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Robust Residuals And Diagnostics In Autoregressive Time Series, Kirk W. Anderson

Dissertations

One of the goals of model diagnostics is outlier detection. In particular, we would like to use the residuals, appropriately standardized, to “flag” outliers. Hopefully, our (robust) procedure has yielded a fit that resists undue influence by outlying points, while simultaneously drawing attention to these interesting points via residual analysis. In this study we consider several different methods of standardizing the residuals resulting from autoregression. A large sample approximation for the variance of rank-based first order autoregressive time series residuals is developed. This provides studentized residuals, specific to the time series model and estimation procedure. Simulation studies are presented that …

The Relationship Between Insurance Type And Health Care Costs, Use And Choice Of Outpatient Provider, Dan-Alexandru Balan

Dissertations

The impact of insurance type on health care is a very important topic in health economics. This dissertation examines the relationship between insurance type and health care cost, use and outpatient provider choice using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data. I examine separately three types of services: emergency, nonemergency hospital care and outpatient because the effect of insurance type on use may depend on the type of health care service provided. The insurance types analyzed are Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), private fee-for-service employer insurance, private fee-for-service non-employer insurance, government insurance and self insurance. For each service, individuals paying for health …

A Comparison Of One-To-One And Small Group Instruction For Young Children With Autism: Focus On Effective Teaching And Behavior Management, Kathy Marie Bertsch

Dissertations

Over the past two decades, research has focused on identifying successful instructional methods and appropriate programming for young children with autism. Much of this early research focused on the effectiveness of intensive one-to-one behavioral programs. Support for intensive one-to-one instruction for children with autism began a long-term debate over the effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness of one-to-one instructional strategies for young children with autism. In response, researchers and educators began considering and studying small group instruction, a less restrictive alternative to intensive one-to-one instruction. While support is mounting for the use of small group instructional strategies, there continues to be limited …

Predicting A Passing Outcome On The National Council Licensure Examination For Registered Nurses By Associate Degree Graduates, Patricia M. Collins

Dissertations

This ex-post facto study was conducted to determine whether grades in pre-program science courses, pre-program cumulative grade point average (GPA) and grades in selected nursing theory courses predict pass/fail performance on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) for graduates of an Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) program. A small, rural community college in western Michigan participated in the study. The subjects included 159 graduates, (143 females, 16 males) admitted to the program beginning fall semester 1992 through May 2001. Data was obtained from the college data files. The independent variables were the four pre-program science courses, Anatomy and …

The Effects Of Group Size On Incentive Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis, Angelica C. Grindle

Dissertations

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effects of group size on incentive effectiveness using data obtained from incentive systems implemented in 13 companies. Other predictor variables included the organizational level targeted for improvement, long/short-term profitability type, company number, and length of exposure to the incentive system. The main dependent variable was the monthly score for each measure of performance. Three types of meaningful comparisons were defined for these data: (1) Between-Group - Within-Company comparisons in which a performance measure was in place in two or more units of an organization; (2) Between-Group - Across-Company comparisons in which a performance …

The Cultural Script Of Special Needs Adoption, George Grant, Jr.

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine special needs adoption from the perspective of the adoptive parents. Using the general guidelines of grounded theory, the study analyzed secondary data from a post-adoption program providing services to families who adopted special needs children. The data revealed that adoptive parents function under a cultural script of special needs adoption. The cultural script influences how families view themselves, the environment around them and how they decide to function as adoptive families. The study explains the cultural script, ways that professionals working in adoption can use that cultural script to support adoptive families …

Examining The Experiences Of Nontraditional Undergraduate Women: Pedagogy Versus Andragogy, Beverly Ann Hair

Dissertations

Increasing numbers of nontraditional students, of whom many are women, are enrolling in two-year and four-year colleges and universities. The purpose ofthis study is to critically examine the experiences of nontraditional undergraduate women and their preferred learning environment--pedagogy vs. andragogy. Students were asked to respond to a variety of questions in order to reflect upon their preferred learning environment. The researcher looked for differences inthe experiences of 20 (ten Black and ten White) nontraditional female undergraduate college students within their respective institutions based on their race, socioeconomic background, age, and religious background. Also, the researcher focused on why these nontraditional …

Specifying The Psychomotor Domain Of The Construct Of Nursing Competence, Joni L. Jones

Dissertations

The measurement of an individual's predicted performance in his/her field is a requirement of many professions. The NCLEX-RN® is the measurement tool used to determine whether or not new graduates of registered nursing programs are competent to enter the profession. Although there are three domains of learning in nursing (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) the only domain tested for licensure is the cognitive. Many factors contribute to the lack of testing in the psychomotor area. One of the major impediments is that the entry-level psychomotor domain for registered nursing has yet to be defined. The purpose of this study was to …

Have Charter Schools Materialized Their Promise A Contrast Between Rhetoric And Reality, Mary Kay Kempker-Vandriel

Dissertations

Charter schools are a growing force in American education. Parents are demanding a choice in their child's public education. Are charter schools better than traditional public schools? Have charter schools kept their promise?

