Digital Commons Network^™

Generation Of Carbon Dioxide And Mobilization Of Antimony Trioxide By Fungal Decomposition Of Building Materials, John D. Krause

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fungal contamination of buildings poses numerous challenges to researchers, building owners and occupants. Public health agencies promote prevention and remediation of mold and water damage, but lack sensitive methods to detect hidden mold growth and a complete understanding of the biological mechanisms that make occupying moldy buildings a hazard. The wide spread use of the fire retardant antimony trioxide (Sb₂O₃) on building materials and furnishings makes it inevitable that mold growth on treated materials will occur in some buildings with water damage. Several authors have speculation that microbial growth on materials treated with antimony trioxide could …

Seasonal And Spatial Trends Of Karenia Brevis Blooms And Associated Parameters Along The 10-Meter Isobath Of The West Florida Shelf, Elizabeth Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Karenia brevis is a toxic marine dinoflagellate species that blooms almost every year in the Gulf of Mexico. These blooms have had devastating effects on local economies, as well as on the fauna of the area. The ECOHAB:Florida project was founded to study the population dynamics and trophic impacts of K. brevis. The project included a series of monthly hydrographic offshore research cruises, as well as monthly surveys of a transect along the 10-meter isobath of the West Florida Shelf. This study focused on data from the alongshore transect over a three-year period (1999-2001). Physical parameters (temperature, salinity, and …

An Investigation Of Tio2-Znfe2O4 Nanocomposites For Visible Light Photocatalysis, Jeremy Wade

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental pollution on a global scale is expected to be the greatest problem that chemical scientists will face in the 21st century, and an increasing number of these scientists are looking to new photocatalytic systems for the solution. Existing photocatalytic systems are effective for the decomposition of many unwanted organics through the use of efficient semiconductor photocatalysts activated by ultra-violet (UV) irradiation. The demand for visible light activated photocatalytic systems is increasing rapidly. Currently, however, the efficiency and availability of photocatalysts which can be activated effectively by the solar spectrum and especially indoor lighting is severely limited.

The purpose of …

Music Integration: Educators’ Perceptions Of Implementation And Student Achievement In Public School Elementary Education, Cynthia Marie Shuck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigated the levels and frequency of music integration being implemented at a public elementary school in central Florida, what key issues affect the successful implementation of effective music integration, and if music integration has an influence on academic achievement.

This study focused on 14 elementary school educators actively involved with music integration at one public elementary school. The multiple formats of data collection and analysis provided triangulation and increased the viability and transferability of the results. The five data collection formats that were used consisted of surveys, observations, lesson plans, interviews, and student achievement documents. Data …

The Impact Of Structural Adjustment On Health, Education And Employment: A Case Study On Sierra Leone, Rashida Strober

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since their inception in African countries, structural adjustment has tended to cause more harm than help. This thesis aims to answer the question, in what ways have structural adjustment policies impacted Africa in general and Sierra Leone in particular? This question is highly relevant when it is considered that Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world and has experiences much conflict and suffering. In addition, much is known about the impact of structural adjustment in many African countries. However, little has been written on the impact of structural adjustment in Sierra Leone, especially in terms of the …

County Level Predictors Of Homicide And Suicide In The State Of Florida, Kelly K. Browning

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study expands the range of theoretical perspectives and empirical questions that have occupied the recent literature on homicide and suicide. The study examines county-level predictors for homicide and suicide in all sixty-seven counties in Florida. The current examination identifies which county-level variables are most closely related to each other, which variables explain the greatest amount of differences within the Florida counties, as well as which variables are most significantly correlated with the homicide and sucide rate by county. Additionally, the variables included in the present research are driven by the theorectical perspectives of social disorganization and anomie/strain theory. …

Two Essays On Security Offerings: Information Production, Investor Perception And The Types Of External Financing, And A Unified Analysis On Financing Choices And Offering Costs, Bingsheng Yi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I investigate the impacts that information production, information asymmetry have on firms financing choices 3/4 equity financing or debt financing. I find that equity issue announcements encourage more information production than debt issue announcements, which in turn raises the probability of equity financing. In addition, the post-issue stock market performance is positively associated with information production. The results are robust after controlling for investor optimism. I also apply the Heckmans two-step procedure to jointly investigate firms financing choices and offering costs. I find that security-issuing firms choose the less-costly financing type.

