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Someone Shot The Rainbow: Emergent Writing Patterns Of Securely And Insecurely Attached, Inner-City First Graders, Cindy Matthews

Doctoral Dissertations

The mother or primary caretaker of an infant establishes a communicative bond which has long-term implications for the child as a symbolizer and learner. John Bowlby's theory of attachment claims the mother is the secure base from which an infant, and later the child, can explore and master her environment, develop a sense of autonomy, and relate to peers. Attachment theory sheds light on the process and products of inner-city, first-grade children's written symbolization, yielding many patterns cogent to the study of emergent literacy.

Fifty-nine first graders participated in a study involving projective measures of attachment and language ability and …

Comparative Studies On The Components Of Innate Partial Resistance To Venturia Inaequalis (Cke) Wint In Nine Apple Cultivars, Cheryl A. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

The components of partial resistance to Venturia inaequalis and the expression of resistance were quantified in nine apple cultivars ('Delicious,' 'McIntosh,' 'Stayman,' 'Mutsu,' 'Paula Red,' 'Ida Red,' 'Golden Delicious,' 'Spartan,' and 'Rome') under field conditions. Ascospore productivity was influenced by cultivar, and was greatest on 'Rome' (476 spores/cm$\sp2$ leaf), but cultivar did not affect the rate of ascospore maturation significantly.

Relative conidium productivity/lesion was influenced by cultivar, and ranged from 30,126 conidia/lesion on 'Golden Delicious' leaves to 4,443 conidia/lesion on 'Delicious' leaves. The infectious period (length of time conidia are produced) was longest on 'Golden Delicious' (94 and 68 days) …

Measurement Of Deforestation In The Brazilian Amazon Using Satellite Remote Sensing, David Lewis Skole

Doctoral Dissertations

A clear understanding of the role of the biota in the global carbon cycle is limited by an absence of accurate measurements of deforestation rates in the tropics. This study measures the rate and extent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, a tropical forest biome approximately 5 $\times$ 10$\sp6$ km$\sp2$ in size and the largest extant tropical forest biome in the world. The study focuses on remote sensing measurements of deforestation rates and the area of secondary vegetation, but also utilizes tabular data to document deforestation when satellite data are not available. The analysis concludes: (1) Regression analysis of SPOT, …

Money, Income And Causality: An Open Economy Reexamination, El-Hachemi Aliouche

Doctoral Dissertations

The positive relationship between the rate of growth of the money supply and the rate of growth of aggregate income is a widely accepted principle in macroeconomics. However, the direction of the causality between these two variables has been an enduring subject of controversy.

Recent developments in time series analysis, particularly those relating to the concepts of integration and cointegration, and the stationary nature of economic time series, promise to help settle the debate on the statistical relationship between money supply growth and income growth. Most of the recent work on this issue, however, has been confined to a closed …

Comparing Natural Travel With Artificial Travel Requirements In The Study Of Foraging In The Laboratory, Carlos Fernando Aparicio

Doctoral Dissertations

Is moving from place to place equivalent to pressing a lever or pecking a key? This dissertation addressed this question by comparing natural travel (moving from place to place) with artificial travel requirements (to press on a lever). In two experiments foraging was modeled with operant behavior. Rats "searched" for food by pressing on the left lever. The patch provided a maximum of 1, 2, or 8 pellets. When the patch provided 1 pellet, rats captured the first prey with a.10 probability. The probability dropped to zero after one pellet. When the patch provided 2 or 8 pellets rats captured …

A Study Of The Reading And Writing Experiences Of Four Laotian Refugee Adolescents From One Family In An American Secondary School, Danling Fu

Doctoral Dissertations

This study describes and interprets the reading and writing experiences of four recently arrived Laotian refugee adolescents from one family in an American secondary school. Through four extensive case studies, the study compares and contrasts how these individuals read and write on their own initiative and are taught to read and write at school, and what happens when the school agenda matches and mismatches their learning patterns. This study reveals how school structure re-enforces the marginalization of the ethnic minority students in their school life by ignoring what they know and who they are. With a focus on four minority …

