Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Certain Metrics In Measuring The Quality Of End User Documentation, Ronald Morrison

Dissertations and Theses

Traditional methods of evaluating quality in computer end user documentation have been subjective in nature, and have not been widely used in practice. Attempts to quantify quality and more narrowly define the essential features of quality have been limited -- leaving the issue of quality largely up to the writer of the user manual.

Quantifiable measures from the literature, especially Velotta (1992) and Brockman (1990), have been assembled into a set of uniformly weighted metrics for the measurement of document quality. This measure has been applied to the end user documentation of eighty-two personal computer packages. End user documentation is …

Comparative Scores Of Hearing-Impaired And Normally Hearing Children Given The Carolina Picture Vocabulary Test, Barbara Ann Mccomb

Dissertations and Theses

It is important that educators use adequate assessment procedures when placing hearing-impaired children in mainstreamed settings. Receptive vocabulary tests are part of the standardized test battery and can provide educators with valuable information. Although there has been a receptive vocabulary test recently developed for use with hearing-impaired children (CPVT), the most commonly used test with this population is the PPVT-R, which is standardized on normally hearing children. In order to further explore the difference between the receptive vocabulary of hearing-impaired and normally hearing children, a test standardized on hearing-impaired should be used.

The purpose of the present study was to …

Comparison Of Ion Adsorption To Phophatidylcholine/Phosphatidylserine And Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Membranes, Martin Mense

Dissertations and Theses

Artificial lipid membranes have been used in biophysical studies as well defined models of biological membranes. In the present work we studied adsorption of ions to artificial lipid membranes, composed of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS), and to biological membrane from sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). The studies of ion adsorption and electrokinetic characterization of membranes were done by means of microelectrophoresis of PC/PS liposomes and SR vesicles. The ions of interest were positively charged potassium (K), calcium (Ca), tetraphenylarsonium (TPAs), tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP) and negatively charged pentachlorophenol (PCP).

Electrophoretic mobility of PC/PS liposomes and SR vesicles has been measured as a function …

A Cognitively Motivated System For Software Component Reuse, Michael Joseph Mateas

Dissertations and Theses

Software reuse via component libraries suffers from the twin problems of code location and comprehension. The Intelligent Code Object Planner (ICOP) is a cognitively motivated system that facilitates code reuse by answering queries about how to produce an effect with the library. It can plan for effects which are not primitive with respect to the library by building a plan that incorporates multiple components. The primary subsystems of ICOP are a knowledge base which describes the ontology of the library, a natural language interface which translates user queries into a formal effect language (predicates), a planner which accepts the effect …

This Looks Like An Old Point: Time And Projectile Points In The Tualatin Valley, Oregon, Linda Lani Freidenburg

Dissertations and Theses

Little is known about the time depth of human occupation in the Tualatin Valley. Archaeological investigations have produced no absolute dates for the few sites tested. Projectile points collected from the Ibach and Heynderickx farms in the Tualatin Valley show similarities to early point styles from sites in the Pacific Northwest dating from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. To determine how old the Ibach and Heynderickx sites are, the undated collections of 107 Ibach points and 119 Heynderickx points are compared to two established chronological projectile point sequences, which had been constructed using the relative dating technique of frequency seriation. …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Work Involvement And Family Involvement And Work-Family Conflict In Dual-Career Families, Elizabeth Jean Allen

Dissertations and Theses

The present study examined the relationship between work involvement and family involvement and work-family conflict in dual-career families. Four hundred thirty-six couples (436 females; 436 males; N = 872) in dual-career relationships were recruited from a bank organization in the Northwest United States. The survey questionnaire contained three sections to measure work and family involvement, work-family conflict, and sociodemographic information. Data analyses were conducted using multiple regression analysis and a 1 X 4 ANOVA to examine the proposed relationships among the study variables. Results demonstrated the following: across study participants, work involvement accounted for a significant amount of variance in …

Automatic Tuning Of Integrated Filters Using Neural Networks, Lutz Henning Lenz

Dissertations and Theses

Component values of integrated filters vary considerably due to· manufacturing tolerances and environmental changes. Thus it is of major importance that the components of an integrated filter be electronically tunable. The method explored in this thesis is the transconductance-C-method.

A method of realizing higher-order filters is to use a cascade structure of second-order filters. In this context, a method of tuning second-order filters becomes important.

