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The Lived Experience Of Women Prior To Hospitalization For Acute Myocardial Infarction, Llamae R. Hughes Dnsc

Dissertations

Recent research indicates that the majority of women underestimate their risk of developing coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD claims the lives of more women than all forms of cancer; however, women have not received the symptom recognition or treatment that has been accorded to men with CAD. Review of literature indicated a lack of research regarding the experiences of women with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This phenomenological study explored the lived experience of women with AMI immediately prior to hospitalization. The lines of inquiry focused on descriptive language regarding pre-event feelings, the symptoms experienced at AMI onset, their response to …

Leadership Roles Of Native American Women In Education In The 1990s, Linda S. Keway

Dissertations

This study of Native American women leaders in education had a twofold purpose. The first was the primary objective of the study: to develop a greater understanding of leadership as experienced by contemporary Native American women. The second was to add to the literature on experiences of Native American women leaders. The method selected for this study was a qualitative approach involving ethnographic studies of 12 selected Native American women in the field of education. Data were collected through interviews and journal recordings. Native American women interviewed were representative of various tribes across the United States. The study explored questions …

The Effects Of Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (Emdr) On Self-Reported Test Anxiety In College Students, John C. Hampel

Dissertations

Test anxiety is a common problem among students in western culture due to the importance of academic achievement and the consequences for failure. Many consider test anxiety to be primarily an issue of poor study habits and test readiness. However, some students who appear to possess excellent study habits also appear to experience severe anxiety during tests. A recent meta-analysis of test anxiety research substantiated these claims, finding that test anxiety appeared to be an emotionally-based as opposed to a cognitively-based problem. Despite these findings, the etiologies for test anxiety remain unknown. Similar to nearly all DSM-IV diagnostic categories, test …

Groundwater-Kalamazoo River Interaction Near The Parchment City Wellfield, Parchment, Michigan, W. Richard Laton

Dissertations

A detailed hydrogeologic study of the Kalamazoo River and its interaction with the groundwater was completed near Parchment, Michigan. The Kalamazoo River between Portage Creek and Allegan Dam is a Federal superfund site due to PCB contamination trapped in its sediments. The City of Parchment pumps all of its drinking water from a glacial aquifer 850 feet from the Kalamazoo River. This study focused on the hydrogeology and groundwater/surface interaction of the area through the use of surface and downhole geophysics, installation of monitoring wells and peizometers, seepage meters and chemical sampling. It was determined that the Kalamazoo River is …

Domination In Digraphs, Lisa Hansen

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Efficacy Of Pediatric Pain Management Techniques For Infants During Inoculation Procedures, Kimberly K. Wisdorf-Houtkooper

Dissertations

In this study four different pre-immunization interventions were compared with respect to their effects on modifying arousal level before an immunization and their effects on the level and duration of distress after the immunization. In addition, the study evaluated whether the infants’ pre-inoculation behavioral state affected their response to a painful stimulus. Data consisting of facial expression, presence or absence of cry, cry duration, and behavioral state were collected prior to, during, and after the inoculation. Forty-two subjects were randomly assigned to one of four soothing conditions. These included: rocking, swaddling, sucking on a pacifier, and a control group.

An …

Perceived Support For Change And Implementation Of Title I Of The Ada In Michigan’S Public School Districts, Truman S. Forest

Dissertations

Data for this study were gathered by survey from public school districts in the state of Michigan that employed more than one central office administrator. The survey was sent to human resource administrators as well as assistant superintendents and other central office administrators in 339 school districts. A total of 188 valid responses were received for a response rate of 55.8 percent.

The study tested five relational hypotheses. Ha1 through Ha4 were tested to determine if a relationship existed between the category of school district readiness to implement Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA Readiness) and such …

Bandwidth, Edgesum And Profile Of Graphs, Yung-Ling Lai

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Design Fabrication And Characterization Of High Performance In Gaas/Inp Focal Plane Array In The 1-2.6 Μm Wavelength Region, Krishna R. Linga

Dissertations

This research thesis describes a new In_xGa_1-xAs/InA_ysP_1-y/InP technology for long wavelength photodetectors and photodetector arrays. A unique and novel detector structure was designed and fabricated using Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy, for low leakage current photodetector arrays in the 1-2.6 µm wavelength region. Potential applications of InGaAs focal plane arrays include near-infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence, remote sensing, environmental sensing, space and astronomical applications. The unique design concepts included the step grading of InAsP layers, lower lattice mismatch between the two InAsP graded layers, lattice matched InAsP cap layer and InGaAs absorption layer, sulphur doping …

