Background: In children with cerebral palsy (CP), poor trunk control fosters spinal deformity, pulmonary compromise (Canet, et al., 1998), increased health risks, and costs of long-term care (Braddock, 2001). Evidence links posture and pulmonary function, but influence of wheelchair parameters on pulmonary mechanics is unknown. Objectives: 1) Determine relative contribution of five wheelchair configuration parameters to improvement in pulmonary mechanics--total airway resistance (RAW), tidal volume, minute ventilation (MV), and deadspace to tidal volume ratio; 2) Describe recruitment and retention of school-aged children with CP; and 3) Discuss response of the participants to the protocol. Method: This within-subjects, descriptive study employed a sample of 8 school-aged children with CP and flexible spines who could not sit alone. In a single session, participants experienced five seating parameters manipulated in a Prairie wheelchair simulator: 1) left and right upper extremity supports; 2) left and right lateral trunk supports; 3) secured, level, derotated pelvis; 4) tilt in space; and 5) all four parameters. The Viasys Jaeger Impulse Oscillometry System and Respironics Non Invasive Cardiac Output monitor (NICO) measured the dependent variable, pulmonary mechanics, via Hans Rudolph facemasks. Spasticity (by Modified Ashworth Scale), patient characteristics, and medications were recorded. A process log captured participant recruitment and retention challenges and response to protocol. Results: Recruitment was challenging; retention was 50%. For this sample, despite lack of power, both RAW and MV improved with upper extremity and lateral trunk supports. Highest RAW was seen with total absence and total presence of the parameters, and secured, level pelvis. The data collection protocol was feasible for 50% of participants, none of whom could execute conventional measurement. Facemask and seating simulator acceptability were 75 %, improving with participant verbal communication ability. The facemask seal was vulnerable to tilted positioning; 75% of participants became fatigued. RAW measures differed from manufacturer's directions but were reliable. Conclusions: The Prairie seating simulator, Jaeger IOS, Respironics NICO, and Hans Rudolph facemasks effectively measured pulmonary mechanics as a function of wheelchair seating parameters in this sample. Upper extremity and lateral trunk supports most greatly reduced RAW, maintaining MV. Verbal children tolerated the procedure best.

The Baker Act is legislation that provides civil rights for individuals suspected of having a mental illness and may be in need of involuntary psychiatric evaluation. Its intent is to prevent the indiscriminate placement of individuals in residential treatment facilities and other restrictive placements. Referrals for involuntary psychiatric evaluation under Baker Act statutes have increased among children and adolescents in recent years, raising concerns related its use with this population. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between school based factors and the use of the Baker Act among children and adolescents. Results indicate that the use of the Baker Act is more prevalent receiving among the high school population, females, Other/mixed children and adolescents, and White children and adolescents. Multiple regression analyses indicated that school district variables (e.g., minority enrollment, graduation rates, out-of-school suspension, etc.) contributed to a statistically significant proportion of the variance in Baker Act ER rates and repeat Baker Act ER rates among the 67 counties in the state of Florida. The percent of students in a district that graduated with a standard diploma was the variables that most consistently contribute to a unique proportion of the variance in Baker Act ER and repeat Baker Act ER rates. The findings from the study have implications for the design of mental health and behavioral support systems for children and adolescents. Additional research is necessary to more closely examine the relationship between demographics, school related variables, and the use of the Baker Act.

Leaf litter samples were used to study arthropod diversity in the University of South Florida Ecological Research Area. Arthropods were collected from different plots of different prescribed burn frequencies (1year, 2 year, 5 year, 7 year and no burn frequencies). Differential responses of arthropods to burn frequency were studied. It was expected that burn frequency would affect arthropod richness and diversity and that the pattern of diversity and richness would follow the Intermediated Disturbance Hypothesis. It was also expected that richness and diversity would be correlated with the amount of leaf litter present. Preliminary results suggest that there are short-term and long-term differences among arthropod communities in response to fire history and vegetation and that the amount of leaf litter may influence the distribution of arthropod taxa.

