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An(Other) Rhetoric: Rhetoric, Ethics, And The Rhetorical Tradition, Kathleen Sandell Hardesty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rhetoric as a discipline is still touched by the shadow of ancient Greece. Rhetoric was defined famously by Aristotle as the "available means of persuasion," codified into five canons in classical Rome, and has since been a central part of Western education to train speakers and writers to effectively move their audiences. However, particularly beginning in the mid-20th Century, the discipline's understanding of rhetoric as a means of persuasion (or even manipulation) passed down from our ancient roots began to shift to a sense of rhetoric as matters of ethics and a concern for the other. It begs the question: …

Investigation Of Condition Effects On Batch Fecundity Of The Common Snook, Centropomus Undecimalis, In Tampa Bay, Florida, Catherine Michelle Bruger Hayslip

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Common snook, Centropomus undecimalis, is a popular game fish species that occurs throughout central and southern Florida, yet many questions remain unanswered regarding their reproductive strategies, including estimates of fecundity with relation to size, age, and condition of the female. These relationships are critical to improving stock assessments and fundamental to estimating spawning potential ratio, the measure by which snook are managed. Spawning snook were collected from a known spawning site, Rattlesnake Key, Tampa Bay, Florida, during three consecutive spawning seasons (2009-2011) and batch fecundity for snook was reported for the first time. Of the 43 females suitable for fecundity …

The Perception Of Emergency Department Physicians Regarding Economic And Regulatory Factors Impacting Management Of Drug Seeking Patients, Sharon Susanne Kelley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Physicians in the emergency department (ED) are facing a number of unique challenges in the currently changing healthcare and economic climates. Dramatic increases in ED patient volumes have been noted nationwide with visits related to prescription opioid abuse and misuse alone having increased by 111% between 2004 and 2008.

Ironically, several challenges ED physicians are facing arise from regulatory and economic initiatives which were originally designed for the protection of patients. Regulatory requirements to address pain as the fifth vital sign, along with entities utilizing patient satisfaction based reimbursement, have inadvertently created an environment conducive to exploitation by the …

Climate, Neo-Spinozism, And The Ecological Worldview, Nancy M. Kettle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The global community faces ecological problems with the natural environment and cultural impediments to solving them. Natural systems are constantly changing and so are cultural practices. Humans need to address both: the interaction between those dynamic systems, the natural and cultural, because what happens in one system changes things in the other. The changes to the ecosystems are rapid and sometimes irreversible while dealing with them has been inadequate. Environmental movements, including deep ecology, have been at the forefront of the efforts to engage the public, various groups, politicians, and world governments to address environmental problems on a coordinated large …

Human Intention Recognition Based Assisted Telerobotic Grasping Of Objects In An Unstructured Environment, Karan Hariharan Khokar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation work, a methodology is proposed to enable a robot to identify an object to be grasped and its intended grasp configuration while a human is teleoperating a robot towards the desired object. Based on the detected object and grasp configuration, the human is assisted in the teleoperation task. The environment is unstructured and consists of a number of objects, each with various possible grasp configurations. The identification of the object and the grasp configuration is carried out in real time, by recognizing the intention of the human motion. Simultaneously, the human user is assisted to preshape over …

Citizens United, The Marketplace, And Influence, Corin Shanti La Pointe-Aitchison

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the rationale used by the Supreme Court in the 2010 case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The majority opinion and dissent were dissected and scrutinized for any weaknesses. After careful review and comparison with First Amendment theories and scholarly articles, it was found that the majority opinion and final decision were poorly reasoned and created a dangerous political communication landscape and a weakened Marketplace of Ideas.

Ocbs And Strain: The Moderating Role Of Control, Kevin Loo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are typically assumed to be beneficial to employees and organizations. However, research has recently questioned this assumption. This study seeks to identify when OCBs are related to various strains and are detrimental to the employee or the organization. Specifically, using a stressor-strain model, it is hypothesized that in general, OCBs will be related to work effort; however, when employees feel pressured to perform OCBs, and thereby feel less control, OCBs will be more related to various strains. The hypotheses were partially supported: under all conditions, OCBs were related to effort, but under conditions of feeling forced, …

Unearthing Augusta: Landscapes Of Royalization On Roatan Island, Honduras, Lorena Diane Mihok

