Digital Commons Network^™

A Descriptive Study Of Four Principals' Experiences In Leading, Lewis Curtwright

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this portraiture study is to describe four African-American principals'

experiences, in the context of their principal's role, with the interventions they championed in

meeting the needs of their struggling students. This research attempts to answer questions

concerning: What role did the four principals play in the targeted school reform? What

interventions did each principal introduce and what evidence of effects do they identify for each

one? How did each principal's values and beliefs affect what they chose to do? Framed within

Social Justice Theory (SJT), the study provides insight into how these respondents increased

student achievement …

Creating Community: A Qualitative Study To Identify Factors Impacting Community In A University Learning Community Cohort, Maura B. Denny

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the role of `community' within a university campus Learning Community (LC). With a cohort-based structure, an LC exists to enhance student learning through peer cooperation and participation, however the scope of what constitutes community within these cohorts is not currently understood. This study investigates the roles of individual reciprocity, communication, need, time, and physical environment in community building, utilizing qualitative interviews and observations of a 30 member LC over the course of two academic years and a four-week study abroad experience in Panama. Through this, the vital roles of the orientation period and programming staff are revealed …

Analytical Modeling, Perturbation Analysis And Experimental Characterization Of Guided Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors, Onursal Onen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, guided surface acoustic wave sensors were investigated theoretically and experimentally in detail for immunosensing applications. Shear horizontal polarized guided surface acoustic wave propagation for mass loading sensing applications was modeled using analytical modeling and characterized by perturbation analysis. The model verification was performed experimentally and a surface acoustic wave immunosensor case study was presented. The results of the immunosensing were also investigated using the perturbation analysis.

Guided surface acoustic wave propagation problem was investigated in detail for gravimetric (or mass loading) guided wave sensors, more specifically for immunosensors. The analytical model was developed for multilayer systems taking …

Shield Design For Maximum Deformation In Shape-Shifting Surfaces, Daniel Eduardo Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research presents the initial studies and results on shield design for Shape-Shifting Surfaces (SSSs) seeking maximum compression and maximum expansion of a unit-cell. Shape-Shifting Surfaces (SSSs) are multilayered surfaces that are able to change shape while maintaining their integrity as physical barriers. SSSs are composed of polygonal unit-cells, which can change side lengths and corner angles. These changes are made possible by each side and corner consisting of at least two different shields, or layers of material. As the layers undergo relative motion, the unit-cell changes shape. In order for the SSS to retain its effectiveness as a barrier, …

Pottery Production During The Late Horizon In The Huancabamba Valley, Cajamarca - Peru, Jose Luis Pena

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Elemental analysis of pottery sherds provided insights on the ceramic production in the Huancabamba Valley (northern highland-Peru) and the way in which the Incas administrate the provinces. The pottery sherds from six archaeological sites selected for elemental analysis indicated the use of similar clay sources in the manufacture of pottery. The production of ceramic vessels took place at the local level without the strict control of the Inca state. The Incas built administrative structures in the Huancabamba Valley in order to maintain control of their road system, which connected the north area of Peru to Ecuador. The ceramic assemblage recovered …

The Perspectives Of Graduate Students With Visual Disabilities: A Heuristic Case Study, Luis Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concept of liminality describes the experiences of individuals who live "between and betwixt" as a result of their indeterminate status in society. This concept seems appropriate to describe the experiences of people who live with vision loss, because we simultaneously belong to two social or cultural groups. On the one hand we must navigate the mainstream society in which we live day to day, which we are often able to do with the vision we have left. On the other hand, our disability sets us apart from that mainstream society. This idea of living in "between and betwixt" the …

Framing Colombian Women's Beliefs, Values And Attitude Towards Sex And Sexual High-Risk Behaviors, Rosa Ore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hispanic immigrants constitute the largest and fastest growing groups of minorities in the United States. According to the 2010 Census, there are 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States, making up 16.3% of the total population (Passel, Cohn & Lopez, 2011). Furthermore, the state of Florida is home to 4,223,806 Hispanics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Because the Hispanic population continues to grow, it is important to study their sexual health behaviors because diseases linked to risky sexual behaviors account for approximately 20,000 U.S. deaths each year, and are linked to a number of adverse reproductive outcomes (Abraido-Lanza, Chao, & Florez, …

Navigation And Immersion Of The American Identity In A Foreign Culture To Emergence As A Culturally Relative Ambassador, Lee H. Rosen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Globalization is forcing many American college students to re-evaluate their perspective on foreign travel. If they are offered an opportunity to improve their cultural relativity skill set by immersing themselves into a new culture, the more astute students might choose to embark on that journey especially if it would result in resume enhancement. This paper focuses upon a group of twelve community college students' cross-cultural experiences, navigation techniques, and adaptation methods as student interns teaching conversational English in Changchun, China for a period of nine to thirteen weeks in spring 2011. Several areas of interest emerged from their experiences …

