Digital Commons Network^™

The Relationship Between Ambient Lighting Color And Hotel Bar Customer Purchase Behavior And Satisfaction, Kunal Shah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly competitive markets lead brand managers to search for new methods to improve customer satisfaction, increase revenue, and promote customer loyalty. Sensory marketing has the potential to meet those objectives. Sensory marketing programs are designed to engage consumers’ senses and affect perceptions, judgments, and behaviors. Ambient light color is an environmental variable with the potential to influence the customer experience in lodging industry sensory marketing programs. Contrast theory and disconfirmation of expectations served as the theoretical framework for this study. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to examine the relationships between ambient light color, consumer spending, and perceptions …

Learning In The Margins: The Educational Experiences Of An African American Male With Disabilities, Aisha Holmes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African American males with disabilities meet challenges in K-12 public education and higher education. Educational practices often focus on a deficit interpretation of the abilities of African American males with disabilities. Educational stakeholders who do not reflect their layered identities of race, gender, ability, and socioeconomic status often make educational decisions for this student population. The purpose of this study is to include in the educational conversations the voice of an African American male with disabilities who experienced K-12 public education and higher education. Using narrative inquiry and analyzed through the lens of DisCrit, findings from the study revealed two …

An Examination Of The Progressive And Regressive Factors That Business Owners Consider When Choosing Whether Or Not To Implement An Exit Strategy, David C. Pickard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this dissertation is to examine the progressive and regressive factors that affect a small business owner’s decision to implement an exit strategy. An exit strategy can be defined as an entrepreneur's strategic plan to sell his or her investment in a company he or she has controlling interest in. An exit strategy gives a business owner a way to reduce or eliminate his or her stake in the business and, if the business is successful, make a substantial profit. Exiting a business is a complicated process which includes among other things, the evaluation, preparation, marketing, and ultimate …

The Effects Of Using Textual Enhancement On Processing And Learning Multiword Expressions, Adel Zain Alshaikhi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multiword Expressions (MWEs) are crucial aspects of language use. Second language (L2) learners need to master these MWEs to be able to communicate effectively. In addition, mastering these MWEs helps L2 learners improve their cognitive processing of language input. In this study, my primary objectives were to explore the effectiveness of using Textual Enhancement (TE) to assist L2 speakers’ comprehension of MWEs, to explore whether there is a difference in comprehension between collocations and idioms, and finally, to explore how L2 speakers transact the MWEs’ meanings as presented in texts.

While several researchers have explored how input enhancement in general …

One University’S Response To Sections 504 And 508 Of The Rehabilitation Act: A Descriptive Case Study Of Policy Design, Kimberly F. Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pioneering legislation such as Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, and the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 have increased attention to the needs of individuals with disabilities. These regulations require that public programs and services are accessible to people with disabilities (Griffin, 2004).

This descriptive case study examines policy design to conform with Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 at a public research university through the lens of Bolman and Deal’s four frames of organizational analysis. These …

An Analysis Of The Self-Perceptions Of Women Leaders In Higher Education, Angela Mclendon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to (a) investigate perceptions of women administrators in higher education as they relate to their positions and (b) learn more about women’s perceptions as they relate to gender in leadership in higher education. and (c) determine where we need to go from here in terms of improvement. Investigating these issues in the 21st century will give us a current temperature and a snapshot of where we are and where we need to go from here as it relates to women leaders in higher education.

The focus of this study was women who are administrators …

A Study On The Adaptability Of Immune System Principles To Wireless Sensor Network And Iot Security, Vishwa Alaparthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Network security has always been an area of priority and extensive research. Recent years have seen a considerable growth in experimentation with biologically inspired techniques. This is a consequence of our increased understanding of living systems and the application of that understanding to machines and software. The mounting complexity of telecommunications networks and the need for increasing levels of security have been the driving factor. The human body can act as a great role model for its unique abilities in protecting itself from external, foreign entities. Many abnormalities in the human body are similar to that of the attacks in …

Perceived Roles Of Academic Advisors In Pursuing Internationalization At Public State And Community Colleges In Florida, Tony W. Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study investigated the perceptions of academic advisors in the Florida College System (FCS) concerning globalization, internationalization, and their role in the process of internationalizing their colleges. Participants in the study included 54 academic advisors from 15 of the 28 colleges in the FCS. The sample was comprised primarily of female advisors with master’s degrees, who had been working in higher education for less than 13 years. This was a nonexperimental, quantitative study and analyses included descriptive statistics, ordinary least squares regression, and Pearson’s product moment correlations.

