Digital Commons Network^™

Atmospheric Hydrocarbon Analysis, Dawei Han

Dissertations and Theses

This treatise studied two correlated important issues in atmospheric chemistry: real-time monitoring of ambient air and removal mechanisms of atmospheric hydrocarbons. An analytical system was designed for the purpose of identification and measurement of sub-ppb level hydrocarbons of different reactivities in air samples. This analytical system was then applied to a series of smog-chamber studies which simulated the removal of reactive hydrocarbons from the atmosphere by reaction with hydroxyl radicals. Six representative atmospheric hydrocarbons (hexane, octane, toluene, m-xylene, a-xylene and mesitylene) were selected for these experiments. The experimental data indicated that the decay of atmospheric hydrocarbons under laboratory conditions is …

Ethnic Identity Changes Among Hong Kong Chinese Americans, Pui-Lam Lo

Dissertations and Theses

During the last ten years, the number of Hong Kong Chinese migrating to the U.S. has increased. These new immigrants, with knowledge and life experiences shaped by the urban metropolis of Hong Kong, have begun to influence different aspects of Chinese communities in U.S. cities. A study of this group of Hong Kong Chinese provides a better understanding of how they have adapted to their new environment and how they have come to recognize themselves as Hong Kong Chinese Americans. In reviewing the available literature, very few studies have dealt with the identity changes of this group of people. Hence, …

Development Of High-Technology Industries In The Portland/Vancouver Metropolitan Area: An Analysis Of Regional And Intraregional Factors Affecting High-Tech Firm Locations, Ulf Eichner

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis aims to investigate local conditions of high-tech industry development in the Portland/Vancouver CMSA. To do so, the research proceeds in four major stages. First, it is analyzed how historical factors contributed to the rise of high-tech industries in the CMSA. The second part consists of mapping the distribution pattern of hightech establishments. The U.S. Bureau of Census' County Business Patterns statistics are used to calculate the number of high-tech establishments and employees by branch (SIC code) and county; two high-tech directories help to identify the exact firm locations. Thirdly, an explanatory set of locational factors is established, based …

Evaluation Of Information Resource Management: Measuring Change In A Federal Bureaucracy, Randolph D. Perrin

Dissertations and Theses

This is a case study of a federal bureaucracy and its Information Resource Management (IRM) organization. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal power marketing agency and part of the Department of Energy, significantly impacts the western United States. BPA is responsible for developing electric power resources, transmission of electric resources. power conservation programs, and fish and wildlife programs. The focus of the study is the perception of the quality of information supplied to management, assuming that better information makes better decisions. The study uses a pre-experimental research design to evaluate the satisfaction executive and middle management with information they …

Modeling And Simulation Of Bipolar Transistor At Low Temperature, Swarupa Madhav Nerurkar

Dissertations and Theses

The BICMOS technology which integrates the CMOS technology with bipolar technology has drawn considerable attention as an attractive VLSI technology because of the high speed performance and low power consumption of the BICMOS. However, continued down scaling of CMOS devices has caused increased concerns with problems such as latch up, hot carriers and short channel effect. Most of the above mentioned problems can be avoided by operating the CMOS at liquid-nitrogen temperature(LNT). At low-temperatures, the CMOS exhibits lower sub threshold leakage, higher carrier mobility (which yields improved speed performance), and a steeper logarithmic currentvoltage slope. On the other hand, the …

Pattern Recognition And Erp Waveform Analysis Using Wavelet Transform, Hong Qi

Dissertations and Theses

Wavelet transform provides an alternative to the classical Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT). In contrast to the STFT, which uses a single analysis window, the Wavelet Transform uses shorter windows at higher frequencies and longer windows at lower frequencies. For some particular wavelet functions, the local maxima of the wavelet transform correspond to the sharp variation points of the signal. As an application, wavelet transform is introduced to the character recognition. Local maximum of wavelet transform is used as a local feature to describe character boundary. The wavelet method performs well in the presence of noise. The maximum of wavelet transform …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Skills Measured By Piagetian Tasks At Age 2 And Linguistic Skills Measured By An Expressive Language Test At Age 4 In Normal And Late Talkers, Rebecca Jayne Laplante

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between cognitive skills as measured by Piagetian tasks at approximately 2 years of age and expressive and receptive language scores from tests administered to the same children 2 years later. The questions this study sought to answer were: 1. Is there a significant difference in the performance of normal children and late-talking children on Piagetian cognitive assessment at age 2? 2. Is there a significant relationship between the cognitive scores at age 2 and language scores at age 4 in each of the two diagnostic groups? Sixty-four subjects participated in …

The United States-Japan Security Treaty Of 1951: An Essay On The Origins Of Postwar Japanese-American Relation, Christopher S. Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

