Digital Commons Network^™

Building Trust And Collaboration With Rural Minorities: Experiences With Minority Farmers In The Mississippi Delta, Ari Mwachofi

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The paper focuses on the question “What research approach is effective in building trust with minority farmers?” The question is answered through a documentation of researchers’ experiences building trust and collaboration with minority farmers in the lower Mississippi Delta. The researchers applied two research paradigms -logical positivism and paradigm of praxis. The logical positivism research approach was met with mistrust and open animosity and had to be abandoned for one based on the paradigm of praxis. Through this approach, and cognizant of the historical-social-political context, the researchers included insiders from the focus population as collaborators and researchers and succeeded in …

Disparities In Cause-Specific Cancer Survival By Census Tract Poverty Level In Idaho, U.S., Christopher J. Johnson, Aliza K. Fink, Robert R. German

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Objective. This population-based study compared cause-specific cancer survival by socioeconomic status using methods to more accurately assign cancer deaths to primary site. Methods. The current study analyzed Idaho data used in the Accuracy of Cancer Mortality Statistics Based on Death Certificates (ACM) study supplemented with additional information to measure cause-specific cancer survival by census tract poverty level. Results. The distribution of cases by primary site group differed significantly by poverty level (chi-square = 265.3, 100 df, p In the life table analyses, for 8 of 24 primary site groups investigated, and all sites combined, there was a significant gradient relating …

Influence Of Obesity, Race And Gender On Cardiac Catheterization After Stress Testing, Robert Finkelhor

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Female gender and black race have been associated with lower use of cardiac resources however; these patients also have a higher prevalence of obesity. Therefore we determined their relation to cardiac catheterization after stress testing. Clinical characteristics were determined for all patients stress tested over one year at a safety-net, urban, teaching hospital. Subsequent cardiac catheterizations were identified. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the factors associated with catheterization. 3644 patients underwent stress testing and 484 (13%) underwent cardiac catheterization. The population was 58% female, 33% black, 53% were obese and 32% lacked insurance. Obese patients were mostly …

Agnes Von Lilien: A Translation By Kari Stolzenburg, Kari M. Stolzenburg

Theses and Dissertations

The novel Agnes von Lilien by Caroline von Wolzogen, although celebrated during the period of Weimar Classicism, was not generally well known to English-speaking readers and researchers until recently. This project aims to address this situation by creating an easily accessible English translation of the novel complete with critical annotations for the benefit of researchers and lay readers alike. The annotated translation presented in this work is an excerpt of the full translation of the work drawn in particular from the first third of the novel. This novel, first published in 1798, reflects many ideals of the Enlightenment, as well …

A Culture Of Camaraderie: Examining Emotional Intelligence Competencies And Academic Library Disaster Team Members Attributes, Frances C. Wilkinson

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This qualitative case study examines the relationship between emotional intelligence competencies and the personal attributes of academic library disaster response assistance team members who led their libraries to recover from a disaster. Using appreciative inquiry protocol to conduct individual and focus group interviews at two academic libraries — the University of Iowa, which suffered a flood in 2008 and the University of New Mexico, which underwent a fire in 2006 — this research contributes to understanding disaster team members emotional intelligence. The study presents findings from emergent thematic coding of interview transcripts, documents, and artifacts. The overarching theme was one …

Sediment Transport And Distribution Over Continental Shelves: A Glimpse At Two Different River-Influenced Systems, The Cariaco Basin And The Amazon Shelf., Laura Lorenzoni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation was to understand lithogenic suspended sediment transport mechanisms and distribution in two river-influenced margins: The Cariaco Basin, Venezuela, and the Amazon Shelf, Brazil. Lithogenic sediment input in the Cariaco Basin is controlled by small mountainous rivers (SMR), while in the Amazon Shelf it is dominated by the Amazon River, the largest river in the world in terms of freshwater discharge (~20% of global riverine discharge). Optical transmissometer measurements were coupled with particulate organic matter (POM) observations to understand changes in the geochemical composition of suspended sediment and spatial/temporal distributions over the two regions of interest. …

Responding To Natural Hazards: The Effects Of Disaster On Residential Location Decisions And Health Outcomes, James Ian Price

