Digital Commons Network^™

Arms Trade And Military Expenditures In Eastern Europe, Stephanie Ripp

Student Work

Four models are developed and tested in this study. The first two models deal with arms trade, and the other two deal with military expenditures. The most important finding of this study is political freedom has a very strong effect on both arms trade and military expenditures in Eastern Europe. The more free a country, the less likely it is to have high levels of arms trade overall, as well as import arms. Also, the higher the level of political freedom, the lower the value and intensity of military expenditures. All of the models were tested for Eastern Europe a …

Extracurricular Activities: (Participation Vs. Non-Participation) A Decision For Rural High School Students., Brett A. Nanninga

Student Work

Twelve high school students (six freshmen and six sophomores) from two different schools were interviewed, surveyed, and interviewed a second time during the course of this study. The purposeful sampling of students consisted of a total of six females and six males; and the three categories within each grade level were defined as participants, non-participants, and those who used to participate but no longer participate in school activities.

Support Vector Machines For Classification., Rong Fan

Student Work

Introduction: A classifier is a hyperplane that separates data into different categories or classes. A trainable classifier is a classifier that may make its performance better in response to information it receives and tasks it takes. Training is the process by which the parameters of a function are adjusted in response to categories or classes. A training procedure is a training algorithm that implements the training process.

Variability In Word Learning: Phonological Sensitivity And Phonological Memory, Marnie E. Arkenberg

Student Work

Presently, investigators believe that variability in children’s word learning results from individual differences in one of two separate processes thought to underlie word learning: phonological sensitivity or phonological memory. Traditionally, researchers have viewed differences in children’s vocabularies as being the result of differences in either phonological memory or phonological sensitivity. However, there is reason to believe that a different type of relation exists among phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, and vocabulaiy. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the nature of these relations in preschoolers. Three hypotheses were presented: either phonological memory or phonological sensitivity plays a larger role in …

Effects Of Limited Offers In Radio Advertising Copy, Andrea R. Schmidt

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to utilize copy testing to focus on the persuasiveness of radio advertising. The persuasive effects of radio advertising have not been widely studied. This study utilized copy testing to determine the effects of a limited offer in a radio advertisement by examining persuasion, intention to act, and memorability through recall. Using past research such as Miller and Marks' "Mental Imagery and Sound Effects in Radio Commercials" (Miller & Marks, 1992) five questions were raised regarding the persuasive effects of a limited offer in radio advertising copy. Subjects were 80 undergraduate communication students. Half the …

The Development And Evaluation Of A Diagnostic Instrumental Music Survey For Use In The Recruitment Of Elementary Instrumental Music Students., Victoria Van Beusekom

Student Work

This research suggests that the researcher designed Instrumental Music Survey (IMS, 1999) can be a valid predictor of student success in instrumental music. This study completed in the Omaha Public School District, Omaha, Nebraska, used subjects whose background varied in terms socioeconomic, race, urban, and suburban areas. The first hypothesis examined the reliability of the IMS. Using the Spearman Brown reliability formula, reliability of the IMS was found to be .734. Using the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale (WFPS, 1954) as a measure of the student's success in instrumental music, the researcher found that a good correlation exists between the students' scores …

The Role Of Structured Practice And Modeling On Improving The Performance Accuracy Of High School Instrumentalists., Peter Wilger

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of structured practice and modeling techniques in increasing high school student's performance accuracy. Subjects in this study were 49 ninth through twelfth grade instrumental music students from a high school in the Omaha Public School District. Of the 49 students, 12 students had been participating in private lessons for at least nine months. Students were equally assigned to one of three groups consisting of (1) Modeling (2) Structured Practice and (3) Control. The students were pretested by performing an etude while being audiotaped. Subjects had two, ten-minute practice sessions on …

Stereotypes In African-American Television Sitcoms: A Content Analysis., Cornell A. Beck

Student Work

Reality of stereotypes and the portrayal of Blacks in television programming have become topics for political and social discourse within the field of mass communication. This study presents data on the portrayal of Blacks in network television situation comedies. It investigates perceptions of occupational roles, income, education, and living lifestyles in Black sitcoms for the network seasons of 1995- 2000. The first sub-hypothesis examined whether Blacks were portrayed in situation sitcoms as managerial professionals rather than service related non-professionals. Specific findings of this study indicated that Blacks were more often portrayed in the selected 1995- 2000 television sitcoms as professionals …

