American Studies Commons^™

The Interrelatedness Of Homosexual Identity Development And Perceptions Of Campus Climate For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, And Transgender Students At The University Of South Florida, Tampa Campus, Frederic Drury Baker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of campus climate at the University of South Florida, Tampa Campus for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender students. Specifically, the study determined if there was any relationship between level of homosexual identity development acquired and perceptions of campus climate. If a relationship existed, it would influence the way that campus climate perceptions would be analyzed in future studies.

The population was the undergraduate student body at the University of South Florida taking at least six credit hours in the fall semester 2007. An online survey was created with two instruments …

The Geriatric Cancer Experience In End Of Life: Model Adaptation And Testing, Harleah G. Buck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The National Institutes of Health recommends the development of conceptual models to increase rigor and improve evaluation in research. Validated models are essential to guide conceptualizations of phenomena, selection of variables and development of testable hypotheses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a methodology useful in model testing due to its ability to account for measurement error and test latent variables. The purpose of this study was to test a model of The Geriatric Cancer Experience in End of Life as adapted from Emanuel and Emanuel's framework for a good death using SEM. It was hypothesized that the model was a …

Guthrie, Charles Snow, 1922-2000 (Sc 1604), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1604. Copy of speech given by Charles Snow Guthrie, professor of English at Western Kentucky University, to the Kentucky Philological Association, Morehead, Kentucky, 4 March 1988, entitled "Eighteenth Century Kentucky Writing."

A Potential Field Based Formation Control Methodology For Robot Swarms, Laura E. Barnes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A novel methodology is presented for organizing swarms of robots into a formation utilizing artificial potential fields generated from normal and sigmoid functions. These functions construct the surface which swarm members travel on, controlling the overall swarm geometry and the individual member spacing. Nonlinear limiting functions are defined to provide tighter swarm control by modifying and adjusting a set of control variables forcing the swarm to behave according to set constraints, formation and member spacing. The swarm function and limiting functions are combined to control swarm formation, orientation, and swarm movement as a whole. Parameters are chosen based on desired …

Opportunities For Spiritual Awakening And Growth In Mothering, Melissa J. Albee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My experiences as a mother have been enhanced by spirituality and my spirituality has been transformed through the practice of mothering. I will argue that part of the transformation available in mothering is that one can go from thinking of oneself as an individual with free will, self autonomy, and independence to believing maybe we are all more connected and dependent upon each other than we thought. I intend to explore my personal spiritual journey from an academic perspective in order to gain and share knowledge. Intense emotional experiences such as childbirth, learning how to take care of a person …

Automatic Generation Of Plc Code Based On Net Condition Event Systems, Natalia Sandberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An important consideration in discrete event dynamic systems control theory is the selection of a suitable modeling formalism that can capture the complex characteristics of the system and the capability to automatically synthesize a controller based on the system model. Net condition event systems are well suited for modeling complex discrete event dynamic systems owing to their input and output structure, which effectively captures the behavior of the physical devices to be monitored and/or controlled. To date, net condition event systems control models have not been extensively applied to highly automated manufacturing systems and there are few guidelines on how …

Development Of An Fpga Based Autopilot Hardware Platform For Research And Development Of Autonomous Systems, Wendy Alvis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned vehicles, both ground and aerial, have become prevalent in recent years. The research community has different needs than the industrial community when designing a finalized unmanned system since the vehicle, the sensors and the control design are dynamic and change frequently as new ideas are developed and implemented.

Current autopilot hardware, which is available as on-the-market products and proposed in research, is sufficient for unmanned systems design. However, this equipment falls short of being able to accommodate the needs of those in the research community who must be able to quickly implement new ideas on a flexible platform.

