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Effect Of Vitamin Supplementation On Biodegradation Of Aliphatic Hydrocarbons And Diesel Fuel, Susmita Guptapal

Dissertations

Bioremediation of hazardous wastes is proven to be environmentally benign and most cost effective technology when proper conditions are provided. However, commercialization of this method still requires comprehensive research to enhance the degradation rate to make the technology more acceptable for implementation. In this research a unique approach to increase the rate of biodegradation by vitamins supplementation was studied.

Five vitamins, niacin, biotin, folic acid, thiamin and pantothenic acid were selected for the present study. Different short chain (C₈ and C₉), and long chain (C₁₆ and C₁₇) aliphatic hydrocarbons and diesel fuel (a mixture …

Scheduling And Discrete Event Control Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems Based On Petri Nets, Huanxin Henry Xiong

Dissertations

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a computerized production system that can simultaneously manufacture multiple types of products using various resources such as robots and multi-purpose machines. The central problems associated with design of flexible manufacturing systems are related to process planning, scheduling, coordination control, and monitoring. Many methods exist for scheduling and control of flexible manufacturing systems, although very few methods have addressed the complexity of whole FMS operations. This thesis presents a Petri net based method for deadlock-free scheduling and discrete event control of flexible manufacturing systems. A significant advantage of Petri net based methods is their powerful …

Study Of Stress In Microelectronic Materials By Photoelasticity, Hancheng Liang

Dissertations

The study of stress is playing an important role in microelectronic technology. In comparison with other techniques, the photoelasticity technique has the advantages of having high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. It can be used in qualitative observation in real-time and quantitative determination of stress distribution in the microelectronic materials and devices.

This dissertation presents a systematic study of photoelastic stress analysis in microelectronic materials and devices, ranged from theoretical study to practical system setup, from measurement methods to their applications. At first, based on the detailed survey on the piezo-optic properties of the crystals used in microelectronics, we apply …

Reaction Kinetics Of Methanol And Mtbe Oxidation And Pyrolysis, Wen-Chiun Ing

Dissertations

This study presents experimental data on the decomposition of methanol in several different reaction environments - fuel lean to stoichiometric at a temperature range of 873 and 1073 K and a pressure range of I and 5 atm. Methane fuel is also added in several of the systems studied in order to provide experimental data to understand the methanol addition effect on the methane oxidation.

Computer codes: ThermCal, ThermSrt and ThermCvt have been developed for the thermal property calculations of stable molecules by the Benson group additivity method and of radicals by the NJIT hydrogen bond increment method.

Pressure dependent …

Behavior And Attitudes Related To The Prevention Of Sexually Transmitted Disease And Unplanned Pregnancy, J. Lee Hoover

Dissertations

A sample of 214 persons was tested to determine the impact of gender role orientation, neuroticism, extraversion, authoritarianism, race, gender, and sexual orientation on attitudes and behavior relevant to the prevention of sexually transmitted disease and unintended pregnancy. Specifically measured was the impact of these factors on attitudes toward the condom as contraceptive, attitudes toward the condom as prophylactic, and reported condom use.

Gender role orientation was measured using the short form of the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bern, 1978), neuroticism and extraversion were measured using the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) (Costa & McCrae, 1992), and authoritarianism was measured …

Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing Treatment Of Communication Anxiety: A Closer Look, Teresa Foley

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to replicate the results of previous research with respect to EMD/R (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and of this researcher’s investigation of EMD/R treatment of public-speaking anxiety (Foley & Spates, 1995). The present study, however, included components to permit more extensive analysis of the elements of treatment that contribute to therapeutic effectiveness. The study investigated the contribution of assessment speeches to treatment effectiveness by using a two factor design in which one factor featured a condition of pre-treatment/post-treatment speeches vs. a condition of post-treatment speeches only. The other factor featured two treatment conditions, permitting …

Effects Of Exercise And Psychosocial Stress On Blood Glucose In Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetics, Lisa Renae Clemensen

Dissertations

Non-insulin dependent diabetes often has serious consequences for individuals if blood glucose is not maintained within relatively normal ranges. Exercise and stress have been enumerated as important variables for the control of blood glucose in non-insulin dependent diabetics.

This study compared blood glucose and stress for eight exercise and eight matched control non-exercise adult noninsulin dependent participants. A prospective home monitoring design was used to monitor daily blood glucose, stress, and physical activity via multiple measures for six days.