The early September day in 1951 that brought the Pacific War to an official end, with the signing of a treaty of peace, concluded as representatives of Japan and the United States signed the Bilateral Security Treaty. The security treaty symbolized new realities of international relations, just as the peace treaty had buried the old. By cementing into place a strategic alliance between the former Pacific antagonists, the treaty represented the great and lasting achievement of postwar American diplomacy in Asia. Nevertheless, the treaty was both the outcome and the perpetuation of a stereotyped and lopsided relationship, now fixed firmly …

Investigation Of Solution Space Of Trees And Dags For Realization Of Combinational Logic In At 6000 Series Fpgas, Philip Ho

Dissertations and Theses

Various tree and Directed Acyclic Graph structures have been used for representation and manipulation of switching functions. Among these structures the Binary Decision DiagramJilave been the most widely used in logic synthesis. A BDD is a binary tree graph that represents the recursive execution of Shannon's expansion. A FDD is a directed function graph that represents the recursive execution of Reed Muller expansion. A family of decision diagrams for representation of Boolean function is introduced in this thesis. This family of Kronecker Functional Decision Diagrams (KFDD) includes the Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD) and Functional Decision Diagrams (FDD) as subsets. Due …

Comparative Analysis Of Resettlement Policies In Third World Countries, Abrahim Jawad Al-Khalisi

Dissertations and Theses

Settlement policy in the Third World has been stimulated by the availability of public land. This availability of public land has prompted many Third World countries to adopt policies or schemes called resettlement, transmigration, or land development. These have been presented as potential means for addressing numerous agendas held by Third World countries. Settlement policies have been used to increase agricultural production and make idle land productive. Spatial imbalances of population distribution have been addressed via settlement policies. For national security, settlement policies have been used to exploit frontier lands. Solutions to serious political problems including lack of agricultural self-sufficiency, …

The Effectiveness Of Semantic Mapping On Reading Comprehension, Sharon Fredricks

Dissertations and Theses

It is the goal of all reading instructors to use techniques that will enhance reading comprehension. This is certainly no less so in the second language classroom. Studies have shown that readers possess schemata for text structure that is activated during the reading process. It has also been shown that a reader's textual schemata may be culturally influenced and that second language students may possess textual schemata that conflicts or interferes with the structure of the text making comprehension more difficult. For this reason, second language learners may benefit from explicit instruction in text structure and content relationships. Semantic mapping …

Vertex Ordering For A Partitioning-Based Fitting Algorithm For An Epld Device, Tongjun Gao

Dissertations and Theses

As the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit(ASIC) technology develops to the trend of high density and modulization, the ASIC device market has been dominated gradually by the more complex Erasable Programmable Logic Devices (EPLDs) and the Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGAs) instead of the ordinally Programmable Logic Devices(PLDs). Meanwhile, the design automation system for such programmable devices has also moved from schematic entry design to high level hardware description language entry design. Usually, the whole design automation process consists of three phrases, the high level hardware description language compiler, the logic synthesis stage and the layout synthesis stage. Though the layout synthesis stage …

This Crying Enormity: Impressment As A Factor In Anglo-American Foreign Relations, David Scott Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

As an issue affecting the foreign relations of the United States and Britain, impressment has been given varying emphasis by different authors. This thesis is first a chronological outline of the events and correspondence that trace the subject. Beyond this basic delineation I will consider exactly how important impressment was to the two countries. James F. Zimmerman, in Impressment of American Seamen, posits that impressment was of paramount significance while other authors have attempted to down grade it into a status of utter inconsequence. This paper will show that the actual influence of impressment varied from one time, one set …

Determining The Property Value Impact Of Landfills, Okwuchukwu Gerald Uba

Dissertations and Theses

The decline in property value can be due to owner's act or exogenous act from the operation of landfills. Landfill neighbors, especially home owners, perceive landfill operation to pose environmental safety problem such as ground water contamination and methane gas leakage that could affect home value.

Owners of landfills, especially those landfills that accept only dry waste (limited purpose landfill), claim that since their facilities meet the requirements of environmental regulations and the type of waste they accept could not possibly produce methane gas and leachate there is no property value impact of their facilities.

