Digital Commons Network^™

School Functioning Of Children With Asthma: A Study Of The Elementary And Middle School Years, Shannon Elizabeth Johansen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the school functioning of children with asthma compared to the school functioning of children without asthma over a 9-year time span. The present study was a secondary analysis of data from one large school district in a southeastern state. Information was gathered from multiple sources, including student records and parent and teacher surveys. Variables related to academics, behavior, and teacher perception were examined. A total of 646 participants were initially included in the study. These participants included 296 students identified as having asthma and 350 students identified as not having asthma. Participants were matched on gender, race, …

The Essay In The Postmodern Era, Xiqiao Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goal of this study is to suggest that the essay as a genre, although seeming to manifest the epistemological conceptions of the modern, possesses certain qualities from its origin that justify and strengthen its position in the paradigm of the postmodern condition. It is my argument that misconceptions about such qualities have led to its mistreatment by writing teachers in accordance with two dominant pedagogical approaches, formalism (current-traditionalism) and romanticism (expressivism). My argument requires a detailed examination of the political, historical and cultural reality that cultivated and nurtured the genre of the essay, and a major focus of …

Structural Diversity In Metal-Organic Nanoscale Supramolecular Architectures, Heba Abourahma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Supramolecular synthesis has gained much attention in recent years. Such an approach to synthesis represents an attractive alternative to traditional, multi-step synthesis, especially for making complex, nanoscopic structures. Of particular interest, in the context of this work, is the use of metal-organic interactions to direct the self-assembly of nanoscopic architectures. These interactions are highly directional, relatively "strong" (compared to other supramolecular interactions) and kinetically labile, which allows for "self-correction" and in turn the production, often in high yield, of defect-free products. This also means that a number of related, yet structurally diverse products (supramolecular isomers) could be isolated.

The work …

Fabrication And Testing Of A Cylindrical Ion Trap Microarray For Tunable Mass Spectrometers, Mangesh Telrandhe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a novel microfabrication approach and testing methodology for cylindrical ion trap (CIT) microarray tunable for mass- spectrometers. The growing interest in cylindrical ion trap (CIT) mass-spectrometers is primarily due to ease with which cylindrical geometry can be realized as compared to hyperbolic surfaces found in conventional quadrupole ion traps. Also due to the fact that the potential at the center of hyperbolic electrode in quadrupole ion trap and cylindrical electrode in cylindrical ion trap (CIT) does not differ significantly[2].

Since the RF voltage required to eject a given mass-to-charge ion scales as the square of the ion …

Learning From Spatially Disjoint Data, Divya Bhadoria

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Committees of classifiers, also called mixtures or ensembles of classifiers, have become popular because they have the potential to improve on the performance of a single classifier constructed from the same set of training data. Bagging and boosting are some of the better known methods of constructing a committee of classifiers. Committees of classifiers are also important because they have the potential to provide a computationally scalable approach to handling massive datasets. When the emphasis is on computationally scalable approaches to handling massive datasets, the individual classifiers are often constructed from a small faction of the total data. In this …

Georeferencing Digital Camera Images Using Internal Camera Model, Alok Nagdev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) is a laser scanning instrument which is used mainly to collect dense topographic data over much of the conterminous US coastline. The inclusion of two digital cameras in consonance with the ATM instrument now gives 3-band (RGB) imagery apart from a very rich topographic data. This imagery, in its crude form, has limited applications due to it being not georeferenced and having a heavy camera lens distortions. As thesis, a processing system - Park-View - is developed to bring this imagery into a more suitable format for the scientists for analytical and interpretational purposes. …

Competencies And Skills In The Globalized Workforce, Mary Ellen, Reilly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of international programs in preparing participants for effective engagement in the world's economy and the complexity of multiple societies and cultures. The study's objective is to identify and assess the skills and competencies that are in demand for graduates of international programs, from both the United States and foreign perspectives, and their main economic social and civic contributions.

