Digital Commons Network^™

“Smole Trifeles“: The Itinerant In British North America, David Michael Davisson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The earliest attempt to form a confederation among the British colonies in North America occurred with the creation New England confederation in 1643. For the next one hundred thirty-four years various attempts would be made to organize British America colonies into a confederacy. "Smole Trifeles": The Itinerant in British America moves beyond traditional histories which analyze how the social and political elite worked to bring the colonies together. This work focuses on the peddlers, the hawkers, petty chapmen, and the itinerant preachers who roamed the primitive roads and highways of early America. These wanderers knit together a nation and helped …

The Spatial Distribution Of Geoprivacy Concerns In Florida: A County Level Analysis, Joshua W. House

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Certain types of spatial data maintained and distributed by counties at taxpayer expense can be used with powerful mapping and analysis software, called Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to compromise an indvidual's locational privacy. The kind of privacy at threat here is referred to as geoprivacy, which is concerned with the rights to prevent disclosure of the location of one's home, workplace, or daily activities. While the availability of accessible and accurate geospatial data has increased geoprivacy concerns in recent years, this threat remains virtually unknown to the general public.

Although previous research has explored various components of the geoprivacy …

Major League Baseball Franchises And Their Minor League Players, Maintaining A Relationship On And Off The Field, Michelle Keating

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In today's professional arena, organized sports have grown to become institutionalized and highly organized through corporations in a multi-billion dollar industry. Through the use of in depth interviews completed online, this study investigated the role franchise communication plays in the development of nineteen minor league players' relationships within the Major League Baseball (MLB) sports industry. Results found that players feel their organizations disproportionately help some players achieve success over others and withhold information. As players, they felt they have a limited voice regarding the direction of their careers. Despite a difficult working environment, the players' desire to achieve success and …

“Pleasant Episodes” Of Gastronomy: Food And Drink In F. Scott Fitzgerald’S The Beautiful And Damned, Melissa Faith Dullaghan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the motif of gastronomy in Fitzgerald's critically undertreated second novel, The Beautiful and Damned. Within the discussion of the leisure class, Fitzgerald scholars often focus on Jay Gatsby's parties, but they seem to neglect Anthony Patch and company's fancy for food and drink in Ivy League supper clubs of Manhattan, vaudeville theaters, and houses of languor in Upstate New York. Building upon George J. Searles's article "The Symbolic Function of Food and Eating in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned," this thesis examines the meaning of Fitzgerald's pervasive "prandial allusions" and character psychology with …

An Evaluation Of Conduit Conceptualizations And Model Performance, Melissa Estelle Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The karst research community has known that traditional numerical groundwater flow codes ignore the non-Darcian, dual-permeability components of flow that can occur in karst aquifers. In this study, the potential limitations of using such tools are quantified by evaluating the relative performances of 3 groundwater flow models at a test-site near Weeki Wachee, Florida, in the dual-permeability Upper Floridan aquifer. MODFLOW-2005 and MODFLOW-2005 Conduit Flow Process (CFP), a Darcian/non-Darcian, dual-permeability groundwater flow code recently developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, are used in this study.

A monitoring program consisting of discharge measurements and high frequency data from 2 springs and …

Impact Of West Nile Virus On The Natural History Of St. Louis Encephalitis Virus In Florida, Christy L. Ottendorfer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of West Nile virus (WNV) has raised important questions about the capacity of the public health infrastructure to implement surveillance and control programs for WNV and other emerging or re-emerging arboviruses in the United States. Florida's mild climate supports year round enzootic transmission of WNV, St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV), and Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus (EEEV). It is unknown what effect the establishment of WNV (in 2001) will have on SLEV transmission in Florida, where these closely related flaviviruses share amplifying hosts, habitats, and vectors.

An Arbovirus Isolation Network was formed to obtain and characterize arbovirus strains collected …

Movement Of The People: The Relationship Between Black Consciousness Movements, Race, And Class In The Caribbean, Deborah G. Weeks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Black Power in Jamaica, Trinidad, and The Bahamas, comparing and contrasting the ability of the movements to garner the support of the people in these different locales. The primary focus of this work is the Caribbean Black Power movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Detailed responses to the movements are presented as those responses relate to not only race, but also class, and the response of local political leadership to the presence and methods of the movements. Following a brief overview of the history of European colonialism and the drive of the colonized for independence from colonial …

An Experimental Analysis Of The Influence Of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives On Beliefs, Attitudes And Behavioral Intentions Within The Context Of Corporate, Ashlea Hudak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recently, the use of corporate social responsibility initiatives has grown in popularity and prominence among organizations as research increasingly suggests that these initiatives positively impact the corporation's bottom line. This study contributes to theory driven research in strategic communications by using an experimental design to test the influence of six distinct corporate social responsibility initiatives, as identified by Kotler and Lee (2005), on the beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intention of message receivers, using Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975, 2005) theory of reasoned action as a theoretical framework. According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), attitudes about an object are the result of …