The research objective of this thesis is to determine if the Neural Network methodology can be used to facilitate the filter tuning process for a second-order filter (realized via the transconductance-C-method). Since this thesis is, …

Unified Bias Analysis Of Subspace-Based Doa Estimation Algorithms, Yang Lu

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis presents the unified bias analysis of subspace-based DOA estimation algorithms in terms of physical parameters such as source separation, signal coherence, number of senors and snapshots. The analysis reveals the direct relationship between the performance of the DOA algorithms and signal measurement conditions. Insights into different algorithms are provided. Based upon previous first-order subspace perturbations, second-order subspace perturbations are developed which provide basis for bias analysis and unification. Simulations verifying the theoretical bias analysis are presented.

Unadorned By Silence: Rereading Obedience In The Writing Of Perpetua, Dhuoda, And Hildegard Of Bingen, Rebecca Anne Walker

Dissertations and Theses

In her fourth letter to Abelard, Heloise asks the question, "Oh what will become of us obedient ones?" The question presents a paradox. By putting her question in writing, Heloise violates the code of silence imposed on medieval women. The medieval church and the literate aristocracy agreed with Sophocles and Aristotle: silence is the adornment of women. Gender roles in medieval society were unambiguous. Men, by nature, belonged in the public, political arena where they directed the affairs of the world, in part, by thinking, speaking, and writing. Obedient to male authority, a woman's natural place was in the private, …

A Retarding-Potential Analyzer For Measuring Energy Distributions In Electron Beams, Li Zhou

Dissertations and Theses

An energy analyzer for electron beams, based on a retarding-potential method, has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. In this method a potential energy barrier at right-angles to the beam acts as a high-pass energy filter allowing electrons having energies greater than the barrier height to pass through while turning back electrons of lower energy. The potential barrier in the present study was created by applying a negative potential to an electrode consisting of a 600/inch hexagonal copper mesh or an electrode having a pair of single apertures in series (compound aperture). Two different compound apertures, of diameters 0.4 mm …

The Natural Approach And The Audiolingual Method: A Question Of Student Gains And Retention, Jeffrey Robert Richards

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in the short term and and long term second language (L2) gains of first year Spanish students exposed to the Audiolingual Method (ALM) and the Natural Approach. The experiment consisted of two randomly selected groups which were exposed to four presentations. Two of these presentations delivered content material following a Natural Approach lesson design while the other two delivered content material following an ALM lesson design in such a way that both groups were exposed to two ALM lessons and two Natural Approach lessons. All subjects were pre-tested prior to …

The Feminine Poetic Voice In The Rymes Of Pernette Du Guillet, Darcy Renee Murphey

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines Pernette du Guillet's Rymes, focusing of her feminine poetic voice and her merit as a Neoplatonist Renaissance poet. In a time when literary endeavors were almost exclusively the domain of men, women presenting themselves as writers were often judged on the appropriateness of women writing as well as the quality of their work. Women had to forge their own identity as writers and find their own voice within a patriarchal society and literary community.

The Introduction provides a social and literary framework for Pernette's work and presents pertinent ideas on using feminist literary criticism in the …

The Influence Of Trichinella Spiralis Infection On Heat Shock Protein 72 Production In Mrl++ Mouse Intestinal Cells, Lisa Ann Kilejian

Dissertations and Theses

The production of Heat Shock Protein 72, the inducible form of the highly conserved 70 kilodalton heat shock protein family, was investigated in MRL++ mouse intestine during the two weeks of a Trichinella spiralis infection. Within hours of an oral infection using the encysted Trichinella spiralis found in the diaphragm of an infected mouse, the larvae are released from the cyst in the stomach. They travel to the intestine and burrow into the epithelial layer of the intestine. The jejunum is the primary site of the intestinal phase of trichinosis. This stage of infection in the jejunum was the focus …

Hidden Hills, Hidden Meanings: A Neighborhood Study, Terri Ewing

Dissertations and Theses

"Hidden Hills" is a secure, isolated enclave of 550 homes, with a long history of political and economic power wielded, in some cases, by families who have lived there for generations. This neighborhood serves as the bedroom for many of Portland's wealthy and well-known and has housed many of Oregon's leading figures. It is faced with SB 917, a 1991 mandate to merge its only formal social institution, its 104-year-old school district, with one of two contiguous districts. Merger will not mean the immediate closure of the school, but will mean the loss of local administrative and political control and …