A Three-Dimensional Analysis Of Subtalar And Knee Joint Coupling During Running Over Obstacles, Tracy Allan Dierks

Student Work

Running has been associated with a number of lower extremity overuse injuries. Attention has been given to biomechanical factors, specifically, excessive pronation and excessive tibial rotation. It has been suggested that excessive tibial rotation is due to excessive foot pronation transferred through a coupling mechanism. The ankle and knee are mechanically linked via the tibia and excessive tibial internal rotation may delay tibial external rotation as the knee begins to extend. Increased impact forces have also been implicated as a cause of running injuries, although little is known about this possible relationship. Obstacle heights have been used previously to produce …

Approximating Eigenvalues For Double Well Potentials., Chad Fulk

Student Work

One dimensional double well potentials usually refer to those potentials which have two equivalent or non-equivalent minima. They have been used to model diverse systems ranging from the electronic structure of diatomic molecules to electron-lattice coupling in high temperature superconductors [1][2]. However, one difficulty to the utility of these models is that exact analytical solutions for almost all double well potentials have not been found, in spite of the fact that this type of potential is constantly utilized as an illustra­tive example in the literature. Despite intensive research into this problem, only a few types of double wells have been …

Software Architecture For Scalable Applications., Sujit Chaubal

Student Work

Software has traditionally been built based on a mix of the common architectures. Although several architectural styles have been documented, software developers repetitively solve the problems of scalability and extensibility and deal with the issues of incremental development and interoperability. Component Object Model (COM) is an advanced technology for object-based software development that facilitates interoperability and promotes extensibility. The extensible Markup Language (XML) is the universal format for structured documents and data on the World-Wide-Web (WWW). It describes a class of data objects called XML documents, and partially describes the behavior of the computer programs which process them. This thesis …

Gang Affiliation In Adolescence And Attachment In Infancy, Joan E. Unis

Student Work

According to Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980), infants become attached to their primary caregiver for protection and security. Gang literature reports that individuals join gangs for the companionship and protection a gang can offer (Hochhaus & Sousa, 1987-88; Friedman, Mann, & Friedman, 1975). The aim of this present study was to examine the proposition that individuals who eventually become gang members in adolescence have an insecure attachment to caregivers, a secure attachment to peers, and will have lower scores on constructs related to attachment. The participants in this study were 90 individuals, divided equally into gang and non-gang members. …

Effects Of Smooth Brome (Bromus Inermis) Invasion On Tallgrass Prairie., Sarah Jo Mann

Student Work

Data collected in 1984 and 2000 along a 65-m-long roadside-to-prairie gradient were compared to quantify brome (Bromus inermis) invasion into a native, tallgrass prairie in eastern Nebraska and to assess the effect of this expansion on prairie composition and diversity: Smooth brome expanded 15 meters further into tallgrass prairie during the 16 years of the study while also increasing cover an average of 8%. Overall, species diversity (H’) decreased from 1.04 to 0.95 along the entire toad-prairie gradient during this time although the decrease was significant (P ≤ 0.10) at only three of the five distances from the road that …

The Single-Sex Classroom And Math Self-Concept In Girls, Gina M. Piraccini

Student Work

Research shows girls' and boys' mathematics self-concept and achievement are comparable in elementary school; however as adolescence emerges, girls' scores fall below boys' (AAUW, 1992; Marsh, Parker & Barnes, 1985). In general self-concept in mathematics has been found to be highly correlated with mathematics achievement (Marsh et al., 1986, Shavelson & Bolus, 1982; Skaalvik & Rankin, 1990).

A Maximal Chain Approach For Scheduling Tasks In A Multiprocessor System., Sachin Pawaskar

Student Work

The scheduling problem has been an interesting problem for quite some time. But recently, in the era of parallel and distributed computing it has seen increased activity and many researchers have focused their attention on the scheduling problem once again. Task scheduling is one of the most challenging problems in parallel and distributed computing. It is known to be NP-complete in its general form as well as several restricted cases. Researchers have studied restricted forms of the problem by constraining either the task graph representing the parallel tasks or the computer model. For example, the 2- processor problem has a …

The Current Training Practices And Perceived Training Needs Of Paraprofessionals In Special Education Programs In Nebraska, Enid Ann Schonewise

Student Work

The purpose o f this study was to determine (a) the current training practices for paraprofessionals as perceived by building administrators, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals in special education programs in the state of Nebraska, (b) the perceived training needs o f paraprofessionals, as viewed by building administrators, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals, (c) the differences that exist between current training practices and perceived training needs of paraprofessionals and the differences that exist in perceptions of building administrators, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals, and (d) the changes that have occurred in training practices since 1982.

