Digital Commons Network^™

Creating Collaborative Learning Environments: A Curriculum Proposal For Instructors, Carol Rae Chislett

Dissertations and Theses

Groups of students or employees working together to solve problems, gain conceptual understanding, or create new approaches are expected to yield results significantly better than when working individually. Classroom collaboration leads to increased learning and retention, improved interpersonal skills, and enhanced appreciation for and commitment to the educational process. With the increased discussion of its benefits, there is more emphasis on including collaboration in the classroom. The challenge for today's faculty and students is to learn what their roles and expectations are in the successful collaborative environment. The purpose of this study was to design a curriculum for instructors in …

Faith, Hope, And Leverage: Attributes Of Effective Faith-Based Community Organizations, Richard White

Dissertations and Theses

In 1835, Alexis deTocqueville acknowledged in Democracy in America that the "intellectual and moral associations" of the United States were vital to its social, economic, and political health. Citizen voluntarism in the United States begins with the neighborliness of its early history and branches out through a bewildering variety of nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations. Throughout the history of the United States churches have played a vital role in civic volunteerism and politics. In the inner-urban core of America's largest cities, churches are frequently the last institution to leave, long after other social and economic institutions have fled. The call …

Undergraduate Student Satisfaction With The Sociology Program At Portland State University, Katherine Sullivan

Dissertations and Theses

An examination of sociology student satisfaction levels is performed and an attempt is made to explain variations in degree program satisfaction. A comparison is made between current student and alumni regarding the coursework and experiences they feel should be offered in the undergraduate degree program in sociology at Portland State University (PSU). The study population consists of all PSU students who have obtained an undergraduate degree in sociology since the program's inception and all students currently attending PSU and majoring in sociology. The typical respondent is female (the ratio of females to males being higher for current students than for …

A Comparison Of Speech Intelligibility Measures Between Unsophisticated Listener Judgements And Orthographic Transcription, Carla J. Dukart

Dissertations and Theses

Intelligible speech is a primary component for successful communication. However, the speech of children with disordered phonologies is often unintelligible. Therefore, when assessing the speech intelligibility of children in order to determine whether they qualify for intervention services, speech-language pathologists need reliable evaluation tools.

The focus of this investigation was the measurement of speech intelligibility. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two methods for measuring speech intelligibility. The first, identification method, involves the listener transcribing a speech sample from which the percentage of words understood is calculated. The second, scaling procedure, involves the listener estimating …

The Politics Of Nazi Art: The Portrayal Of Women In Nazi Painting, Jennifer Anne Miller

Dissertations and Theses

The study of Nazi art as an historical document provided an effective measure of Nazi political platform and social policy. Because the ideology of the Third Reich is represented within Nazi art itself, it is useful to have a good understanding of the politics and ideology, surrounding the German art world at the time. Women were used in this study as an exemplification of Nazi art. This study uses the subject of women in Nazi painting, to show how the ideology is represented within the art work itself. It was first necessary to understand the fervorent "cleansing" of the German …

A Pilot Study: Normative Data On The Intelligibility Of 3 1/2 Year Old Children, Karen Mary Ware

Dissertations and Theses

Most of the previous published research involving intelligibility has focused on persons with various disabilities or delays. Minimal research has been conducted on intelligibility in young children with no diagnosed speech and/ or language disorders. The result is a gap in normative data by which to set a standard to judge speech as being at an acceptable level of intelligibility for a particular age group. The focus of this pilot study was to collect normative data on the intelligibility of young children, ages 3:6 ±2 months, with no diagnosed speech and/or language disorder. ~ Thirteen subjects, ages 3:6 ±2 months, …

Anticlerical Sentiment In Castilian And Galician-Portuguese Medieval Literature, Kathryn L. Brooks

Dissertations and Theses

Clerical sexual incontinence was a prevalent satirical theme during the Middle Ages manifested by anticlerical sentiment towards reprobate clergymen and the laws that they disobeyed. This satirical genre of literature targeted not only the cleric of a small town, but bishops and cardinals who were also abusers of canon law.

The anticlerical theme originated in Western Europe in the time of Constantine when early Christianity was competing with many religions for dominance. In the fourth century, Constantine, through the Edict of Milan, granted religious tolerance to all, thus allowing Christianity to become a major religion. Clerical celibacy originated from the …

The Constraints Of A Typological Implicational Universal For Interrogatives On Second Language Acquisition, Dee Anne Bess

Dissertations and Theses

A typological implicational universal based on a diverse sample of the world's languages describes a hierarchy for interrogatives. The universal hierarchy states that in any given language, inversion in Yes-No questions (YNQs) implies inversion in information questions (WHQs in English), which, in turns implies the fronting of the information word pronoun to sentence-initial position.

