Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
File Type

Articles 6961 - 6990 of 7646

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Using Impedance Cardiography To Examine Changes In Hemodynamic Parameters During Heart Rate Biofeedback, Jeffrey Louis Goodie May 1999

Using Impedance Cardiography To Examine Changes In Hemodynamic Parameters During Heart Rate Biofeedback, Jeffrey Louis Goodie

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Reducing cardiovascular responses to stressors may help to reduce one's risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The present study examined the underlying hemodynamic changes that accompany heart rate (HR) response reduction to a stressor following HR feedback training. Twenty-five healthy college males were assigned to either a HR feedback training group (FB+) or a control group (FB--) and were presented with a videogame and mental arithmetic challenge, as HR, blood pressure, and impedance cardiography-derived measures were recorded. During the training sessions, the FB+ group received HR feedback and the FB-- group was not provided with HR feedback while playing the videogame. …

Go to article

Mission Planning And Remote Operated Vehicle Simulation In A Virtual Reality Interface, Christopher Samuel Allport May 1999

Mission Planning And Remote Operated Vehicle Simulation In A Virtual Reality Interface, Christopher Samuel Allport

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Virtual reality simulations are finding applications in a wide range of disciplines such as surgical simulation, electronics training, and crime scene investigation. During the Mars Pathfinder Mission, in summer 1997, NASA scientists unveiled a new application of virtual reality for the visualization of a planetary surface. The success of this application led to a more concentrated effort for using virtual reality visualization tools during future missions. The thrust of this effort was to develop a new interface which would allow scientists to interactively plan experiments to be performed by the mission robots. This thesis covers two of the primary aspects …

Go to article

Empty Pleasures, Phyllis Leverich Evans May 1999

Empty Pleasures, Phyllis Leverich Evans

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

My work examines the ways we covet extravagant objects in Western society. I explore the vain and the humble veneration of status symbols, mementos, and personal icons. Through a satire of pompous display, I critique our society's fixation on materialism.;I use a digital process to mimic commercial eye-catching tactics in my ersatz copies of pre-Modern decorations. Although my work mocks the uncultivated tastes of mainstream America, its pursuit of formal harmony and sentiment is sincere. My objects are machine produced, but they act as icons to manifest poetic sentiment.;Playful as it appears, the work cynically reflects the distorted bourgeois values …

Go to article

Generalizability Of Cardiovascular Reactivity To Stress Among Doctoral Students Between Laboratory And Natural Settings, James P. Davig May 1999

Generalizability Of Cardiovascular Reactivity To Stress Among Doctoral Students Between Laboratory And Natural Settings, James P. Davig

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study extends previous work investigating the generalizability of cardiovascular reactivity to stress obtained in response to laboratory-based tasks to cardiovascular reactivity measured in response to a natural occurring event. Cardiovascular reactivity (HR, SBP, DBP) to stress was measured with ambulatory monitoring equipment in 6 male and 16 female healthy Caucasian graduate students in two settings: during five standardized laboratory stressors, and during the proposal or defense of a thesis or dissertation. Results indicate that for all cardiovascular parameters, the magnitude of change was greatest in response to the natural event, and that among the laboratory tasks, the greatest degree …

Go to article

West Virginia Education Information System Users' Concerns As Measured By The Stages Of Concern Questionnaire, Toni Lynne Devore May 1999

West Virginia Education Information System Users' Concerns As Measured By The Stages Of Concern Questionnaire, Toni Lynne Devore

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are significant differences in users' concerns related to the West Virginia Education Information System based on position, county size, length of use, and attendance at the WVEIS Data Conference. Using the Stages of Concern Questionnaire from the Concerns Based Adoption Model, 118 WVEIS users were surveyed first in June 1998. A post conference survey was mailed to the same population five months later with 80 responses being returned. Analysis of the data was done using StatView software to run an analysis of variance, unpaired, and paired t-tests. Profile graphs were …

Go to article

Administrators' Influence On Job Satisfaction For West Virginia Special Education Teachers, Jennifer Pitzer Sirk May 1999

Administrators' Influence On Job Satisfaction For West Virginia Special Education Teachers, Jennifer Pitzer Sirk

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined the relationship between the perceived administrative support levels of special education directors and principals and the perceived intrinsic, extrinsic and overall job satisfaction levels of West Virginia special education teachers. The Supervisory Behavior Description Questionnaire (Form One) was used to measure the perceived administrative support levels. The Mohrman Cooke Mohrman Job Satisfaction Scale was used to measure the perceived intrinsic, extrinsic and overall job satisfaction levels. Ancillary information was also obtained from the respondents concerning gender, Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) area of employment, grade level of employment, special education teaching assignment areas, years of experience teaching …

