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Risk And Hiv-Serodiscordant Couples In Porto Alegre, Brazil: "Normal" Life And The Semantic Quarantine, Shana Hughes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research was to develop a holistic understanding of how risk, especially the risk of HIV transmission, is constructed and negotiated in the daily lives of a group of heterosexual, HIV-serodiscordant couples in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Couples serodiscordant for HIV are those in which one partner is infected and the other is not. Data were gathered through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with serodiscordant couples, as well as key informants in HIV/AIDS-related civil society, government, and biomedical practitioners in Porto Alegre. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and relevant study materials were coded and subjected to thematic and …

Monsters Under The Bed: An Analysis Of Torture Scenes In Three Pixar Films, Heidi Tilney Kramer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With background information on militarism, nationalism, and torture, this study analyzes Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 3, and The Incredibles, three Pixar films released from 2001 through 2010, for the ways in which the torture scenes are framed. These frames, state control, prisons, and 60s spy thrillers, invite laughter through intertextuality, while deflecting attention from torture of central characters in the films. The implications of this analysis are: these films present torture as deserved and normative; the tortured characters stand outside the frames of recognition for humanness; and they redefine children as threats and dangers. This study concludes that these ideologies …

Sediment Transport And Distribution Over Continental Shelves: A Glimpse At Two Different River-Influenced Systems, The Cariaco Basin And The Amazon Shelf., Laura Lorenzoni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation was to understand lithogenic suspended sediment transport mechanisms and distribution in two river-influenced margins: The Cariaco Basin, Venezuela, and the Amazon Shelf, Brazil. Lithogenic sediment input in the Cariaco Basin is controlled by small mountainous rivers (SMR), while in the Amazon Shelf it is dominated by the Amazon River, the largest river in the world in terms of freshwater discharge (~20% of global riverine discharge). Optical transmissometer measurements were coupled with particulate organic matter (POM) observations to understand changes in the geochemical composition of suspended sediment and spatial/temporal distributions over the two regions of interest. …

Hegemonic Rivalry In The Maghreb: Algeria And Morocco In The Western Sahara Conflict, Michael D. Jacobs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Western Sahara has been in a state of political crisis since Spain granted the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. While Morocco has attempted to incorporate the region within its borders, the Polisario Front (Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro) has challenged Morocco's claims and proclaimed they are the voice of the indigenous Sahrawi people. Algeria, home to a majority of the Sahrawi refugees, continues to support the Polisario and their goal of independence from Morocco.

Yet, does Algeria have an ulterior motive for their actions beyond support for a displaced people? This …

Assessment Of The Oxbow Morphology Of The Caloosahatchee River And Its Evolution Over Time: A Case Study In South Florida, Chloe Delhomme

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Caloosahatchee River, located in Southern Florida, was originally a meandering and relatively shallow river. During the 1920s, the Caloosahatchee River was channelized and became the C-43 canal. The channelization has significantly impacted the river ecosystem, particularly the oxbows. The oxbows are the U-shaped water bodies on each side of the river channel, which are the remnant bends of the original river. To understand how anthropogenic influence affects hydrologic systems, the proposed case study was designed to assess the geomorphic changes of the oxbows of the Caloosahatchee River, Florida. Understanding and documenting the evolution of river morphology is becoming increasingly …

Learning Without Being Taught: A Look At How Schools, The Home And The Neighborhood Influence "Race" Conceptualization, Owen Christopher Gaither

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Where do we get our ideas about the concept of `race'? The conceptualization of `race' has long been a topic of interest in the social sciences and society in general. The word `race' has been used and defined in different ways and different purposes throughout U.S. history. The definition of `race' therefore is arbitrary, changing according to the situation, but the consequences of how the word `race' is used are concrete and effect peoples lives daily. This research, in accord with much of the literature on the topic, shows that public schools play a major role in the conceptualization …

Bradenton, Fl: A Patchwork City, Rebekah G. Brightbill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The City of Bradenton is a patchwork city, whose neighborhoods vary greatly in quality. While its neighborhoods differ in type based on consumer preference, they vary in quality because of federal, state, and local planning and urban policy. These policies have resulted in inequality of place and race, clustering racial minorities in center city neighborhoods with deteriorated infrastructure and income inequality. This impacts the ability of the City to be competitive with other cities as a metropolitan whole. The City's economically and racially segregated neighborhoods are not the inevitable outcome of market forces, but rather reflect decades of federal, state, …

Citizen Action, Power Relations And Wetland Management In The Tampa Bay Urban Socio-Ecosystem, Cornelius Owusu Adjei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands are vital ecosystems that provide ecological, economic and social benefits to societies. In the Tampa Bay region in West Central Florida, a growing population has put immense pressure on wetlands. The situation has not gone unnoticed in the public domain with concerns raised about the need to formulate policies that would protect them. However, it has been difficult to ascertain the level of citizen involvement in the decision making process.

