Digital Commons Network^™

Professional Wrestling, Embodied Morality, And Altered States Of Consciousness, Lawrence B. Mcbride

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Much of the scholarly work on professional wrestling is based on the assumption that beyond a simple mimicking of sporting combat, the wrestling show is a spectacle that constructs and interrelates socially situated, morally significant categories. In this thesis, I focus on wrestlers themselves, and treat wrestling as a traditional practice that guides how wrestlers relate to their bodies and how they interact with their audience. This project was carried out using ethnographic methods of observation and interviewing. While participant-observation of three independent wrestling promotions provided context, twelve semi-structured interviews carried out with wrestlers at the Florida Wrestleplex in St. …

Isabel Undone, Lynne Berggren

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Isabel, a forty-year-old woman, measured her successes and failures against her perfect sister Natalie’s. But after Natalie is murdered by her husband, Isabel’s identity unravels as she picks up the pieces of her sister’s life and becomes the mother substitute for Natalie’s daughter.

While Isabel tries to understand how Natalie’s life spiraled out of control, she develops feelings for a horse trainer named Sam. As Isabel discovers that her sister was having an affair, Isabel and Sam begin a relationship of their own. However, conflicts arise when clues implicate Sam as Natalie’s lover. Isabel retreats, and realizes she will have …

Detection Of Residual Stress In Multi-Crystalline Silicon Wafers Using Swept-Sine Frequency Response Data, Shawn R. Best

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents audible vibratory mode data obtained by mechanically exciting acoustic modes in mc-Si wafers grown by EFG technique with various levels and distributions of residual stress. Stress maps obtained using scanning infrared polariscopy are presented, illustrating the variation of residual stress.

Modal analyses of the wafers are performed using the finite element method and are in remarkably good agreement with the measured frequency response data. The calculated mode shapes were further validated through classic Chladni type patterns.

The vibratory data is found to correlate with the residual stress measurements. The data is fit with both linear and quadratic …

Experience And Inquiry In John Dewey’S Contextualism, Christopher C. Kirby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper will focus on two elements, viz. experience and inquiry, which are central to John Deweys philosophy and their relation to the movement known as pragmatism. Although each of these concepts has received extensive treatment by other schools of thought, the pragmatists, and particularly Dewey, did much to redefine each in hopes of alleviating the tension between conflicting philosophical viewpoints. An explication of Deweys view on experience is the first step in understanding his application of the pragmatic method towards reconstructing philosophical thinking. Therefore, this paper will explore the meaning that Dewey gave to each and how that meaning …

Association Between Area Socioeconomic Status And Hospital Admissions For Childhood And Adult Asthma, Tomas Tamulis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite an improved understanding of the disease, the prevalence of asthma and asthma-related morbidity continue to rise, particularly among minority and inner-city populations. Despite the growing epidemic of asthma, the surveillance of disease at the state or even local levels is very limited. Such information is very important to identify high-risk population groups and to design more effective community-based preventive interventions or risk management programs that may modify these trends.

The study provided important information about spatial differences by the geographical area of residence and changes in asthma hospital admissions over time in the selected area. Environmental exposure to ambient …

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Injury Severity Associated With Patient Falls From Bed, Bonnie E. Bowers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The incidence of falls in the elderly population is a growing concern in the healthcare industry as associated morbidity is high, particularly morbidity associated with falls from bed. Bedrails were implemented as a device intended to reduce the incidence of falls from bed; however, recent evidence may indicate that bedrails contribute to adverse events including entrapment and entanglement. As such, efforts have been made to reduce the use of bedrails and implement alternatives including height adjustable beds and floor mats. An instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy was used in the current study to measure the deceleration profiles of the head, thorax, …

“They Say That This Clinic Is For Migrants”: Cultural Sensitivity In A Rural Health Center, Nadine I. Ohlinger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing number of minority populations living in the United States makes it mandatory that all health care organizations seek to be culturally sensitive. There is no consensus on the definition of the term cultural sensitivity. The goal of this thesis is to define what cultural sensitivity means in a rural health center, from the perspective of the staff as well as the Hispanic patient. Anthropological methods, such as participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and archival data analysis, show that the qualities that Hispanic patients value in a clinic are 1) attention, 2) availability of Spanish language, 3) financial assistance, 4) …

