Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of Undeclared Students' Expectations Of Experiences For Faculty Interactions And Co-Curricular Involvement, Lorie Anne Kittendorf

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student persistence and achievement are areas of significant concern for institutions of higher education. With national college graduation rates hovering in the 50% range, it is important for colleges and universities to understand which student characteristics and campus environments lead to greater success, as well as the expectations students have of the college experience.

Research on undeclared students is vast and dates back more than 70 years, and many of the seminal studies and respected research data have led to the perception that they are at higher risk of attrition and have lower levels of academic achievement than their declared …

A Spatially Explicit Agent Based Model Of Muscovy Duck Home Range Behavior, James Howard Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Research in GIScience has identified agent-based simulation methodologies as effective in the study of complex adaptive spatial systems (CASS). CASS are characterized by the emergent nature of their spatial expressions and by the changing relationships between their constituent variables and how those variables act on the system's spatial expression over time. Here, emergence refers to a CASS property where small-scale, individual action results in macroscopic or system-level patterns over time. This research develops and executes a spatially-explicit agent based model of Muscovy Duck home range behavior. Muscovy duck home range behavior is regarded as a complex adaptive spatial system …

Team-Teaching Experiences Of A Mathematician And A Mathematics Teacher Educator: An Interpretative Phenomenological Case Study, Sarah K. Bleiler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, experts and organizations involved in mathematics education have emphasized the importance of collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics teacher educators as a means of improving the professional preparation of mathematics teachers. While several such collaborative endeavors have been documented in the extant literature, most research reports have focused on the products, rather than the process, of collaboration. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological case study is to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of a mathematician and a mathematics teacher educator as they engaged in a team-teaching collaboration within the context of prospective secondary mathematics teacher preparation. …

Crystal Engineering Of Multi-Component Crystal Forms: The Opportunities And Challenges In Design, Heather Dawn Marie Clarke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is heightened interest to diversify the range of crystal forms exhibited by active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the pharmaceutical industry. The crystal form can be regarded as the Achilles' heel in the development of an API as it directly impacts the physicochemical properties, performance and safety of the API. This is of critical importance since the crystal form is the preferred method of oral drug delivery by industry and regulatory bodies. The ability to rationally design materials is a lucrative avenue towards the synthesis of functional molecular solids with customized physicochemical properties such as solubility, bioavailability and stability. Pharmaceutical …

Functional Magnetic Nanoparticles, James Gass

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nanoparticle system research and characterization is the focal point of this research and dissertation. In the research presented here, magnetite, cobalt, and ferrite nanoparticle systems have been explored in regard to their magnetocaloric effect (MCE) properties, as well as for use in polymer composites. Both areas of study have potential applications across a wide variety of interdisciplinary fields.

Magnetite nanoparticles have been successfully dispersed in a polymer. The surface chemistry of the magnetic nanoparticle proves critical to obtaining a homogenous and well separated high density dispersion in PMMA. Theoretical studies found in the literature have indicated that surface interface energy …

A Case Study Of Perspectives On Building School And Community Partnerships, Myrna Lee Hogue

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A strong partnership between a school and the surrounding community leads to school success. Schools can be more successful with community involvement and engagement than if functioning in isolation. Community engagement leads to greater academic achievement of students.

Utilizing qualitative case study methods, this study focused on the perspective of school and community partners on building relationships. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain selected participants' perspectives on how a school builds partnerships with the community. I studied the relationship between an elementary school and community partners that have been in existence for at least three years …

Interrogating Grenadian Masculinities And Violence Against Women: An Evaluation Of The United Nations Partnership For Peace Program, Rohan Dexter Jeremiah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This applied anthropology study, guided by a feminist perspective and in particular, Black Feminist Thought is an outgrowth of an evaluation study of the Partnership for Peace Program (PFP) in Grenada, West Indies. The PFP is a Caribbean-specific model that was built into a sixteen-week cycle program by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UNWomen). Since 2005, the PFP has been geared towards Grenadian men, who have used violence against women to express their masculine identities. PFP focuses exclusively on rehabilitating male perpetrators with a goal to protect the human rights of women. This research …

Algorithms For Visual Maritime Surveillance With Rapidly Moving Camera, Sergiy Fefilatyev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Visual surveillance in the maritime domain has been explored for more than a decade. Although it has produced a number of working systems and resulted in a mature technology, surveillance has been restricted to the port facilities or areas close to the coastline assuming a fixed-camera scenario. This dissertation presents several contributions in the domain of maritime surveillance. First, a novel algorithm for open-sea visual maritime surveillance is introduced. We explore a challenging situation with a camera mounted on a buoy or other floating platform. The developed algorithm detects, localizes, and tracks ships in the field of view of the …

