Digital Commons Network^™

Psi Hitting And Missing: The Effects Of Belief, Order Of Run, And Previous Experience, Jaymes Parker

Masters Theses

The current study examined several variables to determine their effects on telepathy performance. Part I used groups of participants who attempted to telepathically send the location oftargets to a receiver selected randomly from the group. Fifteen sessions were conducted during which 9 receivers each completed 16 trials. It was hypothesized that an order effect would be present with increased missing during the first and last run of each session. It was also hypothesized that belief in mental telepathy would influence telepathy scores. Results indicated significant differences when comparing positions 1 and 9 with positions 2-8. Scores, while not significant, tended …

A Study Of Knowledge Management Used For Managing Quality Systems In Selected Manufacturing Organizations In Coles And Effingham Counties, Merlin Haryati

Masters Theses

The globalization and information revolutions increase the complexity and competition resulting in a business environment that is no longer stable and static. Executives of all organizations face the challenge of adopting new management practices to keep their organizations vibrant in a rapidly changing technological business world. Knowledge management is one of the emerging fields that promise workplace improvements by putting the tacit knowledge of the company into use.

The emergence of knowledge management in the year 2000 caused organizations to realize that their intellectual assets are central to their survival. Managing and harvesting these assets is the focus of knowledge …

Changes In The Diet Of Lake Trout (Salvelinus Namaycush) In Near-Shore Lake Michigan With The Invasion Of The Round Goby (Neogobius Melanostomus): 1995-2005, Marybeth Kathryn Brey

Masters Theses

The predator-prey base of the Great Lakes has been altered since the early 1900's, with the majority of these changes occurring due to invasive species such as the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), alewife (Alosa pseudoharangus), and rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax). These changes have forced large piscivorous fish to find alternate prey species. One predator, the lake trout (Salvelinus namaychush) has experienced a series of diet shifts in the last century, due to a changing prey base. In recent years the Great Lakes, particularly Lake Michigan has experience a new invader, the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), which has colonized the …

The Flood Frog: An Autonomous Wireless Device For Flood Detection And Monitoring, Valerio Plessi

Masters Theses

"Accurate real time monitoring is gaining critical importance in a broad range of domains. Of particular interest to this research is the development of monitoring and detection systems for environmental and structural phenomena. Transportation infrastructures, in particular bridges, provide examples for both categories. Flooding of low water bridges is one example of rapidly evolving environmental phenomena, while stress and vibration are structural phenomena in need of monitoring.

Early warning and advanced preparation for emergency are two of the most effective lines of defense against catastrophic events, where real time monitoring can facilitate containment and recovery efforts. The operating environment of …

Empowering Adolescents In A Morally Ambiguous World: An Exploration Of Middle School Character Education Programs, Jill R. Bowers

Masters Theses

While instilling values in adolescents is often seen as the parent/guardian's primary respoponsibility, varying circumstances arise in the lives of individuals and families which cave members of society to rise to the challenges and social responsibilities of educating he young. Teaching adolescents to cope with the rising challenges associated with socialization and be individuals of good character who become productive citizens as adults is a social responsibility.

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the impact of character education programs on early adolescents in middle schools and school personnel. Through exploration of 2 middle schools who implemented 2 …

Differences Among Third Graders' Body Mass Index (Bmi) Levels, Gender, Race, And Number Of Minutes Spent Weekly In Physical Education, Kelly Devine

Masters Theses

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships among minutes spent in physical education (PE) class weekly, gender, and race with third graders body mass index (BMI). A survey was given to third graders in approved school districts in one unty in Illinois. Two hundred sixty surveys were used in this study. The researcher found that the BMI of third grade children who had PE class 40-50 minutes per week was statistically significantly higher as compared to the third grade children who had PE 60- 215 minutes per week. It was also concluded that there was no difference …

Assessing Personality Traits Of Athletic Trainers At Accredited Universities Associated With The Ohio Valley Conference, Dana Patrick Jergens

Masters Theses

The discipline of athletic training is one which deals with the prevention and care of athletic injuries. Athletic training is a competitive field that is oriented towards athletes and sports medicine caregivers. Certain types of personalities mold athletic trainers and the types of lifestyles necessary to do this line of work. To better determine what types of prospective athletic trainers enter this field, it is interesting to find out if they fit certain personality characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine the personality traits of athletic trainers from accredited universities affiliated with the Ohio Valley Conference. A total …

Women Mayors: An Examination Of Leadership Style, Sherikia Lavette Humes

Masters Theses

Studies of women in politics traditionally focus on the state and federal levels. Scholarly literature suggests that women mayors have been largely ignored, even though there has been a significant increase in the number of women mayors. This thesis examines women mayors and their leadership styles through the models of transactional and transformational leadership. For this study, as a point of comparison, male mayors also were examined. This study was conducted through three research methods: elite interviewing and observational and document analysis. The findings of this study suggest that women mayors are more likely than men mayors to be transformational …

