Digital Commons Network^™

Intergenerational Relations In The Workplace: Older Women And Their Younger Women Co-Workers, Julie Suzanne Reynolds

Dissertations and Theses

Women aged 55 and older have been participating actively in the American work force and recently have been drawing increased attention from researchers in the social sciences. This study examines the nature of service work performed by older part-time women workers and their younger women co-workers, and the relationship between the two generations in the workplace.

The following research questions guided this exploratory study: Do the older women workers and their younger women co-workers report that there have been changes in the co-workers' work since the older women began working at the job site? What do the older women workers …

The Effect Of Plant Growth Regulators On The Growth Of Closterium Moniliferum, Cynthia Lehua Warnock Christensen

Dissertations and Theses

Physiologic responses to Gibberellic Acid (GA), 1-Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA), Benzylaminopurine (BAP), and Abscisic Acid (ABA), suggest that Closterium moniliferum has the ability to utilize these plant growth factors. The growth promoters NAA and GA both increased growth when added to the media. The cell division regulator BAP (a synthetic cytokinin). also had a promotive effect on growth. Abscisic acid was found to be inhibitive to growth.

A Comparison Of Two Methods For Measuring The Attenuation Provided By Insert-Type Hearing Protection Devices, Brenda Barrett Kabat

Dissertations and Theses

The need for hearing protection in industry has evolved from the growing awareness of the detrimental effects of noise on hearing and recent legislation enacted to protect the hearing of noise-exposed employees through the use of hearing conservation programs. In lieu of expensive or impractical engineering and administrative controls, personal hearing protection devices (HPDs) are considered to be the most practical and effective means of protecting employees from the damaging effects of noise in industry today.

Hypercard-Based Learning Environment For Diades, Ali A. Shamsapour

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an attempt to create a HyperCard-based learning environment to teach DIADES and other related material. It is a departure from the classical Computer Aided Instruction methods towards a more flexible and user-controlled design. The goal was to set the foundation of a new CAI design which would closely resemble a Hyper-Text system. These systems are characterized as having interconnections between related concepts in the CAI environment.

The Effect Of A Parent Training Program On Language Delayed Children, Lynn Krupa

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this research project was to determine whether a child-centered parent training program requiring minimal training would increase the language skills of LD pre-school children who have normal receptive language. Seven experimental subjects and 6 control subjects were randomly selected from a pool of middle-class families who answered a newspaper advertisement. The parents of the experimental group received 3 individual training sessions over a 3-month period. They were instructed to spend 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, in a free play situation with their children using the language stimulation techniques they had learned, …

Hplc Analysis Of Myoglobin Tryptic Peptides From Selected Species Of Cetaceans, David Lawrence Hayteas

Dissertations and Theses

Due to the large gaps in the fossil record, the evolutionary history of the mammalian order Cetacea is incomplete and controversial. Increasingly researchers are utilizing molecular and biochemical procedures to supplement cetacean paleontology. One of these methods is the comparison of amino acid sequences of myoglobin among species of this order. since this method is time-consuming and expensive, an alternative procedure is desirable.

As a candidate for such an alternative, peptide mapping was performed on selected species of cetaceans. This mapping was done utilizing High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Myoglobin was extracted from skeletal muscle, purified, digested with trypsin, the …

Investigation Of Techniques For High Speed Cmos Arbitrary Waveform Generation, Albert Henry Nehl

Dissertations and Theses

Today a growing number of applications in design engineering, production and environmental testing, and system service require specific analog waveforms and digital patterns. Such requirements are neither satisfactorily nor easily met by the use of standard function or single purpose, custom generators.

Traditional methods of waveform generation suffer from undesirable complexity or mediocre performance and are otherwise limited. For the majority of arbitrary waveform generation applications, including medical engineering, modal analysis and electronic engineering, direct digital synthesis techniques are satisfactory. Direct digital synthesis, based generally on periodic retrieval of predetermined amplitude values, may be used to generate such waveforms. Within …

Dna Fingerprinting Analysis Of Captive Asian Elephants, Elephas Maximas, Laura Louise Bischof

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examined the effectiveness of DNA fingerprinting analysis for paternity ascertainment and the establishment of relatedness of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximas). Eighteen Asian elephants from three North American zoos were examined. Thirteen of these elephants were wild caught. Relationships between these elephants and the remaining elephants born in captivity were known.

