Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Maghreb Maquiladora: Gender, Labor, And Socio-Economic Power In A Tunisian Export Processing Zone, Claire Therese Oueslati-Porter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is about Tunisian women's work and lives in the present era of economic neoliberalism. The focus is women in the city of Bizerte, Tunisia, both those who work in Bizerte's export processing zone (EPZ), as well as those who work outside it. This study is a qualitative examination of formal and informal employment, set inside and outside of women's traditional political and economic domain, the home. Through ethnography of women's work and lives, this study's purpose is to contribute evidence against conflating women's "empowerment" with incorporation into global production. However, this study also lends itself to considerations of …

Shaping Topographies Of Home: A Political Ecology Of Migration, Carylanna Kathryn Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Even from afar, transnational migrants influence how their households and communities of origin use natural resources. This study depicts the circulation of people, funds, and ideas within transnational families that extend from a Honduran village to the United States. Developing a "political ecology of migration" approach, I show how these circulations can reshape resource use practices and the socio-economic and bio-physical topographies of emigrants' former homes. The project advances anthropological thought by linking rich literatures on political ecology and transnationalism through a multi-method ethnography of transnational families. The study is also relevant to emigrants, community members, and practitioners interested in …

Dengue Fever In Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Use Of The Explanatory Model In A Sample Of Urban Neighborhoods To Contextualize And Define Dengue Fever Among Community Participants, Jose Enrique Hasemann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project elucidated the explanatory model of dengue fever held by members of urban communities in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The study was conducted over a four-month period from May-August of 2011, and it was divided into two stages. The first stage of the project consisted of volunteer participation with dengue fever surveillance brigades in the three communities with the highest incidence of dengue fever during the beginning of 2011. This initial stage employed participant observation as its research method. The second stage was conducted in a different community within Tegucigalpa. The primary research methods employed during the second stage of the …

High Stakes Play: Early Childhood Special Educators' Perspectives Of Play In Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms, Joanne Scandling Manwaring

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined Early Childhood Special Educators' perceptions of play as a developmentally appropriate practice in special education prekindergarten classrooms in one southeastern school district. Through purposeful sampling, eight prekindergarten special educators were identified because they held multiple teaching certifications and some held National Board certification. The participants had many years of experience in pre-kindergarten special education, and were professional development trainers, teacher mentors and or leaders in the prekindergarten special education community. These eight accomplished pre-kindergarten special education teachers were interviewed using an informal, semi-structured format about their beliefs concerning play, how they implement it in their classrooms as …

Prospects For Political Reform In China, Jody Lee Tomlin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is intended to analyze levels of institutional confidence in China. The purpose is to measure the relationship between changing political and cultural values with modernization and levels of institutional criticism. To analyze institutional criticism modernization and political culture theories are used. Using these theories together offers explanatory power as to what political and cultural values may change and why changes in confidence in governance may occur. These theories include socioeconomic, traditional, and political values to measure institutional confidence in 1990 and 2007. The examination of traditional versus modernization values imply that individuals possessing these opposing values display different …

Accuracy Of Educator Nominations In Identifying Students With Elevated Levels Of Anxiety And Depression, Jennifer Cunningham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Internalizing disorders, specifically depression and anxiety, affect up to 18% and 33% of youth, respectively (Costello, Egger, & Angold, 2005b). Schools have become a major provider of mental health services to children, primarily in attempts to overcome barriers to receiving community services (Farmer, Burns, Philip, Angold, & Costello, 2003). As such, it is important that schools have effective mechanisms in place to accurately identify students who may be in need of such services. The current study examined the accuracy of one such method, educator nominations (including from both teachers and school-based mental health professionals) in identifying students who self-report elevated …

The Role Of Male Partners In Childbirth Decision Making: A Qualitative Exploration With First-Time Parenting Couples, Sharon Dejoy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fathers' attendance at childbirth is almost universal in the United States, but few researchers have addressed the role that males play in childbirth decision making. The number of technological interventions available to birthing women is increasing, as is the utilization of those interventions. The degree to which women choose or agree to these interventions plays a major role in individual and societal health outcomes. Therefore, health care policy makers and educators must find ways to help childbearing couples navigate the complex maze of decisions related to childbirth. However, policies and programs to increase shared decision making may not function as …

Social Landscapes Of Transegalitarian Societies: An Analysis Of The Chipped Stone Artifact Assemblage From The Crystal River Site (8ci1), Citrus County, Florida, Richard William Estabrook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research undertaken in this dissertation was designed to explore how the institutionalized social inequalities in prehistoric Woodland society are reflected in the differences in the procurement, in the life history, and the final discard locations of the flaked chert stone tools from the Crystal River site (8CI1). The Woodland period (1000 BC to AD 1000) was a time of both stability and change in Native American society. Many of the core institutions such as subsistence, hunting and ceramic technology, and residence remained relatively constant while religious and political institutions underwent dramatic changes. This study focuses on how these social …

