Digital Commons Network^™

The Effectiveness Of Semantic Mapping On Reading Comprehension, Sharon Fredricks

Dissertations and Theses

It is the goal of all reading instructors to use techniques that will enhance reading comprehension. This is certainly no less so in the second language classroom. Studies have shown that readers possess schemata for text structure that is activated during the reading process. It has also been shown that a reader's textual schemata may be culturally influenced and that second language students may possess textual schemata that conflicts or interferes with the structure of the text making comprehension more difficult. For this reason, second language learners may benefit from explicit instruction in text structure and content relationships. Semantic mapping …

This Crying Enormity: Impressment As A Factor In Anglo-American Foreign Relations, David Scott Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

As an issue affecting the foreign relations of the United States and Britain, impressment has been given varying emphasis by different authors. This thesis is first a chronological outline of the events and correspondence that trace the subject. Beyond this basic delineation I will consider exactly how important impressment was to the two countries. James F. Zimmerman, in Impressment of American Seamen, posits that impressment was of paramount significance while other authors have attempted to down grade it into a status of utter inconsequence. This paper will show that the actual influence of impressment varied from one time, one set …

Comparative Analysis Of Resettlement Policies In Third World Countries, Abrahim Jawad Al-Khalisi

Dissertations and Theses

Settlement policy in the Third World has been stimulated by the availability of public land. This availability of public land has prompted many Third World countries to adopt policies or schemes called resettlement, transmigration, or land development. These have been presented as potential means for addressing numerous agendas held by Third World countries. Settlement policies have been used to increase agricultural production and make idle land productive. Spatial imbalances of population distribution have been addressed via settlement policies. For national security, settlement policies have been used to exploit frontier lands. Solutions to serious political problems including lack of agricultural self-sufficiency, …

The Voices I Never Hear: Communication Apprehension And Associated Nonverbal Behaviors In The Primary School Child, Linda Dunn

Dissertations and Theses

The confidence to communicate orally with others is the first requisite for verbal interaction. Anxiety which occurs in anticipation of speaking with others or while engaged in speaking hinders interaction, and is referred to as communication apprehension. This study examines levels of communication apprehension among a sample primary school population and the possible relationship between such levels and frequencies of nonverbal behaviors called self-adaptors that may be associated with the anxiety. Greater awareness of communication apprehension in children is justified in light of research that suggests it is negatively related to academic achievement in elementary school students. A four-month field~study …

Cities And Automobile Dependence: An Empirical Examination Of Density And Automobile Dependence Relationship And Their Underlying Factors, Musaad Abdullah Al-Mosaind

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last several decades, low-density development and increasing levels of automobile dependence have become two of the major problems facing many urban areas. While they have significantly improved urbanites' mobility, freedom, and social contacts, and have expanded the ranges of economic activities, they have also brought numerous problems and externalities. Mitigating their negative externalities through appropriate policies necessitates the examination of their relationship and the effect of other urban elements. This research examines the relationship between density and automobile dependence and its underlying factors within cities. It examines the effects of quantifiable factors at three levels of analysis: regional, …

The Public Persona Of Nelson R. Mandela: A Study Of U.S. Print Media Narratives, Molly Jeane Mcvey

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the contribution made by the U.S. print media to the development of Nelson Mandela's public persona. The period studied is from 1985 to June, 1990. This thesis explores the following questions: 1) How did the public persona of Nelson Mandela evolve in the dominant U.S. print media; 2) How do these stories, in content and form, serve to establish Nelson Mandela as a public hero; 3) What cultural myths structure the news stories of Nelson Mandela that serve as the interpretative framework for public belief and action? Data for analysis were drawn from The New York Times, …

Modeling Of The Surface Plasmon Resonance (Spr) Effect For A Metal-Semiconductor (M-S) Junction At Elevated Temperatures, Erik De Jesus Sanchez

Dissertations and Theses

The effect of temperature increase on the optical excitation of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) at an Ag-Si metal-semiconductor (M-S) junction at a wavelength of 1 . 1 52 pm is investigated theoretically using computer modeling in Fortran. In order to accurately quantify the SPR, the temperature dependent optical constants for Ag and Si are obtained theoretically or semiempirically , using a Drude model for Ag and previous experimentally determined equations for Si (the behavior of the optical constants for crystalline Si and doped Si are found to have very little deviation between each other for our case). An improvement in …

The Times, Trial, And Execution Of David Mclane: The Story Of An American Spying In Canada For The French In 1796-1797, Mark Allen Thorburn

