Digital Commons Network^™

Experiences Assisting Or Hindering The Academic And Social Integration Of African American Students At Southwestern Michigan College, Naomi L. Ludman

Dissertations

Problem. Attrition rates of minority students in general and African American students in particular have remained high in postsecondary education, particularly at community colleges. To gain information that is most useful for implementing policies and actions that will increase the retention and achievement of minority students, Tinto has maintained that colleges should not rely solely on systems-wide research, but should study their own students.

Method. This case study used Tinto’s longitudinal model of institutional departure to investigate the experiences of six African American students at a rural community college in southwestern Michigan. Analysis of the data from a series of …

An Analysis Of The Pedagogical Methods Of Hindu Gurus, Pearl Anjanee Gyan Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the pedagogical methods of Hindu gurus that could be applicable to elementary school teaching for the inner development of students. With severe cutbacks to classroom instruction and demands by economic, political, and educational leaders for education to produce a highly skilled work force for the future of the economy, teachers are forced to use precision teaching for measurable learning. The review of the literature in this study presented a historiography of Western pedagogical methods. It showed how Western teaching methods have been defined by the seventeenth-century Newtonian objectivistic-reductionistic-mechanistic paradigm and later enforced …

Mechanistic Studies Of Cation Photogeneration, Mary Frances Clifton

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Intentional Classroom Humor In Nursing : A Multiple Case Study, Joan Kay Ulloth

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived connections between the intentional use of humor in the nursing classroom and student learning in the cognitive and affective domains while seeking to understand student and teacher perceptions and responses to humor.

Method. This study used a case study approach and the end result is a multiple case study of three associate degree nursing instructors in the Midwest. The data collection methods included observations, interviews, and surveys. Data from the different sources were examined within and across cases for commonality or difference of experience. Connections were made between …

Employability Skills In The Undergraduate Business Curriculum And Job Market Preparedness : Perceptions Of Faculty And Final-Year Students In Five Tertiary Institutions, Patrick Antonio Williams

Dissertations

Problem

For several decades educators, researchers, and employers have expressed concern about the quality of business graduates that are entering the workplace as entry-level professionals. The major concern of these stakeholders is that many students who are leaving tertiary institutions lack the necessary employability skills needed for career success. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate if undergraduate schools of business are adequately preparing their students for the workplace through the incorporation of employability skills throughout the curriculum. To achieve this purpose, the study measured the perceptions of both final-year undergraduate business students and their professors to determine …

The Development Of A Master Plan Of Curriculum And Instruction For A Charter School In The State Of Michigan, Thomas Gerald Kea

Dissertations

Problem. Our country stands in need of academic imperatives that will provide direction for our public school system. Highly accountable charter schools are being propagated to model quality education. The country is presently challenged to produce competent educational programs that contribute to this pioneer effort.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to develop a master plan of curriculum and instruction for a charter school in the state of Michigan by studying select schools and other documents.

Method. This was a qualitative study that sought to determine the culture of select charter, public, private, and home schools. Ten principles, drawn …

Volunteers As Tutors And Trainers Of Tutors : A Qualitative Study, Mark B. Thogmartin

Dissertations

Problem. The Seventh-day Adventist church/North American Division initiated a Tutoring and Mentoring project in response to President Clinton’s America Reads literacy campaign. This study documents the efforts of the church and the first cohort of trainees as they sought to establish tutoring projects in their home locales.

Method. The author of this study was involved as a co-trainer and a participant-observer during the initial 1-week training session held at the North American Division Headquarters. This training was intended to equip the participants to become tutors of children and trainers of tutors in a primary-level tutoring project. During the …

Mind And The Inner-Outer Dichotomy, Richard Baluck

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Subject-Specific Academic Self-Concepts On Academic Achievement From A Vygotskian Developmental Perspective: A Longitudinal Investigation, Heidi Marlene Coon-Carty

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Adjustment Of Hearing-Impaired Children: Risk And Resistance Factors, Karen L. Burk-Paull

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Secondary School Teacher Attitudes Toward Instructional Technology Use In The Context Of Motivation Theory, Timothy G. Sassen

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Ex Post Facto Descriptive, Comparative, And Correlational Study Of Two Groups Of High School Special Education Students, Roberta L. Colbert

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Portrait Of Assessment In Reformed Mathematics Classrooms, James R. Kett

Dissertations

During the past decade, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics published three documents (1989, 1991, 1995) which propose changes in content, instruction, and assessment. These documents call for instructional and assessment goals that support students as they construct their own meaning to mathematics. A next step is to develop assessment models consistent with these goals which would guide and support classroom teachers.