Quasi 3-Dimensional Electrical Resistivity Mapping Of Air-Filled Karst Conduits And Policy Implications, Charles W. Mccrackin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study assesses the capability and practical applications of quasi 3-Dimensional (3D) electrical resistivity surveying (ER) for mapping air-filled karst conduits. Vadose zone caves within the Brooksville Ridge of West Central Florida are relatively similar in architecture, with N-S elongation, and do not consist of an interconnected network of conduits. A high resolution quasi-3D ER survey was performed over two mapped cave systems on the Brooksville Ridge. The resultant survey verified the general effectiveness of quasi-3D ER in locating the two known near-surface cave features. Several other locations in the survey show similar or stronger resistivity anomalies trending in a …

The Holistic Complementary Structure Of Western Bio-Medicine And Traditional Healing And Achieving Complete Health, Candace Gail Oubre

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Achieving complete health requires a deep understanding of complementary cultural competency sensitivity between physician and patient. This may include but is not limited to access to preventative health care resources, access to health educational resources and access to cultural healing resources, for example, shamans, Ayurvedic physicians, and herbal healers. Advocates of cultural competency emphasize great importance on knowledge of the patients' cultural background; however, the transcendence of this knowledge can be explained further through complementary cultural competency sensitivity. This is when the cultures of the physician and patient complement each other in terms of understanding what is in the patients' …

Does Crowding Obscure The Presence Of Attentional Guidance In Contextual Cueing?, Steven William Fiske

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The contextual cueing effect was initially thought to be the product of memory guiding attention to the target location. However, the steep search slopes obtained in contextual cueing indicate an absence of attentional guidance. We hypothesized that crowding could be obscuring the presence of attentional guidance and investigated this possibility in 2 experiments. Crowding was manipulated by varying the density of items in the local target region in a contextual cueing task. We observed a significant reduction in search slopes between the novel and repeated conditions when crowding was reduced. Enhancing crowding eliminated the contextual cueing effect. These findings suggest …

Emotional Reactivity And Regulation In Current And Remitted Depression: An Event Related Potential Study, Lauren M. Bylsma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is thought to be characterized by emotion regulation deficits, including decreased use of adaptive strategies such as reappraisal, but little is known about the exact nature of these deficits and whether or not they are specific to the depressed mood state. The late positive potential (LPP) is a sustained positive deflection of the event-related potential (ERP) associated with responding to emotionally-valenced stimuli, and reappraisal strategies have been found to reduce LPP magnitude in response to emotional stimuli in healthy individuals, but this effect has not been examined in MDD. This study utilized ERPs to examine emotional …

Characterization Of The Serologic Responses To Plasmodium Vivax Dbpii Variants Among Inhabitants Of Pursat Province, Cambodia, Samantha Jones Barnes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Plasmodium vivax Duffy Binding Protein (DBP) is the ligand in the major pathway for P. vivax invasion of human reticulocytes, making it an appealing vaccine candidate. Region II of DBP (DBP-RII) is the minimal portion of the ligand that mediates recognition of the Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC receptor) on the reticulocyte surface and constitutes the primary vaccine target. Analysis of natural variation in the coding sequences of DBP-RII revealed signature evidence for selective pressure driving variation in the residues of the putative receptor-binding site. We hypothesize that anti-DBP immunity in P. vivax infections is strain-specific and hindered …

Solid-State Synthesis Of Imide Ligands For The Self-Assembly Of Metal-Organic Materials, Jason Alexander Perman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research project, reduction or complete elimination of organic solvents is explored in the synthesis of cyclic imides using a technique that brings reagents into favorable position to react. Cocrystal Controlled Solid-State Synthesis (C³S^y3), takes advantage of supramolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking to form a cocrystal which can sequential be heated to complete the condensation reaction and produce a desirable product. Twenty-five successful condensation reactions result in high and clean yield.

C³S^y3 of cyclic imides with auxiliary hydrogen bonding moieties like carboxylic acid, carboxylate or pyridyl groups are …

Determination Of Ibuprofen Isotherm Using Supercritical Fluid Chromatography, Loi Ho

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chromatography is widely used to determine physiochemical properties data including adsorption isotherm. In the separation of enantiomers through sorptive processes, supercritical fluids allow efficient and green alternatives to liquid solvent based systems. The isotherm information is vital in the development of operating policies and design of preparative chromatographic or moving bed separation schemes. Determination of sorption isotherms from experimental chromatographic elution data is automated and compared with different chromatogram model. Procedures were developed and validated for separation of R- and S- ibuprofen with supercritical 〖CO〗_2 and ethanol mixture as the mobile phase over a chiral stationary phase. The isotherms for …

