Digital Commons Network^™

Mother-Daughter Rapport And Its Relationship To The Daughter's Self-Esteem, Deborah L. Stilwell-Boyer

Theses

The relationship between mother-daughter rapport and the daughter's self-esteem was examined for 36 women. All participants were women who volunteered to complete the Mother-Daughter Rapport Index and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. The only requirement for a woman to participate in the study was that the subject's mother had to be living. Where it was predicted that there would be no relationship between quality of mother-daughter rapport and daughter's self-esteem, it was found that there was a relationship between the two. Where quality of mother-daughter rapport increased, the daughter's self-esteem also increased. Where quality of mother-daughter rapport decreased, the daughter's self-esteem …

The Profile Of A Pedophile: Are Age And Marital Status Of Child Molesters Related To The Choice Of Gender Of The Victim, Bernadine A. Mcnabb

Theses

The characteristics of adults who sexually abuse children are reviewed by accessing current definitions and related research literature. The variable of the age and marital status of the sex offender and the gender of the victim is examined. The subjects of the study were incarcerated inmates in a state prison who have been convicted of sexual assault. Research data was extracted from their files. The hypothesis is that marital status and age of the offender is independent of the gender of the victim. The findings of this study revealed that age of the offender is independent of the selection of …

An Analysis Of Management Philosophies: The Economic Benefits Of Job Enrichment And Proactive Management Techniques, William C. Slizewski

Theses

This thesis examines the various managerial philosophies active in the American corporate environment in the late 1900's, their roots, and diverse influences. The management philosophies employed by an organization greatly influences the perceptions held by that organization's employees, the public, and other firms.

In recent years many management "gurus" have touted their programs as the key to the establishment of profitable managerial procedures. While a few programs have succeeded in turning organizations around, some enterprises are still in the development stage of their newfound philosophies and time will tell whether or not the programs will be successful. And then there …

A Comparison Of Role Stress In Stepmothers With Residential Stepchildren And Stepmothers With Nonresidential Stepchildren, Helena A. Marsh

Theses

The goal of this research was to test a psychological attitude measure intended to compare the stress experienced by stepmothers whose stepchildren are residential with the stress experienced by stepmothers whose stepchildren are nonresidential and only visit. After a review of the literature a thirty-one item survey, the Role Strain Index for Stepparents (RSIS) was given to the stepmothers of sixty-three children enrolled in grades 6 through 12, at four schools in the St. Louis/St. Charles metropolitan area. A T-test of difference between means was performed and the hypothesis that there was a difference in stress between stepmothers with residential …

Pregnancy Loss Support Groups: A Comparison Of Therapeutic Factors For Men And Women, Leslie Williams Beitch

Theses

Parents who experience a miscarriage, stillbirth, or newborn death often find themselves feeling profound grief with limited support or understanding from the community. Support groups for this population have emerged and gained in popularity throughout the country. This research will focus on specifically on the miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death experience and how the support group can meet these parents needs.

Parents attending SHARE pregnancy loss support groups participated in the study. Questionnaires were given to SHARE group leaders from all regions of the United States to distribute at their meetings. Fourteen men and twenty women completed questionnaires anonymously that …

Women In The Workforce: The Voice Of Change, Susan J. Cerny

Theses

This study presents a review of the current literature that pertains to the experiences of women in the male dominated working world. The specific focus of this study is the barriers that prevent women from advancing where men succeed.

When. women enter the workforce they tend to be naïve about the organizational culture that surrounds them. Women bring with them their natural feminine instincts and behaviors, which are not considered as valuable in the corporate world as male instincts and behaviors.

Because they are entering a "man's world," women are unaware of the subtle and underlying rules of the corporate …

Dreams Of Desire And Demise, Ann Mcallister

Theses

Not Included

Nutritional Risk Status Of The Non-Institutionalized Older Adult Population In Monroe County, New York, Susan A. Best

Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify the number of older adults who were at high nutritional risk in Monroe County and to determine what risk factors or nutritional problems are most prevalent. Another goal was to assess the relationship between the demographics and risk factors.

The Nutrition Screening Initiative's (NSI) "Determine Your Nutritional Health" Checklist contains 10 risk factors that have been shown to be associated with nutritional risk. Regular routine nutrition screening is promoted by the NSI and other health professionals to help identify individuals at nutritional risk and to initiate the appropriate intervention. Early intervention may …

Suppression Of The Transient Response In Linear Time-Invariant Systems, Timothy P. Landschoot

Theses

Steady-state solutions represent the long-term response of linear systems due to specified input signals. The total response is initially contaminated with transients, which disguise the long-term/operating response of a system. Except for certain ideal cases, even in systems of low dimension, the steady-state solution is typically obtained by simulation of the system until the transient part of the response is sufficiently negligible. This investigation elaborates on a method of determining the initial conditions that spontaneously give rise to steady-state solutions of forced linear differential equations. The method is applicable to stable, as well as non-stable systems, of any order.

