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African American Women With Type 2 Diabetes: Understanding Self-Management, F Bridgett Rahim-Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prescribed self-management behaviors have been found to be important factors affecting the rates of morbidity and mortality in multiple medical conditions including chronic diseases such as diabetes, a condition that disproportionately affects high health risk populations such as African Americans.

This study focused on understanding health behaviors, beliefs, and associated factors such as support systems and access to care that played a role in diabetes self-management and glucose control. The study also explored diabetes self-management education and its role in diabetes self-management. The research conducted in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in Florida, included twenty-five African American women between the ages …

Colombian Immigrant Children In The United States: Representations Of Food And The Process Of Creolization, María Claudia Duque-Páramo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation research is to study the experience of adjustment of Colombian immigrant children to living in the U.S. In order to understand the changes they have experienced as immigrants, the research focuses on the ways in which they talk about the food they eat hereand on the foods they ate in Colombia. Because of the symbolic importance of food in the construction of ethnic and personal identities, a study of how the children talk about food illuminates the process of blending elements from the immigrant culture with those of the U.S.

Based on the symbolic interactionism …

Examining The Current U.S. Beef Trade Policies Concerning The Testing For Mad Cow Disease, David C. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite existing mad cow disease surveillance efforts in the United States, in place since the 1980s, a cow that tested positive for mad cow disease was granted entrance into the U.S. in December, 2003. The cow that tested positive, according to witnesses, displayed no symptoms that are synonymous with advanced bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE. This occurrence had detrimental effects on the U.S. beef export market, as many countries banned American beef. Estimates of the damage inflicted reach into the billions of dollars. BSE in the U.S. has the potential of causing damages in other aspects as well. Aside from the …

The Stress Response, Psychoeducational Interventions And Assisted Reproduction Technology Treatment Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review, Karen Rose Mumford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The psychological impacts of infertility have been well documented in the literature, providing evidence to support that at least some women who confront infertility are at risk for heightened distress and depressive symptoms. In response to this accumulated evidence, it has been argued that psychoeducational interventions may provide an important component to the treatment of infertility. While several theoretical models postulate the effects of stress on infertility treatment outcomes, results of these investigations have led to conflicting conclusions. However, a synthesis of the accumulated data examining the effects of stress on ART treatment outcomes was nonexistent until the conduct of …

Isolation And Identification Of O-Linked-Β-N-Acetylglucosamine Modified Proteins (O-Glcnac) In The Developing Xenopus Laevis Oocyte, Sreelatha Paspuleti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oocyte development in Xenopus laevis spans six morphologically distinct stages (stage I-VI), and is associated with a decrease in protein O-GlcNAc levels. As a first step in elucidating the role of O-GlcNAc in developing oocytes, initial efforts were focused on isolation and identification of fifteen modified proteins that decrease during oocyte development. Stage I oocytes due to their high amounts of these proteins, were used as starting material for purification. Multiple affinity and specific antibody based purification technique were initially used in an attempt to enrich the O-GlcNAc proteins. Due to the unique properties of the proteins …

Relation Between Weight Status, Gender, Ethnicity And The Food And Activity Choices Of Adolescents, Heather Leanne Curtiss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between the variables weight status (expected weight, overweight), ethnicity, and gender and the dependent variables dietary intake and physical activity behaviors among adolescents. The data presented in this study were collected using the Nutrition Questionnaire for High School Students, which was completed by 199 adolescents in a high school in southwest Florida in February of 2004. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to identify differences in dietary intake and physical activity behaviors between weight status groups.

The primary questions in this study related to interactions and main effects between the variables weight category, …

Using Multiwavelength Uv-Visible Spectroscopy For The Characterization Of Red Blood Cells: An Investigation Of Hypochromism, Akihisa Nonoyama

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Particle analysis using multiwavelength UV-visible spectroscopy provides the potential for extracting quantitative red blood cell information, such as hemoglobin concentration, cell size, and cell count. However, if there is a significant presence of hypochromism as a result of the concentrated hemoglobin (physiological value of 33%), successful quantification of red cell values would require a correction.

