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An Examination Of Peer-Related Risk And Protective Factors For Body Image Disturbance And Disordered Eating Among Adolescent Girls, Hemal M. Shroff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has documented the impact of peer influences on adolescents for health risk behaviors such as smoking and drinking alcohol. However, few studies have done an in-depth investigation of peer-related risk and protective factors affecting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among adolescent girls. The study sample consisted of 344 adolescent girls from high schools in Pasco County, Florida. Participants completed questionnaires assessing the impact of peers on their weight and appearance attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Participants also identified their close friends (using a coding system) and rated their own figures. Trained research assistants provided objective figure ratings for the participants. …

Moonlight In Miami: A Field Study Of Human-Robot Interaction In The Context Of An Urban Search And Rescue Disaster Response Training Exercise, Jennifer L. Burke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores human-robot interaction during a 16-hour high-fidelity Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) disaster response drill with teleoperated robots. Situation awareness and team interaction were examined using communication analysis. Operators (n=5) sought assistance from team members to compensate for difficulties building or maintaining situation awareness. Operator-team member communication focused on relating what was seen through the robot's eye view with prior knowledge and planning search strategies. Results suggest operators need a new cognitive mental model to filter and comprehend data provided by the robot, and that robot-assisted search is a team task rather than an individual one. USAR technical …

Optimal Design Of An Accelerated Degradation Experiment With Reciprocal Weibull Degradation Rate, Indira Polavarapu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To meet increasing competition, get products to market in the shortest possible time, and satisfy heightened customer expectations, products must be made more robust and fewer failures must be observed in a short development period. In this circumstance, assessing product reliability based on degradation data at high stress levels becomes necessary. This assessment is accomplished through accelerated degradation tests (ADT). These tests involve over stress testing in which instead of life product performance is measured as it degrades over time. Due to the role these tests play in determining proper reliability estimates for the product, it is necessary to scientifically …

Affective Dispositions And Cognitive Skills In Critical Thinking: Implications For Measurement, Training, And Team Performance, Timothy John Willis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to increase critical thinking among teams by making them cognizant of seven critical thinking dimensions. Forty three-person teams of undergraduates worked together on a complex decision-making task. Each team received training in and was asked to ensure their group exhibited the characteristics of cognitive skills, affective dispositions, both of these or neither. Critical thinking was assessed using self-report, behavioral observation rating, and expert outcome analysis. The findings suggest training in affective dispositions increases the exhibition of at least one dimensions of critical thinking. A behavioral measurement is presented and evaluated with respect to established critical thinking methods.

Peripheral Nerve Repair Using Biomaterial Nerve Guides Containing Guidance Channels, Oren D. Rosenthal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic injuries to peripheral nerves often leave gaps that cannot be repaired by direct suture methods. In such instances, repair with a tubular nerve guide, allows connection of the nerve ends, provides directional guidance, and concentrates endogenous trophic factors for regenerating axons. We hypothesized that collagen nerve guides containing longitudinally oriented channels would further improve the outcome of nerve repair by increasing the surface area available for cell migration. We restored the continuity of a 10mm peripheral nerve gap (rat sciatic nerve) by suturing the nerve stumps into a type I collagen nerve guide (1.5 mm ID), which contained longitudinal …

Multi-Robot Task Allocation Using Affect, Aaron Gage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobile robots are being used for an increasing array of tasks, from military reconnaissance to planetary exploration to urban search and rescue. As robots are deployed in increasingly complex domains, teams are called upon to perform tasks that exceed the capabilities of any particular robot. Thus, it becomes necessary for robots to cooperate, such that one robot can recruit another to jointly perform a task. Though techniques exist to allocate robots to tasks, either the communication overhead that these techniques require prevents them from scaling up to large teams, or assumptions are made that limit them to simple domains. This …

Differential Adolescent Delinquency Tolerance And The Effect Of Race And Gender, Evaristus Obinyan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study was designed to examine the attitudes of adolescents towards the tolerance of delinquent behavior. It was postulated that there would be a differential in the tolerance of delinquent behavior by juveniles from different age, gender, and racial groups. It was hypothesized that different groups would score higher or lower on select measures or dimensions (definition, reporting, controlling, preventing, correcting) of delinquency tolerance, and that their level of tolerance of delinquency might prove useful in explaining participation in delinquency.

The focus of the study was on identification of differential attitudes of various subgroups towards the violations of norms relating …

Technology And Teacher Training: The Systematic Design And Development Of A Framework For Integrating Technology Into Jamaica’S Teacher Training Programs, Carol N. Granston

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last five years, there has been an increased number of computers in schools and teachers' colleges in Jamaica. In addition, recently revised national policy documents have indicated the need to infuse technology into the curricula of all schools. Despite these investments in computers, however, there has been little corresponding development in training teachers to use computers and emerging technologies as teaching learning tools.

