Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 69 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: I studied the reproductive characteristics and mating systems of a central Florida population of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus). Using x-radiography, females were monitored for stage in egg-shelling and clutch size. Eggs began to appear on x-ray photographs in the first week of May in both 2001 and 2002; however, fully shelled eggs were not found before the end of May. In total 55% of the females x-rayed were gravid. Clutch sizes ranged from 4-12 with a mean of 7.29, with a mean clutch mass of 40.9 g. Clutch size increased with an increase in mean carapace length and mean plastron length. Mean clutch mass also increased with mean carapace length of females. Hatchlings began to emerge in late August, with incubation times ranging from 83 to 96 days. 50% of the eggs hatched, with 16.2% of the eggs showing no signs of development when opened. Hatchling mass averaged 30.7 g and was positively correlated with egg mass. / ABSTRACT: DNA was extracted from blood samples obtained from females and their offspring, and from the sexually mature males in the population. Nine microsatellite loci were amplified and genotypes constructed for each individual. There is evidence for promiscuous mating in gopher tortoises. Multiple paternity was detected in two of the seven clutches (28.6 %). In the clutches with multiple fathers, fertilization was highly skewed to one male, with primary male fertilizing over 70% of the clutch. Females with multiple-sired clutches were significantly smaller than females with single-sired clutches. Among the clutches assayed only one male fertilized more than one clutch, indicating that insemination of females is evenly spread among males of similar sizes. However, males assigned as fathers were significantly larger than other sampled males which may mean that larger males have an advantage in fertilization of clutches. / ABSTRACT: Conservation efforts should consider the impact of the mating system on reproduction in a population, and the possible impact of the relocation of larger males on recipient populations. / 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 55 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Previous research has examined the effectiveness of placing parents on a variety of incentive programs which would increase their likeliness to participate in school related activities. That research suggested that establishing school as a reinforcing environment for parents was vital. Due to these findings, this study examined the effects of a token economy on parent involvement at a low-income elementary school. Teachers were trained in the data collection method, and parental behavior was observed on a daily, weekly and bi-weekly schedule. Measures of social validity were obtained through teacher and parent questionnaires. The data from the research study suggested that the implementation of the token economy did increase the amount of parent participation, but only on a "micro" level. Parent involvement on a larger scale such as participation in after school activities such as PTA's and other large scale school related activities were not affected. / 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 185 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This study explored the impact of an imposed standards movement on attitudes and behaviors of a team of line leaders. A case method was employed to describe, to explain, and to draw conclusions about results of standards imposition. Standards were designed and implemented by an executive leadership team frustrated with lack of effective leadership practices of a line leaders team under their supervision. The investigation took an historical perspective, chronicling the story of the company, emerging leadership challenges, and executive leadership responses leading up to the research. The line or team leaders of an educational software company served as participants. Data were archival, gathered through consultation via focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, and fieldwork journal notes. Verbatim responses to protocols were used as evidence of leadership practices. / ABSTRACT: The structure of leading in professional communities espoused by Senge, Greenleaf, Bennis, Kouzes, Posner, and others informed data analysis of team leaders' responses to imposed standards. Results revealed six themes: Positive Attitude toward Learning; Positive Attitude toward Peer Learning Groups; Increased Skill, Performance, Satisfaction, and Confidence resulting from imposed standards; Shift from Negative Attitude toward Change; team leaders' Commitment to Imposed Goals as a work requirement; and Loss of Advantages Gained from Standards Imposition over time due to removal of the learning requirement. This research adds to the literature available for leaders in relation to designing responses to emergent resistance toward accomplishing imposed standards. Team leaders identified the learner ethic as a leadership attribute crystallized by the standards imposition movement. / ABSTRACT: Although leaders believed in learning, they developed heightened awareness regarding the importance of learning as a survival tactic for themselves and the company. / 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 24 pages. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of nystagmus found in healthy individuals during the positional testing subtest of the standard vestibular test battery. Positional testing involves moving the patient's head, and sometimes the entire body, into a variety of positions while observing eye movement. The hypothesis of the current study was that a relatively low percentage of participants would display nystagmus during positional testing used routinely in clinical diagnostic procedures. The findings were then compared to those of an earlier study in which 82% of normal, healthy individuals were reported to exhibit nystagmus during this testing. Twenty-five participants were selected that had no known otologic disease and who reported normal hearing sensitivity. / ABSTRACT: In addition, the participants affirmed they had not consumed any alcohol or taken any medications that are known to affect nystagmus. They were then observed in nine different positions. Forty-eight percent of the participants experienced nystagmus in at least one position. Although this percentage was considerably lower than that reported in the earlier study, methodological differences appear to account for the discrepancy. Specifically, the criterion for determining the presence/absence of nystagmus potentially explains the difference in full. / 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 117 pages. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The modern economy includes a variety of markets, and the Internet has opened opportunities for efficient on-line trading. Researchers have developed algorithms for various auctions, which have become a popular means for on-line sales. They have also designed algorithms for exchange-based markets, similar to the traditional stock exchange, which support fast-paced trading of rigidly standardized securities. In contrast, there has been little work on exchanges for complex nonstandard commodities, such as used cars or collectible stamps. We propose a formal model for trading of complex goods, and present an automated exchange for a limited version of this model. The exchange allows the traders to describe commodities by multiple attributes; for example, a car buyer may specify a model, options, color, and other desirable properties. / ABSTRACT: Furthermore, a trader may enter constraints on the acceptable items rather than a specific item; for example, a buyer may look for any car that satisfies certain constraints, rather than for one particular vehicle. We present an extensive empirical evaluation of the implemented exchange, using artificial data, and then give results for two real-world markets, used cars and commercial paper. The experiments show that the system supports markets with up to 260,000 orders, and generates one hundred to one thousand trades per second. / 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 93 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: One often wishes to understand the probability distribution of stochastic data from experiment or computer simulations. However, where no model is given, practitioners must resort to parametric or non-parametric methods in order to gain information about the underlying distribution. Others have used initially a nonparametric estimator in order to understand the underlying shape of a set of data, and then later returned with a parametric method to locate the peaks. However they are interested in estimating spectra, which may have multiple peaks, where in this work we are interested in approximating the peak position of a single-peak probability distribution. One method of analyzing a distribution of data is by fitting a curve to, or smoothing them. Polynomial regression and least-squares fit are examples of smoothing methods. Initial understanding of the underlying distribution can be obscured depending on the degree of smoothing. / ABSTRACT: Problems such as under and oversmoothing must be addressed in order to determine the shape of the underlying distribution.Furthermore, smoothing of skewed data can give a biased estimation of the peak position. We propose two new approaches for statistical mode estimation based on the assumption that the underlying distribution has only one peak. The first method imposes the global constraint of unimodality locally, by requiring negative curvature over some domain. The second method performs a search that assumes a position of the distribution's peak and requires positive slope to the left, and negative slope to the right. / ABSTRACT: Each approach entails a constrained least-squares fit to the raw cumulative probability distribution.We compare the relative efficiencies [12] of finding the peak location of these two estimators for artificially generated data from known families of distributions Weibull, beta, and gamma. Within each family a parameter controls the skewness or kurtosis, quantifying the shapes of the distributions for comparison. We also compare our methods with other estimators such as the kernel-density estimator, adaptive histogram, and polynomial regression. By comparing the effectiveness of the estimators, we can determine which estimator best locates the peak position. We find that our estimators do not perform better than other known estimators. We also find that our estimators are biased. / ABSTRACT: Overall, an adaptation of kernel estimation proved to be the most efficient.The results for the work done in this thesis will be submitted, in a different form, for publication by D.A. Rabson and J.K. Looper. / 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 309 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This thesis describes the archaeological investigation of the Warehouse Complex on Indian Key (8MO15), Monroe County, Florida, through the study of the ceramics recovered from excavations conducted there by the State of Florida from 1972 to 1973 and by the University of South Florida from 1998 to 2002. The Warehouse Complex is composed of two distinct architectural areas, referred to as Feature A and Feature C. This complex lies on the north shore of Indian Key, located in the Atlantic Ocean in the Middle Keys near Islamorada, Florida. The town of Indian Key was founded in the early 1820s, and was burned by a group of Spanish Indians in 1840, during the Second Seminole War. Despite the disbanding of the main community at Indian Key following the 1840 attack, the island and its remaining structures experienced re-use throughout the 1800s and into the early 1900s by various groups, including the United States Navy, farmers, shipbuilders, and fishers. / ABSTRACT: Despite its relatively populated history, little historical documentation exists detailing the occupation of Indian Key throughout the nineteenth century. This study used current historical archaeological methods to examine the ceramics left behind in archaeological deposits in the