As a result of mathematics reform, many curriculum development projects are underway. One such project is the Core-Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP) . This research documents the assessment practices of four CPMP teachers working in 9th and 10th …

Differential Effects Of Individual And Group Pay Contingencies On Individual Performance, Judith A. Honeywell-Johnson

Dissertations

Individual productivity of high performers was compared under an individual monetary incentive system and a 10-member group monetary incentive system. Subjects were 4 college students, each assigned to a simulated 10-person group. Subjects individually performed four computerized work tasks (SYNWORK) simultaneously, and the total number of points earned on the tasks was the main dependent variable. A within-subject reversal design was used, with hourly pay (A), individual (B) and group (C) monetary incentives implemented in an ABCB pattern. Subjects, when working under the group incentive pay condition, were told that the number of points they earned during each session would …

Collision Spectroscopy Of Low Energy Capture By Multiply Charged Ions From Atomic Targets, Kadir Akgungor

Dissertations

State-selective differential cross sections for single-electron capture processes in very slow collisions of Ar^q+ (q = 4 - 6) ions with Ne, and Ar^6+ ions with He have been studied experimentally at laboratory collision energies between 15 and 100 qeV, and at scattering angles between 0° and 8° by means of translational energy-gain spectroscopy technique. The translational energy spectra show that only a few final states are populated depending on the charge state of the projectile, the projectile laboratory scattering angle, and the collision energy. These measurements also show that the dominant reaction channels are due to capture into excited …

The Effect Of Remedial Education Programs On Academic Achievement And Persistence At The Two-Year Community College, Lyn Ann Batzer

Dissertations

Community colleges are open door institutions that serve students who may lack the basic skills necessary to succeed in college. The number of academically underprepared students attending community colleges has been increasing over the years. Thus, there is a corresponding need for effective remedial programs to prepare the academically underprepared students for college-level work.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of remedial education. More specifically, the study was designed to measure the performance of academically underprepared students who complete required remediation compared to academically underprepared students who do not complete remediation.

The study tested two hypotheses: …

An Integrated Environment For Problem Solving And Program Development, Fadi Pierre Deek

Dissertations

A framework for an integrated problem solving and program development environment that addresses the needs of students learning programming is proposed. Several objectives have been accomplished: defining the tasks required for program development and a literature review to determine the actual difficulties involved in learning those tasks. A comprehensive Study of environments and tools developed to support the learning of problem solving and programming was then performed, covering programming environments, debugging aids, intelligent tutoring systems, and intelligent programming environments. This was followed by a careful analysis and critique of these systems, which uncovered the limitations that have prevented them from …

Fractionally Sampled Decorrelating Detectors For Time-Varying Rayleigh Fading Cdma Channels, Huaping Liu

Dissertations

In this dissertation, we propose novel decorrelating multiuser detectors in DSCDMA time-varying frequency-nonselective and frequency-selective fading channels and analyze their performance. We address the common shortcomings of existing multiuser detectors in a mobile environment, such as detector complexity and the error floor. An analytical approach is employed almost exclusively and Monte Carlo simulation is used to confirm the theoretical results. Practical channel models, such as Jakes' and Markovian, are adopted in the numerical examples.

The proposed detectors are of the decorrelating type and utilize fractional sampling to simultaneously achieve two goals: (1) the novel realization of a decorrelator with lower …

Analysis Of Safe Separation Distances From Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines, James Stephen Haklar

Dissertations

Accidental rupture of natural gas transmission pipelines with subsequent ignition of the escaping gas can result in the loss of life and property. In the United States, current means of protecting both the pipeline and the public include the establishment of class locations, in which specific pipeline design, construction and operation requirements must be attained. In addition, distances at which the pipelines can be safely set back from the community, called safe separation distances, have been developed in some European countries (e.g., Great Britain, the Netherlands) through use of risk assessment principles. However, to date there has been no simple, …

Automobile Air Bag Inflation System Based On Fast Combustion Reaction, Yacoob Tabani

Dissertations

Current automobile air bag inflator technology is complex, expensive and environmentally unsafe. A new and novel air bag inflator based on fast combustion reactions of methane-oxygen mixtures has been developed and studied. The thermodynamics and mass flow parameters of this new inflator have been modeled and found to be in agreement with experimental results.

The performance of the fast combustion inflator was evaluated in terms of pressure-time relationships inside the inflator and in a receiving tank simulating an air bag as well as the temperature-time relationship in the tank.