The Effects Of A Parent Intervention On The Phonological Awareness Skills Of Kindergarten Students, Andrea Ofiara

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the efficacy of the Sound Foundations program, implemented by parents, for increasing phonological awareness (PA). Three kindergarten students identified with PA deficits and their mothers served as participants. Parents implemented Sound Foundations twice per week for five and a half weeks. The effects of the intervention were evaluated using a multiple baseline across participants design. PA was measured using the Phoneme Segmentation Fluency measure of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. Results showed that two students showed increases over time in phonemes per minute after the parent intervention. A third student did not show substantial …

The Effects Of The Presence Of A Dog On The Social Interactions Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Stephanie Walters

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effects of the presence of a dog on the social interactions between children with developmental disabilities and their teacher were analyzed in this study. We examined whether the presentation of a dog would improve the social interactions of three children with developmental disabilities. A baseline condition consisting of the child and teacher in the presence of three toys, one of which was a toy dog was followed by an intervention in which a real dog was added to the sessions. A multiple baseline design across participants was employed to assess experimental changes in interactions during the intervention condition.

All …

Disentangling The Repurchase Announcement An Event Study Analysis To The Purpose Of Repurchases, Robin S. Wilber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have consistently shown that a firms repurchase announcement is met with positive abnormal stock price return reactions. Open-market repurchases are extremely flexible, non-committal and non-punitive; thus, it is puzzling that the mere announcement of an open-market repurchase will likely increase a firms stock price. I propose to disentangle a firms choice to repurchase its stock to determine when a repurchase announcement is good news for shareholders and when the announcement is not.

I find that the purpose of the repurchase announcement matters. At the announcement date, managers intention of avoiding dilution is significantly negative and enhancing shareholder value is …

Design And Evaluation Of A New Authentication Mechanism For Validating The Sender Of An Email, Sai Sakamuri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A new authentication mechanism for validating the source of messages over the Internet is designed and evaluated. This mechanism is applied to email and is called Email++. Email++ prevents identity forging (spoofing) and tampering of email contents. By preventing identity forging, Email++ can reduce the amount of spam received and limit the spread of viruses like Melissa, Love Bug, Bagle Worm, and Killer Resume. Email++ validates both the sender and the receiver of an email by confirming the senders identity with the domain mail server that delivered the email for the sender, and authenticates the receiver with hash value comparisons. …

Giving Voice To Parents Of Young Children With Challenging Behavior, Jonathan Worcester

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been increased interest in the science of child development, particularly relative to early childhood (i.e., birth to 5 years) and children with challenging behavior. A broad interest in brain-behavior relationships and prevention services for young children has led to a renewed interest in the developmental significance of early life experiences (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000). Armed with an increasingly large body of neuroscience research, researchers have begun to examine the efficacy of prevention services and supports for young children and families, particularly those with challenging behavior (i.e., behaviors that interfere with optimal …

Loving Loving? Problematizing Pedagogies Of Care And Chéla Sandoval’S Love As A Hermeneutic, Allison Brimmer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My thesis project is an argument for and an investigation into the complex dynamics of what I term a critical, feminist, anti-racist pedagogy. Drawing from scholarly work in the fields of feminist theory, cultural studies, whiteness studies, and rhetoric and composition, in what follows I argue for a “blurring” of the traditional reason-emotion split that, I believe, continues to stifle learners in today’s U.S. educational system. I then offer a pedagogical theory that rejects or “blurs” this split, acknowledges and examines the affective realm, and is fueled by the more holistic notion and theory of “love as a hermeneutic” put …

Toward A Social-Cognitive Psychology Of Speech Technology: Affective Responses To Speech-Based E-Service, Melanie Diane Polkosky

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Speech technologies, or technologies that recognize and respond to human speech, have recently emerged as a ubiquitous and cost-effective form of customer self-service (e-service). Although customer satisfaction is regarded as an important outcome of e-service interactions, little is known about users affective responses to conversational interactions with technology. Using a theoretical foundation derived from research in social cognition, interpersonal communication, psycholinguistics, human factors, and services marketing, two studies develop items for a speech interface usability scale, which is then used to examine interrelationships among individual differences (e.g., self-monitoring, need for interaction with a service provider, inherent novelty seeking), usability, comfort, …

School-Based Mental Health Services Delivered By School Psychologists, Emily Luis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study involved analyses of an existing database conducted for the purposes of identifying and understanding factors that are associated with the delivery of school-based mental health services by school psychologists. The study examined the average number of hours per week in which school psychologists engage in mental health services and the types of mental health services in which they engage. Factors such as training, desire to deliver mental health services, time available and support for mental health services were investigated. The database that served as the basis for these analyses had been created by mailing a survey to 1000 …