Association Among Neonatal Mortality, Weekend Or Nighttime Admissions And Staffing In A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Leisa J. Stanley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the time of admission to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and its association with in-hospital mortality among a cohort of neonates at a regional perinatal center. Two different time points were considered: admissions on the weekend versus the weekday and admissions during the nighttime shift versus the day shift. The secondary purpose of the study was to investigate if registered nurse staffing affected this association between NICU admission day or admission time and in-hospital death.

Three separate databases were used which contained information on NICU admissions, hospital deliveries and nurse staffing. …

Doing Dignity At The Grace Café: An Ethnographic Exploration Of A Homeless Outreach Program, Courtney A. Glover

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homeless outreach programs vary widely in their approaches to client treatment. At the Grace Café, an organization that serves daily meals to people who are homeless, the concept of dignity is central to guest treatment. According to the café's ideology, the importance of providing food is secondary to serving with dignity. This research explores dignity as an ideal of client treatment at the Grace Café. Based on ethnographic research, this paper explores how dignity is communicated to volunteers, implemented in service, and challenged at the Grace Café.

Towards Regenerative Development: A Methodology For University Campuses To Become More Sustainable, With A Focus On The University Of South Florida, Richard Keirs Mcdonald Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The administrations of several universities have developed strategies to reduce the negative environmental effects created by their institutions. Because no single, comprehensive methodology to guide institutions to sustainability exists, these strategies range widely in scope. As well, the definition of "sustainability" differs for these various institutions, resulting in strategies ranging from small-scale recycling programs to major initiatives to incorporate green building and revamping curricula. This study attempts to create the first comprehensive methodology to guide university campuses and processes to become regenerative. Regenerative systems "produce more resources than needed, provide resources for other projects, and enhance [the] environment" (Bernheim 2003), …

Quebrada Communities In The Palmarejo Valley, Northwest Honduras, William A. Klinger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The spatial relationships that exist between ancient and modern settlement and natural resources have the potential to suggest ways in which humans organized themselves into communities. This study evaluates the applicability of the concept, "quebrada community," for understanding human-environmental relationships in northwest Honduras during the Late Classic period (AD 650-900). Existing archaeological, quantitative, and geological evidence for quebrada communities are linked with spatial data on two contemporary local communities, Palmarejo and Palos Blancos. A geographic information system (GIS) is constructed and implemented in order to achieve this goal. It is argued that there are specific relationships that exist between ancient …

A Comparison Of Community-Based Centers Versus University-Based Centers In Clinical Trial Performance, Cynthia R. Stockddale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The success of a clinical trial is largely dependent on the clinical sites that enroll the subjects, complete the follow-up visits, and collect the data. Many clinical trials are conducted using multiple site locations. Choosing such sites to participate in a clinical trial is an important aspect of study implementation. In the past, multi-center clinical trials were conducted mainly using university-based centers. In the last few decades, private practice, or community-based, centers have been included more often in clinical trial research. As more community-based centers participate in clinical trials, it is crucial to examine how these centers might differ from …

Cost-Effectiveness Of Epidural Steroid Injections To Treat Lumbosacral Radiculopathy In Chronic Pain Patients Managed Under Workers’ Compensation, Sheila Mohammed

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

No conclusive evidence exists to determine that epidural steroid injections (ESIs) provide lasting improvements in chronic pain due to herniated discs, in the Workers' Compensation population. Recently, an article by Armon et.al was published by the American Academy of Neurology, which stated that the routine use of ESIs is not recommended and that further studies are needed to elucidate this controversy (Armon, Argoff, Samuels, & Backonja, 2007).

In 1998, back pain in the United States was estimated to have incurred total health-care expenditures of $90.7 billion. Medicare part B. claims in 1999 for 40.4 million individuals amounted to $49.9 million …

Counting Or Discounting Television Information: An Examination Of Viewer Perceptions About Old-Age From A Cognitive Processing Perspective Of Cultivation Effects, Lynda Pasteur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cultivation theory (Gerbner & Gross, 1976) suggests that the cumulative effect of heavy exposure to television's underrepresentation and negative portrayal of people 65+ as sexless, insignificant, and comical can cause people to assume such television-like perceptions of the age group in the real world. This study's purpose was to explore not only television's cultivation effect on viewers' perceptions of the number and nature of people 65+, but also the psychological processes that are expected to mediate this effect. As an extension of Shrum, Wyer, and O'Guinn's (1998) study on the role of source discounting in cultivation, this quasi-experiment employed three …

Framing Environmental Messages: Examining Audience Response To Humor, Shock, And Emotional Treatments, Kelly Diedring

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine individual reactions to environmental messages based on three message frames. The frames include shock or fear, humor, and emotional frames. The intent of the study was to document, through the use of pre- and post-questionnaires, individuals' reactions to the three types of messages by measuring attitude or perception change, credibility of the message, and importance of the issue.

