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- Title
- The Natural Exile: A Study Of Twenty-First Century Cuban-American Narratives Focusing On The Elderly's Plight.
- Creator
-
Parson, Jasmine, Milanes, Cecilia, Nwakanma, Obi, Logan, Lisa, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Developed from the similarity between exile theory and age studies, the term (")exile(") is expanded to a natural form of exile because of the shocking temporal shift that reconstructs social interaction, familial dynamics, and the aging body. Using Heidegger's theoretical work Being in Time, Simon de Beauvoir's The Coming of Age, and Jean Am(&)#233;ry's On Aging as insight, this literary analysis captures how the elderly protagonists Goyo from Cristina Garc(&)#237;a's King of Cuba, M(&)#225...
Show moreDeveloped from the similarity between exile theory and age studies, the term (")exile(") is expanded to a natural form of exile because of the shocking temporal shift that reconstructs social interaction, familial dynamics, and the aging body. Using Heidegger's theoretical work Being in Time, Simon de Beauvoir's The Coming of Age, and Jean Am(&)#233;ry's On Aging as insight, this literary analysis captures how the elderly protagonists Goyo from Cristina Garc(&)#237;a's King of Cuba, M(&)#225;ximo from Ana Men(&)#233;ndez's (")In Cuba I was a German Shepherd,(") and Soledad from Cecilia Rodr(&)#237;guez Milan(&)#233;s's (")Abuela Marielita(") experience a natural exile among society, their family and within their own body. These areas express how the elderly's sense of displacement equates that of a political/geographical exile.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007701, ucf:52432
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007701
- Title
- HEALTHY AGING AND SELF-OBJECTIFICATION: THE IMPACT OF EMPOWERMENT AND FEMINIST ATTITUDES ON BODY IMAGE, EATING BEHAVIOR, AND AGING SATISFACTION.
- Creator
-
Grippo, Karen, Tantleff Dunn, Stacey, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The purpose of this study was to contribute to women's healthy aging across the adult lifespan by empirically examining potential protective factors (e.g., empowerment and feminist attitudes) in maintaining positive body image, healthy eating behavior, and aging satisfaction. Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) provided a theoretical framework for understanding the connections between sexual-objectification experiences, media influences, and self-objectification, and the...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to contribute to women's healthy aging across the adult lifespan by empirically examining potential protective factors (e.g., empowerment and feminist attitudes) in maintaining positive body image, healthy eating behavior, and aging satisfaction. Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) provided a theoretical framework for understanding the connections between sexual-objectification experiences, media influences, and self-objectification, and the resulting negative psychological consequences for women in Western society. This study was the first to examine empowerment in relation to Objectification Theory. Additionally, a developmental perspective was gained by using a diverse sample of young, middle-aged, and older women in the investigation of the impact of self-objectification on aging satisfaction. Results indicated that women of all ages were just as likely to report either body image satisfaction or body image dissatisfaction after accounting for BMI. However, younger women were more likely than older women to view their bodies as objects. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed utilizing Objectification Theory as a framework for predicting body image, eating behaviors, and aging satisfaction. Empowerment and feminist attitudes were not protective factors in promoting healthy eating behavior and positive thoughts related to body image and aging. The final structural model did, however, provide support for Objectification Theory and its proposed relationships between sexual-objectification experiences and the development of self-objectification and the negative consequences of self-objectification on a variety of health-related constructs. Long-term implications include incorporating this knowledge into empirically supported prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing body image and eating disturbance and promoting healthy aging across the adult lifespan.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003966, ucf:48692
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003966
- Title
- The Townsend plan: What it is and what it isn't.
- Creator
-
Bittelman, Alexander
- Date Issued
- 1936
- Identifier
- 369240, CFDT369240, ucf:5409
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FCLA/DT/369240
- Title
- NOT QUITE THE INGéNUE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIDDLE-AGED FEMALE CHARACTER IN MUSICAL THEATRE.