Racial Disparities In Breast Cancer Surgical Treatment And Radiation Therapy Use, Tracey Lynn Koehlmoos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between race and surgical treatment and radiation therapy use for localized breast cancer patients in the state of Florida in 2001. The study will be useful in raising awareness of the relationship between Black race and appropriate breast cancer treatment within the Florida Cancer Data System. The Healthy People 2010 initiatives call to eliminate racial disparities and the high placement of breast cancer on the national research agenda make this study timely and insightful for health policymakers, clinicians and other health researchers. Also, the study evaluates the effect of other health system and patient related …

System Level Energy Optimization For Location Aware Computing, Hariharan Sankaran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We present an energy conscious location-aware computing system that provides relevant information about the users current location. The location-aware computing system is initialized with a map (in the form of a graph) as well as audio files associated with several locations in the map. The system consists of: GPS receiver module, Serial port, Compact flash module, Stereo codec, Power manager module implementing three sub modules namely, GPS-to-real-world position conversion module (implements algorithm to convert GPS co-ordinates to graph nodes), Nearest-location-search module (implements modified Dijkstras algorithm), and User speed estimation module. The location-aware computing system receives the GPS co-ordinates for the …

Adolescents And Their Fathers: Do Dads Make A Difference?, Dimitra Kamboukos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the role of fathers in adolescents behavioral and emotional functioning. Results revealed gender differences in adolescent ratings of their parents. Compared to girls, boys endorsed significantly lower negative affect toward mothers and fathers. Girls reported higher levels of maternal versus paternal involvement, monitoring and acceptance, and higher positive and lower negative affect toward mothers than fathers. Few gender differences were found in associations between maternal and paternal variables and adolescent outcomes. Results supported the unique contribution of fathers in explaining adolescent emotional and behavioral functioning. When considering boys and girls separately, fathers added unique variance in explaining …

The Origins Of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature: Prophecy, Babylon, And 1 Enoch, Sarah Robinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From what wells did the apocalyptic writers draw? What motivated them to write such bizarre and fantastic stories about the future end of history and battles between the forces of good and the forces of evil? The Book of Daniel is considered the first and only apocalypse of the Hebrew Bible, and it was the primary inspiration for much of the Book of Revelation, Apocalypse of John in the Christian New Testament. But well before Daniel, apocalyptic passages appeared in Jewish literature. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 came also the discovery of the oldest …

Voices From A Marginalized Population: Life Histories Of Individuals With Physical Impairments, James Peter Marsh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with physical impairments have been marginalized and discriminated against since the social identification of these individuals occurred as a sub-group within society. While much has been done to resolve prejudice against individuals with physical impairments, more needs to be done to decrease, or at least deter, discrimination and prejudice against individuals who have been marginalized. The purpose of this study is to give four individuals with physical impairments the opportunity to tell their stories. Through the telling of these stories, I believe others can identify with these individuals, and thereby, help decrease discrimination against individuals with physical impairments.

Life …

Developing An Anthropology Curriculum For High School: A Case Study From Durant High School, Hillsborough County, Florida, Kory Mcneil Bennett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It has become increasingly apparent that anthropology has much to offer when it comes to educating our youth. This is true for all grade levels, kindergarten through senior level studies in high school. Here, this idea will be explored further by focusing on the students of Durant High School (DHS) of Plant City, Florida.

This project was designed to explore the idea of combining widely accepted pedagogical theories (Gardner 1983, 1993, 1999; Geraci 2000; Silver, Strong and Perini 1997) with anthropological theory and methods in order to devise effective curricula for high school archaeology and other anthropology courses. More essentially, …

The Impact Of Victim-Offender Familial Relationships On Capital Sentencing Outcomes, Katharine D. Evans

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is an investigation of whether familial relationships among offenders and their victims affect capital sentencing. Using a sample of capital cases from North Carolina restricted to familial homicides, logistic regression models are used while controlling for legal and extra-legal factors that influence decision outcomes. Such models of capital sentencing are developed to (1) determine whether familial-victim cases have unique correlates; and (2) whether there are variations in the effects of these correlates across gender. Contradictory to these hypotheses, results suggest that acquaintance and stranger relationships are less likely to receive a capital outcome when compared to familial relationships. …

Self-Control, Gang Membership, And Victimization: An Integrated Approach To The Risk Factors Of Violent Victimization, Kristina Childs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study integrates one of the most empirically tested individual characteristics (self-control) with situational factors (risky lifestyle) in an attempt to explain the risks involved in violent victimization. Data came from a diverse sample of 3,907 middle school students who participated in the G.R.E.A.T. program during the 1993-1994 school year. Gang membership is used as a proxy variable to measure risky lifestyle. It is hypothesized that 1) gang membership will mediate the effect of self-control on violent victimization and 2) self-control and gang membership will interact to amplify the risk of violent victimization.

