Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 114 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: In the last few years, several studies have attempted to meta-analyze reliability estimates. The initial study, to outline a methodology for meta-analyzing reliability coefficients, was published by Vacha-Haase in 1998. Vacha-Haase used a very basic meta-analytic model to find a mean effect size (reliability) across studies. There are two main reasons for meta-analyzing reliability coefficients. First, recent research has shown that many studies fail to report the appropriate reliability for the measure and population of the actual study (Vacha-Haase, Ness, Nilsson and Reetz, 1999; Whittington, 1998; Yin and Fan, 2000). Second, very little research has been published describing the way reliabilities for the same measure vary according to moderators such as time, form length, population differences in trait variability and others. / ABSTRACT: Vacha-Haase (1998) proposed meta-analysis, as a method by which the impact of moderators may become better understood. Although other researchers have followed the Vacha-Haase example and meta-analyzed the reliabilities for several measures, little has been written about the best methodology to use for such analysis. Reliabilities are much larger on average than are validities, and thus tend to show greater skew in their sampling distributions. This study took a closer look at the methodology with which reliability can be meta-analyzed. Specifically, a Monte Carlo study was run so that population characteristics were known. This provided a unique ability to test how well each of three methods estimates the true population characteristics. / ABSTRACT: The three methods studied were the Vacha-Haase method as outlined in her 1998 article, the well-known Hunter and Schmidt "bare bones method" (1990) and the random-effects version of Hedges' method as described by Lipsey and Wilson (2001). The methods differ both in how they estimate the random-effects variance component (or in one case, whether the random-effects variance component is estimated at all) and in how they treat moderator variables. Results showed which of these methods is best applied to reliability meta-analysis. A combination of the Hunter and Schmidt (1999) method and weighted least squares regression is proposed. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 178 pages. / Thesis (M.S.E.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This work examined the design and characterization of multilayer coplanar waveguide baluns and inductors. This work derives a design procedure that helps RF engineers design cost effective multilayer coplanar waveguide (CPW) spiral balun that works in the frequency range 1-8 GHz. The accuracy of the developed procedure has been proven by designing two balun circuits of different dimensions and simulating them using available commercial software, Momentum (MoM) and Empire (FDTD). The simulation results have shown good balun performance over the desired frequency range. Furthermore some of the designed balun circuits have been fabricated and measured and the results agree with the simulations. The smaller balun (2.4 mm x 1.4 mm) with a minimum spacing of 25mm works very good in the frequency range 4-8 GHz with a 4 GHz operational bandwidth (OBW) and 5o phase difference and 0.5 dB amplitude imbalance. / ABSTRACT: The larger balun (5.6mm x 3.0 mm) with minimum spacing of 100mm works well in the frequency range 2-4 GHz with a 2 GHz operational bandwidth (OBW) and 10o phase difference and 0.5 dB amplitude imbalance. Such a large-size balun is suitable for a new fabrication technique called Direct-Write. This thesis focuses on techniques that can be used to enhance balun performance, it has been shown through this work that adding some capacitance at certain points in the balun circuit will decrease both the phase difference and the amplitude imbalance of the balun. Some of these techniques were discovered through the thesis work and the other techniques were used before, but for different balun structures. An additional study to the effect of the ground plane on the spiral inductor model is included herein. / ABSTRACT: Formulas for the inductance nominal value in the existing CPW ground plane for some spiral inductors are derived here, in addition to the derivation of an RF spiral inductor model that is independent of the ground plane. The importance of this model lies in its necessity in designing an antenna dipole loaded with lumped elements (in the absence of ground plane) to control the antenna electrical length without changing its physical length. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 29 pages. / Thesis (M.S.C.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Knowledge of structural stability theory is of paramount importance to the practicing structural engineer. In many instances, buckling is the primary consideration in the design of various structural configurations. The first chapter introduces a simplified treatment of the elastic stability of a battened column using classical methods without getting involved with lengthy and complicated mathematical operations. In chapter two, a treatment of the elastic stability of a frame is presented, including effects of elastic restraints. In this study, a theoretical treatment is given which although approximate, is believed to constitute a satisfactory solution of the structure. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 63 pages. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The work presented here is an important component of an on going project of developing an automated mass classification system for breast cancer screening and diagnosis for Digital Mammogram applications. Specifically, in this work the task of automatically separating mass tissue from normal breast tissue given a region of interest in a digitized mammogram is investigated. This is the crucial stage in developing a robust automated classification system because the classification depends on the accurate assessment of the tumor-normal tissue border as well as information gathered from the tumor area. In this work the Expectation Maximization (EM) method is developed and applied to high resolution digitized screen-film mammograms with the aim of segmenting normal tissue from mass tissue. / ABSTRACT: Both the raw data and summary data generated by Laws' texture analysis are investigated. Since the ultimate goal is robust classification, the merits of the tissue segmentation are assessed by its impact on the overall classification performance. Based on the 300 image dataset consisting of 97 malignant and 203 benign cases, a 63% sensitivity and 89% specificity was achieved. Although, the segmentation requires further investigation, the development and related computer coding of the EM algorithm was successful. The method was developed to take in account the input feature correlation. This development allows other researchers at this facility to investigate various input features without having the intricate understanding of the EM approach. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 94 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This is a qualitative case study conducted to investigate the relationship between consumers who are brand loyal to a certain product and the groups that are formed to bring these enthusiasts together, using the Chevrolet Corvette and its community as a model. Qualitative research lends itself to studying relationships and social situations, in being able to observe and participate in a social context, rather than analyzing it from the outside looking in. By approaching this subject as a case study, an element of flexibility was allowed. This study primarily focuses on one main phenomena, the social groups formed by loyal consumers. The specific context studied is the Chevrolet Corvette's community. / ABSTRACT: By using in-depth interviews of Corvette enthusiasts, owners and company employees, a deeper understanding of why people are loyal to a product and how they use enthusiast clubs to sustain their loyalty will be uncovered. Those interviewed were asked open-ended questions pertaining to their feelings about the community they are a part of, and the brand they are loyal to. A qualitative, ethnographic approach was taken, and interviews were conducted more as conversations than as formal, structured interviews. Through participant observation at various Corvette events, the researcher compared what participants said and what they were observed doing. Participants are from varying backgrounds, ages and genders as to provide a broad base of information. Data gathered were analyzed using grounded theory, a research method that seeks to develop theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered. / ABSTRACT: Grounded theory allows for a continuous interplay between data collection and analysis. Three overarching themes were constructed to organize the data, with various sub-categories to further explain the findings. The results of this study have shown that the object of enthusiasm, in this case the Chevrolet Corvette, is the basis for social interaction between owners and those involved with the car. While the physical car must uphold a superior standard, the consumer loyalty shown in this community is reinforced through interpersonal relationships formed with others sharing a common interest of enthusiasm for the automobile. The research has shown that there is a linkage between media efforts, automobile purchase, and social interaction. A cycle is formed from company executives releasing information and marketing to the public, inspiring consumers to purchase the car, and the community reinforces their purchase decision and fosters their brand loyalty. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 77 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Looking back at the past twelve years, many would say that it appears Russia has lost the battle for liberal democratic reform. Among Russia watchers, the following question has been circulated: "Who lost Russia?" This debate has polarized most scholars into one of two camps: those who feel the reforms failed (the critics) and those who feel the reforms were a success (the supporters). This paper will explain why the Russian reforms failed. By filling in the holes left by current research, the author will demonstrate that the truth may lie somewhere in between the two opposing sides. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 49 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Much research has focused on the development of methods of measuring preference for stimuli. These methods have shown to be an accurate and valid way to identify potential reinforcers. However, these methods have only been conducted with tangible stimuli and have not been extended to non-tangible stimuli or activities, potentially because these types of stimuli are not appropriate for current preference assessment presentation methodologies. This study used a single stimulus presentation preference assessment to identify preferred activities for two adults with developmental disabilities. Two measures (duration of engagement and indices of happiness) were collected to identify preferred stimuli. For both participants, there were differences in happiness measure between activities. The engagement measure only produced differentiated results for one participant. / ABSTRACT: Reinforcer assessments were conducted to determine if the measures of preference were able to identify high preference stimuli that functioned as more effective reinforcers more than stimuli identified as low preference. Both participants exhibited high rates of an arbitrary response during all conditions of the reinforcer assessment. Therefore, the reinforcer assessments did not validate the results of the preference assessments. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Professional research project (Au.D.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 34 pages. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The self-perceived hearing aid benefit of 38 participants was examined. Of the 38 subjects, 8 were found to have an auditory processing disorder as measured by the Dichotic Sentence Identification (DSI). When compared to the non-APD subjects, there were essentially no significant differences on the APHAB or COSI outcome measures. However, two of the 5 scales of the CHPI did show significant differences. In conclusion, these results do not support the notion of APD having a negative effect on hearing aid benefit. No finding in this study was robust and although there were several trends supporting that APD may impede an individual from receiving their full potential of benefit, this finding is not necessarily so. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 76 pages. / Thesis (M.S.I.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This thesis focuses on a decision-making model for finding the locations for placement of utilities in roadway corridors. In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the volume of traffic on roadways and in the number of utilities placed in Right of Ways. The increase in the demand for utilities is making it more difficult to place all the utilities within the Right of Way and also provide safe roads and highways with good carrying capacity. The public agencies approving the location for utilities are now using a first come first served method, which provide neither an efficient nor good economic solution. This model considers all the utilities within the corridor as a single system, including factors like installation costs, maintenance costs and also some future factors such as accident costs. A weighted coefficient optimization approach is used to find the solution in this model. / ABSTRACT: These costs are modeled as fuzzy numbers or probabilistic random numbers depending on their characteristics. This algorithm will locate each utility at all its possible locations and find the total cost of all the utilities at all these locations, i.e. cost of the system. The least cost locations among all the possible locations are the good locations for utilities in the utility system. When utilities are placed in these locations the overall cost of the system will be lower compared to other locations. This model provides a flexible and interactive method for finding cost saving locations for the utilities in the highway corridor. Users will be able to change the parameters of the utility system according to their requirements and get reduced cost solutions. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 95 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: A Covariate Structure Model was used to examine a possible relationship between colorism as a component of body image and global psychological functioning in the hypothesized model. Two hundred-fifty-five African-American women were recruited from undergraduate psychology and social work classes to participate in the current study from state and community colleges in the southeastern United States, and from social groups and church organizations. The results indicated that the hypothesized model was not a good fit to the data; therefore, the model was re-evaluated. The results of the analysis of the revised model indicated that the revised model was not plausible. However, the model does suggest that there is a relationship between the body image when the definition includes issues of colorism and psychological functioning as measured by levels of depression and self-esteem. Therefore, the model provides direction to be taken in future research. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.