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Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Physician Assistants, Roderick Stanton Hooker

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined if physician assistants (PAs) are cost-beneficial to employers. In an era of cost accountability, questions arise about whether a visit to a PA for an episode of care differs from a visit to a physician, and if PAs erode their cost-effectiveness by the manner in which they manage patients.

Four common acute medical conditions seen by PAs and physicians within a large health maintenance organization were identified to study. An episode approach was undertaken to identify all laboratory, imaging, medication and provider costs for these diagnoses. Over 12,700 medical office visits were analyzed and assigned to each …

Class Identity And The International Division Of Labor: Sri Lanka's Migrant Housemaids, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 1996, 408,000 Sri Lankan women, nearly 10% of the country’s working-age women, worked abroad, many of them in the oil producing countries of the Persian Gulf. In this paper I compare the influence of international migration on local hierarchies of class and gender in two villages in southern Sri Lanka: a Sinhala-speaking Buddhist village where I did my doctoral dissertation research in 1992-4, and a Tamil-speaking Muslim village where I spent some time during the summer of 1997. I discuss the challenges of using ‘class’ as a unit of analysis in a non-Western setting where gender identities, family ties, …

The Connection Between Public Transit And Employment, Thomas W. Sanchez

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Even with a considerable amount of attention being paid to the role of public transportation in addressing inner-city mobility problems, there is very little evidence of the degree to which one affects the other. In other words, little research has specifically focused on how labor participation is impacted by increases in public transportation availability. Research on the spatial mismatch hypothesis has dealt with the relationship between labor participation and the spatial separation of jobs and houses; however, most analyses concentrate on commuting time or distance as a function of auto accessibility. Few, if any, studies have considered the relative impacts …

Focal Point, Volume 12 Number 01, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Much of the family member involvement that is happening at the state and local level is due, at least in part, to the efforts by the federal government to institutionalize family involvement in policymaking. In 1985 Child and Adolescent Service System (CASSP) staff added a family goal to the program. This goal translated into a requirement that state applications for CASSP funds describe how families would participate in service planning efforts at the child and family, program, and system levels. In 1986 Congress passed the State Mental Health Services Comprehensive Plan (Public Law 99-660), which mandated family member participation in …

Household Travel/Activity Decisions: Who Wants To Travel?, Catherine T. Lawson

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Researchers are using activity-based survey data to better understand the nature of the derived demand for travel. However, a strong theoretical construct for derived demand has yet to be developed. In order to understand the ramifications of considering travel as a derived demand, it is necessary to review some of the basic tenets of economics.

Some activities require travel (i.e. shopping or picking up children from daycare), while others are conducted entirely within the confines of the home. There is a set of activities that can be conducted either in or out of the home. A need to travel arises …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Teachers' Attributional Tendencies And Gender Bias Towards Failing Students With Learning Disabilities, Polly Chalette

Dissertations and Theses

Student characteristics, such as sex, race, and socioeconomic status, have been found to influence teachers' perceptions of students and their patterns of interaction with them in the classroom. Behavior and achievement also has been shown to influence a teacher's perceptions. When teachers have been asked for evaluative comments and their expectations for future performance of a student, they have stated ability and effort as their explanations. This study will use the principles of Weiner's attribution theory dealing with success and failure in order to examine teachers' attributional tendencies towards a hypothetical student.

This study intends to examine the degree to …

Population Estimates For Oregon: July 1, 1997, Howard Wineberg, Population Research Center, Portland State University

Oregon Population Estimates and Reports

As mandated by Oregon law (ORS 190.510 to 190.610), the Center for Population Research and Census at Portland State University, acting on behalf of the State Board of Higher Education, annually estimates the July 1 population for each county and incorporated city in Oregon. These population estimates are used in the allocation of certain state tax revenues to cities and counties.

Population figures presented in this report represent all the people who usually reside in the area designated. This includes people living in correctional institutions, nursing homes, and college dormitories. College students are considered residents of the place where they …

A Proposed Method Of Transportation Feature Identification, J. Allison Butler, Kenneth Dueker

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Geographic information systems (GIS) are being increasingly deployed by transportation agencies to help them display, review, and utilize data. The primary items of interest are transportation facilities and services, which may take the form of highways, airports, bus routes, and seaports, among others. Using GIS software, transportation facilities are represented as geometric shapes; i.e., points, lines, and areas. However, it is increasingly apparent to GIS users in the field of transportation that a geometry-based approach is not sufficient.

