American Studies Commons^™

A Mixed Methods Approach To Examining Factors Related To Time To Attainment Of The Doctorate In Education, Hesborn Otieno Wao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the years, the time that students take to attain the doctorate, particularly in Education, has been increasing. Given the cost incurred in preparing students, the decrease in years of productivity in the chosen professions, and other opportunity costs, this trend is of great concern to students, the university, and society at large. This dissertation examined the timing of doctorate attainment and the factors related to this timing. Using secondary data (N=1,028 students), discrete-time multilevel hazard analysis was employed to determine the relationship between various factors and the timing of doctorate attainment in a College of Education. Complementary to the …

Communication Systems And Hiv/Aids Sexual Decision Making In Older Adolescent And Young Adult Females, Rasheeta D. Chandler Ms, Arnp, Fnp-Bc

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a national priority for several reasons including its endemic/pandemic status and economic demand. Adolescents 15 to 24 years old who are sexually active acquire nearly half of all new Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). Recent findings from the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) have documented increased teen birth rates, escalating births to unwed mothers, and STIs ascribed to one in four adolescent females, are reasons to enhance effective prevention efforts.

The specific aim of the study, based on Bandura's social cognitive theory, was to test associations among communication system methods and …

Maxwell’S Problem On Point Charges In The Plane, Kenneth Killian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper deals with approximating an upper bound for the number of equilibrium points of a potential field produced by point charges in the plane. This is a simplified form of a problem posed by Maxwell [4], who considered spatial configurations of the point charges. Using algebraic techniques, we will give an upper bound for planar charges that is sharper than the bound given in [6] for most general configurations of charges. Then we will study an example of a configuration of charges that has exactly the number of equilibrium points that Maxwell's conjecture predicts, and we will look into …

Publicly Posted Feedback With Goal Setting To Improve Tennis Performance, Gretchen Mathews

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A review of the literature regarding Applied Behavior Analysis within various sports settings shows that behavioral coaching is more effective than traditional coaching methods. Specifically, goal setting and publicly posted feedback improved the athletic performance of college level football players in two studies, and high school soccer players in one study. The present study found goal setting and publicly posted feedback improved tennis performance for six participants. A multiple baseline across participants design was used. Specifically, the participants improved their corner hitting ability, which is an important competitive shot in tennis. The participants improved their corner hitting ability from an …

Hate Crimes And Jury Decision Making: An Exploratory Study Of Underlying Motivations Of How Mock Jurors Are Influenced By Extralegal Factors, Vimbai Mudimu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Statistics show that hate crimes continue to occur in United States, inciting fear and intimidation in minority communities (Petrosino, 1999; Torres, 1999; Saucier et al., 2006; Nolan et al., 2002; Jacobs & Potter, 1997). Although hate crime legislation has been passed, very little research has assessed what impact it has. This is particularly true for jury decision making. The aim of this study was to examine the main effects of type of crime (hate versus non-hate), offender-victim racial composition (African-American/Caucasian), and the interaction between these two variables on ratings of guilt likelihood, deserved punishment, and sentence recommendations after controlling for …

Assessing The Predictive Validity Of The Uaw-Ford Ergonomic Surveillance Tool, Gregory S. Krivonyak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) account for more than 350,000 occupational illnesses and injuries in the United States. Many job risk factors for developing MSDs are found in the automotive industry and the United Automobile Workers (UAW)-Ford Ergonomics Surveillance Tool (EST) has been designed to screen these jobs into high, moderate or low risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders affecting the distal upper extremity (DUE), lower back (LB) and/or neck and shoulders (NS). The purpose of this effort was to examine the predictive validity of the EST against a sample of target jobs at four Ford plants.

Individual jobs for this study …

Net/Work: Composing The Posthuman Self, Julia L. Mason

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overall question this dissertation asks is: what does it mean to teach posthumans? To answer this question, this dissertation turns toward scholarship on the body in order to understand the virtual and material presence that students develop, it looks to online video gaming communities as alternative classrooms providing effective models of learning, and it investigates the circulation of service learning pedagogies within academic institutions as a marker of the persistence of humanistic values within the framework of a posthuman work environment.

The American university in general, and the humanities specifically, is struggling to make sense of its place in …

The Autoethnographic Call: Current Considerations And Possible Futures, Kendall Smith-Sullivan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the increase of personal narratives in the past several decades, particularly the autoethnographic approach. The project begins with a historical contextualization of personal writing and autoethnography in relation to the crisis of representation and other diverse socio-political shifts. One outcome of these cultural transitions was a proliferation of illness narratives, narrative therapy, therapeutic writing, and narrative health communication. Also included in this research are data from interviews with emerging autoethnographers and participant observation that occurred at the Third International Qualitative Inquiry Congress. The conference served as prism through which to view qualitative scholarship as a whole, as …

Family Business Daughters: The Ties That Bind And Divide, Angela M. Day

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the relational contradictions experienced by family business daughters, and to investigate how they responded to these tensions. For this project, I interviewed twelve second and third generation family business daughters from eleven different family businesses. I utilized research procedures similar to grounded theory to analyze my interview transcripts. I examined relational tensions at both a personal level and an organizational level involving the larger work-family system. At a personal level, the connection/separation contradiction is significant to family business daughters and to their relationships with work and family. Many family business daughters helped …

Two Essays On The Conflict Of Interests Within The Financial Services Industry-- Financial Industry Consolidation: The Motivations And Consequences Of The Financial Services Modernization Act (Fsma) And “Down But Not Out” Mutual Fund Manager Turnover Within Fund Families, Lonnie Lashawn Bryant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact the Financial Services Modernization Act (FSMA) of 1999 has on the consolidation of the banking industry. The FSMA allows banks to simultaneously offer commercial banking, investment, and insurance services. I find a strong positive market response to the announcement of bank acquisition of brokerage firms (10.2 percent) and insurance companies (9.3 percent), but no significant response to bank acquisitions. I also find support for two complimentary hypotheses that explain the long-run returns to the acquiring banks. The "product-market spillover hypothesis" states that the post-consolidation returns of the acquirer are directly …

Determining The Quality And Impact Of An E-Mentoring Model On At-Risk Youth, Diane W. Culpepper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was twofold. Since e-mentoring is relatively new, there have been very few studies that have explored the impact of an e-mentoring program on both the academic and psychological outcomes of its participants. In addition, there is little research on the quality of implementing, or what we will call the working quality, of an e-mentoring model. This study addressed both.