Electronic Peer Feedback In A Collaborative Classroom, Cassandra A. Branham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the ways in which frequency and reflexivity affect student engagement with the peer feedback process. I study the peer e-feedback sessions conducted via My Reviewers in a pilot model of Composition 2 at a large research university in the southeast in order to determine if an increased focus on the peer feedback activity might enhance the effectiveness of the process. Through textual analysis and survey results, I determine that an increased focus on electronic peer feedback along with an increase in frequency and reflexivity helps to minimize some common criticisms of the peer feedback process. In this …

Choice, Management, & Modification: Situational Context In Risky Choice, Nathaniel K. Decker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We sought to examine the potential differences between different types of risky decisions. While some decisions are easily represented as choices between future alternatives, other decisions may be better represented as the management of a personally owned situation. Schneider (2003) created the risk management task, which manifested these situated improvement decisions, and identified a unique pattern of risk preferences when compared to the standard gambling paradigm. To determine what cognitive processes might be differentially activated for each type of decisions so as to yield these risk preference differences, we incrementally manipulated the gambling paradigm to parse potentially influential elements of …

More Than Words: Rhetorical Devices In American Political Cartoons, Lawrence Ray Bush

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that literary theory applied to political cartoons shows that cartoons are reasoned arguments. The rhetorical devices used in the cartoons mimic verbal devices used by essayists. These devices, in turn, make cartoons influential in that they have the power to persuade readers while making them laugh or smile. It also gives examples of literary theorists whose works can be applied to political cartooning, including Frederick Saussure, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Wolfgang Iser. Not only do those theorists' arguments apply to text, they also apply to pictorial representations.

This thesis also discusses changes in the cartoon art form over …

Member Perceptions Of Informal Science Institutions Graduate Certificate Program: Case Study Of A Community Of Practice, Lois A. Ball

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This research attempted to understand the experiences of a cohort of informal and formal science educators and informal science institution (ISI) community representatives during and after completion of a pilot graduate certificate program. Informal science educators (ISEs) find limited opportunities for professional development and support which influence their contributions to America's science literacy and school science education. This emergent design nested case study described how an innovative program provided professional development and enabled growth in participants' abilities to contribute to science literacy. Data were collected through interviews, participant observations, and class artifacts. The program by design and constituency was …

"You Have To Have Children To Be Happy:" Exploring Beliefs About Reproduction With Burmese Refugee Women In The United States, Kara E. Mcginnis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Burmese refugees are entering the US at record speed. Resettlement agencies focus on immediate needs, and ethnic community-based organizations (ECBOs) fill any service gaps through community-driven programs. The Tampa Bay Burmese Council (TBBC) is an ECBO in Tampa, FL dedicated to the Burmese community. This research explores the reproductive beliefs of the women in the community, paying particular attention to any differences that arise due to beliefs specific to their ethnic group. Findings include the importance of menses for women's health, the preference for both male and female children, a lack of knowledge about family planning methods, a tendency to …

Don't Blame It On My Ovaries: Exploring The Lived Experience Of Women With Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome And The Creation Of Discourse, Jennifer Lynn Ellerman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder among females of childbearing age, affecting between 6-8% of the population. It is also the most common cause of infertility. Females with PCOS may have two or more of a constellation of symptoms that can potentially leave them at odds in terms of normative ideals of femininity. This study examines how feminist theory interrogates and analyzes knowledge about the body and PCOS, integrating the lived experiences of women to provide a deeper, more meaningful understanding of what it means to be a woman with PCOS.

Multidimensional Spectroscopy Of Semiconductor Quantum Dots, Jason Michael Bylsma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The coherent properties of semiconductor nanostructures are inherently difficult to measure and one-dimensional spectroscopies are often unable to separate inhomogeneous and homogeneous linewidths. We have refined and improved a method of performing multidimensional Fourier transform spectroscopy based on four-wave

mixing (FWM) experiments in the box geometry. We have modified our system with broadband beamsplitters in all interferometer arms, high-resolution translation stages and the ability to work in reflection geometry. By improving the phase-stability of our setup and scanning pulse delays with sub-optical cycle precision, we are able to

reproduce 2DFT spectra of GaAs multiple quantum wells. With the FWM signal …

A Principled Approach To Policy Composition For Runtime Enforcement Mechanisms, Zachary Negual Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Runtime enforcement mechanisms are an important and well-employed method for ensuring an execution only exhibits acceptable behavior, as dictated by a security policy. Wherever interaction occurs between two or more parties that do not completely trust each other, it is most often the case that a runtime enforcement mechanism is between them in some form, monitoring the exchange. Considering the ubiquity of such scenarios in the computing world, there has been an increased effort to build formal models of runtime monitors that closely capture their capabilities so that their effectiveness can be analysed more precisely. While models have grown more …

