Digital Commons Network^™

Making Concrete Less Abstract, David Newton Richardson

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

CE 3 13 is a second level properties of concrete lecture course. In an effort to make it appear less abstract to the students, over the course of several semesters several learning strategies were tried, including journaling, muddiest point, entering the academy, role playing, bookends-on-a-lecture, and hands-on lab projects. Most recently, an emphasis on short writing-to-learn papers, a problems-based stance, and an integrated lab project was used. Student evaluations indicated that the lab projects and the increased writing was of significant benefit in promotion of learning.

Substroke Matching By Segmenting And Merging For Online Korean Cursive Character Recognition, Chang-Soo Kim, Kang Ryoung Park, Byung Hwan Jun, Jaihie Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Korean character is composed of several alphabets in two-dimensional formation and the total number of Korean characters exceeds eleven thousand. Therefore, the previous approaches to Korean cursive characters pay most of their attention to segmenting a character into alphabets accurately. However, it is difficult because the boundaries of alphabets are not apparent in most cases. We propose an alphabet-based method without assuming accurate alphabet segmentation. In the proposed method, a cursive character is segmented into substrokes by a set of segmenting conditions. Then it is matched with the reference substrokes generated from alphabet models and ligatures by segmenting and …

Factors Affecting The Self-Perceived Continuing Education Needs Of Certified Athletic Trainers, Marchell Cupett Austin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This purpose of this study was to determine the self-perceived continuing education needs of Certified Athletic Trainers, the factors that affect those needs, and continuing education participation as well as preference for program format. A survey was developed using the domains and tasks depicted by the NATABOC's Role Delineation Study. Respondents rated the importance of their need for continuing education for each task within five domains: prevention of athletic injuries; recognition, evaluation and immediate care of athletic injuries; rehabilitation of athletic injuries; health care administration; and professional development and responsibility. The survey was sent to 2,000 randomly selected Certified Athletic …

A Case Study Of One Iowa Public School Superintendent's Evaluation Process, Gail Vanous Moon

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to identify and describe one Iowa public school district's superintendent performance evaluation process. This study explored the perceptions of one superintendent and one school board of directors in regard to the purposes, criteria, sources of information, and general effectiveness of their superintendent performance evaluation process.

The study was conducted in an urban K-12 public school district in northeastern Iowa. Factors considered in the selection of the school district included: size, location, demographics, as well as the willingness of the participants ta have their voices heard through the researcher. Also, the district was …

Making Meaning From International Educational Experiences: Transforming Inner Landscapes, Sami Lyn Story

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This qualitative study sought to gain a more complete understanding of the transformative potential of international educational experiences for US college students. The stories of seven traditionally aged students were evaluated to discern possible commonalties across the diverse experiences. These themes were framed as a cyclical process of departures, passages, and arrivals with special attention given to how students constructed meaning from their intercultural encounters. Factors such as the need to understand, affiliate, and create experiences appeared to be influential along with expectations of host cultures, definitions of family, and time spent in dialectical thought. Students who spent more time …

Oil Consumption Measurements Of A Production Engine Using The Sulfur-Trace Method, Verlyn Royal Benson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Controlling the oil consumption of diesel engines is important for customer satisfaction. Existing oil consumption measurement methods are adequate; however, improved methods offer the possibility of faster and more comprehensive results. The sulfur-trace method is an example.

Major objectives of this investigation were to adopt a sulfur-trace analyzer for oil consumption measurements, to improve the oil consumption measurement process, and to demonstrate application of the sulfur-trace instrument to individual cylinder sampling. To achieve these objectives, four research questions were applied:

1. What procedures and attention to detail are required?
2. How can results be reported to maximize data interpretation?
3. How do the …

School-Based Primary Prevention Programs For Eating Disorders, Suzanne D. Holmes

Graduate Research Papers

The primary purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive review of the literature and research related to anorexia nervosa, and to emphasize the importance of prevention programs in school settings and the role of school psychologists in the prevention and intervention process. Chapter two of this paper covers anorexia nervosa and the theories regarding its etiology, complications, co-morbidities, risk factors, and treatment. Because anorexia nervosa is a disorder which most frequently begins during adolescence, chapter three addresses the specific factors of adolescence that can lead to eating disorders.