In this study, baseline knowledge levels and beliefs about environmental issues were examined using a pre-questionnaire. How variable treatments affect attitudes or create perception change with regard to the environmental messages were explored. This …

Factors Influencing The Perceived Credibility Of Public Relations Message Sources, Titilola O. Epega

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study establishes a link between research done in the field of public relations on source credibility, communicator gender, message strength, and source affiliation. Research has established that source credibility is one of the most important factors influencing the acceptance of a message. For this study, source credibility was measured using three main dimensions: expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness. Similar to many studies focusing on source credibility, this study focuses on the various attributes of the communicator or message source. This study uses an experimental procedure to investigate the relationships between source credibility, message strength, source affiliation, and communicator gender. Based …

Surface And Interface Magnetism In Nanostructures And Thin Films, Natalie A. Frey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nanostructured systems composed of two or more technologically important materials are useful for device applications and intriguing for the new fundamental physics they may display. Magnetism at the nanoscale is dominated by size and surface effects which combined with other media lead to new spin dynamics and interfacial coupling phenomena. These new properties may prove to be useful for optimizing sensors and devices, increasing storage density for magnetic media, as well as for biomedical applications such as drug delivery, MRI contrast enhancement, and hyperthermia treatment for cancer. In this project we have examined the surface and interface magnetism of composite …

Population Densities Of The Cuban Treefrog, Osteopilus Septentrionalis And Three Native Species Of Hyla (Hylidae), In Urban And Natural Habitats Of Southwest Florida, Teresa Piacenza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Cuban treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis, is an invasive species in Florida that may be negatively impacting adult and larval native treefrog species through competition via direct predation. The purpose of this study was to determine the abundance and distribution of O. septentrionalis in urban, semi-urban and natural habitats. The distribution and abundance of native treefrogs within the study area, Hyla cinerea, Hyla femoralis and Hyla squirella, were also estimated and compared to that of O. septentrionalis. Treefrogs were captured using PVC pipes with two internal diameters, 1.9 cm and 4.45 cm, hung on three tree types, …

Electoral Abuse In The Late Roman Republic, Howard Troxler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Escalating abuse of elections was a hallmark of the collapse of the Republic that governed at Rome for nearly 500 years before it was swept away and replaced by emperors and Empire. The causes of the Republic's fall are well-explored, but electoral abuse was one of the agencies by which it was brought low - a "how" that helps explain the "why." The abuse of regular electoral form, practiced by all parties, inured the Romans to further and ever-widening abuse. In the end their elections - and the Republic - lost both meaning and independence. This is a controversial claim …

Organizational Culture In Children's Mental Health Systems Of Care, Jessica Mazza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A cohesive organizational culture has been linked to positive outcomes in child-serving agencies, such as improved child-level outcomes and positive organizational climate (Glisson & Green, 2006; Glisson & Hemmelgarm, 1998; Glisson & James, 2002; Hemmelgarn, Glisson, & James, 2006). Although isolated studies of organizational culture have been conducted in individual agencies (child welfare and juvenile justice), no study has examined the organization culture of successful, holistic systems of care that involve the coordination of multiple agencies, such as child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and education. Data collected from the three system-of-care sites selected for participation in Case Studies of …

Digitally Implemented Interactive Fiction: Systematic Development And Validation Of “Mole, P.I.”, A Multimedia Adventure For Third Grade Readers, Denise Haunstetter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Interactive fiction" has been used to describe many of today's multimedia products. In reality, there is not a universal understanding of what interactive fiction is or what it should entail. The meaning of "interactive" is often interpreted in different ways. Many stories are considered to be interactive because they are placed on the computer. Meanwhile, such stories may lack most of the essential qualities for good literature. Interaction fiction should be upheld to the same standards as traditional texts. Following this belief, this research covers the underlying theories of interactive fiction, examples of misleading "interactive fiction" studies, and guidelines for …

Biogeochemical Cycling Of Arsenic In The Marine Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System Of Tutum Bay, Ambitle Island, Papua New Guinea, Roy E. Price

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The marine shallow-water hydrothermal vent system of Tutum Bay, Ambitle Island, PNG discharges hot, acidic, arsenic-rich, chemically reduced fluid into cool, alkaline, oxygenated seawater. Gradients in temperature, pH, total arsenic (TAs) and arsenic species, among others, are established as the two aqueous phases mix.