Several researchers have proposed that typological implicational universals such as this one for interrogatives may constrain not only the primary languages on which they are based, but also the interlanguages of second language learners.

This study, a partial replication of one by Eckman, Moravcsik, and Wirth …

Spanish For Health Care Professionals: Language And Culture, Mytzi Maryanne Rudolph

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this investigation is to examine formal and informal resources available for teaching Spanish to health care professionals mainly in the Portland, Oregon area. Seventeen different Spanish-for-health-care-professionals texts are commented on by the author, some of which are the texts used in medical Spanish language classes. The majority of the texts contain little if any instruction on cultural aspects which affect the Latino patient population's health care behaviors and decision making. With the recent growth in the Latino population there is a greater demand for health care services by Spanish-speaking persons of the Latino community. The author discusses …

Effective And Appropriate Use Of Controlled Experimentation In Software Development Research, Mark Alan Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Although there is a large body of research and publication on software development, only a limited amount of this work includes empirical demonstration of its effectiveness. Yet, it is this empirical understanding which will help move software development from a craft to an engineering discipline. Of the empirical methods for research, controlled experiments are the most commonly thought of in scientific studies, and yet the least used to study software development.

This thesis begins with a brief review of the different empirical methods commonly used to study software development. This review provides a quick introduction to each empirical method, compares …

The Effects Of Feedback To Raters On Subsequent Performance Ratings, A. Cybelle Lyon

Dissertations and Theses

Performance evaluations are often of critical. importance in an organization's decisions concerning compensation, training, promotion, and termination. Although the area of performance appraisal has been researched extensively, a gap in the literature appears to remain. No published research has explored how the favorability of feedback individuals receive on their own performance will affect the favorability of subsequent ratings they give to others. This gap is critical considering that this type of feedback chain is common in the work place. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of feedback (positive, average, or negative) on the mean rating …

Adaptive Color Correlation Of Knots In Wood Images And Weighted-Value Product Selection Methods In A Machine Vision System, John Robert Goulding

Dissertations and Theses

The biggest obstacle to robust color image processing of wood is in developing a color model that represents all possible defect colors. When the color model is too general or too specific, defect recognition fails because too many or too few non-defect pixels match the model, respectively. Because a color image of wood contains far more clear and clear-grain colored pixels than grain-knot and knot colored pixels, it is beneficial to first statistically identify and remove the clear and clear-grain colors and to use the accumulated data to simultaneously enhance and normalize the remaining grainknot and knot colored pixels. This …

La Relevancia De La Competencia Lexico-Cultural Del Lector En La Casa De Los Espiritus: Desde Un Acercamiento Hermeneutico, Gregory D. Lagos-Montoya

Dissertations and Theses

La competencia lexico-cultural del lector constituira los cirnientos para que este perciba o no la fuente de inspiraci6n de Isabel Allende en La casa de las espiritus. No cabe duda que ciertos lectores coincidiran con el aseverarniento de la propia autora: "que se ha basado su obra en Chile." Es un hecho que esta obra comprende una variedad de manifestaciones alusivas a este pafs: dialecto16gicas, socio-polfticas, e hist6ricas. Este estudio prueba que la competencia lexico-cultural de lector es vital para una comprensi6n mas fiel de la obra. La esencia de la obra literaria se manifiesta y complementa por medio de …

Design Of A Second-Order Filter Using The GM-C Technique, Girish Chandrasekaran

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis deals with the design, layout, fabrication, testing and characterization of a second-order filter (biquad) using the transconductance-C (g_m-C) technique. The biquad was designed to realize the four filter functions - lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch - by appropriate choice of input and output terminals and element values. The tunable range of frequencies for the biquad was designed to be 18-59MHz. The quality factor of the biquad was designed to be tunable from approximately 1/3 to 3. The filter was designed in LEVEL2 SPICE, laid out using MAGIC, and the circuit was fabricated using MOSIS's …

Positive Illusions And Winter Depression: Do Illusions Go The Way Of The Summer Sun?, Shannon M. Carey

Dissertations and Theses

Traditional psychology has held the view that mentally healthy people have a good grasp of reality. However, studies on self-concept, perceived control and optimism have shown that mentally healthy people have a tendency to distort reality in these areas in a positive, self-serving direction. These studies led Shelley Taylor to coin the term "positive illusions" to describe overly positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control, and unrealistic optimism. Taylor also theorized that those who were depressed had fewer positive illusions than those who were not depressed. The current study attempted to extend the foundation of basic research on the concept of …