Analysis Of Nydec Guidelines For Extended Detention Basins: Effectiveness In Water Quality Improvement In Western And Central New York, Karlene Thomas

Theses

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) has recently issued guidelines for stormwater management. One widely utilized management practice is the extended detention basin wherein improved water quality is achieved through sedimentation. NYDEC recommends these be designed so that the volume of storm runoff detained is equivalent to the first flush, defined as the first V of runoff or runoff from a 1-year, 24 hour storm event, whichever is greater, from all land areas for which the perviousness has been changed. It also suggests a minimum detention time of 24 hours. This thesis establishes if these generic criteria, …

The Effects Of Different Types Of Noise On Human Heart Rate, Jose R. Fabregas

Theses

In an industrial environment, chronic noise exposure is assumed to affect human heart rate. If this is true, people who are more sensitive to noise will run a higher risk of incurring cardiovascular diseases.

Sixteen healthy experimental subjects, all with normal hearing, eight males and eight females, were exposed to five different types of pink and white noise at 60, 70, 80, and 85 dBA in order to determine if any relationship exists between the heart rate and sex. Each individual was exposed for a maximum of thirty seconds for each type and level of noise. Audiometric tests were given …

Knowledge Based Text Indexing And Retrieval Utilizing Case Based Reasoning, Alan Mick

Theses

Information retrieval systems for documents normally rely on the use of keywords that describe the text in some fashion or another, or are contained in the text itself, for indexing and searching. These keywords may be associated with standard boolean operators, where presence or absence in the text or text description is used as the truth value, or other oper ators indicating their proximity to one another in the text. Another emerging approach is the use of content or knowledge based indexing and retrieval. In this approach the text is not represented or treated as a collection keywords, rather its …

Upgrading Biological Treatment Of Wastewater At Dubai’S Plant By A Fixed-Film System, Rashid Ahmed Bin-Fahad

Theses

The wastewater treatment plant in Dubai, with a design capacity of 130,000 m³/d, receives primarily domestic wastewater and employs primary, secondary and tertiary stages of treatment to produce an effluent suitable for reuse in irrigation. Performance of the plant is influenced to a great extent by the success of the secondary aerobic biological treatment stage. This stage comprises the high-rate activated sludge system for removal of carbonaceous organics followed by the biofilter system for removal of nitrogenous material by nitrification. Operational problems have often been experienced at this plant because of increasing sludge solids production and sludge rising …

An Analysis Of A Custom Expanding Total Femoral Prosthesis With A Rotating Hinge Knee, Ramarao Gundlapalli, V. Gundlapalli

Theses

Osteosarcoma is the most common malignant bone tumor in the pediatric age group. This thesis presents the analysis of a total femoral prosthesis implanted in a 9 year old black male. The design includes a bipolar, expanding mid-shaft component, and a rotating hinge knee used in the reconstruction of the patient's right lower limb after surgical resection of the femur. The areas being analyzed are (i) the trochanteric attachment, (ii) the expanding component, and (iii) the rotating hinge knee. The stresses acting on the cables reconnecting the greater and lesser trochanter were determined for bipedal stance, single-legged stance, stance phase …

An Application Of Neural Networks To Statistical Process Control, Asterios Papaikonomou

Theses

Recent changes in the past World War II economy have produced a more educated, value driven customer. A global economy has emerged to technological advances which has made competition fierce as well as proximate. As a result, manufacturing companies are required to provide consumers with quality products at a reasonable cost. A quality product is defined as one that fulfills the needs and expectations of the consumer and provides him with a sense of value.

Since all companies want to provide quality products, the reason why poor quality is sometimes the result is not the outcome of actions for that …

Linear Ccd Motion Detection System, Thekepat J. Sudesh

Theses

The mechanical response to electrical stimuli of the human membrane represents an important area of research in medicine. A linear sensing system was designed and fabricated to measure the displacements (along a specified direction) and the frequency response of a ear membrane, the Outer Hair Cell (OHC). The output of this system was a voltage proportional to the instantaneous position of the bimorph and could be displayed on an oscilloscope.

