Digital Commons Network^™

Congruence Among Mathematics Skills Used On The Job By Practical Nurses Vs. The Prerequisite Skills Required For Admission Into The Practical Nursing Program, G H. Clary

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The standard for evaluating a student's mathematic ability (grade level) for admission to many vocational-technical programs is through the administration of the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE). There has come forth a concern from vocational educators, that students entering programs may not be prepared for the mathematics required by the curriculum, even though the student has met the criteria for entry as established by the state curriculum frameworks as evidenced by their scores on a TABE which had recently been administered. Furthermore, questions raised among instructional, administrative and guidance personnel about the congruence of math skills required on the …

Force-Directed Instruction Scheduling For Low Power, Prashant Dongale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing need for low-power computing devices has led to the efforts to optimize power in all the components of a system. It is possible to achieve significant power optimization at the software level through instruction reordering during the compilation phase. In this thesis, we have designed and implemented a novel instruction scheduling technique, called FD-ISLP, aimed at reducing the software power consumption. In the proposed approach for instruction scheduling, we modify the force-directed scheduling technique used in high-level synthesis of VLSI circuits to derive a latency-constrained algorithm that reorders the instructions in a basic block of assembly code in …

Energy And Transient Power Minimization During Behavioral Synthesis, Saraju P. Mohanty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of portable systems and mobile computing platforms has increased the need for the design of low power consuming integrated circuits. The increase in chip density and clock frequencies due to technology advances has made low power design a critical issue. Low power design is further driven by several other factors such as thermal considerations and environmental concerns. In low-power design for battery driven portable applications, the reduction of peak power, peak power differential, average power and energy are equally important. In this dissertation, we propose a framework for the reduction of these parameters through datapath scheduling at behavioral …

Vector Flow Model In Video Estimation And Effects Of Network Congestion In Low Bit-Rate Compression Standards, Balaji Ramadoss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of digitized information is rapidly gaining acceptance in bio-medical applications. Video compression plays an important role in the archiving and transmission of different digital diagnostic modalities. The present scheme of video compression for low bit-rate networks is not suitable for medical video sequences. The instability is the result of block artifacts resulting from the block based DCT coefficient quantization. The possibility of applying deformable motion estimation techniques to make the video compression standard (H.263) more adaptable for bio-medial applications was studied in detail. The study on the network characteristics and the behavior of various congestion control mechanisms was …

Implementation Of An Acoustic Echo Canceller Using Matlab, Srinivasaprasath Raghavendran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth of technology in recent decades has changed the whole dimension of communications. Today people are more interested in hands-free communication. In such a situation, the use a regular loudspeaker and a high-gain microphone, in place of a telephone receiver, might seem more appropriate. This would allow more than one person to participate in a conversation at the same time such as a teleconference environment. Another advantage is that it would allow the person to have both hands free and to move freely in the room. However, the presence of a large acoustic coupling between the loudspeaker and …

University Copyright Policies For Online Coures: An Evaluative Resource Tool For Unbundling Rights Of Use, Control, And Revenue, Tamara A. Patzer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Who cares about who owns online courses? Nobody, because that is not what the issue is really about. Ownership is an emotional issue, but controlling the rights of a copyrightable work is tangible and logical. The important question to answer is not who owns online courses, but who controls the rights of any copyrightable work. For universities and faculty members, getting over the emotional issues and down to the foundation of what is truly at stake is of major concern. While it is nearly impossible to create qualitative guidelines for copyright policies and/or contracts, it is eminently possible to examine …

Design And Performance Evaluation Of A New Spatial Reuse Firewire Protocol, Vijay Chandramohan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New generations of video surveillance systems are expected to possess a large-scale network of intelligent video cameras with built-in image processing capabilities. These systems need to be tethered for reasons of bandwidth and power requirements. To support economical installation of video cameras and to manage the huge volume of information flow in these networks, there is a need for new shared-medium daisy-chained physical and medium access control (bus arbitration) layer communication protocols.

