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The Position Of The Ophiuroidea Within The Phylum Echinodermata, Mary C. Harmon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cladistic analyses of the interclass relationships of the phylum Echinodermata have not provided a phylogeny that is separately supported by both larval and adult characters. Similar to the reported incongruence with cladistic analyses, molecular analyses of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes have also given ambiguous results, which could be due to a number of factors. The use of short sequences, systematic errors such as long branch attraction, and mis-alignments of the data that are introduced by programs which are unsuitable for non-protein coding genes, have resulted in a controversy as to the true nature of echinoderm relationships. Historically, it is the …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Urbanicity And Children With Emotional Disturbances Served In Restructuring Public Schools, Karen Monk Harris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Efforts to affect changes in student achievement through altering the manner in which schools operate have been countless. However, there are few empirical studies on the relationship between these reform activities and student outcomes, especially outcomes for students with emotional disturbances from geographically diverse locations.

The current study was a secondary analysis of data collected as part of the School and Community Study and the Urban School and Community Study conducted by the Research and Training Center for the Childrenís Mental Health at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida. Both studies …

A Discourse Concerning Two New Compositions, Stanley D. Harrison

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses problems for theorists of writing and composition that arose in the 1990s when capital privatizes the production of internetworked writing and starts operating in the manner of a practicing compositionist. I begin by noting that capital in the 1990s converted internetworked writing machines into fixed capital and started composing its version of the cultural form of the "social" we call the Internet. Thereafter, I argue that composition theorists can best understand the Internet, internetworked writing, and internetworked subjectivities if they regard capital as a formidable compositionist, one capable of making the machinofactured internetworked composition into a privately …

Spatial Analysis Of Pedestrian Accidents, Tomoyuki Hashimoto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Improving traffic safety for pedestrians is an urgent task for the Hillsborough County. The objective of this research is to understand the contributing factors that cause pedestrian accidents in Hillsborough County in the State of Florida. Specifically, this research attempts to determine the effects of demographic, land use, roadway and traffic volume factors on the number of pedestrian accidents. Five hypotheses were proposed to examine these factors. GIS was used to perform spatial analysis. Based on pedestrian accident records from 1999 to 2001, accident density map was created using Kernel density method. The value of the accident density was assigned …

Service-Learning Literacies: Lessons Learned From Middle School Youth, Steven Michael Hart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dominant ideology driving the current educational reform movement positions adolescents as deficient in basic literacy skills. To address this deficiency, the trend has been to implement high-stakes standardized literacy tests and increase accountability to schools for developing basic literacy skills. Opposing this Discourse of “deficient youth,” literacy researchers have moved to adolescents’ cultural spheres of life beyond school to discover that traditional structures for teaching literacy appear to have resulted in a growing dissonance between literacies that take place within schools and those employed by youth in their personal worlds.

This research was conducted to explore how adolescents constructed …

Standardizing The Auditory Evoked Potential Technique: Ground-Truthing Against Behavioral Conditioning In The Goldfish, Carassius Auratus, Randy J. Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) have become commonly used to measure hearing thresholds in fish. However, it is uncertain how well AEP thresholds match behavioral hearing thresholds and what effect variability in electrode placement and tank composition has on AEPs. In the first experiment, the effect of testing tank composition and electrode placement on AEPs was determined by recording AEPs in the same individual fish in a steel and PVC cylindrical testing tank, and simultaneously recording AEPs from four locations and two different depths on each of 12 goldfish, Carassius auratus. Results from these studies show that tank composition has …

The Effects Of A Comprehensive Post-Treatment Recovery Program For Breast Cancer Survivors, Keri Ann Hockett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Breast cancer and its treatment often result in side effects that persist long after treatment has ended. The increased survival rate for breast cancer has allowed for the study of the physical and psychosocial symptoms that persist into the post-treatment period. Although research has tested various interventions and demonstrated improvement in some symptoms, no standard of care exists for management of symptoms in the post- treatment period as part of the continuum of care. Objective: The aim of this research was to examine the effects of a comprehensive recovery program of education, exercise, and support for breast cancer survivors …