Hypochromism has been traditionally defined as a decrease in absorption relative to the values expected from the Beer-Lambert Law due to electronic interactions of chromophores residing in close proximity of one another. This phenomenon has been suggested to be present in macroscopic systems composed of …

A Multilevel Modeling Analysis Of The Geographic Variability Of Low Birth Weight Occurrence In Florida, Joseph William Green

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The associations of neighborhood level socioeconomic deprivation and low birth weight were investigated among 1,030,443 singleton live births in the State of Florida between the years 1992 and 1997. Census data for per capita income, unemployment, percent of individuals living below the poverty line, vehicle ownership and educational attainment were used as neighborhood level indicators of socioeconomic status. Additionally, these variables were combined into a deprivation index to measure relative deprivation of neighborhoods across Florida. Birth data were linked to census block groups and tracts, which were used as proxies for low birth weight. Multilevel models were used to model …

The Importance Of Program-Delivered Differential Reinforcement In The Development Of Classical Music Auditory Discrimination, Gudmundur Torfi Heimisson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Posttest performances after two forms of Web-based tutorial instruction were compared. Both forms were designed to teach students to identify musical compositions that typify Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century music. The first treatment condition was a series of Web pages with text and accompanying hyperlinks to musical selections matched to the text. In this condition, students read and listened at their own discretion -- without Web software program restrictions. The second treatment contained exactly the same text and musical selections, but students in this condition read the text in small portions while being required to fill in missing …

Smoking Cessation In A University Setting: The Efficacy Of An Experiential, Theory-Based Intervention For College Students, Vani Nath Simmons

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The college setting represents an untapped window of opportunity to target the growing number of college student smokers. To address this need the current study tested an intervention drawing upon research from social psychology and previously effective health-related interventions. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of an experiential, dissonance-enhancing smoking intervention for increasing motivation to quit smoking and reducing smoking by comparing it to two control groups, in a three-arm randomized study. Participants were 215 college student smokers randomized to an experiential smoking intervention, a traditional educational smoking intervention, or an experiential intervention on nutrition. …

The Depositional History Of Three Freshwater Lakes In North Central Florida: Brooklyn Lake, Levys Prairie, And Cowpen Lake, Nancy T. Dewitt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida has approximately 7800 lakes that are heavily concentrated in the north-central part of the state—a mantled karst terrain. Although much research has been conducted in Florida’s lakes, there is not much information on the sedimentary infill. The focus of this research is to define the sedimentary infill of three closely spaced lakes (Brooklyn Lake, Levys Prairie, and Cowpen Lake) in north-central Florida and determine the relative importance of the various
sedimentary inputs and their associated processes. Interlake lithostratigraphy comparison helped determine if they experienced a similar depositional infilling history or a unique one.

Twenty-three vibracores were taken (12 in …

Mapping A Generation: Oral History Research In Sulphur Springs, Fl, Connie J. Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an analysis of the pros and cons of doing ethnographic and oral history research with elders. The subjects are women born before 1933 and residing in Sulphur Springs, Florida for most of their adolescence and adult lives. They were selected from attendees of the semiannual reunion of students who attended the Sulphur Springs School during the years it served both elementary and junior high.

This method of research, with an elder population presents specific challenges and rewards. The pros and cons of such research are discussed within the context of doing ethnography of Sulphur Springs from the …

The Effects Of Seasonal Change On Copepods And Euphausiids Off The Western Antarctic Peninsula: Results From Biochemical Assays And Respiration Studies, Joël Laurent Bellucci

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We compared four metabolic indicators of nutritional state: citrate synthase activity (CS), malate dehydrogenase activity (MDH), lactate dehydrogenase activity (LDH) and percent body protein to each other and to respiration measurements. These comparisons were made for four species of copepods (Calanoides acutus, Metridia gerlachei, Paraeuchaeta antarctica and another form of Paraeuchaeta that was unidentifiable to species due to its early life stage), three species of Euphausids (Euphausia crystallorophias, Euphausia triacantha, Euphausia superba (including both F6-furcilial and adult stages)) and Thysonessa macrura which were collected off the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) during Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. …

A Comparison Of Exhaled Breath Nitric Oxide Between Old And Young Individuals, Robert L. Gordon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Older individuals suffer from higher rates of pulmonary infections than younger individuals. In addition, older individuals have increased morbidity and mortality due to pulmonary infections when compared to younger individuals. The physiological and immunological reasons for these aforementioned differences are not clear. Recently, non-invasive markers of the lung's physiologic and immunologic status have been recognized. This study employs one of these non-invasive markers, exhaled nitric oxide, in an attempt to determine how the airways may change with age, predisposing older individuals to pulmonary diseases and poorer outcomes as compared to younger individuals.

