Digital Commons Network^™

Using A Computer Program About Pediatric Hearing Evaluations To Help Educate Parents, Jeanne E. Aleskus

Dissertations and Theses

Hearing assessment techniques, and counseling for the pediatric population are different from those used on adults. Parents will often not have any prior knowledge of how their child's hearing will be assessed. Therefore, many questions may pertain to the mechanics of the evaluation. Audiologists may find the questions take away some of their counseling time and they have less time to discuss the diagnosis and prognosis of the child. The purpose of this study was to determine if a computer program developed with information about pediatric evaluations could be used to educate individuals about this process. Twenty subjects were involved …

Material Origins, Carol E. Minchin

Dissertations and Theses

The intent of this thesis project was to use sculpture as a means of investigation for exploring the structural uses of Masonite, and to understand how those uses affect the nature of my work.

The transformation of this material into form becomes the a process that is adjusted and refined until a formal solution is found.

The tension, texture, scale, and form of the work contribute to a dialogue that results in sculptures that reference the human body and the growth of plants.

Songs And Stories That Only You Know: Multiplicity, Meaning, & The Metaphorical Bridge, Matthew Haggett

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis report will serve as a companion for the body of work that is the bulk of the thesis project. The theme of the thesis project is "the bridge". "The bridge" is a metaphor for meaning occurring through context. It is present on many levels. It will implicit in much of the discussion. I will include themes such as the play of differing scales, the ambiguous line between part and whole, and the reasons for the book format . Specific imagery that occurs repeatedly in the work, like architecture and knots, will be explained in terms of its sources, …

Jacob And Wilhelm Grimm's Fairy Tales And Children, Cornelia Marianne Seigneur

Dissertations and Theses

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm prided themselves on the notion that their collection of fairy tales, the Kinder-und Hausmärchen, was poetry from the Volk. Through their collection they sought to preserve the culture of a Germany disrupted by Napoleon.

Although the Grimm brothers did not originally set out to write children's literature, it became a natural progression for their fairy tales to be used for children.

The Grimms were certain that their fairy tales should be read to children. They saw the naturalness in their tales, thereby claiming that the Kinder-und Hausmärchen would be a good "Erziehungsbuch." As people …

Phonological Awareness Skills In Children With Highly Unintelligible Speech, Sheryl Mohwinkel

Dissertations and Theses

The phonological awareness skills of children with language disorders has been well addressed throughout the literature. Research into the phonological awareness skills of children with highly unintelligible speech, however, is still in its infancy. One published study has looked at the relationship between phonological awareness skills in children with persistent phonological impairments and in children with normal phonology (Webster & Plante, 1992). Significantly higher scores were recorded on three of the four phonological awareness measures for the children with normal phonology As phonology improved, so did the children's phonological awareness skills. The purposes of the present study were to determine …

Influence Of Articulation And Phonology Intervention On Children's Social And Emotional Characteristics, Tracy Lynn Carlisle

Dissertations and Theses

It would be useful to obtain information about social and emotional characteristics in children who are receiving articulation/phonological intervention in order to assess the effectiveness of various treatment approaches from a social/emotional perspective. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not articulation and phonological intervention influences children's social and emotional characteristics as perceived by their parents and, if so, which articulation approach (traditional vs. phonological cycling) results in more improvement in different domains of social and emotional characteristics. The specific social and emotional characteristics explored in this study are social skills, communication, independence, self-esteem, and domestic responsibility …

Family Coping And Adaptation To Traumatic Brain Injury, Richard Francis Burton

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to (a) briefly describe the dynamics of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that most commonly affects the family including: injury characteristics, personality changes, psychosocial implications, and the family impact; (b) research and summarize the literature that pertains to the impact of TBI behavior; (c) review and explain considerations for families and counselors working with the injured patient and each other; (d) review published empirical studies on specific support interventions that address family adaptation and coping methods for those that are facing TBI; and (e) review compare and contrast relevant TBI materials designed to measure effective …

Children With Early Language Delay: A Group Case Study Of Outcomes In Intermediate Grades, Tracey Abild-Lane

Dissertations and Theses

Current research in early language development suggests that children who were diagnosed during preschool with expressive language delay would demonstrate difficulties during elementary school years. This purpose of the present study was to qualitatively describe the outcome of children with a history of early language delay and differing levels of expressive performance (ELD and HELD), as reported by the parents. A questionnaire was developed to determine the children's current age and grade level, past and present reading ability and reading interests, best and worst academic subject, special services and diagnosed disability, speech and language concerns, friendships concerns, and behavioral and …

Japanese Students' Perception Of Their Language Learning Strategies, Michiyo Ozawa

Dissertations and Theses

Students' use of language learning strategies (LLSs) is affected by their educational backgrounds and academic requirements, and so are their attitudes toward language learning. This study investigates Japanese students' perception of their English LLSs in different language environments: Japan and the United States.