- Creator
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Snyder, Tara, Chicurel, Steven, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Not Quite the Ingénue: The Development of the Middle-Aged Female Character in Musical Theatre is an exploration of the influences which have defined the function of middle-aged female characters within the musical theatre genre. This author was cast in the role of Arlene MacNalley, a forty-three year old woman, in the University of Central Florida's fall 2006 production of the musical Baby. Preparation for performance of this thesis role required identification of the traits and...
Show moreNot Quite the Ingénue: The Development of the Middle-Aged Female Character in Musical Theatre is an exploration of the influences which have defined the function of middle-aged female characters within the musical theatre genre. This author was cast in the role of Arlene MacNalley, a forty-three year old woman, in the University of Central Florida's fall 2006 production of the musical Baby. Preparation for performance of this thesis role required identification of the traits and factors which would be vital for a realistic and relevant portrayal of Arlene. This document provides the reader with a working definition of middle age. It also furnishes a sampling of types, or stereotypes, of middle age female characters in musicals. The major thrust of the document emphasizes researching and understanding the importance of key socio-economic events' influence on the creation, direction, or depiction of middle-aged female characters. Three distinct characters are used to develop this theory, Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! and Arlene MacNalley in Baby. Further analysis within the thesis details essential differences between the original version of Arlene and the updated 2006 version of Arlene portrayed in the University of Central Florida's production of Baby. Conclusions drawn from the research, performance and writing processes indicate an increasing significance for the middle age female character as the genre of musical theatre continues to develop.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001714, ucf:47300
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001714
- Title
- THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS IN LA VIDA DE LAZARILLO DE TORMES Y DE SUS FORTUNAS Y ADVERSIDADES.
- Creator
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Giblin, John, Garcia, Martha, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
To the modern critic, La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus aventuras y adversidades poses many problems. One cannot arrive at the book's precise meaning because the author remains unknown. If critics were to know who wrote the book, they would identify similarities between the book and the author's life to approximate the book's moral, or its lack of one. Additionally, some commentators view the book as incomplete or unfinished; although the author developed the first three tratados, the...
Show moreTo the modern critic, La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus aventuras y adversidades poses many problems. One cannot arrive at the book's precise meaning because the author remains unknown. If critics were to know who wrote the book, they would identify similarities between the book and the author's life to approximate the book's moral, or its lack of one. Additionally, some commentators view the book as incomplete or unfinished; although the author developed the first three tratados, the final four tratados seem short and incomplete. Does this diminish the book's purpose? Can the readers still fruitfully discover the book's meaning in an incomplete story? Modern critics have utilized the book's artistic elements, such as its linguistic structure, themes and temporal structure, to arrive at an interpretation of it. Others have compared the book with classical European folklore and other period literary works. This thesis proposes a synthesis of the latter two approaches. This thesis will analyze, using irony and foreshadowing, how the seven tratados correlate or fail to correlate with the seven deadly sins.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFH0003769, ucf:44759
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0003769
- Title
- A Landscape of Death: A Comparison of Non-adult to Adult Burials at the Late Bronze Age Site of Tell el-Far'ah (South).
- Creator
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Reeves, Rebecca, Branting, Scott, Walker, John, Williams, Lana, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This study aims to determine whether there are any differences in the burial practices for non-adults and adults at the Late Bronze Age site of Tell el-Far'ah (South) in modern day Israel. The archaeology of childhood together with various methods of analyses, including geospatial and statistical techniques, were utilized to address the main research question focused on the spatial differences and relationships between non-adult and adult burials. There are missing children in the...
Show moreThis study aims to determine whether there are any differences in the burial practices for non-adults and adults at the Late Bronze Age site of Tell el-Far'ah (South) in modern day Israel. The archaeology of childhood together with various methods of analyses, including geospatial and statistical techniques, were utilized to address the main research question focused on the spatial differences and relationships between non-adult and adult burials. There are missing children in the archeological record. Tell el-Far'ah (South) is an example of this phenomenon. Reasons vary from taphonomy to potential infanticide. Based on the currently available data, it seems that the people of Tell el-Far'ah (South) understood non-adults as both similar to and dissimilar from adults. In sum, this is not a comprehensive or conclusive study, but rather serves to shed light on the lack of attention in the archaeology of childhood and more generally on the need for greater integration of the anthropological subfields.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007359, ucf:52095
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007359
- Title
- Bluegrass, Blueprints, and Bildung: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come as an Appalachian Bildungsroman.
