Digital Commons Network^™

Physical Activity Patterns Among Physical Education Major Students In Selected Institutions Of China And The United States, Wei Bian

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The benefits associated with regular physical activity have been well documented in recent years. Numerous studies have investigated physical activity patterns among children, adolescents, and adults, yet little work to date has examined the patterns of habitual physical activity participation among pre-service physical education (PE) majors. Furthermore, inasmuch as physical activity affords health benefits irrespective of one's nationality or culture, comparisons among the peoples of nations around the world becomes of greater interest.

This study was designed to examine the leisure-time physical activity patterns of physical education major students in selected institutions from the People's Republic of China (PRC) and …

Factors That Influence Women’S Decision Regarding Hormone Replacement Therapy At Menopause, Judy Mixsell

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to describe factors that influence women's decision regarding hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at menopause. It is estimated that between 15 and 25% of eligible women are on HRT today. With all of the scientific evidence on the benefits of HR T, this percentage is very low. A questionnaire was sent to 420 randomly selected women from Black Hawk County ages 40 years and older. There were 161 usable responses for a 38.3% return rate. The majority of the women in the study were in the 40-60 years-old age group and were Caucasian college graduates. …

Pre-Performance Routines And Rhythm: A Comparative Study, Blake Wade Miller

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of pre-performance routine rhythm on novel motor task success. At the center of the study was the comparison of differing characteristics of two theories of motor control: the dynamical systems theory and the schema theory. It was hypothesized that an even pre-performance routine rhythm would be more advantageous to task success than an uneven preperformance routine rhythm, regardless of the rhythmic characteristic of the task. The results concluded the contrary to be more accurate, and indicated that task success was more likely to occur when the pre-performance routine rhythm was congruent …

A Study Of Service Programs At Selected Midwest Universities, Tammy Lee

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

When students enter a four-year college or university, they begin the journey of higher education. Through direct and indirect means of structured course work, involvement in campus organizations, and other activities, students gain the knowledge and skills crucial to obtaining a career in their chosen field. Although a college or university has primary responsibilities for the education of students, it also has a social obligation to the community in which it is located. One mechanism that has been devised to mutually benefit the students' need to develop as responsible citizens and the communities' need for college or university expertise is …

Bully/Victim Problems In A Japanese Junior High School, Yukari Kajishima

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine affective factors of bullying behavior among Japanese junior high school students, with specific emphasis on anger, envy, revenge, and self-esteem.

Data were collected by using five instruments: STAXI, Olweus's bully/victim questionnaire, revenge scale, dispositional envy measure, and the Coopersmith Inventory. The participants in this study were 107 seventh and eighth graders; 58 males and 49 females. They were classified as bullies, victims, bully/victims, or neither bullies nor victims.

Analysis of the data included an examination of correlations between bullying and emotion ,and an investigation of differences in emotions, among bullies, victims, bully/victims, …

Exploration Of Namibian Adolescents’ Sexual Knowledge, Attitudes And Behavior, Shamani-Jeffrey Shikwambi

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sexual knowledge, sexual attitude, and sexual behavior among Namibian adolescents.

Data were collected by using a ~edified version of the Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set (PMEDS) instrument. The participants were 45 twelfth graders, of which 23 were females and 22 males.

Analysis of the data included an examination of intercorrelation between sexual knowledge, sexual attitude, and sexual behavior, and an investigation of gender differences among these three variables. Pearson correlations were calculated for each variable and t-tests were run to look for the gender difference. Multiple regression was also …

“I Only Want To Be”: Black Women Experiences As Depicted In Nikki Giovanni’S Poetry, Lawanda Brown

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Traditional sociology is negligent in the case of recognizing Black women as carriers and standards of knowledge. Sociology is dominated by egotistic white male theories of individuals and groups that exclude and invalidate the existence of Blacks in the United States, especially Black women. Furthermore, no matter how hard we try to free our work and our selves from these Eurocentric Theories, even Black women sociologists such as myself are bound by them. In spite of the limitations imposed by Eurocentric Theories, I show that Black women are carriers of knowledge by presenting an understanding of their lives during a …