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1742, the settlement of Augusta was established as an outpost of English royalization on Roatán Island, Honduras. This military camp housed a mix of English soldiers, English colonists, and local indigenous Miskitu peoples. While the settlement was occupied for only a brief span of seven years, the material record of the community provides insight into Miskitu-English interactions during the royalization process. Royalization encompassed strategies deployed by the English Crown to bring about loyalty to the state. In this dissertation, I discuss the concept of royalization from an agent-centered perspective to consider the intentions behind the occupants' usage of objects …

Fate Of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers During Wastewater Treatment Process Producing Reclaimed Water, Kristy Siegel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), flame retardants, have been applied to consumer goods, such as furniture, electrical devices, textiles, and appliances for decades. Due to their physico-chemical properties, PBDEs are semi-volatile and easily leach off the consumer good during aging, stress, or normal wear and tear of the good. Once airborne, they pose an environmental health threat because they can adsorb onto dust particles, soil, or other particulates that can be inhaled, ingested, or come into contact with the dermal layer. Additionally, PBDEs have a molecular structure similar to other persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and …

Development Of A Confirmatory Pcr Assay To Detect Onchocerca Volvulus In Pools Of Vector Black Flies, Alex Jeanne Talsma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, has historically represented one of the significant neglected tropical diseases on the planet in terms of socio-economic impact. The discovery that ivermectin was a safe and effective treatment for onchocerciasis, together with the decision of the manufacturer to donate the drug for the treatment of this disease became the basis for several large international programs to control and eventually eliminate the infection. These programs have managed to virtually eliminate transmission of the parasite causing Onchocerca volvulus from many foci in Africa and the Americas. Verifying that transmission has been halted requires sensitive and specific assays to …

Adolescent Literacy Practices And Positive Youth Development Through Fink's Taxonomy Of Significant Learning, Paula Taylor-Greathouse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was not to disprove the effects of the current, common remedial literacy course design and the literacy practices within that help adolescent RLLs pass statewide assessment tests, but to describe the potential long-term impact of an innovative comprehensive approach to literacy (CAL) framed through an integrated course design model. In this study I sought to determine if the 2012 CAL design with a particular demographic of student produced "significant" or lasting learning as defined by Fink (2003). In other words, did the 2012 CAL design promote sustained or increased practices of literacy and PYD over …

Complete Genome Sequences And Phylogeny Of West Nile Virus Isolates From Southeastern United States, 2003-2012, Crystal Wedin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study of the evolution and phylogeny of West Nile virus (WNV) has been an important area of research since the introduction of WNV in 1999. However, genome sequencing of isolates from the Southeastern part of the United States has been somewhat limited. To determine how WNV has evolved at a more localized level, ten isolates from Florida and Georgia from 2003-2012 were completely sequenced using Illumina's next-generation technology. In addition, a phylogenetic comparison of both the complete genome and select partial genomes was completed to ensure consistency among the results. This study further demonstrated the dominance of the North …

Facebook Users' Feedback Of Restaurants: Does It Affect Other Users?, Lauren Rose Webber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the popularity of social media and an increase in the engagement of social care, traditional word-of-mouth communications has been replaced by electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Facebook, the most popular website in the United States, is home to nearly 18 million brand or business pages and may be accessed by social media-users aiming to engage in social care, which is customer service via social media. Extending existing research, this study employed in-depth interviews to determine whether or not social media-users are affected by the feedback of other users on restaurants' Facebook pages. The results of this study suggest that Facebook …

Influence Of Maternal Thyroid Dysfunction On Infant Growth And Development, Ronee Elisha Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thyroid dysfunction is one of the most common endocrine disorders in women of childbearing age and the obstetric consequences of abnormal thyroid hormone levels during pregnancy have been established. Less understood is the implication of the presence of maternal thyroid autoantibodies on infant outcomes among women who are euthyroid during pregnancy. The objective of this study was two-fold: 1) to examine the influence of antenatal thyroperioxidase (TPO) status on fetal/infant brain and body growth measurements at delivery and 2) to explore the relationship of antenatal TPO status and maternal postpartum thyroid dysfunction (PPTD) on early infant growth and neurocognitive development. …

Improving Implementation Of A Regional In-Line Chlorinator In Rural Panama Through Development Of A Regionally Appropriate Field Guide, Benjamin A. Yoakum

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Access to safe drinking water has a direct effect on improving human health and their quality of life. One country still struggling with providing access to safe drinking water to all of its population is Panama. Panama's largest indigenous group, the Ngöbe people, is disproportionately affected by lack of access to safe drinking water. One way Panama's Ministry of Health (MINSA) is attempting to increase access to safe drinking water to the Ngöbe people is by disinfecting the water already captured by rural gravity fed water systems constructed within in the Ngöbe-Bugle reservation. This is accomplished using an in-line chlorinator …

