American Studies Commons^™

Helping Our Toddlers, Developing Our Children’S Skills (Hot Docs): An Investigation Of A Parenting Program To Address Challenging Behavior In Young Children, Jillian Leigh Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated outcomes of a parent training curriculum: Helping Our Toddlers Developing Our Children's Skills (HOT DOCS), using secondary analyses of existing data collected between May 2007 and March 2009. The evaluation studied the impact of specific components of the parent training program on both participants' knowledge and attitudes and their perceptions of target children's behavior. Caregivers (n = 334) of children between the ages of 18 months and 5.11 years of age who were participants in the parent training program were included in the study. Measures included a pre/post knowledge test, pre/post rating scales of child …

Establishing Creative Writing Studies As An Academic Discipline, Dianne J. Donnelly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The discipline of creative writing is charged "as the most untheorized, and in that respect, anachronistic area in the entire constellation of English studies (Haake What Our Speech Disrupts 49). We need only look at its historical precedents to understand these intimations. It is a discipline which is unaware of the histories that informs its practice. It relies on the tradition of the workshop model as its signature pedagogy, and it is part of a fractured community signaled by its long history of subordination to literary studies, its lack of status and sustaining lore, and its own resistance to reform. …

Contemporary Daughter/Son Adult Social Role Performance Rating Scale And Interview Protocol: Development, Content Validation, And Exploratory Investigation, Dana Everett Cozad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop and content validate a Performance Rating Scale and Interview Protocol, enabling study of the social role performance of adult daughters and sons as they fulfill the societal norms and expectations of adult children. This exploratory investigation was one of 13 contemporary adult social roles completed by the University of South Florida Social Roles Research Group to update research of Havighurst in the 1950s.

The Daughter/Son Performance Rating Scale and Interview Protocol were created through a series of panel reviews and suggestions by experts drawn from adult education, human development, gerontology, and educational …

Six Fifth Grade Students Experiences Participating In Active Gaming During Physical Eduction Classes, Lisa Witherspoon Hansen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As technology and sedentary lifestyles have become an integral part of children's lives, so too has the prevalence of childhood obesity. Although video games are often associated with influencing sedentary behaviors, active gaming is a new genre that requires children to become physically active while playing the games. In this inquiry I explored six fifth grade students' experiences participating in active gaming in physical education classes for 30 minutes, twice weekly, during an eight week (16 sessions) study. I used qualitative methods including interviews, journal entries, and observational field notes. Analysis of data revealed students have a "Persistence to Game" …

Altman…Now, More Than Ever: Social Conflict In The Films Of Robert Altman, Walker Hicken

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is much scholarship to suggest that the idea of America is an idea of a meritocracy. Generally, the ideal construction of American meritocracy involves people working hard and being able to accomplish whatever they set their minds to. Filmmaker Robert Altman constructs a very different America. In Altman's eyes, success is achieved through promotion, either self-promotion or promotion by others. An individual's status, whether it be within a peer group or on a national level, is far more important that the actual work that that person has done. This thesis will also examine how Altman presents this promotion as …

Understanding And Improving Use-Tax Compliance: A Theory Of Planned Behavior Approach, Christopher Robert Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand specific factors that are pertinent to individuals when making a use-tax compliance decision and to test a remedy to improve use-tax compliance. This study investigates use-tax compliance using a three-step approach. The first step involved building a survey to determine potential salient beliefs that are pertinent to individuals when facing a use-tax compliance decision. Results of the initial survey reveal that the effort of complying with the use tax, potential revenue to the state if the individual complies, fairness of the use tax, monetary concerns of the individual, perceived knowledge of the use tax, and …

Obenchain, Lida (Calvert), 1856-1935 (Sc 1692), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1692. Letter, 9 March 1922, from Lida (Calvert) Obenchain, Dallas, Texas to high school student Pearl Lowe, Bowling Green, Kentucky providing information for a paper Lowe was writing about Obenchain. Includes some biographical information about Lowe.

