Digital Commons Network^™

Off-The-Grid In An On-Grid Nation: Household Energy Choices, Intra-Community Effects, And Attitudes In A Rural Neighborhood In Utah, Eileen Smith-Cavros, Arianna Sunyak

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

This research is an investigation of the perceived positive and negative aspects of off grid living in a middle to upper-class neighborhood in rural Utah in which no public utility grid was available for connection. Off-grid living is defined as unconnected to a public utility power grid, water, or sewer system. In the researched community, all individuals lived off-grid on minimum twenty-acre lots of land with single-household dwellings. We used surveys with closed and open-ended questions to qualitatively explore the local social effects (from individual attitudes to group identity to household economics to conservation attitudes) off-grid living had on individuals …

"The Thought That We Hate": Regulating Race-Related Speech On College Campuses, Michael Mcgowan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this essay I explore efforts at regulating race-related speech on publicly funded colleges and universities. In the first section, I present the scope of the current debate about the topic: what speech is, contexts in which it is found, etc. In the second section, I present the case for unrestricted speech on campuses for the advancement of knowledge and social progress. The third section addresses standard problem cases for free speech like the non-scientific nature of racist epithets, existential threats to the university, and involuntary exposure to racist speech. The fourth section explores arguments for regulating speech coming from …

The Role Of Skepticism In Early Modern Philosophy: A Critique Of Popkin's "Sceptical Crisis" And A Study Of Descartes And Hume, Raman Sachdev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to provide a critique of the idea that skepticism was the driving force in the development of early modern thought. Historian of philosophy Richard Popkin introduced this thesis in the 1950s and elaborated on it over the next five decades, and recent scholarship shows that it has become an increasingly accepted interpretation. I begin with a study of the relevant historical antecedents—the ancient skeptical traditions of which early modern thinkers were aware—Pyrrhonism and Academicism. Then I discuss the influence of skepticism on three pre-Cartesians: Francisco Sanches, Michel de Montaigne, and Pierre Charron. Basing my …

Using Class Pass Intervention (Cpi) To Decrease Disruptive Behavior In Children, Andrea N. Zuniga

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Finding of previous research has shown that disruptive behavior can impair students’ academic success (Pierce, Reid, & Epstein, 2004), as well as increase teacher’s stress level (Westling, 2010). Class Pass Intervention (CPI) is a Tier 2 intervention designed to decrease disruptive behavior and increase academic engagement, however, thus far research on the effects of CPI has been limited to typically developing elementary and high school students with escape and attention-maintained problem behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to replicate and extend previous research on the effects of CPI on problem behavior and academic engagement however with students whose …

Women’S Orgasm Gap As A Function Of Precarious Manhood, Jessica A. Jordan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The disparity in frequency of orgasms between men and heterosexual women has been linked qualitatively to women purposefully not communicating their sexual needs in order to preserve their partner’s masculinity. In two studies I experimentally evaluated this relationship, sampling heterosexual undergraduate women. In study 1 (N = 246) I demonstrated that women who imagined not having an orgasm rated an imaginary partner as more insecure in his manhood, relative to women who imagined having an orgasm or going on a dinner date. These perceptions of insecurity mediated the relationship between not having an orgasm and reporting anxiety about hurting their …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Video Feedback To Improve Cheerleading Skills, Sara Kate Snapp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the effectiveness of video feedback to improve three cheerleading tumbling skills in a multiple baseline across behaviors design. The study involved three high school cheerleaders. Target behaviors varied by participant, being some variation of a front walkover roundoff back handspring, a standing back tuck, and a toe touch two back handsprings. The primary researcher implemented the video feedback procedure. All cheerleading skills for all participants increased substantially during intervention. This study extended sports performance literature by evaluating video feedback in a sport that has never been the focus of research in Applied Behavior Analysis.

How Mentors At Starting Right Now Build Relationships With Homeless Youth: A Qualitative Analysis, Sheena Hera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although research has described mentoring programs to have positive effects with youth, there are few studies that describe how mentors build relationships with homeless youth. In this study, I sought to explore how mentors of a community-based organization, Starting Right Now, built relationships with homeless youth. Starting Right Now is a multi-faceted, community-based intervention developed in 2009 in Tampa, FL. They provide services to homeless adolescents who are no longer living in the custody of a parent or guardian. The program provides residential, educational, recreational, and professional development services, as well as mental and physical health care. Additionally each youth …

Harbor Notes, March 2019, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg. Office Of University Advancement.

Harbor Notes

The March 2019, issue of Harbor Notes.

