American Studies Commons^™

Multi-Elemental Chemical Analysis Of Anthropogenic Soils As A Tool For Examining Spatial Use Patterns At Prehispanic Palmarejo, Northwest Honduras, Kara A. Rothenberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plazas and patios were important spaces for expressing power and social identity in prehispanic Mesoamerica. However, plazas can be analytically problematic, because they were often kept clean of material debris. Previous geoarchaeological studies of anthropogenic soils and sediments have shown that specific activities leave characteristic chemical signatures on prepared earthen surfaces. The research presented here uses soil chemical residue analysis and excavation data to examine use patterns in the North Plaza of Palmarejo, Honduras during the Late Classic period. The goal is to determine whether the plaza was used for residential or ceremonial purposes. The chemical results indicate that activities …

Perceptions Of The Roles, Professional Development, Challenges, And Frustrations Of High School Principals, Stephen J. Knobl Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current perceptions of high school principals regarding their perceived roles, professional development experiences that impacted their careers, and the challenges and frustrations they face when enacting their roles as high school leaders. This qualitative study investigated perceptions of high school principals and addressed three research questions: (1) What are the perceptions of high school principals regarding their role as school leaders? (2) What professional development experiences do high school principals report are most important in impacting their careers? (3) What do high school principals perceive are their greatest challenges and frustrations? …

An Analysis Of U.S. Policies Targeting The Iranian Nuclear Program, Bryan T. Hamilton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Iran’s nuclear program continues to present a major challenge to U.S. policy. At the core of this challenge is one fundamental question: Is Iran attempting to build a nuclear weapon? Objective analysis reveals that Iran’s dependence on oil and natural gas provides sufficient economic merit for Iran to pursue a peaceful nuclear program; without nuclear power to meet rising domestic energy needs, Iran’s economy will suffer. Though the economic justification is valid, the security of Iran and the survival of its regime are overarching; acts of foreign interference in Iran’s affairs have fueled the regime’s quest for a nuclear weapon. …

Microbial Influences On Karst Dissolution: The Geochemical Perspective, With A Chapter On Assessment Of The Spreadsheets Across The Curriculum Project, Dorien Kymberly Mcgee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microbes are prevalent in geologic settings and a growing body of research suggests the roles they play in geologic processes may be more important than previously thought, and therefore underestimated. This dissertation addresses the influence of microbes on the dissolution of limestone in karst settings by analyzing the stable carbon isotopes and geochemistry of air and waters from three unique cave and karst settings: West-Central Florida, the Everglades (southern Florida) and The Bahamas. In Florida, these parameters as well as air/water temperature, rainfall, and water-level fluctuations were monitored for 22 and 10 months. In the Bahamas, geochemical data were collected …

Contextualizing Obesity Among Latino Farmworkers: A Critical Analysis Of Structural And Cultural Processes Affecting Farmworker Health And Nutrition In Central Florida, Melissa H. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers play a critical role in the U.S. economy, producing food for the American public, while their suffering is often rendered invisible by their existence on the margins of society. The low wages associated with farm labor combined with the largely undocumented status of this population severely limits access to food, housing, and health care, resulting in poor health outcomes. Through the use of a critical anthropological approach, this research examines the social, cultural, political, and economic context of obesity among Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Central Florida. Ethnographic research methods were used to explore perceptions …

A Retrospective Analysis Of The Potential Environmental Stressors Responsible For The Decline Of The Natural Populations Of The Florida Apple Snail (Pomacea Paludosa) In The A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Shannon Ladd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the factors that contributed to the decline of Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) populations in the A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge with the goal of devising management recommendations to the Refuge regarding population management strategies. The factors examined that could have potentially contributed to population decline include the use of copper-based herbicides, insecticide application, the occurrence of drought, the use of other herbicides, the occurrence of fire, and non-avian predation. Annual Narrative documents produced by Refuge managers and staff members, dated from 1951 to 2007, were used to collect historical data for …

Karmiller, Courtney Anne, B. 1989 (Fa 485), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (click on "Additional File" below) for Folklife Archives Project 485. Folklore material classified by genre. Information collected by Courtney Anne Karmiller related to folklore genres for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

System For Identifying Plankton From The Sipper Instrument Platform, Kurt A. Kramer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plankton imaging systems such as SIPPER produce a large quantity of data in the form of plankton images from a variety of classes. A system known as PICES was developed to quickly extract, classify and manage the millions of images produced from a single one-week research cruise. A new fast technique for parameter tuning and feature selection for Support Vector Machines using Wrappers was created. This technique allows for faster feature selection, while at the same time maintaining and sometimes improving classification accuracy. It also gives the user greater flexibility in the management of class contents in existing training libraries. …

Kinchlow, Gina Lloyce (Fa 12), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 12. Interviews conducted by Gina Lloyce Kinchlow with three Kinchlow family members concerning African American, middle class family life and Easter customs in New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana during the 1960s and 1970s.

