Digital Commons Network^™

Filtration Performance Of A Niosh-Approved N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirator With Stapled Head Straps, Daniel E. Medina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Certain models of NIOSH-approved filtering facepiece air purifying respirators are manufactured with stapled head straps. Depending on the manufacturer, these head straps may be stapled to the filter media itself. This may cause leakage through the filter media of the respirator, potentially exposing the user to an unacceptable level of contaminant. In this study, monodisperse polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres were generated to challenge four replicates of a N95 single use respirator model made by the same manufacturer.

Nominal particle sizes of the PSL spheres used to challenge the respirators were 0.5, 1, and 2 micrometers in diameter. All respirators were …

Developing The Nomological Network Of Perceived Corporate Affinity For Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation, David Earl Fleming

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology is changing the face of both the sales and service domains. Honebein and Cammarano (2006) note that properly implemented self-service technologies serve dual purposes of decreasing firm overhead costs, while simultaneously engaging the customer in a way encourages the co-create of value for both parties. To get these benefits stakeholders must be willing to adopt and use the technologies that are available.

Traditionally, this has lead to the research question "How do firms do this?" However, according to a recent article by Woodall, Colby and Parasuraman (2007), consumers are now demanding more technology-based options and becoming more technologically savvy. …

Stat3 Contributes To Resistance Towards Bcr-Abl Inhibitors In A Bone Marrow Microenvironment Model Of Drug Resistance In Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells, Nadine N. Bewry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Imatinib mesylate (imatinib) represents a potent molecularly targeted therapy against the oncogenic tyrosine kinase, BCR-ABL. Although imatinib has shown considerable efficacy against chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), displaying high rates of complete hematological and complete cytogenetic responses, treatment with imatinib is not curative and overtime advanced-stage CML patients often become refractory to further treatment. Acquired resistance to imatinib has been associated with mutations within the kinase domain of BCR-ABL, BCR-ABL gene amplification, leukemic stem cell quiescence as well as over-expression of the multidrug resistance (MDR1) gene. However, in vitro resistance models often fail to consider the role of the tumor microenvironment …

The Sleeping Giant: Revealing The Potential Energy Of Abandoned Industry Through Adaptive Transformation, Wesley A. Bradley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the downfall of industry, cityscapes have become speckled with post-industrial building fragments. Skeletons, left as the evidence of a past generation are waiting patiently for their chance to reemerge as active elements. Furthermore, they are ever-present but remain out of touch within the thriving urban organism that has engulfed their surroundings. These condemned giants, rich in history, location, aesthetics, and vigor sleep underneath the growth. Their post-industrial urban sites are generally discarded and forgotten. On these sites the fragments of the massive and extraordinary crumble. These large industrial buildings have become a burden to their communities. Not realizing what …

Relife: Transitional Housing For Victims Of Natural Disaster, Alexander B. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent natural disasters around the globe have left individuals without shelter. Governments have shown slow response for these victims with examples seen from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People are still living in structures that are hazardous to their health, insufficient for normal day activity, and socially unacceptable. With the rising numbers of victims and the slow response of governments to provide solutions, a new typology must be designed.

This thesis proposes a new typology that will create a responsive design that is efficient, aesthetic, environmentally conscious, and ready for implementation. Transitional housing can be defined as housing that is …

An Intermediate Extended Literacy Routine To Support Struggling Third Grade Readers, Jeani Z. Fullard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Large numbers of children in the United States are not functioning at adequate levels of literacy. Students who have weak reading proficiency skills are identified as at-risk; failure to acquire competency early in their schooling adversely affects performance in all academic fields and limits their potential for achievement in life. There is an extensive knowledge base about the skills and strategies children must learn in order to read well. Effective fluency and comprehension strategies need to be taught to help students become powerful, active readers who are in control of their learning.

This study evaluated a structured classroom model …

Non-Calanoid Copepods At The Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study (Bats) Station: Community Structure And Ecology, 1995-1999, Hussain Ali Al-Mutairi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Zooplankton were sampled on a monthly basis at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site from January 1995 to December 1999. Samples were collected using a 1-m², 200 µm mesh net. The net sampled the water column in an oblique manner from the surface to a mean depth of 200 m. One day and one night tow from each cruise was examined microscopically to determine the community structure of the non-calanoid copepods. In addition, a three year set of nighttime samples were examined taken by 0.5-m², 20 and 35 µm mesh nets (1995-1996 and 1997, respectively) towed obliquely to 150 …