A group of 43 Japanese students from Otemae College participated in a cultural study program at Portland State University. The group consisted of 28 students who studied for two terms (ST Group) and 15 students who studied for three terms (LT Group).

In this study, a combination of a self-assessment questionnaire, dialogue journals, and a card-ranking activity …

Contention-Free Scheduling Of Communication Induced By Array Operations On 2d Meshes, Andreas Bernhard Georg Eberhart

Dissertations and Theses

Whole array operations and array section operations are important features of many data-parallel languages. Efficient implementation of these operations on distributed-memory multicomputers is critical to the scalability and high-performance of data-parallel programs. This thesis presents an approach for analyzing communication patterns induced by array operations and for using run-time information to schedule the message flow. The distributed, dynamic scheduling algorithms guarantee link-contention-free data transfer and utilize network resources almost optimally. They incur little overhead, which is important in order not to reduce the speedup gained by the parallel execution. The algorithms can be used by compilers for the generation of …

Understanding Ki In The Daily Experience Of Advanced Practitioners Of Aikido: A Phenomenological Study, Steven C. Andress

Dissertations and Theses

Ki, Japanese for living energy (Chi in Chinese), is at the absolute core of the Oriental model of medicine and wellness. Complementary to this model, many Oriental martial art exercises have evolved to cultivate Ki for optimal health. However, the concept of Ki remains poorly understood and relatively unexplored in traditional Western health and medical literature. Further, the health focus of martial art research has remained primarily concerned with the arts' contribution to psychological health. This has left a significant gap in our understanding of the other health benefits that these arts and Ki have to offer. To begin closing …

An Assessment Of The Needs Of International Students For Student Services At Southern Oregon State College, Molly K. Emmons

Dissertations and Theses

International students at our institutions of higher education have educational and personal needs which extend beyond the classroom. These needs are supposedly provided for by student personnel services, but little data has been collected which examines how international students use student services, and if their use differs significantly from use by American students. If their perceptions of students services and use of these resources does differ, what does that signify? This study measures the use and perceptions of student services by international and American students at Southern Oregon State College. Twenty-one philosophical objectives were examined for levels of importance, effectiveness, …

Circuit Implementation Of A High-Speed Continuous-Time Current-Mode Field Programmable Analog Array (Fpaa), Osama K. Shana'a

Dissertations and Theses

The growing interest in programmable analog circuits has led to the development of Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAAs). An FPAA consists of: 1) a programmable cell that can be reconfigured to perform several analog functions. 2) an architecture that interconnects a number of copies of the programmable cell.

In this thesis, the full monolithic circuit implementation of the analog part of the programmable cell is presented. Chapter I gives an introduction to the idea of FPAA and introduces the FPAA architecture and the cell block diagram. Chapter II deals with the design and verification of a differential current-mode four-quadrant multiplier. …

An Analysis Of Japanese Learners' Comprehension Of Intonation In English, Misako Okubo

Dissertations and Theses

Typically, most native speakers of Japanese, who have been taught English in Japan, have had limited exposure to prosodic features of English. Consequently, their ability to understand the meaning of different intonation patterns is limited as well. Though it is generally accepted that intonation plays a crucial role in English communication, comprehensive pedagogical materials for teaching English intonation to native speakers of Japanese are not widely available or used in Japan. This is, in part, due to the complexity of English prosodic features and their abstractness. A better understanding of these barriers requires that the extent and the nature of …

An Integrated Approach To Theories Of Loss And Adaptation To Disability, Marjorie Anne White

Dissertations and Theses

Many theories have been proposed that attempt to explain response and adaptation to loss. However, no one theory has been shown to be universally applicable to all individuals suffering a loss. This paper presents an overview of many of these theories, paying special attention to the relationship between the theories of loss and adaptation to disability. The theories include the psychoanalytic model of loss, stage models of adaptation to loss, the value change theory of acceptance of loss, chronic sorrow, the cognitive adaptation theory, the stress and coping model, developmental theory, and the existential perspective on loss and grief. The …

What In God's Name: The Ordination Of Women And The Inclusive Language Liturgy Movement, Marylee L. Prince