The offered solution is to develop a feature-based GIS approach for transportation. The central requirement of such an approach is to have …

The Effects Of Educational Setting And Instructor Type On Interaction Modifications, Katrina Kay Mcconaughey

Dissertations and Theses

The precise role of interaction in the process of second language acquisition and its place in the second language classroom are questions that continue to be important in research for both theoretical and applied linguists. The framework for this study is based on Long's (1983b) Interaction Hypothesis which proposes that input is made comprehensible by the modification of interactional structures. Many studies have looked at the differences between teacher-fronted classroom interaction and small group or dyad interaction without a teacher. The use of tutors and teaching assistants is common but not many studies have looked at how variation among instructor …

Book Review Of Muslim Women Throughout The World: A Bibliography By Michelle R. Kimball And Barbara Von Schlegell., Kristen Kern

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of Kimball, Michelle R. and Barbara Von Schlegell. Muslim Women Throughout the World: A Bibliography.

The Representation Of Gender In Current Esl Reading Materials, Kyunghee Ma

Dissertations and Theses

This study is a partial replication of E.W. Hoomes' dissertation (1978). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not gender bias exists in current ESL reading materials and in cases where gender bias exists, whether it varies by learning levels. Eleven reading books which were used in ESL classes at Portland State University were selected from the textbook lists of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall in 1997. Content analysis was employed to examine distribution of males and females in passages and illustrations.

Gender bias was found to be statistically significant in the following categories: the assignment of …

Information Content In American Television Advertising : A Replication And Update, Laura Kathleen Sandgren

Dissertations and Theses

Three hundred and seven randomly selected American network television commercials aired between October 18 and November 18, 1997 were analyzed to. determine their informational value using the fourteen criteria established by Resnik and Stem in 1977. The results of this study were compared with Resnik and Stem's 1991 study, revealing that there has not been any significant change in the amount of information in American television commercials since Resnik and Stem's replication sample.

This study also used Resnik and Stem's (1977) criteria to further examine if the amount-of information contained in 1V commercials varied depending on the gender or age …

Bone Tool Technology : Measurements Of Curation And The Spatial Distribution Of Bone And Antler Artifacts From A Pacific Northwest Coast Plankhouse Site, Deborah Davis

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to develop a method of assessing and measuring the amount of curation behavior present in a bone and antler tool assemblage. Using lithic analysis as a guide, curation is defined by the amount of energy invested in the tool manufacturing process along with the overall complexity of each artifact. The Meier site (35C05), a Chinookan plankhouse site near Portland, Oregon was used to test the hypothesis that people will use an expedient (low energy investment) technology when there is an abundance of raw material available, low group mobility, and low material transportation constraints.

Since …

Development And Validation Of A Work Safety Compliance Measure, Tara L. Smecko

Dissertations and Theses

It is important that organizations manage the safety behavior ofemployees by the implementation of a safety program including periodic assessment of the safety level (i.e., how frequently employees are complying with safety guidelines) in the organization. The occupational safety literature lacks sufficient assessment tools for measuring employee safety behavior.

The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate a comprehensive measure of compliance with safety behavior guidelines in the form of a questionnaire that can be utilized across industries and occupations. The research objectives for the present study were to: 1) Perform factor analysis on the safety questionnaire …

Impact Of Singing Intervention On Vocal Fatigue Effects : A Single Subject Study, Nancy Devine Ferguson

Dissertations and Theses

This single subject descriptive study investigated the efficacy of singing intervention on the effects of vocal fatigue on the speaking voice of a non-singing individual. Baseline measures were taken on a single subject prior to voice treatment. Data were collected before and after the subject performed a vocally fatiguing task of 1 hour of prolonged reading at 80% of his maximum vocal intensity level. Data collection consisted of the following acoustic and aerodynamic characteristics of the subject's speaking voice: fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, maximum intensity level, and maximum phonation duration, as well as obtainment of the subject's self-perceptions of vocal …

Role Of The Warrant In Presidential Debates : 1960, 1976, & 1996, Aaron Nicole Kaio

Dissertations and Theses

Every four years in America we make a decision about which candidate is best suited to be our next president. Over the past twenty years a standard component of the presidential campaign has been televised debates. These debates are supposed to help the public get a better understanding of the candidates' ideas about government, our future, and to demonstrate analytical skills and their ability to think on their feet.

