Digital Commons Network^™

Tampa’S Lafayette Street Bridge: Building A New South City, Lucy D. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The late nineteenth and early twentieth century was a time of dynamic social and political change for Tampa, a growing city on Florida's west coast. These changes led Tampa's commercial-civic elite to look beyond the law, the militia, and the church for ways to maintain their sense of order. This thesis illustrates non-violent enforcement of the status quo via public works, specifically bridge construction over the Hillsborough River. Over a period of three decades, three different bridges were built at the same place, at Lafayette Street. Each time the bridge was built or replaced, it was ostensibly for a different …

Practical Applications Of Molecular Dynamics Techniques And Time Correlation Function Theories, Christina Ridley Kasprzyk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The original research outlined in this dissertation involves the use of novel theoretical and computational methods in the calculation of molecular volume changes and non-linear spectroscopic signals, specifically two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) spectroscopy. These techniques were designed and implemented to be computationally affordable, while still providing a reliable picture of the phenomena of interest. The computational results presented demonstrate the potential of these methods to accurately describe chemically interesting systems on a molecular level. Extended system isobaric-isothermal (NPT) molecular dynamics techniques were employed to calculate the thermodynamic volumes of several simple model systems, as well as the volume change associated with …

Measurement And Modeling Of Oxides Of Nitrogen From Vehicular Contributors, Kerstin Lesley Kenty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research was the examination of the emission and transformation of nitrogen oxides emitted from vehicles. Measured data for this experiment were collected from May 1 thru May 31, 2002, and were compared to values modeled with CALINE4. CALINE4 is a photochemical and dispersive model used to predict concentrations of NOX (NO+NO2) from line sources. The measurement campaign was coincident with the Bay Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (BRACE). An ambient air quality monitoring site was constructed adjacent to Gandy Boulevard, in Tampa, FL. When comparisons of measured and modeled NO and NO2 values were made it was …

The Realism Of Hans Morgenthau, Brian A. Keaney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the life and career of Hans J. Morgenthau, commonly accepted as the father of the realist paradigm within the field of international relations. It does so by offering a dynamic revisionist account of the nature of Morgenthau's classical realism and suggests how the approach discussed might have wider application in the field of international relations. Traditional perspectives of Morgenthau suggest that in the course of his career, he changed from holding what would generally be labeled a conservative political viewpoint to a liberal political viewpoint. This thesis takes a different starting point. It does so by suggesting …

Vigilance In African Americans: Cardiovascular Reactivity And Phasic Heart Period Reactions To Cued Threat And Nonthreat Stimuli, Thomas Starr King

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African Americans are at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and associated risk factors than are Whites, and recent research has suggested that the effects of racial discrimination are a significant contributor to this disparity. Thus, a preattentive bias and vigilance for threat might serve as a mechanism through which experienced racial discrimination would negatively impact cardiovascular health. A study was conducted to investigate the physiological and attentional underpinnings of vigilance for discriminatory threat via examination of phasic heart period (HP) responses to cued threat and nonthreat stimuli. Thirty African American and forty-two European American undergraduate students from a …

Investigations Of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors Based On Yb:Y3Al5O12, Jermaine L. Kennedy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development of temperature sensors which employ a fiber-optic probe consisting of single crystal YB3BAlB5BOB12B (YAG) fiber with a phosphor of short length grown directly onto one end using the laser heated pedestal growth method. The response of all the crystalline temperature sensors derives from the temperature-dependent decay time of fluorescence. Yb3+P ions served as the fluorescer, while the addition of various rare-earth codopants (i.e., NdP3+ and ErP3+) with YbP3+ provided an additional path in the form of phonon assisted energy transfer. With the additional nonradiative decay path, the temperature sensors exhibited a more desirable response. A …

Workers, Unions, And The Globalization Of Production: Structural And Institutional Challenges For Organized Labor In The United States, Matthew Kohen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that the globalization of production has weakened the power and efficacy of labor unions in the United States. I describe the globalization of production as a set of transformations in both the institutional structure of the economy and in the organization of production, and discuss how these transformations have impacted workers and unions in the American economy. The theoretical framework I employ is the social structure of accumulation approach, which emphasizes the importance of the institutional structures of capitalist economies and how their interaction with forms of production organization and systems of labor control helps …