Snake River : A Personal Search, Eva Havas Slinker

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis includes twenty landscape paintings, primarily oil on canvas, inspired by a trip to the Hell's Canyon Country of the Snake River.

The search for a personal idiom necessitated introspection, and the visual interpretation of the recalled experience required that formal issues of painting be synthesized to communicate the essential response to the landscape. The images progress from the depiction of deep space to compositions of the component parts of the landscape: trees, water, and rock.

Torso As Ceramic Vessel, Richard Garrett Masterson

Dissertations and Theses

The ceramic forms in this thesis project represent a study of the sculptural and figurative qualities of the ceramic process. This study includes a search for a personal form language, development of the slab construction technique, and development of a glazed surface appropriate to the work. The subject of the work is the human torso, with the vessel-like forms focusing on the core of the body as a metaphor for the core of the human spirit.

Meeting Agenda October 1990 - June 1995, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda Compilations (Five Year)

Meeting agendas of the Faculty Senate for October 1990 to June 1995.

Identification Of Entry-Level Clerical/Secretarial Skills And Competencies And Utilization Of Hardware And Software Applications In Clark County Businesses, Phyllis A. Maki

Dissertations and Theses

Business educators need to provide relevant career education and train students adequately for entry-level work and success in a dynamic and changing society. It is imperative, then, we identify those skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for success not only in today's office but also in the office of the future.

To determine the competencies and skills required, a survey of businesses in the Clark County area was completed. The questionnaire was designed to assess current computer usage and technical and nontechnical skill requirements.

Annual Faculty Senate Minutes October 1990 - June 1991, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Annual Compilations of the Faculty Senate Minutes (Minutes Only)

Minutes of the Faculty Senate for October 1990 to June 1991.

Performance Analysis Of A Distributed File System, Meenakshi Mukhopadhyay

Dissertations and Theses

An important design goal of a distributed file system, a component of many distributed systems, is to provide UNIX file access semantics, e.g., the result of any write system call is visible by all processes as soon as the call completes. In a distributed environment, these semantics are difficult to implement because processes on different machines do not share kernel cache and data structures. Strong data consistency guarantees may be provided only at the expense of performance.

This work investigates the time costs paid by AFS 3.0, which uses a callback mechanism to provide consistency guarantees, and those paid by …

Study Of Referential And Display Questions And Their Responses In Adult Esl Reading Classes, Susan Lindenmeyer

Dissertations and Theses

The technique of asking questions in the classroom has prevailed in first language classes for many years. This teaching technique has also been widely used in ESL reading classes. Though there has been extensive research about teachers' questions and students' responses in first language classrooms, there is a paucity of studies in second language classrooms.

This is a descriptive study of six experienced college level English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and their discussions of the same reading selection with ninety-eight non-native speakers in each of their classes. Teacher-led discussions were audiotaped and twenty minutes of each class were …

Nurses' Attitudes Toward Patients With Aids Examined By Hours Of Aids Education, Teresa Grove

Dissertations and Theses

This study was designed to describe the attitudes of staff nurses toward patients who have Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and to determine if the 1989 Washington State licensing requirement for seven hours of AIDS education was effective in changing the attitudes of these nurses toward AIDS patients. Health care providers' attitudes toward patients with AIDS have been documented as differing from their attitudes toward patients with other debilitating conditions (cancer, diabetes, heart disease) in that they place more blame for getting the disease on those with AIDS, they tend to have some degree of homophobia, and they are sometimes overly …

Prediction Of Posttreatment Level Of Functioning From Performance In A Leveled Token Economy For Emotionally Disturbed Adolescents, Peter Arden Scott Grover

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the relationship between performance in a leveled token economy for emotionally disturbed adolescents and posttreatment level of functioning six months after discharge from the target program. The target program for the study is an acute care psychiatric hospital which specialized in the treatment of adolescents with both emotional and substance abuse problems. Previous literature on the outcome of token economy treatment programs however for they adolescents have generally been favorable have typically not examined level of functioning as an outcome criteria.