Fantastic Visions: On The Necessity Of Feminist Utopian Narrative, Tracie Anne Welser

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Works of feminist utopian literature project longing for and predict political change while confronting current social inequities. Often, they effectively interrogate Western models of citizenship and the institutions which reify them, suggesting alternate models. Here, I define Western citizenship as determined by the maintenance of the nation-state through gendered social roles that restrict women to the private sphere and men to the public. This thesis asserts that feminist utopian literature, like politically conscious music, art, and other forms of feminist praxis, is a politically necessary component of feminist consciousness because it facilitates much-needed visions of a more equitable future for …

Pervasive Sensing And Computing For Natural Disaster Mitigation, Daniel H. Quintela

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research proposed the use of state-of-the-art wireless communications and networked embedded systems technologies to provide environmental sensing for the early detection of natural disasters. The data is acquired, processed and transmitted, from the location where the disaster originates, to potentially threatened conurbations in order to promptly notify the population. The acquired data is transformed from its raw form into information that can be utilized by local authorities to rapidly assess emergency situations and then to apply disaster management procedures. Alternatively, the system can generate alerting signals without human intervention. Furthermore, recorded historical data can be made available for scientists …

More Than Man’S Best Friend: A Look At Attachment Between Humans And Their Canine Companions, Samantha E. Kennedy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, there are currently more than 60 million pet dogs in the United States. This is an increase of nearly eighteen percent since 1991, coinciding with a growing area of research on human’s relationships with companion animals and companion animals’ place in society.

For years dogs have been thought of as “man’s best friend” because of their loyalty and faithfulness. The increasing popularity of activities such as canine daycare and puppy school suggests that dogs have become more than a best friend to some and even an integral part of the American family unit. …

Cognitive Load Theory And Programmed Instruction, Michael L. Brazas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Programmed Instruction was a dominant force in educational research during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. During this period a new cognitively oriented psychology of education arose that eventually replaced the behaviorally driven research into programmed instruction. For some reason little work was done on integrating these two approaches. This study was designed to test a programmed instructional system based on the intrinsic programmed instructional technology of Crowder (1961) but incorporating design elements derived from cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988). Specifically, this study tested a multimedia programmed instructional system (CLT-PI) based on work by Mayer (2001) against a text based system …

Creative Performance On The Job: Does Openness To Experience Matter?, Victoria L. Pace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Finding what is alike among the personalities of creative people has been a dream of many researchers. No single personality type has been discovered as prototypical, yet the promise of common attributes among creative people remains enticing. This study examines one of these promising characteristics - Openness to Experience, a personality factor from the Five-Factor Model. This factor has been shown to correlate positively with creativity in past studies. In the present study this relationship was partially confirmed in a sample of employees whose jobs require technical problem solving, by correlating the employees self-rated Work-specific Openness to Experience and NEO …

Uwb And Wlan Coexistence: A Comparison Of Interference Reduction Techniques, Nikhil Vijay Kajale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ultra Wideband (UWB) is an emerging technology for use in the indoor wireless personal area networks and ad hoc networks. The more common form of UWB which uses sub-nanosecond pulses without any form of carrier signal is considered in this research. UWB signals have a large bandwidth with allocated frequency spectrum from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz and maximum power restricted to -41dBm/MHz. The IEEE 802.11a is a popular standard for high data rate wireless local area networks (WLANs). The operating frequency of the IEEE 802.11a WLAN is 5 GHz which is right inside the allocated UWB frequency spectrum.

One …

Two Models Of Consensus, Sudarsan Padmanabhan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation titled Two Models of Consensus is based on five arguments. 1. Consensus is asymmetrical. 2. Consensus is partial or limited unanimity. 3. Consensus and democracy do have a concomitant relation. 4. Consensus is not organic to political systems. 5. Consensus depends upon civil society, subsidiarity, and the dominant cultural paradigm of society.

