CdTe/CdS thin film solar cells are the most promising cost-effective solar cells. The goal of this project is to improve the performance for CdS/CdTe devices by improving the open circuit voltage Voc and current density Jsc. Efforts focused on increasing the Voc, which include increasing the doping concentration by introducing Phosphorus and Antimony, finding and testing new back contact materials, and varying the ambient of CSS CdTe. In addition, the effect of Zn2SnO4 on the cells' performance was also studied. Electrical characterization of the thin films and completed devices were carried out by Current-Voltage (J-V), Capacitance-Voltage (C-V), and Spectral Response (SR) measurements. Structural/chemical characterization was done by SEM, XRD and EDS analysis. The ambient of CSS CdTe affects the growth rate, the grain size and electronic properties of CdTe. The N2/O2 mixture with varied ratio (N2/O2=9/1, 7/3, 5/5 and 1/9) was used in this study. The cells' performance and the net carrier concentration were studied as a function of the N2/O2 ratio. The net carrier concentration increases with the increasing O2 concentration. The extrinsic impurities (P and Sb) were incorporated into CdTe layer. Phosphorus was directly introduced into CSS CdTe source. The Sb was incorporated into CdTe by a diffusion process. The effects of the annealing parameters, the excess Sb on CdTe surface, the CdCl2 treatment and the depth of Sb in CdTe were studied. Higher doping concentration up to 1016 cm-3 has been achieved, however, Voc is still in the range of 830 mV.

Thoreau said that, "in wildness is the preservation of the world." The characters in the following collection of stories might be tempted to rephrase that statement to read, "in wildness is the preservation of the criminal world." These stories feature wild places where the natural world often is not as dangerous as the people who seek refuge in the borderlands between wilderness and civilization. Many crime stories take place in cities-for good reason. More people usually equates with more crime. However, anywhere that people choose to live, crime is sure to follow-crime against each other, crime against themselves, and even crime against the world they inhabit. In "Blood and Dirt," two brothers find themselves dependent on their native landscape for different reasons. One will have to let go, but the other will find him harder to shake loose than a cottonmouth wrapped around a cypress knee. "Wet Season" finds a man hiding in plain sight at the southern fringe of civilization, and doing a fine job of it until his past comes looking for him. Instead of watching the last reflection of his inner wildness disappear, the protagonist of "Great Apes" decides to internalize his problems. And in "Itch: A Vampire Story," a group of teenagers who enjoy the dark mythology of the undead learn firsthand of a dark reality in the Everglades. These characters are often seeking to escape the hectic contemporary world of computers and cell phones, mortgages and nine-to-five jobs. What they discover is that, while unspoiled nature may be hard to find, human nature is even more difficult to escape.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental illness that results from exposure to intense, life-threatening trauma. Some of the symptoms of PTSD include intrusive flashback memories, persistent anxiety, hyperarousal and cognitive impairments. The finding of reduced basal glucocorticoid levels, as well as a greater suppression of glucocorticoid levels following dexamethasone administration, has also been commonly observed in people with PTSD. Our laboratory has developed an animal model of PTSD which utilizes chronic psychosocial stress, composed of unavoidable predator exposure and daily social instability, to produce changes in rat physiology and behavior that are comparable to the symptoms observed in PTSD patients. The present set of experiments was therefore designed to 1) test the hypothesis that our animal model of PTSD would produce abnormalities in glucocorticoid levels that are comparable to those observed in people with PTSD, 2) examine the ability of antidepressant and anxiolytic agents to ameliorate the PTSD-like physiological and behavioral symptoms induced by our paradigm and 3) ascertain how long the physiological and behavioral effects of our stress regimen could be maintained. The experimental findings revealed that our animal model of PTSD produces a reduction in basal glucocorticoid levels and increased negative feedback sensitivity to the synthetic glucocorticoid, dexamethasone. In addition, chronic prophylactic administration of amitriptyline (tricyclic antidepressant) and clonidine (α2-adrenergic receptor agonist) prevented a subset of the effects of chronic stress on rat physiology and behavior, but tianeptine (antidepressant) was the only drug to block the effects of chronic stress on all physiological and behavioral measures. The final experiment indicated that only a subset of the effects of chronic stress on rat physiology and behavior could be observed 4 months following the initiation of chronic stress, suggesting that some of the effects of our animal model diminish over time. Together, these findings further validate our animal model of PTSD and may provide insight into the mechanisms underlying trauma-induced changes in brain and behavior. They also provide guidance for pharmacotherapeutic approaches in the treatment of individuals suffering from PTSD.

