Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Human-Computer Interfaces In Air Force Organizations, Michael G. Morris

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated differences in organizational efficiency and effectiveness for users of graphical user interfaces and text-based interfaces on personal computers in Air Forces offices. Areas of interest included amount of time required to learn the basic system, amount of time required to learn new application, users' ratings of user-friendliness, users' perceptions of the extent that their system help them perform in their job, the number of software packages used on the job by users of each system, user satisfaction, responsible authorities' ratings of quality of output, and the relationship between user job experience level and interface used on the …

An Evaluation Of The Educational Background And Knowledge Base Of Air Force Information Management Officers, Summer E. Scott

Theses and Dissertations

This study compares the educational background and knowledge base recommended for Information Management professionals to that currently possessed by Air Force Information Management (IM) officers. The literature review revealed that information managers should have an educational background that provides them with knowledge in the areas of people, computers, systems, models, organization, and society. Statistics made available through the Air Force Manpower and Personnel Center (AFMPC) indicated that only 2.1% of all 70XX officers have a complete information resource management background, and only 7% have a technical or computer-related background.

Picture Viewing As A Test Of Attention To Food And Body Image Cues In Restrained Versus Nonrestrained Eaters, Sally Rose Brinza

Theses and Dissertations

Restrained eaters, those who chronically and severely restrict food intake in order to lose weight, are thought to exhibit thoughts and behaviors similar to those seen in semi-starved and eating disordered (bulimic and anorexic) individuals. A paradoxical tendency to overeat once food restraint is disinhibited has been noted in restrainers. Food and body weight preoccupation and hyperresponsiveness to external food cues have been hypothesized to occur in restrained individuals; however the literature reports conflicting results and these factors have not been thoroughly investigated. Cognitive factors which differentiate restrained eaters from nonrestrained eaters may affect information processing.

The purpose of this …

Investigation Of Parent Program On Mediating Stress As It Relates To The Special Education Process, Mary Carol Stammen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a parent training program, "FACTS," by: (1) increasing the parents' perceived ability to participate in the special education process of their child as an active participant, and (2) lowering the level of stress experienced as they interact with the educational system of their children.

This study involved an experimental group consisting of 26 parents who received the parent training program and a control group consisting of 24 parents who did not receive the parent training program. Both groups completed pre- and post-test measures. The instruments used for this measure …

A Whole Word And Number Reading Machine Based On Two Dimensional Low Frequency Fourier Transforms, Mark A. O'Hair

Theses and Dissertations

The Fourier transform is investigated as a means for developing an optical reader capable of reading a large vocabulary without segmenting the image of a word into individual characters. The reader is capable of reading printed and cursive font styles, is scale invariant, and is substantially insensitive to noise. The image of a particular word is treated as a single symbol; the two dimensional low frequency Fourier coefficients (assuming n coefficients are calculated) define the word's location on an n dimensional hypersphere of unit radius. The distance between individual locations (words) categorizes similar and dissimilar words. The smaller the distance, …

Perceptions Of School Administrators Of The Nurses' Roles In A School Health Program, Vida A. Gorsegner

Theses and Dissertations

Nursing roles in school health programs differ within various school settings. These roles range from traditional nursing activities to nurse practitioner and mental health nurse roles. Literature specific to the roles of nurses in a school health program is limited; however, studies indicate that the school nurse role is multidimensional. Role theory was the framework used for this study. The purpose of this study was to determine school administrators' perceptions of the role of the nurse in a school health program.

The sample profile included 48 school administrators from a two county area in an upper midwest area. The two …

The Relationship Between Eating Disorders And Sex-Role Identity, Kristin K. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Eating Disorders And Sex-Role Identity, Kristin K. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Directing An Original Script: "The Only Woman Awake Is The Woman Who Has Heard The Flute", Denise A. Heiman

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Retired Public School Teachers Regarding Retirement: Implications For Preretirement Planning, Rollie Duane Morud

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions about retirement and suggestions regarding retirement planning from retired public school educators. The writer's primary interest was in developing a data base regarding the non-financial issues of retirement leading to the design of a preretirement preparation planning program.