Dissertations and Theses

In the years since World War II, increasing numbers of women have been ordained as clergy in mainstream Protestant denominations. During this period there has also been a movement to use inclusive language for God. This study examines the possibility that use of inclusive language for God in communal prayer by congregations in specific denominations (United Methodist Church, United Presbyterian Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Church of Christ, and the Episcopal Church USA) is related to experience with women clergy. Interviews, based on a questionnaire developed for this study, were held with the pastors of six Portland …

Effects Of Posttraining Maintenance Sessions On Aphasic Subjects' Verbal Labeling, Connie Allene Freed

Dissertations and Theses

For many years, treatment for word retrieval deficits has involved the use of various cueing techniques to help trigger retrieval of target words. Research has shown that accuracy for future retrieval of target words is best achieved by training subjects with semantically based cues. Personalized cues that are created by the subjects themselves to help remember a target word have been shown to be the most effective of the semantically based cues. However, even with the use of personalized cues, accuracy for naming tasks has been found to decrease once training is completed. Current research in memory indicates that, for …

Intervention History Of Children With Slow Expressive Language Development, Kathleen Belfiore

Dissertations and Theses

Children who are identified with slow expressive language development (SELD) around the age of two are producing less than fifty intelligible words or no two word phrases. Current research suggests that some children with SELD outgrow their delay while others continue to develop long term language difficulties. The literature shows varied findings of short term recovery but long term deficits, and shifts in the specific expressive language deficits as the child with SELD matures and encounters increased language demands. Suggestions are found for a mix of monitoring and early intervention, in step with signs of readiness and dynamic assessments, to …

Creating Knowledge About The Literacy Needs Of Juvenile Offenders: Reflections On A Qualitative Research Project, Regina Nadia Eastman

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis attempts to problematize a collective silence around the concept of race that developed in a Research Methodology English 510 course taught by Dr. Gradin, the Director of Writing at Portland State University, during the Fall quarter of 1995. The members of ENG 510 created a qualitative research protocol that was intended to create knowledge about the literacy needs of juvenile offenders. This was done in partnership with the Juvenile Rights Project, a non-profit advocate for juveniles in the Multnomah county courts, and with Portland Youth Redirection, a program that offers detention alternatives to juvenile offenders. The research was …

Fire Ants, Joyce Marie Riha

Dissertations and Theses

Loss is a fundamental part of the human experience, from the loss of security and innocence that comes with the necessary separation of child from parent to the ultimate loss of life. Along the way, there are the losses of jobs, of incomes, of homes; the losses of friendships, of family members, of lovers; the losses of direction, of control, of hope. As cognitive and caring beings, humans struggle to cope with these losses, to greater and lesser degrees of success. This is the theme at the heart of this thesis. Fire Ants is composed of ten short stories, fictive …

Fluorinated Polymer Films: Synthesis And Characterization, Anja Ulrike Schnurer

Dissertations and Theses

Three polyfluoroalkyl epoxides, (I OCH₂CHCH₂OCF₂CF₂SO₂F, II OCH₂CHCH₂(CF₂)₈F and III OCH₂CHCH₂O(CF₂)CF(CF₃)SO₂F) were photopolymerized with a cycloaliphatic diepoxide (Cyracure UVR-6110) to form highly crosslinked glassy films. Depth-dependent surface analysis with XPS show that these films are highly enriched with sulfonyl fluoride groups in the outer molecular surface. Film compositions of 17 % wt and more of the fluorinated I and III show surface characteristics of a film composed of 100 % wt of the …

Wandering Man, Sean R. Cowne

Dissertations and Theses

The Old West of stories, movies, and folklore is of course a time and place that never existed, yet, over a century, has bloomed into an elaborate, romantic, sometimes tragic fantasy firmly rooted in the collective mythic consciousness of Americans. Wandering Man is a novel that attempts to accentuate the mythic tendencies of the Western subgenre, even at the expense of realism. An attempt to recognize the American fascination with our nineteenth century westward expansion as a construction of myth is endeavored through deliberate parallels with stories universally deemed "mythic:" Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The protagonist of Wandering Man is …

The Reception Theory Of Hans Robert Jauss: Theory And Application, Paul Hunter Rockhill

Dissertations and Theses

Hans Robert Jauss is a professor of literary criticism and romance philology at the University of Constance in Germany. Jauss co-founded the University of Constance and the Constance group of literary studies. Hans Robert Jauss's version of reception theory was introduced in the late 1960s, a period of social, political, and intellectual instability in West Germany. Jauss's reception theory focused on the reader rather than the author or text. The original reception of a text was compared to a later reception, revealing different literary receptions and their evolution. Jauss's Rezeptionsgeschichte (history of reception) illustrated the evolution of the reception of …

Oregon Territorial Governor John Pollard Gaines: A Whig Appointee In A Democratic Territory, Katherine Louise Huit

