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Child Psychopathology, Parental Problem Perception, And Help-Seeking Behaviors, Jessica Curley Hankinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Service underutilization is a major problem facing children with emotional and behavioral problems. In addition, parents are often the ones most responsible for seeking help for their children. However, many children do not receive adequate help because parents do not perceive a problem or do not recognize that a child is in need. The present study examined parental thresholds for problem perception and subsequent help-seeking decisions based on children's behaviors presented in a vignette. It was hypothesized that the type of child behavior, child and parent gender, and other parental characteristics would be associated with different thresholds for problem perception …

Beyond Orthographic Segmentation: Neurophysiological Evidence That Pseudo-Derived Word Stems Are Processed Semantically, Theresa Herbert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Morphological segmentation while reading is essential for new vocabulary learning. The study's aim was to investigate semantic-level morphological segmentation using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in typical young adult readers. Past research has suggested that, because semantically opaque words prime their stems (e.g., corner/corn) similarly to transparent words (e.g., farmer/farm), readers recognize complex words from their constituent morphemes without regard to semantic information. However, this priming effect may be due to orthographic and phonological overlap between prime and target words. The research presented here addressed this possibility by creating five conditions in which orthographic, phonological, and semantic relationships between …

Risk Communication: An Analysis Of Message Source And Function In Hurricane Mitigation/Preparedness Communication, Andrew M. Gallo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In September 2008, the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted that Hurricane Ike would make landfall on Galveston Island as a strong category three storm. This led the NWS to release a statement of 'certain death' if people did not adhere to the emergency evacuation messages. Millions of people fled the Texas coast. Using Hazleton and Long's (1993) taxonomy of public relations strategies, experimental methods were conducted with various evacuation messages to test emergency communication. Grunig's (1997) situational theory of publics was used to determine strategy influence. Problem recognition, constraint recognition, and level of involvement were tested. In addition, tests were …

Development Of A Framework To Identify Patient Pathways Through A Segment Of The Health Care Cycle, Abhik Bhattacharya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The US spends more money on health care than other industrialized nations. Nevertheless, the US lags behind them in life expectancies, access to care, and other health indicators. This can be attributed to the numerous issues that afflict the US health care sector - the lack of a universal health coverage, increasing medical errors, over and under-treatment of patients, lack of standardization, and so on.

It is believed that the structure of health care delivery as it exists in the US is broken, which consequently reduces the quality of provided care and increases costs. There is a growing consensus among …

Roots And Role Of The Imagination In Kant: Imagination At The Core, Michael Thompson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Kant's critical philosophy promises to overturn both Empiricism and Rationalism by arguing for the necessity of a passive faculty, sensibility, and an active faculty, understanding, in order for cognition to obtain. Kant argues in favor of sense impression found in standard empirical philosophies while advocating conceptual necessities like those found in rational philosophies. It is only in the synthesis of these two elements that cognition and knowledge claims are possible. However, by affirming such a dualism, Kant has created yet another problem familiar to the history of philosophy, one of faculty interaction. By affirming two separate and exclusive capacities necessary …

Teachers’ Sense Of Efficacy And Use Of Behavioral Interventions: Consultation Effects And Sustainability, Brandi L. Tanner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The amount of services delivered by school psychologists through consultation is increasing as is the number of students with challenging behaviors in the classroom. In this type of delivery model, the school psychologist works as a consultant to the teacher who will actually deliver the intervention to the student.

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between participation in a tertiary level behavior intervention program and teacher efficacy, confidence in dealing with challenging behavior, and implementation of behavior interventions. Two studies were conducted to examine a series of research questions. Study 1 used archival data to examine …

“I Stand For Sovereignty”: Reading Portia In Shakespeare’S The Merchant Of Venice, Deborah Van Pelt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Portia serves as a complex and often underestimated character in William Shakespeare's controversial comedy The Merchant of Venice. Using the critical methodologies of New Historicism and feminism, this thesis explores Portia's representation of Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. Striking similarities exist between character and Queen, including physical description, suitors, marriage issues, and rhetoric. In addition, the tripartite marriage at the play's conclusion among Portia, Bassanio, and Antonio represents the relationship Elizabeth Tudor formed between her merchant class and her aristocracy. Shylock serves as a representation of a generic or perhaps Catholic threat to England during …

