This study was an effort to replicate and extend findings from our previous research, which suggested that the efficacy of tailored messages is influenced by high levels of content personalization within the message and by individuals trait expectancies about tailored interventions. We tested whether tailoring-related expectancies regarding smoking-cessation booklets could be altered via a brief expectancy-priming intervention, and whether this would enhance the impact of the cessation materials. A 2x2 factorial design crossed personalization level and expectancy priming on evaluation of the intervention content, readiness to quit smoking, cessation self-efficacy, cognitive processing, and progress towards quitting. Smokers (N = 205) were randomized to one of four cells in which they received a highly personalized (placebo tailored) or standard intervention. Participants in the priming conditions received a pre-intervention letter to enhance their expectations for either standard or tailored interventions. Post-priming expectancies were assessed 7-10 days later, and intervention booklets were subsequently mailed. Results demonstrated main effects of personalization on content evaluation, readiness to quit, cognitive processing, and behavioral progress towards quitting. That is, the personalized booklets were more efficacious than the standard booklets. A priming by personalization interaction on tailoring-related expectancies indicated that the expectancy manipulation was effective, and priming main effects were found for content evaluation, readiness to quit, and cognitive processing. Thus, enhancing smokers’ expectancies about their materials improved participants’ perceptions of the intervention and strengthened outcomes. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

In collaboration with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the University of South Florida Health Risk Methodology Group has developed dose-time-response models to characterize neurobehavioral response to chemical exposure. The application of dose-time-response models to neurobehavioral screening tests on laboratory animals allows for benchmark dose estimation to establish exposure limits in environmental risk assessment. This thesis has advanced dose-time-response modeling by generalizing a published toxico diffusion model to allow for dose dependent time of peak effects. To accomplish this, a biphasic model was developed which adopted the effect compartment model paradigm used in pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics to estimate a distributional rate constant to account for dose related variation in the time of peak effect. The biphasic model was able to describe dose-dependent time of peak effects as observed in the data on acute exposure to parathion and adequately predicted the observed response. However, the experimental design appeared insufficient in statistical power to confirm statistical significance for each parameter of interest. Motivated by the question of what design requirement might be necessary to validate the biphasic model, Monte Carlo simulation was adopted. Simulations were performed to assess the efficacy and efficiency of various experimental designs for detecting and evaluating some critical characteristics of the biphasic model, including the TOPE. The results of simulation suggest that the location of measurement times around the TOPE have important implications for assessing the statistical significance of the parameter that describes dose-dependent TOPE and that the mean squared error of the parameter estimator was improved most when testing times were chosen to bracket the TOPE. While dose dependent time of peak effects has underlying physiological mechanisms such as synergistic or capacity limited kinetics, the biphasic model estimates these physiological properties through a mathematical function which may be physiologically relevant but does not necessarily define physiological mechanisms underlying the response. However, if verified through further testing, the biphasic model may contribute to the USEPA’s aim of developing physiologically relevant dose-response models for assessing risk of neurotoxicity with repeated measurements of response.

Residual mapping is an automated groundwater-model calibration technique which rapidly identifies parameter-zone configurations, while limiting tendencies to over-parameterize. Residual mapping analyzes the model residual, or the difference between model-calculated head and spatially-interpolated observation data, for non-random trends. These trends are entered in the model as parameter zones. The values of hydrologic variables in each parameter zone are then optimized, using parameter-estimation software. Statistics calculated by the parameter-estimation software are used to determine the statistical significance of the parameter zones. If the parameter-value ranges for adjacent zones do not have significant overlap, the zones are considered to be valid. This technique was applied to a finite-difference, transient groundwater flow model of a major municipal well field, located in west-central Florida. A computer conde automates the residual mapping process, making it practical for application to large, transient flow models. The calibration data set includes head values from 37 monitor wells over a period of 181 days, including a 96-day well-field scale aquifer-performance test. The transient residual-mapping technique identified five significant transmissivity zones and one leakance zone.

