Digital Commons Network^™

A Survey Of Employers Of Persons With Moderate Mental Retardation And Review Of A Vocational Curriculum, Nancy A. Armbruster

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to determine the vocational skills employers of persons with moderate mental retardation required for successful employment and to evaluate the vocational curriculum at Burlington County Special Services School to determine if those same skills were being implemented. There was wide agreement regarding the importance of vocational education and the need for employers to provide information concerning skills needed for successful employment.

The methodology employed in this project consisted of interviewing five employers of individuals with moderate mental retardation. A questionnaire was administered to determine the skills employers felt were important for schools to teach. …

Integrating Technology Into The Library Curriculum Of Grades Four Through Eight For The Lower Alloways Creek Elementary School, Deborah A. Wesolek

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a library curriculum guide for grades four through eight for the Lower Alloways Creek Elementary School, Salem, New Jersey.

Prior to this guide, the library curriculum for Lower Alloways Creek Elementary School consisted of an outdated skills array. It no longer met the needs of the students or the staff of the school. With the addition of an automated circulation and catalog system, as well as CD-ROM, and the Internet, it became clear that the curriculum must be redeveloped, revised and thoroughly updated to include these new technologies. This will assist in …

The Comparative Effects Of Manual Drafting And Computer Assisted Drafting On Secondary Students' Sectional View And Auxiliary View Drawings, Glenn R. Smith Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the comparative effects CAD and manual drafting have on the effectiveness of teaching technical drawing techniques to secondary students. The problem of the study was to compare CAD and manual methods using the sectional view and auxiliary view techniques of Technical Drawing on second level Mechanical Drawing students.

The researcher, as the teacher, taught the concepts of the two technical drawing techniques, sectional view and auxiliary view drawings. During each section of the study, one group was assigned to complete drawings using the computer assisted drafting method and the other group used …

Integrating Library And Technology Skills Into The Curriculum Of The Thomas E. Bowe Elementary School, Carol L. Todd

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a library curriculum for grades four through six for the Thomas E. Bowe Elementary School, Glassboro, New Jersey.

After many new additions of computer technology to the media center, such as CD-ROMs, the Internet and an on-line catalog, as well as changes in the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards, it was determined that the old curriculum was outdated and in need of revision.

To determine what changes should be made in this curriculum, students and teachers were surveyed to assess their current and future needs. Several schools with successfully integrated library media …

A Survey Of Selected Southern New Jersey School Districts To Determine Effects On Special Education Of Policy Changes Proposed In August 1996, Heidi Roman Chausse

Theses and Dissertations

Twenty-three of thirty districts surveyed respond to questions addressing the implications of proposed amendments to NJAC 6:28, presented by Dr. Klagholz in August 1996. Statistical data was obtained regarding district size and special education populations. Responses investigated areas of Child Study Team, classification, programs, P2R, curriculum and assessment, case management and outside agency licensure The results were tabulated and significant findings were evident.

The most provocative findings show uncertainty on the part of the districts as to the effects of these proposed changes on special education. The respondents indicate concerns that these changes will lead to increased litigation and a …

A Comparison Of Strategy Instruction And Sequential Instruction Of Verbal Math Problems, Eva L. Surowicz

Theses and Dissertations

This research study was conducted to test the effectiveness of strategy instruction and sequencing practice problems in teaching fourth grade students to identify the correct algorithm for solving one-step multiplication and division problems. Forty-eight students were assigned to one of three experimental groups: strategy-plus-sequence, strategy only, or sequence only. The results indicated that students in the strategy only group and the strategy-plus-sequence group scored significantly higher than did students in the sequence only group. Findings indicated that strategy teaching was more effective than sequencing problem type. Implications for instructional design are discussed.

Does Student Adherence To An Aptitude-Achievement Discrepancy Formula Exclude Students Who Are Truly In Need Of Special Education Services?, Lisa R. Vizthum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to review current practices of Child Study Teams when classifying a student as perceptually impaired in order to determine if children are being misclassified, and also to determine if strict guidelines will really lower the numbers of children being classified as perceptually impaired. A second purpose was to survey districts as to what programs they currently have in place in order to discourage students from dropping out of high school.