Logistic regression was used to analyze the …

Stability Studies Of Cdte Solar Cells Fabricated With Varying Amounts Of Cu In The Back Contact, Swetha Erra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Solar energy is one of the abundant, non-polluting renewable energy options in our planet. During the last three decades considerable progress has been achieved in developing technologies to produce electricity from solar radiation, but producing electricity with low cost and low pollution is of concern. The CdTe solar cells are the leading source for the production of cost effective solar cells. The main issue of concern in these CdTe solar cells is degradation observed when stressed at elevated temperatures. The degradation in CdTe solar cells can be attributed to the back contact, which often contains Cu to improve the electronic …

Characterization Of L-Cysteine Thin Films Via Photoemission Spectroscopy, Roy Gargagliano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using photoemission spectroscopy (PES) the interface between the amino acid Lcysteine and a Au substrate was characterized to determine its electronic and chemical structure. L-cysteine was deposited on a Au substrate in several experiments via dipping into solution or via evaporation. The depositions were performed in several steps. Between deposition steps x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) measurements were taken. XPS was used to characterize the chemical interaction at the interface while UPS was used to determine the orbital line-up at the interface and the highest molecular orbital (HOMO) structure of L-cysteine. The results indicate the formation …

Self-Guided Micro Vehicle: An Autonomous Vehicle With Gps Navigation And 802.11b Communications, Roberto J. Guerra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To facilitate the learning of automatic navigation systems by engineering students an easy to obtain platform is useful. The topic of this thesis is the design and implementation of a basic self-guided vehicle that can be programmed and expanded by anyone possessing basic experience with the C programming language. The Self-Guided Micro Vehicle, (SGMV), uses off-the-shelf easy to obtain parts such as a toy R/C truck and the Handyboard to maximize availability of this technology to students.

This thesis divides the SGMV design process by functionality. It starts by documenting the locomotion system, which was a modified R/C toy truck. …

Opportunistic Maintenance Policy Of A Multi-Unit System Under Transient State, Sulabh Jain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most modern systems are equipped with very complex, expensive, and high technology components whose maintenance costs have become an increasingly large portion of the total operating cost of these systems. Thus, the efficacy of the maintenance policy for these and related systems has become a major concern to both manufacturing and design engineers. Different kinds of maintenance strategies have been proposed to solve the problem. While some of these have proven effective, there is yet no definitive approach that has been found that support the maintainability requirements of transient systems or systems that exhibit transient behavior. Transient behavior is the …

A Generalized Decision Model For Naval Weapon Procurement: Multi-Attribute Decision Making, Jin O. Chang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For any given reason, every year many countries spend a lot of money purchasing at least one weapon. Due to the secret character of the military, the decision process for specific weapon procurement is shrouded. Moreover, there are several funds loss cases due to mistakes in weapon contractions. Weapon procurement requires very large amounts of money which comes from tax payers. Therefore, an effort to reduce a possible monetary loss is needed.

A decision process based on an analytic model can present a better chance to decision makers for better weapon decisions. In general, weapon procurement decision is a multi …

Re-Engineering Graduate Medical Education: An Analysis Of The Contribution Of Residents To Teaching Hospitals Utilizing A Model Of An Internal Medicine Residency Program, Ian M. Elius

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the U.S. health care delivery system does not provide consistent, high-quality medical care to all people all the time. As a significant component of the health care delivery system, the state of Graduate Medical Education in the United States has prompted much analysis in recent years due to the general view that desired and actua l outcomes are increasingly at variance with each other. One area of focus has been the implications of change for provider credentialing and funding of graduate medical education.

With this research we test the hypothesis that residents perform …

Effects Of Social Skills Training On The Interpersonal Behaviors Of Elementary School Students In An After-School Program, Robert Caples

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social skills training was investigated in an after-school program setting with four seven- and eight-year-old males. Two were Hispanic and two were African-American. Social skills training consisted of a direct instruction, behavioral learning model of skillstreaming as described by McGinnis & Goldstein (1997). There were four major components to each social skills training session: (1) an explanation of the skill being taught; (2) modeling by the researcher of the skill being taught; (3) role play by each of the participants; and (4) performance feedback regarding the role plays. Sessions lasted approximately 30 minutes and were held weekly throughout the intervention …