Digital Commons Network^™

The Determinants Of Women's Work: A Case Study From Three Urban Low-Income Communities In Amman, Jordan, Taghrid Khuri Tubbeh

Dissertations and Theses

This study addresses the determinants of women's economic activity in three low income communities in Amman, the capital of Jordan. These communities represent what is typically referred to as "pockets of urban poverty." Besides addressing the demographic and socio-economic variables, the study identifies and includes cultural variables in a model of female labor force participation. Modern economic systems developed definitions and measurements of productivity that render the majority of women's work as non-productive. Activities within the domestic sphere that do not earn monetary returns are not measured as productive economic activities, and hence are dropped from the calculations of gross …

Case Studies Of The Structure, Dynamics, And Outcomes Of Interdisciplinary Team Organization In Oregon Middle Schools, Gail Lyon

Dissertations and Theses

Middle school literature advocates interdisciplinary team organization as a structure that enhances student learning and teacher satisfaction. In an interdisciplinary team, teachers responsible for different content areas collaboratively plan the instructional program for a shared group of students. Yet, fewer than fifty percent of the nation's middle schools use an interdisciplinary team structure, and research indicates that teams are fragile and temporary. Few studies were found that described interdisciplinary team organization at the team or individual teacher level.

The purpose of this case study is to describe the structure, dynamics, and outcomes of interdisciplinary teams of teachers in middle schools. …

The Spatial Distribution Of Ground Stone Tools As A Marker Of Status Differentials In A Chinookan Plank House On The Lower Columbia River, John William Wolf

Dissertations and Theses

Social status was an integral part of the social structure of Northwest Coast societies. The presence of ranked social structures and household space based on rank is reported in the ethnographic literature. Archaeologists have long searched for independent and verifiable means to infer social structure from archaeological deposits. Burial goods have been used to identify status differences. Do other items of material culture also reflect such differences?

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not the distribution of certain tools recovered from a Chinookan plank house on the lower Columbia River paralleled the household residence location that …

Atmospheric Hydrocarbon Analysis, Dawei Han

Dissertations and Theses

This treatise studied two correlated important issues in atmospheric chemistry: real-time monitoring of ambient air and removal mechanisms of atmospheric hydrocarbons. An analytical system was designed for the purpose of identification and measurement of sub-ppb level hydrocarbons of different reactivities in air samples. This analytical system was then applied to a series of smog-chamber studies which simulated the removal of reactive hydrocarbons from the atmosphere by reaction with hydroxyl radicals. Six representative atmospheric hydrocarbons (hexane, octane, toluene, m-xylene, a-xylene and mesitylene) were selected for these experiments. The experimental data indicated that the decay of atmospheric hydrocarbons under laboratory conditions is …

Modeling And Simulation Of Bipolar Transistor At Low Temperature, Swarupa Madhav Nerurkar

Dissertations and Theses

The BICMOS technology which integrates the CMOS technology with bipolar technology has drawn considerable attention as an attractive VLSI technology because of the high speed performance and low power consumption of the BICMOS. However, continued down scaling of CMOS devices has caused increased concerns with problems such as latch up, hot carriers and short channel effect. Most of the above mentioned problems can be avoided by operating the CMOS at liquid-nitrogen temperature(LNT). At low-temperatures, the CMOS exhibits lower sub threshold leakage, higher carrier mobility (which yields improved speed performance), and a steeper logarithmic currentvoltage slope. On the other hand, the …

Determining The Property Value Impact Of Landfills, Okwuchukwu Gerald Uba

Dissertations and Theses

The decline in property value can be due to owner's act or exogenous act from the operation of landfills. Landfill neighbors, especially home owners, perceive landfill operation to pose environmental safety problem such as ground water contamination and methane gas leakage that could affect home value.

Owners of landfills, especially those landfills that accept only dry waste (limited purpose landfill), claim that since their facilities meet the requirements of environmental regulations and the type of waste they accept could not possibly produce methane gas and leachate there is no property value impact of their facilities.