A survey/questionnaire was sent to 22 Directors of Special Services in a given county. A total of 12 districts responded, representing a participation rate …

Evaluation And Application Of Space Telescope Aberration Sensing Using Phase Diversity, David J. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Due to mechanical aspects of fabrication, launch, and operational environment, space telescope optics can suffer from unforeseen aberrations, detracting from their intended diffraction-limited performance goals. This dissertation gives the results of simulation and theoretical studies designed to explore how wavefront aberration information for such "nearly diffraction-limited" telescopes can be estimated via the Gonsalves (least-squares) phase diversity technique. In traditional phase diversity, aberrations are estimated from two images—one conventional, focused image and one image that has been defocused by a known amount. These studies are original and significant in that this effort represents the first time the effects of photon noise …

The Effect Of An Active Parental Program On The Musical Achievement And Musical Affectiveness Of Elementary Instrumental Music Students, Mary Frances Bushong

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the musical environment in the homes of elementary instrumental music students. The problem was to investigate the effectiveness of an active parental involvement program on their child's music achievement and music affectiveness.

Prior to the investigation, the researcher sent a home music environment survey home to all those students who signed up for instrumental lesson in the spring of their third grade year. One of the questions asked the parents if they would be willing to participate in the experiment the following September.

Once the school year started, times and dates were …

A Comparative Review Of Oppositional Defiant Disorder And Conduct Disorder, Denise Martell

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Involvement Of The Amino Terminal Of Actin In Actin-Aldolase Interactions., Tim Jeffrey Keith

Theses and Dissertations

Interactions between glycolytic enzymes and cytoskeletal proteins are electrostatic in nature. Studies conducted with derivatizing agents show that the amino side chains of basic amino acids on aldolase interact with carboxyl side chains of acidic amino acids on tubulin. In this study we used the techniques of covalent cross-linking, non-enzymatic cleavage and enzymatic cleavage to determine the amino acids in actin which are involved in the actin-aldolase interaction.Actin and aldolase were covalently cross-linked using the zero length cross-linker 1-ethyl-3- (3-dimethylaminopropyl) -carbodiimide to form a direct covalent link between the two proteins. The cross-linking procedure resulted in the formation of one …

Discovering The Dimensions Of Collaboration: An Investigation Of The Reliability And Validity Of The Modified Interagency Arrangement Model., Linda Mae Olson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of the Modified Interagency Arrangement Model and to add to the knowledge base about measurement of interagency collaboration. An instrument that would allow evaluation of the collaboration was developed. The characteristics of the instrument were investigated through a study of the North Dakota Early Childhood Tracking System (NDECTS) interagency arrangement structure. Validity of the instrument was examined by evaluating the modified IAM instrument's factor structure, content validity, and criterion-referenced validity. A measure of reliability was performed by examining the internal consistency of subscales and the entire scale.The sample studied were …

The Learning Needs Of People Over The Age Of 60., M. Wayne Alexander

Theses and Dissertations

U.S. citizens remain healthy as they live to increasingly older ages. How shall the growing number of older people fill their expanding leisure time? Do they need to engage in learning activities in order to keep their wits about them? Which learning activities do they want? How do they want them structured? Which methods should their teachers use? What type of academic opportunities does higher education provide to older people? What causes the activities available to differ from those desired? Which goods and services do the aged need to help them take advantage of higher education opportunities?To investigate these issues …

The Impact Of Cooperative Learning Instructional Strategies On Students And Faculty At A Small Midwestern University., Marcel Marie Robles

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on the third and final year of a campus-wide cooperative learning program at a small university and its effect on faculty change. More specifically, the study provided an overview of cooperative learning, faculty development, and career stages of faculty. Eight research questions were addressed pertaining to the outcomes of the implementation of cooperative learning.Qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were employed in this study. Through the use of faculty interviews (n = 36; 100% of the full-time faculty), faculty surveys (n = 24; 67% response rate), and student surveys (n = 158; 23.4% of the student …

Bullying: Perceptions Of Students In Grades 4-6 In A Mid-Sized Midwestern Public School District., Karen Berthold

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess self-reported perceptions of students in grades 4-6 in a mid-sized midwestern public school district in relation to bullying. Research questions addressed frequency of bullying, types of bullying behavior, relationships between bullying and demographic variables, and relationships between bullying and selected risk behaviors.Data were gathered using three forms of a survey developed by a local task force and administered by classroom teachers to 591 students in grades 4-6 in five selected elementary schools. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze demographic variables and types of bullying behaviors. The chi-square test for independence was …