This study aimed at investigating whether the perceptions and concerns of citizens drove them to influence local water policy. Questionnaires were used to collect data from residents living in …

Disaster Vulnerability Of University Student Populations, Jamie Lynn Auletta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student populations at Gulf Coast universities and colleges are subjected to multiple forces working together making them an especially vulnerable sub-group to hazards. Research has suggested that college students represent a segment of the population that hazards research has frequently overlooked and maybe not fully appreciated in university emergency planning. Most prior research has focused on university disaster experiences, highlighting what went wrong, and what should be done but little research focuses on what is actually taking place. The primary intent of this research was to gain better insight into university emergency planning and identify areas universities have neglected with …

On The Design Of Socially-Aware Distributed Systems, Nicolas Kourtellis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social media services and applications enable billions of users to share an unprecedented amount of social information, which is further augmented by location and collocation information from mobile phones, and can be aggregated to provide an accurate digital representation of the social world. This dissertation argues that extracted social knowledge from this wealth of information can be embedded in the design of novel distributed, socially-aware applications and services, consequently improving system response time, availability and resilience to attacks, and reducing system overhead. To support this thesis, two research avenues are explored.

First, this dissertation presents Prometheus, a socially-aware peer-to-peer service …

The Politics Of Pentecostalism; Does It Help Or Hinder Democratic Consolidation In Brazil?, Amber S. Johansen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Like so many other developing nations, Brazil has suffered from extreme inequality. Even though it has a healthy economy, free elections and multiple political parties, there are deep divides and unstable political institutions. The relatively recent transition to democracy has allowed a large and growing Evangelical community to emerge which is causing a religious shifting. The Pentecostal faith is providing alternative structures for social and political expression previously denied to many. Through community networks, many of Brazil's marginalized are accessing legitimacy, making them an undeniable force.

The focus of this paper is to determine if Pentecostalism undermines or strengthens democratic …

An Exploration Of Undeclared Students' Expectations Of Experiences For Faculty Interactions And Co-Curricular Involvement, Lorie Anne Kittendorf

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student persistence and achievement are areas of significant concern for institutions of higher education. With national college graduation rates hovering in the 50% range, it is important for colleges and universities to understand which student characteristics and campus environments lead to greater success, as well as the expectations students have of the college experience.

Research on undeclared students is vast and dates back more than 70 years, and many of the seminal studies and respected research data have led to the perception that they are at higher risk of attrition and have lower levels of academic achievement than their declared …

A Spatially Explicit Agent Based Model Of Muscovy Duck Home Range Behavior, James Howard Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Research in GIScience has identified agent-based simulation methodologies as effective in the study of complex adaptive spatial systems (CASS). CASS are characterized by the emergent nature of their spatial expressions and by the changing relationships between their constituent variables and how those variables act on the system's spatial expression over time. Here, emergence refers to a CASS property where small-scale, individual action results in macroscopic or system-level patterns over time. This research develops and executes a spatially-explicit agent based model of Muscovy Duck home range behavior. Muscovy duck home range behavior is regarded as a complex adaptive spatial system …

A Multilevel Analysis Of Institutional Fiscal Autonomy And Its Effect On Affordability, Operating Efficiency, And Minority Access At Public Colleges And Universities, Christine J. Glass

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, an unstable funding environment for state higher education systems has led to a trend of increasing institutional fiscal autonomy in exchange for reductions in appropriations. With the growing concern that reducing state oversight will result in increased tuition and spending levels, this study was designed to provide a clearer understanding of how fiscal autonomy at public institutions impacts measures important to the state public policy goals of affordability, operating efficiency, and access. To accommodate the diversity and hierarchical structure of public institutions, this study used multilevel modeling techniques to integrate complex, interrelated institution- and state-level data. Institution-level …

Plant Species Richness And Species Area Relationships In A Florida Sandhill, Monica Ruth Downer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pine sandhill are integral pyrogenic communities in the southeastern United States. Though once widespread, habitat destruction, fire suppression and fragmentation have reduced the population to nearly 3%. It is important to learn as much as possible about these unique areas in order to implement best management practices to conserve and restore the existing populations of these communities.