This thesis describes the design principles of Spatial reuse FireWire Protocol (SFP), a novel request/grant bus arbitration protocol, architected for an acyclic daisy-chained network topology. SFP is a …

Graph-Theoretic Techniques For Web Content Mining, Adam Schenker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation we introduce several novel techniques for performing data mining on web documents which utilize graph representations of document content. Graphs are more robust than typical vector representations as they can model structural information that is usually lost when converting the original web document content to a vector representation. For example, we can capture information such as the location, order and proximity of term occurrence, which is discarded under the standard document vector representation models. Many machine learning methods rely on distance computations, centroid calculations, and other numerical techniques. Thus many of these methods have not been applied …

The Bases Of Opposition To Affirmative Action: An Attitude Change Effort, Meisha-Ann Martin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the effects of perceptions of fairness, prejudice and collective self-interest on the affirmative action attitudes of 85 White undergraduate students. Participants were classified as non-racists, modern racists or old-fashioned racists based on their scores on the Implicit Association Test and Attitudes Toward Blacks scale. In the first phase of the study, participants read affirmative action information preceded by either high or low attention instructions. In the second phase, fairness, status of position and race of the target of an affirmative action plan were manipulated using vignettes. No significant differences were found in the first phase of …

Exchanges For Complex Commodities: Toward A General-Purpose System For On-Line Trading, John Hershberger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The modern economy includes a variety of markets, and the Internet has opened opportunities for efficient on-line trading. Researchers have developed algorithms for various auctions, which have become a popular means for on-line sales. They have also designed algorithms for exchange-based markets, similar to the traditional stock exchange, which support fast-paced trading of rigidly standardized securities. In contrast, there has been little work on exchanges for complex nonstandard commodities, such as used cars or collectible stamps.

We propose a formal model for trading of complex goods, and present an automated exchange for a limited version of this model. The exchange …

Your Computer Is Watching You: Intelligent Agents And Social Facilitation, Jason R. Read

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates whether the social facilitation effect takes place when a person performs a computerized task that includes an animated intelligent agent (IA). The moderating effects of two individual differences, locus of control (LOC) and microcomputer playfulness (MCP), are tested for. It was proposed that an IA's presence would cause participants to exhibit this effect and that LOC and MCP would moderate a participant's arousal, measured as state anxiety, such that those possessing an internal LOC and those exhibiting high MCP would experience less arousal when performing computerized tasks with an IA present. Data was analyzed using a 2 …

Packet Loss Concealment In Voice Over Internet, Rishikesh S. Gokhale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditional telephony networks with their cumbersome and costly infrastructures are being replaced with voice being transmitted over the Internet. The Internet is a very commonly used technology that was traditionally used to transmit data. With the availability of large bandwidth and high data rates the transmission of data, voice and video over the Internet is gaining popularity. Voice is a real time application and the biggest problem it faces is the loss of packets due to network congestion. The Internet implements protocols to detect and retransmit the lost packets. However, for a real time application it is too late before …

Organizational Office Space In The Virtual Age: The Role Of Shared Space In Communication, Sheila Gobes-Ryan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis takes a phenomenological approach to the examination of the organizational need for shared office space. Questions are developed in a reflexive narrative that introduces challenges to the assumption that space is a given in organizations. The narrative also uses the process of questioning this basis assumption to develop a new understanding of the role of space in organizations in supporting the development of common language needed for the creation of organizational knowledge. Key ideas from systems theory, autopoiesis, organizational theory, semiotics, and psychology are utilized as resources developing the ideas.

Falun Gong In The United States: An Ethnographic Study, Noah Porter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, has been described in many ways. It has been called qigong, one of many schools of physical exercises that aim at improving health and developing "supernatural abilities". Scholars and mainstream media have referred it to as a "spiritual movement" or religion, although practitioners claim it is not a religion. It has been called a cult, in the pejorative sense rather than in a sociological context, by the Chinese government and by some Western critics. In the writings of Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, it is referred to in different ways, …

Relative Motion History Of The Pacific-Nazca (Farallon) Plates Since 30 Million Years Ago, Douglas T. Wilder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Relative plate motion history since 30 Ma between the Pacific and the southern portion of the Nazca (Farallon) plates is examined. The history is constrained by available seafloor magnetic anomaly data and a two-minute grid of predicted bathymetry derived from satellite altimetry and shipboard sensors. These data are used to create a new plate motion reconstruction based on new magnetic anomaly identifications and finite poles of motion. The new identified magnetic isochrons and tectonic reconstruction provides greater resolution to the tectonic history between chrons 7y (24.73 Ma) and 3 (4.18 Ma) than previous interpretations.