Design And Synthesis Of Substituted 1,4-Hydrazine-Linked Piperazine-2,5- And 2,6-Diones And 2,5-Terpyrimidinylenes As Α-Helical Mimetics, Laura Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The most common secondary structure of proteins is the alpha-helix. The alpha-helix can be involved in various protein-protein interactions (PPIs) through the recognition of three or more side chains along one face of the alpha-helix (Wells and McClendon, 2007). In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of peptidic and non-peptidic compounds that bind to PPI surfaces. We focused on the design and synthesis of compounds that mimic the orientation of side chain residues of an alpha-helical protein domain. Although our scaffolds could potentially inhibit various PPIs, we focused mainly on the disruption of interactions among …

The Effect Of Celebrity Endorsements On Gift-Giving Purchases: An Application Of The Elaboration Likelihood Model, Christine Anghel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine how effective celebrity endorsements are in regards to the type of gift purchase one decides to make (i.e., buying for someone who has a high significant meaning to the buyer, such as a best friend, versus buying for someone who has a low significant meaning to the buyer, such as a casual friend). The study seeks to extend upon the anthropology research exploring gift-giving and marketing research exploring celebrity endorsements by applying the tenants of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). This study uses an experimental procedure in order to determine the effect …

Productive Whole-Class Discussions: A Qualitative Analysis Of Peer Leader Behaviors In General Chemistry, Teresa Mcclain Eckart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The intention of this research was to describe behaviors and characteristics of General Chemistry I peer leaders using a pedagogical reform method referred to as Peer-led Guided Inquiry (PLGI), and to discuss the ways in which these peer leaders created productive whole-class discussions. This reform technique engaged students to work on guided inquiry activities while working cooperatively in small groups, led by undergraduate peer leaders. These sessions were video recorded and transcribed. The data was evaluated using grounded theory methods of analysis. This study examined the dialog between students and peer leaders, paying specific attention to question types and observed …

Dressing Psychic Wounds: Clothing As Metaphor In Paule Marshall's Praisesong For The Widow And Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Angela D. Tartaglia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I investigate the function of dress as it relates to cultural retention in Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, drawing upon the work of fashion theorists Joanne Entwistle, Alison Lurie and Anne Hollander. My examination of the two novels is informed by several excellent scholarly works which hold that characters' well being is determined by the extent to which they connect with their folkloric roots, the central message in both Ceremony and Praisesong for the Widow. I build on this discourse by demonstrating that the novels' consistent attention to clothing is a device …

Building A Brighter Future Through Education: Student Housing For Single Parent Families, Carrie Cogsdale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On the possibilities of a child the Center for Disease Control says, “Every Child

should have the opportunity to reach their full potential”. (CDC) Children who grow up

in low-income families are at risk of falling behind in education before they even enter

kindergarten. Single parents that struggle to provide food and shelter often lack the time

and the resources to provide the early education that their children need. A college

education could provide these parents and their children with a better quality of life.

University student housing could include built in childcare services, educational

assistance and peer support, for …

Gulliver’S Travels To The Screen, Giant And Tiny, Mark Dekle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, has captured readers' imaginations for almost three hundred years, spawning countless adaptations over several different mediums. As different means of communicating and transforming art have been invented, these adaptations have grown to fill the new mediums and make use of the various possibilities each form has created. Film in particular has created an enormous opportunity to re-imagine Gulliver's Travels, since it can directly show the audience the fictional foreign locations in which Gulliver finds himself.