- Creator
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Shoemaker, Leona, Meehan, Kevin, Campbell, James, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come takes as its backdrop the American Civil War, as the author, John Fox, Jr., champions Kentucky's social development during the Progressive Era. Although often criticized for capitalizing on his propagation of regional stereotypes, I argue that the structure of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is much more problematic than that. Recognizing the Bildungsroman as a vehicle for cultural and social critique in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century...
Show moreThe Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come takes as its backdrop the American Civil War, as the author, John Fox, Jr., champions Kentucky's social development during the Progressive Era. Although often criticized for capitalizing on his propagation of regional stereotypes, I argue that the structure of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is much more problematic than that. Recognizing the Bildungsroman as a vehicle for cultural and social critique in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century writing, this project offers an in-depth literary analysis of John Fox, Jr.'s novel, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, in which I contend the story itself is, in fact, an impassioned account of human progress that juxtaposes civilized Bluegrass society and the degraded culture of the southern mountaineer. Indicative of the Progressive Era scientific attitude toward social and cultural evolution, Fox creates a narrative that advances his theory of southern evolution in which southern mountaineers are directed away from their own culturally inferior notions of development and towards a sense of duty to adapt to the civility of Bluegrass culture.This study focuses briefly on defining the Bildungsroman as a genre, from its eighteenth-century German origins to its influence on the American literary tradition. Beginning with Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, the Bildungsroman, in its most traditional form, narrates the development of the protagonist's mind and character from childhood to adulthood. Focus will be placed on how the Bildungsroman engages with literature's ability to facilitate the relationship between an individual and social development, as well as how easily the Bildungsroman lends itself to being appropriated and reconfigured. This study will then demonstrate how The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, Fox's local-color narrative, in its focus on the growth of the protagonist, Chad, as an allegory of the development of an Appalachian identity during the Progressive Era, might usefully be understood as an Appalachian Bildungsroman. While Chad, ultimately acquires the polished savoir faire of a skilled Bluegrass gentleman, the tensions between the southern mountaineers and the Bluegrass bourgeois makes his socialization into any one culture impossible, a situation illustrative of the disparity between Appalachia and the rest of America during the Progressive Era. By adapting the Bildungsroman to represent this historical situation, Fox's novel demonstrates the kind of conflict that furthered Appalachian difference as point of contention for the problematic ideals of social and cultural evolution, thus, indicating the need for reconciling Appalachia's marginal position.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006002, ucf:51021
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006002
- Title
- Characterization of gold black and its application in un-cooled infrared detectors.
- Creator
-
Panjwani, Deep, Peale, Robert, Chow, Lee, Del Barco, Enrique, Schoenfeld, Winston, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Gold black porous coatings were thermally evaporated in the chamber backfilled with inert gas pressure and their optical properties were studied in near-far-IR wavelengths. The porosities of coatings were found to be extremely high around ~ 99%. Different approaches of effective medium theories such as Maxwell-Garnett, Bruggeman, Landau-Lifshitz-Looyenga and Bergman Formalism were utilized to calculate refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k). The aging induced changes on...