From Zaire To The Drc: A Case Study Of State Failure, Adam Zachariah Trautman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The issue of state failure within the international system has been a perplexing phenomenon in our increasingly mobile and modern society. The question of why some states succeed in developing into strong states within the international environment and why some fail is a question often overlooked. The focus of this thesis will be on three key factors that contribute towards state failure. The research will show how these three key factors: outdated state infrastructure, lack of economic development, and external intervention contribute to the occurrence of this phenomenon. Analyzing these key factors will highlight how state failure occurs within a …

Interdisciplinary Collaboration For Youth Mental Health: A National Study, Audra St. John Walsh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Collaboration between school- and community-based mental health professionals has the potential to result in early identification of and intervention for youth with mental health problems; however, the limited research in this area suggests that collaboration does not often occur between these professionals (Walsh, 2011). The purpose of this investigation was to collect survey data from a national sample of school psychologists in order to examine the collaborative practices of school psychologists and community-based mental health professionals on behalf of youth with mental health problems. Survey data from 327 members of 11 professional state organizations of school psychology were collected and …

Predicting Academic Outcomes For Third Grade Students: Examining The Reading Achievement Of Diverse Students Using The Diagnostic Lens Of The Dynamic Indicators Of Basic Early Literacy Skills, Zhivago Trevino Adderley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the billions of dollars spent in the last forty years, America's efforts toward closing the achievement gaps among diverse learners and their receptive counterparts have not been realized. Limitations noted in previous research discussed the need to examine the unique contributions of diverse learner variables as a way of determining their specific academic needs. The purpose of this study was to examine the intra- and inter-group growth trajectories of two diverse student groups (English Language Learners and Students with Specific Learning Disabilities) on reading achievement. The study employed a longitudinal, quasi-experimental research design utilizing archival data from 26,947 students' …

The Effect Of Hostile And Benevolent Sexism On Women's Cardiovascular Reactivity To And Recovery From A Laboratory Stressor, Kaleena Dennielle Burgess

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hostile sexism is the antipathetic expression of sexism, in which men are antagonistic towards women who threaten their superiority. Benevolent sexism is the patriarchal expression of sexism, where men express protective, yet restrictive, attitudes towards women. Both forms of sexism originate from the view that women are inferior, frail, and only suited for nurturing or domestic responsibilities. Benevolent sexism may be more harmful to women because coping is thwarted by observers' underestimation of its effects (Bosson, Pinel, & Vandello, 2009). The present study aimed to examine women's responses to and recovery from hostile and benevolent sexism utilizing measures of cardiovascular …

Referral Tracking Pilot And Referral Outcome Rates For The School Health Program In Panama, Jesica Eileen Candanedo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: The School Health Program (SHP) in the Republic of Panama includes preventive healthcare services delivery and referral issuing at elementary schools nationwide. Despite these early prevention efforts, a majority of referrals are apparently not achieving their desired outcome. This idea is supported by the SHP data showing preventable diseases on the rise. Thus, learning the outcome rates of particular referral outcomes may provide a basis for appropriately targeted action.

Methods: Three focus groups were conducted with health workers, medical records staff, and teachers, respectively. Following systems thinking and framework analysis, a pilot plan for referral tracking and referral outcome …

Variance In Faking In High-Stakes Personality Assessment As An Indication Of Job Knowledge, Timothy Ryan Dullaghan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the personality trait elevation between honest and applicant contexts that has been widely seen throughout the personality and selection research is merely universal, blatant trait elevation, or whether something else is underlying this faking behavior. By obtaining both honest and applicant context personality responses in which respondents were provided with focal job knowledge, this study determined that while there is near-universal trait elevation across seven personality traits, there is, in fact, some trait differentiation between jobs. As such, this study provided some evidence of knowledgeable faking, defined as distortion of personality …

The Effect Of Stealth Advertising In Newscasts On Viewers' Recall, Fany Georgieva

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Product placement, also referred to as stealth advertising, raises important questions when it comes to television because a far larger audience views television than movies. Product placement in newscasts is even more controversial. Television news is expected to be free of persuasive attempts and provide citizens with basic information that is of public importance. Yet, product placement blurs the line between journalism and commercial promotion, thus destroying the integrity of the news.

