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Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
Unemployment and the incarceration of pretrial defendants
Description:
The Rusche and Kirchheimer thesis, which argues that labor market marginality engenders larger confinement populations, has amassed substantial empirical support in recent years. However, there still remains the question whether these... The results of the time series analysis reveal no statistically discernible relationship between the unemployment rate and the pretrial misdemeanor incarceration rate. The incarceration rate for pretrial felony offenders also varies...
But I came here to learn: Students' interpretations of their experiences in a college chemistry class for non-science majors
Description:
This work identified some of the interpretations students make about their experiences in a college-level chemistry course for non-science majors. By understanding such interpretations, chemical educators might be better able to work... In order to understand students' interpretations, several sources of data were collected or crafted including: interviews with students (and the instructor), classroom observations, documents from the class, student essays, and surveys.... Two mechanisms were used to understand interpretations students made of the classroom. First, categorization schemes the students used were studied with the goal of understanding how they categorize their experiences about knowledge, ... The primary findings of this work are two-fold, and have implications for learning, teaching and research. First, students conceptualize knowledge, teaching and learning in a variety of ways. These different conceptualizations have...
Computerized voice recognition systems and their application to the mobility impaired
Description:
This dissertation examines the introduction of a new man-machine interface, namely automatic speech recognition (ASR), and its application to the mobility impaired, who may lack the physical abilities to write, or to access a computer... cent of illnesses reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). That compares with only 18 per cent in 1981, and 28 per cent in 1984. The six RSI case studies all reported that computerized voice recognition was...
A micro level analysis of prior and proximate causes of infant mortality in Ghana, with special attention to the role of polygyny
Description:
The overall objective of this dissertation is to develop and empirically assess an integrated and systematic theoretical framework to illuminate the effects of polygyny on infant mortality. Mosley and Chen's analytic model was integrated... The pertinent question examined in this study relates to the role marriage form plays in infant mortality. The key point is that if polygyny is beneficial as expected from the environmental theory, for example, then comparable infants... The study is carried out using a sample of infants born in the five years preceding the 1988 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS). Two statistical models are used, a structural equation method and simulations. A causal model is... The findings indicate that maternal education, occupation, rural residence and ethnicity positively influence polygyny, which in turn affects infant survival. Polygyny is found to be an important mediating factor between background... In conclusion there is evidence to suggest that maternal socioeconomic characteristics are associated with not only polygyny but also maternal behavior, environmental contamination and infant survival. Overall, polygyny appears to... In terms of policy implication it is suggested that mothers be given basic techniques regarding disease prevention. Above all, consideration must be given to family structure in planning and implementing programs with respect to...
A rhetorical analysis of Davis v Davis: Merging postmodern and feminist voices
Description:
In this dissertation, I examine the rhetorical analysis of a recent reproductive technology court dispute, Davis v Davis. This case was rendered by the Tennessee State Supreme Court by Justice Daughtrey on June 1, 1992. The opinion seeks... In my analysis, I first make an argument for the merger of postmodern, namely Foucauldian, and feminist voices. Later, I suggest that these postmodern feminists can mobilize around the Critical Legal Studies (CLS) to produce explicit... In chapter seven, I apply the analysis of explicit change to a close reading of Davis. In my reconstruction of Davis, I turn to legal storytelling and feminist narrativity as a possible alternative reading. Last, I conclude the major findings of the study and provide several suggestions for possible future research in the area.
The story of Dakota Commonplace follows Alice Hundley, her husband, Rob, and son, Bobby, into a world totally new and foreign to them. Alice finds herself isolated in a South Dakota farmhouse miles from the nearest neighbor, removed from... Rob, a social worker, has been hired by a Sioux Tribal Council to create an educational program for Indian young people. His initial enthusiasm and sense of possibility quickly diminish in the teeth of white resistance and what he... Over the period of four months, Alice and Rob move in different directions, complicating the strains that loneliness and too much interdependence have placed on their marriage. Rob, unable to admit to his own sense of failure, considers... Running parallel to the narrative set in 1969 is the journal or working notes kept by Alice Hundley who, in 1992, studies and reflects upon the area, its people and history. The journal's narrative compliments the progress of the 1969...
