Digital Commons Network^™

Not On My Street: Exploration Of Culture, Meaning And Perceptions Of Hiv Risk Among Middle Class African American Women, Corliss D. Heath

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black women remain at a higher risk for HIV infection than women of any other ethnic group. Of all new infections reported among U.S. women in 2010, 64% occurred in African Americans compared to 18% Whites and 15% Hispanic/Latina women (CDC 2013a; CDC 2014b). While the literature on HIV risk among African American women is extensive, it mostly focuses on low income, low education subgroups of women or those involved in high risk behaviors such as drug use. Very little has been done to understand the risk for HIV among college educated, middle class women who do not fit into …

The Effects Of Collaborative Critical Thinking Training On Trust Development And Effectiveness In Virtual Teams, Mark Grichanik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Workers in modern teams that perform tasks over computer-mediated communication channels encounter challenges in building trust and performing effectively. Finding interventions to mitigate such losses could improve team performance. Collaborative critical thinking (CCT) training has the potential to improve trust, monitoring, and effectiveness in virtual teams. Using a simulated search-and-rescue task, the effects of CCT training, as compared with a control training, were evaluated in 105 three-member teams. No effects of CCT training were found on team positive or negative monitoring, team cognitive or affective trust, team efficacy, or team viability. However, teams trained in CCT reported consistently higher levels …

Task-Based Robotic Grasp Planning, Yun Lin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Grasp should be selected intelligently to fulfill different stability properties and manipulative requirements. Currently, most grasping approaches consider only pick-and-place tasks without any physical interaction with other objects or the environment, which are common in an industry setting with limited uncertainty. When robots move to our daily-living environment and perform a broad range of tasks in an unstructured environment, all sorts of physical interactions will occur, which will result in random physical interactive wrenches: forces and torques on the tool.

In addition, for a tool to perform a required task, certain motions need to occur. We call it "functional tool …

The Birth Of A Nation: The Case For A Tri-Level Analysis Of Forms Of Racial Vindication, Charles Fred Hearns

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Early American film scholars often critique the relative ineffectiveness of a single literary work, protest movement or silent film to achieve racial vindication following the release of The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Thomas Cripps, for example, examines a relatively ineffective isolated attempt to counter the notions of White supremacy promoted in the film. This study makes the case for applying a non-traditional tri-level analysis when measuring the effectiveness of such attempts. The paper focuses on efforts to redeem the image and the potential of African Americans after 1915 in the Black public sphere in three concurrent vehicles: the …

Modeling The Relationship Between Climate Change And Landscape Modification At The Crystal River Site (8ci1), Florida, Sean Patrick Norman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Crystal River site (8CI1) is a Woodland-period (ca 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1050) mound complex located on the Gulf of Mexico in west-central Florida. Among the features at the site are four shell and sand platform mounds, two burial mounds, and an extensive shell midden. The proximity to the Gulf and the reliance on marine and brackish resources present an apparent, yet poorly understood interaction between the people of this area and their environment. I attempt to model the relationship of the occupation of Crystal River with sea level change. The analysis of 58 soil cores from across the …

Examining Activity Organization In Plazas Through Geochemical Analysis At Tlalancaleca, Puebla, Mexico (800 Bc-Ad 100), Paige Gale Phillips

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to understand the organization of activities across a prehispanic urban center at the Formative period site of Tlalancaleca (800 BC- AD 100), located in Puebla, Mexico. This study analyzes soil samples at the central civic-ceremonial complex of Cerro Grande in an attempt to understand the use of space. This work is a part of the larger Proyecto Arqueológico Tlalancaleca, Puebla (PATP), which is focused on understanding the socio-political organization at Tlalancaleca that led to this site of early urbanism. Soil samples from Tlalancaleca are analyzed using three chemical methods to perform a cross-comparison of analytical methods. These …

A Forgotten Community: Archaeological Documentation Of Old St. Joseph, Gulf County, Florida, Christopher N. Hunt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The town of St. Joseph, established in 1835, served as an important deep-water port for receiving and shipping dry goods up the Apalachicola River north along the vast network of navigable inland waterways in southeastern U.S. during the early nineteenth century. Unfortunately, this town was hit with a yellow fever epidemic and a series of hurricanes that, combined with the infancy of its cotton trade activities, eventually devastated its economy and population. The town disappeared by 1842, only much later to be replaced by modern Port St. Joe (est. 1909), located north of the original settlement. However, St. Joseph's influence …

