Digital Commons Network^™

Walking In The Land Of Cars: Automobile-Pedestrian Accidents In Hillsborough County, Florida, Marc Aaron Poling

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Analyses of traffic accidents are often focused on the characteristics of the accident event and hence do not take into account the broader neighborhood contexts in which accidents are located. This thesis seeks to extend empirical analyses of accidents by understanding the link between accidents and their surroundings. The case study for this thesis is Hillsborough County, Florida, within which the city of Tampa is located. The Tampa Bay region ranks very high in terms of accident rates within U.S. metropolitan areas and is also characterized by transport policies which favor private automobiles over mass transit options, making it an …

Academic Affairs Officers: An Application Of The American Association Of Community Colleges Competencies For Community College Leaders, Misty Renee Price

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades, several studies have confirmed that there is a leadership crisis among the nation's community colleges. In response to this leadership crisis, the American Association of Community Colleges [AACC] commissioned the development of a leadership competency framework consisting of six leadership competency areas deemed "either `very' or `extremely' essential to the effective performance of community college leaders." Since the release of this framework, limited research has been conducted on the importance of and the preparation in the identified competencies. The majority of research that has been conducted has focused on the position of president, even though …

Sensitivity Of Value Added School Effect Estimates To Different Model Specifications And Outcome Measures, Bryce L. Pride

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Model has been used to make many high-stakes decisions concerning schools, though it does not provide a complete assessment of student academic achievement and school effectiveness. To provide a clearer perspective, many states have implemented various Growth and Value Added Models, in addition to AYP. The purpose of this study was to examine two Value Added Model specifications, the Gain Score Model and the Layered Effects Model, to understand similarities and differences in school effect results. Specifically, this study correlated value added school effect estimates, which were derived from two model specifications and two outcome …

Responses To Chemical Exposure By Foraminifera: Distinguishing Dormancy From Mortality, Benjamin James Ross

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010 released an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in the 83 days between the initial explosion and the capping of the well. Response included extensive use of Corexit© oil dispersant. Although South Florida was spared exposure by currents, this event highlights the need for effective bioassay organisms for coral reefs. Amphistegina spp. are benthic foraminifers that host diatom symbionts in a relationship similar to that of coral and their zooxanthellae. Amphistegina spp. occur abundantly in reef communities nearly worldwide, are easily collected and maintained in culture, and are …

The Rhetoric Of Evidence In Recent Documentary Film And Video, Steven W. Schoen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Documentary is a genre of film that portrays "real" events using depictions that connote the objectivity and facticity implied by the processes of photorealism. Many contemporary documentary theorists and critics observe a constitutive problem in this ethos: despite the apparent constructions and agendas of documentary filmmaking, the framing and assumption of documentary as a window on the world tend to naturalize its own constructions as "real." Critics who engage documentary trace the multitude of ways this problem plays out in particular films. These projects yield many important insights, but they most often approach documentary as a form of inherently deficient …

Mas And The Indigenous People Of Bolivia, Maral Shoaei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the past several decades, social movements have spread all across Latin America, sparking hope for change. This thesis analyzes the well-organized mobilizations of the indigenous people of Bolivia and how they have been able to incorporate themselves in state apparatuses, including the election of its first indigenous president, Evo Morales of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) party. The case studied her provides insight into the processes if how political representation was achieved by Bolivia's indigenous people who were for centuries excluded from the political, social and economic arena. It also analyzes the outcomes of Morales' policy changes from 2006 …

Cyberwar And International Law: An English School Perspective, Anthony F. Sinopoli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cyberwar challenges future endeavors of state security. As technological capability has improved, and access to information has become more widespread the importance of the issue in today's ever-globalizing world grows each day. A primary objective is to evaluate the place of cyber-warfare against nation-states and any repercussions under an international law paradigm. Utilizing an English School perspective, emphasis will be applied to the argument that disruptive circumstances could come to fruition if international conventions are not created to bring consensus and order among nation-states on this subject. This study hypothesizes that a future application could be an agreement under international …

