Digital Commons Network^™

Minimization Of Sum-Of-Conditional-Decoders Structures With Applications In Finite Machine Epld Design And Machine Learning, Sanof Mohamedsadakathulla

Dissertations and Theses

In order to achieve superior speed in sequencer designs over competing PLD devices, Cypress brought to market an innovative architecture, CY7C361. This architecture introduced a new kind of universal logic gate, the CONDITION DECODER (CDEC). Because there are only 32 macrocells in the chip, saving only one CDEC gate can be quite important (the well-known "fit/no-fit problem"). A problem that is related to the fitting problem of the Cypress CY7C361 chip is the SOC Minimization. Due to the limited low number of macrocells in CY7C361, a high quality logic minimization to reduce the number of macrocells is very important. The …

A Study Comparing Musical Abilities Of Stutterers And Nonstutterers, Megan Creswell

Dissertations and Theses

Rhythm is a feature of both music and speech that has been successfully used in the treatment of speech disorders, particularly stuttering, for many years. The successful use of rhythm in the treatment of dysf luencies of speech may be due to stutterers' perceptual deficiencies in music and rhythm abilities. Research supports the view that there are differences between stutterers and nonstutterers in timing and rhythmic capabilities. This study, therefore, sought to determine whether there was a difference between the perceptual musical abilities of stutterers versus nonstutterers as measured by the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents, Revised (1960). Data collected …

Limiting Noise Exposure Associated With Hearing Aid Use, Alison Mary Gilbert

Dissertations and Theses

Industrial workers who have sustained hearing losses often wear hearing aids on the job in order to hear their co-worker's speech. However they risk damaging their hearing further by amplifying the high levels of background noise typical of such environments. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established guidelines to protect workers' hearing. A maximum allowable level of 90 dBA averaged over a period of eight hours is considered safe. Wearing hearing aids on the job may expose an individual to a considerably higher levels, however no guidelines as to maximum allowable levels of amplified noise exist at this …

Perceived Fairness Of A Child-Care Subsidy In A Temporary Agency: An Equity Theory Approach, Pamela Bermudez

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to extend research findings on perceived equity into the context of the contingent workforce by examining employees' perceived fairness of a child-care subsidy (i.e., distributive justice perception) in a temporary employment agency. The variables of interest to the study were perceived fairness, comparison other, input importance, organizational responsibility and family-friendliness. The variables were examined on three levels of subsidy status (i.e., subsidy group, parents/no-subsidy group, and nonparents group). A cover letter and a questionnaire regarding perceived fairness of the child-care subsidy were mailed to all employees who had worked for the temporary agency in …

The Leadership Of John Mcloughlin In Relation To The People And Events Of Pacific Northwest History, 1824-1846, John David Holliday

Dissertations and Theses

In a day when governments, judicial systems, businesses, and religious and social organizations are increasingly faced with such issues as population growth, crime, political correctness, and economic and environmental instability there is a correspondingly increased demand for able, responsible and inspired leaders. Though prominent historical figures took their stand in an era much different from our own, they faced many problems which share a common root with those of any age. A closer look at such individuals not only illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of their characters but offers valuable insights regarding the nature of their failures and successes. It …

American Students' Expectations Of Teachers In The Japanese Language Classroom, Nariyo Kono

Dissertations and Theses

The Japanese as a foreign language classroom in the United States is full of information about the target culture and cross-cultural interaction between American students and Japanese instructors. This cross-cultural interaction promotes culture learning but sometimes produces potential conflicts due to American students and Japanese instructors having different expectations of each other.

The purpose of this study was to investigate student expectations of their Japanese teachers and to explore similarities and differences among Japanese and American expectations. The research questions addressed were 1) What do American students expect of their Japanese teachers in the Japanese language classroom? Do their expectations …

Dna Sequences Involved In The Regulation Of Human C-Myc Gene Expression By Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (Hsv-1), Shanli Ye

Dissertations and Theses

The human c-myc gene is a cellular proto-oncogene composed of three exons and two introns. Transcription of c-myc is controlled by two promoters, P1 and P2. The activity of these promoters is regulated by many factors, such as cellular transcription factors E2F, YY1, and HSV-1 immediate-early proteins, ICP0, ICP4.

Many regulatory elements located both upstream of and between P1 and P2 have been identified, and some of these are required for optimum expression of c-myc. In this thesis research, a region downstream from P2 in the c-myc exon 1 was identified by its response to transactivation …

An Analysis Of Oregon Department Of Transportation Planned Highway Construction Projects For Selected Years From 1978 To 1992, Glen A. Fleming

Dissertations and Theses

Construction of highway projects is one of the most important and expensive state government functions. Highway construction projects bring revenue and jobs to the locales in which they are built, in addition to providing a better transportation infrastructure within or between communities, states or nations.

