Public Policy Commons^™

Pathways To Parenthood: Attitudes And Preferences Of Eight Self-Identified Queer Women Living In Tampa Bay, Fl, Emily Noelle Baker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This small-scale ethnographic study looks at the how queer women living in Florida imagine navigating family building decisions under the current climate of policies such as a lack of federal non-discrimination protections and the largely unregulated use of assisted reproductive technologies. Despite the federal legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States in 2015, state and county legislations continue to vary greatly on the extent of support they will provide for LGBTQ families. The goal of this research is to evaluate parenting desire, intentions, and preferences for queer women living in Tampa Bay since the passage of the Marriage Equality …

Science, Policy, And Decision Making: A Case Study Of Deliberative Rhetoric And Policymaking For Coastal Adaptation In Southeast Florida, Karen Patricia Langbehn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze the process of regional climate adaptation planning and the role of stakeholder deliberation in decision making about adaptation actions. It employed a case study approach based on one of three total study sites of an international, multidisciplinary grant titled, “METROPOLE: An Integrated Framework to Analyze Local Decision Making and Adaptive Capacity to Large-Scale Environmental Change”. The purpose of the case study of this project was to analyze stakeholder deliberation at two workshops at the grant’s Broward County, Florida site regarding two adaptation options: elevation/floodproofing and voluntary buyouts. Analyzing stakeholder deliberation …

The Causes And Effects Of Get Tough: A Look At How Tough-On-Crime Policies Rose To The Agenda And An Examination Of Their Effects On Prison Populations And Crime, Cheyenne Morales Harty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The paper analyzes the rise of get-tough crime legislation to the American public policy agenda and examines the effects of these policies on crime and inmate populations. Get-tough policies analyzed include sentencing reform, the War on Drugs and collateral consequences. Because there is no empirical literature on the effect of collateral consequences on crime, the paper employed an OLS regression model partly derived from institutional anomie theory to test for criminogenic effects. The study then employed OLS regression analysis to determine the affect of these independent variables on crime rates in each of the 50 states. The study concluded that …

Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Policy Deployment In Select Florida Jurisdictions, Kevin Carl Mccarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2008 the Federal government enacted a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to address the neighborhood effects of the late-2000s foreclosure crisis. Congress subsequently funded a second and third NSP. This research employs mixed methods to examine the effectiveness of the first round of the NSP in three Florida jurisdictions. The results are analyzed within the larger context of substantive housing theory and federal housing policy. The success of the program is evaluated using a mixed-scanning procedural planning theoretical framework.

"People...Do Not Come With Standardized Circumstances": Toward A Model For An Anthropology Of E-Government, Marc K. Hebert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many Americans appreciate the availability and ease of using government websites to conduct their business with the state. What then of the most vulnerable in society? How do they access and use a standardized application process for government assistance, considering their potential resource, educational and physical constraints? Many go to public libraries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which shifts the responsibility to help applicants from the government agency administering the program to local actors whose primary duties lie elsewhere.

The aim of this research is to document the experiences of three groups of people, primarily located in a central Florida, urban …

Talking About Talk: The Problem Of Communication As An Object Of Study In Public Participation Research, Lauren Leigh Cutlip

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When citizens participate in risk assessment and decision-making for environmental and other issues that affect members of the public, more robust decisions may be made. Public participation in policy decisions is not only more democratic, but it also enables members of the public to contribute valuable expertise to the decision-making process. However, the development of an effective forum for such participatory projects has been difficult. Participation mechanisms that foster dialogue and interactive exchange between participants have been regarded as the most beneficial, but the practical application of these mechanisms has been observed to be problematic. The goal of this study …

Discovery Of A Functional Ecdysone Response Element In Brugia Malayi, Tracy Enright

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to determine whether functional ecdysone response elements (EcREs) exist within the genome of Brugia malayi, a parasitic nematode that causes lymphatic filariasis. The hypothesis that EcREs exist in B. malayi stemmed from previous demonstration of a functional ecdysone response system in B. malayi (Tzertzinis et al., 2010). Real-time PCR (qPCR) experiments were conducted to measure gene expression levels for twelve genes proximal to five putative EcREs in 20-OH ecdysone treated and untreated B. malayi embryos. Seven genes showed consistent upregulation with 20-OH ecdysone treatment. Each of the five putative EcREs had at least one …

