American Studies Commons^™

Nanomanufacturing Of Silica Nanowires: Synthesis, Characterization And Applications, Praveen Kumar Sekhar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research, selective and bottom-up manufacturing of silica nanowires on silicon (Si) and its applications has been investigated. Localized synthesis of these nanowires on Si was achieved by metal thin film catalysis and metal ion implantation based seeding approach. The growth mechanism of the nanowires followed a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. Mass manufacturing aspects such as growth rate, re-usability of the substrate and experimental growth model were also investigated. Further, silica nanowires were explored as surface enhanced Raman (SER) substrate and immunoassay templates towards optical and electrochemical detection of cancer biomarkers respectively. Investigating their use in photonic applications, optically active …

James, George D., 1871-1940 (Sc 1770), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1770. Account book of George D. James's grocery store in Brownsville, Edmonson County, Kentucky, 1914-1929, and copy of first bill he received when he opened the store in 1913.

Supervision In School Psychology: Assessing The Relationship With Professional Practices, Vicki Dumois Papaemaneul

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between the occurrence of reported supervision and the professional practices of school psychologists. Information provided by more than 1,700 school psychologists in response to the National Association of School Psychologists: Demographic and Professional Practices Survey 1999-2000 School Year - NASP-DPPS 2000 survey were used to create the 1999-2000 national database (Curtis, et al., 2000) and served as the basis for secondary analyses in the current study. The NASPDPPS 2000 collected information regarding the demographic characteristics, employment conditions and professional practices of school psychologists the United States.

Correlational and multiple regression analyses were completed to …

Compliant Prosthetic Knee Extension Aid: A Finite Elements Analysis Investigation Of Proprioceptive Feedback During The Swing Phase Of Ambulation, Adam Daniel Roetter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Compliant mechanisms offer several design advantages which may be exploited in prosthetic joint research and development: they are light-weight, have low cost, are easy to manufacture, have high-reliability, and have the ability to be designed for displacement loads. Designing a mechanism to perform optimally under displacement rather than force loading allows underlying characteristics of the swing phase of gait, such as the maximum heel rise and terminal swing to be developed into a prosthetic knee joint. The objective of this thesis was to develop a mechanical add-on compliant link to an existing prosthetic knee which would perform to optimal standards …

Investigation And Evaluation Of A Bi-Polar Membrane Based Seawater Concentration Cell And Its Suitability As A Low Power Energy Source For Energy Harvesting/Mems Devices, Clifford Ronald Merz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It has long been known from Thermodynamics and written in technical literature that, in principal, instant energy can be made available when dilute and concentrated solutions are mixed. For example, a river flowing into the sea carries with it a physical-chemical potential energy in its low salt content, some of which should be recoverable. As also known, a naturally occurring, diffusion-driven, spontaneous transport of ions occurs throughout a solution matrix, thru barrier interfaces, or thru ion-selective membranes from the side containing the salts of higher concentration to the compartments containing the more dilute solution to effect the equalization of concentration …

Evaluation Of The Public Health Risks Associated With Former Manufactured Gas Plants, Robin Brewer Dehate

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Regulatory agencies have recently focused on assessing the potential for soil vapor intrusion (SVI) and risk posed to occupants of residential and commercial properties overlying and surrounding former Manufactured Gas Plants (MGPs). This study evaluated the potential for SVI at 10 commercial buildings and 26 single family and multi-family residential properties overlying and/or adjacent to three former MGPs. The potential for SVI exposure was categorized into three groupings according to thickness of the vadose zones: no vadose zone; 0 - 6 feet thick, and 6 to 25 feet thick. Indoor and outdoor air and soil vapor samples were collected and …

Theoretical Modeling Of Cortisol Sensor, Milorad Gordic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the theoretical modeling of a response of an electrochemical BioMEMS sensor for detecting small amounts of cortisol hormone. The electrochemical sensor utilizes a catalyst enzyme (3a-HSD) to convert cortisone to cortisol and the Square Wave Voltammetry (SWV) as a preferred method to measure the forward and reverse current of the system. The parameters and equations necessary to estimate the Square Wave Voltammetry (SWV) theoretical response are determined and outlined. The response is modeled and the results are compared to the experimental data. Further, the design of the sensor is analyzed and suggestions are made on how to …

