Digital Commons Network^™

Communicating Conceptual Design Of Mechatronic Systems, Muir Lee Harding

Dissertations and Theses

Today's engineering designers must adapt to a changing model of product development. In the past, a single engineer could design, develop and deploy competitive systems --this is often no longer the case. Designing a mechanical system with integrated microprocessor control requires the collaboration of a cross-disciplinary team of engineers and, in many cases, no single member of the team understands the workings of the entire system. Consequently, as systems become increasingly complex, the ability to collaborate and reliably communicate design information becomes more and more crucial. Effective communication 1s particularly critical in conceptual design, where a poor decision has the …

Role Of The Warrant In Presidential Debates : 1960, 1976, & 1996, Aaron Nicole Kaio

Dissertations and Theses

Every four years in America we make a decision about which candidate is best suited to be our next president. Over the past twenty years a standard component of the presidential campaign has been televised debates. These debates are supposed to help the public get a better understanding of the candidates' ideas about government, our future, and to demonstrate analytical skills and their ability to think on their feet.

This study set out to see how the candidates' arguments measured up to some basic argumentation standards. According to several scholars, none of the televised presidential debates qualify as 'true debates', …

The Effect Of Diastema Closure On The Remediation Of Lateral /S/: A Case Study, Reta Price

Dissertations and Theses

An important morphological-marker and one of the most frequently occurring speech sounds in English, the /s/ phoneme is also one of the sounds most often in need of remediation. Often, air emission during /s/ production, a particularly stubborn, often residual production error, is not remediated through traditional treatment methods, and yet the negative effect /s/ distortions have on listeners has been well-documented.

The subject of this investigation was a forty-eightyear-old male who received treatment for a lateralized /s/ during grade-school. It was hypothesized that his exerting high anterior pressure to prevent air from escaping from a diastema between his two …

Concurrent Validity Of Mental Ability Screening Tools : A Comparison Of Normal Students’ Performance On The Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test And The Shipley Institute Of Living Scale-Revised, D. Melanie Peters

Dissertations and Theses

This study compared the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT), a verbal and nonverbal mental ability screening tool, to the Shipley Institute Living Scale (SILS), a nonverbal screening tool of mental ability, as part of a larger, ongoing study which is examining the effects of orofacial clefts on early career maturity. In terms of general intellectual ability, the K-BIT and the SILS provide descriptive categories, percentile ranks, raw scores, standard error of measurement, standard scores, standardization and norms, subtest scores, and total scores. The K-BIT provides normative curve equivalents and stanines, which the SILS does not. The SILS provides abstract and …

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: The six galleries on campus display local and national art—they also do great First Thursdays; help your child become a good speller. Plus, take a test to determine your own spelling aptitude; the food industry is finding new ways of doing business with the help of a PSU management program; when a company needs turning around, Renee Fellman is the specialist a history journal of the Pacific Rim is right at home in Cramer Hall; and more.

Workforce Development Network Project Final Contract: Planning Workshop Fall/Winter 1997-1998, Kim Burnett, Ray Jackson, Britt Parrott, Matt Ransom, Claire Smith

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This project will analyze the current workforce development programs and services provided by Community Based Organizations (CBBs), Community Development Corporations (CDCs), community colleges, and the Workforce Development Board (formerly TPIC) in Multnomah and Washington counties. Documentation of the gaps and/or redundancies in the provision of workforce development will be provided to the Workforce Development Network (WDN) based upon service provider interviews and research on national models in workforce development. This documentation will be provided in three forms: as a database; as a resource directory; and as an analysis of the gaps in the current system.

Effect Of Environmental Structure On Evolutionary Adaptation, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher, Mark A. Bedau, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper investigates how environmental structure, given the innate properties of a population, affects the degree to which this population can adapt to the environment. The model we explore involves simple agents in a 2-d world which can sense a local food distribution and, as specified by their genomes, move to a new location and ingest the food there. Adaptation in this model consists of improving the genomic sensorimotor mapping so as to maximally exploit the environmental resources. We vary environmental structure to see its specific effect on adaptive success. In our investigation, two properties of environmental structure, conditioned by …

An Evaluation Of A Staff Mentor Program For At-Risk Students In An Oregon High School: Cake (Caring About Kids Effectively), Gail Lenore Hayes

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the effect of a staff-mentoring program with students identified as at-risk of becoming early leavers. This mentoring program, Caring About Kids Effectively (CAKE), was implemented at a suburban secondary school in Oregon serving grades 9 through 12.