Discovery Of A Functional Ecdysone Response Element In Brugia Malayi, Tracy Enright

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to determine whether functional ecdysone response elements (EcREs) exist within the genome of Brugia malayi, a parasitic nematode that causes lymphatic filariasis. The hypothesis that EcREs exist in B. malayi stemmed from previous demonstration of a functional ecdysone response system in B. malayi (Tzertzinis et al., 2010). Real-time PCR (qPCR) experiments were conducted to measure gene expression levels for twelve genes proximal to five putative EcREs in 20-OH ecdysone treated and untreated B. malayi embryos. Seven genes showed consistent upregulation with 20-OH ecdysone treatment. Each of the five putative EcREs had at least one …

A Retrospective And Prospective Comparison Of Hungarian Children Who Have One Or Two Episodes Of Depression, Vanessa Panaite

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Early onset depression is associated with high recurrence rates later in life. Recurrent depressive episodes during childhood may be particularly problematic, if additional episodes have a scarring effect that hinders healthy development. Distinguishing between first onsets and recurrences has been useful in understanding adult depression. This distinction has seldom been examined in pediatric depression, in part because it is difficult to enroll adequate samples of children with recurrent depression. We conducted archival analyses of carefully-diagnosed pediatric probands with depression first onset between ages of 4 and 12. Probands who reported one depressive episode (N = 435) were compared with probands …

Aging With Independence And Interaction: An Assisted Living Community, Steven J. Flositz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the U.S. population gets older, there is an increased need for senior housing. However, elderly housing is currently associated with dependence and isolation. There is a great disconnect from the retired community with its surrounding context. Senior housing and nursing homes are becoming more similar to miniature hospitals rather than a residential type. This negative view of nursing homes is becoming clear to the general population. In fact, most seniors fear the idea of living within an aging complex. Also, people generally avoid these places, even while visiting family. Florida is on the frontline for the effects of the …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Elementary Education Teacher Candidates' Authentic Assessments And Performance On The Professional Education Subtests On The Florida Teacher Certification Exam (Ftce), Thomas Raymond Lang Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

According to Wilkerson and Lang (2003, p.1) with approximately "90% of schools, colleges, and departments of education using portfolios of one form or another as decision-making tools for standards-based decisions regarding certification or licensure (as well as NCATE accreditation), it is appropriate to explore the legal and psychometric aspects of this assessment device."

This study was conducted to examine how well the authentic assessments created in the Chalk and Wire ePortfolio initiative, which was created to provide authentic assessments of the Accomplished Practices, relate to the measures in the Professional Knowledge subtests on Florida Teacher Certification Examination.

The sample …

An Observation Of Immunological Effect, A Diet Enhanced With Spirulina And Treatment With Fractalkine In Models Of Parkinson's Disease, Mibel M. Pabón

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation research we used use human wild type α-synuclein gene expression using an adeno-associated viral vector (AAV9) that induced a slowly progressive loss of dopamine (DA) neurons in the Substantia nigra (SN) as one of our animal model of Parkinson’s disease (PD). It is our hypothesis that neuroinflammation predisposes the brain to susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases. Thus we examined the progression of a PD lesion and examined the manipulations of the immune system to understand further the inflammatory role when we administered exogenous soluble fractalkine.

The specific etiology of neurodegeneration in PD is unknown, but the inflammatory mechanisms …

Historical Archaeology Of The Pine Level Site (8de14), Desoto County, Florida, Jana Futch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1866 the seat of Manatee County was moved to Pine Level, a newly-formed town in the wilderness of south Florida. By the 1880s, it contained stores, boardinghouses, churches, and government buildings. In 1887, Pine Level became DeSoto County’s first seat. However, when it lost county seat status to Arcadia only 18 months later, in 1888, Pine Level rapidly declined in population and importance, and eventually died out. The investigations of the Pine Level site detailed in this thesis were carried out as a public archaeology project, involving the DeSoto County Historical Society, University of South Florida, and the Florida …

Evaluation Of Preference For Exergames Among Elementary Students, Christie Ann Cacioppo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Obesity in children is a nationwide problem. Physical activity is one way to help children stay fit and prevent obesity. Unfortunately, access to technology involving sedentary behavior is easier than ever. Fortunately, for this generation of students there is a way to combine physical activity and technology through exergaming. In order to encourage students to participate in exergaming, the students should be able to play games they prefer. The purpose of this study was to apply a paired choice preference assessment, rank order card sort, and social validity surveys to determine the preference order of six exergames for six elementary …

