Digital Commons Network^™

Some Millennial Thoughts About The Future Of Writing Centers, Lisa Ede, Andrea Lunsford

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Review: Taking Flight With Owls, Clinton R. Gardner

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Beach Development Behind Detached Breakwater., Philip George Axe

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Concurrent wave and morphology data were collected around a coastal protection scheme on the U. K. south coast. The scheme consists of eight detached breakwaters protecting a renourished sand and shingle beach, and is situated in a strongly macro-tidal environment. The development of the beach morphology is described. The beach trapped sand and shingle moving eastwards into it, and lost material from the eastern end. While the beach was designed to maintain a shingle beach, it was found that the scheme was most effective at trapping sand, which led to tombolo formation behind the updrift breakwaters. Current engineering design methods …

Losing Ground : Locational Formulations In Argumentation Over New Travellers, Rebecca Barnes

School of Psychology Theses

This thesis is an exercise in discursive psychology. The body of discourse analysed concerns the defence of rural space against New Travellers. In contrast to previous sociological and human geographical work in this area, instead of newspaper articles and Parliamentary discourse, participants' talk and texts are the starting point for the - investigation. The data corpora have been generated from a variety of sources: Focus group discussions with police officers; interviews with landowners (or their representatives); letters to the editors of local newspapers; and private letters of complaint to a local council. The thesis focuses on the participants' selection of …

Starting With Dora V: A Genealogy Of Ya Literature Specialists, Chris Crowe

Faculty Publications

This is another of those Year 2000 articles, but instead of gazing into my crystal ball to predict what the future of YA literature will be, I'm looking backward, tracing the genealogy of the people who established, refined, defended, and maintained the study of literature for adolescents.

When I was a graduate student at Arizona State University in 1982, I enrolled in Ken Donelson's adolescent literature course. I had met Donelson a few times before, and, frankly, he intimidated me. I was a lowly high school English teacher, and he was coeditor of English Joumal and one of the Big …

Peace-Keeping Forces: Ya War Books, Chris Crowe

Faculty Publications

My family and I lived in Hawaii when the Gulf War began, and during the early clays of the war, when the daily news announced the results of US bomb raids over Baghdad, my daughter Carrie, who was then six years old, often had trouble sleeping at night.

Muddying Boundaries: Mixing Genres With Five Paragraphs, Deborah M. Dean

Faculty Publications

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is a charming children's picture book. Part of its charm lies in its ability to anticipate the conventions of the fairy tale genre, creating expectations for readers, then pushing the boundaries of the genre in novel ways. As the story moves outside traditional expectations with its unexpected reversals (the princess fights the dragon to save the prince, and the fight is more mental trickery than physical battle), the boundaries of the genre are muddied, making my secondary students smile when I read to them. But it is the ending that surprises them most. …

Bill 11, The Canada Health Act And The Social Union: The Need For Institutions, Sujit Choudhry

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article argues that the debate over the future of Medicare has been dominated by financial considerations at the expense of an examination of the place of supervisory institutions in the health care system. Supervisory institutions will be of central importance to the future of Medicare because any future system will include some national standards, which, to be effective, must be interpreted, applied and enforced by institutions of some kind. This article focuses on two specific institutional questions: the dismal record of federal enforcement of the existing national standards of the Canada Health Act, and the pressing need for dispute-settlement …

Russian Parenting Styles And Family Processes: Linkages With Subtypes Of Victimization And Aggression, Craig H. Hart, David A. Nelson, Clyde C. Robinson, Susanne F. Olson, Mary Kay Mcneilly-Choque, Christin L. Porter, Trevor R. Mckee

Faculty Publications

Political changes in the former Soviet Union have allowed social scientists to explore a variety of family and child development issues that were closed to systematic investigation for many decades (Maddock, Hogan, Antonov, & Matskovsky, 1994). Prior Soviet psychological research focused on cognitive rather than socioemotional processes for political reasons (Kerig, 1996). Therefore, Western researchers had little opportunity to conduct research on children’s social development in the context of the family in the former Soviet Union.

