Digital Commons Network^™

Fiber Recovery From Paper Mill Primary Sludge, Christopher J. Roschek

Paper Engineering Senior Theses

Recoverable fiver is a major component of paper mill primary sludge, and it is often landfilled instead of utilized to its potential. With successful recovery of fiber from sludge, less raw materials will have to be purchased and a lesser volume will be landfilled, thus decreasing landfill disposal costs.

Primary sludge from a local paper mill was collected and stored at Western Michigan University. Solids and ash testing was done first to get background knowledge of the sludge. Fiber length was then determined using the Clark Classifier. Fiber recovery was accomplished by using a laboratory scale sidehill screen. After screening, …

Green Liquor Pulping For Corrugating Medium, Michael Thompson

Paper Engineering Senior Theses

24 pulping runs for producing corrugating medium were conducted with various chemical concentrations of sodium carbonate and sodium sulfide (green liquor). All other pulping variables were held constant. The results showed a linear relation between the amount of total alkali (on wood) and yield decrease at constant sulfidities. The results also showed the optimum sulfidity of the liquors to be 25%. The strength properties were only affected by the pulp yield and not by the amount of chemical concentration used to produce that yield.

Washing Between And After A Two Stage Hydrogen Peroxide Bleaching Sequence To Reduce Reversion And Increase Brightness, Craig Hellberg

Paper Engineering Senior Theses

Even though a fairly high brightness can be obtained, mechanical pulps, such as refiner mechanical pulp, contain all of the color forming groups found in the wood. This limits its use because these groups revert back to a yellow color over time. If they could be removed by washing, RMP could be used in a wider variety of grades. This project will discuss background on the subject, followed by a design and procedures to try and accomplish this goal.

It was found that excessive washing will give a temporary increase in brightness, however no statistical change in reversion is seen.

Metacognitive Strategies And Reading Achievement Among Developmental Students In An Urban Community College, Stephen P. O'Neill

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Several empirical studies have demonstrated positive relationships between the use of metacognitive strategies and reading achievement among both elementary and secondary school subjects (Bean, Singer and Sorter, 1986; Cross and Paris, 1988; Palincsar and Ransom, 1988) and college students (Nist, Simpson and Hogrebe, 1985; Palmer and Goetz, 1985; Weinstein and Underwood, 1985).

Reading Horizons Vol. 32, No. 4

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Complete issue of Reading Horizons, volume 32, issue 4.

Reviews: Professional Materials, Jerry Phillips, Jeanne M. Jacobson, Alisa M. Wilkins, Karen Welch

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Esta De Fossard (1992). Food for Thought: Reading and Thinking Critically. Books for Children: Alef-bet; Stories to Solve; You'll Soon Grow Into Them, Titch; But Not Kate

Reducing The Risks: Reflections On Bridging Home And School Communication, S. Kay Dunlap, Beverly J. Bruneau

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Recent scholarship on literacy development has focused on studying young at-risk learners (Allen and Mason, 1989; Clay, 1982; Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines, 1988; Swap, 1990; Teale and Sulzby, 1986). As kindergarten and first grade teachers we worried about many of our students whose families were not in the cultural mainstream and whose literacy backgrounds appeared different from those of our more successful children. As we thought about how we might better teach our children we began to consider how we could improve our communication with the children's parents to begin to build a partner ship between home and school literacy experiences. …

Planning Effective Whole Language Staff Development Programs: A Guide For Staff Developers, Barbara Moss

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Whole language is sweeping the country. It has been described as part of a "revolution in teaching and learning" (Hiebert and Fisher, 1990), "an exciting grass-roots teacher movement that is changing curricula around the world" (Watson, 1989), and "the newest manifestation of progressive education" (Veatch, 1991). Several factors help provide evidence for its impact. First, approximately five percent of elementary teachers nationwide are using aspects of whole language and more are becoming users daily (O'Neil, 1989). Second, twenty-three states have literacy programs centered upon the use of literature (Cullinan, 1989). Third, membership in the Teaching About Whole Language Umbrella, a …

A Survey Of Computer Use In Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Sites, Martha E. Parks

Masters Theses

Eighty-three Western Michigan University occupational therapy fieldwork sites were surveyed to determine: (a) extent of computer use, (b) diagnostic categories with which computers are used, (c) extent of computer knowledge of registered occupational therapists (OTRs), and (d) adequacy of computer knowledge of fieldwork students. Forty-seven (56.6%) of the 83 surveys were returned. OTRs at 36 (76.6%) of the 47 sites currently use computers. Word processing is the most common way in which these OTRs use computers. The most common clinical use of computers is perceptual/motor assessment and treatment, while the most common research use of computers is for report writing. …