The Transition From Junior High School To Middle School: Case Studies From North Dakota., Anne Shearer-Shineman

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the transformation process used by three North Dakota schools that previously operated as traditional junior high schools prior to changing to middle schools. The schools represented distinct situations in demographics, enrollment, and the process used to implement change. Through close inspection of three settings, I considered whether or not processes, problems, or successes common to all three schools existed. The most important questions dealt with the transition process used in each case and the result. Relevant information sought for the study included the rationale for implementation, description of the planning process, length of the transition process, and …

Structural Equation Modeling Packages: An Empirical Comparison., Marilyn Gwen Klug

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of statistical computer programs in educational research, specifically for the method of structural equations and path analysis. This method encompasses a wide array of research methods, including regression analysis and analysis of covariance. This method also includes the use of visual representation of structural equations through path diagrams.The three structural equation software packages Amos, EQS, and LISREL were compared to evaluate their capabilities in research. The packages capabilities in research were evaluated by investigating the way in which each package read in data (including matrices), handled missing values, transformed data …

Space Object Identification Using Feature Space Trajectory Neural Networks, Neal W. Bruegger

Theses and Dissertations

The Feature Space Trajectory Neural Network (FSTNN) is a simple yet powerful pattern recognition tool developed by Neiberg and Casasent for use in an Automatic Target Recognition System. Since the FSTNN was developed, it has been used on various problems including speaker identification and space object identification. However, in these types of problems, the test set represents time series data rather than an independent set of points. Since the distance metric of the standard FSTNN treats each test point independently without regard to its position in the sequence, the FSTNN can yield less than optimal results in these problems. Two …

Transportation Modeling Of Remote Radar Sites And Support Depots, Sonia E. Leach

Theses and Dissertations

The North Warning System (NWS), a joint program of the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), is responsible for the maintenance of 47 remote radar sites across northern Canada. NWS's current airlift operations, which support the radar maintenance activities, consist of both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft positioned at five support depots. This thesis considers whether a reconfiguration of these support depots and the assignment of radar sites to them can result in either an airlift or total cost savings for NWS. Mixed integer linear programming models were formulated to address the questions surrounding …

The Application Of Statistical Process Control To Departure Reliability Improvement, Liu W. Chieh

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort focuses on applying statistical process control (SPC) techniques to the departure reliability improvement process for Air Mobility Command, Mission Reliability Office. Basic SPC methods, including Pareto analysis, cause and effect diagrams, and control charts are determined to be effective tools for analyzing and assessing departure reliability. In addition, two more alternative measures of effectiveness for departure reliability are evaluated and compared using AMC's data. SPC methods are also shown to be useful in assessing in performance and in determining the reporting frequency for on-time performance information. Additional statistical analyses are conducted, including on-way analyses of variance, hypothesis …

Electromagnetic Scattering From A Cavity In A Ground Plane: Theory And Experiment, William D. Wood Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The electromagnetic scattering from an arbitrarily shaped open cavity embedded in a perfectly conducting, infinite ground plane is examined. The cavity is filled with a linear, isotropic, homogeneous material. The fields in the cavity interior and above the ground plane are expressed in terms of the tangential fields on the cavity surface and aperture. A coupled set of three integral equations is developed governing the tangential fields on the aperture and cavity surface. The support of the unknown tangential fields is finite. A moment-method based algorithm to approximate the solution to the integral equations for axisymmetric geometries is developed. The …

System Comparison Procedures For Automatic Target Recognition Systems, Anne E. Catlin

Theses and Dissertations

Estimating the performance of an automatic target recognition (ATR) system in terms of probability of successful target identification involves extensive image collection and processing, which can be very time-consuming and expensive. We investigate the Wald sequential test for the difference in two proportions as a sample size-reducing alternative to ranking and selection and the classical method of comparing binomial confidence intervals. The test is modified for the multiple pairwise comparison of four systems, and is applied to actual data to compare different configurations of the Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) System.