Building administrators, special education teachers, …

Cultural Differences In Self-Appraisal Of Group Task: Usage Of Group Vs. Individual Feedback, Mamiko Fujita

Student Work

The present study focused on differences in using group and individual feedback in self-evaluation of performance when engaging in a group task. Based on an established category of cultural differences, collectivistic-individualistic, Japanese and American students participated to represent each culture. The current study tested a hypothesis that Japanese students would use group feedback more heavily in evaluating their individual performances than would American students. The results did not support the hypothesis. Interestingly, the assumption that Japanese students represent collectivistic culture, and American students represent individualistic culture was not supported. According to the scale used in the study, the American participants …

Intelligent Voice Email Agent: A Multimedia Solution, Xuecheng Wang

Student Work

Intelligent agent theory is an important concept in artificial intelligent area. An intelligent agent, in a nutshell, is an intelligent program that uses agent communication protocols to exchange information for automatic problem solving, performing specific tasks on behalf of their users. Our objective is to investigate what an intelligent agent consists of and to implement several important aspects of it. In particular, we are interested in an intelligent agent that is able to take care of the incoming messages while the user is concentrating on some other duties. We develop an agent-based design framework and implement an intelligent agent system …

The Women's Division Of The Omaha Chamber Of Commerce 1922-1976, Sharen A. Rotolo

Student Work

In 1922, a group of 121 business and professional women, members of the Omaha Business and Professional Women League, became the first women m embers of the Omaha Chamber o f Commerce, a civic group that had been promoting the growth o f the city since 1893. As women across the country, fresh from winning a seventy-year suffrage fight, were trying to move ahead yet in other areas, politically, professionally and legally, the women in the Omaha Chamber hoped to be treated as equals in the Chamber organization. They believed that when the Senior Chamber established a separate Women's Division, …

The Effects Of A Currency Union On Trade: The Case Of The Euro-System, Paul M. Clark

Student Work

The decision of a preferential trading agreement (PTA) to form a currency union adds a new dimension to the debate over whether PTA’s are a step forward or backwards in the quest for world wide free trade. This paper looks at the effects the introduction of the euro has had on trade within the European Union (EU). Using trade data for the twenty-three industrialized countries as classified by the International Monetary Fund, ordinary least-squares was applied to a gravity model of bilateral trade. Independent variables included: gross domestic product (GDP), per capita GDP, a distance measure, adjacency, common language, membership …

Differences In Value Expectancy And Outcome Expectation Regarding Weight Gain Among Participants In An Air Force Tobacco Cessation Program, James E. Reineke

Student Work

The impact of tobacco has been one of the greatest public health concerns of the last quarter century, and while advances have been made a significant percentage of Americans continues to smoke. One reason which tobacco users cite for continuing this negative health habit is the desire to maintain their current weight, or the fear of weight gain following tobacco cessation. While there may be negative consequences (real and perceived) to weight gain in the general population, definite sanctions exist in the United States military for those who gain weight in excess of their maximum allowable weight. Tobacco cessation classes …

Japanese Party System: The Electoral System And Its Influence On The Effective Distribution Of The Number Of Political Parties From Postwar To The Present, Shinya Bamba

Student Work

This thesis analyses the Japanese political party system. Both the historical and current situations are examined. The Japanese electoral system before 1993 was multimember district with nontransferable vote. The new system for the lower house from 1994 to the present is a mixture of single member district and proportional representation district, which allows dual candidacy. The main purpose is analyzing the effective distribution of the number of political parties in terms of vote and seat share from the postwar period to the present, and how it has been changed since the 1994 electoral reform.