Product placement in newscasts raises ethical questions about the effect it has on viewers, provided that they do not realize that they are presented with commercials, framed as …

Knowledge, Involvement And Emergency Preparedness, Season Groves

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research formed a descriptive frame of the current levels of emergency preparedness and applied Hallahan's Issues Processes Model to examine the relationship between knowledge, involvement, and emergency preparedness among the participants. The variables were measured in the context of self-perception. The research method involved a survey of students who are just becoming responsible for their personal emergency preparedness. The results suggest that students lack overall emergency preparedness measures and show that self-perceived knowledge is positively related to self-perceived emergency preparedness. Yet, higher self-perceived knowledge is negatively related to actual emergency preparedness actions. Thus, the more knowledgeable the participants believed …

Hearing And Echolocation In Stranded And Captive Odontocete Cetaceans, Danielle Greenhow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Odontocetes use echolocation to detect, track, and discriminate their prey, as well as negotiate their environment. Their hearing abilities match the frequency of greatest sensitivity to the higher frequencies used for foraging and navigation. Hearing and echolocation together provide odontocetes with a highly developed biosonar system. This dissertation examines the hearing ability of several odontocete species to understand what signals they can perceive during echolocation. The variability in hearing ranges between species is examined in the context of phylogenetic and ecological differences among taxa. An autonomous hydrophone array is also developed that could be used in an expanded form in …

Teacher Perspectives On The Instructional Impact Of The Florida Alternate Assessment, Katherine Hawley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined special education teachers' perspectives of the instructional impact of the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA) for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Through purposeful sampling, six special education teachers who serve students with significant cognitive disabilities and had experience administering the FAA were identified. Interviews posed questions about how they used the FAA to impact their instructional decision-making, how the FAA has influenced how the development of Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals, and how the FAA impacted how they defined access to the general education curriculum. The interviews, along with IEP artifacts, and a research journal formed the research …

"All Blacks Vote The Same?": Assessing Predictors Of Black American Political Participation And Partisanship, Antoine Lennell Jackson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The politics of Blacks are stereotypically assumed to be the same and share the same race-based root, be it disenfranchisement or solidarity. Given the recent jump in Black political participation and the seemingly race-based and partisan nature "the Black vote" holds, it is essential to investigate what factors drive Black voter turnout as well as what factors contribute to the partisan nature of Black voters. Most other studies of political opinion, turnout, and party preference only consider comparable demographic groups such as men versus women or Blacks versus Whites. This study examines partisan preference and participation only among Black Americans. …

The Relationship Between High School Coaches' Beliefs About Sports Injury And Prevention Practice Readiness, Siwon Jang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although sports and other forms of physical activities are associated with numerous health benefits, adolescent sports injury has emerged as an important public health problem. As the most immediate caregivers for athletes, coaches are expected to play an important role in preventing and reducing injuries, -considering that sports medical staff, such as athletic trainers are not always available to care for athletes. However, research on coaches' beliefs and practices related to injury prevention has been limited to coaching competency issues, in which injury prevention is considered only one component. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to describe the coaches' …

Framing Violence: The Hidden Suffering And Healing Of Sudan's 'Lost Girls' In Cairo, Egypt, Ginger Ann Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the specific forms of embodied suffering war and its refugee aftermath brings to female Sudanese refugees currently living in post-revolution Cairo, Egypt in order to illustrate the suffering and healing enacted within everyday life. These women, displaced from the Second Sudanese Civil War, are what I label Sudan's `Lost Girls.' The theoretical framework I employ in order to discuss their lives is a critical medical anthropology perspective based on the mindful body. I engage anthropological literature on the body in order to better understand the embodied suffering, sexual violence, and refugee aftermath of war. My research seeks …

Playing In Trelis Weyr: Investigating Collaborative Practices In A Dragons Of Pern Role-Play-Game Forum, Kathleen Marie Alley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive case study examined adolescents' and emerging adults' literate and social practices within the context of a role-play-game (RPG) forum, investigating the ways participants read and collaboratively composed within this space. As a researcher, I was interested in how this space functioned and how the interactions between members impacted their composing processes, with particular attention to the role of online spaces and popular culture in adolescents' motivation to engage in this forum. This study was guided by three research questions: (1) In what ways is Trelis Weyr, an RPG forum, organized as a virtual environment?; (2) In what ways, …

Factors Predicting Pap Smear Adherence In Hiv-Infected Women: Using The Health Belief Model, Crystal L. Chapman Lambert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus are at increased risk for developing cervical cancer. Current guidelines reflect that Pap smears should be performed twice during the first year after diagnosis with HIV and annually thereafter. However, women with HIV are not obtaining Pap smears per the current guidelines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate HIV-infected women's attitudes toward cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening. The research design is an exploratory, cross-sectional, quantitative design. The sample of convenience consisted of participants recruited from two ambulatory HIV clinics in Florida. Attitudes were assessed using Champion's Health Belief Model and …