warehouse. This examination had several goals: to add to the known history of the island, to re-construct the lifeways of the people who lived at Indian Key, to determine the use (and re-use) of this specific area on the island, and to identify specific functional areas within the warehouse. / 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 130 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Indian Key Historic State Park is a small island located on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Florida Keys, near Islamorada. Before it was bought by the state of Florida in 1970, Indian Key had been the setting for a number of historically significant activities. The most well known of these is the 1840 raid on the people and buildings that made up a small wrecking village, established on the island by Jacob Housman in the early 1830s. The limestone foundations of these structures are the main attraction to today's visitor to the park. There is more to the story of Indian Key, though, than the Housman period and the structural remains left behind from this stage of the island's history. Almost immediately after the near destruction of the island in 1840, the Florida Squadron of the Navy took over, constructing their own buildings, and re-using some of the previously constructed foundations. / ABSTRACT: This cycle of rebuilding and re-use continued for another hundred years, with families and fishers trying to inhabit and profit from Indian Key. The focus of this thesis is to examine the foundations and associated archaeological features of Indian Key in order to determine better periods of use and re-use for the buildings that have been identified through archaeological investigations. This research was conducted in order to examine the site's architecture through an archaeological perspective; it is by no means an attempt at a complete architectural study of the site. Rather, it is an effort to examine the entire island of Indian Key, by focusing on the history of the buildings that helped make it an important piece of Florida's past. / 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 230 pages. / Thesis (M.S.M.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: A conical nozzle with two separate inlets within its top plate is analyzed. One of the inlets is in the center of the top plate, which is free to rotate, whereas the other inlet is positioned away from the center. The fluid entering through the outer inlet slot causes the top plate of the nozzle to spin. Several fluids including FC-77, FC-72, FC-87, and Methanol running at different flow rates were investigated to observe the effect that their particular properties have on the geometry of the fluid's free surface exiting the nozzle. Another variation performed was the geometry of the nozzle. The outer inlet slot was positioned at various radial distances along the top plate. For this nozzle, the top plate remained stationary and swirling was introduced to the fluid at the inlets. It was observed that the faster flow rates caused an increase in the free surface height and cone angle. / ABSTRACT: For the various radial locations of the outer inlet slot, it was noted that a position at approximately 75% of the nozzle radius produced the largest free surface height. The largest cone angle was produced when the outer inlet slot was positioned at the edge of the nozzle top plate. Another factor that increased the radial height and cone angle of the free surface was the working fluid used in the study. A larger Reynolds number produced a larger cone angle and larger free surface height (while a smaller Reynolds number produced a less significant cone angle and free surface height). / 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 158 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The empirical testing of theories is an important component of research in any field. Yet despite the long history of science, the extent to which theories are supported or contradicted by the results of empirical research remains ill defined. Quite commonly, support or contradiction is based solely on the "reject" or "fail to reject" decisions that result from tests of null hypotheses that are derived from aspects of theory. Decisions and recommendations based on this forced and often artificial dichotomy have been scrutinized in the past. Such an overly simplified approach to theory testing has been vigorously challenged in the past. Theories differ in the extent to which they provide precise predictions about observations. The precision of predictions derived from theories is proportional to the strength of support that may be provided by empirical evidence congruent with the prediction. / ABSTRACT: However, the notion of precision linked to strength of support is surprisingly absent from many discussions regarding the appraisal of theories. In the early 1990s, Meehl presented an index of corroboration to summarize the extent to which empirical tests of theories provide support or contradiction of theories. This index is comprised of a closeness component and an estimate of precision. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of this index of corroboration and its behavior when employing path analytic methods in the context of social science research. The performance of a multivariate extension of Meehl's Corroboration Index (Ci) was evaluated using Monte Carlo methods by simulating traditional path analysis. Five factors were included in the study: model complexity, level of intolerance, verisimilitude, sample size and level of collinearity. Results were evaluated in terms of the mean and standard error of the resulting multivariate Ci values. / ABSTRACT: Of the five central design factors investigated, the level of intolerance was observed to be the strongest influence on mean Ci. Verisimilitude and model complexity were not observed to be strong determinants of the mean Ci. The lack of sensitivity of the index to the other design factors led to a proposed alternative conceptualization of the multivariate corroboration index to guide future research efforts. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.