Show moreGold black porous coatings were thermally evaporated in the chamber backfilled with inert gas pressure and their optical properties were studied in near-far-IR wavelengths. The porosities of coatings were found to be extremely high around ~ 99%. Different approaches of effective medium theories such as Maxwell-Garnett, Bruggeman, Landau-Lifshitz-Looyenga and Bergman Formalism were utilized to calculate refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k). The aging induced changes on electrical and optical properties were studied in regular laboratory conditions using transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and fore-probe electrical measurements. A significant decrease in electrical resistance in as deposited coating was found to be consistent with changes in the granular structure with aging at room temperature. Electrical relaxation model was applied to calculate structural relaxation time in the coatings prepared with different porosities. Interestingly, with aging, absorptance of the coatings improved, which is explained using conductivity form of Bergman Formulism. Underlying aim of this work was to utilize gold blacks to improve sensitivity in un-cooled IR sensors consist of pixel arrays. To achieve this, fragile gold blacks were patterned on sub-mm length scale areas using both stenciling and conventional photolithography. Infrared spectral imaging with sub-micron spatial resolution revealed the spatial distribution of absorption across the gold black patterns produced with both the methods. Initial experiments on VOx-Au bolometers showed that, gold black improved the responsivity by 42%. This work successfully establishes promising role of gold black coatings in commercial un-cooled infrared detectors.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005680, ucf:50197
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005680
- Title
- A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW TO ASSESS THE METHODOLOGICAL QUALITY OF INTERVENTION RESEARCH DESIGNED TO INCREASE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS.
- Creator
-
Winn, Jolene, Tucker, Jennifer, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In comparison to normally developing children, many children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) do not possess the same opportunities to be physically active due to the impairments exhibited by their disorder. A systematic review using the Downs and Black checklist and the PEDro scale was conducted to assess the methodological quality of the literature on promoting physical activity in children with ASD. The following inclusion criteria had to be met: (1) subjects must include children with...
Show moreIn comparison to normally developing children, many children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) do not possess the same opportunities to be physically active due to the impairments exhibited by their disorder. A systematic review using the Downs and Black checklist and the PEDro scale was conducted to assess the methodological quality of the literature on promoting physical activity in children with ASD. The following inclusion criteria had to be met: (1) subjects must include children with a clinical ASD diagnosis (2) the children have to be under the age of thirteen years old (3) the interventions must target physical activity; lastly, (4) they must be a relevant peer-reviewed English language study. The search was conducted using four electronic databases: MEDLINE, ERIC, PsycInfo, and CINHL with no restriction on the publication year. The following keywords were utilized: "Autism", "ASD/ Autism Spectrum Disorder", "Asperger", "Pervasive Developmental Disorder" Those terms were paired with "physical activity", "physical exercise", "exercise", "fitness", "aerobic", "swim", "aquatic", "jog", "walk", "recreational activity" Which were also paired with the terms "school age", "child", "toddler", "preadolescent". This multi-step search procedure occurred during February 2013. The methodological quality of six studies was evaluated in February 2013. Overall, the conclusive scores determined by the Downs and and Black checklist and the PEDro scale varied greatly. The scores reported by the Downs and Black checklist ranged from 19 to 21 on a 27-point scale. PEDro scale yielded scores ranging between two and six on a 10-point scale. A vote count revealed that the exercise interventions increased the physical fitness, aquatic skills, social behaviors, and sensory integration children with ASD. In summary, the variation within the scores and the quality of the studies leads to a demand for future research. In order to adequately determine what exercise interventions effectively increase physical activity in children with ASD, future researchers should conduct randomized controlled trials in order to produce the highest quality of evidence.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFH0004404, ucf:45092
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004404
- Title
- Effects of an Acute High-Volume Isokinetic Intervention on Circulating Levels of TNF-? and STNFR: Influence of Age.
- Creator
-
Arroyo Delgado, Eliott, Wells, Adam, Hoffman, Jay, Stout, Jeffrey, Fukuda, David, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The immune system has been implicated in recovery and muscle regeneration following exercise. In response to muscle damage, the immune system responds with an increase in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines with the goal of recruiting leukocytes to the damaged area. Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-?), in particular, has been shown to be implicated in both muscle regeneration and muscle wasting. However, it remains unclear whether TNF-? is responsible for the age-related losses in muscle...