The Effects Of Repeated Reading And Goal Setting On Student Reading Fluency, Joann T. Ford

Masters Theses

This study investigated the effect of repeated reading and goal setting on students' oral reading fluency (ORF). Third grade students (n=24) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: repeated reading and goal setting, repeated reading, and no-treatment control group. Treatment groups met for six weeks, four times per week for 20 minutes. A paired repeated reading procedure was used and weekly progress monitoring occurred using third grade DIBELS ORF progress monitoring probes. Repeated reading and goal setting group set weekly goals, graphed fluency data, and received feedback. All groups made gains in reading fluency. Although no significant effects were …

Mental Telepathy And Social Fields: A Within Session Decline Effect, Timothy K. Bunfill

Masters Theses

The current study involves the exploration of several variables relating to the facilitation of mental telepathy from a social field perspective. Groups of participants ranging from 8 to 35 attempted to telepathically send information regarding one of four target locations to a receiver who was selected at random from the group. During each of ten sessions, an average of nine receivers completed 16 trials apiece over a period of two hours. It was hypothesized that since all participants had a previous experience with a telepathy task, they would score above chance initially and that as sessions progressed fatigue or boredom …

Reading Instruction Software Vs. Peer Tutoring For Improving Oral Reading Fluency, Morgan Carlyle

Masters Theses

Research suggests that computer-based instruction program is as effective as peer tutoring in increasing students' oral reading fluency rates. However, few experimental studies have compared these two reading interventions. The present study compared the effect of a computer-based reading instruction program, Reader Rabbit I Can Read with Phonics, with peer tutoring. Second grade students were randomly assigned to computer tutoring, peer tutoring, or control groups; and they read the same reading material for twenty minutes, two times a week for six weeks. Participants in the computer group used a segment of the reading software instruction program, Reader Rabbit I can …

The Experiences Of African American Males On A Predominantly White Campus, Dannie Earl Moore Ii

Masters Theses

The purposes of this qualitative study were to evaluate teacher/student relationships between African American male college students and white male professors to ascertain to perceptions of college among African American males on a predominantly white campus. To be considered for participation, each student met the following criteria: (1) in their final year of college, (2) had at least one white male instructor, and (3) African American male. Characteristics such as age, academic degree program, extracurricular involvement, and prior enrollment at another institution were not considered among the selection criteria to protect confidentiality. Results from the present study include the perceptions …

Comparing Discourse Performance According To Elicitation Procedure, Aimee Wheat

Masters Theses

Four adolescents with closed head injury (CHI) and four matched controls provided speaking and writing samples using the following four elicitation procedures: pictured activity description, story retelling, procedural narrative, and personal narrative. The purpose of the current study was to compare discourse performance according to various elicitation tasks for adolescent with CHI and matched controls using measures of productivity, efficiency, and coherence. Additionally, the relationship between cognitive skills and discourse performance was assessed.

Results indicated that there was a significant difference between the participants with CHI and controls for oral productivity during the story retelling task. During this task, the …

Beaver Home Ranges And Movement Patterns On The Embarras River Watershed In East Central Illinois, Randall P. Havens

Masters Theses

The beaver (Castor canadensis) is an ecologically and economically important species that has been much studied and exploited during its long association with humans (Bradt 1938, Hodgdon 1978, Novak 1987, Muller-Schwartze and Schulte 1999). Beavers have been described as ecosystem engineers and a keystone species because of their ability to physically modify, maintain, or create wetlands thereby controlling resources used by other organisms and altering the physical state of the environment (Jones et al. 1994). They are capable of impacting the local environment through dam construction, selective tree harvest, and den construction. For example, beaver dams impact stream hydrology, nutrient …

Boundary-Crossers: Observation, Chance, And Change In The Fiction Of Thomas Hardy, D. Levi Woolen-Danner

Masters Theses

Thomas Hardy creates in his fiction a world that demands love lead to failure. His hero and heroine are tragic nearly without exception, as if desire were not just a burden, but a catalyst for disaster. Perhaps this is due to the period in which Hardy was living, and his need to reconcile his memories of an idyllic past with the dramatic social and econonomic changes contemporary to his period of novel-writing. Perhaps he is trying to discover a new model of living-one that will not be trapped by human desires. He has created a figure, one I refer to …