Improvisational Music Performance: On-Stage Communication Of Power Relationships, David A. Steinweg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project explores how musical improvisational processes come into being through interacting discursive power relationships that are embodied and enacted through performance. By utilizing the concepts of framing and performativity I am able to show how discursive power constitutes the performance of improvisational music. To exemplify this theory, the project presents a case study examining a Grateful Dead cover band named Uncle John's Band that performs at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa, FL. Using an ethnographic methodology, the project articulates the dominant discursive power relationships that constitute Uncle John's Band's improvisational performances. The dominant discursive power relationships revolve around the lived …

Use And Development Of Computational Tools In Drug Discovery: From Small Molecules To Cyclic Peptides, Daniel Navarrete Santiago

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The scope of this work focuses on computationally modeling compounds with protein structures. While the impetus of drug discovery is the innovation of new therapeutic molecules, it also involves distinguishing molecules that would not be an effective drug. This can be achieved by inventing new tools or by refining old tools. Virtual screening (VS, also called docking), the computational modeling of a molecule in a receptor structure, is a staple in predicting a molecule's affinity for an intended target. In our Virtual Target Screening system (also called inverse-docking), VS is used to find high-affinity targets, which can potentially explain absorption, …

Assessing The Reuse Potential Of Wastewater For Irrigation: The Removal Of Helminth Eggs From A Uasb Reactor And Stabilization Ponds In Bolivia, Matthew Eric Verbyla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Extreme hunger, malnutrition, and the lack of access to sanitation are among the most pressing development challenges, but the world is not on track to meet the targets that have been established by the Millennium Development Goals. The integration of wastewater treatment and food production systems allows for the recovery of resources from wastewater, and can provide an important solution to meet the sanitation needs of growing urban populations and provide periurban farmers with a consistent supply of water and nutrients. Stabilization ponds have been long considered to be an appropriate technology for wastewater reuse systems in developing countries, but …

Two Essays On Corporate Governance, Yuwei Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two related chapters that investigate corporate governance. In the first chapter, we examine the effectiveness of board monitoring on CEOs. It is widely believed that outsider boards are better monitors. In fact, regulations now require that the board of directors of publicly traded firms be composed of a majority of independent directors (or outsiders). However, this paper documents that an insider-dominated board can monitor the CEO just as well as an outsider board can when the firm's CEO is hired from outside. The results suggest that what matters is not so much as the structure of the …

Changes In Attitudes And Behaviors Toward Physical Activity, Nutrition, And Social Support For Middle School Students Using The Afit App As A Suppliment To Instruction In A Physical Education Class, Thomas Andrew Watterson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Finding ways to improve nutritional and physical activity components with today's adolescents is a significant problem. The obesity epidemic is over 10 years old and little research has been done on successful interventions that motivate today's students using the latest technology. A total of 140 middle school students and four physical education teachers participated in a 4-week study using a newly created application (AFIT app) for supplemental teaching in and out of the classroom. Combining a theoretical framework of Self-Determination and motivating strategies implored in today's mobile technology, significance was found using the PACE (2001) instrument in fruits and …

The Homegrown Jihad: A Comparative Study Of Youth Radicalization In The United States And Europe, William Wolfberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Western nations continue to face potential attacks from violent extremist organizations waging a campaign of violence in the name of political Islam. Though these attacks are traditionally labeled as originating from abroad, leaders of these extremist organizations are utilizing a new tactic of radicalizing native or naturalized citizens from within Western countries in an effort to bypass the massive defensive security apparatus Western governments have put in place since the September 11 attacks.

