American Studies Commons^™

Low-Level Programming Of A 9-Degree-Of-Freedom Wheelchair-Mounted Robotic Arm With The Application Of Different User Interfaces, Punya A. Basnayaka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Implementation of C++ and Matlab based control of University of South Florida's latest wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (USF WMRA-II), which has 9 degrees-of-freedom, was carried out under this Master's thesis research. First, the rotational displacements about the 7 joints of the robotic arm were calibrated. It was followed by setting the control gains of the motors. Then existing high-level programs developed using C++ and Matlab for USF WMRA-I were modified for WMRA-II. The required low-level programs to provide complete kinematics of the joint movements to the controller board of WMRA-II (Galil DMC-2183) were developed using C++. A test GUI was developed …

Jack Kerouac: Le Sel De La Semaine, Thomas A. Ipri

Library Faculty Research

In 1967, Jack Kerouac appeared on the French service of the Canadian Broadcasting Service on the program Le Sel de la a Semaine. This Icarus Films release takes a fascinating look at Kerouac’s connection to Quebec where his parents are from. This interview by Fernand Seguin took place just 2 years before Kerouac’s death, making the program all the more poignant.

Improving The Energy Efficiency Of Ieee 802.3az Eee And Periodically Paused Switched Ethernet, Mehrgan Mostowfi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that networked devices consumed about 150 TWh of electricity in 2006 in the

U.S. which has cost around $15 billion and contributed about 225 billion lbs of CO

2

to

greenhouse gas emissions. About 13.5% of this energy is consumed by network equipment such

as switches and routers.

This thesis addresses the energy consumption of Ethernet, and designs and evaluates

improvements on existing methods to reduce the energy consumption of Ethernet links and

switches.

Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) is an emerging IEEE 802.3 standard which allows Ethernet

links to sleep when idle. In this thesis, a performance …

Human Factors Consideration In Developing A New Drive-By-Wire Interface, Sravan Kumar Elineni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined specific aspects of human factors involved in driving a vehicle with a modified Drive-by-Wire (DBW) control system. A DBW system is an electro-mechanical system which controls the primary operations of a vehicle such as steering, acceleration, and braking using a controller such as a joystick. Designing a human interface system for a DBW system involves three main phases in the human factors design process namely user centric/ergonomic design conception, building a prototype and validating the prototype based on human factor considerations. The main objective and focus of this research is to conceptualize a more ergonomic DBW …

School-Based Mental Health Services: A National Survey Of School Psychologists’ Practices And Perceptions, Allison Friedrich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the current role of school psychologists in the provision of school-based mental health services, including factors that relate to their provision of such services, by surveying a national sample of practicing school psychologists. Despite an extensive knowledge base regarding which professional services school psychologists provide in general, few studies have focused exclusively on specific modalities of mental health services. Previous lines of research also have not fully identified why school psychologists do not spend as much of their professional time in the provision of mental health services as they would desire. Therefore, a central purpose of this …

The Novel Use Of Recombinant Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor (Gm-Csf) To Reverse Cerebral Amyloidosis And Cognitive Impairment In Alzheimer’S Disease Mouse Models: Insights From The Investigation Of Rheumatoid Arthritis As A Negative Risk Factor For Alzheimer’S Disease, Timothy David Boyd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For many years, it has been known that Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a negative risk factor for the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It has been commonly assumed that RA patients’ usage of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have helped prevent the onset and progression of AD pathogenesis. Furthermore, experiments in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease have looked to inhibit inflammation, and have demonstrated some efficacy against AD-like pathology in these models. Thus many NSAID clinical trials have been performed over the years, but all have proven unsuccessful in AD patients. This suggests that intrinsic factors within RA pathogenesis itself may …

School-Based Mental Health Services: A National Survey Of School Psychologists’ Practices And Perceptions, Allison Friedrich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the current role of school psychologists in the provision of school-based mental health services, including factors that relate to their provision of such services, by surveying a national sample of practicing school psychologists. Despite an extensive knowledge base regarding which professional services school psychologists provide in general, few studies have focused exclusively on specific modalities of mental health services. Previous lines of research also have not fully identified why school psychologists do not spend as much of their professional time in the provision of mental health services as they would desire. Therefore, a central purpose of this …

Lg Ms 011 Northern Lambda Nord Archives Finding Aid, Michelle E. Smith, Kristin Morris

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

One of the earliest gay and lesbian groups in the state, NLN began in 1979 as a support network for the rural LGBT community, located in Aroostook County, with members in Maine and New Brunswick. By the mid-1980s, NLN had added an outreach component, working to educate the local community on LGBT identity and acceptance and health and HIV/AIDS issues. They also started a Gay-Lesbian Phoneline which grew into the Maine HIV/AIDS Hotline. The group disbanded in 2000, but re-formed in 2006. The Archives contains an extensive collection of organizational records, promotional materials, photo albums and artifacts.