The Semantics Of Color In Anna Akhmatova's Early Poetry, Alsu Shakirova

Masters Theses

Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), a Russian post-Symbolist poet, published a variety of poems in the Russian language, which were later translated into English. Her works include the collections Evening (1912), Rosary (1914), White Flock (1917), Plantain (1921), Anno Domini (1922), From Six Books (1940), Seventh Book (1936- 1964), Poems (1958), Requiem (1963), and Poem Without a Hero (1940-1966). This work focuses on her early poetry collections Evening, Rosary, White Flock, and Anno Domini and analyzes the semantic relationship between color and concrete objects in order to discover how Akhmatova conveys the image, mood, and state of the persona's transforming self through …

The Rhetorical Negotiation Of Thomas Jefferson In Secondary U.S. History Textbooks, Josh Robison

Masters Theses

The malleability of history is an intellectual condition that should be acknowledged and understood fully to formulate and to comprehend our knowledge of the past. As history is a very human interpretation of past events, and language is a human invention, it is useful to analyze the language used to design our underst anding of these events. This thesis focuses on the rhetoric used by secondary U.S. history textbooks in their presentation of Thomas Jefferson in order to initiate a larger iscussion about how the use of specific rhetorical assumptions and strategies significantly influences our comprehension of the past.

James …

Her Violated Body: Sexual Violence And The Limits Of Political Allegory In Post-Apartheid South African Fiction, Jennifer Mishaela Fuhler

Masters Theses

In post-apartheid South Africa, writers continue to use political allegory to critique the democratic transition, racial tensions, and the reconcilation process. This use of allegory, although effective at times, often includes the sexual violation of the female body, further inhibiting gender equality as women continue to exist as secondclass citizens both in fiction and reality. This thesis analyzes three post-apartheid texts - Zakes Mda's The Madonna of Excelsior (2002), J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace (1999), and Marlene van Niekerk's Triomf (1994, translated into English 1999) - and moves beyond the allegorical representation of the figure of the raped woman to a critique …

Evaluation Of Mechanical Properties Of Self-Consolidating Concrete, Bhusan Basnet

Masters Theses

The concept of Self-Consolidating Concrete is a fresh and rapidly ramping technology in USA, but in some other continents such as Japan and Europe it is in fully fledged stage. The development of this technology has a high potential to economize construction minimizing labor, scheduled time and equipment eliminating consolidation process. In USA, construction professionals are reluctant to its in-effect application because of lack of deliberate and methodological steps for production and applications. The lack of study of its durability characteristics and confusion in design and production process are seems to be vital factors hindering full scale production and application …

Relational Aggression In Adolescent Girls: Developing Self-Esteem For The Target Girl, Lisa Suzanne Gulch

Masters Theses

Relational aggression (RA) is rampant in our schools, especially in middle schools across America. The name-calling, rumors, exclusion, eye-rolling, and whispers work to undermine relationships between and amongst girls. Because RA is covert in nature, the behavior goes mostly unnoticed by the adults in these girl’s lives. Society conditions girls, from a very young age, to respond to aggressive behaviors by not being aggressive back; girls are supposed to be nice. The target of relational aggression is especially hurt by this behavior. She generally suffers from low self esteem and poor social skills, and when put up against a clique, …

Human Resources Management: An Exploration Of Strategic Human Resources Management In Michigan Police Organizations, Jason L. Hunt

Masters Theses

There exists in the law enforcement community an antiquated notion that reactive management policies and practices are sufficient for the day-to-day operations of police organizations (Tafoya 1986,1990; Manning, 1997; Anderson, 2000). The law enforcement community remains highly resistant to change and unfortunately maintaining the ‘status quo’ inhibits the ability of police organizations to prepare for the uncertainties of an ever-changing environment (Tafoya, 1990; Manning, 1997; Anderson 2000).

The research presented here demonstrates the need for the law enforcement community to evaluate management strategies and move toward proactive management practices that are promoted from within the organization rather than from outside …

The Effectiveness Of Aquatic Therapy With Persons Who Have Experienced A Cerebral Vascular Accident, Heather L. Tweedie

Masters Theses

This study examined the effectiveness of using aquatic therapy (AT) as a technique in the treatment of cerebral vascular accidents (CVA). The unique properties of the aquatic environment were manipulated to determine change in range of motion, muscle tone, balance, functional ambulation, and psychological functioning particularly social relationship and positive and negative feelings.

A single subject design was conducted using two subjects that participated in a twelve week aquatic therapy program. Aquatic therapy showed to be effective in treating common symptoms of a CVA. More research needs to be completed to ensure the effectiveness of aquatic therapy in congruency with …

Caregivers’ Perceptions Of Accessibility And Quality Of Services In The Community For Children With Mental Health Diagnoses: A Pilot Survey, Karin E. Brems

Masters Theses

This pilot study was intended to explore caregivers' perceptions of the mental health services available in the community for children with mental health diagnoses. A study-specific survey was developed to look at demographic characteristics, service accessibility, and service quality. This survey was distributed to caregivers through Michigan support groups. Returned surveys were analyzed for themes that could assist in the development of further research to improve community services for children with mental health diagnoses.