Leadership In Student Organizations: Do Women And Men Lead Stereotypically?, Jennifer Cullen Danielson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Men and women are believed to vary along stereotypical male and female leadership behaviors (Cann & Siegfried, 1990; Eagly & Johnson, 1990). Stereotypic leadership behaviors for men are defined as task and goal oriented behavior, whereas for women, it is interpersonal or social behavior. The present study explored the leadership behavior of male and female students in student organizations at a mid-western state university. The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI; Posner & Kouzes, 1988) was used to assess leadership behavior in the student organizations. The leaders of 100 student organizations, 50 males and 50 females, were contacted and asked to fill …

A Distributed Algorithm For The Classification Of Images On A Network Of Workstations, S. R. Subramanya

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Image databases require content-based queries and retrievals. Fast and accurate retrievals for user queries depend on efficient indexing and searching schemes. The classification of images into different categories (classes) is an important task which facilitates the indexing and searching process. The classification of huge amounts of image data place enormous demands on computational requirements. Network of workstations (NOWs, also sometimes called clusters) are a cost-effective way of providing the much-needed computational power in such applications. This paper presents a distributed scheme for the classification of images in an image database, using a network of workstations. The results of the classification …

The Impact Of The Internet On Democratic Discourse, Dalia K. Hamed

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Internet has demonstrated the ability to empower its users by giving them more accurate information about matters of political, professional, and organizational concerns. While many believe that the Internet will fundamentally change political discourse, others argue that it is just another communications tool among many that may affect how governments function, but it will not affect democratic discourse. The thesis argues that unless some requirements are met, the Internet potential as a new democratic forum will not be fulfilled. Concepts such as freedom of speech, democracy, and democratic communication are essential to analyzing the potential use of the Internet …

Adolescent Depression : Further Examination Of Gender Differences, Elizabeth Marie O'Neill

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study was designed to examine pertinent research questions that remain unanswered by past investigations of adolescent depression. Specifically this study investigated potential differences between high and low scoring depressed adolescents, and whether gender is an influential variable for consideration. Subjects were 175 adolescent boys and girls from a laboratory school in Midwestern Iowa. Subjects were divided into four groups based on gender and responses two questions on the BDI-A. Specifically, the four groups were: boys who scored at or above IO on the BDI-A (sub-clinical group--boys), boys who scored below 10 on the BDI-A (control group--boys), girls who scored …

Providing Services For A Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Student In A Small Midwestern Elementary School : A Qualitative Case Study, Candace L. Kist-Tahmasian

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Presented is a case study of an eight-year-old boy who is learning English as a second language in a midwestern elementary school. The number of students needing ESL and/or bilingual education is rapidly growing throughout the United States. Many non-urban schools and districts must now begin to meet these needs. Observations of the student in various school settings were done over a period of six weeks for a total of 24 hours. Interviews of key personnel provided additional information important to the study. Three themes of concern in regard to the student's educational situation became the focus of the case …

In Their Own Words : Women's Caregiving Experiences, Loralie L. Wiebold

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this research was to examine the caregiving situation as told by women involved in parent care. With current demographic trends such as increasing longevity and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, along with structural changes in medical care, the family (or more appropriately women), are called on to provide care to aging family members. Although current literature documents the situation of caregiving women, rarely are their voices heard and words included in pertinent analyses. This study is a qualitative and interpretive study using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with women and participant observation of caregiver support group meetings to understand, …

Dramaturgical Perspective In Modern Police Work : An Analysis Of Interviews And Observations, Michael P. Wagner

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Using a qualitative approach, I analyze data collected from two small Midwestern police departments. I gathered this data through a combination of methods: ethnographic interviewing, participant observation, and content analysis of police artifacts and documents. Most of the data derive from (1) my ethnographic interviews of 17 police officers and (2) my observations of officers during 16 "ride-along."

My analyses are guided by Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical analysis of face-to-face interaction, Manning's (1971; 1977) dramaturgical approach to policing, and Hunt and Manning's (1991) dramaturgical studies of police lying and the use of normal force (see also Hunt 1985). I rely most …

Effects Of Parenting Styles, Self-Esteem, Self-Concept, And Attribution Styles On Children’S Popularity, Michelle Ann Jagodzinski

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of the present study was to examine the link between parent-child and child-peer relationships. This study tests a hypothesized model suggesting that adolescents' self-esteem, self-concept, and attribution styles mediate the association between parenting attitudes and social competence. The sample consisted of 170 students in the 6th through 9th grades (83 males, 87 females) and 113 of their parents (49 males, 64 females). Student questionnaires were administered in a school based setting and consisted of self-report and peer report measures. Students completed questionnaires regarding self-esteem, self-concept, attribution styles, and peer popularity. Parents responded to mailings and completed a self-report …

Kbbg-Fm: Communicating To Educate, Edward W. Ellis Jr.