Fine Structure Of Auroral Particle Acceleration, Kristina Anne Lynch

Doctoral Dissertations

A mass-analyzing capped hemispherical electrostatic analyzer has been developed for the purpose of resolving the mass, energy, and pitch angle distributions of auroral ions. The instrument, the B-field Hemispherical Electrostatic Energy and Pitch Angle Spectrometer (BEEPS), is an extension of the HEEPS instrument, which uses a hemispherical analyzer and microchannel plates to measure the angular and energy distribution of ions. BEEPS uses a toroidal magnetic field constructed from rare-earth permanent magnets to separate ion measurements into two groups, protons and heavier ions. BEEPS was flown in February, 1991, from Poker Flat, Alaska, on the TOPAZ3 sounding rocket.

This sounding rocket …

Discards Of Commercial Fish Species In The Gulf Of Maine Groundfish And Shrimp Fisheries, Richard Langan

Doctoral Dissertations

A three part analysis of discarding of commercial fish species in the Gulf of Maine trawl fisheries was conducted from 1983 through 1992. Abstracts for each part of the dissertation are:

Part 1. The objectives of the research were to quantify commercial trawler discards of American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, and winter flounder, and to examine variables that potentially influence discard rates. Data were obtained from 135 tows in 6 areas of the Gulf of Maine. Four different types of trawls were used. Mean discard percentages per tow, on a weight basis, were 25, 18, 13, and 5% for …

Nuclear Structure Studies Of The Oxygen Nucleus Observed With The Quasielastic (Electron, Electron'proton) Reaction, Mark Bancroft Leuschner

Doctoral Dissertations

The spectral function of the $\sp{16}$O(e,e$\sp\prime$p)$\sp{15}$N reaction has been measured in quasielastic parallel kinematics. Momentum distributions are extracted for several discrete states, with special emphasis on the low-lying positive parity states of $\sp{15}$N. Spectroscopic factors and bound state wave functions are deduced from a distorted wave impulse approximation analysis, including coupled channels effects, employing five different optical potentials. The distribution of spectroscopic strength is determined out to E$\sb{m}$ = 40 MeV from a multipole decomposition of the spectral function continuum. The spectroscopic factor of the 2$s$1$d$ shell of $\sp{16}$O, as evidenced by transitions to the positive parity (2s$\sb{1/2}$,1d$\sb{5/2}$) doublet at …

Horizontal Distribution, Feeding Rates And Prey Selectivity Of The Littoral Predator, Polyphemus Pediculus, Anne Turner Packard

Doctoral Dissertations

Littoral planktonic communities have rarely been included in food web dynamics and predator/prey behavior studies of planktonic communities of fresh water ecosystems. Polyphemus pediculus, a typically littoral predaceous cladoceran, is common in lakes and ponds throughout the northern temperate zone.

The patchy distribution of Polyphemus in littoral surface waters necessitates the use of a stratified random sampling regime to estimate and monitor Polyphemus populations. The population in Mirror Lake, NH, increased exponentially after the first appearance of parthenogenetic juveniles in late April. An abrupt decline in the population coincided with the movement of small Micropterus dolomieui fry into littoral areas …

A Transmission Electron Microscopy Study Of Defect Generation And Microstructure Development In Ultrasonic Wire Bonding, Nikhil Mohan Murdeshwar

Doctoral Dissertations

Ultrasonic wire bonding is widely used in the electronic industry to connect semiconductor chips to packages. Even though the popularity of the technique has increased in recent times, questions remain about the bonding mechanism, and factors affecting bondability and reliability. In this thesis, answers were provided to many of these questions using TEM to examine bonded cross section and plan view specimens.