Go to article

Preservative Treatment Evaluation Of Five Appalachian Wood Species With Four Preservatives, Jeffrey John Slahor May 1999

Preservative Treatment Evaluation Of Five Appalachian Wood Species With Four Preservatives, Jeffrey John Slahor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Hardwoods have been used extensively throughout the years for many uses. In the last century, wood railway tie and bridge material has been treated almost exclusively with the preservative creosote in order to improve durability. This has led to the knowledge that hardwoods treated with creosote are extremely durable. However, there have been few well documented studies of what has been termed "treatability". This work investigated and documented the treatability of five common and abundant Appalachian hardwoods vacuum/pressure treated with the four wood preservatives creosote, chromated copper arsenate (CCA), ammoniacal copper quaternary compound Type-B (ACQ-B), and a borate preservative (TmborRTM). …

Go to article

Full-Scale Operation Of A Tubular Ultrafiltration System In The Treatment Of Oily Waste, Michael Christopher Malak May 1999

Full-Scale Operation Of A Tubular Ultrafiltration System In The Treatment Of Oily Waste, Michael Christopher Malak

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An aluminum company in West Virginia uses an oil-water (metal working fluid) in their rolling mill process for lubrication. In the past, the company collected the oily-waste into two lined waste ponds with a combined holding capacity of 5 million gallons. Separation of the oil-water mixture occurred as emulsifiers in the metal working fluid broke down. Free oil was skimmed resulting in a pond effluent, which contained 0.2 to 1.0% oil. Pond effluent was sprayed on a treatment field and the remaining oil was degraded naturally. The daily flow to the spray fields averaged 80,000 gallons. In 1993, concerns about …

Go to article

Using Stages Of Change To Examine Fear, Threat, Efficacy, And Safety Climate Perceptions In Health Care Workers Who Routinely Handle Needles And Sharps, Brian Thomas Day May 1999

Using Stages Of Change To Examine Fear, Threat, Efficacy, And Safety Climate Perceptions In Health Care Workers Who Routinely Handle Needles And Sharps, Brian Thomas Day

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Standard precautions are mandated for the purpose of decreasing the risk of bloodborne pathogen transmission of diseases, namely human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B infections. One of the stipulations of standard precautions is that used needles should not be recapped and should be disposed of in an appropriate sharps container. The rate of needle stick injuries among health care workers remains at a high level despite the 1992 passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations regarding standard precautions. The role fear plays in decisions regarding individual health related behaviors such as intravenous drug use has been …

Go to article

Role Expectations And Predictions Of Trends For Human Resource Development At Large Public Universities Within The Southern Regional Education Board (Sreb) Area, Drayton Ray Justus Jr. May 1999

Role Expectations And Predictions Of Trends For Human Resource Development At Large Public Universities Within The Southern Regional Education Board (Sreb) Area, Drayton Ray Justus Jr.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study was designed to identify the role expectations, reporting hierarchy, years in role and trends in human resource development as reported by the person responsible for human resource development in large public universities within the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) geographic area. The population for this study was all the four-year public universities in Southern Regional Education Board states which were classified by 1997 SREB-State Data Exchange definitions as SREB I (n = 26).;Each institution in the sample was mailed a copy of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Roles Survey, an instrument developed for the purpose of this research. …

Go to article

Preference Between Predictable And Unpredictable Administrations Of Carbon Dioxide-Enriched Air, Carl Wilbourne Lejuez May 1999

Preference Between Predictable And Unpredictable Administrations Of Carbon Dioxide-Enriched Air, Carl Wilbourne Lejuez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Predictability of panic attacks has been identified as an important factor in the development, maintenance, and treatment of panic disorder. Although animal studies typically have found a preference for signaled (predictable) over unsignaled (unpredictable) aversive events, results with human participants have been less clear. Because preference for predictability has a wide range of clinical implications, we examined human preference for predictability in a biological challenge paradigm. Further, we examined the differential effects of predictability as a function of anxiety sensitivity and gender. In general, females showed a significantly greater preference for predictability compared to males, as did high anxious participants …

Go to article

Domains Of Organizational Effectiveness Of Gerontology Centers In Higher Education, Allison Hale Nichols May 1999

Domains Of Organizational Effectiveness Of Gerontology Centers In Higher Education, Allison Hale Nichols

