Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Ambient And Hearing Aid Output Noise Levels In Industrial And Non-Industrial Settings, Jody Lynn O'Connor

Dissertations and Theses

Federal regulations specify that an employee working for eight hours cannot legally be exposed to noise which has a time-weighted average greater than 90 decibels on the A scale. The industrial workforce is comprised of not only people with normal hearing acuity, but of individuals who suffer from hearing loss. While current noise regulation standards are deemed appropriate for those with normal hearing, it is difficult to apply these standards to persons wearing hearing aids on the job. The ambient, or unamplified, noise levels that fall below the maximum permitted by OSHA standards may very well be amplified to levels …

Portland As A Divided City: Geographical Voting Patterns On Ballot Measures In The November 1990 Elections, Dmitry Sharkov

Dissertations and Theses

A significant and challenging topic for contemporary geography is an understanding of how the social construction of space both reflects social forces and at the same time structures those forces. This thesis is a case study of how political and social attitudes, measured as an outcome of votes for different issues, reflect the social organization of space in Multnomah County, Oregon. It employs an arealstructural (ecological) approach. Using eleven different issues voted upon in the general elections of November, 1990, it analyzes relationships between ballot items and socioeconomic characteristics of the electorate for small geographic areas in the county. The …

A Limnological Analysis Of Ten Mountain Lakes, Gary Wayne Burns

Dissertations and Theses

Ten mountain lakes were analyzed in order that they be assigned a trophic status. The lakes which are located in the Mount Hood National Forest of Oregon are Anvil, Beaver Pond, Cripple Creek, Fish, Gifford, Monon, Ollalie, Rimrock, Round, and Sportsman. The purpose of this report is to determine the productivity of these waters.

Data were collected for analyses of temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, Secchi depth, major ion concentration, light intensity versus depth, alkalinity, phytoplankton species composition/total density, and zooplankton species composition/total density.

Samples were collected in Van Dorn sampling bottles and returned to the laboratory for chemical analyses and …

Measurement Techniques For Noise Figure And Gain Of Bipolar Transistors, Wayne Kan Jung

Dissertations and Theses

First, the concepts of reflection coefficients, s-parameters, Smith chart, noise figure, and available power gain will be introduced. This lays out the foundation for the presentation of techniques on measuring noise figure and gain of high speed bipolar junction transistors. Noise sources in a bipolar junction transistor and an equivalent circuit including these noise sources will be presented. The process of determining the noise parameters of a transistor will also be discussed. A Pascal program and several TEKSPICE scripts are developed to calculate the stability, available power gain, and noise figure circles. Finally, these circles are plotted on a Smith …

Cultural Bias In The Assessment Of Phonological Processes In Conjunction With The App-R, Sharon Elise Soliday

Dissertations and Theses

Normal phonological development is characterized by phonological processes in preschool children. These processes are sound error patterns, in relation to the adult target, that are expected within the speech of normally developing children. As children grow older, they "outgrow" these developmental errors.

Within the black English dialect, speakers may use a combination of these processes and not be considered phonologically impaired within their linguistic community.

The purpose of this study was to assess and compare phonological process usage in the speech of lower socioeconomic black and white preschoolers.

The APP-R in conjunction with the CAPP was administered to two groups …

A Location Analysis Of Vandalism To The Rock Art Of The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Julia J. Wilt

Dissertations and Theses

Archaeological sites in the New World are the fragile and non-renewable remains of cultures which flourished for thousands of years prior to European contact and displacement. Sites which escape the effects of erosion and development often fall victim to vandalism. Cultural resources, including rock art and other archaeological sites, are protected by state and federal laws which prohibit the removal or disturbance of the sites, whether from development or from vandalism. Vandalism is frequently seen as a problem for law enforcement rather than a problem for cultural resource management. Management plans which include cultural resource protection provisions and guidelines often …

The Concepts Of Capitalism And Democracy In Implied Power Relations: Fractionation Philosophy And Theory, Randy Baker

Dissertations and Theses

This research proposes that it is possible to meaningfully examine the differences between subjects' perceptions of concepts at two different levels of analysis. The central theory, called "fractionation", is derived from structuration theory. The theory suggests that there is an important and particular difference between subjects' perceptions of key concepts at the value (abstract) level, as differentiated from the policy (action) level. The key concepts provided here are capitalism and democracy. Three major stages of data gathering and analysis were conducted. The first stage, carried out in several phases, surveyed 337 college students to gather words commonly associated with two …

An Exploratory Study Of Student Retention In Kindergarten And Grade One And The Associated Decision Making Processes As Perceived By Principals And Teachers, Doris Cameron-Minard

Dissertations and Theses

Students who fail to achieve in school are frequently retained in grade to remediate their lack of satisfactory progress. In this study, elementary school principals, kindergarten, and first grade teachers were interviewed to explore their perceptions of the decision making processes used in recommending retention. The belief systems which underlie their reliance on retention as a remedial option were also examined.