The purposes of the study were three-fold: (a) to describe the current state of technology integration in Jamaica's teacher training programs (b) assess the extent to which teachers' college faculty and pre-service teachers perceived themselves …

Design And Evaluation Of The Combined Input And Crossbar Queued (Cicq) Switch, Kenji Yoshigoe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Packet switches are used in the Internet to forward information between a sender and receiver and are the critical bottleneck in the Internet. Without faster packet switch designs, the Internet cannot continue to scale-up to higher data rates. Packet switches must be able to achieve high throughput and low delay. In addition, they must be stable for all traffic loads, must efficiently support variable length packets, and must be scalable to higher link data rates and greater numbers of ports. This dissertation investigates a new combined input and crossbar queued (CICQ) switch architecture.

Some unbalanced traffic loads result in instability …

Translation, Adaptation And Validation Of An Instrument To Evaluate Hiv/Aids Knowledge And Attitudes For Use With Salvadorian High School Students, Carlos Salvador Zometa Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study translated, cross-culturally adapted and validated an instrument's scores for use in public high schools in San Salvador, El Salvador. The original instrument consisted of items developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assess HIV/AIDS knowledge and five dimensions of attitudes (Abstinence, Peer-pressure, Condom use, Drug use, and Threat of HIV) in grades 7 to 12 in the United States. Items were translated into Spanish using the back-translation method. The instrument was cross-culturally adapted using guidelines proposed by Guillemin, Bombardier, and Beaton (1993). A cross-culturally equivalent version of the original instrument was obtained using three …

Radical Religious Groups And Government Policy: A Critical Evaluation, Tori Chambers Lockler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Religion, many times, is one of the phenomena that is misunderstood and often rejected due to apprehension. There is an expected "norm" within our culture for religion and those that fall outside that "norm" are typically criticized for their beliefs. Within Christianity there are a number of extremist groups that follow millennial doctrines and believe they are living in the end times. These organizations tend to view the government as oppressive, disrespectful, immoral and corrupt. Because of this when an incident occurs with one of these millennial groups and the government steps in to control the situation, the way it …

Characterization Of Novel Nitroplatinum(Iv) Complexes For The Treatment Of Cancer, Jeannette Lo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many types of chemotherapeutic agents have been developed to target specific mechanisms within the body that control the progression of cancer, though few have been able to circumvent the existing problems associated with the treatments. The current remedies entail grueling drug regimens and toxic side effects that may undermine the effectiveness of the drugs. Cisplatin, a common nitroplatinum(II) drug widely used to treat a variety of cancers, is administered intravenously and circulates systemically, affecting healthy regions of the body as well. Resistance to cisplatin is increasing and the need for new, less toxic medication must be met for future success …

Frames In The U.S. Print Media Coverage Of The Kashmir Conflict, Durga, Ray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the frames used by the U.S. print media -- The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times -- in their coverage of the Kashmir conflict and the parties involved in it from 1989 to 2003. It divided the 15-year period of coverage into four phases -- 1989-1990, 1991-1998, 1999-2001, and 2002-2003 -- and focused on the coverage of seven subjects. It then identified sources and keywords from 180 news reports and placed them into categories from which it isolated thematic clusters or frames.

The study found that in the first two phases, …

Behavioral And Morphological Consequences Of Rearing Florida Largemouth Bass With Non-Elusive Prey, Alpa Patel Wintzer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

(1) Hatchery-reared Florida largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides floridanus, feed on inert pellet food while their wild counterparts capture elusive prey. Differences in levels of prey elusivity often mandate the use of alternate methods of prey capture and are accompanied by a related phenotypic change.

(2) This study investigates (a) differences between the prey capture kinematics and strike modes of hatchery and wild juvenile Florida largemouth bass raised on pellets and live prey, and (b) whether elusivity-based variation in prey capture translates to a phenotypic and functional change during skull development.

