Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Travel Assistance Device On The Bus Riding Behavior Of Individuals With Disabilities, Arica J. Bolechala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Independence for individuals with disabilities can be facilitated through the use of devices that have been created and adapted for these individuals. Research regarding the use of technology to afford independence to those with disabilities is growing as new devices are being created. One such device is the Travel Assistance Device (TAD) which has undergone conceptual tests to assess if the individual components of the device work as intended. The purpose of this research study was to determine whether the prompts given by the TAD would exhibit stimulus control over the participant's behavior of pulling the cord to stop the …

Identifying And Addressing Health Disparities In Black Older Adults With Osteoarthritis, Chivon A. Mingo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis in older adults, often results in pain, disability and poor psychological well-being. Compared to White adults, Black adults consistently report more pain, more activity limitations, and have different perceptions about OA. Racial disparities also exist in treatments, and prevalence of arthritis. It is imperative to have effective interventions and treatment options for older Blacks. Yet, few arthritis interventions have included Black participants in their samples, and nearly all of those have failed to report separate analyses indicating the effectiveness for Black adults, thus leaving a gap in the literature. The purpose of …

The Role Of Rater Motivation In Personnel Selection Validation Studies, Dan Ispas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Personnel selection validation studies are routinely conducted in contemporary organizations for selecting and placing employees. Although numerous studies have been conducted with the goal of identifying new predictors, less research was focused on the criterion side. In the current paper, across three studies and five samples, I examined the role played by rater motivation in validation studies. I proposed that rater motivation would impact criterion-related validity of various predictors, the reliability, and the variance of performance ratings. In Study 1, these hypotheses were tested in two samples with varied operationalizations of predictors and of rater motivation. In Study 2, I …

The Positive- And Negative-Right Conceptions Of Freedom Of Speech And The Specter Of Reimposing The Broadcast Fairness Doctrine ... Or Something Like It, Adam Fowler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A key theoretical debate underlying the now defunct Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation known as the Fairness Doctrine is conflict over what constitutes the right to freedom of speech: a positive or negative conception. Similarly, since repeal of the Doctrine, other FCC measures to uphold the “public-interest” standard in broadcasting have relied on a positive conception of speech. This thesis demonstrates the history of this debate through court cases, news reports, scholarly articles and historical documents. It then is argued that the positive-right nature of these regulations is problematic philosophically, constitutionally and practically. The positive-right conception lends itself to an …

Trials And Verdicts: Narratives Of Recollection In The Good Soldier And Lolita, Constance Elizabeth Holmes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation will apply the structure of a legal trial’s procedures to two Modernist novels: Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier (1915) and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955). These novels position themselves as renderings of legal proceedings, the written memoriam of metaphorical trials conducted by first person narrators who alternatively and simultaneously function as Plaintiff’s counsel, Defense Counsel and finally as witnesses to the events of the story. All of these personae reveal evidence and testimony presented in the forum of a trial of the central characters who recollect legal events and whose narrations develop moral questions. Thus these narrations are …

How Does Mobility Change Over Time For Older Adults, And How Are Changes Influenced By Cognitive Functioning?, Melissa Lunsman O'Connor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobility, which includes life space and driving behaviors, is an important functional domain for older adults (e.g., Webber, Porter, & Menec, in press). Low mobility is associated with sensory, physical, and cognitive deficits (e.g., Anstey, Wood, Lord, & Walker, 2005). However, few studies have investigated how mobility changes over time. This dissertation contains three longitudinal articles that explored mobility changes, with an emphasis on driving and cognition, among community-dwelling older adults.

The first paper investigated patterns of driving self-regulation (i.e., adjustment of driving behaviors) among control-group participants from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study (N=548). …

Modeling And Analysis Of Cooperative Search Systems, Carlos A. Portilla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The analysis of performance gains arising from cueing in cooperative search

systems with autonomous vehicles has been studied using Continuous Time Markov

Chains; where the search time distributions are assumed to follow the exponential

distributions. This work proposes the use of Petri Nets to model and analyze these

systems. The Petri Net model considers two types of autonomous vehicles: a search-only

vehicle and n search-engage vehicles. Specific performance metrics are defined to

measure system’s performance. Through simulation, it is shown that the search time with

stationary targets and cues that provide exact target location follows a triangular

distribution. A methodology …

Self-Potential Response To Rainfall Changes Over Plugged And Unplugged Sinkholes In A Covered-Karst Terrain, Peter B. Bumpus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For the protection of wetland and water resources it would be beneficial to understand when collapse conduits function as recharge points to the underlying aquifer. Inexpensive, noninvasive methods to detect recharge are desirable. Previous studies show negative self-potential (SP) anomalies over sinkholes that correspond to the expected electrokinetic effects of groundwater flowing downward through a conduit. SP surveys are less labor-intensive than high-resolution 3D GPR and resistivity, and continuous long-term monitoring is possible. However, before SP surveys can be reliable indicators of flow, SP contributions from ET, conductivity changes, redox reactions, thermoelectric effects, cultural noise, and lateral flow must be …