Alcohol expectancies have traditionally been measured with explicit self-report questionnaires, but in recent years implicit measures have also been used to explore the tenets of expectancy theory. The basic psychometric properties of reliability and validity have not been established for most implicit tasks, and the convergent validity of different implicit measures has not been explored. Despite these shortcomings, many researchers continue to treat implicit tasks as reliable and valid assessment tools. To address reliability and validity of implicit measures, 218 undergraduate women and men were recruited from the University of South Florida to examine the psychometric properties of and concordance between two previously established implicit measures, Free Associates(FA) and a Primed Recall (PR) task. The FA task was replicated, demonstrating high concordance between FA responses and explicit measures and drinking. The PR task did not show a drinker-type effect as was previously reported. Though the relationship between the tasks could not be examined, an exploration of practice and contamination effects offers insight into how performance in similar comparison studies may be affected.

Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that causes diarrhea in hospitalized patients, is on the rise in the United States as well as in other countries. This study was done to determine the extent of the problem in Florida's acute care hospitals. The Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) provided data for patients discharged from Florida's acute care hospitals for the years 1998 through 2004. This study will focus on changes in the prevalence of Clostridium difficile associated disease (CDAD) over time. The mortality and morbidity of patients that have CDAD will also be examined to show if the disease is increasing over time. Factors investigated in this study that may influence the prevalence of CDAD include gender, race, length of hospital stay, age, and the cost per patient discharged. In Florida the prevalence of CDAD has risen from 3.41 per 1,000 discharged patients in 1998 to 8.11 per 1,000 discharged patients in 2004. The mortality increased from 9.48% for CDAD positive patients in 1998 to 10.11% for CDAD positive patients in 2004. Age plays a role in both the prevalence and mortality of this disease. In 2004 the mortality of patients who were positive for Clostridium difficile was 4.1% for those individuals that were 30-40 years old compared to 0.54% mortality for those patients in the same age group that did not have CDAD. The corresponding mortality for the patients aged 70-80 for the year 2004 was 11.1% for persons who had CDAD and 3.58% mortality for patients discharged with no CDAD. The analysis showed that CDAD prevalence is increasing in Florida acute care hospitals. During 1998-2004 mortality rates for patients diagnosed with CDAD is also increasing. This analysis also indicates that age is a factor that increases the death rates for patients that are CDAD positive. A more concerted effort to implement hospital techniques that prevent the increasing prevalence of Clostridium difficile in Florida hospitals is recommended.

Rock, Paper, Scissors has developed into a story about Wren, a young man fresh out of the Navy, trying to make a name for himself in the world. Wren finds himself in Tampa, Florida because his oldest pal, Allen, has moved there, even though his younger sister has been diagnosed with leukemia back home. The problem is that Allen somewhere along the way has lost his mind. Wren finds out that Allen has recently been fired from a job as a server in a restaurant called the Bolognese, the same restaurant that Allen promised Wren a job. Wren decides to go ahead and get a job at the Bolo and simply not mention that he knows Allen, even though Allen has sworn to, "kill every last one of those mother fuckers." Wren further finds out that his old friend has developed a drug problem and has delusions of dealing and moving to Cuba. Wren has delusions of his own in his quest to make his mark on the world. Wren decides to be a doctor and drunkenly treks to an emergency room to interview one of the physicians. After meeting a scholarly street preacher he tries his hand at evangelism. Finally, he meets two crooked customers at the Bolo who claim to run a business in pharmaceutical sales. Little does Wren know that the business is crooked and the two conspirators are pedaling black-market pills. Even so, eager Wren buys into the program hook line and sinker and soon finds himself and his sister in harms way. Wren finally discovers that he is embroiled not only an illegal graft, but a mass murdering spree with his long time friend Allen.

In The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice, both Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare question anti-Semitism, Christian presumption, and socially constructed gender roles. Often compared, the two plays have obvious similarities: both plots center on rich, Jewish protagonists---Barabas in The Jew of Malta and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice---who are vilified and then destroyed by a merciless Gentile society. On the surface, the protagonists' daughters---Abigail in The Jew of Malta and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice---also share many similarities. Both are the young, beautiful daughters of rich and much maligned Jews; both love Gentile men; both flee from their religion and convert to Christianity; most importantly, both are presented as "different" from their fathers---somehow less "Jewish." However, despite their similarities, they represent polarities of early modern concepts of femininity. Employing Marilyn French's concept of gender principles, as presented in Shakespeare's Division of Experience, I argue that Abigail and Jessica embody the inlaw and outlaw feminine principles respectively, and that their importance in the two plays in which they appear has been critically overlooked. As James Shapiro points out in his study of the Jewish presence in England, a sixteenth century audience would hardly be familiar with practicing Jews, although they might have encountered representations ofJews in the drama of the period. Abigail and Jessica, the only Jewish characters in the two plays besides Barabas and Shylock, provide insight into the interaction between anti-Semitism and gender politics. Moreover, these two daughters sway the audience's sympathies toward or away from their fathers inversely. If we pity Abigail, whose actions are reactions to her father's machinations, then we are gratified that Barabas gets what he deserves. If we are angry with Jessica for her betrayal and theft, then we sympathize with Shylock and see him constructed into a villain by both his society and his own daughter. In this thesis, I will explore the ways in which Marlowe and Shakespeare employ Abigail and Jessica to interrogate the traditional sixteenth century roles of women, daughters, wives, and citizens.

