This thesis asks the question as to whether polyamory functions as a community glue or solvent for the Central Florida Burner Community. It explores the definition of polyamory and how it relates to the Burner counter-culture. This thesis explores what polyamory's effects are on the individual and community levels for those who participate in it. The findings concluded that overall the participants reported a perceived positive impact on both the individual level and on community cohesion in this case. The participants also revealed that the environment Burning Man provides is generally open and welcoming of polyamory.

No description available.

This study uses phenomenological methods to answer the research question, “what do black pastors perceive as the role of the church in the black community?” I asked 20 Central Florida black pastors 17 questions, most of them open-ended, to determine their perceptions of the current black church. First, these pastors are dismayed at the condition and the position of the current black church. They view the history the black church as strong and stalwart, and the Civil Rights Movement as an example of what the institution is capable of doing and being. Second, they perceive the primary roadblock of the black church to be leadership. They do not see current pastors as having neither the vision nor the desire to make the church the instrument of social justice and change that it once was. They see current pastors trying to make a name for themselves instead of impacting the communities they serve. They also see member apathy as another issue that hinders the impact of the black church. They argue that many black people have climbed the social ladder and no longer desire to reach back and help other blacks in the community that they have exited. This study provides important insight into the current state and the perception of the direction of the black church from the vantage point of these men and women who lead black churches in Central Florida.

As with many cities in Florida, Orlando is becoming a melting pot of various ethnic groups. In particular, the Hispanic population in Orlando and throughout Central Florida is steadily increasing in numbers and influence. Groups such as Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Colombians are enriching the area with their culture, language, and diversity. Puerto Ricans, the largest of the Hispanic groups in Central Florida, are also emerging as the dominant group in the region as evidenced by their common language, historical and cultural heritage, shared common interests, and in some cases, residence within clear geographical areas. Between 1980 and 1990, Central Florida witnessed its largest influx of Puerto Ricans. In 1980, Orange County had a little over 6,660 Puerto Rican residents, Seminole County had over 2,000 and Osceola County had a mere 417. These numbers rose steadily, and by 2003, the Puerto Rican population in Florida numbered 571,000, ranking second behind New York, and followed only by New Jersey. Central Florida has seen the biggest jump in these numbers and now has more than 250,000 Hispanics of Puerto Rican origin making them the largest single group of Hispanics in the region. They now represent 49 percent of all Hispanics living in Central Florida. My thesis examines the development of the Puerto Rican community in Central Florida, its impact, and its contributions by utilizing such sources as newspaper articles from local papers including Spanish-language papers, interviews with Hispanic community leaders, statistical data, and secondary literature on the overall Puerto Rican migration to the United States and their experiences once here. To fully understand why the Puerto Rican community is developing in the Orlando area, I first place the analysis within the larger scope of immigration history. In this section, I examine some of the debates and patterns in overall immigration to the United States by various groups. Next, I provide a brief introduction to the history of the Puerto Rican people and the reasons for their migration to the United States and how this migration fits into the patterns examined in the first section. Furthermore, this introduction leads to an examination of other cities with large Puerto Rican communities and a comparison between the development of Puerto Rican communities in these cities and Central Florida. Finally, I explore the origin of the majority of Puerto Rican's moving to Central Florida, to discover if they are coming from the U.S. cities that originally saw a huge influx of Puerto Rican immigration (such as New York) or if the population is arriving directly from Puerto Rico. This determination sheds light on why the Puerto Rican population is choosing Central Florida as a place for settlement. I analyze my findings by examining factors such as better employment opportunities, better educational opportunities, and an overall improvement in quality of life, which are drawing Puerto Ricans to this area, when compared to these factors or conditions in Puerto Rico or other cities in Florida. In addition, I seek to determine if there are specific problems occurring in Puerto Rican cities that are compelling native-born Puerto Ricans to leave. I also examine the ways that the growing presence of Puerto Ricans has changed Central Florida economically, socially, and politically. I also discuss the effectiveness of Puerto Rican organizations that have arisen to serve the needs of this population and I seek to gain some indication of the long term implications for the region as a whole, especially in terms of their voting trends. Culminating this section is a description of the unique cultural contributions that the Puerto Rican community is bringing to the area. My thesis proves that Puerto Ricans are finding the Central Florida area is offering them many of the opportunities that cities such as New York City provided them long ago. In addition, it offers the added appeal of a better quality of life than can be found in Puerto Rico or in other American cities, such as New York City. Among the important factors here are affordable housing, good employment opportunities, and more adequate schools.

Two computer models, namely MOBILE2 and PAL were utilized to estimate the air pollution emissions and concentrations due to traffic to and in the Central Florida Research Park. Since the Park is under construction, there are no actual existing data. Generally accepted engineering techniques were adopted to estimate traffic flow used for the study. Sensitivity analyses were conducted on the results, and it was found that changing the number of lanes for the roads - with different volumes of traffic on each lane - does not change the results significantly . But changing the dimensions of area sources (the parking lots in this study) did change the results. Therefore, accurate dimensions of those area sources are important to an accurate model. For areas with prevailing wind directions, long rectangular parking lots can be designed with their lengths perpendicular to the wind direction to get low pollutant concentrations. The results indicate that the carbon monoxide concentrations generated by vehicles in the Research Park will be within the Ambient Air Quality Standards for all cases studied.

In large enough quantities, heavy metals may be detrimental to human health. Metals in raw water may pass through a water treatment plant without being completely removed. Once in a the distribution system, the water may experience metal pick-up due to corrosion. During the course of this study, an attempt was made to determine the heavy metal concentrations in the University of Central Florida's potable water systems. Samples were fun on the plasma spectrophotometer, Spectraspan III, and analyzed for heavy metal content. The results indicate pick-up of Fe, Al, Cu, and Zn in the distribution system. The arsenic and lead concentrations in the drinking water samples should be verified. The UCF sewage treatment plant offers adequate heavy metal removal with the metal ions being removed concentrating in the activated sludge.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2008. / Adviser: Rosemarye Taylor. Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-178).