2000 - 2001: Postgraduate Prospectus, Dublin Institute Of Technology

DIT Publications

This booklet outlines the opportunities for post graduate studies offered by the Dublin Institute of Technology. Including both taught and programmes of research leading to higher level awards.

Foreign Language Textbooks In The Classroom: Bridging The Gap Between Second Language Acquisition Theory And Pedagogy, Kristina Harlan '00

Honors Projects

Second language acquisition (SLA) research encompasses various theories of language learning in which the theoretical perspectives sometimes are not connected to SLA methods used by instructors in the classroom. This paper discusses several theories of SLA in an effort to better understand their connection to pedagogy. Foreign language (FL) pedagogy accounts for various methodological approaches the most common being Grammatical-Translation, Direct Method, Audiolingual, and Communicative. These distinctive methodologies have produced a variety of FL textbooks which focus on one or several methodologies.

The following research examines a selection oftextbooks in which the methodologies in beginning language learning are analyzed and …

The Role Of Intercultural Communication In Conflict Resolution Between African Immigrants And Their U.S.-Born Children, Aje-Ori Anna Agbese

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This research examines intercultural communication's role in resolving and managing conflicts between African immigrants and their U.S. -born children. Marriage and close family ties are the backbone of selection in U.S. immigration law. Over 90% of immigrants in the U.S. raise families within the host culture, making immigrant families an area worthy of study. Unfortunately, families are the least studied areas of immigration. Assumptions that immigrants assimilate completely into the host culture through intermarriage and raising children/families are being debunked. Recent studies on immigrants show that their ethnic cultural values are retained for many years, and passed on to children …

Master's Oboe Recital, Terri Smith Armfield

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Terri Smith Armfield presented a graduate oboe recital at 8:00 p.m. on November 15, 1999 in Russell Hall Auditorium at the University of Northern Iowa School of Music. The recital was presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Music degree in oboe performance. The recital repertoire represented a variety of challenging pieces from Italian Baroque to twentieth century: Antonio Vivaldi's Sonata No. 6, Opus 13, Bohuslav Martinu's Concerto for Oboe, Gaetano Donizetti's Concertina for English Horn and Ludwig van Beethoven's Trio Opus 87.

Gender, Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, Experience, And The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition, Short Form (Wais-Iii), Laura Jean Blalock

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between gender, self-efficacy, anxiety, experience and the WAIS-III, short form. This study investigated the hypotheses that gender differences occur on select subtests of the WAISIII, short form, that math self-efficacy, math attitudes, and math experience affect Arithmetic scores, and that motor speed affects performance on the Digit Symbol subtest. The sample consisted of 93 undergraduate students from the University of Northern Iowa (36 males, 57 females). Students completed questionnaires and were administered the WAIS-III short form individually. Males scored higher on the Arithmetic, Information, and Digit Span subtests and …

The Anomalous Behavior Of Al³⁺ In Nickel Electrowinning From Sulfate Electrolytes, Michael Holm, Thomas J. O'Keefe

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The effect of varying concentrations of Al³⁺ on the morphology and current efficiency of electrodeposited nickel from an acid-sulfate electrolyte was studied. Concentrations of Al³⁺ of 20 to 100 ppm significantly degraded the nickel-cathode morphology and current efficiency. However, it was found that higher concentrations of Al³⁺, in the range of 1 to 5 g/L, depending on the electrolyte parameters and operating conditions, improved the deposit morphology compared to deposition from a pure electrolyte. However, the current efficiency remained low. Physical characterization of the nickel revealed that a smoother, more uniform surface resulted from deposition in …

A Structure-Model For The Hamlet-Tradition, Christopher Scott Chiron

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The "hero-as-fool" structure-model for the Hamlet-story proposed by William F. Hansen is modified into an "Amlethan" structure-model with five major elements: ( 1) the Usurpation; (2) the First Test (of the Maiden); (3) the Second Test (of the Mother); (4) the Third Test (of the Journey); and (5) the Revenge. The first and last elements emphasize the "avenging son" aspect of the story whereas the middle three elements emphasize the "hero-as-fool" aspect. The Amlethan structure-model is then re-applied to the two "essential" texts in the tradition, Saxo Grammaticus' narrative of Amleth (c. 1200) and William Shakespeare's play Hamlet (c. 1600). …