Essential Biodiversity Variables For Mapping And Monitoring Species Populations, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Walter Jetz, Melodie A. Mcgeoch, Robert Guralnick, Simon Ferrier, Jan Beck, Mark J. Costello, Miguel Fernandez, Gary N. Geller, Petr Keil, Cory Merow, Carsten Meyer, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Henrique M. Pereira, Eugenie C. Regan, Dirk S. Schmeller, Eren Turak

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Species distributions and abundances are undergoing rapid changes worldwide. This highlights the significance of reliable, integrated information for guiding and assessing actions and policies aimed at managing and sustaining the many functions and benefits of species. Here we synthesize the types of data and approaches that are required to achieve such an integration and conceptualize ‘essential biodiversity variables’ (EBVs) for a unified global capture of species populations in space and time. The inherent heterogeneity and sparseness of raw biodiversity data are overcome by the use of models and remotely sensed covariates to inform predictions that are contiguous in space and …

A Comparative Study On The Amount Of Tips Left By The Generations Based On The Personalized Bill Types, A. Celil Cakici, Alaiddin Kosar

Journal of Global Business Insights

Tip is the monetary amount that consumers voluntarily leave for the quality of the service they get. Whether a tip is left or not, and the amount of the tip left may result from different demographic and characteristic features of consumers. This study was conducted to determine the amount of tip left by the generations based on the personalized bills. Based on three different personalized bill types for a dinner for two people at a mid-quality restaurant, it was attempted to determine whether the costumers left tips or not, and if they did, how much was the amount. The data …

The Effect Of Website Quality On Repurchase Intention With The Mediation Of Perceived Value: The Case Study Of Online Travel Agencies In Vietnam, Huyen Pham, Thu Nguyen

Journal of Global Business Insights

The sharing economy is getting broader with its non-ownership assets, better use of resources, lower prices, and more customized products (Belk, 2014). In tourism industry, the development of the sharing economy involved the emergence of online travel agencies (OTAs) who are intermediates between services providers and consumers, provide accommodations, transport services, food and beverages services, tour guide services, etc. (Skalska, 2017). Recently, Vietnam has experienced a rapid growth in the number of users booking tourism products and services through OTAs. Playing such an important role in the tourism market, it is essential for OTAs to retain customers which later bring …

Going To School In The Forest: Changing Evaluations Of Animal-Plant Interactions In The Kichwa Amazon, Jeffrey T. Shenton

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

For rural, indigenous communities the ways structural modernization, exposure to Western-scientific epistemologies, and formal schooling affect environmental reasoning remain unclear. For one Kichwa community in the Napo region of Ecuador, daily routines have re-oriented toward formal schooling but environmental learning opportunities remain intact. Here, while a Species Interaction Task elicited consensus across ages on inferred ecological interactions, younger people reasoned differently than older people: for them, animal interactions with flora were considered damaging, not neutral. Aspirational practices like schooling can thus reorient environmental reasoning, even in contexts in which young people share cultural understandings of local ecological relationships with adults.

Minutes, College Of Arts & Sciences Department Chairs Meeting, February 26, 2019, Bridget Nickens

Department Chairs Meetings

Minutes from the February 26, 2019, meeting of the department chairs from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg's College of Arts and Sciences.

Immune System Modulation And Viral Persistence In Bats: Understanding Viral Spillover, Sonu Subudhi, Noreen Rapin, Vikram Misra

KIP Articles

Bats harbor a myriad of viruses and some of these viruses may have spilled over to other species including humans. Spillover events are rare and several factors must align to create the “perfect storm” that would ultimately lead to a spillover. One of these factors is the increased shedding of virus by bats. Several studies have indicated that bats have unique defense mechanisms that allow them to be persistently or latently infected with viruses. Factors leading to an increase in the viral load of persistently infected bats would facilitate shedding of virus. This article reviews the unique nature of bat …

A Historical Approach To Understanding Explanatory Proofs Based On Mathematical Practices, Erika Oshiro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on mathematical explanation found in proofs looked at from a historical point of view, while stressing the importance of mathematical practices. Current philosophical theories on explanatory proofs emphasize the structure and content of proofs without any regard to external factors that influence a proof’s explanatory power. As a result, the major philosophical views have been shown to be inadequate in capturing general aspects of explanation. I argue that, in addition to form and content, a proof’s explanatory power depends on its targeted audience. History is useful here, because from it, we are able to follow the transition …

Soviet Nationality Policy: Impact On Ethnic Conflict In Abkhazia And South Ossetia, Nevzat Torun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to answer two interlinked questions with respect to ethnic conflict in Georgia: Why and how two ethnic groups (Abkhazians and Ossetians) in Georgia sought secession in 1990s rather than accepting unity under a common Georgian roof, and what explains the occurrence of ethnic conflicts between the Abkhazians and Georgians and between the South Ossetians and Georgians?