Optimal Discrete-In-Time Inventory Control Of A Single Deteriorating Product With Partial Backlogging, Yang Tan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The implicit assumption in conventional inventory models is that the stored

products maintain the same utility forever, i.e., they can be stored for an infinite period of

time without losing their value or characteristics. However, generally speaking, almost all

products experience some sort of deterioration over time. Some products have very small

deterioration rates, and henceforth the effect of such deterioration can be neglected.

Some products may be subject to significant rates of deterioration. Fruits, vegetables,

drugs, alcohol and radioactive materials are examples that can experience significant

deterioration during storage. Therefore the effect of deterioration must be explicitly taken

into …

Comparison Of Risky Decision Making Processes In Dyads And Individuals, Moumita Mukherjee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The thesis compared the likelihood of taking risks in dyads and individuals in

varying situations. Patterns of risky decision making were examined in the standard risky

choice task and a novel risk management task. The relative successes of two theories of

risky decision making were assessed: Prospect Theory emphasizes perceptual and

psychophysical processes, whereas Security-Potential/Aspiration Level Theory

emphasizes dispositional and motivational processes. The thesis also examined dyads’

decision behavior in light of competing social influence perspectives regarding risky

versus cautious shifts and group polarization.

Participants, as individuals or as part of a dyad, made decisions in 23 trials about

hypothetical …

Finite Element Analysis Of Thermoelectric Systems With Applications In Self Assembly And Haptics, Patrick T. Mcknight

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Micro-scale self assembly is an attractive method for manufacturing sub-millimeter sized thermoelectric device parts. Challenges controlling assembly yield rates, however, have caused research to find novel ways to implement the process while still resulting in a working device. While a typical system uses single n-type and p-type material elements in series, one method used to increase the probability of a working device involves adding redundant parallel elements in clusters. The drawback to this technique is that thermal performance is affected in clusters which have missing elements. While one-dimensional modeling sufficiently describes overall performance in terms of average junction temperatures and …

Plasma Mediated Molecular Delivery, Richard J. Connolly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-viral delivery of plasmid DNA has traditionally relied upon physical forces applied directly to target tissues. These physical methods typically involve contact between an applicator and the target tissue and often cause transient patient discomfort. To overcome the contact-dependent limitations of such delivery methodologies, an atmospheric direct current plasma source was developed to deposit ionized gas molecules onto localized treatment sites. The deposition of charged species onto a treatment site can lead to the establishment of an electric field with strengths similar to those used for traditional electroporation. In vitro experiments proved that this technology could transiently permeabilize cell membranes …

Modeling And Predicting Taxi Times At Airports, Arjun Chauhan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research aims at providing methods in analyzing and estimating the taxi times of aircraft at airports, which are expected to be an important element for reducing taxiing delay and consequent excess fuel consumption and environmental costs. The proposed model involves a set of regression equations to model the taxi-out and taxi-in times at airports. The estimated results can be used to calculate the nominal taxi times, which are essential measures for evaluating the taxiing delays at airports. Given the outcomes of the regression model, an iterative algorithm is developed to predict taxi times. A case study at LGA shows …

More Than Bows And Arrows: Subversion And Double-Consciousness In Native American Storytelling, Anastacia M. Schulhoff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

W. E. B. Du Bois‘ legendary reflections on the ―peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one‘s self through the eyes of others‖ has been applied almost exclusively to the souls of African American people (Du Bois 1903). This thesis shows how the concept of double-consciousness is alive in the stories told by Native Americans. I draw upon data from two websites that have recorded the stories told by ―exemplary indigenous elders, historians, storytellers and song carriers‖ and their oral traditions that serve the ―purpose of cultural preservation, education, and race reconciliation‖ (Wisdom of the Elders, 2009). …