The results revealed that the responding advisors believe that globalization is inevitable …

Moffitt Cancer Center: Leadership, Culture And Transformation, W. James Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purpose – The purpose of this project was to extrapolate knowledge of successful leadership practices, determine what led to and nurtured what became an integrated organizational culture and identify any decisions and/or transformational events that re-defined Moffitt Cancer Center’s (MCC) course or helped propel it to levels far beyond what was originally imagined. The aims of this study were discovery of the foundational factors and events that significantly impacted the creation, growth and evolution of the center, making MCC an institution of transformational change that had achieved state and national prominence.

Design – This was an exploratory study guided by …

Investigating The Roles Of Fucosylation And Calcium Signaling In Melanoma Invasion, Tyler S. Keeley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. Prognosis for early stage melanoma patients is excellent, and surgery is often curative for these patients. However, once patients have presented with invasive disease, the average 5-year survival rate drops significantly from over 90% to between 10 and 15%. Several therapies have been developed to target a commonly mutated oncogene BRAF, or its downstream effectors. Unfortunately, while these treatments show robust initial response, most patients relapse within a year. Moreover, therapy-resistant tumors are often more invasive and metastatic. Therefore, it is important to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma invasion and metastasis, …

Early Identification Of Students In Accelerated Curricula With Signs Of Academic And Emotional Risk: Working With Teachers To Identify At-Risk Students, Elizabeth D. Storey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As part of a comprehensive, multi-tiered system of support for students’ emotional, academic, and behavioral success, effective universal screenings are essential to identify students who may benefit from early intervention and targeted prevention services (Strein, Kuhn-McKearin, & Finney, 2014). Although many screening procedures and methods have been developed and evaluated for general education populations, more research is needed on screening procedures designed for one traditionally underserved population in school-based mental health services—students in accelerated curricula (namely, students in Advanced Placement classes or in the International Baccalaureate program; AP/IB). When teachers are involved in universal screening procedures, regardless of student population …

The Conceptualization Of Justice Perceptions In Appraising Performance Of Knowledge Work, Christina (Minuth) Norton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizational justice theory suggests employees are more likely to accept appraisal outcomes if they believe the process to be fair. As an increasing percentage of the workforce is made up of knowledge workers with job characteristics that are less structured and more autonomous, the shift in appraisal research from measurement accuracy to perceptions on fairness is fitting. This research investigates the relationships between justice perceptions and performance appraisal satisfaction by knowledge workers. The study extends previous research with the creation of composite measures to examine whether perceptions of fairness vary according to the characteristics of work performed.

The research was …

Students’ Opportunity To Learn Surface Area And Volume In Middle Grades Mathematics Textbooks, Sofia Hatziminadakis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I conducted a content analysis to examine the treatment of the surface area and volume concepts within four published middle-grades mathematics textbook series. In particular, I examined the treatment of the surface area and volume concepts in terms of the location of surface area and volume lessons in the textbook and the number of pages and lessons devoted to these concepts. I also investigated the sequence of the instructional blocks of surface area and volume lessons. In addition, I evaluated the tasks included in these lessons in regards to the performance expectations of students, the types of visual representations of …

Essential Leadership Skills For Frontline Managers In A Multicultural Organization, Janelle Ward

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory research examined the leadership skills essential for frontline managers to be effective in a multicultural organization. The purpose was to inform company management of vital skills to include in a new leadership development program (LDP) initiative. The literature review revealed that a list of commonly accepted leadership skills does not exist. This research gap is even greater for multicultural environments. In addition to developing a list of skills, I assessed the impact of situational factors, including the scenario and demographics of the people involved, on perceived critical leadership skills.

I conducted a survey within the company of interest …

The Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uass) Industry And The Business Impacts Of The Evolution Of The Federal Regulatory Environment, Darren W. Spencer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the explosion of popularity of UASs, and the recognition that such systems must find a way to safely operate alongside manned aviation, a literature review by this author as well as interviews with three commercial aerial photography companies in Tampa Bay, Florida, indicate that regulatory restrictions are still the greatest obstacle to law abiding commercial UAS operators. It can take six to eight months with a backlog of 12,000 waiver applications to get either a Part 333 or Part 107 exemption, which grants FAA permission for a commercial operator to fly a UAS inside controlled airspace (Gardner, 2018). A …

Multilayer Dielectric Rod Waveguide And Dielectric Rod Antenna With Enhanced Performance, Denise C. Lugo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents first a comprehensive study of the design and performance of a multilayer dielectric rod waveguide (DRW) with rectangular cross-section. The design is comprised of a high permittivity core encased by a low permittivity cladding. A modal analysis of the multilayer DRW with a 2:1 core aspect ratio is presented and a mathematical model is proposed to characterize the fundamental mode cutoff frequency in terms of the core and cladding permittivity and the core dimensions. The explicit nature of the model is useful for design and it offers an excellent match to the full-wave EM simulation data. The …

Patient Experiences And Satisfaction With Homeopathic Treatment In Pune, India, Asmita R. Mhaskar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Global populations are increasingly pursuing Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) as safe, holistic options to attain health and wellness. Homeopathy is one such system of medicine whose demand is growing across the world, with maximum users in India. Yet, patient satisfaction and experiences with Homeopathy have not been addressed comprehensively in India.