Can You Tell A Book By Its Cover?, Jeanne M. Gerlach, Steven D. Rinehart

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Book fairs are great fun, and they offer students a chance to explore a world of books in a more exciting atmosphere than the school library. Today, many schools have self-selection programs and activities to suit the wide range of student reading abilities and interests. Multilevel materials are used, and students are encouraged to read as much as they can. Teacher advice and guidance is usually available as the need arises. Consequently, numerous schools have book fairs to stimulate reading through self-selection, and equally important, educators hope to promote reading interest and future reading growth. Accordingly, books for the fairs …

Concept Question Chain: A Framework For Thinking And Learning About Text, Barbara E. Johnson

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Teaching students to think and teaching students to develop concepts from text are important parts of reading instruction (Brozo and Simpson, 1991; Herber, 1978; McNeil, 1987). Teachers can guide students' conceptual learning by designing questions that focus on a specific concept and use these questions to stimulate postreading discussion. Research indicates the positive influence questioning has on students' comprehension and retention of prose (Anderson and Biddle, 1975)

Practices In Results-Oriented Hrd: Levels Of Support And Agreement Between Hrd And Upper-Level Managers, Abdulmohsin Al-Luheid

Dissertations

The study surveys the acceptance of, and support for, results-oriented training activities by upper-level managers and HRD managers in representative companies in Southwest Michigan. The study also examined the agreement between the perceptions of upper-level managers (ULM) and HRD managers (HRDM) concerning results-oriented HRD activities.

The study produced a profile of the support for and/or the acceptance of those activities in the selected organizations. This profile includes both the most-recommended and the least-recommended practices as reported by upper-level and HRD managers. Additional analysis looked at levels of support for the activities across, within and among the four types of organizations …

Teacher Induction: An Investigation Of Factors That Affect First-Year Teachers' Attitudes Toward Their Jobs, John G. Longcore

Dissertations

This study compared specific induction-year support variables that might affect the attitudes that first-year teachers have about their jobs. Forty-eight first-year teachers from randomly selected school districts in western Michigan participated by completing the Teacher Attitude Inventory (TAI) as a pretest-posttest measure. Each participant also submitted a professional activity checklist which determined the level of support they experienced. All subjects were then divided into a high, medium, and low support group to locate any differences in attitude among the groups. No differences in attitude toward their job among the groups was found.

A Comparison Of Blood Volume Pulse And False Biofeedback In The Treatment Of Migraine, Paul Greilick

Dissertations

The efficacy of temporal artery blood volume pulse (BVP) biofeedback in the treatment of migraine was investigated. After four pre-treatment baseline psycho-physiological monitoring sessions, 8 migrainuers were randomly assigned to undergo 12 sessions of either BVP biofeedback or a placebo procedure (false feedback). Both treatments resulted in clinically significant and statistically equivalent reductions in headache activity and medication intake. Subjects exhibited substantial within-session decreases in BVP amplitude during pre-treatment baseline sessions and during false feedback, and the introduction of BVP biofeedback failed to increase the magnitude or the rate of BVP amplitude reductions. All subjects failed to show evidence of …

A Comparison Of Four Methods To Teach Complex Verbal Concepts Using A Computer-Assisted Instruction Program, John Byron Connors

Dissertations

This study compared four instructional programs which taught terminology in behavioral psychology using computer-assisted instruction (CAD with college students. The independent variable was the type of instruction presented by one of four CAI programs: (a) Rules Only, (b) Rules Plus Positive Examples, (c) Rules Plus Negative Examples, and (d) Rules Plus Positive and Negative Examples. The dependent variables were the: (a) pretest scores, (b) posttest scores, (c) 1-week delayed posttest scores, and (d) preference questionnaire scores. Using the pretest as a covariate, results approached significance (p=.07) on posttest scores only for the Rules Only and Rules Plus Positive Examples over …

Appeal And Vulnerability Patterns In Girl Victims Of Incest, Ruth Mausert-Mooney

Dissertations

This study compared certain personal characteristics and behaviors of sexually abused girls with those of matched controls. Experimental subjects were 49 girls, aged 6 to 16 years, who had been sexually abused by an older male family member. Fifty girls who had not experienced sexual abuse served as the comparison group, matched on the basis of age, race and socioeconomic status.

Demographic and psychological measures were completed by each research participant and her mother. Videotapes were made of an initial session in which each child met an unknown male tester.