This research project develops, pilots and validates a list of critical competencies and skills for persons starting careers in international settings, creating a unique and valuable product. In addition, the project …

Replacement Prioritization Of Precast Deck Panel Bridges In Florida, Ganesh Deshmukh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the mid 70's and early 80's, several precast deck panel bridges were constructed in Florida. These utilize prestressed precast panels as stay-in-place forms and are designed to act compositely with a cast-in-place deck which is poured subsequently. Such bridges offer advantages of quicker construction and lower costs. However, several such bridges built in Florida developed extensive cracking and spalling. Following localized failures, the Florida Department of Transportation have decided to replace all 127 precast panel deck bridges in Districts 1 and 7. Since deck replacement is contingent on funding, it is necessary to develop a rational procedure to decide …

Real Time Digital Signal Processing Adaptive Filters For Correlated Noise Reduction In Ring Laser Gyro Inertial Systems, David A. Doheny

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Existing opportunities in advanced interceptor, satellite guidance and aircraft navigation technologies, requiring higher signal processing speeds and lower noise environments, are demanding Ring Laser Gyro (RLG) based Inertial Systems to reduce initialization and operational data latency as well as correlated noise magnitudes. Existing signal processing algorithms are often less than optimal when considering these requirements. Advancements in micro-electronic processes have made Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) a fundamental building block for system implementation when considering higher-level signal processing algorithms.

Research of real time adaptive signal processing algorithms embedded in ASICs for use in RLG based inertial systems will help to …

Characterization Of Cadmium Zinc Telluride Films And Solar Cells On Glass And Flexible Substrates By Rf Sputtering, Jagadish Gaduputi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High performance multijunction solar cells based on polycrystalline thin films will require a wide bandgap top cell with at least 15% efficiency. With the bottom cell being CIGS which have already demonstrated the required efficiencies, this work aims to study the complete fabrication and performance of Cd_1-xZn_xTe solar cells with a bandgap of 1.7eV on glass and flexible polyimide substrates.

Cd_1-xZn_xTe films were deposited by RF magnetron co-sputtering with CdTe and ZnTe sources. By varying the composition of Cd_1-xZn_xTe being deposited the required bandgap of 1.7eV was achieved. …

An Analysis Of Household Vehicle Ownership And Utilization Patterns In The United States Using The 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Abdul Rawoof Pinjari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vehicle ownership and utilization have a profound influence on activity-travel patterns of individuals, vehicle emissions, fuel consumption, highway capacity, congestion and traffic safety. The influence could be further skewed by the diversity of the vehicle fleet. This thesis presents a detailed analysis of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey data to understand the vehicle ownership patterns, fleet mix, allocation and utilization in the context of household and person socio-demographic characteristics. Along with a rich descriptive analysis, models of vehicle ownership and utilization are estimated to distinguish four vehicle types; cars, SUVs (sport utility vehicles), vans and pickup trucks based on …

An Analysis Of Journey To Work Characteristics In Florida Using Census 2000 Public Use Microdata Sample Data Files, Liren Zhou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an overall picture of demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as journey to work travel behavior characteristics in Florida. In addition, detailed comparisons of journey to work private vehicle occupancy distribution, travel time distribution, mode choice and departure time distribution by household and individual characteristics are also provided based on three data files: American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Samples data file, Summary File 3 Public Use Microdata Samples 1% and Public Use Microdata Samples 5% data files. Utilizing the three data files, this thesis not only investigates current commuting patterns but also provides more reliable information …

A Comparison Of Tone Burst Auditory Brainstem Response (Abr) Latencies Elicited With And Without Notched Noise Masking, Rachele M. Orsini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The air conduction click is currently the most widespread stimulus used to estimate the pure tone audiogram as part of auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing. The click is characterized by its broad spectral content and rapid onset, which may not make it the best choice for frequency specificity. An alternative stimulus is a short duration tone burst stimuli with notched noise masking. When obtaining an ABR using standard unmasked tone bursts, the brief stimulus onset may cause spectral splatter producing response contributions from unwanted regions of the cochlea; thus reducing the frequency specificity of the ABR. Notched noise masking …

Comparative Analysis Of Serologic Assays For The Detection Of Antibodies To Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis Virus In Sentinel Chickens, Christy L. Voakes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida's mild climate supports year round enzootic transmission of arthropod-borne (arbo) viruses, such as St. Louis Encephalitis virus (SLEV), West Nile virus (WNV), and Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis virus (EEEV). First isolated in 1960 from two Florida blue jays, Highlands J virus (HJV) is endemic to the state and vectored by the same mosquitoes as EEEV (Henderson et al, 1962). EEEV and HJV are both alphaviruses, but HJV is not pathogenic to humans, occasionally causes encephalitis in horses, and is a recognized pathogen in some bird species (turkeys, emus, etc) (Cilnis et al, 1996).