Workin’ From Cain To Cain’T: Challenges Within Florida’S Gulf Coast Oyster Industry, Diane Marie Wakeman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oyster tongers are a cultural icon of Florida's maritime heritage and geography. Challenged for generations by the vagaries of weather, including catastrophic storms and years-long droughts, and economic uncertainties this maritime heritage is fading fast. While Florida's north and west coasts produce 90 percent of the Florida oyster harvest and ten percent of oysters consumed in the United States, the industry is at risk today for reasons including a declining demand for Florida oysters because of health concerns; water pollution; population growth and its accompanying development of condominiums, gated communities, and retail shopping centers; and declining interest in the hard …

Shifting Paradigms: The Development Of Nursing Identity In Foreign-Educated Physicians Retrained As Nurses Practicing In The United States, Liwliwa Reyes Villagomeza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A unique breed of nurses for the US market is emerging-the Physician-Nurses. They are foreign-educated physicians who have retrained as nurses. The purpose of this study was to generate a theory that can explain the development of their nursing identity. Specific aims were to discover barriers that participants perceived as problematic in their transition to nursing and catalysts that influenced how they addressed the central problematic issue they articulated. Grounded theory methodology guided by the philosophical foundations of symbolic interactionism was used. Twelve Physician-Nurses were interviewed. Transcribed interviews were imported to ATLAS.ti. Text data were analyzed by constant comparative method. …

Memory - Ness: The Collaboration Between A Library And Museum, Kelsey Doughty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Picture a historical library and a historical art museum coming together to challenge the interaction between each other to help experience, explore, and discover the past within the present. While it sounds like a good idea, it is rare to see a library and museum under one roof.

With the increasing population of tourists looking to visit places and buildings that reconnect with history, there is a higher demand for places to be able to 're-live the past' through art and literature. People enjoy visiting places where history was made and where it becomes part of a city's identity. With …

Development And Deployment Of An Underwater Mass Spectrometer For Quantitative Measurements Of Dissolved Gases, Ryan J. Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Manual collection and processing of seawater samples for dissolved gas analyses are technically challenging, time consuming and costly. Accordingly, in situ analysis techniques present attractive alternatives to conventional gas measurement procedures. To meet the demands of sustained, high-resolution chemical observations of the oceans, the University of South Florida and SRI International developed underwater mass spectrometer systems for quantitative measurements of dissolved gases and volatile organic compounds. This work describes the influence of variable in situ conditions on the performance of a membrane introduction mass spectrometer used for measurements in both the water column and sediment porewater.

Laboratory experiments to simulate …

The Effect Of Corporate Social Responsibility: Exploring The Relationship Among Csr, Attitude Toward The Brand, Purchase Intention, And Persuasion Knowledge, Duangkaew Chaisurivirat

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to test the general belief that CSR leads to positive attitudes toward a brand and results in an increase in consumers' purchase intentions on the basis of the Affect Transfer Hypothesis (ATH). This study replicates and extends previous research by examining the effect of consumers' persuasion knowledge, based on the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), as one variable that can affect consumers' attitudes toward CSR initiatives and brands. A post-test only experiment was conducted using stimulus materials derived from Starbuck Coffee Company. Four of the stimulus materials containing CSR messages corresponded with four CSR initiative …

Exploring The Effects Of Bmi Health Report Card Letters Among 6Th Grade Students And Parents: An Application Of The Social Cognitive Theory, Jenna M. Kaczmarski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In response to the growing child and adolescent obesity epidemic, some states and local school authorities are mandating the measurement of Body Mass Index (BMI). However, there is limited research addressing whether schools are an appropriate setting and the intended as well as unintended effects of sharing this information with parents. Furthermore, there is yet to be conclusive evidence that shows that BMI screening in the school setting is an effective way to improve student BMI status. Therefore, the purpose of this research study was to explore the effects of BMI Health Report Card Letters among 6th grade students and …

Latent Newspaper Functions During The Impact Phase Of Hurricane Katrina, Christina A. Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Media is used by audiences for more than its simple role as information provider. Audiences have been found to use news providers output in a multitude of ways. It has been found that some audience members have used such output as a way to gain social capital that aids in the generation of feelings of social cohesion with their community. This has been found to be especially true during the impact phase of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane (Perez-Lugo, 2004). Unfortunately what news providers specifically articulate that might have this latent use by audiences has not been studied …

Rhetorics Of Fear, Deployment Of Identity, And Metal Music Cultures, Gregory Vance Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to analyze the rhetorics of fear operating in public discourses surrounding metal music. This analysis focuses on how the public rhetorics deploy identity on listener populations through both the mediation and legislation of identities. Specifically, this mediation takes place using both symbols of fear and arguments constructed on potential threats. Texts for analysis in this study include film and television documentaries, newspaper articles, book-length critiques of and scholarship on heavy metal, and transcripts from the U.S. Senate Hearings on Record Labeling.

