Digital Commons Network^™

A Program Evaluation Of A Literacy Initiative For Students With Moderate To Severe Disabilities, Carrie F. De La Cruz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recently the National Reading Panel concluded that systematic and direct instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension that is informed by ongoing assessments of student progress results in positive student achievement (NICHHD, 2002). For students with moderate to severe disabilities and students with autism, reading instruction has historically focused on functional sight words. Unfortunately, very little research exists that has examined how the literacy achievement of students with moderate to severe disabilities can be impacted by a more comprehensive, data-driven instructional model.

A special education program that serves students with moderate to severe disabilities and students with autism …

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. …

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 …

The Effect Of Stress On Hedonic Capacity In Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Prospective Experimental Study Of One Potential Pathway To Depression, Bethany H. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of work links psychopathology to changes in hedonic capacity following stressors. This was the first experimental study of the effects of stress on hedonic capacity in an analog generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) sample (a high worry group). Specifically, we utilized an experimental manipulation of stress and a behavioral index of anhedonia to test the hypothesis that individuals with GAD, who are at higher risk for developing depression symptoms, exhibit greater stress-related deficits in hedonic capacity than do nonanxious controls. Further, this study assessed whether stress-induced hedonic deficits predicted future depression. Controls exhibited the expected reward learning pattern …

Dyna-Mod Constructing The Modern Adaptable Home, Sarah Deardorff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The modern home has become a static fixture in society that is not reflected in the growing populous that is becoming an ever increasing mobile society. Many are not able to stay to the same place that they call home for long periods of time. Changing jobs, markets and neighborhoods force those to continue their movement around leaving what it is that they call their home to try and reproduce it within another location. The home finds itself lost in this transition and must now function on a greater adaptability than ever before and reflect the growing demand placed upon …

The Experience Of Fatigue And Quality Of Life In Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer, Andrea Shaffer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fatigue is the most prevalent and distressing symptom experienced by patients with advanced lung cancer and especially among those patients undergoing therapy. Advanced lung cancer and its associated symptoms can significantly impact the quality of life (QOL) of those who have the disease. The primary purpose of this study was to measure fatigue levels, characterize the fatigue experience, and assess for gender differences in perceptions of fatigue and QOL in patients with advanced lung cancer receiving chemotherapy. The secondary purpose of the study was to examine practice patterns in the ambulatory setting regarding the routine assessment of fatigue.

The study …

The Politics Of Space And Place In Virginia Woolf’S The Years, Three Guineas And The Pargiters, Ángel Luis Jiménez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A critique of the social construction of space was fundamental to Virginia Woolf's overall feminist project of decentering patriarchal and imperial values. In A Room of One's Own (1929) Woolf famously emphasized that financial independence and a private space were vital to female creativity. But Woolf was concerned with the politics of space throughout her writing, an aspect of her thought that has not been widely addressed. My thesis examines Woolf's ongoing preoccupation with spatiality in two closely related works of her late career, The Years (1937) and Three Guineas (1938). In these texts, Woolf interrogates the cultural construction of …

Striving And Surviving: The Phenomenology Of The First-Year Teaching Experience, Michael D. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the enduring relative popularity of teaching as a career, the research literature on teacher preparation suggests that there is growing concern about the state of the field. With each passing year, the demographic realities within k-12 classrooms bring new challenges for the teacher preparation enterprise. Shortages in high need communities and increasing numbers of provisionally certified (or uncertified) teachers represent two areas of concern. Notwithstanding the extraordinarily increasing cultural and linguistic diversity now found among the student population, the teacher population has failed to diversify in kind. The number of new teachers who are ill-prepared to respond to this …

Frozen Assets: Science, Natural Philosophy, And The Quest For Arctic Gold, Justin V. Castells

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper looks at the emerging conflict between natural philosophy and empirical science in the late sixteenth century by examining the events surrounding the supposed discovery of gold in northern North America by Martin Frobisher in 1577. The discovery of gold in a region thought incapable of producing the metal, and the subsequent assays of ore mined from that region served as a catalyst for conflict between different understandings of the natural world. Proponents of natural philosophy and empirical science each used their theoretical tools to prove or disprove the value of the ore, reflecting the larger discussions taking place …

True North Or Traveled Terrain? An Empirical Investigation Of Authentic Leadership, Matthew D. Tuttle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Authentic leadership is a new concept that is gaining both popularity and notoriety in the leadership literature. It is argued as a positive form of leadership that goes beyond traditional leadership styles in order to influence followers through genuine, ethical behavior. However, as a concept in its infancy, authentic leadership has yet to receive much empirical attention, and many researchers are skeptical of its value in what is seen as a saturated domain of leadership styles. This study offers a comprehensive approach to addressing this need. A new measure for authentic leadership was developed and validated through pilot testing. Through …

Increasing Independence Among Children Diagnosed With Autism Using A Brief Embedded Teaching Strategy, Stephanie Toelken