Measuring Culture: The Development Of A Multidimensional Culture Scale, Haitham A. Khoury

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fundamental to the debate of culture and its impact is the identification of the dimensions that comprise it. The impact of culture as an explanatory variable can be found in various social, scientific, and economic arenas, such as social perception, economic development, and the organization of industries and companies. By identifying and measuring these dimensions, researchers can then organize cultures empirically and develop complex descriptions of various cultures. The study aimed to test the structure of the dimensions proposed by Ho and Chiu (1994) by means of scale development. Test-item writers involved psychology graduate students of various nationalities with the …

Reef Recovery Following The Late Devonian Mass Extinction: Evidence From The Dugway Range, West-Central Utah, Joseph G. Krivanek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The biotic crisis of the Late Devonian Period involved three distinct peaks of extinction intensity and preferentially eliminated reef taxa. By the end of the second peak, the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) boundary, the dominant constructor guild member of the mid-Paleozoic, the stromatoporoids, had ceased reef construction in most parts of the world. An undescribed stromatoporoid bioherm in the Dugway Range, west-central Utah, is one of the few locations where stromatoporoids continued building reefs into the mid-Famennian. The sections are well-constrained biostratigraphically using both conodonts and stromatoporoids and range from the latest Frasnian to the Early Carboniferous. The reefal faunas are depauperate …

Tropical Atlantic And Caribbean Climate Variations During The Past Eight Centuries, Kelly Halimeda Kilbourne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Caribbean Sea is a key region from which to generate paleoclimate records because instrumental temperature data indicate that surface temperatures in the Caribbean region are correlated with global surface temperature. Heat and salt fluxes in the Caribbean have been implicated in major reorganizations in Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation on glacial time scales [Schmidt et al., 2004] and it has been proposed that the Tropical Atlantic (including the Caribbean Sea) may play a role in smaller-scale changes in the Atlantic basin [Vellinga and Wu, 2004]. A theme of past Caribbean paleoclimate research has been to hypothesize about the interaction between …

Predictors And Outcomes Of Hospice Use Among Medicare And Medicaid Dual-Eligible Nursing Home Residents In Florida: A Comparison Of Non-Hispanic Blacks And Non-Hispanic Whites, Jung, Kwak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the racial/ethnic differences in hospice utilization and the effect of hospice in reducing the risk of hospital death at the end of life among non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White dual-eligible (Medicare and Medicaid) older adults residing in a nursing home setting. The final study population included 30,765 non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White nursing home residents who died between state fiscal years 2000-2002 in Florida.The behavioral model of health services use successfully predicted group membership in hospice use. In the full model, seven variables - female gender, non-Hispanic White race/ethnicity, being married, urban area of residence, and cancer …

Laboratory Analysis Of Staphylococcus Aureus In Florida From January 1, 2003 To December 31, 2005 With An Emphasis On Methicillin Resistance, Stephanie Kolar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Staphylococci are gram-positive bacteria that cause infections in humans and can produce severe morbidity and mortality. Methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates are resistant to all beta-lactam antibiotics, such as methicillin, and cephalosporins making treatment of these infections more difficult. MRSA has become prevalent throughout the United States, spreading in the health care setting and the community.The purpose of this study is to examine methicillin resistance among S. aureus isolates in an outpatient population in the state of Florida and asses possible associations between methicillin resistance and age group, gender, and geographic area. It is important to define methicillin …

The Case For High-Order, Pleistocene Sea-Level Fluctuations In Southwest Florida, Paul Octavius Knorr

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida's Plio-Pleistocene strata record episodes of sea-level highstands. The age of the strata is often ambiguous as there are no consistently reliable dating techniques that can be unequivocally applied to many of the units. The lack of preservation of continuous Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary sequences is a consequence of Pleistocene mean sea-levels not flooding peninsular Florida, the low volume of sedimentary supply, and the lack of new accommodation space. This study investigates a 6 m cyclothem-type set of six shallow-marine shell beds separated by five subaerially exposed packstone beds. These strata are part of the biostratigraphically-defined early Pleistocene (1.1 --