Throughout the paper, there is an emphasis on the lack …

Automatic Car Registration Plate Recognition Using The Hough Transform, Shokri Gendy

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The development of automatic car registration plate recognition systems will provide greater efficiency for vehicle monitoring in automatic access control, and will avoid the need to equip vehicles with special RF tags for identification since all vehicles possess a unique registration plate. Thus this study is an attempt to introduce an automatic car registration plate recognition system based on identifying the plate characters by using the Hough transform. However, the proposed recognition system can be used in conjunction with a tag system for higher security access control. The automatic registration plate recognition could also have considerable potential in a wide …

Young Families' Utilisation, Self-Perceived Requirements, And Satisfaction With Child Health Services In The City Of Belmont, Western Australia, Ailsa M. Munns

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The expectations of young families regarding care they would like to receive from community nurses working in the child health area is affected by the relationship between those expectations, utilisation and sociocultural factors such as family type, family composition and ethnicity. These factors influence family dynamics, needs, functioning and interactions with the wider community. A descriptive study with both quantitative and qualitative components was used to identify and analyse the self-identified requirements of young families utilising Child Health Services in the Belmont area, Western Australia, and their patterns of utilisation. Twenty five women who had a child or children under …

Women's Perceptions Of Successful Breastfeeding During The Early Stages Of Being A Mother, Shelagh Lawrence

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this qualitative study, guided by Rubin's Model was to describe women's perceptions of successful breastfeeding during the early stages of being a mother. The transition to motherhood marks a time of great developmental change in a woman's life. Infant feeding is an important aspect of this adaptation to the maternal role. The physiological benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby are well documented, but there is limited research on the psychological advantages of breastfeeding for the mother. This Masters research was a discrete part of a larger research project entitled the Perth Metropolitan Breastfeeding Study. This project …

Evaluating Action Research As A Model For School-Based Professional Development Of Secondary Mathematics Teachers In The Philippines, Florenda L. Gallos

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study documented a school-based professional development activity conducted in a secondary school in the Philippines where five secondary mathematics teachers and the head of the school participated in a program of action research. The effectiveness of action research as a form of professional development and the constraints in using this form of professional development in the Philippines were evaluated based on the changes on teachers in terms of pedagogical knowledge, practices and beliefs. Qualitative research techniques were used. The methodology included questionnaires, interviews, class observations and diaries. The results indicated that the involvement of the participants in the action …

The Language And Literacy Skills And Behaviours Of Two Middle Primary Severely To Profoundly Hearing Impaired Students In The School Environment, Renee M. Kinsman

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Much research has shown that the hearing impaired population typically achieve only very low levels of literacy. Many researchers have examined the language and literacy deficits of the hearing impaired population in order to explain this. Nevertheless, a recent study has shown that hearing impaired children's preschool language and literacy development may occur along a similar pathway to that of their hearing peers. The present study aimed to investigate the language and literacy skills, behaviours and interactions of two severely to profoundly hearing impaired middle primary boys in the context of their mainstream school. Both qualitative and quantitative data sources …

Evaluation Of Revegetation Techniques Used On Degraded Agricultural Land In The Central Avon Catchment, Western Australia, Scott J. Bartholomew

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The agricultural region in the central Avon catchment is declining in both arable land and native vegetation. This decline has been due to the clearance of large tracts of native vegetation and its subsequent replacement by exotic crops and pasture species. The loss of vegetation has led to regional land degradation in the form of soil erosion and land salinisation. Therefore, changes in land management practices are required to make agricultural production more compatible with land conservation. Revegetation using native plants is the only management solution that integrates both land and ecological conservation with agricultural productivity. The continuation of current …

Performing Cooperative Work And Conferencing On An Intranet Using Java, Thaveeporn Limpanyalers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The process of organising, preparing and conducting a meeting is a time consuming one. Additionally, geographic separation compounds the amount of effort required. Within this study, an electronic conferencing system in an Intranet environment is designed and implemented, thus enabling employees in the same organisation to meet up electronically without the dual constraints of time and space. Specifically, the study investigates incorporation of facial expressions and an ongoing polling system. The results demonstrate that a presence of facial expressions helps users to better engage in on-line discussion and that users find an ongoing poll to be useful in determining direction …

Fostering Flowers: Women, Landscape And The Psychodynamics Of Gender In 19th Century Australia, Pamela Hodge

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

It is said that when the Sphinx was carved into the bedrock of Egypt it had the head as well as the body of Sekhmet lioness Goddess who presided over the rise and fall of the Nile, and that only much later was the head recarved to resemble a male pharaoh. Simon Schama considered the 'making over' of Mount Rushmore to resemble America's Founding Fathers constituted 'the ultimate colonisation of nature by culture … a distinctly masculine obsession (expressing) physicality, materiality and empirical externality,… a rhetoric of humanity's uncontested possession of nature. It would be comforting to think that, although …