The study of the CAKE program had four research components: (a) indicators of school success (GPA, attendance, and attitudes toward school) were compared between at-risk students and those not at-risk; (b) indicators of school success were analyzed over the time at-risk students were mentored to find any significant change; (c) indicators of school success and enrollment status at graduation was …

Legal Education Then And Now: Changing Patterns In Legal Training And In The Relationship Of Law Schools To The World Around Them, Joan C. Williams, Bob Gordon, Jack Schlegel, James May

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Application Of Artificial Neural Networks In Freeway Incident Detection, Sujeeva A. Weerasuriya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-recurring congestion caused by incidents is a major source of traffic delay in freeway systems. With the objective of reducing these traffic delays, traffic operation managers are focusing on detecting incident conditions and dispatching emergency management teams to the scene quickly. During the past few decades, a few number of conventional algorithms and artificial neural network models were proposed to automate the process of detecting incident conditions on freeways. These algorithms and models, known as automatic incident detection methods (AIDM), have experienced a varying degree of detection capability.

Of these AIDMs, artificial neural network-based approaches have illustrated better detection performance …

Expanding And Sustaining Partnerships: Characteristics Of Successful University Community Partnerships, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program requires adaptations in the university environment. We must examine and reinterpret (1) the roles and responsibilities of faculty;(2) the design of the undergraduate curriculum; (3) the structures of the university that create the capacity and support to sustain different working relationships with the community; and (4) our definitions of success and quality.

Assessing Second Language Proficiency In An American University, Suwako Watanabe, Patricia Wetzel

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are currently two nation-wide trends that impinge significantly on language teaching and assessment at the university level in the U.S. One is the general wave of education reform, the other is the so-called "proficiency" movement in language teaching. That being said, these two categories are much too broad in their definitions and implications to be of any use in discussing what we wish to address here: actual practice in the second language classroom. We will therefore begin by constraining the relevant characteristics of each of these. We will then proceed to discuss their ongoing implications for what actually happens …

Adaptive Prefetching For Device-Independent File I/O, Dan Revel, Dylan Mcnamee, David Steere, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Device independent I/O has been a holy grail to operating system designers since the early days of UNIX. Unfortunately, existing operating systems fall short of this goal for multimedia applications. Techniques such as caching and sequential read-ahead can help mask I/O latency in some cases, but in others they increase latency and add substantial jitter. Multimedia applications, such as video players, are sensitive to vagaries in performance since I/O latency and jitter affect the quality of presentation. Our solution uses adaptive prefetching to reduce both latency and jitter. Applications submit file access plans to the prefetcher, which then generates I/O …

Hrossa, Pigs, And Teddy Bears: The Animal Kingdom According To C.S. Lewis, Doris T. Myers

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Guest of Honor Address at Mythcon in 1996. “Lewis in relation to animals and the ethical questions they present.”

A Complex-Systems Perspective On The “Computation Vs. Dynamics” Debate In Cognitive Science, Melanie Mitchell

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

I review the purported opposition between computational and dynamical approaches in cognitive science. I argue that both computational and dynamical notions will be necessary for a full explanatory account of cognition, and give a perspective on how recent research in complex systems can lead to a much needed rapprochement between computational and dynamical styles of explanation.

The Effects Of Educational Setting And Instructor Type On Interaction Modifications, Katrina Kay Mcconaughey

Dissertations and Theses

The precise role of interaction in the process of second language acquisition and its place in the second language classroom are questions that continue to be important in research for both theoretical and applied linguists. The framework for this study is based on Long's (1983b) Interaction Hypothesis which proposes that input is made comprehensible by the modification of interactional structures. Many studies have looked at the differences between teacher-fronted classroom interaction and small group or dyad interaction without a teacher. The use of tutors and teaching assistants is common but not many studies have looked at how variation among instructor …

Sacagawea : The History Of A Myth, William Jeffrey Patten

Dissertations and Theses

Sacagawea, the Indian woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition has been one of the most romanticized figures in Western history. Although Sacagawea received little attention following the Corps of Discovery's return to the United States, she was rediscovered by writers associated with the women's suffrage movement at the end of the nineteenth century. The development of the enduring American legend that formed around Sacagawea was an Anglo-American and twentieth century phenomenon. In myth, she was given credit for the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and over time she became its savior and leader.

It is the …

Academic Esl Reading : Semantic Mapping And Lexical Acquisition, Jeffrey Darin Maggard

Dissertations and Theses

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theoreticians and educators disagree whether vocabulary should be explicitly taught in second language learning classrooms. These individuals are divided about the most efficient way for L2 learners to increase the size of their lexicons. This thesis proposes that explicit vocabulary instruction may significantly facilitate lexical acquisition for adult second language learners in academic contexts.