Date Range: …

Teaching Social Skills To Children With Asperger’S And High Functioning Autism: An Evaluation Of Video Self-Modeling And Behavior Skills Training, Krystal M. Mcfee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of video self-modeling and behavior skills training to teach social skills to children with Asperger’s and high functioning autism. The targeted social skills were social initiations and social responses. The video self-modeling alone condition was implemented first using a video feedforward approach. A behavior skills training (BST) procedure was implemented following the video self-modeling alone condition for each participant. BST consisted of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. The frequency of each target behavior was scored from videotapes using 10-second frequency within interval recording. After the video self-modeling was introduced, a …

Beyond The Sunset : Race And Ethnicity In Cullman County, Alabama, Miles Laseter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Southern Studies master's thesis explores the racial and ethnic environment of Cullman County, Alabama from a number of perspectives. Critical readings of archived newspapers as well as local histories provide the foundation for this study. Oral history interviews and census data also figure prominently. The research aimed mainly at illuminating the elusive history of race relations in Cullman, an overwhelmingly white county. Much of the thesis focuses on Cullman's history of racial exclusiveness. Secondary sources, primarily works by historians and sociologists, contextualize Cullman's racial past and present. The county emerges from this study as an unusual if not truly …

Return To Unfinished Business: Re-Energizing U.S. Nuclear Arms Policy, William T. Eliason

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Today's international environment characterized in nuclear threat terms as having increasing concerns about the potential for terrorist or non-state use of nuclear devices and a decline in the likelihood of the original nuclear weapon states engaging each other in a nuclear war remains in search of a path away from the fear of nuclear attack some twenty years after the end of the Cold War. This research dissertation will seek to answer the question of how best to reestablish a nuclear arms control regime. This dissertation argues that the international environment has fundamentally changed since the end of the Cold …

Bibliography For Work In Travel Studies, Carlo Salzani, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

The Hours – A Film To Enhance Teaching Psychology, Christina J. Taylor

Psychology Faculty Publications

Hollywood films provide a rich and engaging means for teaching students about psychological topics. The Hours is an especially noteworthy film because of the wide range of psychological issues touched upon, including mental illness, gender roles, families, chronic illness, bereavement, caregiving, sexuality, and sexual orientation. Analysis of the film in this paper provides instructors of courses in psychology, social work, nursing, medicine, women's studies, and related courses, with suggestions for how this compelling film can help students develop in their understanding of human psychology. Demonstrates the pedagogical value of using the feature film to learn about psychological topics, and its …

Microexpression Spotting In Video Using Optical Strain, Sridhar Godavarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microexpression detection plays a vital role in applications such as lie detection and psychological consultations. Current research is progressing in the direction of automating microexpression recognition by aiming at classifying the microexpressions in terms of FACS Action Units. Although high detection rates are being achieved, the datasets used for evaluation of these systems are highly restricted. They are limited in size - usually still pictures or extremely short videos; motion constrained; containing only a single microexpression and do not contain negative cases where microexpressions are absent. Only a few of these systems run in real time and even fewer have …

The Accidental Practitioner: Principles Of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy In The Works Of Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph J. Ward

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Just as psychology and philosophy have influenced the field of literary studies, literature provides insight about the theories and practices of its sister disciplines. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how literary works of Kurt Vonnegut illuminate principles of the influential branch of psychotherapy known as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT).