This paper argues that narrative techniques in Absalom, Absalom! demonstrate Faulkners anticipation of postmodern thought and style. Similar techniques in Christopher Nolans film Memento serve to highlight how both writer and director confound the notion of master narrative by disrupting chronology and raising questions about the reliability of the narrators in each work. Nolan orders all events of the film in reverse while threading chronologically ordered events throughout to tell the story of Lennys murder investigation. Faulkner likewise uses "dischronology," such as flashbacks to tell the story of Thomas Sutpen. Both Faulkner and Nolan provide key information through questionable narrators at strategic times to manipulate reader's/viewer's thoughts and opinions about specific characters. Nolan and Faulkner use several narrators, none of whom witnessed all events, to tell the stories of each work. A close examination of these similar narrative techniques creates a parallel between two otherwise unrelated works. More importantly, such an examination shows that although Faulkner was a modernist writer, his work Absalom, Absalom! anticipated a postmodern era. To provide additional support for the argument that Absalom, Absalom! anticipates a postmodernist understanding of Narrativity, this paper will offer a perspective that incorporates ideas of postmodern thought and narratological studies from Seymour Chatman, Gerald Prince, and Julia Kristeva. It will also draw from ideas of such Faulknerian scholars as Donald Kartiganer, Michael Millgate, and David Minter. Against the backdrop such scholarship provides a comparison of the narrative techniques of Absalom, Absalom! and Memento enhances the postmodernist understanding of historical "truth" as necessarily partial, fragmented, and subjective.

Thickness shear mode (TSM) sensors, also known as quartz crystal micro-balances (QCM) are a class of acoustic wave sensors that have been used for gas/vapor sensing. Fast and sensitive chemical vapor sensing, specifically of hydrocarbon vapors is an important application for these vapor sensors. The TSM sensors typically used have a lower sensitivity compared with other acoustic wave sensors. This thesis describes the development of high sensitivity organic vapor sensors using thin polymer film coatings on TSM devices. Commercially available AT-quartz TSM devices were milled leaving a thin quartz membrane surrounded by a thicker outer ring. This resulted in an increased frequency and a consequent increase in sensitivity, as described by the Sauerbrey equation. The TSM sensors were then coated with thin sensing films of rubbery polymers. Isothermal experiments at room temperature were conducted. A fully instrumented and automated test bed consisting of a temperature-controlled organic vapor dilution system, a precision impedance analyzer, and computer based data acquisition was developed and used to evaluate the performance of the coated TSM devices. The TSM devices compared in this study were AT cut with fundamental resonant frequencies of 10, 20, and 96 MHz. The results of tests conducted are presented to demonstrate increase in sensitivity for higher fundamental frequency TSM devices. 96 MHz TSM resonators were found to be 8 to 27 times more sensitive than 10 MHz resonators. Sensitivity was limited by the difficulty in coating sensing layers and damping of the resonator. Additionally, each sensor was evaluated and compared in terms of detection limit and noise level. 96 MHz resonators had higher noise levels than 10 MHz or 20 MHz resonators; as a result, 96 MHz resonators did not show significant improvements in LOD. Also, response times for 96 MHz resonators were quicker than 10 MHz or 20 MHz resonators and response times generally decreased with analyte concentration. Several rubbery polymer films as well as copolymers were investigated to determine which sensing film would have the optimal performance in terms of response time, recovery, reproducibility, repeatability, frequency noise, and baseline drift. The organic vapors studied were benzene, toluene, hexane, cyclohexane, heptane, dichloroethane, and chloroform at levels ranging from 0.2 to over 13.7 volume percentage in nitrogen gas. The Butterworth-VanDyke (BVD) equivalent circuit model was used to model both the perturbed and unperturbed TSM resonator. Monitoring the sensor response through the equivalent circuit model allowed for discriminating between the organic vapors. Vapor discrimination, in turn, depended upon the changes in the resistance parameter. Finally, the vapor liquid equilibrium at the polymer solvent interface was utilized to correct for perturbations, due to temperature changes, in the sensor response.

