Digital Commons Network^™

Cord Blood Cell Therapy For Ischemic Stroke, Martina Vendrame

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Infusion of the "mononuclear fraction" of human cord blood cells (HUCBC), which is composed of immature blood cells and hematopoietic progenitors, is known to reduce neurobehavioral deficits in rats subject to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). When MCAO rats are infused with 106 cells 24 hours after the induction of the stroke, their motor function improves. To extend these findings, we first examined the behavioral recovery of MCAO rats in the presence of increasing doses of HUCBC. The recovery in behavioral performance seen with measurements of spontaneous activity and motor deficits, depended on the amount of cells delivered, with 10 …

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 …

Bayesian And Empirical Bayes Approaches To Power Law Process And Microarray Analysis, Zhao Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we apply Bayesian and Empirical Bayes methods for reliability growth models based on the power law process. We also apply Bayes methods for the study of microarrays, in particular, in the selection of differentially expressed genes.

The power law process has been used extensively in reliability growth models. Chapter 1 reviews some basic concepts in reliability growth models. Chapter 2 shows classical inferences on the power law process. We also assess the goodness of fit of a power law process for a reliability growth model. In chapter 3 we develop Bayesian procedures for the power law process …

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 …

A Geochemical And Spatial Characterization Of The Champagne Hot Springs Shallow Hydrothermal Vent Field, Dominica, Lesser Antilles, Kevin Thomas Mccarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studies of seafloor hydrothermal activity and its associated geochemical and mineralogical effects have primarily focused on deep sea systems. These processes are not limited to deep sea locations. Numerous shallow hydrothermal systems have been identified along the submerged flanks of volcanic islands such as Vulcano Island, Italy and Ambitle Island, Papua New Guinea. This study investigates the Champagne Hot Springs shallow marine hydrothermal system, located along the submerged flank of the Plat Pays volcanic system on the southwest section of the island of Dominica, Lesser Antilles. The main objective is determine the source of the hydrothermal fluids and gases and …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Role Of Mitigation In Capital Sentencing In North Carolina Before And After Mckoy V. North Carolina (1990), Janine Kremling

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the influence of mitigating circumstances on the sentencing outcome before and after the McKoy (1990) decision. In McKoy (1990) the Supreme Court decided that the jurors did not have to find mitigating circumstances unanimously. Results are reported based on a sample of North Carolina first-degree murder cases where the state sought the death penalty. Logistic regression is used to determine the importance of mitigating circumstances as predictors of jury decision-making in North Carolina, controlling for the variety of other factors that influence that decision.

The descriptive statistics show that the average number of mitigating circumstances submitted …

Australian Great Barrier Reef Initiation Timing Constrained By Seaward Shallow-Water Sediment Drift Architecture (Odp Leg 194, Marion Plateau), Stephen P. Obrochta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I resolved the sedimentary architecture of a shallow water (< 500 m), hemipelagic sediment drift located on the Marion Plateau, seaward and downstream of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The drift responded increasingly to sea-level fluctuations during the Pleistocene. In the early Pleistocene, local climatic variations introduce a precessional rhythm to drift architecture that is out of phase with sea level-forced cyclicity. Beginning in the mid Pleistocene, sea level variations dominate drift architecture, with the highest carbonate and terrigenous fluxes likely occurring during highstand and transgression, respectively. At the sea-level transgression of MIS 15 and subsequent isotope stages, the phasing of maximum terrigenous flux corresponds to sea-level transgression, indicating siliciclastic sediment accumulated on the continental shelf behind an exposed barrier reef during the lowstand of MIS 16 and was remobilized by rising sea-level. These sedimentological data indicate GBR initiation occurred during MIS 17. The normal polarity exhibited by the central GBR and thick section of underlying sediments rules out initiation during MIS 19.

MIS 17 was the first of the asymmetric glacial cycles characteristic of the Late Pleistocene. If the Florida Keys and Belize barrier reef initiations were indeed simultaneous with that of the GBR, then the changing nature of cyclicity in global sea level and climatic fluctuations likely influenced the initiation of the world's major, modern barrier reefs.

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 …

Anatomy And Function Of The Nucleus Accumbens In The Pigeon (Columba Livia), Scott Alan Husband

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Relatively little is known about the existence and traits of a possible nucleus accumbens (Acc) region in non-mammals. The current project investigated a likely candidate for such a structure in pigeons, the medioventral (mvMSt) and mediodorsal (mdMSt) parts of avian medial striatum (MSt). The methods employed were threefold: 1) tract-tracing to determine anatomical connections of the MSt; 2) lesion studies to assess MSt's role in a cognitive task (reversal learning); and 3) measuring an immediate-early gene induced protein, ZENK, in striatal regions during courtship behavior in male pigeons.