Show moreThe immune system has been implicated in recovery and muscle regeneration following exercise. In response to muscle damage, the immune system responds with an increase in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines with the goal of recruiting leukocytes to the damaged area. Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-?), in particular, has been shown to be implicated in both muscle regeneration and muscle wasting. However, it remains unclear whether TNF-? is responsible for the age-related losses in muscle size and function. Also, due to the high clearance rate of TNF-? from circulation, analyzing the circulating levels of soluble TNF-? receptors 1 and 2 (STNFR1 and STNFR2) may provide a better indication of inflammatory events. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare changes in circulating levels of TNF-?, STNFR1, and STNFR2 following an acute muscle damaging intervention in young age (YA) and middle-aged (MA) males. Recreationally active young (YA; N=9, 21.8 (&)#177; 2.2 y, 179.5 (&)#177; 4.9 cm, 91.2 (&)#177; 12.2 kg, 21.8 (&)#177; 4.3% BF) and middle-aged (MA; N=10, 47.0 (&)#177; 4.4 y, 176.8 (&)#177; 7.6 cm; 96.0 (&)#177; 21.5 kg, 25.4 (&)#177; 5.3% BF) males completed an acute muscle damaging protocol (MDP). Blood samples were obtained at baseline (BL), immediately (IP), 30 minutes (30P), 60 minutes (60P), 120 minutes (120P), 24 hours (24H), and 48 hours (48H) post-MDP. Lower body performance was analyzed via isokinetic dynamometer at BL, IP, 120P, 24H, and 48H. No significant group x time interactions or main group effects were observed for TNF-?, STNFR1, STNFR2 or any marker of muscle damage. When collapsed across groups, plasma lactate was significantly elevated at IP (p (<) 0.001) and 30P (p = 0.003); serum myoglobin was increased at 30P (p = 0.002), 60P (p = 0.001), and 120P (p = 0.007); creatine kinase was elevated at 24H (p = 0.001) and 48H (p = 0.005). Plasma concentrations of TNF-? were unchanged following MDP. With both groups combined, serum STNFR1 was decreased at 30P (p = 0.001) and increased at 48H (p = 0.028). Serum STNFR2 was decreased at 30P (p = 0.008), 60P (p = 0.003), and 120P (p = 0.002). The results of this study indicate that the TNF-? and STNFRs response to exercise is similar between young and middle-aged males. Measuring STNFRs may be a more appropriate method of assessing the acute inflammatory response to muscle damage. In addition, an acute bout of exercise may attenuate ectodomain shedding of TNFR1 and TNFR2.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006561, ucf:51350
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006561
- Title
- Recycled Modernity: Google, Immigration History, and the Limits for H-1B.
- Creator
-
Patten, Neil, Dombrowski, Paul, Mauer, Barry, Grajeda, Anthony, Dziuban, Charles, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Regulation of admission to the United States for technology workers from foreign countries has been a difficult issue, especially during periods of intense development. Following the dot.com bubble, the Google Corporation continued to argue in favor of higher limits under the Immigration and Nationality Act exception referred to as (")H-1B(") for the section of the law where it appears. H-1B authorized temporary admission for highly skilled labor in specialty occupations. Congressional...