In the first chapter titled "Historical Specificity of the Western Conception of Civil Society" I argue that concept of civil society evolved under certain conditions in a liberal democratic tradition such as shared social imaginaries. As an example of how diversity could lead to hypostatization of …

Strategies For Incident Management In An Urban Street Network, Vikramaditya Bhide

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research the problem of incident congestion on surface street networks is addressed. Microscopic simulation is used to simulate incident scenarios on various corridors in the Tampa Bay area. The effect of the three factors, namely, network, speed and signal strategies on the traffic flow is studied. The network performance is based on Highway Capacity Manual specified measures of effectiveness prepared by the Transportation Research Board.

Three inherently different city corridors, high, medium and low volume, are used to test the strategies developed. The strategies investigated include varying speed limits during incidents and using pre-timed and semi-actuated signals that …

Design And Fabrication Of A Re-Configurable Micromirror Array For An Optical Microspectrometer, Vandana Upadhyay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the design and fabrication of a re-configurable micromirror array which can be used as a component of an optical microspectrometer. In an optical microspectrometer, an array of mechanically positionable micromirrors can be implemented as a reconfigurable exit slit to selectively focus particular wavelengths of a diffracted spectrum onto the detector stage. The signal to noise ratio and response time of an optical microspectrometer can be vastly improved by this technique.

In the approach presented here, a hybrid bulk- and surface- micromachining process is demonstrated for fabrication of a 1XN array of micromirrors. The reconfigurable micromirrors presented here …

Usfkad: An Expert System For Partial Differential Equations, Sami M. Kadamani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

USFKAD is an encoded expert system for the eigenfunction expansion of solutions to the wave, diffusion, and Laplace equations: both homogeneous and nonhomogenous; one, two, or three dimensions; Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates; Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin, or singular boundary conditions; in time, frequency, or Laplace domain. The user follows a menu to enter his/her choices and the output is a LaTeX file containing the formula for the solution together with the transcendental equation for the eigenvalues (if necessary) and the projection formulas for the coefficients. The file is suitable for insertion into a book or journal article, and as a …

Analysis Of The Impact Of The Location Of A Window Type Air-Conditioner On Thermal Comfort In An Office Room, Hamza Begdouri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study considers airflow simulations to evaluate the impact of different window air-conditioner locations on the thermal comfort in an office room (OR). This thesis compares the air distribution for an office room by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling to previously studied rooms. The air distribution was modeled on a typical office room window air conditioning unit, air supply from a high pressure on the top and the low pressure exhaust on the bottom considering the existing manufacturing ratios for surface areas. The discharge angle for the supply grill of the AC unit was varied from 20 to 40 …

The Effects Of Interracial Interaction On Behavior As A Function Of Prejudice And Race, Jason R. Read

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a series of two experiments, the first involving 121 participants and the second 114, I investigated whether level of racial prejudice is related to performance on a cognitive task and helping behavior in participants who had just interacted with the target of their prejudice. The moderating effect of control was tested and, unlike previous research, the responses of African-American participants were studied too. It was proposed that when people interact with the target of their prejudice, they will experience stress and the aftereffects of stress will lead to a decrement in Stroop task performance and a lower likelihood of …

The Effects Of A School-Based Social Skills Training Program On Children With Adhd: Generalization To The School Setting, Tricia C. Rudolph

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is given when a child exhibits developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. In addition to academic and behavior problems, these children often have significant social problems. Since social problems are associated with a greater risk for developing problems later in life, a number of interventions have been attempted to normalize the social interactions of children with ADHD. These have included stimulant medication, cognitive-behavioral interventions, behavior modification, and social skills training. Additionally, attempts have been made to maximize the benefits of these interventions by combining them. Typically this involves combining stimulant medication with one …

A Phylogenetic Approach For The Study Of Variation And Determination Of Population Affiliation Of Indigent Human Skeletal Remains, Hattie Bea Wetherington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has played a major role in human population studies over the past decade due to its maternal inheritance and negligible recombination (Macaulay, 1999). The mtDNA control region has been the focus of these studies due to the highly polymorphic nature of this non-coding region. Forensic scientists also use mtDNA to help determine the identity of missing individuals when nuclear DNA is not present. However, when skeletal remains are unclaimed, identification becomes near impossible. Therefore, mtDNA can play a valuable role in identification in terms of population affiliation, especially in conjunction with morphological analysis.