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a brief embedded teaching procedure, involving least-to-most prompting, for two paraprofessional staff in order to increase independent responses of two children diagnosed with autism in an inclusive setting. Training was given using a behavioral skills training approach, involving instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. The staff were trained to use the SWAT procedure used by Parsons, Reid and Lattimore (2009). A multiple baseline design across behaviors was used to evaluate the effects of the embedded teaching procedure. Maintenance of training effects was evaluated two weeks following the end of the …

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. …

Fatigue Symptom Distress And Its Relationship With Quality Of Life In Adult Stem Cell Transplant Survivors, Suzan Fouad Abduljawad R.N., B.S.N.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fatigue is a common problem among cancer patients, especially those who have received chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Stem cell transplant (SCT) patients are at a particular risk of persistent fatigue as they receive more aggressive therapies. This study examined the prevalence of fatigue after completion of SCT. Further, the level of fatigue symptom distress and its relationship with quality of life (QOL) among long term SCT survivors was examined.

The study involved thirty-three patients, 21 males and 12 females, treated with autologous or allogeneic SCT in a comprehensive cancer center in Southwest Florida. Participants' ages ranged from 36 to 70 …

Training Teamwork In Medical Teams: An Active Approach With Role Play And Feedback, Matthew S. Prewett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent reports in the field of medicine have recommended the use of teamwork training to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities from human error. Teamwork training in the field of medicine appears promising, but few empirical evaluations of such programs have confirmed their effectiveness. Existing teamwork training studies have tended to use a traditional, lecture approach to training, with positive but modest results upon teamwork attitudes and behaviors. The current study developed and evaluated a more active teamwork training protocol for trauma resuscitation teams. The training protocol supplemented several medical and non-medical role plays with a lecture and guided …

Designing Community: The Application Of New Urban Principles To Create Authentic Communities, Margaret Embry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is an exploratory investigation of the potential of New Urbanist planning and design principles to create thriving and successful neighborhoods. New Urbanism is an urban design movement started in the early 1980s that promotes the development of walkable, compact, and diverse neighborhoods. It is the objective of this research to shed light on the value of creating a higher quality of life and more time for ourselves and our families. I hypothesize that New Urbanism may pave the way for recapturing commute time for time with family, creating authentic and successful communities, and engaging with neighbors. Furthermore, by …

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 …

Developing Pre-Literacy Skills In Preschool Children: The Utilization Of Parents As A Vital Resource, Ashley N. Sundman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of a parent-implemented intervention on preschool children's development of letter-naming and phonological awareness skills. Six parent-child dyads with children enrolled in a Head Start Program in West Central Florida were selected to participate in the study. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the impact of an intervention package that included activities focusing on: (1) using mnemonics to learn letter names and (2) developing phonological awareness of the onsets of words through parent questioning and feedback. Phonological awareness development was measured using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills First Sound …

Leading Change In Schools: Leadership Practices For A District Supported School-Based Reform Model, Monica C. Verra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The reauthorization of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 strongly encourages the use of a response-to-intervention (RtI) model to reduce the number of students identified as learning disabled, to increase student achievement, and to close learning gaps between subgroups of students. RtI is based on the systematic assessment of students' responses to high-quality research-based instruction and interventions. The implementation of a research-based school-specific intervention model, such as RtI, may result in significant change for schools and districts.

The purpose of this study was to describe perceptions of the level of change the implementation of RtI represents in a …

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. …

Mathematics Education: The Voice Of African American And White Adolescents, Sharondrea R. King

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several studies have provided evidence regarding factors that contribute to the mathematics achievement gap between African American and White students. Byrnes (2003) found that 45%-50% of the difference in White and African American students' performance in mathematics was associated with socioeconomic status, exposure to learning opportunities, and motivational aspects of math while 4.5% was explained by ethnicity. The goal in this mixed method study was to examine the mathematics attitude of African American (n = 22) and White (n = 10) high school students and to allow students to voice what practices and supports they perceived enabled them to learn …

Self-Fashioning, Consumption, And Japonisme: The Power Of Collecting In Tissot’S Jeunes Femmes Regardant Des Objets Japonais, 1869, Catherine Elizabeth Turner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines self-fashioning and the practice of collecting in Second Empire Paris as manifest in James Tissot's Jeunes femmes regardant des objets japonais (1869, Cincinnati Museum of Art). The painting, exhibited in the Salon of 1869, conspicuously portrays Tissot's own collection of exotic Asian collectibles and the artist's private luxe interior. When scholars investigate and interpret Jeunes femmes, it is regularly defined within the prescriptive realm of Tissot's later London paintings, or of his well known series, La Femme à Paris. I argue for a less circumspect engagement with the painting, by focusing on the portrayal of …

Effects Of Expectancies And Coping On Pain-Induced Motivation To Smoke, Joseph W. Ditre