Modeling And Characterization Of Electrical Transport In Oxygen Conducting Solid Electrolytes, Igor Kosacki, Vladimir Petrovsky, Harlan U. Anderson

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A model for the electrical conductivity in acceptor-doped oxides which involves an association between the acceptor-dopants and oxygen vacancies resulting in donor centers is considered. The model relates the behavior of the electrical conductivity with the temperature, ambient atmosphere and band structure. The predictions of the model are compared to experimental data for ZrO2:16% Y and SrCeO3:5% Yb oxygen conductors and some band structure parameters have been determined.

Evaluation Of Lsco Electrodes For Sensor Protection Devices, Robert W. Schwartz, M. T. Sebastian

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We have evaluated lanthanum strontium cobalt oxide (La0.50Sr0.50CoOx; LSCO 50/50) as a candidate “transparent” electrode for use in an electrostatic shutter-based infrared sensor protection device. The device requires that the electrode be transparent (80% transmission) and have moderate sheet resistance (300 - 500 Ω/sq.). To meet these needs, the effects of postdeposition annealing on the resistivity and optical absorption characteristics of sputter deposited LSCO thin films were studied. The as-deposited films were characterized by an absorption coefficient of ~ 12,500 cm-1 and resistivities of ~ 0.08 to 0.5 Ω-cm. With annealing at 800°C, the resistivity decreased to 350 μΩ-cm, while …

Convergence Analysis Of Adaptive Critic Based Optimal Control, S. N. Balakrishnan, Xin Liu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Adaptive critic based neural networks have been found to be powerful tools in solving various optimal control problems. The adaptive critic approach consists of two neural networks which output the control values and the Lagrangian multipliers associated with optimal control. These networks are trained successively and when the outputs of the two networks are mutually consistent and satisfy the differential constraints, the controller network output produces optimal control. In this paper, we analyze the mechanics of convergence of the network solutions. We establish the necessary conditions for the network solutions to converge and show that the converged solution is optimal.

An Evaluation Of The Ductile Iron Casting Training Program At The Industrial Technology Department Of A Midwestern University, Khalid D. Alkarimy

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study is to determine how efficient this training program is as measured by (a) increasing the knowledge of new employees about the ductile iron casting process and other casting processes as perceived by the participants, (b) participants achievement of the program learning objectives as perceived by the participants, and (c) a positive reaction and attitude toward the program contents, instructors, facility and handout as perceived by the participants. The problem of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Ductile Iron Casting Training program offered by the Industrial Technology department of a Midwestern University to …

The Relationship Between Childhood Sexual Abuse And Revictimization In Adulthood Among Uni College Students, Kristine R. Wroblewski

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between childhood sexual abuse and adult revictimization. Two hypotheses were examined. It was hypothesized that childhood victims of sexual abuse were more likely to be revictimized as adults. It was also hypothesized that there would be significant differences in demographic and psychosocial correlates between victims of childhood sexual abuse and those who did not report childhood sexual abuse.

The Health and Safety Survey was administered to 589 students at the University of Northern Iowa. There were 398 female respondents and 182 male respondents. The Health and Safety …

An Analog Front-End Speech Processor Using The Ratio Spectrum, John G. Harris, Shao Jen Lim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We have combined the standard front-end filter bank with a feature extraction process to produce a model that requires dramatically less hardware (or software). This new model, based on the frequency-sampled ratio spectrum, can be interpreted as a small set of constant-Q filters whose center frequencies adapt to locations of high signal energy. The resulting feature vectors are shown to outperform several competing techniques for phoneme recognition. Results from fabricated CMOS analog VLSI circuits illustrate a hardware efficient method to sample the ratio spectrum.