Economics ETDs

Exposure to natural hazards is rapidly increasing due to growing populations within floodplains and along hazard-prone coastlines. This trend, coupled with potential increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events from climate change, underscores the importance of disaster research and continued advancements in hazard risk mitigation. This dissertation conducts analyses regarding the effects of natural hazards on residential location choice, county migration rates, mental health status, and displacement. The results have practical implications for disaster risk management. Chapter 2 estimates household willingness-to-pay to live in lower hazard-risk areas. A model of residential location choice is developed in which …

Hegemonic Rivalry In The Maghreb: Algeria And Morocco In The Western Sahara Conflict, Michael D. Jacobs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Western Sahara has been in a state of political crisis since Spain granted the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. While Morocco has attempted to incorporate the region within its borders, the Polisario Front (Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro) has challenged Morocco's claims and proclaimed they are the voice of the indigenous Sahrawi people. Algeria, home to a majority of the Sahrawi refugees, continues to support the Polisario and their goal of independence from Morocco.

Yet, does Algeria have an ulterior motive for their actions beyond support for a displaced people? This …

Sustainable Water Supply For The Village Of Kpandu Dafor, Volta Region, Ghana, Amy Louise

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

This report describes the design of a water distribution system for the village of Kpandu Dafor. The water distribution system consists of the source of water, four designs of the distribution system, water-storage tank, septic tank systems, and chlorination system. The source of water was one of the three boreholes that can provide water at 70 or 80 liters per minute (Lpm). EPANET was used to develop the four different pipe designs for the water distribution system. The pipes were designed to be 24.5-, 32-, 50-, 63-, and 90-millimeter (mm) polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with flow of 0.225 liters per second …

Counting Nature And The Nature Of Counting, Natasha Affolder

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Biodiversity protection is becoming increasingly reliant on metrics, lists, and indicators. Check the box approaches to taking biodiversity into account attempt to reduce complex concepts, and contested science, into simple standards, often translated into numerical representation. The acronyms alone associated with such attempts to numerically account for and prioritize nature are mind boggling even for the initiated: are habitats IBAs (Important Bird Areas), IPAs (Indigenous Protected Areas), AZE (Alliance for Zero Extinction) sites, KBAs (Key Biodiversity Areas)? List-based approaches dominate both international treaties (the World Heritage Convention, the Ramsar Convention, CITES) and leading international instruments such as the IUCN Red …

It's Nothing Personal, Kelly Ross

Criticism

Review ofImpersonality: Seven Essays by Sharon Cameron. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. 272. $65.00 cloth. $25.00 paper.)

Blog Post, Maps (In All Caps) Part I, 'Burg Blogs, July 3, 2012, Zach Westmark

USF St. Petersburg Campus News and Press Releases

No abstract provided.

Legacy Of Betrayal: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison Of The Cherokee Removal And The Highland Clearances, Lisa Brown

History ETDs

In my work I offer a comparative study of the removal experiences of the Cherokees of Georgia and the Sutherland Gaels in the Highlands of Scotland. Examining the effects of colonialism and cultural imperialism on indigenous populations, the following examines the ways in these peoples mediated their colonial experiences through their own cultural mores, how the removals were carried out, and the resultant impact on these indigenes. The following focuses largely on the role of acculturation, or assimilation, of the elite into the colonizing societys values and life ways, and how this led to a growing distance between the chiefs …

Recordando Nuestra Gente: Ritual Memorialization Along The Camino Real De Tierra Adentro, Theresa J. CóRdova

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation provides a contemporary study of the memorialization and ritual practices that serve as historical markers of community cultural mapping along the region of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. The dissertation features two explicit case studies involving separate tragic stories of death of two women prior to consummating their marriage and the memorialization that intersects their cultural identities from distinct communities--one from the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, who died in 1930, and the other from El Rito, New Mexico who died in 1997. By juxtaposing their stories I sought to interconnect the lives and experiences of Chicana/o, Hispana/o, …

Colorado Stories: Interpreting History For Public Audiences At The History Colorado Center, William Convery Iii

History ETDs

Interpreting cultural conflict at History Colorados communities exhibit, Colorado Stories, created a three-way dialogue between scholars, museum audiences, and community stakeholders. Four communities, Amache, Sand Creek, Lincoln Hills, and the Latino borderlands of southern Colorado required particular care. The interpretation for each of these communities was inherently political, requiring careful contextual study, audience research and occasionally bruising negotiations with stakeholders. The formulation of the Colorado Stories exhibit reveals the intersection of history, memory, representation, and the creation of historical narratives for lay audiences. At the same time, they remind historians of the importance of blending scholarship with a willingness to …