Land use affects the water quality of lakes. Different land use types yield different effects due to varying amounts and constituents of runoff. In this study, the effects of surrounding land use on the water quality of 50 lakes in Seminole County, Florida was assessed. Using GIS, I placed buffers of 100 and 500 m around each lake. The percentages of land use type were calculated within these buffers for 1990 and 1995. An ordination of lakes was done using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) to determine if the surrounding land use patterns were adequate to describe the trophic status of the lakes. Correlations between land use and water quality were found to be significant for the 1990 100 and 500 m buffers. Inter-set correlations showed that among land use types: residential, urban, agriculture, hardwoods, and wetlands were the most influential in determining water quality in that they had the most positive or negative correlation with the WA scores depending on the year and buffer zone. Excessively drained and very poorly drained soils were the most influential of the soil types. A Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) was also performed to determine which land use and soil variables were effective in discriminating between oligotrophic, mesotrophic, and eutrophic lakes. Wetlands and very poorly drained soil were the most effective in discriminating between the groups of lakes. A multiple regression analysis was performed that determined correlations for 1990 and change in land use 100 m buffers contributed to our understanding of the relationship between land use and water quality. Effects of land use on water quality need to be considered when attempting to restore a lake or subjecting it to future land development.

This study examines the relationships between interorganizational network development and sustainability, organizational capacity for emergency management, technology utilization, and community disaster resiliency. It is proposed that cross sector and interorganizational collaboration (i.e., network development and sustainability), information communication technology (ICT) utilization, and organizational capacity have a positive impact on disaster resiliency. Disaster resiliency is measured with a three dimensional metric which includes effectiveness of disaster response, effectiveness of disaster recovery, and adaptive capacities. A questionnaire was sent to organizations that are part of the emergency management system in 11 counties in Central Florida. These organizations were identified by each county's comprehensive emergency management plans. County emergency managers served as the liaison people to reach organizations. They distributed the questionnaire and sent reminders to participants. The study aimed to reach an entire population of 855 emergency management affiliated organizations. The survey had a 25.28% response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the impact of interorganizational network development, interorganizational network sustainability, information communication technology utilization, and organizational capacity on community disaster resiliency. The results of the study show that one third of the total variation in disaster resiliency was explained with the exogenous variables in the structural equation model (R2=.31). There was no statistically significant relationship between network development and disaster resiliency. Also, a correlation was hypothesized between organizational capacity and ICT utilization, according to the study findings no correlation was found between these two variables. Network development, organizational capacity, and ICT utilization were found to be positively associated with disaster resiliency. Among all the variables, organizational capacity had the highest impact on disaster resiliency (β=.36). ICT utilization and network development had almost equal regression weights (β=.25, β=.26 respectively). A correlation was also found between network development and ICT utilization with β=.23. The results suggest that organizations that are part of emergency management systems in Central Florida counties could enhance disaster resiliency of their communities by focusing on interorganizational and cross-sector network development, information communication technology utilization, and organizational capacity. Managerial craft has a critical role in developing relationship as most of the interorganizational ties are established with informal connections and mutual trust. Building relationship, installing technological systems, and carrying out joint trainings often exceeds financial capacities of organizations. Enabling more funding for these initiatives is another key point to which policy makers may pay attention.

This study was developed to produce data about the prevalence of bullying in Central Florida middle schools. The research was intended to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on bullying and victimization. The focus for this study was provided through research questions: (a) to determine if there is a mean difference in perceived victimization among Central Florida middle school students based on grade level, gender, and ethnicity; (b) to determine if there is a mean difference in perceived bullying among Central Florida middle school students based on grade level, gender, and ethnicity; (c) to determine what support do students perceive Central Florida middle school staff provide to students who are bullied;(d) to determine what school locations, if any, do Central Florida middle school students perceive to be the most prevalent for bullying activities; (e) to determine if there is a relationship between skipping school and perceived victimization among middle school students in Central Florida; (f) to determine what is the average number of school days skipped by middle school students in Central Florida due to perceived victimization; (g) to determine if there is a relationship between feeling safe at school and perceived victimization among middle school students in Central Florida; (h) to determine if there is a relationship between student perceptions of whether teasing and bullying harms their grades and perceived victimization for middle school students in Central Florida; and (i) to determine if there is a relationship between students showing interest in their school work and perceived victimization by Central Florida middle school students. The population of this study was comprised of students in grades 6-8 in three Central Florida school districts during the 2007 - 2008 school years. Data were generated from the 13 schools located in Brevard, Osceola and Volusia counties using a self-reporting survey. Based on the research findings, it was determined that bullying is prevalent in Central Florida schools, with 21% (n = 133) of the students perceiving themselves as a victim of teasing and bullying. Students who perceive themselves as a bully was 5% (n = 30). Minority students perceived themselves as victims the most. Minority students in the sixth grade and non-minority students in the seventh grade, regardless of gender, perceived themselves as victims the most. Students in the sixth grade, regardless of race and gender, perceived themselves as bullies more than students in other grade levels. Students, who perceived themselves as victims, feel it is because they had good grades and show interest in their school work. Perceived victims of teasing and bullying also have poorer grades. Most students, who are victims of bullying, do feel somewhat safe at school and feel what the school is doing about the teasing and bullying problems was sufficient. When asked about attendance, a majority of students reported they have not skipped any days of school as a result of being teased or bullied. Students also identified all campus locations as areas where teasing and bullying takes place, with the gym having the most occurrence