Three research questions were addressed:

1. What is the relationship between the written retention policy of a selected school district and the actual decision making process used by its schools?
2. What are the influences by district socio-economic level which impact …

Walt Whitman's Poetics Of Labor, David Janssen

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to organize and examine Walt Whitman's poetic representations and discussions of laborers and labor issues in order to argue that form a distinct "poetics" of labor in Leaves of Grass. This poetics of labor reveals that Whitman was attempting to enlarge the audience for American poetry by representing American society at work in poetry. Whitman also used labor as a poetic subject in order to justify the work of the poet in that society. In this sense, Whitman's poetics of labor is comprised of numerous demonstrations of his argument for the labor of poetry …

William Smith Clark: A Study In Education, Christianity, And American-Japanese Cooperation In The Nineteenth Century, Brett L. Walker

Dissertations and Theses

In March, 1990, I was hired to teach English in Japan at a small, private academy in Chitose, Hokkaido. The school was called the Academy of Clark's Spirit. My first day at work I was asked by my boss, Sato Masako: "So Mr. Walker, of course you know who Dr. Clark is?" I told Mr. Sato that I was sorry, but that I did not. "You said in your resume that you are a history student? We named this school after him. He's one of the most important people in Hokkaido's history," he said, looking disappointed. Mr. Sato explained that …

The Political Reception Of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues In The Late Weimar Republic, Richard Jay Cogburn

Dissertations and Theses

The novel Im Westen Nichts Neues first appeared in Germany in January 1929 and became an overnight success. Its author, Erich Maria Remarque, was a shy, quiet man who had not anticipated such success. His novel was written to be a fictitious account of the lives of a few students-turned-soldier and their comrades in the front-line trenches of World War I. This was a unique perspective on the war. The earlier books about the war had been mostly the published, factual memoirs of former officers and as such were written from an elitist and nationalist point of view. Remarque's fictional …

Explorations Into The Characteristics, The Determinants Of Production, And The Impact Of Land Policies On The Informal Housing Sector In Alexandria, Egypt, Mostafa Morsi El Araby

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the housing characteristics and the determinants of housing production of the informal housing sector in Alexandria, Egypt. It also examines the impact of land policies on the development of the informal housing sector. Informal housing, by definition, is constructed and acquired outside the legal procedure of land and building registration and without the necessary permissions and approvals. Therefore, there is a little knowledge about it, and its role in the housing market could be underestimated. The aim of this research is to enhance the factual knowledge about informal housing as a basis for future policy development.

The …

Satisfaction With Social Support Among Recent Widows, Rachael Ann Silverman

Dissertations and Theses

One of the important issues in research on social support has been the relationship between received support and perceptions of support. While most research has been unable to discover a strong link between these two constructs, three theories have emerged in the literature to explain how such a link might be discovered. One theory states that it is important to study support in the context of a stressful life event. Another suggests that when studying social support it is important to make distinctions between positive and negative interactions. A third approach focuses on specificity issues, predicting that it is important …

A Model To Predict Recycling Behaviors: Reusing Ajzen's Model One More Time, Kathleen L. Kiwala

Dissertations and Theses

The prediction of self-reported recycling behaviors was examined using variations and expansions of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior. Three hundred and forty-eight residents from the Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties in Oregon completed a questionnaire that assessed attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intentions, self-reports of recycling behavior, moral obligation and past behavior. Recycling behaviors and intentions were grouped into three categories of difficulty by a factor analysis. Structural equation analysis did not support Ajzen's model. It was found that although attitudes was correlated with the antecedent variables, it did not directly influence intentions or behaviors. Perceived behavioral control had …

Gravity Sedimentation: A One-Dimensional Numerical Model, Joanna Robin Karl

Dissertations and Theses

A large fraction of the current cost of wastewater treatment is from the treatment and disposal of wastewater sludge. Improved design, energy efficiency, and performance of dewatering facilities could significantly decrease transport and disposal costs.