This study set out to see how the candidates' arguments measured up to some basic argumentation standards. According to several scholars, none of the televised presidential debates qualify as 'true debates', …

Consistent Estimation Of Faculty Rank Effects In Academic Salary Models, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Faculty rank is often included as an explanatory variable in academic salary models. Because there is reason to believe that this results in specification bias, rank effects should be estimated endogenously in salary models. A salary model in which faculty rank is endogenous is estimated in this paper and the results are compared with those obtained from a conventionally specified alternative.

Negotiation And Reorganization Of Peer Relationships During Adolescence: The Emergence Of Romantic Relationships And Quality Of Peer Relationships, Melanie Jo Zimmer-Gembeck

Dissertations and Theses

Research suggests that, for adolescent females, the initiation of romantic relationships is a normative developmental task and a task associated with potential difficulties, including physical aggression. Most previous research treats progress in this task as a function of individual characteristics. This study assumes that when girls are negotiating romantic relationships, they have existing intimate friendships with other females, and these friendships are important to how this task is negotiated.

Females who recently graduated from high school provided retrospective and current information on the amount of leisure time spent with members of their social networks, qualities of relationships in later adolescence, …

Gender Socialization Of Preschoolers : The Influence Of Parental Orientation And Preschool Environment, Alice Blackwell Passannante

Dissertations and Theses

Because there are different sets of attitudes and standards that are applied to girls and boys, and because society is permeated with messages delineating the differences between females and males, there is a rapid accumulation of knowledge by children about those differences. There is a need for further examination of the overall impact of different facets of gender socialization.

The purpose of the present study was to clarify the ways in which parental beliefs and practices as well as daycare environment affect the gender-typing of preschoolers. Seventy-nine children from three different preschools were interviewed using Likert, forced-choice, and open-ended items. …

Illegal Drug Use During Pregnancy : The Effects Of Defendant Race And Type Of Defense On Juror Judgments Of Guilt, Anita Rotondo

Dissertations and Theses

Since the early 1980s fetal harm "caused" by women's illegal drug use during pregnancy has garnered public attention and legal scrutiny. Motivated by concerns over fetal health, the cost of caring for drug-addicted infants, and public support for get tough on crime policies, various states have employed statutes on child abuse, neglect or endangerment, delivering a controlled substance to a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor to criminally inculpate maternal drug users.

Utilizing a written hypothetical trial summary in which a woman was charged with child abuse for using cocaine while pregnant, this research explored the effects …

The Stigma Of Obesity : Beliefs About And Attitudes Toward Fat/Obese Persons, Sally Jean Clute

Dissertations and Theses

This research explores the relationship between beliefs about and attitudes toward fat/obese persons, specifically in regard to issues of attribution and perceived responsibility for the physical condition. The purpose of the research is to assess the extent to which fat/obese persons are derogated, given whether or not they are perceived to be held responsible for their fatness/obesity. It utilizes attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Jones & Davis, 1965; Kelley, 1967; Weiner, 1986), in particular, internal locus of control and issues of consensus and distinctiveness (Kelley, 1967) and controllability (Weiner, 1986). The main hypothesis is that fat/obese people will be viewed more …

Using A Realistic Job Preview To Communicate Organizational Culture, Johanna Glode

Dissertations and Theses

The present study sought to determine how organizational culture information could best be presented to job applicants for the purpose of attracting employees who will fit into an organization's culture. Attraction to the organization's culture was hypothesized to influence applicant self-selection into the company. Two different types of Realistic Job Previews (RJPs), semantic and episodic, were compared in their ability to convey information accurately about a hypothetical organizational culture. Participant knowledge of the culture was hypothesized to align objective, or actual, fit with subjective perceptions of fit.

Knowledge of the organization's culture, objective fit, subjective fit, attractiveness of the culture, …