A random sample of 393 retired North Dakota teachers from a population of 3930 was surveyed. Seventy percent (274) returned the eight-page survey. The sample had the following characteristics: average age--73 years, average length of retirement--10.65 years, 74 percent were female, 72 percent lived in their own home, 37 percent had moved since …

Cognitive And Behavioral Correlates Of Dietary Restraint., Nancy Jo Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

The chronic, arduous restriction of food intake to lose weight has been termed dietary restraint. High restraint status may be conceptualized as a subclinical antecedent of bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Dietary restraint is associated with a paradoxical tendency to overeat or binge.Whereas dietary restraint behaviors per se are thought to be part of the eating disorders continuum, it is less certain whether other important clinical features, e.g., symptoms found in eating disordered patients, are also present in less severe form among dietary restrainers. Further research is warranted to investigate cognitive and affective features of subclinical groups, i.e., dietary restrainers. Attempts …

Eros And Thanatos In D. H. Lawrence's "Sons And Lovers" And "Lady Chatterley's Lover" And In John Fowles's "The Collector" And "Daniel Martin"., Salah Ed-Din A. Nefily

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between eros and thanatos in four novels, Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence and The Collector and Daniel Martin by John Fowles. Sons and Lovers and The Collector reflect their authors' early awareness of certain thanatotic forces in modern life. Lawrence criticizes the negative influence of mechanization on human beings whereas Fowles opposes lack of freedom.The two writers' awareness of these negative forces in the early novels is followed in Lady Chatterley's Lover and in Daniel Martin by presentations of salvational plans which liberate or heal the novels' protagonists. In …

The Conjunctive Novel: Form And Function, Joanne Ruth Gowey Desotelle

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to identify the function of characters who recur in more than one text by the same author.

Chapter One reviews critical opinions regarding repeating characters. These range from Percy Lubbock who believes that the other lives of a character should be ignored or they will distort the truth of the individual novels, to Michel Butor who recognizes that repeating characters serve a unique function within the texts. The term “conjunctive” novel is coined to identify texts which are conjoined by repeating characters.

Applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s terminology, Chapter Two argues that conjunctive novels are double-voiced …

Gender Difference In Emotionally Disturbed Children, Jane M. Beaulieu

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the consequences to emotionally disturbed elementary school girls of being in the minority in self-contained classes for emotionally disturbed children. This study was conducted in MISII (Modified Instructional Service II) classes, primarily for the emotionally disturbed, in the New York City Public Schools. The ratio of boys to girls was 6.5 to 1. A survey was distributed to teachers of such classes with at least one girl attending. Part 1 of the survey consisted of 36 statements on the following topics indicated by the literature as relevant to the situation of girls …

An Examination Of The Relationships Between Cunselor Supervisees' Perceptions Of Supervision And Their Personality Characteristics, David S. Cozzens

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Integrating Language Arts With Graphic Communications In An Inner City Junior High School, Kurt Proctor

Theses and Dissertations

Teaching the youth of today is becoming an important issue. Alarming statistics prove that the problems of illiteracy and high dropout rates are not decreasing. If nothing is done to change the prospects of the 13 million school-aged children currently at serious risk of school failure, says a coalition of eleven education organizations, these children will grow up to become adults who will drain the economy in welfare and social service costs and seriously hamper the nations ability to compete internationally. L. B. Schorr (1988) states that in 1987,"the one million youngsters who leave high school without graduating will be …

An Analogous Instructional Model Of Automotive On-Board Engine Management Computer Systems, Lloyd R. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of The Identification Of Learning Disabilities In A Multi-District Special Education Unit, Jacqualene Trefz

Theses and Dissertations

Statement of the problem. Variability within learning disability programs is a common problem with implications for all aspects of service delivery. This study was designed to analyze and describe inconsistencies in procedures for the identification of learning disabled students within Buffalo Valley Special Education Unit in central North Dakota.