The …

Resiliency In Lesbians With A History Of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Implications For Clinical Practice, Amy R. Menna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This was a collective case where lesbian survivors of childhood sexual abuse were studied. Resiliency is a combination of personality traits and environmental influences that serve to protect an individual from the harmful psychological effects of trauma (Bogar & Hulse-Killaky, 2006). The focus of this study was resiliency skills that lesbians used in working through childhood sexual abuse and clinical applications. Using a qualitative approach, specific inquiries included (a) what resiliency skills were used to work through childhood sexual abuse, (b) how counselors can be helpful and unhelpful, (c) what were some barriers to getting counseling, (d) what are the …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2008-03-01, 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.

The Study Of Literature And Culture Online (Theory And Application), Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Dickerson And Venable Families (Sc 1574), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1574. Genealogical charts, news clippings, and photographs of members of the Dickerson and Venable families of Warren County, Kentucky. Also includes a news clipping from the Park City Daily News, 9 January 1947, about author Rosa Praigg Dickerson, who published under the name Violet Woods, and a pre-1911 photo and program from a production of "Mrs. Wiggs and the Cabbage Patch" performed at Woodburn College.

Altogether Governed By Humors: The Four Ancient Temperaments In Shakespeare, Caitlin Jeanne Fahey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hippocrates, and later Galen, hypothesized that a person's character was influenced by a combination of four humors that governed the body: black bile, phlegm, yellow bile, and blood. Centuries later, the Elizabethans adopted these ideologies to their medical practices, and associated each humor with one of four temperaments: melancholy, phlegmatic, choleric, and sanguine. References to the four temperaments may be found embedded in a number of William Shakespeare's texts, most notably Hamlet, Henry IV, Part 1, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night. While many figures in Shakespeare embody many humoral traits, allowing for character development throughout the play, …

Application Of An Improved Transition Probability Matrix Based Crack Rating Prediction Methodology In Florida’S Highway Network, Sahand Nasseri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the growing need to maintain roadway systems for provision of safety and comfort for travelers, network level decision-making becomes more vital than ever. In order to keep pace with this fast evolving trend, highway authorities must maintain extremely effective databases to keep track of their highway maintenance needs. Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), as a leader in transportation innovations in the U.S., maintains Pavement Condition Survey (PCS) database of cracking, rutting, and ride information that are updated annually.

Crack rating is an important parameter used by FDOT for making maintenance decisions and budget appropriation. By establishing a crack rating …

Multiple Modes Of Mdmx Regulation Affect P53 Activation, Daniele M. Gilkes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

MDMX has emerged as a negative regulator of p53 transcriptional activity following DNA damage, loss of ribosomal integrity, and aberrant mitogenic signaling. Disruption of rRNA biogenesis by ribosomal stress activates p53 by releasing ribosomal proteins from nucleoli which bind MDM2 and inhibit p53 degradation. We found that p53 activation by ribosomal stress requires degradation of MDMX by MDM2. This occurs by L11 binding to the acidic domain of MDM2 which promotes its E3 ligase function preferentially towards MDMX. Further, unlike DNA damage which regulates MDMX stability through ATM-dependent phosphorylation events, ribosomal stress does not require MDMX phosphorylation suggesting p53 may …

Extracting A Climate Signal From The Skeletal Geochemistry Of The Caribbean Coral Siderastrea Siderea, Christopher Robert Maupin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The first bimonthly resolved, paired δ¹⁸O and Sr/Ca time series from the slow-growing, tropical western Atlantic coral, Siderastrea siderea, from the Dry Tortugas, Florida has been generated and used to document that robust proxy climate records can be produced from this heretofore underutilized massive coral. The coral time series contains a 20-year long calibration window (1973-1992) for both δ¹⁸O and Sr/Ca and a 73-year long verification window (1900-1972) for Sr/Ca. These time series permits both the quantification of the relationship between coral δ¹⁸O-SST and Sr/Ca-SST using an augmented, 1° x 1° gridded SST record …

Effects Of Two Types Of Exercise On Cravings To Smoke, Andrea Elibero

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Becoming more physically active is associated with increased confidence to maintain smoking abstinence as well as success at stopping smoking. The purpose of the current study was to assess the effects of two different types of exercise (cardiovascular and Hatha yoga) on general and cue-elicited craving for a cigarette. Participants were 76 smokers ages 18-45 (mean=29) who smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day (mean=20) for at least one year. Participants were randomly assigned to engage in 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity (walking on a treadmill), yoga, or to view a video about exercise (control). Participants completed a self-report measure …