Automatic Digital Processing For Calibration Data Of Open Skies Treaty Sensors, Donna D. Keating

Theses and Dissertations

The Open Skies Treaty provides guidelines allowing participants to fly in air space over other participants' countries to monitor strategic military placement and development. The treaty restricts the ground size of the smallest detail recorded by these aerial imaging systems to any size larger than 30 cm. This restriction is enforced by placing a lower limit on the altitude at which a participating aircraft can fly and it is computed as the value of Hmin. Current techniques rely on human photographic interpreters to select the value of Hmin for every calibration pass and is very resource intensive. The Open Skies …

Alternative Implementations Of Expanding Algorithm For Multi-Commodity Spatial Price Equilibrium, Yu-Shen Ke

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an algorithm based on the expanding algorithm to solve spatial price equilibrium problems for three different models: perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly. The expanding algorithm is used to solve the linear single commodity spatial price equilibrium problem for perfectly competitive markets. In this thesis, we consider the general multi-commodity spatial price equilibrium problems with all nonlinear functions, and variable shipping cost. We also show that more commodities in total are shipped, and there is more congestion, especially in oligopoly model.

Analyzing Remediation Technologies For Department Of Energy Sites Contaminated With Dnapl Pollutants, Anthony F. Papatyi

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Energy is in the process of conducting a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study for a site contaminated with Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (DNAPL) pollutants at their Paducah Kentucky facility. A major part of this effort is the screening of alternative technologies. This thesis effort focuses on acquiring insight into a number of remediation technology trains that are candidates for the Paducah site. This insight is used to recommend and justify the screening of candidate technology trains. The research makes use of two decision analysis models (one is deterministic, the other is probabilistic) built to provide a quantitative assessment of …

A Cercla-Based Decision Support System For Environmental Remediation Strategy Selection, Brian J. Grelk

Theses and Dissertations

The Idaho National Environmental Engineering Laboratory (INEEL), operating in conjunction with the Department of Energy (DOE), faces with the complex decision of selecting an environmental remediation strategy for the Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC). This research uses value-focused thinking and multiattribute preference theory techniques to produce a decision analysis model to aid the decisionmakers as they select a remediation strategy. A deterministic analysis using expert opinion and the best available engineering data demonstrates the model's capabilities. The model ranks 27 specific remediation strategies based on how well they meet CERCLA's five balancing criteria: implementability, …

A Reliability Study Of A Teleoperated Robotic System With Application To The Next Generation Munitions Handling System, Matthew J. Rummer

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force is currently developing an Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD) for the Next Generation Munitions Handling System (NGMH). The NGMH/ATD system is being designed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a teleoperated robotic manipulator. In this research, a reliability model for a general telerobotic manipulator is developed including: (1) human, (2) software, (3) hardware, and (4) kinematic components. Each of these components contributes towards the reliability of the system, where reliability is defined as the probability of the end-effector of the manipulator being within a certain error bound. The model provides a comparative measure of reliability based …

Development And Implementation Of An Isentropic Potential Vorticity Algorithm For Use At Air Force Global Weather Center, Jay B. Desjardins Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents and validates methods for calculating isentropic potential vorticity (IPV) and applies these methods in software programs planned for implementation at the Air Force Global Weather Center (AFGWC). The IPV programs will provide Air Force Weather forecasters additional tools to diagnose atmospheric kinematics and understand atmospheric dynamics. A FORTRAN program is recommended using mandatory-level isobaric data projected to be available on AFGWC computer systems, specifically, from the Navy Operational Global Atmosphere Prediction System and Medium Range Forecast models. Program development and analysis consists of three main steps: (1) data retrieval; (2) IPV calculations; and, (3) interpolation to an …

Decision Support Model To Select The Optimal Municipal Solid Waste Management Policy At United States Air Force Installations, Johnathon L. Dulin

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force has recently defined three objectives in developing strategies regarding the management of municipal solid waste at the base level. They are: (1) 50 percent reduction in total waste generated, from a 1992 baseline amount, by 1999; (2) 50 percent recycling of all waste generated, beginning in 1999; and, (3) a minimum cost program. With these objectives in mind, base environmental engineers must take appropriate actions in an effort to develop a program that meets these goals. Through consultations with base environmental managers, as well as research of the available literature, a decision support model was …

Statistical Modeling And Optimization Of Nuclear Waste Vitrification, Todd E. Combs

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the development of a methodology to minimize the cost of vitrifying nuclear waste. Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) regression models are used as baseline equations for modeling glass properties such as viscosity, electrical conductivity, and two types of durability. Revised PNL regression models are developed that eliminate insignificant variables from the original models. The Revised PNL regression model for electrical conductivity is shown to better predict electrical conductivity than the original PNL regression model. Neural networks are developed for viscosity and the two types of durability, PCT-B and MCC-1 B. The neural network models are shown to outperform …