The goals of this …

The Effects Of Moisture On Thin Film Delamination And Adhesion, Patrick Waters

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Significant drops in adhesion have been measured for copper and diamond like carbon (DLC) films with the introduction of water at the film/substrate interface. A 1 thick tungsten superlayer with high compressive residual stress was deposited on the films of interest to help induce interfacial debonding by indentation. Modifications were made to the superlayer indentation technique to introduce water at the interface while performing indents. Film adhesion dropped by a factor of 10 to 20 for the copper films and 50 to 60 for the DLC films. The reduction in adhesion is believed to be caused by a combination of …

Low Loss Rf/Millimeter-Wave Mems Phase Shifters, Balaji Lakshminarayanan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A true time delay multi-bit MEMS phase shifter topology based on impedance-matched slow-wave CPW sections on a 500µm thick quartz substrate is presented. Design equations based on the approximate model for a distributed line is derived and used in optimization of the unit cell parameters. A semi-lumped model for the unit cell is derived and its equivalent circuit parameters are extracted from measurement and EM simulation data. This unit cell model can be cascaded to accurately predict N-section phase shifter performance. Experimental data for a 4.6mm long 4-bit device shows a maximum phase error of 5.5° and S₁₁ less …

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 …

Integrated Scheduling And Information Support System For Transit Maintenance Departments, Paula Andrea Lopez Alvarado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The projected increase of population in the United States and particularly in the state of Florida shows a clear need of improvement in mass transportation systems. To provide outstanding service to rides, well maintained fleet that ensures safety for riders and other people on the streets is imperative.

This research presents an information support system that assists maintenance managers to review and analyze data and evaluate alternatives in order to make better decisions that maximize efficiency in operations at transportation organizations. A system that consists of a mathematical scheduling model that interacts with a forecasting model and repair time standards …

Performance Evaluation Of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks In Realistic Mobility And Fading Environments, Preetha Prabhakaran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are wireless networks, which consist of a collection of mobile nodes with no fixed infrastructure, where each node acts as a router that participates in forwarding data packets. They are a new paradigm of wireless communications for mobile hosts that are resource-constrained with only limited energy, computing power and memory.

Previous studies on MANETs concentrated more on energy conservation in an idealistic environment without taking into consideration, the effects of realistic mobility, interference and fading. The definition of realistic mobility models is one of the most critical and, at the same time, difficult aspects of …

Partial Evaluation Based Triple Modular Redundancy For Single Event Upset Mitigation, Sujana Kakarla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We present a design technique, called partial evaluation triple modular redundancy for hardening combinational circuits against Single Event Upsets (SEU). The input environment is given in terms of signal probabilities of the lines. This is useful information to determine the redundant gates of the given circuit. The basic ideas of partial redundancy and temporal triple modular redundancy are used together to harden the circuit against SEUs. The concept of partial redundancy is used to eliminate the gates whose outputs can be determined in advance. This technique fails in cases when the actual inputs to the circuit are not in accordance …

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 …

Structural And Electrical Properties Of Barium Strontium Titanate Thin Films For Tunable Microwave Applications, Sriraj G. Manavalan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dependence of dielectric permittivity on the applied electric field, high dielectric constant and low cost makes barium strontium titanate (BST) a promising ferroelectric material for applications in tunable microwave devices. High tunability and low dielectric loss is desired for tunable microwave devices. The primary objective of this research was to optimize the tunability and dielectric loss of BST thin films at microwave frequencies with different deposition techniques. Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films were grown on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si, by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and sputtering. Parallel plate capacitor structures were designed using ADS and fabricated. The microstructural and phase …

Cds/Cdte Thin Film Solar Cells With Zinc Stannate Buffer Layer, Srilatha Bapanapalli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

CdS/CdTe solar cell performance and reproducibility can be improved by integrating a ZTO buffer layer, which interdiffuses into the CdS layer during device fabrication. Reducing the thickness of CdS layer improves the QE in the blue spectral region without affecting the device performance. This buffer layer is expected to prevent the formation of localized TCO/CdTe junction during high temperature processing.

The CdS/CdTe Solar Cell was modified by introducing ZTO as a buffer layer between the window layer (CdS) and the absorber layer (CdTe). Studies were performed on different varying ZTO processing parameters like (a) Zn/Sn atomic ratios during sputtering process, …