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A Time Study Of Audiological Practice Patterns And The Impact Of Reimbursement Changes From Third Part Payers, Melody A. Tucker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of the project was to survey audiologists in clinical practice setting to determine the amount of time taken to perform various audiologic tests using Current Procedural Terminology, (CPT) codes to define these tests and if these CPT codes were felt to be adequate. Audiologists were also asked to respond regarding possible impact and reimbursement changes in their clinical practices related to managed care. Responses of audiologists were analyzed to determine: a) adequacy of CPT codes; b)average time to perform various audiologic tests; c) impact managed care onclinical practice; and d) changes in reimbursement as a result of …

Clinical Proficiency Levels Expected At The End Of The Second And Third Years In An Au.D. Program, Karen Janine Richardson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a retrospective study utilizing data complied over the past two years during the formative assessment process by the University of South Florida (USF) Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) in the development of the new audiology clinical doctoral (Au.D.) program. Final adoption of the new certification standards in audiology was received in 1997 and several Au.D. programs have been implemented since that time. This study responds to the requirements of appropriate assessment and documentation of clinical skill acquisition across the academic and clinical training program.

The purpose of this review was to complete a qualitative analysis of …

Evaluation And Treatment Of Tinnitus, Renee Lokenberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tinnitus is defined as an auditory stimulus that is unrelated to external stimulation. There are many theories as to what causes tinnitus, therefore, there are many treatment options for tinnitus. This paper attempts to increase the audiologist's knowledge of the etiology, as well as, the most appropriate treatment for tinnitus.

There are two types of tinnitus, objective and subjective. Subjective tinnitus is more common, although it is more difficult to treat than objective tinnitus. There are many theories as to what causes tinnitus. Several disorders that have tinnitus as a symptom, such as, Meniere's disease, acoustic neuroma, and dysfunction of …

Survey Of Auditory Brainstem Response Referral Criteria, Shannon N. Felder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of the project was to survey recognized “experts” in the field of neurodiagnostic audiology and practicing audiologists regarding their referral criteria and referral patterns for administering an auditory brainstem response test (ABR). For purposes of this study, “expert” was defined as any recognized audiologist with at least two or more publications and/or seminars in the field of auditory evoked potentials. Responses of experts and practicing audiologists were compared and contrasted to establish: a) if there was a standard referral pattern; b) what, if any, were the apparent critical components of referral patterns; and, c) whether or not …

Women, Environment And Development: Sub-Saharan Africa And Latin America, Evaline Tiondi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Issues related to women, environment and development constitute a major global concern today. Women's roles as agents of change in the environment has increasingly become the focus of both research and policy concerns. Environmental resource management is directly linked to development, and this makes it crucial to examine the activities of women more closely. Women's role in the management of natural resources assumes a multidimensional nature. Unfortunately, the central and crucial role that women play is often both overlooked and unappreciated, rendering them invisible and greatly diminishing their contribution as both producers and active agents in sustainable development. One of …

The Effects Of Silviculture And Prescribed Burning On Herpetofauna In Florida Sand-Pine Scrub, Stig Ravdal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida sand pine scrub is among the most endangered habitats in the United States and much of the remaining scrub is heavily influenced by management for timber production. In this study the effects of timber management practices on herpetofaunal community diversity and composition were investigated on experimentally manipulated plots near Orlando, Florida. Plots at three sites were either harvested, burned, or treated as a control (unmanipulated). Herpetofauna were trapped using pit-fall drift-fence trapping arrays. Animals were counted, measured, marked and released from March 1996 to June 1998. During this time period 1489 reptiles and amphibians were caught from 31 different …

Literacy, Technology, And Change: The Gates Of Hell, Janice R. Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I first briefly examine the history of technology as it impacts on literacy practices, and especially the history of resistance to technological developments in the humanities. In so doing, I also briefly examine some of the possible ideological underpinnings of this resistance, including looking at some of the arguments proposed to counter it. More specifically, I consider how literacy practices, pedagogical practices, and assessment and gatekeeping practices in the field of composition studies impact on and are impacted by the intersection of computer technologies and our field. Finally, I offer some suggestions for ways in which our …

Genetic Variation In Chrysopsis Floridana Small, The Endangered Florida Golden Aster, As Revealed By Random Amplification For Polymorphism Detection (Rapd), Laurie Lysle Walker Markham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chrysopsis fioridana Small (Asteraceae) is a federally endangered plant endemic to the Tampa Bay area of west central Florida. It is confined to the sand pine scrub community, growing in open, sunny, and sandy areas or in disturbed areas at the edges of scrub. As a means ofassessing the genetic variability ofthis species, eight populations in Hillsborough County were compared with a seed stock collection housed at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales using random amplification for polymorphism detection (RAPD). The objectives of this study were to (I) describe the overall genetic variation among and within populations and subpopulations of …