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis primarily examines the 1797 trial of David McLane in Quebec City for spying, the steps taken by the British authorities to ensure a conviction, and McLane's activities in 1796 and 1797 in Vermont and Lower Canada on behalf of the French Minister to the United States, Pierre Adet. McLane did not receive a fair trial because the colonial administration in Lower Canada so thoroughly manipulated the legal system that a guilty verdict was assured. But, ironically, McLane was a guilty man, having been hired by Adet to find sympathizers who would help instigate a rebellion in the colony; …

Common Security: A Conceptual Blueprint For An Israeli-Palestinian Political Settlement, Robert Arthur Horenstein

Dissertations and Theses

The deep-rooted Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a major source of destabilization in the Middle East for some three-quarters of a century. Whereas other long-standing conflicts around the world have been brought to a close, this struggle (both in and of itself and within its wider Arab-Israeli dimension) remains a perennial tinderbox. This is particularly true given the unsettling realities of the region in which the conflict exists. Consequently, a certain sense of urgency for finding a permanent political settlement can be discerned both within the region and outside it. still, the search for a solution has yielded progress only on …

A Study Of The Narrative Skills In 6-Year-Olds With Normal, Impaired, And Late Developing Language, Karen Elaine Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Proficiency in various higher level language skills is necessary to integrate and organize units of meaning beyond the sentence level. Examining narratives has become a useful tool for assessing these language abilities. Narrative skills are considered by many researchers to be a strong link between oral language and literacy, and related to academic performance (Westby, 1991; Roth & Spekman, 1991). The present study was part of the Portland Language Development Project, a longitudinal study of early language delay. The purpose of this study was to assess higher level language abilities by examining the stories of 6-year-olds with normal, impaired, and …

The Soldiers Of Spain's California Army, 1769-1821, Barrie Earl Malcolm

Dissertations and Theses

Spanish authorities used two agencies to occupy and control California as a royal province from 1769 to 1821: the church and the army. While the story of the missions and the missionaries has been thoroughly chronicled, little attention has been focused on the men who comprised Spain's military forces. This thesis examines the experience of the royal soldier in California to determine his significance in the Golden State's Spanish colonial era. The journals, diaries, and correspondence of the soldiers, missionaries, explorers, traders, and foreign rivals who visited or occupied the province comprise a major part' of the source material. The …

Environmental And Institutional Characteristics And Academic Strategic Action Variables In Small Private Colleges, And Their Relationship To Enrollment Changes In The 1980s, Johnnie Ray Driessner

Dissertations and Theses

Small private colleges represent a unique and important element of diversity within American higher education. Their small size, heavy dependence on tuition, and limited resources, have caused them to be repeatedly identified as singularly threatened with enrollment declines. Despite these predictions the evidence indicates that most of these colleges survived the 1980s and many thrived.

This study had two major goals. The first was the characterization of institutions within the population during the 1980s with regards to environmental characteristics, institutional attributes and academic strategic actions. The second was the description of the relationships between these variables and enrollment changes in …

Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Upward Compliance-Gaining Strategies: U.S.A. And Japan, Miyoko Fuse

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated cultural differences, U.S.A. and Japan, in the selection of compliance-gaining strategies by lower status people as differentiated from a group leader in a short-term, task-oriented relationship. The subjects for this study consisted of 114 (59 male and 55 female) U.S. college students and 165 (65 male and 100 female) Japanese college students. All subjects lived in Oregon.

After the subjects read the hypothetical scenario which involved changing a task for a classroom project, a 21 item questionnaire was administered. The questions were taken from Kipnis, Schmidt, and Wilkinson's (1980) study, and a six-point scale was used. The …

Simulation Of Switched Linear Networks, Dietmar Reinhard Skowronn

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis deals with the time-domain analysis of switched linear networks and investigates inherent problems which have to be considered when analyzing this class of networks. Computer simulation requires the use of numerical methods and we focus on the transmission -line modelling technique (TLM) and the numerical inverse Laplace transform. A general approach based on the one-graph modified nodal description is given which allows the formulation of circuit equations of a TLM-modelled circuit by inspection. The numerical equivalence of TLM and trapezoidal rule has been found and a proof is given. A variable step size simulator has been developed based …

A Qualitative Study Of Human Resource Personnel, Company Manager, And Diversity Trainer Perceptions Of Diversity Training Needs In Portland, Oregon Hi-Tech Businesses, Ellene L. Gurtov

Dissertations and Theses

This study describes human resource personnel, company manager, and self-employed diversity trainer perceptions of diversity training needs in greater Portland, Oregon hi-tech organizations. The research questions are: 1) What are the most frequently reported diversity training needs among human resource personnel and company managers currently working in Portland hi-tech businesses? 2) What do trainers specializing in diversity training report are the diversity training needs for employees currently working in Portland hi-tech businesses?