METHODS: Exhaled nitric oxide measurements were obtained …

A Comparison Of Centrifugal Forces To Reduce The Inhibitory Effects Of Food Matrixes On Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction For The Detection Of Food Borne Viruses, Kristina Kim Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The CDC estimated that foodborne infections resulted in approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths per year in the United States (Mead, 1999). There are over 200 known diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites, toxins, metals, or prions that can be transmitted through food. Of these illnesses caused by foodborne disease, the CDC estimates that 38.6 million cases are from identifiable pathogens and 30.9 million of these cases are caused by viruses. Hence, approximately 80% of foodborne illnesses of known etiology result from viral transmission (Mead, 1999). Viral gastrointestinal illness may be caused by virus families such as: …

Evaluation Of The Prognostic Criteria For Medicare Hospice Eligibility, D Helen Moore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work evaluates Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB) eligibility standards that are referenced throughout this work as either "Medicare prognostic criteria," or "Local Medical Review Policies." Following the Chapter 1 overview of prognosis in end-stage disease, association between the Medicare clinical predictors and survival outcomes in dementing, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular illnesses are described in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 examines the prognostic belief systems of multidisciplinary hospice personnel. Chapter 4 seeks to improve the predictive performance of the Medicare prognostic criteria for dementia. The fifth and final chapter critiques the Medicare prognostic criteria from conceptual, methodological, and applied perspectives and suggests related …

The Development And Validation Of The Thinness Expectancy Questionnaire (Teq), Ari R. Steinberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although the research on expectancy theory and body image and eating disturbance is very limited, it appears to be an extremely useful and promising line of study. It appears likely that the application of expectancy theory would lend itself well to the area of body image disturbance and eating disorders. Within the field of body image disturbance and eating disorders research, expectancies would most likely refer to the anticipated consequences of being thin. Such expectancies may be established by an individual's direct experience with weight loss and dieting or through the observation of the messages concerning the societal "thin ideal" …

Assessor Effects On The Evaluation Of The Wisc-Iii, Sherecce A. Fields

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been many theories about cultural differences found between groups on intelligence test scores. The main debate has been between those in favor of a genetic explanation versus those in favor of a more environmental one. When considering environmental influences, one explanation has been that there could be differential effects due to the assessor. Although there have been several studies that have considered this possibility, the results are inconclusive. The current study attempted to tease apart the assessor effects by focusing on biases in the assessor alone and by eliminating effects from the test taker. The study is an …

Shakespeare’S Midsummer Fairies: Shadows And Shamen Of The Forest, Patricia, Roy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent interest in environmental crises has inspired literary critics to consider how the history of ideas shapes our current ecological debates. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream sets the stage for assessing how Renaissance attitudes towards nature have influenced current ideologies. While the play appears to be a fantasy, it reveals a relationship with nature, both physically and figuratively. The play's excursion into the woods shows an attempt to heal human relationships. Shakespeare's use of the imagery of nature argues in favor of the green world, for it is a world inhabited by shadows and shamen -- or, as Shakespeare calls …

Social And Behavioral Aspect Of Mother’S Health Behaviors And Neonatal Health: Risk Factor Analysis Of Neonatal Septicemia In Urban Slums Of Muntinlupa, Philippines, Chisaki Sato

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reducing neonatal mortality can contribute to the further reduction of infant mortality rates in international health as it is responsible for about half of the mortality rate for those underfive today. The situation of infant mortality in the Philippines is no exception to this global trend. This study of the social demographic aspects of sepsis neonatorum in the Philippines has explored the conditions of the urban environment, and local cultures related to newborn illnesses and the patterns of health seeking behaviors of urban poor mothers which can affect the survival of newborns. The mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods …

Comida Sin Frijoles No Es Comida: Evaluation Of A Type 2 Diabetes Education Program For Latinos, Danielle R. O'Connor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes an internship for the Department of Anthropology that was part of the Florida Health Literacy Study (FHLS) conducted at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, Department of Community and Family Health in the spring and summer of 2003. The FHLS implemented Pfizer Inc.'s For Your Health program, a type 2 diabetes and hypertension education programs, at 14 community health clinics across the state of Florida. The internship was designed to elicit the experiences of 10 bilingual health educators about their experiences and their perceptions of the experiences of their Latino patients with type 2 …

Fishing-Dependent Communities On The Gulf Coast Of Florida: Their Identification, Recent Decline And Present Resilience, Yu, Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

U.S. fisheries legislation requires National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to attend to the critical social and economic issues surrounding the definition and identification of fishing communities, and to the effects that changes to the physical environment and regulatory decisions can have on such communities. To fulfil their mandate, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) sponsored the research entitled "Identifying Fishing Communities in the Gulf of Mexico" to study the economic, social and cultural status of potential fishing communities along the Gulf of Mexico.