Ars Audax: The Myth Of The Flight Of Icarus And Its Reception Since Antiquity, Jessica Rose Wells

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

When considering the reception of Icarus, scholars traditionally have not taken into account the focalizing character. In this thesis I argue that there are two divergent threads of reception for the Icarus myth, stemming from the versions in Ovids Ars Amatoria and Metamorphoses and in Horace's Odes. I demonstrate that the manner in which each author employs Icarus — whether he is the object of focalization or the subject of focalization — and the manner in which each author employs the concept of audacia ('daring') and makes use of sailing metaphors constitute distinct reception threads. I then trace these threads …

A River Of Voices: Confluences And Cross-Currents In The Discourse Of The Colorado River, Paul Formisano

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation argues that the Colorado River and its watershed face a crisis of representation as privileged nineteenth-century myths portraying the American West as a frontier, garden, and wilderness have limited an understanding of what and whom the river is for. It examines the contribution of tributary voices' or the lesser known perspectives from the region to reveal new lines of thinking about this river and its surroundings as they engage the traditional views of the river shaped by these myths. The voices examined at length in this study include contemporary nature writer Craig Childs, recent female boating narratives by …

Canadian Experience With Watershed Protection And Governance, Jamie Benidickson

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper will survey the status of watersheds in the Canadian legislative and regulatory framework at the federal and provincial levels. While some watershed-oriented regimes such as Conservation Authorities in the province of Ontario have been in place for a number of decades there have been numerous recent developments. These have been encouraged in part by source water protection planning as encouraged through the work of the Walkerton Inquiry and to some degree in conjunction with the Watershed Initiative of the International Joint Commission.

Notable provincial initiatives are evident in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia or are under consideration …

Linkage In 21st Century Global Environmental Governance, Andrew Long

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The apex of formal international law development to address environmental issues may have occurred in the 1990s, as evidenced by the difficulty in negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, but the increasing globalization of environmental law creates opportunities for regulatory innovation at the international level that may prove more successful than “traditional” state-to-state international law. A key characteristic of globalization in any field is increasing linkage, which includes linkage of national and international law and greater understanding of the linkages between nations that require coordinated management of common issues. For this reason, among others, globalization of environmental law appears …

Quantitative Reasoning And Sustainability, Corrine H. Taylor

Numeracy

Quantitative Reasoning and Sustainability have much in common. Both are complex, nuanced concepts with rather long definitions that have evolved over time. Both subjects are “everybody’s business” on college campuses, and must be approached in courses across the curriculum, not merely in one course on QR or in one course on Sustainability. The growing, wider presence of both QR and Sustainability on college campuses is due to their applicability in individuals’ personal, professional, and public lives. Moreover, QR and Sustainability support and enhance each other in and out of the classroom. Sustainability is an important, authentic, relevant context for lessons …

Cooking For The Patria: The Seccion Femenina And The Politics Of Food And Women During The Franco Years, Suzanne Dunai

History ETDs

This study elucidates the importance of cooking manuals and recipe collections published by the Sección Femenina de la Falange (Womens Section of the Falange, 1934-1977) during the Franco Dictatorship (1939-1975) in Spain. The organization emphasized its dedication to pursuing women's interests to the political apparatus in its political rhetoric and experienced a substantial amount of autonomy from the Franco regime in communicating feminine ideals and social reform to the Spanish public. Recipes and cooking instruction provided the organization a unique way to access Spanish homes and reform the quotidian habits of Spanish women. The ideology of the Sección Femenina emphasized …

Occidental Encounters: Early Nineteenth-Century Egyptian Travelers To Europe, Omran Doaa

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This study aims to examine nineteenth-century Occidentalism on which little research has been done. Understanding how the East views the West is not just an end in itself, but it can help us better understand post-colonial theory, which has always been more skewed towards Western views. The study will look at some of the tenets of modern Occidentalism, among them powerless discourse, knowledge, ambivalence, emancipation of women and the use of religion in legitimizing the discourse. I will also investigate the erroneous conception that Occidentalism is the opposite of Orientalism. Even though both fields of post-colonial theory share some common …