Reading Comprehension Of Literal, Translational, And High Inference Level Questions In Aphasic And Right Hemisphere Damaged Adults, Ute Kongsbak

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare inferential abilities on a reading comprehension task in two groups of adults who had suffered cerebrovascular accidents (CVA). Sixteen subjects with a CVA to the right hemisphere of the brain were compared to an equal number of left hemisphere damaged subjects. Subjects were selected after they had demonstrated an adequate level of functioning on the Short Porch Index of Communicative Ability (SPICA), a test which measures communicative efficiency, to perform the tasks required in this study. All subjects were administered the revised version of the Nelson Reading Skills Test (NRST). …

Students' Orientations Toward Dreams And The Development Of Scales For Their Measurement, John Philip Governale

Dissertations and Theses

The present study explores the knowledge, attitudes, and opinions about dreams held by 394 high school, community college, and university students, and examines the interrelations among these students' responses to questions concerning such knowledge, attitudes, and opinions. A modified and extended form of George Domino's Questionnaire About Dreams (QAD) was used for obtaining a descriptive account of students' orientations toward dreams. Scales were developed for summarizing respondents' orientations toward dreams, and the reliability and validity of these scales was investigated. The reliability of scales for assessing respondents' attitudes, psychodynamic orientation, and to a lesser degree paranormal orientation was demonstrated. A …

Nietzsche's "Woman" : A Metaphor Without Brakes, Kathleen Merrow

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis reconsiders the generally held view that Friedrich Nietzsche's works are misogynist. In doing so it provides an interpretation of Nietzsche's texts with respect to the metaphor "woman," sets this interpretation into an historical context of Nietzsche reception and follows the extension of Nietzsche's metaphor "woman" into French feminist theory. It provides an interpretation that shows that a misogynist reading of Nietzsche is in error because such a reading fails to consider the multiple perspectives that operate in Nietzsche's texts.

Spatial Manipulation As A Covariant Of Mental Practice, Vincent James Wolff

Dissertations and Theses

This experiment examined the relationship between a subject's ability to manipulate spatial relationships and utilize mental practice in the mirror drawing ability of 45 naive volunteer college students, using a six-pointed star track. The spatial manipulation abilities of all subjects were assessed with the Minnesota Paper Form Board Test, after which the subjects were divided into three treatment groups (no practice, mental practice, and physical practice) of 15 subjects using a blocked random design based upon their MPFBT scores. All three groups were trained in the mirror drawing task and given three physical practice pre-trials for familiarization. The physical practice …

The Unified Speech Period Of A Bilingual Child, Gary Frank Wood

Dissertations and Theses

Previous studies of bilingual infants learning their languages simultaneously have suggested that such children go through what is known as a unified speech period in which they make no differentation between the languages in question and in which they frequently use mixed utterances (Arnberg, 1987; Grosjen, 1982; Leopold, 1939; & Skutnabb-Kangas, 1981). To test the validity of the claim that there is such a period, an English-Japanese bilingual child from one year and six months of age (1;6) through two years and six months of age (2;6) was observed and his speech recorded.

A Study Of Prospective Entrepreneurs' Perceptions Of Knowledge Required For Success : And Its Implications For Curriculum Development And Revision, Vickie Lynn Schray

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to provide information to secondary, post-secondary and vocational teachers on what instructional areas should be taught to prospective entrepreneurs involved in pre-venture training. In addition it was hoped that information gained from the study would add to the existing body of knowledge on entrepreneurship education and validate entrepreneurship education practices in Oregon.

Terrain Disturbances By Winter Roads In The Lower And Central Mackenzie River Valley, N.W.T., Canada, Christoph Gnieser

Dissertations and Theses

Winter roads, built from compacted snow and I or ice, are common throughout the circumpolar North. They are considered effective and economical means of providing seasonal access into permafrost terrain while minimizing the potential for environmental damage.