Dewatering facilities are designed based on field experience, trial and error, pilot plant testing, and/or full scale testing. Design is generally time-consuming and expensive. A full-scale test typically consists of side-by-side operation of 4 to 5 full-scale dewatering units for several weeks to more than 6 months. Theoretical modeling of the physics of dewatering units such as the belt filter press, based on laboratory determined …

Designing And Simulating A Multistage Sampling Rate Conversion System Using A Set Of Pc Programs, David Joseph Hagerty

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis covers a series of PC programs that we have written that will enable users to easily design FIR linear phase lowpass digital filters and multistage sampling rate conversion systems. The first program is a rewrite of the McClellan-Parks computer program with some slight modifications. The second program uses an algorithm proposed by Rabiner that determines the length of a lowpass digital filter. Rabiner used a formula proposed by Herrmann et al. to initially estimate the filter length in his algorithm. The formula, however, assumes unity gain. We present a modification to the formula so that the gain of …

Designing And Simulating A Multistage Sampling Rate Conversion System Using A Set Of Pc Programs, David Joesph Hagerty

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis covers a series of PC programs that we have written that will enable users to easily design FIR linear phase lowpass digital filters and multistage sampling rate conversion systems. The first program is a rewrite of the McClellanParks computer program with some slight modifications. The second program uses an algorithm proposed by Rabiner that determines the length of a lowpass digital filter. Rabiner used a formula proposed by Herrmann et al. to initially estimate the filter length in his algorithm. The formula, however, assumes unity gain. We present a modification to the formula so that the gain of …

Assessing The Impact Of An Esl/Bilingual Program By Means Of Instrumental Variable Estimation, John Akanbi Babatunde

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the Portland (Oregon) public school district's ESL/bilingual program on the academic performance of limited English proficiency (IEP) students. The study attempted to correct a statistical bias that might lead to underestimating the effectiveness of ESL/bilingual programs. This statistical bias is caused by a negative correlation between student achievement and the characteristics which result in a student being placed in the ESL/bilingual program. Several variables and proxies representing characteristics of the school, the neighborhood, and the student's personal background were examined for their contribution to explaining the academic progress of …

Quasi-Static Deflection Compensation Control Of Flexible Manipulator, Jingbin Feng

Dissertations and Theses

The growing need in industrial applications of high-performance robots has led to designs of lightweight robot arms. However the light-weight robot arm introduces accuracy and vibration problems. The classical robot design and control method based on the rigid body assumption is no longer satisfactory for the light-weight manipulators. The effects of flexibility of light-weight manipulators have been an active research area in recent years. A new approach to correct the quasi-static position and orientation error of the end-effector of a manipulator with flexible links is studied in this project. In this approach, strain gages are used to monitor the elastic …

"Mit Lachen Die Wahrheit Zu Sagen" Entwicklungsgeschichte Und Autorintention Des Barockromans Simplicissimus, Ralf Genske

Dissertations and Theses

The bloody epoch of the Thirty Years' War and the wide spread decline of German culture and social life is the major topic in Simplicissimus, the first High German novel written by Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen in 1668. The purpose of this thesis is to summarize the development of this novel and to find Grimmelshausen's intention in writing his book which was immensely popular upon its publication, but disappeared into obscurity during the German classical period.

Since its rediscovery in the middle of the 19th century, scholars have puzzled over the satirical meaning of Simplicissimus as well as …

The Complexities Of Translation: Theories And Practicalities, Alice Ferguson

Dissertations and Theses

What are the difficulties involved in transferring a work of literature from one language to another, and what contributions might an analysis of the translation of a literary work make to the field of translation studies? These questions are explored in this thesis through the exploration of translation theories in general, and the analysis of one particular case with consideration of the theoretical implications it presents. The case study involves the comparison of the novel Gouverneurs de la rosée, written in 1944 by Haitian author Jacques Roumain, with Masters of the Dew, the translation by Mercer Cook and Langston …

La Casa De Los Espiritus: Destruccion De Oposiciones Binarias, Teresa M. SáNchez Soultaire De Lamothe

Dissertations and Theses

En las pagínas de esta tesis se encuentra un análisis deconstructivo de las técnicas narrativas y el contenido temático-ideológico de la primera novela de la escritora chilena Isabel Allende. Mediante el mismo, se ha tratado de descubrir en La casa de los espíritus una actitud de rebeldía en contra de las formas de poder que se manifiesta en diversos niveles de la vida social, y que, según el crítico uruguayo Angel Rama, caracteriza la obra de algunos escritores hipanoamericanos contemporáneos.