Several studies have shown that …

The Public Persona Of Nelson R. Mandela: A Study Of U.S. Print Media Narratives, Molly Jeane Mcvey

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the contribution made by the U.S. print media to the development of Nelson Mandela's public persona. The period studied is from 1985 to June, 1990. This thesis explores the following questions: 1) How did the public persona of Nelson Mandela evolve in the dominant U.S. print media; 2) How do these stories, in content and form, serve to establish Nelson Mandela as a public hero; 3) What cultural myths structure the news stories of Nelson Mandela that serve as the interpretative framework for public belief and action? Data for analysis were drawn from The New York Times, …

Cities And Automobile Dependence: An Empirical Examination Of Density And Automobile Dependence Relationship And Their Underlying Factors, Musaad Abdullah Al-Mosaind

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last several decades, low-density development and increasing levels of automobile dependence have become two of the major problems facing many urban areas. While they have significantly improved urbanites' mobility, freedom, and social contacts, and have expanded the ranges of economic activities, they have also brought numerous problems and externalities. Mitigating their negative externalities through appropriate policies necessitates the examination of their relationship and the effect of other urban elements. This research examines the relationship between density and automobile dependence and its underlying factors within cities. It examines the effects of quantifiable factors at three levels of analysis: regional, …

The Voices I Never Hear: Communication Apprehension And Associated Nonverbal Behaviors In The Primary School Child, Linda Dunn

Dissertations and Theses

The confidence to communicate orally with others is the first requisite for verbal interaction. Anxiety which occurs in anticipation of speaking with others or while engaged in speaking hinders interaction, and is referred to as communication apprehension. This study examines levels of communication apprehension among a sample primary school population and the possible relationship between such levels and frequencies of nonverbal behaviors called self-adaptors that may be associated with the anxiety. Greater awareness of communication apprehension in children is justified in light of research that suggests it is negatively related to academic achievement in elementary school students. A four-month field~study …

Modeling Of The Surface Plasmon Resonance (Spr) Effect For A Metal-Semiconductor (M-S) Junction At Elevated Temperatures, Erik De Jesus Sanchez

Dissertations and Theses

The effect of temperature increase on the optical excitation of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) at an Ag-Si metal-semiconductor (M-S) junction at a wavelength of 1 . 1 52 pm is investigated theoretically using computer modeling in Fortran. In order to accurately quantify the SPR, the temperature dependent optical constants for Ag and Si are obtained theoretically or semiempirically , using a Drude model for Ag and previous experimentally determined equations for Si (the behavior of the optical constants for crystalline Si and doped Si are found to have very little deviation between each other for our case). An improvement in …

The Times, Trial, And Execution Of David Mclane: The Story Of An American Spying In Canada For The French In 1796-1797, Mark Allen Thorburn

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis primarily examines the 1797 trial of David McLane in Quebec City for spying, the steps taken by the British authorities to ensure a conviction, and McLane's activities in 1796 and 1797 in Vermont and Lower Canada on behalf of the French Minister to the United States, Pierre Adet. McLane did not receive a fair trial because the colonial administration in Lower Canada so thoroughly manipulated the legal system that a guilty verdict was assured. But, ironically, McLane was a guilty man, having been hired by Adet to find sympathizers who would help instigate a rebellion in the colony; …

Common Security: A Conceptual Blueprint For An Israeli-Palestinian Political Settlement, Robert Arthur Horenstein

Dissertations and Theses

The deep-rooted Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a major source of destabilization in the Middle East for some three-quarters of a century. Whereas other long-standing conflicts around the world have been brought to a close, this struggle (both in and of itself and within its wider Arab-Israeli dimension) remains a perennial tinderbox. This is particularly true given the unsettling realities of the region in which the conflict exists. Consequently, a certain sense of urgency for finding a permanent political settlement can be discerned both within the region and outside it. still, the search for a solution has yielded progress only on …

A Study Of The Narrative Skills In 6-Year-Olds With Normal, Impaired, And Late Developing Language, Karen Elaine Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Proficiency in various higher level language skills is necessary to integrate and organize units of meaning beyond the sentence level. Examining narratives has become a useful tool for assessing these language abilities. Narrative skills are considered by many researchers to be a strong link between oral language and literacy, and related to academic performance (Westby, 1991; Roth & Spekman, 1991). The present study was part of the Portland Language Development Project, a longitudinal study of early language delay. The purpose of this study was to assess higher level language abilities by examining the stories of 6-year-olds with normal, impaired, and …

The Soldiers Of Spain's California Army, 1769-1821, Barrie Earl Malcolm

Dissertations and Theses

Spanish authorities used two agencies to occupy and control California as a royal province from 1769 to 1821: the church and the army. While the story of the missions and the missionaries has been thoroughly chronicled, little attention has been focused on the men who comprised Spain's military forces. This thesis examines the experience of the royal soldier in California to determine his significance in the Golden State's Spanish colonial era. The journals, diaries, and correspondence of the soldiers, missionaries, explorers, traders, and foreign rivals who visited or occupied the province comprise a major part' of the source material. The …

Environmental And Institutional Characteristics And Academic Strategic Action Variables In Small Private Colleges, And Their Relationship To Enrollment Changes In The 1980s, Johnnie Ray Driessner

Dissertations and Theses

Small private colleges represent a unique and important element of diversity within American higher education. Their small size, heavy dependence on tuition, and limited resources, have caused them to be repeatedly identified as singularly threatened with enrollment declines. Despite these predictions the evidence indicates that most of these colleges survived the 1980s and many thrived.