Blue Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: A Cross Cultural Study On Color Perception And Memory, Mark Douglas Lowry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According the linguistic relativity hypothesis, the language one speaks affects how one thinks. Because languages differ in how they categorize color, linguistic relativity has often been tested by conducting experiments on color perception and memory. This study examines the linguistic relativity hypothesis using ecologically valid stimuli: pictures of eyes. Because Russian-speakers are more likely to describe blue/grey eyes as grey, whereas English speakers are more likely to describe them as blue, English and Russian participants were asked to match the overall color of blue eyes to a color scale. There were three conditions. In the first condition (perception), participants saw …

Medicaid Pays For That? An Exploratory, Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Florida Home Birth, Nicole K. Demetriou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overwhelming social norm for pregnant women in the U.S. is to receive prenatal care from an obstetrician and to give birth in a hospital setting. However, the incidence of midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth is increasing, particularly among White, non-Hispanic women. Florida has been considered a "model" state for home birth midwifery given legislative support that mandates coverage of all types of midwifery (e.g., Certified Professional Midwives and Certified Nurse-Midwives) care in all birth settings (e.g., hospital, home, birth center) and by all forms of insurance (e.g., commercial and Medicaid). Medicaid is the payer source for nearly half of …

Etruscan Trade Networks: Understanding The Significance Of Imported Materials At Remote Etruscan Settlements Through Trace Element Analysis Using Non-Destructive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry, Patrick T. Woodruff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Etruscan civilization was rich in local and interregional trade. Its exchange networks were vital in establishing relationships with other societies, importing exotic materials and goods, as well as disseminating and assimilating information. However, there is little understanding of the participation of smaller inland settlements in the act of exchange. This research answers questions pertaining to the purpose of trade within these self-sustaining communities, the reliability of identifying geographic locations of the clay used in ancient ceramics through the use of non-destructive X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry without sampling current regional clay sources, and the materiality of the ceramics being exchanged …

Continuation In Us Foreign Policy: An Offensive Realist Perspective, Bledar Prifti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of US foreign policy that aims at maintaining its regional hegemonic status and preventing the emergence of another regional hegemon by implementing the offshore balancing strategy. US intervention during the 2003 Iraq War, strained US-Iran relationship, and the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in early 2014 compel a reevaluation of US foreign policy. Two major claims of this dissertation include: (1) US foreign policy is consistent with offensive realist theoretical claims; and (2) US foreign policy is characterized by continuity when it comes to issues related to America's strategic …

Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis Of Pottery At The Bayshore Homes Site In Pinellas County, Florida, Rachel Nostrom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Bayshore Homes site was occupied intermittently over a period of approximately twelve hundred years, with the two main occupation periods being CE 150-550 and CE 900-1350. During those lengthy occupations a substantial amount of plain and decorated pottery was discarded at the site. A portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer was utilized to analyze the elemental composition of 133 sherds, both decorated and plain. The resulting elemental composition data were then analyzed using multivariate statistics in an attempt to discern discrete clay sources that may have been exploited by inhabitants of the Bayshore Homes site. Principal component analysis (PCA) and …

"Wake Up The Knowledge That You Have": An Assessment Of Community Food Security In Fellsmere, Florida, Susan Marie Tyler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the global industrial agricultural system many people lack access to high-quality nutritious foods and food production techniques are often inefficient and reliant on harsh chemical inputs. While numerous strategies exist to address the disparities present in the global food system, increasingly researchers and practitioners are looking to local food systems for solutions to strengthen community food security (CFS). CFS emphasizes small-scale production strategies such as farmer's markets, community gardens, and consumer supported agriculture. As these efforts evolve, research is needed to understand how these strategies affect communities. To explore a local CFS initiative, qualitative data were collected from community …

Interpolating Beach Profile Data Using Linear And Non-Linear Functions, Lance Calloway Croft

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Beach and nearshore surveys are conducted in a variety of ways, the most commonly used being the level-and-transit method; because it is inexpensive, time conducive and highly accurate. Specifically, beach surveys are conducted to better understand cross-shore, long-shore sediment transport processes, as well as to quantify volume changes, which are used to evaluate beach performance. In this study, a section of the beach on Sand Key, FL was surveyed using rod-and-transit. In addition to the commonly used linear data analysis, a non-linear analysis was conducted using NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines).