In the state of Oregon, its Department of Transportation (ODOT) publishes a document forecasting planned highway construction expenditures for the next six years. This document was called, until recently the six-year highway program; it is the Department's primary programming document for planned highway construction expenditures in the next six years, with updates every two years. …

A Swamp In The Desert: Theory, Water Policy, And Malheur Lake Basin, Cristin R. Mandaville

Dissertations and Theses

Two perspectives are debated in current United States water policy model development. One perspective calls for policy based on normative values, such as an environmental ethic. The second perspective calls for policy based on empirical, quantifiable values, for instance, economic benefits and costs. This theoretical debate arises from differing assumptions about what is problematic in contemporary water policy, and in turn gives rise to many water policy models. Developing such models ostensibly provides frameworks useful for developing real-world water policies. This paper proposes that these water policy models are not in fact useful frameworks for policy applications because the models …

People On The Edges Of Dreams, Francesca B. French

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is composed of a collection of twelve short stories, varying in length from 2 to 14 pages. Each story contains its own discrete theme, but fits as well within the overarching theme of the collection as a whole. This overarching theme is what gives the collection its cohesiveness. The main theme of the larger work can be found in the title of the collection, People on the Edges of Dreams. In many of the stories dreams, or dream-states, figure in the lives of the protagonists. In addition to the dream-state theme there is a less obvious theme, which …

Complexity Properties Of The Cellular Automaton Game Of Life, Andreas Rechtsteiner

Dissertations and Theses

The Game of Life is probably the most famous cellular automaton. Life shows all the characteristics of Wolfram's complex Class IV cellular automata: long-lived transients, static and propagating local structures, and the ability to support universal computation.

We examine in this thesis questions about the geometry and criticality of Life. We find that Life has two different regimes with different dimensionalities. In the small scale regime Life shows a fractal dimensionality with D_s = 0.658 and in the large scale regime D₁ = 2.0, suggesting that the objects of Life are randomly distributed. We find that Life …

Social Support As A Buffer Of The Relationship Between Work And Family Involvement And Work-Family Conflict, Tracy Lynn Monzon

Dissertations and Theses

With dual-career couples and single-parent families on the rise, adults may find themselves overloaded with work and family responsibilities, resulting in the experience of work-family conflict (WFC). Further, employers appear to be demanding more from their employees, while giving less. Therefore, it is important to discover ways in which to manage the conflict between the work and family domains. Since level of involvement within a particular domain has been previously demonstrated to have a positive effect on WFC, the present study examined the possible moderating effects of social support on the relationship between work and family involvement and WFC. Surveys …

Botanical Variations, Anthony Bernert

Dissertations and Theses

The botanical theme in my art developed from years of photographing the native flora of Oregon with a macro-lens and studying botany and natural history. The appreciation which I developed for the evolution of flora and fauna and for the balances and complexities of the environments that sustain them is reflected in the work that I completed during my two years in the Master of Fine Arts program. The composition of the abstract paintings in acrylic medium which I completed my first year in the program were based on the cycles and seasons of nature. Repetition and variation of pictorial …

Equivalent Relationship Of Function-Level Representation And Implementation Of Unified Indexing Of Fft Algorithms, Nee-Hua Cho

Dissertations and Theses

With the advance of the VLSI technology, the FFT algorithm has been pushed further in solving the multidimensional array signal processing in real time. Many DSP chip users have tried to find ways to improve addressing huge data in multidimension systems with minimum cost and maximum performance. However, there is no efficient method to address data for 1-D to M-D FFTs.

A methodology has been defined to conquer the addressing problem of M-D FFT. It is well known that the twiddle factor matrix of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) can be recursively factored into basic butterfly stage matrices. The matrix can …

Effects Of Receptive Language Deficits On Persisting Expressive Language Delays, Traci Lee Giacherro

Dissertations and Theses

Predicting language outcomes in children who at age two are "late talkers" is a concern of Speech Language Pathologists. Currently, there is no conclusive data allowing specialists to predict which children will outgrow their delays and which children will not. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the effect of a receptive language delay on the outcome of the slow expressive language delayed child, and determine whether or not it is a viable predictor of poor outcomes.

