Digital Commons Network^™

Student Reflections: The Impact Of Dual Enrollment On Transitions To A State University, Theresa Lyvette Lewis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dual enrollment is one means of facilitating increased degree productivity, which can lead to the more educated workforce needed in today's society. This qualitative study was designed to obtain student perceptions about their dual enrollment experience, including how it impacted their decision to go to college and what comparisons they would make between their dual enrollment experience and their full university experience. Twenty-one students were interviewed via e-mail to provide responses that would help answer three research questions: 1.What are the initial experiences of dual enrollment students? 2.How does the dual enrollment experience impact the decision of high school graduates …

The Political Ecology Of Intestinal Parasites Among Nicaraguan Immigrants In Monteverde, Costa Rica, Jason D. Lind

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 15 years Monteverde, Costa Rica has undergone rapid economic, social, political, and environmental change due to a flourishing ecotourism economy. While the effects of ecotourism development in Monteverde are many, two important consequences have been: 1) the immigration of Nicaraguan nationals to the area seeking low-skilled wage labor; and 2) compromised water resources management due to pollution and rapid population growth. The objective of this research is to investigate and identify the inter-relationships between ecotourism development in Monteverde and its affect on infectious diseases outcomes within the context of immigration and water resources management. Specifically, this dissertation …

A New Understanding Of Sophistic Rhetoric: A Translation, With Commentary, Of Mario Untersteiner‘S ―Le Origini Sociali Della Sofistica‖, Elisabeth Lofaro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation translates an essay by Mario Untersteiner "Le origini sociali della sofistica" ("The Social Origins of Sophistry") unpublished in English, and explores its significance in terms of classical and contemporary rhetorical theory, as well as the composition classroom. In the process, I attempt to contribute to reestablishing sophistry and rhetoric within our contemporary cultural milieu. More specifically, the dissertation is organized into five main parts: The first chapter offers an introduction to and thorough background of the sophists in ancient and classical Greece; the second chapter reviews the scholarship about the sophists, as well as that on Mario Untersteiner …

From Maiden To Whore And Back Again: A Survey Of Prostitution In The Works Of William Shakespeare, Tiffany Lowden Messerschmidt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The works of William Shakespeare reflect the society in which he lived, and they can therefore be studied for the light they shed upon certain aspects of this society that may otherwise have been ignored or misrepresented by other surviving documents. This is especially true of prostitution. Women in this shifting English society were marginalized, and the prostitute occupied an especially precarious place since her profession identified her as an outsider, legally and morally. Surviving historical documents address the legality or morality of this institution, but fail to reveal how it was perceived by society as a whole. Shakespeare receives …

At What Cost? : Spanish Neutrality In The First World War, Carolyn S. Lowry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While historians have gone to great efforts in studying the belligerent powers during the First World War, very little attention has been paid to such neutral powers as Spain. Several European nations declared neutrality in 1914, but many strayed from this course in favor of active belligerence. Spain, however, remained neutral for the war's duration; thus, this thesis examines and explores the nature of Spanish neutrality during the First World War. Spain's decision to adhere to a neutral policy required serious consideration as it had to weigh the consequences and advantages of intervention; however, military and economic weakness, as well …

The Babel Paradox, Michel Machado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the book of Acts is still not well understood. Various interpretations have been offered in order to make sense of the narrative and its author's intention. What is the point of Luke's second book in portraying the evangelization of the Roman Empire as a rabid confrontation between Jewish followers of Jesus and other Jewish people? This matter calls for an examination of the relationship between the mother religion and the Jesus movement as it expands into a universal religion. Luke portrays the Jesus movement as the focus of divine favor, in contradistinction to the Jewish nation which …

Cardiovascular Risk Factors For Mild Cognitive Impairment, Michael Malek-Ahmadi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between cardiovascular conditions and the presence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been well-documented in a number of recent studies. Generally, the presence of cardiovascular conditions such as high total cholesterol and hypertension have been shown to significantly increase the risk for the development of AD. Given the results of these studies, it is possible that these same risk factors might also increase the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI). An analysis of 216 subjects (119 cognitively normal (CN), 77 aMCI, 20 naMCI) found that after adjusting for age, education, ethnicity, and gender, only hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) showed …

Program Satisfaction, School Climate Perceptions, And Psychoeducational Experiences In College Preparatory Programs: A Comparison Of Caucasian And Ethnic Minority Students, Yanique T. Matthews