Media And Usf Students' Perception Of Terrorism, Mamdoh Suleiman Al-Ameri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the influence of mass media on students' perceptions of terrorism by applying the situational theory of publics (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). Behavior is the consequence of perception of reality. But perception of reality is not always consistent with the reality itself. Because of the important role of the media in shaping perceptions, terrorist organizations rely on it to spread fear and advance their political goals beyond the people directly affected by their attacks. The media not only spreads the news of an attack, it contributes significantly to formulating and disseminating the message of terrorist organizations. This study …

Factors Prospective Students Consider When Selecting An Mba Program, Lorie Plyler Briggs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper adds to existing literature regarding MBA selection processes and helps identify and better understand the needs that motivate consumers to pursue an MBA degree. Through a series of qualitative, one-on-one interviews with 17 brand-new MBA students or prospective students, this research found that while many people have "always wanted" to earn the advanced degree, most have toyed with the idea of a graduate business degree for many years. The most frequent reasons that people cite regarding their decision to seriously consider an MBA at a large southern university centers around four desires. These are, not surprisingly, the desire …

Faculty Perceptions Of The Importance Of Internationalizing The General Education Curriculum In The Florida College System, Bonnie M. Clark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of community college general education faculty members regarding their perceptions of the importance of internationalizing the general education curriculum and to what extent those perceptions are related to their attitudes toward globalization. The study further examined the degree to which faculty members perceive that they are incorporating the teaching of global competencies into their courses. Finally, the study looked at faculty members' perceptions of administrative support - both from the perspective of what they felt their college should be doing to support internationalization and what their college was actually doing …

"It's This Simple, You Really Have To Want To Be Together": A Qualitative Study Of African American Military Couples, Emelda Curry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have reported that African American couples in the military are less likely to divorce than their civilian counterparts. This dissertation was designed to document the experiences of African American military couples in order to understand the challenges they face while serving in the armed forces and the strategies they have used to maintain their marriages. A grounded theory approach was utilized to produce 12 main themes that categorize experiences of both the individual and the couple within the context of their respective military branch. Photo-elicitation was incorporated into semi-structured interviews with 10 couples to identify what they consider …

A Study On Lane-Change Recognition Using Support Vector Machine, Weiping Deng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses primary on recognition of lane-change behaviors using support vector machines (SVMs). Previous research and statistical results show that the vast majority of motor vehicle accidents are caused by driver behavior and errors. Therefore, the interpretation and evaluation of driver behavior is important for road safety analysis and improvement. The main limit to understanding driver behavior is the data availability. In particular, a full-scale lane-change data set is difficult to collect in a real traffic environment because of the safety and cost issues. Considering the data demands of the recognition model development and the obstacles of field data …

Predicting Tablet Computer Use: An Extended Technology Acceptance Model, Adam J. Ducey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While information technology has rapidly changed work in the United States in the past 50 years, some businesses and industries have been slow to adopt new technologies. Healthcare is one industry that has lagged behind in information technology investment for a variety of reasons. Recent federal initiatives to encourage IT adoption in the healthcare industry provide an ideal context to study factors that influence technology acceptance. Data from 261 practicing pediatricians were collected to evaluate an extended Technology Acceptance Model. Results indicated that individual (i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use), organizational (i.e., subjective norm), and device (i.e., compatibility, reliability) …

A Warranted Domain Theory And Developmental Framework For A Web-Based Treatment In Support Of Physician Wellness, David Scott Donnelly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study employed a design-based research methodology to develop a theoretically sound approach for designing instructional treatments. The instruction of interest addressed the broad issue of physician wellness among medical school faculty, with particular emphasis on physician self-diagnosis and self-care. The theoretically sound approach comprised a domain theory and design framework. The domain theory was posited subsequent to an examination of the literature, and subjected to expert examination through three cycles of instructional treatment development. The design framework for crafting the treatment was created from components of existing frameworks, and evolved with the cycles of development. The instructional treatment was …

Survivorship, Infertility And Parenthood: Experiencing Life After Cancer In Puerto Rico, Karen Elizabeth Dyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While incidence rates are increasing for many cancers in Puerto Rico, mortality rates are declining (Torres-Cintron, et al. 2010), resulting in growing numbers of survivors and creating a situation in which long-term survivorship concerns are beginning to emerge as priorities. The importance of quality-of-life among survivors of cancer is increasingly being recognized among healthcare providers, although there remains a gap in knowledge of how young adult survivors cope with long-term treatment-related physical effects, such as infertility, and of the impact of cancer on survivors' social relationships and future goals.