The subject information used in this project was compiled from the data collected and reported by Paul (1991) during the Portland …

Malt Drying Model Verification For Efficiency Improvement, John David Kribs

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this work has been to minimize the thermal energy required to dry malt in deep beds while maintaining malt quality, and without increasing the drying time more than one hour. Malt drying usually takes place in deep bed (. 7-1 m) driers by forcing hot air through the bed. Measurements of inlet and outlet relative humidity, temperature, and airflow at a drier at Great Western Malting Company's Vancouver, Washington facility were made to find average moisture content versus time. The measurements were used to develop a wetted surface model of a malt bed. However, the model was …

Influence Of Heater Orientation On Fluctuations In Steady-State Nucleate Boiling, William F. Osborne

Dissertations and Theses

In observations of steady-state nucleate boiling, fluctuations in the temperature and heat flux might initially appear to be completely random. However, it was shown that, for a vertically mounted platinum wire in liquid nitrogen, the fluctuations about the steady-state exhibit an average counterclockwise circulation when the heat flux is plotted versus the superheat temperature. An area associated with the average circulation was proposed as a numerical measure of stability for steady-state nucleate boiling. The mechanisms for the generation of these fluctuations are thought to be the feedback of the bubbles rising past the wire and the differential heating and cooling …

John Rawls, Feminism, And The Gendered Self, Lori Kinder Macarthur

Dissertations and Theses

John Rawls's theory of justice, which he calls "justice as fairness," has proven to be most influential with regard to the course of contemporary political theory. In both of Rawls's books, A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism, his aim was to present a theoretically-compelling defense of deontological liberalism, and to present a set of principles by which to fairly order a just society. While Rawls's project has attracted a fair number of proponents over the years, it has also been a popular target for liberal and nonliberal critics alike. A recurrent theme among these criticisms has been an objection …

The Use Of The First Language (L1) And The Target Language (Tl) In The Foreign Language Classroom, Jeanine L. Huber

Dissertations and Theses

Oftentimes it is the foreign language classroom that provides the basic foundation for language exposure and acquisition. In the context of the foreign language classroom there is not much exposure to the TL outside of this setting. This being the case, the quantity of the TL should be relatively high as it is an essential requisite for language acquisition. In addition, most recent research tends to suggest that high quantities of TL from the instructor is ideal. The main purpose of this study has been to focus on university-level foreign language classrooms to explore the issue of language choice, Ll …

Medieval Christocentric Imagery In Selected Novels By Georges Bernanos, Catherine Ann Elia

Dissertations and Theses

In the fictional world of the twentieth century author, Georges Bernanos, a medieval spirituality is reflected through Christocentric imagery. This study highlights the Christocentric focus of medieval spirituality found in three bernanosian characters: Donissan in Sous le Soleil de Satan, Chantal in La Joie, and le cure d'Ambricourt in Journal d'un cure de campagne. Two medieval images, the Mirror and the Way, provided a backdrop for considering common thematic characteristics. This study is divided into two parts. Part One comprises two chapters which present background for textual analysis in Bernanos' three novels. Chapter one explores formative elements in medieval spirituality. …

The Love Poems Of John Clare And John Keats: A Comparative Study, Elizabeth Stafford Grodd

Dissertations and Theses

This study addresses lesser known works of romantic poets John Clare and John Keats--Clare's Child Harold and Keats's poems to Fanny Brawne--which I refer to as their love poems because the works are informed by intense feelings the poets had for women they loved. Although these works have been the brunt of negative criticism because Clare was considered insane at the time of the composition of Child Harold and Keats was accused of using the poems to give vent to his personal sufferings, nonetheless I argue that the love poems are significant for several reasons. They are a reflection of …

Evaluable Functions In The GöDel Programming Language: Parsing And Representing Rewrite Rules, Janet Vorvick

Dissertations and Theses

The integration of a functional component into a logic language extends the expressive power of the language. One logic language which would benefit from such an extension is Gödel, a prototypical language at the leading edge of the research in logic programming. We present a modification of the Gödel parser which enables the parsing of evaluable functions in Gödel. As the first part of an extended Gödel, the parser produces output similar to the output from the original Gödel parser, ensuring that Gödel modules are properly handled by the extended-Gödel parser. Parser output is structured to simplify, as much as …

Russian-Speaking Pentecostal Refugees And Adult Esl Programs: Barriers To Participation, Elena Valerijevna Zaitseva

Dissertations and Theses

Pentecostals from the former Soviet Union are the most recent and fastest growing refugee group in Oregon. Because the refugee population's low English skills may increase their dependence upon welfare assistance, their nonparticipation in ESL programs is treated as a social issue. Efforts to increase the English literacy levels of Russian-speaking Pentecostal refugees are limited by lack of empirical data regarding forces that affect this population's decision to participate or not to participate in educational activities. The purpose of this study was to gather information about barriers to participation in ESL programs by adult Russian-speaking Pentecostal refugees. To this end …

