The present study investigated factors related to social connectedness and social support in a college population. Participants in the study were 486 volunteer students at the University of North Florida. All data were collected through a world wide web surveying program that allowed each participant to complete surveys on computers from any location. The surveys administered were the Social Connectedness Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Perceived Stress Scale 10, the Patient Health Questionnaire 15 (PHQ15), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale- Revised (CESD-R) along with a demographics questionnaire. Results show that participants in the ethnic majority group report greater social connectedness and social support than minority participants. Social connectedness is associated with perceived stress and health symptoms, even when controlling for other related factors. The impact of social connectedness on perceived stress explains the health effects of social connectedness, as perceived stress mediates the relationship between social connectedness and stress.

This qualitative study was undertaken to determine the organizational values shared by the professional employees of the Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Related topics that contributed to the literature review included human and organizational values, organizational culture, strategic planning, and the philosophical foundations of the Cooperative Extension Service. Focus group interviews were conducted in each of the five administrative districts and on the University of Florida Campus. A total of 40 individuals took part in the group interviews. Transcripts of the interviews were read, coded, and sorted by themes to develop a list of twelve categories of values shared by the professionals interviewed. Coded sections of the transcripts were transferred to a descriptive matrix in order to reduce and simplify the analysis. Three groupings of values emerged from the data and were described as "communities" of values. The three communities were personal, Personal values mission-related, and structural values. were rewards, relationships, and personal history. Mission-related values were organizational history, research-based information, relevance, comprehensiveness, life-long education, diversity, and service. structural values were shared ownership and system linkages. These three communities were depicted in figures that described the relationships of the values to one another. The final discussion described the inter-relatedness of the three communities in the overall organizational structure. Recommendations were made for further study and program development for the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.

The general purpose of this paper is to provide resource materials in tumbling activities for use with grades one through six of the elementary schools of Dade County, Florida. Sub-problem one--To determine the activities to be included in a tumbling program for the elementary school of Dade County. Sub-problem two--To present these tumbling activities in the form of a 16 MM sound motion picture and a detailed teaching manual. / Typescript. / "August, 1953." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Kenneth D. Miller, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-24).

"Since 'religious adjustment is part of the person's total adjustment,' the writer believes that an investigation of the nature of the religious problems which trouble college students might be of some value to those who are concerned with the satisfactory life relationships of undergraduates. The writer also believes that a knowledge of the sources which students seek for help with their religious problems might contribute to a better understanding of students as they attempt to adjust to encountered difficulties. Consequently, the present investigation was undertaken to discover the nature of the religious problems of undergraduate students at Florida State University and to determine the sources sought by students for help with such problems. No attempt was made to find the cause of any problem nor the reason for the absence of problems. No evaluation of the effectiveness of the counseling which students indicated they had received was attempted"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "March, 1952." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: H. F. Cottingham, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-75).

"The purpose of this study is to determine the factors affecting the selection of a particular lodging establishment in Tallahassee. This study investigates the basic factors affecting the choice between the primary types of lodging establishments--hotels and motels. An attempt is made to find any existing relationship between the various physical, aesthetic, and economic qualities of representative establishments and the income, occupation or profession, education, geographic origin, and other pertinent factors which may be used to classify the different segements of the traveling public. Attitudes and mental associations held by the respondents are studied because 'they tell us not only what people will accept or reject but how something can be presented to them'"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1957." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: J. Frank Dame, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-51).