Teacher Self-Efficacy And The Civic Knowledge Of Secondary Social Studies Teachers In A Large Urban School District: A Policy Study, Dennis Holt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This policy study contributed to an understanding of the types of professional growth activities that improve teacher self-confidence to teach challenging subjects and helped determine the future allocation of resources relative to teaching secondary social studies in Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS), the eighth largest school district in the United States. An important implication and result of this study consisted of a change in HCPS secondary social studies professional development policy from an emphasis on promoting literacy strategies, or reading in the content area, to a focus on improving social studies teacher content knowledge. Additionally, the study describes the culture …

Gothic Cathedral As Theology And Literature, Mary E. Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a tendency in modern times for life to be divided into strictly separated categories-our music is divided into bins at the record store according to sometimes arbitrary genre distinctions, courses offered by one university department often cannot be counted towards a degree in another department, and students from middle school through college are outraged when they learn that "spelling counts" in a history paper. These distinctions, which are second nature to us even in childhood, were not as numerous or as strict in the medieval European understanding of life. Even when there were systems of division, such as …

End-To-End Available Bandwidth Estimation And Monitoring, Cesar Dario Guerrero Santander

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Available Bandwidth Estimation Techniques and Tools (ABETTs) have recently been envisioned as a supporting mechanism in areas such as compliance of service level agreements, network management, traffic engineering and real-time resource provisioning, flow and congestion control, construction of overlay networks, fast detection of failures and network attacks, and admission control. However, it is unknown whether current ABETTs can run efficiently in any type of network, under different network conditions, and whether they can provide accurate available bandwidth estimates at the timescales needed by these applications.

This dissertation investigates techniques and tools able to provide accurate, low overhead, reliable, and fast …

Inositol Phospholipid And Tyrosine Phosphorylation Signaling In The Biology Of Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Amy L. Hazen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Blood cells are continuously produced throughout our lifetime by a rare pluripotent cell that primarily resides in the adult bone marrow. This hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) must maintain a careful balance between self-renewal, differentiation and apoptosis in order to support hematopoiesis for such a long duration. Understanding the mechanism of balance between these fates is crucial to our understanding and clinical application of these cells.

From previous studies, we know Src homology 2 domain containing 5' inositol phosphatase 1 (SHIP) plays an important role in HSC homeostasis and function. Most interestingly SHIP impacts HSC homing to the bone marrow niche. …

Adiposity, Stress, And Stigmatization: A Biopsychosocial Approach To Cardiovascular Disease Prediction, Kristi E. White

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to use a biopsychosocial approach to investigate the role of body image concerns and appearance-related evaluation stress in the relationship between adiposity and cardiovascular reactivity and recovery. Participants included 106 Caucasian female undergraduates at the University of South Florida. The laboratory procedure consisted of resting baseline, speech preparation and delivery, and recovery phases. Participants also completed a variety of body image questionnaires. To manipulate appearance-related evaluation stress, participants were randomly assigned to present their speech to a video camera or an audio recorder. Overall adiposity was measured as body mass index (BMI) and …

Examining A Multidimensional Model Of Attitudinal Commitment, Kyle W. Groff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Attitudinal commitment (AOC) to the organization is consistently viewed as the most desirable form of organizational commitment due to its consistently positive relationship with many desirable workplace outcomes. Though researchers tend to overlap considerably with their definitions of attitudinal commitment, consensus on how to define and operationalize this form of organizational commitment has yet to be reached. Recently, Jaussi (2007) proposed a multidimensional model of AOC that borrows from the various conceptualizations of AOC in an attempt to form an all encompassing scale. The current study examined the utility of using a multidimensional measure of AOC by examining the unique …

Swift: Peculiar Supporter Of Female Writers, Robert N. Gamache

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is not traditionally known for valuing the company of women. While contemporary critics tend to be more forgiving and defer to the prevailing values of the eighteenth century, they generally do not dwell on the positive influence that Swift had on female writers of his day. This thesis will work towards remedying that omission by analyzing the writing of three prominent female contemporaries of Swift: Delariviere Manley, Mary Barber and Laetitia Pilkington. While varying in writing ability, each of the three women in this thesis had a personal relationship with Swift, was invited to join his "inner …

Design And Implementation Of An Integrated Dynamic Vision System For Autonomous Systems Operating In Uncertain Domains, Michail Kontitsis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have been successfully used in a wide variety of applications. Their value as surveillance platforms has been proven repeatedly in both military and civilian domains. As substitutes to human inhabited aircraft, they fulfill missions that are dull, dirty and dangerous. Representative examples of successful use of UAS are in areas including battlefield assessment, reconnaissance, port security, wildlife protection, wildfire detection, search and rescue missions, border security, resource exploration and oil spill detection. The reliance of almost every UAS application on the ability to sense, detect, see and avoid from a distance has motivated …