Performance Evaluation Of Specialized Hardware For Fast Global Operations On Distributed Memory Multicomputers, Rajesh Madukkarumukumana Sankaran

Dissertations and Theses

Workstation cluster multicomputers are increasingly being applied for solving scientific problems that require massive computing power. Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) is a popular message-passing model used to program these clusters. One of the major performance limiting factors for cluster multicomputers is their inefficiency in performing parallel program operations involving collective communications. These operations include synchronization, global reduction, broadcast/multicast operations and orderly access to shared global variables. Hall has demonstrated that a .secondary network with wide tree topology and centralized coordination processors (COP) could improve the performance of global operations on a variety of distributed architectures [Hall94a]. My hypothesis was that …

Communicative Action As Feminist Epistemology, Todd Nathaniel Gilman

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis proposes that feminist social and political theory adopt the epistemology inherent in Jurgen Habermas's communicative ethics in order to more coherently work toward the goal of freeing individuals from social oppression. This thesis first examines the fundamental differences that exist between the particular claims for knowledge made by the three major schools of feminist theory; the empirical feminists, the standpoint feminists, and those allied with postmodernism. After illuminating the specifics of these feminist claims, the conception of knowledge central to Habermas's thought is explored and shown to be split into three distinct realms; the objective, the social, and …

American Deaf Students In Ennl Classes: A Case Study, Janice Elisabeth Ruhl

Dissertations and Theses

Many deaf students who seek post secondary education need some sort of developmental education in reading and writing to ensure success in college. These students often end up in college preparatory or remedial classes that are designed for native speakers of English. For many of the deaf students entering college, English is a second language or a first language that they have failed to achieve fluency in.

This study describes the experience of two deaf students enrolled in English as a Non-Native Language classes for the first time at an Oregon community college. The Office of Students with Disabilities and …

U.S. Military Intelligence In Mexico, 1917-1927: An Analysis, Corbett S. Gottfried

Dissertations and Theses

The Military Intelligence Division (MID) was the U.S. Army's intelligence agency that reported to the Chief of Staff within the War Department. During the years 1917- 1927, the MID routinely conducted surveillance of Mexico, including: espionage, mail censorship, radio intercepts, intelligence gathering, and development of plans for the invasion of Mexico. This study utilizes a tripartite model to evaluate the production and analysis of military "intelligence" by the MID in Mexico during the period 1917-1927. First, the organization and development of the Military Intelligence Division from its origins in 1885 through the year 1927 is explored with sections on institutional …

Institutionalized Discrimination: Three Cases In The United States Military, Sarah H. Frost

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores institutionalized discrimination in the United States Military by examining the rationales given for policies that exclude, or limit the military service of racial minorities, women and homosexuals, and the rationales given for altering such policies. outgroups such as racial minorities, women and homosexuals are presumed to be a threat to the white male heterosexual majority within the military services. The presence of these outgroups in the military has been officially characterized as threatening to small-unit cohesion, and therefore threatening to military readiness. This thesis was first based upon the assumption that the rationales favoring discriminatory policies, and …

Bridging The Generation Gap In The Works Of Gabrielle Roy, Camille G. Dean

Dissertations and Theses

Gabrielle Roy's novels are filled with images of childhood and aging, of family, of rural and urban French-Canadian settings, and of Roy's experiences as a young, impressionable teacher. The generation gaps present themselves in many human relationships and thread themselves throughout Roy's works. For this thesis, the generation gaps will be studied in three important relationships.

Part One presents largely the relationships within the microcosm of the family. It explores the gap between mothers and daughters. La Rue Deschambault, La Route d'Altamont, and Bonheur d'Occasion are included. The relationship between the father and child in La Rue Deschambault …

Performance Analysis Of A Banyan Based Atm Switching Fabric With Packet Priority, Zhaohui Yan

Dissertations and Theses

Since the emergence of the Asynchronous Transfer Mode ( A TM ) concept, various switching architectures have been proposed. The multistage interconnection networks have been proposed for the switching architecture under the A TM environment. In this thesis, we propose a new model for the performance analysis of an A TM switching fabric based on single-buffered Banyan network. In this model, we use a three-state, i.e., "empty", "new" and "blocked" Markov chain model to describe the behavior of the buffer within a switching element. In addition to traditional statistical analysis including throughput and delay, we also examine the delay variation. …