Digital Commons Network^™

A Study In The Relationships Between Organizational Structures And Public Relations Practitioner Roles, Allison Stokes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While there exists extensive research in the area of public relations roles, as well as the arena of organizational structure, little research focuses on the relationship between organizational structure and the role of the public relations practitioner in the organization.

This study will provide a review of the different types of organizational structures, as well as a review of public relations practitioner roles. Organization theory literature supplies information on the characteristics of each structure, including levels of complexity and decentralization involved in each organizational type. Public relations literature includes research that aids in formulation of role classifications that may be …

The Effects Of A Leadership And Diversity Awareness Program On Adolescents' Attitudes And Behaviors, Eileen M. Lyons

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A nonequivalent control-group longitudinal design was used to examine the effects of a leadership and diversity awareness program on adolescents knowledge of discriminatory terms, acceptance of diversity, social competence, feelings of social responsibility, and community involvement. Adolescents who did and did not attend a leadership and diversity awareness program (Anytown) completed three analogous surveys in a 12-month period. Similarly, parents of adolescents who did and did not attend the program reported on their childs social competence and community involvement.

Adolescents who attended the program reported greater increases in their social competence, acceptance of diversity, feelings of social responsibility, and community …

Practical Behavioral Modeling Technique Of Power Amplifiers Based On Loadpull Measurements, Jiang Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accurate linear and nonlinear models for devices and components are essential for successful RF/microwave computer aided engineering (CAE). The modeling techniques can be categorized in different levels based on the abstraction of the model as well as the application of the models at various design phases. This dissertation deals with behavioral modeling techniques for nonlinear RF components, especially amplifiers.

There is an increasing demand for accurate behavioral models of RF and microwave components, or integrated circuit (IC) blocks used in wireless system designs. Accurate behavioral models help designers evaluate and select the appropriate components at simulation phase, thereby cutting development …

A Measurement-Based Admission Control Mechanism For Wireless Local Area Networks, Srinivas Bandi Ramesh Babu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As users become more comfortable using IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks, the need for quality of service is becoming more important because of the lack of support in current standards and the increase of multimedia traffic over the Internet. The IEEE 802.11 working group has recognized this fact proposing the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA), a priority-based distributed scheme meant to provide service differentiation. EDCA relies on either different Arbitrary Interframe Space (AIFS), or Contention Window (CW) parameters, or both to provide service differentiation. In this thesis, a performance evaluation of the EDCA using five different combinations of the …

Scalable Energy-Efficient Location-Aided Routing (Selar) Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, George Lukachan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale wireless sensor networks consist of thousands of tiny and low cost nodes with very limited energy, computing power and communication capabilities. They have a myriad of possible applications. They can be used in hazardous and hostile environments to sense for deadly gases and high temperatures, in personal area networks to monitor vital signs, in military and civilian environments for intrusion detection and tracking, emergency operations, etc. In large scale wireless sensor networks the protocols need to be scalable and energy-efficient. Further, new strategies are needed to address the well-known energy depletion problem that nodes close to the sink node …

Mosaic, Vicki L. Kennedy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mosaic is the story of Alicia O'Day, a woman who looks back at her life from the vantage point of middle age and attempts to arrange the shards of her past into something meaningful. As she relates her story, illustrating her errors, we realize she has changed and grown enough to see herself with added wisdom and humor. The chaos of her younger days is seen as a learning process. The broken vessel has been mended, and the scars from the seams add interest to the original piece.

As Alicia reviews her life, she glues the broken fragments back into …

Seeking Story: Finding The Modern Day Folktale In The Daily News, Brandice Palmer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the local news story for evidence of the folktale tradition. It examines a range of local news stories for their folktale functions. The study compares the cultural and psychological function of the news story to that of the folktale and compares the functional definition of folklore to that of journalism. The study also explores the idea of a classifiable sphere of formal character, motif and plot functions that may be explored within the news story and folktale texts. This study builds on the premise that the study of folklore should be at the center of a consideration …

An Inventory Model With Two Truckload Transportation And Quantity Discounts, Ramesh T. Santhanam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Transportation plays a vital role in the movement of raw materials and finished goods from one place to another. Trucks play a vital role in the movement of materials and are indispensable part of almost every shipment, both domestic and international. On the average, thirty-nine percent of the total logistics cost is spent on transportation. Therefore reducing the transportation cost may significantly reduce the total logistics cost.