Validation Of The Barkemeyer-Callon-Jones Malingering Detection Scale: The Ability Of A Scale Differentiate Simulating Malingers From Controls And Prior Litigants From Those With No Litigation Experience Within A Sample Of Men Who Have All Suffered Chronic Low Back Pain, David Curnow

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Chronic low back pain costs the community, and several authors have suggested that individuals often attempt to exaggerate chronic low back pain. Currently no reliable and valid scale for assessing malingering in chronic pain populations exists, and there is a large difference in opinion on the ability of experts using clinical judgment to detect malingering. The current study seeks to provide a validation for the BarkemeyerCallon-Jones Malingering Detection Scale (MDS) which has purported to be able to identify individuals attempting to malinger neurological conditions and pain. A simulation design was used, as in previous research, because it is difficult to …

Accident Experience Of Commonwealth Government Employees In Western Australia : 1 June 1993 To 2 December 1995, David R. Wright

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This quantitative study documents, analyses and discusses the accident experience of Commonwealth employees in Western Australia from 1 July 1993 to 2 December 1995 as recorded on 1663 accident report forms. The research addresses the problem of lack of knowledge of accidents in the Commonwealth sector of the Western Australian work force. Its purpose is to identify possible areas of health and safety improvement and highlight where accident frequency may be reduced. Risk management is adopted as a conceptual framework to explore categories of accident related data, including month of year, time of day, day of the week of accidents, …

An Art Therapy Programme Incorporating Buddhist Concepts To Address Issues Of Aggression In Adult Male Prisoners, Diane Randall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis has researched and designed a programme that offers an alternative way of working with aggression in a male prison population, using an art therapy approach that incorporates Buddhist concepts as an intervention. Buddhist practices have traditionally been used in Eastern cultures to calm the mind and to develop compassion as an antidote to aggression. Therefore these practices have seen used as a basis for the design of exercises in the programme. The purpose of the programme is to offer an intervention that will complement, support, or be an alternative to existing treatments, which are primarily cognitive-behavioural in orientation. …

A Case Study : A Short Term Art Therapy Intervention For A Child Victim To Bullying, Ffyona Matthews

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This single case study of a child bullied at school investigates whether a short-term, individual Art therapy intervention, within a school that runs an anti-bullying program, will ease the effects of bullying in that child. The subject is a 10 year old girl referred as being school avoidant due to being bullied. The intervention encouraged expression of emotions, fears and worries about the bullying, an- understanding of the bullying and its effects, exploration of alternative responses to being bullied and therapeutic support to help empower, build self-esteem, lower depression, loneliness, stress, and unhappiness at school. The intervention involved six one …

Redefining The Art Experience : From Static To Temporal Art Forms, Justine Mcknight

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research examines an approach to art making and viewing that questions the acceptance of the autonomous object in favour of a transient experience. It focuses specifically on work and writing from the 1960s by the American artist Robert Morris that attempted to alter the then predominant Formalist understanding of the art object as autonomous and self-referential. This investigation follows the formal and conceptual development of Morris' work (and that of associated artists Richard Serra and Rafael Ferrer) with particular focus on the shift from static objects to time-based and transient an-forms including film/video and installation. I address the influence …

Improving Provision For Disaffected Students: Toward A New Educational Model, Cecilia Netolicky

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study is to develop and review strategies and policies to drive retentive teaching-learning environments for disaffected students, modifying their modus operandi sufficiently for them to qualify and retain a tertiary place or position in the workforce, or sustain a return to mainstream schooling. I employed action research methods to examine Strike Four. an educational model servicing students with severe social and/ or emotional difficulties and behavioural disorders. I tested the Strike Four model during an intensive study period on two programs. Part 1 of the thesis comprises three Chapters. An introduction to the issue of the …

Industrial Development In Indonesia, Development For Whom?: A Case Study Of Women Who Work In Factories In Rural West Java, Peter J. Hancock

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research was conducted in order to address two major research questions: 1) To what extent and in what ways are a cohort of female factory workers in Sundanese West Java influential in the cultural, social and economic development of the geographic area in which they live and more specifically within their own households? 2) To what extent does the Indonesian state support or inhibit such development? In order to answer these and other secondary research questions I conducted qualitative and quantitative research. I used a theoretical framework which directed the methodology, questionnaires and both qualitative and quantitative data was …

The Effectiveness Of Using Drama In Presenting Spiritual Material To School Students, Geoff Pollard

