Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Exploratory Analysis Of Maintenance In Behavioral Parent Training, Claudia Villari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A two-part study explored the maintenance effect of Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) featuring multi-component treatments by examining one year follow-up data from a larger study. Participants were ten parents of children (ages 3-5) with developmental disabilities and severe problem behaviors. Parents were also identified as having high levels of pessimism. BPT featuring multi-component treatments was provided in two conditions: Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and Positive Family Intervention (PFI). PBS included a standardized protocol to teach parents how to conduct a functional assessment, develop and implement a multi-component treatment, which includes the following strategies: prevention, teaching replacement skills, and managing consequences. …

Predicting Early Adolescents’ Academic Achievement And In-School Behavior With A Dual-Factor Model Of Mental Health, Amanda L. Thalji

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A dual-factor model of mental health includes indicators of wellness (i.e., subjective well-being) and psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems) in defining psychological wellness. The present empirical investigation examined the utility of SWB and psychopathology examined separately and together (as in a dual-factor model of mental health) in predicting students' subsequent academic achievement and in-school behavior. Specifically, it determined if SWB, psychopathology, and membership in a specific mental health group yielded by the dual-factor model (i.e., complete mental health, vulnerable, symptomatic but content, or troubled) at Time 1 was related to achievement (i.e., GPA, FCAT-math, FCAT-reading, absences, office disciplinary …

Effects Of Ingesting Fat Free And Low Fat Chocolate Milk After Resistance Training On Exercise Performance, Breanna Myers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Collegiate athletes are always looking for ways to improve their performance. Resistance training has been incorporated into most collegiate athletic programs for this very reason. In order to improve strength, lean body mass, and exercise performance, resistance exercise and timely protein ingestion must be followed. Incorporating protein ingestion into a resistance training routine has been shown to improve net protein balance. Milk protein is gaining popularity as an ergogenic aid. There has been growing interest in the potential use of bovine milk (cow’s milk) as an exercise beverage, especially during recovery from resistance training and endurance sports. No studies have …

Articulating Social Change In Puerto Rico: Environmental Education As A Model For Youth Socio-Political Development And Community-Led School Reform, Federico Cintrón-Moscoso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent attempts at developing an environmental education agenda in public schools emphasize the need to foster greater public awareness about environmental rights, issues, and solutions, while producing citizens with the knowledge and skills needed to address the ecological challenges of contemporary society. However, some scholars have argued that the attempt to integrate environmental principles into the school curricula has created a conflict between the politically-oriented goals of environmental education and the more passive practices of uncritical assimilation and reproduction found in many schools today (Stevenson 2007). Moreover, although there is a need for public schools to take on the challenge …

Comparing The Effectiveness Of Behavioral Contracts That Use Function Based Reinforcers Versus Highly Preferred Items For Attention Maintained Behaviors, Dánica M. Diáz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Behavioral contracts were used to reduce the socially inappropriate and stigmatizing behaviors of adult men diagnosed with an intellectual disability. All three participants were residing in an intensive residential habilitation facility and receiving 24 hour supports due to the intensity of their problem behaviors. A multiple baseline across subjects with a series of reversals within the intervention phase was used to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of two types of behavioral contracts: one based on the function of the behavior and the other based on highly preferred items. Brief functional analyses were conducted to determine the function of the participants' …

Life In The Florida Everglades: Bioarchaeology Of The Miami One Site, Cristina Echazabal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The bioarchaeology of prehistoric south Florida has been an area of archaeological interest for the last century because of the interplay between ancient populations and the unique environment of the Everglades. The purpose of this study is to analyze the pathology, demography and mortuary practice of the ancient Southeast Florida aboriginal population at Miami One to assess the similarity of Miami One to other south Florida populations during the prehistoric period. The Miami One site (8DA11) is one of many related sites located along the shore of the Miami River. It was continuously occupied from the Late Archaic (ca.1000 B.C.) …

Effects Of Fat-Free And 2% Chocolate Milk On Strength And Body Composition Following Resistance Training, Ashley T. Forsyth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrition and recovery go hand in hand. After a resistance training workout, it is extremely important for athletes to rebuild and refuel their bodies with the proper nourishment to obtain maximal results. In doing so, they consume different recovery aids or ergogenic aids for gains in muscle mass, an aid in hydration, and a speedy recovery. Ergogenic aids can include many things (i.e., improved equipment, training program), but one of the most popular types of ergogenic aids is nutritional supplements such as protein, carbohydrates, creatine, and vitamins. A nutritional supplement that has recently grown in popularity is chocolate milk. Currently, …