NMFS contracted the research project to Impact Assessment, Inc. to study 80 plus potential fishing communities in the …

Congruence Among Mathematics Skills Used On The Job By Practical Nurses Vs. The Prerequisite Skills Required For Admission Into The Practical Nursing Program, G H. Clary

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The standard for evaluating a student's mathematic ability (grade level) for admission to many vocational-technical programs is through the administration of the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE). There has come forth a concern from vocational educators, that students entering programs may not be prepared for the mathematics required by the curriculum, even though the student has met the criteria for entry as established by the state curriculum frameworks as evidenced by their scores on a TABE which had recently been administered. Furthermore, questions raised among instructional, administrative and guidance personnel about the congruence of math skills required on the …

Diversity And Production Of Phytoplankton In The Offshore Mississippi River Plume And Coastal Environments, Boris Wawrik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

River discharge leads to extensive phytoplankton blooms often observed in ocean color satellite images to extend far into the open ocean as high chlorophyll plumes. We investigated diversity, distribution and ecology of phytoplankton populations in the Mississippi River plume, both spatially and in the water column using molecular tools. A method was developed for the quantification of diatom/pelagophyte rbcL (large subunit of Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase) mRNA using quantitative PCR and applied to cultures and in the plume. The vertical structure of phytoplankton species in the Mississippi River plume was described by flow cytometry, pigments, rbcL mRNA and rbcL cDNA libraries. High …

Herbivore Abundance In Simple And Diverse Habitats: The Direct And Indirect Effects Of Plant Diversity And Habitat Structure, Laura F. Altfeld

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Herbivore abundances are determined by a set of interacting factors that vary among different habitat types. Specifically, herbivore abundances in monocultures and polycultures may be governed by the same set of factors but with varying influences in the different habitats. In addition, monophagous and polyphagous herbivores may respond differently to the same set of influencing factors. I examined several abiotic and biotic factors in manipulated monocultures and polycultures of Borrichia frutescens in a west central Florida salt marsh. The experimental plots differed in both plant diversity and aboveground habitat structure to see how each component of diversity contributed to variability …

Hearing Evaluation In Infants: An Update For Pediatricians, Janet E. Sullivan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper provides an overview of developmental timetables relevant to hearing and of current pediatric audiological techniques and practices. The first sections summarize structural and functional development of the auditory pathway and the development of primary auditory processing. These developmental sequences appear to follow similar paths in humans and animals. Speech and music perception involve more complex processing and are strongly influenced by experience. Hearing disorders affect the perception of complex sounds in a variety of ways, depending on the site(s) of lesions. Early onset hearing impairment, including conductive loss from chronic otitis media, can seriously impede language development.

Language …

The Association Of Maternal Pregnancy Complications And Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Patricia D. Myers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the third leading cause of infant mortality between birth and the first year of life in the United States. Along with the identification of various maternal risk factors, the role of fetal hypoxia has been hypothesized to be one of many causal factors associated with SIDS. The purpose of this study was to develop a profile of the SIDS infant and assess whether six pregnancy complications consistent with fetal hypoxia were associated with the increased outcome of SIDS. The secondary data analysis of Florida linked birth to death certificate data specific to Hillsborough County …

Hazard Vulnerability In Socio-Economic Context: An Example From Ecuador, Lucille Richards Lane

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How people pereceive the risks associated with natural hazards contributes to their willingness to take protective action. Such action may be constrained by prevailing socio-economic and place-specific conditions that restrict or inform the choice of protective measures available to the individual. Vulnerability to the impacts of extreme geophysical events increases when the range of alternatives is limited or misinformed.

Many evacuees from a potentially violent volcanic eruption in Ecuador returned to their home town of Banos while it was still under an evacuation order in 2000 and considered to be a high risk area by officials. The research examined four …

The Foraging Ecology Of The Juvenile Gopher Tortoise, Gopheruspol Yphemus, Terri Anne Stilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food plant preferences of juvenile gopher tortoises, Gopherus polyphemus, were investigated in a west central Florida population. The juvenile gopher tortoises were free-ranging and were located in a sandhill habitat subject to yearly prescribed burns. Diet was determined by foraging observations, in which the number of bites taken per taxon, the number of plants sampled per taxon, and the amount of each taxon available along the foraging path were recorded. Preference was determined with Manly's alpha index of preference and Jacob's D electivity index. Selected plants in the habitat were analyzed for relative nitrogen content to investigate whether preferred …

Difference In Hearing Screening Failure Rates As A Function Of Ethnicity In Well Newborns Screened At Tampa General Hospital, Sybil N. Prewitt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The difference in otoacoustic emission (OAE) hearing screening failure rates as a function of ethnic category was investigated in a population of newborns at Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Florida. Clinical observation led to a concern that due to a higher incidence of outer and middle ear dysfunction in Hispanic newborns and children, screening could result in disparate failure rates, with a larger number of these infants requiring further testing. This result would warrant changes in current protocols, as well as screener training,and parent counseling practices.

Between January and July of 2000, 1407 newborns were tested utilizing distortion product otoacoustic emission …