Characterization Of The Esterification Reaction In High Free Fatty Acid Oils, Lucas Eli Porter Altic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Energy and vegetable oil prices have caused many biodiesel producers to turn to waste cooking oils as feedstocks. These oils contain high levels of free fatty acids (FFAs) which make them difficult or impossible to convert to biodiesel by conventional production methods. Esterification is required for ultra-high FFA feedstocks such as Brown Grease. In addition, ultrasonic irradiation has the potential to improve the kinetics of the esterification reaction. 2-level, multi-factor DOE experiments were conducted to characterize the esterification reaction in ultra-high FFA oils as well as determine whether ultrasonic irradiation gives any benefit besides energy input. The study determined that …

Mutual Elements And Substrate Effect Analysis On Patch Antenna Arrays, Matthew J. Wallace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been many different technology advancements with the invention of solid state electronics, leading to the digital era which has changed the way users employ electronic circuits. Antennas are no different; however, they are still analog devices. With the advancements in technology, antennas are being fabricated on much higher frequencies and with greater bandwidths, all while trying to keep size and weight to a minimum. Centimeter and millimeter wave technologies have evolved for many different radio frequency (RF) applications. Microstrip patch antennas have been developed, as wire and tubular antenna elements are difficult to fabricate with the tolerances required …

Exploring The Relationships Among Work-Related Stress, Quality Of Life, Job Satisfaction, And Anticipated Turnover On Nursing Units With Clinical Nurse Leaders, Mary Kohler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) (AACN) role with the variables of work related stress, quality of life, job satisfaction and anticipated turnover of acute care nurses. Participants included registered nurses (RNs) (N= 94) in Florida recruited from 3 (not for profit) Magnet hospitals in the Tampa Bay Florida area. An ex post facto design was used to test the hypotheses of this study; independent t-tests compared RN’s responses on survey tools measuring work-related stress, quality of life, job satisfaction, and anticipated turnover. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine …

Enhancing Virus Surveillance Through Metagenomics: Water Quality And Public Health Applications, Karyna Rosario-Cora

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Monitoring viruses circulating in the human population and the environment is critical for protecting public and ecosystem health. The goal of this dissertation was to incorporate a viral metagenomic approach into virus surveillance efforts (both clinical and water quality control programs) to enhance traditional virus detection methods.

Clinical surveillance programs are designed to identify and monitor etiological agents that cause disease. However, the ability to identify viruses may be compromised when novel or unsuspected viruses are causing infection since traditional virus detection methods target specific known pathogens. Here we describe the successful application of viral metagenomics in a clinical setting …

Ernest Hemingway’S Mistresses And Wives: Exploring Their Impact On His Female Characters, Stephen E. Henrichon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Conflicted” succinctly describes Ernest Hemingway. He had a strong desire to make his parents proud of him but this was in constant conflict with his need to tell a story, warts and all. Of particular importance is his relationship with his mother and the crippling effect it has on his relationships with women. Hemingway’s life becomes a series of dysfunctional relationships that fail to meet his needs, leaving him perpetually searching for the right woman. Kert posits that Hemingway’s contempt for women is related to his inability to make the transition from lover to husband, fueled by Hemingway’s belief that …

Rethinking Ethical Naturalism: The Implications Of Developmental Systems Theory, Jared J.. Kinggard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biological research has the capacity to inform ethical discussions. There are numerous questions about the nature of sexual orientation, intelligence, gender identity, etc., and many of these questions are commonly approached with the benefit of implicit or explicit biological commitments. The answers to these sorts of questions can have a powerful impact on social, ethical, and political positions. In this project I examine the prospect of naturalizing ethics under the umbrella of developmental systems theory (DST). If one is committed to DST, then those ideas involved in DST that steer biological research will also have implications for ethics. There has …

Puerperal Fever In Britain: Failed Models Of Disease Causation, Jessica Wells

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, a bacterial infection which we now

know to be caused primarily by a streptococcus, was killing women in childbirth at an

alarming rate. The disease, called puerperal, or childbed, fever, was being transmitted

primarily from doctor to patient by a doctor’s unwashed hands and filthy, contaminated

clothing and linens. Despite this evident and, in retrospect, obvious vector, the doctors of

this period never discovered how to prevent their patients from dying a gruesome and

painful death. Many physicians wrote extensive accounts of the illness but often ended

their works in despair, unable to find the …

Carbon Nanotube Enhanced Maldi Ms: Increasing Sensitivity Through Sample Concentration, Joshua Schumacher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is a technique used in mass spectrometry for the ionization of biomolecules. A matrix solution is mixed with the analyte molecules to be investigated, and then spotted onto a specialized MALDI plate. The solvents evaporate leaving only the re-crystallized matrix with analyte dispersed throughout the crystals. Sample ionization is accomplished with a laser in the MALDI instrument. The spot diameter of the target is usually several orders of magnitude larger than the diameter of the laser, making it necessary to perform multiple laser investigations to accurately evaluate the analyte in the target spot.