The total annual logistics cost considered in this research includes ordering cost, material cost, transportation cost and inventory holding cost. The main objective of this research is to develop algorithms for finding the …

Modeling Hurricane Evacuation Vulnerability: A Case Study Of Pinellas County, Florida, Raymond A. Miller Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Determining where people are most likely to suffer losses and have difficulty in evacuating from a hurricane is important to developing a hurricane response strategy. This thesis proposes a methodology for modeling and assessing evacuation vulnerability to a specific hurricane and applies this method to study Pinellas County, Florida.

The vulnerability of Pinellas County to evacuation problems and the degree of loss that may be suffered from a hurricane is quantified in the Hurricane Evacuation Vulnerability Index. This index is the sum of three indices that represent social, transportation, and geophysical aspects of hazards research. Social vulnerability is assessed with …

The Concurrent Development Scheduling Problem (Cdsp), Leroy W. Paul

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concurrent development (CD) project is defined as the concurrent development of both hardware and software that is integrated together later for a deliverable product. The CD Scheduling Problem (CDSP) is defined as most CD baseline project schedules being developed today are overly optimistic. That is, they finish late. This study researches those techniques being used today to produce CD project schedules and looks for ways to close the gap between the baseline project schedule and reality. In Chapter 1, the CDSP is introduced. In Chapter 2, a review is made of published works. A review is also made of …

Investigating Turnover Intention Among Emergency Communication Specialists, Yufan Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study tested a model that uses job stressors, equity sensitivity, perceived organizational justice, and job satisfaction to explain turnover intention and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). An online survey was distributed to emergency communication specialists from 14 emergency communication centers in Florida. The supervisors in these emergency communication centers were asked to rate their employees on OCB. Responses to the survey and the OCB ratings were analyzed using structural equation modeling to evaluate the fit of a theoretical model to those data. Results showed that the model fit the data reasonably well and nearly all the hypotheses were supported. Specifically, …

Examining The Attitudes Toward Mathematics Of Preservice Elementary School Teachers Enrolled In An Introductory Mathematics Methods Course And The Experiences That Have Influenced The Development Of These Attitudes, Joy Bronston Schackow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The reform movement in mathematics education has recognized affective factors as an important area where change is needed. This study examined the attitudes toward mathematics of preservice elementary teachers entering an introductory mathematics methods course. The methods course utilized constructivist instructional methods, such as the use of manipulatives, cooperative group work, problem solving, and calculators. Qualitative methods were used to explore participants attitudes toward mathematics and the experiences that have led to the development of these attitudes. The study sought to determine the extent to which preservice teachers attitudes toward mathematics changed during the methods course and the correlation between …

Investigating The Hispanic/Latino Male Dropout Phenomenon: Using Logistic Regression And Survival Analysis, Dorian Charles Vizcain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the factors associated with dropping out of middle school and high school among Hispanic/Latino male students. Predictor variables investigated were: age, home language, retention history, SES, program of studies, suspensions, and GPA. Data were from a large urban school district in the state of Florida. A sample of 865 Hispanic/Latino male Latino students in the 8th grade in 1995-96 was followed longitudinally every year to the year 2000-01. Survival analysis and logistic regression were used to examine the data.

The research questions were: 1) What is the relation between age, home language, retention history, SES, program of …

Examining Emotional Intelligence And Leadership, Shannon Webb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Varying theories have been presented about the relationship of emotional intelligence to transformational leadership. The present study examines the extent to which a self report measure of emotional intelligence, based upon an ability model, can predict each of the four components of transformational leadership. This study further considers the extent to which the quality of a leader-follower dyad's Leader-Member Exchange relationship can moderate the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. Study results demonstrate that emotional intelligence is related to several components of transformational leadership, and that both the quality of the Leader-Member Exchange relationship and the tenure of the …

From Chapel To Chamber: Liturgy And Devotion In Lucantonio Giunta’S Missale Romanum, 1508, Lesley T. Stone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A missal is the liturgical book containing the prayers and readings for the celebration of the Mass. Originally designed in large folio format, the simultaneous arrival of the printing press amidst a shift in the celebration of Mass from a communal to a private sphere resulted in the proliferation of the small and more portable octavo-size missal. Missals traditionally contained minimal illustrations prior to printing, resulting in their strict classification as a liturgical object. This thesis questions the previous established boundaries which categorize medieval objects as related to a particular type of religious activity. In other words, missals have been …