Methods and procedures. A multiple case study approach was used within the framework of the naturalistic paradigm. A single case was defined as the identification and placement of students within the schools served by one learning disability teacher during the 1988-89 and 1989-90 academic years. Data collection was specific to the …

The Great War And The American Novel: Mimesis And Craft In Selected Fiction Of Dos Passos, Boyd, March, And Hemingway, William E. Matsen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the influence of World War I on American literature and its effects on the American tradition of literary realism. It does so through an analysis of five war novels written by four American authors who had participated in the conflict as combatants or volunteers. These works include John Dos Passos' One Man's Initiation--1917 and Three Soldiers, Thomas Boyd's Through the Wheat, William March's Company K, and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

The dissertation explores a development within the sub-genre of war novels from works of "witness and testimony," which were based on the authors' personal experiences …

Drug Testing In The Public Sector, James R. Beal

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assess the nature and extent of drug testing in the public sector. Drug testing of public employees as well as private employees has been on the rise since the later part of the 1980s. This trend may continue into the 1990s and beyond.

Though drug testing may appear to be means to end drug abuse among public employees, it may not be the best means. In order to fully understand the current controversies sur— rounding drug testing, a detailed examination of available literature was conducted. There are many issues that must be considered …

The Influence Of Age On The Mmpi Responses Of Adult Male Alcoholics., Gary A. Sacks

Theses and Dissertations

Recent cluster-analytic research with alcohol-dependent men has demonstrated the existence of several Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) subtypes that are consistent across diverse samples. Few such studies have been reported which employed age as a variable of interest. Shortcomings of this research include a lack of external, independent measures against which to evaluate the predictive validity of cluster typologies. Subjects were divided into four groups according to age in 10-year increments. The current study detected age-related changes in derived MMPI clusters for 387 male alcoholics who were admitted to a private inpatient treatment program. Subsequent multivariate analyses employing alcohol-use scales …

The Time Course Of Recognition Memory For Pictures., David Paul Lommen

Theses and Dissertations

This study employed complex, pictorial stimuli and a time-course format to explore early-process characteristics of recognition memory. A suggestion that time variables should interact under certain conditions is implicit in some recent dual-process models of recognition memory. A goal of the experiment was to assess compatibility of results with specific models of recognition memory.Item exposure time was crosses with response deadline time in a 3 x 4 design. Seventy-two subjects viewed an input set of 48 scenic, color photographs of cityscapes and landscapes. The set was divided into three blocks of 16 photographs. Exposure time of photographs within each block …

Joint Position And Velocity Derived From Muscle Spindle Output: A Computational Approach., Daniel Leroy Ewert

Theses and Dissertations

Current experimental evidence suggests that muscle spindles do play a significant role in the sensation of joint position and velocity. However, the dynamic characteristics of muscle spindles are complex and highly variable. Researchers have found, in the primary sensory cortex of primates, neurons whose activities are proportional to joint position and velocity. Some of these neurons were excited only by activating muscles spindles. This leads to the research question: can joint position and velocity be extracted from muscle spindle activity using a neurally-inspired mathematical model.The method of solution included modeling a simple hinge joint with an antagonist and agonist muscle …

Individual Differences In Children's Eyewitness Memory Skills, Kathryn M. Hammes

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the impact of individual differences on children's eyewitness memory skills. Preschool (mean age of 4 years 8 months) and elementary (mean age of 11 years and 3 months) aged school children played a 5 minute game of Simon Says with an unknown male confederate. The children's memories for the game and the man with whom they played the game were assessed on an objective questionnaire, free recall and photo recognition task. Both the free recall and the objective questionnaire were given immediately after the game and exactly one week later. Half of the subjects were exposed …

Recent Changes In The Ethnobotany Of Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Shelly Katherene Kraft