Since 2000, there has been an explosion of "reality," or unscripted, television shows in a variety of formats. The series in which new societies are created in isolation appeared almost immediately to be influenced by certain identity constructs, particularly gender and sexual orientation. Audiences came to these shows with definite expectations already in place. I intend in this study to determine why this is so and what those expectations are. Survivor, the germinal presentation of this genre, has as its motto "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast." However, as the show has developed through many iterations, the ability to literally survive in a hostile environment has been eclipsed by what is now called "the social game" by contestant, viewers, producers and observers of the phenomenon. Because of cultural stereotypes about gender, amateur review writers, along with regular viewers who frequent internet communications spaces, began to remark on how women win (when they do) compared to how men win, and to comment upon the various player behaviors and strategies in terms of sexual orientation, race, age and other constructs. Because I was hooked in the first Survivor series, and subsequently became interested in Big Brother as well, I searched for information online and discovered the explosion of discussions. Despite all the other aspects of, and activities in, these games, the large majority of the texts seemed to center upon identity constructs. Although there is a great deal of strategy to observe and discuss, even that was frequently couched in what a viewer could expect of a person of given gender or sexual orientation. It wasn't long before I began to perceive both the programs and the writing generated by them as texts that could be analyzed in terms of rhetorical appeals. Certain texts which might be expected to demonstrate credibility were ignored in favor of emotional reinforcement. Viewers and reviewers seemed most pleased with, and attributed the most credibility to, those speech acts and behaviors which resonated with their values and beliefs systems, regardless of their effectiveness I found this trend interesting enough, and distressing enough, to examine in depth to learn how people read the texts of strategy-genre reality television. In general, there is a complete lack of critical viewing and no application of logic except by academics and journalists. Average viewers reject whatever does not match their belief system, even if that behavior wins the game. Feelings have eclipsed all else as the standard of credibility and value. I conclude that credibility may only be derived from a text when feelings match viewer values. Of paramount importance in matching these values are the behaviors of the players, in that they must meet expectations in stereotype and tradition, and of course, the gender and sexual orientation of the winner.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the causal effects of malaria and poor health in general on economic outcome in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study uses panel data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) for Tanzania from 1991 to 2004. Three main hypotheses are tested. First, the study evaluates the effect of malaria and other chronic illnesses on labor supply using the number of hours worked per week as a measure of outcome. Second, it determines the impact of poor health on human capital accumulation by measuring the number of weekly school hours lost to illness. The third objective deals with the question of whether changes in preconditioning factors such as income levels and healthcare accessibility have improved the disease environment in Sub-Saharan Africa over time. The study uses several identification strategies in the empirical estimation process. The first estimation strategy applies the standard Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Fixed Effects (FE) estimators to the schooling and labor supply models. In addition to OLS and FE, the preferred methods of estimating the causal effects of malaria on schooling and labor supply outcomes are Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) and Limited Information Maximum Likelihood (LIML). Findings in this study suggest that malaria significantly increases school absenteeism. In particular, 2SLS and LIML estimates of the number of school hours lost to malaria suggests that children sick with malaria are absent from school for approximately 24 hours a week. However, the results show the effect of malaria on work hours is inconclusive. Furthermore, difference in difference estimates of the disease environment show slight improvements in the disease environment resulting from changes in income levels. The study finds no statistically significant improvements in the disease environment due to increases in the number of health facilities over time.