Experiments were performed …

Evaluation Of Oncology Nurses' Knowledge, Practice Behaviors, And Confidence Specific To Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy, Rebecca Denise Mcallister

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) remains one of the most serious and challenging symptoms oncology nurses encounter in caring for patients receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy. CIPN is under-addressed, under-reported, and symptoms are minimized by healthcare providers, which adversely affect patient quality of life, physical function, and emotional well-being. There is an absence of research examining nurses’ knowledge and practice behaviors related to CIPN. The purpose of this study was to explore oncology nurses knowledge, practice behaviors, confidence, and the relationship between education, experience, and knowledge specific to CIPN.

Data was collected at Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Chapter meetings throughout central and …

Topics In Random Knots And R-Matrices From Frobenius Algebras, Enver Karadayi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we study two areas of interest in knot theory: Random knots in the unit cube, and the Yang-Baxter solutions constructed from Frobenius algebras.

The study of random knots can be thought of as a model of DNA strings situated in confinement. A random knot with n vertices is a polygonal loop formed by selecting n distinct points in the unit cube, for a positive integer n, and connecting these points by straight line segments successively, such that the last point selected is joined with the first one. We present a step by step description of our algorithm …

Understanding The Interaction Between Blood Flow And An Applied Magnetic Field, Francy L. Sinatra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hemodynamic monitoring is extremely important in the accurate measurement of vital parameters. Current methods are highly invasive or noncontinuous, and require direct access to the patient’s skin. This study intends to explore the modulated magnetic signature of blood method (MMSB) to attain blood flow information. This method uses an applied magnetic field to magnetize the iron in the red blood cells and measures the disturbance to the field with a magnetic sensor [1]. Exploration will be done by experimentally studying in-vitro, as well as simulating in COMSOL the alteration of magnetic fields induced by the flow of a magnetic solution. …

Examination Of The Effect Of Child Abuse Case Characteristics On The Time A Caseworker Devotes To A Case, Christopher J. Card

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used an explanatory research model that determined the effect on caseworker time and therefore workload caused by specific characteristics of cases assigned after the child abuse investigation is complete. The purpose of this study was to explain the relationship between child protection case characteristics and the time an assigned caseworker devotes to a case. With this knowledge an informed methodology to assess the current workload of a caseworker could be used to assure that the caseworker is able to successfully complete the tasks required for each child assigned. Further, the knowledge of the amount of time spent on …

An Experimental Study Of Distance Sensitivity Oracles, Vincent Troy Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The paper \A Nearly Optimal Oracle for Avoiding Failed Vertices and Edges" by

Aaron Bernstein and David Karger lays out a nearly optimal algorithm for nding the

shortest distances and paths between vertices with any given single failure in constant

time without reconstructing the oracle. Using their paper as a guideline, we have

implemented their algorithm in C++ and recorded each step in this thesis. Each step

has its own pseudo-code and its own analysis to prove that the entire oracle construction

stays within the stated running time and total space bounds, from the authors. The

effciency of the algorithm …

A Study Of Omnidirectional Quad-Screw-Drive Configurations For All-Terrain Locomotion, Jon T. Freeberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Double-screw vehicles have been developed to operate in soft, wet terrains such as marsh, snow, and water. Their exceptional performance in soft and wet terrains is at the expense of performance on rigid terrains such as pavement. Furthermore, turning can be difficult because the method of turning varies depending on the terrain. Therefore, in this study, several different quad-screw-configurations were proposed and tested to improve upon double-screw vehicles.

A test-bed was developed which could easily be converted into each quad-screw-configuration for testing on a variety of surfaces (grass, dirt, sand, clay, marsh, snow, gravel, pavement, and water). In addition, a …

Rehabilitation Of Precast Deck Panel Bridges, Atiq H. Alvi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

USF completed a research study in 2005, which prioritized the replacement of 85 deteriorating composite precast deck panel bridges. This thesis re-evaluates the original recommendations in the wake of failures of two of these bridges in 2007. Since funding will not allow all identified bridges to be replaced, it was necessary to determine the most effective repair methods. To assess USF’s recommendations, a forensic study was undertaken in which the most current inspection and work program documents on the two failed bridges were reviewed and FDOT personnel interviewed. The best repair procedures were determined by reviewing repair plans, specifications, reports …