Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Influence Of Perceived Self-Efficacy On Treatment Outcomes For Aphasia, Allison B. Dunn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Perceived self-efficacy has been shown to be an accurate predictor of one's performance capabilities (Zimmerman, 2000). Low levels of perceived self-efficacy have been found to correlate with negative performance outcomes; while high levels of perceived self-efficacy correlate with positive performance outcomes. This construct has also been found to influence an individual's motivation level, goal setting ability, and risk for depression (Resnick, 2002; Phillips & Gully, 1997; Blazer, 2002). Therefore, perceived levels of self-efficacy may predict and influence performance of individuals with aphasia during a treatment program. However, the influence of self-efficacy on treatment for aphasia has not been sufficiently studied. …

Job Satisfaction Of Community College Academic Deans, Donald Gary Goff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to conduct a national survey to examine job satisfaction of community college academic deans as measured by the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and an Individual Data Sheet (IDS) and to determine if academic deans will pursue the community college presidency in meeting the current leadership crisis. This study assessed the relationship of selected personal characteristics, unit-related characteristics, facets of job satisfaction, and career aspirations of academic deans. Six research questions directed this study. Four hundred community college academic deans were randomly assigned as participants and represented all 50 states. The usable response rate from …

A Heuristic Methodology For Locating Monitoring Stations To Detect Contamination Events In Potable Water Distribution Systems, James R. Chastain Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The requirements to protect public water systems from intentional contamination have expanded in the years following September 11, 2001. The areal extent and non-linear nature of water demand and movement in the distribution system makes efficient location of sampling points difficult. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that contamination conceptually can occur at any point and at any time within the distribution system. Small to mid-sized water systems are especially at a disadvantage in addressing this issue due to limited resources available to them.

This paper proposes a heuristic methodology to identify strategic locations within the system that can …

A Multilevel Modeling Analysis Of The Geographic Variability Of Low Birth Weight Occurrence In Florida, Joseph William Green

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The associations of neighborhood level socioeconomic deprivation and low birth weight were investigated among 1,030,443 singleton live births in the State of Florida between the years 1992 and 1997. Census data for per capita income, unemployment, percent of individuals living below the poverty line, vehicle ownership and educational attainment were used as neighborhood level indicators of socioeconomic status. Additionally, these variables were combined into a deprivation index to measure relative deprivation of neighborhoods across Florida. Birth data were linked to census block groups and tracts, which were used as proxies for low birth weight. Multilevel models were used to model …

The Effects Of Varying Plating Variables On The Morphology Of Palladium Nanostructures For Hydrogen Sensing Applications, Ophir Ortiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Present state-of-the-art hydrogen sensors are limited by a number of defects such as poisoning effects, slow response, and/or the range of concentrations that can be detected. Thus, hydrogen sensors are currently under investigation. In the search for the ultimate sensor, a variety of materials have been employed as the sensing layer. One of these materials is palladium. Palladium is widely used for hydrogen sensing due to its high selectivity and property of spontaneously absorbing hydrogen. Thin and thick film palladium hydrogen sensors have been reported, as well as palladium nanostructures. Specifically, palladium nanowires for hydrogen sensing have had improved results …

The Generation Of A Digital Phantom For Testing Of Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs, Nicholas Andrew, Mason

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The construction of phantoms for testing imaging parameters has been well documented in the literature. As computers have been introduced into the different areas of medicine, they have become more and more relied upon to replace conventional technologies. One specific example is that of plane film X-rays. Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs (DRR's) are computer generated images that are generated from a 3 D volume of data, such as CT or MRI axial scans, and can be used in place of conventional X rays. The computer can generate a DRR image for any position, orientation and magnification, and geometries not physically possible …

A Complete Probabilistic Framework For Learning Input Models For Power And Crosstalk Estimation In Vlsi Circuits, Nirmal Munuswamy Ramalingam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Power disspiation is a growing concern in VLSI circuits. In this work we model the data dependence of power dissipation by learning an input model which we use for estimation of both switching activity and crosstalk for every node in the circuit. We use Bayesian networks to effectively model the spatio-temporal dependence in the inputs and we use the probabilistic graphical model to learn the structure of the dependency in the inputs. The learned structure is representative of the input model. Since we learn a causal model, we can use a larger number of independencies which guarantees a minimal structure. …

Relationship Advertising: Investigating The Strategic Appeal Of Intimacy (Disclosure) In Services Marketing, Andrea Diahann Gaye Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One approach to communicating and thereby building a close relationship with consumers is via advertising. In other words, if service providers can invoke feelings of connection and intimacy--where consumers feel understood, cared for, and validated--through advertising, a stronger bond and sense of loyalty is likely to follow. When intimacy is conceived as knowing and being known by another, which incorporates mutual and reciprocal (though not necessarily equal) liking and vulnerability, its application extends beyond romantic relationships to the current context of relationship and services marketing. This research provides empirical support for the use of intimacy as an appeal in services …