This study had two major goals. The first was the characterization of institutions within the population during the 1980s with regards to environmental characteristics, institutional attributes and academic strategic actions. The second was the description of the relationships between these variables and enrollment changes in …

Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Upward Compliance-Gaining Strategies: U.S.A. And Japan, Miyoko Fuse

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated cultural differences, U.S.A. and Japan, in the selection of compliance-gaining strategies by lower status people as differentiated from a group leader in a short-term, task-oriented relationship. The subjects for this study consisted of 114 (59 male and 55 female) U.S. college students and 165 (65 male and 100 female) Japanese college students. All subjects lived in Oregon.

After the subjects read the hypothetical scenario which involved changing a task for a classroom project, a 21 item questionnaire was administered. The questions were taken from Kipnis, Schmidt, and Wilkinson's (1980) study, and a six-point scale was used. The …

Simulation Of Switched Linear Networks, Dietmar Reinhard Skowronn

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis deals with the time-domain analysis of switched linear networks and investigates inherent problems which have to be considered when analyzing this class of networks. Computer simulation requires the use of numerical methods and we focus on the transmission -line modelling technique (TLM) and the numerical inverse Laplace transform. A general approach based on the one-graph modified nodal description is given which allows the formulation of circuit equations of a TLM-modelled circuit by inspection. The numerical equivalence of TLM and trapezoidal rule has been found and a proof is given. A variable step size simulator has been developed based …

The Effects Of Perceived Work Schedule Flexibility, Number Of Hours Worked, And Type Of Work Schedule On Work-Family Conflict, Tenora Dianne Grigsby

Dissertations and Theses

The interaction effects of perceived work schedule flexibility (PWSF) and the number of hours worked on work-family conflict, and the interaction effects of PWSF and the type of work schedule on work-family conflict were investigated for employees of a regional bank headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. A 50% response rate was obtained from a survey questionnaire administered to 2,000 randomly selected employees.

Hierarchial multiple regression analyses conducted on 526 subjects revealed no significant interaction effects for PWSF and type of work schedule. The interaction effect for PWSF and number of hours worked was not tested due to a significant correlation …

A Study Of Spiking And Relaxation Oscillations In Nd:Yag Laser Using Measured Laser Parameters, Ramesh K. Shori

Dissertations and Theses

It was shown analytically and experimentally that when the cavity losses are perturbed, the output intensity experiences an amplitude modulation or becomes a regular train of spikes, with the frequency depending on both the frequency of perturbation as well as pump power. Coupled nonlinear rate equations including the cavity perturbation term, are solved numerically by a Runga-Kutta method using experimentally-measured parameter values for Nd: Y AG laser. A continuously pumped Nd: Y AG laser was used to verify this theory.

Water Quality Modeling Of The Tualitin River, Christopher John Berger

Dissertations and Theses

Water quality problems related to excessive algal growth, high nutrient loading, and low flows have been occurring along Oregon's Tualatin River. The Tualatin River is 86 miles long and has a drainage basin of 711 square miles. The drainage basin incorporates forest, agricultural, and urban areas. Located in the Portland metropolitan area, these problems have been acerbated by the effects of urban growth. To help analyze pollution control alternatives, a river model study, funded by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ}, was undertaken. An in-stream model of hydraulics and water quality was developed. The Corps of Engineer's CE-QUAL-W2 model, …

Modeling Of Flow And Water Quality In Henry Hagg Lake Near Forest Grove, Oregon, Michael T. Knutson

Dissertations and Theses

Increased population growth in Washington County, Oregon, has helped cause the water quality of the Tualatin River to decline. Henry Hagg Lake is a storage reservoir which was built to augment summer low flows in the Tualatin River. Hagg Lake also supplies the Tualatin River Basin with both irrigation and municipal water in the summer. Using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's model CE-QUAL-W2 (a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model) , a model of Henry Hagg Lake was created. The model was calibrated using water quality and hydraulic data for 1990 at the Hagg Lake outflow in Scoggins Creek. …

The Identity In Crisis: A New Approach To The Culture Shock Experience Of University Exchange Students, Christina Maria Luther

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship of language and culture is explored in this thesis for the purpose of better understanding why all sojourners, regardless of preparation, experience some degree of culture shock. The author begins with a review of literature on culture shock establishing that the native language of sojourners is not considered to be of any consequence to the sojourning experience. The fields of intercultural communication, social psychology and psychology are then explored to establish the link between language and culture and to introduce the notion of linguistic identity. Evidence found in each of these fields leads the author to conclude that …