Because understandings of "cancer survivorship," as well as of reproduction, vary …

Significance Is Bliss: A Global Feminist Analysis Of The Liberian Truth And Reconciliation Commission And Its Privileging Of Americo-Liberian Over Indigenous Liberian Women's Voices, Morgan Lea Eubank

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of my research is to analyze the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (LTRC) lack of attention towards accessing rural Liberian women's voices as opposed to privileged Liberian women residing in urban and Diaspora spaces. By analyzing the LTRC and its Final Report from a critical global feminist perspective, I was able to not only illuminate, but bring a spotlight over issues including access, privilege, and multicultural insensitivity related to Liberia's indigenous tribal cultures. Liberia, being a country founded by American colonials, is socially constructed by Western ideological norms. As Western ideology is mainly normalized and enforced by the …

The Role Of Consumer Gender Identity And Brand Concept Consistency In Evaluating Cross-Gender Brand Extensions, Laura Rose Frieden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cross-gender brand extensions are a developing and valuable strategy that has quickly grown to become a vital component of strategic communications management. The goal of this study is to gain a greater insight on what makes for a successful cross-gender brand extension. In order to expand upon the Basic Model of Brand Extension Evaluation (Doust & Esfahlan, 2012), this study examines how marketing factors, more specifically product positioning, combined with consumer gender roles and brand concept, affect how consumers evaluate cross-gender brand extensions. In the past gender and brand concept have been studied within cross-gender brand extension research. Yet, the …

Making A Difference In The Lives Of Students: Successful Teachers Of Students Of Color With Disabilities Or Who Are At-Risk Of Identification Of Disabilities At A High-Performing High-Poverty School, Tristan L. Glenn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban settings are described in scholarly literature as areas beset with high concentrations of poverty, high incidences of crime and violence, and are typically occupied by high percentages of people of color (McKinney, Flenner, Frazier, & Abrams, 2006; Mitcham, Portman, & Dean, 2009; Vera, 2011). For many children who live in low-income urban school districts, our educational system is failing them (McKinney, Flenner, Frazier, & Abrams, 2006). Swanson-Gehrke (2005) reported that at least two-thirds of these children fail to reach basic levels of achievement in reading. Such dismal achievement results may be attributed to a myriad of issues faced by …

Organization Public Relationships On Social Media: The Experience Of Those Who "Like" Oreo On Facebook, Rodobaldo Miguel Gonzalez Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite a growing amount of research on social media, little research has been conducted to investigate why consumers connect with brands on Facebook. As companies continue to expand their presence to the social networking website, a gap in research on social media has formed. This study focuses on consumer's connection with a brand on Facebook. To do this, this research focuses on the connection of consumers with Oreo on the website to identify the environment created that engages those who connect with the brand online. Oreo was selected as the focus of the research due to its popularity on Facebook …

Language Access Laws And Legal Issues: A Local Official's Guide, David Jung, Noemí O. Gallardo

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Public Space And Urban Life: A Spatial Ethnography Of A Portland Plaza, Katrina Leigh Johnston

Dissertations and Theses

The Urban Center Plaza at Portland State University is a high profile place situated in downtown Portland, Oregon. In some ways it is the ideal university plaza providing space for eating, conversing, or limited recreational activity. It is a place that has been studied before, but not in a more in-depth method incorporating quantitative and qualitative analyses. It is also a place that has gone through several stages of development and is the target of many opinions based on casual observations, at times due to these changes. This thesis focuses on an ethnography of place in this particular plaza in …

Portland, Oregon's Long Hot Summers: Racial Unrest And Public Response, 1967-1969, Joshua Joe Bryan

Dissertations and Theses

The struggles for racial equality throughout northern cities during the late-1960s, while not nearly as prevalent within historical scholarship as those pertaining to the Deep South, have left an indelible mark on both the individuals and communities involved. Historians have until recently thought of the civil rights movement in the north as a violent betrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of an inclusive and integrated society, as well as coinciding with the rise, and subsequent decline, of Black Power. But despite such suppositions, the experiences of northern cities immersed in the civil rights struggle were far more varied …