Humor Recognition: A Comparative Analysis, William T. Argent

Dissertations and Theses

There are various approaches to the explanation of humor in the field of humor research. Some of these theories, while providing interesting insight into the phenomenon known as humor, remain limited in their ability to account for how humor is recognized. Others do not even address the issue. This thesis compares five different theories in humor research by analyzing the humorous short story "My Watch" by Mark Twain. These theories are: 1. a typological approach to humor, 2. a social- functional model, 3. incongruity theory, 4. Grice's Cooperative Principle taken from linguistic pragmatics, and 5. the General Theory of Verbal …

Temporal Characteristics Of Words Surrounding A Moment Of Stuttering In Preschool-Age Children, Gregory Keith Lilly

Dissertations and Theses

Until this time, few studies have examined differences in durational characteristics in words surrounding a moment of stuttering for untreated preschool children. It is important to determine whether or not untreated preschoolers' who stutter alter the duration of their speech when they stutter versus when they are fluent to determine what factors influence stuttering behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to examine the duration of words immediately before and after a stuttered word and the duration of the matched target word in the identical fluent utterance. The following questions were to be addressed: 1) Is there a significant …

Design Of A Two-Chamber-No₂-Fluorescence-Cell, Volker Schmid

Dissertations and Theses

Nitrogen oxides control the photochemical production of ozone O₃ in the lower atmosphere and influence the concentration of the hydroxyl radical HO in the troposphere. As an important member of the nitrogen oxide family, NO₂ plays a significant role in serving as the only known source of ozone (through photolysis) in the lower atmosphere and as sink for HO via formation of nitric acid. Therefore, accurate measurements of nitrogen dioxide are essential for the understanding of the processes that determine the distribution of tropospheric ozone and for assessing the impact of human activity on the troposphere.

Although reliable and …

The Relationships Among Coping, Control, And Adjustment To Cancer, Sharon Ann Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

This study proposed that a major function of coping is to regain perceptions of control that are threatened by the cancer experience and that perceived control mediates the relationship between coping and adjustment. Participants were 258 cancer patients, 61 % women and 39% men, aged 29 to 93 years. A variety of cancer sites were represented with breast and prostate cancer the most prevalent. Patterns of coping, perceived control in four areas (symptom-emotion, relationship, medical care, and disease control), and emotional adjustment were measured. It was expected that a sixth pattern of coping, problem-focused, would emerge when additional problem-focused items …

The Influence Of Student Gender On Teacher/Student Interactions In Esl Classrooms, Lisa Sybil Mann

Dissertations and Theses

Because teacher/student interactions provide opportunities for correction and comprehensible input, a major component of successful language learning, equitable distribution of teacher/student interactions in the language classroom is an important element for the success of all second language students.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differences in teacher/student interactions based on student gender occurred in four college English as a Second Language instructors' classrooms. The role of instructor gender and student ethnicity in teacher/student interaction content and frequency were also examined. Informal interviews were designed to determine the instructors' awareness of their classroom behaviors as they relate …

James Baldwin's Search For A Homosexual Identity In His Novels, Nadia Abdel Fattah

Dissertations and Theses

James Arthur Baldwin (1924-1987) is one of the two major writers who have dared write about black gay men and from a black gay perspective. However, his fame as a racial spokesman and his insightful analyses of race relations in America tend to distract attention from the fact that he has been one of the most important homosexual writers of the twentieth century. Intolerance and homophobia among black and white Americans often led to a misinterpretation or misevaluation of James Baldwin's novels.

James Baldwin was very courageous to come out as a black homosexual writer during the period of the …

A Study Of The Narrative Skills Of 7-Year Olds With Normal, Impaired, And Late Developing Language, Rita F. Hernandez

Dissertations and Theses

The narrative, just like any lectured or monologue information which is shared, does not depend to any great extent on context. Therefore, ability to encode and decode the information to be presented verbally is required, that is, in order for the speaker to be able to verbalize what he or she wants to say while taking into consideration the listener's needs. This indicates that production of strong narratives depends on higher level language skills, and so children's narratives provide a sensitive means of assessing children's language development. The purpose of this study was to compare the narrative ability of children …

Calibration Of A Ccd Camera And Correction Of Its Images, Armin Rest

Dissertations and Theses

Charge-Coupled-Device (CCD) cameras have opened a new world in astronomy and other related sciences with their high quantum efficiency, stability, linearity, and easy handling. Nevertheless, there is still noise in raw CCD images and even more noise is added through the image calibration process. This makes it essential to know exactly how the calibration process impacts the noise level in the image. The properties and characteristics of the calibration frames were explored. This was done for bias frames, dark frames and flat-field frames at different temperatures and for different exposure times.