The Relationship Between Life Satisfaction And Substance Use In Adolescence, Leeza Rooks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Low life satisfaction and substance use in adolescence are causes for concern as each problem is known to be associated with many concurrent and later negative outcomes. To date, only four studies have examined links between these variables in youth. This study added to the literature by examining adolescents' life satisfaction in relation to their frequency of use of a variety of substance types, using an understudied population (i.e., a predominantly Hispanic sample of 130 high school students). Results included significant, inverse bivariate links between adolescent life satisfaction and use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. When examined simultaneously, adolescents' use …

A Case Study Examining The Impact Of Adventure Based Counseling On High School Adolescent Self-Esteem, Empathy, And Racism, Chris Cale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effectiveness of Adventure Based Counseling upon high school adolescents. The goals of this study were to (a) explore the effectiveness of ABC Counseling in increasing levels of self-esteem and empathy among adolescents; (b) study the efficacy of ABC counseling in reducing perceived racial discrimination, racist attitudes, or both; and (c) investigate the correlation between self-esteem, empathy, perceived racial discrimination, and racist attitudes as related to the effects of ABC counseling. In addition, the effects of ABC counseling on the school-related variables such as discipline, attendance, and academics, as well as possible outcome differences caused by demographic …

Low-Level Programming Of A 9-Degree-Of-Freedom Wheelchair-Mounted Robotic Arm With The Application Of Different User Interfaces, Punya A. Basnayaka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Implementation of C++ and Matlab based control of University of South Florida's latest wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (USF WMRA-II), which has 9 degrees-of-freedom, was carried out under this Master's thesis research. First, the rotational displacements about the 7 joints of the robotic arm were calibrated. It was followed by setting the control gains of the motors. Then existing high-level programs developed using C++ and Matlab for USF WMRA-I were modified for WMRA-II. The required low-level programs to provide complete kinematics of the joint movements to the controller board of WMRA-II (Galil DMC-2183) were developed using C++. A test GUI was developed …

Human Factors Consideration In Developing A New Drive-By-Wire Interface, Sravan Kumar Elineni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined specific aspects of human factors involved in driving a vehicle with a modified Drive-by-Wire (DBW) control system. A DBW system is an electro-mechanical system which controls the primary operations of a vehicle such as steering, acceleration, and braking using a controller such as a joystick. Designing a human interface system for a DBW system involves three main phases in the human factors design process namely user centric/ergonomic design conception, building a prototype and validating the prototype based on human factor considerations. The main objective and focus of this research is to conceptualize a more ergonomic DBW …

Improving The Energy Efficiency Of Ieee 802.3az Eee And Periodically Paused Switched Ethernet, Mehrgan Mostowfi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that networked devices consumed about 150 TWh of electricity in 2006 in the

U.S. which has cost around $15 billion and contributed about 225 billion lbs of CO

2

to

greenhouse gas emissions. About 13.5% of this energy is consumed by network equipment such

as switches and routers.

This thesis addresses the energy consumption of Ethernet, and designs and evaluates

improvements on existing methods to reduce the energy consumption of Ethernet links and

switches.

Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) is an emerging IEEE 802.3 standard which allows Ethernet

links to sleep when idle. In this thesis, a performance …

Microexpression Spotting In Video Using Optical Strain, Sridhar Godavarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microexpression detection plays a vital role in applications such as lie detection and psychological consultations. Current research is progressing in the direction of automating microexpression recognition by aiming at classifying the microexpressions in terms of FACS Action Units. Although high detection rates are being achieved, the datasets used for evaluation of these systems are highly restricted. They are limited in size - usually still pictures or extremely short videos; motion constrained; containing only a single microexpression and do not contain negative cases where microexpressions are absent. Only a few of these systems run in real time and even fewer have …

Teaching Social Skills To Children With Asperger’S And High Functioning Autism: An Evaluation Of Video Self-Modeling And Behavior Skills Training, Krystal M. Mcfee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of video self-modeling and behavior skills training to teach social skills to children with Asperger’s and high functioning autism. The targeted social skills were social initiations and social responses. The video self-modeling alone condition was implemented first using a video feedforward approach. A behavior skills training (BST) procedure was implemented following the video self-modeling alone condition for each participant. BST consisted of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. The frequency of each target behavior was scored from videotapes using 10-second frequency within interval recording. After the video self-modeling was introduced, a …

The Accidental Practitioner: Principles Of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy In The Works Of Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph J. Ward

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Just as psychology and philosophy have influenced the field of literary studies, literature provides insight about the theories and practices of its sister disciplines. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how literary works of Kurt Vonnegut illuminate principles of the influential branch of psychotherapy known as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT).

