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Impact Of Seizure-Related Variables And Psychopathology On Health-Related Quality Of Life In Pediatric Epilepsy, Aja M. Meyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Psychopathology typically is a lasting condition that is persistent from childhood to adulthood. Therefore, it is imperative that children with health conditions and comorbid psychiatric disorders are treated for both conditions as they are likely to have a significant negative impact on children's overall health-related quality of life (HRQL). More specifically, it is important to identify the variables that affect HRQL in children with epilepsy. Research has shown that biomedical variables such as seizure severity and frequency have only moderate relationships with HRQL; therefore, additional factors, such as depression and anxiety, must be identified so that they also may be …

Review Essay: Take Five: Borges Y Cortázar, Siglo Xxi, Pablo A.J. Brescia

World Languages Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Short Takes: Intelligence-Service Psychology: A German Perspective, Sven Max Litzcke, Helmut Müller-Enbergs

Journal of Strategic Security

To date, four German volumes in the series "Intelligence-Service Psychology" (Nachrichtendienstpsychologie) have been published. These volumes generated interest in both the German and non-German speaking communities. It was therefore decided to translate some of the basic articles of the series into English (Litzcke, Müller-Enbergs & Ungerer, 2008), making them accessible to a wider range of readers. This article contains abbreviated versions of the articles in the book.

Strategic Security As A New Academic Discipline, Sheldon Greaves, Ph.D

Journal of Strategic Security

The creation of Henley-Putnam University was an effort to create an academic institution for the purpose of offering degree programs in intelligence management, counterterrorism, and personal protection; subjects that arguably did not exist as academic disciplines when the school was conceived. The experience of two of the co-founders of the school, Nirmalya Bhowmick and Dr. Michael Corcoran, indicated that the training of officers tasked with vital security and intelligence work was carried out by partnering young officers with a training officer to help the new officer learn on the job. The effectiveness of this training depended to a great extent …

The Social Context Of Cervical Cancer Knowledge And Prevention Among Haitian Immigrant Women, Janelle Marie Menard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cervical cancer is the primary cause of cancer deaths among Haitian women; however, the social context of cervical cancer among Haitian immigrant women has not been systematically examined. The ways in which women assign meaning to this disease, understand its causality and situate it within the broader context of gynecological health are poorly understood. Further, Haitian immigrant women's perceptions of disease risk, including knowledge and understanding about Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the primary etiologic factor in cervical cancer, have not been explored. Few studies have assessed health behaviors, including culturally mediated feminine hygiene practices, among Haitian immigrant women, which may negatively …

U.S. Based Business Needs For Technical/Occupational Employees With International Skills: Considerations For Community College And Sub-Baccalaureate Programs In The Tampa Bay Economic Zone., Ronald L. Olney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Significance: This study provides the first systematic needs assessment of a U.S. business region to determine if businesses want international skills taught in community college technical and occupational programs. Without this assessment, community college leaders and faculty are not able to determine whether they are adequately preparing students in these skills to be successful in tomorrow's fast paced, mobile and integrated global workforce.

Research Aims:

1. Conduct a needs assessment to determine whether international skills were considered important for employment entry or movement

2. Determine where businesses obtain international skills training.

3. Garner business recommendations for the improvement of international …

Sfra Review, Fall 2008, Science Fiction Research Association

SFRA Newsletter (Science Fiction Research Association)

The Fall 2008 issue of the SFRA Review.

Dynamic Assessment: Towards A Model Of Dialogic Engagement, Robert Summers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of Dynamic Assessment (DA) training on the mediational strategies of experienced teachers of French as a foreign language. Moreover the strategies that mediators used for students at different levels of language experience were investigated. Last the ways in which mediators manifested mediational sensitivity, reciprocity and management was examined.

Four mediators underwent DA training that exposed them to the theoretical underpinnings of DA as well as sound DA procedures. To determine the effect of this training, the way in which the mediators conducted their mediation was compared from pre-DA training to post-DA training. Three of these …

Commencement Convocation Program, Usf, August 9, 2008, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

King O'Neal Scholar - Shamik Dwivedi

Three Wittgensteins: Interpreting The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Thomas J. Brommage Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are historically three main trends in understanding Wittgenstein's Tractatus. The first is the interpretation offered by the Vienna Circle. They read Wittgenstein as arguing that neither metaphysical nor normative propositions have any cognitive meaning, and thus are to be considered nonsense. This interpretation understands Wittgenstein as setting the limits of sense, and prescribing that nothing of substantive philosophical importance lies beyond that line. The second way of reading the Tractatus, which has became popular since the 1950s, is the interpretation which most currently accept as the early Wittgenstein's view; for this reason I refer to it …

Access To Women’S Health Information In Monteverde, July 27, 2008, Emily Balf, Janelle Christensen, Stephanie Melton, Kristin Monnard

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

A research project exploring women's health in the Monteverde region.