(3) Analysis of high-speed videography demonstrates that wild bass capture …

Outsiders And The Impact Of Party Affiliation In Ecuadorian Presidential Elections, Rachel Lynne Hammond

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How has the party affiliation of presidential candidates impacted presidential elections in Ecuador? Historically, how have political party candidates and outsiders performed in elections and how has this changed over the last 20 years of democratic history? This case study attempts to answer fundamental questions about the connections between parties and electablility of presidential candidates. In a country with an inchoate party system and a history of populism, personalist candidates have always had relatively high levels of electoral success. Yet, it would seem that preference for unaligned candidates is increasing. After years of domination by political party candidates, the Ecuadorian …

The Importance Of Program-Delivered Differential Reinforcement In The Development Of Classical Music Auditory Discrimination, Gudmundur Torfi Heimisson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Posttest performances after two forms of Web-based tutorial instruction were compared. Both forms were designed to teach students to identify musical compositions that typify Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century music. The first treatment condition was a series of Web pages with text and accompanying hyperlinks to musical selections matched to the text. In this condition, students read and listened at their own discretion -- without Web software program restrictions. The second treatment contained exactly the same text and musical selections, but students in this condition read the text in small portions while being required to fill in missing …

Women, Domestic Abuse, And Dreams: Analyzing Dreams To Uncover Hidden Traumas And Unacknowledged Strengths, Mindy Stokes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Domestic abuse is the number one cause of injury to women in the United States. Women and their children flee everyday to shelters to escape the abuse. Once inside the shelters, material resources are rendered so that the women can continue to lead lives outside the shelter and different therapies are employed so that the women can better understand the abuse and their options once leaving. A type of therapy used in other therapeutic forums, such as patients sexually abused as children, is dream analysis. This type of therapy has allowed formerly traumatized victims a safe space to uncover hidden …

“Symbolism Of Language: A Study In The Dialogue Of Power Between The Imperial Cult And The Synoptic Gospels”, Sharon Matlock-Marsh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Long before the writings of the New Testament gospels, where Jesus was being proclaimed as the Son of God, and Savior, the world existing under the influences of Hellenism resulting from the conquests by Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, had already been well acquaint

ed with and expected to hear certain symbolic language in determining titles for their divine ruler the emperor. Living within a cosmological framework, i.e., a sacred cosmos, the citizens of the empire accepted the emperor as the manifestation of divinity in the world. This belief existed for centuries prior to Christianity as a reality that …

Chemical And Biological Investigation Of The Antarctic Red Alga Delisea Pulchra, Santhisree Nandiraju

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Our interest in the red alga Delisea pulchra (=D.fimbriata) (Greville) Montagne 1844 (Rhodophyceae, Bonnemaisoniales, Bonnemaisoniaceace) was stimulated by its activity in the biosssays done at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Halogenated compounds from D. pulchra interfere with Gram-negative bacterial signaling systems, affect the growth of Gram-positive bacteria, inhibit quorum sensing and swarming motility of marine bacteria (inhibit bacterial communication). They also inhibit surface colonization in marine bacteria and exhibit antifouling properties against barnacle larvae and macroalgal gametes.

Chemical investigation of D.pulchra collected near Palmer Station, Antarctica yielded three new dimeric halogenated furanones, pulchralide A-C (41-43), along with previously reported …

Congestion-Aware Cross-Layer Design For Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Ning, Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ad hoc networks have emerged recently as an important trend of future wireless systems. The evolving wireless networks are seriously challenging the traditional OSI layered design. In order to provide high capacity wireless access and support new multimedia network, the various OSI layers and network functions should be considered together while designing the network.

In this thesis, we briefly discuss performance optimization challenges of ad hoc networks and cross-layer design. Ad hoc wireless networks were implemented by using Network Simulator NS-2 and the wireless physical, data link, dynamic source routing (DSR) routing protocol models have been included in the simulation. …

Behavioral Analysis Of Interactions Between Teachers And Children With Selective Mutism, Jason D. Wallace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study focused on the interactions between a child with selective mutism and that child's teachers. The hypothesis was that the teachers unknowingly maintained the mutism by not placing the expectations of speech on the child. Therefore, by training three out of the four teachers how to interact with the child with selective mutism, and using the fourth teacher as a control, the researchers were able to identify that the training not only changed the three teachers' behaviors, but also the child with selective mutism's behaviors as well. Also, based on a pre-training/post-training test, the teachers had a much …

Development Of Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors Using Nanostructured Palladium For Hydrogen Detection, Amol V. Chaudhari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the development of new gas sensor using surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology. SAW sensors detect the change in mass, modulus, and conductivity of a sensing layer material via absorption or adsorption of an analyte. The advantage of SAW sensor includes low cost, small size, high sensitivity.