Treatment of test anxiety in the college population: Interference or deficits?
Description:
Test Anxiety affects many college students. It is viewed theoretically as a construct consisting of several components which impair academic performance and general health of students. One theory views the anxiety as being composed of... Students enrolled in introductory psychology classes at Florida State University were screened for test anxiety. Those meeting inclusion criteria were asked to volunteer for the study, resulting in 110 subjects who were randomly assigned... It was hypothesized that test anxiety is the result of both interference and skills deficits and treatment should target both. Thus, the combined treatment group was expected to demonstrate significant anxiety reduction increased...
Couple communication: A developmental perspective from dating to late marital phase
Description:
The purpose of this study was to determine how relational communication changes over the life-span of couples comprising the cohorts of exclusive dating (6 or more months of exclusive dating), engaged, early married (married less than 5... A convenience sample of 130 couples, across the five cohorts, were administered a slightly modified version of The Marital Communication Inventory (MCI). The results revealed a significant difference in relational communication between... While couples differed along the life-span, correlational data indicated that the longer the couple had been together, the more agreement existed on how they communicated as a couple. Suggestions are made for the practitioner/researcher...
Intra-industry trade and ASEAN: The experience of Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore
Description:
Trade in differentiated manufactured goods from the same industry, between developed economies characterized by similar relative factor endowments, has been observed to be an important feature of international trade patterns since the... This study extends the analysis of the structure and determinants of IIT to the bilateral trading arrangements of Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, three members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). These...
High resolution structure determination of gramicidin A dimers in various solvent environments by two-dimensional proton-proton NMR
Description:
Gramicidin A forms a variety of structures dependent upon its environment. In organic solvents, it forms either unstructured monomers or a series of highly structured dimers (species 1-4). Two of these dimers have been isolated and their... species 3 out of benzene/ethanol. A surprising degree of agreement is found, particularly in the backbone, but also in the sidechains. Dynamics in solution is correlated with disorder in the crystal for several sites. Similarities and...
Race and infant mortality in the United States: A comprehensive examination of individual-level mediating factors
Description:
This dissertation examines the association between race and infant mortality in the United States in the most comprehensive manner to date. Beginning with a sociological conceptualization of race, a framework is developed which... The 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) is used for the analysis. The NMIHS is the most comprehensive data set ever collected to study poor pregnancy outcome in the United States. Multinomial logit regression... Descriptive findings illustrate that the racial gap in infant mortality is nearly identical for endogenous and exogenous causes of death, with the overall rate of infant mortality among African-Americans about 2.2 times higher than non...
A comparison of three schema-based methods of vocabulary instruction
Description:
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of three schema-based methods of vocabulary instruction on vocabulary learning, reading comprehension, transfer of learning, and retention of learning. Two hundred fifty-one ninth-grade...
An examination of various dimensions of life satisfaction in relationship to menopausal symptomatology and hormone replacement therapy
Description:
Since there is a sharp increase in the number of women approaching menopause, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of family life changes and physiological/psychological stresses pertaining to menopause upon the coping, ... A survey research design was employed which utilized a national random sample of women (n = 346) between the ages of 45 and 60 who were members of an association of college educated women. The subsample used for this study was comprised... No significant differences were found between women using and not using HRT for the variables, family life changes, menopausal symptomatology, coping, stress, sexual satisfaction, and life satisfaction. A path analysis procedure was...