A Probabilistic Analysis Of The Ratio Spectrum, M. D. Skowronski, J. G. Harris

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Recently, Lim and Harris (see IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, p.277-80, June 1998) developed a novel spectral representation called the ratio spectrum. The ratio spectrum is formed by taking the ratio of the power of a low pass filtered signal to the power of the original unfiltered signal for all filter cutoff frequencies. Features extracted from the ratio spectrum have proven to be promising for phoneme recognition and speech compression. In this work we have shown that the ratio spectrum feature sets are competitive with standard feature sets used for automatic speech recognition. To understand the underlying properties …

A Silicon Olfactory Bulb Oscillator, Vitor M.Grade Tavares, Jose C. Principe, John G. Harris

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a low power MOS-VLSI implementation of an oscillator proposed by Freeman to model a very important component of the olfactory cortex. The model dynamics has time constants in the order of 1/220 (s). To accomplish the long-time constants a new filtering technique recently proposed was utilized. All the blocks involving information processing were designed to operate below threshold (weak inversion).

A Novel Fpga-Based Master/Slave Pci Interface Core, Chris Brueggen, Hardy J. Pottinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Current high-density, high-speed devices such as Xilinx's Virtex FPGAs are more than capable of implementing a 64-bit, 66 MHz PCI bus interface and associated application specific logic. This paper presents a novel design for an FPGA-based PCI bus interface, which is being used in the development of a medical ultrasound instrument.

Automated Identification Of The Operational Modes Of Switched Electric Circuits, J. Jatskevich, O. Wasynczuk, E. A. Walters, C. E. Lucas, Steven Pekarek, P. T. Lamm

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the analysis of power-electronic-based energy conversion systems, it is important to identify the operational modes of the associated converters and inverters. However, as the number of switching elements increases, it becomes more difficult to analytically establish all possible modes of operation. In this paper, a modelling technique is described wherein a state-space representation of the overall system is generated automatically and updated dynamically as each new topology is encountered. Utilizing this approach, it becomes possible to identify the operational modes of converters and inverters based upon the cyclically repeated sequences of topologies that can be observed during steady-state operation. …

Editorial, Ahmed Noor, Victor Birman

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Functional Basis For Design, Robert B. Stone, Kristin L. Wood

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Functional models represent a form independent blueprint of a product. As with any blueprint or schematic, a consistent language or coding system is required to ensure others can read it. This paper introduces such a design language, called a functional basis, where product function is characterized in a verb-object (function-flow) format. The set of functions and flows is intended to comprehensively describe the mechanical design space. Clear definitions are provided for each function and flow. The functional basis is compared to previous functional representations and is shown to subsume these attempts as well as offer a more consistent classification scheme. …

Experimental Characterization Of Hygrothermal And Aging Effects In Textile Composites, Lokeswarappa R. Dharani, Samit Roy, V. Gupta, Weiqun Xu, N. Dixon

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper summarizes the hygrothermal and physical aging tests that were conducted on AS4/PR500 5HS textile composite laminates. The objectives of the hygrothermal tests were to determine the diffusivity and maximum moisture content of the laminate. Three temperatures and three relative humidity levels (RH) were used in combination to create seven test conditions. In addition, three stress levels and three damage levels were imposed to examine the combined effects of stress and damage on moisture absorption. Short-term creep tests were performed on neat resin at different test temperatures to characterize physical aging of the resin matrix. In addition, creep and …

A Heuristic Method For Identifying Modules For Product Architectures, Robert B. Stone, Kristin L. Wood, Richard H. Crawford

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Developing product architectures is a key phase in design and development processes. It encompasses the transformation of product function to alternative product layouts. In this paper, we describe a new approach for identifying modules for product architectures. We begin by reviewing the terminology and motivation for modular products. The new concepts of a functional basis and time ordered function chains are used to formally derive functional models of products. Then, three heuristic methods for identifying modules from functional models are presented. Using the formal functional decomposition and heuristic methods, modular design can be executed earlier in the product development process, …