The MSt was found to have many forebrain (amygdala, hippocampus, dorsal thalamus) …

On Effective And Efficient Experimental Designs For Neurobehavioral Screening Tests: The Choice Of A Testing Time For Estimating The Time Of Peak Effects, Peter A. Toyinbo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In its latest neurotoxicity guidelines released by the US EPA Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) in 1998, it is recommended that in a neurobehavioral testing, at a minimum, for acute studies, observations and activity testing should be made before the initiation of exposure, at the estimated TOPE (time of peak effects) within 8 hrs of dosing, and at 7 and 14 days after dosing. It is recommended that estimation of TOPE be made by dosing pairs of rats across a range of doses and making regular observations of gait and arousal. However it is well known that …

Characterization Of Preliminary Breast Tomosynthesis Data: Noise And Power Spectra Analysis, Madhusmita Behera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Early detection, diagnosis, and suitable treatment are known to significantly improve the chance of survival for breast cancer (BC) patients. To date, the most cost effective method for screening and early detection is screen-film mammography, which is also the only tool that has demonstrated its ability to reduce BC mortality. Full-field digital mammography (FFDM) is an extension of screen-film mammography that eliminates the need for film-processing because the images are detected electronically from their inception. Tomosynthesis is an emerging technology in digital mammography built on the FFDM framework, which offers an alternative to conventional two-dimensional mammography. Tomosynthesis produces three-dimensional (volumetric) …

The Impact Of A Goal Setting Procedure On The Work Performance Of Young Adults With Behavioral/Emotional/Learning Challenges, Robin Wagner Hogsholm

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The population consisting of young people with Behavioral/Emotional/Learning challenges typically experiences poorer outcomes related to employment, in part due to lower performance levels. Effective strategies, which have a positive impact on work performance for this population, are needed. Goal setting has been used to bring about behavior change, or increase 'motivation', in many fields of study. Goal setting can be conceptualized as an establishing operation (EO), which increases the reinforcing value of goal achievement, and thereby increases the probability of the occurrence of behaviors related to reaching the goal, i.e., task completion. This study empirically examined the impact of a …

Detection, Cloning, And Analysis Of A U32 Collagenase In Streptococcus Mutans Gs-5, Marios Ioannides

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Streptococcus mutans is a recognized principal etiologic agent in coronal caries. Although S. mutans has the ability to bind collagen and degrade FALGPA, a synthetic peptide mimicking collagen substrate, its role in dental root caries has not yet been fully elucidated. Degradation of collagen fibrils in dentin was attributed to S. mutans, but a collagenase enzyme has not yet been isolated from this organism. Considering the increased incidence of dental root decay among the elderly, an understanding of the role of the pathogenic factors is necessary to the development of preventive measures. The present study has focused on the …

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 …

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. …

A Decision Support Tool For Accepting Or Rejecting Donations In Humanitarian Relief Organizations, Francisco Javier Ruiz-Brand

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the increase in the occurrence of disasters (natural and man-made) that leave people injured, handicapped or dead, the disaster management theory is gaining more importance. As a consequence, human assistance and disaster relief organizations are managing increasingly more inventories anticipated to help people in need. Donations are the common means used by humanitarian relief organizations for procuring commodities to support some of their programs. Previous experiences have indicated that donations become a burden instead of offering relief when they do not match actual victims' needs. Accepting or rejecting donations is a key issue that can produce not only economic …

The Perceived Impact Of The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (Idea), 1997 Disciplinary Mandates On The School Board Policies In Three Urban, K-12 Public School Districts, Nancy S. Zambito

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1990 the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) required that states provide a free and appropriate education to all children and youth with disabilities, no matter how severe the disabilities. This obligation was tied to federal funding and outlined in detail parental rights with regard to identifying and educating their child with disabilities. The 1997 reauthorization of IDEA stepped into school discipline, creating a complex process for addressing school misconduct of such students.

