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Individual Differences In Timing Measures: Continuation Tapping, Relaxation Time, Reaction Time, And Critical Flicker Fusion, Anna S. Klevak

Open Access Dissertations

In order to investigate human time sense individual differences in timing were studied in a sample of 39 healthy adults at rest. Fast Muscular Relaxation Time, Preferred Muscular Relaxation Time, Critical Flicker Fusion Threshold, Continuation Tapping, and Simple and Choice Reaction Times were examined with the aim of determining both linear and non-linear relationships among the measures. Several significant linear relationships among the variables were obtained. Subjects with higher Critical Flicker Fusion threshold exhibited significantly less overall variability in timing, (p < 0. 001) and showed a slower increase in variability with increasing interstimulus interval. The Simple Reaction Time was positively correlated with the Fast Relaxation time (p < 0.05). The finding of a positive association between Choice Reaction time and Simple Reaction time (p < 0.001) was replicated in the present research. Subjects whose scores were located in the middle of the Preferred Muscular Relaxation Time (PMRT) distribution of scores exhibited less overall variability in Continuation Tapping (p < 0.05) in comparison with subjects who were located at both ends of the PMRT distribution of scores. The effect was attributed to the mechanism of a biological clock.

Some evidence for a relationship between the continuation tapping task and the single-response tasks was found. There was a …

Training Caregivers To Intervene In The Exploratory Play Of Young Children With Developmental Delays, Susan L. Curley

Open Access Dissertations

Play, particularly exploratory play, can be viewed as the arena in which a series of interactions between a child and the environment occur. However, children with developmental delays appear to be less able to fully engage in exploratory play and utilize the environmental information that such play provides (Krakow & Kopp, 1983). There is also preliminary evidence that caregivers can be trained to use behaviors that facilitate exploratory play when engaged with their children (Belsky, Goode, & Most, 1981). The purpose of the present study was to explore the potential of training caregivers to facilitate the exploratory play of developmentally …

Cynics, Spaces, And Subjects: Toward A Tactical Ethics Of Rhetoric, Kristen Francis Kennedy

Open Access Dissertations

Cynics, Spaces, and Subjects: Toward a Tactical Ethics of Rhetoric explores the problem of ethics within the postmodern, a moment, as well as a theoretical posture, that leaves questions of transformative subjectivity and agency to be answered by an ethical "anything goes." In response to the often destabilizing tendencies of postmodern ethical theory, my dissertation is a rhetorical response to claims that there are no foundations for ethical thought and action. I argue that rhetorical theory is well-suited for this task because of its emphasis on action and discourse. At the same time, however, I borrow some of the insights …

Investigations Of Conductive Polymer Coatings For Corrosion Protection Of Aluminum Alloys, Robert James Racicot

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

"The Freiris Of Berwik": A Critical Edition, Edward-David E. Ruiz

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Fay Weldon: A Contemporary Critical Voice, Victoria Pickett Kirby

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Alternative Communication Strategies To Influence Risky Behavior: Addressing The Aids Pandemic, Timothy Blair Greenlee

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The In/Into Controversy: Lubet Misses The Point, J. Alexander Tanford

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law, Common Market Law, And The European Human Rights Convention, Elisabeth Zoller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Ability Of Children With Specific Language Impairment To Participate In A Group Decision Task, Lee Robinson, Martin Fujiki, Bonnie Brinton, Valyne J. Watson

Faculty Publications

This study examined the ability of 6 children with specific language impairment (SLI), ages 8:10 to 12:5 (years; months), to participate in a group negotiation task. Each child interacted with two peers to select toys that children their age would enjoy. Performance was compared to both chronological age-similar (CS) peers and language similar (LS) peers performing the same task. Analyses of the resulting interactions indicated that subjects with SLI produced significantly fewer utterances than the other children in the triad. Similar differences were not observed in the CS or LS triads. Additionally, significantly fewer utterances were addressed to the children …

Without Narrative: Child Sexual Abuse, Lynne N. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Crime And The Nation: Prison Reform And Popular Fiction In Philadelphia, 1786-1800., Peter Thomas Okun

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The prison reformers and fiction writers of post-Revolutionary Philadelphia wrote prodigiously about crime and punishment. In a correlative study, I explore juridical topoi in reformist and fictive texts familiar to republican Philadelphians. My analysis assumes a public sphere of writers and readers: while late eighteenth-century prison reforms and fictions came out of separate signifying systems, there was considerable promiscuity between them. I group areas of overlap around cultural concerns (science, murder, sex) and representational "spaces" (home, prison, nation). In either discourse, crime and punishment were useful to a post-Revolutionary aesthetic of nationalism. The scientific rhetoric of penitentiary punishment targeted the …

Post-Soviet Transitions In Policy And Management Of Zapovedniki And Lespromkhozi In Central Siberia., David Miller Ostergren

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 changed the government bureaucracy and dismantled the centrally controlled economic system. Directors of zapovedniki (strict nature preserves) and lespromkhozi (forest industry dependent communities) are experiencing a challenge to their ability to manage, protect and/or study the lands under their supervision. This study investigates how changes in the social-political system have affected the forests and protected areas in Central Siberia, and how managers have adapted to the current political and social climate. This investigation used case study methodology and three sources of empirical data; open-ended interviews, documentation from archival and secondary sources, and personal …