Relationships Among Early Lexical And Literacy Skills And Language-Literacy Environments At Home And School, Joseph L. Constantine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This observational study examined the relationships among home literacy environments, classroom language-literacy environments, and lexical and early literacy skills for 101 (56 male, 45 female) preschool and kindergarten children between the ages of 48 and 69 months. Data for multiple regression analyses were collected from 14 classrooms across 7 early childhood education centers in central Florida using the Home Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ), the Early Language & Literacy Classroom Observation Toolkit (ELLCO), and the Kaufman Survey of Early Academic and Language Skills (KSEALS). Seven classrooms scored in the proficient-to-exemplary range on the ELLCO; 3 were rated as basic, and 4 were …

Review Of Wild Heart: A Life. Natalie Clifford Barney's Journey From Victorian America To The Literary Salons Of Paris By Suzanne Rodriguez, Tama L. Engelking

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Equality News (Fall 2004), Maggie Allen

Equality news / EqualityMaine (2004-2008)

No abstract provided.

Family Affairs Newsletter 2004-10-01, Jean Vermette

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

The Newsletter (Fall 2004), Pam Mccann, Maine Speakout Project

Newsletter / Maine Speakout Project (2004)

No abstract provided.

Innovating National Sovereignty And The Just War Tradition, Gary M. Simpson

Faculty Publications

The two-thousand-year-old just war tradition is now read anew in light of the more recent Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Responsibility to Protect document. Eleanor Roosevelt played no small part in moving things in this new direction.

Performative Commemoratives, The Personal, And The Public: Spontaneous Shrines, Emergent Ritual, And The Field Of Folklore, Jack Santino

Popular Culture Faculty Publications

AFS Presidential Plenary Address, 2004

Hölder Continuity Of Green’S Functions, Ferenc Toókos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We investigate local properties of the Green function of the complement of a compact set E.

First we consider the case E ⊂ [0, 1] in the extended complex plane. We extend a result of V. Andrievskii which claims that if the Green function satisfies the Hölder1/2 condition locally at the origin, then the density of E at 0, in terms of logarithmic capacity, is the same as that of the whole interval [0, 1]. We give an integral estimate on the density in terms of the Green function, which also provides a necessary condition for the optimal smoothness. …

Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ: Market Segmentation, Mass Marketing And Promotion, And The Internet, Peter A. Maresco

WCBT Faculty Publications

The pre-release publicity surrounding the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, warrants an in-depth look at the role that market segmentation and marketing promotion, including use of the Internet, have played in the overall success of the film. As background, films commonly classified as biblical epics are referenced in order to construct a framework that will demonstrate how the promotion of this genre of film, with the exception of the Internet, has essentially changed very little over time. This paper is not a review of the film nor is it intended to be a brief course in marketing. …

"Fictual" Reportage And (Virtual) Reality: Truman Capote's In Cold Blood And Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, Rania M. Mahmoud

English Theses & Dissertations

This study discusses Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. using Jean Baudrillard's theory of the four stages of the image and John Hellmann's notion of the transforming power of consciousness. Examining two landmarks of what is widely referred to as the nonfiction novel, or creative nonfiction, the study suggests that any attempt to record reality ends up as fabulation, whereby the writer produces his/her own version of reality. Thus, we have multiple realities or, in other words, fables woven out of the interpretive consciousness of individual writers. Taking this a step further, since all our …

W(H)Ine And Roses, Robert M. Jarvis

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Peer-Related Risk And Protective Factors For Body Image Disturbance And Disordered Eating Among Adolescent Girls, Hemal M. Shroff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has documented the impact of peer influences on adolescents for health risk behaviors such as smoking and drinking alcohol. However, few studies have done an in-depth investigation of peer-related risk and protective factors affecting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among adolescent girls. The study sample consisted of 344 adolescent girls from high schools in Pasco County, Florida. Participants completed questionnaires assessing the impact of peers on their weight and appearance attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Participants also identified their close friends (using a coding system) and rated their own figures. Trained research assistants provided objective figure ratings for the participants. …

Deterioration Process And Deck Failure Mechanism Of Florida’S Precast Deck Panel Bridges, Ivan A. Gualtero

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the late 70's and early 80's, several precast deck panel bridges were constructed in Florida. These utilize prestressed precast panels as stay-in-place forms and are designed to act compositely with a cast-in-place deck which is poured subsequently. Such bridges offer advantages of quicker construction and lower costs. However, several such bridges built in Florida developed extensive cracking and spalling. Following localized failures, the Florida Department of Transportation has decided to replace all 127 precast panel deck bridges in Districts 1 and 7. Since deck replacement is contingent on funding, it is necessary to develop a rational procedure to decide …

Community Participation And Consensus In Hiv/Aids Prevention: An Exploration Of The Suzgo, The Issues Of Aids In Malawi, Jon Aaron Poehlman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

After more than twenty years of increasing understanding of the human immunodeficiency virus known as HIV, the virus continues to spread throughout the world, manifesting itself lethally in the form of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). With no cure or affordable treatment presently available for the majority of the people of sub-Saharan Africa and the African nation of Malawi, work aimed at preventing the spread of the virus continues to be the best strategy for lessening its impact, both at a personal level and across populations.