1.6 Ma) …

Novel Sol-Gel Titania-Based Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Coatings For On-Line Capillary Microextraction Coupled To High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, Tae-Young Kim

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Novel sol-gel titania-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (TiO2-PDMS) and titania-silica-N-(triethoxysilylpropyl)-O-polyethylene oxide urethane (TiO2-SiO2-TESP-PEO) coatings were developed for capillary microextraction (CME) to perform on-line preconcentration and HPLC analysis of trace impurities in aqueous samples. Due to chemical inertness of titania, effective covalent binding of a suitable organic ligand to its surface is difficult via conventional surface modification methods. In this research, sol-gel chemistry was employed to chemically bind hydroxy-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and N-(triethoxysilylpropyl)-O-polyethylene oxide urethane (TESP-PEO) to sol-gel titania and sol-gel titania-silica network, respectively. A method is presented describing in situ preparation of the titania-based sol-gel PDMS and TESP-PEO coatings and their immobilization on the …

Structured Light For Three-Dimensional Microscopy, Leo G. Krzewina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The conventional light microscope is an indispensable tool for many physical and life science applications, but is of limited usefulness for three-dimensional imaging due to its increasingly narrow depth of field at high magnifications. Focused regions may be obscured by defocused neighbors or noise from extraneous light sources and subsurface scattering. By rejecting light originating from outside the depth of focus it is possible to minimize these problems. When a contiguous series of such focused slices, or optical sections, are obtained along an axis of an extended object they may be combined to form a complete, focused three-dimensional surface image. …

Be Active!: An Examination Of Social Support's Role In Individual Vs. Team Competition In Worksite Health Promotion, Lauren Kriz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Millions of dollars are being spent on health care claims. To try and reduce these claims, corporations are implementing worksite health promotion programs. Some success has been associated with these programs. Many programs implement different types of incentives and competitions. Some incentives and competitions are based on individual participation while others are based on team participation. The purpose of the study was to determine the role social support plays in individual and team health promotion programs and discover if social support was the key factor for the differences in such programs. All participants of the study were responsible for keeping …

Three Science Teacher Educators With Elementary Teaching Experience: What Do We Bring To Science Teacher Education?, Cyndy S. Leard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research explored the common experiences, values, and beliefs of three science teacher educators with elementary teaching experience and how these commonalities influenced their thinking about teaching preservice elementary teachers. This qualitative study used a life story approach and included an autobiographical component. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and archival records. The findings were shared in eight chronologically ordered vignettes that portrayed an individual representing a composite of the participants. The participants shared numerous life experiences including: growing up in small towns, having older parents, being part of a two sibling family, having strong female role models, learning science …

Part-Time Faculty Job Satisfaction: A Study Of The Influence Of Instructional Technology On Part-Time Faculty In Post-Secondary Institutions, John P. Kurnik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1990, two-year colleges nationwide reported that approximately 38% of their faculty were part-time. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics' (NCES) 1999 National Study of Post-Secondary Faculty (NSOPF), this percentage continues to rise, and currently exists at 40% or more in some two-year and four-year institutions. To retain competent, qualified, and successful teachers, it is critical for higher education administrators to determine factors that may contribute to part-time faculty's job satisfaction. This study investigated whether the use of instructional technology for curriculum delivery affected part-time faculty job satisfaction by investigating four specific areas that may be affected. The …

Occupancy And Function Of The Hepatic Hmg-Coa Reductase Promoter, William Raymond Lagor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

HMG-CoA reductase (HMGR) catalyzes the rate controlling step in cholesterol production. This enzyme is highly expressed in the liver where it is subject to extensive hormonal and dietary regulation. This study was undertaken to examine the occupancy and function of the hepatic HMGR promoter in regards to insulin and sterol regulation. HMGR protein and mRNA are substantially decreased in diabetic animals and rapidly restored by administration of insulin. Nuclear run-on assays revealed that HMGR transcription was substantially reduced in the diabetic rats, and fully restored within two hours after insulin treatment. In vivo footprinting revealed several areas of protein binding …

