages from known Rancho sites are detailed and analyzed. In addition, this thesis details a public archaeology project undertaken in conjunction with …

Predictors Of Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disturbance, And Depressive Symptoms In Mothers, Steffanie Sperry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Body image, eating disturbance, and depressive symptomatology have been examined extensively in the general population. The assessment of these variables within the postpartum period has also been a target of recent research. Unfortunately, no existing studies have examined the intercorrelations among these factors in mothers of young children, despite increasing media pressure for moms to maintain a slim, pre-pregnancy body. The current study examined predictors of body dissatisfaction, eating disturbance, and depressive symptoms in mothers of children aged 0-5. Simple correlations were followed by a series of linear multiple regressions incorporating sociocultural predictors alongside covariates identified in the extant literature. …

Relationships Between Educator Beliefs, Perceptions Of Educational Practices And Skills, Ps/Rti Implementation, And Educational Outcomes, Kevin Stockslager

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationships between pilot school status and Problem-Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) implementation, educator variables and PS/RtI implementation, and PS/RtI implementation and student and systemic outcomes following the final year of a 3-year PS/RtI implementation Project. School-Based Leadership Team (SBLT) members from 34 pilot schools in seven demonstration districts received training, as well as ongoing technical assistance and coaching, related to PS/RtI implementation. Data on educator's beliefs, perceptions of educational practices, and perceptions of PS/RtI skills; PS/RtI implementation; and student and systemic outcomes were collected from the 34 pilot schools, as well as 27 comparison schools. To examine …

A Novel Device For Cell-Cell Electrofusion, Justin T. Stewart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell transplantation therapy is a potentially powerful tool and can be used to replace defective cells with healthy cells. This offers the possibility of alleviating the destructive symptoms for many diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, spinal cord trauma, Type I diabetes and many more. While there are many diseases that could be positively impacted from cell transplantation therapy, the focus of this research is insulin dependent, Type I Diabetes.

The Islets of Langerhans are composed of various types of cells located in the pancreas and are responsible for a variety of biochemical functions. Specifically, the beta Islet …

National Identity, Gender, And Genre: The Multiple Marginalization Of Lotte Reiniger And The Adventures Of Prince Achmed (1926), K. Vivian Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary American visual culture is saturated with animation, from websites and advertisements to adult and children's television programs. Animated films have dominated the American box office since Toy Story (1995) and show no signs of relenting, as demonstrated by Up (2009) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). Scholarly interest in animation has paralleled the steady rise of the popularity of the medium. Publications addressing animation have migrated from niche journals, such as such as Animation Journal and Wide Angle, to one of the most mainstream English-language publications, the Modern Language Association's Profession, which included Judith Halberstam's article "Animation" in …