Efficient Parallel Processing With Optical Interconnections, Lili Hai

Dissertations

With the advances in VLSI technology, it is now possible to build chips which can each contain thousands of processors. The efficiency of such chips in executing parallel algorithms heavily depends on the interconnection topology of the processors. It is not possible to build a fully interconnected network of processors with constant fan-in/fan-out using electrical interconnections. Free space optics is a remedy to this limitation. Qualities exclusive to the optical medium are its ability to be directed for propagation in free space and the property that optical channels can cross in space without any interference. In this thesis, we present …

Adaptive Space-Time Processing For Digital Mobile Radio Communication Systems, Amit Shah

Dissertations

The performance of digital mobile radio communication systems is primarily limited by cochannel interference and multipath fading. Antenna arrays, with optimum combining (OC), have been shown to combat multipath fading of the desired signal and are capable of reducing the power of interfering signals at the receiver through spatial filtering. With OC, the signals received by several antenna elements are weighted and combined to maximize the output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SLNR). We derive new closed-form expressions for (1) the probability density function (PDF) of the SINR at the output of the optimum combiner, (2) the average probability of bit error rate …

An Investigation Of The Oxygraphic Response Of Stressed Bovine Blood, Cristin Mckenna

Dissertations

Oxygraphic profiles of stressed bovine blood in a temperature controlled 2 ml reactor vessel provide the basis for an investigation of blood's response to various conditions. This response is broken down into an initial response (within 3 seconds), the response over 1 hour and the response over 24 hours. Fast-assay runs which investigate the initial response display a dose-response relationship when chemically stressed by phenol. Phenol concentrations in the 1,000 ppm range indicate a decrease in dissolved oxygen (DO) and higher phenol concentrations of over 20,000 an increase in DO. In addition to phenol concentration, other factors investigated with respect …

Motion Compensation And Very Low Bit Rate Video Coding, Shu Lin

Dissertations

Recently, many activities of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Standard Organization (ISO) are leading to define new standards for very low bit-rate video coding, such as H.263 and MPEG-4 after successful applications of the international standards H.261 and MPEG-1/2 for video coding above 64kbps. However, at very low bit-rate the classic block matching based DCT video coding scheme suffers seriously from blocking artifacts which degrade the quality of reconstructed video frames considerably. To solve this problem, a new technique in which motion compensation is based on dense motion field is presented in this dissertation.

Four efficient new …

Multi-Wavelength Infrared Imaging Computer Systems And Applications, Jun Li

Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development of three computer systems for multi-wavelength thermal imaging.

Two computer systems were developed for the multi-wavelength imaging pyrometers (M-WIPs) that yield non-contact temperature measurements by remotely sensing the surface of objects with unknown wavelength-dependent emissivity. These M-WIP computer systems represent the state-of-art development in remote temperature measurement system based on the multi-wavelength approach. The dissertation research includes M-WIP computer system integration, software development, performance evaluation, and also applications in monitoring and control of temperature distribution of silicon wafers in a rapid thermal process system.

The two M-WIPs are capable of data acquisition, signal processing, system …

High Speed Protocols For Dual Bus And Dual Ring Network Architectures, Yaling Zhou

Dissertations

In this dissertation, two channel access mechanisms providing fair and bandwidth efficient transmission on dual bus and dual ring networks with high bandwidth-latency product are proposed. In addition, two effective priority mechanisms are introduced to meet the throughput and delay requirements of the diverse arrays of applications that future high speed networks must support.

For dual bus architectures, the Buffer Insertion Bandwidth Balancing (BI_BWB) mechanism and the Preemptive priority Bandwidth Balancing (P_BI_BWB) mechanism are proposed. BI_BWB can significantly improve the delay performance of remote stations. It achieves that by providing each station with a shift register into which the station …

The Perspectives Of The Woman/Nurse/Executive Working In The Managed Care Environment Of Southern California, Cheryl Lynn Brandi Dnsc, Ms, Msn, Rn

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of the woman/nurse/executive working in the managed care environment of Southern California. This research was extremely timely because (a) Southern California leads the nation in managed care market penetration, (b) changes in health care financing have resulted in a prolific expansion of nurse executive responsibilities, and (c) nurse executive experiences regarding increased responsibilities have not been researched. Role expansion impacts both male and female nurse executives, but female nurse executives must confront the dilemma of functioning in administrative domains which have been largely dominated by men. Knowledge about their experiences …

The Experiences Of Taiwanese Women Caregiving For Parents-In-Law, Shu-Yuan Chao Dnsc