This thesis traces the similar philosophies and shared beliefs of Vonnegut and REBT's founder, Albert Ellis, and details how Ellis's REBT is illustrated in selected works of Vonnegut, specifically, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Galapagos, and Timequake. The thesis concludes by suggesting that Vonnegut's …

Female Agency In Restoration And Nineteenth-Century Drama, Haley D. Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines issues of female agency in the plays The Rover and The Widow Ranter by Aphra Behn, Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw, and Votes for Women! by Elizabeth Robins. The heroines of each of these plays work toward gaining agency for themselves, and in order to achieve this goal, they often stray from cultural norms of femininity and encroach on the masculine world. This thesis postulates that agency for women becomes a fluid notion, not statically defined. These plays show a fluctuating and evolving sense of feminine agency.

Tracking Chemistry Self-Efficacy And Achievement In A Preparatory Chemistry Course, Carmen Alicia Garcia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-efficacy is a person's own perception about performing a task with a certain level of proficiency (Bandura, 1986). An important affective aspect of learning chemistry is chemistry self-efficacy (CSE). Several researchers have found chemistry self-efficacy to be a fair predictor of achievement in chemistry. This study was done in a college preparatory chemistry class for science majors exploring chemistry self-efficacy and its change as it relates to achievement. A subscale of CAEQ, Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire (developed by Dalgety et al, 2003) as well as student interviews were used to determine student chemistry self-efficacy as it changed during the …

Effects Of Reading Comprehension And Fluency Abilities On The N400 Event-Related Potential, Annie Hirt Nelson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to add to the knowledge of reading development by investigating reading processes from a neurocognitive and educational perspective. This study seeks to provide some insight about reading development for the neuroscience field. The goals of this study are to attain a clearer picture of reading development by using both behavioral assessments and event-related potentials (ERPs), and to begin to bridge the gap between both fields of study. Children between the ages of 7 and 13 were placed in one of two groups depending on their reading comprehension levels for the first analyses, and reading …

Modeling Swelling Instabilities In Surface Confined Hydrogels, Abiola Shitta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The buckling of a material subject to stress is a very common phenomenon observed in mechanics. However, the observed buckling of a surface confined hydrogel due to swelling is a unique manifestation of the buckling problem. The reason for buckling is the same in all cases; there is a certain magnitude of force that once exceeded, causes the material to deform itself into a buckling mode. Exactly what that buckling mode is as well as how much force is necessary to cause buckling depends on the material properties. Taking both a finite difference and analytical approach to the problem, it …

Malaria In Prehistoric Sardinia (Italy): An Examination Of Skeletal Remains From The Middle Bronze Age, Teddi J. Setzer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sardinia was an island with a history of a malarious environment until eradication efforts were conducted from 1946 to 1950. While historic documents suggest the disease was introduced from North Africa around 500 BC, no study has been conducted to test for the presence of malaria in prehistoric native populations, such as the Nuragic people of the Bronze Age. However, it has been suggested that aspects of the Nuragic culture, for example the stone structures found throughout the island, are adaptations to a malarious environment. The purpose of this dissertation is to test the hypothesis that malaria was present in …

Bastards, Brains, Boobs And Performance: A Retrospective Account, Joanna Bartell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two essays that comprise this thesis use personal narrative to discuss various aspects of illness, resistance and the body. The first essay uses performance theory to explore the social structures, mandates and restrictions concerning illness. I use the cancer experience to explore the co-creation of self, identity, and modes of being between "performer" and "audience." "Performer," in this case, is the "breast cancer patient," and the "audience" is comprised of the "social others.” The second essay explores cyborgization of the body, its painful effects, and associated social and moral values. It also discusses how we create theory and understanding …

An Ecology Of Performance: Gregory Bateson's Cybernetic Performance, Daniel Matthew Blaeuer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of the public performances of Gregory Bateson at The Esalen Institute. The case study is a reconsideration of the work of Gregory Bateson from the perspective of performance studies. The author brings together performativity, cybernetics, and the sacred to argue that Gregory Bateson, in his public performances, was striving for grace in encounters with others. The author has conducted archival research into Bateson’s presentations and has spoken with several close to Bateson to get a sense of how his process of public presentation paralleled his ideas—a process of continually working through ideas in conversation …

The Aggregated Influences Of Poverty Impacting Dental Care Access And Oral Health Among Migrant Farmworkers In Tampa, Florida, Nolan Kline