Development And Initial Validation Of The Work-Family Facilitation Scale, Sheila K. Holbrook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The benefits of occupying multiple roles have typically been overlooked. One reason for this oversight is the lack of a well-established scale measuring work-family facilitation. This study developed and validated short, self-report scales of work-to-family facilitation and family-to-work facilitation. Based on conceptualizations of work and family facilitation presented in current research content domains and definitions of the constructs are presented. Work-to-family facilitation is defined as a form of role facilitation in which the experiences in the job, work skills, and emotional gratification from work makes participation in the family easier. Family-to-work facilitation is defined as a form of role facilitation …

The Effects Of An Internet-Based Program On The Early Reading And Oral Language Skills Of At-Risk Preschool Students And Their Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Program, Mary Huffstetter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This investigation examined the effects of instruction, within the context of the Headsprout Reading Basics program, on the oral language and early reading skills of atrisk preschool students, and their teachers’ perceptions of the program. Random assignment was used in a pretest-posttest, control group design to assess the effects of this program. Thirty-one students, across two preschool settings, participated in the experimental group, and 31 students participated in the comparison group. The experimental group received instruction through the Headsprout Reading Basics program, which teaches the alphabetic principle, decoding strategies, print awareness, vocabulary, and deriving meaning from texts. The comparison group …

Concerted Evolution In Sm50, A Gene With Unusual Repeat Structure, Sofia Hussain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Genes present in multiple copies and genes that contain regions of repetitive sequences can undergo concerted evolution, which results in homogenization of the nucleotide sequence of the genes or repetitive regions. In regions of tandem repeats, this occurs through misalignment of repeat units followed by unequal crossover, which generates two products with differing numbers of repeat units. Gene conversion is thought to lead to one of these products becoming fixed in a species. The homogenous sequence of previously studied genes that have been thought to undergo this process has made it difficult to determine the exact models involved. Here I …

Influence Of Gender On Heart Rate And Core Temperature At Critical Wbgt For Five Clothing Ensembles At Three Levels Of Metabolic Rate, Maeen Zakaria Islam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Three main factors that influence heat stress are clothing, work demands and environmental conditions. Gender may also influence the amount of heat stress an individual can tolerate. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of gender in heat stress limits (critical WBGT) and heat strain (heart rate and core temperature). The null hypothesis was that there was no gender difference among critical WBGT, heart rate and core temperature.

Fifteen subjects (11 men and 4 women) wore five different clothing ensembles (cotton work clothes, cotton coveralls, particle barrier Tyvek, water-barrier/vapor permeable NexGen LS417, and vapor barrier Tychem QC …

Lessons Learned About Boys’ And Girls’ Mathematical Problem Solving: The Solution Processes, Performance, Linguistic Explanations, Self-Efficacy, And Self-Assessment Of Fifth-Grade Students Of Varying Reading And Mathematics Abilities, Patricia D. Hunsader

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this non-experimental, causal-comparative study was to examine how gender, reading ability, and mathematics ability differentially moderated students’ mathematical problem-solving processes, linguistic explanations of those solution processes, achievement on a mathematical problem-solving test, self-efficacy on a self-reported rating scale, and selfassessment on a self-reported rating scale. The investigation addressed five research questions. First, to what extent are students’ mathematical problemsolving processes related to gender? Second, to what extent is children’s performance in mathematical problem solving related to gender, reading ability, and mathematics ability? Third, to what extent is the quality of students’ linguistic explanations of their problem-solving processes …