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

"KBBG-FM: Communicating to Educate" is a qualitative study conducted to examine an African-American owned and operated, public, listener-supported radio station in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls community in Northeast Iowa. The researcher wanted to study how such a local radio station reaches out to its community. A review of literature revealed since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, radio has become less and less diversified, harming community localism in radio. Minority ownership of radio has also declined to an even smaller scale than before the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Based on the review of literature, the researcher formed four research questions for …

Metaphonological Performance Of Children With Phonological Disorders: Phoneme Specific Influences, Alecia Ann Fett

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Phonological awareness skills are demonstrated in daily aspects of life, as young children reflect upon and manipulate sounds and words of their language through early literacy experiences. These social interactions contribute to the organization of emerging reading skills. Deficits in explicit knowledge of the phonological structure of a language could present difficulties in phonological awareness and production (Kamhi & Catts, 1986). Recent researchers have proposed that children's performance on metaphonological tasks can affect performance on reading tasks (Stackhouse, 1997). However, there is a lack of literature investigating the interrelationship between phonological production skills and phonological awareness in children with phonological …

A Www Based Software Metrics Environment For Software Process Management And Software Product Quality Improvement, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Ravi Viswanathan

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The software process needs to be continuously improved to develop high quality software. However, with increasing specialization in the workforce and decentralization in the workplace, software process planning, monitoring, analysis and dynamic tuning in a heterogeneous distributed environment becomes a challenge. We describe a tool which takes advantage of emerging Internet technology to implement a software metrics environment for software process management and software quality improvement. The tool uses a dimensional analytic model to visualize the software development process. The system offers facilities to monitor the status and quality attributes of projects being developed at multiple sites and on multiple …

Speaker Identification Using A Combination Of Different Parameters As Feature Inputs To An Artificial Neural Network Classifier, Viresh Moonasar, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a technique using artificial neural networks (ANNs) for speaker identification that results in a better success rate compared to other techniques. The technique used in this paper uses both power spectral densities (PSDs) and linear prediction coefficients (LPCs) as feature inputs to a self organizing feature map to achieve a better identification performance. Results for speaker identification with different methods are presented and compared.

Application Of Composite Gyromagnetic Materials For Absorbing Radiation Produced By Microwave Oven, Marina Koledintseva, Alexander A. Kitaytsev, V. A. Konkin, V. P. Cheparin, Andrey A. Shinkov

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Composite gyromagnetic radioabsorbing material (RAM) on the basis of polycrystalline hexagonal ferrites is elaborated for the suppression of unwanted radiation produced by microwave ovens (MWO). Results of laboratory investigation of this material application in the MWO having a magnetron source of microwave radiation are represented.

Liquid Holdup Measurement Techniques In Laboratory High Pressure Trickle Bed Reactors, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan, Wes Highfill

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Three Different Techniques, Which Are Tracer, Drainage and Weighing Methods, Are Used to Measure Liquid Holdup in a Laboratory Trickle-Bed Reactor Operated under High Pressure. the Holdup Measurements Are Compared to Determine the Applicability of These Methods at High Pressure Operation. It Was Found that Tracer and Drainage Techniques Give Comparable Values for the Total Liquid Holdup. Although Several Investigators Recommended the Weighing Method over the Others based on their Experiments Performed at Atmospheric Conditions, It Was Found that the Weighing Method Failed to Measure Liquid Holdup Properly at High Pressure Operation.

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Building Services Engineering

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The Development Of Undergraduates' Approaches To Studying And Essay Writing In Higher Education, Sherria Linda Hoskins

School of Psychology Theses

Higher education has undergone a massive expansion particularly over the last twenty years. However,the value of this expansion is difficult to as certain. Despite a growing field of research in to adult learning in higher education little is known about the type of learning developed in this system. Biggs (1996) expressed concern that university learning is represented by increased knowledge and assessment requiring students to reproduce content, not demonstrate critical thinking. He claimed that this type of learning exists even in course-work essay writing. These concerns formed the theoretical framework for the current research, which explored the development of approaches …