Show moreRegulation of admission to the United States for technology workers from foreign countries has been a difficult issue, especially during periods of intense development. Following the dot.com bubble, the Google Corporation continued to argue in favor of higher limits under the Immigration and Nationality Act exception referred to as (")H-1B(") for the section of the law where it appears. H-1B authorized temporary admission for highly skilled labor in specialty occupations. Congressional testimony by Laszlo Bock, Google Vice President for People Operations, provided the most succinct statement of Google's concerns based on maintaining a competitive and diverse workforce. Diversity has been a rhetorical priority for Google, yet diversity did not affect the argument in a substantial and realistic way. Likewise, emphasis on geographically situated competitive capability suggests a limited commitment to the global communities invoked by information technology. The history of American industry produced corporations determined to control and exploit every detail of their affairs. In the process, industrial corporations used immigration as a labor resource. Google portrayed itself, and Google has been portrayed by media from the outside, as representative of new information technology culture, an information community of diverse, inclusive, and democratically transparent technology in the sense of universal availability and benefit with a deliberate concern for avoiding evil. However, emphasis by Google on American supremacy combined with a kind of half-hearted rhetorical advocacy for principles of diversity suggest an inconsistent approach to the argument about H-1B. The Google argument for manageable resources connected to corporate priorities of Industrial Modernity, a habit of control, more than to democratic communities of technology. In this outcome, there are concerns for information technology and the Industry of Knowledge Work. By considering the treatment of immigration as a sign of management attitude, I look at questions posed by Jean Baudrillard, Daniel Headrick, Alan Liu, and others about whether information technology as an industry and as communities of common interests has achieved any democratically universal (")ethical progress(") beyond the preceding system of industrial commerce that demands the absolute power to exploit resources, including human resources. Does Google's performance confirm skeptical questions, or did Google actually achieve something more socially responsible? In the rhetoric of immigration history and the rhetoric of Google as technology, this study finds connections to a recycled corporate-management version of Industrial Modernity that constrains the diffusion of technology.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005685, ucf:50135
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005685
- Title
- Reexamining the Relationship Between Divided Government and Voter Turnout.
- Creator
-
Beck, Heidi, Knuckey, Jonathan, Jewett, Aubrey, Lanier, Drew, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This thesis reexamines the effect of divided government on voter turnout originally posited byFranklin and Hirczy de Mi(&)#241;o (1998), which suggested that each year of exposure to dividedgovernment resulted in a cumulative negative effect on voters leading to alienation and lowerturnout. It reconsiders this argument using more recent data, given that voter turnout in U.S.presidential elections (as measured by the Voting Eligible Population) has increased since 2000,even though divided...
Show moreThis thesis reexamines the effect of divided government on voter turnout originally posited byFranklin and Hirczy de Mi(&)#241;o (1998), which suggested that each year of exposure to dividedgovernment resulted in a cumulative negative effect on voters leading to alienation and lowerturnout. It reconsiders this argument using more recent data, given that voter turnout in U.S.presidential elections (as measured by the Voting Eligible Population) has increased since 2000,even though divided government has occurred during this period.This thesis also uses new data and methods to address concerns about the original aggregatelevelresearch design. The research question is tested at the individual-level of analysis todetermine if divided government does interact with political trust to lower turnout. Previousresearch assumed this relationship since there is no aggregate-level proxy for political trust. Byusing survey data from the American National Election Studies it is now possible to test the fulltheory.The aggregate-level models show that misspecifications in the research design of Franklinand Hirczy de Mi(&)#241;o resulting in multicollinearity, and in two instances autocorrelation, whichresulted in a failure to reject the null hypothesis. The individual-level models show that dividedgovernment interacts with low levels of political trust to increase voter turnout, falsifying theargument about the effect of divided government on turnout. Overall, the thesis suggests that theimplications of an aspect of the American political system that renders it distinguishable frommost other advanced-industrial democracies(-)divided party control of the executive andlegislative branches(-)should be reassessed. More generally, the thesis demonstrates theimportance of reevaluating hypotheses in political science with the most recent data and morerobust methods in order to establish whether those original hypotheses are still supported
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007783, ucf:52363
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007783
- Title
- Adaptive Architectural Strategies for Resilient Energy-Aware Computing.
- Creator
-
Ashraf, Rizwan, DeMara, Ronald, Lin, Mingjie, Wang, Jun, Jha, Sumit, Johnson, Mark, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Reconfigurable logic or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices have the ability to dynamically adapt the computational circuit based on user-specified or operating-condition requirements. Such hardware platforms are utilized in this dissertation to develop adaptive techniques for achieving reliable and sustainable operation while autonomously meeting these requirements. In particular, the properties of resource uniformity and in-field reconfiguration via on-chip processors are exploited...