Adult Esl Students: Traits And Goals - A Case Study, David Miles Wilkinson

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to examine the traits and goals of students enrolled in the ESL program at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington over the past two academic years (1992 and 1993). The study looks at the degree of awareness that these students have of further educational opportunities in the academic and vocational areas, and the degree to which the ESL program at Clark College engenders this awareness. Data was collected from two cohorts of students enrolled in the ESL program on two separate occasions, each approximately one year apart. The goals of the study included the following: ( 1) …

Detecting Chaotic Signals With Nonlinear Models, Qin Cai

Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis we apply chaotic dynamic data analysis to the area of discrete time signal processing. A newly developed Hidden Filter Hidden Markov Model is introduced in detection of chaotic signals. Numerical experiments have verified that this novel nonlinear model outperforms linear AR model in detecting chaotic signals buried by noise having similar power spectra. A simple Histogram Model is proposed which can also be used to do detection on the data sets with chaotic behavior. Receiver Operating Characteristics for a variety of noise levels and model classes are reported.

Expressive Communication And Socialization Skills Of Five-Year Olds With Slow Expressive Language Development, Nicole Anne Midford

Dissertations and Theses

Beginning at birth, a child's receptive and expressive language skills are developing in stages. Likewise, the child's socialization skills are progressing in stages. However, it does not seem that communication and socialization are developing independently of each other. Rather, it seems that their development is interrelated. Children learn to speak in a social context, and social situations are necessary for the development of a variety of language structures. On the same note, in order for those language structures to develop normally, it is necessary for the child to participate in different social situations.

Social interactionists have theorized for some time …

A New Approach To The Optimal Filtering Of Differential Phase Measurements Of Gps Signal In The Precision Survey, Shengan Wang

Dissertations and Theses

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has become popular research and application interests in surveying and many other areas. Nowadays, the accuracy of the Differential GPS can easily reach the order of a few meters. Yet, there are still many ways to exploit the GPS system signal carrier to improve the accuracy to less than meter level. In this thesis, a new approach to improve the accuracy to less than meter level is presented while the observer is in the dynamic situation. In order to reach the sub-meter accuracy, we measure on the carrier phase difference (The L1 carrier frequency is …

Anti-Bolshevism And The Advent Of Mussolini And Hitler: Anglo-American Diplomatic Perceptions, 1922-1933, Lisa Kay Walker

Dissertations and Theses

The history of World War II has led many Americans to view Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy and Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany as European variants of a single Fascist ideology. However, in the early years of the Mussolini and Hitler regimes, the conceptual category of international Fascism was by not so well-established, particularly where the Nazis were concerned. American and British diplomats stationed in Germany in the early 1930s only occasionally interpreted the rising Nazi party as an offshoot of Fascism, but frequently referred to it as a possible form of or precursor of Bolshevism in Germany. Published and unpublished American …

Police Stress: A Literature Study On Police Occupational Stressors And The Responses In Police Officers To Stressful Job Events, Katarina Ahlstrom Mannheimer

Dissertations and Theses

The present paper is a literature study of stressors and the responses in police officers to occupational stressors. It endeavors to identify and assess common stressors in policing. It further aims to provide an answer to the question of whether police administrative tasks and situations, or the dangerous and traumatic events and situations inherent in policing, are perceived as equally or more stressful by surveyed police officers. The question is relevant as there seems to be disagreement among researchers on police stress about which elements (administrative or dangerous and/or traumatic) of the police occupation is more stressful. Much attention has …

The Culture Of An Alternative Education Program: A Participant Observational Study, Dian Dee Connett

Dissertations and Theses

This study is participant observational research focused on the culture of one successful alternative education program. The survey of the literature showed that the problem of high school dropouts is one of numbers and persistence over time. Most research in the past attempted to list characteristics of high school dropouts or elements of successful alternative education programs. Researchers such as Wehlage (1986) and Catterall (1987) have begun to look at a different approach. Their work looks at schools as systems and suggests that educators should direct their attention to the interaction of the school environment with the characteristics of the …

The Intellectual Grounding Of The San Francisco Committee Of Vigilance Of 1851, Jon Jeffrey Walker

Dissertations and Theses

Vigilantism has a long history in the United States stretching back to the Regulator movement in South Carolina in 1767. These extralegal movements are distinguished from spontaneous and ephemeral mob activity by their regular organization and limited life-span. The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856 was the largest vigilante movement in American history. After a summer of vigilantism that included four hangings, the committee turned to politics and formed the People's Party which dominated San Francisco's city government for the next decade. The 1856 committee is generally considered the great exemplar of American vigilantism and has received considerable attention …

Correlations Between The School Situations Questionnaire-Revised And Speech And Language Disorders, Geraldine Teresa Comerford

Dissertations and Theses

Many children with emotional and/or behavioral disorders also present with speech and language disorders. Children with attention deficits, in particular, have shown a much higher incidence of speech and language disorders than does the general population.