Several studies have shown that …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Unified Bias Analysis Of Subspace-Based Doa Estimation Algorithms, Yang Lu

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis presents the unified bias analysis of subspace-based DOA estimation algorithms in terms of physical parameters such as source separation, signal coherence, number of senors and snapshots. The analysis reveals the direct relationship between the performance of the DOA algorithms and signal measurement conditions. Insights into different algorithms are provided. Based upon previous first-order subspace perturbations, second-order subspace perturbations are developed which provide basis for bias analysis and unification. Simulations verifying the theoretical bias analysis are presented.

A Retarding-Potential Analyzer For Measuring Energy Distributions In Electron Beams, Li Zhou

Dissertations and Theses

An energy analyzer for electron beams, based on a retarding-potential method, has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. In this method a potential energy barrier at right-angles to the beam acts as a high-pass energy filter allowing electrons having energies greater than the barrier height to pass through while turning back electrons of lower energy. The potential barrier in the present study was created by applying a negative potential to an electrode consisting of a 600/inch hexagonal copper mesh or an electrode having a pair of single apertures in series (compound aperture). Two different compound apertures, of diameters 0.4 mm …

The Culture Of An Alternative Education Program: A Participant Observational Study, Dian Dee Connett

Dissertations and Theses

This study is participant observational research focused on the culture of one successful alternative education program. The survey of the literature showed that the problem of high school dropouts is one of numbers and persistence over time. Most research in the past attempted to list characteristics of high school dropouts or elements of successful alternative education programs. Researchers such as Wehlage (1986) and Catterall (1987) have begun to look at a different approach. Their work looks at schools as systems and suggests that educators should direct their attention to the interaction of the school environment with the characteristics of the …

The Intellectual Grounding Of The San Francisco Committee Of Vigilance Of 1851, Jon Jeffrey Walker

Dissertations and Theses

Vigilantism has a long history in the United States stretching back to the Regulator movement in South Carolina in 1767. These extralegal movements are distinguished from spontaneous and ephemeral mob activity by their regular organization and limited life-span. The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856 was the largest vigilante movement in American history. After a summer of vigilantism that included four hangings, the committee turned to politics and formed the People's Party which dominated San Francisco's city government for the next decade. The 1856 committee is generally considered the great exemplar of American vigilantism and has received considerable attention …

Hydrogeochemical Characterization Of The Alvord Valley Known Geothermal Resources Area, Harney County, Oregon, Anna Maria St. John

Dissertations and Theses

The Alvord Valley Known Geothermal Resources Area (KGRA), located east of the Steens Mountain-Pueblo Mountains fault block in southeastern Oregon, is within the northern Basin and Range province. This investigation focuses on three thermal areas in the Alvord Basin: Borax Lake and the hot springs north of Borax Lake, Alvord Hot Springs and Mickey Springs.

A Limnological Analysis Of Ten Mountain Lakes, Gary Wayne Burns

Dissertations and Theses

Ten mountain lakes were analyzed in order that they be assigned a trophic status. The lakes which are located in the Mount Hood National Forest of Oregon are Anvil, Beaver Pond, Cripple Creek, Fish, Gifford, Monon, Ollalie, Rimrock, Round, and Sportsman. The purpose of this report is to determine the productivity of these waters.

Data were collected for analyses of temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, Secchi depth, major ion concentration, light intensity versus depth, alkalinity, phytoplankton species composition/total density, and zooplankton species composition/total density.

Samples were collected in Van Dorn sampling bottles and returned to the laboratory for chemical analyses and …

An Exploratory Study Of Student Retention In Kindergarten And Grade One And The Associated Decision Making Processes As Perceived By Principals And Teachers, Doris Cameron-Minard

Dissertations and Theses

Students who fail to achieve in school are frequently retained in grade to remediate their lack of satisfactory progress. In this study, elementary school principals, kindergarten, and first grade teachers were interviewed to explore their perceptions of the decision making processes used in recommending retention. The belief systems which underlie their reliance on retention as a remedial option were also examined.

