Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mapping A Generation: Oral History Research In Sulphur Springs, Fl, Connie J. Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an analysis of the pros and cons of doing ethnographic and oral history research with elders. The subjects are women born before 1933 and residing in Sulphur Springs, Florida for most of their adolescence and adult lives. They were selected from attendees of the semiannual reunion of students who attended the Sulphur Springs School during the years it served both elementary and junior high.

This method of research, with an elder population presents specific challenges and rewards. The pros and cons of such research are discussed within the context of doing ethnography of Sulphur Springs from the …

Effects Of Age And Stimulus Frequency On Gap Discrimination, Alan Carlton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Deficits in temporal resolution may be one element underlying the speech understanding difficulties experienced by older listeners in degraded acoustic environments. In real listening environments, important temporal cues are surrounded by stimuli of varying frequencies. This study was designed to assess temporal resolution as a function of frequency region, frequency-disparity, and age in listeners with normal hearing.

Design: Gap duration difference limens (GDDLs) were measured using leading and trailing markers that were fixed at the same frequency (fixed-frequency) or at frequencies one-half octave apart (frequency-disparate) for two groups of listeners with normal hearing: (1) 18-22 years and …

A Structural Equation Analysis Of Florida Journey To Work Characteristics Using Aggregate Census 2000 Data, Srikalyan Challa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The need for a better understanding of journey to work behavior has never before been so important. Many transportation corridors are functioning at unacceptable levels of service and many at times to their capacity. This phenomenon is more pronounced during peak period when majority of the population is making their work trip. This research builds on the recent developments in structural equations modeling technique for identifying the socio-demographic influences on the commute behavior of the population in Florida.

Towards this purpose a series of five structural equations models are estimated using aggregate level data from Census 2000. Each of these …

Auditory Sensitivity Of Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf Saxatilis) From Post-Settlement Juvenile To Adult, Sarah A. Egner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is much evidence supporting the idea that pelagic larvae of coral reef fishes are active participants in their dispersal and return to a reef, however, the mechanisms used to navigate are still uncertain. It has been proposed that sensory cues, such as hearing, play a role. Sound is a potentially important cue for organisms in marine environments, especially in noisy environments like coral reefs. Sensory organs, including otolithic organs, of most coral reef fish form within the first few days of life. The auditory brainstem response (ABR) technique was used to measure hearing on a wide size range of …

Biological Indicators Of Wetland Health: Comparing Qualitative And Quantitative Vegetation Measures With Anuran Measures, Shannon M. Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding wetland responses to human perturbations is essential to the effective management of Florida's surface and ground water resources. Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) Rules (Chapter 40D-2.301(c) FAC) prohibit adverse environmental effects to wetlands, fish and wildlife caused by groundwater withdrawal. Numerous studies have documented the responses of biological attributes across taxa and regions to human disturbance. Biological assessment can provide information about ecological condition. Based on long-term monitoring conducted by the SWFWMD, the anthropogenic changes observed on the Starkey Wellfield are attributed to groundwater withdrawal.

Biological indicators are species, species assemblages, or communities whose presence, abundance, and condition …

The Artist And Her Muse: A Romantic Tragedy About A Mediocre And Narcissistic Painter Named Rachel Hoffman, Rachel Gavronsky Hoffman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Imagine a theater. Build one in your mind. I do not care if it is the largest theater in the universe or if it is the size of a shoebox. The theater can be an elaborate construction with gilded cherubs and priceless jewels. If you would prefer the theater to be a minimal design, imagine it that way. Maybe the theater is made out of glass or crystal. You can be all alone in the theater or maybe you are seated next to an alien, a cave man, or a robot.

As the curtain rises an enormous pipe organ is …

Effects Of Gloves And Visual Acuity On Dexterity, Mehdi Pourmoghani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Work in many environments with chemical or biological agents requires the use of personal protective equipment such as gloves and respirators. It is well established that glove thickness affects finger dexterity. There is further evidence that visual constraints (e.g., visual acuity) and gender may also impede finger dexterity. Therefore, the personal protection may place a barrier to the agent, but performance or productivity will decrease. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential effects of gloves and visual acuity as well as gender and first order interactions on task performance using standard dexterity tests.