In the study regular public schools and charter schools were compared along five dimensions: (a) opportunity for learning and access to quality education, (b) innovative teaching methods and participative management, (c) teacher job satisfaction, (d) parent involvement, and (e) school accountability. Existing data from the 1999/2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) were analyzed with primarily chi-square tests and one t-test. These analyses provided results in relation to …

A Test Of Factor Analysis As A Validation Procedure For Physician Certification Examinations, Jeffrey D. Greene

Dissertations

Two physician certification examinations from different medical specialties were investigated. The purpose of the study was twofold: 1) to determine the similarities between the factor structure of the examinations and their respective tables of specifications; and 2) to demonstrate the relative efficacy of factor analysis in differentiating the structure between two related but dissimilar domains of information. Specialty A is a homogeneous discipline focused on a relatively narrow concentration of organs, body systems and anatomy. This examination contained 309 items. There were 845 cases available for analysis. Specialty B is a heterogeneous area of specialty concerned with numerous areas of …

Load Balancing And Congestion Avoidance Routing, Konstantinos N. Kokkinos

Dissertations

Today’s high speed backbone networks are expected to support a wide range of communication-intensive applications. One of the most important issues in Quality of Service (QoS) is efficient routing. Many QoS routing solutions have been published lately for different criteria of QoS requirements and resource constraints. In this dissertation we focus on the design of regular network topologies and suggest efficient routing schemes to reduce the probability of hot spot creation in the network. Furthermore, we provide a detection of congestion mechanism that reroutes traffic to maintain balancing with small communication cost. Several theoretical results relatively to network traffic balancing …

Economic Development And Social Diversity: The Origin And Composition Of A Systemic Growth Regime In Louisville, Kentucky, 1897-1933, John W. Mctighe

Dissertations

Between the years 1897 and 1933, a systemic growth regime controlled the urban development of Louisville, Kentucky. The city’s growth regime was created in response to changing national patterns of production resulting from industrialization, and was dedicated to both urban economic expansion, as well as internal political and social control. The growth regime functioned in an informal manner through the formal organizations of the city by co-opting selective representatives from the various economic, ethnic, and racial leadership pools of the city. As an informal entity, the growth regime achieved a high degree of urban hegemony and was a structural hierarchy …

Resolvability In Graphs, Varaporn Saenpholphat

Dissertations

The distance d (u, v ) between two vertices u and v in a connected graph G is the length of a shortest u - v path in G . For an ordered set W = { w1 , w2 , [Special characters omitted.] &cdots; , wk } of vertices in G and a vertex v of G , the code of v with respect to W is the k -vector cW (v ) = (d ( v, w1 ),d (v, w 2 ), [Special characters omitted.] &cdots; , d …

Perspectives On Power: John F. Kennedy And U.S.-Middle East Relations, April R. Summitt

Dissertations

A study of President John F. Kennedy's policy toward the Middle East illustrates the agency and unexpected power wielded by so-called "third world" countries during the Cold War era. In spite of careful planning in Washington, Middle East leaders often manipulated and directed Kennedy's approach to the region. Regional actors used American fears of Communism to gain increased financial aid, military support, and influence in the United Nations. Although seeming to submit to Western pressures in exchange for such support, these leaders played both superpowers against each other and shaped policy according to local needs. While this relationship meant a …

Roles And Regulation Of Nf-Xb In Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Transformed Cells, Takeshi Shimamura

Dissertations

Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is overexpressed in various cancer cells and the overexpression may be correlated with the prognosis of several types of cancers. Binding of PDGF to its receptors induces receptor dimerization and subsequent autophosphorylation of tyrosine residues in the receptor’s cytoplasmic domains. The phosphorylated tyrosine residues interact with the secondary signaling molecules to initiate signaling cascades that trigger cellular changes by affecting downstream effectors. In our recent publication, we have shown that a NF-icB mediates the transformation of mouse fibroblast cells overexpressing PDGF B chain. Though there is a significant correlation between PDGF stimulation and N F-kB activity, …

Inbreeding, Male Diploidy, And Complementary Sex Determination In The Solitary Wasp Euodynerus Foraminatus, Julie Kozaczka Stahlhut

Dissertations

In the insect order Hymenoptera, which includes wasps, bees, and ants, females normally develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid, while males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid. Underlying mechanisms of sex determination are more complex and vary among different hymenopteran taxa. One such method is single-locus complementary sex determination, or sl-CSD, in which sex is determined by a single gene locus with many alleles. In species with sl-CSD, diploid individuals that are heterozygous at the sex locus develop as normal females and hemizygous (haploid) individuals as normal males, but diploids homozygous at the sex locus will also develop …

Geoelectrical Response Of An Aged Lnapl Plume: Implications For Monitoring Natural Attenuation, Douglas D. Werkema Jr.