This pilot study yielded rich qualitative data. Upon review and analysis, five themes emerged: (1) bureaucratic hassles and getting the runaround, (2) closed doors, (3) support …

Guidelines To Select A Computerized Maintenance Management System, Dattaraj Kamalapurkar

Masters Theses

In today's highly competitive global economy, maintenance personnel are presented with more difficult challenges than at any previous point in time. In order to meet these challenges, many maintenance managers tend to rely . on Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). When properly selected and implemented, CMMS is one of the most powerful cost reduction tools in any organization. However in reality, many CMMS implementations fail rather than achieve success. While there are many contributing factors, one major factor that greatly impacts successful implementation is selecting the right CMMS system. With more than 200 CMMS systems to choose from, selecting the …

"Far, Fast, And Fashionable": American Women Swimmers And Their Swimwear In 1920s And 1930s Sport And Consumer Culture, Elizabeth A. Zanoni

Masters Theses

This thesis examines American aquatic stars of public acclaim as displayers of clothing, and how their changing swimwear shaped the debate over physical culture, femininity, modesty, and gender roles in sport and consumer culture during the 1920s and 1930s. Performing in shortened, functional athletic attire, leading swimmers and divers conveyed cultural messages about athleticism and femininity through their athletic accomplishments and their multiple representations of the female body clothed in swimming attire. It also considers how these female aquatic luminaries, in a sphere traditionally defined as male, shaped American culture by providing a public platform from which the entire sporting …

Development Of A Web-Based Gis For Groundwater Exploration In Arid Lands, Nakul Manocha

Masters Theses

A three-fold exercise was conducted to assess the groundwater potentiality in the Eastern Desert (ED) of Egypt. First, a database was generated to host all relevant data sets in a GIS environment for a better understanding of the spatial relationships between these data sets. Co-registered digital mosaics were generated from relevant data sets including remote sensing (e.g., Landsat TM, SIR-C, SRTM, TRMM), geochemical (solute concentrations, O and H stable isotope composition), geological (geologic maps), and hydrological (lithology, depth to water table) data sets. Second, a web-based GIS interface (ArcIMS) was developed to provide a vehicle for data analysis, visualization, and …

The Effects Of Feedback On Hourly Pay And Individual Monetary Incentives, Douglas A. Johnson

Masters Theses

The effects of performance feedback when individuals received fixed or individual incentive pay were examined. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used with approximately 30 college students in each group. Participants attended six experimental sessions. They entered the cash value of simulated bank checks presented on a computer screen. Monetary incentives increased the number of correctly completed checks (p = .000); however feedback had no effect (p = .825). Time spent working and rate of performance correlated strongly with the number of checks completed correctly, suggesting that both influenced the checks completed correctly. The results suggest that incentives increase …

The Journey Of A Social Movement: A Glimpse Into Hizb 'Allah And Its Integration Into The Lebanese Landscape, Lisa L. Peters

Masters Theses

Historically, research in Social Movement Theories has been limited to only certain aspects of a social movement, whether it was the impetus of the movement, explaining the reasons for its mobilization, how they recruit members and money, how social movements are able to function as an organization, or why groups suffer demise after flourishing for a period of time. This research attempts to build a framework of a particular social movement, Hizb'allah, a Shi'a Islamic movement based in Lebanon. This framework is built by extracting various elements from several social movement theories to explain and illustrate this movement's life course …

Paper Substrates For Electronic Printing, Laura K. Wood

Masters Theses

Printed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) labels utilize conductive inks to provide the means for wireless flow of electronic signals. An RFID label is an identification label with an integrated circuit and antenna that transmits data via radio waves to a reader, which sends the data to a computer for processing. RFID labels allow manufacturers and retailers to accurately track their inventory more efficiently than previously possible with bar codes. However, etched metal RFID labels are too expensive for widespread implementation. The key to reducing the cost of RFID technology is replacing etched metal tags with tags printed with conducting ink. …

Evaluation Of Mechanical Properties Of Recycled Aggregate Concrete, Sajjad Ali Khan

Masters Theses

The maintenance and repair work in the civil engineering infrastructures develops the production of huge wastes which causes the growth of waste piles, additional costs in construction projects and some environmental problems. If this waste is recycled and used again in construction projects, it will help to overcome the problems discussed earlier. Moreover, if natural aggregates are supplemented by recycled aggregate, it will preserve the natural resources and also put a pause in the deterioration of natural landscape.

This thesis addresses the importance of using recycled aggregate in concrete structures. Its practical feasibility in construction projects is studied in light …