The soil seed bank plays a dynamic role in the regeneration of plant communities after natural and anthropogenic disturbance. In this thesis, I addressed how disturbances influence the vegetation and seed bank of Florida rosemary scrub. In Chapter One I evaluated changes in species composition and spatiotemporal pattern of the vegetation and seed bank along a gradient of disturbance. During the summers and winters of 2007-2009 percent ground cover and seed bank species composition were assessed among replicates of three vegetation types subjected to minimal, moderate, and extreme anthropogenic disturbance (native rosemary scrub, degraded scrub, and agriculturally improved pasture, respectively). These vegetation types shared the same soil and topographic characteristics but differed in disturbance history. I found that species composition and spatial pattern varied with disturbance. In pastures the compositional and structural characteristics of rosemary scrub were lost and only native scrub species able to evade herbivory persisted in this community. Native and degraded scrub differed most from each other in species abundances and spatial pattern. Degraded scrub showed highest abundance of subshrubs and a spike moss species, while rosemary scrub was dominated by shrubs. The seed banks of scrub herbs in degraded scrub had a tendency towards a random spatial distribution that lacked association with aboveground cover. Conversely, rosemary scrub seed banks tended to have an aggregated distribution and were associated with occurrence of conspecific species aboveground, litter, and shrub cover. These results indicated a change in the spatial heterogeneity of the seed banks of scrub herbs in degraded scrub. In Chapter Two I evaluated changes in seed bank density with time-since-fire in native rosemary scrub. Due to large pulses of recruitment immediately after fire and population decline iii with time-since-fire, I predicted seed density with time-since-fire would follow a unimodal function with low density in early and late years post-fire, and highest density at intermediate time-since-fire. I compared seed density data among sites with different time-since-fire: two sites each of three, six, ten and 24 years time-since-fire and three long-unburned sites ( > 24 years). Variability in seed bank composition and density increased with time-since-fire and only recently burned stands were distinctly different from the other time-since-fire age classes. Some species and functional groups did exhibit a quadratic or cubic association to time-since-fire (ruderal herbs, subshrubs, Ceratiola ericoides, Lechea cernua, Paronychia chartacea, Phyllanthus tenellus); however, timing of the peak in seed density varied depending on life span and age of reproductive maturity. Scrub herbs were the most abundant functional group in the seed bank and showed highest density in the first ten years post-fire. This pattern corresponds to the pattern of aboveground species abundance and suggests abundances above- and belowground are closely linked. Understanding the dynamics of the seed bank in both naturally and anthropogenically disturbed communities in Florida rosemary scrub is important for the restoration of scrub habitat and management of existing populations of endangered and threatened scrub species endemic to the Lake Wales Ridge in central Florida.

This thesis provides a mass conservation analysis of the Lower St. Johns River for the purpose of providing basis for future salinity transport modeling. The analysis provides an assessment of the continuous (CG) and discontinuous (DG) Galerkin finite element methods with respect to their mass conservation properties. The following thesis also presents a rigorous literature review pertaining to salinity transport in the Lower St. Johns River, from which this effort generates the data used to initialize and validate numerical simulations. Two research questions are posed and studied in this thesis: can a DG-based modeling approach produce mass conservative numerical solutions; and what are the flow interactions between the river and the marshes within the coastal region of the Lower St. Johns River? Reviewing the available data provides an initial perspective of the ecosystem. For this, salinity data are obtained and assembled for three modeling scenarios. Each scenario, High Extreme, Most Variable, and Low Extreme, is 30 days long (taken from year 1999) and represents a unique salinity regime in the Lower St. Johns River. Time-series of salinity data is collected at four stations in the lower and middle reaches of the Lower St. Johns River, which provides a vantage point for assessing longitudinal variation of salinity. As an aside, precipitation and evaporation data is presented for seven stations along the entire St. Johns River, which provides added insight into salinity transport in the river. A mass conservation analysis is conducted for the Lower St. Johns River. The analysis utilizes a segmentation of the Lower St. Johns River, which divides the domain into sections iv based on physical characteristics. Mass errors are then calculated for the CG and DG finite element methods to determine mass conservative abilities. Also, the flow interactions (i.e., volume exchange) between the river and marshes are evaluated through the use of tidal prisms. The CG- and DG- finite element methods are then tested in tidal simulation performance, which the results are then compared to observed tides and tidal currents at four stations within the lower portion of the Lower St. Johns River. Since the results show that the DG model outperforms the CG model, the DG model is used in the tidally driven salinity transport simulations. Using four stations within the lower and middle part of the Lower St. Johns River, simulated and observed water levels and salinity concentrations are compared.