Fire is central to the maintenance of pine sandhill communities and two conceptual hypothesis regarding burn frequency have come to light in maintaining the unique species composition and richness of these areas. The first is the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis which suggests that intermediate …

The Impacts Of Population Density, And State & National Litter Prevention Programs On Marine Debris, Melissa Rose Brogle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marine debris is improperly disposed of solid waste, also called litter, which is deposited in the marine environment (NOAA, 2010). Litter prevention techniques such as fines, cleanups, incentives, and others, can help to decrease litter, and ultimately decrease marine debris. This research analyzed 2000 and 2010 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) data obtained from The Ocean Conservancy to ascertain whether certain litter prevention techniques did reduce amounts and types of marine debris found in coastal areas. The litter prevention techniques analyzed included state bottle bills, voluntary monofilament fishing line recycling programs, and the Keep America Beautiful (KAB) cigarette butt litter prevention …

It's A Support Club, Not A Sex Club: Narration Strategies And Discourse Coalitions In High School Gay-Straight Alliance Club Controversies, Skyler Lauderdale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School reform efforts, such as those to form high school gay-straight alliance clubs (GSAs), are often met with resistance by school personnel and local community members. Using a sample of newspaper articles related to school reform GSA controversies in two Southern states (N=83) drawn from an initial sampling frame of GSA controversies receiving newspaper coverage between January 2006 and August 2011 (N=631), I use narrative analysis-- including a discourse coalitions approach--to identify common themes of resistance in the narration of characters, plot, setting, and morals which GSA members and allies must overcome to successfully form GSAs. Substantively, I locate four …

Tales Of Empire: Orientalism In Nineteenth-Century Children's Literature, Brittany Renee Griffin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children's literature often does not hold the same weight in the studies of a culture as its big brother, the novel. However, as children's literature is written by adults, to convey information which is important for a child to learn in order to be a functioning member of that society, it can be analyzed in the same way novels are, to provide insight into the broad sweeping issues that concerned the adults of that era. Nineteenth-century British children's literature in particular reveals the deep-seated preoccupation the British Empire had with its eastern colonies, and shows how England's relationship to those …

Studying Socioeconomic Trends Through Cemetery Sales Records: A Case Study Of Greenwood Cemetery, Orlando, Florida, Victoria Abigail Kennedy Lawrence

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cemeteries are microcosms of society bound together in sacred spaces. As manifestations of social mores, cemeteries allow anthropologists to obtain information on social development and structure. Where noninvasive study is mandated, crucial methods of interpretation include studies of landscape design, floral incorporation, grave marker design and development, and grave mementos. This thesis discusses these and other methods as they are used to infer group mores. It also indicates how information acquired from methods can be adversely affected by outside influences, such as vandalism, weathering, and replotting. This thesis adds to known methods of cemetery research another unbiased, noninvasive tool that …

Lower Sacraments: Theological Eating In The Fiction Of C. S. Lewis, Gregory Philip Hartley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For years, critics and fans of C. S. Lewis have noted his curious attentiveness to descriptions of food and scenes of eating. Some attempts have been made to interpret Lewis's use of food, but never in a manner comprehensively unifying Lewis's culinary expressions with his own thought and beliefs. My study seeks to fill this void. The introduction demonstrates how Lewis's culinary language aggregates through elements of his life, his literary background, and his Judeo-Christian worldview. Using the grammar of his own culinary language, I examine Lewis's fiction for patterns found within his meals and analyze these patterns for theological …

Environmental Change And Place-Based Identities: Sponge Fishing In Tarpon Springs, Florida, Michael Suver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

As the environmental consequences of urbanization and climate change become apparent in coastal communities, it has become important to understand how residents of these communities experience and approach their changing environments. This becomes especially significant in places where nature-based livelihoods constitute a major part of the economy. This thesis focuses on the city of Tarpon Springs, located along the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, where sea sponge fishing is an important contributor to the local economy while also being central to place-based tourist and ethnic identities. It seeks to understand how environmental changes in the sea sponge economy will …

Work Trips On Public Transportation: An Analysis Of Trends, Select Markets, And Users Using The National Household Travel Survey Series, Kyle Ken Taniguchi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Work trips are considered one of public transportation's biggest markets. It is important to understand this market as fully as possible because of the potential for congestion mitigation or air quality improvements, among other things. While much effort has been invested in researching travel on public transit, very little effort has been concentrated in understanding the work travel market. This document attempts to be a comprehensive resource which can provide current information on the persons and trips being taken on public transit for travel to/from work.