Three research questions were addressed:

1. What is the relationship between the written retention policy of a selected school district and the actual decision making process used by its schools?
2. What are the influences by district socio-economic level which impact …

Explorations Into The Characteristics, The Determinants Of Production, And The Impact Of Land Policies On The Informal Housing Sector In Alexandria, Egypt, Mostafa Morsi El Araby

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the housing characteristics and the determinants of housing production of the informal housing sector in Alexandria, Egypt. It also examines the impact of land policies on the development of the informal housing sector. Informal housing, by definition, is constructed and acquired outside the legal procedure of land and building registration and without the necessary permissions and approvals. Therefore, there is a little knowledge about it, and its role in the housing market could be underestimated. The aim of this research is to enhance the factual knowledge about informal housing as a basis for future policy development.

The …

Gravity Sedimentation: A One-Dimensional Numerical Model, Joanna Robin Karl

Dissertations and Theses

A large fraction of the current cost of wastewater treatment is from the treatment and disposal of wastewater sludge. Improved design, energy efficiency, and performance of dewatering facilities could significantly decrease transport and disposal costs.

Dewatering facilities are designed based on field experience, trial and error, pilot plant testing, and/or full scale testing. Design is generally time-consuming and expensive. A full-scale test typically consists of side-by-side operation of 4 to 5 full-scale dewatering units for several weeks to more than 6 months. Theoretical modeling of the physics of dewatering units such as the belt filter press, based on laboratory determined …

Mechanism Of Calcium Release From Skeletal Muscle Sarcoplasmic Reticulum, Edmond Buck

Dissertations and Theses

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) is an intracellular membrane system dedicated to the active regulation of cytosolic calcium in muscle. The opening of Ca²⁺ channels in the SR results in a rapid increase in the myoplasmic Ca²⁺ concentration and the initiation of contraction. Closure of these channels allows the SR to re-accumulate the released Ca²⁺ which results in muscle relaxation. While it is known that a muscle fiber is stimulated to contract by the depolarization of the sarcolemma, it is not understood how this signal is communicated to the SR.

The focus of this dissertation is twofold. The first objective is …

Distributed Economic Systems With Agents That Learn, Stanley Foster Perry

Dissertations and Theses

Economic systems are distributed in the sense that economic agents make decisions without any central control. Prices, quantities, wealth, and market structure emerge from the interaction of agents acting in their own self interest. The concepts and language of systems science are used to define economic systems in a manner that captures and articulates the distributed nature of economic systems. Further, the systems definition permits multiple views of the economic system, and in addition, allows the agents to "step outside" the system in order to study it.

Economic systems are defined in such a way that it is feasible to …

One-Dimensional Computer Modeling Of Thermal And Water Quality Characteristics Of Coldwater Lake, Wa, David Kevin Whitaker

Dissertations and Theses

Coldwater Lake is a new lake formed when a massive mudflow down the Toutle River Valley, caused by the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, blocked the natural outlet of Coldwater Creek. This research utilizes physical, biological and chemical data collected at Coldwater Lake during the sun1mers of 1989 and 1990 to calibrate and verify the one-dimensional computer models CE-THERMRl and CE-QUAL-Rl for Coldwater Lake. CE-THERM-R1 was used to simulate thermal characteristics in Coldwater Lake during the summer stratification periods of 1989 and 1990. The model was calibrated to 1989 data and was verified with 1990 data. …

Geochemistry, Alluvial Facies Distribution, Hydrogeology, And Groundwater Quality Of The Dallas-Monmouth Area, Oregon, Rodney R. Caldwell

Dissertations and Theses

The Dallas-Monmouth area, located in the west-central Willamette Valley, Oregon, consists of Tertiary marine and volcanic bedrock units which are locally overlain by alluvium. The occurrence of groundwater with high salinities has forced many rural residents to use public water supplies. Lithologic descriptions from driller's logs, geochemical (INAA), and x-ray diffraction analyses were used to determine alluvial facies distribution, geochemical and clay mineral distinctions among the units, and possible sediment sources. Driller's log, chemical and isotopic analysis, and specific conductance information from wells and springs were used to study the hydrogeologic characteristics of the aquifers and determine the distribution, characteristics, …