Sialic Acid Modulation Of Cardiac Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Gating Throughout The Developing Myocardium, Patrick J. Stocker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The proper orchestration of voltage-gated ion channel gating is vital to maintaining normal heart rhythms throughout an animal's lifespan. Voltage-gated sodium channels, Na_v, are responsible for the initiation of the cardiac action potential, which leads to cardiac systole. Comparison of neonatal ventricular and atrial myocyte Na_v gating with adult indicated that the neonatal ventricular Na_v gated following a ~10 mV greater depolarization than did atrial or adult ventricular Na_v. In this study I questioned whether development- and/or chamber-dependent changes in Na_v-associated functional sialic acids could account for these differences. When desialylated with …

Teaching Excellence: Perceptions Of Community College Students, Gary Robert Oesch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous efforts to assess teaching excellence have been attempted, but systematic research has produced limited results at best. This study expanded upon recent studies focusing on how students' perceptions and attitudes can be used to identify the best course environments and the qualities of teaching excellence. This is especially critical considering that most previous empirical research has been conducted at the university level, while community colleges have been mostly overlooked. Thus, little is know about community college students' perceptions of teaching excellence. To assess their views of teaching excellence, a questionnaire was given to students from one community college to …

Discourse And Disconnect: Black Teachers And The Quest For National Board Certification, Paula J. Leftwich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Discourse and Disconnect: Black Teachers and the Quest for National Board Certification Paula J. Leftwich ABSTRACT Black teachers have been under-represented proportionate to their presence in the teaching population in both the application for and achievement of certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. This study sought to explore the possibility of a disconnect between the discourses of Black teachers and the discourses of the National Board Certification process. Further, it was designed to investigate the effectiveness of targeted mentoring strategies to increase the participation rate and achievement rate of Black teachers in this complex and lengthy process. …

An Empirical Examination Of Job Stress And Management Of Emotionally-Based Behavior: Frontline Social Service Personnel Perspective, Doreen Sams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Frontline service personnel (FSP) play an invaluable role in the marketing mix by directly influencing the customers perception of both the service organization as well as the service quality during the face-to-face delivery service encounter (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993). The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how sources of job stress for FSP such as perceived customer demands, role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, and emotional labor and various mediators such as job autonomy, emotional intelligence, and emotion-focused coping directly and indirectly influence job stress and outcome variables such as attitudes, behaviors, physical consequences, emotional exhaustion, job performance, and …

Effects Of Long-Term Administration Of Caffeine In A Mouse Model For Alzheimer’S Disease, William Schleif

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A recent epidemiological study suggested that higher caffeine intake reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Caffeine, a widely consumed stimulatory drug, is a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist that has been shown to increase plasma adenosine levels in rodents. To determine any long-term protective effects of caffeine in a controlled longitudinal study, caffeine was added to the drinking water of APP_sw transgenic (Tg) mice between 4 and 9 1/2 months of age, with behavioral testing done during the last 6 weeks of treatment. The average daily intake of caffeine per mouse (1.5 mg) was the human equivalent of 5 …

Does Agreeableness Help A Team Perform A Problem Solving Task?, Frederick R. B Stilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between mean team Agreeableness and team performance has not been shown definitively. The present study was performed looking at archival data from a study that assessed team performance from 62 two person teams using the DDD and involving two types of training and two types of information probes during the computer task. In addition, each of the participants took a personality test based on the IPIP with an emphasis on Agreeableness and its 6 facets. Using HLM analysis, it was determined that Agreeableness does not have a significant effect on team performance for a problem solving tasks (delta …

The Relationship Between Teaching Experience And Style And Primary Student Gains In Mathematics Using An Integrated Learning System, Marilyn N. Meub

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to ascertain using multiple tools and methods, the impact of teachers' interaction with primary students on mathematics performance using the Successmaker Integrated Learning System to determine effective teacher practices. The sample of nineteen primary teachers from an elementary school in southwest Florida included five first grade teachers, seven second grade teachers, and seven third grade teachers.

Data analysis included total years of teaching experience, years of experience in Florida schools, and years of experience at each grade. Both the total years of teaching and the years of teaching at the research site …

Monte Carlo Simulations As A Tool To Optimize Target Detection By Auv/Rov Laser Line Scanners, Martin Alejandro Montes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The widespread use of laser line scanners (LLS) aboard unmanned underwater vehicles in the last decade has opened a unique window to a series of ecological and military applications. Variability of underwater light fields and complexity of light contributions reaching the receiver pose a challenge for target detection of LLS under different environmental conditions. The interference of photons not originating at the target (e.g. water path, bottom) can often be minimized (e.g., time-gated systems) but not excluded. Radiative transfer models were developed to better discriminate noise components from signal contributions at the receiver for two continuous LLS: Real-time Ocean Bottom …