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This is an exploratory study that focuses on organizational effectiveness of gerontology centers and institutes at American universities. The study was modeled after studies of organizational effectiveness in higher education by Kim Cameron of Brigham Young University. The study identifies six domains of effectiveness that are important to gerontology centers and the structural and functional models and characteristics of gerontology centers that may predict the domain in which it is effective. The target population of the study was dominant coalition members of 87 gerontology centers, namely, administrators and faculty members who have the most influence on policy, direction, and performance. …

Go to article

Prediction Of Trauma Responses Following Myocardial Infarction, Risa Nakase Thompson May 1999

Prediction Of Trauma Responses Following Myocardial Infarction, Risa Nakase Thompson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

For survivors of MI, the most common subsequent psychological complications include anxiety and depression. Recent interest has increased in examining the incidence of anxiety disorders, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), among post-MI patients. The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate trauma responses among a consecutive sample of post-MI patients. Forty-six post MI patients completed questionnaires and forty completed structured interviews during their initial hospitalization for MI. Six of these individuals reported acute stress disorder symptoms in response to their MI. These six patients scored significantly higher on most measures of PTSD. Thirty-two individuals completed a follow-up assessment of …

Go to article

Use Of Wavelet-Packet Transforms To Develop An Engineering Model For Multifractal Characterization Of Mutation Dynamics In Pathological And Nonpathological Gene Sequences, David Lee Walker May 1999

Use Of Wavelet-Packet Transforms To Develop An Engineering Model For Multifractal Characterization Of Mutation Dynamics In Pathological And Nonpathological Gene Sequences, David Lee Walker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study uses dynamical analysis to examine in a quantitative fashion the information coding mechanism in DNA sequences. This exceeds the simple dichotomy of either modeling the mechanism by comparing DNA sequence walks as Fractal Brownian Motion (fbm) processes. The 2-D mappings of the DNA sequences for this research are from Iterated Function System (IFS) (Also known as the "Chaos Game Representation" (CGR)) mappings of the DNA sequences. This technique converts a 1-D sequence into a 2-D representation that preserves subsequence structure and provides a visual representation. The second step of this analysis involves the application of Wavelet Packet Transforms, …

Go to article

Aging And Design Of Concrete Members Reinforced With Gfrp Bars, P. V. Vijay May 1999

Aging And Design Of Concrete Members Reinforced With Gfrp Bars, P. V. Vijay

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Strength and stiffness properties of GFRP bars and moisture transport phenomenon into the bars was investigated in this research for various conditioning schemes with and without the application of sustained loads. Low viscosity urethane modified vinylester resin is identified as the most suitable resin, from the durability viewpoint.;Based on accelerated test results calibrated with respect to naturally aged results it is safely concluded that the service life of the FRP bars with durable resin is about 60 years as a minimum with 20% sustained stress on the bar. Concrete cover protection on the GFRP bars enhanced the service life up …

Go to article

Independent Verification Of Specification Models For Large Software Systems At The Early Phases Of Development Lifecycle, Khalid Lateef May 1999

Independent Verification Of Specification Models For Large Software Systems At The Early Phases Of Development Lifecycle, Khalid Lateef

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

One of the major challenges facing the software industry, in general and IV&V (Independent Verification and Validation) analysts in particular, is to find ways for analyzing dynamic behavior of requirement specifications of large software systems early in the development lifecycle. Such analysis can significantly improve the performance and reliability of the developed systems. This dissertation addresses the problem of developing an IV&V framework for extracting semantics of dynamic behavior from requirement specifications based on: (1) SART (Structured Analysis with Realtime) models, and (2) UML (Unified Modeling Language) models.;For SART, the framework presented here shows a direct mapping from SART specification …

Go to article

Alterations In Intrinsic Heart Rate In Endotoxemia, Peter Drew Wearden May 1999

Alterations In Intrinsic Heart Rate In Endotoxemia, Peter Drew Wearden

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

After much early debate, it is now well recognized that the origin of the heart beat is myogenic, or intrinsic, to the heart. It has been felt that the intrinsic heart rate (IHR) is constant and that the observed heart rate is controlled by tonal alterations in the activity of the autonomic nervous system in response to various stimuli. Some investigators have recognized, however, that the intrinsic heart rate (IHR) can be altered in certain conditions. Sepsis, or the host response to bacterial infection, is recognized as a stress to the host that results in decreased myocardial contractility and tachycardia. …

Go to article

The Effects Of Varying Concentration And Duration Of Cfc-113 Exposure On End-Exhaled Breath Cfc-113 Concentration, Demetra Grace Dalamagas May 1999