The Signature Poetics Of Sharon Olds And John Cage, Walter E. Lewallen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies and applies the signature theory of Jacques Derrida to two American poets, Sharon Olds and John Cage. I begin by looking at the two texts by Derrida that most closely apply signature theory to poetics: Glas and Signsponge. Along the way, I narrow the scope of Derrida's writing somewhat by focusing on psychoanalytic aspects that relate to Jacques Lacan's ideas and to the concept of the superego. From this work I isolate some protocols for reading, which are then used to study Olds and Cage, two poets who have clearly developed their own signature styles. Here are …

An Evaluation Of A Pedagogical Reform Designed For College Chemistry Teaching With Large Classes, Scott Edwin Lewis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work presents an evaluation of a reform teaching practice, known as peer-led guided inquiry, that combines guided inquiry and cooperative learning for college chemistry teaching. Integral to implementing the reform in a large class (greater than 100 students) was the role of peer leaders, undergraduate students who have successfully completed the target course. These peer leaders facilitated cooperative learning groups during weekly guided inquiry activities in general chemistry. The evaluation, using data collected over a 3-year period, had two main foci: effective teaching and promotion of equity in the classroom. Both of these aims were evaluated using hierarchical linear …

Variation In Pediatric Gastroenteritis Admissions Among Florida Counties, 1995-2002, Jean Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Hospitalizations for pediatric gastroenteritis are considered potentially avoidable and are used to monitor access and quality of primary care for children. Previous reports have found pediatric gastroenteritis admissions higher in Florida compared to the South and the nation.Purpose: The purpose of this project was to explore variation in county admission rates for pediatric gastroenteritis related to non-clinical factors in Florida during 1995-2002. Specific aims included identifying the unique contributions of county socioeconomic characteristics and availability of primary care resources to annual county pediatric gastroenteritis hospital admission rates. Method: The study was retrospective and longitudinal assessing variation in annual county …

N-Thiolated Β-Lactam Antibiotics: Synthesis And Structure-Activity Studies Of C3- Oxygenated Derivatives And Attachment To New, Functionalized Caprolactone Monomers And Polymers, J Michelle Leslie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

N-Thiolated beta-lactams are a new class of anti-MRSA and anti-Bacillus agents that have recently been reported by our laboratories. From previous studies performed in our laboratories, it is believed that the N-thiolated beta-lactams exert their antimicrobial activity through a unique mode of action that is completely unlike that of classical beta-lactam antibiotics. In the first chapter of this dissertation, a review of previously prepared N-thiolated beta-lactam analogues and their mode of action is presented. In the second chapter, the synthesis of seven different C3-oxygenated derivatives is described. These analogues were tested for antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, nine different strains …

Measuring Social Stressors In Organizations: The Development Of The Interpersonal Conflict In Organizations Scale (Icos), Valentina Bruk Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interpersonal conflict in organizations has been recognized as a leading social stressor across occupations with detrimental effects on employee well-being and organizational outcomes. However, reliable and valid measures of conflict are scarce and even the most widely used scales are limited by weaknesses in construct definition. In order to address the need for an improved measurement tool, the 63-item Interpersonal Conflict in Organizations Scale (ICOS) was developed. The ICOS was based on a comprehensive conceptualization of conflict that defines the construct on the basis of three definitional components: disagreement, interference, and negative emotion (Barki & Hartwick, 2004). In addition, the …