Dissertations

The geoelectric stratigraphy at a site impacted with light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) is investigated for its link to natural biodegradation, its contribution to the conductive model for aged (i.e. mature) LNAPL contaminated sites, and the relationship to the natural hydrologic regime. The highest conductivities (lowest resistivities) were observed in portions o f soils where LNAPL was in residual and free phase. Corroborating evidence from bacteria enumeration from soil close to the vertical resistivity probe (VRP) installations show orders-of-magnitude increase in both heterotrophic and oil degrading microbes at the depths where the conductivity was at a maximum. The coincidence o …

Geochemical And Isotopic Characteristics Associated With High Conductivities In A Shallow Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Aquifier, Franklyn D. Legall

Dissertations

In-situ vertical resistivity probes (VRPs) deployed at a hydrocarboncontaminated site in SW Michigan showed high soil conductivities within the contaminated zone. Within this zone, different phases of hydrocarbon impact were recognized, namely, zones with residual and dissolved phase hydrocarbons (RDH) and zones where these phases coexist with free product (RDFH). Bulk soil conductivities were highest ( 12 to 30 mS/m) in the zone with RDFH compared to the RDH zone (10 to 25 mS/m). Groundwater chemistry and stable carbon isotope data from closely spaced vertical samples within the anomalous conductive zones were used to provide evidence for biodegradation and to …

After Turning Points: Evidence Of The Adoption Of Middle School Reforms In The United States 1987-2000., Nancy Barnes Mansberger

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the adoption by U.S. middle schools of key practices recommended by the 1989 Turning Points report. Three questions were examined: (1) To what extent have the organizational practices identified by research to impact the development of "small learning communities" been adopted by U.S. middle schools? (2) To what extent do the instructional practices of U.S. middle school teachers reflect developmentally responsive or traditional/bureaucratic methods?, and (3) Do the instructional practices of U.S. middle school teachers differ between those who teach in schools with developmentally responsive organizational practices and those who teach in …

New Statitstical Methods For The Estimation Of The Mean And Standard Deviation From Normally Distributed Censored Samples, Abou El-Makarim Abd El-Alim Aboueissa

Dissertations

The main objective of this dissertation is to estimate the mean /x and standard deviation cr of a normal population from left-censored samples. We have developed new methods for calculating estimates for the mean and standard deviation of a normal population from left-censored samples. Some of these methods based on traditional estimating procedures. A new method of obtaining the Cohen maximum likelihood estimates for fx and cr without the aid of an auxiliary table will be introduced. This new method will be used to extend Cohen table of estimating the Cohen A-parameter that is required for calculating the maximum likelihood …

Three Essays On Economic Reform: Effects On Human Development, Fertility, And Factor Shares, Khaled Ibrahim Abdel-Kader

Dissertations

This dissertation contains three essays on economic reform programs supported by the IMF and World Bank. Using appropriate theoretical and empirical models, we investigate the impact of reform on three aspects of economic development: (1) human development, (2) fertility, and (3) income shares of factors of production. In the first essay, we examine the long-run impact of reform on different measures o f human development and income. Empirical results show that reform has long-run positive impact on GDP per capita and measures of human development. However, worse initial macroeconomic conditions offset this impact. In the second essay, we examine the …

Co-Occurring Disorders And Selective Substance Use In Females Ages 10 To 25 Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Nancy A. Clinton

Dissertations

The paucity o f research on females diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) precipitated this exploratory investigation into co-occurring disorders and selective substance use in females (n = 70), ranging in age between 10 and 25, diagnosed with ADHD and substance use disorder (SUD). Data extracted from archived substance abuse treatment center records were tested via chi-square analyses to determine proportional differences between frequencies in predetermined co-occurring disorder groups (disruptive behavior disorders, moodanxiety disorders, and learning disorders) and predetermined substance groups (stimulant, depressant, and cannabis) for the total ADHD cohort and for specific diagnoses (inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive, combined, and with …

Examining The Similarities And Differences In Benefits Of School-To-Work As A Workforce Development Strategy: A Study Of Key Stakeholder Involvement Using A Multiple Case Study Approach, Alton Leon Alford

Dissertations

Violence is a significant occupational hazard in the American workplace. Nearly a thousand employees are murdered on the job each year and workplacehomicide has become the leading cause of death for women and the second for men. From 1993 to 1999, there were an average of 1.7 million nonfatal violent victimizations each year, accounting for 18% of all violent crime. Although government employees accounted for 18% of the U.S. workforce, they made up 37% of workplace violence victims.