We investigated the use of nano-crystalline palladium film for sensing hydrogen gas. We also investigated SAW fabrication for radio frequency (RF) range operation where high signal-to-noise ratios can be achieved. A test-bed consisting of a gas dilution system, a temperature-controlled test cell, a network analyzer, and computer-based measurement system was used …

Institutionalized On The Margins: An Organizational History Of The Preparation Of Teachers Of College Composition, Gregory A. Giberson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The preparation of new college teachers of composition has been a disciplinary topic of interest as well as an institutional concern since the establishment in the late 1800s of the modern English department. In this project, I offer a critical history of the treatment of the topic of the preparation of teachers of college composition by the three most historically significant organizations to English as a discipline and Composition as a field of study within that discipline: the Modern Language Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Conference on College Composition and Communication. By analyzing the treatment …

Performance Analysis Of Tcp/Ip Over High Bandwidth Delay Product Networks, Subodh Kerkar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In today's Internet scenario, the current TCP has performed reasonably well. As the Internet has scaled up in load, speed, size and connectivity by the order of six over the past fifteen years, the TCP has consistently avoided severe congestion throughout this same period. Applications involving high performance computings such as bulk-data transfer, multimedia Web streaming, and computational grids demand high bandwidth. These applications usually operate over wide-area networks and, hence, performance over wide-area networks has become a critical issue. Future applications will need steady transfer rates in the order of gigabits per second to support collaborative work. TCP, which …

Characterization Of P-Type Zinc Oxide Films, Madhavi Oleti Kalki Rajan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Zinc Oxide falls under the classification of transparent conductive oxides. They typical optical transmittance of Zinc Oxide is 90% in the visible wavelength region. Though stoichiometric ZnO is an insulator, due to the presence of internal defects such as Zn interstitials and Oxygen vacancies, it exists as a n-type conductor.

The other important property of ZnO which could be used by the optical field is its widebandgap. ZnO has a wide bandgap of 3.2eV -3.3eV. The additional advantage of being a direct bandgap semiconductor has increased the probability of using ZnO for short wavelength applications. These practical applications are directly …

Analysis Of Glass Mold To Enhance Rate Of Heat Transfer, Anand Warude

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Narrow Neck Press and Blow (NNPB) process is used to produce light weight bottles. The gob of molten glass is delivered to the blank mold and a specially designed narrow diameter plunger is used to form the finish or mouth and the parison as it presses upwards. Invert and final blow takes place followed by take-out and annealing. Anchor Glass Container Corp. (AGC) uses NNPB technology in their glass making plants. The problem experienced by AGC in the process is that the heat dissipation through out the mold is not uniform and hence there is a non uniform temperature distribution …

Distributed Clustering For Scaling Classic Algorithms, Prodip Hore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clustering large data sets recently has emerged as an important area of research. The ever-increasing size of data sets and poor scalability of clustering algorithms has drawn attention to distributed clustering for partitioning large data sets. Sometimes, centrally pooling the distributed data is also expensive. There might be also constraints on data sharing between different distributed locations due to privacy, security, or proprietary nature of the data. In this work we propose an algorithm to cluster large-scale data sets without centrally pooling the data. Data at distributed sites are clustered independently i.e. without any communication among them. After partitioning the …

Robust Dock Assignments At Less-Than-Truckload Terminals, Mesut Korhan Acar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Less-than-truckload industry has a valuable potential for applications of operations research in two areas, network design and efficiency improvement within existing networks. This thesis focuses on the latter, specifically the less-than-truckload terminals where cross docking operations occur.

The assignment of incoming trailers to inbound docks is one of the critical decisions that affect the performance of less-than-truckload terminals. This research reviews existing models in literature and introduces an optimal mixed integer quadratic model with the objective of generating assignments that are robust against variability in system parameters such as truck arrival and service times, terminal characteristics and trailer load content. …

Re-Constructing The Image Of The Voluntarily Childfree: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Media Representation And The Childless By Choice, Eddy Sass

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, like most other parts of the world, there is a commonly held belief that all capable couples should have children. This belief has contributed to the development of a pro-natalist ideology or concept that having children is good. This pronatalist belief tends to spill over into the media, as well. Yet, there are those individuals who do not subscribe to the parenthood belief structure and to the manner in which the media frame the parenthood debate. These people are known as the voluntarily childfree or the childless by choice. This thesis is an exploratory ethnographic examination …

The Impact Of Technology On Community College Students’ Success In Remedial/Developmental Mathematics, Mary M. Bendickson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increased institutional accountability and fiscal constraints coupled with most community college students being required to take at least one remedial/developmental course indicates a need to find the best way to deliver these classes. Institutions are expanding alternate delivery formats to meet student expectations. Is using technology best for students in remedial/developmental courses?

This study investigated effectiveness of technology-assisted instruction for remedial/developmental math in Florida community colleges. Technology has emerged as potentially enhancing student success; however, it is expensive. If research shows that students benefit from technology in remedial/developmental courses, then funds spent to provide instruction through technology are validated. However, …