This thesis traces the similar philosophies and shared beliefs of Vonnegut and REBT's founder, Albert Ellis, and details how Ellis's REBT is illustrated in selected works of Vonnegut, specifically, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Galapagos, and Timequake. The thesis concludes by suggesting that Vonnegut's …

An Ecology Of Performance: Gregory Bateson's Cybernetic Performance, Daniel Matthew Blaeuer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of the public performances of Gregory Bateson at The Esalen Institute. The case study is a reconsideration of the work of Gregory Bateson from the perspective of performance studies. The author brings together performativity, cybernetics, and the sacred to argue that Gregory Bateson, in his public performances, was striving for grace in encounters with others. The author has conducted archival research into Bateson’s presentations and has spoken with several close to Bateson to get a sense of how his process of public presentation paralleled his ideas—a process of continually working through ideas in conversation …

Bastards, Brains, Boobs And Performance: A Retrospective Account, Joanna Bartell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two essays that comprise this thesis use personal narrative to discuss various aspects of illness, resistance and the body. The first essay uses performance theory to explore the social structures, mandates and restrictions concerning illness. I use the cancer experience to explore the co-creation of self, identity, and modes of being between "performer" and "audience." "Performer," in this case, is the "breast cancer patient," and the "audience" is comprised of the "social others.” The second essay explores cyborgization of the body, its painful effects, and associated social and moral values. It also discusses how we create theory and understanding …

The Aggregated Influences Of Poverty Impacting Dental Care Access And Oral Health Among Migrant Farmworkers In Tampa, Florida, Nolan Kline

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oral health is an important aspect of overall health, but many vulnerable populations such as migrant farmworkers are without access to oral healthcare. Although some non-government organizations such as faith-based organizations have attempted to fill gaps left by government and private sectors, a lack of a dental safety net creates limited access to oral health services for migrant farmworkers. Access to care is further constrained by structural factors including low wages, migration route, and high costs of care. Building off a critical medical anthropology approach in understanding oral healthcare access, I argue that limited oral health access for migrant workers …

Detecting Group Turns Of Speaker Groups In Meeting Room Conversations Using Audio-Video Change Scale-Space, Ravikiran Krishnan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Automatic analysis of conversations is important for extracting high-level descriptions of meetings. In this work, as an alternative to linguistic approaches, we develop a novel, purely bottom-up representation, constructed from both audio and video signals that help us characterize and build a rich description of the content at multiple temporal scales. Nonverbal communication plays an important role in describing information about the communication and the nature of the conversation. We consider simple audio and video features to extract these changes in conversation. In order to detect these changes, we consider the evolution of the detected change, using the Bayesian Information …

The Relationship Between Fam5c Snp (Rs10920501) Variability, Metabolic Syndrome, And Inflammation, In Women With Coronary Heart Disease, Jennifer L. Cline

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The leading cause of death among women is coronary heart disease (CHD), a multifactorial disease with polygenic heritability estimated at 50%. Polymorphisms in the family with sequence similarity 5, member C' (FAM5C) gene have been associated with myocardial infarction (MI), and one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has partially accounted for linkage in an acute coronary syndrome subset. The linkage peak on FAM5C corresponds directly with a quantitative trait locus for the inflammatory biomarker monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, as well as a linkage peak to metabolic syndrome (MetS). Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of developing CHD, and MI has been …

The Effects Of Aging On Temporal Masking, Susan E. Fulton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ability to resolve rapid intensity and frequency fluctuations in sound is important for understanding speech, especially in real-world environments that include background noise and reverberation. Older listeners often complain of difficulties understanding speech in such real-world environments. One factor thought to influence speech understanding in noisy and reverberant environments is temporal resolution, the ability to follow rapid acoustic changes over time. Temporal resolution is thought to help listeners resolve rapid acoustic changes in speech as well as use small glimpses of speech available in the dips or gaps in the background sounds. Temporal resolution is an ability that is …

Perspective Taking And Relative Clause Comprehension: A Cross-Modal Picture Priming Study, Nicola C. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fourteen young adults participated in a cross-modal picture priming study. Perspective shift processing, in four types of relative clause sentences and in control sentences, was assessed using reaction times. Predictions were: 1) the easier the perspective shifts, the faster the reaction times and 2) subject relative clauses would reveal a priming effect versus attenuated or no priming in object relative clauses due to difficulty following perspective. A priming effect was observed for 1- switch relative clause sentences and for control sentences, while no priming effect was observed for 0 switch, 1+ switch, or 2 switch sentences. Results suggest that variations …