Show moreReconfigurable logic or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices have the ability to dynamically adapt the computational circuit based on user-specified or operating-condition requirements. Such hardware platforms are utilized in this dissertation to develop adaptive techniques for achieving reliable and sustainable operation while autonomously meeting these requirements. In particular, the properties of resource uniformity and in-field reconfiguration via on-chip processors are exploited to implement Evolvable Hardware (EHW). EHW utilize genetic algorithms to realize logic circuits at runtime, as directed by the objective function. However, the size of problems solved using EHW as compared with traditional approaches has been limited to relatively compact circuits. This is due to the increase in complexity of the genetic algorithm with increase in circuit size. To address this research challenge of scalability, the Netlist-Driven Evolutionary Refurbishment (NDER) technique was designed and implemented herein to enable on-the-fly permanent fault mitigation in FPGA circuits. NDER has been shown to achieve refurbishment of relatively large sized benchmark circuits as compared to related works. Additionally, Design Diversity (DD) techniques which are used to aid such evolutionary refurbishment techniques are also proposed and the efficacy of various DD techniques is quantified and evaluated.Similarly, there exists a growing need for adaptable logic datapaths in custom-designed nanometer-scale ICs, for ensuring operational reliability in the presence of Process, Voltage, and Temperature (PVT) and, transistor-aging variations owing to decreased feature sizes for electronic devices. Without such adaptability, excessive design guardbands are required to maintain the desired integration and performance levels. To address these challenges, the circuit-level technique of Self-Recovery Enabled Logic (SREL) was designed herein. At design-time, vulnerable portions of the circuit identified using conventional Electronic Design Automation tools are replicated to provide post-fabrication adaptability via intelligent techniques. In-situ timing sensors are utilized in a feedback loop to activate suitable datapaths based on current conditions that optimize performance and energy consumption. Primarily, SREL is able to mitigate the timing degradations caused due to transistor aging effects in sub-micron devices by reducing the stress induced on active elements by utilizing power-gating. As a result, fewer guardbands need to be included to achieve comparable performance levels which leads to considerable energy savings over the operational lifetime.The need for energy-efficient operation in current computing systems has given rise to Near-Threshold Computing as opposed to the conventional approach of operating devices at nominal voltage. In particular, the goal of exascale computing initiative in High Performance Computing (HPC) is to achieve 1 EFLOPS under the power budget of 20MW. However, it comes at the cost of increased reliability concerns, such as the increase in performance variations and soft errors. This has given rise to increased resiliency requirements for HPC applications in terms of ensuring functionality within given error thresholds while operating at lower voltages. My dissertation research devised techniques and tools to quantify the effects of radiation-induced transient faults in distributed applications on large-scale systems. A combination of compiler-level code transformation and instrumentation are employed for runtime monitoring to assess the speed and depth of application state corruption as a result of fault injection. Finally, fault propagation models are derived for each HPC application that can be used to estimate the number of corrupted memory locations at runtime. Additionally, the tradeoffs between performance and vulnerability and the causal relations between compiler optimization and application vulnerability are investigated.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006206, ucf:52889
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006206
- Title
- BULLYING: OUT OF THE SCHOOL HALLS AND INTO THE WORKPLACE.
- Creator
-
Cooney, Lucretia, Huff-Corzine, Lin, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The primary purpose of this study is to identify those people at most risk of being bullied at work. While much research is being conducted on school bullying, little has been conducted on workplace bullying. Using data gathered from a 2004 study conducted by the National Opinion Research Center for the General Social Survey, which included a Quality of Work Life (QWL) module for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), linear regressions indicated significant...
Show moreThe primary purpose of this study is to identify those people at most risk of being bullied at work. While much research is being conducted on school bullying, little has been conducted on workplace bullying. Using data gathered from a 2004 study conducted by the National Opinion Research Center for the General Social Survey, which included a Quality of Work Life (QWL) module for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), linear regressions indicated significant findings. As predicted, workers in lower level occupations, as ranked by prestige scoring developed at National Opinion Research, are more likely to be victimized. Data also suggest that being young, Black, and relatively uneducated may contribute to being bullied in certain situations. Future research is needed to examine influences of socio-economic, legal, and other demographic factors that may predict the chance of being bullied.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003235, ucf:48512
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003235