Actualizing Empowerment: Developing A Framework For Partnering With Families In System Level Service Planning And Delivery, Kathleen Ferreira

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The engagement of families of children and adolescents with Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) as full partners in individual treatment, organizational, and system level decision making has become an important focus for systems of care (SOCs) serving youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. SOCs typically include cross-agency partnerships with mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and education for the purpose of providing services and supports for youth with SED who have multi-agency needs. Implementation of a federal mandate requiring family driven care (FDC) within systems of care funded through the Children's Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) has revealed that most system of …

The Impact Of Managed Care On The Utilization And Distribution Of Inpatient Surgical Procedures With Demonstrated Volume And Outcome Endogeneity, Linda Stephens Gipson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purpose

This study is designed to determine whether managed care has had an influence on the number and distribution of procedures with demonstrated volume and outcome endogeneity in Florida healthcare markets; in addition, methods are developed to determine which measures of managed care activity best predict the impact of managed care in health care markets.

Rationale

A retrospective population based cohort design is used capitalizing on the variability among Florida markets between 1995 and 1999, a period which captured the full business life cycle of managed care plans statistical areas and competing hospitals (market share) over time. Multiple regression models …

Epidemiological Study Of Contributing Factors In The Development Of Peptic Ulcer And Gastric Cancer Initiated By Helicobacter Pylori Infection In India, Rahul Suresh Mhaskar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is a significant risk factor for peptic ulcer (PU) and gastric cancer (GC). Apart from the virulent CagA genotype of H. pylori environmental and dietary factors influence disease outcomes. There have been no studies addressing these factors in Western India. Hence, we conducted a case control study enrolling PU, GC patients and controls at Pune, India.

Methods: Risk factors for PU and H. pylori infection were assessed in participant interview. H. pylori status was assessed from stool by monoclonal antigen detection. To understand treatment effect, we followed 100 H. pylori positive patients.

Results: We …

Inactivation Of Ascaris Suum By Ammonia In Feces Simulating The Physical-Chemical Parameters Of The Solar Toilet Under Laboratory Conditions, Ligia Maria Cruz Espinoza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Access to sustainable sanitation systems is a determining factor in human health and economic development. However, more than a third of the world’s population lives without access to improved sanitation facilities. To meet the sanitation United Nations Millennium Development target, "halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation", a wide range of non conventional sanitation technologies have been implemented in developing countries, including waterless systems. These systems function by diverting urine away from feces and collecting, storing, and dehydrating the fecal material in watertight dehydration vaults. From a public …

Phenotypic And Genotypic Analysis Of In Vitro Selected Artemisinin Resistant Plasmodium Falciparum, Matthew Scott Tucker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artemisinin and its derivatives provide faster clearance of parasitemia than any other antimalarial drugs and these drugs are part of frontline combination therapies in areas where drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum exists. Clinical resistance to artemisinins is emerging on the Thailand-Cambodia border, making it imperative to investigate mechanisms of artemisinin resistance. Previous work in our laboratory showed ring-stage parasites enter a dormant state after exposure to artemisinin. We hypothesize that this period of dormancy is directly related to recrudescence and prolonged parasite clearance times in patients, and possibly resistance. The target of artemisinin is currently unknown, and potential resistance mechanisms are not …

Core Promoter Function In Brugia Malayi, Michelle Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have indicated that the promoters of the human filarial parasite Brugia malayi are unusual in that they do not exhibit the CAAT or TATAA sequences usually found in the core domains of promoters of most eukaryotic organisms. Analysis of the promoters of the ribosomal proteins showed that the region flanking the splice leader (SL) addition site plays an important role in transcription and may function as the core promoter domain in B. malayi. To test the hypothesis that the SL addition domain is the most important essential region of the ribosomal protein promoters, the SL addition site of …