Theses and Dissertations

Gathering arid preserving wild fruits and vegetables for food and medicine, especially from the wooded bottomlands, was a traditional part of the Lakota culture. Plant use among the Lakota has been greatly reduced and in some cases, completely eliminated by the damming of the Missouri River by Oahe Dam. This dam, which forced the Lakota of Standing Rock Reservation to give up their homes in the bottomlands in violation of their treaty rights of 1868 had a considerable impact on the biogeography of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, in January I960, almost 200 Indian families were evacuated from their homes …

Efficiency Of Monoclonal Antibodies To Detect Respiratory Virus Antigens In Clinical Specimens, Kenneth E. Irmen

Theses and Dissertations

The development of specific antiviral therapy has increased the need for rapid viral diagnosis and necessitates a better understanding of viral epidemiology. The purposes of this study were to determine the efficiency of immunofluorescent assay employing monoclonal antibodies from commercial sources to detect respiratory virus antigens in clinical specimens and to define the epidemiology of respiratory viruses in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Throat swab, nasopharyngeal swabs and nasopharyngeal washes were excellent specimens for studying viral epidemiology; virus isolation rates were 7.7%, 33.2%, and 39.7%, respectively. Yearly epidemics of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza were observed. In contrast, parainfluenza and adenovirus infections …

Measured Doppler Radar Profiles Of Wheels, Michael W. Leddige

Theses and Dissertations

The accuracy of traffic control radars has been in controversy for several years. The purpose of this thesis has been to experimentally investigate the contribution of one facet arising from the doppler radar returns from automobile wheels. By measuring the electromagnetic backscatter profiles of an assortment of automobile wheels over a normal operational range of viewing angles, the locations of the dominant scattering centers on the wheels could be identified. Through knowledge of the locations of these scattering centers, velocity error assessments could be made.

Light truck and car wheels were the targets examined in this thesis. A target pedestal …

The Fate Of Flame Volatized Sodium During The Combustion Of Pulverized Coal In Reaction With Silica And Sulfur (Studied With The Aid Of A Synthetic Coal), Thomas A. Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

The interaction of flame volatilized sodium with sulfur and silica (quartz) was studied under coal fired boiler conditions in a laminar flow reactor. Measured compositions of sodium, sulfur and quartz were bound together in a synthetic coal matrix and subject to various temperature profiles ranging from 900-1500°C and residence times ranging from 0.1 to 1.4 seconds. As well as studying the inorganic reactions, a detailed look was also spent on the actual combustion characteristics of the synthetic coal. These results are serendipitous in nature but deserve attention as well.

The addition of a carbon matrix to a model mixture alters …

Gender Differences In Prose Memory After Acute Intoxication With Ethanol, Jennifer S. Haut

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the effects of acute intoxication with ethanol on prose processing. Three groups of subjects were studied: males, females taking oral contraceptives, and females not taking oral contraceptives. Subjects were administered either 0.0 or 1.0 milliliter per kilogram of body weight of ethanol, and then read two long (400 words) and two short (200 words) expository prose passages from a computer screen. Immediately after reading each passage, subjects orally recalled the passages.

Overall, intoxicated subjects encoded prose passages significantly slower and recalled significantly less information from the passages than the sober subjects, and this difference could not …

Preliminary Study Of The Application Of Visual Phonics To The Remediation Of Developmental Dyspraxia Of Speech, Kimberly Dawn Avery

Theses and Dissertations

An unequivocal program of remediation for developmental dyspraxia of speech remains to be established. Observations have concluded that dyspraxia, a neurologically-based motor programming disorder, benefits from a multisensory stimulation approach. One augmentative approach which incorporates auditory, tactile and visual stimuli is Visual Phonics. Research is limited in the use of Visual Phonics in dyspraxic intervention and, therefore, its contribution to remediation cannot be substantiated.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the contribution of Visual Phonics to the remediation of developmental dyspraxia of speech. One subject, thirteen years of age, participated in this study. Upon identification of six …