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study focused on the extent to which participation in academically rigorous college preparatory programs, International Baccalaureate (IB) and the Advanced Placement (AP) particularly, impacts students from racially diverse backgrounds (Caucasian, African American, Asian American and Hispanic/Latino American). Student outcomes of interest included the program satisfaction, school climate perceptions (relationships with peers and teachers), and psychoeducational adjustment (academic and mental health functioning). The experiences of 381 college preparatory participants were also compared to 143 general education peers and subjected to a series of MANOVAs and ANOVAs. General findings indicated that, regardless of the student's racial identity, students in AP …

The Daily Show: Journalism’S Jester, Mark R. Mccarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The social meaning of television news has been under transformation since the successes of cable news in the final years of the previous century. In their attempts to preserve viewership and to remain relevant, traditional broadcast news outlets increasingly emulate the conventions of cable news. Instead of retaining audiences, the result has been declining news content and a continued loss of viewers. Amid these industry transformations, the concept of "journalist" continues to undergo change. This evolution of the news allows for a decidedly unique response to news programming in The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Though advertised as a half-hour …

Trophic Enrichment Patterns Of Δ13C In Organic Matter Of Molluscan Shell: Implications For Reconstructing Ancient Environments And Food Webs, Julie Mcknight

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Shell organic matrix proteins in fossils are valuable geochemical archives for studying ancient environments and food webs. Compound-specific studies of stable carbon isotope ratios offer particularly good resolution of trophic level of consumers and the identities of primary producers and can be used to detect diagenetic alteration of isotopic ratios. To interpret compound specific isotope data, however, controlled diet studies in the laboratory are needed to reveal trophic enrichment patterns of ¹³C in tissues and shell organic matter.

This study examines the relationship between δ¹³C of 11 amino acids in diet, soft tissues, and shell organic matter …

Choice And Discovery: An Analysis Of Women And Culture In Flora Nwapa’S Fiction, Mary D. Mears

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation is in the tradition of redressing the critical imbalance that has undervalued or neglected African women writers by considering Flora Nwapa's three best-known novels, analyzing from a feminist and dialogic perspective what choice and discovery mean for Nwapa's female characters in Efuru (1966), Idu (1970), and One is Enough (1981). Flora Nwapa writes about women and their lives, issues, and concerns within a traditional Igbo culture radically affected by British colonialism. As she explores and analyzes many of the characteristics of her tribal group, she posits the women's desires for change, choice, and acceptance within a society in …

Identity Negotiation: The Perspective Of Asian Indian Women, Pangri Mehta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditional Indian cultural narratives are pervasive and serve to typify personal identity and experience. These cultural narratives portray Indian women as a wife and mother, nurturing, obedient, forbearing, soft-spoken, and the primary transmitters of the ethnic culture. American culture, on the other hand, encourages independence, individualism and a more elastic view towards gender. As assimilation theory suggests, Asian Indians in the United States are likely to assimilate at least some degree into American society. Accordingly, these narratives make up the cultural identity of Indian women in the United States. The contrasting cultural narratives shape the identities of Indian women residing …

An Evaluation Of The Influence Of Case Method Instruction On The Reflective Thinking Of Msw Students, Marleen Milner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social work practice requires that graduates be prepared to deal with complex, multifaceted problems which cannot be defined completely, do not have absolute, correct answers and can be approached from multiple perspectives. This study evaluated the influence of case-based instruction on MSW students' reflective judgment, an aspect of critical thinking associated with the ability to reason through ill-structured problems. (King, Wood, & Mines, 1990). The Reflective Judgment Model, which describes a developmental continuum based upon epistemic assumptions regarding the source and justification of knowledge claims, served as the theoretical framework for the assessment of reflective thinking in this mixed methods …

Riding The Winds Of Their Interest: Exploring The Teachable Moment In College Classrooms, Nancy Fosdick Mills

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The phrase "teachable moment" has a taken-for-granted connotation of readiness to learn, but has been rarely defined and researched in the literature of higher education. This study described faculty members' experiences of teachable moments in their undergraduate classrooms. This included the conditions in which they emerge, and the decision-making processes used by faculty members to determine if and how to pursue such moments. If professors have opportunities to clarify their understandings of such moments, the ability to capitalize on otherwise unplanned teaching opportunities may be enhanced. Seventeen experienced social science and humanities faculty members teaching undergraduate classes at a large …

Giving Birth In A Different Country: Bangladeshi Immigrant Women’S Childbirth Experiences In The U.S., Mst Khadija Mitu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immigrant women often lack the social support and help from extended family and other social relationships, which is very significant during the pregnancy, delivery, and postnatal period. This research was conducted among Bangladeshi immigrant women living in the United States, in order to understand their experiences during pregnancy and childbirth: how they coped with the settings of a different country during that period, and how they felt about this situation. While there are several studies on immigrant women and maternal health issues in anthropology, to my knowledge, there have been none that focused specifically on the childbirth experiences of Bangladeshi …