Factors Affecting Message Intelligibility Of Cued Speech Transliterators, Katherine Pelley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While a majority of deaf students mainstreamed in public schools rely on interpreters, little research has investigated interpreter skills and no research to date has focused on interpreter intelligibility (Kluwin & Stewart, 2001). This thesis is the second in a series of experiments designed to quantify the contribution of various factors affecting the intelligibility of interpreters (transliterators) who use English-based communication modes. In the first experiment, 12 Cued Speech transliterators were asked to transliterate an audio lecture. Two aspects of these transliterated performances were then analyzed: 1) accuracy, as measured as the percent-correct cues produced, and 2) lag time, the …

Identity, Desire And Spectatorship: An Examination Of Germaine Dulac’S La Coquille Et Le Clergyman, Jennifer A. Melko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Germaine Dulac's 1928 avant-garde film, La Coquille et le Clergyman, based on a script written by Antonin Artaud, presents the idea of the woman as an object of desire, subjected to the male gaze through the cinematic process. Not only is the lone female character the object of desire of her two male suitors on screen, but she also becomes the object of desire for the presumably male viewer of the film, who has become a silent character in the film. Rather than simply being the spectator, the viewer's own identity becomes entwined with that of the on screen …

Relationships Among Language Use, Phonological Skill, And Vocabulary In English Language Learning Preschoolers, Timothy D. Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study present study explored the relationships among language use, phonological skill, and vocabulary development for 36 Cuban and Puerto Rican ELL preschoolers. Family-level variables included mother's education level and mother's language ability. Three-way ANOVAs were used to investigate the relationships among child- and family-level variables and children's performance on articulation (completeness of phonetic inventory (CPI) and proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP)) and language measures (Picture Vocabulary (PV) and Memory for Sentences (MS) subtests of the WLPB-R) in English and Spanish. Regression and correlational analyses were conducted to describe relationships between variables.

Findings indicated that children in all language …

The Efficacy Of Florida’S Approach To In-Service English Speakers Of Other Languages Teacher Training Programs, Ronald D. Simmons Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Much of how Florida and other states across the country justify the practice of mainstreaming English language learners into regular content classrooms rests on the premise that with the guidance of state officials, local school districts adequately train content teachers to work with English language learners. Yet little to no research exists that can help identify and analyze the overall efficacy of these programs. Consequently, this study has attempted to determine whether district training sessions in Florida are sufficiently covering the state-mandated content areas that teachers are required to learn and to what extent in-service teachers agree or disagree that …

State Dominance And Political Corruption: Testing The Efficacy Of An Alternate Configuration Of Institutional-Anomie Theory Cross-Nationally, Carol L. S. Trent

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Extant assessments of Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional-anomie theory (1994) have generally supported the thesis that, in social collectives where the economy dominates, non-economic institutions (i.e. the family, education, polity) are rendered feeble, unable to exert their normative controls. The cultural values of these societies place primacy on "making it" (monetary success), while at the same time placing a much weaker emphasis on the licit means of achieving these goals. The resultant state is one of anomie, conducive to crime. Messner and Rosenfeld have extended their argument stating that it is not economic dominance per se that contributes to high crime …

Net/Work: Composing The Posthuman Self, Julia L. Mason

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overall question this dissertation asks is: what does it mean to teach posthumans? To answer this question, this dissertation turns toward scholarship on the body in order to understand the virtual and material presence that students develop, it looks to online video gaming communities as alternative classrooms providing effective models of learning, and it investigates the circulation of service learning pedagogies within academic institutions as a marker of the persistence of humanistic values within the framework of a posthuman work environment.

The American university in general, and the humanities specifically, is struggling to make sense of its place in …

The Autoethnographic Call: Current Considerations And Possible Futures, Kendall Smith-Sullivan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the increase of personal narratives in the past several decades, particularly the autoethnographic approach. The project begins with a historical contextualization of personal writing and autoethnography in relation to the crisis of representation and other diverse socio-political shifts. One outcome of these cultural transitions was a proliferation of illness narratives, narrative therapy, therapeutic writing, and narrative health communication. Also included in this research are data from interviews with emerging autoethnographers and participant observation that occurred at the Third International Qualitative Inquiry Congress. The conference served as prism through which to view qualitative scholarship as a whole, as …

Learning, Living, And Leaving The Closet: Making Gay Identity Relational, Tony E. Adams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gay identity is inextricably tied to the metaphor of the closet. This tie is best exemplified by the act of "coming out of the closet," an act when a person discloses a gay identity to another, an act of self-identification and confession that others can motivate but never force, an act typically thought of as necessary, dangerous, and consequential, and an act often viewed as a discrete, linear process. Gay identity is also frequently framed as a self-contained trait thus making coming out a one-sided, personal affair.