Shipboard magnetics and aeromagnetic data from …

Use Of Silica-Supported Adsorbents, Modified Silica Gel, Modified Montmorillonite Ksf And Magnetite In The Remediation Of Selected Heavy Metals From Aqueous Media, Craig Alcindor Ivan Bowe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pollution of the earth's water resources, including freshwater sources such as lakes and rivers, by heavy metals have been a detriment to the environment for as long as the industrial age of man. As these metallic pollutants accumulate in the supply of precious groundwater and drinking water the need for clean-up technologies to combat the increasing threat is becoming of more importance to government and industry alike. Previous work has established the possibility of using known chelating agents, such as LIX-54® supported on silica gel in the removal of selected heavy metal ions such as copper(II), nickel(II) , and cadmium(II) …

Embedded Cryptography: An Analysis And Evaluation Of Performance And Code Optimization Techniques For Encryption And Decryption In Embedded Systems, Jayavardhan R. Kandi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is clear that Cryptography is computationally intensive. It is also known that embedded systems have slow clock rates and less memory. The idea for this thesis was to study the possibilities for analysis of cryptography on embedded systems. The basic approach was the implementation of cryptographic algorithms on high-end, state-of-the-art, DSP chips in order to study the various parameters that optimize the performance of the chip while keeping the overhead of encryption and decryption to a minimum.

Embedded systems are very resource sensitive. An embedded system is composed of different components, which are implemented in both hardware and software. …

Criteria To Evaluate The Quality Of Pavement Camera Systems In Automated Evaluation Vehicles, Iván Sokolic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of high technology in common daily tasks is boarding all areas of civil engineering; pavement evaluation is not the exception. Accordingly, current pavement imaging systems have been able to collect images at highway speeds and with the use of proper software, this digital information can be translated into pavement distress reports in which all distresses are classified and presented by their type, extent, severity, and location. However, a number of issues regarding the quality of pavement images and the appropriate conditions to acquire them, remain to be addressed. These issues surfaced during the development of a pavement evaluation …

Developing Organizational Development: Alienation And Organizing In The Age Of Information, Robert D. Kreisher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modernism is characterized by alienation from one's self and the processes by which one's self gets constructed. Organizational development (OD) is an activity that attempts to address the experience of work and to transform the historical alienation.

OD practitioners are often optimistic that this transformation is possible and even is happening in the day-to-day work of OD. A group of critics, mostly academics, are skeptical about whether any real transformation is possible, arguing that OD practices are misguided extensions of modernism. In one thread of the OD literature, authors build an argument for the centrality of issues of identity in …

Brand Loyalty In The Automotive Community: A Case Study On The Chevrolet Corvette, Michele Ann Motichka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a qualitative case study conducted to investigate the relationship between consumers who are brand loyal to a certain product and the groups that are formed to bring these enthusiasts together, using the Chevrolet Corvette and its community as a model. Qualitative research lends itself to studying relationships and social situations, in being able to observe and participate in a social context, rather than analyzing it from the outside looking in. By approaching this subject as a case study, an element of flexibility was allowed. This study primarily focuses on one main phenomena, the social groups formed by loyal …

Deployment And Strategies For Application Of Intelligent Transportation System Elements For Contra Flow Hurricane Evacuation And Emergency Response, Ingrid Leuchtenmueller Birenbaum

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deployment and Strategies for Application of Intelligent Transportation System Elements for Contra Flow Hurricane Evacuation and Emergency Response Ingrid Leuchtenmueller Birenbaum ABSTRACT This thesis is focused upon the deployment and strategies for the application of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) elements for contra flow hurricane evacuation and emergency response. A 99-mile segment of the Mainline of Florida's Turnpike, State Road 91, comprises the research corridor. This segment stands as the potential one way evacuation route for major hurricane evacuations and other types of natural and man-made disasters for the Turnpike System. Plans have been developed and modified over time to address …

The Involvement Of Florida’S Full-Time Community College Faculty In Institutional Governance: Implications For Institutional Decision-Making, Martha Etheredge Campbell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study's purpose was to investigate the level of involvement of Florida's full-time community college faculty in institutional governance, their perceptions of the faculty governance body's role in institutional decision-making, and the characteristics of an ideal governance process. This study also explored the relation between a faculty member's level of involvement in governance activities and his or her perceptions of the desired roles of faculty in institutional governance as well as the relation between a faculty member's level of involvement and his or her gender, race, age, and years of employment. Certain factors that encourage or discourage faculty participation in …

Effectiveness Of Social Story Interventions For Children With Asperger's Syndrome, Frank J. Sansosti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of individualized social story interventions on the social communication skills of three children with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Using a multiple baseline across participants desing, three social stories were implemented and direct observations of the participants' identified target behaviors were collected three times per week during unstructured school activities (e.g, recess). Data revealed an increase in the social communication skills of two of the three participants when the treatment was implemented. In addition, maintenance of treatment effects was observed in two participants. These data support recommendations for using social stories to …