Testing And Evaluation Of A Novel Virtual Reality Integrated Adaptive Driving System, Matthew R. Fowler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Virtual simulators have proven to be extremely effective tools for training individuals for tasks that might otherwise be cost-prohibitive, dangerous, or impractical. One advantage of using a virtual simulator is that it provides a safe environment for emergency scenarios. For many years the United States military and NASA have used simulators, including those affixed with drive-by-wire (DBW) controls, effectively and efficiently to train subjects in a variety of ways. A DBW system utilizes electrical circuits to actuate servo motors from a given input signal to achieve a desired output. In DBW systems the output is not directly mechanically connected to …

Empty Streets In The Capital Of Modernity: Formation Of Lieux De Mémoire In Parisian Street Photography From Daguerre To Atget, Sabrina Lynn Hughes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes the existence of lieux de mémoire in the photographs of Eugene Atget (1857-1927). My framework is based on historian Pierre Nora's definition: a lieu de mémoire is an object or idea which has become a symbolic stand-in for a community's memorial heritage. I suggest that Atget's photographs of the streets of old Paris, in concert with an empty-street aesthetic function as lieux de mémoire for their primary audience, antiquarians and professional archivists who specialized in old Paris.

According to Nora's structure, identification of a lieu de mémoire requires first the establishment of a historical tradition. In the …

Effects Of Ozone On Blood Components, Daniela Sloan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies on the medical use of ozone therapies show a very diverse array of results, from ozone reducing the amount of HIV virus in the blood, to no effect, to causing the death of several patients due to pulmonary embolism and infections. However, ozone therapies are widely used in Europe and considered medically safe. In the U.S., doctors in 28 states use ozone therapies.

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of medical grade ozone at varying concentrations used in ozone therapies. These were achieved by evaluating the C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, total reduced and …

Descartes' Bête Machine, The Leibnizian Correction And Religious Influence, John Voelpel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

René Descartes’ 1637 “bête machine” characterization of nonhuman animals has assisted in the strengthening of the Genesis 1:26 and 1: 28 disparate categorization of nonhuman animals and human animals. That characterization appeared in Descartes’ first important published writing, the Discourse on the Method, and can be summarized as including the ideas that nonhuman animals are like machines; do not have thoughts, reason or souls like human animals; and thus, cannot be categorized with humans; and, as a result, do not experience pain or certain other feelings. This characterization has impeded the primary objective of environmental ethics - the extension of …

Design And Evaluation Of A Green Bittorrent For Energy-Efficient Content Distribution, Jeremy H. Blackburn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

IT equipment has been estimated to be responsible for 2% of global CO2 emissions and data centers are responsible for 1.2% of U.S. energy consumption. With the large quantity of high quality digital content available on the Internet the energy demands and environmental impact of the data centers must be addressed. The use of peer-to-peer technologies, such as BitTorrent, to distribute legal content to consumers is actively being explored as a means of reducing both file download times and the energy consumption of data centers. This approach pushes the energy use out of the data centers and into the homes …

Immune Redistribution To Skin In Wild And Domesticated Songbirds, Joshua Ryan Kuhlman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Implantation of dental sponges under the skin of lab rodents has been used to evaluate whether acute stress enhances leukocyte infiltration to a surgical site. First, I replicated this technique in house sparrows to test whether transient stressors cause similar immunoredistribution (i.e., movement of immune cells out of circulation and to the periphery) in a wild animal. As placement into captivity alone may serve as a stressor to wild animals, I compared sponge infiltration over different periods of captivity. Second, I compared how domestication affects immunoredistribution by comparing results of wild sparrows to domesticated zebra finches. Zebra finches were chosen …

Shape And Pose Recovery Of Novel Objects Using Three Images From A Monocular Camera In An Eye-In-Hand Configuration, Steven C. Colbert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Knowing the shape and pose of objects of interest is critical information when planning robotic grasping and manipulation maneuvers. The ability to recover this information from objects for which the system has no prior knowledge is a valuable behavior for an autonomous or semiautonomous robot. This work develops and presents an algorithm for the shape and pose recovery of unknown objects using no a priori information. Using a monocular camera in an eye-in-hand configuration, three images of the object of interest are captured from three disparate viewing directions. Machine vision techniques are employed to process these images into silhouettes. The …

Semi-Supervised Self-Learning On Imbalanced Data Sets, John Nicholas Korecki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Semi-supervised self-learning algorithms have been shown to improve classifier accuracy under a variety of conditions. In this thesis, semi-supervised self-learning using ensembles of random forests and fuzzy c-means clustering similarity was applied to three data sets to show where improvement is possible over random forests alone. Two of the data sets are emulations of large simulations in which the data may be distributed. Additionally, the ratio of majority to minority class examples in the training set was altered to examine the effect of training set bias on performance when applying the semi-supervised algorithm.