This research looks at the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) to examine the …

Mangroves, Mudbanks And Seawalls: Political Ecology Of Adaptation To Sea Level Rise In Suriname, Ravic Nijbroek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand how global discourses of sea level rise (SLR) and mangrove ecology influence national climate change adaptation policy to reduce coastal vulnerability in Suriname. A majority of the Surinamese population lives along the low elevation coastal zone and is highly exposed to projected SLR. Failure by the international community to reach agreement on climate change mitigation means that vulnerable coastal communities must adapt. The Suriname coast is predominantly shaped by mudbanks and mangroves which together provide protection against coastal erosion and trap sediments resulting in coastal accretion. Knowledge claims of mangrove ecology and utility in SLR …

Micronekton And Macrozooplankton Of The Western Antarctic Peninsula And The Eastern Ross Sea: Contrast Between Two Different Thermal Regimes, Melanie Leigh Parker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Micronekton and macrozooplankton were sampled from the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and eastern Ross Sea regions. Samples were collected over the course of six research cruises to the Southern Ocean. Four of those cruises were conducted in the Marguerite Bay region of the WAP during the austral fall and winter of 2001 and 2002. A fifth cruise sampled faunal assemblages at nine sites, ranging from Joinville Island at the northern tip of the WAP to Charcot Island near the southern extent of the WAP, during austral fall 2010. A sixth cruise was conducted in the pack ice within the …

Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Policy Deployment In Select Florida Jurisdictions, Kevin Carl Mccarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2008 the Federal government enacted a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to address the neighborhood effects of the late-2000s foreclosure crisis. Congress subsequently funded a second and third NSP. This research employs mixed methods to examine the effectiveness of the first round of the NSP in three Florida jurisdictions. The results are analyzed within the larger context of substantive housing theory and federal housing policy. The success of the program is evaluated using a mixed-scanning procedural planning theoretical framework.

Examining The Relationship Between Participatory Democracy And Nonwhite Domestic Workers In Porto Alegre, Brazil: Issues Of Race, Class And Privilege, Alexis Nicole Mootoo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Brazil is a nation that has professed to be a `racial democracy' such that race categories are not recognized. This implies that every citizen experiences equal access from a political, social and economic point of view, irrespective of skin color. Nevertheless, palpable racial inequalities exist in Brazil such that there is a primarily white elite class while Brazilians of African descent are typically poor. Male dominance is a worldwide phenomenon. When racial inequities are coupled with male dominance, Brazilian women of African origins suffer as they occupy the lowest socio-economic strata, which often remand them to work as domestics. Some …

Out Of The Land Of Forgetfulness: Archaeological Investigations At Bulow Plantation (8fl7), Flagler County, Florida, Rebecca Claire O'Sullivan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Developed in the early 1800's, Bulow Plantation is a prime example of the thriving sugar industry of East Florida prior to the Second Seminole War. Additionally, the layout of the slave cabins at Bulow Plantation in an arc centered on the main house is unique in Florida except for Kingsley Plantation near Jacksonville, FL. Despite its importance and the paucity of information available about even basic questions regarding life at Bulow Plantation, relatively little in the way of archaeological work has been done at the site. Using historical research and non-destructive archaeological techniques such as pedestrian survey, aerial LiDAR (Light …

Use Of Adventitious Roots For The Determination Of Hydroperiod In Isolated Wetlands, Michael Joseph Reyes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Accurate measurement of the hydroperiod in isolated wetlands currently relies upon the installation and frequent monitoring of devices such as piezometers and staff gauges. Observations of biological indicators of the hydroperiod may be able to supplement data collected from these devices and could potentially replace them as a means of accurately determining this hydrologic interval. The study objective was to determine whether adventitious root formation and maturation on buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) could be used as a viable indicator of the hydroperiod in isolated wetlands. Buttonbush seedlings were flooded in a controlled environment over a three month period in the …

The Effect Of Mortgage Liberalization On Housing Patterns In Tampa Bay, Jason Richardson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to determine whether the process of mortgage finance liberalization, manifested in concurrent activities of securitization, deregulation, and neo-liberal policy, have resulted in changes to the tenure of residents in neighborhoods in Tampa Bay. It makes use of existing literature on gentrification and mortgage finance and compares those findings with three sample neighborhoods in and around the city of Tampa. To do so the thesis employs data collected from lenders pursuant to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, court records of sales and mortgages filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, and interviews with stakeholders …

Mapping And Assessing Urban Impervious Areas Using Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis: A Case Study In The City Of Tampa, Florida, Fenqing Weng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The advance in remote sensing technology helps people more easily assess urban growth. In this study, the utility of multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) is examined in a sub-pixel analysis of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery to map urban physical components in Tampa, FL. The three physical components of urban land cover (LC): impervious surface, vegetation and soil, were compared using the proposed MESMA with a traditional spectral mixture analysis (SMA). MESMA decomposes each pixel to address the heterogeneity of urban LC characteristic by allowing the number and types of endmembers to vary on a per pixel basis. This …