The Florida Sentinel Chicken Arboviral Surveillance …

Where The Palm Grows: The Ybor City Revitalization Project, Alexandra Fitos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly there has been a new model for inner-city redevelopment and revitalization, in which an urban area is commodified and turned into a festival market and an exclusive shopping district referred to as a shopertainment area. Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, is typical of this new model of redevelopment where urban entertainment and shopping with an active nightclub and dinning scene, entices new visitors to area, and most recently a growing residential population. The residential population that is developing is one of exclusivity and privilege, exceedingly far removed from Ybor City's humble beginnings as a company town or the blighted …

She Fell To Her Knees And Other Stories, Karen Brown Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

These collected stories represent a culling from a portion of work that shares a similar theme of loss--its manifestation, its channeling, by various fictional characters, into the palpable and sensate, into the physical world of the body. They are people, mostly women, who have lost their hold on the world to which they are accustomed, who become entangled in situations where their bearings are skewed, their judgment faulty, their decisions based solely on a physical, most often sexual, attraction that simultaneously depletes a sense of worth, while providing its semblance.

The loss stems, at times, as in "Manifold," from beyond …

Development Of A Direct Type Road Roughness Evaluation System, Fengxuan Hu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roughness is an important indicator of pavement riding comfort and safety. It is a condition indicator that should be carefully considered when evaluating primary pavements. At the same time, the use of roughness measurements plays a critical role in the pavement management system.

There are many devices used for roughness evaluation. The major tools used for road roughness quantify are the road profilers. In the thesis research, in order to obtain useful pavement surface condition data for pavement evaluation, two direct type road roughness evaluation systems were developed with the combination of modern sensor technology and computer technology.

The thesis …

The Story Behind Service With A Smile: The Effects Of Emotional Labor On Job Satisfaction, Emotional Exhaustion, And Affective Well-Being, Hazel-Anne M. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study examines the process of emotional labor as performed by customer service employees. This research investigates some of the consequences of performing emotional labor such as emotional exhaustion, affective well-being, and job satisfaction, and attempts to determine which individual and organizational variables play moderating roles in these relationships. One hundred and seventy-six participants from 10 customer service organizations, ranging from retail stores to call centers, completed a 126-item survey. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Results indicate that gender, emotional intelligence, and autonomy are key moderator variables in the relationship between emotional labor …

Towards Adaptation Of Ofdm Based Wireless Communication Systems, Sharath Reddy Billoori

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

OFDM has been recognized as a powerful multi-carrier modulation technique that provides efficient spectral utilization and resilience to frequency selective fading channels. Adaptive modulation is a concept whereby the modulation modes are dynamically changed based on the perceived instantaneous channel conditions. In conjunction with OFDM systems, adaptive modulation is a very powerful technique to combat the frequency selective nature of mobile channels, while simultaneously attempting to fully maximize the time-varying capacity of the channel. This is based on the fact that frequency selective fading affects the sub-carriers unevenly, causing some of them to fade more severely than others. The modulation …

Un Mandat, Deux Politiques : Les Effets De L’Inégalité De La Politique Mandataire Française En Syrie Et Au Liban, Catherine Glenn Ellis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the early years of the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire began to crumble due to external wars and internal rebellions dating from about 1908. Due to European influence at the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire lost much of its territory in 1919, including Palestine and Syria, comprised of modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Iraq. The European powers incited rebellion among the Middle Eastern peoples to the end of aiding their cause in the portions of the war fought in the Middle East. In return, they promised the Arabs independent nations; in the Treaty of …

Light Quality And Phytoplankton Viability, Lisa A. Malick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A method is presented, using calculations of the underwater light field, to examine viability of phytoplankton at depth. For this study, viability is defined as the ability of phytoplankton to harvest, and efficiently convert enough photons into primary production to overcome metabolic demands. How the available light field influences the production environment is examined. Changes in water column constituents, such as chlorophyll and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) concentration, alter the spectral quality and quantity of the light field at depth. Certain species with specialized survival strategies, such as assemblages of photoprotective and light-harvesting accessory pigments, may be better-suited to …

From Just War To Just Peace: Re-Visioning Just War Theory From A Feminist Perspective, Naomi Malone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies the history of just war theory and critiques it from various feminist perspectives. Using a definition of war as inseparable from the system within which it is embedded, the paper contends that just war theory has been incorporated into the realist paradigm that predominates current political thought, making it susceptible to manipulation. Most importantly, this usurpation has shifted just war theory's focus from jus ad bellum to jus in bello considerations, seriously weakening its deterrent effects on war. The paper proposes its replacement with a just peace theory, discussing several existing frameworks and explaining the important part …