Methods: A two-phase, mixed-methods study was designed to assess patient satisfaction and patient experiences with Homeopathic medicines and clinics in Pune, India. Phase I included the design and validation of a survey on Homeopathy specific experiences in English and Marathi for collecting data. Phase II employed a …

The Spectacle Of The Bomb: Rhetorical Analysis Of Risk Of The Nevada Test Site In Technical Communication, Popular Press, And Pop Culture, Tiffany Wilgar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a rhetorical analysis of presentations of risk across three different sites of inquiry: technical communication, the popular press, and pop culture. This dissertation focuses on The Nevada Test Site (NTS), a nuclear testing facility near Las Vegas, Nevada, and analyzes presentations of risk in language of the technical report following an NTS accident in December 1970. Project Baneberry, a routine underground nuclear test, became the accident known as "The Baneberry Vent" when it cracked through the earth and vented into the atmosphere, exposing NTS employees and nearby communities to radiation. Presentations of risk in the technical document …

Demonstration Of Monolithic-Silicon Carbide (Sic) Neural Devices, Evans K. Bernardin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Brain Machine Interfaces (BMI) provide a communication pathway between the electrical conducting units of the brain (neurons) and external devices. BMI technology may provide improved neurological and physiological functions to patients suffering from disabilities due to damaged nervous systems. Unfortunately, microelectrodes used in Intracortical Neural Interfaces (INI), a subset of the BMI device family, have yet to demonstrate long-term in vivo performance due to material, mechanical and electrical failures. Many state-of-the-art INI devices are constructed using stacks of multiple materials, such as silicon (Si), titanium (Ti), platinum (Pt), parylene C, and polyimide. Not only must each material tolerate the biological …

A Secure Computing Platform For Building Automation Using Microkernel-Based Operating Systems, Xiaolong Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Building Automation System (BAS) is a complex distributed control system that is widely deployed in commercial, residential, industrial buildings for monitoring and controlling mechanical/electrical equipment. Through increasing industrial and technological advances, the control components of BAS are becoming increasingly interconnected. Along with potential benefits, integration also introduces new attack vectors, which tremendous increases safety and security risks in the control system. Historically, BAS lacks security design and relies on physical isolation and "security through obscurity". These methods are unacceptable with the "smart building" technologies. The industry needs to reevaluate the safety and security of the current building automation system, and …

Enhancing The Design Of A Cybersecurity Risk Management Solution For Communities Of Trust, James E. Fulford Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research into cybersecurity risks and various methods of evaluating those threats has become an increasingly important area of academic and practitioner investigations. Of particular interest in this field is enhancing the designs and informing capabilities of cybersecurity risk management solutions for users who desire to understand how organizations are impacted when such risks are exploited. Many of the cybersecurity risk management solutions are extremely technical and require their users to have a commensurate level of technical acumen. In the situation evaluated during this research project, the founders of the company being researched had created a highly technical risk management solution …

Including Children With Learning Differences: Experiences Of Independent School Teachers, Lisa M. Lockhart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are various types of private schools. This study focused on independent prep schools termed as “British style” (Cooper, 1988 p.19). These select, independent prep schools have a long and distinguished history in the United States. Many, if not all of these schools, have stringent admissions requirements. However, due to special considerations given to certain constituencies (siblings, children of alumni, etc.) there are times when students who are accepted to the schools may display learning or behavioral characteristics that are incongruent with the original mission of the school. In addition, sometimes learning and/or social issues do not present themselves in …

Intercultural Communication Between International Military Organizations; How Do You Turn A ‘No’ Into A ‘Yes’?, Douglas A. Straka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on both the discovery and analysis of individual elements that define the interaction between dissimilar militaries during communication. This will provide a greater understanding as to how (and how much) intercultural communications factors help or hinder collaboration between differing governments and their military officials. This greater understanding may provide insight that would provide collaborators the opportunity to improve their negotiating performance based on both increased effectiveness and efficiency.