The purpose of this study is an appraisal of long-term environmental impacts of winter roads by comparative assessment of terrain morphology, microclimate, permafrost, soils, and vegetation, on winter road right-of-ways and in adjacent undisturbed control areas.

A Survey Of Diplomatic And Commercial Relations Between The United States And Oman In Zanzibar, 1828-1856, Mohammed Al-Mukadam

Dissertations and Theses

Informal relations between American merchant traders and the Sultanate of Oman in the port of Zanzibar began with the landing of the first American merchants about 1828. At the same approximate time, Sultan Said bin Sultan moved his official residence from Muscat, Oman, to Zanzibar, underlining the importance of Zanzibar to the administration of his territories on the East African coast. Relations were formalized by the Treaty of 1833 between the United States and Oman, and the U.S. established a consular mission in Zanzibar in 1837 and in Muscat in 1838.

The growth of the Omani Empire under Sultan Said …

The Use Of The California Consonant Test And The Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 In Hearing Aid Evaluations For Individuals With Precipitous Losses Above 1 Khz, Bradley James Allard

Dissertations and Theses

These two joint-studies used recorded versions of the Northwestern University Auditory Test Number 6 (NU-6) and the California Consonant Test (CCT) in the hearing aid evaluations (HAEs) of 12 male and one female subjects, aged 41 to 87 years. They exhibited precipitous high frequency losses beyond 1 kHz in at least one ear. All subjects were evaluated without amplification and while monaurally aided with two conventional high pass hearing aids. Ten of the subjects were evaluated in multi-talker noise and 11 were tested in quiet. Since the CCT was more heavily weighted than the NU-6 with target phonemes sensitive to …

Methionine Metabolism In Fasciola Hepatica, Carol Theresa Ayer

Dissertations and Theses

5'-Deoxy-5'-methylthioadenosine (MTA) is derived from s-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) during the synthesis of the polyamines spermidine and spermine. Methionine can be regenerated from MTA by one of two mechanisms. In mammalian cells and some microorganisms, MTA is degraded to adenine and 5-methylthioribose-1-phosphate (MTR-1-P) via MTA phosphorylase. In certain other microbes, however, MTA is catabolized in two steps; first to adenine and 5-methylthioribose (MTR) via MTA nucleosidase followed by conversion of MTR to MTR-1-P via MTR kinase.

This study was to demonstrate the presence of MTA nucleosidase or MTA phosphorylase in both redia containing cercariae and adult Fasciola hepatica Linnaeus, 1758. If MTA …

Written Narratives Of Language Disordered And Normal Adolescents On Two Tasks, Antigone Howick Brown

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to describe written narratives of language disordered adolescents by comparing their written narratives via story grammar analysis with those of normal adolescents. The written narratives were obtained by administering two tasks as required assignments within the English or communications classes of the two groups. Task A was to write about a personal experience and Task B was about an imaginary experience. This study used Merritt and Liles' adaptations (1987) of Stein and Glenn's procedures (1979) for story grammar analysis to describe the content of the narratives.

A Comparison Of An Acoustic Stethoscope And An Amplified Stethoscope In White Noise And Cafeteria Noise During Cardiac Auscultation, Lynda Lynell Gigstad

Dissertations and Theses

A basic relationship between stethoscopic auscultation and background noise interference was reviewed and examined in this study. The principle experimental design of the study questioned whether hospital background noise levels are capable of masking the threshold of detection for auscultated heart sounds. Several cited studies monitoring background noise levels in various hospital locations have reported averages exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (1974) and World Health Organization (WHO) (1980) recommendations of "quiet", namely 35 to 40 dBA (Falk & Woods, 1973; Hilton, 1985, 1987; Shapiro & Berland, 1972; Turner, et al., 1975; Woods & Falk, 1974) by as much …

Threaded Octree Structures For Fast Neighbor Voxel Processing In A Parallel Ray Tracer, B.R. Naveen Chandra

Dissertations and Theses

In the field of Computer Graphics, Ray Tracing has so far been the the best algorithm for rendering of realistic three dimensional images created by mathematical models. Ray Tracing is also known for its very large computation times, where the computation depends on the picture resolution, the number of objects and the complexity of the scene.