First-Movement Cadenzas For Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concertos K. 466, 467, 482, 491, 503 And 537., Tean-Hwa P'Ng

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

All of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's solo piano concertos require a cadenza to be inserted ad libitum toward the end of the first movement. We have original first-movement cadenzas by Mozart for all of his concertos except K. 466, 467, 482, 491, 503, and 537. For these six, there are two viable solutions to the cadenza problem: the performer can either provide his own cadenza or select a cadenza written by someone else. It is the premise of this study that the cadenza should be stylistically consistent with the parent concerto movement. Therefore, its purpose is to develop a model for …

Postsecondary Persistence Of Ged Students., Maria C. Rose

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

More nontraditional students are attending college, and many of these students are enrolled with GED certification. The validity using GED certification as postsecondary admission criteria has been questioned. Participants included 251 students enrolled with GED certification as admission criteria to a small Mid-Atlantic college in the Spring 1997 semester. The influence of ACT, GED, literacy scores, learning and study skills, and the number of successfully completed developmental classes on grade point averages was researched. Students were interviewed to gain insight into students' perceptions of factors contributing to persistence in college. ACT scores were found to be good predictors of grade …

A Neural Network Based Inference Engine Generator For Comprehension And Translation Of English And Spanish Commands To Unix "E-Mail" And "Vi" Editor., Mohammad Reza Moozoun

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Since the advent of computers, scientists have tried to use the human languages for communication with computers. This pursuit has led several scientists, such as Chomsky to establish that there must be a specific part of the brain adapted to language learning and processing genetically, namely the "language organ". Humans are able to understand and produce sentences that they may have never heard. This leads to the understanding that language must follow some strict rules of processing which is referred to as "grammar of a language". The Artificial Neural Networks (NN) inspired by the neural networks of biological systems have …

Family Experiences And Early Social Cognition: Links To Social Behavior., Charisse L. Nixon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined individual differences in young children's social-cognition and potential correlates in the domains of family experiences and social skills. Three measures of family characteristics were collected (Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire; Conflict Tactics Scale, & the Marital Adjustment Test), along with three measures reflecting children's social-cognitive development and understanding of emotions (false belief understanding, empathy, and ability to label others' emotions). Teacher ratings of children's peer interactions and coping skills were also collected. Results revealed individual differences in children's emotional and social-cognitive understanding and suggested that these individual differences are related to specific dimensions of family experiences. Results …

Faculty Stance Toward Multiculturalism And Multicultural Education: A Qualitative Study., Jane Sheridan Cardi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Studies indicate that the implementation of multiculturalism into university general education course requirements such as introductory American literature is sporadic. Furthermore, although research suggests that faculty are more frequently including multicultural literature in their courses, there is little research concerning what faculty believe about multiculturalism and multicultural education and how faculty actually teach multiculturalism in higher education. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge of why faculty do or do not implement multiculturalism into their curricula and if they do, how they implement it. This study uses phenomenological and hermeneutic research methods to explore the stances, …

Nationbuilding And The Military: The Life And Career Of Secretary Of War Henry Knox, 1750-1806., Michael Darryl Carter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The following dissertation is an examination of the life of Henry Knox and his rise from a small bookstore owner in colonial Boston to a major general commanding the entire Continental artillery in the Revolutionary War through his tenure as Secretary of War in President George Washington's cabinet. A symbol of the vast majority of common men throughout America, Knox sought opportunity during the Revolution to rise above his position, fought with stubborn determination to win American independence, and struggled to bring his visions for the new nation and its military into being. He forged bonds of loyalty with George …

A Comparative Study Of The Development Of Educational Psychology In China And America., Huiping Liu Cervenka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Some people argue that Western psychology and Asian psychology are fundamentally different and irreconcilable. Western psychology is scientific and analytic-reductionistic, while Asian psychology is concerned with man's harmony{dollar}\\...{dollar} (in Paranjpe et al, 1988, p18). This study examines and compares the scientific roots of Western psychology and the humanistic roots of Asian psychology in an attempt to determine commonality between Chinese and American educational psychology. A historical comparative method is used in this study. Two approaches, the personalistic and the naturalistic are employed to examine the development of educational psychology in China and America. Results show that Western psychology has been …

Defining Developmentally Appropriate Practice In Physical Education., Nigel Davies

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purposes of this study were to: (1) define developmentally appropriate practice and identify practices within planning, instruction, content, evaluation and management which will enhance the facilitation of developmentally appropriate practice; and (2) compare and analyze the five participant sub-groups, to identify similarities and differences among these groups. The sample was randomly determined from the current AAHPERD membership list, categorized, via self-designation, into teacher educators, motor developmentalists, physical education teachers, graduate students, undergraduate students. One hundred and eleven participants (n = 111) completed and returned the Developmentally Appropriate Practice Inventory (DAPI). In phase one, each statement was analyzed utilizing the …

There Was Something In The Water: Parallels In Paradigms In English And Physics, 1880 To 1940., Tracy Joan Demars