Dissertations and Theses

In 1846 negotiations between Great Britain and the United States resulted in the end of the Joint Occupancy Agreement and the Pacific Northwest became the property of the United States. Nineteenth Century Oregon represented a new beginning for many citizens of the United States and around the world. The settlers arriving in the Oregon Country consisted of a hardy, self reliant, breed; yet they sought the protection of the United States government from Native Americans living in the region and from Great Britain's Hudson's Bay Company. When Oregon became a territory, in 1848, the pioneers struggled to preserve their independence. …

Understanding Pre-Service Teachers' Conceptualizations Of Diversity, Terrine Louise Borwn Vogt

Dissertations and Theses

"Diversity" has become a word associated with many professions, institutions, and contexts, paired with words such as standards, consultants, training, awareness and others. However, the researcher focused on how diversity is defined or conceptualized by pre-service teachers at Portland State University. Diversity is especially important as it relates to educators and pre-service teachers. Teachers will, today, be instructing children of different backgrounds and races more than ever in the past (Ross & Smith, 1992). And teachers conceptualizations and behaviors have profound impacts on student performance and success. In an effort to come to understand the ways pre-service teachers conceptualize "diversity," …

Distribution Of Ionized And Neutral Halogenated Phenols In An Octanol-Water Membrane Model System, Robert Word

Dissertations and Theses

The accumulation of xenobiotics, such as halogenated phenols, in soils, sediments, and living organisms is primarily a partitioning process between an aquatic and organic phase. It is traditional to use a bulk octanol-water system to model the partitioning of a compound between complex biological lipid membranes and aqueous media. The octanol-water partition coefficient K_OW successfully approximates the lipid membrane-water partition coefficient K_LipW of neutral compounds. However, the ionized species of substituted phenols were shown to have a higher affinity for lipid membranes than predicted from octanol-water results.

Data on the octanol-water partition coefficients of molecular ions is limited. …

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: Halfway between infancy and adulthood lie life’s most confusing years—adolescence; Professor Gordon Dodds tells an American tale of rebirth and second chances; alumni share their memories of Portland State in celebration of the university’s 50th anniversary; the new Center for Academic Excellence dismantles tradition in order to boost teaching skills; a PSU prof is finding new links between genes and addiction; PSU salutes friends, faculty, and alumni who have made a difference to the university and the community; and more.

Mutation Analysis Of Fibrillin-2 (Fbn2) And Microfibril Associated Protein-3 (Mfap-3): Two Genes Associated With Congenital Contractural Arachnodactyly (Cca), Also Known As Beal's Syndrome, Darcie Babcock

Dissertations and Theses

Congenital Contractural Arachnodactyly (CCA), also known as Beal's syndrome, is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by multiple congenital joint contractures, arachnodactyly, dolichostenomelia, and scoliosis with only rare ocular or cardiovascular involvement. CCA has been linked to the fibrillin-2 (FBN2) gene located on chromosome 5q23-31. The phenotype ofCCA is similar to Marfan syndrome (MFS) which is caused by defects in the fibrillin-1 (FBNl) gene located on chromosome 15. Fibrillin-1 and fibrillin-2 are components of extracellular matrix (ECM) elastic microfibrils. The linkage studies performed on families affected with CCA suggest that another gene in the area ofFBN2 could also be responsible for …

Nmr Study Of Neurophysin Dimer Dissociation By Cosolvents, Jian Yao

Dissertations and Theses

Neurophysins (NPs) make up a relatively small, stable, and highly soluble class of proteins. They have physiological roles of storage and stabilizing' of peptide hormones oxytocin and vasopression within the posterior pituitary neurosecretory granules. At the concentration of NP found within the granules, NP would exist as a dimer in the absence or presence of bound peptide. The NP monomer-monomer interface involves B-sheet/ B-sheet contact, which can be modulated by the presence of cosolvent. This remarkable feature of NP makes it a model for Alzheimer's disease. One of the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease is the presence of plaques of B-amyloid …

A History Of Transportation In Nineteenth Century Umatilla County, Oregon, Gary Kenneth Miller

Dissertations and Theses

An examination of the history of transportation in Umatilla County, Oregon, will provide an understanding of its role in the colonization and economic development of this remote and arid region. This study begins with a description of the movement of Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse Indians in the Umatilla Country to establish the patterns of transportation at the beginning of the nineteenth century. From this basis, significant changes in transportation technology and patterns of movement can be identified and analyzed.

Primary sources are reviewed to establish existing routes and conditions of travel. Immigrant accounts and pioneer reminiscences reveal that difficulties …