The central argument of this thesis is that Soviet nationality policy was a foremost driving force in shaping consciousness of being ethnic groups in Georgia and set the stage for the inter-ethnic conflicts of the post-Soviet era. A number of factors …

The Financial Sector’S Vulnerabilities, Villains, And Options For Defense, John T. Harvey

Military Cyber Affairs

The consequences of cyber attacks on the financial sector go well beyond those suffered by the individuals and firms directly involved and may even lead to the destabilization of the system itself. The concern is all the greater given that banks and similar institutions play a much more critical role than most people realize and the nature of their operation already invites risk taking at the best of times. Bad actors hoping to sow chaos surely understand the trouble they could cause by targeting the financial underpinning of our economy. This paper will argue that while the cyber defense of …

Regaining The Technological Edge: Authoritarians, Democracies, It Innovation’S Future, Andrea Little Limbago

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

The Weekly Challenger, February 14, 2019, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The February 14, 2019, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Online Mmorpg Games In China: Player Motivations And The Mediating Role Of Flow, Jiaxin Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are gaining popularity and are being used widely in China. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the motivation and the experience of MMORPG players, and the effects of playing MMORPG through an extensive online survey of more than 300 Chinese participants (n = 305). Specifically, the findings support the complex relationship between variables, including the direct effects on motivation and flow, on the time the players invest in MMORPG games, and the mediated effects on motivations through flow. In addition to the importance of direct and indirect effects on …

Why Does Coaching Work? An Examination Of Inputs And Process Variables In An Employee Coaching Program, Sarah E. Frick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The efficacy of leadership coaching to improve leader and organizational outcomes cannot be overstated. However, a thorough understanding of some of the inputs and process variables involved in coaching has not been empirically established to date. To address this issue in the leader development and coaching literature, I examined the characteristics of the coaches and the coachees and their relationships with two relational variables potentially involved in coaching relationships (i.e., leader-member exchange and trust). The importance of leadership to work outcomes and leader development is highlighted, followed by a discussion of the specific leader development technique of coaching. The discussion …

Exploring The Behavior Of Model Fit Criteria In The Bayesian Approximate Measurement Invariance: A Simulation Study, Abeer Atallah S. Alamri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Measurement invariance (MI) is conducted to ensure that differences found in the results of group comparisons are due to true substantive differences and not methodological artifacts. Previous cross-cultural and cross-national studies with large number of groups showed that the advanced measurement invariance level was rarely held when utilizing the traditional (frequentist) MI approach. The Bayesian approximate measurement invariance (BAMI) was introduced to override the traditional MI strict assumption, because trivial non-invariance in parameters across groups is allowed. Although the concept of the BAMI, which has been utilized since 2013, was incorporated into the context of structural equation modeling, there is …

An Emergent Theory Of Executive Leadership Selection: Leveraging Grounded Theory To Study The U.S. Military's Special Forces Assessment And Selection Process, Darryl J. Lavender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research documents the assessment and selection process used by the U.S. Military’s Special Forces for over 70 years using Grounded Theory Methodology. Three independent studies were used to document the Special Forces process of selection. Through comparative reanalysis of each study’s data a model emerged explaining the Special Forces phenomena of assessment and selection.

Analysis was conducted in three phases using open, axial, and selective coding which allowed for the identification of a smaller set of themes which categorized the process of selection. The final step involved the development of two analytical matrices explaining the central theme of selection …

Minutes, College Of Arts & Sciences Department Chairs Meeting, February 12, 2019, Bridget Nickens

Department Chairs Meetings

Minutes from the February 12, 2019, meeting of the department chairs from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg's College of Arts and Sciences.

Crow's Nest, January 28, 2019, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The January 28, 2019, issue of the Crow's Nest.

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Lijuan Feng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1 studies the effect of body weight on labor market outcomes. Using longitudinal data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1989 to 2011, and both instrumental variable and fixed effects estimation to control for the endogeneity of body weight, I examine the wage effect of BMI by gender, type of residence area, and occupation. Results from linear OLS regression show a positive relationship between body weight and income for males in both rural and urban areas and females in rural areas, while a negative one for females in urban areas. After controlling for the unobserved individual …

Discrimination, Victimization, And Suicidality In The Lgbtq Population: The Role Of Psychological Pain And Perceived Connectedness, Amanda L. Peterson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) are at a higher risk for suicide compared to the general population, but little is known about why this is. Many LGBTQ individuals face some form of discrimination or victimization in their lifetime, and some evidence suggests these experiences may contribute to this group’s higher suicide risk. Unfortunately, research has only examined the impact of direct discrimination/victimization on suicidality and has neglected to examine how ambient discrimination/victimization relates to suicidality. Additionally, although some links exist between discrimination, victimization, and suicide, the mechanisms by which these are related are unknown. …

Crow's Nest, January 22, 2019, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The January 22, 2019, issue of the Crow's Nest.

From Rigor To Vigor: The Past, Present, And Potential Of Inquiry As Stance, Elizabeth Currin

Journal of Practitioner Research

Over the years, practitioner research has been both marginalized and trivialized within the larger educational research landscape. This article challenges that exclusion by tracing the emergence and development of the inquiry stance construct. Understanding the origins of teacher inquiry can contribute to its cultivation and ultimately lend a necessary rigor—or better yet, vigor—to practitioner research. Indeed, inquiry as stance endures because it is far more than a best practice or ready-made technique. Deeply ontological and epistemological, an inquiry stance enables educators to transform their teaching for the sake of all learners in the face of an ever-changing educational landscape.

Crow's Nest, January 14, 2019, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The January 14, 2019, issue of the Crow's Nest.