All The News That’S Fit To Print? Media Reporting Of Environmental Protection Agency Penalties Assessed Against The Petroleum Refining Industry, 1997-2003, Melissa L. Jarrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although examination of the relationship between the media and crime has received considerable attention in the academic literature, only a few studies have examined news media coverage of environmental crimes. The present study examines print news media coverage of federal penalties assessed against the petroleum refining industry from 1997 to 2003. The Environmental Protection Agency initiated and/or settled 162 cases involving seventy-eight petroleum refining companies from 1997 to 2003. While a news search of the nation’s twenty-five largest newspapers produced seventy-four articles related to petroleum refining industry violations, only seventeen articles matched the EPA cases analyzed in the present study. …

The Effects Of Small-Scale Heterogeneities On Aquifer Storage Recovery Systems, William C. Hutchings

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Aquifer Storage Recovery (ASR) is a recently developed (circa 1970) method (in the U.S.A.) to reduce groundwater-pumping stresses by injecting treated wastewater or surface water during periods of low demand into an aquifer followed by its recovery during periods of high demand. This method has been successfully implemented in numerous locations across the U.S.A. and worldwide, mainly due to the cost savings provided by the use of an unlimited reservoir (aquifer) in which to store water compared to the costs to construct surface impoundments and the inherent problems with storing such water for extended periods of time under evaporative atmospheric …

A Comparison Of Traditional Physical Laboratory And Computer Simulated Laboratory Experiences In Relation To Engineering Undergraduate Students’ Conceptual Understandings Of A Communication Systems Topic, Giti Javidi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate an alternative to the use of traditional physical laboratory activities in a communication systems course. Specifically, this study examined whether as an alternative, computer simulation is as effective as physical laboratory activities in teaching college-level electronics engineering education students about the concepts of signal transmission, modulation and demodulation. Eighty undergraduate engineering students participated in the study, which was conducted at a southeastern four-year university.

The students were randomly assigned to two groups. The groups were compared on understanding the concepts, remembering the concepts, completion time of the lab experiments and perception toward the laboratory …

Occupational Role Portrayals Of African-American Women On Prime-Time Television, Shani Tyhirah Jefferson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined portrayals of African-American women shown in professional careers on prime-time network television during the May 2005 sweeps month. Specifically, the study compares these portrayals to actual U.S. Department of Labor workforce statistics to observe a possible similarity. Additionally, the study identifies any behavioral and conversational stereotyped attributes ascribed to AfricanAmerican female characters shown in the workplace. A quantitative content analysis of four broadcast networks (FOX, ABC, UPN, and WB) ranked by Nielsen Media as having the highest rated prime-time television programming among minority households for 2003-2004 revealed that African-American female characters on network television are over-represented in …

Florida: Presidential Elections And Partisan Change, 1952-2004, Matthew Thomas Jefferys

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The presidential contest of 1952 established a new trajectory for Florida politics. This pivotal election reversed decades of Democratic dominance and signified the beginning of presidential Republicanism in the state. Elections in the second half of the 20th century provided evidence of an increasingly favorable environment for Republican nominees. During this period Democrats were limited to carrying the state’s electoral votes three times. GOP presidential ascendancy in Florida was augmented by partisan conversion and the disproportionate in-migration of white Northerners following World War II. Contrary to unrivaled 1980s support, which created an anchor in a new core Southern Republican electoral …

The Effects Of An Education/Behavioral Intervention On Knowledge, Perceived Risk And Self-Efficacy For Sexually Transmitted Infections In Women., Versie Johnson-Mallard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to test the effects of an education/behavioral intervention on knowledge, perceived risk, and self-efficacy for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) prevention in women. Additionally, the instruments that measured knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and perceived risk were tested for reliability. Instruments used to test the effects of the intervention at pretest and following the intervention included the Sexually Transmitted Infection Knowledge Survey (Johnson-Mallard, 2002); the Perceived Risk for Sexually Transmitted Infection Survey (Johnson-Mallard, 2002); and the Sexual Self-Efficacy Survey (Heather & Pinkerton, 1998). Participants included 89-women seeking family planning services, sexually transmitted infection services …

Shape Based Stereovision Assistance In Rehabilitation Robotics, Michael Ulrich Jurczyk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A graphical user interface program was created along with shape models, which allow persons with disabilities to set up a stereovision system with off-theshelf hardware and detect objects of interest, which can be picked up using a sensor assisted telerobotic manipulator.