In the digital age where newspapers compete with the Internet, cable TV and other publications for an audience, USA Today strives to stay relevant in the media with a daily dose of celebrity news. Newspapers continue to lose circulation during a time when the fascination with celebrities shows no signs of dwindling. This study explores how much celebrity news coverage USA Today gives readers, how much competition from other outlets plays a factor and whether the nation's largest newspaper is making a sacrifice of traditional forms of newspaper content in favor of celebrity coverage. The methodology for this qualitative case study is a two-fold approach. In-depth interviews with sixteen managers, editors and staffers at USA Today were conducted, using questions that gather an overview of the newspaper's celebrity news approach. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed in the findings. The second part was a one-year analysis of USA Today's main front and Life section front pages, looking for patterns of celebrity news. The study shows clear differences between USA Today and its non-newspaper competitors. USA Today's newsroom has a strong culture of journalism ethics and standards that limits the newspaper from going head to head with tabloids and celebrity magazines for the rumor and gossip stories. Among them is a strict sourcing policy that forbids blind or anonymous sources in celebrity coverage. Nearly all of the interviewees questioned about competition and gossip mentioned the ethical standards at the newspaper. The analysis of news fronts shows that USA Today uses the skybox in the upper right-hand corner as a way to promote its celebrity news. The majority of days, a celebrity photo and teaser were in that space, something a high-ranking editor at the newspaper said is a conscious effort to showcase celebrities. The Life front pages were loaded with celebrity news, including stories one can argue are tabloid-like in nature. Most of those interviewed at USA Today insisted they are not sacrificing other content for celebrity coverage. They say celebrity news is just part of a balance the newspaper gives readers every day. Covering celebrities heavily is a way USA Today keeps relevant in the ever-changing media landscape. USA Today can be used as a celebrity news model for other newspapers looking for techniques to keep circulation numbers from dropping.

This study investigates the meaning of advertising through the eyes of the Hispanic consumer and how that meaning is apparent in attitudes and purchase intention. Specifically, the study investigates how ethnic minorities judge print advertisement that feature ethnically diverse models as communication cues. For the first time, data of how minorities evaluate the compatibility of models from different ethnic groups featured together in an advertisement was collected. Qualitative data was collected from Hispanics and typologies of cultural pointers for Hispanics and African-Americans developed. Experimental design, 3x2 within-group analysis, was conducted to test the 14 hypothesized relationships. Finding clearly support the notion that perceived ethnic compatibility of models featured in an advertisement influence resulting attitudes (i.e., toward the actors and advertisement). Of crucial importance is the finding that when viewing an advertisement featuring mixed models (i.e., one Hispanic model and one African-American model), both strong and weak Hispanic ethnic identifiers did not exhibit an intention to purchase the advertised product. This finding challenges the value of multicultural advertising, which feature various ethnic models together to reach several groups simultaneously, to effectively connect with ethnic minorities.

Veterans with a spinal cord injury (SCI) engage in a complex and, often times, difficult dialogue within and through interactions in American society. That is, American society holds dear certain traditional values (ideals, beliefs, and customs) that promote the steady functioning and fabric of society. Through the process of enculturation and acculturation, likely, the majority of American citizens have already internalized many of these values. These values are cultural constructs of American society that can certainly influence and shape the myriad ways in which individual identity is formed. By identifying these value sets and analyzing the ways in which SCI veterans interact within society, I hope to achieve three goals; (1)discover the ways in which SCI veterans create and negotiate a unique sense of identity in American society, (2) illustrate the overall implications from this study to the general SCI population in America, and (3) provide a set of recommendations for healthcare providers for the purposes of creating and engaging in meaningful dialogues with SCI patients as well as aiding in more successful and sustainable health interventions.