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study posits that a paradigm is a shared vision of reality that governs how practitioners define and relate to the many and varied components that make up that reality. Using this definition, the author presents a visual model using concentric spheres of increasing abstraction that rearrange T. S. Kuhn's four components of a disciplinary matrix that he articulated in the 1969 Postscript to The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Based on this model and D'Amico's criteria for a coherent narrative, the study assesses the two primary paradigms, labeled the Object-Oriented paradigm and the Subject-Oriented paradigm, that existed in the fields …

Challenges Facing Colleges And Schools Of Pharmacy Over The Next Ten Years: A Survey Of The Deans., Jerald Wayne Fisher

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to determine what pharmacy deans believed to be the major internal and external challenges facing schools of pharmacy over the next ten years. The instrument for data collection was a descriptive opinion survey, consisting of two questions, that was sent to all U.S. school of pharmacy deans (n = 79). The deans were asked to provide what they believed to be the five major internal and external challenges facing their schools, and to provide two strategies for hastening the desirable or delaying the undesirable effects of each challenge. A response rate of sixty-percent (47 …

The Relationship Between The Method Of Selection And Length Of Service Of Department Chairs And Degree Of Subordinate Faculty Support., P Michael Ditchen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study was designed to examine the relationships between the method of selection and length of service of department chairs and degree of faculty support as measured by the Department Evaluation of Chairperson Activities for Development (Decad) instrument. The database contains rankings of all chairs (n = 1312) rated with the Decad from 1977-1991. The database contains departmental evaluations from over 120 institutions located throughout the United States and Canada. After all identifying characteristics were removed from this database, the database was analyzed using the Statistical Analysis (SAS) program to calculate departmental mean scores of perceived initiating structure and consideration …

The Use Of Simplified English To Improve Task Comprehension For Non-Native English Speaking Aviation Maintenance Technician Students., Douglas Eckert

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this research was to determine if the use of Simplified English (SE) improved task comprehension of non-native English speaking aviation maintenance technician students in a non-English speaking environment. A background questionnaire, one test, and four controlled language instruments were administered to each subject. The test, Accuracy Level Test (ALT) by Ronald P. Carver, measured the Spanish subjects English reading ability by grade level. The four instruments were aviation maintenance task cards and tests developed by Boeing Aircraft which measured subject comprehension of maintenance procedures. The participants were 148 Mexican aviation maintenance technician students, mechanics, and instructors from …

An Experimental And Numerical Study Of Residence Time And Mixing Characteristics Of A Full Flow Dilution Tunnel., Sunil Katragadda

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A stimulus-response technique was applied to a co-current flow with mixing orifice type full-flow dilution tunnel to determine its fluid residence time distribution and mixing characteristics. The technique involved the injection of a tracer at the inlet and the observation of the corresponding response at the sampling zone of the tunnel. Both propane gas and corn oil aerosol of approximately 0.5 {dollar}\\mu{dollar}m in diameter were used as the non-reacting tracers for the newly developed gas injection detection system (GIDS) and aerosol injection detection system (AIDS). Data were gathered from the tunnel operated under steady-state conditions and at three different volumetric …

Measuring The Benefits Of Air Quality Improvement: A Spatial Hedonic Approach., Chong Won Kim

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organization (1994) reported that Seoul has serious problems with sulfur dioxide. The primary objective of this study is to improve the methodology for estimating hedonic price functions when the data are inherently spatial in nature. The secondary objective is to estimate the marginal value of air pollution abatement in the Seoul metropolitan area. The hedonic property value model is employed to achieve this goal. To attain the primary objective, this study explicitly considers the spatial effects of housing prices in estimating the hedonic property value price function. Spatial weight matrices are …

Concluding Address: Culture And Worship, Once More, Marva J. Dawn

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

The organizing principle I needed to pull together the events of this week became clear quite early in the institute. It became clear because of the great wisdom of the people who attended my discussion session after the opening keynote. They raised some critical issues and pulled many things into the dialectical tensions of which, for lack of time, I had been able to explicate only one side. In response, I found myself again and again saying, "This gets us back to the necessity for community, doesn't it?" All of the worship issues, especially the wars, arise because our …

An Evaluation Of The Clinical Utility Of The College Adjustment Scales, Timothy B. Smith, Mark A. Nafziger, Gwenna C. Couillard

Faculty Publications

Comparisons of College Adjustment Scales (CAS) profiles with interview data from 748 clients generally supported the clinical usefulness of the CAS, although further refinements appear warranted.

The Effects Of A Parental Life-Threatening Illness On Children's Adjustment., Christa M. Holland

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mental health professionals are increasingly examining psychosocial issues of individuals with medical illnesses. Research has demonstrated that when the medical patient is a parent, the entire family experiences the crisis and impact of the diagnosis and treatment. Despite these findings, few studies have examined the impact of a parental life-threatening illness on children. The psychological and behavioral adjustment of children with a parent receiving a bone marrow transplant (BMT) was compared to that of children in a matched community group. Forty child-parent dyads (20 BMT and 20 Community) completed three self-report measures at pre and post-BMT to assess children's behavior, …