A Hitachi KP-D50 CCD camera and an Imaging Source CCD camera were used along with two Imaging Source DFG/LC1 frame grabbers to set up a stereovision system. In order to use the stereovision system, the two main problems of correspondence and reconstruction are solved using subroutines of the program created for this work.

The user interface allows the user …

Polytetrahydrofuran-And Dendrimer-Based Novel Sol-Gel Coatings For Capillary Microextraction (Cme) Providing Parts Per Trillion (Ppt) And Parts Per Quadrillion (Ppq) Level Detection Limits In Conjunction With Gas Chromatography And Flame Ionization Detection (Fid), Abuzar Kabir

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sol-gel capillary microextraction (CME) is a new direction in solvent-free extraction and preconcentration of trace analytes. CME presents significant interest in environmental, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, biomedical, agricultural, food, flavor, and a host of other important areas. Sol-gel CME utilizes advanced material properties of organic-inorganic hybrid sol-gel polymers to perform efficient extraction and enrichment of target analytes from a variety of matrices. In this dissertation, two novel sol-gel coatings were developed for CME: (a) sol-gel benzyl-terminated dendrimer coating, and (b) sol-gel polytetrahydrofuran (poly-THF) coating. A detailed investigation was conducted to evaluate the performance of the newly developed sol-gel coatings in solvent-free extraction …

Temporal Comparisons And The Perception Of Posttraumatic Growth In Early Stage Cancer Patients, Sean Ransom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Like others who endure serious stressors, cancer patients often report personal growth as a result of their illness, a phenomenon termed "posttraumatic growth." Although researchers often accept these reports as valid, temporal comparison theory suggests that people may overestimate such growth. According to the theory, remembering the past self as less positive than the present self may serve as an illusory self-enhancement process that allows one to see continual personal growth. Thus, reports of posttraumatic growth may represent perceived rather than actual change in the self. To test this possibility, we prospectively examined 88 individuals with early stage breast (Stage …

The Role Of Sensation Seeking In Children’S Ability To Learn Alcohol Expectancy Associations, Nicole M. Bekman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sensation seeking is a personality characteristic associated with problematic alcohol use and positive alcohol expectancies, but little research has examined the relationship between sensation seeking and the acquisition of alcohol expectancy information. In a recent study (Steinberg, 2003), sensation seeking was associated with how quickly and accurately college-aged students were able to learn alcohol-expectancy word pairs in a paired associate learning task. In this age group, however, the individuals had fully developed alcohol expectancies that may have influenced their rates of learning.

The current study sought to minimize the influence of previously held alcohol expectancies by exploring this relationship in …

The Cost Of Professionalization: A Case Study Of Osteopathic Medicine In The United States, Rochelle Harris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the co-optation of the heterodox medical system of osteopathic medicine by the hegemonic medical system of biomedicine and its impact on the practice of osteopathic medicine in America. The study particularly explored students (n=20), practitioners (n=5), and faculty (n=5) regarding their views of osteopathic medicine. The process of professionalization of osteopathic medicine has caused DOs to become more akin to MDs, which may have led to an identity crisis within the profession. This case study took place at a private osteopathic medical school in the Southeastern U.S. A content analysis of the …

Do Expectancies Influence Outcomes For Tailored Smoking Cessation Messages? A Placebo Tailoring Experiment, Monica S. Webb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was an effort to replicate and extend findings from our previous research, which suggested that the efficacy of tailored messages is influenced by high levels of content personalization within the message and by individuals trait expectancies about tailored interventions. We tested whether tailoring-related expectancies regarding smoking-cessation booklets could be altered via a brief expectancy-priming intervention, and whether this would enhance the impact of the cessation materials. A 2x2 factorial design crossed personalization level and expectancy priming on evaluation of the intervention content, readiness to quit smoking, cessation self-efficacy, cognitive processing, and progress towards quitting. Smokers (N = 205) …