Fundamental Transversals On The Complexes Of Polyhedra, Joy D'Andrea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We present a formal description of `Face Fundamental Transversals' on the faces of the Complexes of polyhedra (meaning threedimensional polytopes). A Complex of a polyhedron is the collection of the vertex points of the polyhedron, line segment edges and polygonal faces of the polyhedron. We will prove that for the faces of any 3-dimensional complex of a polyhedron under face adjacency relations, that a `Face Fundamental Transversal' exists, and it is a union of the connected orbits of faces that are intersected exactly once. While exploring the problem of finding a face fundamental transversal, we have found a partial result …

Modeling And Surveillance Of Pandemic Influenza Outbreaks, Diana Prieto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pandemic outbreaks are unpredictable as to their virus strain, transmissibility, and impact on our quality of life. Hence, the decision support models for mitigation of pandemic outbreaks must be user-friendly and operational, and also incorporate valid estimates of disease transmissibility and severity. This dissertation research is aimed at 1) reviewing the existing pandemic simulation models to identify their implementation gaps with regard to usability and operability, and suggesting research remedies, 2) increasing operability of simulation models by calibrating them via an epidemiological model that estimates infection probabilities using viral shedding profiles of concurrent pandemic and seasonal influenza, and 3) developing …

An Architecture For Global Ubiquitous Sensing, Alfredo Jose Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A new class of wireless sensor networks has recently appeared due to the pervasiness of cellular phones with embedded sensors, mobile Internet connectivity, and location technologies. This mobile wireless sensor network has the potential to address large-scale societal problems and improve the people's quality of life in a better, faster and less expensive fashion than current solutions based on static wireless sensor networks. Ubiquitous Sensing is the umbrella term used in this dissertation that encompasses location-based services, human-centric, and participatory sensing applications. At the same time, ubiquitous sensing applications are bringing a new series of challenging problems.

This dissertation proposes …

Cap-And-Trade Modeling And Analysis For Electric Power Generation Systems, Patricio Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cap-and-trade is the most discussed CO₂ emissions control scheme in the U.S. It is a market-based mechanism that has been used previously to successfully reduce the levels of SO₂ and NO_x emitted by power generators. Since electricity generators are responsible for about 40% of the CO₂ emissions in the U.S., the implementation of CO₂ cap-and-trade will have a significant impact on electric power generation systems. In particular, cap-and-trade will influence the investment decisions made by power generators. These decisions in turn, will affect electricity prices and demand. If the allowances (or emission permits) created by …

Cdte/Cds Thin Film Solar Cells Fabricated On Flexible Substrates, Vasilios Palekis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) is a leading thin film photovoltaic (PV) material due to its near ideal bandgap of 1.45 eV and its high optical absorption coefficient. The typical CdTe thin film solar cell is of the superstrate configuration where a window layer (CdS), the absorber (CdTe) and a back contact are deposited onto glass coated with a transparent electrode.

Substrate CdTe solar cells where the above listed films are deposited in reverse are not common. In this study substrate CdTe solar cells are fabricated on flexible foils.

The properties of the Molybdenum back contact, Zinc Telluride (ZnTe) interlayer and CdTe …

Knowledge Guided Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (Nurbs) For Supporting Design Intent In Computer Aided Design (Cad) Modeling, Khairan Rajab

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For many years, incompatible computer-aided design (CAD) packages that are based on Non-uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) technology carried out the exchange of models and data through either neutral file formats (IGES or STEP) or proprietary formats that have been accepted as quasi industry standards. Although it is the only available solution at the current time, the exchange process most often produces unsatisfactory results. Models that are impeccable in the original modeling system usually end up with gaps or intersections between surfaces on another incompatible system. Issues such as loss of information, change of data accuracy, inconsistent tolerance, and misinterpretation of …

Autonomous Mobility And Manipulation Of A 9-Dof Wmra, William Garrett Pence

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (WMRA) is a 9-degree of freedom (DoF) assistive system that consists of a 2-DoF modified commercial power wheelchair and a custom 7-DoF robotic arm. Kinematics and control methodology for the 9-DoF system that combine mobility and manipulation have been previously developed and implemented. This combined control allows the wheelchair and robotic arm to follow a single trajectory based on weighted optimizations. However, for the execution of activities of daily living (ADL) in the real-world environment, modified control techniques have been implemented.

In order to execute macro ADL tasks, such as a "go to and pick up" …

Mining Associations Using Directed Hypergraphs, Ramanuja N. Simha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes a novel directed hypergraph based model for any database. We introduce the notion of association rules for multi-valued attributes, which is an adaptation of the definition of quantitative association rules known in the literature. The association rules for multi-valued attributes are integrated in building the directed hypergraph model. This model allows to capture attribute-level associations and their strength. Basing on this model, we provide association-based similarity notions between any two attributes and present a method for finding clusters of similar attributes. We then propose algorithms to identify a subset of attributes known as a leading indicator that …