Knowledge-Guided Processing Of Magnetic Resonance Images Of The Brain, Matthew C. Clark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a knowledge-guided expert system that is capable of applying routinesfor multispectral analysis, (un)supervised clustering, and basic image processing to automatically detect and segment brain tissue abnormalities, and then label glioblastoma-multiforme brain tumors in magnetic resonance volumes of the human brain. The magnetic resonance images used here consist of three feature images (T1-weighted, proton density, T2-weighted) and the system is designed to be independent of a particular scanning protocol. Separate, but contiguous 2D slices in the transaxial plane form a brain volume. This allows complete tumor volumes to be measured and if repeat scans are taken over time, …

Acoustic And Perceptual Comparisons Of Imitative Prosody In Kindergartners With And Without Speech Disorders, Robin Harwell Rodriguez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the affiliation of prosody with childhood articulation disorders. The Tennessee Test of Rhythm and Intonation Patterns, T-TRIP (Koike & Asp, 1981), was used to determine if kindergartners with linguistic (i.e. phonological) speech disorders, oral-motor speech disorders, or normal speech performed differently on imitative prosody tasks. Performance was assessed perceptually with T-TRIP overall and subtest scores, and acoustically with measurements of individual prosodic variables (amplitude, duration, and fundamental frequency) on selected items from the rhythm and intonation subtests. Perceptual and acoustic data were examined for characteristic patterns of performance by individual subjects and by groups.

A Kruskal-Wallis …

The Influence Of Habitat Variation On Demography Of Blue Jays (Cyanociita Cristata) In South-Central Florida, Keith Allen Tarvin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vertebrate populations rarely are homogeneous. Instead they exist as arrays of demographically variable subpopulations that are linked through dispersal. Variation in habitat quality is a major cause of demographic variability among subpopulations, but few studies have examined habitat-specific demography empirically. Here I present a detailed field study o f habitat-specific demography in Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) that occupied a habitat mosaic landscape in south-central Florida. By measuring habitat-specific demographic parameters, including density, reproductive output, survival, and dispersal, I tested for the existence of population sources and sinks associated with different habitats, and the applicability ofa series ofhabitat selection models …

Chemical Fate Of Bunker C Fuel Oil In A Subtropical Marine Environment Following A Spill In Tampa Bay, Florida, Dana Lynn Wetzel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A hydrocarbon chemistry study was performed on sediments, oil masses and mangrove prop roots of a mangrove island in Boca Ciega Bay, Florida following a spill of Bunker C fuel oil in Tampa Bay. Normal alkane (n-alkane) and polycylic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) profiles were monitored for effects of degradation and weathering in these mediums for a period of one year. Initial findings indicated a loss of lower molecular weight n-alkanes and PAH's in sediments and prop roots. There was little or no loss of these low molecular weight components in the oil mass samples. Hydrocarbon profiles at the end of …

The Geometry Of James Joyce's Ulysses: From Pythagoras To Poincaré: Joyce's Use Of Geometry For Structure, Metaphor, And Theme, Susan Sutliff Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The extensive, previously unrecognized, use James Joyce made of contemporaneous geometric concepts for structure, metaphor, and theme in Ulysses provides new keys to how Joyce, following the model of his predecessors and contemporaries in Cubism, responded to the revolutions in aesthetics and physics which marked his intellectual milieu. As an examination of pre-publication materials reveals, during the six months before February 2, 1922, Joyce manipulated the pagination of the Ulysses placards and page proofs to impose geometric aesthetic proportions on the overall text and within individual episodes. Most significantly, Joyce aesthetically proportioned the pagination of the disparate eleven "initial style" …

Stable Hydrogen And Carbon Isotopic Compositions Of Biogenic Methanes, Roger Allen Burke Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stable hydrogen and carbon isotopic compositions of biogenic methanes collected from the sediments of several deep-sea, nearshore marine-estuarine, and freshwater environments were determined. The isotopic compositions of methane samples from eight different DSDP Sites (mean σD-CH₄ = -185⁰>/∞, std. dev. = 7⁰>/∞, n = 75; mean σ¹³C-CH₄ = -71.3⁰/∞, std. dev. = 6.3⁰/∞, n = 44) are generally typical of methane formed via C0₂ reduction in deep-sea sediments.

Methane collected from several freshwater environments was D-depleted (mean σD-CH₄ = -300⁰>/∞ , std. dev. = …

Uptake Of Zn65 And Mn54 Into Body Tissues And Renal Granules By The Southern Quahog, Mercenaria Campechiensis, William Lynn Miller Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A study was conducted to examine the influence of elevated inorganic phosphate and trace metal concentrations on the uptake and distribution of Zn⁶⁵ and Mn⁵⁴ into the body tissue and phosphoritic renal concretions of a subtropical estuarine bivalve, Mercenaria campechiensis. Chronological sampling of gills, mantle, adductor muscle, viscera, kidneys, and renal granules using gamma ray spectrometry allowed examination of both tissue distribution and accumulation patterns over time. The kidney was the principal site of Mn⁵⁴ accumulation whereas Zn⁶⁵ was concentrated in both the gill and the kidney. The gill initially accumulated zn65 three times faster …

A Population Study Of The Burrowing Owl Near Tampa, Florida, William D. Courser

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.