In order to develop this fast combustion inflator, several critical issues …

Modeling Study On The Neopentyl+ O2 Reaction System And Experimental And Modeling Study On Mtbe Pyrolysis And Oxidation, Ru Wei

Dissertations

A modeling study on neopentyl radical + O₂ reaction system is conducted in this study. Thermodynamic parameters on all species and important transition states are calculated. A thermochemical kinetic analysis is performed.

Thermodynamic parameters are estimated using group additivity with HBI groups. Transition state energies are evaluated from experimental and theoretical data in the literature, combined with elementary reaction modeling to account for temperature effects. Transition state structures, vibration frequencies and entropies are determined from semi-empirical calculations, MOPAC PM3. Kinetics are analyzed with quantum RRK theory for k(E) coupled with modified strong collision analysis of Gilbert et al for …

Diffusive And Wavelike Phenomena In Thermal Processing Of Materials, John A. Pelesko

Dissertations

Contemporary materials science abounds with novel processing methods. Devices such as lasers, microwave sources, and electron beam guns, provide unprecedented control over the deposition of energy within a material. The modern materials scientist has the ability to deposit energy volumetrically, to precisely control the location of energy deposition within a material, and to deposit energy in extremely short intervals of time. While making possible numerous thermal processing methods, these devices also push the limits of our understanding of the response of materials to energy deposition. In order to optimize and control these processing methods, it becomes necessary to further our …

Electrocatalytic Control Of Exhaust Soot, Victor L. Callahan

Dissertations

The feasibility of combining electrostatic precipitation and use of a catalytic wall in a straight tube reactor as a means of destroying soot particles was investigated. Enhanced particle diffusion to the wall by an applied electric field provided the means of particle capture for subsequent catalytic oxidation at the active surface in a small length tube.

Soot particles flowing in a gas stream are influenced by the following transport mechanisms: convective flux as a result of bulk flow, diffusion flux as a result of particle concentration or number density gradient, and an electrostatic flux from the coulombic attraction as charged …

Systematics Of Stable Isotopes And Radionuclides In Precipitation At Kalamazoo, Michigan, Usa, Madhav V. Machavaram

Dissertations

Precipitation samples were collected at Kalamazoo from June 1992 to March 1995. The samples were analyzed for their 8D and 8lgO values. The 5D - 5I80 relationship is comparable to that of Meteoric Water Line (MWL). The monthly mean isotopic values in precipitation exhibited strong seasonality, being higher in summer and lower in winter months. This behavior is apparently a direct consequence of the temperature effect on isotope fractionation.

The summer precipitation at Kalamazoo is derived predominantly from the water vapor originated in the Gulf of Mexico. A box model calculation showed that a Rayleigh type distillation with Gulf moisture …

Underdevelopment As Meta-Axiological Dilemma: The Socioeconomic Implications Of African Axiology For Rational Choice Determinants Of Microeconomic Agency, Sundiata Keita Ibn-Hyman

Dissertations

The intergenerational problems of indigence, poverty and social dysfunction that plague African societies are inextricably grounded in the broader issue of ethnocentrism in neoclassical microeconomics. Economic anthropology provides a methodological critique of the conceptual limitations of neoclassical micro-behavioral assumptions narrowly imposed on non-westem economic organization. While recognizing non-westem economic praxes, the sociological implications of strict neoclassical microeconomic agency for non-westem socioeconomic development is conspicuously ignored. The critique fails to specifically consider the impact of neoclassical ethnocentrism to non-westem sociocultural organization and improvement.

This research utilizes an African-centered, social psychological approach to examine the paradigmatic implications of rational choice criteria for …

Estimating Ibnr Reserves With Robust Statistics, Daniel Cheung

Dissertations

There is often a considerable time lag between an incurred of an accident, such as medical malpractice or product liability, and the time it is reported to the insurance company. These Incurred But Not Reported (IBNR) losses need to be predicted in order to determine the necessary loss reserves. Many actuarial methods have been developed for IBNR reserves estimation. However, none of the methods being used for loss reserving is robust to outliers, nor do they provide adequate statistical inferences to support the actuarial decisions. The rank-based method proposed in this thesis is robust to outliers, and provides statistical inference …

Localization And Transport Effects In The Disordered Materials, Vladislav Malyshkin

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Robust Estimate For An Autoregressive Time Series, Jeffrey Terpstra

Dissertations

A weighted rank-based estimate for estimating the parameter of an auto-regressive time series is considered. When the weights are constant, the estimate is equivalent to using Jaeckel’s estimate and Wilcoxon scores. The estimate can be shown to be asymptotically normal at rate y/n. In a linear regression setting this estimate has the desired properties of a continuous totally bounded influence function and a positive breakdown point. It is shown via examples and Monte Carlo that these properties are preserved in an autoregressive time series setting.

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.