American Studies Commons^™

Use(Ful In(Form)Ation, Dustin Lapray

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

I cleaned my room early in the spring of 2009, sorted laundry and cleaned off my oft-cluttered desk. In the process I found an old Mead Composition Notebook from a Film and Literature course I took at the College of Southern Idaho. Inside the back cover I discovered a page of useful information. The charts and measurements included: a multiplication table, 12 other tables intended to measure everything from paper, drugs, liquid and time, metric nomenclature and, finally, conversion tables from the metric system into American standard systems of measurement. I tore the back cover from the notebook and tacked …

Seven Fictions, Stephen Leech

All Theses

A collection of seven short stories focusing on issues of reality and unreality, particularly such issues as they arise in America, both as a political ideal and a manifest nation. The collection uses genre fiction as a means to illuminate these issues in new and relevant ways.

The United States' 'Empire State Of Mind:' Identity And Postcolonialism In A Post-9/11 World, Margaret Mcgill

All Theses

This thesis examines the relevance of postcolonialism in a world changed by the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, which resulted in the openly aggressive and expansive nature of the United States in the years following, seeming reminiscent of European colonialism and soundly establishing a perception of the U.S. as an empire. Comparing Junot D’az's pre-9/11 Drown with his post-9/11 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Andrea Levy's pre-9/11 Small Island with Joseph O'Neill's post-9/11 Netherland, I explore the effects and influences of the United States imperial reach that surface in post-9/11 literature to contend its overwhelming presence has …

History Steps Off The Page: The Past In The Future, A Case Study Of How The Mormon Battalion Is Making History Interactive, Allyson Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis addresses the presentation of the Mormon Battalion's history in three interactive forms. The Battalion served in the U.S.-Mexican War between 1846 and 1847. In 2008 a group known as Battalion Trek chose to rehike the original trail as closely as possible. The three chapters of this thesis address the reenactors who planned and completed the rehike, the blog they kept as they did so, and a program which allows those interested to learn more about the trail. Analyzing what such presentations have to offer is important as history moves into the hands of the public and as the …

Our Mountain Home: The Oscar And Emma Swett Ranch, Carolyn Toone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this thesis, I examined the lives of my great-grandparents, Oscar and Emma Swett. Oscar began a homestead in the Uinta Mountains in 1909, which he successfully ran for nearly sixty years. My grandmother was born on the ranch, and my own father spent much of his time there. I look at how land policy changed from encouraging ranching and farming in the early 1900's to tourism and recreation in the 1960's, with the coming of the Flaming Gorge Dam. The lives of my great-grandparents and their children were shaped by these changes and they felt the consequences of the …

Exergy Modeling To Compare Engineered Products To Biological Systems For Sustainable Design, Richard D. Stokes Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An ambitious and novel approach to engineering design and sustainability has been taken to explore the potential of drawing parallels between mechanical and biological systems for the possible development of sustainable engineering design metrics using a thermodynamic model. This approach looks to biology. Natural selection has given biological beings and processes high exergetic efficiencies, even while being only 30-40% energy efficient on the cell level. This energy inefficiency, resulting in a release of heat, can then be used to aid in driving other biochemical processes. The Gibbs free energy becomes more negative proportionally with an increase in temperature, resulting in …

Evaluating Knowledge And Attitudes Of Undergraduate Nursing Students Regarding Pain Management, Jessica Latchman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unmanaged pain is a widespread problem that many cancer patients face on a daily basis. Cancer pain, which can either be caused by complications due to the disease process itself or from treatment measures used, has devastating effects on the quality of life for these patients and their caregivers. This study examined the knowledge and attitudes of undergraduate students regarding pain management.

The sample in this study consisted of 41 undergraduate students at the University of South Florida College of Nursing. The students sampled were predominantly white, (n=30), female (n=37), seniors (n=41) taking Leadership and Management in Nursing. After volunteering …

Diffuse Degassing And The Hydrothermal System At Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua, Sophie C. P Pearson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hydrothermal systems change in response to volcanic activity, and in turn may be sensitive indicators of volcanic activity. Fumaroles are a surface manifestation of this interaction. We use time series of soil temperature data and numerical models of the hydrothermal system to investigate volcanic, hydrologic and geologic controls on this diffuse degassing.