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oral health is an important aspect of overall health, but many vulnerable populations such as migrant farmworkers are without access to oral healthcare. Although some non-government organizations such as faith-based organizations have attempted to fill gaps left by government and private sectors, a lack of a dental safety net creates limited access to oral health services for migrant farmworkers. Access to care is further constrained by structural factors including low wages, migration route, and high costs of care. Building off a critical medical anthropology approach in understanding oral healthcare access, I argue that limited oral health access for migrant workers …

An Integrated Building Water Management Model For Green Building, Caryssa Joustra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is the developer of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) green building scoring system. On first inspection of LEED points, few address water efficiency. However, water management encompasses other points beyond the Water Efficiency (WE) category. In general, the industry is apt to take a somewhat compartmentalized approach to water management. The use of alternative water sources or the reuse of wastewater significantly complicates the water budget picture. A total water management systems approach, taking into consideration water from various sources, both inside and outside the building, should be implemented in order …

Fresh, Frugal, And Fabulous: A Woman's Guide To Cooking With Life, Tricia Mahoney

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

A narrative cookbook, including tips and stories for managing a downturn in finances with style and fortitude.

Detecting Group Turns Of Speaker Groups In Meeting Room Conversations Using Audio-Video Change Scale-Space, Ravikiran Krishnan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Automatic analysis of conversations is important for extracting high-level descriptions of meetings. In this work, as an alternative to linguistic approaches, we develop a novel, purely bottom-up representation, constructed from both audio and video signals that help us characterize and build a rich description of the content at multiple temporal scales. Nonverbal communication plays an important role in describing information about the communication and the nature of the conversation. We consider simple audio and video features to extract these changes in conversation. In order to detect these changes, we consider the evolution of the detected change, using the Bayesian Information …

Volume Phase Transitions In Surface-Tethered, Photo-Cross-Linked Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) Networks, Ajay Kumar Vidyasagar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overall thrust of this dissertation is to gain a comprehensive understanding over the factors that govern the performance and behavior of ultra-thin, cross-linked polymer films. Poly(NIPAAm) was used as a model polymer to study volume phase transition in surface tethered networks.

Poly(NIPAAm) undergoes a reversible phase transition at approximately 32°C between a swollen hydrophilic random coil to a collapsed hydrophobic globule state, thought to be caused by increased hydrophobic attractions between the isopropyl groups at elevated temperatures. We present a simple photochemical technique for fabricating structured polymer networks, enabling the construction of responsive surfaces with unique properties. The approach …

The Relationship Between Fam5c Snp (Rs10920501) Variability, Metabolic Syndrome, And Inflammation, In Women With Coronary Heart Disease, Jennifer L. Cline

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The leading cause of death among women is coronary heart disease (CHD), a multifactorial disease with polygenic heritability estimated at 50%. Polymorphisms in the family with sequence similarity 5, member C' (FAM5C) gene have been associated with myocardial infarction (MI), and one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has partially accounted for linkage in an acute coronary syndrome subset. The linkage peak on FAM5C corresponds directly with a quantitative trait locus for the inflammatory biomarker monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, as well as a linkage peak to metabolic syndrome (MetS). Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of developing CHD, and MI has been …

The Effects Of Aging On Temporal Masking, Susan E. Fulton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ability to resolve rapid intensity and frequency fluctuations in sound is important for understanding speech, especially in real-world environments that include background noise and reverberation. Older listeners often complain of difficulties understanding speech in such real-world environments. One factor thought to influence speech understanding in noisy and reverberant environments is temporal resolution, the ability to follow rapid acoustic changes over time. Temporal resolution is thought to help listeners resolve rapid acoustic changes in speech as well as use small glimpses of speech available in the dips or gaps in the background sounds. Temporal resolution is an ability that is …

Maintaining Biodiversity With A Mosaic Of Wetlands: Factors Affecting Amphibian Species Richness Among Small Isolated Wetlands In Central Florida., Jackie Guzy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The biodiversity value of a wetland is linked not only to its position in the landscape relative to other wetlands, but also to its habitat characteristics. I monitored amphibian species richness among 12 small, isolated, and undisturbed wetlands (which occur on lands permitted for phosphate mining) in central Florida during the 2005 and 2006 breeding seasons. I used seven habitat and landscape variables to characterize the environments of the wetlands and generalized linear models to determine which of these variables had the greatest influence on the occurrence of seven amphibian species (Anaxyrus terrestris, Gastrophryne carolinensis, Hyla gratiosa …