The ability to detect buried mines on the seafloor remains one of the most important tasks in mine countermeasures. As such, there is a vested interest in the development of predictive models of mine burial. This research was conducted in support of the Office of Naval Research Program in Mine Burial Prediction. Repeat high-resolution multibeam bathymetry data were collected over the Indian Rocks Beach (IRB) mine burial experiment site during January through March of 2003, in order to observe in situ scour and burial of instrumented inert mines and mine-like cylinders. These data were also used to test the validity of the VIMS 2D mine burial model. A set of six high-resolution multibeam surveys were collected over the IRB experiment site. Three study sites within the IRB site were chosen: two fine sand sites, a shallow one located in ~ 13 meters of water depth and a deep site located in ~ 14 meters of water depth; and a coarse sand site in ~ 13 meters. Results from these surveys indicate that mines deployed in fine sand are upwards of 74.5% buried within two months of deployment. Mines deployed in the coarse sand showed a lesser amount of scour, burying until they presented roughly the same hydrodynamic roughness of the surrounding rippled bedforms. In general, scour around the mines formed pits ~ 0.30 meters deep, with the most pronounced scour occurring at the ends of the mine. The multibeam data were also used to test the VIMS 2D mine burial model, which estimates percent burial of cylindrical mines based on predictions of wave-induced scour. The model proved valid for use in areas of fine sand, sufficiently predicting burial over the course of the experiment. In the area of coarse sand, the model greatly overpredicted the amount of burial. This is believed to be due to the presence of ripples around the mines, which affect local bottom morphodynamics and are not accounted for in the model. This issue is currently being addressed by modelers.

During the summer of 2004 I interned with the Mental Health Association of Greater Tampa Bay (MHA), a local affiliate of the National Mental Health Association. My time spent with the MHA became a gateway into the world of mental health. In the course of fulfilling my duties, I developed a particular interest in understanding the services that are available to persons, especially adults seeking treatment/services for mental illness. Through the MHA I was introduced to a wide range of people who have some link to mental health services, including psychiatrists, therapists, policy makers, and lawyers. This thesis utilizes an anthropological perspective to review the mental health policies, services, and provider networks available in the Tampa Bay region. My findings reflect the views of providers of or advocates for mental health services. This thesis is therefore presented as a necessary baseline and prelude to a more comprehensive study of consumer/client responses to the system. My data suggests that mental health services in Florida provide only a patchwork of services: there are not enough professional service providers to handle the actual patient load. Providers of mental health services who serve the uninsured are particularly overburdened. The largest barrier to providing treatment is underfunding, relative to the actual cost of services. Treatment is also impacted by the stigma attached to seeking mental health services.

Sigma receptors have been implicated in the regulation of the cardiovascular system. Some of the cardiovascular effects of sigma receptors may be through the modulation of autonomic neurons. Studies on the expression and cellular function of sigma receptors in autonomic neurons were conducted in neonatal rat intracardiac (ICG) and superior cervical ganglia (SCG). Individual neurons from SCG and ICG were shown to express transcripts encoding the sigma-1 receptor. The effects of sigma receptors activation on high-voltage-activated Ca2+ channels was studied in isolated neurons of these ganglia. Bath application of sigma receptor agonists depressed peak calcium channel currents in a dose-dependent manner and the rank order potency of haloperidol> ibogaine > (+)-pentazocine > DTG is consistent with the effects being mediated by a sigma-2 receptor. Sigma receptor antagonist, metaphit, blocked DTG-mediated inhibition of Ca2+ current. Sigma ligands also altered the biophysical properties of these channels. Activation of sigma receptors reversibly blocked delayed outwardly rectifying potassium channels, large conductance Ca2+-sensitive K+ channels, and the M-current with maximal inhibition >80%. The rank order potency of different sigma ligands suggests that the effect is mediated by sigma-1 receptor. While bath application of sigma ligands depolarized ICG neurons, the number of action potentials (AP) fired by the cells in response to depolarizing current pulses was decreased. Experiments on the signal transduction cascade mediated the inhibition of K+ and Ca2+ channels by sigma ligands showed that the signal transduction pathway does not involve a diffusible cytosolic second messenger or a G-protein. Sigma ligands also modulate voltage-gated Na+ channels (VGSC) in ICG neurons. Bath application of sigma ligands inhibited VGSC current with maximal inhibition >90% and altered the biophysical properties of VGSC. The latency of AP generation during depolarizing current ramp was increased by sigma ligands and this effect is through the inhibition of VGSC. These data suggest that activation of sigma receptors on autonomic neurons modulates voltage-gated Ca2+, K+ and Na+ channels and as a result, the generation of AP is inhibited in these neurons. Sigma receptors are likely altering the cell-to-cell signaling in autonomic ganglia and thus regulating cardiac function by the peripheral nervous system.