Soil temperatures were measured in a low-temperature fumarole field located 3.5 km from the summit of Masaya volcano, Nicaragua. They respond rapidly, on a time scale of minutes, to changes in volcanic activity also manifested at the summit vent. The soil temperature response is repetitive and complex, and …

Human-Wildlife Conflict Across Urbanization Gradients: Spatial, Social, And Ecological Factors, Amanda H. Gilleland

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As suburban and exurban residential developments continue to multiply in urban areas, they encroach on wildlife habitats leading to increased human-wildlife interactions. The animals involved in direct conflict with homeowners are often relocated or exterminated by the homeowners. Often the homeowners contact state licensed wildlife trappers to eliminate the problem animal. In this study I examined how landscape, ecological, and social factors influence the incidence of human-wildlife conflict of thirty two residential areas in the Tampa, Florida metropolitan area. These residential areas, totaling over 300 km2, are part of the urban development gradient representing a range of urban land use …

Evaluation Of The Flicker Effect As A Generative Strategy In Enhancing Computerbased Instruction (Cbi) Of Visual Recognition And Classification, Ping Luo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Few studies address the question of the technology-based instructional methods of visual patterns, so the overarching purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of three treatments on pattern recognition. Specifically, with a pretest-posttest control group experimental study, the effectiveness of three instructional strategies, a flicker treatment, a no-flicker treatment, and a comparison treatment, (groups respectively analyzing sequential displays of two similar images with and without a blank screen in between and simultaneous displays of two images), was compared based on recognition (memory) and classification (transfer) test scores. The group differences in learning effectiveness and efficiency were also measured …

Stoner, Joel, B. 1950 (Fa 492), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 492. Interviews, transcriptions, photographs, and miscellaneous data collected by Joel Stoner pertaining to the Bowling Green, Kentucky music scene in the 1970s.

Hickey, Frankie (Fa 511), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Foklife Archives Project 511. This collection contains a tape recorded interview conducted by Frankie Hickey with Ida Ellington Williams. It also contains short written life stories for Williams and several other African Americans from southcentral Kentucky and middle Tennessee.

Smith, C. Jason - Compiler (Sc 2242), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2242. "Concordance to Robert Penn Warren's 'All the King's Men'" (based on the first edition). Also includes associated letter.

African American Heritage In Bowling Green And Warren County, Kentucky (Fa 509), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 509. This collection contains tape recorded interviews conducted by Maxine Ray and Theresa Lee. the interviews deal with the heritage of African Americans in Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky. This project was sponsored by a grant from the Kentucky Oral History Commission.

French, Mark Edward (Fa 230), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 230. Paper: "The Sleeping Roommate" written by Mark Edward French for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Hodges, Jack, Ii (Fa 227), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 227. Paper: "Family Ghost Stories" written by Jack Hodges II for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Norris, Ruby (Fa 218), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of collection (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 218. Paper: "[Folk Medicine in Cumberland County]" written by Ruby Norris for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Comparison And Improvement Of Different Access Methods In Femtocell Networks, İbrahim Demirdögen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A variety of wide band wireless systems have been pushed towards their limits in order to meet growing interest for high data rate in wireless communications.In particular, the limit due to the spectrum scarcity forces communication systems to utilize the spectrum resource at maximum efficiency level. One of the methods that allow effective spectrum employing is to cover multiple systems over same spectrum source by allowing bearable interference to occur between them. Femtocells have been recently introduced as a remedy to spectrum scarcity and coverage problems in current cellular structures. Femtocells are personal use base stations and they share the …

Founding Fathers: An Ethnic And Gender Study Of The Iliadic Aeneid, Rob Brannon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a 2005 work, Yasmin Syed concluded that the Aeneid created for ancient readers an idea of Romanness that was inclusive for all and not founded along strict genetic lines. Under this hypothesis, the Aeneid offers a sort of blueprint for becoming Roman, one in which biological descent from Aeneas is unnecessary. Syed reached this conclusion by analyzing themes of ethnicity and gender, in particular the ethnic other represented by the epic's female characters. This was accomplished in the manner so often chosen by Vergil scholars-by limiting analysis to the first half of the epic. The work concludes with an …

Refusing To Go Silently: Female Wit As Combating A Culture Of Silence In Frances Burney And Elizabeth Inchbald's Texts, Megan M. Weber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the hands of two prominent authors, Elizabeth Inchbald and Frances Burney, a critical paradox concerning female silence arises: while both authors operate very successfully in the publishing world, both do so while subverting impositions of silence, exhibiting a clear breach of propriety. An examination of Inchbald's novel A Simple Story and play Wives as they Were, Maids as they Are and Burney's novel Cecilia and play The Witlings, elucidates how each author adapts literary genres to portray female wit, exposing eighteenth-century impositions of silence in the process. By engendering female characters with the ability to employ humor as …