Dissertations

Using grounded theory, a semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted to explore the experiences of Taiwanese women who were caregivers for their parents-in-law. Thirty-one Taiwanese women aged 23 to 58 participated in this study. Just Doing was identified as the core category to indicate the caregivers' striving process once they committed to their in-laws' care. Recognizing Duty, Experiencing Trials, and Responding to Caregiving were subcategories and reflected how a caregiver perceived her role, how she was affected by caregiving tasks, and what responses she had to the caregiving situation. The findings also suggested that caregiving behaviors were influenced by cultural expectations …

Correlates Of Staff Nurse Work Satisfaction In Hospitals With Shared Governance, Mary Kay Flynn Dnsc, Rn, Ccrn

Dissertations

Lack of staff nurse participation in hospital decision-making has been cited as a major reason for the dissatisfaction in nursing. Shared governance has been proposed as an organizational model that provides staff nurses with both the structure and the mechanism for having increased decision-making authority. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of organizational culture, perceived importance of involvement and actual involvement in decision-making, the discrepancy between importance and involvement, staff nurse years of involvement in shared governance, control over nursing practice, and work satisfaction among staff nurses working in hospitals with shared governance. A descriptive, correlational …

Role Expectation Of Chief Nurse Executive Officers In Integrated Healthcare Systems Located In Highly Managed Care Markets, Daniel L. Gross Dnsc

Dissertations

The healthcare industry is undergoing radical transformation. Healthcare's transformation is characterized by new patterns of organization, alliance, management, administration, and governance. Traditional fee-for-service reimbursement strategies are rapidly dissolving and managed health care is proliferating. Managed care and managed competition are forcing hospitals and healthcare providers to reduce expenses and identify improved methods for healthcare delivery. Integrated healthcare delivery systems (IDSs) and networks are at the center of healthcare reform. Chief Nurse Executive Officers (CNEOs) are increasingly finding themselves in roles within complex IDSs located within highly managed care markets (HMCMs). This new work environment is altering old and mandating new …

Caroline Bartlett Crane And Progressive Era Reform: A Socio-Historical Analysis Of Ideology In Action, Linda J. Rynbrandt

Dissertations

This dissertation is a sociohistorical analysis of women and social reform in the Progressive Era. Until recently, the role of women has been virtually invisible in accounts of Progressive social reform. While this is no longer the case, considerable questions remain. Using the archival records of one woman, Caroline Bartlett Crane (1858-1935), which document her professional, intellectual and personal life, I describe her contribution to social reform and early sociology. I analyze how her life and work reveals a greater understanding of current feminist debates and other social, historical and political questions.

The Military-Bureaucracy Relationship In Nigeria: A Study Of Public Policy Making And Implementation, Robert Aziakpono Dibie

Dissertations

The Federal Government of Nigeria’s Structural Adjustment/Make-or-Buy policy was introduced in July 1986 to accelerate the development of Nigerian industrial capacity by contracting government R & D out to the private sector. This study expands the empirical and theoretical analyses of development policy and its implementation that have traditionally relied on motives of "rationality" (costs/benefits) to explain bureaucratic behavior. It examines and juxtaposes the military-dominated policy making apparatus with the traditional bureaucracy, which has the responsibility for the execution of public policy. It also attempts to make some contribution to Nigerian and comparative literature in the field of industrial development …

The Relationship Between Course Outcomes And The Factors Of Retention As Determined By Webb’S Model Of Student Persistence, Jan K. Fields

Dissertations

This study looked at the differences in various factors of college retention for students who successfully completed all courses in a particular semester as compared to students who did not successfully complete at least one course during that same semester. The college retention factors were taken from Webb's (1988) Model of Student Retention and were assessed through the use of student records and two survey instruments developed by Noel/Levitz (Schreiner & Juillerat, 1994; Stratil, 1988).

The study was conducted at Muskegon Community College during the 1995 Fall Semester using four groups of students: (1) students enrolled in high success vocational …

The Relationship Between Cooperating Teachers' And Student Teachers' Concerns, Dan A. Gerbens

Dissertations

The notion that student teachers progress through identifiable stages of concern in their professional development originated in the 1960s. The late Frances Fuller (1969) identified three stages of student teachers' concerns: (1) self concern, (2) task concern, and (3) impact concern. Using the Fuller concerns model, the relationship between cooperating teachers' and student teachers' concerns was examined in 31 cooperating teacher/student teacher dyads during the fall of 1995. Cooperating teachers were categorized as either self-concerned or task concerned based on their responses to a concerns questionnaire derived from the Fuller (1974) Teachers Concerns Check List (TCCL). The student teachers of …