Difficulties Experienced Procedural Programmers Encounter When Transferring To An Object-Oriented Programming Paradigm, Scott Andrew Machaffie

Dissertations and Theses

Experienced procedural programmers seem to have difficulty when transferring from a procedural language to an object-oriented language. The problem is how to assist the experienced procedural programmers to make this shift. The long term goal of this research is to identify areas where programmers have problems and to develop an automated system to help them overcome these difficulties.

This study examines the class designs produced by procedural programmers and the effect of specifications and domain knowledge on class designs. Two types of specifications were used: those written from a procedural point of view which emphasized the functions and those written …

Comprehension Of Literate Programs By Novice And Intermediate Programmers, Christopher Forrest Bertholf

Dissertations and Theses

The studies reported herein compare comprehension of Lit style literate programs to that of traditional modular programs documented by embedded comments. Novice and intermediate programmers participated in three experiments designed to determine the comprehensibility of literate programs written using a language-independent system for abstraction-oriented literate programming compared with programs written using traditional modular programming techniques (traditional modular programs). Programs were written in either the C or FORTRAN programming language. Half of the subjects in each group received a literate program, while the other half received a traditional modular program with embedded documentation. Subjects received a problem specification, input and output …

Matching Points To Lines: Sonar-Based Localization For The Psubot, Kevin Blythe Stanton

Dissertations and Theses

The PSUBOT (pronounced pea-es-you-bought) is an autonomous wheelchair robot for persons with certain disabilities. Its use of voice recognition and autonomous navigation enable it to carry out high level commands with little or no user assistance. We first describe the goals, constraints, and capabilities of the overall system including path planning and obstacle avoidance. We then focus on localization-the ability of the robot to locate itself in space. Odometry, a compass, and an algorithm which matches points to lines are each employed to accomplish this task. The matching algorithm (which matches "points" to "lines") is the main contribution to this …

An Analysis Of The Involvement Of Ten High Schools In Scholastic Aptitude Testing Student Preparation, Elaine Drakulich

Dissertations and Theses

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is taken each year by two fifths of the high school graduates (Cameron, 1989). The perception that high SAT scores will either open the door of selective colleges and generate scholarships or that low SAT scores will close off opportunities for the rest of one's life, makes virtually every student who invests the three hours of time required to take the test extremely anxious about doing as well as possible (Whitla, 1988). Significant relationships between identified preparation techniques and the perceived effectiveness of those techniques by students and staff can be very useful information for …

Dynamics Of Ultrashort Pulse Generation And Amplification In Dye Lasers, Shuanghua Jiang

Dissertations and Theses

The dynamics of ultrashort pulse generation and amplification in dye lasers is studied in this dissertation. In particular, we have developed general semiclassical models for ultrashort pulse dye laser amplifiers and oscillators. These models start from Maxwell's equation for the electric field and density matrix equations for the active laser medium. A finite coherence time or phase memory time of the molecular wave functions, a finite vibrational relaxation time for the lower electronic state of the dye laser transition, an isotropic molecular orientational distribution, and an arbitrary pump polarization are all taken into account. Based on these models, specific topics …

Friendship Patterns Of Chinese Students And Their Adjustment In The United States, Changhua Wang

Dissertations and Theses

International students who experience difficulties in a new culture are often considered to have suffered a breakdown in their normal healthy psychological functioning, and therefore need therapy and counselling (Pedersen et al, 1976). This study views failure and problems experienced by the sojourner as a result of lack of the necessary new social skills and knowledge. Social networks, particularly friendships, are thus extremely important in that such networks are not only source of social support [sic], but also major channels through which such skills and knowledge are acquired [sic].

1. Guided by social support theories and social skills theories, this study …