"They Come, But They Don't Spend As Much Money": Livelihoods, Dietary Diversity, Food Security, And Nutritional Status In Two Roatan Communities In The Wake Of Global Crises In Food Prices And Finance, Racine Marcus Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This dissertation explores the associations between recent global crises in staple food prices and finance and the following aspects of life in two communities on the island of Roatàn, Islas de La Bahia (Bay Islands), Honduras: household livelihoods; food commoditization; dietary diversity; food security; and nutritional status. The aims of this study are: ) assess the geographic and economic source(s) of foods consumed by two different communities on Roatàn; b) discover how the most recent economic and food crises have affected foodways and nutrition on Roatàn; c) assess how these crises have affected economic growth of the tourism sector …

Cruising For Culture: Mass Tourism And Cultural Heritage On Roatàn Island, Honduras, Melanie Nichole Coughlin Depcinski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between mass tourism and heritage tourism in the construction and perpetuation of histories and identities of local stakeholders on Roatàn Island, Honduras. I explore how identity is constructed by and through the tourism industry, and how much of the agency in forming identity and telling cultural stories resides in the hands of key stakeholders involved in the development of tourism on the island. Local cultural stories that focus on the people who live and have lived on the island for centuries are becoming increasingly silenced by a more commoditized, tourism driven, picture of life on …

Physicians As Gatekeepers: Uncovering Barriers And Facilitators To Participation In A Prostate Cancer Prevention Intervention Clinical Trial, Theresa T. Crocker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clinical trials play an important role in advancing therapeutic and preventive care with many current modalities resulting from prior research. While prior research has described barriers to participation in therapeutic clinical trials, much less in known about barriers related to participation in trials aimed at prevention, prostate cancer prevention in particular. Physicians have been shown to play a critical role in access to trials; however, less is known about the individual and structural factors that influence their participation in prostate cancer prevention trials. This research provides rich ethnographic detail within the context of an ongoing trial. Research participants included physician/investigators …

More Than Feeding: Lived Experiences Of Low-Income Women Receiving Lactation Support, Emily Anne Dunn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing breastfeeding duration, especially among low-income women, has become a national public health priority. These mothers and their babies have less equitable access to support, resources, and the health benefits of breastfeeding. This thesis examines breastfeeding from a biocultural perspective with a focus on political economy, embodiment, and human rights. This research explores the lived experiences of new mothers who receive services from a community non-profit lactation support program which is aimed at providing in-home postpartum breastfeeding support to low-income/at-risk mothers. Evaluation of program services and analysis of women's narratives will provide insight into improvement of lactation services for all …

Embodying Social Practice: Dynamically Co-Constituting Social Agency, Brian W. Dunst

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Theories of cognition and theories of social practices and institutions have often each separately acknowledged the relevance of the other; but seldom have there been consistent and sustained attempts to synthesize these two areas within one explanatory framework. This is precisely what my dissertation aims to remedy. I propose that certain recent developments and themes in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, when understood in the right way, can explain the emergence and dynamics of social practices and institutions. Likewise, the view I construct explains how social practices and institutions shape the character of cognition of their constituent agents. Moreover, …

Illegitimate Tasks And Employee Well-Being: A Daily Diary Study, Erin Eatough

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on an occupational stressor that has been recently introduced to the literature, illegitimate tasks, or tasks that seem unreasonable or unnecessary at work. Previous work has demonstrated the relationship between illegitimate tasks and a narrow set of discrete emotions as well as negative employee performance behaviors. The current research contributes to the literature by expanding the nomological network associated with illegitimate tasks and uses a rigorous daily diary methodology in a full-time working sample. It was expected that illegitimate tasks reduce state levels of self-esteem as well as other employee well-being indicators including anger, depressive mood, fatigue, …

Marginalized African American Grandmothers Raising Their School-Aged Grandsons: Perspectives On Parental Involvement, Felita Grant Lott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Literature suggests strong, positive and mutual relationships between home and school lead to higher levels of success and achievement for students. Schools should begin to focus on being more aware and sensitive to the cultural and social wealth that marginalized families carry. When institutions of learning begin to tap into and embrace the strengths of their families, it is likely to be of mutual benefit for the students, staff and families. Utilizing qualitative research methodology, this study sought to understand African American grandmothers' perspectives on parental involvement, and identify strategies that supported, maintained, and facilitated their involvement in the educational …