This study described self-injury within a general adolescent population. This study involved secondary analysis of data gathered using the middle school Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) from 1,748 sixth- and eighth-grade students in eight middle schools in a large, southeastern county in Florida. A substantial percentage of students surveyed (28.4%) had tried self-injury. The prevalence of having ever tried self-injury did not vary by race or ethnicity, grade, school attended, or age but did differ by gender. When controlling for all other variables in the multivariate model including suicide, having ever tried self-injury was associated with peer self-injury, inhalant use, belief in possibilities, abnormal eating behaviors, and suicide scale scores. Youth who knew a friend who had self-injured, had used inhalants, had higher levels of abnormal eating behaviors, and higher levels of suicidal tendencies were at increased risk for having tried self-injury. Youth who had high belief in their possibilities were at decreased risk for having tried self-injury. During the past month, most youth had never harmed themselves on purpose. Approximately 15% had harmed themselves one time. Smaller proportions of youth had harmed themselves more frequently, including two or three different times (5%), four or five different times (2%), and six or more different times (3%). The frequency of self-injury did not vary by gender, race or ethnicity, grade, or school attended. Almost half of students surveyed (46.8%) knew a friend who had harmed themselves on purpose. Peer self-injury demonstrated multivariate relationships with gender, having ever been cyberbullied, having ever tried self-injury, grade level, and substance use. Being female, having been cyberbullied, having tried self-injury, being in eighth grade, and higher levels of substance use placed youth at increased risk of knowing a peer who had self-injured. Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) was used to identify segments of youth at greatest and least risk of self-injury, frequent self-injury, and knowing a friend who had harmed themselves on purpose (i.e., peer self-injury).

Literature is always in a state of evolution. Words change; the way writers write changes. Even actual literary works transform. William Shakespeare manipulated numerous classic works of literature to make extraordinary dramas for both his lifetime and eras since. Much as Shakespeare adapted literature to suit his purposes, writers today are constantly utilizing story lines introduced by the bard over four-hundred years ago in various modern-day mediums. Shakespeare wrote most of his works for the entertainment of the masses; Shakespeare's works are adapted today for both entertainment and academic endeavors. Certainly, a Klingon (Star Trek) version of arguably one of the greatest tragedies of all time, Hamlet, may not seem appropriate in an academic debate on the original. However, there are some truly engaging adaptations that do have some legitimacy in academia. Using past and current trends in adaptations, this thesis will explore the concept that Shakespearean adaptations are, in fact, their own school of literary theory. It will examine the academic climate surrounding an assortment of adaptations in regards to how literary theory correlates to each example. Multiple genres of adaptations exist (i.e. film, novels, plays, etc.) and will thus be addressed along with multiple time periods. This thesis will examine why certain changes were made from the original text and how literary theory may have affected those changes. Finally, the thesis will establish a process for the creation of a theory-based adaptation and, utilizing this process, develop a one-act play based on William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

This thesis explores the motivations and experiences of those thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in the 20th and 21st Century. A detailed analysis examines the influence of conservationism, urban development, and collective American values on trail culture. The analysis uses Susan Fast's methodology from her 2000 article, "Rethinking Issues of Gender and Sexuality in Led Zeppelin: A Woman's view of Pleasure and Power in Hard Rock," as a model. Personal experiences from hiking the A.T. in 2003 are analyzed in juxtaposition with other hiker's written accounts. The bulk of these journals come from the website TrailJournals.com. The Appalachian Trail extends over 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine. The A.T. was initiated based on the ideas of Benton MacKaye. The trail was completed in 1937 and is now used by three to four million people per year. The popularity of hiking the trail has increased with time, in part due to people's perceived ideas of what nature holds for them. The study explores various accounts of those who found themselves in transition, such as retiring, graduating from school, or experiencing a divorce. These individuals looked to hiking the Appalachian Trail as an enriching experience before going back to normalcy in everyday society. This particular form of outdoor recreation is contingent upon the individual's experience living in an urban/suburban environment. Hikers escape from and yet long for connectivity to civilization. The Appalachian Trail is therefore an environment that not only reveals Americans' ideal of nature but what Americans value. This study looks at the unique outdoors experience hikers face and the emergence of their transformative selves that result from such an adventure. It reveals common trends in hiker motivations over the years, and contrasts thru-hiking culture with collective values promoted by modern American society.