In this study, I examine seven screen adaptations of Swift's novel to determine what our current culture views as …

Caloric Expenditure And Substrate Utilization In Underwater Treadmill Running Versus Land-Based Treadmill Running, Courtney Schaal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to compare the caloric expenditure and oxidative sources of underwater treadmill running and land-based treadmill running at maximal and submaximal levels. Underwater running has emerged as a low load bearing form of supplementary training for cardiovascular fitness, as a way to promote recovery from strenuous exercise while maintaining aerobic fitness, and as a way to prevent injury. Prior studies have reported conflicting results as to whether underwater treadmill running elicits similar cardiorespiratory responses to land-based running. It is important to further investigate the similarities and differences between the two to determine if underwater running …

Power-Performance Tradeoffs In Database Systems, Zichen Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the total energy consumption of computing systems increasing at a steep rate, much attention had been paid to the design of energy-efficient computing systems and applications. So far, database system design has focused on improving the performance of query processing. The objective of this study is to explore the potential of energy conservation in relational database management systems. The hypothesis is: by modifying the query optimizer in a Database management system (DBMS) to take the energy cost of query plans into consideration, we will be able to reduce the energy usage of database servers and control the tradeoffs between …

Errands Into The Metropolis: New England Dissidents In Revolutionary London, Jonathan Beecher Field

Publications

Errands into the Metropolis offers a dramatic new interpretation of the texts and contexts of early New England literature. Jonathan Beecher Field inverts the familiar paradigm of colonization as an errand into the wilderness to demonstrate, instead, that New England was shaped and re-shaped by a series of return trips to a metropolitan London convulsed with political turmoil. In London, dissidents and their more orthodox antagonists contended for colonial power through competing narratives of their experiences in the New World. Dissidents showed a greater willingness to construct their narratives in terms that were legible to a metropolitan reader than did …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2009-07-01, Jean Vermette

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Review: Flannery: A Life Of Flannery O'Connor, William A. Richards

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the book "Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor," by Brad Gooch.

The Biomechanics Of Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty, Sergio Gutiérrez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rotator cuff deficiency with glenohumeral arthritis presents a unique challenge to the orthopaedic surgeon. Under these conditions, total shoulder replacement has yielded poor results as a result of eccentric loading of the glenoid leading to loosening and early failure. Multiple procedures have been recommended to resolve this problem including total shoulder arthroplasty, shoulder arthrodesis, and hemiarthroplasty. Hemiarthroplasty, the current standard of care for this condition, offers only limited goals for functional improvement and only a modest improvement in pain.

Recently, there has been renewed interest in reverse shoulder arthroplasty. The main concept behind the reverse shoulder implant is the stabilization …

A Parent Training Program Combining Discrete Trial Training And Incidental Teaching In The Home Environment, Lindsey Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of a parent training program teaching discrete trial teaching (DTT) and incidental teaching (IT) methods using a parent training manual. Three families with children between the ages of 5-6 diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) participated. Both parents received parent training although Parent A received training from the experimenter and Parent B received training from Parent A. The parents taught their children one skill each from three categories: communication, self-care routines and a household expectation. This study sought to expand upon the literature in the realm of combining DTT and IT as well as adding …

Stevens, Jessica (Fa 462), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Paper: "Facebook Graffiti: Folklore of the Virtual Bumper Sticker" written by Jessica Stevens for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Spoken Word Recognition In Quiet And In Noise By Native And Non-Native Listeners: Effects Of Age Of Immersion And Vocabulary Size, Astrid Zerla Doty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In spoken word recognition, high-frequency words with few neighbors and less frequently occurring minimal pair neighbors (lexically easy words) are recognized more accurately than low-frequency words with many and more frequently occurring neighbors (lexically hard words). Bradlow and Pisoni (1999) found a larger easy hard word effect for non-native than native speakers of English. The present study extends this work by specifically comparing word recognition by non-native listeners with either earlier or later ages of immersion in an English-speaking environment to that of native English speakers. Listeners heard six lists of 24 words, each composed of 12 lexically easy and …

Chambers, David (Fa 463), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 463. Paper: [Street Gangs]" written by David Chambers for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Gibbs, Joe (Fa 460), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 460. Paper: "Kickball" written by Joe Gibbs for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Quest Towards The Design And Synthesis Of Functional Metal-Organic Materials: A Molecular Building Block Approach, Dorina F. Sava

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The design of functional materials for specific applications has been an ongoing challenge for scientists aiming to resolve present and future societal needs. A burgeoning interest was awarded to developing methods for the design and synthesis of hybrid materials, which encompass superior functionality via their multi-component system. In this context, Metal-Organic Materials (MOMs) are nominated as a new generation of crystalline solid-state materials, proven to provide attractive features in terms of tunability and versatility in the synthesis process. In strong correlation with their structure, their functions are related to numerous attractive features, with emphasis on gas storage related applications.