"Heavy metal" and "metal music" are labels that categorize diverse styles of music. …

Communication, Consumption And Manipulation: The Body As Language In The Films Of Jan Švankmajer, Amanda Marie Dowd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I will analyze and discuss the work of renowned director Jan Švankmajer. Specifically, I will examine how director Jan Švankmajer’s representation of the body creates a metaphorical language. In addition, I will address what meaning can be gathered from, or made apparent through the commentary of the body’s language and discuss the significance of the socio-political implications. Prior to my discussion of Švankmajer’s work I will give a concise socio-political history of the Czech Republic from 1968-1994; this discussion will provide a framework for the subsequent analyses. In order to provide support for my argument, I will …

Globalization, Migration And The U.S. Labor Market For Physicians: The Impact Of Immigration On Local Wages, Finnie B. Cook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The healthcare labor market has experienced some significant changes in the last half century, including the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, the emergence of managed care in the 1980s, and the worldwide mobility of labor encouraged by globalization. Currently, more than 25% of physicians working in the U.S. are foreign-born. The existing body of literature related to the impact of immigration on local wages has to date found conflicting results. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of immigration of foreign physicians on local physician wages. This study employs physician survey data from the AMA …

Sensitivity Analysis Of Three Assembly Procedures For A Bascule Bridge Fulcrum, Luke Allen Snyder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many different hub assembly procedures have been utilized over the years in bascule bridge construction. The first assembly procedure (AP1) involves shrink fitting a trunnion component into a hub, followed by the shrink fitting of the entire trunnion-hub (TH) assembly into the girder of the bridge. The second assembly procedure (AP2) involves shrink fitting the hub component first into the girder, then shrink fitting the trunnion component into the hub-girder (HG) assembly. The final assembly procedure uses a warm shrink fitting process whereby induction coils are placed on the girder of the bridge and heat is applied until sufficient thermal …

Microbial Population Analysis In Leachate From Simulated Solid Waste Bioreactors And Evaluation Of Genetic Relationships And Prevalence Of Vancomycin Resistance Among Environmental Enterococci, Bina S. Nayak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Degradation of the several million tons of solid waste produced in the U.S. annually is microbially mediated, yet little is known about the structure of prokaryotic communities actively involved in the waste degradation process. In the first study, leachates generated during degradation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the presence (co-disposal) or absence of biosolids were analyzed using laboratory-scale bioreactors over an eight-month period. Archaeal and bacterial community structures were investigated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) targeting 16S rRNA genes. Regardless of waste composition, microbial communities in bioreactor leachates exhibited high diversity and temporal trends. Methanogen sequences from a …

Hemocompatibility Assessment Of 3c-Sic For Cardiovascular Applications, Norelli Schettini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The hemocompatibility of crystalline Silicon Carbide (SiC), in its cubic form (i.e., 3C-SiC), has been evaluated and compared to Silicon (Si), the leading material in biosensing applications. Silicon carbide (SiC) is a hard, chemically robust material, very well suited for harsh environment applications, and has been suggested to have very good biocompatibility. Additionally, SiC in its amorphous form, has been used as a coating for medical implantable devices such as bone prosthetics and cardiovascular stents. However, assessment of single crystal 3C-SiC for cardiovascular applications has not been reported. In this research we have studied the interactions of single crystal 3C-SiC …

Running Toward The Apocalypse: John Updike’S New America, Bob Batchelor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation explores two critical points in understanding John Updike's recent career. First, I examine him from a perspective outside the heavily-studied Rabbit tetralogy. Focusing on Updike's novel Terrorist, I attempt to counter the misperception that he offers little beyond the chronicling of middle-class, suburban America. Instead, this work digs for a deeper understanding of Updike.

Next, I consider Updike's role as an artist, professional writer, and celebrity to draw out a sense of the writer's life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Using him as a case study enables the analysis to include his changing role as a …

Fireproofing The Lawn: Reclaimed Water And Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers In Tampa Bay, Ryan C. Davis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reclaimed water has increased in popularity as a means to recycle water and thus decrease the amount of wasteful water use. This process is widely used in Tampa Bay for watering of lawns. This increase in popularity and use has raised questions as to what contaminants are in the reclaimed water.

The purpose of this study was to analyze reclaimed water for contaminants believed to be detrimental to health and conduct interviews to ascertain perceptions of risk in the local population. As water reuse grows in popularity further research will need to be conducted to address potential human health concerns. …

The Effect Of Growth Factors On The Corneal Stroma Extracellular Matrix Production By Keratocytes, Latia Shaquan Etheredge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The corneal wound healing process is a complex process, which often leads to the development of scar tissue with loss of transparency. When the cornea is wounded, some of the viable keratocytes are activated by growth factors to proliferate, and repair the wound by the production of a new extracellular matrix (ECM) that is either normal or is disorganized (fibrotic). The first part of this dissertation aims to show that the growth factors IGF-I, TGF-ß, FGF-2, and PDGF stimulate keratocytes to synthesize different levels of collagens and proteoglycans and are therefore responsible for initiating the wound healing repair process. FGF-2 …

Handover Performance In The Mobile Wimax Netrworks, Yongxue Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobile terminals allow users to access service while on the move. This unique feature has driven the rapid growth in the mobile network industry, changing it from a new technology into a massive industry in less than two decades.