Traditionally, school speech-language pathologists have been responsible for conducting mass screenings to determine which children should be further evaluated for speech and language disorders. An increasing number of school districts are relying on teacher referrals to determine which children require speech-language evaluations. It was hypothesized that if teachers were able to identify children with attention deficits, these children may be appropriate for referral to …

Predicting Seepage Of Leachate From The St. Johns Landfill To Ground And Surface Water Systems, Kevin A. Schock

Dissertations and Theses

Determination of the vertical and horizontal groundwater hydraulic gradient within a landfill is the first step in determining the potential of groundwater contamination from the landfill leachate. The length of a study and the frequency at which measurements are recorded can greatly affect the description of the local groundwater environment. A more comprehensive analysis can be preformed for longer periods of study and greater measurement frequency. The intent of this study was to install a continuous groundwater level monitoring system around the st. Johns Landfill for a minimum study length of one year. This would allow a more thorough study …

A Study Of Gender And Personality Factors In Work-Family Conflict Models, Steven Donald Ward

Dissertations and Theses

There were three underlying purposes to this study: 1) To test the main effect of gender on work -> family and family -> work conflict; 2) To re-examine the predictors of inter-role conflict used by Frone, Russell, and Cooper (1992) (i.e., job involvement, job stress, family involvement, and family stress); and 3) To investigate the importance of using personality characteristics as predictors of how individuals deal with inter-role conflict. A questionnaire was assembled, consisting of: a work -> family conflict spillover scale, a family -> work conflict spillover scale, a job involvement scale, a family involvement scale, a job stressors …

Hydrogeochemical Characterization Of The Alvord Valley Known Geothermal Resources Area, Harney County, Oregon, Anna Maria St. John

Dissertations and Theses

The Alvord Valley Known Geothermal Resources Area (KGRA), located east of the Steens Mountain-Pueblo Mountains fault block in southeastern Oregon, is within the northern Basin and Range province. This investigation focuses on three thermal areas in the Alvord Basin: Borax Lake and the hot springs north of Borax Lake, Alvord Hot Springs and Mickey Springs.

Waveform Estimation With Jitter Noise By Pseudo Symmetrical Probability Density Function, Wei-Da Hao

Dissertations and Theses

A new method for solving jitter noise in estimating high frequency waveform is proposed. It reduces the bias of the estimation in those points where all the other methods fail to achieve. It provides preliminary models for estimating percentiles in Normal, Exponential probability density function. Based on the model for Normal probability density function, a model for any probability density function is derived. The resulting percentiles, in turn, are used as estimates for the amplitude of the waveform. Simulation results show us with satisfactory accuracy.

Performance Analysis Of A Hierarchical, Cache-Coherent, Shared Memory Based, Multi-Processor System, Raman Nayyar

Dissertations and Theses

We have conducted a performance analysis of a large scale multiprocessor system based on shared buses organized in a hierarchical fashion and employing an easy to implement snoopy cache protocol. · This arrangement, named TREEBUS [ 5], presents a logical extension path for multiprocessor systems based on a single shared bus whose scalability is limited by the available system bus bandwidth [26]. The multiple, independent, hierarchical buses overcome the bus bandwidth limitation and the architecture can scale to relatively large sizes. We have developed an easy to use, reasonably accurate and computationally efficient analytic model for analyzing the performance of …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet June 1993, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The June 1993 Monthly packet includes the June agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held May 1993.

The Assimilation And Integration Processes: A Study Of The Commitment Patterns During Students' Entry Into College, Suzanne M. Pastori

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the heuristic value of applying the organizational model of Jablin, Putnam, Roberts, and Porter (1987), who studied newcoming employees assimilating into an organization, to the study of newcoming students integrating into an educational institution.

Three hundred and fifty-five college students were surveyed. I used an adapted version of Mowday, Porter, and Steer's (1982) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire.

Two hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis One states: The higher the level of expressed commitment the more likely it is that the student will express the intention to remain. Hypothesis Two states: Within Terms One, Two, and Three, the higher the level …