Facilitating Youth Participatory Action Research: Reflections, Strategies, And Applications At The Institute For Community Research, Aki Nakanishi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigates the instructional and organizational strategies used by participatory action research (PAR) facilitators at the Summer Youth Research Institute of the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut (US), a six-week program that engages urban multi-ethnic teenagers in youth participatory action research (YPAR) for social change. During the last three decades, PAR has proven to be a very effective methodology for creating sustainable solutions to social problems by involving community members in the process of identifying, investigating, and collectively resolving them. In particular, YPAR provides young people with the opportunity to study social problems that affect themselves …

Analysis Of Mass Transfer By Jet Impingement And Study Of Heat Transfer In A Trapezoidal Microchannel, Ejiro Stephen Ojada

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis numerically studied mass transfer during fully confined liquid jet impingement on a rotating target disk of finite thickness and radius. The study involved laminar flow with jet Reynolds numbers from 650 to 1500. The nozzle to plate distance ratio was in the range of 0.5 to 2.0, the Schmidt number ranged from 1720 to 2513, and rotational speed was up to 325 rpm. In addition, the jet impingement to a stationary disk was also simulated for the purpose of comparison. The electrochemical fluid used was an electrolyte containing 0.005moles per liter potassium ferricyanide (K3(Fe(CN6)), 0.02moles per liter ferrocyanide …

Architectural Chastity Belts: The Window Motif As Instrument Of Discipline In Fifteenth-Century Italian Conduct Manuals And Art, Jennifer Megan Orendorf

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the Italian thirst for excellence and knowledge burgeoned throughout the Quattrocento, the genre of instructional literature responded accordingly to social demands. Offering advice on a wide range of experience from the quotidian to the extraordinary, from superstition to scientific, conduct manuals appealed to readers of all Italian social classes. Investigating the relationship between this body of literature and the lives of contemporary women, this paper will focus specifically on those manuals which prescribe behaviors for women, and will investigate the reception of these precepts and the extent in which these notions informed and transformed women's lives.

In order to …

Lateral Macropore Dominated Flow On A Clay Settling Area In The Phosphate Mining District, Peninsular Florida, Natalie Pechenik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to use an applied tracer to study lateral ground water flow paths in the top ~0.5 m of clay settling areas (CSA) in order to gain better understanding of hydrologic connectivity of CSAs to the surrounding hydrologic systems. The study site was located on the non-operational Mosaic Fort Mead Mine property in Fort Meade, Polk County, Florida. This lateral tracer test study is a follow up from a vertical tracer test study performed at the same site location in 2007. The CSA is generally composed of a well developed, clay rich, subangular-blocky surface layer …

Statistical Changes In Lakes In Urbanizing Watersheds And Lake Return Frequencies Adjusted For Trend And Initial Stage Utilizing Generalized Extreme Value Theory, Shayne Paynter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many water resources throughout the world are demonstrating changes in historic water levels. Potential reasons for these changes include climate shifts, anthropogenic alterations or basin urbanization. The focus of this research was threefold: 1) to determine the extent of spatio-temporal changes in regional precipitation patterns 2) to determine the statistical changes that occur in lakes with urbanizing watersheds and 3) to develop accurate prediction of trends and lake level return frequencies. To investigate rainfall patterns regionally, appropriate distributions, either gamma or generalized extreme value (GEV), were fitted to variables at a number of rainfall gages utilizing maximum likelihood estimation. The …

The Examination Of The Implementation Of The Second Step Program In A Public School System, Lynn Pedraza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As school districts integrate evidence-based prevention programs into their daily regime, they may struggle with implementing these programs with fidelity. This is a multi-method, multi-source, retrospective explanatory study of the implementation factors associated with program installation and partial implementation of an evidence-based violence prevention program, Second Step, in six elementary schools within a large urban school district. The goals of this study were to provide a better understanding of (a) the factors that support implementation of evidence-based programs in K-12 public schools, (b) the factors that constrain implementation, and (c) how developers and researchers might facilitate the application of research …

Visualizing Sound: A Musical Composition Of Aural Architecture, James Pendley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We depend on our collective senses in order to rationalize and negotiate space. Unfortunately, sound and acoustics has become a secondary concern to that of the visual perception in architecture. The initial design intent for many modern performance spaces and music education space, for about the past one-hundred years, has not been driven by sound or acoustics, as a consequence the visual perception has become the major infl uence. Prior to modern acoustical applications, performance spaces have been designed for the essence of sound and the form and function had no divisible lines, but with amplifi cation of sound and …