West Indian Parents’, Guardians’, And Caregivers’ Perceptions, Understandings, And Role Beliefs About K-12 Public Schooling In The United States, Susan Chanderbhan Forde

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the understandings and perceptions that West Indian parents and caregivers residing in the U.S. have about U.S. public schools. A second purpose of this study was to examine the consistency between these findings and the cultural-ecological theory advanced by Ogbu (1974) which posits that immigrant minorities to the U.S. hold different perceptions and expectations in relation to U.S. schools.

Using interviews with 13 families in the Tampa Bay area, the study examined West Indian parents' and caregivers' understanding of the American public schooling process, expectations for education, role beliefs, and roles …

Diarization, Localization And Indexing Of Meeting Archives, Himanshu Vajaria

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation documents the research performed on the topics of localization, diarization and indexing in meeting archives. It surveys existing work in these areas, identifies opportunities for improvements and proposes novel solutions for each of these problems. The framework resulting from this dissertation enables various kinds of queries such as identifying the participants of a meeting, finding all meetings for a particular participant, locating a particular individual in the video and finding all instances of speech from a particular individual. Also, since the proposed solutions are computationally efficient, require no training and use little domain knowledge, they can be easily …

Idiom Comprehension In Bilingual And Monolingual Adolescents, Belinda Fusté-Herrmann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A majority of Latino adolescents are reading below a proficient level, according to federal data, and there is a significant gap between overall reading proficiency of Latino and non-Latino, Caucasian adolescents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the linguistic underpinnings of Latino students' text comprehension. A positive relationship appears to exist between idiom comprehension and academic achievement, as well as idiom comprehension and reading comprehension, in typically developing, monolingual adolescents. Since reading comprehension and idiom comprehension share many of the same linguistic processes, idiom comprehension may provide a unique perspective for investigating Latino adolescents' reading comprehension.

Using the …

Effects Of Electric Field On The Functions Of Cell Membrane Proteins, Zhongsheng Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The most important and most common channels on cell membrane are voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels. In so-called "excitable cells" like neurons and muscle cells, these channels open or close in response to changes in potential across the membrane in order to accomplish muscle contraction and transmit signals. By controlling the membrane potential, we observe extraordinary inactivation behaviors of the voltage-gated Na+ channels and the voltage-gated delayed rectifier K+ channels, which shows that electric stimulation pulses can temporarily close the Na+ and K+ channels, just as drugs, like tetrodotoxin (TTX) and tetraethylammonium (ETA), do.

The Na/K pump is essential for …

Teacher Perceptions Of The Changing Role Of The Secondary Middle School Principal, Dawn E. Coffin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this study was to examine perceptions of middle school teachers regarding the changing role of the secondary middle school principal and compare teachers' results with assistant principals' and principals' perceptions of their role, thus adding the voice of teachers, regarding the secondary principal's role, to existing literature.

Data was collected electronically using the survey method in one urban Florida school district. Qualitative and quantitative data were captured using the Principal's Role Questionnaire (PRQ) (Goodwin, 2002). Thirty-six principal role descriptor statements on the PRQ survey requested a level of agreement from research participants regarding changes, current and future …

Interactions Of Neurons, Astrocytes And Microglia With Hucb Cell Populations In Stroke Models: Migration, Neuroprotection And Inflammation, Lixian Jiang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies demonstrated that intravenous administration of human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) cells could improve behavioral and neurological recovery of stroked animals following middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). In addition, HUCB cell recipients had less of an inflammatory response with less leukocyte infiltration. In these studies we explored how HUCB cells change the inflammatory response of neurons, astrocytes, and microglia to hypoxia/ischemia. Initiation of the inflammatory response occurs with the expression of chemokines. We determined that monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and macrophage inflammatory protein 1alph (MIP-1a), which are upregulated in the brain early after a stroke, induce migration of HUCB …