The Effects Of Varying Concentration And Duration Of Cfc-113 Exposure On End-Exhaled Breath Cfc-113 Concentration, Demetra Grace Dalamagas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Subjects were exposed to different concentrations of CFC-113 for variable duration while conducting 30-minute exercise regiments. End-exhaled breath samples were collected 25, 30 and 35 minutes after the exercise regiment and quantified using gas chromatography. Three comparative studies were conducted.;A short duration administration delivered at the beginning or at the end of the regiment was compared to a long duration administration delivered at the beginning or at the end of the exercise regiment. The second study compared breath samples when 500 ppm of CFC-113 was administered at the beginning or end six minutes of the regiment. The third compared continuous …

Go to article

The Evaluation Of Research For Promotion And Tenure: An Organizational Perspective, Elsa G. Nadler May 1999

The Evaluation Of Research For Promotion And Tenure: An Organizational Perspective, Elsa G. Nadler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The literature on promotion and tenure in institutions of higher education includes a substantial amount of research on various aspects of faculty productivity. Yet other research concentrates on the organizational structure of higher education. In his 1986 book, Burton Clark called for research that would examine how what he called the enterprise (the local university as opposed to the statewide system) and departments within it interact in important arenas.;This dissertation takes up Clark's challenge to examine the interaction of enterprise and department in promotion and tenure in three areas: goals, structure and operations. Content analysis of faculty handbooks from 25 …

Go to article

Modifying Risk Perceptions Of Japanese University Students Using A Culturally Compatible Mode Of Instruction, Susan F. Walsh May 1999

Modifying Risk Perceptions Of Japanese University Students Using A Culturally Compatible Mode Of Instruction, Susan F. Walsh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Japanese university students who come to the United States present a particular challenge to universities to teach them about their risks to personal property. The usual method of delivering this message, a lecture during the orientation period, may not be the most effective way of presenting the information due to their limitations in understanding English. It was hypothesized that a manga, or comic book, would be an effective and culturally compatible mode of instruction.;A manga was developed and was tested on a group of incoming Japanese freshmen. Forty students (12 females, 28 males) were divided into two groups. One group …

Go to article

Mean Value Modeling And Control Of A Diesel Engine Using Neural Networks, Yasser Yacoub May 1999

Mean Value Modeling And Control Of A Diesel Engine Using Neural Networks, Yasser Yacoub

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Increasingly stringent emissions legislation and demands for improved fuel economy have mandated the need for advanced control algorithms and complicated the diesel engine calibration procedure. To this end, a neural network-based mean value model of a modern turbocharged direct injection diesel engine has been developed and validated. For a pre-specified engine speed schedule and control vector trajectory, the engine model was shown to produce accurate predictions of the turbocharger manifold charging dynamics and combustion efficiency through engine brake torque predictions. The mean value model was coupled with several sub-models to predict exhaust gaseous and particulate emissions and satisfactory predictions were …

Go to article

Effects Of Feed Oil Content, Transmembrane Pressure And Membrane Rotational Speed On Permeate Water Quality In High-Shear Rotary Ultrafiltration, David Albert Masciola May 1999

Effects Of Feed Oil Content, Transmembrane Pressure And Membrane Rotational Speed On Permeate Water Quality In High-Shear Rotary Ultrafiltration, David Albert Masciola

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of transmembrane pressure, membrane rotational speed and feed oil content on permeate water quality in the treatment of a synthetic metal working fluid in the HSRUF system. Permeate oil grease and total organic carbon concentrations increased with transmembrane pressure and feed oil content due to the increased density or thickness of the solute concentration boundary layer. However, hydraulic turbulence created by membrane rotation minimized the thickness of the solute concentration boundary layer therefore reducing solute permeation through the membrane. The effective decoupling of feed pressurization/recirculation from hydraulic turbulence enables the HSRUF system …

Go to article

Econometric Analysis Of Household Expenditures, Samuel Berhanu May 1999

Econometric Analysis Of Household Expenditures, Samuel Berhanu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While the traditional methods of measuring income inequality reveals interesting and important features of labor markets, estimates of income inequality do not provide complete summary statistics of the distribution of well-being. Interpreting the Gini coefficient of family earnings as a measure of disparity in welfare implicitly assumes that households with the same level of before tax income are equally well-off. Utility is derived from the consumption of goods and services and there is ample empirical evidence which indicate that the distribution of total expenditure is likely to be different from the distribution of income. As Friedman indicated households with low …