A review of literature found no unified definition of workplace violence. Recent scientific research regarding this problem is rare, despite its increasing …

A Study Of The Leadership Preparedness Of U.S. Public University Chief Business Officers, Daniel J. Hurley

Dissertations

Despite the enormous role that Chief Business Officers (CBOs) play in administering the business and financial affairs of American public universities, little research has been conducted on their leadership preparedness. The primary objectives of this study were to assess the self-perceived preparedness of U.S. public university CBOs at the time they assumed their first position in the role, and to determine if specific factors could be associated with their overall preparedness.

With support from the National Association of College and University Business Officers, a survey was developed and mailed to the entire population of CBOs at four-year public universities in …

Perceptions Of A Prejudiced Campus: Institutional Antecedents And Personal Consequences For African-American Students, Brenda Taylor King

Dissertations

The present research consists of two studies designed to (a) identify those institutional characteristics that African-American students, themselves, consider to evaluate the campus environment of predominately White colleges and universities (PW'CUs). and (b) examine the relationship between African-American students' perceptions o f the campus environment at a PWCU (based on institutional characteristics) and their expectations of quality of life and academic achievement In Study One. African-American and White students at Western Michigan University and high school seniors at two public high schools completed the Campus Climate Survey, designed to identify the institutional characteristics to which African- American students spontaneously attend …

Testing The Effectiveness Of Behavioral Activation Therapy In The Treatment Of Acute Unipolar Depression, Jenifer M. Cullen

Dissertations

The present study sought to investigate the clinical effectiveness of Behavioral Activation (BA) Therapy, the behavioral activation component of Beck's Cognitive Therapy (CT; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). Seventeen adults seeking mental health services for Unipolar Depression were recruited from the Kalamazoo and Southwestern Michigan regions. All participants were randomly assigned to either (a) an Immediate Treatment Group, or (b) a waitlist control group, while both received 10 weeks o f BA therapy. Depressive symptomatology for both conditions were assessed at pretreatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, Ball, & Ranieri, 1996), the …

Factors Affecting Superintendent Longevity In Michigan, Sally Hipp

Dissertations

Theory and research surrounding the issue o f longevity of superintendents seemed contradictory in the literature. On the one hand, the average length of time a superintendent serves in his/her position has not changed noticeably over the last few decades. Yet many researchers were reporting a crises in this field because the applicant pool seemed to be shrinking and longevity of superintendents in large urban districts was reported to be lower than the average longevity rate of 5-6 years. In addition the perception of many of the superintendents in the field was that the turnover rate of superintendents was on …

Teaching My Son To Be A Father: The Plight Of Unmarried Adolescent African American Fathers, Michael George Till

Dissertations

A quantitative research design was utilized to examine and understand the perceptions of fatherhood and manhood held by unmarried African American adolescent fathers. In face-to-face 60-90 minute interviews using a semistructured interview guide developed by the researcher, participants were asked open-ended questions to provide these young men with a voice and an opportunity to express their needs, support, neglect, understanding, and perception of how society views them and its impact on the functioning of the family unit. Using purposeful sampling, 10 unmarried African American adolescent fathers, located in the southwestern area of Michigan, were interviewed for data collection.

Interviews were …

The Effectiveness Of Behavioral Activation Group Therapy: Treating Comorbid Depression On A Specialized Inpatient Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Unit For Combat Veterans, Theodore P. Wright

Dissertations

The comorbidity of depression and PTSD has been shown to be relatively prevalent. Researchers have found a 70% lifetime prevalence o f comorbid PTSD and depression among combat veterans. This study examined the effectiveness of a behavioral activation (BA) group treatment when administered to combat veterans with comorbid depression and PTSD in the residential treatment program at the Battle Creek Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Forty-five veterans participated in the study. Twenty-four veterans participated in a BA treatment group while in the treatment program. Twenty-one veterans attended the treatment program, but did not participate in the BA treatment group and served …

On Rank-Based Considerations For Generalized Linear Models And Generalized Estimating Equation Models, Diana R. Cucos

Dissertations

This study discusses rank-based robust methods for estimation of parameters and hypotheses testing in the generalized linear models (GLM) and generalized estimating equations (GEE) setting. The robust estimates are obtained by minimizing a Wilcoxon drop in dispersion function for linear or nonlinear regression models. In addition, diagnostic tools for outliers and influential observations are being developed. These models are generalizations of linear and nonlinear models. They allow for both nonlinear mean functions and heteroscedasticity of their random errors. This makes them quite useful in practice. Rank-based inference has been developed for linear models over the last thirty years. This inference …