A detailed investigation of the Al wire and substrate showed dynamically annealed well recovered grains while microstructural observations of other substrates revealed wide varieties of response mechanisms. For example, Ni formed a dislocation cell structure, Cu formed a …

A Comparison Of Methods For Analyzing Intraindividual Change In Student Epistemological Orientation During The Transition To College, Trey Michael Buchanan

Doctoral Dissertations

The ability to measure the development of epistemological beliefs of 235 college students during their first-semester in college was investigated by comparing the results obtained using five different methodological approaches to measuring change. These approaches included the use of the two-wave difference score, the residual change score, the cross-time correlation matrix, repeated measures analysis of variance, and individual growth modeling. A cubic individual growth model was found to be superior to other methods in describing intraindividual differences in dualistic epistemological orientation during the transition to college. An investigation of the existence of systematic interindividual differences in growth as a function …

Performance Of Concrete Beams And Slabs Reinforced With Frp Grids, Edwin Robert Schmeckpeper

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation was to evaluate the suitability of Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) grids for use as a structural reinforcement in concrete structures such as highway bridge decks. The work concentrated on determining the mechanical properties of FRP materials, testing the flexural behavior and servicability of concrete beams and slabs reinforced with FRP grids, and determining splice and development length requirements for FRP grids. Design recommendations concerning failure mode, deflections, anchorage requirements were developed.

The results from the flexural tests on FRP reinforced concrete beams, with reinforcing ratios ranging from 0.3% to 2.2%, showed that the failure mode, …

Characterizing And Improving The Fault Tolerance Of Artificial Neural Networks, Bruce Edmond Segee

Doctoral Dissertations

Artificial neural networks are networks of very simple processing elements based on an approximate model of a biological neuron. It is widely believed that because biological neural networks are tolerant of the loss of individual neurons and because there is a strong analogy between biological neural networks and artificial neural networks, then artificial neural networks must also be inherently fault tolerant. This is, unfortunately, simply not true.

Results reported in this dissertation show that in the task of function approximation the multilayer perceptron is very intolerant of faults to the extent that the loss of a single network parameter can …

An Ecological Perspective Of Writing: Teachers, Peers, And Authors As Resources In A Response-Based Classroom, Margaret L. Murray

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study examines the ways in which the available resources of books, classmates, and teacher affect three fourth-grade students' writing development within the same classroom. The study's unique contribution is its holistic description of how all three resources contribute collectively to the ongoing writing of these individuals over the better part of their school year. The study describes the ways in which the children's writing and their notions of good writing are being formed in the dialectical processes of interaction with these resources. Further, the study describes the global traits of their particular classroom's culture--its extant written forms and …

Intraspecific Variability And Phylogeny Of Sibling Species Of Simulium Venustum And S Verecundum Complexes (Diptera: Simuliidae) Revealed By The Sequence Of The Mitochondrial Large (16s) Ribosomal Rna Gene, Bai Xiong

Doctoral Dissertations

This study demonstrates that material preserved in Carnoy's solution (1:3 = glacial acetic acid:alcohol) can be amplified by the polymerase chain reaction for determination of DNA sequence. Because only a single salivary gland from the black fly larva is necessary for DNA extraction, both DNA sequence and chromosome banding data can be obtained from the same individual. This technique reduces potential contamination of the sample by foreign DNA in the gut and/or on the cuticle of the larva and eliminates the possibility of misidentified larvae in the sample. Surveys using the mitochondrial large rRNA gene revealed extensive intraspecific variation in …

The World Of Kavanagh And Cottril: A Portrait Of Irish Emigration, Entrepreneurship, And Ethnic Diversity In Mid-Maine, 1760-1820, Edward Thomas Mccarron

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines a remarkable and little known episode in the peopling of early New England: The founding of an Irish-Catholic community in Lincoln County, Maine, 1760-1820. It details the experience of over three hundred Irish families, tracing them to their Old World origins, following their progress across the Atlantic, and documenting their efforts to establish an ethnic and religious identity on the Maine frontier.

Their story parallels the lives of two immigrants, James Kavanagh and Matthew Cottril, who made a fortune in the Maine timber trade and encouraged kin and countrymen to settle in the new land. Their career …

The Role Of Lipoteichoic Acid And The Leukocyte Integrins In The Binding Of Group B Streptococci To Murine Peritoneal Macrophages, Anne Ragonese Sloan

Doctoral Dissertations

The macrophage has been shown to bind potentially pathogenic bacteria in the absence of serum components, but the mechanism is not well understood. The macrophage is a key component of our non-inducible defenses and this form of innate immunity is of particular importance for individuals in which the immune system may be sub-optimally functional, e.g., neonatal and geriatric individuals, and for sites in the body in which serum enhancement through opsonins is thought to be insufficient, e.g., lungs. To understand the mechanism by which mammalian innate host defenses respond to potential microbial aggression by opportunistic microorganisms, I developed two assays …

Solar Flares: The Onset Of Magnetic Reconnection And The Structure Of Radiative Slow-Mode Shocks, Peng Xu

Doctoral Dissertations

This is a theoretical study of two magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) processes associated with magnetic reconnection in large solar flares and other related eruptive phenomena.