Electrically Charged Sol-Gel Coatings For On-Line Preconcentration And Analysis Of Zwitterionic Biomolecules By Capillary Electrophoresis, Wen Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Novel on-line methods are presented for the extraction, preconcentration and analysis of zwitterionic biomolecules using sol-gel-coated columns coupled to a conventional UV/visible detector. The presented approaches do not require any additional modification of the commercially available standard CE instrument. Extraction, stacking, and focusing techniques were used in the preconcentration procedures. The positively charged sol-gel coatings were created using N-octadecyldimethyl[3-(trimethoxysilyl) proply]ammonium chloride (C18-TMS) in the coating sol solutions. Due to the presence of a positively charged quaternary ammonium moiety in C18-TMS, the resulting sol-gel coating carried a positive charge. The negatively charged sol-gel coatings were due to the presence of sulfonate …

Saharan Dust And Phosphatic Fidelity: A Three Dimensional Biogeochemical Model Of Trichodesmium On The West Florida Shelf, Jason M. Lenes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The availability of iron within the surface waters of the broad, oligotrophic West Florida shelf (WFS) controls periodic blooms of the pelagic marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium. Summer delivery of iron (Fe), in the form of Saharan dust, alleviates this growth constraint, shifting limitation to the efficiency of phosphorus (P) cycles. Florida's rivers drain Miocene phosphorus deposits to supply the WFS with freshwater nutrient supplies at molar dissolved inorganic nitrogen/phosphate (DIN/PO4) ratios of less than 6. These diazotrophs draw upon ubiquitous stocks of dissolved nitrogen gas, once stimulated by Fe-deposition within P-replete waters of the West Florida shelf. An extensive in situ …

Cannabinoids Suppress Dendritic Cell-Induced T Helper Cell Polarization, Tangying (Lily) Lu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cannabinoids suppress Th1 immunity in a variety of models including infection with the intracellular pathogen Legionella pneumophila (Lp). To examine the cellular mechanism of this effect, mouse bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DCs) were studied following infection and drug treatment. DCs produced high levels of IL-12p40 following Lp infection. THC suppressed this cytokine response in a concentration-dependent manner and the endocannabinoids 2-arachidonoyolglycerol and virodhamine less potently suppressed cytokine production. DCs expressed mRNA for cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1), CB2, and transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1); furthermore, inhibition of Gi signaling by adding pertussis toxin completely attenuated the suppression induced by …

Control Of Lysogeny In Marine Bacteria: Studies With Φhsic And Natural Populations, Amy K. Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Viruses have an estimated global population size of 10 to the 31st, with a significant proportion found in the marine environment. Viral lysis of bacteria affects the flow of carbon in the marine microbial food web, but the effects of lysogeny on marine microbial ecology are largely unknown. In this thesis, factors that influence the control of lysogeny were studied in both the phiHSIC/Listonella pelagia phage-host system and in bacterioplankton populations in the Gulf of Mexico. Using macroarrays dotted with phiHSIC amplicons, viral gene expression over the course of a synchronous infection experiment was measured. Early, middle, late, and continually …

Evaluation Of The Operational Effects Of U-Turn Movement, Pan Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Florida, the increased installation of non-traversable medians and directional median opening has produced an increased number of U-turns on multilane highways. Arguments have been advanced by some opponents of median modification projects that the increased numbers of U-turns may result in safety and operational problems on multilane highways. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the operational effects of U-turn movement on multilane roadways. To achieve this research objective, extensive data were collected. Field measurements were conducted at 40 sites in the Tampa Bay area of Florida to collect traffic operations data. Besides, the crash histories of …

Copper And Iron Complexes Of Linear And Crosslinked Polymers As Catalysts For Phosphoester Hydrolysis And Oxidative Transformation Of Phenolic And Catecholic Substrates, Vasiliki Lykourinou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to utilize polymers as macromolecular ligands for the construction of catalysts by formation of coordination complexes with transition metals with the main focus on complexes of Cu(II) and Fe(III) and further determine (a) their catalytic efficiency (b) mechanism of action (c) similarities to enzymatic systems and synthetic metal complexes. The reactions of interest are (1) hydrolytic cleavage of a series of phosphoesters(2) oxidation of catechol type of substrates (3) hydroxylation of phenolic substrates and chlorinated phenols (4) activation of molecular oxygen and/ or hydrogen peroxide (5)oxidative cleavage of DNA plasmid.

The major premise of …