These undistinguishable citizens turned radical jihadists, better known as homegrown terrorists, represent a clear and present danger to the security of the United States. In an effort …

Properties Of Ferroelectric Perovskite Structures Under Non-Equilibrium Conditions, Qingteng Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ferroelectric materials have received lots of attention thanks to their intriguing properties such as the piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects, as well as the large dielectric constants and the spontaneous polarization which can potentially be used for information storage. In particular, perovskite crystal has a very simple unit cell structure yet a very rich phase transition diagram, which makes it one of the most intensively studied ferroelectric materials. In this dissertation, we use effective Hamiltonian, a first-principles-based computational technique to study the finite-temperature properties of ferroelectric perovskites. We studied temperature-graded

(BaxSr1-x )TiO3 (BST) bulk alloys as well as the dynamics of …

Gender Differences In Subtypes Of Workplace Aggression, Zhiqing Zhou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to categorize workplace aggression into nine subtypes based on human aggression and workplace aggression literature, and to examine gender differences in engaging in these subtypes of workplace aggression. Data collected from 366 employed students showed that a significant gender difference was found only in direct workplace aggression and there were no gender differences in the other eight workplace aggression subtypes; verbal, direct, and passive workplace aggression was more frequently used than physical, indirect and active workplace aggression, respectively. Data collected from 83 employee-supervisor pairs showed that compared to supervisors' reports, female employees' self-reports …

Prevailing Torque Locking Feature Wear-Out, Adam Joseph Charles Zimandy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides much needed representative sample data for reuse life of fully seated and torqued locknuts. Most national requirements for prevailing torque locking fasteners only specify unseated reuse life. This could create a potentially dangerous situation if unseated is misinterpreted for seated. This thesis provides comparative data for seated verses unseated configuration. Six aerospace, 3 all-metal and 3 nylon insert, and one non-aerospace locknuts were tested at preloads levels of unseated, 66%, 75%, and 85% of yield of bolt. The locknuts tested are MS21043-4, NAS1291-4, NAS1805-4, MS17825-4, MS21044D4, NAS1021N4, and Grade 8. A fixture was created in order to …

A Phenomenological Study Of Teaching Endangered Languages Online: Perspectives From Nahua And Mayan Educators., Dustin De Felice

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Language and culture teaching has always been a complex and challenging task. For many educators, their teaching experiences are rooted in their earlier preparation, their classroom situations and their curriculum. In this study, indigenous educators recount their lived experiences with teaching their language and culture at a distance. These educators belong to either Nahua or Mayan speech communities where endangered languages are maintained. Using a transcendental phenomenological approach, my participants described and explained their perspectives and experiences with teaching, studying, and integrating technology. I focused the interviews, the reflective writing tasks and their artifact sharing on their experiences in an …

"Are We Supposed To Be The Guy On The Horse?" A Case Study On The Use Of Political Cartoons In The American History Classroom, James Manuel Duran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent reports on the media saturation experienced by the twenty-first century student have brought about an increased interest in focusing attention on the issue of visual literacy in today's schools. Concepts such as instructional personalization, where approaches to curriculum design and instruction are created to concentrate on the individual strengths of the learner, have been promoted by some as a path to improving overall student performance. Many believe that the content of the Social Studies classroom easily lends itself to a visually stimulating approach and as such is an ideal laboratory to test hypotheses on such an approach. This study …

Reflective Practice And Readiness For Self-Directed Learning In Anesthesiology Residents Training In The United States, Amy Katrina Miller Juve

Dissertations and Theses

The science and technology of medicine is evolving and changing at a fast pace. With these rapid advances, it is paramount that physicians maintain a level of medical knowledge that is current and relevant to their practice in order to address the challenges of patient care and safety. One way physicians can maintain a level of medical knowledge that is current and relevant to their practice is through self-directed, lifelong learning, however little is known about how to develop these traits during clinical training. Schön (1983, 1987) theorized that one way learners can become self-directed, lifelong learners is through reflective …

Assessing Environmental Inequality In Portland, Oregon: An Exploration Of Local Environmental Justice Struggles, Jordan Douglas Folks

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores patterns of environmental inequality in Portland, Oregon; both the existence of spatial environmental inequalities and the structural and local forces which contribute to them. Research on environmental inequality, or inequitable exposure to toxins, has shown that minority and low-income populations experience the bulk of the exposure to environmental hazards. Although Portland is often cited as the archetype of a sustainable city, environmental inequality is a pervasive issue. This thesis examines the health inequalities that characterize underserved communities in Portland. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the researcher uses 1) logistic regression to statistically assess the relationship between race, …