Results indicated that control participants had significantly higher average blood glucose readings and higher blood glucose variability. Daily stress measures did …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Women Survivors’ Disclosure Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Joanne Dodgson

Dissertations

In clinical literature regarding adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, disclosure of abuse is considered a vital aspect of healing (Courtois,1988; Herman, 1992). Despite the apparent significance of disclosure, few studies have been conducted to investigate this process. Integrating feminist and qualitative research perspectives, I sought to explore disclosure through the stories, language, and perspectives of women survivors. I was interested in learning about the following issues: (a) the ways in which survivors' disclosure unfolded, (b) the ways in which survivors understood and made meaning of their disclosures, and (c) the ways in which survivors' lives changed through the process …

Training Nonconventional Autoclitic And Tact Relationships In Children, Ingolfur Bergsteinsson

Dissertations

To some extent, one understands a complex aspect of human language if one can produce that kind of language in children who have not already acquired it. Skinner’s (1957) concept of autoclitic secondary verbal behavior is the most complex of his various verbal units, and until recently has not been the subject of experimental analysis. Howard and Rice (1988) made the first attempt to generate an autoclitic repertoire in preschool children, and the present study is an attempt to corroborate and extend their findings. They worked with the autoclitic “like” which identifies the accompanying primary verbal behavior as a form …

Measuring Changes In Spontaneous Play Behavior In Preschoolers With Autism Associated With A Receptive Language Intervention, Jori Reijonen

Dissertations

Children diagnosed with Autistic Disorder have well documented deficits in the development of pretend play. When it occurs, spontaneous pretend play differs from play seen in other children in frequency, duration, and quality. The present study examined the effects of teaching preschoolers with Autism to follow one-part directions to play during discrete trial receptive language training sessions on spontaneous play skills.

Receptive language tasks were designed to teach simple pretend play skills (e.g., "Feed the doll with a spoon"). Spontaneous play was continuously sampled during free play sessions in the clinic and in the child's home before these receptive tasks …

A Comparison Of The Spontaneous Utterances Of Students With Autism Across Two Educational Settings, Mary E. Peterson

Dissertations

Students with autism are being mainstreamed into general education classes in increasing numbers. This practice is based on the largely theoretical assumptions that normal peers will provide models of appropriate communication skills as well as increased opportunities for social interaction. However, there are few empirical studies available to corroborate these beliefs.

The purpose of this study was to compare the functional communication of the same group of students with autism across two settings, their general education classrooms and their self-contained, special education classrooms. Each of the students spent time in both settings during each school day. Their spontaneous language was …

The Effects Of Wraparound Services On The Adjustment Of Four Severely Emotionally Disturbed Youth: A Controlled Multiple Baseline Study, Michael J. Myaard

Dissertations

This naturalistic study employed a controlled multiple baseline design (Baer, Wolf & Risley, 1968; Poling, 1995) across subjects and behaviors to examine the effects of wraparound services on the adjustment of four Severely Emotionally Disturbed teenagers at risk o f long term residential placement. Subjects were selected on a clinical trials basis upon referral into a public sector interagency service system within a small rural county. The Vermont System For Tracking Client Progress served as the primary dependent measure and was sampled daily for one year, the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale and detailed financial data were also sampled. …

Cost Sharing Under Complex Federalism: Welfare Reform Cost Neutrality Calculations, Robert G. Lovell

Dissertations

The American system of welfare for families with children is a partnership between the federal and state governments. Under this partnership, the federal government establishes the basic eligibility policies for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the principal program providing cash assistance to poor families. States determine payment levels and administrative policies. Costs are shared through a formula reflecting each state’s ability to pay.

To encourage policy experimentation by the states, a section of the act creating the AFDC program allows the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to waive some provisions. This became …

Intergovernmental Cooperation In Metropolitan Grand Rapids, Michigan, James M. Kadlecek

Dissertations

This case study contributes to the understanding of governance in Metropolitan areas of the U.S. by examining cooperative activity among local units of government in the Grand Rapids, Michigan metropolitan area. A conceptual framework identifies the factors which impact cooperation, and displays a theoretical continuum of approaches to metropolitan governance.

The research methodology is qualitative and includes four years of participant observation, extensive records analysis, a survey of local government managers and 21 interviews with key informants.

The findings identify 151 examples of formal and informal cooperation occurring in Grand Rapids metro, as well as eight categories of factors which …

Culture-Specific Hiv/Std Prevention Programming For Lesbian And Bisexual Women, Kathleen M. Morrow

Dissertations

HIV/AIDS prevention research continues to target populations in which AIDS is already responsible for a significant number of deaths. Since an AIDS diagnosis often indicates the transmission of HIV several years earlier, targeting groups currently manifesting AIDS neglects those groups which may be at risk for transmission of HIV today. Among the lowest incidence in known cases of AIDS are women who have sex with women. Despite a preponderance of biomedical research which implicates vaginal secretions and blood products as vehicles in HIV transmission, there remains only a minimal effort to educate these w om en regarding their risk of …