Modeling Time Space Prism Constraints In A Developing Country Context, Ram S. Nehra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent developments in microsimulation modeling of activity and travel demand have called for the explicit recognition of time-space constraints under which individuals perform their activity and travel patterns. The estimation of time-space prism vertex locations, i.e., the perceived time constraints, is an important development in this context. Stochastic frontier modeling methodology offers a suitable framework for modeling and identifying the expected vertex locations of time space prisms within which people execute activity-travel patterns. In this work, stochastic frontier models of time space prism vertex locations are estimated for samples drawn from a household travel survey conducted in 2001 in the …

Concerning Theories Of Personal Identity, Patrick, Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a brief examination of the historical accounts of philosophical theories of personal identity and show the influence that each has had on the development of contemporary theories. In doing so, the thesis explores the problems associated with these theories, attempting to establish a meta-theory (i.e. a theory about theories) of personal identity. What is demonstrated is that the fundamental problems of personal identity arise from issues related to the use of language, as well as assumptions involving the concept of personhood.

By demonstrating that our understanding of personhood is relative to frameworks …

The Politics Of Being An Egg “Donor” And Shifting Notions Of Reproductive Freedom, Elizabeth A. Dedrick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As an Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) that has been available for over twenty years, the transfer of healthy eggs from a presumably fertile woman into the womb of a woman diagnosed as infertile has become a common part of the landscape of human reproduction in the United States. Yet the general societal acceptance of this practice commonly known as "egg donation" oversimplifies the complex medical, ethical, and societal issues ignited by its use. In light of the limited critical discussions presently occurring about egg transfer, I will interrogate some of the silences and more ambiguous issues invoked by its practice. …

Ultrasound Hardware Setup For Cmp Pad Characterization, Bhaskar Vijay Kumar Reddy Tadi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical Mechanical Polishing, (CMP), pads made of polyurethane material are utilized in the Integrated Circuit, (IC), industry to planarize wafers between successive process steps. The properties of such pads and their behavior must be known in order to determine under what conditions and for how long they can be used efficiently. This research involved the development of a system to study the properties of such pads. The system developed during this research enabled the pads to be tested under varying physical conditions.

The setup used a combination of several instruments to provide excitation to the pad and acquire a measure …

A Control Layer Algorithm For Ad Hoc Networks In Support Of Urban Search And Rescue (Usar) Applications, Venkatesh Ramarathinam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ad hoc networks have gained significant importance and gathered huge momentum within the wireless network research community. We explore the novel idea of applying ad hoc networking for urban search and rescue operations. Several algorithms have been proposed and implemented for routing in ad hoc networks and their performance have been thoroughly analyzed. But none of the prior work deals specifically for search and rescue operations, which entail certain specific criteria such as prevention of node loss, maximizing the area of coverage and constant and instantaneous access to a main controller.

In this thesis, we propose a centralized and adaptive …

Performance Evaluation Of Tcp Over Optical Channels And Heterogeneous Networks, Jianxuan Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Next generation optical networks will soon provide users the capability to request and obtain end-to-end all optical 10 Gbps channels on demand. Individual users will use these channels to exchange large amounts of data and support applications for scientific collaborative work. These new applications, which expect steady transfer rates in the order of Gbps, will very likely use either TCP or a new transport layer protocol as the end-to-end communication protocol.

This thesis investigates the performance of TCP and newer TCP versions over High Bandwidth Delay Product Channels (HBDPC), such as the on demand optical channels described above. In addition, …

An Online Strategy For Wavelet Based Analysis Of Multiscale Sensor Data, Alok K. Buch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Complex industrial processes are represented by data that are well known to be multiscaled due to the variety of events that occur in a process at different time and frequency localizations. Wavelet based multiscale analysis approaches provide an excellent means to examine these events. However, the scope of the existing wavelet based methods in the fields of statistical applications, such as process monitoring and defect identification are still limited. Recent literature contains several wavelet decomposition based multiscale process monitoring approaches including many real life process monitoring applications, such as tool-life monitoring, bearing defect monitoring, and monitoring of ultra-precision processes such …

Identification And Measurement Of Two Factors Affecting The Long-Term Outcomes Of Public Relations Programs: Public Image And Public Trust, Kimberly B. Amendola

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the most current theories surrounding organization-public relationship measurement, which is one approach used to verify the effectiveness of public relations programs. The study attempted to define and test two new factors that may affect organization-public relationships, which are identified as public image and public trust. Existing factors used to test such relationships, such as trust, satisfaction, commitment, and control mutuality, focus on testing the perceptions stakeholders have about an organization based upon their interpersonal relationship with that organization. However, in organizations where the dominant coalition still does not view public relations as …