A phenomenological perspective as an interpretive approach to inquiry was the theoretical framework implemented in this study. Three areas of literature were reviewed: first, current company diversity training …

The Effects Of Perceived Work Schedule Flexibility, Number Of Hours Worked, And Type Of Work Schedule On Work-Family Conflict, Tenora Dianne Grigsby

Dissertations and Theses

The interaction effects of perceived work schedule flexibility (PWSF) and the number of hours worked on work-family conflict, and the interaction effects of PWSF and the type of work schedule on work-family conflict were investigated for employees of a regional bank headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. A 50% response rate was obtained from a survey questionnaire administered to 2,000 randomly selected employees.

Hierarchial multiple regression analyses conducted on 526 subjects revealed no significant interaction effects for PWSF and type of work schedule. The interaction effect for PWSF and number of hours worked was not tested due to a significant correlation …

A Study Of Spiking And Relaxation Oscillations In Nd:Yag Laser Using Measured Laser Parameters, Ramesh K. Shori

Dissertations and Theses

It was shown analytically and experimentally that when the cavity losses are perturbed, the output intensity experiences an amplitude modulation or becomes a regular train of spikes, with the frequency depending on both the frequency of perturbation as well as pump power. Coupled nonlinear rate equations including the cavity perturbation term, are solved numerically by a Runga-Kutta method using experimentally-measured parameter values for Nd: Y AG laser. A continuously pumped Nd: Y AG laser was used to verify this theory.

Water Quality Modeling Of The Tualitin River, Christopher John Berger

Dissertations and Theses

Water quality problems related to excessive algal growth, high nutrient loading, and low flows have been occurring along Oregon's Tualatin River. The Tualatin River is 86 miles long and has a drainage basin of 711 square miles. The drainage basin incorporates forest, agricultural, and urban areas. Located in the Portland metropolitan area, these problems have been acerbated by the effects of urban growth. To help analyze pollution control alternatives, a river model study, funded by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ}, was undertaken. An in-stream model of hydraulics and water quality was developed. The Corps of Engineer's CE-QUAL-W2 model, …

Modeling Of Flow And Water Quality In Henry Hagg Lake Near Forest Grove, Oregon, Michael T. Knutson

Dissertations and Theses

Increased population growth in Washington County, Oregon, has helped cause the water quality of the Tualatin River to decline. Henry Hagg Lake is a storage reservoir which was built to augment summer low flows in the Tualatin River. Hagg Lake also supplies the Tualatin River Basin with both irrigation and municipal water in the summer. Using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's model CE-QUAL-W2 (a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model) , a model of Henry Hagg Lake was created. The model was calibrated using water quality and hydraulic data for 1990 at the Hagg Lake outflow in Scoggins Creek. …

The Identity In Crisis: A New Approach To The Culture Shock Experience Of University Exchange Students, Christina Maria Luther

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship of language and culture is explored in this thesis for the purpose of better understanding why all sojourners, regardless of preparation, experience some degree of culture shock. The author begins with a review of literature on culture shock establishing that the native language of sojourners is not considered to be of any consequence to the sojourning experience. The fields of intercultural communication, social psychology and psychology are then explored to establish the link between language and culture and to introduce the notion of linguistic identity. Evidence found in each of these fields leads the author to conclude that …

Determinants Of Elite Athletes' Commitment To Sport: Examination Of The Sport Commitment Model In The Professional Sport Domain, Tammy Kay Hall

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the applicability of the Sport Commitment Model for a group of elite, professional athletes. The model proposes that an athlete's commitment will increase as sport enjoyment, personal investments, social constraints, and involvement opportunities increase and will decrease with an increase in involvement opportunities. The influence of identification as an athlete, a determinant of commitment not included in the original model, was also examined. One hundred and eighty three professional football players from the Canadian Football League (CFL) (n = 121) and National Football League (NFL) (n = 69) participated in the study. Each subject completed …

Child Care Support And The Reduction Of Women's Stress And Role Conflict At The Work-Family Interface, Frances Marx Stehle

Dissertations and Theses

Working mothers may encounter difficulty combining work and family, particularly as this interface involves child care arrangements.

This research investigated the effects of various dimensions of child care support on stress and role conflict in employed mothers. It was hypothesized that as job support, affordability, spousal support, and satisfaction with child care increased, that child care stress, job stress, and role conflict would decrease.