A Dynamic Simulation Assessment Of English As A Second Language Students' Academic Readiness: An Initial Validation Of A University Admissions Tool, S. "Sha" G. Balizet

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the measurement quality of the Content Learning Experience: Academic Readiness (CLEAR) test, a new measure for university admissions decisions regarding English as a Second Language (ESL) applicants. The CLEAR test measures ability through dynamic simulation: learning opportunities are followed by testing how well students learned the academic content, all modeled on university instructional experiences.

Measured by the CLEAR is academic readiness (AR), the direct, present evidence of ability to learn academic content via the second language as demonstrated during the dynamic simulation. AR is hypothesized to comprise above-threshold academic language proficiency, personal characteristics, topical knowledge, academic skills, …

Speech-Language Pathologists’ Professional Efficacy Beliefs About Assessing The Language Skills Of Bilingual/Bicultural/Bidialectal Students, Karen Patricia Harris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Like educators, speech-language pathologists can anticipate working with culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families. Data reported from the Study of Personnel Needs in Special Education (SPeNSE), 1999-2000, revealed that during the years 1999-2000 speech-language pathologists caseloads included students from various culturally and linguistically diverse groups (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, 2001). Furthermore, on average, more than one-fourth of students seen by speech-language pathologists were from a culturally and/or linguistically diverse group than their own and 8.8% were English language learners (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Thus, guaranteeing a highly qualified pool of speech-language pathologists …

Three Studies Of Problem Solving In Collaborative Software Development, Madeline Ann Domino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A potential solution to producing quality software in an acceptable time frame may be found by using the newer, innovative methods, such as collaborative software development. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the individual developer characteristics, developmental settings, collaborative methods and the processes during development that impact collaborative programming performance and satisfaction outcomes.

Understanding individual differences in performance in the collaborative development setting is important, since it may help us understand how the collaborative setting may raise the lowest level of performance to much higher levels, as well as how to select individuals for collaborative development. Exploring the …

Leadership Style And The Link With Counterproductive Work Behavior (Cwb): An Investigation Using The Job-Stress/Cwb Model, Kari Bruursema

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Relations among job stressors, leadership style, emotional reactions to work,counterproductive work behavior (CWB), and autonomy were investigated. Participants representing a wide variety of jobs were surveyed. Results indicate that transactional leadership style is related to negative emotions and occurrence of CWB. Relationships between variables were mediated by emotions.

Neuroinflammation In Alzheimer’S Disease: Characterization And Modification Of The Response Of Transgenic Mice To Intrahippocampal Lipopolysaccharide Administration, Donna Lorraine Herber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimers disease (AD) is pathologically characterized by amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, inflammation, and neurodegeneration. According to the amyloid hypothesis of AD, the central mediating event of the disease is the deposition of amyloid. The inflammation hypothesis of AD states that it is the inflammatory response to plaques and tangles, rather than the actual lesions, which causes the disease. Studies described here combine the two approaches into a single model. Four studies are presented using a basic protocol of intrahippocampal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection to stimulate inflammation in transgenic mice. The first study looked at alpha7 nicotinic receptors during the glial response …

Integrated Uv-Vis Multiangle-Multiwavelength Spectrometer For Characterization Of Micron And Sub-Micron Size Particles, Yong-Rae Kim

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Characterization of micron and sub-micron size particles requires the simultaneous measurement of the joint particle property distribution (JPPD). The JPPD is comprised of particle size, shape, orientation, composition, optical properties, and surface properties. Measurement of each of the particle properties independently is a difficult task and it has been only partially successful. To determine as many particle properties as possible using optical methods it is necessary to simultaneously measure all aspects of the interaction of the incident light with the particles of interest. This approach leads to the concept of multidimensional spectroscopy suggested by Prof. Garcia-Rubio. Dr. Bacon proved the …