Most people and communities in this part of the world demonstrate some understanding …

Utility Of Positive Peer Reporting To Improve Interactions Among Children In Foster Care, Jenny L. Van Horn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the utility of positive peer reporting to improve placement outcomes in foster care settings. Rejected children are likely to exhibit disruptive behavior problems due to frequent negative interactions with their peers, augmenting an already unstable environment in foster care. Researchers have found positive peer reporting to be successful in increasing social status and positive interactions and reducing negative interactions. Utilizing a multiple baseline with reversal elements, this study examined the effects of positive peer reporting on the positive and negative interactions of socially rejected children in foster care settings. Results supported previous literature with the first participant's …

Innovative Procedure To Install A Trunnion-Hub Assembly In A Bascule Bridge Girder, Michael West Berlin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current assembly procedure to install a trunnion and hub into a bascule bridge girder involves cooling the trunnion in liquid nitrogen and shrink fitting it into the hub. The resulting trunnion-hub assembly is then allowed to warm to room temperature. Next, the trunnion-hub assembly is cooled in the liquid nitrogen and shrunk fit into the girder. The cooling of the trunnion does not cause any problems, however, when the trunnion-hub assembly is cooled in the liquid nitrogen, the hub experiences a large thermal shock. These thermal shocks induce large stresses into the hub, which has been known to cause …

Effects Of Weight-Related Cues On Smoking Motivation, Elena Nicole Lopez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Smoking is now the leading cause of preventable death and disease in women. Understanding women's motivations to smoke is important in developing effective cessation and relapse prevention programs. Women, more so than men, appear to associate their smoking behavior to issues of weight. Although a general relationship between weight concerns and smoking has been found among women, a causal relationship had not been demonstrated. This study tested whether activation of negative body image cognitions would produce greater urges to smoke and whether the relationship would be moderated by trait body dissatisfaction and mediated by state body dissatisfaction.

A randomized 2 …

Construction Of A Late Pleistocene Paleothermometer Based On Amino Acid Racemization In Fossil Succinea Shells, Richard Ayres Walther

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Racemization kinetics of amino acids, determined for the commonly occurring fossil gastropod Succinea, facilitates the ability to construct an accurate and precise paleothermometer to estimate paleotemperatures over specific time intervals during the last 150,000 years in parts of Central Europe. Racemization within the carbonate shell of Succcinea is induced at high temperatures over increasing intervals of time in the laboratory and measured for aspartic acid (asp), glutamic acid (glu), valine (val), and phenylalanine (phe), by reverse-phase liquid chromatography.

The activation energy (E_a), frequency factor (A), and forward rate constant (k1) of the Arrhenius equation are determined from …

Moonlight In Miami: A Field Study Of Human-Robot Interaction In The Context Of An Urban Search And Rescue Disaster Response Training Exercise, Jennifer L. Burke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores human-robot interaction during a 16-hour high-fidelity Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) disaster response drill with teleoperated robots. Situation awareness and team interaction were examined using communication analysis. Operators (n=5) sought assistance from team members to compensate for difficulties building or maintaining situation awareness. Operator-team member communication focused on relating what was seen through the robot's eye view with prior knowledge and planning search strategies. Results suggest operators need a new cognitive mental model to filter and comprehend data provided by the robot, and that robot-assisted search is a team task rather than an individual one. USAR technical …

Graphical Probabilistic Switching Model: Inference And Characterization For Power Dissipation In Vlsi Circuits, Shiva Shankar Ramani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Power dissipation in a VLSI circuit poses a serious challenge in present and future VLSI design. A switching model for the data dependent behavior of the transistors is essential to model dynamic, load-dependent active power and also leakage power in active mode - the two components of power in a VLSI circuit. A probabilistic Bayesian Network based switching model can explicitly model all spatio-temporal dependency relationships in a combinational circuit, resulting in zero-error estimates. However, the space-time requirements of exact estimation schemes, based on this model, increase with circuit complexity [5, 24]. This work explores a non-simulative, importance sampling based, …

Family Affairs Newsletter Business Directory 2004-09-01, Jean Vermette

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

Family Affairs Newsletter Directory of GLBTQIA Businesses.

Optimal Design Of An Accelerated Degradation Experiment With Reciprocal Weibull Degradation Rate, Indira Polavarapu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To meet increasing competition, get products to market in the shortest possible time, and satisfy heightened customer expectations, products must be made more robust and fewer failures must be observed in a short development period. In this circumstance, assessing product reliability based on degradation data at high stress levels becomes necessary. This assessment is accomplished through accelerated degradation tests (ADT). These tests involve over stress testing in which instead of life product performance is measured as it degrades over time. Due to the role these tests play in determining proper reliability estimates for the product, it is necessary to scientifically …