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of tobacco smoking among persons with recurrent pain is approximately twice that observed in the general population. Smoking has been associated with the development and exacerbation of several chronically painful conditions. Conversely, there is both experimental and cross-sectional evidence that pain is a potent motivator of smoking. A recent study provided the first evidence that laboratory-induced pain could elicit increased craving and produce shorter latencies to smoke (Ditre & Brandon, 2008). To further elucidate interrelations between pain and smoking, and to identify potential targets for intervention, the current study tested whether several constructs derived from social-cognitive theory influence …

The Influence Of Perceived Social Support From Parents, Classmates, And Teachers On Early Adolescents’ Mental Health, Tiffany N. White

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationships among perceived social support, mental health, and achievement in early adolescents, via analysis of an archival data set consisting of 390 middle school students. Specifically of interest was how various sources of social support (i.e., parent, classmate, and teacher) independently and uniquely predicted pathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and wellness (i.e., life satisfaction) in youth. This study also examined the role of gender in the relationship between social support and mental health outcomes in order to delineate the specific types of support most salient to boys versus girls. Finally, this study explored the …

Determinants Of Nutrition Appointment Non-Attendance Among Male Veterans, Claire Fontenot Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During fiscal years 2006 and 2007, nearly 1 in 4 Veterans failed to keep their individual nutrition appointments, impeding clinic workflow, productivity, and management of weight and nutrition related health conditions. The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of nutrition appointment attendance in the Veteran population. This study examined the cognitive and structural factors that influence nutrition appointment attendance. Specifically, the study sought to determine: Veteran reported reasons for non-attendance and factors associated with appointment attendance. The research design entailed sequential use of qualitative and quantitative methods. Individual, semi-structured interviews and a mail survey were used to identify …

From China To Cuba: Guerilla Warfare As A Mechanism For Mobilizing Resources, Jorge Barrera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Guerilla Warfare is a weapon of the weak; it is decisive only where the actor in power fails to commit adequate resources to the conflict. The Chinese and Cuban revolutions are examples of guerilla warfare success, albeit under different conditions and employment techniques; while Mao Tse-tung utilized decentralized guerilla warfare to indoctrinate and mobilize the masses of peasants for revolutionary struggle against a stronger enemy; Fidel Castro employed a more centralized approach to create the conditions necessary for popular support of the revolution. However, in both cases guerilla warfare was simply part of a pragmatic grand strategy to build nationalism …

Interrogating Virginia Woolf And The British Suffrage Movement, Gwen Trowbridge Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interrogating Virginia Woolf and the British Suffrage Movement Gwen Trowbridge Anderson ABSTRACT Much has been written about Virginia Woolf's involvement with feminism and women's rights, but there has been far less exploration about her ties to suffrage. Many of her friends and family are involved in this exploration: Vanessa Stephen Bell, Ethel Smyth, and the Pankhursts (Emmeline, Sylvia, and Cristobel). Other important figures who are relevant to Woolf's work are Sonia Delaunay, Lewis Carroll, and Edmund Spenser. Important concepts like the New Woman, the suffrage movement, feminism, and women's rights are vital to understanding Woolf's involvement with suffrage. This dissertation …

The Roles Of Social Bonds, Personality, And Rational Decision-Making: An Empirical Investigation Into Hirschi’S “New” Control Theory, Jonathan Intravia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Control theories have substantively contributed both theoretically and empirically to criminological research. Recently, Hirschi moved away from the personality constructs associated with self-control and created a new conceptualization that favors social bonds. Specifically, Hirschi suggests that counting the number of inhibitors (derived from social bonds) is the best way to predict delinquency. Using middle school and high school students from Largo Florida, this study examines Hirschi's new conceptualization of inhibitors by comparing it with self-control and a traditional social bonding scale. In addition, this study also explores whether Hirschi's new conceptualization and self-control operate through a cognitive scale. Results suggest …

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 …

Coffins, Closets, Kitchens, And Convents: Women Writing Of Home In Gendered Spaces, Nicole Spottke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coffins, Closets, Kitchens, and Convents uses anthropologist Liz Kenyon's categories of home, Gaston Bachelard's theories on the importance of imagination and metaphor in home building, as well as literary criticism, sociology, and feminist theory to examine values of "home" in various literary works of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. This dissertation's focus on the struggles within traditional home spheres highlights the female characters' need of a protected space. Yet these characters realize they must allow for connections with various individuals to bring about such a safe space. Through the creative act of writing, Mary Leapor's Mira in the poem, "Crumble …

Additive Latent Variable (Alv) Modeling: Assessing Variation In Intervention Impact In Randomized Field Trials, Peter Ayo Toyinbo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In order to personalize or tailor treatments to maximize impact among different

subgroups, there is need to model not only the main effects of intervention but also the variation

in intervention impact by baseline individual level risk characteristics. To this end a suitable

statistical model will allow researchers to answer a major research question: who benefits or is

harmed by this intervention program? Commonly in social and psychological research, the

baseline risk may be unobservable and have to be estimated from observed indicators that are

measured with errors; also it may have nonlinear relationship with the outcome. Most of the …