The increasing presence of Chinese international graduate students in American higher education has mandated a closer examination of their multifaceted lives against stereotypes that hinder their efforts to find, transform, or assert their identities in the dominant discourses of American academia and culture. Cross cultural studies of Chinese international students tend to reinforce stereotypes of their writer identities, learner identities, and teacher identities. Examining these various identities discloses dichotomies that read Chinese students’ traits and behaviors as handicaps and thus characterize them as “abnormal” in relation to the “normal” traits and behaviors of Chinese students’ Western counterparts. Whereas Western student writers are described as direct and logical, Chinese student writers are characterized as indirect and illogical. In comparison to the assertive and critical way of thinking that is regarded as the norm among American students, Chinese students are seen as submissive “rote learners.” Conversely, the liberatory, student-centered approach to teaching that is promoted in the American educational system is thought to be antithetical to what is considered to be an authoritarian, teacher-centered approach of Chinese education. Underlying these binaries is an unchallenged gender binary. Deeply entrenched Western notions about masculinity and femininity ultimately lead to a feminization of Chinese identities. Despite the constant critique from various disciplines, dichotomous views of gender persist and consequently lead to misconceptions about Chinese subjectivity in U.S. This project argues that these misconceptions have produced consistently devastating effects on Chinese students and further demobilize them from acculturating themselves into the dominant discourse in the United States. To deconstruct these socially, culturally, and ideologically constructed binaries, this work uses scholarship on subjectivity and identity by Michel Foucault and Homi Bhabha to examine critically how identity is formed and transformed; it also draws heavily on scholarship in rhetoric and composition and in feminist studies to delineate how Chinese students’ various identities are formed and transformed. The goal of this work is to advance a complementary thinking to advocate new conceptions about Chinese students’ various identities and ultimately to allow Chinese students to assume more active agency in their identity transformation process in the U.S.

It is very important that the software being delivered to the user is reliable and fault free. This makes software testing one of the most important phases in the software development life cycle. The problem being faced by everyone is the time it takes to test the software, which is normally huge. An important part of the software testing process is running and evaluating test scenarios. The objective of this part is to evaluate how well the application under test conforms to its specifications. One of the ways to achieve this is to generate the test cases and make use of the test oracle (a human expert) to determine whether a given test case exposes a fault. This procedure consumes a lot of time. Using an automated oracle can contribute towards the reduction in software testing time which helps in the reduction of the cost of the testing process. The use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Info-Fuzzy Networks (IFN) for test case selection and evaluation has already been explored. In this thesis these two approaches are compared on their use as an automated oracle. An ROC Analysis is done to compare the two approaches. The execution times of both the approaches are also compared. For comparison, three applications have been used. The basic methodology behind the use of IFN or ANN is to train the network on randomly generated test cases executed with a stable version of the software. This trained network is then used as an oracle for evaluating the correctness of the output produced by new and possibly faulty versions of the stable software. The outputs from the oracle i.e. IFN or ANN and faulty versions of the software system are compared with that of the original version to evaluate the outputs generated by new version of the software.