Analytical Interpretation Of The Patient Centered Medical Home: A Meta-Review Of The Literature, Bethaney Fehrenkamp

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Medical care in the United States is plagued by extremely high costs, inconsistent quality and fragmented delivery at best. In response to these issues new concepts of integrated health care delivery systems have been developed. The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an increasingly popular health care delivery model that emphasizes continuous coordinated patient care. In theory, the PCMH takes a preventative approach to medicine that addresses the individual not the disease, and takes a holistic approach to health care. The PCMH model has been shown to lower health care costs while improving health care outcomes. Despite PCMH being a new …

A Comprehensive Approach To Teaching The Blues In The Music Classroom, James Balagurchik

Music ETDs

The purpose of this thesis is to provide music educators with suggestions of how to make the blues a part of their instruction and present this unique art form as a vibrant and living' genre critical to the understanding of our own American musical heritage. This thesis explores the music, history and culture, viewing 'music as culture,' and the African-American tradition whose contribution defines so much of our American music. It discusses the ways in which the blues can fit into a comprehensive and discipline-based approach to music education that satisfies the goals as set forth by the National Standards …

Disciplinary Permeations: Complicating The "Public" And The "Private" Dualism In Composition And Rhetoric, Erica E. Rogers

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As Composition and Rhetoric rose in disciplinary status and academic legitimacy the discourse practice of negation, the positioning of texts in oppositional binaries that set the “new” over the “old,” the “novel” over the “familiar,” became embedded in academic tradition, seeming to be an inherited part of scholarship instead of an individual’s rhetorical choice and deliberate ethos strategy. Negation, when one idea or set of ideas constructed by another is critiqued, advocated, and/or redeveloped by another scholar, is a discourse practice firmly established in the Rhetorical Tradition as part of Socratic dialogues, reappears in “modern rhetoric”, and remains today as …

Diversification And Conservation In The South American Dry Biomes: Distribution Modeling And Multilocus Lizard Phylogeography, Fernanda Werneck

Theses and Dissertations

The understanding of diversification of intraspecific lineages can shed light on speciation processes and ultimately biogeographic patterns across multiple spatial and temporal scales. In this dissertation I investigated the geographical and ecological factors promoting diversification across the South American dry diagonal biomes (i.e. Cerrado, Chaco, and Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests - SDTFs), through a coupled approach between multilocus phylogeographic and geospatial methods, in the larger context of interpreting the consequences of the resulting patterns for the conservation of biodiversity and evolutionary processes. In Chapter 1 I evaluate biogeographic hypotheses previously proposed and emphasize that the dry diagonal biomes are particularly …

The Importance Of Arts Education And Not Leaving A Child Behind, Amanda J. Urbanski

Research Papers

Despite the fact that the arts are regarded as a core curriculum classes in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), it is still regarded as a subject that is not as important as math or science in America’s public schools. Upon extensive research, it is clear that this act has many issues. These issues tend to hover around whether or not arts education is important. Like many of the author’s cited in this paper, this writer agrees that change needs to happen in policy on a national level. Because a direct route to policy change is a long-term goal, …

High-Resolution Niche Models Via A Correlative Approach: Comparing And Combining Correlative And Process-Based Information, Victor Bogosian Iii, Eric C. Hellgren, Michael W. Sears, Raymond W. Moody

Publications

Correlative and process-based approaches to describing the ecological niche in a spatially explicit fashion have often been compared in an adversarial framework. We sought to compare niche models developed via classic (correlative only), niche (process-based information), and hybridized (correlative augmented with process-based derived information) approaches, with the goal of determining if the added effort of process-based model development yielded better model fit. Correlative data layers (i.e., habitat models) included vegetation community types, Euclidean distance statistics, neighborhood analyses, and topographically-derived information. Mechanistic data layers were estimates of thermal suitability derived from field-collected datasets and biophysical calculations, and estimates of prey biomass …

The Integrated Impact Indicator (I3), The Top-10% Excellence Indicator, And The Use Of Non-Parametric Statistics, Loet Leydesdorff Prof, Lutz Bornmann Dr

Research Trends

We present an explanation of an innovative new approach to using citation data in research evaluation.

Bibliometrics And Urban Research: Part Ii: Mapping Author Affiliations, Matthew Richardson

Research Trends

Research Trends takes another look at the field of urban research, with maps of the author community.