At first, it seemed advantageous to scale down a …

An Exploratory Inquiry Into Community Policing Using Focus Groups: Perspectives From Social Service Providers, Tanya Leigh Ostrogorsky

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Portland, Oregon's community policing policy by using focus groups to discuss the development and effectiveness over one year, Spring 1994 to Spring 1995. The group discussed included management level social service providers and was one piece of a large scale program evaluation. The collected data developed into six major categories: 1) personnel policies and institutional memory; 2) training; 3) consistency; 4) community involvement and responsibility; 5) partnerships or relationships, and 6) change over time. The most highly discussed issue was the discrepancy between the philosophy of the Bureau, community policing, and the …

Design And Implementation Of A Model For Authoring And Presenting Interactive Multimedia Documents, Vibha Mukul Nayyar

Dissertations and Theses

Multimedia technology enables direct manipulation of multiple media such as text, image, audio, and video, all integrated into one entity - the multimedia document. Interactive multimedia documents integrate text, images and continuous media such as audio and video, treat them as objects to be presented for a certain duration, and allow users to interact with the presentation. Authoring and presenting interactive multimedia documents imposes new requirements on document representation. We designed the interactive timeline model (ITM) for authoring and presenting interactive multimedia documents. We implemented the model and created a playback tool using the scripting language Tcl.

ITM uses an …

Liang Qichao, Hu Shi, And Democracy In China, Leslie Ann Burgoine

Dissertations and Theses

Democracy was one of the many Western ideas that began to be discussed among the Chinese intellectual elite in the last decades of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Liang Qichao (1873-1929), a leader of the 1895-98 Reform Movement, and Hu Shi (1891-1962), a central figure of the 1915-27 New Culture Movement, were two of the most influential proponents of democracy in modern Chinese history. Liang and Hu linked their meanings of democracy with the highest goals for China, national strength and modernity.

Liang Qichao was a revolutionary in advocating the opening of participation in politics to people outside the official government …

Evaluation Of A Rapid-Screening Toxicity Test Using The Ciliate, Colpoda Inflata (Stokes): Sensitivity And Bioavailability To Model Compounds, Daria Galina Mochan

Dissertations and Theses

Standard toxicity tests often require high costs for maintaining healthy cultures, so few test species are employed in routine ecotoxicological analysis. An alternative is the "battery of tests" approach involving using rapid toxicity tests for screening. Rapid-screening toxicity tests must display organism sensitivity, similarity in responses to other test organisms, relevancy to many circumstances, and repeatability. Protozoa are ideal candidates for rapid-screening bioassays. They are cosmopolitan, play important roles in ecosystems, and have high reproductive rates. Many protozoa can form a resting stage (cyst) that remains viable during adverse conditions, eliminating the need for maintaining continuous cultures for testing.

The …

Thermal Preference Of Spring And Fall Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) During Smoltification, Sally T. Sauter

Dissertations and Theses

Innate species-specific temperature preferences of fish are subjected to fluctuations under a variety of environmental, physiological, and developmental conditions. The temperature preference patterns of two ecologically distinct races of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) were investigated as laboratory held animals underwent smoltification. Smoltification is a distinct developmental stage in the life history of anadromous salmonids when juvenile fish undergo profound behavioral, morphological, and physiological differentiation prepatory to seawater entry. A group of spring and fall chinook salmon were held under identical conditions of increasing water temperature over the course of smoltification. Another group of spring and fall chinook salmon were held …

Dramatic Conflict And Historical Reality In Carl Zuckmayer's Hauptmann Von Kopenick, Craig O. Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Carl Zuckmayer drafted his drama, Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, as an intended contribution to the Heidelberger Festspiele in late 1930. He chose Wilhelm Voigt's 1906 seizure of the Rathaus in Köpenick as the theme best suited for the realization of his twofold intention - the combination of an Eulenspiegel figure and criticism of contemporary events. The following thesis analyzes the relationship between theatrical and historic event through an examination of the composition of the Hauptmann von Köpenick's generic elements. Through an evaluation of Zuckmayer's drama in terms of form, technical composition, and socio-political environment, this study intends to arrive …

The Effectiveness Of A Self-Directed Inservice Program To Educate Teachers About The Classroom Needs Of Students With Hearing Impairment, Teresa Michelle Whiteley

Dissertations and Theses

Students with mild to moderate hearing losses, and some with severe hearing losses, are mainstreamed in a regular classroom for all or part of the day (Martin, Berstein, Daly & Cody, 1988). While these students may require special education services, the classroom teacher plays a vital role in the overall education and daily management of a child with a hearing impairment (Hass, 1987). Villa (1989) reported that many school employees have not received adequate training to educate these students. Therefore, it becomes the school's responsibility to educate teachers through a comprehensive inservice training program.

One format for providing such a …