Perceived Isolation, Social Integration, And Health Behavior: A Daily Process Examination Of Responses To Loneliness, Sarah Noel Arpin

Dissertations and Theses

Researchers have examined social relationships as a basic need, showing that being well integrated in a network of social ties is related to various positive health outcomes including reduced mortality and risk behavior (e.g. reduced alcohol consumption). Conversely, a lack of strong social ties is related to negative outcomes including depression, suicide, and substance use (Berkman & Syme, 1979; Durkheim, 1951; Sarason, Sarason, & Gurung, 2001). Loneliness, a negative affective experience resulting from relationship deficits, is related to similar health outcomes as social isolation including depression and problematic alcohol use (Cacioppo, Hawkley, Crawford et al., 2002). However, research to date …

Climate Change Effects And Water Vulnerability In The Molalla Pudding River Basin, Oregon, Usa, Susan Amelia Wherry

Dissertations and Theses

Water management plans are typically developed using historical data records and historical return periods for extreme events, such as floods or droughts. Since these analyses of return periods typically assume a certain degree of stationarity (constant mean, standard deviation, distribution) in hydrologic variables, the potential future impacts of climate change are excluded. In developing water management plans, predicted changes to climate variables should be considered to evaluate the degree of non-stationarity that may exist in the future. In this way, regions most sensitive to climate change can be identified and managed appropriately. This study performed such a task by using …

Increasing Social Work Students' Political Interest And Efficacy: The Experience And Impact Of A Social Welfare Policy Course From The Students' Perspective, Christie Dianne Bernklau Halvor

Dissertations and Theses

Students of accredited social work programs are expected to demonstrate ten core competencies, including the ability to "engage in policy practice to advance social and economic well-being and to deliver effective social work services" (Council on Social Work Education, 2008). Despite this expectation, almost half of licensed social workers surveyed disagreed with the notion that they were adequately prepared for political engagement by their social work education (Ritter, 2007). Because social welfare policy courses are the primary curricular means for preparing generalist social workers for political advocacy, this study explores how undergraduate students respond to social welfare policy instructors' efforts …

Engaging Community Food Systems Through Learning Garden Programs: Oregon Food Bank's Seed To Supper Program, Denissia Elizabeth Withers

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to discover whether learning garden programs increase access to locally grown foods and successfully empower and include food insecure populations. This study examined the Oregon Food Bank's Seed to Supper program which situates garden-based learning in food insecure communities. Through a mixed-methods community-based research process, this study found that community building, learner empowerment and sustainability leadership in place-based learning garden programs increased access to locally grown foods for food insecure populations. When food insecure populations participated in these learning garden programs they often engaged in practices described in the literature as the "web of …

Understanding The Experience Of Air Force Single Parents: A Phenomenological Study, Samantha Everhart Blanchard

Dissertations and Theses

Today, raising children under the best of circumstances represents a daunting endeavor as any parent and a growing body of research confirm. When a single parent is on active duty in one of the U.S. armed forces, there are additional challenges involved that may not exist among civilian counterparts. The phenomenon of single parents on active duty with its unique difficulties associated both with single parenting and with military service was the basis of this study. The purpose of the research was twofold: to describe the experiences of Air Force single parents as related to social support and work-life theory …

Black Swans, Ostriches, And Ponzi Schemes, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Toward A Law Of "Lovely Parting Gifts": Conditioning Forum Non Conveniens Dismissals, Thomas O. Main

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Psychological Parentage, Troxel, And The Best Interests Of The Child, Rebecca L. Scharf

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Tsunami: At&T Mobility Llc V. Concepcion Impedes Access To Justice, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Worst Supreme Court Case Ever? Identifying, Assessing, And Exploring Low Moments Of The High Court, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.