Gender, Sport & Nationalism: The Cases Of Canada And India, Courtney Glass

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks to explore the gendered nature of nationalisms and the ways that they can be challenged and perhaps transformed through the participation of women in sport at the national level. Nationalism is part of the public sphere, while women have historically been relegated to the private sphere. However, many scholars argue that women do in fact taken part in nation building primarily as biological reproducers of the nation. This has led scholars to conclude that nationalism is indeed gendered. Sport has traditionally been a masculine domain where conceptions of hegemonic masculinity as well as the nation are developed …

The Social Context Of Stress And Social Support Among Immigrant Latinas Diagnosed With Breast Cancer, Dinorah Martinez Tyson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social support plays a crucial role in both the physical and mental adjustment to the diagnosis of breast cancer and its treatment. However, the mediating effects of social support are embedded within the larger, social and cultural contexts in which support given and received. Due to language, culture and economic issues, immigrants may find themselves without the social support and networks that had previously enabled them to cope with illness and disease. This research grounds our understanding of social support and breast cancer within that larger context that includes the social environment and the experience of health disparities.

Ethnographic methods …

Temperature And Interconnect Aware Unified Physical And High Level Synthesis, Vyas Krishnan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Aggressive scaling of nanoscale CMOS integrated circuits has created significant design challenges arising from increasing power densities, thermal concerns, and rising wire delays. The main contribution of this dissertation is the development of unified physical and high-level synthesis techniques for the design of ASICs with optimal chip temperatures and interconnect delays.

Thermal issues are becoming a serious problem in high-performance VLSI circuits, adversely impacting performance, reliability, power consumption, and cooling costs. To address this, we present a temperature-aware behavioral synthesis (TABS) framework that combines power minimization with temperature-aware task scheduling, resource binding, and floorplanning. Compared to conventional low-power synthesis methods, …

Vectors Of Brevetoxins To Marine Mammals, Leanne J. Flewelling

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mass mortalities of Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have been attributed to brevetoxins produced by the Florida red tide dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. The multiple routes through which marine mammals can be exposed to brevetoxins have complicated efforts to understand the mechanisms that lead to mass mortality events. In spring of 2002, 34 endangered Florida manatees died in southwest Florida, and in spring of 2004, 107 bottlenose dolphins died in the Florida Panhandle. These events provided unique opportunities to make clear connections between ingested brevetoxins and marine mammal mortalities without the …

Development Of A Software-Defined Integrated Circuit Test System Using A System Engineering Approach On A Pxi Platform, Alfonso S. Flores

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are various types of test performed on Integrated Circuits, (IC), for detecting and locating defects and faults during failure analysis. Functional, logic, parametric and I_DDQ tests are among the most common. Functional IC tests are designed to verify whether the IC performs its intended function. Logic tests verify the logic operation of gates and registers. AC and DC parametric tests are used to measure time, voltage and current-varying parameters associated with the operational limits of the IC. Test parameters in parametric testing include, among others, propagation delay, operating current and signals rise and fall time.

Currently, almost all …

Seepage Rates In Closed Basins, Volha Martysevich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Seepage is an important component of the water budget in closed basins that do not have surface water drainage features. In the shallow water table environment of Florida, internal drainage of soil controls flooding. With the recent rapid population growth and urban development in the state, a simple, field-based method is needed to estimate seepage rates. In this study five locations in Hillsborough County, Florida, were instrumented with wells with pressure transducers measuring water level fluctuations at 1 minute resolution. For closed basins with lakes, evaporation (E) rates were determined using data from a weather station and Penman-Monteith FAO56 method, …

Modeling And Growth Of The 3c-Sic Heteroepitaxial System Via Chloride Chemistry, Meralys Reyes-Natal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study describes the development of novel heteroepitaxial growth of 3C-SiC layers by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). It was hypothesized that chloride addition to the "traditional" propane-silane-hydrogen precursors system will enhance the deposition growth rate and improve the material quality via reduced defect density. Thermodynamic equilibrium calculations were performed to obtain a criterion for which chloride specie to select for experimentation. This included the chlorocarbons, chlorosilanes, and hydrogen chloride (HCl) chloride containing groups. This study revealed no difference in the most dominant species present in the equilibrium composition mixture between the groups considered. Therefore, HCl was the chloride specie …