Diferentes técnicas narrativas, quedan analizadas, dando mayor énfasis al uso del realismo mágico, el cual crea una oposición en la …

Mechanism Of Calcium Release From Skeletal Muscle Sarcoplasmic Reticulum, Edmond Buck

Dissertations and Theses

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) is an intracellular membrane system dedicated to the active regulation of cytosolic calcium in muscle. The opening of Ca²⁺ channels in the SR results in a rapid increase in the myoplasmic Ca²⁺ concentration and the initiation of contraction. Closure of these channels allows the SR to re-accumulate the released Ca²⁺ which results in muscle relaxation. While it is known that a muscle fiber is stimulated to contract by the depolarization of the sarcolemma, it is not understood how this signal is communicated to the SR.

The focus of this dissertation is twofold. The first objective is …

Sentence Discrimination In Noise And Self-Assessed Hearing Difficulty, Dianna W. Brainerd

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the CID Everyday sentences, with competing cafeteria noise, as a measure of the real life receptive communication difficulty experienced by subjects with hearing loss limited to frequencies above 2000 Hz. In order to establish normative data the speech discrimination test w~s given to 38 normal hearing subjects (aged 19-46). Second, the discrimination test was given to 12 hearing impaired subjects (29-64), who also completed a self-assessment questionnaire, the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults (HHIA). The results were analyzed to determine: (a) if there was a significant difference between the …

A Survey Of Aural Rehabilitation Services Provided To Hearing Impaired Clients In The Private Sector, Alison Metcalf

Dissertations and Theses

While the approaches for providing aural rehabilitation to the hearing impaired are well documented, no research and only a few articles addressed the comprehensive application of these approaches in the private sector. Therefore, a survey of audiologists was conducted to determine how extensively the approaches are being utilized in this setting and what, if any, unmet client needs may exist. Sixty certified, dispensing audiologists who work in the private sector and reside in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming participated in the study. Participants were identified from membership lists provided by the five states' Speech-Language and Hearing Associations. A questionnaire …

Distributed Economic Systems With Agents That Learn, Stanley Foster Perry

Dissertations and Theses

Economic systems are distributed in the sense that economic agents make decisions without any central control. Prices, quantities, wealth, and market structure emerge from the interaction of agents acting in their own self interest. The concepts and language of systems science are used to define economic systems in a manner that captures and articulates the distributed nature of economic systems. Further, the systems definition permits multiple views of the economic system, and in addition, allows the agents to "step outside" the system in order to study it.

Economic systems are defined in such a way that it is feasible to …

Nanny Town Excavations: Rewriting Jamaica's History?, E. Kofi Agorsah

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The main objectives of the study of maroon communities are: to obtain archaeological data that can be used for the interpretation of the socio-cultural patterns of the behavior of the Maroons; to determine the factors that contribute to the location and character of Maroon settlements; and to obtain material for dating and providing a chronological framework for the origins and development of maroon heritage in Jamaica The overall objective is to identify the character and mechanism of the functional adaptation of Maroon societies in Jamaica over time.

A Robust High Precision Algorithm For Sinewave Parameter Estimation, Kendall Ann Rydell

Dissertations and Theses

The estimation of sinewave parameters has many practical applications in test and data processing systems. Measuring the effective bits of an analog-to-digital converter and linear circuit identification are some typical examples. If a sinew ave's frequency is known, there is an established linear method to estimate the other parameters. But when none of the parameters are known (which is usually the case in practical situations), the estimation problem becomes more difficult. Traditional approaches to this task applied an iterative, sinewave curve-fit algorithm. Two problems with this technique are that convergence is often slow and not always guaranteed and the results …

The Effects Of Airline Deregulation On Airline Safety: An Econometric Analysis, William Charles De Jager

Dissertations and Theses

After an unfortunate series of accidents in the mid 1930's the Air Transport Association (ATA) lobbied Congress for regulation of the industry. The ATA claimed that unfair competition was endangering the public safety. The Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 created the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and gave the CAB the authority to regulate the industry.

During the regulation era airline ridership increased and safety improved. During the regulation period, opportunity for comparing the safety record of the regulated industry with the record of the unregulated portions of the industry was limited. The few attempts made rendered inconclusive results.

During a …

One-Dimensional Computer Modeling Of Thermal And Water Quality Characteristics Of Coldwater Lake, Wa, David Kevin Whitaker

Dissertations and Theses

Coldwater Lake is a new lake formed when a massive mudflow down the Toutle River Valley, caused by the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, blocked the natural outlet of Coldwater Creek. This research utilizes physical, biological and chemical data collected at Coldwater Lake during the sun1mers of 1989 and 1990 to calibrate and verify the one-dimensional computer models CE-THERMRl and CE-QUAL-Rl for Coldwater Lake. CE-THERM-R1 was used to simulate thermal characteristics in Coldwater Lake during the summer stratification periods of 1989 and 1990. The model was calibrated to 1989 data and was verified with 1990 data. …