Survey data was collected within a short time window …

Determining What Factors Affect Peoples' Perceptions Of The Use Of Reclaimed Water As A Source For Potable Water: A Study Within Hillsborough County, Florida, Susana Rebecca Alvarado Tricoche

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In response to water supply depletion challenges, countries such as Australia, the United States, and Namibia have implemented technologies that treat wastewater up to the standards permissible to use for irrigation, toilet flushing, and even drinking water. However, many of these countries have been unable to successfully implement some of their ambitious reclaimed water reuse projects due to negative public perceptions of recycling wastewater. The focus of this study was to understand which factors in risk perception theory are the most influential in shaping community perceptions of reclaimed water reuse as a future source of drinking water within Hillsborough County. …

Can Anyone With Low Income Be Food Secure?: Mitigating Food Insecurity Among Low Income Households With Children In The Tampa Bay Area, Edgar Allan Amador

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the US over the last few years, approximately 14.5% of households experience food insecurity at some point throughout the year. While studies on food insecurity in the US have determined that household income and specifically income available to spend on food is of critical importance to food security, it is still unclear why some households with low income are able to maintain food security while others experience food insecurity in a pattern characterized as not constant but recurrent. This dissertation compares households with children at different levels of food security and insecurity using the USDA Core Food Security Module …

Medical Pluralism In A Neoliberal State: Health And Deservingness In Southern Belize, Douglas Carl Reeser

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography explores the varied contours of a national health care system and how it is used in conjunction with traditional forms of health care in Toledo District, Belize, focused on the largest town of Punta Gorda (P.G.), In a medically plural environment, a variety of health care options are used based on a wide range of social, economic, and structural factors that shape people's choices and decisions. The convenience of and experience with low-cost home- and self-care options make these the most common first choice during an illness event in P.G., however a deeper exploration of health behavior reveals …

The Effects Of U.S. Middle East Foreign Policy On American Muslims: A Case Study Of Muslims In Tampa Bay, Mark G. Grzegorzewski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past thirteen years the United States has used military force against three different Muslim-majority nations. These conflicts have lead to the deaths of many Muslims, including many innocent civilians. Meanwhile, American Muslims have become conflicted about their identities as Muslims and Americans. However, this does not mean that they have become a fifth column within America. What it does mean is that they have felt anguish regarding the torment of their religious brethren, while at the same time retaining their American identity. Post-9/11, Muslim American groups have acknowledged their place in the racial ordering of America. Muslim Americans …

Inter-Organizational Social Network Information Systems: Diagnosing And Design, Matthew T. Mullarkey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While IS research into on-line Inter-Personal (IP) Social Networks (SN) is highly visible, there has been surprisingly little focus on the use of on-line social networks for Inter-Organizational (IO) communications, interactions, and goal achievement. We explore the issues and challenges facing organizations in their design and use of inter-organizational social network information systems (IO SNIS). Artifact design principles are drawn from a new and insightful model that contrasts the advantages of existing innovative inter-personal (IP) SNIS artifacts with Social Network Theory on differences between IP and IO Social Networks. This research extends the existing streams of IS social networking research …

Environment, Rights, And Waste In Bolivia: Addressing Water And Sanitation Processes For Improved Infrastructure, Maryann R. Cairns

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water and sanitation (WatSan) development projects impact both natural systems and societal structures where they are placed. A complex process of development, including inter-governmental policies, aid agencies, personal relationships, and community politics enhance and constrain the efficacy of these projects. This study presents the many ways in which the WatSan development process has unintended and unexpected returns for certain community groups. Using a political ecology framework, I look at power structures, perceived and projected environmental impacts, multiple stakeholders, and individual discourses to critique how the right to water and sanitation is implemented in a specific community context. This project advances …

The Rhetoric Of Corporate Identity: Corporate Social Responsibility, Creating Shared Value, And Globalization, Carolyn Day

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In today's global political and media climate, the stakes are high for corporations, local or otherwise, to create and maintain an `ethical' perception of not only their daily business activities and how they can benefit society or protect the environment, but also their enduring characteristics or `corporate identity' (Conrad, 2011) for numerous, sometimes conflicting stakeholder audiences (Cheney, 1983). This dissertation examines how such forms of `socially responsible' corporate identities are created and maintained through the use of persuasive language. In particular it examines the role and implications of rhetoric within the contexts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as well as …

The Reproductive Lives Of Chuukese Women: Transnationalism In Guam And Chuuk, Sarah Ann Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chuuk, one state of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), experiences significant transnational migration to the United States (U.S.), particularly to the Territory of Guam. This migration is facilitated by the Compact of Free Association (COFA), an agreement with several Micronesian countries previously under U.S. administration that allows for free movement of their citizens into the U.S. Although part of Micronesia, Guam's colonized residents resist an identity connected to rest of Micronesia. With very poor health outcomes, the Chuukese represent a political and social body of bodies that bring sickness, babies and increased costs to the Guam government without adequate …

Measuring The Adaptation Of Military Response During The Second Seminole War Florida (1835-1842): Kocoa And The Role Of A West Point Military Academy Education, Michelle Diane Sivilich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Conflict archaeology is a fairly new discipline and is in the process of defining its methods and theories. Recently, the American Battlefield Protection Program has started requiring that grant applicants perform a KOCOA analysis. KOCOA is a modern military technique and stands for Key terrain, Obstacle, Cover and Concealment, Observation, and Avenues of Approach. However, this method was developed for modern warfare, and its adoption by the archaeological community has not yet been analyzed. I argue that this method needs a few modifications to make it more applicable to historical research and that it can be broadened to investigate more …