This study hypothesized and affirmed that sexually abused girls appeared …

Performance Prediction In Track And Field, Ted James Dabbs

Masters Theses

The study investigated the degree to which predicting performance in track and field relates to individual performances of track athletes. Predictive scores were determined for 26 male and 14 female athletes using prediction equations and test procedures developed by Henson, Turner, and Lacourse (1989a; 1989b). Predictive scores were compared to athletes' individual event point scores published in International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) men's and women's multi-event scoring tables ("Scoring Table for Men's," 1962; "Scoring Table for Women's," 1971).

Each subject's height, weight and age were recorded as well as performances on the following tests: vertical jump, standing long jump, five …

Using Computerized Cinematography To Develop A Predictive Model Relating Muscle Stress And Wrist Movement, Joseph M. Kaczmar

Honors Theses

Workers in many jobs are required to perform the same tasks day after day. As a result of this repetitious work, many employees are developing what is know as Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTD). There has been much research done on ways to prevent these disorders. Cumulative Trauma Disorders involving the wrist are of special concern. Repetitive motions and awkward positions of the wrist are a major cause of CTD's in the wrist. One such factor dealing with the posture is the angle between the hand and the forearm. In order to help limit the affects of CTD's of the wrist, …

The Effect Of Leadership Styles On Hospital Labor Productivity, Anthony R. Tersigni

Dissertations

This research examined hospital management leadership style and its effects on hospital labor productivity . Information derived from this research will be useful in the education and training of future health care executives and in the continuing education of those responsible for the day-to-day operations of general acute hospitals.

The hypothesis that was researched in the study was that high consideration/high structure and high consideration/low structure leadership styles would increase productivity in hospital employees who are in the middle stages of organizational development. This was operationally defined in the alternate hypothesis as a relationship between productivity as measured by the …

"Real-Life" Reading Software And "At-Risk" Secondary Students, Shelley B. Wepner

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Given that "in some inner-city public schools, more than 50 percent of the students leave before graduating" (Bialo and Sivin, 1989a, p. 35), educators are constantly searching for intervention programs and resources to reverse this trend (Moskowitz, 1989; Ryan and Brewer, 1990; Vescial 1989). Because the computer has been lauded for its ability to assume different software-driven roles, it is especially well-suited to the needs of at-risk students (Bialo and Sivin, 1989a, 1989b; Knights, 1988; Brooks, 1989; Knights, 1988).

Effects Of Feedback Type And Signal Probability On Quality Inspection Accuracy, Matthew A. Mason

Dissertations

A computer simulation was developed to examine the effects of feedback type (immediate, delayed, or none) and signal probability (p = 0.05 or 0.12) on the accuracy of identifying signals (missing components), inspection response rate, and response sensitivity (d'). Subjects were randomly assigned to one of six experimental groups: (1) immediate feedback with a signal probability of 0.05 (1/0.05), (2) delayed feedback with a signal probability of 0.05 (D/0.05), (3) no feedback with a signal probability of 0.05 (N/0.05), (4) immediate feedback with a signal probability of 0.12 (1/0.12), (5) delayed feedback with a signal probability of …

A Progressive Disease Model For Doubly-Censred Bivariate Survival Data That Accommodates Covariate Information, Hilmi F. Yahya

Dissertations

A model for the natural history of a progressive disease is developed. The model has three disease states and can be expressed as the joint distribution of two survival random variables.

Covariate information is incorporated into the model using the proportional hazards model for the marginal distributions. The model will also accommodate data with observations which are censored on one or both of the survival random variables.

The likelihood function for censored data is exhibited for finding the maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters and their standard errors for testing the effects of the covariates. The method used to obtain …

The Impact Of A Stress Management Training Program On Symptoms Of Fibromyalgia, Robert J. Sheppard

Dissertations

Fibromyalgia is a noninflammatory rheumatic disorder characterized by musculoskeletal pain, nonrestorative sleep, and mood disturbance. Emotional stress is frequently reported as a factor that exacerbates symptoms. This study was designed to assess the impact of stress management training on perceived stress and fibromyalgia symptoms. Four female subjects with fibromyalgia participated on an individual basis in a 10 week stress management training program, which was administered in the fixed sequence of training in self-monitoring, relaxation, cognitive behavioral skills, and assertion. The effects of the training on self-report measures of perceived stress, pain, functional disability, sleep disruption, daytime fatigue, and depression were …

Job Aids, Feedback, And The Teaching Of Verbal-Reasoning, Angela Williams Campbell