Go to article

School Improvement Councils As Change Agents, Thurman Jeffrey Fry May 1999

School Improvement Councils As Change Agents, Thurman Jeffrey Fry

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of school improvement council members of 1999, and compare them to a similar study performed in 1994. This study reflected the speed at which LSIC's are becoming reform agents. A questionnaire was used with a stratified random sampling based on student enrollment. Chi square analysis, standard deviations, means, and percentages were used to identify and compare the data. The questions researched were: (1) What activities do the school improvement council members feel are worthwhile? (2) How involved are SIC's in local decision-making? (3) How have the activities of the SIC …

Go to article

Dual Fuel Conversion Of A Direct-Injection Diesel Engine, Talus Park May 1999

Dual Fuel Conversion Of A Direct-Injection Diesel Engine, Talus Park

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Dual fuel pilot-injected diesel natural gas engines offer significant potential to reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PK emissions while maintaining diesel-like efficiency. A 1994 Navistar T444E turbocharger V-8 diesel engine was converted to dual fuel diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG). In an attempt to reduce the overall cost and complexity of conversion, the engine was left completely original, including the diesel fuel injection system. Also, for the sake of simplicity, the method of intake manifold fumigation through an IMPCO, Inc. electronic natural gas control valve was chosen to deliver the CNG. A microprocessor-based electronic control unit …

Go to article

An Application Of The Delphi Method Of Forecasting To The Future Of Technology Infrastructure In West Virginia High Schools, William H. Carman May 1999

An Application Of The Delphi Method Of Forecasting To The Future Of Technology Infrastructure In West Virginia High Schools, William H. Carman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study investigated the technology infrastructures that will have an impact on school systems in West Virginia that desire to either retrofit existing high school structures or construct new ones. A three round modified Delphi technique was used to determine the life expectancy and affordability of each technology infrastructure.;In Round 1, surveys were sent via E-mail to 21 individuals representing public education in West Virginia at all levels, colleges and universities, technology business executives, an architect, and a foreign technology business executive. In response to the first survey, the expert panel generated a total of twenty-one different technology infrastructures that …

Go to article

The Implementation Of Learning Strategies In The Design Of An On-Line Medical Course Supplement, Lee Ann Hill May 1999

The Implementation Of Learning Strategies In The Design Of An On-Line Medical Course Supplement, Lee Ann Hill

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Given the charge of integrating technology in the medical school curriculum, faculty members are faced with the challenge of designing new materials for their courses. Often, these materials become on-line resources such as hypermedia and electronic communication. Strategies may assist students who are unfamiliar with on-line materials to use such materials more effectively. This study investigated the elaborative interrogation strategy used in conjunction with on-line materials to promote more efficient processing of difficult material. Twenty second-year medical students volunteered to participate in the study. The course in which they were enrolled required the use of an on-line lecture supplement. The …

Go to article

Offerings For Jahilia, Stephen Vincent Martonis May 1999

Offerings For Jahilia, Stephen Vincent Martonis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

These words represent the ideas invested in my paintings. They are progressive and fluctuating thoughts occurring at an interval in time. They are given honestly and freely, as ignorance and change are understood.

Go to article

Differences In Lipoxygenase Activity As Related To Cultivar Differences In Superficial Scald Of Apples, Judith Lynne Hercules Reynolds May 1999

Differences In Lipoxygenase Activity As Related To Cultivar Differences In Superficial Scald Of Apples, Judith Lynne Hercules Reynolds

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The relationship between lipoxygenase activity (LOX) and superficial scald was studied in the four apple cultivars (Malus domesticus Borkh.), Granny Smith (GS), Red Delicious (RD), Golden Delicious (GD) and York (YK) to determine if LOX is the genetic source of superficial scald or a means of predicting % scalded fruit. For 1993, three harvests (five trees each) for GS and four harvests (five trees each) for RD, GD and YK of one bushel box each were picked at one week intervals. For 1994, there were three harvests (five trees each) for GS, RD and GD and four harvests (three trees …

Go to article

The Relationship Of Disease Severity, Health Beliefs, And Medication Adherence Among Hiv Patients, Xin Gao May 1999

The Relationship Of Disease Severity, Health Beliefs, And Medication Adherence Among Hiv Patients, Xin Gao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Purpose. To investigate the relationship of disease severity, health beliefs, and medication adherence among HIV/AIDS patients.;Results. Seventy-two HIV patients were enrolled. There were no significant differences in patients' perceived severity of HIV/AIDS and perceptions of benefits and barriers of the treatment across three disease stages. However, patients who had greater experience with the disease (stage C) perceived a higher risk to develop complications if they were not adherent compared to asymptomatic patients (stage A). Results also revealed that patients in stage B and C were more adherent to their medications compared to patients in stage A when regimen complexity was …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last