The first process determines the effect of magnetic reconnection in the corona upon the loss of equilibrium triggered by the slow evolution of the field lines mapping to the region in the photosphere where the flare occurs. The quasi-static MHD equations are solved for a magnetic field configuration which satisfies line-tied boundary conditions during the eruption of the flare. Such boundary conditions occur because the inertial mass of the photosphere plasma is much greater than that of …

Finite Groups As A Generalization Of Vector Spaces Through The Use Of Splitting Systems, Joseph Kirtland

Doctoral Dissertations

The structure of a finite group is investigated through a geometry induced by the splitting systems of the group. The method is based on the one used to induce a geometry on a finite dimensional vector space over a finite field and as a result, concepts related to the special and projective linear group are extended to arbitrary groups. One major by-product is the classification of solvable multiprimitive groups of arbitrary derived length. This leads to a necessary and sufficient condition for a solvable nC-group to be multiprimitive.

A Simulation Study Of Bipedal Walking Robots: Modeling, Walking Algorithms, And Neural Network Control, Paul Walker Latham

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to develop walking algorithms for use with mechanical bipeds. This thesis is comprised of three parts. A two dimensional biped simulator, called WALK, is developed. This simulator is designed to facilitate the evaluation of bipedal walking algorithms. Then, a two dimensional walking algorithm is developed using a simple inverted pendulum model. This algorithm is shown to provide for stable walking using the WALK simulator system. A neurocomputer adaptive controller that is based on the CMAC architecture is added to the inverted pendulum model. The adaptive walking algorithm is not only stable, but provides for …

Order, Chaos And Complexity In Discrete Dynamical Systems, John E. Bates

Doctoral Dissertations

A method for analyzing discrete dynamical systems is presented that provides a unified quantitative description of order, chaos and complexity in terms of information flow across system boundaries. Complexity is identified with variability in the relative dominance of order and chaos as systems evolve in time; therefore, purely ordered or purely chaotic behavior is considered simple. This notion of complexity is quantitatively expressed as fluctuation in net information gain.

The method is applied to one-dimensional cellular automata, which are spatially and temporally discrete systems. Evidence is presented for a correlation between information fluctuation and the existence of internally complex propagating …

On Her Mouth You Kiss Your Own: Lesbian Conversations In Exile, 1924-1936, Luita Deane Spangler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the work of four American lesbian expatriate novelists living and writing in Paris in the years between the two World Wars. Altogether six novels are discussed: The Uncertain Feast (1924), The Happy Failure (1925), and This Way Up (1927) by Solita Solano; The Cubical City (1925) by Janet Flanner; The One Who Is Legion (1930) by Natalie Clifford Barney; and Nightwood (1936) by Djuna Barnes.

Guided by recent conjectures on the significance of sexuality and gender development proposed by such feminist theorists as Luce Irigaray and Monique Wittig, this dissertation explores these six novels for evidence of …

A Study Of Alpha Decay From The Giant Resonance Region In Carbon Via Inelastic Electron Scattering, David John Deangelis

Doctoral Dissertations

We have excited the giant resonance region in $\sp{12}$C via inelastic electron scattering and have measured the first complete angular correlations for charged particle (p and $\alpha$) emission for this reaction for six values of momentum transfer ranging from 0.24fm$\sp{-1}$ to 0.93fm$\sp{-1}$.