This study determines how the 1997 IDEA disciplinary mandates, as they existed until May 2003, were interpreted and implemented in three similar, urban, public school districts …

Improved 1/F Noise Measurements For Microwave Transistors, Clemente Toro Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Minimizing electrical noise is an increasingly important topic. New systems and modulation techniques require a lower noise threshold. Therefore, the design of RF and microwave systems using low noise devices is a consideration that the circuit design engineer must take into account. Properly measuring noise for a given device is also vital for proper characterization and modeling of device noise. In the case of an oscillator, a vital part of a wireless receiver, the phase noise that it produces affects the overall noise of the system. Factors such as biasing, selectivity of the input and output networks, and selectivity of …

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, …

Recycled Materials Relational Database: Design And Implementation Aspects, Rory Morgan Mcdonald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although there has been a rise in the use of recycled materials in highway and geotechnical systems, many tons of potentially useful industrial and domestic by-products are still being discarded in the United States each year. While extensive research has been conducted to investigate the use of recycled materials in engineering applications, the dissemination of the findings is often limited. The problem is compounded by the lack of a single resource containing relevant engineering and environmental characteristics of each material; the tendency of the researchers to publish their findings in technical reports rather than archived publications; and the wide discrepancies …

Accuracy And Bias Of Tdr Measurements In Compacted Sands, Newel Kimball White

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is essential to properly monitor in-situ soil compaction properties during most earthwork construction projects. Traditional in-situ soil compaction monitoring methods are often limited in their application. As a result, new methods are being developed to more accurately measure in-situ compaction parameters. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is one such method. Relying on the propagation of an electromagnetic wave through the soil sample, TDR can be used to measure both in-situ moisture content as well as soil dry density. Although TDR is relatively new to the field of geotechnical engineering, it has previously been implemented in other fields with success. Researchers …

Tutor Attitudes Toward Tutoring Creative Writers In Writing Centers, Leah F. Cassorla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study concerns itself with tutor attitudes toward tutoring creative writers in writing centers. In it, I look at these attitudes and compare tutor definitions of creative writing, tutor comfort with tutoring writers, and tutor training. Tutors attitudes toward their training and their beliefs about what training to tutor creative writers should entail tell a great deal about the privileging of creative writing and creative writers in writing centers. This study is an important first step in considering that privileging, its source, and its effects.

For the study, tutors completed an online survey. They were not asked for any identifying …

Characterization Of Cadmium Zinc Telluride Solar Cells By Rf Sputtering, Senthilnathan Subramanian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High efficiency solar cells can be attained by the development of two junctions one stacked on top of each other into tandem structures. So that, if a photon is not able to excite an electron-hole pair in the top cell can create a pair in the bottom cell, which has a smaller bandgap. For a two junction tandem device structure, the bandgap of the top cell should be 1.6-1.8eV and for the bottom cell should be 1eV to attain efficiencies in the range of 25%. Cadmium Zinc Telluride which has a tunable bandgap of 1.45- 2.2eV is a candidate for …

Processing And Characterization Of Cigs - Based Solar Cells, Venkatesh Mohanakrishnaswamy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to understand the role of the glass substrate and molybdenum (Mo) back contact on the performance of Copper Indium Gallium diselenide (CIGS) / Cadmium Sulphide (CdS) based photovoltaic devices, and to improve the performance of these devices.

The CIGS absorber layer was fabricated in a 2 stage process. In this process the metal precursors were deposited at 275^oC followed by a high temperature selenization step. The advantage of the 2 stage process is that it is manufacturing friendly.

The first step in fabrication of solar cells is to clean the substrate which …

The Role Of Intelligence And Coping Processes On Resilience In Adult Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Kelli-Lee Harford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between intelligence as measured by the Shipley Institute of Living Scale, Coping Processes as measured by the Ways of Coping Scale and resilience as measured by Global Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory, was examined in 88 individuals who had been sexually abused and 88 individuals who had not been sexually abused. The study attempted to assess whether more intelligent individuals and those who used certain coping styles would experience less distress in the face of adversity than individuals with lower levels of intelligence and who used different coping styles. The results indicated that intelligence was not …

Smoking Cessation In A University Setting: The Efficacy Of An Experiential, Theory-Based Intervention For College Students, Vani Nath Simmons

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The college setting represents an untapped window of opportunity to target the growing number of college student smokers. To address this need the current study tested an intervention drawing upon research from social psychology and previously effective health-related interventions. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of an experiential, dissonance-enhancing smoking intervention for increasing motivation to quit smoking and reducing smoking by comparing it to two control groups, in a three-arm randomized study. Participants were 215 college student smokers randomized to an experiential smoking intervention, a traditional educational smoking intervention, or an experiential intervention on nutrition. …