Five men and five …

Discovering The Source Of Gatsby’S Greatness: Nick’S Eulogy Of A “Great” Kierkegaardian Knight, Jaime' L. Sanders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has received extensive critical attention since the middle of the century, there remains an unaddressed and unanswered question that demands further exploration: what makes Gatsby "great?" It seems that the source of Gatsby's greatness, for narrator Nick Carraway, is that Gatsby has a quality that sets him apart from others: it is not a "flabby impressionability," but a "heightened sensitivity to the promises of life" and "an extraordinary gift for hope" that Nick has never seen before, nor does he expect to see again (6). I contend that what Nick sees as Gatsby's …

Sourcing Of Marble Used In Mosaics At Antioch (Turkey), Marie Jeanette Archambeault

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artifacts made of durable materials, such as stone, can provide valuable clues to reconstruct the past. Marble sourcing, in particular,provides information about contact, trade, and other activities in the greater Mediterranean area. The Worcester Art Museum of Massachusetts (WAM) initiated a provenance study by requesting that an analysis of several marble artifacts occur at the University of South Florida's Archaeological Science Laboratory. The 55 marble samples used in this study are from the Worcester Art Museum's collection of Antioch mosaics. Positive results might reveal: 1) preferred sources of tesserae, 2) information about trade of specialized stone, 3) changes in preferred …

An Examination Of A Three-Dimensional Automated Firearms Evidence Comparison System, Natalie G. Carpenter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of a firearm identification system that creates a three-dimensional image of a bullet in order to record the depth and length of striations occurring along the bullet's surface. Ballistics evidence is an area of forensics in great need of further development. The advent of more sophisticated firearms such as semi-automatic and automatic weapons has increased the need for a matching system that connects bullets found at crime scenes with suspect guns. In the past, control bullets matching ones found at the crime scene have been test fired and then examined by a comparison microscope for …

Use-Wear Experiments With Sardinian Obsidian: Determining Its Function In The Neolithic, Teddi J. Setzer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on identifying the function of obsidian tools from the Late Neolithic archaeological site of Contraguda on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. The information obtained from use-wear analysis can provide information about changes in subsistence patterns, craft specialization, social differentiation and technology.

This research began by collecting geological samples of obsidian from two of the most exploited sources in the Monte Arci volcanic complex of Sardinia. Subsequently, an experimental set of tools was made from these samples, and they were used to work various raw materials that were presumably available in Sardinia during the Neolithic. Wear patterns were …

The Effects Of Overlearning On Long-Term Retention, Kelli M. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Overlearning is defined as the continued study of an item immediately after it has been correctly recalled once. Based on past studies, the effectiveness of overlearning is uncertain. In the present study, the effectiveness of overlearning was tested in 3 experiments. In Experiment 1, participants studied 10 city-country pairs (e.g. doba, chad) to either a low or high degree of learning and were tested 1, 3, or 9 weeks later. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants studied varying numbers of word-definition pairs (e.g. vizard, mask) for a constant total study time. They were tested between 1 and 4 weeks later. …

Near-Death Experiences, Religion, And Life After Death, Holly Wallace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates current scientific literature on near-death experiences (NDE), focusing on two common types of models used to explain the NDE: biological models and spiritual models. Four biological models and two spiritual models are presented and evaluated. During the evaluation, particular emphasis is placed on how these models accommodate veridical evidence. I found that, of the biological models, only one could account for veridical evidence, whereas both of the spiritual models provided explanations of these strange occurrences. From this conclusion, the implications of NDE research on human survival are explored.

Mapping Porewater Salinity With Electromagnetic And Electrical Methods In Shallow Coastal Environments: Terra Ceia, Florida, Wm. Jason Greenwood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The feasibility of predicting porewater salinity based on calibrated surface electromagnetic methods is discussed in a coastal wetland on the southern banks of Tampa Bay in West-Central Florida. This study utilizes a new method to float commercial land based electromagnetic (EM) instruments in shallow marine waters of less than 1.5 meters. The floating EM-31 (Geonics, Ltd.) effectively sensed the magnitude and lateral extent of high and low salinity porewaters within mangrove lined ditches and ponds. Resistivity and EM geophysical methods are merged with direct sampling data to calibrate layers in electromagnetic models to infer shallow (<30m) groundwater salinity patterns. Initial marine resistivity surveys are necessary to discriminate between equivalent EM model solutions for seafloor conductivities beneath shallow (0.1-1.5m) marine (~30 ppt) waters. Using formation factors computed from nearby resistivity surveys, porewater conductivity predictions based on surface EM-31 and EM-34 measurements are successful at distinguishing overall porewater salinity trends.