Cultural Factors And Concepts Of Pollution: Colorectal Cancer And Health Behaviors Among Ashkenazi Jewish Women, Karen Besterman-Dahan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence in Ashkenazi Jews has been found to be highest of any ethnic group in the world (Feldman, 2001). It is currently unclear how culture and religion influence health behaviors of U.S. Ashkenazi Jews, as well as what other socio-cultural factors influence AJ women's attitudes towards CRC risk and screening practices. This study aimed at exploring and describing the cultural and religious influences on health behaviors and beliefs related to CRC in Ashkenazi Jewish women. Research participants included seven key informants (rabbis) and forty-two Ashkenazi Jewish women ages 50 and up. Methods included in-depth, qualitative interviews …

Rice, Alice Caldwell (Hegan), 1870-1942 (Sc 1780), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1780. Brief letter, 9 June 1917, from author Alice Hegan Rice, Louisville, Kentucky, to a Miss Stearns complimenting her on the attractiveness of her book plate.

The Robustness Of Rasch True Score Preequating To Violations Of Model Assumptions Under Equivalent And Nonequivalent Populations, Garron Gianopulos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the feasibility of using Rasch true score preequating under violated model assumptions and nonequivalent populations. Dichotomous item responses were simulated using a compensatory two dimensional (2D) three parameter logistic (3PL) Item Response Theory (IRT) model. The Rasch model was used to calibrate difficulty parameters using two methods: Fixed Parameter Calibration (FPC) and separate calibration with the Stocking and Lord linking (SCSL) method. A criterion equating function was defined by equating true scores calculated with the generated 2D 3PL IRT item and ability parameters, using random groups equipercentile equating. True score preequating to FPC and SCSL calibrated item …

Determining The Usefulness Of Aerobic And Anaerobic Enzyme Assays As Proxies For Rockfish Ecological Data., Erica M. Hudson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rockfish are commercially and recreationally important, yet due to the in habitat depths at which rockfish inhabit, little is known about their ecology. As a consequence, management of rockfish population as a fishery resource is a work in progress. In particular, changes in physiological condition aver the course of the year is poorly described. This study examined 19 different species of Sebastes from the Southern California Bight over four seasons (late summer, fall, winter, and spring) using metabolic enzyme assays. Enzymes used were lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), pyruvate kinase (PK), and citrate synthase (CS). Some muscle composition data …

Formal Reasoning And Spatial Ability: A Step Towards "Science For All", Bo Jiang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work conducts an evaluation of a non-majors science curriculum named Molecules of Life (MOL) that aims to provide effective science education to undergraduate students who are not majoring in scientific disciplines.

As part of the process of developing an assessment plan for MOL, three related studies were undertaken in order to help us choose assessment instruments for MOL. The first study examined the validity of student evaluations of teaching. The second study investigated the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT) and Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT), two widely-used instruments for measuring formal reasoning ability. GALT is very similar to …

Developing A School Social Work Model For Predicting Academic Risk: School Factors And Academic Achievement, Robert Lucio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The impact of school factors on academic achievement has become an important focus for school social work and revealed the need for a comprehensive school social work model that allows for the identification of critical areas to apply social work services. This study was designed to develop and test a more comprehensive school social work model. Specifically, the relationship between cumulative grade point average (GPA) and the cumulative risk index (CRI) and an additive risk index (ARI) were tested and a comparison of the two models was presented. Over 20,000 abstracts were reviewed in order to create a list of …

Altrusa International - Bowling Green (Mss 702), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 702. Chiefly financial reports, minutes, yearbooks, newsletters, and correspondence of the Altrusa International Club in Bowling Green, Kentucky from 1954 until dissolution in 2004.

Wood, Rhonda (Fa 328), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of comilation (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 328. Compilation: "Tales of Tales of Tales" by the eighth grade class, Hughes-Kirk High School in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, under the direction of Rhonda Wood.