The system consisted of optics to project the image of the vibrating membrane onto a Linear CCD Camera and electronic analog and digital circuitry which produced an instantaneous voltage proportional …

Nitric Oxide Absorption From Flue Gas With Cumene Hydroperoxide Solution, Chung-Der Chen

Theses

The absorption of nitric oxide from gas streams with cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) in n-hexadecane (cetane) as the scrubbing solution was investigated. The efficiency of the scrubbing solution to remove nitric oxide was evaluated over the temperature range of 90 to 110°C, concentration range of 0.1 to 0.5M, and residence time of 12 to 80 seconds. The products were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and ion chromatography (IC). The goal of this research was to determine the NO removing efficiency of cumene hydroperoxide solution, a relatively inexpensive tertiary organic hydroperoxide. Also, a possible reaction mechanism for …

Computer Assisted Molecular Modeling Of Thymidine Nucleoside Analog Inhibitors Of Hiv-1 Reverse Transcriptase, Mark A. Fisher

Theses

An active analog approach to receptor mapping was used to identify the three dimensional structural characteristics associated with a series of thymidine nucleoside analog inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) that may be essential for their activity. Atomic substitutions at the 5 and 3' positions of nucleoside analogs confer global structural and electrostatic changes that result in either increased or diminished inhibitory activity. From a structural perspective, the activity differences can be attributed to the presentation of select atoms in three dimensional motifs that are common to all active compounds and absent or distorted in inactive/poorly active compounds.

The identification …

Channel Routing: Efficient Solutions Using Neural Networks, Taj-Ul Islam

Theses

Neural network architectures are effectively applied to solve the channel routing problem. Algorithms for both two-layer and multilayer channel-width minimization, and constrained via minimization are proposed and implemented. Experimental results show that the proposed channel-width minimization algorithms are much superior in all respects compared to existing algorithms. The optimal two-layer solutions to most of the benchmark problems, not previously obtained, are obtained for the first time, including an optimal solution to the famous Deutch's difficult problem. The optimal solution in four-layers for one of the be lchmark problems, not previously obtained, is obtained for the first time. Both convergence rate …

Synthetic Routes Towards Spin Probe-Grafted Copolymers, Christopher Mccarthy

Theses

Nitroxide spin labels can be useful as oxygen probes since the shape of the characteristic three line electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrum broadens in the presence of molecular oxygen. In order to use these probes in. vivo to measure oxygen content of tumors, contact of toxic nitroxides with tissues must be prevented. This study describes synthesis and characterization of several styrene/maleic anhydride copolymers containing grafted 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-aminopiperidine-1- oxyl (TEMPO) spin probes. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy was used to determine the structure of the copolymers. ESR spectroscopy was used to contrast the free radical activity of the copolymer in an nitrogen-rich and oxygen-rich …

Automated Image-To-Image Rectification For Use In Change Detection Analysis As Applied To Forest Clearcut Mapping, Kaleen S. Moriarty

Theses

An automated approach to change detection analysis was developed for use in multi-temporal image comparisons. An algorithm was developed which enables the user to perform automatic image-to-image rectification. Manual registration techniques are utilized to register a reference image to a Universe Transverse Mercator map projection. Control points, or kernel images, are extracted from the rectified reference image and located automatically in the to-be-mapped images via mathematical correlation. A two windowed approach is used that requires an estimation of the location of the control point in the to-be-mapped image. This estimate is used to create a search area which is correlated …

Mixed Culture Biodegradation Of Pentachlorophenol, Hexachlorobenzene, And Tetrachloromethane Under Anaerobic Conditions, Jesse Zahn

Theses

Three chlorinated compounds, namely, Pentachlorophenol(PCP), Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and Carbon tetrachloride were biodegraded under anaerobic conditions using a (CCl₄)mixed culture obtained from an anaerobic sewage sludge digestor in Linden, NJ.

Three sets of cultures capable of degrading each of the target compounds were established. Primary Enrichment Cultures (PECs) from the anaerobic sludge were exposed to each one of the target compounds. The cultures were able to degrade each target compound as follows: HCB, 0 to 1.2 ppm; PCP from 0 to 3-4 PPM; CCl₄, 0.5 to 15.5 PPM

One culture from each PEC group (CCl₄, …

Comparison Of Heart Rate With Chest Wall Vibrations, Kofi M. Arbuah

Theses

A study is done using a Microwave Interferometer as a computer-assisted non-invasive cardiopulmonary monitor. The Microwave Interferometer is used to record the mechanical vibration of the anterior chest wall by recording the velocity of the displacement of the chest wall. The objective is to first, record mechanical vibrations of the anterior chest wall at different heart rates, and second, attempt to identify the relation between heart rate and chest wall vibration.