Patient Reported Efficacy Of Botulinum Toxin Type A In The Treatment Of Chronic Migraine Headaches, Patrick F. Whitney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To assess patient reported efficacy of Botulinum toxin type-A for the prophylaxis of migraine headaches in patients with frequent migraine headaches prior to initiation of treatment with Botulinum toxin type-A compared to post treatment. Questions addressed include is there a difference in frequency of migraine headaches following treatment with Botulinum toxin type-A, is there a difference in cost of conventional treatment versus Botulinum toxin type-A and is there a difference in quality of life.

Research Plan: Questions addressed patient status prior to the initiation of treatment as well as post treatment. Patient quality of life change, duration and frequency …

Beyond The Business: Social And Cultural Aspects Of The Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Alisha R. Winn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation research is an examination of the social and cultural dynamics of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company (ALIC) in Atlanta, GA. During the Jim Crow era (and post Jim Crow era), the ALIC provided economic mobility through employment, home loans, life insurance, and community solidarity. The company was one of the largest and most successful African-American financial institution in the country during the 20th century. It was founded in 1905 by Alonzo F. Herndon, a prosperous black barber and entrepreneur who rose from enslavement to become by 1927 the wealthiest African American in Atlanta. Renamed as the Atlanta Life …

A Generalized Acceptance Urn Model, Kevin P. Wagner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An urn contains two types of balls: p "+t" balls and m "-s" balls, where t and s are positive real numbers. The balls are drawn from the urn uniformly at random without replacement until the urn is empty. Before each ball is drawn, the player decides whether to accept the ball or not. If the player opts to accept the ball, then the payoff is the weight of the ball drawn, gaining t dollars if a "+t" ball is drawn, or losing s dollars if a "-s" ball is drawn. We wish to maximize the expected gain for the …

A Philosophical Inquiry On The Valuation And Selection Of Musical Materials For Culturally Diverse Learners In Global Environments, Jonathan Bassett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The selection of musical materials for use in the classroom is problematic. Since music educators have limited time with students, the inclusion of musical materials necessitates the perceived exclusion of other musical materials. This perception is due in part to the increasing diversity of students represented in the classroom, the cultural labeling of musical materials, the influence of multiculturalism on music education, and the influence of the Western aesthetic in music education. Since diverse groups can and do propose socially perceived valuations of these materials as critical for the inclusion of specific musical materials for use in the classroom, this …

Use Of Model Compounds To Study Potential Removal Of Pharmaceuticals Using Octolig®, Wen-Shan Chang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The existence of pharmaceuticals in the environment has some adverse effects, and may pose threat to the organisms in the environment. The possibility of removing certain pharmaceuticals from wastewater was tested using Octolig®, a commercially available material with polyethyldiamine moieties covalently attached to high-surface area silica gel. Selected drug models were subjected to column chromatography in efforts to effect removal by means of ion encapsulation, the effectiveness of which would depend upon having appropriate anionic functional groups. The experimental results suggested that the model compounds, Rose Bengal, Eosin Y, Erythrosine , ZPS, and Lissamine Green B were successfully encapsulated by …

Biosynthesis Of Fatty Acid Amides, Emma K. Farrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Primary fatty acid amides (PFAMs) and N-acylglycines (NAGs) are important signaling molecules in the mammalian nervous system, binding to many drug receptors and demonstrating control over sleep, locomotor activity, angiogenesis, vasodilatation, gap junction communication, and many other processes. Oleamide is the best-studied of the PFAMs, while the in vivo activity of the others is largely unstudied. Even less is known about the NAGs, as their discovery as novel compounds is much more recent due to low endogenous levels. Herein is described extraction and quantification techniques for PFAMs and NAGs in cultured cells and media using solvent extraction combined with …

Anuran And Tree Community Structure Of Cypress Domes In Tampa, Florida, Relative To Time Since Incorporation Within The Urban Landscape, Christopher Haggerty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands in densely urbanized landscapes display altered physical, chemical, and biological features; however, long term trends in these are poorly known. The purpose of this study was to determine if biological, physical, and chemical changes in isolated cypress domes are related to time since incorporation within an urban landscape. Sixteen cypress domes in Tampa, Florida were placed into four decadal age groups based on construction date of residential homes within 200 m of wetland edge, with multiples in each age group: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and rural sites as regional controls. Each site was visited monthly from July 2008 until …

Spanish Spelling Errors Of Emerging Bilingual Writers In Middle School, Diana Julbe-Delgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In spite of the significant growth in the Spanish-English bilingual population, there has not been sufficient research on cross-language effects, or how language transfer may affect important components of literacy, such as spelling. Many studies have focused on the influence of Spanish on the acquisition of English spelling skills; however, few studies have focused on how the acquisition of English influences Spanish spelling. The purpose of this investigation was to study the spelling errors of bilingual adolescents as they learn English.