Current academic problems facing public high school bands in the United States: Survey, analysis, and comparisons
Description:
The purpose of this study was to obtain census information and to identify the current academic problems concerning public high school bands in the United States. A national survey was created with support from the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, the American Bandmasters Association, the Texas Music Educators Association, and the American School Band... Responses revealed that 14.99% of students from the high school population play an instrument in band. Directors averaged 13.65 years experience and more than 57% had earned above the bachelor's degree. Seventy-four percent of the bands averaged more than 42 performances a year. The concert band averaged 12.6% of the total performances. The top four areas affected the most by education reform were: job responsibilities, scheduling, ... Teaching discipline, self-esteem, self-worth, responsibility, and leadership was evaluated as the most important of six values and priorities for instruction. Teaching with an emphasis on aesthetic awareness was found to be the sixth... Discussions with colleagues, observing other directors, attending conference conventions, audio or video taping rehearsals, attending workshops and clinics, and reading journal articles were reported to be the six most effective areas... Current and previous studies suggest: (a) band participation and director teaching experience has increased; (b) the role of funding has shifted from the school to parents, students and the community; (c) concert performances have...
(oxygen-16 + thorium-232) incomplete fusion followed by fission at 140 MeV
Description:
Cross sections for incomplete fusion followed by fission have been measured for the reaction ($\sp{16}$O + $\sp{232}$Th) at 140 MeV. In plane and out of plane measurements were made of cross sections for beamlike fragments in coincidence...
A next-to-leading-log Monte Carlo study of photon pairs and the search for the intermediate mass Higgs boson
Description:
Symmetry breaking and the question of the origin of mass are the reasons the Superconducting Super Collider and the Large Hadron Collider are being built. The Standard Model of particle physics provides a solution to this problem by...
Education and economic growth in Japan (1890-1914) and Taiwan (1953-1985): A study of the interaction of the state, education and economy
Description:
It is generally assumed that educational expansion has positive effects on economic growth. This assumption has been challenged by recent theoretical and empirical sociological studies. It is argued that the effects of education on... The findings and analyses show that education did not have uniform and automatic effects on the remarkable economic growth in these two countries; rather the effects can be understood in terms of how the state, educational and economic...
An Evening of Dance performance of "Steps in the Street" in 1993. Choreography by Martha Graham and performed by Barbara J. Crostic, Alyson L. Jones, Jennifer Vinson, Cynthia C. Dauernheim, and Holly Hostler.
Felix Mendelssohn's works for solo piano and orchestra: Sources and composition
Description:
Felix Mendelssohn's works for solo piano and orchestra are the A-Minor Concerto (1822), the Capriccio brillant, op. 22 (1831-32), the Piano Concerto in G Minor, op. 25 (1831), the Rondo brillant, op. 29 (1833-34), the Piano Concerto in D...
Towards a new framework for artificial intelligence research
Description:
This dissertation constitutes an attempt to reconcile artificial intelligence research with the philosophical movement of phenomenology. It is not an easy task, as the initial work relating phenomenology and AI, done by Hubert Dreyfus, ... After an introductory chapter, I examine Dreyfus's arguments against AI. I conclude that these arguments, though they point to difficulties which AI researchers must face, do not provide compelling reasons for AI workers to abandon their... In the next chapter, I examine another set of criticisms of AI done by phenomenologists, that of Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores. I draw similar conclusions with these criticisms as I do with those of Dreyfus. In the fourth chapter, I examine the emerging AI paradigm of "embedded computation." Advocates of this paradigm hold that AI should rely on an "interactionist" theory of mind rather than the "mentalistic" theories traditional AI uses.... Because so many of the criticisms of AI discussed in Chapters Two through Four are inconclusive, in the fifth chapter I attempt to strengthen the arguments involved. I find some of the fundamental tenets of AI research, such as the...
Media selection for knowledge transfer: Theory and practice among Malaysian agricultural extension agencies
Description:
This study examines the ways in which staff of communication units in agricultural extension agencies in Malaysia select communication media for the transfer of knowledge from the agencies to their target audiences. As noted in a number... Two methods of data collection were employed. First, heads of the communication units were interviewed in order to gather background information about the units. Second, the units' staff-members were asked to respond to a self... Results of this study reveal differences among agricultural extension agencies regarding their methods of selecting the most appropriate media for knowledge transfer activities. However, most of the staff-members of the communication... An overwhelming majority of staff-members indicated that they preferred media selection to be conducted in four or fewer steps, beginning with audience identification and followed in order by knowing the type of information, knowing the... Based on the findings of this study, it seems that there is a need to develop a new set of guidelines for media selection in order to better facilitate information and knowledge transfer processes in the nonformal education sector.