The system uses two channels, the first signal produced by the Microwave Interferometer is a record of the velocity of the displacement of the chest wall caused by the …

A Review Of Acetabular Prostheses For Total Hip Arthroplasty, Jennifer Anne Citarella

Theses

This study explores the evolution, design, and clinical progress of contemporary prostheses used in orthopaedic reconstruction of the socket of the hip joint. A literature search was performed to study acetabular implants, as used in total hip arthroplasty. The history of the design of these implants is chronicled. Next, the anatomy of the acetabular region and the surgical technique performed to replace the hip socket are presented. A comprehensive discussion of the design features, rationale, and clinical results for commercially available cemented and cementless prostheses follows.

Hydroxyapatite, a bioceramic which has just recently been approved for applications in total hip …

Laboratory Health And Safety Compliance Guide For Private Colleges And Universities, Gina Marie Ochs

Theses

Academic laboratories are presented with the unique challenge of ensuring the health and safety of all people involved in daily activities. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently enacted the regulation 29 CFR 1910.1450, "Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories," which applies to all private employers (including colleges and universities). In this work, a guide is developed to assist private colleges and universities comply with applicable governmental regulations and to ensure the health and safety of all individuals involved with laboratory activities.

Academic laboratories warrant special consideration because of the nature of experimentation (variation in research and classroom …

Recursive Soft Morphological Filters, Padmaja Puttagunta

Theses

Mathematical morphology which is based on set-theoretic concept, extracts object features by choosing a suitable structuring shape as a probe. Morphological filters are set operations that transform an image into a quantitative description of its geometrical structure: Appropriately used, they can eliminate noises or irrelevancies while preserv¬ing the details of the original image. The applications of morphological filters in image processing and analysis are numerous, which include shape recognition, industrial parts inspection, nonlinear filtering, and biomedical image processing.

Soft morphological filters are used for smoothing signals with the advantage of being less sensitive to additive noises and to small variations …

Compliance Documentation For Osha's Bloodborne Pathogen Standard Including Exposure Control Plan And Training, Edward Lloyd Tyerman

Theses

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) regulation on Bloodborne Pathogens is in full effect since its introduction on December, 1991. This standard mandates that every company whose workers may expect to come into contact with human blood, or other body fluids, during the course of their work develop an Exposure Control Plan, train employees about Bloodborne Pathogens and establish work practice controls. All hospitals, physician and dental offices, ambulance companies, emergency medical technicians, medical laboratories, fire departments, and sites with their own first aid and response teams must comply with the standard.

Bloodborne pathogens include, among others, the human …

Bayesian Methods In Preoperative Risk Assessment For Cardiac Surgery, Huey-Chung Teng

Theses

Many strides have been made in the last decade to improve the accuracy of preoperative risk estimation, particular for cardiovascular surgery. It is our goal to estimate the preoperative risk associated with cardiac bypass surgery for patients in different risk categories. These risk categories are determined by the Parsonett model.

The Parsonett model assigns a risk value to a range of risk factors consisting of patient attributes and disease parameters. Logistic modeling is applied to generate a comprehensive risk function. The database being utilized contains over 3,000 patients who have had cardiovascular surgery within the last 5 years.

This thesis …

Classification Of Patterns In Eeg Recordings : A Comparison Of Back-Propagation Networks Vs. Predictive Autoencoder Networks, Brian Armieri

Theses

Recent research exploring the use of neural networks for electro-encephalogram (EEG) pattern classification has found that a three-layer back-propagation network could be successfully trained to identify high voltage spike-and-wave spindle (HVS) patterns caused by epileptic seizures (Jando et. al., in press). However, there is no reason to predict that back-propagation is the best possible network architecture for EEG classification. A back-propagation neural network and a predictive autoencoder neural network were compared to determine which network was better at correct classifying both HVS and non-HVS patterns.

Both networks were able to classify 88%-89% of all patterns using a limited set of …

An Experimental Investigation Of Wear Behavior Of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Under Sliding Motion, Elham Zand-Moghaddam

Theses

This project investigates the effect of sliding motion on the materials that are used as bearing surfaces of human total-joint replacement prostheses.

The tests are performed with a specially designed equipment based on pin-on-disk machine. The testing machine is designed and constructed to reproduce sliding motion, applied to spherical ended metal "Canine-Head" components such as dog hip acting on a flat polyethylene surface. The sliding motion is performed by applying different constant loads for 5,000,000 cycles. The tests are carried out with the wear specimen lubricated by deionized water.

The purpose is to produce delamination, which is the severe wear …