The data were derived from a survey (Lane County Dependent Care survey, Emlen, 1990) of women employed in 15 companies in the Lane County, Oregon area. The study sample consisted of 825 full and part-time employed …

Data Dependence In Programs Involving Indexed Variables, Borislav Nikolik

Dissertations and Theses

Symbolic execution is a powerful technique used to perform various activities such as program testing, formal verification of programs, etc. However, symbolic execution does not deal with indexed variables in an adequate manner. Integration of indexed variables such as arrays into symbolic execution would increase the generality of this technique. We present an original substitution technique that produces array-term-free constraints as a counterargument to the commonly accepted belief that symbolic execution cannot handle arrays. The substitution technique deals with constraints involving array terms with a single aggregate name, array terms with multiple aggregate names, and nested array terms. Our approach …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Certain Metrics In Measuring The Quality Of End User Documentation, Ronald Morrison

Dissertations and Theses

Traditional methods of evaluating quality in computer end user documentation have been subjective in nature, and have not been widely used in practice. Attempts to quantify quality and more narrowly define the essential features of quality have been limited -- leaving the issue of quality largely up to the writer of the user manual.

Quantifiable measures from the literature, especially Velotta (1992) and Brockman (1990), have been assembled into a set of uniformly weighted metrics for the measurement of document quality. This measure has been applied to the end user documentation of eighty-two personal computer packages. End user documentation is …

Comparative Scores Of Hearing-Impaired And Normally Hearing Children Given The Carolina Picture Vocabulary Test, Barbara Ann Mccomb

Dissertations and Theses

It is important that educators use adequate assessment procedures when placing hearing-impaired children in mainstreamed settings. Receptive vocabulary tests are part of the standardized test battery and can provide educators with valuable information. Although there has been a receptive vocabulary test recently developed for use with hearing-impaired children (CPVT), the most commonly used test with this population is the PPVT-R, which is standardized on normally hearing children. In order to further explore the difference between the receptive vocabulary of hearing-impaired and normally hearing children, a test standardized on hearing-impaired should be used.

The purpose of the present study was to …

Comparison Of Ion Adsorption To Phophatidylcholine/Phosphatidylserine And Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Membranes, Martin Mense

Dissertations and Theses

Artificial lipid membranes have been used in biophysical studies as well defined models of biological membranes. In the present work we studied adsorption of ions to artificial lipid membranes, composed of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS), and to biological membrane from sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). The studies of ion adsorption and electrokinetic characterization of membranes were done by means of microelectrophoresis of PC/PS liposomes and SR vesicles. The ions of interest were positively charged potassium (K), calcium (Ca), tetraphenylarsonium (TPAs), tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP) and negatively charged pentachlorophenol (PCP).

Electrophoretic mobility of PC/PS liposomes and SR vesicles has been measured as a function …

A Cognitively Motivated System For Software Component Reuse, Michael Joseph Mateas

Dissertations and Theses

Software reuse via component libraries suffers from the twin problems of code location and comprehension. The Intelligent Code Object Planner (ICOP) is a cognitively motivated system that facilitates code reuse by answering queries about how to produce an effect with the library. It can plan for effects which are not primitive with respect to the library by building a plan that incorporates multiple components. The primary subsystems of ICOP are a knowledge base which describes the ontology of the library, a natural language interface which translates user queries into a formal effect language (predicates), a planner which accepts the effect …

This Looks Like An Old Point: Time And Projectile Points In The Tualatin Valley, Oregon, Linda Lani Freidenburg

Dissertations and Theses

Little is known about the time depth of human occupation in the Tualatin Valley. Archaeological investigations have produced no absolute dates for the few sites tested. Projectile points collected from the Ibach and Heynderickx farms in the Tualatin Valley show similarities to early point styles from sites in the Pacific Northwest dating from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. To determine how old the Ibach and Heynderickx sites are, the undated collections of 107 Ibach points and 119 Heynderickx points are compared to two established chronological projectile point sequences, which had been constructed using the relative dating technique of frequency seriation. …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Work Involvement And Family Involvement And Work-Family Conflict In Dual-Career Families, Elizabeth Jean Allen

Dissertations and Theses

The present study examined the relationship between work involvement and family involvement and work-family conflict in dual-career families. Four hundred thirty-six couples (436 females; 436 males; N = 872) in dual-career relationships were recruited from a bank organization in the Northwest United States. The survey questionnaire contained three sections to measure work and family involvement, work-family conflict, and sociodemographic information. Data analyses were conducted using multiple regression analysis and a 1 X 4 ANOVA to examine the proposed relationships among the study variables. Results demonstrated the following: across study participants, work involvement accounted for a significant amount of variance in …

Automatic Tuning Of Integrated Filters Using Neural Networks, Lutz Henning Lenz

Dissertations and Theses

Component values of integrated filters vary considerably due to· manufacturing tolerances and environmental changes. Thus it is of major importance that the components of an integrated filter be electronically tunable. The method explored in this thesis is the transconductance-C-method.

A method of realizing higher-order filters is to use a cascade structure of second-order filters. In this context, a method of tuning second-order filters becomes important.

The research objective of this thesis is to determine if the Neural Network methodology can be used to facilitate the filter tuning process for a second-order filter (realized via the transconductance-C-method). Since this thesis is, …