In this thesis, an in-depth study of the handover effects of mobile WiMAX networks is carried out. The mobile WiMAX technology is first presented as literature study and then the technologies of handovers for previous generations are introduced in detail. Further, the hard handover of the mobile WiMAX is simulated by Network Simulator-2 (NS-2). In addition, the "ping-pang" effect of handover …

Mercury Perception, Community Awareness And Sustainability Implications For The Tampa Bay Region, Florida, Trina Halfhide

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over one million acres of land and water in Florida has been classified as impaired by mercury. Approximately 80% of national fish advisories are issued due to mercury contamination. There have been a number of consumption advisories in the Tampa Bay Region for locally eaten fish such as largemouth bass (

Micropterus salmoides), bowfin (Amia calva), and alligator gar (Lepisosteus osseus). The main purpose of this study was to determine if there is adequate dissemination of mercury related risk information by government agencies to recreational and subsistence fishermen in the Tampa Bay Region. This research …

Shaping The Dream: A Survey Of Post-World War Ii St. Petersburg, 1946-1963, Jon L. Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

St. Petersburg stood on the cusp of great change in 1946. Returning veterans sought jobs and housing, and St. Petersburg experienced its first major growth era since the real estate boom of the 1920s. The decade of the 1950s saw the city's population leap from 96,738 to 181,298, an 87 percent increase driven by boosters and national publicity about the city's leisurely ambience. Tract houses replaced remaining pockets of pasture and pine trees as subdivisions sprawled toward the city limits and beyond. On fertile truck-farming acreage called Goose Pond, developers built Central Plaza, a shopping center positioned to drain business …

A Data Link Layer In Support Of Swarming Of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Daladier Jabba Molinares

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Communication underwater is challenging because of the inherent characteristics of the media. First, common radio frequency (RF) signals utilized in wireless communications cannot be used under water. RF signals are attenuated in such as way that RF communication underwater is restricted to very few meters. As a result, acoustic-based communication is utilized for underwater communications; however, acoustic communication has its own limitations. For example, the speed of sound is five orders of magnitude lower than the speed of light, meaning that communications under water experience long propagation delays, even in short distances. Long propagation delays impose strong challenges in the …

Theoretical Studies Of Long-Range Interactions In Quasi-One Dimensional Cylindrical Structures, Kevin Tatur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Casimir forces originating from vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic fields are of increasing importance in many scientific and technological areas. The manifestations of these long-range forces at the nanoscale have led to the need of better understanding of their contribution in relation to the stability of different physical systems as well as the operation of various technological components and devices. This dissertation presents mathematical and theoretical methods to calculate the Casimir interaction in various infinitely long cylindrical nanostructures. A dielectric-diamagnetic cylindrical layer immersed in a medium is first considered. The layer has a finite thickness characterized with specific dielectric and …

Portraits Of Online Teaching And Learning: The Experiences Of An Instructor And Six Graduate Students In A Course Entitled Educating Students With Autism, Sarah R. Semon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the last decade (1999-2009) Florida's Bureau of Exceptional Education Student Services, in partnership with Institutions of Higher Education created the Florida Virtual ESE program to develop and deliver online professional development courses. The state also provided tuition support for teachers to participate in online professional development coursework to earn credentials necessary to be considered Highly Qualified. Online course delivery is thought to be a cost-effective approach to the provision of professional development for in-service teachers. However, there is a need to examine what it takes to create meaningful online learning experiences that facilitate the goals and objectives particular to …

Development Of Three Dimensional Fluid-Structure Interaction Models For The Design Of Surface Acoustic Wave Devices: Application To Biosensing And Microfluidic Actuation, Reetu Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices find uses in a plethora of applications including

but not limited to chemical, biological sensing, and microfluidic actuation. The primary aim of

this dissertation is to develop a SAW biosensor, capable of simultaneous detection of target

biomarkers in fluid media at concentrations of picogram/ml to nanogram/ml levels and removal

of non-specific proteins from sensor surface using the process of acoustic streaming, for potential

chemical sensing, medical, and clinical diagnostic applications. The focus is on the development

of three dimensional finite element structural and fluid-structure interaction models to study wave

propagation and acoustic actuation of fluids …