The Relationship Between Fam5c Snp (Rs10920501) Variability, Metabolic Syndrome, And Inflammation, In Women With Coronary Heart Disease, Jennifer L. Cline

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The leading cause of death among women is coronary heart disease (CHD), a multifactorial disease with polygenic heritability estimated at 50%. Polymorphisms in the family with sequence similarity 5, member C’ (

FAM5C) gene have been associated with myocardial infarction (MI), and one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has partially accounted for linkage in an acute coronary syndrome subset. The linkage peak on FAM5C corresponds directly with a quantitative trait locus for the inflammatory biomarker monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, as well as a linkage peak to metabolic syndrome (MetS). Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of developing CHD, and MI has been positively …

Moderating The Effectiveness Of Messages To Promote Physical Activity In Type 2 Diabetes, Rachel E. Myers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The world is experiencing a rapid rise in chronic health problems, which places an enormous burden on health care services. Modifiable health behaviors such as physical inactivity are largely responsible for this high prevalence and incidence of chronic diseases. Message tailoring is a well-established approach for constructing health communication and has been shown to increase the persuasiveness of messages in the promotion of healthy behaviors. Message framing is an effective strategy that has been well-studied in psychology over the past 20-plus years across a breadth of health-related behaviors but has received little attention in the nursing research literature. Based on …

Electrospinning Protein Nanofibers To Control Cell Adhesion, Cynthia Chinwe Nwachukwu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The structural and mechanical properties of a surface often play an integral part in the determination of the cell adhesion strength and design parameters for creating a biodegradable electrospun scaffold. Nanofibers composed of the globular proteins bovine serum albumin (BSA) and fibronectin were produced by electrospinning with the electrospun protein scaffold serving as an extracellular matrix to which adhesion interaction will exist with cells via cell surface integrin. This interaction is vital in regulation cell differentiation, growth and migration and cell adhesion.

We will demonstrate the ability to manipulate ligand-receptor interaction, the properties of the electrospun fibers, control and the …

Ecological, Behavioral, And Curricular Interventions To Prevent Student Problem Behavior: An Approach To Implementing Effective Practices, Lindsey M. Merritt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While classroom management has been a highly researched topic in Applied Behavior Analysis, there are few empirically validated methods to effectively disseminate classroom techniques into school settings. There are three main classroom management areas that exist in the literature. These are: a) ecological factors, b) behavior principles, and c) curricular modifications. These three areas have been researched independently and in combination to find best classroom management practices. Although these areas are highly researched, dissemination of these materials into public and private classrooms has fallen far behind. However, researchers are finding specific variables that positively influence the success of programs in …

Concepts Of Variable In Middle-Grades Mathematics Textbooks During Four Eras Of Mathematics Education In The United States, James K. Dogbey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used content analysis to investigate the development of the concept of variables in middle grades mathematics textbooks during four eras of mathematics education in the United States (New Math, Back to Basics, Problem Solving, and the NCTM Standards era: 1957 – 2009). It also examined the nature of support that the curricula provide for teachers to enact variables ideas in the classroom. Findings revealed that each of the middle grades mathematics curricula examined used variables, but in varied proportions and levels of complexity. Formal definitions for variables were found in 11 of the …

Asian Indian Mothers’ Involvement In Their Children’S Schooling: An Analysis Of Social And Cultural Capital, Susan Chanderbhan-Forde

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study utilized concepts drawn from the theories advanced by Coleman (1988) and Pierre Bourdieu (1987) to examine the extent to which Asian Indian mothers utilize embodied cultural capital and social capital (specifically social norms and social networks) in their engagement in their children's education. Using interviews with 12 Asian Indian mothers whose children were enrolled in a large urban school district in West Central Florida, the study examined their beliefs about the value of education, the origin of those beliefs, their roles in their children's education, family and community norms surrounding education, and how they utilized social networks …

The Christian Zionist Lobby And U.S.-Israel Policy, Mark G. Grzegorzewski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the role of the Christian Zionist Lobby in shaping U.S. policy towards Israel. It is posited that the Christian Zionist Lobby, due to their eschatological goals, diverge from the interests of the larger Israel Lobby described by Mearsheimer and Walt. To test this hypothesis an exploratory case study is implemented to explain why the U.S. shifted its policy from supporting the Road Map to backing Israeli unilateralism. As the results of this study show, the Christian Zionists did actively oppose the Road Map and may have influenced American policy making. However, it would be a mistake to …