An experimental study designed to investigate the relationship between explicit vocabulary instruction and the rate of lexical acquisition is described. It was hypothesized that metacognitive strategy training in semantic mapping activities would significantly increase the rate of lexical acquisition for upper-intermediate university …

The Globalizing State: A Future-Oriented Perspective On The Public/Private Distinction, Federalism, And Democracy, Alfred C. Aman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rights, Wrongs, And Recourse In The Law Of Torts, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cardozo's opinion in Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.' hinges on a stark assertion about rights and wrongs: A plaintiff has no right of action unless she can show "'a wrong' to herself; i.e., a violation of her own right." Cardozo himself made this principle the core of his analysis, yet scholars typically regard it as impenetrable, circular, vacuous, or, as Posner put it, "eloquent bluff." Small wonder, then, that readers typically turn to "reasonable foreseeability" as the essence of the case. Leading scholars treat Palsgraf as a proximate cause case, despite Cardozo's pronouncement that "W[the law of causation, remote …

Chilling Child Abuse Reporting: Rethinking The Capta Amendments, Caroline T. Trost

Vanderbilt Law Review

On a December night in 1993, Gregory Bryant-Bruce, age six months, was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center Emergency Room for treatment of severe anemia, shock, and abnormally low hematocrit.' A CT scan revealed brain hemorrhaging, and a physical examination showed retinal hemorrhages of varying ages. Retinal bleeding in a young child is almost always caused by traumatic injury, and is considered to be a classic sign of "Shaken Impact Syndrome" ("SIS"), a life-threatening and relatively common form of child abuse. Thus, on the basis of Gregory's symptoms and the in- adequacy of his parents' explanation of his injuries, Gregory's …

Privacy And Telecommunications, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article explores the differences in privacy protection between the European Union and the United States, and examines the emerging conflict over data protection. Professor Cate analyzes the European data protection Directive, with particular emphasis on the Directive's extraterritorial provisions. He then examines privacy protection under United States laws and the extent to which that protection satisfies the requirements of the Directive. Finally, Professor Cate focuses on privacy issues involved in telecommunications, an area significantly regulated by United States and European laws, and therefore one area in which some commonality among privacy protection might be anticipated. Even in this highly …

Book Review. Courts, Congress, And The Constitutional Politics Of Interbranch Restraint, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rescuing Reliance: The Perils Of Promissory Estoppel, Charles L. Knapp

UC Law Journal

This article examines the past, present, and future of promissory estoppel. After surveying the development of the doctrine over the last century, Professor Knapp describes and responds to some contemporary commentary on the subject. He argues that while most of the recent authors have been generally friendly to promissory estoppel, the thrust of recent criticism has been to reduce the role that the theory can or should play in contract law. The article then examines why courts sometimes apply promissory estoppel where reliance seems to be absent, and other times deny reliance-based recovery even though reliance is demonstrably present. Finally, …

"March Madness": An Examination Of Dual-Use Trademark Terms And Reverse Confusion, David Y. Gan

UC Law Journal

The Seventh Circuit's decision in Illinois High School Ass'n v. GTE Vantage, Inc. addressed a previously unrecognized category of trademark-the "dual-use" trademark term. "Dual-use" terms are marks that are associated by the public with two parties, where confusion would likely arise regarding which party the mark denotes. Writing for a three-judge panel, Chief Judge Posner held that dual-use terms should be treated similarly to generic terms and receive no protection under trademark law.

In this Note, the author examines the implications of the Seventh Circuit's decision in terms of the underlying goals of trademark law, the public's interest in effective …

Rhetoric, Pragmatism And The Interdisciplinary Turn In Legal Criticism -- A Study Of Altruistic Judicial Argument, Gene R. Shreve

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Burnout In Academics : The Role Of Humour And Optimism As Stress Buffers, Natalie R. Fairclough

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The relationship between university lecturers' perceived stress, use of humour to cope with stress, optimism, pessimism, and burnout was investigated. Participants included 180 lecturers from a range of Perth universities and disciplines. Questionnaire packages were delivered to the participants at their universities and were later returned to the researcher by mail. A principle components analysis was first performed on the Life Orientation Test-Revised, a self-report instrument designed to measure optimism, and demonstrated support for a two-dimensional model of optimism and pessimism. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was subsequently conducted to determine the ability of perceived stress, humour, optimism, and pessimism, …

How Do You Do Your Rage? : A Qualitative Investigation Into Contemporary Women's Experience Of Their Rage, Verena Homberger

Theses : Honours

Feminist researchers investigate women’s lives. This project is looking at a tiny thread embedded in a small section in the huge fabric of women's lives. The section is women’s capacity for violence, and the thread within it is women’s rage. This is a qualitative study of contemporary women experiencing and expressing their anger and rage. Discussions of violence within feminist literature have been largely restricted to accounts of male violence against women and children, and may have inadvertently endorsed the mainstream construction of femininity, which perceives rage in women to be an inappropriate emotion. In this project, I argue that …

An Experimental Study Into The Effect Of Varying The Join Selectivity Factor On The Performance Of Join Methods In Relational Databases, Ada Mallet

Theses : Honours

Relational database systems use join queries to retrieve data from two relations. Several join methods can be used to execute these queries. This study investigated the effect of varying join selectivity factors on the performance of the join methods. Experiments using the ORACLE environment were set up to measure the performance of three join methods: nested loop join, sort merge join and hash join. The performance was measured in terms of total elapsed time, CPU time and the number of I/O reads. The study found that the hash join performs better than the nested loop and the sort merge under …

Hidden Meanings Of A Dream Of Red Mansion, Yin Toa Leung

Theses : Honours

No abstract provided.