At the Tampa Bay …

Analysis Of The Tel-Phone Telecoil Simulator Program, Julie Ann Coudurier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The TEL-PHONE Telecoil Simulator Program was invented as a solution to the problem of customizing programmable telecoils (T-coils) in a standardized and convenient manner. The objective of this project was to evaluate the suitability of the device for clinical use. A preliminary review of the TEL-PHONE protocol revealed that the protocol was in need of refinement. Following a preliminary examination of the TEL-PHONE device, a detailed evaluation of acoustic and electromagnetic output was conducted. The output was analyzed using information gleaned from Electronic Industries Association Recommended Standard RS-504 (EIA RS-504) Magnetic Field Intensity Criteria for Telephone Compatibility with Hearing Aids …

The 24th Of July: A Novel-In-Progress, Kimberley A. Hanna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"The 24th of July" is a fictional novel set in the present day. The story centers around Michelle, an eighteen year old girl from Warm Springs, Idaho, who fears the sexual games she has played with her cousin Edna have tainted her for a Temple marriage. She meets Duke, a charismatic fundamentalist polygamist, who believes polygamy is part of the plan for eternal salvation as set down by the original doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the prophet Joseph Smith. Michelle sees Duke as her chance to put her relationship with Edna in the past …

The Development And Validation Of The Verbal Commentary On Physical Appearance Scale, Sylvia Herbozo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study involves the development and validation of a measure of physical appearance-related comments, The Verbal Commentary on Physical Appearance Scale (VCOPAS). Previous research has shown that the development of body image and eating disturbances is greatly influenced by teasing and negative appearance-related feedback. The limited research on positive appearance-related feedback is likely due to the lack of an empirically validated scale of positive appearance-related commentary. Consequently, the VCOPAS was developed to assess the frequency and effect of positive appearance-related comments and other types of appearance-related comments.

In Study 1, 50 undergraduate female students of ages 18 to 25 completed …

Tracing The Source Of The Elephant And Hippopotamus Ivory From The 14th Century B.C. Uluburun Shipwreck: The Archaeological, Historical, And Isotopic Evidence, Kathryn Anne Lafrenz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to establish the provenance of the elephant and hippopotamus ivory recovered from the 14th century B.C. Uluburun shipwreck in order to reconstruct the trade mechanisms and associated social relationships (e.g. diplomacy) operating in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Elephant ivory came either from Northeastern Libya, Southeastern Sudan via Egypt or northwestern Syria during this period. Hippopotamus ivory likewise was obtained from Syria, Palestine, or Egypt.

The Uluburun's cargo is reconstructed by the excavator, George Bass, as "royal," and primarily originates from Cyprus and Syro-Palestine. Indeed, LBA trade is largely understood …

The Link Between The Career Plateau And Mentoring – Addressing The Empirical Gap, Elizabeth Lentz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the relationship between career plateauing and mentoring. First, the relationship between career plateauing and work-related attitudes was investigated. Next, the relationship between mentoring experience and work-related attitudes was examined. Finally, both experience as a mentor and mentoring provided were examined as moderators between career plateauing and work-related attitudes. Three hundred and six government employees located in the southeastern United States completed surveys (50.08% response rate). Of those, 110 reported mentor experience and 196 reported no mentor experience. In general, results provided support for the relationship between job content and hierarchical plateauing …

A Content Analysis Of Activist Group Use Of Dialogic Tools On The World Wide Web, Roberto Mazzini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is a quantitative content analysis of activist groups' use of dialogic tools on Web sites. The study was done in order to understand how activist groups use the Web to communicate with their publics in comparison to for-profit corporations. The Web is considered a powerful tool for activists and allows them to communicate better with their publics. Use of the Web should allow activist groups to level the field with corporations by enabling them to get their message out and interact better with their public. Dialogic communication is a necessity for activist groups. By measuring the use of …

Organizational Uncertainty Management: Developing A Framework For Public Relations Practitioner Involvement, Marcia L. Watson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the concept of organizational uncertainty and the involvement of public relations practitioners. Understanding organizational uncertainty is imperative to the success of an organization, but the effects of uncertainty have been relatively undertheorized within public relations.

To close the gap, this study blended multidisciplinary theories pertaining to uncertainty with a triangulated methodological approach. First, this study took a macro-organizational look at uncertainty by analyzing trends in the literature and conducting qualitative in-depth interviews with members of management and employees in an organization. The results of this portion of the study found uncertainty to be multi-layered and the most …

Symbolic Regression Of Thermo-Physical Model Using Genetic Programming, Ying Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The symbolic regression problem is to find a function, in symbolic form, that fits a given data set. Symbolic regression provides a means for function identification. This research describes an adaptive hybrid system for symbolic function identification of thermo-physical model that combines the genetic programming and a modified Marquardt nonlinear regression algorithm.

Genetic Programming (GP) system can extract knowledge from the data in the form of symbolic expressions, i.e. a tree structure, that are used to model and derive equation of state, mixing rules and phase behavior from the experimental data (properties estimation).