Genetic Algorithm Based Design And Optimization Of Vlsi Asics And Reconfigurable Hardware, Pradeep Ruben Fernando

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rapid advances in integration technology have tremendously increased the design complexity of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, necessitating robust optimization techniques in many stages of VLSI design. A genetic algorithm (GA) is a stochastic optimization technique that uses principles derived from the evolutionary process in nature. In this work, genetic algorithms are used to alleviate the hardware design process of VLSI application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and reconfigurable hardware.

VLSI ASIC design suffers from high design complexity and a large number of optimization objectives requiring hierarchical design approaches and multi-objective optimization techniques. The floorplanning stage of the design cycle …

The Modulation By Anthrax Toxins Of Dendritic Cell Activation, Ping-Jen Chou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bacillus anthracis produces lethal toxin (LT) and edema toxin (ET) and they suppress the function of LPS-stimulated dendritic cells (DC). Because DCs respond differently to various microbial stimuli, we compared toxin effects in bone marrow DCs stimulated with either LPS or Legionella pneumophila (Lp). DCs were enriched with GM-CSF for 9 days, purified by positive selection, and treated with toxins for 6h; cells were then stimulated with either LPS or Lp-infection for 24h. DC cytokine production and maturation marker expression varied depending upon cell stimulus and the mouse strain used. LT but not ET was more toxic for cells from …

The Social Context Of Cervical Cancer Knowledge And Prevention Among Haitian Immigrant Women, Janelle Marie Menard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cervical cancer is the primary cause of cancer deaths among Haitian women; however, the social context of cervical cancer among Haitian immigrant women has not been systematically examined. The ways in which women assign meaning to this disease, understand its causality and situate it within the broader context of gynecological health are poorly understood. Further, Haitian immigrant women's perceptions of disease risk, including knowledge and understanding about Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the primary etiologic factor in cervical cancer, have not been explored. Few studies have assessed health behaviors, including culturally mediated feminine hygiene practices, among Haitian immigrant women, which may negatively …

Kernel Density Estimation Of Reliability With Applications To Extreme Value Distribution, Branko Miladinovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the present study, we investigate kernel density estimation (KDE) and its application to the Gumbel probability distribution. We introduce the basic concepts of reliability analysis and estimation in ordinary and Bayesian settings. The robustness of top three kernels used in KDE with respect to three different optimal bandwidths is presented. The parametric, Bayesian, and empirical Bayes estimates of the reliability, failure rate, and cumulative failure rate functions under the Gumbel failure model are derived and compared with the kernel density estimates. We also introduce the concept of target time subject to obtaining a specified reliability. A comparison of the …

Public Opinion And The Introduction Of Congressional Environmental Legislation, 1973-2002, Hugh Eugene Jarvis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between public opinion about the environment and the introduction of congressional legislation on environmental issues. Using public opinion data gathered by the General Social Survey from 1977 to 2002, this work examines correlations between how the public views the environment in each and the number of bills introduced in the U.S. House and Senate addressing environmental issues. The findings indicate that there is a correlation between overall concern felt in the public and congressional action on certain aspects of environmental protection. The results also highlight the potentially disturbing finding that the race and economic class …

The Role Of Pharmacists And Emergency Contraception: An Assessment Of Pharmacy School Curricula In The U.S. And The Knowledge, Attitudes, And Dispensing Practices Of Florida Pharmacists., Alice R. Richman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emergency contraception is a safe and effective form of contraception that is 75%-89% effective in preventing pregnancies within 120 hours of unprotected intercourse. Emergency contraception is a type of hormonal contraception, containing high doses of estrogen and progestin (ethinyl estradiol plus levonorgestrel) or progestin only (levonorgestrel). Wider access to emergency contraception has the potential to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has previously denied any over-the-counter (OTC) access to emergency contraception and only recently approved it for OTC status for women 18 years old and over; therefore, pharmacists continue …

Angle, Dennis Paul (Fa 319), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 319. Paper: "A Partial Ethnography of the Bowling Green Fire Department" written by Dennis Paul Angle for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Sturgeon, Laurie (Fa 324), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 324. Paper: "Goebel Twyman: The Fiddle Player and His Continuing Music" written by Sturgeon for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.