An international comparative study of school libraries
Description:
The aims of this study were to establish a framework for the comparison of school libraries, and then to use the framework to assess the current state of school libraries internationally. The relationships between selected socio-economic... The framework for comparison, which consisted of a series of indicators and variables, was established by surveying a panel of thirty experts on school librarianship in twenty-nine countries. The five highest ranked indicators were the... The indicators were then used as a basis to survey the current state of school libraries internationally. Sixty-four countries responded to the survey. Among the major findings were that although centralized school libraries existed in... Two strong relationships were observed. The presence of libraries in primary schools had a strong positive correlation with the gross national product per capita of the country, but had a strong negative correlation with the percentage... The most frequently mentioned factors encouraging growth of school libraries were the availability of funds, the role of a central organization, and the education/training of teacher-librarians, whereas the most frequently mentioned... The appendices include the two survey instruments and a list of official sources of information on school libraries in the responding countries.
An empirical investigation of the relationship between financial distress, external factors, and the auditor's going concern opinion modification
Description:
This dissertation investigates empirically the factors associated with the auditor's going concern opinion modification decision. While previous research has focused on internal financial ratios, this dissertation attempts to explain and... The results of the study show that, while classification accuracies are actually higher (based on AICPA Professional Standards guidelines) than previously reported, auditors' going concern modification decisions are influenced by factors...
Assessment of psychopathy in a population of incarcerated adolescent offenders
Description:
The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) has proven a reliable and valid assessment procedure with incarcerated, adult, white offenders. We investigated the psychometric properties, factor structure, and evidence of validity for a... Interrater reliability and internal consistency were high for the modified version of the PCL-R, which was completed with file information only, without interviews. Coefficients of congruence revealed that the data did not greatly differ... PCL-R scores related to psychometric measures and behavioral indicators of maladjustment similar to how they do in adult populations. How the PCL-R relates to the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was not adequately answered. Subjects... The construct of psychopathy appears to be applicable to both black and white adolescent offenders; the current study provides evidence of reliability and validity for the PCL-R in this population.
Where meanings are: Reading student writing and initiating teacher reflection
Description:
As teachers of writing, we inherit terms, all of which have complicated and ongoing histories. The field of rhetoric and composition has an impressive collection from which to choose: "dialogism, writing as a way of thinking, ... We form and reform our theories of writing as we internalize and make sense of the language we inherit. The challenge is, then, to constantly consider whether our practice reflects our emerging theories and whether our theories are in... In the dissertation, I examine the ways in which our evaluation of student writing can reveal the gaps between our theory and our practices. From these gaps, my own self-examination reveals our stories as teachers, writers, and readers...
The impact of systematic planning on intern teachers' planning strategies and students' learning outcomes
Description:
The purpose of this study was to examine the following two general questions: What is the relationship between interns' teacher education regarding planning and the planning strategies they actually use? What are the relationships among... Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained. Qualitative data were collected from 12 student teaching interns regarding their training in planning, their knowledge, and attitudes toward systematic planning, subject matter... Results indicated that: (a) No conclusions were reached on the relationship between interns' training and their systematic planning knowledge due to the homogeneity of the training; (b) No conclusions were made on the relationship...