Petrographic And Kinematic Investigation Of The Volcaniclastic And Plutonic Rocks Of The Northern Alisitos Arc, Baja California, Mexico, Fatin Tutak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Alisitos arc segment forms part of the western zone of Jura-Cretaceous Peninsular Ranges batholith of Baja California. It extends south from the ancestral Agua Blanca Fault to the state boundary between Baja Norte and Sur. The study area is located within a fold and thrust belt intruded by a number of plutons that were emplaced during and after the deformational event. The northern end of the Alisitos arc is characterized by subvertical tight to isoclinal folds and high-angle reverse faults that define a northwest trending, southwest vergent fold and thrust belt. The aABF defines the northern limit to the …

Drug Resistance To Topoisomerase Directed Chemotherapy In Human Multiple Myeloma, Joel G. Turner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human multiple myeloma is an incurable hematological malignancy characterized by the proliferation of plasma cells in the bone marrow. Myeloma represents approximately 20% of all blood cancers. In this research we have explored examples of both intrinsic and acquired drug resistance in myeloma.

Topoisomerases are enzymes that are critical for cell division, especially in rapidly dividing cells such as are found in cancer. Topoisomerase poisons are a common group of drugs that are used to treat cancer. Topoisomerase I and II poisons used in the treatment of multiple myeloma include topotecan, mitoxantrone, doxorubicin, and etoposide

In order for topoisomerase drugs …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2008-02-15, 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.

Drake, Leah Bodine, 1904-1964 (Sc 1575), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1575. Letters from poet Leah Bodine Drake, Evansville, Indiana, to Fletcher and Grace Stewart, Santa Ana, California, related to the publication of her poetry, awards for her poetry, and possible television appearances.

Designs And Applications Of Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors For Biological And Chemical Sensing And Sample Handling, Stefan Cular

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Acoustic wave sensors have proven useful in many fields as primarily mass sensitive devices capable of responding to small environmental perturbations. The focus of this dissertation is the development of a new type of surface acoustic wave device with application to material property measurement, and biological and chemical sensing. This device is a combination of three independent acoustic wave devices with these waves propagated across the same area, while retaining independence of actuation and sensor function. The development of a complete sensor system, and its use and operation are presented for several example cases of chemical and biomarker sensing, and …

Gender, Quota Laws, And The Struggles Of Women’S Social Movements In Latin America, Merav Frazier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Assuming gender neutrality in comparative analysis, i.e. not including either explicit or implicit references to a particular gender or sex, runs the risk of camouflaging the unequal distribution of political power, economic influence, and political access for men and women. Unfortunately, in assuming such neutrality, one is blinded to the inherent flaws of political systems, the inequalities they create, and their lack of consideration of gender and women's rights. To counteract this inequality between the sexes, women's social movements are fighting to create gender awareness and establish formal policies that place them at the same level as their male counterparts, …

Water Management And Decision-Making In The Nile Basin: A Case Study Of The Nile Basin Initiative, John C. Merrill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The management of international waterways presents riparian nations with a challenging set of political, economic, environmental, and geographic difficulties. Historically, the Nile Basin has exemplified many of these problems as witnessed by inter-basin conflict, devastating floods, crippling drought, and unstable political and economic development. Despite their tumultuous past the ten riparian nations of the Nile Basin established a supranational water management institution in 1999, the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), in order to develop collective solutions to their common water related problems. However, serious challenges to the cooperative process threaten to derail the NBI and enflame underlying causes of conflict. This …

Morton, David, 1886-1957 (Mss 50), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 50. Correspondence of David Morton, correspondence concerning Morton Collection, speeches, essays, MSS: "Entries for a Diary," and MSS: "The Amateur Listener" -- diary, poems, pamphlets, and miscellaneous items of Morton, a poet and English professor born in Elkton, Kentucky.