Sahaja Yoga: An Ancient Path To Modern Mental Health?, Adam Morgan

School of Psychology Theses

The present study looks to evaluate the effectiveness of the meditative practice of Sahaja Yoga as a treatment for the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Whilst there is a small research literature that has investigated the efficacy of meditation (usually based upon the Buddhist Vipassana tradition) for the treatment of such symptoms, and a smaller literature looking at the effectiveness of Sahaja Yoga in the treatment of a number of physical health problems, no published studies have looked at the effectiveness of Sahaja Yoga as a treatment for mental health problems. The present study therefore compared three independent groups, these …

Congressional Accountability And Denial: Speech Or Debate Clause And Conflict Of Interest Challenges To Unionization Of Congressional Employees , James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

In 1995, Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act, which applied federal workplace and anti-discrimination laws to Congress. Under the terms of the Act, Congress can prevent legislative staff from unionizing if the presence of organized employees would raise constitutional problems or present a conflict of interest. In this Article, Professor Brudney argues that these constitutional conflicts and issues do not pose sufficient concern to outweigh the workplace rights of congressional staff. Rather, he maintains that Congress, should either fulfill its obligations under the Act and allow legislative staff to unionize, or else enact a statute and explain the need for …

Remedy Selection For Cleanup Of Uncontrolled Waste Sites, Paul D. Bennett, Brad Brumbach, Tyrone W. Farmer, Preston L. Funkhouser Iv, Allen W. Hatheway

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Selection of remedy for uncontrolled hazardous waste sites involves comparisons of various technological approaches for minimization of threats and achievement of cleanup action levels. Approaches specified in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (SUPERFUND Law) National Contingency Plan (40 CFR 300) are broadly labeled as actions, alternatives, and technologies. We have found considerable perplexity in denoting the rank-hierarchy of these approaches and have developed a classification system for dealing with the totality of available measures for consideration in selection of remedy.

Fed-Batch Dynamic Optimization Using Generalized Dual Heuristic Programming, Donald C. Wunsch, M. S. Iyer

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Traditionally fed-batch biochemical process optimization and control uses complicated theoretical off-line optimizers, with no online model adaptation or re-optimization. This study demonstrates the applicability, effectiveness, and economic potential of a simple phenomenological model for modeling, and an adaptive critic design, generalized dual heuristic programming, for online re-optimization and control of an aerobic fed-batch fermentor. The results are compared with those obtained using a heuristic random optimizer

1-Hydroxyethyl-2,2′-Biimidazole, Geng Lin, Harvest L. Collier, Russell G. Baughman

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The two imidazole rings in the title compound, C₈H₁₀N₄O, are almost coplanar, having an angle of 2.3 (2)° about the C-C bond connecting the rings. the conformation adopted is such that the nitrogen substituents (-H and -CH₂CH₂OH) are in a trans orientation. the molecules are connected by intermolecular O-H. . .O and N-H. . .N hydrogen bonds to yield an arrangement of pairs of molecules reminiscent of side-by-side stacks of crinkled ribbon.

Double-Talk Robust Fast Converging Algorithms For Network Echo Cancellation, T. Gansler, Steven L. Grant, J. Benesty, M. M. Sondhi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Echo cancelers which cover longer impulse responses (greater than or equal to 64 ms) are desirable. Long responses create a need for more rapidly converging algorithms in order to meet the specifications for network echo cancelers devised by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). In general, faster convergence implies a higher sensitivity to near-end disturbances, especially "double-talk". Recently, a fast converging algorithm called proportionate NLMS (normalized least mean squares) algorithm (PNLMS) has been proposed. This algorithm exploits the sparseness of the echo path. In this paper we propose a method for making the PNLMS algorithm more robust against double-talk. The slower …

The Display Of Photographic-Quality Images On The Web: A Comparison Of Two Technologies, Chiang S. Jao, Daniel B. Hier, Steven U. Brint

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Downloading Medical Images on the Web Creates Certain Compromises. the Tradeoff is between Higher Resolution and Faster Download Times. as Resolution Increases, Download Times Increase. High-resolution (Photographic Quality) Electronic Images Can Potentially Play a Key Role in Medical Education and Patient Care. on the Internet, Images Are Typically Formatted as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) or the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) Flies. However, These Formats Are Associated with Considerable Data Loss in Both Color Depth and Image Resolution. Furthermore, These Images Are Available in a Single Resolution and Have No Capability of Allowing the User to Adjust Resolution as Needed. …