A total of 20 bilingual Spanish-English students in grades 6 through 8 (ages 11 to 14 years) were selected …

Parallel Genetic Algorithm Engine On An Fpga, Mark La Spina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The field of FPGA design is ever-growing due to costs being lower than that of ASICs, as well as the time and cost of development. Creating programs to run on them is equally important as developing the devices themselves. Utilizing the increase in performance over software, as well as the ease of reprogramming the device, has led to complex concepts and algorithms that would otherwise be very time-consuming when implemented on software. One such focus has been towards a search and optimization algorithm called the genetic algorithm. The proposed approach is to take an existing application of the genetic algorithm …

Re-Composition: Considering The Intersections Of Composition And Creative Writing Theories And Pedagogies, Danita Berg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maintaining composition studies and creative writing as discrete disciplines may not be in the best interests of either field. But so long as the majority of scholars and practitioners of either field remain largely uninformed about one another, it is unlikely that any progress toward conjoining the two fields will occur. Various important and constructive efforts have been made for more than thirty years to establish a scholarly, interdisciplinary community that dedicates itself to examining points of intersection between composition and creative writing. Initially, such efforts appear to attract the attention from the broader communities of each discipline. Before long, …

Optimizing The Imaging Of Multiple Frequency Gpr Datasets Using Composite Radargrams: An Example From Santa Rosa Island, Florida, Stuart W. Bancroft

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Acquiring GPR data at multiple frequencies is useful because higher-frequency profiles have better spatial resolution, although they suffer from reduced depth penetration. Lower-frequencies can generally resolve to greater depths, but at the cost of spatial resolution. For concise presentation of GPR data, it would be useful to combine the best features of each profile into a composite radargram. This study explores effective ways to present GPR data acquired at multiple frequencies. An example is shown from a survey of hurricane overwash deposits from Santa Rosa Island, Florida.

The methodology used to create a composite radargram is dependent on which of …

A Case Study Of School-Based Leaders’ Perspectives Of High School Dropouts, John J. Brown Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School districts are failing to educate all of America's children. Dropout statistics reveal that almost 7,000 students leave our nation's schools everyday. At this rate 1.2 million students will not graduate on time with their prospective classes. The majority of American male students of African descent are dropping out instead of completing high school. When compared to that of their white peers, the dropout rate of American male students of African descent is significantly higher and the graduation rate much lower.

This research examines high school dropouts from the perspectives of school-based leaders in a high school located in a …

Do You Have A Permit For That? Exposing The Pseudo-Public Space And Exploring Alternative Means Of Urban Occupation, Adam Barbosa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In his 1964 work "One Dimensional Man" Herbert Marcuse describes what he believes to be the de-evolution of industrialized society into the single minded pursuit of commerce. Decades later his hypothesis seems even closer to the truth, as much of our social interaction is now based in spaces that are designed to promote consumption. These spaces are in fact privately owned lots masquerading as public space so as to satiate the populace's desire for "public" interaction without sacrificing their effectiveness as places of commerce. The migration of social interaction into these pseudo-public spaces has also further marginalized the city's remaining …

The Sunshine State's Golden Fruit: Florida And The Orange, 1930-1960, Scott D. Hussey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neither indigenous nor exclusive to Florida, the orange has nevertheless become an international symbol for the state. This connection between product and place appears in cultural materials regarding Florida. In fact and fiction the orange has operated as metaphor and synecdoche for an Edenic Florida. This thesis analyzes how the orange came to represent a "natural" Florida through the conflation of the commercial product with the state's history by way of political and marketing puffery. A litany of citrus advertisements, tourist ephemera, and historical associations regarding the state acknowledged and expanded the connections between the orange, improved health, and Florida. …

Polarization Of Galvanic Point Anodes For Corrosion Prevention In Reinforced Concrete, Margareth Dugarte

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The polarization performance of two types of commercial galvanic point anodes for protection of reinforced steel around patch repairs was investigated. Experiments included measurement of the polarization history of the anode under constant current impressed by galvanostatic circuits and in reinforced concrete slabs. The tests revealed, for both types of anodes, a potential-current function (PF) indicating relatively little anodic polarization from an open circuit potential at low current levels, followed by an abrupt increase in potential as the current approached an apparent terminal value. Aging of the anodes was manifested by a continually decreasing current output in the concrete tests, …