Elementary Teachers’ And Principals’ Perceptions Of Principal Leadership Style And School Social Organization, Thomas Jack Evans

Dissertations

The context of teaching has dramatically changed over the last several decades following two national waves of educational reform. Researchers have focused attention on the social restructuring of schools (Liebermann, 1992) and appropriate leadership strategies, such as transformational leadership (Leithwood, 1993; Sergiovanni, 1990), for achieving comprehensive changes leading toward increased school effectiveness. Leadership that can stimulate "bottom-up" participation from teachers and principals in efforts to restructure schools has been recommended (Rowan, 1990; Sergiovanni, 1994). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between elementary principals’ use of transformational leadership strategies as determined by teacher reports and the …

Leader Attitudes And Leader Stress: Is There A Connection?, Earl B. Kaurala

Dissertations

In an era of technological innovation, information explosion, and state and national calls for educational reform, it seems important to adopt processes that will allow for rapid diffusion of knowledge and implementation of new technologies into classrooms. The leadership provided by the principal is extremely important to this process. Unfortunately, principals can be overwhelmed by the conflicting expectations that have become associated with their role within the educational community.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the leadership attitudes of Michigan secondary school principals and the relationship of these attitudes to the work-related stress the surveyed principals indicated they …

Eliminated From Eternity: Animal Soul In Nineteenth Century Discourse, Elizabeth Clark George

Dissertations

Environmentalists of the late twentieth century have focused attention on the needs of the natural world and have found support from a broad cross-section of society. A less-than-enthusiastic voice, however, comes from the evangelical wing of Christianity, which is in turn accused of being at best disinterested, at worst exploitive. To probe the origins of this antipathy with hope of dispelling unnecessary accusations was the initial stimulus for the present study. Research is centered on the idea of animal immortality, a concept that has interesting ramifications for both environmentalists and evangelicals.

In the western world, historical background for belief in …

Children With Hiv: How They Feel About What Parents Say, Susan Pease Instone Dnsc, Msn, Cpnp

Dissertations

With improvements in diagnosis and care, children with HIV infection are living long enough to reach school age, a stage when they are capable of perceiving the stigmatizing, life-threatening nature of their illness. Many parents desire to protect them from this knowledge by avoiding an open dialogue about their disease, even though pediatric professionals advocate disclosure. Research-based guidelines about the risks and benefits of telling, however, have not been available in the literature. Using an innovative, qualitative approach through the use of grounded theory and projective drawing techniques, this investigation sought to explore what parents said about the illness and …

Teaching/ Learning Experiences: Meanings Constructed By Participants Ini A Degree Completion Program For Adult Students, Natalie K. Manbeck

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning that teachers and their adult students construct of their classroom experiences and to see how those meanings impact the teaching/ learning process. Because of the multiple factors affecting an educational experience, this study took the view that this should be explored in a holistic way. Most educational research focuses on the teacher's perspective, with students and their learning considered as the result of the educational process. In order to more fully understand what is occurring in classrooms and what students are actually learning, it is important to ascertain student perceptions …

A Qualitative Study Of Friendships And Student-Faculty Relationships: Experiences And Perspectives Of Korean International Students Studying In The United States, Jinsook Kim

Dissertations

Experiences and perceptions among a group of Korean international students studying in the United States were examined in terms of friendships and student faculty relationships. The study used a qualitative approach and was guided by cross-cultural and cultural learning perspectives. Semi-structured interviews conducted in the Korean language were used for data collection. From a research population of 72 Korean international students enrolled at a large Midwestern university, 24 were selected using purposeful sampling, 6 from each of the four identified subgroups. These subgroups were male and female undergraduates and male and female graduates.

Participant experiences and perceptions concerning closest friendships …

A Graph Theoretic Study Of The Similarity Of Discrete Structures, Heather D. Gavlas

Dissertations

A basic problem in drug design consists of finding a compound that satisfies a spectrum of biological and chemical properties. Although drug design problems are central to pharmaceutical research, statisticians have yet to become involved in this area as these problems are viewed statistically as optimization problems. Before statistical optimization procedures can be defined on these spaces whose points are structures and not vectors, very basic mathematical notions of distance must be defined. Graphs have been used as mathematical models to represent the bonding arrangements of molecules for quite some time. In fact, if some of the methodology used by …

Random Cayley Maps, Michelle Schultz

Dissertations

Determining the orientable surfaces on which a given graph can be imbedded is the central problem of topological graph theory. The natural setting for studying this problem is random topological graph theory, where a probability model is defined on the space of all labeled 2-cell imbeddings of a connected graph. The major focus of this dissertation is the study of Cayley maps in the setting of random topological graph theory.