An Examination Of Self-Directed Learning Readiness In Executive-Level Fire Officers, Steven G. Knight

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the self-directed learning readiness in executive fire officers in relation to the independent variables of personality type, educational attainment, and professional designation. This research utilized a quantitative design.

This study utilized the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) with a sample of 250 professional firefighters. The total sample was divided equally between executive-level fire officers and firefighters at 125 each from professional departments in the Southeastern United States. Results were that the mean SDLRS score for the executive-level fire officers was 233.7 and significantly higher than the …

Examining The Economic Costs And Sources Of Potable And Nonpotable Water In Northern Mexico, Kathryn Marie Marlor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water availability and the cost of different water sources have been studied at great length. However, information is still needed to determine the policy directions to be undertaken by nations that have not yet achieved universal coverage of an improved water source. To further examine differences in water availability and pricing in the context of the developing world, three communities in Northern Mexico were surveyed to determine the differences in water distribution schemes and associated costs between rural and urban centers. It was observed that rural communities without a piped water supply paid 13 percent more for potable water supplies …

A Systematic Review Of Interventions To Increase Mental Health Service Use, Jennifer Greene

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Relatively few pre-treatment interventions to increase out-patient mental health (MH) service use have been created and experimentally tested. Therefore, not only is there limited availability of these interventions, it is uncertain whether existing interventions are effective. Moreover, it is unclear which components of the interventions are effective. To address these gaps in knowledge, a systematic review of pre-treatment interventions was conducted, using the Cochrane Review methodology. Three primary outcomes were evaluated: attendance at any type of out-patient MH visit; number of appointments of any type of out-patient MH visit; and/or initiation and adherence to psychotropic medication. PubMed and PsycINFO databases …

Speaker Recognition Using Shifted Mfcc, Rishiraj Mukherjee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Speaker Recognition is the art of recognizing a speaker from a given database using speech as the only input. In this thesis we will be discussing a novel approach to detect speakers. Here we will introduce the concept of shifted MFCC to add improvement over the performance from previous work which has shown quite a decent amount of accuracy of about 95% at best. We will be talking about adding different parameters which also contributed in improving the efficiency of speaker recognition. Also we will be testing our algorithm on Text dependent speech data and Text Independent speech data. Our …

Respiratory Monitoring System Based On The Thoracic Expansion Measurement, Fabiola Araujo Cespedes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this reasearch was to develop a respiratory monitoring system using a reflective object sensor based belt to measure the thoracic expansion of a neonatal for future application at the medical center of the Universidad Evangelica Boliviana (UEB). This medical center, being founded by the UEB University, is dedicated to help and serve the poor and currently has no respiratory monitoring system.

The methodology used was first to build and test the respiratory sensor belt and test the relationship between the blet expansion and the voltage generated. The, to incorporate the respiratory sensor belt in a system that …

It's A Support Club, Not A Sex Club: Narration Strategies And Discourse Coalitions In High School Gay-Straight Alliance Club Controversies, Skyler Lauderdale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School reform efforts, such as those to form high school gay-straight alliance clubs (GSAs), are often met with resistance by school personnel and local community members. Using a sample of newspaper articles related to school reform GSA controversies in two Southern states (N=83) drawn from an initial sampling frame of GSA controversies receiving newspaper coverage between January 2006 and August 2011 (N=631), I use narrative analysis-- including a discourse coalitions approach--to identify common themes of resistance in the narration of characters, plot, setting, and morals which GSA members and allies must overcome to successfully form GSAs. Substantively, I locate four …

Overcoming Limitations Of Serial Audio Search, Isabela Cordeiro Ribeiro Moura Hidalgo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The typical approach for finding audio recordings, such as music and sound effects, in a database is to enter some textual information into a search field. The results appear summarized in a list of textual descriptions of the audio files along with a function for playing back the recordings. Exploring such a list sequentially is a time-consuming and tedious way to search for sounds. This research evaluates whether searching for audio information can become more effective with a user interface capable of presenting multiple audio streams simultaneously.