Increasingly, mentor programs are being developed in teacher education programs to assist novice teachers. The focus in most of the literature on mentoring is on the new teacher being mentored. While the mentor teacher appears to be the most crucial element in mentoring programs (Feinman-Nemser, 1992; Little, 1990; White, 1995), there is not much information about how a teacher experiences being a mentor or the perceived benefits to a mentor. The purpose of this present study was to examine the effects of mentoring on mentors in order to: (a) address the gap in the literature by exploring the effects of mentoring on the mentor, (b) inform the mentoring and mentor training process and (c) examine the effects of mentoring on mentors. To meet these purposes, six mentors in a southeastern county in Florida were interviewed using Seidman's, (1998) protocol. The analysis of the interview data revealed that the mentors felt strongly about the benefits derived from being a mentor. They believed they were a vital part of their school environment. The major theme throughout the data showed that the reason these teachers chose to become mentors was because they wanted to help. Their desire to help new teachers came from either not having a mentor themselves or having been inspired by other mentors. They saw mentoring as their opportunity to help new teachers be successful in their first year as teachers.

In 1959, Federico Zeri isolated an Umbrian painter and named him the Master of the Greenville after the Madonna and Child with Angels tondo in Greenville, South Carolina. Through connoisseurship, scholars have since attributed over thirty-two works to the Master of the Greenville, categorizing the anonymous artist as a close follower of Perugino's style. My research focuses on a Nativity panel now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg, Florida. It is called the Jonas Nativity after its former owner, the late art collector Harriet H. Jonas. Through connoisseurship, scholars have almost exclusively focused on attributing the Jonas Nativity to an artist in the framework of Perugino's stylistic influence. Although the Jonas Nativity is clearly indebted to Perugino, the emphasis on naming the artist has led to formal analyses that almost exclusively rely on connoisseurship. As a result, there is virtually no critical analysis on the Jonas Nativity outside the context of this method. Pietro Scarpellini has argued that scholars place too much emphasis on Peruginoís stylistic influence when interpreting Umbrian art ñ he labeled this problem the ìmyth of Perugino.î Scarpellini asserts that the myth is a methodological emphasis on Peruginoís stylistic influence on Umbrian images. Scarpellini traces the origins of the myth to Vasari, who wrote in Peruginoís biography that he established a significant stylistic following in Umbria. Later, Vasariís account was interpreted by writers of the Romantic Period as an Umbrian School of Painting dominated by Perugino; this viewpoint has remained prevalent in critical interpretations on Umbrian art through today. This study recognizes the general stylistic impact of Perugino on the Jonas Nativity, but shifts focus by shedding light on how the painting likely fit into the culture of late fifteenth-century Umbrian patronage and workshop practices. In doing so, I show how the Jonas Nativity can be read as a product of a patronage system largely dominated by Umbriaís ruling families during the late fifteenth-century. While Peruginoís art affected the stylistic qualities of the Jonas Nativity, the market demands of Umbriaís ruling noble patrons greatly dictated the structure and output of workshops in which the Master of the Greenville probably worked. My investigation intends to expand the critical inquiry of the Jonas Nativity and lay the groundwork for a methodological balance between the influence of Perugino and the cultural forces shaping Umbria's early modern images.