First, the study examined whether or not e-mentoring had an academic and psychological impact on 32 high school students who were at-risk of dropping out of school. The students were enrolled in a GED Exit Option …

Narratives And Sensemaking In The New Corporate University: The Socialization Of First Year Communication Faculty, Andrew F. Herrmann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I examined what brand new Ph.D.s in Communication experience when they start their first, entry-level, tenure-track assistant professor position at a new university. Through the lens of scocial construction, I review vocational and organizational socialization, individual agency by newcomers, academic socialization processes, and the concept of the academic career in the current climate of university change and transformation. Then, I present the method of research, including the population and sampling method, and rationales for utilizing a narrative approach, interactive interviewing, and autoethnographic writing. After presenting the participants' narratives, I revisit both within- and between-case issues, beginning with socialization from the …

Viruses Found In Raw Sewage And Their Potential To Indicate Fecal Pollution In Coastal Environments, Erin M. Symonds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The presence of pathogenic viruses in coastal environments is an important tool in evaluating water quality and health risks. Millions of viruses are excreted in fecal matter and bacterial indicators do not correlate with the presence of pathogenic viruses. Enteroviruses have been used to identify fecal pollution in the environment; however, other viruses shed in fecal matter could be used to indicate fecal pollution. The purpose of this research is to develop a baseline understanding of the diversity of viruses found in raw sewage and to assess their presence in the marine environment. PCR was used to detect adenoviruses, herpesviruses, …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2008-06-15, 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.

Family Affairs Newsletter Business Directory 2008-06-15, Jean Vermette

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

Family Affairs Newsletter Directory of GLBTQIA Businesses.

Beck, Jackie (Fa 300), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 300. Paper: "Proverbial Sayings in Advertising" written by Jackie Beck for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Durham, Tracy L. (Fa 281), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 281. Paper: "[Ads in Cosmo Magazines]" written by Tracy L. Durham for a Western Ketnucky University folk studies class.

England, Pamela (Fa 276), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 276. Paper: "Pediatrics Clinic and Well-Child Care Clinic" written by Pamela England for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Cecil, Jill T. (Fa 296), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 296. Paper: "The Number 'Three' in the Media" written by Jill T. Cecil for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Baker, Elizabeth (Fa 284), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 284. Paper: "Folklore in American Women's Magazines" written by Elizabeth Baker for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Bogle, Amy Lyn (Fa 270), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 270. Paper: "A Conflict Between Academic and Folk Medicine" written by Amy Lynn Bogle for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Durham, Tracy L. (Fa 281), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 281. Paper: "[Ads in 'Cosmo' Magazines]" written by Tracy L. Durham for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Beyond The Dutiful Daughter: An Examination Of The Role And Representation Of Daughters In The Renaissance, Lisa Emmeluth Hanes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women have long been termed "the weaker sex" in regards to physical ability, intellectual capacity, or moral character. Although this designation has since been proven to be false on every level, this categorization of females as lesser creatures than males is a stigma borne by women throughout history. This thesis has a narrow focus on the role and representation of aristocratic Early Modern daughters before they become wives and mothers, and on Sofonisba Anguissola, a female Renaissance painter, as a daughter in particular. An examination of Sofonisba primarily as a daughter, and only secondarily as a female artist, will help …

Immunomodulation As A Potential Therapeutic Approach For Alzheimer’S Disease, William Veljko Nikolic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of progressive dementia and is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid beta (Aß) peptide in the brain and in the cerebral vessels forming cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). As previously reported, an active immunization strategy of mice with Aß_1-42 peptide results in decreased Th1 and increased Th2 cytokine responses as well as an effectively clearance of CNS Aß. This approach has also yielded favorable results for many patients, unfortunately, a small percentage of these study participants developed severe aseptic meningoencephalitis likely secondary to CNS invasion of activated T-cells. We have previously demonstrated …

Shockley, Lorie Helen (Fa 255), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 255. Paper: "Cold and Flu Remedies" written by Lorie Shockley for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Biggs, Amy (Fa 298), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 398. Paper: "The Ouija Board" written by Amy Biggs for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Johnson, Vicki Marie (Fa 247), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 247. Paper: "Folk Remedies" written by Vicki Marie Johnson for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Mclendon, Frederic Keith (Fa 251), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 251. Paper: "Folk [Medical] Beliefs" written by Frederick Keith McLendon for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Bogle, Amy Lyn (Fa 271), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 271. Paper: "Beliefs on the Flu and How to Treat It" written by Amy Lynn Bogle for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Learning, Living, And Leaving The Closet: Making Gay Identity Relational, Tony E. Adams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gay identity is inextricably tied to the metaphor of the closet. This tie is best exemplified by the act of "coming out of the closet," an act when a person discloses a gay identity to another, an act of self-identification and confession that others can motivate but never force, an act typically thought of as necessary, dangerous, and consequential, and an act often viewed as a discrete, linear process. Gay identity is also frequently framed as a self-contained trait thus making coming out a one-sided, personal affair.

In this project, I use autoethnography and narrative inquiry, life story interviews of …