A prototype audio player was developed with a user interface suitable for both …

Out Of Our Depth: Hyper-Extensionality And The Return Of Three-Dimensional Media, Justin Alan Brecese

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work theorizes the contemporary attraction to three-dimensional media. In doing so, it reframes ongoing debates surrounding digital three-dimensional media in order to critique the neoliberal social relations such media engender. I argue that the contemporary interest in dimensionality, especially regarding digital media, is symptomatic of a broad cultural shift, wherein millions of lives are now essentially being lived through two-dimensional, "flat" media, which have consequently generated a lack of spatial relationships and a craving or desire for "depth." This "desire for depth" has arisen in contemporary society because people are being "spread too thin" through a combination of the …

Design Methodologies For Reversible Logic Based Barrel Shifters, Saurabh Kotiyal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The reversible logic has the promising applications in emerging computing paradigm

such as quantum computing, quantum dot cellular automata, optical computing, etc. In

reversible logic gates there is a unique one-to-one mapping between the inputs and outputs.

To generate an useful gate function the reversible gates require some constant ancillary

inputs called ancilla inputs. Also to maintain the reversibility of the circuits some additional

unused outputs are required that are referred as the garbage outputs. The number of

ancilla inputs, number of garbage outputs and quantum cost plays an important role in

the evaluation of reversible circuits. Thus minimizing these …

Behavioral And Histological Effects Of Traumatic Brain Injury On Alzheimer's Disease Transgenic Mice, Sara Leilani Kellogg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study was to elucidate the possible mechanistic link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) using an animal model. We examined behavioral and histological effects of TBI in pre-symptomatic AD-transgenic mice (C57B6/SJL/SwissWebster/B6D2F1). In previous studies, these mice displayed AD-like behavioral deficits by 15-17 months of age and AD-like neuropathology as early as six months of age. To clarify the effects of TBI on these mice, the present study began when they were about three months of age and the study ended when they were about five months of age. As a control, non-transgenic …

Performances Of Gender And Sexuality In Extreme Sports Culture, Carly Michelle Gieseler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to expose the strategies through which extreme sports constitute gender through exaggeration, parody, queering, resistance, and transcendence of normative gendered binaries. I interrogate how extreme sports operate on the margins of sport, gender, media, and lived experience to better understand the processes and performances that retain, reinforce, and resist our notions of normative gender, bodies, and sexuality. Starting with the claim that performance is constitutive of gender and culture, I will focus on how extreme sporting performances create significant commentaries on mainstream assumptions surrounding sporting gender, sexuality, and corporeality.

These commentaries function in extreme …

Metal Oxide Graphene Nanocomposites For Organic And Heavy Metal Remediation, Tanvir E. Alam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of two research problems in the water decontamination area. In the first work, the main focus is to understand the structure and photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide with graphene (G-TiO2) which is synthesized by using sol-gel method. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 is limited by the short electron hole pair recombination time. Graphene, with high specific surface area and unique electronic properties, can be used as a good support for TiO2 to enhance the photocatalytic activity. The obtained G-TiO2 photocatalysts has been characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman Spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), FTIR Spectroscopy and Ultraviolet …

Hurricane Preparedness Of Community-Dwelling Dementia Caregivers In South Florida, Janelle J. Christensen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to explore how informal caregivers for people with dementia (PWD), who are community dwelling (i.e., not in nursing homes), prepare and plan for disasters. The research site is a particularly hurricane-prone region of Florida, second only to New Orleans in its vulnerability. An underlying assumption of this research is that caregivers for PWD have to plan and anticipate problems that are unique to their role. The rationale for the study described here is that disaster planning and mitigation save lives (Tengs et al. 1995), but there is little or no literature on disaster planning …

The Causes And Effects Of Get Tough: A Look At How Tough-On-Crime Policies Rose To The Agenda And An Examination Of Their Effects On Prison Populations And Crime, Cheyenne Morales Harty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The paper analyzes the rise of get-tough crime legislation to the American public policy agenda and examines the effects of these policies on crime and inmate populations. Get-tough policies analyzed include sentencing reform, the War on Drugs and collateral consequences. Because there is no empirical literature on the effect of collateral consequences on crime, the paper employed an OLS regression model partly derived from institutional anomie theory to test for criminogenic effects. The study then employed OLS regression analysis to determine the affect of these independent variables on crime rates in each of the 50 states. The study concluded that …