During the automatic evolution process of GP, …

Educational Choices Of Undergraduate Women In Public Relations: A Quantitative Study, Moira K. Davis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Public relations is one of the fastest growing majors chosen by college students throughout the United States, and most of these students are women. This thesis attempts to define the important role that women play in the practice of public relations and to determine why female students choose this major as their desired field of study more often then men. There is a need for such a study because in 1996 women accounted for only 37 percent of managers in marketing, advertising, and public relations, although they comprised 62 percent of all public relations specialists in this country. This research …

School Functioning Of Children With Asthma: A Study Of The Elementary And Middle School Years, Shannon Elizabeth Johansen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the school functioning of children with asthma compared to the school functioning of children without asthma over a 9-year time span. The present study was a secondary analysis of data from one large school district in a southeastern state. Information was gathered from multiple sources, including student records and parent and teacher surveys. Variables related to academics, behavior, and teacher perception were examined. A total of 646 participants were initially included in the study. These participants included 296 students identified as having asthma and 350 students identified as not having asthma. Participants were matched on gender, race, …

Determining The College Sports Information Director's Management Role And Potential To Be Promoted To The Position Of Director Of Intercollegiate Athletics, Gil R. Swalls

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency with which college sports information directors (SIDs) are promoted to athletics director (AD) positions. Results reveal some reasons why SIDs, the primary communications officer in the athletics department, may or may not be considered as qualified candidates for AD jobs. This study illustrates that current ADs predominately come from the ranks of former coaches, compliance officers, business managers and fund raisers, while few were formerly SIDs. In addition, this study sought to determine whether the SID develops skills and experience most closely related with ADs.

The variables examined in this …

The Effects Of Seasonal Change On Copepods And Euphausiids Off The Western Antarctic Peninsula: Results From Biochemical Assays And Respiration Studies, Joël Laurent Bellucci

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We compared four metabolic indicators of nutritional state: citrate synthase activity (CS), malate dehydrogenase activity (MDH), lactate dehydrogenase activity (LDH) and percent body protein to each other and to respiration measurements. These comparisons were made for four species of copepods (Calanoides acutus, Metridia gerlachei, Paraeuchaeta antarctica and another form of Paraeuchaeta that was unidentifiable to species due to its early life stage), three species of Euphausids (Euphausia crystallorophias, Euphausia triacantha, Euphausia superba (including both F6-furcilial and adult stages)) and Thysonessa macrura which were collected off the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) during Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. …

The Essay In The Postmodern Era, Xiqiao Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goal of this study is to suggest that the essay as a genre, although seeming to manifest the epistemological conceptions of the modern, possesses certain qualities from its origin that justify and strengthen its position in the paradigm of the postmodern condition. It is my argument that misconceptions about such qualities have led to its mistreatment by writing teachers in accordance with two dominant pedagogical approaches, formalism (current-traditionalism) and romanticism (expressivism). My argument requires a detailed examination of the political, historical and cultural reality that cultivated and nurtured the genre of the essay, and a major focus of …

Structural Diversity In Metal-Organic Nanoscale Supramolecular Architectures, Heba Abourahma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Supramolecular synthesis has gained much attention in recent years. Such an approach to synthesis represents an attractive alternative to traditional, multi-step synthesis, especially for making complex, nanoscopic structures. Of particular interest, in the context of this work, is the use of metal-organic interactions to direct the self-assembly of nanoscopic architectures. These interactions are highly directional, relatively "strong" (compared to other supramolecular interactions) and kinetically labile, which allows for "self-correction" and in turn the production, often in high yield, of defect-free products. This also means that a number of related, yet structurally diverse products (supramolecular isomers) could be isolated.

The work …

Fabrication And Testing Of A Cylindrical Ion Trap Microarray For Tunable Mass Spectrometers, Mangesh Telrandhe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a novel microfabrication approach and testing methodology for cylindrical ion trap (CIT) microarray tunable for mass- spectrometers. The growing interest in cylindrical ion trap (CIT) mass-spectrometers is primarily due to ease with which cylindrical geometry can be realized as compared to hyperbolic surfaces found in conventional quadrupole ion traps. Also due to the fact that the potential at the center of hyperbolic electrode in quadrupole ion trap and cylindrical electrode in cylindrical ion trap (CIT) does not differ significantly[2].

Since the RF voltage required to eject a given mass-to-charge ion scales as the square of the ion …

Learning From Spatially Disjoint Data, Divya Bhadoria

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Committees of classifiers, also called mixtures or ensembles of classifiers, have become popular because they have the potential to improve on the performance of a single classifier constructed from the same set of training data. Bagging and boosting are some of the better known methods of constructing a committee of classifiers. Committees of classifiers are also important because they have the potential to provide a computationally scalable approach to handling massive datasets. When the emphasis is on computationally scalable approaches to handling massive datasets, the individual classifiers are often constructed from a small faction of the total data. In this …