Motor fuel taxes have been collected as a principal source of highway funding for close to a century. They account for approximately two thirds of all the highway user fees and about half of all highway expenditures. Federal fuel taxes have not kept pace with the inflation in general and increasing traffic demand and resulting construction, maintenance and operation costs of the transportation assets in particular. Lack of political will, combined with rising anti-tax sentiment among the populace, has kept the federal tax level not only well below its initial intents, but also at a unsustainable level in future. Mileage based user fees are possibly an alternative to the fuel taxes, which have been the main mechanism for funding the transportation system. Mileage based user fees have been successfully utilized in many parts of the world with glowing results. Germany‟s “TollCollect”, a quasi government enterprise has utilized GPS technology in collecting the users‟ fee from the truck operators. The system has been a financial engine providing much needed funding for many major transportation projects. Oregon Department of Transportation, in a federally co-funded pilot project, examined the practicality of the mileage based user fee collection at the fuel pumps. According to the Oregon study, there are not any major technical difficulties in mileage based user fee collection at the pump. Study participants (general motorist) did not express any objection to the mileage based user fee collection. This dissertation evaluates revenue impacts of several pricing policies including: Current per gallon fuel taxes, conversion to a mileage based user fee, time of day user fee application, iv area type user fee and congestion priced user fees. State of Florida‟s years 2015-2035 fuel revenue forecast is used as a case study. A model is constructed to estimate annual vehicle miles travelled for the analyses period. Fuel efficiencies, current per gallon fuel taxes and their corresponding mileage-based user fee equivalents are the input to a financial model developed for comparisons. Results demonstrate that decrease in fuel revenues due to vehicles fuel efficiency improvements can be offset by replacing current per gallon fuel taxes with a mileage-based user fee. Pricing the user fee according to area type, roadway classification, time of day and congestion level can not only generate more revenues but also assist in demand management.

This study was designed to discover which merit pay evaluation and implementation factors were considered important by members of the Florida Teaching Profession - National Education Association (FTP-NEA). Comparisons were made of opinions within various subgroups (district size, position within organization, sex, race, age, years teaching, highest degree earned, assignment, secondary assignment). The sample included the State Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of the United Faculty of Florida CUFF-university personnel), and FTP-NEA members in two-thirds of the local affiliates. All districts with support personnel groups were included. The questionnaire was comprised of merit pay factors which were cited most often in the literature, and factors being considered for Florida's State Master Teacher Program. The instrument included 15 evaluation and 25 implementation factors. Questionnaires were distributed by local affiliate presidents. The UFF board and state FTP-NEA board members were surveyed by mail. The results of 662 surveys were analyzed, using a Chi-square test for each factor for each subgroup within the sample. Respondents felt most strongly that "teaching experience/number of years teaching" and "administrator observations/evaluations" should be used as evaluation criteria in a merit pay plan. They were most opposed to "standardized teacher test scores" and "standardized student test scores," both "by school" and "by teacher." They agreed strongly with several of the implementation factors, including "each teacher should ahve access to his/her own records" and "an evaluation instrument should stress performance on the job in the assigned area." They were strongly against the use of a quota, extra pay for tecahers in shortage or alternative areas, and the involvement of business persons and legislators in planning a merit pay system. There were several Chi-square tests which produced valid, significant differences among various subgroups. Significant differences were evidenct in 26 cases for evaluation factors, and 14 cases for implementation factors. The largest numbers of significantly different opinions were in the categories of "sex" (10 factors) and "assignment" (8 factors). There were no significant differences among respondents with various seconday assignments and one significant difference between black and white responses.

No description available.