Cultural Visualization Through Architecture, Fernando Pizarro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As an important part of our lives, stories help us to form both our personal identities and the identities of the social groups that make up our society. They facilitate us to be in contact with our beliefs, our feelings, our knowledge, our perception, and what is significant to us. Similarly, we understand those very things from the stories of others. These stories are obtained through different ways: family, friends, literature, poetry, religion, teachers, movies, art, and so on. Through these, our culture is born and sustained. There is no doubt that architecture is an important defining element of our …

Depredation And Angler Interactions Involving Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In Sarasota Bay, Florida, Jessica R. Powell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Typical depredation behavior by cetaceans involves stealing or damaging prey items already captured by recreational or commercial fishing gear. Depredation among cetaceans has been reported to be increasing in both severity and frequency globally. This behavior is of particular concern for small stocks of cetaceans since any interaction with fishing gear has the potential to injure or kill animals leading to unsustainable losses. In Florida, depredation became evident in 2006 when the number of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) strandings resulting from fishing gear ingestion or entanglement sharply increased. For the resident dolphin community in Sarasota Bay, modeling showed continued mortalities …

Nature, Daylight And Sound: A Sensible Environment For The Families, Staff And Patients Of Neonatal Intensive Care Units, Ana Praskach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In healthcare environments, elements like nature, daylight and sound have been found to significantly influence the healing process of patients, by enhancing the quality of their recovery, shortening their hospital stay and consequently reducing hospital costs. For instance, it has been shown that exposure to nature triggers positive responses in people, daylight affects human psychology, and different sounds have varying behavioral effects on different groups of people. But, while these effects have been carefully studied in adult patients, leading to clear design standards, less is known about their impact on premature infants. Interestingly, the care that many newborns receive in …

Assessing Druze Identity And Strategies For Preserving Druze Heritage In North America, Chad Kassem Radwan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study focuses on promoting historical, religious, and cultural knowledge among transnational Druze. The Druze are a relatively small, tightly knit religious community from the Middle East who practice endogamy and accept no converts. In the diaspora, Druze have often established their own communities based on their collective ancestral and familial ties and through the establishment of groups such as the American Druze Society. This study works to allow individuals to discuss their Druze identity, identify the community's social problems, and recommend possible approaches or solutions. My research experience as an insider doing ethnography among fellow Druze has in …

From The Academy To The Streets: Documenting The Healing Power Of Black Feminist Creative Expression, Tunisia L. Riley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I explore through feminist content analysis how poetry, blogging, political narrative, and music are employed by Black women as a means of personal and political empowerment, healing, activism and feminist practice. I theorize the emergence of a new manifestation Black feminism represented in poetry, blogs, political narrative, and popular music-exploring its ties to the history of Black feminism. I seek to demonstrate how gender conscious Black women create poetry, blogs, political narratives, and music as the catalyst to spark anti-sexist activism in contemporary Black women who may or may not call themselves feminists.

Agriculture And Tampa Bay News: How Do Local News Media Frame Agribusiness?, Alex R. Ritzheimer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for this thesis was to explore a dynamic between the news media, their subjects, and their audience. I investigate whether everyday news media frame the information they deliver in such a way as to potentially direct the audience on how to respond to news stories. The setting for this research question is in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and the subject matter deals specifically with agriculture, its practitioners, how they do business, and how the local news media report about it. The issue will be explored from an applied anthropological perspective, basing conclusions on field research and …

An Experimental Investigation Into The Impact Of Crisis Response Strategies And Relationship History On Relationship Quality And Corporate Credibility, Camille Roberts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of different crisis response strategies and relationship history on corporate credibility and the dimensions of the organizational-public relationship. The relationship dimensions examined were trust, commitment, satisfaction and control mutuality. An experiment was conducted among undergraduate students drawn from an introductory mass communication class. Results indicate that when an organization's relationship history with its publics is positive, the public is more likely to view the post-crisis relationship quality and organizational credibility as positive than negative. Additionally, more accommodative crisis response strategies have a greater impact on relationship quality than less accommodative strategies. Crisis response strategy does …

Psychosocial Outcomes Of Weight Stigma Among College Students, Sabrina Joann Robinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Overweight and obesity are important public health issues in the United States with more than 60% of US adults overweight or obese. The social consequences of being overweight and obese are serious and pervasive. Individuals who are overweight and obese are often the targets of bias and stigma and thus susceptible to negative attitudes. Obesity and weight stigma have been linked to low self-esteem, higher rates of depressive symptoms, body dissatisfaction and poor psychological adjustment. Although weight stigma is a problem in the general population, it is more consequential among adolescents due to mental and physical developmental changes. Therefore college …