A Cayley graph provides a representation of a finite group and a fixed generating set for the group. A Cayley map is an imbedding of a Cayley graph whose vertex …

The Relationships Among Expectancy, Hypnotizability, And Treatment Outcome Associated With Eye Movement Desensitization In The Treatment Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Lisa Kimberly Largo-Marsh

Dissertations

A pre-test, post-test comparison group design was utilized to assess the effectiveness of two interventions on symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two treatments: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or structured writing sessions. A standardized diagnostic interview was used to screen subjects and provide diagnosis and symptom profile at intake and one-month follow-up. Standardized self-report measures were used to assess treatment outcomes. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed no significant differences between the two treatments. Both treatments were effective in significantly reducing post-traumatic symptoms at post-test and follow-up, although slightly different patterns were evident. …

Ionization And Charge Changing In 0.5 - 8 Qmev Li^Q+ + He (Q=1,2,3) Collisions And Setup Of An Electron Spectrometer Control System, Oliver Woitke

Dissertations

Projectile charge changing and target ionization cross sections are measured for 0.5 to 8 qMeV Li^q+ + He (q=1,2,3) collisions. Total cross sections for single-electron capture (for L i^1,2,3+) and single-electron loss (for L i^1,2+) are obtained and compared to existing experimental and theoretical data. Also, single and double target ionization of He associated with specific outgoing projectile charge states are identified using coincidence techniques. Cross sections for target ionization associated with no projectile charge change (direct ionization), single-electron capture, and single-electron loss are measured and compared to existing experimental data and to available calculations. Double-to-single target ionization ratios R …

Implementation Of An "Early Return To Duty" Policy Within The Michigan Civil Service: An Exploratory Study, James Patrick Hurren

Dissertations

In an effort to control rising Worker's Compensation costs and accommodate disabled employees, the State of Michigan initiated an "Early Return to Duty" policy which encourages injured workers to return to work prior to being fully recuperated. During the recovery period, injured workers are assigned restricted duties consistent with their medical limitation.

Despite legislative and administrative mandates, the Early Return policy has not been fully implemented by all departments within Michigan Civil Service. The lack of uniform acceptance and application of the policy presents serious complications for managing resources effectively and has a direct bearing on achieving expected policy outcomes. …

Comparison Of Selection-Based Vs. Topography-Based Verbal Behavior, William F. Potter

Dissertations

Michael (1985) distinguished between selection-based and topography-based verbal behavior. Some researchers have started to examine this distinction, as does this research. This study examined the contribution that response-produced kinesthetic stimulation has on the acquisition of conditional discriminations and equivalence relations by college students. To accomplish this, a special computerized nonidentity matching-to-sample task (a selection-based task) was created, which arranged for each participant to perform under two conditions. The first condition arranged for participants to make a stereotypical response to each choice stimulus selected. The second condition arranged for a unique response to be made to each choice selected. The number …

The Status Of Middle Level Schools In Berrien County, Michigan Following Michigan Public Act 25, Judith A. Burns

Dissertations

Michigan Public Act 25 of 1990 mandated public school reform. One of 4 components of Public Act 25 is the development of a 3 to 5 year School Improvement Plan (SIP). The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine middle level school improvement in Berrien County, Michigan, for evidence that developmentally appropriate middle level education is promoted.

This 2-part investigation involved analyzing SIPs submitted for 1992-93 school year using a content analysis format and interviews with each building principal or designee. The content analysis format was developed by Sweeney and Cooper in 1992 to analyze SIPs of Wayne County, …

An Assessment Of The Characteristics Of Catholic School Boards In The State Of Michigan, Frank C. Wippel

Dissertations

This study describes the nature and development of Catholic school boards, reports the characteristics of Michigan Catholic school boards, and investigates relationships between involvement in key board functions (establishing mission, long-range planning, budget monitoring, policy development, and marketing) and selection processes, governance postures, and training. The findings indicate a relationship between key board function involvement, election process, consultative governance posture, and training. Survey methodology and design was used to obtain the data for the study. Board presidents and school administrators from all 358 Catholic schools in the state were invited to participate. A 9 6 % response rate was obtained. …

An Analysis Of The Auditory-Verbal And Visual-Figural Learning And Memory Patterns Of College Students With Learning Disabilities, Robert K. Eckert

Dissertations

The validity of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) has been established with most clinical neuropsychological populations; however, no published work in the area of CVLT performance in adults with learning disabilities (LD) exists, despite the authors' assertion that the test is a useful psychometric measure for this population (Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 1987). Likewise, the validity of a recently restandardized test of visual-figural learning, the Rey Visual Design Learning Test (RVDLT; Spreen & Strauss, 1991), has yet to be investigated in LD populations. Motor deficiencies have been associated with LD in children, but little evidence exists to extend …