A Vascular Plant Inventory And Description Of The Twelve Plant Community Types Found In The University Of South Florida Ecological Research Area, Hillsborough County, Florida, Anne Candace Schmidt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of South Florida Ecological Research Area (USF Eco Area), located in west central Hillsborough County, is an approximately 306 hectare (756 acre) natural area on the Hillsborough River composed of twelve plant communities. While surrounded on three sides by urbanization, the USF Eco Area makes up the western most section of an extended natural corridor that runs approximately 88 kilometers (55 miles) east and north along the Hillsborough River. An inventory of the vascular flora and the associated ecological communities was developed to better assess the USF Eco Area for educational and research purposes as well as enhance …

Mental Health Policy And Services In Tampa, Florida, Shelly Yankovskyy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the summer of 2004 I interned with the Mental Health Association of Greater Tampa Bay (MHA), a local affiliate of the National Mental Health Association. My time spent with the MHA became a gateway into the world of mental health. In the course of fulfilling my duties, I developed a particular interest in understanding the services that are available to persons, especially adults seeking treatment/services for mental illness. Through the MHA I was introduced to a wide range of people who have some link to mental health services, including psychiatrists, therapists, policy makers, and lawyers. This thesis utilizes an …

Characterizing Sound Production In Nearshore Rockfishes (Sebastes Spp.), Bryan Nichols

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rockfishes of the genus Sebastes are trophically important in most nearshore environments of the west coast of North America, and support important commercial and recreational fisheries. Though the 72 northeast Pacific species have drumming muscles along their swim bladders, little is known about sound production in the genus. Sounds produced by nearshore rockfish were recorded using fixed hydrophones and underwater video in aquaria, and acoustical dataloggers in the field. Sounds were analyzed from six species: Sebastes nebulosus, S. atrovirens, S.carnatus, S. chrysomelas, S. caurinus, and S.maliger. These six species are closely related, mostly bottom …

Reliability Of Liquid Core Optical Waveguides For Sensitive Optical Absorption Measurements Of Trace Species In Water, Avishekh Pal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Long path optical waveguides can be used in optical absorption measurements to increase the optical path length and, thus, the overall absorption of a sample. Recently, 1m long coiled Liquid Waveguide Capillary Cells (LWCC) have been used by analytical spectroscopists to measure the absorption strength of weakly absorbing liquids. However, most of these measurements have used conventional light sources such as Xenon or Halogen lamps and not spectroscopic laser sources.

In this thesis study, we used a LWCC absorption waveguide and a laser light source to measure, for the first time to our knowledge, the optical transmission through several water …

A Quantitative Assessment Of Public Relations Practitioners’ Perceptions Of Their Relationship With The Organization They Represent, Jill Boudreaux

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to identify how public relations practitioner roles and organizational decision-making style impact the relationship that is shared between the practitioner and the organization they represent. Based on Internet survey research methods, research findings indicated that organizational decision-making style was a minimal factor in influencing the relationship shared between the practitioner and the organization they represent. Practitioner role did, however, have a significant influence on the levels of trust, commitment, satisfaction and control mutuality between the practitioner and the organization they represent. Low response rates prevents confident generalization of the results of this study to the entire Public …

Changes In The Perception And Sense Of Self Of Individuals With Aphasia: An Ethnographic Study, Erline Vieira Nakano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Little is known about the perceived changes in identity and sense of self in individuals with aphasia. Seminal research using qualitative methods and personal narratives has been conducted in England regarding the experience of living with aphasia (see for instance Parr, Byng, Gilpin & Ireland, 1999; Parr, Duchan & Pound, 2003; Byng, Pound & Hewitt, 2004), but the use of such methodologies is still emergent in the United States. In addition, despite the great achievements of the disabilities movement in countries such as the U.S. and the U.K., individuals with aphasia have remained largely at the margins due to the …

Tardigrade Evolution And Ecology, Phillip Brent Nichols

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A character data set suitable for cladistic analysis of tardigrades at the family level was developed. The data matrix consisted of 50 morphological characters from 15 families of tardigrades and was analyzed by maximum parsimony. Kinorhynchs, loriciferans and gastrotrichs were used as outgroups. The results agree with the currently accepted hypothesis that Eutardigrada and Heterotardigrada are distinct monophyletic groups. Among the eutardigrades, Eoyhypsibiidae was found to be a sister group to Macrobiotidae + Hypsibiidae, while Milnesiidae was the basal eutardigrade family. The basal heterotardigrade family was found to be Oreellidae. Echiniscoideans grouped with some traditional Arthrotardigrada (Renaudarctidae, Coronarctidae + Batillipedidae) …