The Work-Place Experience Of Non-Team Special Area Teachers As Affected By Institutional Procedures In Middle Schools Structured For Team-Teaching, Cecelia A. Birckhead

Student Work

Special area teachers in five middle schools were interviewed for the study. Questions were derived from research on the advantages of team-teaching. The team structure gives support for improving teaching strategies and lends a sense of community to the learning environment. Teams can collaborate in meeting student needs and in solving discipline problems. Their classrooms are clustered together lending to the development of a sense of unity by affiliation. The special area teachers were not included on such interdisciplinary teaching teams. The qualitative trends and themes that developed in this study indicated that the advantages available in team-teaching were difficult …

The Efficacy Of Classwide Peer Tutoring On Students With Attentional Difficulties, Todd Reznicek

Student Work

Class wide peer tutoring (CWPT) has been used as an effective intervention for reading, math, and spelling, as well as other subjects. The present study explored spelling and social skill improvement for students with attentional difficulties. Dependent measures included spelling improvement, mean initiations and responses, and total interaction times. Expected treatment effects were not as strong as found in previous studies for spelling. Social skill effects were mixed, with more consistent results obtained with the initiation and duration measures during the first baseline to implementation phase of CWPT. Response to initiation results were more mixed; perhaps because of the new …

Comparing Assessment Measures With Spanish And English Speaking Children, Katrina M. Gill-Glover

Student Work

Practitioners who serve all children are required to administer an accurate comprehensive evaluation of skills in a variety of domains, provide functional information that is easily translated into interventions, and use data to monitor progress. Because of the language and task demands of most standardized cognitive tests, an inappropriate measure of a child's ability may result. Therefore, the need for a linguistically non-biased cognitive measures for early childhood children is necessary. One particular assessment that is proposed is the Play Assessment of Cognitive Skills Scale (PACSS), a functional assessment technique used to determine a child's current level of cognitive functioning …

Performance Considerations Of Libby Larsen's "Corker For Clarinet And Percussion", Daniel James Jacobi

Student Work

This document explores various artifacts gathered in preparation for the performance of Libby Larsen's Corker for Clarinet and Percussion (Corker). Specifically, the author will utilize transcripts of interviews conducted with the composer, theoretical analysis, and excerpts from the performance diary of the percussionist who has worked extensively with the composer in his analysis. In the course of writing her work, composer Libby Larsen drew from childhood experiences while growing up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These memories are the framework for this composition and are shared in this document through transcripts of interviews conducted in January 1998. A brief analysis using the …

Hate Speech Symbols On The Internet: An Ethnology In Semiotics., Latosha Zenee' Dale

Student Work

This study investigated whether the definitions of symbols on the Internet are consistent with the historical definitions. Six web sites were viewed: (skinheads.net, k-k-k.com, resist.com, stormfront.org, creator.org, and whitepride.com) Ten symbols found within these sites were used for this study: arrow, blood, cross, dragon, eagle, fire, lightning, skull, swastika, and wolf. Definitions of the symbols were taken from three texts: Dictionary of symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems, by Jack Tressider; Dictionary of symbolism, by Hans Biedermann; and The continuum encyclopedia of symbols by Udo Becker. Out of the ten symbols studied, only the cross and …

Crisis Management Plan Characteristics In Elementary Schools As Perceived By Nebraska Public School Principals, Linda K. Christensen

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to investigate the importance of crisis management plans and their elements as perceived by Nebraska elementary school principals. Data were collected by using a survey instrument sent to a stratified random sample of 300 Nebraska elementary school principals. The sample was delineated by school district size, small, medium, and large. The survey, which included 21 questions, was designed to analyze the extent to which crisis management plans were in place. A total of 188 surveys were returned for a return rate of 63%.

Factors In Adults' Decisions To Enter Educational Fields, Pamela Anne Schiffbauer

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons that persons in non-educational careers enter educational fields. Fifteen education majors at the University of Nebraska at Omaha participated in this study. Ten of the participants were from the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Program for Special Undergraduates and five of the participants were from the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Teacher Academy Project.

The Effects Of Fair Treatment On Customer Reactions In A Service Encounter, Tara Rohde

Student Work

Given that fair treatment increases customer satisfaction (e.g., Bolton & Drew, 1991), the present study integrated consumer and organizational justice concepts by testing the interaction among distributive justice (DJ), procedural justice (PJ), and interactional justice (IJ) with respect to customers. The predicted nature o f the interaction differed from that obtained in research with employees such that unfavorable outcomes, rather than favorable outcomes (Skarlicki & Folger, 1997), were expected to render PJ and IJ inconsequential. The sample included 37 male and 83 female university students ranging in age from 19 to 46 years. Participants watched a videotaped scenario depicting an …