Program Monitoring In A Mandatory-Results Model, Srikar Reddy Reddy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In many real enforcement systems, a security-relevant action must return a result before the application program that invoked that action can continue to execute. However, current models of runtime mechanisms do not capture this requirement on results being returned to application programs; current models are limited to reasoning about policies and enforcement in terms of actions alone, without considering the results of those actions. This thesis presents a more general model of runtime policy enforcement in which all actions return (possibly void- or unit-type) results. This mandatory-results model more accurately reflects the capabilities and limitations of real enforcement mechanisms, particularly …

Temporal Registration Of Mammograms By Finite Element Simulation Of Mr Breast Volume Deformation, Yan Qiu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clinically it is important to combine information provided by mammographic images from multiple views or at different times. Taking regular mammographic screening and comparing corresponding mammograms are necessary for early detection of breast cancer, which is the key to successful treatment. However, mammograms taken at different times are often obtained under different compressions, orientations or body positions. A temporal pair of mammograms may vary quite significantly due to the spatial disparities caused by the variety in acquisition environments, including the 3D position of the breast, the amount of the pressure applied, etc. Such disparities can be corrected through the process …

Power-Control Theory: An Examination Of Private And Public Patriarchy, Jessica Nicole Mitchell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The gender difference in crime is indisputable. In an attempt to explain gender differences in adolescents' involvement in crime, secondary data analysis of middle and high school students and their neighborhoods will be examined. Feminists have identified the concept of patriarchy as the root of gender differences in all behavior and particularly in criminal behavior. Hagan's Power-Control Theory incorporates the concept of patriarchy through measures within home to examine how differences in occupational authority between parents affects the gender difference in delinquency through differential controls placed on sons and daughters. However, it has been suggested that the measure of patriarchy …

Behavioral Skills Training With Teachers: Maintenance And Booster Training, Israel B. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Behavioral skills training (BST) has been employed within many different populations to effect change in the way of reduction or acquisition of behaviors. For this study, a multiple-baseline across participants and modified ABAB design were employed. Analogue assessments and in-situ probes were conducted with three teachers following an initial training which occurred several months previously. These pre-assessments were followed by a separate booster training session for each individual teacher which lasted three and a half hours or less. Following the training, analogue and in-situ post assessments were conducted with each teacher. The independent variable was the booster training and the …

Using Social Stories And Behavior Skills Training Involving Family Members To Increase Social Skills For A Child With Autism, Jamie Leigh Powell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the effectiveness of a social story intervention with a social story plus behavior skills training intervention involving family members for a child with autism. A multiple baseline across siblings design was used to assess the impact of the intervention on social interaction of the child with autism, as well as the social interaction of the child's siblings. The siblings implemented both phases of the intervention. Social validity measures were taken from the siblings and parents, treatment integrity and generalization were assessed as well. The results indicated that the social interactions of the child with autism and the …

Baseband Receiver Algorithms For 4g Co-Channel Femtocells, Mustafa Sahin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing interest for high data rate wireless communications over the last few decades gave rise to the emergence of a number of wideband wireless systems. The resulting scarcity of frequency spectrum has been forcing wireless system designers to develop methods that will push the spectral elciency to its limit. One such method is to have multiple systems utilize the same spectrum by allowing some unavoidable interference to occur between them. The idea of co-channel systems is tested in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands and it is found to be a very beneficial approach. Therefore, it can be …

The Effects Of Reinforcement Magnitude And Session Length On Stereotypical Behavior Of An Adolescent With Autism, Spiro Kotsios

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Functional Analysis is an important component of creating a treatment plan for individuals with autism. A concern of functional analysis is that it might not match the natural environment in which the problem behavior occurs. Dimensions such as varying reinforcement duration and session length may affect response rates during functional analyses in natural settings. This study investigated if varying reinforcement duration and session length during functional analyses would affect the identification of the function of problem behavior across assessors, and the intervention designed based on the functional analyses would be effective in reducing stereotypic behavior and teaching communicative skills of …

Spanish-Specific Patterns And Nonword Repetition Performance In English Language Learners, María R. Brea-Spahn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonword repetition tasks were originally devised to assess the efficiency of the phonological loop (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974), a component of the working memory system, where verbal information is temporarily stored and translated to support activities like phonological processing during early word-recognition (Snowling, 1981; Wagner et al., 2003), speech production (McCarthy & Warrington, 1984), and articulation (Watkins, Dronkers, & Vargha-Khadem, 2002; Yoss & Darley, 1974).