By analyzing the $\alpha$ emission decay channels via the Legendre and resonance formalisms, we unambiguously determined the multipole contributions to the total cross section for $\alpha$ decay to the ground state of $\sp8$Be ($\alpha\sb0$ decay) and have set limits on these contributions for $\alpha$ decay to the first excited state of $\sp8$Be ($\alpha\sb1$ decay). We have found that, …

Social Support, Psychological Distress And The Consequences Of Psychotherapeutic Intervention, David Francis King

Doctoral Dissertations

Several questions about social support and its relation to mental health over the course of psychotherapeutic intervention are investigated. These include: how do different measures of social support relate to each other at entrance to therapy (time 1) and three months later (time 2), how does social support vary with mental health over time, and how do strategies of therapists affect social support of patients?

Forty patients and their therapists (27) at two community mental health centers were interviewed. Four quantitative standardized measures of social support were used: Donald and Ware's social integration measure (1982), McFarlane's (1980) measure of social …

Factors Controlling Fluxes Of Volatile Sulfur Compounds In Sphagnum Peatlands, William Zamboni De Mello

Doctoral Dissertations

Exchange of DMS and OCS between the surface of Sphagnum peatlands and the atmosphere were measured with dynamic (S-free sweep air) and static enclosures. DMS emission rates determined by both methods were comparable. The dynamic method provided positive OCS flux rates (emission) for measurements performed at sites containing Sphagnum. Conversely, data from the static method indicated that OCS was consumed from the atmosphere.

Short and long-term impacts of increased S deposition on fluxes of volatile S compounds (VSCs) from Sphagnum peatlands were investigated in a poor fen (Mire 239) at the Experimental Lakes Area, Ontario, Canada. Additional experiments were conducted …

Crime And Punishment In New Hampshire, 1812-1914 (Volumes I And Ii), Timothy Dodge

Doctoral Dissertations

Changing definitions of crime accompanied the economic transformation of seacoast New Hampshire from a predominently agricultural, and rural society in 1812 to one that was mainly industrial, commercial, and urban by 1914. This dissertation analyzes a sample of 820 felony incarcerations (19.5%) of the total 4154 incarcerations recorded at the New Hampshire State Prison for the period 1812-1914. Court bills and indictments of Rockingham and Strafford County, New Hampshire are used to analyze felony convictions. Quantitative analysis involving 17 variables reveals that property crime was the most common conviction. Felony conviction rates per 100,000 population nearly doubled between 1812 and …

The Role Of Thalamo-Frontocortical Mechanisms In Measures Of Spatial Learning And Memory, Loredana Maggiora Harrison

Doctoral Dissertations

Human amnesia has been attributed to diencephalic lesions produced by Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, tumor, trauma and infarct. Rodent models of diencephalic amnesia suggest the involvement of three anatomic systems, namely the nuclei of the brainstem and diencephalon, the mammillary bodies, and the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus. In recent years our laboratory has investigated these systems. Only radiofrequency (RF) lesions of the thalamus involving lateral portions of the internal medullary lamina (L-IML) and including the mediodorsal nucleus (MDn) of the thalamus have disrupted measures of learning and memory in a manner that is qualitatively similar to that seen in human Korsakoff …

Beliefs, Autonomy, And Mathematical Knowledge, Judy Ann Rector

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the apparent effects of students' beliefs about mathematics and autonomy on their learning of mathematics. The study utilized a multiple-case study design with analysis by and across cases. The cases represented six high school students enrolled in either Algebra II or Algebra II/Trigonometry. Data was collected in three phases: (a) classroom observations and assessment of the teacher's perception of her role in the learning process, (b) an assessment of students' beliefs about mathematics and autonomy, and (c) an assessment of students' newly formed mathematical constructs on functions.

The beliefs' assessment included observing …

Techniques For Enumerating Protozoa In Saturated Subsurface Sediments, Amoret L. Bunn

Doctoral Dissertations

Three techniques were investigated for the enumeration of small (2-5 $\mu$m in diameter) flagellates and amoebae in sediments collected within and outside of a wastewater contaminated ground water plume at the U.S. Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Research site, located on Cape Cod, MA. An epifluorescent direct count technique was developed to enumerate DAPI stained protozoa on polycarbonate membrane filters. These estimates were compared to the those from the Darbyshire liquid media MPN and Singh solid media MPN techniques. In Fall 1991, sediment samples were collected to investigated the variability of the hold time of cores, total and encysted protozoan …