An Evaluation Of The Use Of Composting Latrines And The Perceptions Of Excrement In Ngäbe Communities In Panama, Patricia Anna Marie Wilbur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Engineers are exploring a new paradigm in wastewater treatment; focus is shifting to the recovery and reuse of energy, water, and nutrients. Ecological sanitation (EcoSan) technologies, which allow for this recovery and reuse, are an environmentally sound option for the future of sanitation. While the technology to achieve this goal of recovery and reuse exists, a limiting factor is user attitudes and perceptions. Social sciences, especially anthropology, can and should inform engineering projects to ensure socio-cultural sustainability.

Since 2003, rural indigenous Ngäbe communities in Panama have been implementing ecological sanitation projects, mainly double vault urine diverting (DVUD) latrines known as …

An Assessment Of The Emas Pump And Its Potential For Use In Household Water Systems In Uganda, Jacob Daniel Carpenter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rural improved water supply coverage in Uganda has stagnated around 64% for a number of years and at this point more than 10 million rural people do not have access to an improved drinking water source. It has been recognized that progress toward improved water supply coverage and increased service levels may be gained through Government and nongovernmental organization (NGO) support of private investment in household and shared water supplies, commonly known as Self-supply. Self-supply can be promoted by introducing and building local capacity in appropriate and affordable water supply technologies such as hand-dug wells, manually drilled boreholes, low-cost pumps, …

Caribbean Traditions In Modern Choreographies: Articulation And Construction Of Black Diaspora Identity In L'Ag'ya By Katherine Dunham, Viktoria Tafferner-Gulyas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The interdisciplinary field of Dance Studies as a separate arena focusing on the social, political, cultural, and aesthetic aspects of human movement and dance emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Dance criticism integrated Dance Studies into the academy as critics addressed the social and cultural significance of dance. In particular, Jane Desmond created an integrated approach engaging dance history and cultural studies; in the framework of her findings, dance is read as a primary social text. She emphasizes that movement style is an important mode of distinction between social groups, serving as a marker for the production of …

Craniometric Ancestry Proportions Among Groups Considered Hispanic: Genetic Biological Variation, Sex-Biased Asymmetry, And Forensic Applications, Meredith L. Tise

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today, groups considered Hispanic in the United States consist of populations whose complex genetic structures reflect intermixed diverse groups of people who came in contact during Spanish colonization in Latin America. After coming in contact and wiping out most of the Native Americans who occupied North and Latin America, the Spanish also introduced West African individuals for labor to begin developing crops to be shipped back to Europe, resulting in the Trans-Atlantic African slave trade. These migration events and differential gene flow among males and females that occurred throughout Latin America have led to populations that have been genetically transformed …

Guaman Poma's Legacy: Snapshots Of Globalization, Identity, And Literacy Through The Urban Amazonian Indigenous Intellectual Lens, Roger Maurice Villamar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation initially utilizes the analogy of an Andean intellectual's magnum opus of resistant visual art and text created in the 1600s, to explore the impact of current global influences on the identity of Awajún and Wampís Amazonian students residing in Lima, the capital city of Perú. The participants in this study are urban Amazonian indigenous intellectuals applying to enter, currently studying in degree programs, or pursuing graduate degrees at local universities of Lima. Using an amalgamation of Photovoice and Photo-Elicitation components, digital photography, open-source applications, and computer technology, participants creatively expressed through their visual discourse what it means to …

Growing Children: The Relationship Between Food Insecurity And Child Growth And Development., Ernesto Ruiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined the relationship between food security status and cultural congruence and indicators of child growth and development in a rural mountain town in Costa Rica. Results show that children from food secure households are significantly shorter and shorter-legged than their food insecure counterparts. It is theorized that these findings correspond to low quality diets associated with increasing commodification of food systems in rural Costa Rica. Identity-based mechanisms are discussed as potential factors contributing to the increasing commodification of life through the encroachment of the global market economy.

I Did That Wrong And It Sounded Good: An Ethnographic Study Of Vernacular Music Making In Higher Education, Victor Ezquerra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine vernacular music making in higher education. The participants, undergraduate music education majors (N=23 for Fall, N=10 for Spring), were investigated throughout the course of the 2012-2013 academic year. A constructivist philosophical framework was applied and data were collected using several methodologies including participant observation, journals, interviews, and audiovisual and multimedia methods. Results showed that students were able to successfully learn, create, and share music in a vernacular manner. Participants took a pragmatic approach to making music. Furthermore, students engaged several aspects of music making they had not encountered in traditional music …