From a practical perspective, there is a significant need for a systematically-designed Spanish nonword repetition measure that is equivalent to currently-available English measures. For this study, a database of nonwords that considered phonotactic and phonological …

Laser Assisted Telerobotic Control For Remote Manipulation Activities, Karan Khokar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effort in this work has been to innovatively use range information from a laser sensor mounted on the end effector of a remote robotic arm in a telerobotic system to assist the user in carrying out remote tasks in unstructured environments. Assistance is provided in the form of Traded Supervisory Control where the human is involved in high level activities such as decision making and the machine generates task plans and executes tasks autonomously using laser data and machine intelligence. In this way human planning and high level decision making capabilities are combined with machine computational and precision task …

The Impact Of Wearable Weights On Perceptual Reponses To Treadmill Walking, Ashley T. Kuczynski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing public health burden associated with insufficient physical activity has resulted in the development of numerous health initiatives and products aimed at stabilizing and reversing the negative trends reported in epidemiological literature. A relatively novel product that has only recently made its way to the market are wearable weights. These products are designed to be worn on the lower legs and arms along with regular clothing as a means to increase caloric expenditure. However, no research to date has tested the efficacy of this product. PURPOSE: Compare psychological responses within bouts of aerobic exercise that vary on intensity and …

The Babel Paradox, Michel Machado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the book of Acts is still not well understood. Various interpretations have been offered in order to make sense of the narrative and its author's intention. What is the point of Luke's second book in portraying the evangelization of the Roman Empire as a rabid confrontation between Jewish followers of Jesus and other Jewish people? This matter calls for an examination of the relationship between the mother religion and the Jesus movement as it expands into a universal religion. Luke portrays the Jesus movement as the focus of divine favor, in contradistinction to the Jewish nation which …

Cardiovascular Risk Factors For Mild Cognitive Impairment, Michael Malek-Ahmadi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between cardiovascular conditions and the presence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been well-documented in a number of recent studies. Generally, the presence of cardiovascular conditions such as high total cholesterol and hypertension have been shown to significantly increase the risk for the development of AD. Given the results of these studies, it is possible that these same risk factors might also increase the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI). An analysis of 216 subjects (119 cognitively normal (CN), 77 aMCI, 20 naMCI) found that after adjusting for age, education, ethnicity, and gender, only hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) showed …

Trophic Enrichment Patterns Of Δ13C In Organic Matter Of Molluscan Shell: Implications For Reconstructing Ancient Environments And Food Webs, Julie Mcknight

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Shell organic matrix proteins in fossils are valuable geochemical archives for studying ancient environments and food webs. Compound-specific studies of stable carbon isotope ratios offer particularly good resolution of trophic level of consumers and the identities of primary producers and can be used to detect diagenetic alteration of isotopic ratios. To interpret compound specific isotope data, however, controlled diet studies in the laboratory are needed to reveal trophic enrichment patterns of ¹³C in tissues and shell organic matter.

This study examines the relationship between δ¹³C of 11 amino acids in diet, soft tissues, and shell organic matter …

Foraminiferal Responses To Arsenic In A Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System In Papua New Guinea And In The Laboratory, Bryan Mccloskey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The tropical Indo-Pacific is the location of highest global foraminiferal biodiversity. However, the shallow-water hydrothermal system in Tutum Bay at Ambitle Island, Papua New Guinea, possesses some of the world's highest naturally-occurring [As]. Foraminifers were collected in this intriguing system in 2003 and 2005 as part of a larger project to examine the possible effects of As and other hydrothermal factors on benthic communities. Despite the high ambient [As], a diverse foraminiferal fauna was observed. Foraminferal communities were examined from surface sediment and from material adhered to rubble at locations from 1-300m from venting and from reference sites, at depths …

An Evaluation Of The Influence Of Case Method Instruction On The Reflective Thinking Of Msw Students, Marleen Milner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social work practice requires that graduates be prepared to deal with complex, multifaceted problems which cannot be defined completely, do not have absolute, correct answers and can be approached from multiple perspectives. This study evaluated the influence of case-based instruction on MSW students' reflective judgment, an aspect of critical thinking associated with the ability to reason through ill-structured problems. (King, Wood, & Mines, 1990). The Reflective Judgment Model, which describes a developmental continuum based upon epistemic assumptions regarding the source and justification of knowledge claims, served as the theoretical framework for the assessment of reflective thinking in this mixed methods …