Cultural Discovery In Nursing Practice: The Experience Of Nurses' Who Work With Vietnamese, Evelyn Labun Dnsc, Mscn, Rn

Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to generate a substantive theory of cultural discovery among nurses who work with Vietnamese. A grounded theory approach involving dimensional analysis was employed. A purposive sample of 27 registered nurses with experiences working with Vietnamese in acute care, community, and clinic settings was interviewed using a semi-structured format. Data were analyzed for dimensions as well as conditions, context, action strategies, and consequences. The theory of cultural discovery described how nurses learn to see their Vietnamese clients, how they saw a common humanity with others, and how they learn to see health. Nurses who made …

Adaptive Distributed Detection With Applications To Cellular Cdma, Jian-Guo Chen

Dissertations

Chair and Varshney have derived an optimal rule for fusing decisions based on the Bayesian criterion. To implement the rule, probabilities of detection P_D and false alarm P_F for each detector must be known, which is not readily available in practice. This dissertation presents an adaptive fusion model which estimates the P_D and P_F adaptively by a simple counting process. Since reference signals are not given, the decision of a local detector is arbitrated by the fused decision of all the other local detectors. Adaptive algorithms for both equal probable and unequal probable sources, for independent …

Least Space-Time First Scheduling Algorithm : Scheduling Complex Tasks With Hard Deadline On Parallel Machines, Bo-Chao Cheng

Dissertations

Both time constraints and logical correctness are essential to real-time systems and failure to specify and observe a time constraint may result in disaster. Two orthogonal issues arise in the design and analysis of real-time systems: one is the specification of the system, and the semantic model describing the properties of real-time programs; the other is the scheduling and allocation of resources that may be shared by real-time program modules.

The problem of scheduling tasks with precedence and timing constraints onto a set of processors in a way that minimizes maximum tardiness is here considered. A new scheduling heuristic, Least …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Lpcvd Sic Films Using Novel Precursors, Mahalingam Bhaskaran

Dissertations

A unique low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process has been developed to synthesize amorphous and crystalline SiC films using environmentally benign chemicals. The interrelationships governing the process variables, compositions and select properties of the resulting films were established. Such films can be used to produce high quality mask membrane for x-ray lithography. These films can also be used in fabricating high power electrical devices, and hetrojunction devices in conjunction with silicon.

Amorphous SiC films were synthesized using a single precursor, ditertiarybutylsilane, at temperatures below 850°C. Compositional analysis performed on these deposits revealed that, in the deposition temperature range of …

Bilinear Time-Frequency Representations Of Heart Rate Variability And Respiration During Stress, Rindala Saliba

Dissertations

Recently, joint time-frequency signal representation has received considerable attention as a powerful tool for analyzing a variety of signals and systems. In particular, if the frequency content is time varying as in signals of biological origin which often do not comply with the stationarity assumptions, then this approach is quite attractive. In this dissertation, we explore the possibility of better representation of two particular biological signals, namely heart rate variability (HRV) and respiration. We propose the use of time-frequency analysis as a new and innovative approach to examine the physical and mental exertion attributed to exercise. Two studies are used …

Safe Code Transfromations For Speculative Execution In Real-Time Systems, Mohamed Mohamed Younis

Dissertations

Although compiler optimization techniques are standard and successful in non-real-time systems, if naively applied, they can destroy safety guarantees and deadlines in hard real-time systems. For this reason, real-time systems developers have tended to avoid automatic compiler optimization of their code. However, real-time applications in several areas have been growing substantially in size and complexity in recent years. This size and complexity makes it impossible for real-time programmers to write optimal code, and consequently indicates a need for compiler optimization. Recently researchers have developed or modified analyses and transformations to improve performance without degrading worst-case execution times. Moreover, these optimization …

Counterpulsation Cardiac Assist Device Controller Defection Filter Simulation And Canine Experiments, Carl Edward Werner

Dissertations

Electronic control systems for counterpulsation Cardiac Assist Devices (CADs) are an essential part of cardiac assistance. Synchronization of the counterpulsation CAD controller with the cardiac cycle is critical to the efficacy of the CAD. The robustness of counterpulsation CAD controllers varies with the ability of the CAD controller to properly trigger on aortic pressure (Pa) and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals for sinusoid rhythms, non-sinusoid rhythms and non-ideal signals resulting from surgical intervention. An analog-to-digital converter and digital-to-analog converter based CAD controller development platform was devised on a 33Mhz PC-AT.

Counterpulsation Pa systolic rise and dicrotic notch detectors were demonstrated with a …