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to test the effects of a job aid and feedback on learning to solve directional verbal-reasoning problems, and (2) to examine whether students’ skills transferred to similar problems following the removal of both the job aid and feedback. Some previous researchers who studied problem solving utilized the think-aloud technique and used solutions generated by expert problem solvers. The think-aloud technique, although perhaps a good one, is not practical in the classroom. In the main study, a job aid was incorporated within the problem so students would be able to use guidance toward …

Interpersonal Issues Of Dependency In Adult Children From Dysfunctional Relationships, Dennis Michael Beaufait

Dissertations

This study was designed to examine issues of interpersonal behavior among adult children of alcoholics when compared to adult children of non-alcoholics by assessing the functioning level of family of origin relationships. Undergraduate students from a midwestern university were divided into four groups based on their scores on the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) by Jones (1981) and the Index of Family Relations (IFR) by Hudson (1982). The sample consisted of 302 subjects between the ages of 18 and 50 who volunteered to participate in a study which examined interpersonal behavior as measured by the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (IDI). …

Exploring The Self-In-Relation Theory: Women's Idealized Relationships-Of-Choice And Psychological Health, K. Heidi Fishman

Dissertations

The self-in-relation theory (e.g., Kaplan, 1984; Kaplan 6 Klein, 1985; Miller, 1984, 1986, 1988; Surrey, 1985, 198?) asserts that women's development is based on relationships. According to the Stone Center theorists (Kaplan, 1984; Miller, 1988; Stiver, 1986-1989, 1986- 1990; Surrey, 1984), psychopathology in women can stem out of non-growth-fostering relationships which leave women feeling a profound sense of disconnection and loss. Similarly, psychological health develops out of growth fostering relationships. This study investigates the connections between women's relational experiences, their idealized relationships-of-choice, the health of their families-of-origin, and current psychological health.

Thirty-eight women were interviewed and given psychological measurements in …

A Comparison Of Junior High Schools To Middle Schools With Respect To Achievement And Attendance, Darrell Clay

Dissertations

During the past 30 years, the middle school movement has been a comprehensive effort to restructure middle level education. Literally thousands of school districts have chosen to change from junior high schools to middle schools for a variety of reasons. Research to support this massive reorganization of American schools has not been evident. The early research did not provide consistent evidence of improvement for middle school students. Most of this early research was based solely on the grade configuration of the schools being compared rather than the conceptual framework of the school.

The purpose of this study was to compare …

Computational Simulation Of Flow Through Elbows In The Approach Piping Systems To A Headbox, Kasinathan Ramanathan

Masters Theses

The successful operation of the wet end in a paper machine is highly dependent on the approach piping system. Sheet basis weight stability and ease of making wet end adjustments are greatly impaired by improperly designed approach piping systems. Most problems in headbox approach piping occur when the flow splits, combines, and passes through elbows.

Elbows create cross flows, flow separation, and eddies, and play an important role in the uniform and stable delivery of the pulp into the headbox. The effect due to an elbow lasts for a considerable distance downstream of the elbow and is severe when two …

Algorithms For Incomplete Hypercubes, Venkata K. Prabhala

Masters Theses

Networked multiprocessing architectures for parallel com putation offer an alternative to high cost supercomputing. Recently hypercube has emerged as the most versatile architecture for parallel com putations. However, the number of nodes m in a hypercube is a power of 2, 2^d, where d is the dimension of the hypercube. In practice, it m ay not be possible to have a complete hypercube because the cost of upgradation is proportional to the num ber of nodes. Incomplete and Composite hypercubes help remove the exponential node(and hence cost) constraint.

In this thesis we establish the equality of m-node …

A Comparison Of Percent Body Fat Calculated By Three Methods: Hydrostatic Weighing, Skinfolds, And Near Infrared Technique, James W. Hill

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of the near infrared technique for assessing body composition. Hydrostatic weighing was used as the criterion measure to which skinfold technique and near infrared technique (as measured by the Futrex-5000) were compared. Two hundred subjects (115 females, 85 males) had their body composition assessed by the three techniques. The intraclass reliability of the Futrex-5000 was measured at r = .997. The Pearson product-moment correlation between hydrostatic weighing and the Futrex-5000 was r = .71 p < .01. The mean percent body fat derived from hydrostatic weighing was 19.3% compared to 21.6% for the Futrex-5000. At test indicated a significant difference between the mean percent body fats calculated by hydrostatic weighing and the Futrex-5000, t(160) = -5.21, p < .01. This study indicated that the Futrex-5000 was not as valid as either skinfold technique or hydrostatic weighing.