In this project, I use autoethnography and narrative inquiry, life story interviews of …

Framing In Leadership Communication: Strategies, Breakdowns And Outcomes, Slaheddine Mnasri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined framing practices used by leaders who participated in the Capacity Day 2007 event, which is organized by the World Bank Institute, as part of its Leadership Development Program. The study examined strategic uses of framing as a meaning-making tool. The framing strategies identified in this study were accomplished through the strategic use of language. Furthermore, the study recognized the implied negotiations of frames made by the skilled 'framers' and found that situations are continuously 'reframable'. Unsuccessful framing attempts were correlated with the contradictions between what was said and what was eventually understood. The positive outcomes that followed …

The Nature Of Questioning Moves Used By Exemplary Teachers During Reading Instruction, Melinda M. Lundy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines and describes the nature of questioning moves used by two exemplary fourth-grade teachers during reading instruction. Questioning moves are defined in this study as the ways in which teachers use scaffolding questions to engage students in talk about text. Another point of interest in this study was to determine how teachers perceive the influence of instructional materials on the language they use to engage students in talk about text.

This study was situated within a constructivist paradigm of inquiry and drew from the case study tradition for its design. Naturalistic methods of data collection were employed including …

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 …

The Effects Of Pre-Writing Strategy Training Guided By Computer-Based Procedural Facilitation On Esl Students’ Strategy Use, Writing Quantity, And Writing Quality, Darunee Dujsik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pre-writing strategies are conscious thoughts, actions, or behaviors used by writers when they plan before writing. Research in second language writing suggests that specific writing strategies related to writing purposes, audience, brainstorming, and organizing ideas are teachable and have a potential to improve the quantity and quality of writing produced by English as second language (ESL) learners. This study investigated the effects of computer-based pre-writing strategy training guided by procedural facilitation (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987) on intermediate ESL students' writing strategy use, writing quantity, and writing quality.

A sequential mixed methods design was utilized with an initial quasi-experimental phase followed …

Commencement Convocation Program, Lakeland Campus, May 5, 2008, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

Outstanding Senior - Amanda Robinson; King O'Neal Scholar - Mari Nichole McKinley

Commencement Convocation Program, Sarasota - Manatee Campus, May 4, 2008, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

King O'Neal Scholar - Linda Gabriel; Outstanding Professor - Michael Sheldon; Sarasota-Manatee Outstanding Senior - Ashley Morey; Golden Bull Award - Aaron Wiseman

Commencement Convocation Program, St. Petersburg Campus, May 4, 2008, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

King O'Neal Scholars - Jacquelyn Renee Hicks, Ashley Nicole Hopping, and Zoe Rita Placiotis; Outstanding Graduate - Susan M. Herbert

Commencement Convocation Program, St. Petersburg Campus, May 4, 2008, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg

USF St. Petersburg Graduations and Commencements

King O'Neal Awards: Jacquelyn Renee Hicks, Ashley Nicole Hopping, Zoe Rita Placiotis; Outstanding Graduate: Susan M. Herbert

Commencement Convocation Program, Usf, Graduate, May 3, 2008, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

President's Fellow Medallion - Antonia Novello

Commencement Convocation Program, Tampa Campus, May 2 And 3, 2008, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

King O'Neal Scholars - Shawn Curtis, Emily Jane Koby, Katherine A. Dorf, Cassandra L. Ernst, Kelly Marie Foyle, Adam King, Jonathan David Miller, Andrew Felipe Quecan, Carol H. Bierschenk, Sara Elizabeth Harrison, and Gabriel Antonio Lopez; Outstanding Senior - Ojas Rawal; Honorary Doctor of Visual and Performing Arts - Trisha Brown

(Re)Defining Relationships In A Mediated Context: Graduate Student Use Of Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, Michael P. Nicholas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study consists of qualitative interviews with 8 graduate students about the use of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC), or instant message (IM), programs in their interpersonal relationships. Participants were interviewed twice, once via an instant message program and once in a face-to-face setting. They were asked about their frequency of use, their use of multi-tasking, and the types of conversations they have via IM. Results of the interviews are discussed, with a concentration on the paradoxical nature of IM communication as impersonal, but at the same time, conducive to personal disclosure and intimacy.