Effect Of Cdcl2 Treatment On Cdte And Cds Solar Cell Characteristics After Exposure To Light For 1000 Hours, Ashok Rangaswamy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The CdTe solar cell is a leading candidate for cost-effective thin-film solar cells having demonstrated small area cell effciencies of 16.4%. A Key issue associated with CdTe thin film photovoltaic modules is the analysis of degradation behavior of the device. The analysis is complicated as changes due to degradation may be reversible. Solar cell measurement techniques were used to understand the changes in device parameters after light soaking for 1000 hours. An automated measurement setup was implemented as part of this thesis work. The main objective of this thesis was to study the effect of CdCl₂ heat treatment on …

Software Testing Testbed For Mpeg-4 Video Traffic Over Ieee 802.11b Wireless Lans, Praveen Chiranjeevi Ikkurthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several traffic characterization studies have been performed on wireless LANs with the main objective of realizing good and accurate models of the errors in the wireless channel. These models have been extended to model the effect of errors on higher layer protocols, mainly at the data link layer. However, no prior work has been done to study the application level characteristics of MPEG-4 video traffic over 802.11b wireless networks. In this thesis a traffic characterization study of MPEG-4 video traffic over IEEE 802.11b wireless LANs with the main goal of building a tool for software testing is performed.

Using two …

Delivering Continuing Education In Health Education Using Self-Directed Computermediated Instruction: Moving From Intention To Action, Jane Ellery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using advanced technologies can help increase the availability of educational offerings; however, the steps taken in this direction must be appropriate for the target population and the specific content taught. As such, understanding factors that lead to health educators' intentions and behavior related to computer-mediated instruction for continuing education is an important step in developing and marketing appropriate computer-mediated instruction programs (Hoffman & Novak, 1994). Using the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1988) this study explored the relationships between health educators' perceived behavioral control, attitudes, and subjective norms related to computer-mediated continuing education programs and their intentions to use, and …

Reproductive Characteristics, Multiple Paternity And Mating System In A Central Florida Population Of The Gopher Tortoise, Gopherus Polyphemus, Jamie Colleen Colson-Moon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I studied the reproductive characteristics and mating systems of a central Florida population of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus). Using x-radiography, females were monitored for stage in egg-shelling and clutch size. Eggs began to appear on x-ray photographs in the first week of May in both 2001 and 2002; however, fully shelled eggs were not found before the end of May. In total 55% of the females x-rayed were gravid. Clutch sizes ranged from 4-12 with a mean of 7.29, with a mean clutch mass of 40.9 g. Clutch size increased with an increase in mean carapace length and …

Representation And Interpretation Of Manual And Non-Manual Information For Automated American Sign Language Recognition, Ayush S. Parashar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Continuous recognition of sign language has many practical applications and it can help to improve the quality of life of deaf persons by facilitating their interaction with hearing populace in public situations. This has led to some research in automated continuous American Sign Language recognition. But most work in continuous ASL recognition has only used top-down Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based approaches for recognition. There is no work on using facial information, which is considered to be fairly important. In this thesis, we explore bottom-up approach based on the use of Relational Distributions and Space of Probability Functions (SoPF) for …

Chess: A Tool For Cdfg Extraction And High-Level Synthesis Of Vlsi Systems, Ravi K. Namballa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a new tool, named CHESS, is designed and developed for control and data-flow graph (CDFG) extraction and the high-level synthesis of VLSI systems. The tool consists of three individual modules for:(i) CDFG extraction, (ii) scheduling and allocation of the CDFG, and (iii) binding, which are integrated to form a comprehensive high-level synthesis system. The first module for CDFG extraction includes a new algorithm in which certain compiler-level transformations are applied first, followed by a series of behavioral-preserving transformations on the given VHDL description. Experimental results indicate that the proposed conversion tool is quite accurate and fast. The …

Perceptions Of Parental Differential Treatment: Correlates In Chronically Ill And Non-Ill Samples Of Children, Julie A. Reich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We studied perceptions parental differential treatment as reported by parents and children in two different settings. Perceptions of differential affection and control were examined in healthy families and in families that include a child diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Parental differential treatment was assessed using questionnaires that measured perceptions of absolute parenting for children and their siblings. Difference scores were subsequently utilized to generate perceived parental differential treatment scores. Participants were 61 parents (half with healthy children, half with one child who has diabetes) and 62 children (half comprising sibling pairs unaffected by any medical problems, half including one child …