Hydrous ferric oxides (HFO) are precipitated around focused venting, and coat the surrounding sediments visibly to 150 m away. HFO coatings, mechanical transport and weathering of volcanoclastic sediments, as well as dissolution of carbonate sediments nearer to venting, combine to alter sediment chemistry substantially.

Tutum Bay surface sediments have a mean As concentration of 527 mg/kg. …

A Historical Perspective Of The Development Of Prekindergarten And The Evolution Of Quality Elements, Catherine C. Cross

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a historical study of preschool nationally and partly internationally with a focus on elucidating the development of quality elements. The study will trace the beginnings of perkindergaten and how the programs have evolved to their current state.

The study contains a look at the current state of prekindergarten programs within the United States and how the differing states are measuring their programs. The use of the word quality is examined as it relates to how programs are designed and implemented. The study will also examine several different states that have been acknowledged as the front runners in prekindergarten …

Supporting Teachers And Children During In-Class Transitions: The Power Of Prevention, Sarah M. Mele

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In early childhood classrooms, transitions are often targeted as times of the day during which teachers encounter problems with deficiencies in child engagement, as well as frequent occurrences of challenging behavior. Studies to date on improving child behavior during in-class transitions have focused on providing supports for individual children, as well as on reducing transition duration. The present study evaluated the effects of systematic transition strategies, as applied to three Head Start preschool classrooms during targeted in-class transitions. Strategies encompassed an accumulation of antecedent and consequent manipulations and were selected on the basis of environmental fit with individual classroom environments. …

Dental Hygienists' Beliefs, Norms, Attitudes, And Intentions Toward Treating Hiv/Aids Patients, Barbara Clark-Alexander

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a great demand and need for oral health care during the course of HIV disease (HIV Costs and Services Utilization Study; Marcus et. al., 2005). HIV+ patients identified three key barriers to obtaining oral health treatment: 1) beliefs and attitudes of dental health care providers (DHCPs) may have lead to their unwillingness to treat HIV/AIDS patients; 2) the existence of racial and ethnic disparities in health care in the United States, and 3) how DHCPs perceive their risk of contracting HIV. The fear and stigma associated with treating patients with HIV further compromises their access to care and …

Hollywood Forever: Culture, Celebrity, And The Cemetery, Linda Levitt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the final resting place of celebrities and notable public figures such as Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., Janet Gaynor, Mel Blanc, and Barbara La Marr, Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles has long served as a tourist attraction and a site of public memory. The touristic visit or pilgrimage to the cemetery can be, like the visit to a sanctioned memorial, a means of stitching oneself into the cultural past. This dissertation considers the articulation and performance of commemoration in contemporary culture, specifically situated at Hollywood Forever. I examine how the cemetery leverages its rich resources from …

Fashion Advertising, Men’S Magazines, And Sex In Advertising: A Critical-Interpretive Study, Jennifer Ford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines sexualized portrayals of women in fashion advertising found in metro-sexual men's magazines as visual rhetoric. Historically, studies on sexual images of women in advertising have focused on content analyses of these images and how they affect women. This study asks how sexualized imagery of women functions rhetorically as part of a branding message designed to sell products. The exemplar advertisements were chosen specifically for their sexual imagery from an earlier study by the researcher on sexual images of women in fashion advertisements found in men's magazines.

The messages interpreted within the visuals of this study reveal a …

The Impact Of Computer Mediated Communication Systems Monitoring On Organizational Communications Content, Carolyn F. Holton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employer monitoring of communications is prevalent and on the rise due in part to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Health Insurance Privacy Protection Act, and other legislation in the U.S. and other countries. However, the critical effect of this new activity on what is communicated in companies has not been assessed. This dissertation examines the impacts of computer mediated communication systems monitoring on neutral, incriminating and exculpatory content, as well as the overall volume of communications issued on monitored and non-monitored computer mediated communication systems. Incriminating communication is cataloged in a hazard communications taxonomy for this investigation. A controlled laboratory experiment …

Assignment Of Estimated Average Annual Daily Traffic Volumes On All Roads In Florida, Tao Pan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first part, this thesis performed a study to compile and compare current procedures or methodologies for the estimation of traffic volumes on the roads where traffic counts are not easily available. In the second part, linear regression was practiced as an AADT estimation process, which was primarily based on known or accepted AADT values on the neighboring state and local roadways, population densities and other social/economic data.

To develop AADT prediction models for estimating AADT values, two different types of database were created, including a social economic database and a roadway characteristics database. Ten years social economic data, …