Spatial arrangements of olfactory projections in the elasmobranch olfactory system
Description:
In this study, the elasmobranch olfactory system was examined in the periphery, primary centers, and secondary centers. The object of the study was to look for signs of topographical arrangements or spatial segregation in the olfactory... Carbocyanine dye (DiI) tracing and Cytochrome oxidase staining reveal that the olfactory epithelium presents signs of functional and morphological heterogeneity. However, no orderly spatial arrangement of olfactory receptor neurons was... In vitro anterograde tracing of the primary olfactory projections with biocytin or DiI shows that the olfactory bulb is morphologically and functionally compartmentalized into subunits that receive straight and topographically arranged... Retrograde tracing of the secondary olfactory projections with DiI also shows that the secondary input onto the telencephalon is far more restricted than in the mammalian olfactory system, and that it is segregated into two main... The present study concludes that, although there are signs of ordered projections in the olfactory system of elasmobranch fishes, the use of neural space for analyzing olfactory input is not likely to be significant in the encoding of...
Popular culture's contribution to the consensus/conflict debate
Description:
This dissertation is concerned with investigating the social "perceptual reality" of crime. Perceptual reality of crime refers to how society comes to view behavior, the criminal, and what society feels should be done to control crime. Perceptions of crime discussed by this dissertation are centered around the consensus/conflict debate common to the discipline of criminology. "Players" in the consensus/conflict debate have traditionally been limited to academia and... Special attention is given to sub-cultural forms of popular culture by this work. Justification for concentrating on sub-cultural forms of popular culture is to establish support for the hypotheses that American society is very diverse... Following a literature review of popular culture's magnitude as well as a review of historical and contemporary theoretical analysis of the role played by popular culture in American society, the sub-cultural form of popular culture, rap... A research model designed to investigate whether or not conflict is reflected by sub-cultural forms of popular culture is presented. Following a discussion of the findings, the contributions of including the study of popular culture in...
Higher education, autonomy, and corporate academic freedom in Florida: A legislative analysis
Description:
This study examined the legislative stance toward governance and corporate academic freedom of institutions of higher education in Florida between 1900 and 1989. The conceptual framework for this study was drawn from political systems... Analysis of laws passed in Florida and historical documents substantiated the key conclusions: (1) Public higher education developed as a state agency in Florida, affording it a low level of autonomy and high level of legislative...
The impact of negative affectivity on perceptions of equity
Description:
Equity theory researchers have suggested that research in this area would be greatly enhanced by examining the relationship between dispositional variables and perceptions of equity. This dissertation reports the results of a field study... First, it was hypothesized that high NA individuals would devalue the inputs they provide and outcomes they receive from their work more frequently than those who are not high NA. Second, it was posited that "NAs" would be more likely to... Survey responses from 102 subjects were analyzed using regression techniques. The results provided strong support for each hypothesis. Supplemental analyses were performed to critically examine the relationship between NA and inequity.... Limitations of this study, as well as managerial implications, and a research agenda for future investigations were also discussed.
A comparison of choice reaction time in the presence of selected rhythmical auditory stimuli in open and closed skill athletes
Description:
Choice reaction time for a primary task and number of tally counter presses for a secondary task were investigated under three auditory conditions of silence, even, and uneven rhythm patterns delivered through headset. Three groups of... Results showed open and closed skill athletes performed significantly faster than controls, that open skill athletes performed better on both tasks and best with rhythm, and that closed skill athletes showed less variance in the three...
Determinants of children's work and schooling in Indonesia
Description:
This dissertation examines the factors that determine child labor in Indonesia in the context of modernization theory. The analysis focuses on children ages 10-19 years old both in and out of school, and also on the type of labor they... Seven variables were used in the logistic model to explain the variation of child labor. These variables are place of residence, child's age, child's gender, family size, head of household's education, gender, and occupation. The results suggest that rural areas, older children, boys, smaller family size, less educated parents, and parents from traditional jobs are related to child labor. In general, out of school children are more likely to be involved in... The results indicate that children from rural areas were much more often involved in child labor for both in and out of school children. Out of school working children from urban areas are more than twice as likely to work in paid labor... Overall, the findings suggest that the variation of child labor in this country can be explained in terms of modernization theory. Working or non working status as well as work for paid or as work for family worker very much depend on...
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