Previous literature informing this research included expatriate adaptation to foreign cultures, power distance, sensemaking theory, intercultural communication. These provided foundations to use phenomenological methods to explore intercultural communication effectiveness. …

Heart Rate Variability Analysis As A Means Of Real-Time Hypercapnia Detection, Joseph Dituri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The motivation for this research is the high prevalence experienced by divers of carbon dioxide (CO₂) issues and concerns throughout their lives. Additionally, CO₂ is naturally occurring, the product of oxidative metabolism, and is undetectable to human senses. Current CO₂ sensor or detection technology is limited to high-cost machines such as arterial blood gas monitors and end tidal CO₂ monitors, or more modern technology relying upon bright lights which measure blood flow. The light technology is notoriously unreliable and does not produce a very effective heart beat allowing a user to detect minimal changes. Heart …

Message Received? The Relationship Between Graphic Warning Labels, Message Framing, And Psychological Responses Among Smokers, John B. Correa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: This study was designed to evaluate the effects of graphic components and message content on daily smokers’ responses to cigarette pack warning labels. It was hypothesized that graphic warning labels (GWLs) would produce increases in state psychological reactance, that loss-framed messages would generate increases in risk perception and psychological reactance, and that GWLs and gain-framed messages would interact to generate increases in motivation to quit smoking when compared to the GWL/loss-framed condition. It was also hypothesized that trait reactance, smoking behavior, and baseline motivation to quit smoking would moderate effects of the warning label exposures.

Method: In a within-subjects …

On The Feasibility Of Profiling, Forecasting And Authenticating Internet Usage Based On Privacy Preserving Netflow Logs, Soheil Sarmadi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding Internet user behavior and Internet usage patterns is fundamental in developing future access networks and services that meet technical as well as Internet user needs. User behavior is routinely studied and measured, but with different methods depending on the research discipline of the investigator, and these disciplines rarely cross. We tackle this challenge by developing frameworks that the Internet usage statistics used as the main features in understanding Internet user behaviors, with the purpose of finding a complete picture of the user behavior and working towards a unified analysis methodology. In this dissertation we collected Internet usage statistics via …

Quantifying The Probability Of Lethal Injury To Florida Manatees Given Characteristics Of Collision Events., B. Lynn Combs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wherever wildlife share space with boaters, collisions are a potential source of mortality. Establishing protection and speed zones are the primary actions taken to mitigate collision risk. However, creation of protection zones may be a point of contention with stakeholders as new zones can have significant socioeconomic impacts. The Florida Manatee is a prime example of a species whose abundance and viability are constrained by this balance between the needs of humans and wildlife on a shared landscape. The goal of this work is to help further understand the risk to manatees by quantifying the probability of lethal collisions. I …

Smart Start For Trauma: A Multiple Baseline Design, Sarah E. Dickinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to address gaps in the trauma treatment literature related to the expense and inaccessibility of evidence-based interventions for children with disabilities who have experienced trauma. Another aim of this study was to provide additional support for a newly piloted intervention for children with disabilities who have experienced trauma. This intervention is known as Smart Start: Parenting Tools for Children with Developmental Delay, Social-Emotional Concerns, and Trauma. A non-concurrent multiple baseline method was used to determine whether there was a functional relationship between the intervention and children’s challenging behaviors for five caregiver-child dyads. In addition, …

Evaluating The Use Of Larval Connectivity Information In Fisheries Models And Management In The Gulf Of Mexico, Michael Drexler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Connectivity is a major contributor to the overall dynamics of marine populations. However, it still remains challenging to describe connectivity on ecologically meaningful scales of time and space. This is a major impediment to evaluating the impacts of marine protected area with respect to fisheries management objectives.

This dissertation brings together a wide array of spatial and connectivity information in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) with the goal of 1) understanding the spatial distribution of fish populations and source-sink dynamics and 2) evaluating whether this information can be integrated, through a modeling framework, to identify closed areas that could be …

A Collaborative Electronic Behavior Assessment System (Eba): Validation And Evaluation Of Feasibility, Carlos E. Silvestre

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study validated and evaluated the feasibility of a web-based electronic behavior assessment system, ‘eBA’, designed to facilitate collaboration between caregivers and service providers (behavior analysts) in conducting indirect functional behavior assessment (FBA). In Phase 1, the content and the web architecture of the eBA were validated and refined through a formative evaluation by five behavior analysts. In Phase 2, the eBA system was pilot tested with 10 service providers and 10 caregivers using a post-test only control group design to examine the efficiency and quality of the system and identify the levels of satisfaction with the system by the …