Throughout …

Plp-Dependent Α-Oxoamine Synthases: Phylogenetic Analysis, Structural Plasticity, And Structure-Function Studies On 5-Aminolevulinate Synthase, Tracy D. Turbeville

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

5-Aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS) and 8-amino-7-oxononanoate synthase (AONS) are two of four homodimeric members of the alpha-oxoamine synthase family of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes. The evolutionary relationships among α-oxoamine synthases representing a broad taxonomic and phylogenetic spectrum have been examined to help identify residues that may regulate substrate specificity.

The structural plasticity of ALAS has been documented in studies of functional circularly permuted ALAS variants and the single polypeptide chain ALAS dimer (ALAS/ALAS) exhibiting a greater turnover number than wild-type ALAS. An examination of the contribution of each ALAS/ALAS active site to the enzymatic activity shows that each active site makes …

The Role Of Interference In Moderating The Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity And Cued-Recall, Umit Akirmak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although much research has been done on how well working memory predicts processing of consciously activated information, research on the possible influences of working memory on automatically activated information is scarce (Barrett, Tugade, & Engle, 2004). Working memory capacity (WMC) may be related to how much information is activated automatically by either aiding ease of access to relevant information or by its role in inhibiting irrelevant thoughts and information (i.e., noise). The purpose of the present study was to examine the contribution of individual differences in WMC on implicit and explicit processes in cued recall. Participants studied target words and …

Making And Keeping The Peace: An Analysis Of African Union Efficacy, Nicholas Temple

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The African Union (AU) has pledged to create a continent of peace and solidarity. However, dozens of socio-ethnic conflicts occur across the continent despite the AU's best efforts to prevent them. In this thesis, case studies of Darfur and Western Sahara were used to assess the efficacy of the AU in the realm of peacemaking and peacekeeping. Within each of these studies, AU impediments to peacemaking and peacekeeping on financial, political, and socio-cultural fronts were analyzed. The findings suggest that while socio-cultural conflict continues to proliferate, the AU has neither the financial resources nor the political clout to meet peacemaking …

Factors Affecting The Utilization And Quality Of Long-Term Care, April Temple

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aging of the nation in the coming decades will contribute to an increased demand for long-term care. Given this trend, it is becoming increasingly important to understand utilization of services along the continuum of care and to determine factors that influence the provision of quality care. These insights are needed to reduce national expenditures on long-term care and to maximize independence and well-being among older adults.

The purpose of the present dissertation was to explore factors that influence the utilization and quality of long-term care by conducting three separate studies. The first study examined risk of nursing home (NH) …

Synergy And Resistance Mechanisms In R115777 And Ps-341 Models Of Myeloma And Leukemia, Robert William Buzzeo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The farnesyl transferase inhibitor R115777 (Zarnestra, Tipifarnib) has been found to have clinical activity in diverse hematopoietic tumors. Clinical efficacy, however, does not correlate with Ras mutation status or inhibition of farnesyl transferase. To further elucidate the mechanisms by which R115777 induces apoptosis and to investigate drug resistance, we have identified and characterized a R115777-resistant human myeloma cell line. 8226/R5 cells were found to be at least 50 times more resistant to R115777 compared with the parent cell line 8226/S. 8226/R5 cells were insensitive to a diverse group of antitumor agents including PS-341 (Bortezomib, Velcade). Comparison of gene expression profiles …