Theses : Honours

This thesis is concerned with determining the effectiveness of using drama in presenting spiritual material to school students. As a performer in schools I often wondered if the "magic" of the stage was what the students identified with or whether in addition they were also understanding and learning spiritual truths. As an undergraduate religious student I was exposed to the research of Goldman who concluded that Scripture teaching in Primary Schools should be minimised because he believed the students were incapable of understanding parables and miracles. I looked back on my school performance years and the warm reception given to …

Web Based Customer Support In Banking And Financial Services, Kevin C. D'Silva

Theses : Honours

As customers become more sophisticated and competition increases in the marketplace, companies need to provide better service to gain a competitive advantage. The World Wide Web (WWW) offers companies the opportunity to provide service to their customers 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Companies are taking advantage of this opportunity by making the WWW the customer service tool of the future. This project was conducted to develop a model for evaluating the level of customer service and support provided by corporate Web sites. The model was developed by adapting Lovelock’s Flower of Service Model (1994) to Web …

Sense Of Effort Associated With Exercise In The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Karen E. Wallman

Theses : Honours

Investigations into the mediators of effort sensation have indicated that central mechanisms related to corollary discharges may be responsible for an increased sense of effort during fatiguing isometric exercise. The role for central mediators for sense of effort have been objectively demonstrated through use of contralateral limb matching tasks. Subjects diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) often report prevalent fatigue associated with a greater sense of effort when involved in exercise. This study employed a fatiguing contralateral limb-matching task in order to determine if CFS subjects (n == 6) experienced an altered sense of effort associated with the task when …

The Birds And Habitat Of Kings Park, Bradley W. Cox

Theses : Honours

Kings Park is a large urban park in the centre of Perth with extensive areas of semi-natural bushland. The park is an important refuge for birds in the metropolitan area but is losing species through habitat disturbance. Understanding the way in which birds are related to their habitat helps to understand the effect of habitat disturbance on the bird community. The aim of this project was to generate guidelines which will aid in the management and conservation of birds in the park, through an understanding of the relationship of the birds to their habitat. The avifauna and various habitat factors …

Parent Involvement In A Year One In-Class Reading Practice Program, Sheelagh Tillotson

Theses : Honours

Parents play a crucial role in their children's literacy development, and their influence on early reading attitudes is profound. Many successful programs have been developed in England, US, Australia and New Zealand to involve parents in assisting their children's reading both at home and at school, but research has also shown that there are a number of difficulties associated with instigating classroom-based programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate an existing, classroom-based reading practice program involving parents and to analyse how and whether it was successful for each participating group: that is parents, students and the teacher. The …

To Develop And Implement A Quality Assurance System Based On Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (Haccp) To A Cook-Freeze Operation: Research Project, Denisa Baca

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to identify and develop a suitable quality assurance system based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), which was implemented to the ‘cook-freeze' operation, currently employed at Healthcarc Foods. In addition, the quality assurance system was implemented as a systematic approach to food quality, and as a means of ensuring food safety. The samples, which consisted of all the chicken dishes, were used in the development of the HACCP plans comprising of flowcharts and HACCP control charts. These dishes are regarded as 'high risk', in terms of microbiological growth, and therefore, were chosen to …

The In Vitro Propagation Of Seagrasses : Halophila Ovalis, Ruppia Megacarpa And Posidonia Coriacea, Melissa Grace Henry

Theses : Honours

Seagrass communities are of high ecological and economic significance. They provide a nursery area for commercial and recreational juvenile fish and crustacea. Seagrasses also play an important role in influencing the structure and function of many estuarine and nearshore marine environments. Unfortunately, the decline of seagrasses, as a result of human impact, has increased in recent years. This decline has become a major problem throughout the world. Current methods used to restore degraded seagrass beds are limited, the most promising being transplanting material from healthy donor beds. This approach is expensive because it is labor intensive and damages the donor …

Perceptions Of Seagrass Ecosystem Health And Potential Indicators For Monitoring, Nick Wood

Theses : Honours

A range of seagrass characteristics were assessed for potential use as indicators of ecosystem health. Shoot density, shoot width, maximum shoot length, above and below ground biomass, percentage canopy cover, leaf area index, leaf extension rate, meadow productivity, epiphyte biomass, epiphyte species richness, percentage of calcium carbonate in epiphytic material and percentage of nitrogen in leaf tissue were all measured in “healthy~ and unhealthy" Posidonia augustifolia meadows in Cockburn and Warnbro Sounds, from June through to August 1998. A questionnaire was used to determine which meadows researchers and managers in the seagrass ecology field in Perth perceived to be healthy …